You may remember Joe Manchin. The West Virginia Senator earned the Armed Intelligentsia’s ire in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook spree killing. Manchin Weebled on gun rights (wobbled but didn’t fall down). Gun control advocates saw his prevarication as a sign that they could finally ram through their unconstitutional agenda. Manchin walked back his walking back. Now he’s so pro-gun he’s wondering ‘Why Would Anybody Not Own A Gun?’ Well exactly. By the same token, why wouldn’t you pack a smoke hood for hotel stays? Because you don’t want to think about the horror necessitating its use. The same aversion principle motivates civilian disarmament. Talk about the gun. Not the crime or the criminal. Anyone who encourages that mindset—even for a single sound bite—puts Americans in harm’s way. More well-intentioned road to hell motoring after the jump . . .
Is that a trick question? ‘Weapon Of War’ Or Just Another Gun? newschannel5.com
Yes. Yes it is. ABC, CBS, NBC Slant 8 to 1 for Obama’s Gun Control Crusade mrc.org
At the risk of encouraging the anti-gunners’ small dick meme, who needs Viagra?
Keep the media out of the gunroom. Court: NY Times’s Request for New York City Gun Owners Violates Law weeklystandard.com
The first thing to understand about arming teachers is that learning to shoot is not rocket science. Modern firearms are designed to be easily used defensively by ordinary human beings under stress. Millions of new pistol shooters have been amazed that with proper instruction they can shoot pretty well . . . There is no practical reason that a sufficient number of teachers can’t be trained to defend the children they care about. Those who don’t have the right mindset simply won’t volunteer, but those who do volunteer will be highly motivated.
Curbing gun violence after Newtown: Let’s arm teachers csmonitor.com
Wal-Mart caves to/cuts a deal with the ATF. Lexington [TN] Wal-Mart Stops Carrying Hunting Rifles and Shotguns wnws.com
All gun control is local Background checks now mandatory at some Tucson gun shows azstarnet.com
Too bad his father didn’t shoot blanks. “I took a chance because I was so vulnerable and wanted to be loved and now I am carrying his child.” Feds: Killer of NYPD Officers Impregnated Guard officer.com
And then retracts the statement, sadly. State GOP assemblyman calls Cuomo’s pushing of gun control bill ‘dictatorial,’ says Hitler ‘would be proud’ nypost.com
I’d just like to say I’m enjoying the Daily Digests. Good feature, guys.
+1
The Barrett hit piece is just chock full of FUD. I’d really like more info on this statement, from near the end, too:
While he refused to sit down and answer our questions, Ronnie Barrett sent an email to NewsChannel 5 Investigates in which he claimed that without special, military ammunition, his weapon is just “another gun.”
He even claimed that there is no armor-piercing ammunition of any kind available on the civilian market.
But our investigation discovered that if you go on the Internet there’s plenty of it.
That’s it. “Plenty of it.” No specification on what they defined as “armor-piercing,” no mention of any detail of what caliber or what quantity or where they looked. Just “plenty of it.”
I wanna know where they found “plenty” of ammo still available.
Well with the current trend, they found exactly 7 rounds online.
Even more, study the map attached to the article; the vast majority of the “crimes” found there are illegal possession of a BArrett, not use to commmit a crime. One was a psycho who shot up a fire engine–but not apparently any firemen. Another involved a police officer who killed his wife and then lay in wait for the police to respond, killing one; he had a .50 “in his arsenal” but that doesn’t mean he used it. Others were intent to commit crimes, but no crime committed–just conspiracy. Lame. And misleading.
This probably makes me a bad person, but I’d quite like to see pictures of what the Barrett did to the fire engine. Assuming nobody was seriously injured, of course.
If you watch the video @ the newschannel5 link they show the fire truck. There’s also a follow-up story with more footage of Barretts wrecking things, including a watermelon wrapped in body armor. That second video shows what they found for “armor piercing” rounds, which are standard AP and API loads. .50 BMG is still floating around since it’s a few bucks a round, and the guns that fire them aren’t cheap. Most folks can’t afford to panic-buy in .50-cal.
Newschannel5 makes the argument that Barretts are “less regulated than a .22 pistol” since you have to be 21 to buy the pistol, but can buy a Barrett @ 18. They also point out that multiple handgun purchases get reported to the Feds, but not so for long guns. They forgot to mention that a pair of Barretts would set you back $20k, though.
Sigh…
I remember when they were only $7k…. and .50 BMG was a buck a round.
Logan, that’s a good point. Inquiring minds want to know!
Mark N: Whoa. I didn’t even bother looking at that map. The very first item on the list caught my eye:
So you caught them with… a shopping list?
And yeah, a lot of the rest are “this guy got caught for doing this bad thing, and he happened to have a Barrett.” Not with him, mind you. “A search of his residence turned up a number of weapons/several weapons/an arsenal, including a Barrett.”
From what I gather “armor piercing” = “will penetrate a street cop’s pistol-ammo-rated vest.”
RE Manchin: Democrats are more likely to go wobbly on gun control in our favor than Republicans wobbling the wrong way.
Especially those who know damn well that holding onto their seats means listening very, very carefully to their constituents on 2A issues.
I honestly believe that Sen. Manchin thought he was being sufficiently vague by mouthing the standard “we will take a look at all options” crap while not realizing that the 2A faithful were already on a war footing.
Arizona needs some serious house cleaning.
Tuscon used to be a seriously cool town 20 – 30 years ago but now it’s a run down lib heaven. I don’t say that lightly because I was born there and grew up there.
Same with the Prescott area. It used to be a badass cowboy town but for decades it’s seen a steady influx of wealthy libs that can’t stand what they’ve done to their home state. The Palace on Whiskey Row is still pretty cool, lots of history in that place. When the place burned down in 1900 (or thereabouts) all the drunks dragged the bar out to the street and kept drinking while they watched the place burn down. It’s the same bar in there today.
Sedona is one of the most beautiful places on Earth but now it’s freak central. Back in the 70’s someone figured out it was the center of vortexes or some shit like that and now you can spit without hitting some weirdo shop wanting to take a polaroid of your “aura” and recommending herbs and crystals for whatever. The only reason I go to Sedona is to give my Wrangler a workout on Broken Arrow and Soldier Pass – two of the most spectacular trails ever.
As for Walmart they must adjust stock on a state by state basis. I was in one yesterday here in Phoenix and they had pistol grip shotguns in the whirly-rack. Ammo was a different story. I finally convinced my sis to get a .38 and the only .38 they had in stock was Winchester PDX for $27 for 20 rounds. As a reloader I weeped while I slid my card.
Re: Walmart, try county-by-county. I have three of them within 20 minutes of my house. The one just outside my county carries ammo. The stores within my county (Alameda) do not.
Then again, Alameda Co is also ground zero for several Calguns/SAF court cases, for good reason.
Even weirder? The Wally World out near Bass Pro in Manteca doesn’t carry guns or ammo, even though Bass Pro does.
Can’t blame WalMart much for shutting down Lexington TN’s gun license. The ATF was going to act like my Boston Terrier with a chew toy with them, given the current political environment. Assuming that it was a serious enough infraction, getting to turn in their books and call it even is worth it for them.
i was thinking of this earlier. The ATF starts getting finicky with laws and detail, and starts fining and shutting down gun shops for little infractions. Could be the tactic they start using if legislation doesn’t pass.
Kind of like how the Justice Department is suing ratings agencies for the subprime crisis infractions, but we all know it’s because they want to flex muscle and not get the US debt downgraded again. Paybacks a biatch.
The only shops that will be open are the border state ones they encourage to sell to known felon straw buyers.
Jeez, that reminds me. I’ve forgotten to acquire the fake Mexican passport that will make life in the US affordable again.
I just saw the guard who “just wanted to be loved” on the TV news. It occurs to me that if you want to feel loved at work “corrections officer” is _exactly_ the wrong career choice.
Yep. Now as an inmate…….
Got the first article that I sent in posted, woohoo! (No idea if I was the only one). I feel like one of the regulars now.
It’s important to note that Sen. Manchin said that in that article that he still supports universal background checks; he hasn’t completely walked back his walking back, if you will.
+1 on really enjoying the Daily Digest format.
Thanks for everything you gentlemen do.
Owning a gun is like voting. It’s a civic duty and everyone should do it.
I’m done posting here. I had a nice piece all typed out and this stupid recaptch deleted it all. I’m too tired and pissed to do it again.
Don’t get too discouraged, Ted. It does suck, but you can protect yourself on longer comments by getting in the habit of copying your text into the cut-and-paste buffer before hitting submit.
Also, if you comment somewhat regularly, you’ll never get challenged for the CAPTCHA.
+1 on the copy/paste. I do that for posts elsewhere also; not so much for email since Gmail auto-saves. And if I’m in verbosity mode I save to disk for good measure.
But Cuomo is a libtard dictator.
People like “pat” make me wish mightily for an ignore function on TTAG.
Right. Pat should have said libtard with certain totalitarian instincts. That would be accurate.
Very good jerry.
A creepy Cuomo fan, I see, Omega. Enjoy your seven rounds.
Uh oh, the nightly pass-through of the “pat’s libtard-pelvic ashtray-Zyklon B Express” has begun.
It’s Pat.
Uh, seven rounds? Thats dictatorial. I aint calling the SOB Hitler or anything. I didnt know you were such a fan of creepy Cuomo?
I was reading an article on the huffingpost yesterday regarding an AWB and how it’s unlikely to pass. Liberals were leaving comments such as this:
Of course they will continue to put the poor (poor aka the criminal, murderer, shooter etc.) in jail while gun manufacturers get away scott free. It’s the American way.
These people make me sick. It’s no wonder our country has gone to s**t with so many of these people running around.
The HuffPo experience provides a detachment from reality in a manner similar to LSD….’cept it’s always like “whoa!…bad trip man”. I rarely visit there unless necessary (as in following a story link), with the full realization that I’m about to sail off the mental horizon into Terra Incognita.
The fact they think there’s a clear difference between the two means they shouldn’t even be part of the conversation. A Beretta M9 is a weapon of war, despite having nothing to distinguish it from any number of semi-automatic pistols in common civilian use. The AR-15 is not a weapon of war, despite its relationship to the M-16 design.
However, back to the article, I had to shake my head at the line “Why should ordinary citizens be able to purchase a weapon that’s capable of destroying multimillion-aircraft with a single hit?” Let me take you down to Lowe’s where a pick mattock costs thirty dollars.
Well, in their defense, a pick mattock can’t destroy a multi-million dollar aircraft from a mile out.
Clearly you need to work out a little more often.
I’m trying! Stop calling me fat!
[‘Weapon Of War’ Or Just Another Gun?]
Of course it is. Both.
If the long range civilian shooters out in California hadn’t fooled around with making rifles for the .50BMG, and if a number of companies hadn’t started manufacturing .50s, and if the .50 Caliber Shooters Association not organized, and if there were never any .50 caliber matches, the Army would never have noticed them, and the military wouldn’t have tested Barretts, and they wouldn’t have the long-range sniper capability they do today.
Why should civilians be able to own military weapons? Because it greatly benefits the military.
LOL@ HUFFPO! Couldn’t even get his party affiliation correct in the first sentence. Hire an editor!