Snowflakes in Hell

Hard to believe it’s been five years already, but I have to renew my PA License to Carry. It actually expires at the end of the month, which means I really need to do it last month, but, though I knew it was expiring, the idea of getting my ass to the Sheriff didn’t really occur to me.

No worries though, even if the PA license expires, I can still carry on Florida and New Hampshire. Since I’ve switched counties in last five years, I have to apply as a new applicant anyway.

UPDATE: Cool, there is a Lower Bucks County Service Center that will process the license for you, right down the street in Levittown. This negates the need for a drive all the way up to the county seat in Doylestown.

My traffic has been pretty decent this week, but posting about Global Warming always seems to get a bit of a storm going on SayUncle, so I thought I’d give it a try. The EU is getting pissed at Bush over global warming. Although this is about as newsworthy as John Edwards in a hair salon, I was taken aback by this:

But the plans are starkly different from the proposal tabled by Germany for next week’s G8 summit, which would require leaders to agree to prevent global temperatures rising by more than 2 degrees Celsius and require stringent emissions cuts.

It seems to be this is something out of la la land. Even if we are almost certain global warming is happening, and even if we’re pretty sure that man is making a contribution to it. Do we know how much carbon we have to cut over what period of time to prevent a two degree temperature rise? Do we have that kind of fine control over global climate? Maybe in Star Trek, but not in real life.

I also kind of agree with bringing in China and India. No solution that doesn’t involve them is going to matter, as China is set to exceed the US as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and they run one of the most energy inefficient economies in the world.

The Europeans may want the symbolism of pushing for drastic emissions cuts, but that’s not possible, and probably is a cure worse than the disease. Personally, I’d like to start out by building more nuclear power plants, and encouraging people to make their homes more energy efficient. We had a drop in emissions this year because of milder weather. What could we accomplish if everyone pitched in to conserve? Here’s a modest proposal. Anyone who can cut their home energy usage by more than 10% can apply for a 5% reduction in their income tax rate?

Sure, that would mean the government has to scrimp too, from the lost revenue, but why shouldn’t the politicians have to sacrifice too?

Fred Thompson has an article in National Review on the gun issue that is quite good, and something I’d expect to read from one of us, not a politician who is running for President. I’ll give Thompson this, he and his team know this medium well, and can speak to it. Here’s to hoping that 2008 is the election year where blogs are going to matter in a big way.

Thanks to Joe for the tipoff.

UPDATE: Ooops… didn’t notice this was several weeks old.  Oh well, still good stuff.

Armed Canadian asks a good question:

“State Delegate Bill Bronrott of Montgomery County says it may be time to get those bikes off the roads.

“They are potential death machines in the wrong hands,” says Bronrott. “And I think we should look at the possibility of saying these should be used on race courses rather than public highways.”

Not that seriously expect anything to happen as a result of this but I need to ask a simple question of anyone who thinks like this…

Why do you feel the need to see every single tragedy as a problem that needs fixing, some kind of moral crusade or to not hold the person who caused it responsible and rather blame the item used?

So the next time you say “Well, we don’t ban cars because people use them irresponsibly, and they kill far more people every year than guns.” maybe you should think twice before you give the politicians another bad idea.

I’ve always thought that gun control is a litmus test for how liberty minded a politician is.  Let’s see what Delegate Bill Brainrot thinks about other issues:

Delegate Bronrott earned a 100% perfect score from the Humane Society of the United States in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005.

Just in case you don’t know, the HSUSA is against hunting.  What about guns?

Good Morning. Welcome. I am Bill Bronrott, a State Delegate in the Maryland General Assembly from here in Bethesda, and chair of the Montgomery House Delegation’s Democratic Caucus. We are here to issue our own Homeland Security High Alert because the clock is quickly running out on the 10 year ban on the sale of assault weapons in our country.

Remember, they aren’t just anti-gun, they are anti-freedom.   I might start taking progressives more seriously when they wake up and realize there is more to freedom than abortion, social justice (whatever the hell that means), gay rights, and hating George W. Bush.  I’ll start being impressed when they stand up for liberty in general, whether you’re a favored constituency or not.

I’ve always believed that if a person wants to off themselves, that’s their right as a free individual. It’s one reason using gun control to prevent suicide is particularly unpersuasive to me even if it actually worked.

But Jack Kevorkian has always given me the creeps, and now he’s out of prison. If someone out there is in pain and wants to off themselves, be a man (or woman) and do it yourself. Please, for the rest of us, keep this goof out of the media.

We linked yesterday to a blog in this post.  Well, it looks like he’s changed his tune.  This is a good example of what civil dialog can bring, when we are armed with facts and treat our opponents as reasonable people.   Real good work on the part of my readers.

It’s rare that someone actually is willing to admit defeat, and I admire someone who can admit that maybe they didn’t know as much as they thought they did.  Most of the time, we may not change minds.  But it’s important to have the dialog.  This is how you keep a republic healthy, and advance the political debate.

I wish I could take credit for most of the dude’s traffic, but SayUncle and Jeff Soyer had a lot to do with it too :)

I just got this in the mail from the ATF.

To assist you and your customers to better understand this provision, ATF is clarifying the Firearms Transaction Record (ATF Form 4473), to make it clear, for example, that any person who has been found by a court, board or other lawful authority to be a danger to self or others is prohibited from purchasing a firearm or ammunition. We will provide you with additional information about this change in the Form 4473 in the near future.

It seems like every time I’ve bought a gun I fill out a different version of 4473.  As a Cruffler, I don’t deal with 4473 for C&R transactions, but they still have to be filled out when buying non-C&R firearms.

I will admit, when it comes to private sector action, I’m not a big privacy advocate.  I don’t really care if my supermarket chain knows what brand of toothpaste I prefer, or how often I buy paper towels.  I also don’t get how Google’s new street zoom features is violating anyone’s privacy.  When you’re in a public place, you’re in a public place.   And as for this:

Ms. Kalin-Casey, who manages an apartment building here with her husband, John Casey, was a bit shaken when she tried a new feature in Google’s map service called Street View. She typed in her address and the screen showed a street-level view of her building. As she zoomed in, she could see Monty, her cat, sitting on a perch in the living room window of her second-floor apartment.

“The issue that I have ultimately is about where you draw the line between taking public photos and zooming in on people’s lives,” Ms. Kalin-Casey said in an interview Thursday on the front steps of the building. “The next step might be seeing books on my shelf. If the government was doing this, people would be outraged.”

I have a novel and innovative new technology for dealing with this issue.  I call them blinds.

… against the undead. From the Federal Vampire Zombie Agency:

Shotguns are somewhat less effective against zombies because of the zombie’s primitive mental capacity and enormous pain tolerance. As with any zombie weapon, you should use the shotgun only to buy enough time for escape.

Or if a rifle is more your style:

Vampires: FVZA sharpshooters used rifles with night vision scopes to pick off vampires as they emerged from their shelter for a night of hunting. But for home defense against bloodsuckers, the rifle is not very practical.

Zombies: When the zombies are coming, a rifle from a fortified, elevated position is just about the best weapon there is. There’s no danger of catching zombie fluids and viscera in the eyes, nose and mouth, and no danger of a zombie grabbing the barrel of the rifle. Picking off zombies from a safe spot can even be, dare I say, more than a little fun.

There are a few things that are surprising, like the fact that crossbows are not particularly effective against vampires, and that the flamethrower has a long and distinguished history in undead combat.

… but showing contempt for your readers seems to be a losing strategy for a newspaper.

Yesterday’s post about about how I got into this issue was getting a bit long, but I did want to touch on the importance of a healthy shooting culture. It’s occurred to me that if I had been raised in New Jersey, while I rather doubt I would have had the personality and upbringing to be in favor of gun control, it’s doubtful I would be involved in shooting or in the gun rights issue in the same way I am now.

The first step in any gun control campaign has to first involve destroying the hunting and shooting culture that exists in that state. New Jersey started on that path in 1968, when it became one of the only states in the nation to require gun owners to be licensed. By the 90s, New Jersey’s shooting community was on life support, and ripe for attack. Under Florio you got the scary semi-auto ban. Under Whitman, who first called for it, and finally McGreevy, New Jersey banned the sale of all guns that aren’t “smart” gun once the AG determines that a gun is “smart” enough. Police, of course, are exempt. Now, under Corzine, they want to ban .50 calibers with a law so broad it’ll cover a lot of muzzle loaders. How many shooting ranges are left in NJ now vs. 1968? How many gun shops?

Today it’s shooting culture is near death. New Jersey can’t really be brought back. Sure, there are still plenty of people there who like to shoot, but the state has done everything it can to drive those people out, and make them give up their sport. New Jersey even regulates air guns as if they were firearms.  It is very difficult to bring new people into shooting in New Jersey, and the climate over there makes ownership rather risky.  The inevitable result is slow decline.

I got into the issue because I had exposure to lawful firearms use as a child. I had exposure to gun shows. I could shoot cans off my Uncle’s deck without fear of being arrested by the police. Hell, we used to shoot cans in front of the state trooper who liked to sit in the church parking lot across the street looking for speeders. I was brought back into the shooting community by a friend who grew up shooting. Culture is important.

We must politically oppose measures which are designed merely to destroy the shooting community. Attacking gun shops, gun ranges, gun shows, and politically weak elements of the shooting community (think .50 cal shooters) are not designed to prevent crime. Anyone who cares to fact check for 10 minutes on google can figure that out. They are designed to chip away at the shooting culture, and eliminate it. Once they do that, gun control becomes easy. Just look at New Jersey.