. . . to see these beautiful Winchester 9x19mm Luger Parabellum rounds. Parabellum is from an ancient Latin credo – “Si vis pacem, para bellum.” Translated, it means “if you seek peace, prepare for war.”
Damsel took this artistic photo last weekend when we were doing gun maintenance after our weekly target practice. I use the big version for a computer background picture.
I would chime in on this even if I lived outside of California. Arnold Schwarzenegger may be considering national politics and could care what you think:
Just in from the NRA:
Attention California Gun Owners:
Please Contact Governor Schwarzenegger Today!Three pieces of firearm-related legislation are currently on the desk of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) awaiting his consideration.
Assembly Bill 1471 would require that after a certain date, the make, model, and serial number of a firearm be microstamped onto the interior surface or internal working parts of all handguns in such a manner that those identifiers are imprinted onto the cartridge case upon firing. The manufacture, sale, and transfer of handguns that do not imprint their identifying information on a cartridge case would be a crime.
Assembly Bill 821 would ban the use of lead ammunition for hunting in areas occupied by California condor. By passing AB 821, the Legislature has usurped the authority of the Fish and Game Commission over the regulation of hunting and the management of the state’s wildlife. Unlike the Fish and Game Commission, the Legislature did not take into account the effects of a lead ammunition ban on the state’s hunters. Studies show that a ban will force many hunters to quit hunting altogether having catastrophic consequences on wildlife management practices and the state’s hunting heritage.
Assembly Bill 1645 will protect law-abiding gun owners during a declared state of emergency from the seizure or confiscation of any lawfully carried or possessed firearm or ammunition.
Please contact the Governor and respectfully urge him to veto AB1471 and AB821. Also remind him to protect your Second Amendment rights during a state of emergency by signing AB1645. Governor Schwarzenegger can be reached by phone at (916) 445-2841, fax at (916) 445-4633, or visit http://gov.ca.gov/interact#email to send him an email.
After today’s session at the range, we set the guns out for cleaning as usual. I like to take a picture of the guns we took each time we shoot, just for the record. We don’t take all the guns on a given day. I handed my little Canon PowerShot A510 to Damsel while I was opening the tool box, and she took this nice perspective picture of the shotguns awaiting clean-up.
She just seems to have the artistic flair with the camera, while I’m just a mere photo journalist most of the time. I guess I can deal with that.
Mike Thomas, a journalist associated with the Orlando (FL) Sentinel, comes to some logical conclusions in an editorial he wrote about unarmed victims of a violent crime. In the complete editorial, Thomas relates some of the warning signs and the consequences of the victims not taking action to protect themselves.
This is an excerpt from the editorial with highlights I made:
I am not knocking the cops, just acknowledging reality. There are a thousand threats in the Big City. Picking out the real ones from the bluster is an impossible task. Given this reality, given that Central Florida is turning into a bad Mad Max sequel, my liberal belief in gun control is getting wobbly.
I’m not advocating selling machine guns and cop-killer bullets at Wal-Mart. But if somebody faces an immediate threat, I have a hard time understanding why they need to wait three days or longer to buy a handgun for self-protection. Shouldn’t we be allowed to go to a reputable gun store, get a lesson in how to use a specific weapon and buy it after the background check?
The stated reason against this is that some ill-tempered lout will blow a fuse, run off to Guns R Us, buy a Glock and open fire on his spouse, neighbor, boss or co-worker. One might assume someone this prone to venting with a volley already has a gun, locked and loaded.
A 2000 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, hardly part of the gun lobby, showed cooling-off periods did not reduce homicide rates or overall suicide rates. After examining 51 studies on various gun-control laws, including mandatory waiting periods, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded in 2003 that there was “insufficient evidence” to say they reduced gun violence.
It seems we pass laws that feel good without a lot of proof they are doing any good. Maybe I need a good slap from Ted Kennedy, but I almost buy the National Rifle Association argument that the primary target of gun-control laws would be the people who shoot them at ranges, then lovingly oil and ogle them before safely locking them up.
As far as keeping guns away from bad guys, gun-control laws work as well as crack cocaine-control laws. We even have high school kids in Orange County firing guns in the air at high school athletic events.
If there were no guns, I would say allow no guns. But since all the wrong people already have them, and the cops can’t do much about it except match their firepower, then it may well be time to arm thyself, citizen.
When Florida liberalized permits for concealed weapons in the 1980s, critics predicted a Wild West bloodbath. It never happened. Responsible gun owners don’t use guns irresponsibly. Go figure.
Until the cops get better at enforcing gun control on those who shouldn’t have guns, a better alternative for the rest of us is gun education, gun classes and secure gun storage.
Mike Thomas, in a way, is like journalist Lawrence Solomon, who decided to get into the minds of “global warming deniers” only to come to the conclusion that man-made contributions to climate shift are grossly exaggerated.
Hat Tip to NRA-ILA for pointing me to this story.
In an order denying a motion to lift the stay of mandate in the DC Gun Case, the DC Circuit Court uncovers a paradox in the arguments made by the District of Columbia.
It seems that DC’s claim that the handgun ban is constitutional by virtue of rifles and shotguns being legally owned in DC, fails the test of being actually available for self-defense given the fact that such legally-owned weapons must be stored locked or dissembled. In addition, the Circuit Court notes that rifles and shotguns may not be suitable for home defense due to the danger of bystanders being injured and that such weapons may be difficult or impossible for smaller persons to handle. Hand guns, however, are ideal in close quarters and easily handled by smaller persons.
Hopefully, the enlightenment provided by the DC Court will give guidance to SCOTUS when the matter is brought before them. Logically, the choice for home defense is a loaded hand gun.
Excerpts from DC Gun Case Blog and notes from the DC Circuit Court can be seen below the fold.
Here’s some interesting stuff about the current litigation of the Washington D.C. Gun Case: Washington D.C.’s challenge to the recent Federal Court ruling that their gun ban is unconstitutional asserts that its gun ban is constitutional because:
According to the DCGunCase blog, Bob Levy in Legal Times (PDF) makes the following observations about D.C.’s three claims:
We’re going to keep tuned in to the DCGunCase blog since any landmark decision by SCOTUS will affect gun ordinances everywhere.
When we go to the range to practice, we generally share a target. We use one for the revolvers and generally change it out when we switch to the 9mm pistols. Most of the time when a target gets perforated to the point of not being able to see where the rounds are going, we will paste on one of those fluorescent glows-where-you-hit-it targets. For shotguns, we put up 2 x 3 foot silhouette targets.
Although we generally know who is hitting where on the target, there is some ambiguity. At the end of the video here you will see that even though there are shots all over the target, we are collectively getting pretty good at hitting the center a lot of the time.