Shootout in Georgia

Two shooters break into a student apartment during a gathering in College Park GA. They divide the occupants by sex and split them into separate rooms. The shooters are counting bullets to make sure they have enough to take care of witnesses when one of the students pulls a gun from his back pack and opens fire. One shooter dead. One shooter on the run. One female student wounded in the crossfire. She is expected to recover fully. A massacre avoided. Wonder if this one will get incessant national TV coverage. Didn’t thing so.

It's not Fascism...

...when we do it.

Heh!

















From Big Hollywood

A Heinlein Quote

From The Quotable Heinlein

For the first time in my life, I was reading things which had not been approved by the Prophet's censors, and the impact on my mind was devastating. Sometimes I would glance over my shoulder to see who was watching me, frightened in spite of myself. I began to sense faintly that secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy...censorship. When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to it's subjects, "This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know," the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked, contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything---you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him. - Robert A. Heinlein, If This Goes On--

Denied: the right to a fair trial.

08-2294 U.S. v. Olofson

The 7th Circuit has upheld Olofson’s conviction. So the court can bar your witnesses from the courtroom and the Prosecution can refuse to provide evidence to the defense. This means the FEDS can stack the deck during a trial anyway they please. Please tell me Olofson’s going to push on to the Supreme Court.

H/T to David

UPDATE: Links fixed.

Jon Stewart: Truman not a war criminal.

Jon Stewart apologized for calling Harry Truman a war criminal. OK. Jon, you're still a stupid twit. And for those who missed it the first time around, Bill Whittle tells us why.

Ed Rendell [Gov-PA]: Cops want gun control

...this is what the enemy looks and sounds like. - Thirdpower

Governor Rendell makes a very impassioned argument for gun control. He fills it with lies and Brady Talking Points which is kinda redundant. He's OK with people owning hunting rifles but assault weapons are too powerful and their rounds can penetrate bullet proof vests like the rounds for hunting rifles can...and the only thing assault weapons are good for is killing cops...and if you care about cops you have to support gun control like all police officers do...bullshit. The national organizations for police administrators and Police Chiefs support gun control just like their political masters demand. If you are a Chief of Police in a medium to large city you are beholden to those that hired you. Spout their bullshit or find another job. Then there are the cops who career advancement is dependent on the coat tail on which they sit. Same story. Rank and file cops are split along the same lines as the general population with, I'd say, the gun rights position taking the lead. That estimate is based on personal observation, but then most of the cops I know have more guns than me.

Poll: Pew Research on Gun Control

For the first time in a Pew Research survey, nearly as many people believe it is more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns (45%) than to control gun ownership (49%). As recently as a year ago, 58% said it was more important to control gun ownership while 37% said it was more important to protect the right to own guns.

That "thump thump" you hear is Paul Helmke banging his head on his desk. Thirdpower has commentary.

The Argyle Sweater

I added Scott Hilburn's The Argyle Sweater to my comic list. Go read it and find out why.

Blame the pistolero.

The North Carolina Sheriff's Association...

...supports gun control. According to Paul Valone, Eddie Cadwell, the NCSA's lobbyist, arranged to have SB 782, the repeal of North Carolina's Jim Crow era pistol permit system, pulled from the calender of the committee scheduled to hear it. Opposition to the bill is no more than I expected from the NCSA, but North Carolina Sheriffs are elected officials. Maybe you the voter should contact your Sheriff and let them know how you the gun owner feel about Caldwell's and the NCSA's actions. The NCSA also depends on private donations to operate. Maybe you the gun owner should call the Association and let them know you the gun owner will not be making future donations to an organization that pushes an anti-gun agenda. Maybe it will make a difference.

A Brady Bunch Riff

I only wish that this twit was the worst we had to worry about from the gun haters. What a hoot.

H/T to David

Good News, Bad News

The good news is that, according to the Obama administration, the rich will pay for everything. The bad news is that, according to the Obama administration, you're rich. P. J. O'Rourke

S. 941: The “BATFE Reform and Firearms Modernization Act of 2009”

The NRA-ILA FAct Sheet is here. I'm not sure the BATFE, at least the "F" part, can be reformed short of desolving it and starting over, but if this passes it's a start. The bit that stuck out to me was...

Require BATFE to establish clear investigative guidelines.

Be a nice change wouldn't it.

FL: LEO Shooting

Two Florida deputies answered a call of a suicidal man with a firearm. He opens the door with a cell phone in one hand and the door knob in the other. Tucked under one arm was a .30 cal. carbine. The deputies opened fire shooting the man in the head. Below is a quote from the Sheriff's Department's press release printed in a local paper.

The sheriff's office issued a release March 4 that said, "deputies ordered Adkins to put the weapon down, Adkins refused and fired one shot striking a ballistic shield that a PBSO deputy was holding."

But on Thursday, Stormes said the deputies saw Adkins' doorknob turn as they approached his apartment through a long hallway and "when the door opened, they immediately saw a firearm." They started shooting when they saw Adkins begin to raise the rifle, Stormes said.

The deputies claimed they ordered the man to drop the gun and returned fire when he shot at them. One deputy was struck in his vest. Ballistics showed the bullet that hit the deputy was another officer's. The man didn't fire.

I wasn't there. The man didn't fire. By this account the man could not have fired the way he was carrying the rifle. The officer's did. I don't know what happened, but I do know this. A young officer on edge, adrenalin rushing, who sees a suspect with a gun is not very likely to wait long, if at all, between the challenge and the bang. And memory plays tricks on you once the shooting starts. That's based not on personal experience but on conversations with officers who have been in officer involved shootings. What they remember is very seldom what actually happened. In an officer involved shooting, probably any shooting, no one knows what actually happened until the the investigation is complete. I won't say these officers lied, but that's all the slack I'll cut them. The officers were wrong, and should be held accountable.

H/T to David

Presidents and Twits

Jon Stewart called Harry Truman a war criminal for ordering the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. My father served in the Pacific Theater during World War 2 and fought on Anguar Island and the Philippines. Dad's unit was among those slated to make the initial landings, and there was a damn good chance he would have been killed. Had he died he would not have returned home to my mother to have and raise a daughter and two sons. Had Truman not ordered the dropping of those bombs I might not be here. That's a good enough reason for me.

Bill Whittle breaks it down and takes Stewart apart by the numbers. It is a beautiful thing to behold.

Notes on Training with .22s...

by Michael Bane.

subcaliber practice brings you 99% or more of the benefits of full caliber training. The remaining little bitty slice is handling recoil, which if you have the fundamentals down is less of an issue than you might think...there's not a different set of fundamentals for heavier recoiling guns!

This is my experience also. I bought a Buckmark years ago to work with new shooters. Go read.

H/T to Tam