Shall Not Be Questioned – Page 811 – The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …

Should Kids Be Allowed to Shoot?

That seems to be the questionÂ plaguingÂ the chattering classes in the UK:

“Guns are weapons, not toys, and we have to do everything we can as a society to ensure that children and young people are protected from the accidental injury and death that they cause.”

A force spokesperson said: “The possession of firearms, shotguns and ammunition by young people is covered under the Firearms Act. Young people are subject to strict supervision while using a firearm and appropriate provisions must be in place before a young person is granted a certificate.

So it would seem they need the certificate even for supervised shooting, and now that’s apparently becoming controversial. As one shooter notes, “When we go to championships abroad the majority of shooters are in their late teens or early 20s. The sport is dying in this country because we have no young people coming through.” That’s exactly the idea. They don’t care, because the law is working exactly the way it was intended to work.

More Guns, Less Crime

Don Kates is looking into European History:

Remarkably good homicide data is available for England, beginning in the 1200â€™s. Those data indicate a pre-gun homicide rate in England of roughly 20 per 100,000 [roughly four times greater than the U.S. today]

Firearms were introduced into England in the 1400â€™s and were in wide use by the 1500â€™s, coincident with a decline in the homicide rate to 15 per 100K.

RTWT. I would have never guessed that England kept detailed homicide data. That’s pretty amazing. There’s no doubt that pre-firearms societies were more brutal and violent than today. Back then, soldiering was an art form, and those not practiced in it couldn’t stand up to those who were. The firearm changed all that.

Legal Oddities

Xlrq notes that North Carolaina’s laws against fornication and adultery favor gay sex. This is a prettyÂ amusingÂ chapter in the law of unintended consequences.

Quote of the Day

From Wretchard, founder of the Belmont Club:

All of us should know when weâ€™re getting in over their heads. Really bright people know their limitations. Truly stupid people cannot imagine they have any because they surround themselves with courtiers, hangers-on, hacks, yes-men, PR consultants, clowns, carny barkers and jesters. Nothing is new in this. The Divine King was the â€œbest and the brightestâ€ concept of 250 years ago and was a crock even then. Itâ€™s so old it seems new.

I think this might touch on the root of a problem we’ve seen in Government, for sure, but that I’ve also seen much of in industry. I think it may be that these kinds of financial crisisesÂ create wonderful opportunity for titanic realignment. Last time, that didn’t work out too well for us. This time might very well be different. Maybe the new lesson is we don’t need a self-appointed elite quite so much as we thought.

Another Astroturfing Effort

Thirdpower notices another anti-gun group web site masquerading as an ordinary Joe. I think I noticed this one before too, but as usual, they engage in Reasoned Discourse by not allowing comments.

There is No Answer

The Inquirer is running an article on how difficult it is to spot workplace shooters, because 99.99% of people will never become workplace shooters. It’s actually not a bad article, and even acknowledges that there are legit reasons an employee might have a firearm in their vehicle, noting “Spotting a weapon in a company parking lot might not tell you much. There are many parts of the country, including Pennsylvania, where it is common for workers to stash a rifle in a pickup truck for deer hunting.” I’m glad workplace consultants are recognizing this.

The fact is, if someone is so unbalanced that they are willing to commit murder, there is no HR policy that’s going to make people safe.

Gun and Garden Denying NRA Ads?

I have no patience for people who enjoy rights that they leave to others to defend and promote,Â and this would seem to be the demographic “Gun and Garden” magazine is aiming for. I have no issue with the magazine not accepting political ads, but NRA does more than just politics. When I contacted someone at NRA to inquire about the nature of the ad, I was told it was an “NRA Give” ad, which solicits funds for the Foundation. The NRA Foundation funds educational and shooting sport programs and not political activity. For a gun magazine, even a lifestyle magazine, this should not be controversial. There are more ways to contribute to this issue than just politics, and it’s appalling to me that Gun and Garden doesn’t seem to want to give the time to day to those efforts either.

Gun Owners Challenge Lentz

Lentz was pushing his bill in Upper Darby, but ran into a good bit of opposition from gun owners.

In her testimony, Lt. Lisa King, commander of the Philadelphia Police gun-permit unit, said that there is no way to tell if those 3,100 have been denied a permit in Pennsylvania because Florida will not provide police with their names.

“I fundamentally have a problem, that Pennsylvania allows another state to dictate who can carry a concealed-carry permit here and not tell us the names,” said state Rep. Josh Shapiro, D-Montgomery. “Whether you’re in the NRA or CeaseFire PA . . . we would all be better suited having Pennsylvania laws govern [here].”

So is Shapiro really coming out against reciprocity here? Because I can’t think of anything that’s going to piss us off more than that. I am one of the 3100 people, and I also have a PA LTC. I suspect that’s the case with the vast majority of this small number of people. As I said previously, if Philadelphia wants to have us push to remove all of its discretion in LTC issuance, it can feel free to push the Lentz bill. Otherwise we’re going to make the criteria completely objective, so that we can be sure that there is no room for the city to deny or revoke permits based on bogus criteria.

I am very glad Florida won’t turn over the names. I can guarantee they’ll appear in the Inquirer or Daily News if that happens. PA LTC’s are private, and there’s no reason to expect less from the State of Florida.

Congratulations Australia

After reading more than a few media sources in Australia use the term, I would like to congratulate our shooting friends down under for officially becoming a “gun lobby.” Welcome to the club. This means you’re getting somewhere. When they use terms like “powerful gun lobby” it means you’re really getting somewhere.

Righthaven Ruining Lives

Clayton Cramer notes that there are people who Righthaven have targeted, that can’t even afford a settlement:

He was startled to find that copying ONE newspaper article meant that Righthaven was expecting from the four figure to mid five figure range for a settlement. He tried to explain that at best, he might have something in the two figure area. (Like a lot of the bloggers that Righthaven is going against, this is a person who has NOTHING.) Now this poor guy has, like some others that I have talked to, decided to allow default judgment of $75,000 and go bankrupt.

This is highly unethical, even if true copyright infringement had taken place, because the amounts sought here are way out of proportion to the actual damages. Even if a suit has no merit, it takes serious money just to get it dismissed.