Snowflakes in Hell

Repeated again and again in communities everywhere.  Don’t fire guns into the air, says Lynn Abraham.  Probably good advice.  We’ll never compete with Kentucky anyway.  It’s not as big a problem as public officials like to make it out to be.  I agree that it shouldn’t be done, but I have to wonder if this type of PSA (or is that PSH) is designed more to scare people about gun ownership, than it is to combat a legitimate problem.  The kind of people who do this type of stuff are about as likely to care what Lynn Abraham thinks as they are to obey the gun laws which already make this activity illegal.

2007 has been a pretty good year.  Definitely better than 2006, which sucked.  Best part of 2007?  Starting a blog to impress Bitter and actually having it work!  I hope everyone has a Happy New Years.  Tonight will be spent consuming adult beverages with Bitter, ringing in the new year, so that tomorrow I can head back home to Pennsylvania.  Hopefully my house is still there.

Bitter and I are headed back to Northern Virginia today in order to spend New Years there.   Tomorrow I head back to Philly.  Blogging will be light.

Looks like there’s a troll on David Codrea’s blog that’s threatening a libel suit. For those of you who want a bit of background on libel law in the United States, you can read here:

And just what is malice when it comes to proving libel? Retired Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., who wrote the Sullivan decision, defined it as “knowledge that the [published information] was false” or that it was published “with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.” In other words, public officials no longer could sue for libel simply by proving that something that had been broadcast or printed about them was false. Now they would have to prove that a journalist had knowingly printed false information while making little, if any, attempt to distinguish truth from lies.

The Supreme Court later extended its so-called Sullivan rule to cover “public figures,” meaning individuals who are not in public office but who are still newsworthy because of their prominence in the public eye. Over the years, American courts have ruled that this category includes celebrities in the entertainment field, well-known writers, athletes, and others who often attract attention in the media.

The burden on the plaintiff to prove libel is pretty high, even higher when dealing with a “public figure”, which arguably being a board member of Pennsylvania’s prominent state anti-gun group would make him, if this troll is who it seems to be. That’s not even mentioning we’ve all agreed this evidence is circumstantial, and not something you could take to court.

Also, being an IT professional, I’m well aware of how IP spoofing works, and if someone is spoofing in order to frame Dr. Reily, this is something that should be investigated. I’m a bit skeptical anyone would go through that much trouble. Spoofing an entire blog and numerous comments isn’t an easy feat.

Armed and Safe expresses some concerns about the contractor provisions on HR4900.  One thing I’d urge folks to consider is that if security contractors don’t have to compete for very limited transferable Title II firearms, it should take some pressure off prices.  I think it’s good to keep transferable Title II firearms in the hands of collectors, rather than having security firms gobbling them up.

Yesterday Bitter and I spent the day with fellow gun bloggers SayUncle, Les Jones, Tam, and non-gun bloggers (but we don’t hold that against them) Glenn and Helen. We started out doing some shooting at Coal Creek Armory. Helen had fun with SayUncle’s 9mm AR-15. So did Bitter. She wants me to get her one now.

After shooting, we retired to the SayUncle compound for dinner, which was quite good! Bitter and I appreciate Uncle and Mrs. Uncle putting us up for the night. Thanks also to Les for picking up the tab for the range time.

Now we’re back in Roanoke for Christmas, Part II with Bitter’s family, and tomorrow we head back home.

We’ve seen stories like this from the land of John Timony in Florida. Maybe he has a relative working in the Knoxville PD, or perhaps the anti-gun people are hard at work there too.

“We have traffic stops and find rounds or magazines or weapons in cars where there is a group of people in the car.”

In the past, he says police would find someone with a handgun that might hold 8 to 10 rounds, now they are facing assault weapons capable of holding 100 rounds in a single magazine.

“The guys that shoot these high capacity weapons just spray them in all directions and that is obviously an extreme danger wherever this happens,” said Hoskins.

Hoskins says people who carry such weapons are a major threat to police and the public.

Geez, I hope Hoskins doesn’t intercept any of the gun bloggers headed to Coal Creek today. He’ll crap his pants.

Liberal Fascism at its best in California.

Looks like Mike Huckabee has some muzzle discipline problems of his own.

Via Scalawag

Via a press release from State Representative Daryl Metcalf:

 On November 8, 2007 a panel discussion was held in Philadelphia by The National Association of Women Judges entitled, “Separation of Powers: What Does It Mean?” Governor Rendell’s wife, a federal judge and member of the panel, made a shocking statement that should have made headlines the following morning. Following her comments lamenting that there are issues that are not going to be resolved legislatively because they are so difficult, issues such as health care, immigration reform, social security and a national gun law, Judge Rendell stated, “Gee, a benevolent dictator would really be good right about now to, to put in health care and to put in some of these policies that we all want, but somehow the gridlock within the legislature makes it impossible.”

It should be noted that Midge Rendell was placed on the federal bench by Bill Clinton in 1994, than elevated to the third circuit court of appeals by President Clinton in 1997.  There are exactly the kind of people the Clinton’s like.  That’s why you can count me in the anybody but Hillary crowd.

This is not an appropriate sentiment from a federal judge.  God help us if the Clintons get another eight years of appointing the likes of Midge Rendell to the federal bench.

Bitter and I were off driving around in the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina today, with much getting rained on, so I will have to do a roundup of what other people have posted on the topic of our friend, and troll, CeaseFire Pennsylvania Board Member, Alex Tristan Riley. What these bloggers have gathered is very circumstantial, and we can’t conclusively prove these allegations, because Alex has done an effective job of erasing his past by removing all the blog work he has done. It’s all gone down the memory hole.

War on Guns posts an example of this juvenile satire, posted under the pseudonym NRAfourever. Someone using that Pseudonym has also in the past run a blog, a screens shot of which is showing below:

Rob Allen does the best job of presenting the evidence he has that Alexander Tristan Riley, Culturologist, and NRAFourever are quite probably the same person. Thirdpower backs it up with some more.

You might not be able to take it to court, but judge for yourself whether or not you think they are the same person. All the former blog efforts have now been removed, since Alex accepted his position on CeaseFire Pennsylvania’s Board of Directors.

UPDATE: Armed and Safe has more.

Looks like they’ve been busy.  Joe says they are misleading the public on several fronts with a story he points to.  Agents also appear to be harassing homeowners who lawfully store things that can go bang in their garages.  Let’s not forget Bill Akins either.

Evan Nappen has another editorial defending against attacks by folks less than happy with the passage of HR2640. For those of you who don’t know, Evan is probably the foremost legal expert on New Jersey’s gun laws; not a simple task, they are monstrously complicated, and even the lawmakers don’t really understand that body of law.

As I’ve said before, I generally find myself being the damned yankee that complains about restrictive carry laws in The South, particularly in the onerous number of “off limits” places.  Georgia is looking to remedy that with HB 915:

GCO fully supports the Second Amendment Protection Act of 2008, introduced today by Rep. Timothy Bearden, D. 68.  GCO’s top legislative priority for 2008 is the passage of HB 915.

Do you know:

Georgia has more places off limits to carrying a firearm than California. In fact, Georgia has more places off limits to carry than any state in the nation. Shocked, surprised, disgusted? Fed up? Finally ready to do something about it?

Sounds good to me.  Now if we can pass this, maybe we can convince Tennessee to ditch carry restrictions on federal lands, and state parks.   Same for Florida too, for that matter.

Conservative Sacalawag wants to know where the NRA is with all of this.  I would imagine they’d be behind lifting carry restrictions, as they have been in many other states, but I suspect we’ll see more movement on this after the holidays.

Bitter and I are headed out into the wilderness today to spend some time in the mountains of North Carolina, before headed west to hang out with the Knoxville gang tomorrow.  As far as I know, I’ll be meeting such fine folks as Les Jones and Tam, who we missed last time we passed through.  I think Glenn and Helen are planning to be there too.  They were kind enough to buy us lunch when we passed through last March.  Hopefully this time I’ll manage to say more than 10 words the entire time, now that I don’t feel as much like a newbie to this whole blogging scene.

Needless to say, posting might be a bit scarce tomorrow and Saturday, so I’m going to open up to my friend Brad and Ahab to post one or two things if they feel like it, to keep people interested.

John Mashek has published his new years resolutions, among them:

I resolve to continue to jump all over the National Rifle Association and its unwillingness to compromise on anything.

Perhaps Mr. Mashek is completely blind that he is not aware of this. Or perhaps Mr. Mashek is simply unaware that the very existence of NICS was a compromise that gun owners made in the early 90s to avoid waiting periods and ineffective background checks run, or not run, depending on their mood that day, by local police.

John Mashek’s problem is not that the NRA doesn’t compromise; clearly it does, and it’s taken a lot of heat from membership for doing so.  John Mashek’s problem is that the NRA won’t become a party to his desire to crap all over the Bill of Rights.

One wonders whether John Mashek would be willing to add to his list of resolutions “I resolve to respect the Bill of Rights in its entirety, and agree to support other citizen’s second amendment rights as actively as I defend my profession’s first amendment rights.”  I doubt you’ll see him resolving that.

Bitter is too busy to blog about Dave Albo’s latest attempt to stick it to the citizens of Virginia, but I’m glad TD did.  It needs to be told.

It’s Louisiana’s moniker, but we pretty impressively rank:

Texas may have more hunters and anglers than Pennsylvania, and Texans may spend more money on their outdoor pursuits, but Keystone State hunters spend more days hunting than those in any other state.

A study released last week by the National Shooting Sports Foundation and the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation ranks Pennsylvania among the top five states in all five hunting-related categories.

That includes first for days afield (16 million), second for number of resident hunters (933,000), spending ($1.7 billion) and hunting-related jobs (28,000), and fourth for number of out-of-state hunters (111,000).

When the state’s 830,000 anglers are added to the mix, Pennsylvania ranks fifth in the country in total number of resident sportsmen with 1.4 million, following Texas (2.6 million), Florida (2 million), California (1.7 million) and Ohio (1.48 million).

And the folks in Philadelphia would be happy to throw it all away for the sake of looking like they are doing something about violence in Philadelphia, instead if, you know, doing something.

Check this out:

To reach the civilian market, the company developed the .45-caliber carbine. Plans call for marketing it primarily to shooting enthusiasts who would use it for competitions and target practice, but it also could be used for hunting.

“This is not going to be a gun for everyone,” Kushell said.

Company officials said the Super V mechanism can be adapted to any caliber weapon. Work currently is under way on a 12-gauge shotgun.

I’m not a huge fan of pistol caliber carbines, but I’d definitely pick up one of these.  Clearly TDI thinks more highly of the civilian market than H&K, and I hope sales of their civilian line of firearms is brisk.

Despite all the hewing and hawing that the city needs gun control in order to get control of its skyrocketing homicide rate, it is actually on par to drop 3% in 2007. That’s not to say there’s nothing to worry about; this is still way too high. But notice this:

And what does Mooney attribute this 3% drop to?

“I think with the difference this year; you have to give credit to increased community awareness and involvement in the violence.”

John Appledorn of Citizens Crime Commission whole-heartedly agrees:

“Basically what you have is that people are fed up. They are sick and tired of the criminals running this community. They’re getting away with murder, they are terrorizing people and they are going to make that phone call and get them off the street.”

Appledorn says the Citizens Crime Commission has helped police with tips on cases from graffiti to murder. That number is 215-546-TIPS.

So communities being more willing to work with police can make a difference? I’m shocked, really.

Take them to the range.

I got a response from NRA regarding the member form:

Per this post: http://www.snowflakesinhell.com/?p=2253, let me both thank you and apologize. In reading this, I went back to double check the functionality of this ILA web form only to find there is a problem with it delivering e-mail to us. We had no reason to suspect a problem as the web form used by the PVF site was functioning fine, and we were receiving a steady stream of direct e-mails to ILA.

Just so you and others who usually contact NRA for legislative and political matters are aware, the direct (and recommended) ILA e-mail address is ila-contact@nrahq.org.

Please feel to share with other interested (and aggrieved) parties, and again, my thanks and apologies.

That was from Glen Caroline, Director of NRA-ILA Grassroots, who was kind enough to come talk to us at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous in Reno last October. Hopefully this problem will get fixed shortly.

I went to a range just north of Blacksburg, VA today to try out the new Chrony.   I got the Alpha model Shooting Chrony.  I have to say, it’s a cool piece of a equipment.  Cool in the sense that I now know my loads are pretty inconsistent.  I’m on par with Wolf ammo, which isn’t good enough for my likes.  I shot five rounds of everything I had.  Velocity for .223 averaged 2717 fps out of my 16″ barrel, with high being 2775 and low being 2640.  Velocity for the 6.8 Remington SPC upper was 2149 on the low, 2212 on the high, with 2181 being the average.

One thing I will say, is that Silver State Armory’s 6.8 Remington SPC loads are consistent with 2421 being the low, and 2453 being the high, averaging 2436 fps.

I’m using Sierra Game King 55gr jacketed soft point, with 20 grains of IMR 4198, using CCI small rifle primers.  For the 6.8, I’m using the Sierra 115gr open tip match bullets, 22 grains of IMR 4198, with CCI small rifle primers.  I’m guessing my variability has to do with not precisely measuring each load?  But for plinking I don’t really care too much.  It’s consistent enough for that.

Best….. cake….. ever!  Their butter cream icing is to die for.

This guy has to have hit over at least half of the stereotypes of gun owners in this incident. Folks, if you’re going to drive your dirt bike drunk, and without headlights, don’t sling your MP5 over your shoulders and put your beer on the handlebars. Of course:

The weapon was an MP-5 semi-automatic sub-machine gun, fully loaded, and was slung across his back, according to Officer David McIntyre of the Ashville Police Department. The suspect also had a six-pack of beer hanging from a sack off the handlebars of the dirt bike.

We do have to get some sloppy reporting. If it’s semi-automatic, how exactly is it a machine gun?