Noted attorney and 2A hero Alan Gura is presently on Glenn Beck's TV show talking about the Chicago gun ban case that was just granted cert. by the USSC.
They just finished talking about the particulars of the case, and are getting ready to start talking states rights on the issue when they return from break.
My take on this is that while the 2A was originally binding only on the fedgov, with passage of the 14th amendment, right or wrong, it should be binding on the states.
Anyway, they're back on now....
Gura's take: Same as mine. 14th amendment provides for application to the states.
This should be an interesting case. If the SC finds for Gura et al, then that opens up a whole can of worms all around the country. From NYFC and the Sullivan Law to Denver and their idiotic AWB, to Massachussets stupid gun laws and all points in between. The coming months should fun.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Lack of Posting
Sorry for the lack of posting around here, I've been a little under the weather the last few days.
After the September gun show here in lovely Rapid City, I was stricken with a blood clot in my left leg. Hats off to all the people involved who helped get me back on my feet (literally). The imaging people in radiology, the interventional radiologist, the ICU staff and all the folks who put up with my grumpy behind the 6 days I was bedridden.
And a special thank you to Mrs Hazmat who was there through the whole thing, from my initial appointment until I was released, sleeping in a sorry excuse for a recliner in my room while I recuperated. All the while trying to keep me from throwing things around the room and being a general PITA.
With the current debate over health care in this country, I can't help but wonder how long I would have had to suffer before I was "allowed" to receive treatment for this malady if the Chosen Ones health care plan was in place...
After the September gun show here in lovely Rapid City, I was stricken with a blood clot in my left leg. Hats off to all the people involved who helped get me back on my feet (literally). The imaging people in radiology, the interventional radiologist, the ICU staff and all the folks who put up with my grumpy behind the 6 days I was bedridden.
And a special thank you to Mrs Hazmat who was there through the whole thing, from my initial appointment until I was released, sleeping in a sorry excuse for a recliner in my room while I recuperated. All the while trying to keep me from throwing things around the room and being a general PITA.
With the current debate over health care in this country, I can't help but wonder how long I would have had to suffer before I was "allowed" to receive treatment for this malady if the Chosen Ones health care plan was in place...
He's Baaaaack!!!!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
More Yale In The News
Seems a student at the Yale School of Medicine is in hot water because he had a couple of drinks and got lippy.
Seems that in CT, a person can have their home searched without probable cause because of something that was said.
Now, knowing how the media loves to accurately portray gun owners, their mention of "assault rifles" and "sniper rifles" seems a little over the top.
And the commentors on the story are typical of the Northeastern liberal mindset; freedom for me, but not for thee.
Seems that in CT, a person can have their home searched without probable cause because of something that was said.
Now, knowing how the media loves to accurately portray gun owners, their mention of "assault rifles" and "sniper rifles" seems a little over the top.
And the commentors on the story are typical of the Northeastern liberal mindset; freedom for me, but not for thee.
Illegal Guns, What????
Seems Mrs. Joanne Hafter has a problem with illegal guns. I've been around guns my whole life, been an active gun owner and self proclaimed gun nut for the last 6 yrs, and I have yet to see an illegal gun at a gun show. Now I've seen a few real illegal guns, some rifles that were illegally modified contrary to the National Firearms Act. Read: illegal post-May 1986 sample machine guns. And those were seen in stores where I pointed out to the staff what they had and what they needed to do with them. I know they were taken off the shelf, but what happened to them after that I have no idea. Then there's the illegal short barreled rifle, and the gun with a filed off serial number. These I've never seen, but the SN issue has come up in recent news.
Another thing I have an issue with are the so-called "kits that enable legal weapons to become illegal". See, I've bought several "kits" over the last couple of years to build up my collection of politically incorrect semi-automatic rifles; rifles that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to acquire (or afford) through any other means. I've built Yugoslavian, Russian, Hungarian, Polish, and Bulgarian rifles in configurations that would have cost me over 100% more than what I paid for these "kits" had I attempted to purchase them from a dealer. I've now got 2 NFA tax stamps (and getting ready for a third here shortly) for two SBRs built from these "illegal kits that enable legal weapons to become illegal". Did I mention the receivers for these rifles were transferred through a legitimate dealer, with a FFL, complete with mandatory background check? Illegal again, how, exactly?
Does Mrs Hatcher know that a person may build their own rifle, without any licensing from the BATFE? Yup, you sure can, as long as you don't sell it on the open market, you're good to go. I know several folks who have done so, on 80% receivers they bought on line and bent and welded up themselves.
Now, knowing what exactly an illegal gun is, I challenge Mrs Hatcher (or anyone else, for that matter) to explain to me just what an illegal gun is in her definition.
Another thing I have an issue with are the so-called "kits that enable legal weapons to become illegal". See, I've bought several "kits" over the last couple of years to build up my collection of politically incorrect semi-automatic rifles; rifles that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to acquire (or afford) through any other means. I've built Yugoslavian, Russian, Hungarian, Polish, and Bulgarian rifles in configurations that would have cost me over 100% more than what I paid for these "kits" had I attempted to purchase them from a dealer. I've now got 2 NFA tax stamps (and getting ready for a third here shortly) for two SBRs built from these "illegal kits that enable legal weapons to become illegal". Did I mention the receivers for these rifles were transferred through a legitimate dealer, with a FFL, complete with mandatory background check? Illegal again, how, exactly?
Does Mrs Hatcher know that a person may build their own rifle, without any licensing from the BATFE? Yup, you sure can, as long as you don't sell it on the open market, you're good to go. I know several folks who have done so, on 80% receivers they bought on line and bent and welded up themselves.
Now, knowing what exactly an illegal gun is, I challenge Mrs Hatcher (or anyone else, for that matter) to explain to me just what an illegal gun is in her definition.
Friday, September 11, 2009
A Day To Never Forget
There are some occasions that are so seared into the national consciousness that everyone remembers exactly where they were when the event took place. Talking to my folks, they can remember exactly where they were when Kennedy was killed. Myself, there are two days that I will never forget.
The first was when Challenger exploded. I was home sick from school that day and watched in horror the events of that terrible day, right before my 14th birthday.
The other, was September 11, 2001.
I was stationed in Korea at the time, a little burg down the west coast from Seoul called Kunsan.
I'd managed to talk my way into a day off that day, mainly so I could watch the live broadcast on AFTV of the first regular season game in the new Mile High Stadium. (Yeah, I'm a Broncos fan, get over it.) And what a game that was. At least right up until Eddie McAffrey broke his leg, but I digress.
Anyway, I went to the hooch that night to watch the re-broadcast in prime time. As the game was getting over, and several libations, I decided it was time to go home.
My room was quite literally across the street from the hooch and it didn't take me 5 minutes to get there. And in those 5 minutes, the world came apart at the seams.
When I left to go to the hooch, I happened to leave my TV on, so when I got home, I was met with video of the first plane hitting the South Tower. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I remember thinking that maybe it was all an accident.
Then the second one hit the North Tower. Talk about instant sobriety.
And reports started coming in about other hijacked jets. By this time I was on the phone to my flight commander asking if we needed to get our stuff up and running.
Then the Pentagon was hit, and that sealed it. Work was only a block away and I was dressed and out the door.
We stood up our operation, got everything ready in the event things got sideways on the Pen. Fortunately, nothing happened. I ended up working the rest of the night, getting off work at 0900 the next morning. When I got home that morning, I was so amped up, it took another 3 hours to finally get to sleep, and even that was fitful. Those 12 hour shifts lasted another couple of days, and we weren't allowed to go downtown for another 3 months. The remaining 9 months of my tour over there went without incident and I returned Stateside in June of '02 and right into Iraqi Freedom 7 months later.
I remember the month before the attack, we'd been briefed that there was a threat of terrorist attack, nothing specific, just a general warning to all installations to be on guard. After Khobar Towers, we didn't know what to expect. After watching wall-to-wall coverage of the events of that fateful day, I don't think anyone could have even dreamed that the targets were the epicenters of power in the US.
Commissions have been chartered, investigation made, rumors and conspiracies have come and gone since that fateful sunny morning those not-so-long 8 years ago. But one thing has remained crystal clear through all the BS:
I WILL NEVER FORGET!
WE WILL NEVER FORGET!
The first was when Challenger exploded. I was home sick from school that day and watched in horror the events of that terrible day, right before my 14th birthday.
The other, was September 11, 2001.
I was stationed in Korea at the time, a little burg down the west coast from Seoul called Kunsan.
I'd managed to talk my way into a day off that day, mainly so I could watch the live broadcast on AFTV of the first regular season game in the new Mile High Stadium. (Yeah, I'm a Broncos fan, get over it.) And what a game that was. At least right up until Eddie McAffrey broke his leg, but I digress.
Anyway, I went to the hooch that night to watch the re-broadcast in prime time. As the game was getting over, and several libations, I decided it was time to go home.
My room was quite literally across the street from the hooch and it didn't take me 5 minutes to get there. And in those 5 minutes, the world came apart at the seams.
When I left to go to the hooch, I happened to leave my TV on, so when I got home, I was met with video of the first plane hitting the South Tower. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I remember thinking that maybe it was all an accident.
Then the second one hit the North Tower. Talk about instant sobriety.
And reports started coming in about other hijacked jets. By this time I was on the phone to my flight commander asking if we needed to get our stuff up and running.
Then the Pentagon was hit, and that sealed it. Work was only a block away and I was dressed and out the door.
We stood up our operation, got everything ready in the event things got sideways on the Pen. Fortunately, nothing happened. I ended up working the rest of the night, getting off work at 0900 the next morning. When I got home that morning, I was so amped up, it took another 3 hours to finally get to sleep, and even that was fitful. Those 12 hour shifts lasted another couple of days, and we weren't allowed to go downtown for another 3 months. The remaining 9 months of my tour over there went without incident and I returned Stateside in June of '02 and right into Iraqi Freedom 7 months later.
I remember the month before the attack, we'd been briefed that there was a threat of terrorist attack, nothing specific, just a general warning to all installations to be on guard. After Khobar Towers, we didn't know what to expect. After watching wall-to-wall coverage of the events of that fateful day, I don't think anyone could have even dreamed that the targets were the epicenters of power in the US.
Commissions have been chartered, investigation made, rumors and conspiracies have come and gone since that fateful sunny morning those not-so-long 8 years ago. But one thing has remained crystal clear through all the BS:
I WILL NEVER FORGET!
WE WILL NEVER FORGET!
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Something's Not Right About This
When I read this artice, something didn't quite sit right. So I read it again. Any guesses on what it might be?
LA Times Gets It's (Anti) Gun Thing On...Again
As has been reported around the interwebz the last couple of days, a rabid anti-gun zealot, Professor Garen Wintemute tells everyone how evil gun shows are in a 300+ page "report". Of course, the LA Times, being that bastion of fair and balanced reporting, can't help but pimp the Brady Line.
Dave Workman, the Seattle Gun Rights Examiner, gets into Wintemute's twisting logic and flights of fancy, here.
Seems the good professor witnessed what we here in the free world call free exchanges of goods and services between consenting, like-minded adults. In other words, he saw face-to-face transfers of legal firearms. Now, in just about every free state in the western US, outside California, these transfers are perfectly legal. And that, evidently, is enough to get his knickers all kinds of in a twist.
And in typical progressive form, he (and the LA Times for that matter) can't help but paint gun shows and the gun owners who attend them as racist swine by letting you, the objective reader know that at a good portion of the shows he attended (and video taped), racist materials like the Turner Diaries and Mein Kompf were being peddled almost as fast as it could be put out on tables.
I do gun shows where I'm at, and you know, I've never seen a copy of either at any gun show I've gone to in over 5 yrs. Funny how that works, ain't it?
Dave Workman, the Seattle Gun Rights Examiner, gets into Wintemute's twisting logic and flights of fancy, here.
Seems the good professor witnessed what we here in the free world call free exchanges of goods and services between consenting, like-minded adults. In other words, he saw face-to-face transfers of legal firearms. Now, in just about every free state in the western US, outside California, these transfers are perfectly legal. And that, evidently, is enough to get his knickers all kinds of in a twist.
And in typical progressive form, he (and the LA Times for that matter) can't help but paint gun shows and the gun owners who attend them as racist swine by letting you, the objective reader know that at a good portion of the shows he attended (and video taped), racist materials like the Turner Diaries and Mein Kompf were being peddled almost as fast as it could be put out on tables.
I do gun shows where I'm at, and you know, I've never seen a copy of either at any gun show I've gone to in over 5 yrs. Funny how that works, ain't it?
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