Shall Not Be Questioned – Page 695 – The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …

Update on Nuclear Hysteria

I’ve found this blog from MIT’s Nuclear Science and Engineering department to be a great source of information on what’s actually going on in Japan from people who actually know this stuff. Clayton Cramer offers this interesting radiological travel log of a Southwest vacation.

Future Pundit ponders what design changes could have been made. We know from reports that there was an attempt to bring in a mobile generator to provide power for the cooling pumps, but that it did not succeed because of power incompatibility issues. We also know that for at least eight hours after backup power failed, the reactors coolant was circulated successfully by battery power. So we know we have time even in a very dire situation. I’m honestly rather shocked by the idea that there would be a power incompatibility with a mobile generator. I would imagine you could run such a system off standard 480V three phase AC power that any number of industrial mobile generators could provide. This would allow a generator to be trucked or flown in by helicopter, easily connected, and that could provide enough power for critical cooling systems at the plant. Just checking, there are tractor trailer sized generators that can provide up to 1.5 megawatts of power off a diesel engine. That’s enough power to run 1500 homes. I would imagine it would be enough to run emergency systems at a nuclear facility, but maybe I’m wrong about that. If I am, I’d like to understand why.

Inquirer Not Pleased With Obama “Talk Therapy”

They think the President needs to do more on guns. I should note that they call for banning private sales. I also note that private sales of handguns, which represent the vast majority of criminal gun uses, is already illegal in Pennsylvania. This has not prevented the Inquirer and those sympathetic to their deranged point of view from calling for more gun control.

And these people wonder why we won’t sit down and talk to them? Screw Obama and screw the Philadelphia Inquirer. Hopefully in a few years both of these outfits will be flushed down the sewer of history where they belong.

BATFE Reform Introduced

Sadly it does not also include “Prevent the BATFE from assisting criminals trafficking firearms,” but we’ll take it, regardless. In what should be of interest to your NFA folks:

Allow importation and transfer of new machineguns by firearm and ammunition manufacturers for use in developing or testing firearms and ammunition, and training customers. In particular, ammunition manufacturers fulfilling government contracts need to ensure that their ammunition works reliably. H.R. 1093 would also provide for the transfer and possession of new machineguns by professional film and theatrical organizations.

This is obviously not a repeal of Hughes, but it’s one chip. While this won’t directly affect ordinary Joes, it will indirectly affect them, because the organizations that this does affect will no longer be competing in the transferable market. In fact, many of them will likely dump their expensive transferable inventory and replace it with cheaper and newer inventory. In short, this will take some of the pressure off prices for pre-86 machineguns.

Obama Going Ahead Without NRA

He’s going to hold his gun summit without representation from NRA. It should be interesting to see what comes out of this. As USA Today notes:

Given its political and financial strength, the NRA is probably in a position to block any new gun legislation, especially in the Republican-run House.

White House Spokesman Jay Carney said the word “common sense” so often that I cam promise you whatever comes from this won’t be good. Fortunately, USA Today is probably right.

No Such Thing as an NRA Membership Giveaway

Our opponents always seem to have a hard time believing NRA actually has 4 million members. Well, Brady Board member Joan Peterson is no exception to that rule, and I was amused a few days ago when she suggested that it was all a lie, because a friend of hers got a free membership in the mail. I was even more amused when she updated with what she thinks is proof positive.

What she is seeing is not a membership card. A membership card has a member number on it. It has an expiration date on it (unless you’re a life member, in which case your card says so). What she is seeing is a membership offer, which will come upon sending in the payment. This would be like if Joan had taken a picture of one of those flimsy credit cards the credit card companies send you in the mail with the application, and was trying to prove they are just giving away unsolicited charge cards. But go try using that flimsy thing at a store and see what they do.

NRA uses a lot of techniques to entice people to join, and there certainly exist clubs who require NRA membership (mine is one of them, but the vast majority of gun clubs are not 100% clubs) to join. But they cannot, according to their bylaws, give away free memberships. From the bylaws:

The dues or minimum contributions of each class of membership shall be fixed by the Board of Directors. Except for those persons who are lifetime members elected prior to July 1, 1979, all members of all classes with addresses not within the domestic United States may be required to pay the additional postage costs necessary for Association mailings to their stated addresses. The imposition of such requirement and the amount of such costs shall be determined administratively from time to time.

There is no free class of membership that NRA offers, with the exception of honorary life member, of which they are only permitted to give away three of in any given calendar year. NRA has, in the past, had a program by which active duty members of the military could receive complimentary memberships, but because of the bylaw requirement, those memberships had to be sponsored by existing members. I sponsored two memberships of this kind myself, and had to pay the full price set by the board on behalf of these military men and women.

NRA has among the strictest membership criteria for any organization in DC. Much more strict, I would point out, than the Brady Campaign. How many of the members the Brady Campaign touts are dues paying members? Does Brady issue membership cards with member numbers? Sorry Joan, the numbers are real, and I would wager a rather large amount of money more real than the Brady membership numbers.

Maybe We Need Background Checks for Politicians

Close the state house loophole!

McCarthy Bill Introduced

Her press release is here. I’m going to assume her bill’s language will be similar to the Senate bill introduced by Schumer a few weeks ago. This bill is entirely unacceptable for the following reasons:

It threatens funding that help states put cops on the street. This is like a doctor prescribing amputation for a patient cut his leg and is bleeding.
It expands the class of prohibited persons to include people who have not been formally adjudicated as mentally ill.
It expands the class of prohibited person to include people who have drug arrests, but not convictions, within the past five years. It also expands it to anyone who failed a drug test.
It ends private transfers entirely.

This is classic gun control packaged in wrapper of “common sense.” It does not respect the Second Amendment, as it allows rights to be removed without due process, and it, through a sneaky back door, attempts to end private sales. We’ll fight this bill.

UPDATE: America’s lukewarm reaction to the current rash of gun control bills has Bloomberg in a tizzy. I hope Americans continue to disappoint the Mayor.

UPDATE: Maybe he needs to spend some more time tending to New York City’s business instead of everyone else’s.

Inspiring Confidence

These days if someone finds a powdery substance somewhere, it pretty clearly has to be tested. This happened at NASA recently, and it was found to be cocaine. This wouldn’t be of much note if the same thing hadn’t happened last year:

In January 2010, about 200 Kennedy Space Center workers were tested when a small bag of cocaine was found inside a space shuttle processing facility where Discovery was being readied for flight. That case was closed, and there were no arrests.

Good to know that the employees of NASA are flying high as they prep the space shuttle to fly high. Maybe it helps take the edge off those budget cuts, and impending unemployment caused by the end of the shuttle program.

Even the LA Times Couldn’t Ignore the Hypocrisy

The LA Times is hardly a hotbed of pro-gun radicalism, but even they couldn’t help but notice:

The bill,Â SB 610, says the good-cause determination would be deemed to be met for any California member of Congress, statewide elected official or member of the Legislature.

The surprising thing about this bill isn’t just that it has appeared in California, which tends to favor restrictive gun laws, but that its coauthors are all Democrats who in the past have voted to limit gun rights for ordinary citizens.

They go on to worry about the implications of panicked politicians spraying bullets into crowds. At least the LA Times is consistent — they think it’s dangerous for everyone to carry a gun, except for the police who have magical gun powers.

Open Carry in Florida on the Move

Passed out of committee. Robb notes that the level of disinformation being presented by opponents was disturbing. Politicians are usually only concerned with what’s going to help get them elected, and they’ve learned over the years that passing bills like this is a way to please one of the larger single-issue constituencies out there, with very little in the way of downside. NRA has been pushing this bill using the justification “to prevent license holders from being charged with the crime of violating the ‘Open Carry’ law because a concealed firearm accidentally or inadvertently became visible.” Given that OC gives some gun owners the willies, I think this is the right tactic in trying to push this through.