The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
Right here. Seeing someone with a gun is not even legal cause to stop someone in Pennsylvania, let alone draw a gun on them.
UPDATE: Listening to the whole video, and listening to the tone in the cop’s voice, I think that guy was actually close to being shot. Probably best to just keep quiet and be very compliant in that situation. The lawsuit can come later. I’m not sure whether it’s exceptionally brave, or exceptionally stupid to amp up a cop who has a gun drawn on you.
One of my first stops when I wake up each morning is Capitol Ideas. Why? Because John Micek provides a take on state government that frequently makes me laugh while simultaneously leaves me wanting to bang my head against a wall wondering what the hell we are doing. Take this bit:
We Are Reliably Informed …
… that Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley is off to Washington D.C. today for some kind of national conference for lieutenant governors.
What do you suppose they talk about at events like this? We can only imagine the agenda …
9:30 a.m: The Governor’s Pulse, Where It Is. How To Check It.
11 a.m: Lunch, It Really Can Last Three Hours.
11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.: Lunch
2:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m: The Value Of Learning A Trade (participants may choose from workshops on welding, needlework and foodservice).
4 p.m.: Dismissal and Happy Hour.
To be fair to Lt. Gov. Cawley, Micek did leave off the Group Photo Session scheduled between 12-12:10pm. He also missed the fact that the Happy Hours are with the Canadians & Irish. But don’t believe that they won’t be tackling at least some of the big issues of the day. Check out this list of resolutions they plan to tackle:
I don’t know if Pennsylvania even has corporal punishment in schools, but that could be somewhat interesting. We had sexist corporal punishment in my high school. When boys got in trouble, they could be paddled or take detention. Girls could only take detention. I wish I had gotten in enough trouble to warrant punishment so I could have sued them. For the record, I’m in no way opposed to corporal punishment. In this day and age, it should really be an option as opposed to a default punishment.
Even money from evil guns, if you’re Chuck Schumer. Schumer plays the gun issue politically. Most politicians aren’t true believers in much of anything except themselves. Friends in New York tell me he was once pro-gun enough to vote to repeal the Sullivan Act. When he got into statewide politics, he pulled a Gillibrand, or maybe it’s more accurate to say Gillibrand pulled a Schumer.
Apparently the gunwalker scandal was the straw the broke the camel’s back. I note that Pascual is doing his best Baghdad Bob impersonation in the photo there.
Tasty Baking Company, which makes Tastykakes, is in serious financial trouble. They essentially face going out of business within the next few months, largely due to their management’s poor decision to stay in Philadelphia, and build a “green” bakery, which has not worked out very well for the company, even with a massive infusion of my tax dollars to save green jobs or some crap like that.
Just about every store around here has been having specials on Tastykakes, so we’ve been buying every once in a while. If my tax dollars are going to subsidize them, I might as well eat them. First thing I noticed they are cutting corners on quality control from when I was a kid. A little defect here, and little defect there, I can deal with. No longer. Today was the last straw.
For those of you who grew up or have lived in the Philadelphia area any length of time, you will be able to relate to my extreme angst that Tasty Baking Company sold me a Butterscotch Krimpet with one of the Krimpet’s only partially covered with butterscotch. Anyone growing up having to split a package of Krimpets with their sibling understands the kind of war this will bring about. Villages have been burned over less. We need a UN resolution that “authorizes all necessary means” to ensure this won’t happen again. Seriously Tasty Baking, if you’re going to take my tax dollars, don’t you dare short me on butterscotch!
John Tester is looking vulnerable in Montana. Tester is co-chair of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, a fact which I have seen floating around in the news quite a bit lately. He’s really going to look like a fool if Obama pushes gun control, despite Tester’s assurances during the 2008 election that we didn’t have anything to worry about. Tester himself, however, has been legitimately very pro-gun, even sponsoring a bill to fix the problem with reimportation of M1 Garands and M1 Carbines. I sincerely hope if President Obama decides to make gun control part of his legacy, Tester will distance himself from Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.
Hat Tip Instapundit.
Glad to see National Review questioning the need for more gun laws to stop trafficking to Mexico considering the current scandal.
From a news report on a Pittsburgh apartment fire:
Once the fire fight was over, crews said they found a partially-damaged AK-47 assault rifle, which will be checked for proper ownership.
Officers said they will check to see if the alligator, which was unharmed by the fire, needs an exotic pet permit or if it already has one.
Well, okay then. Pretty sure ATF isn’t going to be able to trace the alligator though.
Robert Farago of Truth About Guns thinks ATF has seen better days. I think a lot of gun owners would come to regret this, to be honest. Why? Let me outline some points to think about:
So this is another bandwagon I’m not going to get on, at least not unless we can seriously repeal a lot of federal gun laws. It might not seem like it sometimes, but the ATF wolf has largely been caged over the past couple of decades, mostly through appropriations riders, the agency’s own poor reputation, and subjecting the director to confirmation by the Senate. The FBI is a wolf we’re not going to cage, and that wolf has enough fox in him to be dangerous.