Snowflakes in Hell

Dave Hardy tell us the City of Philadelphia wants to sue the state over gun control:

City Councilman Darrell L. Clarke said last night that the city plans to file a lawsuit today in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court alleging that the General Assembly has failed in its duty to protect the residents of the city.

“It is becoming increasingly clear to me that the General Assembly is unwilling or unable to act,” Clarke said in a telephone interview last night. “We have no choice but to go to court.”

This is a publicity stunt.  A few weeks ago I mentioned the case of Oritz vs. Commonwealth, which upheld the statewide preemption.  The city has sued the state several times over gun laws, and has lost every single time.  It’s well established that the legislature has the sole power to regulate firearms in the commonwealth.  The idea of suing the legislature for not passing laws is just insanity.

In addition to authorizing the suit today, Council intends to approve eight gun-control measures that have been languishing in Council for more than a year, Clarke said.

Among other things, the bills call for limiting handgun purchases to one a month, and for owners to report any guns that are lost or stolen, Clark said.

David Kairys, a professor at the Beasley School of Law at Temple University, said that the laws Council is expected to enact today should be valid because of the city’s Home Rule Charter. But the charter’s power is diminishing, he said.

“The legislature and the Supreme Court have so undercut it that it’s hard to say we have home rule anymore,” said Kairys, who in the 1990s led the city’s legal team in an unsuccessful court challenge against handgun manufacturers.

Try to enforce any of these, I can promise the city a giant lawsuit that WILL have merit in court.  No gun control law passed by the city is valid law in Pennsylvania, so attempting to enforce it will amount to an unlawful arrest.  I would like to see the state Attorney General remind the city that it is illegal for them to do this.

We’ve been down this road so many times with the city.  More on this issue later.

Michael Bane is going to the Ruger Rimfire Challange, and says:

 You guys are going to be kicking yourselves in your sorry butts for NOT signing up for this match…there are, like, 30 — count ‘em — guns on the prize table, plus a whole crate of other cool stuff! NOOOOOOOOO, I can’t win anything, except the ever-lasting love of match direction Lisa “Boom-Boom” Farrell, plus a complete collection of Lisa Farrell trading cards…I don’t even get a freakin’ t-shirt, otherwise! Still…

Sounds like a lot of fun, except for the fact that the State of California considers my Ruger 10/22 to be a menace to society…

… and would quickly arrest me and throw me in prison upon arrival.  Ruger should hold the Rimfire Challenge somewhere other than California.   Why would I want my shooting dollars to go to a state that believes I ought to be in prison?

Sorry for the light posting.  I actually had a job interview today.  The position is contract to full time employment.  Probably not something I’m willing to do, though, and given that it’s an hour and ten minute commute each way, that’s making me think no.  I’m not willing to leave full time employment for a contract job.  Once I quit my job, and start working for them, I have little in the way of negotiating position when it comes to the final package.  If they want to hire me away from my current job, they need to negotiate full time employment with me up front.

I am anxious to get out of my current job.  I’ve been here for six years, and the company’s long term prospects are very doubtful. I’ve also inherited, through layoffs and attrition, the work of five other people.  Some of the work is good, but some if it is awful.  The work environment here is pretty bad.  Employees are routinely debased and disrespected, management is incompetent, and the culture values egos above accomplishment.  Not things that motivate me to get up and go to work every day.

I want to stay in a research environment though, and this opportunity would do that for me.  I like working with scientists, and in that type of environment.  I’d hate to pass it up, then have something happen to this job, and be forced to hastily go for a job in generic corporate IT, where, quite honestly, I’d be bored to death.

… for stopping the so called War on Drugs, I don’t know what is.  Bad things happen when you criminalize behavior that doesn’t have a victim.

Hat tip to Kevin Baker