Month: June 2014

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Armed With Children?

June 30, 2014 by 4 Comments

Everytown Moms for Illegal Mayors decided to hold a little protest at a San Antonio, Texas Target store. Jamie Addams, the San Antonio regional ambassador for the gun control group, said “they were armed with clipboards and children” but were still asked to leave.

Armed with children? Isn’t that what warlords in sub-Saharan Africa have been accused of doing with their child soldiers? Hasn’t this become an issue for UNICEF?

Rebels in Mozambique started the use of children in the early 1980s. As the New York Times notes in a story about child soldiers, they are the perfect weapon. Children are “easily manipulated, intensely loyal, fearless and, most important, in endless supply.” Could that be the reason Everytown Moms uses children as “arms”?

The real story here isn’t that the Target store manager told the Everytown Moms to move along which was nice. Rather it is the comments of the Everytown Mom’s “regional ambassador” regarding the organization’s use of children as tools in their war on civil rights. Children should not be used as tools or props or weapons.

UPDATE: The picture below is from an Everytown Moms for Illegal Mayors protest outside a Target store in Pennsylvania. I count four “child warriors” in the picture with (what appears to be) a fifth on the way. Tell me that any of those kids is old enough to articulately explain why they are there and why they are protesting Target’s policy of abiding by local laws. While the Catholic Church may consider the “age of reason” to be 6 or 7, I doubt you could extrapolate that to protesting for gun control.

If I had to guess, the woman who is standing second from left is the leader of this little group. I wonder if she is being paid with Bloomberg money. Does anyone know who she is?

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I Can Recommend These

June 29, 2014 by 3 Comments

Blogger and writer Marko Kloos (pronounced “close”) has two of his books featured as part of Amazon’s Kindle Daily Deals. They are Terms of Enlistment and Lines of Departure. The books are part of his Frontline series. They are $1.99 today. You can see them here.

I will admit that I’m not the biggest fan of sci-fi fiction preferring to read history and period mysteries. That said, I enjoyed reading both of these books and would highly recommend them. They feature a dystopian world where the North American Commonwealth has had to colonize space due to over-population and pollution on Earth.

If the name Marko Kloos doesn’t ring a bell, perhaps you might recognize the mythical “Major L. Caudill, USMC (Ret)” who penned the essay “Why The Gun Is Civilization”. They are one and the same. The essay itself has over 200,000 hits on Google. It even has a well-done dramatic reading on YouTube.

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For Those Who Don’t The .380 Auto Isn’t Powerful Enough

June 28, 2014 by

If you don’t think the .380 Auto aka 9mm Browning isn’t a powerful round, show me another pistol cartridge that was used to start a world war. For it was with a FN Model 1910 chambered in .380 Auto (or 9mm Browning to be more precise) that Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg 100 years ago today in Sarajevo.

Princip did it in the name of Yugoslav nationalism. He was a Bosnian Serb. As a result of the assassination, the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia a month to the day after the Archduke was assassinated. A few days later Germany which had declared support for Austria then declared war on Russia and the rush to war spiraled out of control. Barbara Tuchman describes this spiraling out of control in her book The Guns of August.

Princip’s FN Model 1910 is now a part of the permanent display at the Museum of Military History in Vienna, Austria. How it got there is a story unto itself.

So while the cartridge debate rages on as to which cartridge has enough power, none save the .380 Auto can say they helped start a war, let alone the War to End All Wars.

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The Second Amendment Foundation Returns To North Carolina

June 26, 2014 by

The first case brought after the win in McDonald v. Chicago extended the Second Amendment to the states was in North Carolina. Bateman v. Perdue challenged the state’s law that restricted possession of firearms and ammunition outside the home during a state of emergency. Bateman was brought by the Second Amendment Foundation (among others) and was ultimately a win. Citizens of North Carolina are now allowed to protect themselves during states of emergency.

The Second Amendment Foundation has now returned to North Carolina to challenge the state’s restriction of  Concealed Handgun Permits to US citizens. Felicity Todd Veasey is an Australian citizen and legal permanent resident living in Butner who is married to a US citizen. Mrs. Veasey has lived in North Carolina for the last 10 years and wishes to obtain a Concealed Handgun Permit. Named as the defendant in the case is Sheriff Brindell Wilkins, Jr. in his official capacity as sheriff of Granville County. North Carolina Concealed Handgun Permits are issued by the sheriffs of the respective counties.

This case follows on the heels of winning cases challenging state restrictions of firearm permits and concealed carry permits to only citizens. Alienage is a suspect class under Constitutional precedent and the state must show a compelling governmental interest in restrictions concerning citizenship. The Second Amendment Foundation has won similar cases in Nebraska, New Mexico, Massachusetts, and elsewhere while the ACLU has brought similar winning cases in South Dakota and Kentucky.

Veasey v. Wilkins seeks a preliminary and permanent injunction against this provision as well as a declaratory judgment stating that it is unconstitutional. The case is being brought on the grounds that the provision violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and that it violates Mrs. Veasey’s rights to keep and bear arms under the 2nd and 14th Amendments. The lead attorney in the case is David Sigale of Illinois who has served as lead attorney in a number of similar cases.

You can read the Second Amendment Foundation’s release on the case here. As Alan Gottlieb of SAF notes in the release, “we seem (to)keep finding such laws on the books and we have to challenge them.”

The full complaint is located here.

UPDATE: As Sean’s comments indicate, the North Carolina General Assembly was urged to change the citizenship requirement but blew it off. Now it is going to cost the state time, effort, and money to correct their error. If they were smart, they’d fold immediately, pay SAF a reasonable amount for legal fees, and change the law.

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I Sure Wish Gabby Giffords Would Come To North Carolina

June 24, 2014 by 1 Comment

Thom Tillis, Speaker of the North Carolina House and GOP nominee for Senate, ought to extend a personal  invitation to Gabby Giffords and her space cowboy husband to come visit North Carolina to push their gun control agenda. The invitation would expire at midnight on Monday, November 3rd.

So why in the world should a NRA A-rated Republican want a couple of out-of-state gun banners trying to spread their gospel in the Tar Heel State?

Because of who doesn’t want them here:  Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC).

It seems that Hagan and some other Democrats in pro-gun states don’t want the voters thinking about gun rights.

From the Washington Times:

When the gun control advocacy group led by the former congresswoman from Arizona threw its support behind several endangered Senate Democrats in Western and Southern states, the candidates carefully moved to distance themselves from the affable Ms. Giffords and boasted about their strident defense of Second Amendment rights.


The message was clear: Thanks, but no thanks.


The candidates — Sen. Mark Udall in Colorado, Sen. Mary L. Landrieu in Louisiana, Sen. Kay R. Hagan in North Carolina and Rep. Bruce L. Braley, vying for Iowa’s open Senate seat — have tried to avoid the gun debate in key races that will determine whether their party keeps its majority in the U.S. Senate.

 I’m guessing that Sen. Hagan doesn’t want voters reminded that she voted for the gun controls contained in Manchin-Toomey which had the support of Giffords and her Americans for Responsible Solutions.

The Hagan-Tillis race is one of the seven Senate races that Americans for Responsible Solutions intends to be involved with according to their website. Among the mega-donors to the Giffords-Kelly group is none other than former Mayor Michael Bloomberg who made a donation of $250,000 to the group in 2013.

If the race gets close towards the end, I wonder if Bloomberg will kick in the big bucks like he has for Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) who faces a run-off in the Mississippi GOP primary today with St. Sen. Chris McDaniel.

H/T Sebastian

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Another Bill That Chris Christie Needs To Veto

June 23, 2014 by 3 Comments

The list of ridiculous bills that the New Jersey Legislature has passed and that Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) needs to veto has grown again. In addition to the magazine ban bill this is sitting on his desk, there is now a bill that totally bans ivory or “ivory products”. This ban extends to 10,000 year old ivory from mammoth tusks.

Ivory products are more than carved elephant tusks. They would include things like the keys on older Steinway concert pianos, 150-year old whale scrimshaw, slabs and handles from knives, old billiard balls, and the grips on George Patton’s revolvers. Banning the transfer of ivory or ivory products at the state level does nothing to stop elephant poaching in Africa.

Knife Rights has issued a strongly worded alert on this bill. Reading through the bill myself, I agree that it is all encompassing and permits no real exceptions. It is a bill that ought to be vetoed.

In a move
that caught just about
everyone by surprise, last
week the New Jersey
legislature quietly passed
S.2012/A.3128,
a draconian total ivory ban
bill with no exemptions for
existing legal ivory and
that even bans
10,000-year-old mammoth
ivory. This
poorly drafted bill even
opens the door to outright
confiscation of
ivory-handled knives and
arrest of knife owners!
 
 

Knife
Rights unequivocally
supports legitimate
efforts to stop the
illegal slaughter of
elephants in Africa
,
but
this
bill will not save a
single elephant
.
Unfortunately,
instead of going after
poachers, smugglers
and traders of illicit
ivory, the New Jersey
legislature has
decided to launch an
all-out attack on
innocent New Jerseyans
by passing an absurd
TOTAL Ivory Ban
that
will not save a single
living elephant
.


Knife
Rights has asked Gov.
Christie to veto this
irrational and very
destructive bill. 
If
you are a New Jersey
resident or do business
in New Jersey, WRITE or
CALL the Governor TODAY
and ask him to VETO
S.2012/A.3128.
 


The NJ Ivory Ban Bill
outlaws ALL ivory from ANY
ANIMAL (elephant, hippo,
mammoth, narwhal, walrus,
whale, etc.). It makes it
illegal to to import, sell,
offer for sale, purchase,
barter or possess with
intent to sell (a
intentionally vague term of
law subject to abusive
interpretation that could
lead to knife confiscations
and arrests) any
ivory or ivory product with no
exceptions for antique or
heretofore legal ivory
imported decades ago prior to
the existing 24-year-old U.S.
ban on ivory imports.

This ban would
irreparably harm owners of
ivory-handled and fossil
ivory-handled knives,
antiques, musical instruments
and any items containing ivory
legally imported into this
country decades ago by
stripping their value – a
taking of millions of dollars
from law-abiding New
Jerseyans. The ban would
criminalize legitimate
business owners and cause
immediate ruinous financial
loss for them. It will
cost the state millions of
dollars in tax revenue and
not
save a single living
elephant! 

 

This
bill will not save a
single elephant
because study after study
have shown no connection
between the legal ivory
market in decades-old
ivory in the U.S. and
poaching in Africa. International
and U.S. studies
document that virtually
all the ivory poached in
Africa goes to China
where it is valued at 6
times the price of
decades-old legal ivory
in the U.S.
Moreover, it is already a
federal crime to import
ivory into the U.S. and a
crime to possess or sell
illegally imported ivory.
   

  
This outrageous
and draconian bill also
represents an unconstitutional
“taking” of
protected private property,
violating both the Fifth
Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution and Article 1, #1
and #20 of the N.J.
Constitution.
While lawsuits
challenging this law, if
signed, wend their way though
the courts, untold hundreds or
thousands of ivory owners will
be arrested and prosecuted
under this absurd law.
  
NOTHING IN THIS
ABSURD BILL WILL SAVE A
SINGLE ELEPHANT!

This is “feel
good – do bad”
legislation at its
worst! 
 

New
Jersey residents and all
who do business in New
Jersey should WRITE or
CALL the Governor TODAY
and ask him to VETO S.2012/A.3128.

Email Governor
Christie at: Constituent.Relations@gov.state.nj.us
 
Call the Governor at: 609-292-6000

When you call or
write, all you need to do is
ask the Governor to VETO
S.2012/A.3128, the ivory Ban
Bill. If you’d like to write
more, click
here for Knife Rights’ NJ
Ivory Ban Model Letter to
Gov.
Christie.

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Umm, Because It Only Selectively Backups Emails?

June 21, 2014 by 6 Comments

A Tweet by Iowahawk included a link to this 2009 Tweet from Sonasoft. They are the company whose software is used by the Internal Revenue Service to back up emails on the IRS network.

Sonasoft’s slogan is “email archiving done right”. I guess by right they mean according to the transparency standards of the Obama Administration. Either that or the software did properly back up Lois Lerner and her cohorts’ emails and someone is lying about not being able to locate them.

If I were the CEO of Sonasoft, I’d be pushing the last explanation.

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This Is Just Plain Stupid But Then It IS The Government

June 21, 2014 by 4 Comments

World War II era military planes are not exactly plentiful anymore. Some are exceedingly rate. For example, while there are a handful of B-29s in museums, Fifi is the only airworthy B-29 still in existence.

Out of 17,000 T-6 Texan trainers built, there are an estimated 350 still in airworthy condition with a handful undergoing restoration. The going price for one ranges from the low $100,00s to over $300,000.

Given that, it is hard to understand what the Defense Logistics Agency did to one located in Japan. It had been lent to the Japanese Self Defense Forces for training and then had been a display piece until 1998.

When the JSDF returned the T-6 Texan to US control, this is what the Defense Logistics Agency did to the plane.

The DLA is now advertising that the scrap metal is now available for sale. They seem rather proud of their actions as they published an article detailing the destruction in their news center.

A T-6 Texan had an empty weight of about 4,100 lbs. Let’s assume that they got a very generous 50 cents per pound. That would come to around $2,050. Conversely, let’s assume that they sold the plane to a collector for restoration. Doesn’t it seem reasonable that some collector would pay many times that to get a decent specimen with what looks to be a good body and airframe?

Of course it does.