Archive for January 2012
CC coming to NH?
New Hampshire on the verge of passing ‘constitutional carry’
The bill is House Bill 536, sponsored by state Rep. J. R. Hoell, and it has already passed the House. The issue is “constitutional carry” – a concept which recognizes that Americans have the Second Amendment right to carry firearms without getting the government’s permission.
Purple Haze
Two paratroopers and a trainer run through a smokescreen during a live-fire exercise at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La., on Jan. 14, 2012. DoD photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod, U.S. Army. (Released)
Starbucks Boycott
The National Gun Victim’s Action Council (NGAC) is organizing a nationwide boycott of Starbucks because they refuse to ban legal guns in their establishments.
There’s a lot of blah blah blah in that press release. One bit not mentioned is the number of shootings in Starbucks by gun owners legally carrying. One is pretty much forced to assume that it’s so low as to undermine the NGAC’s position.
When Murdoc wants some fancy coffee, he usually hits Biggby’s because of the side of the street its on. He’ll start making a couple of extra left turns to get a Starbucks once in a while if this boycott takes off.
‘The obvious answer is that the crooks were idiots’
Thief drops stolen coin collection into Coinstar machine
Police in Oregon are searching for a suspect who allegedly stole a rare coin collection from his own father and traded it in for pennies on the dollar at a local coin-counting machine.
Mt. Rainier Shooting
Rummell note that some are Cashing In on shooting of a park ranger in Mt. Rainier National Park:
What really got my fur up was this quote from the news article linked to earlier.
It has been legal for people to take loaded firearms into Mount Rainier since 2010, when a federal law went into effect that made possession of firearms in national parks subject to state gun laws.
Bill Wade, the outgoing chair of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, said Congress should be regretting its decision to allow loaded weapons in national parks. He called Sunday’s fatal shooting a tragedy that could have been prevented. He hopes Congress will reconsider the law that took effect in early 2010, but doubts that will happen in today’s political climate.
So a disturbed young man who willfully gunned down four people in the city, someone who fired upon park rangers and killed one in order to make a mad dash into the woods, would have refused to enter the park if there was a law against bringing firearms there?
Why don’t they just allow guns in national parks but make shooting park rangers illegal?
Also, from a CNN story on the incident:
The suspect “pulled up, did a U-turn, jumped out and fired on the two ranger vehicles and shot them through their vehicles,” according to Bacher. Camiccia was not hit, but Anderson was shot in her vehicle. Anderson apparently did not have a chance to draw her weapon.
“If I was sitting in that car or anyone here, we would be dead. There’s nothing she could have done,” said Troyer, from the Pierce County sheriff’s department. “That guy had something … high-powered enough that, from any amount of distance, nobody is going to win that gunfight.”
I wonder what’s behind that “…” in “something … high-powered”? And if anyone is surprised that a gun can shoot through a car. Without knowing what editing was done, it’s hard to tell what the sheriff was really saying about “high-powered” weapons.
Meanwhile, a link from the CNN story’s page: Cops: Babysitter chops up girl, 9, w/hacksaw, Hides head in freezer.
I haven’t watched the video of the story, but I wonder if people are calling for hacksaw control.
(No, I don’t…)
Condolences to the family of the ranger. She was just doing her job.
Swamped
Wisconsin swamped by concealed-carry applications
Wisconsin residents have overwhelmed the state Justice Department with so many concealed weapon permit applications agency officials say they probably won’t meet deadlines for issuing approvals this month despite pulling dozens of employees from other tasks to help.
A state law that allows Wisconsin residents to carry concealed weapons went into effect Nov. 1. Under the law, state residents 21 or older who submit $50 to the Justice Department, pass an agency background check and prove they have received some firearms training can obtain a permit to carry. The law requires the agency to process applications received before Nov. 30 within 45 days. Any applications received after that date must be processed within 21 days.
Sometimes the Pizza Guys are the crooks
I try to keep an eye out for stories about pizza delivery drivers who use guns, which are usually forbidden by company policy, to defend themselves.
When a driver returned from a delivery last month, he found his manager tied to a rack and $1000 stolen. The manager reported four masked men entered the store, threatened her with a gun, tied her up, and took the money.
But now it looks like she and her boyfriend staged the whole thing.
Expanded Castle in North Carolina
North Carolina has expanded its Castle Doctrine law to include vehicles and places of work:
Under the new law, the lawful occupant of a home, motor vehicle or workplace isn’t required to retreat prior to using deadly force. The law presumes that a person who unlawfully and by force enters or attempts to enter one of these locations intends to commit an unlawful act involving force or violence.
“I will do whatever it takes to protect my family, myself and other loved ones,” said Rick Mitchell, National Sporting Clays Association (NSCA) Certified Instructor. “Law abiding citizens should never have to fear the possibility of facing prison time for defending themselves or their families from a serious threat. I am glad that the lawmakers are finally getting something right.”
