Lawdog has a pretty good post on the matter. The short of it is, stopping power is being able to hit your target.
Hat Tip to Kevin
New Jersey One-Gun-A-Month Vote
The vote did not happen today in the Senate. At this point, that’s all the information I have about it.
Stupid Inventions
Loaded chamber indicator. I agree, they are highly stupid. They are also dangerous. Remember the original Mk.III’s that could go off if you dropped them on the LCI? You can’t make guns that are safe in the hands of the ignorant. The key is educating the ignorant.
Damned Kids Wouldn’t Stay off His Lawn
So he resorted to fox urine to repel the trespassers.
A 50-year-old man told authorities he was fed up with teens toilet-papering his house during homecoming week. This year, he decided to defend his property — with a squirt gun filled with fox urine.
Now, Scott Wagar is in trouble with the law. He pleaded not guilty on Wednesday in Kandiyohi County District Court to misdemeanor assault and other charges. He was released on personal recognizance.
What I don’t get is why he’s being charged. I don’t know about Minnesota, but in Pennsylvania you can use force to defend property. Not deadly force, but force:
§ 507. Use of force for the protection of property
(a) Use of force justifiable for protection of property.–The use of force upon or toward the person of another is justifiable when the actor believes that such force is immediately necessary:
(1) to prevent or terminate an unlawful entry or other trespass upon land or a trespass against […]
[…] (1) The use of force is justifiable under this section only if the actor first requests the person against whom such force is used to desist from his interference with the property, unless the actor believes that:
(i) such request would be useless;
(ii) it would be dangerous to himself or another person to make the request; or
(iii) substantial harm will be done to the physical condition of the property which is sought to be protected before the request can effectively be made.
I can’t imagine Minnesota can be all that different. But it seems to me if kids are TPing your property, you’re justified in squirting piss on them if they won’t leave you alone.
UPDATE: Yep, Minnesota law is similar:
Sec. 609.06. Authorized use of force. Reasonable force may be used upon or toward the person of another without his con-sent when the following circumstances exist or the actor reasonably believes them to exist:
[…]
(4) When used by any person in lawful possession of real or pet-sonal property, or by another assisting him, in resisting a trespass upon or other unlawful interference with such property; or
I guess the charges will hinge on fox urine not being “reasonable” use of force. Good luck finding a jury who’s going to convict on that. I sure as hell wouldn’t.
Second Amendment Book Bomb
Spread the word far and wide, today is the day of the Second Amendment Book Bomb. We’re trying to get Steven Halbrook’s new book “The Founders Second Amendment” ahead in the rankings for Amazon, in order to prmote the Second Amendment. Please, if you don’t have a copy already, I highly recommend getting one. If you already have a copy, it makes a Christmas Gift. Click on the link for more information.
Don’t Fly Your Flag in Philadelphia Court Offices
Attention New Jersey Readers
The New Jersey Senate is having a floor vote today on S-1774, which will ration folks in New Jersey to no more than one handgun purchase permit per month. Given New Jersey’s gun laws already require you to obtain permission from the police to purchase a handgun, a process that can often take more than a year, this is pretty ridiculous.
If you live in New Jersey, you should call your State Stenator now. Bryan Miller has graciously provided instruction on how to contact their office. Of course, you’ll want to tell him or to vote NO on S-1774, not yes.
Cabela’s Sends Competence and Selection Out the Door
Tonight we went to Cabela’s for a bit of random shopping and just to get out of the house. Sebastian wanted to look at a few miscellaneous shooting-related items, and I was happy to learn that I could exchange the shotgun shell Christmas lights in for a set that actually works. (We ordered two strings online, and one didn’t function at all. I was not pleased.) So yay for a Cabela’s trip, right? Uhhh…no. It’s not looking good for shooters who want somewhere to shop in person. Sadly, I think the non-hunting among us can look forward to mostly shopping online at other stores.
- Missing: Shooting Sports. Sebastian wants to try shooting jackets. Rather than having us wander all around, I always go find a salesperson and ask them because it’s typically faster. However, I made the mistake of assuming that a salesman in the shooting department actually knew there were more shooting sports than just trap. He didn’t even point us to the vests, he took us to the shell pouches and asked if that’s what we wanted. I reminded him a) shooting jacket, b) for competitive shooting. Deer in headlights with a suggestion to look near the back of the camo.
- Looking for a clue. I asked other salespeople hoping that he was just incompetent. One guy said they didn’t have anything remotely like that which, it turns out was partially true. However, I don’t exactly have full faith in their customer service at this point. A woman I spoke with said they don’t carry much of that type of stuff anymore. She actually gave me the most information, even noting that shooting pads and many of the other supplies for non-shotgun shooting sports were mostly catalog and online items now. They apparently weren’t very profitable in the stores. (Sebastian is instead going to take a nicer quality shooting vest that I had from a shotgun shoot and see if he can make that work for now.)
- Christmas lights. I wanted to return the Christmas lights that didn’t work. This is great. Remember to have about 10-30 minutes to spare if you need to go to the customer service desk. Every time we go, they are understaffed and the front line staff have managers interrupting them every few minutes so that they can’t get customers out quickly. (Hint: When more people are getting in line, it may not be the best time to start shutting down registers.) But good luck finding the holiday decor. Normally, it would be easily found along the major aisles, but not this time. Instead it was scattered into various little corners. And the lights? Not anywhere that I could find. That’s because the Christmas lights were in their own little corner. But then it gets better because it turns out that the shotgun shell Christmas lights are not 50% like all of the other holiday home decor. Our cashier informs us that since we could use them for things like camping, they are clearly not Christmas lights. Continue reading “Cabela’s Sends Competence and Selection Out the Door”
Burning Hate
Someone set Sarah Palin’s church on fire. Check out the comments in the article to get some idea just how much seething hatred there is for this woman. Stay classy progressives, stay classy.
A Good Day to be a Sooner
I just have to brag…
Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford arrived in Norman three years ago with modest hype and low expectations. The Sooners’ coaches acknowledged that they had recruited him for depth behind Rhett Bomar, who had been the country’s top quarterback prospect.
But Bradford’s rise from relative obscurity to national pre-eminence was sealed Saturday night when he won the Heisman Trophy, which is given annually to the country’s most outstanding college football player. …
In leading No. 2 Oklahoma (12-1) to the Bowl Championship Series title game against Tebow and the Gators, Bradford orchestrated the most prolific season in the modern era of college football. The Sooners scored 702 points, the first modern team to break the 700 mark. They finished with a flourish, scoring more than 60 points in each of their final five games.
Bradford led the nation with 48 touchdown passes and threw only 6 interceptions. He finished with an average of 14.78 yards a completion.
I’ll be looking forward to OU kicking Florida’s ass in the Championship.