Month: February 2005

Can We Blogswarm This?

Jed at Freedomsight found an interesting story. It seems that CNN, in an attempt at exposing the horrible dangers of .50 BMG rifles just committed at least one, and possibly more than one felony. Apparently they purchased a .50 in a private-party transaction from a person in another state. In fact, they might have done it by straw-purchase – that is, they had someone local buy it for them. Those are no-no’s. FEDERAL no-no’s, unless the purchaser has a Federal Firearms License.

Triggerfinger has done a bit of digging on the laws broken, and has four five posts up on it, here, here, here, here and here. The last one is a description of the video.

(Edited to add:) Matthew at Triggerfinger looked up the pertinent law in the second link above. This is what the reporter did that was illegal:

Here’s the plain-language explanation, from the ATF’s FAQ:

From whom may an unlicensed person acquire a firearm under the GCA?

A person may only buy a firearm within the person s own State, except that he or she may buy a rifle or shotgun, in person, at a licensee’s premises in any State, provided the sale complies with State laws applicable in the State of sale and the State where the purchaser resides.

So the short answer is, you can buy a firearm out of your state of residence from a licensed dealer only. CNN’s story involves a private sale; they make an explicit point of that in their voiceover.

Please do read all of the links. (End of edit.)

David Codrea has picked it up, too. The story origininated at The Claire Files message board with a post by “kbarrett” that goes:

It looks like CNN aired a spot this evening of one of its own reporters finding a .50 cal rifle on Gunsamerica.com for sale by a private owner in Houston, and then flying to Houston, paying cash, and then flying with said rifle back to Atlanta.

Where’s the kitten-stomping BATF when you really need them? I think a reporter needs to be busted.

UPDATE: WELCOME INSTAPUNDIT READERS. While you’re here, please peruse the “Best Posts,” would you? Most especially, read The Lying “News” Media, Part II, which is a transcript of a previous CNN hit piece on “assault weapons.” Decide for yourself if CNN was hoodwinked by Broward County (FL) Sherrif Ken Jenne, or if reporter John Zarella and his producer were complicit in airing a misleading and deliberately mendacious piece of “journalism.”

UPDATE 2/21: CNN has a transcript of the story up. Looks like two felonies to me.

UPDATE 2/22: The BATF is aware of the violation.

The Nation of Riflemen Loses a Member

Kim du Toit reports that Sgt. Adam J. Plumondore, the “Adam” in Kim’s “Walter-Adam Fund” was killed by a car-bomb explosion in Mosul on Wednesday, Feb. 17.

My condolences to his family and friends.

Just… damn.

And, in memoriam, may I suggest that you read this Smoke on the Water post from last Memorial day?

And Read This

(Posted after the news about Adam, but it needs to come second in today’s entries)

Via AlphaPatriot, read the story of a Marine returning to the States after being wounded in Iraq.

If I ever hear some leftist scumbag call a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine a “baby killer” I’m going to slap him or her silly.

I Almost Forgot to Mention, the Inaugural Carnival of Cordite is Up!

And there are some interesting entries, too. Go on over to Resistance is Futile and give it a read.

Another Example of Gun Bigotry Due to Paranoia

Matt at Stop the Bleating (added today to the blogroll, among others) gives his explanation of why he got his Virginia CCW permit. Read it, it’s a good story. But most definitely read the comment by “Anonymous” (big surprise). Here’s the money quote:

Would a gun, in that circumstance, make me feel safer? You know, it might. Only on an instinctual level though; rationality does not lead me to the conclusion that I should go out and get a concealed carry license. I feel much less safe knowing that there are nascent psychos out there who could whip out a gun at any time. I’d feel much safer knowing the only people with guns are the cops and the occasional hardened criminal downtown that I’ll rarely, if ever, encounter anyway…not my next door neighbor and their uncle who happens to have a bad temper and…no pun intended…a hair trigger.

There it is, in one nice, neat package. People who want to (legally!) get a CCW permit are “nascent psychos.” Only authorized agents of the State are qualified to carry, and as long as Joe Average is prohibited from having a gun (which will apparently make him psychotic) she need only fear “the occasional hardened criminal.”

“Rationality”? Complete reality disconnect.

The responses to “Anon” are worth the read, too. Especially Matt’s.

Hat tip: Hell in a Handbasket.

Related post: Fear

Vodkapundit points to an NRO piece by Myrna Bythe on her recent attendance at a Columbia Journalism School First Amendment breakfast. The kicker comes later, but something I found interesting comes first.:

The moderator, as usual, was lawyer and Columbia journalism professor Floyd Abrams, and he started the proceedings with a couple of personal anecdotes. First of all, he recalled his most famous First Amendment triumph, the “Pentagon Papers” case. He described Chief Justice Warren Berger’s dissenting opinion, which he quoted in part, as a “whine.” Then he went on to tell a long anecdote about a Fred Friendly panel, sometime in the past, that included Peter Jennings, Mike Wallace, and a wounded Vietnam veteran.

Abrams recalled that Friendly, as he often did, presented the panel with a hypothetical scenario that there was a civil war between the northern and southern sections of an unnamed country, with America helping the southern forces. An American journalist, to his surprise, was invited to go on patrol with the northern forces. While on the mission, the journalist realized the northern forces intended to attack a group of Americans. What should the journalist do?

Peter Jennings, Abrams recalled, said he hoped he would have the courage to call out and warn the American troops. But Mike Wallace interrupted to admonish Jennings, asking, “Peter, why are you there?,” implying that as a journalist he should not get involved. Abrams said Jennings then began to backtrack on his answer. The only comment of the wounded veteran who was on the panel was: “I always knew you guys were like that.”

That was one in a series of round-table discussions called Ethics in America that ran on PBS. I’ve seen that particular one, and I have to say I don’t think I’ve ever been more disgusted with journalists than I was that day.

But the part that Vodkapundit found apparently shocking was this excerpt:

The panel member who, one would have thought, would have the most to say about the subject of a “reporter as citizen” was Mary Beth Sheridan. But, she explained, she hadn’t realized she would have to make a speech at the breakfast, and that her remarks about her experiences in Iraq would be just “free-flowing” — and, indeed, they were.

First of all, she said she was “overwhelmed by the military,” but she did learn by being embedded that members of our armed forces were not “blood-thirsty maniacs.” Yes, she really did say that.

In fact, she said, they were “really decent people.” And even “sweet.” Of course, after being shot at they were eager to shoot back — a military attitude that seemed to surprise her.

She also reported that when she asked soldiers why were they in Iraq, every single one told her, “to help the Iraqi people.” Again she was surprised that the military could create such a unity of purpose even though, she said, she didn’t see any “brainwashing” going on. She also noted that many soldiers had no opinion about the war. They had gone where they were ordered to go, like all good soldiers. Such an attitude seemed to dazzle her as well.

She didn’t have anything much to say about “reporters as citizens,” but clearly she appeared to be one citizen who had very little familiarity with, or understanding of, or even quite possibly respect for the military before her tour of duty. In a way, it is kind of sad that only after some first-hand experience did she learn what most American citizens believe: that American soldiers are “decent people.” And that it is those soldiers, not our journalists, after all, who protect our freedom of the press.

Vodkapundit asks:

Absolutely run-of-the-mill, as far as I can tell.

As I said in Fear, the only thing that can work to dispell the ignorance and erroneous beliefs of people is direct exposure to that which they irrationally hate and fear. Mary Beth Sheridan got that exposure, and it rocked her world, apparently. I wonder if she had a bit better understanding of Marine Lt. General Mattis’s comment about it being “fun to shoot some people” now.

Read Vodkapundit’s post, and all of the very funny comments. It’s worth your time.

Another Realistic Democrat Gets It

Local columnist Jeff Smith of the Tucson Comrade Citizen has an interesting op-ed up on page 5B of yesterday’s edition. It’s also online. Entitled Dimwitted Dems migrate away from the middle, Jeff pulls no punches. Here are some tasty excerpts:

I don’t want to become a Republican. The first time I disagreed with my father over anything more weighty than wanting to stay up and watch “The Mummy’s Curse” and he said “no”, was over Kennedy vs. Nixon. Up to that point, Dad hadn’t really given me any excuse to cross him.

—

But Dick Nixon struck me as someone Abe Lincoln would despise, and John Kennedy hit all the right notes: I became a Democrat and never had any reason to regret it.

Until lately.

—

After Clinton II, the nation embarked on Bush II, and the Democratic Party rapidly changed from a vessel like Noah’s Ark – sheltering all God’s creatures who sought shelter from the storm – into something more akin to the “Christina,” Aristotle Onassis’ yacht and an apt metaphor.

—

It was after Bush beat Gore – yes, he beat him – that the Democratic Party left me. It wasn’t the other way around.

It was no surprise that both parties said terrible things about each other as the ballots were counted and recounted, seemingly without end. It was no surprise that the Democrats said they were robbed after they lost. The Republicans would have done the same. It was a surprise when my party still sang the same sad song six months later. And six years.

“No Sniveling” is more than a bumper sticker; it’s a law of human behavior. Persons and political parties violate it at their peril.

—

And as the Democratic Party hierarchy grew increasingly bicoastal intellectual elite, more and more of the low- and middle-class Joes joined the exodus, not out of bigotry but because they weren’t stupid: They may not have had graduate degrees, but they knew when they were being condescended to.

When John Kerry went bird hunting in a Carhartt jacket that still had the folds from the box in it and held his shotgun like a yachtsman’s telescope, he synthesized and symbolized the state of the Democratic Party today:

The elitist, stooping to offer a limp handshake to the Great Unwashed.

Read the whole thing.

Maybe the Democrats are going the way of the Whigs, and another party will rise, phoenixlike, from the ashes.

“Green” Ammunition, eh?

This is disturbing. Popular Mechanics has a very short blurb on their web page:

Soldiers who survive battlefield wounds may be doomed to develop an aggressive form of cancer, according to a study published today in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Rats embedded with weapons-grade tungsten alloy–recently incorporated into munitions as a non-toxic alternative to depleted uranium and lead–developed tumors, which then quickly metastasized to the lungs. The findings raise serious concerns over the alloy’s potential health effects to humans, write the authors.–J. Bogo

I know the military has been switching to a tungsten core bullet, in part because of concerns about lead pollution and exposure.

The full report is available as a PDF here. It’s entitled “Embedded Weapons-Grade Tungsten Alloy Shrapnel Rapidly Induces Metastatic High-Grade Rhabdomyosarcomas in F344 Rats.”

(Edited to add:)

Here are some really disturbing excerpts from that paper, which was authored by government researchers for Walter Reed and other Army medical departments.

Previous work in this laboratory developed a rodent model system that mimicked shrapnel loads seen in wounded personnel from the 1991 Persian Gulf War. In this study, we used that system and male F344 rats, implanted intramuscularly with pellets (1 mm x 2 mm cylinders) of weapons-grade tungsten alloy, to simulate shrapnel wounds. Rats were implanted with 4 (low dose) or 20 pellets (high dose) of tungsten alloy. Tantalum (20 pellets) and nickel (20 pellets) served as negative and positive controls, respectively. The high-dose tungsten alloy-implanted rats (n=46) developed extremely aggressive tumors surrounding the pellets within 4-5 months after implantation. The low-dose tungsten alloy-implanted rats (n=46) and nickel-implanted rats (n=36) also developed tumors surrounding the pellets, but did so at a slower rate. Rats implanted with tantalum (n=46), an inert control metal, did not develop tumors. Tumor yield was 100% in both the low- and high-dose tungsten alloy groups. The tumors, characterized as high-grade pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcomas by histopathology and immunohistochemical examination, rapidly metastasized to the lung and necessitated euthanasia of the animal.

—

Advancements in metallurgy have led the military of many nations to replace DU in some armor penetrating munitions and lead in small-caliber ammunition with various alloys of tungsten. One motivation for such a replacement is widespread public concern about the health and environmental impact of continued use of these metals. However, to our knowledge, none of these militarily relevant tungsten alloys have been tested for potential health effects, especially as embedded shrapnel. There is a growing list of health concerns related to tungsten exposure. Although a definitive link has not been established, several cancer clusters in the United States are associated with elevated levels of tungsten in the environment. Those findings, along with the results presented in this manuscript, raise questions about the possible consequences of tungsten exposure. More importantly, it raises extremely serious concerns over the potential health effects of tungsten alloy-based munitions currently being used as non-toxic alternatives to lead and DU.

—

Tungsten-based alloys are currently being used as replacements for DU in kineticenergy penetrators and for lead in small-caliber ammunition. However, the health effects of these unique alloys have not been investigated, especially in the case of embedded fragments such as shrapnel wounds. In this study, using male F344 rats and a system designed to investigate the effects of embedded metal fragments (AFRRI 1996), we have shown the embedded weapons-grade WA [tungsten alloy] (91.1% W/6.0% Ni/2.9% Co) results in rapid tumor formation at the implantation site in 100% of the rats. The rate of tumor formation correlates with pellet number. Ni-implanted rats also develop tumors at the implantation site, although not as rapidly as seen with WA.

Rhabdomyosarcoma is a form of cancer most often found in children, and it’s aggressive and deadly. The survival rate after 5 years is about 50%. This ought to disturb the hell out of people.

Tungsten, by itself, appears to be mostly benign, but in alloy with nickel and/or cobalt it seems to be extremely carcinogenic. The alloy tested is that used in current military “green” ammunition. So I have to wonder if the workers at the ammunition plants where this stuff is being made are wearing environment suits, or else are suffering an epidemic of cancer.

(End edit.)

Here are a couple of articles on “Green ammo”:

U.S. Military “Green Bullet” (6/2000) Excerpt:

America’s military is about to lock and load with new ammunition that’s tough on enemies but easy on mother earth. It’s known as the “Green Bullet”, which is a new lead-free projectile that defense officials say is just as lethal as the standard 5.56mm without harming the environment. The Army led effort is designed to one day end the use of environmentally hazardous materials in small-arms munitions for all services.

The new round will replace the copper-jacketed lead core with a copper-jacketed tungsten tin or nylon core Military officials hope the program will soothe growing environmental and health concerns that have led to the closing of hundreds of live-fire training sites around the country.

Greening Service Ammunition for Individual and Crew Served Weapons (From the U.S. Army Environmental Center webpage) Excerpt:

For hundreds of years, soldiers have used small arms weapons in training and combat — and virtually all the projectiles fired from these weapons contained lead alloy. Lead bullets typically shatter upon impact with soil.

The resulting debris and corrosion products infiltrate the soil and can accumulate in sediment, surface water and groundwater.

The U.S. Army Environmental Center (USAEC) is working with the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) and other agencies to replace the lead in small caliber projectiles. USAEC is funding efforts to make bullets with materials that perform as well as or better than lead, but without the potential environmental effects.

So we get “green” target ranges, but wounded soldiers get to die of cancer?

“Unintended consequences” indeed.

One other thing. According to this chart, the U.S. imports the majority of its tungsten from one country: China – 530 of the total 1,090 metric tons of powdered tungsten in 2003 (up from 260 out of 642 metric tons the previous year). Do we really want to be dependent on imported materials for our ammunition needs?

Registration: Only Good for Confiscation

I will not register. Ever.

Australia’s state of New South Wales just ran a “compliance check” on its registered, licensed gun owners. And seized and destroyed some 43,000 weapons “most of which” were firearms. (Hat tip, No Quarters.) The reasons given for the seizures?

Mr Moroney said that, as part of the blitz, thousands of weapons were destroyed because police were not satisfied that the firearms were being kept securely, or that “possession of that firearm was necessarily further warranted”.

Yes, the State, in its infinite wisdom, decided that either the weapons were (in their unassailable opinion) “not being kept securely” or it simply decided that the owners didn’t need them anymore.

This is known among the gun confiscation, er, ban, um, control, that is, gun SAFETY crowd as “common sense gun control.”