Snowflakes in Hell

Maybe I was a bit hard on the Delco times the other day.  This editorial highlighting the plight of Officer Daniel Faulkner’s widow, Maureen Faulkner, is pretty spot on.

One thing I’ve been trying to do lately is, when I see newspapers make wildly inaccurate statements, to try to get a letter to the editor in. I haven’t had much luck so far, but if my luck changes I might point them out here.

The hard part about Letters to the Editor is that they typically want you to keep them under 200 words, and if you’ve ever tried to address a lot of issues in that kind of word space, you know how hard it can be.

But I think there’s probably not much better you can do to have an impact on the debate within your community. Letters to legislators are good, but getting a Letter to the Editor placed can influence hundreds or thousands of other people, and also lets the paper’s editorial board know they got something wrong.

Remember folks, to write your state representatives about the Castle Doctrine Bill coming up.   Here’s mine:

Representative [Find Yours Here],

I am disappointed that HB 641, the Castle Doctrine Bill, did not get a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee as was originally scheduled for today.  I am told that the bill’s sponsor, Representative Cappelli, plans to introduce it as an amendment onto Senate Bill 436, which is currently before the House.

I would very much appreciate your support of Rep. Cappelli’s amendment, and the final bill, when it comes up for a vote.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

Hopefully we can get this bill on Rendell’s desk.

Six suspended as investigation proceeds into allegations of sexual assault.  Weird, I just drove past that night club a few days ago.

… have absolutely no shame or sense of decency.

That’s the headline the AP is running.  Expect a lot of talk now that the armed resistance didn’t matter much.   I’m not really surprised by this.  It was a murder suicide fantasy, and he wasn’t about to let this woman take that away from him.  These types of mass shooters usually off themselves when the police are closing in too, lest it spoil their script.

Clayton has a bit on the history of guns in Church.  Back when people didn’t much have the luxury of academic debate on self-protection, bringing a gun to church was required.

This time from Colin McEnroe of the Hartford Courant:

I agree that it was a lucky thing that Jeanne Assam was there in church in Colorado Springs with a gun she used to stop a homicidal maniac; but only in America’s completely crazy gun culture would this be cited as proof that the system works. A guy shows up at a church with two handguns, an assault rifle and 1,000 rounds of ammuition, kills two young women and wounds their father; and we’re supposed to think that’s a good day in the life of Gunfighter Nation because somebody else had a gun too?

I’m seeing this theme a lot “I agree what this woman did was good, but guns are bad!” So clearly the solution is to make sure women like this are defenseless? The guy in the Omaha shooting was prohibited by federal law from purchasing a gun, but he got one anyway. Here’s what he would like to see from us:

“Hey, I’m not really down with gun control, but I can see, lately, that assault weapons are getting into the hands of crazy people, and maybe we need to take a look at that.”

I don’t disagree, but first you have to tell me what an assault weapon is? Seems simple. Kind of like what Justice Potter Stewart said of Pornography “I know it when I see it.” But how to define it? Assault weapons function the same as other ordinary firearms. How do you make a legal distinction between a “dangerous assault weapon” and a self-loading target or hunting rifle?

How about “Why are there so many crazy people and people with long criminal histories roaming our streets in the first place?” Is that something to look at as well?

Can you get any less objective than this?

It seemed to save a lot of people for something that’s inane.

Like a lot of our pro-gun leaders, I definitely don’t have any special affection for Michael Sullivan as director of the ATF. It doesn’t look to me like he’s done much to reform the agency, and I’m not sure he’s the ideal person to have that position. I’d definitely like someone hell bent on reforming the culture there, at all costs, but I doubt you’re ever going to get that out of Bush, who I think has given up on fighting his federal bureaucracies.

In my tradition not hesitating to challenge conventional wisdom on our side, I’m going to stir the pot here a little and suggest that expending time, energy and money in an attempt to defeat Mike Sullivan isn’t really going to accomplish anything. One thing I’ve learned from reading and talking to Dave Hardy, who has a lot of experience working in a federal bureaucracy, is just how little control the political appointees really have over a large agency like ATF. The bureaucracy will do everything it can to conceal facts, and the truth from the people the President appoints to run the agencies, to the point where it’s difficult to even know what needs to be reformed and where there are problems that need addressing.

We could expend a lot of energy, time and money, which are all limited resources, in a mad effort to defeat Mike Sullivan, which will cause Bush to appoint another appointee, who will likely have similar qualities, and also will have little ability or incentive to reform the agency. And that’s if we win. I think our chances of winning on this are virtually zero, because the Republicans aren’t going ot want to deny the president his nominee, and the Democrats aren’t going to scuttle a nominee unless it benefits them politically, which it doesn’t in this case.

So I’m going to put the onus on those of you who are demanding action. Why is this worth pulling out all the stops for? I’m willing to be convinced. But right now I think our energy is best spent making sure pro-gun candidates get elected in the primaries, and in 2008. Getting more pro-gun candidates elected puts us in a better position to push measures through Congress to strip ATF of the powers its been abusing. As much as I think it would be nice to get a real reformer in ATF, I don’t think you’re getting that out of Bush.

UPDATE: Well, it’s not an outright defeat of Sullivan, but I think Senator Craig and Senator Crapo just convinced me that maybe I shouldn’t be too quick to question the value of something that motivates enough grass roots to get this kind of action. Pretty clearly my mistake was not seeing that it could prompt action less than outright defeat of Sullivan, but still something that moved the issue forward. Pretty clearly I was wrong.

Denver News has more on the CWP holder that stopped the latest mass shooting.  I feel bad that the media light is being shined on this woman and her church.  Two parishioners were murdered before she could stop them, and she herself, even if she was in the right, still has to deal with having killed another human being.  This is the kind of thing where people ought to have a little privacy.

It’s good to see some police chiefs have some common sense.

Randall Williams, spokesman for the Anderson City Police Department, said all firearms are a concern for law enforcement.

“That rifle is not any different from any other firearm,” he said. “We’re concerned about all firearms being in the wrong hands.”

They even manage to talk to some gun shop owners who manage not to say anything stupid.  The reporter should also be commended for bothering to do research.

It’s not a hazardous pastime when the good people in Boston are told by their betters they don’t have permission to protect themselves.

I’ve gotten to the point where I have so many blogs on my RSS feed, I can’t possibly read all of them every day, and I’ve had to get down to a core list of blogs that I make an effort to read daily.  Anyone on my blog roll, I do actually read, but I feel bad that lately I’ve been missing a lot.  If anyone has a post they think I might be interested, feel free to e-mail it to get my attention.

I’m going to partly agree with a Brady Campaign person, on the issue of airsoft guns:

You see, Santa, many of these guns are nearly exact replicas of real handguns in both appearance and feel, even if they do fire cute little colored “pellets” instead of real bullets. I know you understand handguns aren’t toys and that they are lethal, hand-held machines made solely to kill another human. So why would you put a pellet-firing replica into the hands of a child as if it were a toy?

There’s a lot of gun hating rhetoric and fear mongering in this article, but I will say that some parents buy airsoft guns for their kids without enough proper instruction as to the safe handling of firearms and air guns, and without proper supervision.

While I wouldn’t support any laws restricting airsoft guns, I do think parents need to use common sense and make sure their kids are educated enough to know that airsoft guns are not toys.  They look like real guns, and they can injure if used improperly.

I think playing airsoft is fine for older kids under the proper supervision of adults, using proper safety equipment, and at a facility designated for that purpose.  It’s fine to expose children to both firearms and air guns, provided they are properly trained and educated on safe use by a responsible adult.  I not only think it’s fine, I think it’s something every parent should think about.

Tim Heyne might think it’s best for parents to never expose kids to guns, but guns are with us now, and always will be in some fashion.  It’s best if the kids aren’t ignorant, and know how to be safe.

According to PETA:

 PETA researched which states are doing the best job meeting their prison inmates’ hunger for meatless meals, and the results are in: Pennsylvania has placed third on PETA’s list of the Top 10 Vegetarian-Friendly State Prison Systems.

Prison food has traditionally gotten a bad rap, but you won’t hear many complaints from vegetarians and vegans who are serving time in Pennsylvania. The soy barbecue, mock Salisbury steak, mock meatballs, tofu cacciatore, and tofu scramble have inmates asking for seconds.

This is one area I can agree with PETA on.  Meat is expensive.  I say mock meatballs and mock salsbury steak is  fine for the prison population if it save the state money and makes live in prison just a little more unbearable.   I say we move to number one on this list!

It seems to have become confirmed that HR 641, the Pennsylvania Castle Doctrine Bill, will indeed not be heard tomorrow.  The apparent reason is that the black caucus threatened to walk out again over this bill.  From the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Steven Cappelli:

“Due to conflict within the Democratic Party, the majority chairman of the House Judiciary Committee has elected to pull my legislation from consideration by the committee tomorrow. Therefore, I have decided to draft my bill as an amendment to Senate Bill 436, which is currently before the House,” said Cappelli. “I do not appreciate having to go this route in order to have legitimate debate and discussion about my legislation, but I will do what is necessary in order to move legislation forward that is vital to the safety of the people of Pennsylvania.

It’s a good time to write your representative and inform him or her you’d like them to support this bill when it hits the floor for a vote.

Nebraska is considering a whole host of bills, according to this article that contains a number of inaccurate statements.

Action Three News has obtained a “get tough on guns” plan that was in the works even before last week’s shooting. The plan, that will be fought out in the legislature next month, aims to keep guns out of the hands of minors.

But it stops short of banning assault weapons, the kind of weapon that left 8 innocent people dead. According to investigators the rapid fire inside the Von Maur department store, came from a weapon that was bought legally and did not have to be registered in the State of Nebraska.

Police Chief Thomas Warren says the suspect, Robert Hawkins, stole the weapon, an AK-47 military style assault rifle, from his stepfather.

It was purchased legally, but he stole the weapon. I’m having a difficult time parsing that.

State Senator Brad Ashford tells Action Three News he is now pursuing a new law that would force gun owners to store their weapons securily away from minors, and to report a lost or stolen gun to police within 48 hours of detecting that the weapon is missing. However, Ashford’s new legislation falls far short of a ban on assault weapons.

OK, Hawkins wasn’t a minor, so that wouldn’t have helped anything here. We don’t know the father knew Hawkins had the gun. If he did know, he already committed a felony by allowing a felon possession of his firearm, so again, I fail to see how this would help. You’d almost think they were using a tragedy to push a political agenda that pre-existed.

In 1994 former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey took on the National Rifle Association, defending his vote to ban assault weapons. In a political ad back then Kerrey said, “During the War in Vietnam, people hunted me. They needed a good weapon like this AK-47, but you don’t need one to hunt birds.”

He’s right about this. Birds are hunted with shotguns, not rifles. Duh. Of course, deer can be hunted with rifles.

The ban ended in 2004, and since that time there have been 118 similar shootings. 88 innocent people have been wounded, 111 murdered.

The gun the killer use wasn’t covered by the federal ban, or under several of the state bans, so I don’t see how that’s relevant.

Finally, since the federal ban on assault weapons ended seven states have enacted thier own bans. But according to Ashford, who sees absolutely no need for an AK-47, trying to ban them in Nebraska even after the Westroads massacre, is a political fight he can’t win.

No states have enacted assault weapons ban since the federal ban expired. Is a little research too much to ask for? All those states had bans that either were in effect before the federal ban, or were passed shortly after the federal ban.

The reporter has an e-mail address at the bottom. Someone might want to try to educate him on what he got wrong.

UPDATE: Mad Rocket Scientist asks whether this reporter drives a lot more car than he might ‘need’