How is This Man a Supreme Court Justice

A piece has been posted about Supreme Court Justice Breyer and his views on the right to keep and bear arms:

Breyer wrote the dissent and was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He said historians would side with him in the case because they have concluded that Founding Father James Madison was more worried that the Constitution may not be ratified than he was about granting individuals the right to bear arms.

Madison “was worried about opponents who would think Congress would call up state militias and nationalize them. ‘That can’t happen,’ said Madison,” said Breyer, adding that historians characterize Madison’s priority as, “I’ve got to get this document ratified.”

Therefore, Madison included the Second Amendment to appease the states, Breyer said.

I think somebody needs to look a little more into our history (in fact here’s a good book and no that’s not an affiliate link). The right to keep and bear arms originated from the fact the citizenry were seen as the ultimate check against government tyranny. Arming the citizenry was combined with using a militia system instead of a standing army (which the founders saw as a threat to liberty).

In order for the citizenry to be a check against government tyranny the citizenry must be equally or better armed than the government. This is no longer the case as we have a standing army and restrictions against what a mere citizen such as you and me and obtain. Maybe coincidentally our government has become more and more tyrannical since World War II and the passing of the National Firearms Act (which restricted civilian access to machine guns, explosives, and other fun things).

Breyer claims to cite history but like most history taught in schools today it is revisionist history. If you look at the writing of our founders they were adamant that people have the right to keep and bear arms. They talked time and time again about the right of the people to rise up and revolt against a tyrannical government. Our founders used European countries as examples of what happens when citizens are denied the right to keep and bear arms. Nowhere did any founder father claim the second amendment was inserted only to appears the states.

How did Breye become a Supreme Court Justice? It certainly wasn’t because of his understanding of history.

So How About that Microstamping

Somebody by the name of Ronni Chase was apparently murdered by a person using a firearm… in California which is impossible because they have such strict gun control laws. It seems one of the “mysteries” surrounding the murder was the lack of shell casings at the scene of the crime. Well the good boys at the local police department have finally come up with an explanation as to why there aren’t any shell casing:

Officials believe that the gun used in the slaying of Chasen was a .38-caliber revolver, a fact that would explain why no shell casings were found at the scene of the crime.

In revolvers such as a .38 caliber, officials explain, shell casings remain in the chamber after firing rather than being discharged at the shooting scene.

Well, no shit. That’s some mighty find investigating there. Lord knows it would take me a few days to figured that one out.

But this post isn’t here to dwell on the fact the powers of observation of some are in constant question. I want to have a brief discussion on something that anti-gunners have had a hardon for, microstamping. According to the anti-gunners microstamping is this amazing technology that marks the casing fired from a handgun with a serial number. Using this microstamped serial number police can trace the firearm used in a crime back to the owner. The anti-gunners like this technology so much they are pushing for laws to require such technology in every state of the Union. California is looking to pass one of these laws but are figuring out the actual implementation of this technology is pretty much impossible.

Those of us with a clue on firearms looked at this proposal and rolled our eyes. Hitmen aren’t stupid, in fact any successful hitman is actually pretty smart. They found a “loophole” to the microstamping laws even before they were laws. This “loophole” is called a revolver. Amazingly a revolver doesn’t just toss it’s brass every which direction, it keeps them in the chamber. This means no shell cases are left behind (as the police in the story figured out) and thus any microstamped serial number is going to be worthless. This is where the anti-gunners will probably push for a law requiring revolvers to automatically eject their brass upon firing because they’re morons who don’t know the first thing about firearms.

I’ll also mention that the media is going to shit bricks when they find out about our other “loophole,” brass catchers.

A Job Well Done

I don’t know if I can even add anything to this:

Kansas City police officers mistook a backfiring van for gunshots and shot at the van and eventually shot out the windows of their patrol car Thursday night at Interstate 435 and Gregory Boulevard.

Officers said around 6 p.m., police responded to a report of shots being fired. When two officers arrived, they heard what they believed to be shots fired in the area near a white van.

During the incident, it was discovered the sounds were not gunfire but the van backfiring.

Congratulations boys on a job well done. I predict medals being passed all around for your heroics.

Gun and Literacy

Wow I just found some comedy gold via Snowflakes in Hell. It seems the Brady Campaign let one of their people off of the leash and she is spouting all sorts of bullshit.

The latest claim being made is people who shoot one another are equally distributed among the educated and uneducated. The Brady Shill also claims that most of these people weren’t criminals until they shot somebody. Sebastian smacks the Brady Shill upside the head with some actual facts which decimate the anti-gunner argument.

I wanted to make a statement on the Brady Shill’s following claim though:

Most homicides occur among people who know each other and often the shooter was not a criminal until he/she pulled the trigger.

Sebastian’s post shows this isn’t true at all. My question though is how is this statement relevant (to anything)? A fact to bring up is there isn’t a single first time criminal who was a criminal before committing their first crime. For example a person with no criminal history embezzles money from his company, he was not a criminal until he embezzled the money. A 14 year-old kid with no criminal history hacks into a state department computer, he was not a criminal until breaking into that system.

The Brady Shill seems to imply a desire to ban all potential devices that can be used by people to commit their first crime. Shall we ban automobiles? The first “crime” many teenagers commit is speeding when they get their driver license. Many teens weren’t criminals until the first time they exceeded the speed limit, so by the Brady Shill’s logic we need to control automobiles.

I believe in practicing what you preach so I believe it would be a good move by Brady Shill to prove her conviction and get rid of her computer. After all many malicious hackers were never criminals until they used a computer.

Because He Was Shot Robbing a Coffee Shop You Should Support Gun Control

A short while back there was a story about a Dutch Brothers Coffee employee who shot a piece of shit armed robber. The company doesn’t appear to be upset with the actions of their employee:

A Dutch Bros. spokeswoman said the barista is still on paid leave and will return to work when he is ready. She did not know whether the gun belonged to the employee or not.

“We are extremely thankful that our employee was not injured in the robbery on Nov. 24 and are appreciative that no charges will be filed,” Travis Boersma, CEO/Co-Founder of Dutch Bros. Coffee, said in a prepared statement Wednesday. “We work closely with our employees and do our best to ensure they are safe and protected while at work and will continue to do so. All procedures will be reviewed and evaluated as a result of this incident.”

So the employee will return to work, excellent. What I found funny through was looking up the scum bag’s obituary, specifically the last paragraph:

The Celebration of this wonderful young man’s life will take place at the Musgrove Family Mortuary, Friday, December 3rd, 2010 at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, the family would love donations made to a charity that speaks to you about Sirus. We would like his passing to inspire contributions to causes like gun control, Food for Lane County or DARE, that help people who have fallen through the cracks.

Emphasis mine. The family’s desire is to support gun control causes even though Scum Bag McGee was shot because he was using a gun to rob a coffee shop. Why not have donations put in for the family to do a speaking tour on why it’s a bad idea to commit armed robbery? Oh well you know what they say, criminals love gun control.

Racism, We’ll Find it Everywhere

The best thing about racism is that you can find it everywhere:

Students for Transit Equality is a recently formed group of University of Minnesota School of Social Work students who are concerned about racial and economic inequalities in Twin Cities transit and transit planning.

Emphasis mine. What’s their case?

The purpose of this information campaign is to draw community awareness and publicity to the lack of any bus shelter at the bus stop at 7th Street and Nicollet Avenue. This bus stop is primarily used by buses bound for north Minneapolis, Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center. Despite being the most-used bus stop regionwide, this stop has no shelter or any other amenities. Meanwhile, bus stops on the rapid-transit routes of Marquette and 2nd Avenues, serving primarily suburban commuters, are equipped with heated and lit shelters, real-time arrival displays and large transit maps.

Obviously this is a clear case of racism! But wait:

The city of Minneapolis has slowly realized this inequality and has begun planning for an east-west transit spine through downtown Minneapolis that will potentially equip all bus stops along 7th and 8th Streets with shelters.

So… the group exists and is trying to raise awareness of itself even though their gripe is already in the plans to be fixed? What the fuck? I wonder what the next case of racism on Minnesota public transit will be. Wait the last time I took the light rail I remember there being far fewer white people on board than people of other races. RACISM!

Lead Ammunition Ban Take Two

Remember when the Center for Biodiversity petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban all lead ammunition in the United States? Well the petition flopped and nothing came of it because frankly, it’s stupid. Now the dip shits at the Center for Biodiversity are suing the EPA:

Three environmental groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday to force it to prevent lead poisoning of wildlife from spent ammunition and lost fishing tackle.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court by the Center for Biological Diversity, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the hunters group Project Gutpile. It comes after the EPA denied their petition to ban lead ammunition and lead fishing tackle, which the groups say kills 10 million to 20 million birds and other animals a year by lead poisoning.

OK it was actually three sets of dip shits but I rest my case. The funny thing is the group is claiming 10 million to 20 million birds are killed each year by lead poisoning. Of course I’ve not seen any scientific study that demonstrates any proof of this and I believe if the death toll was that high we’d notice something was amiss. It’s not like 10 million to 20 million random corpses of birds would go unnoticed by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Also between 10 million and 20 million? That’s one Hell of a cap in estimation. The fudge factor is literally 10 million birds, what kind of estimation is that and how did they come to estimate it? I also find it rather funny that the Center for Biodiversity believe they know the EPA’s authority better than the fucking EPA:

In August, the EPA denied the ammunition part of the petition, saying it didn’t have authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act. A few weeks ago, it rejected the fishing tackle portion, saying the petition didn’t demonstrate a ban was necessary to protect against unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment, as required by the law.

In the lawsuit, the groups say that EPA erred when it said it didn’t have the authority to ban lead ammunition. They argued that the legislative history of the Toxic Substances Control Act makes it clear that components of ammunition – shots and bullets – may be regulated as chemical substances.

Believe me when it comes to authority government agencies know their boundaries and are always looking for ways to expand them.

What Censorship Breeds

Censorship is a slippery slope no matter who you are. The main problem when you censor something is the fact you will inevitably get support from some and be damned by others. Recently Apple pulled an app from their App Store that related to some sort of declaration by a Christian group. I linked to this specific article because I found the comments most interesting. There are those who support Apple’s decision and those who detest it but the best part of the comments is the back and forth going on between several Christians and several Atheists.

Since Apple has declared that censorship will occur in the App Store they have set themselves up to be criticized by all camps. Those who found the app to be hate speech are applauding Apple’s decision while those supporting the right to all speech are decrying the removal of the app. You can’t win with censorship because at some point you will anger a group of people.

Basically if you want to do perform censorship you’re setting yourself up for a world of hurt.

Guns on Trains

I have good news for both of you Amtrak passengers. Starting December 15th you’ll be able to legally check an unloaded, locked, and cased firearm into baggage on Amtrak trains. What that means is you can do the same thing on Amtrak trains as you’ve been able to do on airplanes. There is something interesting in this article though:

Amtrak officials told the Bee that Amtrak, a federally funded train system, is retrofitting train cars for gun storage. There are no estimates of yet as to how many people will take advantage of the changes.

For some reason Amtrak has been doing it’s damnedest to bar passengers from transporting firearms on their trains. It seems they’ve found a potential delayer in “requiring retrofitting” of their train cars. As far as I know you’ve been able to check baggage on Amtrak trains forever so I’m unsure as of why they’d have to do any retrofit thus this seems to be s a delaying tactic. We’ll have to wait and see on that.

Oh, and of course the Brady Campaign has their bat-shit crazy unanchored in reality response to this:

Daniel Vice of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence countered that the rule change makes it easier for terrorists to bring weapons on trains with intent to do harm. He said his group and Amtrak police are pleased, however, to have won concessions requiring locked storage and 24-hour advance notice.

Yes because those evil terrorists wouldn’t bring a firearm on board without this ruling… that allows firearms to be transported in checked baggage just like on airplanes. I really wonder if anybody at the Brady Campaign has any roots left in reality or if they’ve all left this plane of existence for their deluded version of our world. What’s even more interesting is the following quote from Paul Helmke a couple of months ago:

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said he “doesn’t have problems with people transporting guns on trains so long as steps are taken to make sure they’re secured and properly stowed.”

I guess when your cause has no roots in reality it makes it easier to change your mind ever thirty seconds.