Shall Not Be Questioned – Page 863 – The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …

SWAT Raid Quote of the Day

Megan McArdle posted about a SWAT raid, and included video. Go watch. She leaves us with:

I don’t know how anyone can watch that video, and think to themselves, “Yes, this is definitely worth it to rid the world of the scourge of excess pizza consumption and dopey, giggly conversations about cartoons.”Â Short of multiple homicide, I’m having trouble coming up withÂ anything that justifies that kind of police action.Â And you know, I doubt the police could either.Â But they weren’t busy trying to figure out if they were maximizing the welfare of their larger society. They were, in that most terrifying of phrases, just doing their jobs.

And in the end, that is our shame, not theirs.

It actually looks like a fairly professionally executed warrant. Shooting the family dog is often SOP for these kinds of operations. Just better hope they don’t serve the wrong house, or the warrant isn’t based on flimsy evidence.

Pocono Record Fast Becoming Most Loathed Paper

Maybe it’s all the people moving there from New Jersey and New York, but the Pocono Record is fast becoming the most biased paper, with absolutely the worst reporting on guns of any paper in the state. They might as well work out of New York City for as awful as their attitude is towards the shooting sports and gun owners in general.

Take a look at this story about the State Game Commission opening a new range and closing an old one, which the Record turns into a story about terrorists training to use guns.

Making that Front Sight Sharp

This kind of technology could be really beneficial to competitive shooters. It helps focus the front sight without blurring the target. Some would probably argue it’s cheating.

We’re Winning: Campus Carry

The number of campuses that allow carry has doubled since Students for Concealed Carry on Campus got their activism on, and won a major victory in the Colorado courts. It’s really great work on the part of that organization. The Brady folks can claim all they want about how they are winning on this issue, but I think Daniel Crocker has found a great way to look at our progress.

Some Progress in New York

There’s a number of gun control bills in the New York Assembly that aren’t moving, as Jacob mentions, “In the past 18-19 years Iâ€™ve been following gun legislation I cannot recall ever seeing an antigun bill that was put on the Assembly Codes agenda fail to be moved out of Codes at that time.”

Gun control bills that never go anywhere are par for the course in most states, but we’ll take any signs of progress in New York as a positive development.

Do You Agree with NRA?

The Charlotte Observer is conducting a poll ahead of the NRA Annual Meeting. Obviously this is a scientifically rigorous poll, which it would be just terrible if all of you went and voted “Yes.” The Observer also notes that 70,000 people are expected for the meeting. So much for people being pissed about the venue.

We leave for Charlotte at 5AM tomorrow morning. It’s a ten hour drive from Philadelphia. Dan from PAFOA will be going down with us. We have to be there by 5:30PM for our first event. For those who might be going, we’re trying to organize a Foursquare Swarm at the Annual Meeting, so that NRA and the City of Â Charlotte get its first swarm badge. I guess this means I need to sign up for Foursquare.

A New Book from Michael Bellesiles

Eugene Volokh notes it’s titled “1877: America’s Year of Living Violently.”, and notes its publisher mentioned:

1877 is also notable as the comeback book for a celebrated U.S. historian. Michael Bellesiles is perhaps most famous as the target of an infamous â€œswiftboatingâ€ campaign by the National Rifle Association, following the publication of his Bancroft Prize-winning book Arming America (Knopf, 2000) â€” â€œthe best kind of non-fiction,â€ according to the Chicago Tribune â€” which made daring claims about gun ownership in early America.

How about made false claims about guns in early America, such that his Bancroft prize wasÂ rescindedÂ once it came to light. There was no “swiftboatingÂ campaign by NRA”. Last I checked neither Clayton Cramer nor Jim Lindgren were all that cozy with NRA. To be sure, Clayton has been an active part of the RKBA movement, but he’s contributed most to the academic body of literature supporting the individual right theory, and certainly does not take orders from Fairfax.

This is already starting on a good honest footing isn’t it? No doubt his publisher would love some controversy to drum up book sales, but let’s hopeÂ knowledgeableÂ folks go over the claims in his new book with a fine tooth comb.

Bill and Mike’s True Love

Bill Clinton just loves Mayor Mike’s work on gun control.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dztcsYI3rzs[/youtube]

I’m sure the Bradys really miss him. Bill knows as much as anyone what the NRA can do to you, and has said as much, but he never gave up the fight toÂ eviscerateÂ the Second Amendment. I thought Obama’s administration would make Clinton look like Charlton Heston. I’m glad to have been wrong (so far).

Hat tip to Jacob for the video.

New Prime Minister

Gorden Brown resigned, and Queen Elizabeth has asked Tory leader David Cameron to form a new government. It will be a coalition government between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, who are not all that unlike our liberal Democrats, only with more a libertarian streak to them:

Sky News’ royal commentator Alastair Bruce said the Queen would have asked the Tory leader the constitutional question “Will you form the new administration?” and the moment he said “yes” he became prime minister of Great Britain.

Mr Bruce added: “And then his wife would have been invited into the room and they would all have had a jolly good chat.”

Mr Cameron is the 14th prime minister the Queen has dealt with.

Sky News’ royal correspondent Sarah Hughes said Mr Cameron’s audience with the Her Majesty lasted some 25 minutes.

The Queen wanted to prepare Mr. Cameron for his first gift from the Obama Administration, which no doubt took some time. Â The operation isÂ parliamentaryÂ systems is quite different from our own.Â Unlike our system, where coalitions are formed in the major political parties, with the hopes and dreams of the coalition members carried by one individual candidate, in a parliamentary system that happens in the government. The previous election in April was inconclusive, and resulted in a “hung parliament” since the Tories, while having gained many seats, did not quite achieve a majority of the seats. This left Gordon Brown the task of attempting to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. He failed, and tendered hisÂ resignationÂ to the Queen, who asked David Cameron to form a new Administration. I would not expect that the Government David Cameron leads is going to be that effective. They will have to address many of the Liberal Democrat issues, and unless they gain a majority, will be subject to having the Liberal Dems bolt the coalition and take down the government. I would think that’s going to make it hard to get anything done, but perhaps they will be able to work together in areas where they do agree. It’ll be interested, at the least, to see what comes out of this.

Brady Folks Blowing Smoke

Wow, this is pretty amazing. They take a complete non-answer from Senator David Vitter as an indication he’sÂ climbingÂ on board with their “terror gap” legislation, and follow up with claiming that C-rated Mary Landrieu, who’s A -rated opponent NRA endorsed in the last election, is somehow “pro-gun” Â I guess an NRA C-rating is pro-gun from the Brady point of view. If the Bradys really had something to brag about it would be that Vitter’s opponent in the race is on board with the legislation, but his comment was that he would “talk about this later.” You can see it all in this article here. I think characterizing this as building momentum is a lot of wishful thinking on the part of the Brady Campaign.