The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. – Ayn Rand
OUTRAGE! (continued)
Publicola updates us on the status of 71 year-old Melvin B. Spaulding, who was arrested and jailed without bond for the audacity of defending his friend against three young attackers rather than dialing 9-1-1 and waiting to be rescued by the AUTHORITAHS!
Seems Mr. Spaulding, who has since been released, and has not yet been charged with anything has been told that, even though he has a concealed-carry permit, he’s not allowed to have a firearm.
The story is here.
Bastards.
We’ve Got RSS!
I think.
Via Blogstreet, I think this provides an RSS feed for The Smallest Minority (about a day late, but better than nothing?)
http://www.blogstreet.com/rss/13828.rss
Pardon my ignorance on the subject.
This is NEAT
Being a South Park Republican type, I found this little tool pretty entertaining. (Via the Everlasting Phelps) The South Park Create a Character. Here’s my interpretation of me on the average weekend:
Only I don’t look that young.
This, however, is NOT neat: Read Phelps’ post on the abuse of eminent domain in Norfolk, Virginia.
Now do you understand why my character is holding a rifle evil bullet-hose militia weapon?
I Thought the Idea was to PUNISH Criminals
Oh sweet bleeding Jebus. Kim linked to this story about an Austrailian police officer:
He faces one charge of wounding with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm.
He also faces three charges of firing a firearm in a manner likely to endanger the safety of any other person.
Why? Because he shot at a man trying to run him over.
But that’s not the best story! From a link on that page, we get this:
PRISONERS losing privileges and being moved to higher security areas as punishment has been criticised by the state Ombudsman.
In his annual report, Eugene Biganovsky raises concerns a section of legislation allowing prisoners to be moved at the discretion of prison officials or losing privileges was being abused.
He cited three cases:
A prisoner who allegedly threatened to take an officer hostage was stripped of electricity in his cell and had his phone calls limited.
An inmate wrongly accused of being involved in building and operating a still at Cadell Training Centre was moved to a high security jail yet faced no charges.
A television was taken away from a prisoner accused of “abusing a nurse”.
Poor babies! They should file suit because they’re not being tucked in at night!
First the police can’t do their jobs, and second the prisons can’t either!
And they wonder why violent crime is on the rise in Australia!
Read This and then Tell Me that Gun Control “Works”
Read this excellent editorial from the British paper The Guardian: Gun crime spreads ‘like a cancer’ across Britain
Money quote:
Handgun crime has soared past levels last seen before the Dunblane massacre of 1996 and the ban on ownership of handguns introduced the year after Thomas Hamilton, an amateur shooting enthusiast, shot dead 16 schoolchildren, their teacher and himself in the Perthshire town.
It was hoped the measure would reduce the number of handguns available to criminals. Now handgun crime is at its highest since 1993.
As well as being converted from air guns and blank firing weapons, handguns are being imported from eastern Europe and beyond. A good quality semi-automatic handgun can be bought on the streets of London for as little as £200.
That’s about $350.00 – about the retail cost of a decent pistol here in the U.S.
Sure, gun control works. It disarms the victims just about perfectly.
You’ll note that there aren’t any stories like these in the British press.
Privacy? Peons Don’t Need Privacy!
Remember the airport scanner story from back in January that caused such a ruckus because it could see through your clothes? Yes, it would help detect concealed weapons, but it also let operators essentially see you naked. That raised some questions about privacy, but the argument at the time was that if you wanted to fly on a commercial airliner, you already gave up quite a bit of your right to privacy.
Well, now England is looking at invading your privacy when you’re walking on the street. Seems that they’re developing a unit that will fit into the back of a van and allow police officers to scan anybody.
Police are developing a mobile scanner that can detect weapons being carried on the streets as part of the fight against the rising tide of gun crime.
The scanner, which is being developed by scientists on behalf of Scotland Yard, will be able to pick out the outline of knives, guns and other weapons hidden underneath clothing, enabling officers to target criminals before they strike.
The justification?
The scheme was initiated by Sir John Stevens, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, earlier this year as he launched a crackdown on the tide of gun crime sweeping across Britain.
It comes in the wake of a number of high-profile shootings across the country in recent weeks including the shooting of six-year-old Makada Weaver in Liverpool.
Figures show that shooting incidents across England and Wales rose by 35% from 17,589 in 2000-2001 to 22,314 last year.
But I thought that gun control was supposed to make everybody safe. Now they’re telling us that invasion of privacy will make everyone safe?
Before the scanner takes to the streets the police may find they have to fight civil liberties groups concerned that the scanner – which reveals intimate body details – is an infringement of privacy.
Well I certainly hope so. However, I don’t think the government is all that interested in what the civil liberties groups think:
The spokesman refused to comment on reports in The Times that a version of the scanner has already been tested on the streets of London from the back of a converted van.
But he confirmed that the force would be using it “as soon as is practicable,” he said.
Another Expensive Exercise in Futility
Last week it was reported in several places that Canada’s attempt at registering all long guns and all gun owners – originally sold to Parliament and the people of Canada as having a net cost to taxpayers of $2 million – would reach a cost of $1 billion a full year earlier than the Auditor General predicted after she reviewed the fiscal debacle last year.
Now in that gun-control Utopia of England – where all legal guns and gun owners are registered and licensed, and all machine-guns, “assault weapons,” and handguns are banned – they’re going to spend £1.1 million (about $1.9 million) to build a “National Firearms Forensic Intelligence Database” so that the police can “speed up the way officers can link gun crimes.”
At least that’s the initial estimate.
He Shoulda Used a .45
I expect that anybody who reads The Smallest Minority also reads Kim du Toit (and probably Kim first), but since he posted this link without comment, I’ll comment.
Wimpy 9mm Europellet! An XBox requires at least a .40 S&W, and I’d recommend a .45ACP.
OUTRAGE!
Ravenwood begins his piece with this warning: “If you have blood pressure problems, you probably don’t want to read this”.
He’s right.
A 63 year-old man is being beaten by three young men. His 71 year-old friend intervenes with a .22 pistol, wounding one, and stopping the fight.
The 71 year-old was arrested and held without bond.
Read Ravenwood’s post.
I need to reduce my blood pressure.
Sore Losers
Do you think Jeff Danziger is a little peeved? I didn’t see a single picture of the coverage of Bush’s Baghdad visit in which the soldiers weren’t smiling ear to ear.
Did you?