I’m keeping our organization at XP until forced to upgrade. Looks like some users are pissed off enough to go for a class action.  In the mean time, via Instapundit, Apple couldn’t ask for better free marketing.
Ruger LCP
Downrange TV has a review of the Ruger LCP up here complete with video. Looks like they are also aggregating gun blogs through a custom RSS reader. Cool.
Drunk With Power
In a way that would be familiar to David Codrea, Elliot Spitzer had a reputation for abusing his office to silence critics. While perusing Classical Values, I came across this blast from Spitzer’s past:
Last April, The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed piece by me titled “Mr. Spitzer Has Gone Too Far.” In it I expressed my belief that in America, everyone–including Hank Greenberg–is innocent until proven guilty. “Something has gone seriously awry,” I wrote, “when a state attorney general can go on television and charge one of America’s best CEOs and most generous philanthropists with fraud before any charges have been brought, before the possible defendant has even had a chance to know what he personally is alleged to have done, and while the investigation is still under way.”
Since there have been rumors in the media as to what happened next, I feel I must now set the record straight. After reading my op-ed piece, Mr. Spitzer tried to phone me. I was traveling in Texas but he reached me early in the afternoon. After asking me one or two questions about where I got my facts, he came right to the point. I was so shocked that I wrote it all down right away so I would be sure to remember it exactly as he said it. This is what he said:
“Mr. Whitehead, it’s now a war between us and you’ve fired the first shot. I will be coming after you. You will pay the price. This is only the beginning and you will pay dearly for what you have done. You will wish you had never written that letter.”
No doubt Mr. Whitehead will have the last laugh at this petty and vindictive tyrant. The people of New York should be ashamed for ever electing this man governor.
Barrett REC7
Gun Pundit has a nice picture up of the Barrett REC7, which is a piston driven 6.8 SPC AR. That reminds me that I really need to think about a dedicated lower for my 6.8 upper. Right now I use my Bushmaster lower if I feel like shooting 6.8. Another note is that my 6.8 is direct impingement, and the upper seems to get dirtier more quickly than the 5.56. The load difference between the two is about 4 grains of power, but I would imagine the amount of gas directed back toward the bolt carrier should be similar to 5.56, so I might just be crazy. If I’m not, I think it’s worthwhile to have a gas piston setup over DI if you can afford it.
Obama Tops $300 Billion Mark
That’s how much more of your money he wants to spend. It’s 36% higher than what Hillary Clinton is calling for. Guess where that money is going to come from? That’s right. Out of our wallets.
I would note for those of you who think there’s no difference between these two socialist weenies and John McCain, that that National Taxpayer Union, who is keeping track of Obama’s promises to take more and more of our hard earned dollars, lists McCain as a Taxpayer Friend. He ranks 6th in the Senate.
Fattah on Heller
You all might remember Chaka Fattah. He’s a Congressman that represents Philadelphia, and is the lead member of the Congressional brief filed in favor of DC’s position. You know, the one that he got a whopping 18 other fellow congress critters to sign on to. Well, he hasn’t given up pooping on your second amendment rights.
At issue is Washington D.C.’s law that bans handguns. An appeals court has ruled it unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. This is the first time that the Supreme Court has revisited the Second Amendment since 1939, when it upheld Congress’s right to legislate about guns. Since then the Congress has passed, and Presidents have signed, numerous laws that regulate sales, shipment, use and concealment of all kinds of firearms and ammunition. Cities and states have approved and enforced additional regulations.
I have been joined by other members of Congress in an amicus brief that urges the Supreme Court to uphold the District’s law and reverse the Appeals court. Such a ruling by the high court would be in line with settled precedent, and it would permit the District as well as the Congress and municipalities nationwide to continue reasonable regulation and control of such weapons.
Yes, reasonable regulations such as a compete and outright ban on any firearm that is useful for self-defense. Why do they still use this language? Are we the only people who can see just how disingenuous it is? Fattah has eighteen other Congressmen on his brief. Fifty five members of the senate and 250 members of the House signed on to a brief in favor of Mr. Heller. As much as Fattah would like to give the impression that his is a growing and influential movement, it is not. Here’s to hoping he’s disappointed when the ruling is handed down.
Banks and Privacy
Normally I condemn laws that require banks to spy on customers. But applied to Elliot Spitzer, I consider them poetic justice. No doubt as a prosecutor, he relied on many of these laws to send people up river. Paybacks are hell.
You know you’re a gun nut …
… when you go to clean the lint out of your dryer screen and notice an empty .22LR casing. Bonus gun nutty points if you notice how clean it came out, and think maybe you should tumble some more of your brass through the laundry.
First Amendment Issue in Pennsylvania
Thanks to Rustmeister, who found it, it would appear that a Pennsylvania school is stifling student free speech:
Donald Miller III, 14, went to Penn Manor High School in December wearing a T-shirt he said was intended to honor his uncle, a U.S. Army soldier fighting in Iraq.
The shirt bears the image of a military sidearm and on the front pocket says “Volunteer Homeland Security.” On the back, over another image of the weapon, are the words “Special issue Resident Lifetime License — United States Terrorist Hunting Permit — Permit No. 91101 — Gun Owner — No Bag Limit.”
If I recall my first amendment law correct, which I might not, it’s lawful for schools to regulate dress code, but it has to do it in a content neutral manner. In other words, it could proscribe all shirts that are not plain shirts of uniform color, it could proscribe an obscene t-shirt that could be construed as disruptive to the educational environment, but it can’t discriminate on dress based merely on disapproval of the content displayed on the shirt.
Rally in Harrisburg: Be There or Be Square
Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmens Clubs, Allegheny County Sportsmens League, and Pennsylvania Firearms Owners Association, along with several other groups, will be rallying in Harrisburg on Monday April 7th, 2008.
I have made arrangements to be able to attend this rally, and I hope you will all join me in going. We are under constant assault by anti-gun forces here in Pennsylvania, and we need to push our own legislative agenda. We can’t let the anti-gunners gain an inch of ground. We must let the folks in Harrisburg know that we’re here, and we’re active. Our continued gun rights in Pennsylvania depend on it.