Tag: You’re Doing it Right

Rand Paul’s Budget Cuts

It looks like Rand Paul may actually live up to some of his campaign promises. He’s put up a plan to cut $500 billion [PDF] from the federal budget.

People are already howling that he’s cutting money from “needed” programs like the Department of Education. Boo hoo I guess they don’t get more 12 gauge shotguns this year.

I do like how the Department of Energy, Housing and Urban Development, and the International Assistance Programs receive zero funding. What I don’t like is the fact that defense spending is only reduced by 6.5%. Likewise instead of reducing the funding for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) by 40% he should have reduced it by 100%. Hell reduce the TSA’s funding by 150% and charge them for some of that porn they were looking at on the job. While you’re at it Rand do you think you could just have the heads of the TSA arrested and put on the terrorist watch list (just for completeness)?

Minnesota Looking to Repeal Permit to Purchase Requirement

It looks like some rare good news is making it’s way through Minnesota’s legislature. Apparently the Republicans want to earn their keep here right away and have proposed legislation to eliminate Minnesota’s permit to purchase law.

For those of you not familiar with Minnesota’s permit to purchase system it goes something like this. If you want to purchase a handgun or an “assault weapon” you need to either have a permit to carry or obtain a permit to purchase. A permit to purchase is a piece of paper you obtain from your local police headquarters. When you want to purchase a handgun or an “assault weapon” you need to go to your local police station and apply for a permit to purchase. After turning in your application there is a seven day waiting period while the police pretend to run more than a National Criminal Instant Background Check System (NICS) check on you. After seven days you return to the police station and they hand you a piece of paper that says it’s OK for you to have more than a shotgun or “hunting rifle” (unless you’re a prohibited person of course). Of course the permit is only good for a year after which you have to repeat this entire process.

This system is a huge pain in the ass and has needed the boot for a long time. Why does it need the boot? Well because you can’t get these permits outside of weekdays during normal business hours. I’m going to use a little example here to explain the problem with such a system. I have a friend who is unable to drive and works full time. This person is also a strong supporter of the right to keep and bear arms. In order for this person to purchase a handgun or an “assault weapon” a trip to the police station is required. This is quite the pain in the ass when you can’t drive and work during the same hours the police station is open. How does such a person obtain a permit? Well it usually involves having somebody else give them a ride which results in two people having to take time off of work, twice (the permit has to be picked up a week later as they won’t mail it to your home).

Although the story in the Red Star I liked to has people who claim the system prevents violence such claims haven’t been demonstrated in any way. The police are also against repealing the law:

The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association and the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association both testified against the bill, saying it could strip them of their ability to do proper backgrounding.

Of course this has nothing to do with background checks, one is performed every time you purchase a firearm through the FBI’s NICS system. The police don’t want this repealed because it takes away something they desire, power over the peasantry. Some common sense did come out of the debates:

At one point, as legislators debated the recent Arizona shootings that left six people dead and U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords severely wounded, Cornish said that the “bald-headed goon” arrested for the shootings probably would not have been stopped from buying a gun under the Minnesota law.

Exactly. The Minnesota system wouldn’t have helped catch that asshole. The seven day waiting period can’t detect crazy any better than other background check systems (which is to day background checks don’t detect crazy). I’m glad to see the new legislature is moving to repeal this worthless law. The law (which I’m not sure of the name of so can’t look it up, thanks Red Star) made it out of committee and will be moving through our legislature.

I hope to see more restrictions against our right to keep and bear arms repealed. Heck get rid of the Minnesota prohibition against suppressors and allow us to purchase machine guns with the requirement they be on the curio and relic list and I’ll most likely work to reelect you guys.

Right to Carry Law Moving in Wyoming

It seems Wyoming is destined to be the next state that “gives” its citizens the right to carry a concealed firearm. The Wyoming Senate committee gave their recommendation on approval at the right to carry bill. It’s nice to see logic can find hold in some places:

Matthew J. Huntington, a Cheyenne-based “freedom lobbyist,” told the committee that an armed citizen was at the scene in Tucson and ready to shoot to stop the violence. The gunman responsible for the shooting was tackled before the armed citizen could act.

“If that tackling didn’t happen, and the shooter loaded that second magazine and continued, that gentleman who was legally carrying would have been able to stop the threat at that point in time,” Huntington said. “The overall point is that when you make it easier for legally armed citizens to carry guns, you make it harder for bad guys to commit violent crime.”

Of course one of “the only ones” doesn’t like the idea and spouts hypothetical situations that haven’t been a problem in Vermont, Alaska, or Arizona so far:

Casper Police Chief Tom Pagel told the committee that any change to the state’s existing concealed carry system demands careful consideration.

Pagel said more than 21,000 people in Wyoming already have state concealed-carry permits. He said only 1 or 2 percent of applications result in denials.

“Where I see the potential risk to this is citizen to citizen,” Pagel said. “Something that might be a fight will end up with gunplay.”

Being the three states with right to carry laws in place don’t have any issue I think we can all just drop this “blood in the streets” argument.

California AB962 Struck Down

For the first time in a long time some good news as emerged from California. The law passed last year that would have made it illegal to mail order ammunition in the state of California has been struck down in the Fresno Superior Court:

The law, passed last year as AB 962, would have banned mail order ammunition sales and required all purchases of so called “handgun ammunition” to be registered. In an unwritten ruling from the bench, Judge Jeffrey Hamilton found the law unconstitutionally vague on its face and issued an injunction against its enforcement. For now, at least, mail order ammunition sales to California residents can continue, and ammunition sales need not be registered under the law.

The lawsuit—funded by the National Rifle Association and the California Rifle and Pistol (CRPA) Foundation as part of a joint Legal Action Project—was prompted in part by the many objections and questions raised by confused police, ammunition purchasers, and sellers about what ammunition is covered by the new law. Plaintiffs in the case include Tehama County Sheriff Clay Parker, the CRPA Foundation, Herb Bauer Sporting Goods, ammunition shipper Able’s Ammo, collectible ammunition shipper RTG Sporting Collectibles, and individual Steven Stonecipher. Mendocino Sheriff Tom Allman also supported the lawsuit.

Being California is about as tyrannical of a state as you can get you can bet money this will be appealed. Still score yet another one for the good guys.

Ron Paul on Gun Control and Violence

It’s no secret around here that I really hate politicians. I do have an exception to that rule and that exception is Ron Paul because he actually makes sense. He posted a very good writeup on his site about the recent surge in demand for more gun control. I think this sums things up very nicely:

Also troubling are the renewed calls for stricter gun control laws, and for government to “do something” to somehow prevent similar incidents in the future. This always seems to be the knee jerk reaction to any crime committed with a gun. Nonsensical proposals to outlaw guns around federal officials and install bulletproof barriers in the congressional gallery only reinforce the growing perception that politicians view their own lives as far more important than the lives of ordinary citizens. Politicians and a complicit media have conditioned many citizens to view government as our protector, leading to more demands for government action whenever tragedies occur. But this impulse is at odds with the best American traditions of self-reliance and individualism, and it also leads to bad laws and the loss of liberty.

Remember our government officials are like you and me only better.

Machete

I finally got around to watching Machete last night. Personally I think the film is an unbelievable, way over the top, extremely violent, and has no real plot; exactly what I was hoping for.

I loved the movie, it’s downright hilarious and has enough action sequences to feed anybody’s appetite for violence. The purposeful racial stereotyping was very funny especially when this day and age people are trying to edit past works in the name of political correctness.

New Hampshire Doing it Right

It seems New Hampshire is working hard and ensuring they’re known as the free state. Today the new Legislature convened and one of the first things to go was the stupid ban on carrying weapons into the House floor. Now people entering the House floor may carry a firearm so long as it’s concealed (display is still banned).

I’m going to wait for the anti-gunners to claim there will be blood running through the House with the lift of this ban.

More Rail Gun Goodness

Rail guns are perhaps the most awesome advancement in the world of throwing projectiles at things. The Navy broke their own record a while ago by firing a rail gun that impacted its target with 33 megajoules of force. How can you make something that bad ass even more bad ass? How about if those projectiles happen to fire missiles? The Navy has successfully launched their first fighter jet using a rail gun.

Well technically it’s not really a rail gun but it runs off of the same principal. The electromagnetic launchers are being developed to replace the current steam catapults used on air craft carriers to fling fighter jets forward with enough velocity to attain flight on carriers’ short runways.

Tron: Legacy

I saw Tron: Legacy at the IMAX on Saturday. To sum up the movie I can say it kicks major amounts of ass. Even if you haven’t seen the first film there is a lot to like in the new movie. It kicks all sorts of ass and frankly you really just need to go watch it. Legacy does a great job of having throwbacks to the original movie without being reliant on the nostalgia factor.

Oh and apparently the movie is in 3D. Being a man without any depth perception I wouldn’t have known this except for the fact that if I didn’t wear the glasses they gave us I the movie would be really blurry.

Mandatory Health Care

A Virginia federal judge just ruled the clause in the Insurance Company Enrichment Act requiring peasants citizens of the United States to purchase health insurance is unconstitutional:

Judge Henry E. Hudson ruled Monday for the state’s claim that the requirement for people to purchase health care exceeds the power of Congress under the Constitution’s Commerce Clause or under the General Welfare Clause.

“It is not the effect on individuals that is presently at issue — it is the authority of Congress to compel anyone to purchase health insurance,” wrote Hudson, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2002 by President George W. Bush.

I’m glad somebody understands the fact that the federal government doesn’t have the power to put a gun to your head and make you purchase something. What’s interesting are the reactions from my liberal friends. Many are citing Social Security and Medicare as validation for the clause in the Insurance Company Enrichment Act. I don’t quite understand how using two unconstitutional programs as justification for another unconstitutional program really works.

Does that means it’s OK if I break into their home and steal their television if I’ve already broken in and stolen their computer and stereo? Two wrongs usually don’t make a case for doing yet another wrong.

I am also at a complete loss as to how somebody can justify government theft. Each of the programs mentioned in this post give the government the authority to use their monopoly on force to coerce you into buying into something. It’s interesting that these same people are against anybody besides the government stealing from them, but once it is the government that theft is deemed OK. There has to be come major cognitive dissidence to believe that.

Either way I hope this ruling actually amounts to something since the Republicans already “compromised” with the Democrats and agreed to fund the Insurance Company Enrichment Act until September (you guys really only want to hold those seats for a short while huh?).