At least not until much later. I have honeydo’s to do, and I’m going to load some ammo. I’m going to the range tomorrow. I want to play with my “new” 1917 Enfield (made by Winchester in 1918) and my Kimber Custom Stainless .45. And maybe my 1896 Swede (Carl Gustaf, 1916). And yes, both rifles are sporterized (not “bubba-ized”).
Category: Uncategorized
Our Collapsing Schools – Update
In my last post on this topic I covered the story of the teacher that had been attacked by the student she had suspended, the student’s brother and his mother. Rachel Lucas has more on this topic. This is not, apparently, an isolated case.
Why am I not surprised?
You People ELECTED This Asshat?
More from the Pasadena Star News article about the proposed 10¢ per round tax:
Assemblyman Mark Ridley- Thomas, D-Los Angeles, authored AB 992 because he said he believes the state’s health- care system needs relief during the current fiscal crisis. Officials estimate that the state’s budget shortfall is about $38 billion over the next 13 months.
Ammunition qualifies for a sin tax because guns are even more harmful to society than alcohol and cigarettes, he said.
“Alcohol and cigarettes are not by definition designed to do destruction. Guns are,’ Ridley- Thomas said.
Really? Let’s see: According to this Centers for Disease Control site, “Cigarette smoking accounts for approximately one in every five deaths in the United States.” Some 2,403,351 deaths occurred in the U.S. in 2000. That would make tobacco the cause of some 480,000 deaths that year.
According to this CDC page, “Excessive alcohol consumption is an important factor in more than 100,000 deaths in the United States each year.” According to this CDC report alcohol is directly responsible for 19,358 deaths not including “accidents, homicides, and other causes indirectly related to alcohol use as well as deaths due to fetal alcohol syndrome.” According to this site Fetal Alcohol Syndrome affects about 1 in 1,000 newborns and “(t)wo to three times that many are born with an alcohol-related developmental disorder, but they do not have any obvious physical abnormalities.” There were 3,959,417 births reported in the U.S. in 1999. That means that over 3,900 infants were the victims of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Some 8,000 to 11,000 more suffered from alcohol related disorders. I thought the big concern was over The Children(tm)? Alcohol was a contributing factor according to this CDC site, in 17,448 motor vehicle fatalities. That’s on top of the 19,358 deaths caused directly by alcohol, and just a small part of the 100,000 deaths annually.
Death by gunshot, both homicide and suicide accounted for 28,663 of the total, and many of them also involved alcohol or other, illicit drugs. If you take suicides out of the equation (and I do, because I don’t believe that the method of suicide has much to do with the act of suicide) the number drops to 11,807.
Considering that there are an acknowledged 200,000,000 plus guns in private hands, that’s an awfully low number for something “designed to do destruction.”
Gunshot wounds, about half of them accidental, cost the health-care system more than $250 million annually, Ridley-Thomas said.
Yeah? According to this site, the percentage of accidental gunshot injury nationwide over the period from 1993 to 1997 is 20%. Are Californians somehow more accident-prone than the rest of America? And according to this site, “the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that alcohol-related crashes in 2000 were associated with more than $51 billion in total costs.” That’s Billion. With a “B.” Divide equally by 50 states (although California has far in excess of 1/50th the number of automobiles in the country) and you’re still looking at over a billion dollars.
“We just have the proliferation of these weapons of destruction and it has a completely negative effect on society,’ he said.
It doesn’t have a negative effect on ME. It doesn’t have a negative effect on the absolute minimum 108,000 people each year who use a gun to defend themselves.
Come out and say it, goddamnit. If you want to ban guns, say it. Stop this incremental death-by-a-thousand-cuts before you piss us off enough to do what the Declaration of Independence says we ought to. Put it up to the voters and let them decide. Enough of this nanny-state “we know what’s best for you” bullshit!
But When a Long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, Pursuing Invariably the Same Object…
KeepandBearArms.com links to this story about how the fine legislators in California, seem to want to fix the massive debt their state is running by putting a 10¢ per round tax on ammunition. Actually, they say it’s to “help reimburse shooting victims and help pay their health-care costs.” but we know what legislatures do with money, don’t we? And if they’re going to put a $500 tax on a $200 case of .22 rimfire, then all they’re going to do is start a new black market. We’re already seeing it with cigarettes in the Northeast. Supply and demand, you morons.
They call it a “sin tax.” Gee, what was once a highly regarded practice, one guaranteed to us by the Bill of Rights, is now a sin? One of the ethicists interviewed for the piece states that “sin taxes” put the legislature in charge of labelling right and wrong. And here’s the money quote:
“Once you start doing that, then government becomes something above and beyond what the American founders thought it should be,’ Palm said. “Government becomes more of a parental figure.’
I’m not sure where Mr. Palm’s been, but our government’s been parental since the 1914 Harrison Act. Prohibition followed close behind.
Big Brother knows what’s best for us chillun’s.
No wonder politicians are concerned about the armor-piercing capabilities of the .50 BMG cartridge.
Ten cents a round, eh? How many legislators are there in Sacramento?
Give me a few minutes. I have more to say on this matter.
Screw This, Time for Some Gun Stuff!
I have one of these:
but I want one of these:
And while I’m at it, one of these:
MSRP is $832, $1,153, and $1,058 respectively, though you can do a bit better at your local Kimber dealer.
Beautiful tools.
Oh, and just so you don’t think I’m an autoloader snob, I’d like a pair of these:
The S&W 627, eight-shot .357 revolver. They run around $800. But the guy responsible for putting “8 TIMES” on the barrel flat should be drawn & quartered.
Here’s a fine one, a Custom Shop snubbie 627:
I hate to think “How much?”
Our Collapsing Schools
Remember when I said that parents were a big part of the problem? Well, here’s an extreme example.
Mother, Sons Charged With Beating Teacher Unconscious
NEWBURGH, N.Y. — Police say a mother and her two sons beat a teacher unconscious at school with a desk and a chair because she had suspended the younger boy.
The teacher, who works in an alternative school program for troubled youth, had suspended the boy for spitting in her face and pushing her, police said.
Jamie Mereness, 34, and her 17-year-old son William Ramos, went with her 12-year-old son to the school Tuesday afternoon to confront the teacher, who was not identified, police said Thursday.
Police said Mereness, Ramos and the younger son choked and punched the teacher, then used a desk and a chair to beat her in a basement classroom, Detective Lt. Santo Centamore said.
The victim’s 11 year-old son witnessed the attack and called 911.
I wonder why the hell anybody would want to be a teacher these days. Attacked from above and below, and unable to control your classrooms, it just sets you up to be a victim.
Oh, So THAT’S It!
Ravenwood details the Democratic campaign strategy for the upcoming elections.
Yeah, that about covers it.
Modest 3BR/2BA Bungalow, Ocean View…
Clayton Cramer links to this quite large photo of Barbara Streisand’s palatial home – the one she wants pulled off the net because of “privacy” issues. However, as Clayton says: “I suspect it’s more that she doesn’t want everyone to see how absurdly large her home is.”
Does she own an SUV, too?
Michelle Needs to Get a Life Outside the Web
She holds a conversation with her cable modem.
I wonder if that would work with my wife?
Rachel Lucas – Piquance. Impudence. Ordnance.
Rachel rips off a rant on National Ask Day.
So I don’t have to.