Saturday, August 23, 2014

Chicken Shit and Gun fun -- because you can't make this stuff up

Photo by Bajiroo.com
A story about chickens, some chicken shit, a dumb cluck, and some just plain scary dumb shit.

EVERY story like this is an un-opposable argument for stricter gun control. 

There is no way this man should EVER have been able to buy an AK-47.

But then, he also shouldn't have been able to make an explosive device either.

Heck, someone like this probably shouldn't own a dog or chickens either...

I don't care however if he has the pot -- the one thing so far, for which he has been arrested.

From WBOY 12  (follow the link for the video)
I-79 BACK OPEN: Chickens and ammo to blame for shutdown
Just before 4 a.m., Seth Grim was driving a 1998 Ford Explorer with Pennsylvania plates and rolled it over on Interstate 79 near Amma, West Virginia. A dog tried to jump out of the window, which might have helped cause the wreck. Unfortunately, the dog later died and Grim was taken to the hospital with minor injuries to his upper torso.

Here's where the story gets wacky. In the back of his explorer were 35 to 40 chickens along with an AK-47 and a large amount of ammunition. Also in the back of his vehicle was a device that police were extremely concerned about. The "improvised explosives" prompted a higher level of response.

The West Virginia State Police Bomb Squad out of Williamson was sent to the scene and removed the device.

Initially, all of the chickens were reported to have made it out alive. Our reporter, who was on site during the shutdown of the interstate, tells us that some of the chickens died.

I-79 is now back open.

Seth Grim is being charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. Officers saw a quart jar of what they believed to be marijuana in the front seat. He's being held in the South Central Regional Jail on a $25,000 bond.

A little gun porn for you

Of course, since it's "cheese eater" stuff, it might cause some cognitive dissonance



I bet when you realise they're nearly on your doorstep you might really freak. France never was totally tossed out of North America . It's still there and I don't mean Quebec, or the rest of Francophone Canada.

Not so much gun porn as trying to do your heads since there also was a gun store next door to the presidential palace when I was in Paris.  I can't imagine that in the US (i.e., next door to the White House).

And they sold switchblades.  When I lived in Europe [1], switchblades were sold all over the place.

"Aux armes citroyens!"

[1] while part of the European Union, the UK isn't really "Europe".

You've got to be kidding...

OK, I have strong Pennsylvania German heritage from my mom's side and have been around the Amish for as long as I can remember.

This is silly:


It is a picture from the Discovery Channel's (US) Amish Mafia.

Raumspringa jokes aside.

This is bullshit.  People who know the Amish more than I do about them than I do are irate about this show.   The Amish are fairly tight, but they aren't totally closed off from society (just go to Reading Terminal).

People who know the Amish point out that this violent picture is about as antithetical as you can get to their culture.  They point out how the Amish handled the West Nickel Mines Amish School shooting and how they forgave the killer and his family.

Then, there is the reaction of the Amish to this as well:
It's not clear how the Amish themselves view the brouhaha. One, a man named Jake who asked only to be identified by his first name, said he had not seen the show and had no desire to.

"I know it's not legit. I was kinda on the sidelines cheering it would go away faster than it came," he said. Jake said he appreciated the rising opposition against the show. Given the opportunity to watch a neighbor's television, he said he'd prefer to peek at a football game. "An Eagles game - all the boys love that," he said.

Come on Discovery Channel, go back to things that educate people rather than titillate them.  This is titillation: not education.


More here:

Liberals Fire Guns for the First Time

Chris Rock - How to Not Get Your Ass Kicked by the Police

No Charges for Virginia Dad Who Shot his own Daughter Mistaking her for a Burglar

Local news reports

Illinois Man Gets Probation for Killing his Friend Unintentionally

Zachary Ballinger 
Zachary Ballinger

Local news reports

A Quincy man will be sentenced to probation after he pleaded guilty to accidently shooting a friend to death earlier this year. 

Zachary W. Ballinger, 21, wept in court Wednesday as he admitted to accidentally killing Austin M. Hermann, 21, during an incident early March 23 at Ballinger's residence on South 24th. Ballinger pleaded guilty to one count of involuntary manslaughter and one count of unlawful possession with intent to deliver cannabis. 



State's Attorney Jon Barnard said. "Probation not only includes the option of jail time, but that is certainly something that is appropriate in this case." 

Ballinger told deputies that he had accidently shot Hermann on the porch of the residence. 

In the recorded statement, Ballinger said he and Hermann had been out drinking before going to Ballinger's residence to play video games. While they were playing video games, they noticed an AR-15 rifle in the room. They went outside with the rifle, and Ballinger pointed at Hermann. 

"Ballinger said that he thought the safety was on and didn't think there was a bullet in the chamber." 

Hermann was pronounced dead from a single gunshot wound at 5:57 a.m. 

The 6 ways to ensure that you do time for an accidental shooting:

1. do it in a residential area
2. lie to the police
3. hide evidence
4. have neck tattoos
5. have dred locks
6. be black or Hispanic

One out of six gets you probation.  See how it works.


Oklahoma 12-Year-old Shot in the Head with Pellet Gun Dies

Local news reports


A 12-year-old boy died Saturday after being shot in the head with a pellet gun.

Justin Ingle, 12, was taken to a McAlester hospital Friday after being shot and was flown to a Tulsa hospital where he died Saturday.

“Two boys were playing with a high-powered pellet gun, and one boy pulled the trigger and hit the other in the head,” Pittsburg County Sheriff Joel Kerns said.
Ingle’s mother was at home when the shooting happened but was in another room, Kerns said. She rushed the boy to the hospital in her own car after he was shot.


Friday, August 22, 2014

Touring Test?

OK, this is a pun on the Turing Test for artificial intelligence named for Alan Turing (who was recently given a posthumous pardon by the queen).

This robot is attempting to hitchhike across Canada:


More on this:


North Carolina Man Arrested for Accidental Shooting

0820Hill
Desmond Hill


Local news reports


A Havelock man was arrested on Tuesday after what police described as an accidental shooting that sent one person to the hospital.

Police responded to a call of shots fired at a mobile home near Lejeune Boulevard. There, Desmond Hill, 21, of Glen Drive in Havelock, was charged by the Jacksonville Police Department with discharging a firearm within the city limits and resisting, delaying or obstructing a police officer. 

Capt. Patricia Driggers, a spokesperson for the Jacksonville Police Department, officers were called to the mobile home on Tuesday. Investigators believe the shooting was accidental, Driggers said, but added that the case is still under investigation.

The 6 ways to ensure that you get arrested for an accidental shooting:

1. do it in a residential area
2. lie to the police
3. hide evidence
4. have neck tattoos
5. have dred locks
6. be black or Hispanic

Poor Desmond didn't stand a chance.



Thursday, August 21, 2014

Johnny Cash "Don't Take Your Guns to Town"

Video by Blaine Ludy who this music video back in high school:

Meet Presser v. Illinois, 116 U.S. 252 (1886)

I am amazed at how much the Second Amendment debate is held in ignorance: in particular, this case should be front and centre.

I should add that as long as the "civic right" interpretation of the Second Amendment is out there, this is still a valid case.  In fact, while the Heller-McDonald line of cases said this may no longer be applicable, the fact that the court said that "to drill or parade with arms, without, and independent of, an act of Congress or law of the State authorizing the same" would relate to public order means that this is a very relevant case to a world where people want to openly carry arms in public.

Facts:

Herman Presser was part of a citizen militia group, the Lehr und Wehr Verein (Instruct and Defend Association), a group of armed ethnic German workers, associated with the Socialist Labor Party. The group had been formed to counter the armed private armies of companies in Chicago.
The indictment charged in substance that Presser, on September 24, 1879, in the county of Cook, in the State of Illinois, "did unlawfully belong to, and did parade and drill in the city of Chicago with an unauthorized body of men with arms, who had associated themselves together as a military company and organization, without having a license from the Governor, and not being a part of, or belonging to, 'the regular organized volunteer militia' of the State of Illinois, or the troops of the United States." A motion to quash the indictment was overruled. Presser then pleaded not guilty, and both parties having waived a jury the case was tried by the court, which found Presser guilty and sentenced him to pay a fine of $10.
In December 1879, marched at the head of said company, about four hundred in number, in the streets of the city of Chicago, he riding on horseback and in command; that the company was armed with rifles and Presser with a cavalry sword; that the company had no license from the governor of Illinois to drill or parade as a part of the militia of the State, and was not a part of the regular organized militia of the State, nor a part of troops of the United States, and had no organization under the militia law of the United States.
Presser claimed the law violated his rights under the Second Amendment.

Holding: 

"Unless restrained by their own constitutions, state legislatures may enact statutes to control and regulate all organizations, drilling, and parading of military bodies and associations except those which are authorized by the militia laws of the United States."

The Presser Court said:
It is undoubtedly true that all citizens capable of bearing arms constitute the reserved military force or reserve militia of the United States as well as of the States, and in view of this prerogative of the general government, as well as of its general powers, the States cannot, even laying the constitutional provision in question out of view, prohibit the people from keeping and bearing arms, so as to deprive the United States of their rightful resource for maintaining the public security, and disable the people from performing their duty to the general government. But, as already stated, we think it clear that the sections under consideration do not have this effect.
The Court emphatically disposed of Presser's argument that there exists a right to assemble, drill, or march in a militia independent of authorization by state or federal law:
The right voluntarily to associate together as a military company or organization or to drill or parade with arms, without, and independent of, an act of Congress or law of the State authorizing the same, is not an attribute of national citizenship. Military organization and military drill and parade under arms are subjects especially under the control of the government of every country. They cannot be claimed as a right independent of law. Under our political system they are subject to the regulation and control of the State and Federal governments, acting in due regard to their respective prerogatives and powers. The Constitution and laws of the United States will be searched in vain for any support to the view that these rights are privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States independent of some specific legislation on the subject.
In other word, as I have been saying all along, you do not belong to a "Constitutional Militia"  unless you belong to an actual serving organisation which is organised under Article I, Section 8, Clauses 15 & 16 of the United States Constitution.  As per Article VI, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, that body is the National Guard: whether you like it or not.

In fact, reading Presser, it's pretty clear that the "unorganised militia" argument is seriously nonsensical from a legal point standpoint.  There is no basis for claiming that a reserve pool with no obligation of service (hence Unorganised, Sedentary, reserve, inactive,  general or other term indicating INACTIVITY Militia) has any "right" to arms.

This is especially true if your unit was not created by act of congress and under some form of governmental control.


I would also add that local governments are probably on good ground in strictly regulating open carry rallies by combining this case with the comment in Heller that:
Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited. From Blackstone through the 19th-century cases, commentators and courts routinely explained that the right was not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose. See, e.g., Sheldon, in 5 Blume 346; Rawle 123; Pomeroy 152–153; Abbott 333. For example, the majority of the 19th-century courts to consider the question held that prohibitions on carrying concealed weapons were lawful under the Second Amendment or state analogues. See, e.g., State v. Chandler, 5 La. Ann., at 489–490; Nunn v. State, 1 Ga., at 251; see generally 2 Kent *340, n. 2; The American Students’ Blackstone 84, n. 11 (G. Chase ed. 1884).
Additionally, as I pointed out before the First Amendment protect peaceable assembly.  Any armed group is not "peaceable" in any realistic sense of that word.

Joe Machi on Gun Control

Lawful Kansas Gun Owner Shoots Neighbor - It Was Just an Accident

For those of you who miss the good old days.

You know that world of Andy and Mayberry?

This quote puts it in perspective.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Next time you bitch about Militarised police

Personally, I would prefer a government body that was firmly under civilian control, accountable, and transparent to this idiot:

You people may have missed that I lived in Belgium for about two years, where they had the Rijkwacht/Gendarmerie.

Pic from A closer look at Rand Paul’s militia friends | Barefoot and Progressive

BTW, a close read of the US Constitution:
  • Preamble
  • Article I, Section 8, Clause 15 (and 16 for good measure)
  • Article III, Section iii
  • Article IV, Section 4
  • and Presser v. Illinois, 116 U.S. 252 (1886)
Show this person and people like him are ignorant fucks.  No way are you the "well-regulated militia" of the Second Amendment.

Continuation of the Discussion about Disarming Depressed People

From the Robin Williams post

TS wrote: 

MikeB: “…are you OK with folks who have been involuntarily committed to mental hospitals being disarmed?”

Yes, but that’s existing law, and not what we’re talking about here.
Because it's existing law that makes it ok for you? That doesn't sound right.

You're concerned that too many people suffer from depression and so few of them end up committing suicide, well so what. I say the first thing we do is change the way we look at the 2nd Amendment - either that or repeal it.  Then we institute proper gun control which includes licensing for gun ownership. People who suffer from depression don't qualify. Simple.

The determination can be made by a physical and psychological examination prior to granting the gun owner's license. It wouldn't be 100% perfect but urinalysis and blood tests, part of any good physical, would reveal those on medication and the psyche exam would pick up some of the others.

No need to violate anyone's private relationship with their health care providers.

Quote of the Day:

“I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.”
Quote attributed to Robber Baron Jay Gould regarding police and militia used for strikebreaking activity.

I dedicate this quote to the people of Fergusson, MO.

Guns Confiscated from New Jersey Victim of Domestic Violence

Law enforcement with guns that were removed from the Lintner home.

Local news reports

When they sped to a quiet neighborhood of well-trimmed lawns on a recent Friday morning after a 911 call, Saddle Brook police figured they were about to confront an angry wife who had reportedly stabbed her husband.

What the police encountered now appears to have evolved into a constitutional debate over privacy and gun rights.

Sometimes small local disputes can touch on deep, divisive national debates. That seems to be the legacy of a husband-wife quarrel between Robert and Eileen Lintner at their home on Washington Street in Saddle Brook. 

Police say that just after 9 a.m. on Aug. 8, they received a report that Eileen, 64, had stabbed her 65-year-old husband in the neck. Robert Lintner’s wound was not fatal — he was treated at Hackensack University Medical Center and released. 

Eileen Lintner was charged with second-degree aggravated assault and illegal possession of a weapon — a knife. But as they typically do in domestic disputes, police separated the husband and wife for questioning. Then, in what police say is also standard procedure in such cases, they asked the Lintners, “Do you have any firearms in the house?” 

Robert Lintner had almost 200 guns, most of them locked in steel vaults, police said. And he refused their request to enter the house and examine the weapons, for which the police say he had proper owner’s permits.

My Parents Open Carry

Why, oh why, do they make it so easy?

Come join 13-year-old Brenna Strong along with her mom, Bea, and her dad, Richard, as they spend a typical Saturday running errands and having fun together. What's not so typical is that Brenna's parents lawfully open carry handguns for self-defense. The Strongs join a growing number of families that are standing up for their 2nd Amendment rights by open carrying and bringing gun ownership out of the closet and into the mainstream. 
Seriously?
Richard Strong? Dick Strong?
Out of the closet?

Anyhoo, read the reviews--they're classic.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Gun Wars Trailer

Lastest GV numbers


And how many verifiable instances of a gun actually saving a life can you provide?

Crooked Pennsylvania FFL Guy Sells Guns for Customers and Keeps the Money


John P. Radzik

 Local news reports

A gun dealer based out of East Hempfield Township was facing charges Friday that he sold more than 30 guns for a customer, then kept the profits for himself.

John P. Radzik, 37, president of Gun Dealer Online LLC, was charged with a single count of theft by deception, according to court records. He was ordered held on $10,000 bail, which posted to secure his release earlier Friday afternoon, records state.

Charging documents indicate Radzik pocketed almost $20,000 of a customer's money, after their agreed upon commission rate.

While the sole charge against Radzik relates to a single victim, East Hempfield Township police Lt. Tammy R. Marsh said additional victims have since stepped forward to report similar incidents involving Radzik and more charges were likely.

Washington 15-Year-old Accidentally Shoots Himself in the Face

Local news reports

A 14-year-old boy was accidentally shot in the face Thursday while he and a friend were handling a gun, police said.

The boy was taken to St. John Hospital and then by LifeFlight to Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. He was bleeding from the head, according to police.

They said a 15-year-old boy who lives at the home found a hidden key to the gun safe and was able to get to a handgun inside. The 15-year-old told police that the gun went off as he was putting it back in the gun safe.

Both parents were at work at the time of the shooting. Police said the 15-year-old had been told not to have friends over when the parents weren’t there.

Police said the parents told them they didn’t think their children knew where the gun safe key was hidden.

The Future of Home Security

Security Degree Hub

Your worst fear realised...


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Monday, August 18, 2014

It's tourist season--does that mean we can shoot them?

I guess it does in Georgia thanks to the guns everywhere bill:


Robert Young Pelton routinely lists the US as one of his World's Most Dangerous places in his books of the same name because of the high level of "gun violence".  It's not cowardice to be concerned about your safety, especially if one is a tourist in a nation.

Personally, I would seriously reconsider going to places in the US with insane gun laws that allow for people to carry weapons in public and kill other people.

That is a sensible economic choice, which may soak in to the legislators if their constituents start losing tourist cash.

See also:
Stray bullet wounds man, kills woman in Helen, Ga. | www.ajc.com

What the Prison Industrial Complex Can Do for You

The Latest Hysterical Paranoia by the Gun Rights Fanatics - Sponsored by Glenn Beck's The Blaze

 Alaska Senate Candidate Finds Link with Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants and Gun Control
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller speaks during a debate Sunday, Aug. 10, 2014, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

The Blaze

U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller linked amnesty for illegal immigrants with more gun control.

The Alaska Republican said granting legal status to a large number of illegal immigrants would lead to more Democratic voters, who would in turn enact more gun restrictions and promote more anti-gun judges.

“If 20 million illegals vote, you can kiss the Second Amendment goodbye,” a recent Miller campaign mailer says.

During a Republican debate, Miller also made the correlation between the two issues, the Alaska Dispatch News reported.

“There’s a clear correlation, and the clear correlation is this: If you end up granting amnesty to those who don’t value gun rights, who have not been raised in an environment where the Second Amendment is cherished—is considered to be a God-given right—the reality is over a generation or two, the likelihood is very strong that the Second Amendment will not be here,” Miller said.

Quote of the Day

This seems appropriate given some of my posts, including the Andy Griffith Show clip:

I’m not anti-cop. And I am finding that many police want change as well: The good officers in the state of Wisconsin supported our bill from the inside, and it was endorsed by five police unions. But I also think the days of Andy Griffith and the Mayberry peacekeeper are over. As we can see in the streets of Ferguson, today’s police are also much more heavily equipped, armed and armored—more militarized. They are moving to more paramilitary-type operations as well, and all those shifts call for more transparency and more rules of restraint. And yet they are even less accountable in some ways than the U.S. military in which I served. Our citizens need protection from undue force, here in our own country, and now.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

No, "well-regulated" does not mean "well-trained"--it means that the organisation is firmly under control

The usual pro-gun argument about the term "well-regulated" in the Second Amendment is that it has something to do with the militia being well-trained, but like most of the mythology surrounding the Second Amendment this takes that passage out of historical and political context.

I like to cite to Adam Smith's comment in wealth of nations that:
This distinction being well understood, the history of all ages, it will be found, bears testimony to the irresistible superiority which a well-regulated standing army has over a militia.[1]
This could would be scary if the meaning were "well-trained" rather than a standing army firmly under civilian control since the fear was that a well-trained, well-armed, professional military could indeed overrun a poorly trained civilian force.


Additionally, the Constitution was partially a response to Shays Rebellion, which was an out of control mob: not a militia.  Shays Rebellion was firmly in the minds of the people who were debating the Constitution and its ratification.  They would not have wanted a militia which was not firmly under control.

As I have said before, the issue isn't personal arms in the Constitutional debates as much as it is the nature of the defence establishment and civilian control over the military.  To say that the term "well-regulated" does not refer to making sure that the militia is firmly under civilian control is to show a degree of historical ignorance which is staggering

Where this falls into the topic of a militarised police force isn't so much that a police force is like Scotland Yard or the French Gendarmerie Nationale as much as that it is firmly under civilian control and well-regulated by rules and procedures which protect the people.

A strong, independent judiciary is a necessary institution in such a society to make sure that the military/police are kept under control.  That was why the Constitution specifically sets limits for the Judiciary and guarantees protections in the legal process, both civil and criminal.

As another commenter said, "well-regulated means exactly that", whether one is talking about militias or professional military. 

[1] Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Book V, Chapter I-Of the Expences of the Sovereign or CommonwealthPART I Of the Expence of Defence V.1.27

Why isn't the Tea Party sending a militia to Ferguson?

 
 Protests were organised in the US town of Ferguson, Mo after the police shooting of Michael Brown. [AP]

Al Jazeera

On August 5, a man named John Crawford was playing with a toy rifle in an Ohio Wal-Mart. Someone called 911, and police showed up and shot him in the chest. He died.

On August 9, a man named Michael Brown was walking in the street in Ferguson, Missouri, when a police officer stopped him. According to the friend that was with him, Brown put his hands up to show that he was unarmed. The officer shot him in the back. Brown's body was left in the street for hours before being removed.

Since then, the incident in Ferguson has overshadowed the Ohio Wal-Mart shooting. Protesters have been gathering, and demanding answers from the police, who have become increasingly skittish and violent. Journalists are being told to turn off their cameras, local residents are getting tear gassed. 

Nobody knows exactly what happened, but whatever the facts may be, things certainly look bad now. To most Americans, this is the stuff of horror films: A sleepy rural town being terrorised by an advanced military.
All of this then, begs the question: Where is the National Rifle Association (NRA), and where is the Tea Party?

Ohio, after all, is an open-carry state, which means that people are allowed to carry guns wherever they choose. This is a right flaunted often by white gun activists, who like to take assault rifles to shopping malls. So why isn't the NRA making noise about John Crawford?

And police firing into crowds of protestors, blocking media access, and enforcing a 9 pm curfew in a residential area: Isn't this the big-government tyranny that the Tea Party has been talking about since its inception? Why aren't they sending a militia to Ferguson?
 
The answer to these questions is simple, of course: Both John Crawford and Michael Brown were black.