Month: July 2011

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Kirsten Powers Is An Airhead

July 9, 2011 by 1 Comment

Fox viewers voted that they wanted the topic of Fox’s Friday Lightning Round to be about Operation Fast and Furious. The panelists included Jonah Goldberg from the National Review, Democrat political analyst Kristen Power, and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer. It was moderated by Bret Baier.

Goldberg, Baier, and Krauthammer made some good points. Goldberg pointed out that if the economy wasn’t so much in the tank and the unemployment rate at 9.2% this would be getting a lot more press. Krauthammer opined that he thought this will continue on into the fall and become an “Autumn Scandal” as well as a summer scandal. Baier continued to bring up the Tampa Field Division and their involvement in walking guns to MS-13 in Honduras.

FoxNews has a lot of attractive and smart blondes on their network. Kirsten Powers is not one of them. I realize that Kirsten Powers’ main role for Fox is to spout the official Democrat Party line. That said, she comes across like an airhead whose sole goal was to deflect attention from Eric Holder and try to make the story about Rep. Darrell Issa. She was totally unbelievable and displayed incredible ignorance about the whole scandal. I guess I should be happy because it showed just how weak the arguments being put out by the White House and the Democrat Party really are.

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

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Hey! I Know That “Online Journalist”

July 9, 2011 by

Mike Vanderboegh was interviewed for a report on FoxNews that appeared on Special Report with Bret Baier this evening. He discussed the expansion of Project Gunwalker to Tampa and Houston. Mike appears at the :48 mark and the 1:21 mark. From what Mike said on his blog, his actual interview was a half hour and it was distilled down to this.

Rather than identifying Mike as a blogger, the caption under his name was “Online Journalist”. Whatever floats Fox’s boat. While I think blogger is a perfectly good and honorable title (and one I like), if I had to choose a fancy title for myself I think I’ll go with “Online Commentator”.

Watch the latest video at <a href=”http://video.foxnews.com”>video.foxnews.com</a>

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And Then There Was Only One

July 8, 2011 by 5 Comments

Illinois is now the only state left that does not have some form of concealed carry or any carry for that matter.

Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) signed SB 93 today in Wausau, Wisconsin which approved concealed carry for those in the Badger State. From the NRA-ILA who was there along with NRA Exec. VP Wayne LaPierre:

Fairfax, VA. – Today, National Rifle Association (NRA) Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre and the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action Executive Director Chris W. Cox joined Governor Scott Walker as he signed the Wisconsin Personal Protection Act into law. This makes Wisconsin the 49th state to give law-abiding citizens an option to carry a concealed firearm for personal protection.

“For everyday crime victims, Right-to-Carry is the difference between no chance and a fighting chance. That is why the NRA’s commitment to freedom, the Second Amendment and the self-defense rights of good people everywhere never wavers,” said LaPierre. “Today’s signing ceremony is proof of the value of the hard work, dedication and perseverance of NRA members in Wisconsin.”

“This is an historic day for the Right-to-Carry effort not only in Wisconsin, but across the country,” said Cox. “The fundamental, individual, God-given right to self-defense must be respected. I’d like to thank Senators Galloway and Zipperer, Reps. Mursau and Suder and Gov. Walker for their dedication to freedom.”
“By signing concealed carry into law today, we are making Wisconsin safer for all responsible, law abiding citizens,” said Gov. Walker.

“I would like to thank the NRA for all their hard work over the past 10 years—they never gave up the fight for Wisconsinites to defend themselves,” said Sen. Pam Galloway. “While we were both disappointed that Constitutional Carry did not have the necessary support in the legislature to pass this year, we know that SB 93 represents one of the most freedom-oriented licensing laws in the entire country and it’s a tremendous first step toward our ultimate goal of adopting Constitutional Carry in the Badger State. I look forward to continuing this battle alongside the proud members of NRA.”

Both chambers of the Wisconsin legislature voted to approve one of the nation’s strongest Right-to-Carry bills by solid bipartisan margins. Today’s signing of the Wisconsin Personal Protection Act into law leaves Illinois as the only state that provides no way for its citizens to carry firearms for self-protection outside their homes or places of business.

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Help Sean Buy A Kriss Vector

July 8, 2011 by 4 Comments

Sean Sorrentino who blogs at An NC Gun Blog recently made a comment here that went viral. David Codrea of the WarOnGuns Blog and the National Gun Rights Examiner thought his comment would be perfect on a T-shirt and came up with a mocked-up one.

Sean has decided to run with it.

You can order the T-shirt on Sean’s blog. They are only $15 plus $5 shipping which is good deal.

So order a T-shirt today and help Sean buy a Kriss Vector. He really, really wants one after having shot it at the Lucky Gunner Blogger Shoot. In the meantime you will be sticking it in the face of Rep. Elijah Cummings and the others in the gun control industry who want to make this scandal a call for more gun control.

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TV Worth Watching!

July 8, 2011 by

David Codrea just sent out an alert that Mike Vanderboegh will be on FoxNews this evening. Mike will be appearing on Special Report with Bret Baier that airs at 6pm EDT.

From David on his War On Gun blog:

Vanderboegh is on his way to the local Fox News studio, wearing his Sunday boonie hat, to talk Tampa and more.

He called me up and asked how he should refer to me as, and I said I thought “youthful ward” was pretty cool (except I’m actually older than the youngster by a few months)…

It Mike is talking Gunwalker and Tampa it should be very interesting.

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Quote Of The Day

July 8, 2011 by 1 Comment

Dave Hardy at Of Arms and the Law has an excellent analysis of Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson’s interview with House Oversight Committee investigators and the timing of it. What makes Melson’s actions even more remarkable is this:

I’ve never heard of an agency head defecting, as it were. Closest think I can think of is John Dean, counsel to the President, meeting secretly with investigators during Watergate, and maybe “deep throat,” Mark Felt, who was Associate Director of the FBI, leaking to the press. And Watergate involved quite a bit less than running thousands of guns to the most violent criminals on earth with fatal results.

It is important to remember that both Watergate and Project Gunwalker involved the subversion of constitutional rights. The former involved the subversion of elections and the latter is an attempt to build support for the subversion of the Second Amendment. 

No one died because of Watergate. I wish we could say the same about Project Gunwalker.

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Even Non-Gunnies Can See The Foolishness Of Chicago’s New Range Law

July 8, 2011 by

Eric Zorn is a columnist and blogger for the Chicago Tribune who writes the “Change of Subject” blog for the them. He readily acknowledges that he is not a shooter. He also recognizes that the Range Law passed by the Chicago City Council is an ugly monstrosity.

In a post entitled City misfires in passing new gun-range law Zorn skewers the City Council and the hastily passed ordinance. He calls the law and its passage a “legislative raspberry” that taunts the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals just after the city got slapped down in Ezell. It is a taunt because of all the inane burdensome rules contained within it.

In anticipation of Wednesday’s “stop-playing-silly-games” ruling, Ald. James Balcer, 11th, chair of the Public Safety Committee, introduced a 24-page ordinance that, technically, allows for the construction and operation of indoor gun ranges within the city limits.

I say “technically” because the restrictions the law places on those who want to open private gun ranges are so brazenly burdensome experts doubt anyone will even try.

The Chicago Law Department defended the high cost and onerous restrictions for ranges saying they reflect the costs of inspections and background checks. Moreover, they defended the location restrictions as consistent with other “adult-use” businesses. Alderman Balcer says the restrictions are all about safety because “gun ranges are very dangerous.” Zorn’s response?

If so, the city has offered no proof; no statistics or studies that support treating gun ranges as though they were noisy offal-processing plants instead of recreational facilities that simply require a lot of insulation.

I’m not a shooter, so why do I care?

First, because it seems to me like a good idea that those who do own guns are in practice and know how to aim their weapons.

Second, because I hate to see a city facing such huge debts passing laws that so flagrantly attempt to skirt the intent of the Supreme Court that they’re doomed to be overturned after expensive legal challenges.

This ordinance isn’t even too cute by half. It’s just ugly.

Zorn obviously inherited some power of reason from his mathematician grandfather. Too bad the members of the Chicago City Council and Mayor Rahm Emanuel weren’t so fortunate.

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More “Fast And Furious” Guns Found In Arizona

July 7, 2011 by

ABC15 investigative reporter Lori Jean Gliha appears to be a really dogged investigator. That is good for the truth but bad for those in the Obama Administration that just want Project Gunwalker to go away.

By matching serial numbers from weapons on previously disclosed ATF documents with recently unsealed court documents in Federal drug cases in the Phoenix area, she was able to conclusively pin an additional 43 “gunwalked” firearms to arrested drug traffickers in Arizona. ATF Senior Agent John Dodson was correct in his bleak assessment that these guns are going to keep turning up at crime scenes for years.

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SAF Files For Preliminary Injunction Against Illinois In Carry Case

July 7, 2011 by

The Second Amendment Foundation filed for a preliminary injunction today in their case, Moore v. Madigan, challenging the State of Illinois’s ban on all forms of carry. Their release on it is below. Let me say this – no grass grows under their legal feet!

BELLEVUE, WA – Capitalizing on its federal appeals court victory Wednesday in Ezell v. City of Chicago, the Second Amendment Foundation today moved for a preliminary injunction against the State of Illinois to prevent further enforcement of that state’s prohibitions on firearms carry in public by law-abiding citizens.

The motion was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois in Springfield. Joining SAF in this motion are Illinois Carry and four private citizens, Michael Moore, Charles Hooks, Peggy Fechter and Jon Maier. The underlying case is known as Moore v. Madigan.

Illinois is the only state in the nation with such prohibitions. The state neither allows open carry or concealed carry, which runs afoul of recent U.S. Supreme Court Second Amendment rulings, including last year’s landmark ruling in McDonald v. City of Chicago, another SAF case. SAF was represented in McDonald and Ezell by attorney Alan Gura, who noted after yesterday’s appeals court win – forcing a temporary injunction against the city’s ban on gun ranges that the city immediately changed after the decision was announced – that “Even Chicago politicians must respect the people’s fundamental civil rights…Gun rights are coming to Chicago. The only question is how much the city’s intransigence will cost taxpayers along the way.”

“Now that the Seventh Circuit has recognized that the deprivation of the right of armed self-defense is an inherently irreparable injury, it is clear that Illinois’ law-abiding gun owners are entitled to a protective injunction,” said attorney David Jensen of New York, who, along with Glen Ellyn, IL attorney David Sigale, is representing SAF and the other plaintiffs.

“Yesterday’s win was a wake-up call to Chicago,” said SAF Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. “Today’s motion is a signal to the Illinois Legislature that the state’s total ban on carrying of firearms for personal protection is counter to both Supreme Court rulings on the Second Amendment, and yesterday’s ruling by the Seventh Circuit appeals panel that shredded Chicago’s gun ordinance. Our victory Wednesday and today’s motion are key components of SAF’s overall mission to win back firearms freedoms one lawsuit at a time.”

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The Sounds Of Silence

July 7, 2011 by 2 Comments
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dare
Disturb the sound of silence.
From Simon and Garfunkel’s The Sounds of Silence

Yesterday, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals rendered an important decision regarding the Second Amendment. In the case of Ezell v. Chicago, the 7th Circuit came down squarely on the side of the Second Amendment and remanded the case back to the District Court for the issuance of a preliminary injunction against the city’s ban on shooting ranges. While the Chicago City Council changed the law to allow ranges at about the same time as the 7th Circuit issued their opinion, it will now will have to conform to the Court’s ruling.

On July 1st, the Brady Campaign issued a report called Hollow Victory? which would have you believe that the Federal courts were rejecting the challenges to gun laws based upon the Heller decision. Their release on the report states that it concludes:

courts continue to protect our communities from gun violence by rejecting lawsuits brought by gun criminals and the gun lobby seeking to strike down common-sense gun laws that protect public safety and stop gun violence, and that for the gun lobby, Heller remains nothing more than a “hollow victory.”

Given this, you might have a reasonable expectation that the Brady Campaign might have something to say about the 7th Circuit’s ruling in Ezell. You would be wrong. Checking their website, their Twitter feed, and Facebook page, they have nothing – absolutely nothing – to say about Judge Syke’s opinion. It is like the Simon and Garfunkel tune says, the sounds of silence.

The Brady Campaign is not the only gun prohibitionist game in town so I decided to check out some of the other groups.

From the Violence Policy Center webpage, Twitter feed, and Facebook page – nothing.

From the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence webpage, Twitter feed, and Facebook page – nothing.

Surely the Legal Coalition Against Violence (LCAV) would have something to say about the ruling as the courts are their bailiwick. Nope, nothing, nada.

You can be sure that if the decision had been gone against Rhonda Ezell and her co-plaintiffs including the Second Amendment Foundation and the Illinois State Rifle Association, they would have had something to say about it. They would have been issuing press releases and giving interviews to their favorite pet journalists.

As it was, the gun prohibitionist groups did not “disturb the sound of silence”.