How will the other side justify banning so-called 'assault weapons' now?

I thought I remembered reading once that more people were murdered with fists and feet than with all long guns put together--let alone the much smaller subset of so-called "assault weapons". I decided to look into that, and checked the FBI Uniform Crime Report. Looking at the figures from 2002 to 2006, the numbers don't quite bear out the idea that more people are murdered without weapons than with long guns, but it's pretty close.

In that five-year span, there were 4614 murders committed with rifles and shotguns. Over the same time period, there were 4597 murders committed with "personal weapons" (hands, fists, feet, etc.) There's a caveat--there were 6095 murders committed with "Firearms, type not specified." Still, if the ratio of murders known to have been committed with handguns (37685) to those known to have been committed with long guns (4614) holds true in the "Firearms, type not specified" category--a fair assumption, I would think--that would only add 665 murders committed with long guns. That would give us a total of 5279. There were also 513 murders committed with "other guns," whatever that means. Let's be (extremely) generous, and say all 513 were committed with long guns--that's 5792 (and remember that a great many long guns have never been designated as "assault weapons").

Now, if one were to add strangulation (603) and asphyxiation (543) to the "fists and feet" category, one gets 5743. Add in blunt objects, like hammers, clubs, etc. (3213), we're up to 8956 non-firearm murders. Add in knives and other cutting/stabbing implements (9212), we're up to 18168 murders committed with body parts and various objects that no one outside the UK would seriously consider regulating--more than triple all the long gun murders put together.

Another caveat: not all "assault weapons" are long guns--there are a few "pistols" based on the AR-15 platform or psuedo-AK's, etc. (I plan to get not just an AR pistol within the next few months, but a dreaded .50 caliber AR "assault pistol"--saints preserve us all!). Still, despite efforts by the other side to drum up "assault pistol" hysteria, they are not particularly common, and not even particularly suited to the desires of criminals.

Justice Scalia has managed to interpret shall not be infringed in such a way that it doesn't conflict with bans of "dangerous and unusual" weapons. With the AR platform now apparently the biggest selling centerfire rifle in the country, it can hardly be said to be unusual, and statistically speaking, is clearly not one of the more dangerous weapons available.

Is a federal ban of "assault weapons" off the table now (and I'm not even talking yet about the very distinct possibility of incorporation against the states)?

Is this even possible?

Suffering a bit from "Heller fatigue," I'm going to skip gun rights politics today, and ask for some help from someone less mechanically clueless than I am--that should be about all of you.

I've talked before (here and here) about my only slightly sane (at best) hankerin' for an AR pistol chambered for the .50 Beowulf (a pistol, rather than a rifle, because being paraplegic, rifles are too cumbersome for me--an SBR might work, except that my other handicap is the fact that I live in Illinois, so even if I were willing to jump through the federal hoops, I couldn't have one). Unfortunately, the only company (to my knowledge) that ever made pistol length AR upper receivers in .50 Beowulf was Bohica Tool, which is apparently out of business (the second post linked to above has a picture of an AR pistol built with one of Bohica's .50 Beowulf uppers).

Anyway, it's still something I'd like to do, and I'm hoping someone could tell me if it would be possible to have someone take a .50 Beowulf Alexander Arms upper receiver like this one, lop something like 6" off the barrel (and shorten the gas tube to the correct length), and put that on an AR pistol lower receiver. I know that work would be well beyond my abilities, but is there someone out there who is both knowledgeable enough to be able to do something like that, and crazy enough to be willing to?

Any help would be appreciated.

By the way, assuming I can get something like this done, could handguards like these be used on it?

Another avenue of attack?

Although the Heller decision dealt mostly with the "keeping" part of the right to keep and bear arms, one must assume that if the keeping of arms is an individual right, so must be the bearing of arms. This, predictably, has not stopped Washington DC Mayor Fenty from pretending that "keep and bear arms" means "keep and . . . keep arms."

Third, the Supreme Court’s ruling is limited to handguns in the home and does not entitle anyone to carry firearms outside his or her own home.

Granted, the majority opinion states that one of the permissible limits on that which shall not be infringed ("permissible limits on that which shall not be infringed"--why is that so hard for me to comprehend?) is the banning of concealed carry. Although I cannot really grasp the justification (either Constitutional or moral) for such a restriction, I do acknowledge the historical precedent for such bans, as far back as the 18th century, so I suppose the argument could be made that the Framers were not averse to prohibitions of concealed carry.

Regardless, Fenty appears intent on banning open carry, and in so doing would seem to be opening DC to another legal challenge. Actually, another legal challenge may already be in the works, as the NRA appears to be moving in the direction of a challenge of DC's ban of semi-automatic firearms, based on a rather bizarre definition of "machine guns."

The D.C. semiautomatic weapon ban applies to any firearm capable of carrying 12 rounds or more. In effect, that restricts purchasers of modern handguns to revolvers -- such as the .38 Special or its powerful successor, the .357 Magnum -- which typically carry five or six rounds at a time and cannot be modified to hold more.

Most other handguns are outlawed, even though most are designed for magazines that carry 10 rounds or less, because they could carry more rounds with modified magazines. Weapons capable of holding such magazines are illegal "machine guns" under D.C. law.

While they're at it, I would hope the NRA challenges the ban on carrying firearms outside one's home.

Living in Illinois, which might (I'd have to check) be the only state to utterly ban both concealed and open carry (although open carry is permitted outside incorporated areas), that's a challenge I would certainly like to see. Such an effort could be made here, of course, but it seems to me that there might be a couple reasons that DC would be a better place for it. First, of course, is the fact that there would be no need to first settle the question of incorporation--it is now settled law that the Second Amendment is applicable against DC gun laws. Secondly, the DC Appellate Court has shown itself to be at least somewhat inclined to protect gun rights--I am not so sure that this is the case in the 7th Judicial Circuit (in which Illinois lies).

This looks like an area on which we could gain some ground. I would hope we do not fail to do so.

Heller's impact on Illinois, a (non-comprehensive) roundup

Yesterday, I talked about Chicago Mayor Daley's Heller-induced media meltdown and the apparent call by the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence (ICHV) to do away with our three branch system of government.

Days of Our Trailers spotted what is perhaps the biggest news--the lawsuit, filed by the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) and the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), against Chicago's draconian handgun ban. One of the attorneys in the case is Alan Gura, lead attorney in the Heller case. That probably won't improve Daley's mood.

Advocates of forcible citizen disarmament in the Illinois legislature are also apparently not happy, over concerns that their agenda is going to be a harder sell in the post-Heller reality. Armed and Safe favorite tyranny enabler, Commissar . . . er, Senator Dan Kotowski, in adjusting to Heller, seems to have forgotten about the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005:

"This ruling has clarified the debate," said. Sen. Dan Kotowski (D-Park Ridge), a former gun control lobbyist. "If you are going to allow access, like most of the country does already, what are we going to do to make our society safer? The gun industry is basically the last unregulated industry in our country. They should abide by same sort of health and safety regulations that apply when any other consumer product is sold, whether that’s teddy bears ... or a bottle of aspirin."

The same article indicates that Senator Benedict Arnold . . . er, John Millner would apparently have us believe that he is turning his cloak again, and is now opposed to forcible citizen disarmament.

Sen. John Millner (R-Carol Stream), a former police chief in Elmhurst, predicted the ruling will produce a record number of gun bills in the next legislative session.

"People are going to try and figure out what they can do to go after the gun industry, and I think that’s a mistake," said Millner, who believes the Chicago ordinance has been a colossal failure. "They are dealing with emotions and you can't draft public policy on emotion alone."

You'll have to do a lot better than that, traitor.

Here's some good news--two Chicago suburbs with handgun bans, Wilmette and Morton Grove, are apparently suspending their bans, while they try to determine what kind of legal footing they're on. This, presumably, is in response to NRA plans to file their own suits against suburbs with such bans.

Wilmette will suspend enforcement of the ban while attorneys decide whether the ruling applies to them, said Village President Chris Canning.

[ . . . ]

Morton Grove Mayor Richard Krier said the village would comply with the law.

"We are a small suburban town," he said of the north suburb, which banned the possession or sale of handguns 27 years ago. "We've never had any real handgun violence before then or since then."

Now, War on Guns tells us that "Snuffy" Pfleger is "sad" about the Heller ruling.

That was at an event with Governor Rod Blagojevich, who called the ruling "very scary."

Finally, and this isn't really directly related to Heller, but while I'm talking about Illinois, I can't in good conscience neglect to remind readers of the Second Amendment Freedom Rally (SAFR), in Chicago on July 11th. Even if you can't make it, perhaps you could help defray the very considerable costs.

ICHV opposes the Constitution

It is of course no surprise that the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence (ICHV) has issues with the Second Amendment, but I didn't expect them to publicly state their opposition to the entire U.S. system of government. That, however, is exactly what they did here, in questioning our Constitutional separation of powers, as laid out in our three branch system of government (specifically, the vital role of the judiciary).

Like many, we believe that the United States has the best judicial system in the world. But to think that five people can overturn a policy supported by hundreds of thousands in the D.C. area and every member of the City Council -- well, that decision needs to be questioned. With all due respect, the fact that five people have this opinion does not mean it is something we should accept.

Yep--you read that correctly--if the Supreme Court protects the rights of 49% of the populace, in disregard of the 51% that wants to trample those rights, we need to fundamentally alter the Constitution and the structure of our government.

Never mind that the lifetime terms of Supreme Court Justices is intended specifically to insulate them from the necessity of securing their positions by appealing to the will of mob rule, thus freeing them to protect the rights of minorities--this decision protected the "wrong right."

By the way; " . . . the fact that five people have this opinion does not mean it is something we should accept"? Well, what are you going to do--rebel (with your "Army of the Voluntarily Disarmed")?

And these tyranny enablers call us "extremists." At least when we talk about insurrection, we talk about maintaining the means for insurrection.

Mayor Daley reads the writing on the wall--and doesn't like what it says

As Days of Our Trailers points out, the Illinois State Rifle Associaton (ISRA) has wasted no time in moving to get Chicago's draconian gun ban overturned.

The U.S. Supreme Court says Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, and the ruling will likely invalidate the 26-year-old ban on handguns in the City of Chicago.

In fact, the Illinois State Rifle Association has already filed a lawsuit challenging the Chicago ban. They filed the suit within 15 minutes of the high court's ruling.

Days of Our Trailers also points out that Mayor Daley is none too happy about the Heller ruling. This quote (from the Chicago Tribune) is the part that has Thirdpower (at Days of Our Trailers) especially amused:

"This decision really places those who are rich and those who are in power [to] always feel safe," Daley said. "Those who do not have the power do not feel safe, and that's what they're saying."

Personally, I like this quote (from CBS2 Chicago, linked to earlier in this blog post):

Speaking during a morning event at Navy Pier, Daley said any effort to strike down Chicago's handgun ban would likely increase taxes because of the increased need for police presence.

So how do you explain Chicago's insane taxes now, Mayor?

The CBS2 story also has a video clip of Daley's rant, for those with vast tolerance for foolishness.



In yet another article, this one in the Chicago Sun-Times, Daley rages over cities losing the ability to " . . . protect [them]selves from people who want guns in our society."

Why should we as a city not be able to protect ourselves from those who want guns in our society?

Not "protect themselves from" criminals, but from gun rights advocates. "Homegrown terrorists" like me, I guess.

By the way, Mayor, I bet you'll really love this.

Brady Campaign response to Heller ruling: 'Send money!'

A bit after the Heller ruling was handed down (which I haven't had time to analyze yet, but seems to be about what I expected--a good first step to restoring the Second Amendment), I decided to see what the Brady Campaign had to say about it.

I should have guessed that it would be a plea for money:

(click on image to enlarge).

Well, there's one thing that this ruling hasn't changed.

UPDATE: The VPC, on the other hand, isn't bothering with begging for cash--Josh jumped straight into calling Scalia the root of all evil.

Don't count your Heller chickens before they hatch

As just about anyone following the citizen disarmament/gun rights debate knows, the Supreme Court District of Columbia v. Heller decision will almost certainly be announced today. I can't help but notice that many of my fellow gun rights advocates are treating the actual announcement of the decision almost as a formality, as the cue to start the official celebration. I worry that these people are setting themselves up for disappointment.

Anyone who expects the epidemic of gun laws to be halted today is deluded. The battleground will most likely shift, hopefully in our favor, but there will be plenty of fighting left to do. Incorporation of the Second Amendment, for example, is almost certainly not going to be dealt with directly, although it might be hinted at, and if the individual rights interpretation wins the day (as it should, being the only interpretation that makes a lick of sense), the prospects for eventual incorporation are probably pretty good.

The level of scrutiny is another matter. Constitutionally speaking, I have trouble imagining how shall not be infringed can be squared with anything less than strict scrutiny (actually, I'm not sure that's enough--but there isn't a "double secret strict" scrutiny, is there?), but since the National Firearms Act of '34, the Gun Control Act of '68, and the Hughes Amendment to the Firearm Owners Protection Act of '86 would all be very hard to reconcile with strict scrutiny, and since very few (if any) of the justices seem inclined to overturn those abominations, I have serious doubts that we'll get strict scrutiny, even if Scalia writes the opinion.

If the Justices decide that the only standard a gun law must face is one of "reasonableness," then we are, in many ways, back where we started, reduced to arguing about which infringements on that which shall not be infringed are "reasonable" infringements. The Brady Campaign and various other dimwits are now actually claiming they'll welcome an individual rights interpretation, if they can move the scrutiny battle into the realm of what's "reasonable." It kind of makes one wonder why they have fought so desperately for their mythical "collective rights" interpretation in the past, but I digress.

In the end, I believe that killing the "collective rights" interpretation once and for all would be a very significant victory for rights, and would strip the other side of one of its favorite weapons of the last few decades. Still, if we allow ourselves to become complacent, convinced that our guns are now secure, we might wake up to find that it has been deemed "reasonable" to ban so-called "assault weapons," to require so-called "smart guns" and micro-stamped ammo--to, in other words, regulate to death the Constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental, absolute human right of the individual to keep and bear arms.

The other side may be forced to change tactics, but change them they will, and only hard, activist work on our part will stand between us and "reasonable tyranny."

By the way, a good analysis of the implications of Scalia writing the Heller decision can be found here. In the comments, the following excellent point is made about protecting the right to own a firearm on the basis of said firearm being in "common use": machine guns are not in very common (civilian) use, because laws have ensured their uncommonness for almost seventy five years. A pretty slick way for the other side to simply duck the debate about full-auto. Hmm--I wonder if enough people have .50 caliber rifles for those to be considered to be in "common use."

Speaking of the Deacons for Defense . . .

In my last post, I highlighted the contrast between the approach of the Deacons, on the one hand, and that taken by Jesse Jackson, on the other. I've made no secret of my disdain for Jackson and his RainbowPUSHers, but I clearly can't accuse him of being a flip-flopper. In the book I cited earlier, it is made clear that Jackson was opposed to the Deacons' methods even in the 60's.

The Chicago [Deacons] chapter's relationship with [Dr. Martin Luther] King was cloaked in mystery. Beginning in July 1966, the Chicago Deacons, led by John Harris and Fats Crawford, provided security for King at speaking events in Chicago and when King traveled in the South. Harris later said that King's lieutenants were divided over the role of the Deacons, with Jesse Jackson adamantly opposed to any contact between King and the Deacons.

Jackson, apparently, would have been happier if the only guns near Dr. King were held by Klan members and racist cops.

It's enough to make one wonder which side Jackson was really on, and which side he's on now.

The civil rights march most have never heard about--and that some would prefer to keep under wraps

Not long ago, I read Professor Lance Hill's excellent Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement. I had already been familiar with the Deacons, of course, but only on a fairly rudimentary level--without much more knowledge than one could glean from the Wikipedia entry. I eventually realized that this is a subject on which I needed more information, and Hill's book proved to be a superb source.

I found one event described in the book particularly compelling, but first, a bit of background information is in order.

In the summer of 1965, the conflict in the South between the civil rights movement and the bigots was coming to a head. In Louisiana and elsewhere, the Klan terrorized the black community with little or no fear of prosecution, and in fact could often count on police complicity, or even outright participation. The Deacons, knowing that they were on their own in protecting their community from the Klan's terror campaign, were prepared to do just that.

In fact, on July 8th, when a white mob attacked a civil rights march in Bogalusa, Louisisana, one of the Deacons, Henry Austin, shot and wounded one of the attackers, Alton Crowe (who survived). With this shooting, an all out war between the Klan and the Deacons appeared imminent, and Louisiana Governor John McKeithen felt compelled to intervene. He chose an unfortunate approach.

Later in Baton Rouge McKeithen publicly lashed out at the Deacons, announcing that he had ordered state police to confiscate all weapons found in cars or on persons in Bogalusa. The confiscation order would apply to both blacks and whites, explained McKeithen, but he left little doubt about who his target was. "We're going to run the Deacons out of business and anybody else that's got pistols and rifles and shotguns," he declared. Charlie Sims [one of the Deacons] had, in the past, made clear how he would respond to such an order. "I would rather be caught in Bogalusa with concealed weapons," he would snort, "than without them."

On 14 July [Bogalusa] Mayor [Jesse] Cutrer announced that the city had drafted an ordinance to confiscate guns in the event of an emergency. The Voters League responded to the challenge by promptly organizing a march on Wednesday, 14 July, to protest the threatened confiscation. It was a protest that Martin Luther King or any other civil rights leader would have found unimaginable: a nonviolent march demanding the right to armed self-defense. The march ended with a spirited, defiant rally defending the Deacons. "If it weren't for the Deacons not many of us would be in the church tonight," A.Z. Young reminded his audience. "They would have run us all out of town. . . . We got the lowdowndest white people in Bogalusa than anywhere."

Louis Lomax assailed McKeithen's duplicity in threatening to disarm the Deacons while the Klan used guns with impunity. "They talk about picking up guns," Lomax told the crowd. "They didn't talk about it 100 years ago. They only talk about it when Charlie Sims has guns. Why didn't they pick up guns when two Negro deputies were shot?" Bob Hicks waxed indignant at the governor's charge that Lomax had swayed the Voters League to reject the moratorium. "We are in command. We run this campaign. This is our town. When the hard fight is over, we have to live in Bogalusa." Hicks charged that state leaders had created the conditions that called the Deacons into existence. "Guns are the only protection you have if laws are no good," he maintained. "I don't know if I'd be here today unless I had a gun." It was McKeithen and Cutrer who had created the crisis by abdicating leadership to the Klan, continued Hicks. "The Governor has no power, the mayor has no power and if no one has any power everyone should run around wild." Young summed up the tense, apocalyoptic mood of the rally: "We are on the verge of civil war."

Now, of course, we have Jesse Jackson protesting in favor of citizen disarmament, and some idiots claiming that gun rights advocacy is racist.

Perhaps it's time for the Deacons to march again. Have I mentioned Chicago?

Chicago Alderman loophole passed

For those following the strange, sordid saga of the "Chicago Alderman loophole" (my last update is here), the ordinance proposed by Alderman Richard Mell (enthusiastic supporter of so-called "gun control," and father-in-law of rabidly anti-gun Governor Blagojevich) to allow him to skirt the very laws of which he is so supportive--it passed on June 11th. I was actually watching the live video feed at the time, but it happened so quickly, I couldn't be absolutely positive that it had in fact passed.

Oddly, although there was decent coverage of the issue in the Chicago papers up until June 4th, after that (and I checked daily), there has been nothing. Well, yesterday, the City Clerk's office finally updated the website to include the "Substantive Adopted Legislation" for June 11th, and the ordinance is listed there as passed (top of the last page):

Page 8
O2008-2626 Mell (33) Police and Fire
Establishment of provision allowing for re-submission of firearm registration certificate renewal application.

What I can't find so far is the actual text of the ordinance. Rumor has it that the "amnesty" (for those who can speak of "allowing" someone to register his Constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental, absolute human right of the individual to keep and bear arms as an "amnesty," without vomiting) has been extended to six months in the final version--perhaps at Mayor Daley's behest.

When I find the text, I'll post it.

Speaking of Chicago and gun laws, don't forget SAFR (Second Amendment Freedom Rally) on July 11th.

Speaking of open carry . . .

Anyone who has been harassed for legal open carry in Wisconsin is asked to read this:

...and have been harrassed by police, you need to contact Samantha Hernandez on OpenCarry.org. She writes for Milwaukee Magazine and is doing a piece on extra-legal harrassment of open carry by police.

Advocates of forcible citizen disarmament know that if seeing good, responsible, peaceable people carrying handguns becomes commonplace, we win. That's why they're so desperate to shut down the open carry movement. That desperation is, in some cases, driving them to openly persecute people who have complied with every pertinent law.

Let's not let them get away with that.

Just call me an 'inconsiderate boor'*

Salt Lake Tribune columnist Rebecca Walsh says that people who openly carry defensive firearms are "gun-crazy," and that their refusal to be defenseless (or to hide that refusal) is somehow indicative of extreme immaturity.

He also has started making explosion and gunfire noises.

I get the inevitability of little boys' fascination for guns.

What I can't figure out are the men and sometimes women who don't grow out of the gun-crazy stage of childhood, who need to have a handgun on their hips at all times, who need their neighbors to notice.

I suppose that even a person who refuses to be defenseless doesn't need to have a gun available at all times--when in a place where one can be absolutely positive that no evil psychopath bent on murder and fifteen minutes of (posthumous) "fame" will be present, I suppose a firearm is superfluous. Let's see--what kinds of places would that be? Schools? Shopping malls? Hmm--finding a place where defenselessness seems like a good idea is starting to look a bit difficult.

Walsh goes on to say that she understands why people might be drawn to shooting for sport (target shooting and hunting), and she even claims to understand why some people might carry a concealed defensive firearm--it's carrying one openly that she doesn't understand (or approve of).

But the OpenCarry movement is a mystery to me. What kind of psychology - overcompensation, paranoia, antisocial personality - is behind that thinking?

I've talked about the reason before, Rebecca, and it's pretty simple. Much of society views firearms--particularly handguns--as tools of the government (military, law enforcement, etc.) or crime. For people to realize that many folks just like them also carry the means to survive an encounter with evil, a bit of public education is in order. Open carry is an excellent way of providing that education--which, I suspect, is the reason some folks find it so objectionable. Case in point:

Steven Gunn, an attorney and board member of the Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah, believes it's pure ego.

"We have inconsiderate boors walking around on the street carrying firearms openly," says Gunn. "I don't think they are truly afraid for their safety. Most of them are trying to make a statement about the 2nd Amendment."

As we all know, making a statement about one's Constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental, absolute human rights is just . . . tacky. That Martin Luther King guy? What a prima donna.

Rebecca actually has something to say about rights:

Police are struggling to strike a balance between gun owners' rights and those of the rest of us.

Unfortunately, what she says about rights doesn't make any sense. There's no "balance" to be struck here--the rights of "the rest of us" are in no way violated by the fact of peaceable, responsible citizens openly carrying firearms.

The "best" line came from a professor at a university in (where else?) Illinois:

"Second Amendment questions aside," says Springwood, a professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, "the real debate seems to me a cultural and social one: Do we want a society in which it is an unconscious emblem of everyday life that folks move about with 'portable killing machines' strapped to their bodies?

First, if you plan to stop open carry with more gun laws there is no setting "Second Amendment questions aside"--if you want to infringe on that which shall not be infringed, you're going to have to square that with the Bill of Rights. Good luck with that. As to people "with 'portable killing machines' [sigh] strapped to their bodies"--you don't expect people to move about with non-portable ones, do you? But to answer your question, Professor, yes--we do want the carrying of firearms to become an utterly unremarkable exercise of the right to keep and bear arms.

As good a place as any for this picture of teenage girls buying ice cream in Israel.



* Not really--since Illinois mandates defenselessness, if I carry a loaded firearm, it had better be concealed--still, I'm an "inconsiderate boor" in spirit (as well as being a whiney hag).

It's here!

Back in April, there was a flurry of disapproving (to put it mildly) media coverage of the fact that Eric Thompson, owner of TGSCOM was promoting self-defense, especially for college students, by offering guns at his cost. The critics got especially indignant over the fact that Thompson, lacking the mystical mind-reading powers to divine the intentions of the (technically) human pieces of garbage who shot up Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University, sold them some of the hardware used in those atrocities--fully in accordance with every pertinent law.

Like anyone else in the gun rights advocacy community, I tend to take umbrage at the vilification of someone who followed all the draconian rules regulating the gun trade, but is still blamed for the evil acts of others. That his audacious willingness to, instead of retreating, come out and actively (and articulately) confront the advocates of forcible citizen disarmament, simply deepened my respect for Mr. Thompson.

So, I ordered a gun from him. OK--that sounds a bit more noble than it actually was. I wanted this übercool gun, and his price (with the "at cost" deal) was too good to pass up.

I had to wait for it (as I would have no matter where I'd ordered it--the magnum version of "The Judge," that accepts 3" magnum .410 shells, wasn't to be had from anyone), but it's here now. Enjoy my bloody awful photography:

(click to enlarge)

I have it loaded with Winchester 3" magnum .410 000 buckshot (5 pellets of .36 caliber) in the first two chambers, and Buffalo Bore 255 grain flat points in the last three.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson!

Speaking of Mark Kirk . . .

I'm a very easygoing guy, but when someone does manage to annoy me (and few things annoy me like attacks on my Constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental, absolute human rights), I tend to have difficulty letting it go in a hurry. That being the case, it should probably surprise no one that even after expressing my contempt for Congressman Mark Kirk (R-IL) twice in the last week, I'm still not done with the little aspiring overseer.

I've also talked more than once about H.R. 2074, Congressman Peter King's (R-NY) bill to allow the attorney general to unilaterally block gun sales to anyone he or she wants to disarm, by the simple mechanism of placing the would-be gun purchaser on the "terrorist watch list"--a list that is already well over half a million names long. The attorney general, of course, is not an elected official, but under H.R. 2074, would have the power to block gun sales to someone without a conviction, without an indictment, without so much as an arrest--so much for "innocent until proven guilty."

I bring this up again because, although it comes as no surprise, I hadn't realized until just now that Kirk is a co-sponsor of H.R. 2074. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only who has noticed how easy it has become to be categorized as a "Homegrown Terrorist."

Under H.R. 2074, pushed by "Republicans" King and Kirk, that's how easy it would be to be denied the ability to legally arm oneself. I don't think that's an accident.

The sad state of the 'Republican' Party in the 10th Illinois Congressional District

I've made no effort to hide my contempt for U.S. Congressleech Mark Kirk (R-IL), of the 10th Illinois Congressional District. A tail-wagging lap-dog of Mayor Bloomberg's, he introduced a bill to ban so-called "assault weapons" last week. Actually, one does not even have to be a gun rights advocate to see that he's a freedom-hating, wannabe petty tyrant--he also wants to turn Social Security cards into Real IDs.

Basically, he's your standard neo-con authoritarian, in the mold of Giuliani, or Congressman Peter King (R-NY), hoping to parlay hysterical fear of "Islamic Terrorists" into the willing surrender of Constitutionally guaranteed, absolute, fundamental human rights. As such, I consider him a loathsome, contemptible slug, but not someone worthy of even enough respect to justify outright enmity. Imagine my surprise, then, when I noticed that a Mark Kirk fanboy blog linked to my last post about Kirk, referring to me as an example of one of Kirk's "mortal enemies."

Kirk also has made mortal enemies of the gun advocates.

This, you have to understand, was an expression of pride in (Brady Campaign-endorsed) Kirk's gun banning extremism, in a post indignantly (and correctly) refuting Kirk's Democratic challenger's (Dan Seals) apparent assertion that Kirk has only recently gotten on board with the forcible citizen disarmament agenda.

Probably foolishly, I decided to leave a comment, in order to try to clear the air a bit. The comment turned into a bit of an argument, and if what I have seen from most of the folks who comment on that site is at all indicative of Illinois 10th Congressional District "Republicans," Kirk might be just the guy for them (although I can't really see how Seals wouldn't be just as good, to their way of thinking)--they just love the comforting embrace of big government.

If this is what the Republican Party is coming to, let's get the Whig-like outright extinction of the party out of the way now, so we can get on with the business of replacing it with something, you know . . . American. While we're waiting for that to happen, 10th District voters who value liberty aren't going to do any better than Allan Stevo.

War on Guns has much more.

Second Amendment rally in the belly of the beast

If you can get to Chicago (and even if you normally make a point of avoiding Chicago--an easily understandable policy) on July 11th, you need to do so. The Illinois gun rights movement, with the help of ISRA and Illinois Carry, has a little surprise for the purveyors of the forcible citizen disarmament agenda in Illinois.

(Click on image for larger view, or click here for the pdf version).

That's right--a Second Amendment rally in downtown Chicago, featuring Suzanna Hupp (if you don't know who she is, or how compelling she is as a speaker, see this).

IGOLD was a big success last year, and a bigger one this year, but the heart of Illinois' anti-gun tyranny is in Chicago. It's time to take the fight to them.

UPDATE: I am told that the map on the flyer is incorrect. Will post anew when a corrected map is available. Sorry about that.

UPDATE 2: The map is now corrected, both in the image, and in the pdf version. Again, sorry for the confusion.

Banning the .50 in New Jersey

In New Jersey, where Constitutional rights go to die, an effort is (as usual) afoot to ban .50 caliber rifles. The bill, A-2116 would (for whatever baffling reason) even ban modern, inline muzzleloaders of .50 caliber or more (in other words, the most popular hunting muzzleloaders). The primary sponsor is New Jersey Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-15th district), and he justifies it rather . . . oddly.

Gusciora said his measure (A-2116) gained increased significance after six men were charged in May 2007 with planning an assault on Fort Dix with the goal of "killing as many soldiers as possible," using military-grade weapons, like mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, and AK-47s.

Let me get this straight--their plan was to use weapons "like mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, and AK-47s," so we need to ban an utterly unrelated type of firearm? Never mind--I think I get it--mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, and true (fully-automatic) AK-47s are already illegal (or so heavily regulated as makes no difference), but .50 caliber rifles, like this muzzleloader:



(looks scary, doesn't it?) haven't been banned yet, so what are we waiting for?

"In a post-9/11 society, there is simply no reason for .50-caliber weapons to be available for civilian use," said Gusciora (D-Mercer). "With the continued rise in gang violence across the state and the fact that New Jersey possesses numerous chemical plants and rail yards vulnerable to attack by .50-caliber weapons, we have a serious responsibility to stop these inherently deadly weapons from falling into the wrong hands."

According to Gusciora, .50-caliber assault rifles are prized for their long-range accuracy capacity to disable or destroy parked aircraft, armored personnel carriers, rail tank cars, bulk fuel storage, and concrete bunkers in war zones.

Keep in mind, rifles chambered for the .50 BMG cartridge have been available on the civilian market in the U.S. for over twenty years now. Care to guess how many aircraft have been destroyed by people using them in this country? How many rail tank cars? Bulk fuel or dangerous chemical storage tanks? How many people killed? As it turns out, the number in every case is the same, and I'll give you a hint: it starts with a "z," and ends with an "ero."

That number also happens to describe the amount of merit in legislation like A-2116.

Gun rights advocacy is pornographic?

I was taking a look at my site traffic (what there is of it) this afternoon, and noticed a couple referrals (both in Phoenix, AZ) from the settings page of a site called Covenant Eyes. This, apparently, is a site intended to offer the service of blocking access to pornographic websites. Oddly, Armed and Safe was apparently judged to be among those.

Evidently, some people get turned on by the darndest of things.

That should do it

Friday, I posted an update about H.R. 4900, the "Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Reform and Firearms Modernization Act of 2007." At that time, this potentially very helpful bill (in terms of reining in some of the BATFE's rampant abuses) had two hundred sixteen co-sponsors, in addition to the original sponsor.

Assuming all of them vote in favor (a fair--although not guaranteed--assumption, if they're present), that would provide all but one vote needed for a majority in the House. Generally, of course, it can be assumed that some who would not co-sponsor a bill would still be willing to vote for it, but it's definitely encouraging for a bill to have enough co-sponsors to form the majority all by themselves.

As of now, we have that (and more), with three more Congresspeople having signed on yesterday.

Let's get it voted on, passed, and sent on to the (admittedly much more difficult) effort in the Senate.