Shall Not Be Questioned – Page 793 – The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …

Will it Hurt You in Court?

Miguel links to an excellent article about what kinds of things influence juries. The conclusion is that the weapon you use does make an impression on a jury. It should be, but we share this planet with a lot of other highly irrational people. I agree with Miguel’s conclusion this means we need to get more women into shooting. Another conclusion to draw from this is to let your wife do the shooting. Women are treated less harshly by jurors in self-defense shootings. This effect also seems to apply to police shootings as well. Strangely enough, women are treated more harshly for using a Glock than other weapons.

Personally, I wouldn’t worry too much about this in terms of weapon choice. We shouldn’t let our irrational fellow citizens make our choices for us.

Grave Misspelling

Political grave misspelling, that is. In an effort to belittle voters who she believes might need to be edumacated on how to write in the name Lisa Murkowski on the general election ballot this fall, her web ad misspelled her own name. Some commentary by one political online consultant:

Hey kids, check those details before you post that web video! Lisa Murkowskiâ€™s staff apparently didnâ€™t, and they misspelled HER OWN NAME in the original version…

Yep, the ad listed â€œwww.lisamurkwski.comâ€ in its first incarnation, an error caught by the online press with much mirth and joy. And of course, someone moved fast to buy up the misspelled domain name, which now plays host to a site thatâ€™s not exactly flattering to the sitting Senator (it starts here and gets worse: â€œLisa Murkowski is an elitist, Big Government, Tax and Spend career politician who was given the seat by her daddy.â€).

Here’s the revised version of the ad:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4nnCZ6jQRc[/youtube]
I think I’d be insulted by it if I lived in Alaska. Not that it matters since her sore loser moves aren’t exactly gaining a lot of ground up there.

Hucksterbee

I don’t even want to hear about Mike Huckabee polling well. Given how much the GOP’s fortunes have improved just based on outrage over the Democrats profligate spending and regulating (even after 6 years of the same by the GOP), I think the folks that like Mike Huckabee need to be drummed out of the party. I’m all for a big tent and everything, but Mike’s Jesus Juice isn’t something you can build a majority with. I’m fine with having a coalition with Christian conservatives, but religion and family aren’t promoted by big government. Bitter and I continue to live in sin because of the hope and change keeping our household underemployed, with the constant prospect of being unemployed. Makes planning an expensive event months later difficult. I can’t believe we’re the only people in this boat. Apparently birth rates are falling too, since people are afraid to start families because of the economy.

So Social Conservatives need to forget about Huckabee. The Hope and Change is killing family values more than anything.

“Grassroots” Anti-Gun Effort Exposed as a Sham

WizardPC has done some top quality citizen journalism here in exposing the web site GunFreeDiningTennessee.com which was featured over at Uncle’s last week as a sham which is claiming restaurants all over are joining their crusade, when they are, in fact, not. We shouldn’t be surprised, really. They have to resort to deception to win.

Discharge Petition for HB 40, Castle Doctrine

Scott Perry is leading the charge to bypass Dwight Evans, who’s been tying this up in the Appropriations Committee, and get this bill to the floor for a vote. Apparently that could be any minute. From NRA:

A discharge petition has been filed for House Bill 40,Â Pennsylvaniaâ€™s â€œCastle Doctrineâ€ bill.Â In order to get the bill to the House floor for consideration, this petition must be approved.Â That vote could happen as early as tomorrow.

House Bill 40, sponsored by State Representative Scott Perry (R-92), would permit law-abiding citizens to use force, including deadly force, against an attacker in their homes and any places outside of their home where they have a legal right to be.Â Â HB40 would also protect individuals from civil lawsuits by the attacker or the attackerâ€™s family when force is used.

Please contactÂ your State RepresentativeÂ AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and respectfully urge them to vote for the discharge petition and to support HB40 on the floor. Contact informationÂ can be found by clickingÂ here.

We might be able to pass this.

Shooting Rampage

In Germany. Gun ban activists are calling on the government to ban all firearms. They are at the end game in Germany. Apparently the attack included matches and gasoline as well, and police aren’t sure which killed some of the victims. I guess anti-gun activists in Germany are fine with people being burned to death.

Looks Like a Civil Rights Suit

I haven’t commented on the story on the concealed carry holder who was gunned down by Las Vegas police, until all the details came out, but it’s looking like the police definitely have some problems with their story. To be sure, when the guy was confronted by a store employee about the gun, he should have responded by saying “Oh, I didn’t realized guns weren’t allowed in here,” and taken his business elsewhere. But being shot is typically not the penalty for trespassing. Facts and statements made about the incident conflict, and on the surface it appears to me he was likely given conflicting commands by the officers, and was attempting to disarm himself. Normally, this would be something that should be sorted out by a jury in a criminal trial. At least that’s how it would be handled if it were a civilian shooting. But will it go that far? At the least, there will probably be a civil rights lawsuit.

ISRA News

The Illinois State Rifle Association recently was awarded with Outstanding State Association by NRA. Thirdpower has some pics of their recent Annual Meeting. They’ve won a lot for us this year, and they deserve every bit of the recognition they are getting.

Guns and Alcohol

The Brady Folks seem to think we don’t agree that the two should not mix, and use an example of why Virginia was wrong to change its law about restaurant carry. But let’s review the facts. He would have been breaking the law under the old law in Virginia. He also is breaking the law under the new law, which does not allowed permit holders to drink if they are carrying a firearm. He will be facing the possibility of charges, roughly the same charges as under the old law.

So can someone on the other side explain to me what exactly has changed? I’m going to throw out this wild idea out there that this guy probably would have done this whether or not the law had changed or not.

Mexican Gun Traces

Dave Hardy has some great thoughts on the whole topic, noting that the total number of firearms the Mexican government are holding that were seized is far greater than the number of firearms the Mexican government has submitted to the ATF for tracing.

Another thought I had recently is how do we trust all these guns are recovered from actual narco-traffickers, and not recovered from ordinary non-criminal citizens who smuggled, or had a relative smuggle, a firearm back from the United States to protect themselves and their families. Guns are generally unavailable to anyone other than criminals in Mexico.

That’s not the kind of smuggling I’m interested in stopping. As far as I’m concerned, the Mexican government is interfering with a fundamental human right, and I consider guns smuggled for such a purpose no morally different than people who smuggled Jews out of Nazi Germany. That’s not to say we know guns smuggled into Mexico are used for that purpose, but it’s something to think about.