Snowflakes in Hell

Gun Truth tries to get a local park to rethink their local gun restrictions in parks.  It’s not a bad idea.  In a lot of cases, the townships and boroughs are actually unaware that they are violating state law.

Robb has a concern I have been all too familiar with.  One reason I switched from Hoppes No. 9 to using Gunzilla as my gun cleaner of choice, is that I don’t have to worry about some burly gun owner coming up to me, giving a sniff, and saying “My my, is that amazing fragerance Hoppes No. 9?  Enchanting!” and giving me a wink.  Gunzilla, if it has an odor, I think sorta smells like olive oil.  It’s that mild.  In fact, I’m pretty sure the stuff is basically biodiesel, or maybe biokereosene.

Point.  Counterpoint.  For those of you unfamiliar with the process of purchasing a firearm in New Jersey.

1. First you need to get a license, called a Firearm Owners ID (or FID for short) card.  To apply for an FID, you have to call your local police department, who may only staff firearm permitting division part time, so they might not be open every day, or at convenient hours.  The cost is five dollars.
2. In addition to a FID card, you will need a permit to purchase a handgun.  Applications are also filed with the local police department.  Pistol purchase permits are only valid for ninty days after they issue.  The cost is two dollars.
3. You will need to be fingerprinted.  This costs 25 to 50 dollars.  You only have to do this for a first application, but many police departments insist this is not the case.
4. The law states that the police have thirty days to conduct a 13 point background check, and issue or deny an FID application or permits to purchase handguns, but the fact is that it often takes months, and the courts in New Jersey are uninterested in holding issuing authorities to the law.
5. You are required to submit to the police a list of two references, who are not related to you.  They will inquire with these references as to your disposition, drinking habits, mental health, and whether the reference would have any issue with their buying a firearm.  I have been listed as a reference for New Jersey people on FID applications, and I was appalled at the personal questioned asked.  Even in Pennsylvania, for a license to carry a loaded firearm concealed on one’s person, the sheriffs that do check references are far more discrete and respectful.

If requiring this for each and every handgun purchase has not been sufficient to stop criminal trafficking of firearms, it’s beyond insane to believe that adding one more requirement, one that rations the number of purchase permits police may issue, is going to be what does the trick.  Criminals don’t obey laws about robbery, murder, and aggrevated assault.  They definitely aren’t going to obey regulatory laws, no matter how “more illegal” you make them.  We sound like a broken record with this, but many just don’t seem to want to accept it.

This article, which comes to us via The Brady Campaign’s version of the Gun Guys, starts off:

My 20-month-old nephew loves Elmo and Dora. He also has started making explosion and gunfire noises. I get the inevitability of little boys’ fascination for guns.

What I can’t figure out are the men and sometimes women who don’t grow out of the gun-crazy stage of childhood, who need to have a handgun on their hips at all times, who need their neighbors to notice.

Or maybe put another way, why do these pesky gay people insist on holding hands and smooching each other in public?  What kind of derranged exhibitionists are they?  I mean, we shouldn’t have any problems with people being gay, but do they have to be so in our face with it?  Must they be gay out where everyone can see it?

UPDATE: More here.

Someone forgot to tell him that Gnus don’t kill people, pissed off charging Gnus do.