Cross-posted at Stop the Bleating!
Condi for President! Rice says gun rights as important as free speech. Hear, hear! Liberal advocacy groups claim to have a monopoly on protecting the best interests of minorities; so much so that any black or other minority who doesn't toe the line is labeled an "Uncle Tom." Gun control is yet another example that puts the lie to such claims.
Frivolous lawsuit preemption moves forward in Oregon. SALEM (AP) - Gun makers or sellers could not be sued for damages caused by illegal use of firearms under a bill easily approved Tuesday by the House. Kudos to the Oregon House. Unfortunately, in light of things like this, I'm not sure how much difference state-level preemption really makes unless it becomes universal . (See Volokh's commentary, here.)
It does seem a little . . . "off." AUSTIN A bill meant to shoot down a Web site that allows hunting over the Internet received preliminary approval from the House today. I have a hard time thinking of a good reason that Internet hunting should be per se prohibited. (Read: This is a dumb law and, ergo, a bad one.) That said, I admit to feeling that there's just something wrong about hunting via the Internet with remotely controlled rifles. I mean, is that really hunting? Not in my book.
Civil forfeiture madness continues. A New Jersey state assemblyman has introduced a bill that would allow the government to seize the home or car of anyone whose property contains an illegal firearm. (This story is via WorldNet Daily, which I've learned through long experience to be very skeptical of. But this doesn't strike me as the sort of story where WND's hard-right bias and excessive credulity are likely to play a big role.) Back in the 80s, when I was a teenage quasi fascist, I was all in favor of civil forfeiture; it seemed like the only way to make drug-dealing unprofitable, and of course everybody knew we had to win the "War on Drugs." I couldn't see the forest for the trees back then. The damage the WoD -- not drugs themselves, but our fruitless effort to eradicate them -- has done to this society is almost incalculable. Here's yet another example of the unintended consequences of that effort.
God bless the Swiss. "Shooting is more than just a sport to many Swiss, who believe a whole way of life would be under threat if the nation signs up to the Schengen accord. Geared to improve cross-border security, the European Union agreement also lays down minimum requirements for acquiring and possessing firearms . . . when [many Swiss] realised that a yes to Schengen would require changes to their liberal firearm laws, they came out with all guns blazing." Switzerland has long been my backup plan, assuming I can persuade them to permit me to become a citizen.
Sounds great. But that doesn't do the rest of us much good. RALEIGH -- Judges would be able to carry guns into their courthouses and courtrooms under a bill soon to be considered by a Senate committee. Did someone say "Milton C. Hardcastle"?
Fighting a losing battle in my neck of the woods, I fear. Culpeper, Va. (AP) - More than 125 hunters and gun enthusiasts showed up at a Culpeper County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday to protest a proposal that would ban shooting on most private land and outlaw some rifles. [Note: If it's like Fairfax's ordinance, it wouldn't "outlaw some rifles" -- it would just make it unlawful to discharge them. There is a difference. -- Ed.]
The proposal was borrowed from nearby Fairfax County and would have banned firing a gun on land less than 20 acres and prohibited rifles larger than a .22-caliber. The board's three-member Rules Committee agreed to table the issue for further study after hearing from members of the crowd, who wore blaze orange caps and sported National Rifle Association insignia.
Culpeper Sheriff Lee Hart spoke out against the ordinance.
"I don't want to see Culpeper become Fairfax County," Hart said. "You can't legislate common sense."
Many said they had moved from Fairfax County into the "country" to elude such rules.
"We want to maintain that rural integrity," committee member Steve Nixon said, adding that most people who move to the area from northern Virginia aren't used to the shooting. But to those people, he said, "This is Culpeper County, and you'll just have to adjust."
I admire the sentiment. But as long as the urban cancer continues to spread, and drive up property values, and thus price rural folk out of their own markets and replace them with fleeing urbanites, I think Mr. Nixon's approach ultimately is ultimately doomed. I have a co-worker who lives in Maryland and commutes to Virginia daily, and is constantly bitching about the fact that Virginia and Virginia localities won't improve the roads. And I constantly reply that bad roads are a good thing: They discourage carpetbaggers. Good roads draw development like sh*t draws flies. Let the "enlightened' collectivists stay up in Montgomery and Prince George's Counties and D.C., where they belong. They've throughly f***ed up those jurisdictions; why should we Virginians encourage them to come here and do the same?
Handguns are useless . . . A gun-toting pharmacist - beloved by paying customers for his friendly banter - opened fire on an armed OxyContin robber as the two swapped lead instead of cheery hellos yesterday afternoon.
No one, including two workers and a customer who were in the store at the time, was injured.
Lawrence Maida Sr.'s pharmacy is just one of dozens hit in recent years by armed robbers looking for so-called ``hillbilly heroin.'' Cops say Maida's store has been robbed several times before, and this is not the first time the second-generation druggist has used a gun to run off bandits.
Maida is licensed to have the gun, and will not face charges for the shooting, police said.
``What do you want me to charge him with, being a victim?'' asked one cop.
It's incredibly heartening to see that attitude in a cop -- especially a Massachusetts cop, and even better a Boston cop! I suppose we can rest assured that this guy will never rise above the rank of patrolman.
Here's hoping. LINCOLN (AP) - The nine-year effort to allow Nebraskans to carry concealed weapons returned to the Legislature Friday.
Lawmakers began debate on a concealed-weapons measure (LB454) brought by Sen. Jeanne Combs of Friend - a card-carrying member of the National Rifle Association.
She and other supporters of the idea say it is their constitutional right to carry a concealed weapon and that doing so will help thwart crime.
At least one Canadian besides my co-blogger gets it. Gun control myths just won't die. National Post (Canada).
Remote control hunting deer over the internet seems a might boring. Now a real entrepreneur might set up an M2 .50 cal in Baghdad and offer terrorist hunting over the internet. Having the head cut off and mounted is optional of course.
Posted by: Outlaw3 at May 16, 2005 07:04 AM