Shall Not Be Questioned – Page 787 – The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …

LA Times Favors Boxer

Hopefully they’ll remember to call her “Senator.” Either way, the Brady folks are thrilled because their issue got a mention in the LA Times, which hasn’t really been focusing very heavily on the gun issue:

Boxer supports California’s ban on assault weapons and the revival of a similar law at the federal level. Fiorina has criticized the federal law’s definition of assault weapons as “extremely arbitrary” and emphasizes other ways of combating gun crimes, none of which is a substitute for a ban. She also believes that travelers on the federal government’s no-fly list should be allowed to own firearms

I’m not sure how thrilled I’d be though, given that they balanced it with Fiorina’s view on the matter, which has a basis in fact, and they failed to frame the “terror gap” issue properly. I think most Americans understand the “No-Fly” list is a sham, but the “Terror Watch List” sounds much more ominous. Ten years ago the LA Times would have said “Fiorina wants to legalize assault weapons, which are the weapons of choice for gang members in California, and ridiculously wants terrorists to be able to buy guns.”

I guess when you’re down and out, you’ll take any piece of bread thrown at you, but given what we’ve seen from the LA Times in the past, I consider this progress.

Mini-Update on Castle Doctrine

I think the levels of ups and downs of the last two weeks was best described from Rep. Seth Grove, at least from his perspective as a legislator:

I was already to do battle against the Gun Control amendments on HB 40 – Castle Doctrine too. Maybe next time.

We were supposed to face down anywhere from six to eight anti-gun amendments ranging from one gun a month to restricting reciprocity of carry licenses. While it’s a good thing to never have to worry about anti-gun legislation, it’s also a bit of a frustration that we warn people about all of these threats that never end up happening. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good thing we had the support of 156 lawmakers to vote this thing through to another step in the process. But, it’s frustrating that I know some gun owners will believe we were blowing smoke up their asses for the anti-gun amendments that never came. We weren’t. The legislators themselves can attest to that.

So tomorrow, should the Speaker of the House indulge us, we should have the final floor vote in the House on Castle Doctrine. Hopefully the Senate will take it up. I haven’t really been paying attention to anything in the Senate lately, other than some political commentary on tax hikes that they won’t likely take up this year. So we’ll see.

I did read a few notes on Facebook by someone who said they caught part of a presser hosted by Gov. Rendell who was none too pleased about the self-defense bill actually getting traction. But, if he gives us grief, he’s gone and irrelevant in January. And, to boot, we’ll punish the rest of his party who stand with him on the issue and just flip the House so the Democrats are out to pasture in Pennsylvania politics.

More on the Scott Case

The picture Confederate Yankee is painting in his latest update is one of poor training. It sounds to me like nearly everyone involved made a mistake, and that this shooting was a result of poor training, and poor execution on that training.

As I said before, I think this shooting looks to be legally justified based on all the information so far, but that doesn’t mean it had to happen this way.

UPDATE: I should point out that “doesn’t mean it had to happen this way,” means the inevitable civil suit that will come out of this is going to be a doozie.

Question for Mayor Bloomberg

This article from the Washington Post chides Virginia for being a huge source of crime guns, ignoring the fact that Virginia already implements one of Mayor Mike’s key prescriptions for cutting gun trafficking; rationing guns purchases to one-a-month. So if Virginia already implements one of Mayor Mike’s key policies, what good is it doing? And why should other states implement it?

More Castle Doctrine Fights Today

According to some state representatives on Facebook, we’re back on to fight for our right to defend ourselves on/in our own property today. From Rep. Seth Grove:

Going to be an interesting a fun week in Harrisburg. Supposedly we might have some transportation funding votes, but we will be voting on “Castle Doctrine” and I will thoroughly enjoy voting NO on all the gun control amendments and enjoy voting YES on a clean HB 40!

FYI – I think he’s my new favorite legislator. This update comes from another co-sponsor, Rep. Bryan Cutler:

HB 40, or the Castle Doctrine bill, is expected to come up for a vote today. I know many of you have been asking about this legislation, which I am co-sponsoring. I’ll let you know how the vote turns out.

Interestingly (and wisely, IMHO), NRA-PVF has opted to withhold state legislative endorsements and grades until the vote on Castle Doctrine & the half dozen or so anti-gun amendments that will be introduced.

Mexican Mayors Against Criminals

Well, I have to give credit to the mayors of Mexico, they recognize that the real solution to solving crime is to get criminals off the streets. Unfortunately, their solution isn’t much better than the ideas out of the gun control groups – they don’t want us deporting them back to Mexico. Well, they would be open to the idea, but only if it’s not to their towns. I guess they know how to get their NIMBY on down there, too.

A coalition of Mexican mayors has asked the United States to stop deporting illegal immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes in the U.S. to Mexican border cities, saying the deportations are contributing to Mexican border violence, FOXNews.com reported Wednesday.

Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes blamed U.S. deportation policy for contributing to his cityâ€™s violence, saying that of the 80,000 people deported to Juarez in the past three years, 28,000 had U.S. criminal records â€” including 7,000 convicted rapists and 2,000 convicted murderers.

Amazing how every problem they have in Mexico can be so easily blamed on our domestic polices. We send people back when they are here illegally and we allow our citizens to protect their lives with arms, so clearly, we’re to blame for Mexican violence. What would happen if their government would look at who is really to blame? You know, those actually committing the violence with illegally obtained weapons. Via Wyatt.

Smoking Cornish Hens

Thanks to FatWhiteMan, we tried smoking cornish hens back in May. We’ve made them at least three more times since then. If you have a smoker and have not yet tried smoking cornish hens, do it.

We make our own rub with a ginger base, but the real prize of the meal is the glaze that we put on after they have reached temperature. We glaze them and then stick them on the grill for a few minutes to finish on the outside. The glaze is super simple and worth sharing: 1/4 cup orange juice concentrate, 2 tablespoons dijon mustard, and 2 tablespoons honey. Mix & coat.

Now, the wish bones are drying out on the dining room table. What should I wish for when I beat Sebastian at tearing them apart? I already lost out on an iPad for the kitchen when I didn’t take his bet that the homemade bread wouldn’t rise due to the quality of the yeast. (It rose beautifully. Damn kitchen iPad…)

Gun Control Out, Fireworks Control In…

I don’t really believe that gun control as “the” solution is on its way out the door anytime soon, but one MAIG mayor seems to have found a different inanimate object to blame on his city’s lower quality of life – fireworks.

In Pennsylvania, residents can’t buy the good fireworks. But non-residents are free to do so, which attracts quite a few people from New Jersey and New York. The businesses that set up are a great source of at least temporary employment (we have one that operates all year round here), and obviously a source of tax revenue.

Allentown has long banned residents from setting off fireworks, yet the city still issued permits allowing businesses to sell the pyrotechnics.

On Friday, City Council members joined with Mayor Ed Pawlowski to silence that mixed message with an ordinance that would end the permits and ban the sale of fireworks throughout the city. …

“If they can’t be used here, there is no reason to offer them here,” Pawlowski said. “We don’t need out-of-town fly-by-night operators setting up shops that reduce our quality of life in the city.”

Clearly, these devices which are not legal to use in the city are responsible for all of the problems in Allentown. Just by banning these damn stores, Allentown will increase their quality of life – except for those jobs and tax revenue, not that either one of those things is needed in the Great Recession.

It shouldn’t be surprising that a MAIG partner organization in Pennsylvania is pushing a similar ban on gun stores in their legislative questionnaire this year.

Master of Accents

This English kid is pretty good. It’s NSFW, or when kids are around, just to warn you.

Hat tip to Traction Control

Mexican Border Vehicle Searches Turn Up No Guns

The Bradys are telling us we’re spreading mythology, when we try to debunk the Mexican Gun Canard, because there’s this nifty new report out, you know. Except that this USA Today story tells about an effort by US customs to try to interdict some of these illegally trafficked firearms into Mexico:

Almost immediately after Homeland Security SecretaryÂ Janet Napolitano announced a stepped-up vehicle search program beginning in March 2009,Â U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials went five consecutive months â€” May through September â€” without recovering a single weapon inÂ El Paso, within sight of the bloodiest battleground in the Mexican drug war.

You’d think if this were such a huge problem, you’d be able to find at least one stash of firearms being smuggled, let alone being able to find a single gun.

Weapons seizures from vehicles moving through the Southwest border’s busiest crossings have increased to 310 so far in fiscal year 2010, up from 155 in fiscal year 2009, CBP records show. Besides guns, weapons include grenades and rockets.

Naturally those grenades and rockets are coming from American gun shows. There are a lot of excuses for why they aren’t finding guns. I’m also still wondering how many of those traced guns that source back to the US were sent by the truckload across the border because they were from sources in the US to the Mexican military and police. In Brady’s newfound “study” their source for the number of traced guns was the highly scientifically rigorous President of Mexico in his speech before Congress.