I'm a Navy SEAL sniper, but...

It was bad enough when it was just "I'm a gun owner, but...", now the credentialed traitors are claiming to be Navy SEAL snipers. As far as I am concerned, even if he is a Navy SEAL sniper, that's a mark against him. The British redcoats were all in favor of confiscating guns from American patriots.

And if you're suddenly worried about how that frames the government and the military as the enemy of true American patriots, I'll remind you that this particular Navy SEAL sniper put himself on that side of the debate voluntarily.

Also, it seems this Navy SEAL sniper fantasies that he can get elected to the NRA board and transform it into a gun control organization if he repeats the words "Navy SEAL sniper" often enough.

The New Bigotry

See if you can spot the bigot in the below statement:

"Can we not say that the Tea Party is heavily involved in politics?", he wrote. "Further, can we not also say that many Tea Partiers are not educated and accomplished? Finally, can we not also say that the Tea Party has an intolerant element? The answer to all three is yes. So, to answer your question, I recognize why some on the right are alarmed at the comparison, but they need to bear in mind that the comparison is VERY specific to the Klan of the 1920s: another national right-wing political movement, one with an educated, accomplished element that also has its share of intolerant people. In sum, the Tea Party need not be a similarly violent or bigoted movement in order for it to be compared to the KKK, especially given the different historical context."

That's right, it's the person making the statement who is the bigot. He's linking his political opponents to violent racists on the basis of 1) being involved in politics, 2) being educated and accomplished, and 3) the false claim that they are "intolerant".

After all, we all know that the tea party is filled with educated, accomplished, politically aware middle-aged white males.

Senate passes Undetectable Firearms Act without amendments

This is a disappointment for Schumer and a continuation of the status quo for us. Obama will sign the law via his autopen.

Freedom is never more than a single generation away from extinction

... and for Russians, it appears to be this generation:

Vladimir Putin has dissolved Russia's biggest news agency RIA Novosti, ordering the creation of a new media conglomerate headed by an anchorman notorious for his anti-opposition and anti-gay views. The new company Rossiya Segodnya (Russia Today) will focus on "coverage abroad of Russian state policy and public life," the document published on the Kremlin website said. [Snip] The move appears as a push by the Kremlin to consolidate state media resources at a time of increasing online criticism of Mr Putin's 13 years of rule and to take a proactive approach in shaping Russia´s image abroad.

When we laud Reagan for the defeat of communism, we will need to excoriate Barack Obama for resurrecting it.

California waiting period challenge case survives summary judgement

Here's the quote from CalGuns:

In a rejection of California Attorney General Kamala Harris' stance on the rights of law-abiding gun owners, Senior Federal District Court Judge Anthony W. Ishii denied Harris' motion for summary judgement today in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by The Calguns Foundation, indicating that California's 10-day "waiting period" gun laws are likely unconstitutional.

Unfortunately, a lot of people -- including CalGuns -- seem to be reading more into this ruling than is appropriate. It is a ruling on a motion for summary judgement. Summary judgement is basically a short-circuit of the legal process; it's basically asking the judge to decide the case, right then and there, on the basis of evidence already presented. You only win such a motion if every issue on which you request summary judgement can be decided as a matter of law based on facts not in dispute. Denying a motion for summary judgement is not a final decision in the case; it's merely a decision to continue the normal course of the trial.

Comment period on NFA trust changes ending

I haven't been harping on this because, like Sebastian, I think the fix is pretty much in. There's no requirement that the agency pay attention to comments, after all. But if you do want to comment, there's a good sample letter. No lawyers, only guns and money has a roundup of other samples if you don't like that one.

The deadline is midnight EST.

UPDATE: Comments with legal teeth may eventually produce results, but the results come from the teeth and not the comment.

California health exchange shares private information

If you created an account on the California health care exchange but didn't sign up for anything, you may be contacted by an insurance agent seeking to complete your registration process -- and he will already have access to your name, address, and phone number.

Raising concerns about consumer privacy, California's health exchange has given insurance agents the names and contact information for tens of thousands of people who went online to check out coverage but didn't ask to be contacted.

Because government respects your privacy, and giving your government access to personal information about you is safe, and you can trust them not to share it with anyone. Except spammers and telemarketers.

NSSF lawsuit challenging Connecticut gun control law dismissed

The suit challenged the emergency procedure used to pass the law, since the required certification of emergency was filed without stating any reasons why it was an emergency. (Obviously, it wasn't an emergency; the procedure was used to ram the law through with a minimum of time for public input).

More details at No Lawyers, only Guns and Money.

The suit was dismissed on standing grounds, which doesn't mean the case has no merit; it just means the people bringing the suit aren't the right ones. Sometimes that's a paper-thin excuse. In a case like this, if a national organization of firearms manufacturers doesn't have standing, who does? Maybe a sitting member of the state government, but it's hard to think of anyone else.

NFL rejects Daniel Defense ad

See the ad they rejected below:

Of course, it's within the rights of the NFL to reject advertising if they want to. They aren't a government agent. But it is silly, and stupid, of them.

Hat tip to Sebastian (and everyone else, it seems).

A difficult concept

It seems the police are more interested in pushing the bounds of the Constitution than they are in respecting the privacy rights of the people. The latest example of this is a case wherein police mounted a covert video surveillance camera to a pole outside a man's home and watched all of his activities for a month without any warrant whatsoever. When the man, an alleged illegal immigrant, used a firearm to peacefully shoot at targets in his back yard, he was arrested for possessing the firearm based on the video surveillance.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed an amicus brief in the case.

Undetectable Firearms Act passes House

This is a renewal of a longstanding ban on all-plastic firearms. It was originally passed as a hysterical reaction to the introduction of plastic-grip firearms (GLOCK being the prime example, with many others following in their footsteps). In that context it was completely meaningless, as all firearms manufactured at the time contained enough metal in their magazines, barrels, and other working parts to easily set off a metal detector.

It has gained additional relevance lately due to the development of functional 3D-printed plastic firearms. Though these firearms are barely a notch above a toy -- being marginally safe to fire once, depending on material, and definitely unsafe to fire multiple times -- they do add an element of reality to the previously completely fantastical idea of an "undetectable" plastic firearm. Of course, that must also be tempered by the fact that these "plastic" firearms still require a metal firing pin and a significant financial and intellectual investment (in acquiring a 3D printer and learning to print the designs). Not to mention, firing ammunition made of metal.

In other words, the actual threat posed by "undetectable" 3D-printed plastic firearms is negligible. When the law originally passed, it could fairly be said that it banned a gun that didn't exist. Today, it bans a gun that for all practical purposes doesn't exist.

Simply put, this is not the legislation to get worked up about. It's silly, but it does little harm. If the Senate amends the bill rather than passing an identical version, that's the version we need to stop.

Trayvon's Amendment...

... because no one wants to take your guns, they just want to do stuff like this:

The second amendment of the Constitution of the United States, being no longer necessary to a secure state is hereby nullified.
The production and sale of new firearms, being defined as a rifle, pistol, or other gun, will be disallowed until a time in which the number of firearms in circulation is equal to 50% of the population as determined by the Census.
No gun may reside in the same building as anyone who has failed a mental health evaluation, as performed by a medical professional, as approved by the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare).
A mental health examination, as performed by a medical professional approved by the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) must be passed in order to receive a firearms license.
An income tax equal to 4% of an individual's income will be assessed upon all gun owners. In states which were at any point in time a part of the Confederate States of America, this tax shall be equal to 10% of an individual's income. Taxes levied under this amendment shall be appropriated in equal portions to programs to expand Affirmative Action programs and begin to pay reparations to the descendants of African slaves.
Any person making the choice to own a firearm must carry $250,000 worth of liability insurance for each weapon owned. This insurance must be provided by a publicly owned insurance company to be established.
All firearms must be retrofitted with both a global positioning transmitter as well as a fingerprint activated locking mechanism. Failure to comply with this provision will result in a fine, prison time, and forfeiture of the privilege of firearm ownership.
The National Rifle Association, Michigan Militia, and other "œgun rights" groups shall be considered terrorist operations.
United States Marshals will be randomly placed at various "sporting venues", where a firearm could be otherwise legally discharged. This could include publicly or privately owned venues where the following (but not limited to) take place: hunting areas, shooting ranges.
In a calendar year, no person may buy more than 100 rounds of ammunition.
Assault rifles, semi-automatic, and automatic weapons, as well as those not fitted with GPS and trigger locking devices will be immediately seized by the government. The owner will be compensated fair market value of the weapon, minus the cost of the seizure operation.
President Obama will establish a Secretary of Firearm management. This office will have final say over future gun regulation to prevent against rampant innovation that was not forseen by the second amendment.

There's absolutely no chance of this being passed, of course. But it's another data point against "no one wants to take your guns".

Gun control on the move in the House

The story at PJMedia:

The Public Safety and Second Amendment Rights Protection Act of 2013, a measure sponsored by Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) and Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), who chairs the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, has been sitting idly in the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations since April. But it has 185 co-sponsors, leaving it 33 votes short of a majority in the lower chamber. In addition to expanding background checks, the King-Thompson legislation creates a commission to study and report on the “root causes of these recurring and tragic acts of mass violence.”

33 votes is still a ways away from a majority, but it's close enough to be worth paying attention to. If Reid is willing to short-circuit the filibuster for judges on Obama's say-so, he might be willing to short-circuit the filibuster for gun control too. And Schumer is already trying to sneak gun control legislation through the Senate with procedural tricks.

I'm not worried, exactly. Just watchful. We need to be ready to counter anything that comes up.

Little Brother can help against Big Brother

For honest cops, a video record of their on-duty interactions with the public is a win-win situation.

Small cameras such as the AXON Flex from Taser International can attach to an officer's sunglasses, hat, or uniform. Earlier this year, a 12-month study by Cambridge University researchers revealed that when the city of Rialto, California, required its cops to wear cameras, the number of complaints filed against officers fell by 88 percent and the use of force by officers dropped by almost 60 percent. Watched cops are polite cops.

For dishonest and abusive cops, it's lose-lose.

Watching how police officers react to this proposal is probably a pretty good proxy for their honesty.

Report on Sandy Hook shooting available

The Connecticut Report on the shooting has been released. I haven't had time to read it yet.

Evie Hudak, Colorado State Senator, resigns to preempt recall effort

She supported gun control and is now paying the political price for it. She's actually resigning before the recall effort is even completed, because doing so will allow her party to name her replacement (and thus retain control of the Senate in Colorado).

NRA sues San Francisco over magazine ban

It helps to have a few really, really crazy anti-gun jurisdictions. That way, we can find good cases to bring to the Supreme Court.

Hat tip to SaysUncle.

The Hammer of Reality

Virtual President on Health Care

Remember when your parents admitted Santa Claus was a lie?

It's time to grow up and understand the 5 lies your government is telling you.

The Nuclear Option

Hat tip to Alphecca.

Just a coincidence?

Just two years before the presidential election, the Census Bureau had caught an employee fabricating data that went into the unemployment report, which is one of the most closely watched measures of the economy.

The Census employee caught faking the results is Julius Buckmon, according to confidential Census documents obtained by The Post. Buckmon told me in an interview this past weekend that he was told to make up information by higher-ups at Census.

No. It's another indication that Obama's re-election will have an asterisk appended to it in the honest history books. As in (*): President Obama achieved re-election by systematically and illegally repressing opposition organizations via the Internal Revenue Service, manipulation of economic reports via the Census Bureau, and other means.

And we can't prove it, because:

"It was a phone conversation -- I forget the exact words -- but it was,'Go ahead and fabricate it' to make it what it was," Buckmon told me.

They have learned that official emails are subject to FOIA requests, so they don't use official email accounts to conduct business. They use private email accounts -- or did, because that's been exposed now -- and phone conversations to issue their illegal instructions. Then it becomes he-said-she-said if the lower-level employee gets caught.

All this while the NSA records everything we say, and the local police department records everywhere we drive.

Another massive database of law-abiding citizens' behavior

We now know that federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies are using automated license-plate scanners, mounted on everything from telephone poles to police cars, to build a huge database of where people are driving. This might seem like a small intrusion compared with the electronic spying carried out by the NSA. But not all threats to privacy involve the tracking of emails and other communications.

This is exactly the sort of thing that isn't very threatening when applied to individuals by a high-cost method (following them with a police vehicle 24/7), but when applied to the whole population in a manner that can be accessed at any time in the future when the government becomes interested in a particular citizen, turns the society into a police state.

Why the warrant requirement isn't a solution to our privacy problem

Exhibit A is the NSA spying on everyone.
Exhibit B is the forced rectal searches, enemas, and colonoscopy applied to at least two men on the basis of the same police dog with an expired training certificate...

An interesting quirk...

Over at Irons in the Fire is another example of something I've seen occasionally in so-called journalism. As he quotes from an article about someone in Oklahoma pushing for a "legislative study" of Stand-Your-Ground laws:

"Is there a clear line on Stand Your Ground?," asked Oklahoma Representative Mike Shelton, (D) Oklahoma City, who is now calling for a legislative study into the law. Rep. Shelton is a registered gun owner who has been opposed to "Stand Your Ground" and "Make My Day" laws.

So here's my puzzlement. Oklohoma doesn't have state-level gun registration, or gun owner registration. Gun control supporters generally aren't sophisticated enough to view the BATFE's 4473 form as "registration". So how is Shelton a "registered" gun owner? Who did he register with? Why is it necessary to describe him as a "registered" gun owner as opposed to an unmodified gun owner?

I've speculated about this before, but I've never seen a good answer from a "journalist" about why they describe gun owners this way. So I wrote this one to ask.

It's been a few days since I sent that email. Crickets.