Shall Not Be Questioned – Page 794 – The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …

I Have Found Nirvana

Three words. Hunting Friggin Dinosaurs! For the iPad. Very well done game for the iPad and iPhone that takes advantage of the touch screen. Here’s the game trailer:

I’ve been wasting my time with this for a week and have a hard time putting it down. It takes a little bit to get the touch pad sensitivity right where you want it, but they provide a “Survival Mode” where they just keep throwing waves of dinosaurs at you until one of them stomps or eats your twitching almost, but not quite dead corpse. The point of the game is to hunt dinosaurs, and build up an impressive trophy room. You can remove specimens and go try to hunt for better ones if you want. You can wound a dinosaur, in which case you have to follow its blood trail. This is not advisable if you’re hunting carnivores: you have to get more creative in your technique to land those, especially the Tyrannosaurus, which will just take round after round unless you shoot it in the right place. It takes more than one shot to bring one down. Obviously it’s not meant to be a completely realistic hunting simulation, but it’s good enough to be thoroughly addicting. Plus, who doesn’t like the idea of hunting dinosaurs?

The Travel Adventure

Sebastian and I don’t travel much to places we haven’t already been or to places that don’t have 60,000 gun owners descending on them at once (i.e. NRA conventions). Our usual hot spots are DC and wherever the Sight Selection Committee chooses. So planning for a trip to Hawai’i was a bit of an adventure in a) trying not to bust a budget, and b) tolerating travel.

I’ll put it below the jump, but I thought it was worth mentioning some of the tools and people that made planning the trip much easier. I’m doing this because I suspect some of you planning trips (not necessarily to Hawai’i) could benefit and to recognize some good work. If you are headed to the islands, then these suggestions may come in handy. Continue reading “The Travel Adventure”

Bryan Lentz Gets His Poster Child

I’m sure Lentz, who is running for Sestak’s old seat in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District, thinks this murder in Philadelphia shows the need to remove the so-called “Florida Loophole,” but the reality is it’s another example of the City of Philadelphia’s utter failure to prosecute criminals. Make no mistake, Marqus Hill is not the kind of person who should possess, much less carry a gun. But in this country, we can’t deprive people of rights without due process, and this scumbag, thanks to the City, never got the process he was most decidedly due.

NBC 10 is also reporting on this, and notes that he was acquitted of attempted murder. This is not true. I have his record here. In 2005, he was arrested for attempted murder, aggravated assault, terroristic threats, carrying firearms without a license, simple, assault and reckless endangerment. All these, save terroristic threats, are listed as being “Held for Court,” meaning that the City District Attorney has still not brought an “Information.” In other words, he’s had a preliminary hearing, and a judge has determined there’s sufficient evidence to hold the matter, and await the prosecutors office to bring formal charges. Except the City has yet to bring charges on the matter.

Not only that, but in 2008, as they mention, he assaulted a police officer, which is aggravated assault in Pennsylvania, a felony. That charge was dismissed for lack of evidence. He was also charged with Simple Assault, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct for the same incident. He was found guilty of disorderly conduct, and beat the other charges. One wonders how you can have lack of evidence for such a charge, since you would imagine all it would take is a cop saying, “Yes, he punched me while I was trying to arrest him,” but that’s what happened.

In short the city missed one clear, blatant opportunity to make this guy a prohibited person, and appears to have missed a second opportunity in 2008. Florida does a background check on every applicant, but that requires that the person actually be convicted of something. Philadelphia, with Brian Lentz’s help, is successfully deflecting blame for their own failings onto the backs of law abiding gun owners, rather than addressing the real problem, which is the City’s inability or unwillingness to get tough on criminals. Marqus Hill is a poster boy alright, but not for changing our guns laws.

Philadelphia Abusing Florida Permit Holders

Many thanks to the blog Vox Michaeli for covering this issue, which I didn’t notice on my vacation. The Philadelphia Daily News, to its credit, is covering the civil rights abuses of the City of Philadelphia on holders of Licenses to Carry from the State of Florida, which are legally recognized as valid by Pennsylvania, no matter the residency of the holder. The City confirms it’s handling eight, get that, eight civil rights suits on this issue. How many people have they harassed that haven’t sued:

Despite following the law, all of the men said that they were treated like criminals by city cops who either ignored their rights or didn’t know the laws.

Lt. Fran Healy, special adviser to the police commissioner, acknowledged that some city cops apparently are unfamiliar with some concealed-carry permits. But he said that it’s better for cops to “err on the side of caution.”

It’s time to get them familiar, because what they are doing is illegal, and it opens up the city, and its officers, to expensive civil rights lawsuits.Â I want the state to do more about this, not reward the city for this behavior by passing Lentz’s law. They need to follow the law. If they won’t follow the law, the state needs to make consequences for refusing to do so. I should note that one of these individuals got a Florida license because he was denied for unpaid parking tickets. That’s not a valid reason. We need to make some changes to the law, but not what Rep. Lentz has in mind.

Genetic Factors in Homosexuality

This article in Scientific American would seem to lend support to the theory that homosexuality is not entirely a choice, at least not always. The interesting thing about the genetic theory of homosexuality is, that if it’s correct, is going to imply quite a bit about the number of homosexuals within the population.

Much like the laws of thermodynamics, natural selection is a bitch. Genetic traits that interfere with reproduction don’t get passed on to future generations, and eventually work their way out of the gene pool. This would mean the number of homosexuals should be a good bit smaller than is often claimed (I’ve heard 10% bandied about). If they are high, there needs to be an explanation as to how the trait is continuing to propagate within the population. It’s quite possible it propagates because many homosexuals, because of social pressure, live heterosexual lives. If this is the case, increasing public acceptance of homosexuality should actually reduce their numbers (let’s see the Moral Majority types try to wrap their heads around that one). It’s also possible it propagates through the general population, but gets activated by other factors. I don’t think we really understand enough to make a certain conclusion, but a genetic root for homosexuality should mean the number of genetic homosexuals should be quite small.

Hat Tip to Instapundit for the link.

Preemption Threats in Maine

Looks like the City of Portland is trying to bring the issue to head. Maine has a strong pro-gun culture traditionally, but it’s also accepted quite a lot of people fleeing from Massachusetts.

Problems with “Sport Utility” v. “Paramilitary”

Tam questions something that’s always puzzled me too. Personally, I don’t have a problem with the police having anything, as long as I’m allowed to own one too. My problem is more with how they are using their toys, than the fact that they have them.

Tossups

Clayton Cramer has a look at the races for November, and notes that he doesn’t have much faith in the GOP. In that case, the beatings need to continue until things improve. I don’t recall people being this upset in 1994, and that gives me some faith that the GOP might actually have to do something this time. I also don’t see Barry transforming himself, and remaking the Democratic Party in a centrist image the way Bill Clinton did.

Celebrity Shooter

This may well qualify as weirdest headline of the day:

Bob Barker Collapses at Gun Range

His rep says he was just dehydrated and collapsed. People at the range say he had been shooting.

For a guy who is putting boatloads of money into the hands of groups trying to end hunting, shooting seems like a weird hobby for him to have on the side. But, here’s to hoping he goes shooting a lot and owns a lot of guns. If he does, maybe he’s contributed a fraction to our side compared to what he’s given to them.

Unbelievable Article from the Anti-Gun Crowd

The crux of this argument, which tries to discredit the basis of McDonald, particularly Thomas’ concurrence, is that gun control isn’t racist, because blacks would have been better off disarmed, since armed resistance against white oppressors just made them angrier and caused more blacks to be killed. I kid you not. Apparently this author would also have us believe the jews of Warsaw would have been better of not fighting back against the Nazis. The Kurds obviously would have been better off submitting to Saddam, since he nerved gassed a few of their towns in retaliation.

The other side has a real difficult time understanding there are things out there worse than death, and submitting to evil is one of them. This persons moral compass isn’t just off, it’s not functioning at all. The article then goes on to conclude that we’re the real racists in this argument, including Charlton Heston, which makes this photo and this photo all the more puzzling.