Month: July 2003

Past Time for Some Gun Stuff

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During the effor to pass the 1986 Firearm Owners Protection Act Representative William Hughes (DGun-ban, NJ) tacked on an amendment that prohibited any new full-auto weapons to enter the civilian market following enaction of the law.

As a practical matter, this didn’t make any difference where criminal use is concerned, but it did have two interesting effects. First, manufacturers scrambled to make and register as many new full-auto receivers as they could before the ban took effect, and the existing pool of full-auto weapons suddenly skyrocketed in value. The result was that, essentially overnight, the pool of civilian possessable full-auto weapons doubled. And a lot of people who didn’t want one before, did now. Economics 101 – supply and demand.

Now, I’m not really a full-auto fan myself. They’re a lot of fun, but horrendously expensive to shoot much (and if you shoot a full-auto, any range time qualifies as “much.”) I’ve always wanted a classic Thompson, though. The Tommy-gun has always seemed a beautiful weapon. The original 1928 model, deeply blued, with a 50-round drum:

is a piece of art. And priced like it.

I wouldn’t pass up a belt-fed, either, and for that my tastes run toward the H&K MG3, which was an updated and rechambered MG-42 of WWII vintage. Instead of the original 8×57 round of the MG42, the MG3 fired the standard NATO 7.62×51 (.308) round – at 1200 rounds per minute. That’s a sound that has been described as “God tearing phonebooks.” Here’s one:

These go for in the neighborhood of $8k and up now.

But my real interest in a full-auto weapon is modern. I’m a science-fiction fan, and I like to watch Stargate SG-1. In recent seasons the stars have been carrying the Fabrique Nationale (FN) P90 submachinegun – this little beastie:

FN doesn’t sell this gun for civilian use anyway (damnit) but it looks so futuristic I’d really like to have one. It fires an specially designed 5.7x28mm cartridge and the factory round is a 31 grain FMJ with a steel penetrator and aluminum core at 900 rounds per minute. The small diameter (.22 caliber), steel penetrator, and very forward center of gravity allow the projectile to penetrate ballistic armor very well, yet still upset and tumble in the target. It does not, however, fragment well. Expensive, though – FN claims the price per round in 1,000 round lots at about $0.41. OUCH! Magazine capacity is 50. The magazine is perhaps the most unique thing about this unique firearm – it rides on top of the firearm and carries the rounds perpendicular to the axis of the bore. It’s not remarkably expensive, either. According to the FN site they sell for $1,350.

However, with the double-whammy of the Hughes Amendment and the fact that FN doesn’t sell that weapon on the civilian market, I’ll never get one it seems.

(Edited @13:30 to correct the Lautenberg/Hughes amendment error. Specifics of this legislation can be found here and here. I’ve got no excuse – I’m currently reading the last cite. Thanks to Publicola for setting me straight on that one.)

UPDATE: 13:50 – I swear this is a coincidence (great minds and all that) but Hell in a Handbasket made a post on the P90 Sunday. He even mentions Stargate SG-1. Is that weird or what?

Thirty-five States Now, and They’re STILL Predicting the Wild West?

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MSNBC weighs in on Missouri’s renewed attempt to join the majority of the nation in “shall-issue” concealed-carry legislation. So of course we get to read things like this:

The bill’s champions say that allowing concealed weapons could make things safer because criminals would have second thoughts about holding up a store where other customers and maybe even the clerk are packing. Opponents, on the other hand, foresee a Wild West mentality and warn against the increased presence of firearms in the workplace.

Right. The “No Guns Allowed” signs do such a marvelous job of keeping crazed killers out.

“The fact that concealed weapons are currently outlawed in Missouri creates an incentive for businesses looking to expand or relocate in Missouri by increasing safety in the workplace,” said Kristi Wyatt, senior vice president for government relations.

Riiiiight. How, exactly does not allowing law-abiding citizens to carry a firearm “increase workplace safety?” Time for another cartoon:

(Kevin Tuma) The article isn’t completely anti-gun, but I am constantly amazed by gun-bancontrol supporters repeated use of “Wild West” and “blood in the streets” arguments when it has been proved conclusively by over thirty other states that this never happens. See “Cognitive Dissonance” below.

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“To Stop Gun Violence, Go to the Source”

That’s the title of this Washington Post column by Jabari Asim. There’s more than a little common sense that you hardly ever hear in this piece. Such as:

In between going to work and teaching my sons to duck and cover, I never paused to think about gun-control ordinances, and I doubt the predators who tormented our block did either. It was hard to get worked up about such laws, which clearly had little relevance where we lived.

—

Some folks see flaps over firearms as clashes between the gun lobby and peace-loving liberals. Similarly, the battle brewing between Hatch and Washington officials is cast as a fight over home rule, not public safety. Neither of those confrontations may mean much to an ordinary citizen who just wants to get from her car to her house without a bullet bringing her down.

All this debate tends to overshadow a distressing fact: it is not firearms that disproportionately harm black people; black people disproportionately harm black people. I can’t help concluding that folks who really care about the health of besieged communities should concentrate on the shooters instead of the guns.

Go read the whole thing.

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More Cartoons

Chuck Asay, Colorado Springs Gazette.

As an aside, Robert L. Bartley has a column up from Monday’s Opinion Journal concerning press objectivity. Here’s the money quote:

The opinion of the press corps tends toward consensus because of an astonishing uniformity of viewpoint. Certain types of people want to become journalists, and they carry certain political and cultural opinions. This self-selection is hardened by peer group pressure. No conspiracy is necessary; journalists quite spontaneously think alike. The problem comes because this group-think is by now divorced from the thoughts and attitudes of readers.

Truer words… (Link via Instapundit.)

Mike Ramirez, LA Times

Jim McCloskey, Staunton, VA News-Leader.

I’m not sure if Jim’s cartoon was supposed to be approving, but many haven’t yet figured out that to the majority of us in the red states, “Cowboy” isn’t an insult.

Cognitive Dissonance

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I read Steven Den Beste’s USS Clueless pretty religiously. He is, as James Lileks put it, the Spock of the Blogosphere, with a keen, logical mind. Quite often I will read something he has produced that resonates with me well apart from the topic on which it was written. That was true of today’s essay, Fan Mail from Flounderers. Today’s column was about the anti-Bushwar protester’s inability to make a case against the invasion of Iraq and their bewilderment at their failure to have any effect on either the American public at large, or the government in particular. It’s an excellent piece (as usual.) But in it I found a most concise explanation for the behavior of not only the leftist anti-Bushwar movement, but also the gun-bancontrol movement:

When someone tries to use a strategy which is dictated by their ideology, and that strategy doesn’t seem to work, then they are caught in something of a cognitive bind. If they acknowledge the failure of the strategy, then they would be forced to question their ideology. If questioning the ideology is unthinkable, then the only possible conclusion is that the strategy failed because it wasn’t executed sufficiently well. They respond by turning up the power, rather than by considering alternatives. (This is sometimes referred to as “escalation of failure”.)

Thank you, Steven, for putting it so succinctly.

Insanity has been described as “repeating the same behavior while expecting a different result.” Or, as I’ve described it, “That didn’t work, so we must try it again only harder!” This is otherwise known as cognitive dissonance, but Steven describes it perfectly in a paragraph.

Invitation to my Readers

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With the latest Instalanch from the “Elect the Great in 2008” hoopla, I’ve gotten about 1500 hits over the last two or three days, many of which are people who have not read my blog before. From perusing Sitemeter from time to time, I see that many of you are spending some time reading more than one page of this site.

While I do this largely for my own entertainment, I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t have readers, and I’m not doing it exclusively for my entertainment.

I’m an advocate. This is my soapbox. It is my goal to make the undecideds, the people who don’t think much about their individual rights – particularly their right to keep and bear arms, think about them.

But it’s a one-sided exchange for the most part.

I became an activist about 1994. I got on the internet in 1995. I discovered that I liked to write, and that I’m pretty fair at it. (I’m no Steven Den Beste, but hey, who is?) I wrote for the late, lamented Themestream.com for several months, and had some excellent exchanges with people who agreed and, more importantly, disagreed with me. Then it folded, and I stopped writing for a while. Then I found AR15.com, but that’s not preaching to the choir, that’s me standing in the audience while the Mormon Tabernacle is at full pitch. Some of those guys make me look like Diane Feinstein.

Via AR15.com I was introduced to the Democratic Underground (no link – on purpose), and I went there, read for a while, picked my jaw up off the floor and started posting. It was, as they say, a target-rich environment. I lasted several months and just over 1800 posts. Just before I was booted (by the SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR) one of the lower-level administrators said to me: “Dear PITA:” (Pain In The Ass) “Don’t shut up. I wildly disagree with most of your positions on this subject, but you are a damn fine advocate. And you make me think. And that is important.” I like to think so.

I could have cobbled up another e-mail address and returned, but as Robert Heinlein said of visiting Russia: “Once is educational, twice is masochism.” Going back under a pseudonym would have gone against what I believed. I stand here, as I did there, using my own name.

Again, I stopped writing. Then I found the Blogosphere, and I was tempted. I was finally enticed to start this blog by agreeing to discuss gun control with Jack of The Road Not Taken at his alternate site The Commentary. So here I am, spending far more time than I should.

So, an invitation: if you’ve read something here you disagree with, send me an e-mail. I’d be happy to discuss it with you either on this forum or privately. Do try to be civil, though. This topic (like abortion) tends to raise blood pressures, tempers, and voices. But it CAN be discussed in normal tones, and it should be. Emotion got us where we are today. Only logic will suffice to correct that.

If you agree with me, then point your anti-gun and undecided friends and relatives to this site. (I know you’ve got ’em.) The more the merrier.

People are afraid of what they don’t understand. Education is the key.

Thank you for your attention. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging.

—
 
UPDATE:  As of August 6, 2013, due to the herculean efforts of reader John Hardin, the original JS-Kit/Echo comment thread for this post (read-only) is available here.

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Payback is a Bitch, Isn’t It?

I mentioned this as an aside in a post on the status of another gun industry bankrupting lawsuit back at the end of June, but it’s starting to make more headlines now. Valor Corp., the distributor that orignially sold the Raven .25 caliber automatic pistol that 13 year-old Nathaniel Brazill stole from a neighbor and used to shoot teacher Barry Grunow is now suing Grunow’s wife for recovery of legal fees after the jury finding of 5% liability was thrown out on appeal.

Ms. Grunow sued the legal owner of the gun for the previous EIGHT YEARS, the pawnshop that sold the gun 13 YEARS BEFORE THE CRIME, Valor – the distributor that sold the gun originally, and the school system. (Edited to add: The gun was the same age as the shooter. Kinda makes you wonder which was the “defective product” doesn’t it?) She settled out of court with the gun’s legal owner for $300,000, with the pawn shop for $275,000, and with the school system for $245,000. Valor was originally slapped with a $1.2 million judgement. She refused an offer from Valor to settle for $200,000, so they decided to countersue after the judgement was thrown out and Ms. Grunow appealed.

Good for them.

The widow claims that the estate has no money, and that she’s afraid she’ll lose her house. So, what happened to the $820,000 in settlement money?

My guess is that Bob Montgomery (who prior to this headed the Florida lawsuit that resulted in a $13 billion settlement against the tobacco companies) took most if not all of it in expen$e$ and court co$t$. I would be quite curious as to how much money the widow actually ended up with, and how much now lines Mr. Montgomery’s pockets.

Not that he needs it.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the widow actually still owes money to the lawyers for costs and expenses. Those “contingency” based lawsuits often don’t include costs and expenses. If you win the lawyer gets a percentage plus those costs. If you lose, you still owe.

Fairly complete coverage of the story can be found here. (“Fairly” as it relates to “complete” – the coverage is hardly “fair.” But I loved it when one article refers to the VPC as the “Violence Poverty Center.” Would that it were true, but the VPC seems well-funded.)

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The Strategy is Working

According to this report, anyway.

Shootout in Saudi Arabia Kills Eight

Six suspected militants were killed Monday in a firefight with Saudi police, who raided a farm where they were hiding out. Two police also were killed.

The shootout, which came amid an anti-terror crackdown in the kingdom, took place in al-Qassim, 220 miles north of the capital, Riyadh, state-run TV quoted a Ministry of Interior statement as saying.

The firefight came after the suspects, armed with guns and hand grenades, refused an order to surrender by police surrounding the farm, the statement said.

One militant and eight police were injured, and four people were arrested for harboring the suspects.

Saudi Arabia has launched a series of terror raids after May 12 suicide bombings in Riyadh killed 25 people and nine attackers. More than 200 suspects have been reported arrested and more than a dozen killed in almost weekly raids on alleged terror cells throughout the kingdom.

And why did the terror raids occur in Riyadh? BECAUSE SAUDI ARABIA ASSISTED IN THE INVASION OF IRAQ.

The raids also followed repeated calls from the U.S. government for Saudi Arabia to do more to curb Islamic militancy after Sept. 11. Of the 19 hijackers in the attack, 15 were Saudi.

For some reason, a lot of people tend to ignore that fact.

One raid, announced last week, yielded the arrests of 16 suspects linked to al-Qaida _ the terror network blamed for the Riyadh bombings and the Sept. 11 attacks _ and the seizure of a buried arsenal that included 20 tons of bomb-making chemicals, (!) detonators, rocket-propelled grenades and rifles.

A U.S. Congress report on Sept. 11 released last week accused Saudi Arabia of not doing enough to counter terrorism.

Gee, ya THINK?

The unclassified version of the report also said that one suspected organizer still at large paid many of the expenses of two Sept. 11 hijackers and “had access to seemingly unlimited funding from Saudi Arabia.” It did not say if Saudi government funds were involved.

Saudi officials have rejected those conclusions.

I’m shocked, I tell you! SHOCKED!

“We are confident about ourselves and it is just a matter of mere talk,” Defense Minister Prince Sultan was quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency as saying Sunday night. “The American administration under the leadership of Bush has declared officially that the kingdom is not a party in these issues.”

Osama bin Laden, head of the al-Qaida terrorist network, was born in Saudi Arabia to a prominent family. He turned against the Saudi government after it allowed the United States to station troops and equipment here during the 1991 Gulf War. The Saudi government revoked his citizenship.

It IS working!