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The Latest News from the Petri Dish.

This is actually old news, but I just ran across it recently. In the August 26 Sunday Times of London, reporter David Leppard (I wonder if his nickname is “Def”?) informs us:

THE government was accused yesterday of covering up the full extent of the gun crime epidemic sweeping Britain, after official figures showed that gun-related killings and injuries had risen more than fourfold since 1998.

Remember, the UK banned all licensed, registered centerfire handguns in 1997, and extended the ban to .22 rimfire handguns in February, 1998. The Home Office reported in February of 1999,

162,353 handguns and 700 tonnes of ammunition have been safely surrendered at an expected cost of £95 million.

The National Audit Office’s main conclusions are:
On ensuring prohibited handguns were surrendered or otherwise accounted for

* 25,000 fewer handguns were surrendered than the police forces estimated would be handed in. Forces have since concluded that this was because their estimates were inaccurate and included, for example, firearms which could be retained lawfully under various exemptions.
* We visited more than half the police forces in Britain (26 of 51) and found that most had satisfied themselves that all legally held handguns had been surrendered or otherwise accounted for. In four cases police investigations found that handguns that should have been surrendered had been retained illegally.

Only four cases! Boy, licensing and registration sure are effective measures.

If you want to confiscate things.

Home Office Minister Alan Michael announced after passage of the Act: “Britain now has some of the toughest gun laws in the world. We recognize that only the strictest control of firearms will protect the public.”

Riiiiight.

To continue with the Times report:

The Home Office figures – which exclude crimes involving air weapons – show the number of deaths and injuries caused by gun attacks in England and Wales soared from 864 in 1998-99 to 3,821 in 2005-06. That means that more than 10 people are injured or killed in a gun attack every day.

Granted, this pales in comparison with, say, the fifteen people killed in Chicago over the long weekend, but remember: England is an ISLAND. They have “needs-based” licensing, “safe storage” laws, ammunition quantity and type restrictions, bans on machine guns, semi-automatic and pump-action rifles, and all handguns. Their gun crime has always been a fraction of ours, and while our rates were decreasing each and every year (despite 3+ million new firearms being purchased here annually), their rates were slowly but steadily increasing.

They thought gun bans would make them safer.

But firearm-related crime is up fourfold since the handgun ban. And most of it is committed with handguns.

So, what to do? Cook the books!

This weekend the Tories said the figures challenged claims by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, that gun crime was falling. David Davis, the shadow home secretary, tells her in a letter today that the “staggering findings” show her claims that gun crime has fallen are “inaccurate and misleading”.

And, of course, repeating the same behavior while expecting a different result:

Smith last night proposed the setting up of neutral “drop-off zones” where illegal weapons could be handed in. “This means we can actually take that gun out of circulation and stop it from doing harm,” she said.

That’s what the handgun ban was supposed to do. The philosophy cannot be wrong! Do it again, only HARDER!

The Home Office has repeatedly denied gun crime is rising. Last week it pointed to the latest annual crime statistics, which appeared to show that overall gun crime was 13% down on the previous year.

Denial. River. Egypt. You know the cliché.

But in his letter to Smith, released today, Davis said these claims were contradicted by figures “buried” in a Home Office statistical bulletin, published earlier this year.” [Here] we find the most revealing indication of the true gun-related violence sweeping Britain. Gun-related killings and injuries (excluding air weapons) have increased over fourfold since 1998,” he wrote.

The Home Office said: “We remain fully committed to tackling gang culture and gun and knife crime through responsive policing, tough powers and funding prevention projects.”

Otherwise known as “escalation of failure.”

Hey! I know! Let’s try it here!

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About Damned Time.

Broward County, Florida Sheriff Ken Jenne has finally resigned. Like Al Capone, they got him for tax evasion. If you don’t know who Ken Jenne is, I’ve covered that lying sack a couple of times previously; first with the deceptive mendacious “assault weapons” piece run on CNN in May of 2003, either taking advantage of the ignorance John Zarella and the army of editors and producers behind him, or with their complicity. Later, in April of 2005 when it came to light that Sheriff Jenne’s office had apparently falsified crime statistics, and he was making money on the side through kickbacks from subcontractors he just happened to be an officer of.

That investigation is what finally got him, and it was long overdue.

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Yeah, Hollywood Has Our Back…

…and is gleefully and repeatedly sticking a knife in it.

WARNING: FOUL LANGUAGE FOLLOWS, BECAUSE I AM PISSED.

Remember this post? I’d been to see The Bourne Ultimatum (a not too pro-American film itself) and had to comment on three of the trailers shown before the feature: The Kingdom, Rendition, and Lions for Lambs.

Apparently the trailer for Redacted wasn’t yet available.

A new film about the real-life rape and killing of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl by U.S. soldiers who also murdered her family stunned the Venice festival, with shocking images that left some viewers in tears.

“Redacted”, by U.S. director Brian De Palma, is one of at least eight American films on the war in Iraq due for release in the next few months and the first of two movies on the conflict screening in Venice’s main competition.

Inspired by one of the most serious crimes committed by American soldiers in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, it is a harrowing indictment of the conflict and spares the audience no brutality to get its message across.

De Palma, 66, whose “Casualties of War” in 1989 told a similar tale of abuse by American soldiers in Vietnam, makes no secret of the goal he is hoping to achieve with the film’s images, all based on real material he found on the Internet.

“The movie is an attempt to bring the reality of what is happening in Iraq to the American people,” he told reporters after a press screening.

(All emphasis mine.)

OK, Brian, here’s my commentary on your film, which I have not seen and will not see:

If you want to make a film that brings “the reality of what is happening in Iraq to the American people” it had better include Al Qaeda suicide bombers deliberately targeting children and Mosques with VBIEDs. It had better include Al Qaeda torturing and murdering Iraqis with assistance from Iran and Syria. It had better include Americans providing medical care, building schools, providing supplies, training Iraqi police and military units, and all the other good things American soldiers do every single fucking day in Iraq. It had better include showing Americans what kind of living conditions our soldiers and Marines are experiencing as they do the damned hard job of nation-building that your fucking film makes even fucking harder. It had better show the coffins of our dead, and the effects those deaths have on their buddies, families and friends. It had better show our wounded – those who are injured, maimed, even those who lose limbs, and who still want to go back and finish the job. It had better show the “economic mercenaries” like Rocco DiPippo who go to Iraq to help them rebuild, and risk their lives to do so.

You want to make a movie about the atrocities committed by criminals in war? WAIT UNTIL THE WAR IS FUCKING OVER. Otherwise what you are doing is actively, willingly, and yes, traitorously providing a propaganda victory for the enemy. (Yes, Mark, I mean every goddamned word.)

Do atrocities occur in war? In every war that has ever occurred. Are those atrocities standard operating procedure or are they aberrations? Depends on the war. But in this case the five soldiers involved have been arrested, and most have either confessed and been sentenced or tried and convicted. Spc. James P. Barker confessed and has been given a sentence of 90 years. SGT Paul E. Cortez confessed and has been sentenced to 100 years. Pfc. Jesse Spielman received a sentence of 110 years. PFC Bryan L. Howard, who knew about the plan but did not participate in the rape and murders was sentenced to 27 months. The “ringleader” of the crime, PFC Steven Dale Green had been discharged from the Army prior to the case coming to light. He faces rape and murder charges as a civilian in Kentucky Federal court. He faces the death penalty when the case comes to trial, and I hope like hell he gets it. Maybe Brian DePalma can make a movie about that.

THIS IS WHAT WE DO TO CRIMINALS. We don’t make fucking propaganda movies for the other side.

“The pictures are what will stop the war. One only hopes that these images will get the public incensed enough to motivate their Congressmen to vote against this war,” he said.

NO, YOU ASSWIPE! “These images” will anger and inflame the Middle East and cause the Iraqis to doubt and fear us. It will embolden Al Qaeda and bring them new recruits. AND IT WILL MOST PROBABLY RESULT IN MORE OF OUR TROOPS GETTING KILLED.

And not only do you not give a damn about that, I’m willing to bet you’re counting on it since more deaths will increase pressure on Congress to cut and run.

The film, shot in Jordan with a little known cast, ends with a series of photographs of Iraqi civilians killed and their faces blacked out for legal reasons.

Note that it does NOT end with the fates of the soldiers involved, just the victims. Thankfully this cast is not filled with big-name actors, though I’m personally amazed that Spicoli isn’t playing PFC Green (or the 14 year-old girl). I guess he was too busy hobnobbing with Hugo Chavez to make the film.

Brian DePalma just got added to the list of people I will personally kick in the balls if I am ever unfortunate enough to be in their presence. He shares that list with Ted Rall.

Hey Brian, why not make your next project about the rape and murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsome? There’s lots on the internet about that one. I mean, Americans need to know what’s really going on here in America, don’t we?

How in the FUCK did we ever produce a population that holds such hatred of their own country and countrymen? I really want to know.

UPDATE: Related pieces here and here. Without the invective.

UPDATE II: And here. WITH big-name stars.

UPDATE III: If Hollywood wants to make movies about war, here’s a list of books they can option.

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Only Democrats and Dictators Fear Elections.

That’s a line from James Hudnall, from a post no longer available on the web. It stuck with me, and I’ve quoted it a couple of times here. It seems once again pertinent.

OpinionJournal carries a piece today on the efforts of T.J. Rogers, Silicon Valley entrepreneur and Dartmouth alum who got himself elected to the board of trustees at Dartmouth in an attempt to effect some positive change.

Things have not gone well. The powers-that-be in the board of trustees are not at all happy to have their power challenged by diversity of thought.

Here’s the quote of the day from that piece:

This is not a conservative-liberal conflict. This is a libertarian-totalitarian conflict.

Please read the whole piece.

This is just one more facet in something that’s been stirring in the back of my mind for a while, waiting to become another essay.

(h/t: Instapundit.)

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Just a Reminder:.

(Sorry, Peet! Last one! It’s little!)

The speaker at this year’s Rendezvous dinner will be Major Chuck Ziegenfuss, millblogger author of From My Position… On the Way! Major Zeigenfuss was wounded in June of 2005 shortly after being deployed to Iraq. He lost a finger, and has suffered significant damage to his hands. He was the inspiration behind Project Valour-IT which provides laptop computers with voice-recognition software to wounded and amputee soldiers. He received such a laptop while in Walter-Reed so he could continue to blog during his recovery, and that inspired him to begin the project.

I look forward to meeting the Major very much. Kudos to Mr. Completely for selecting and securing such a fine speaker.

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How Stupid is This?.

Tom Gresham thinks the gun community needs a new term for the AR15 rifle:

The term “assault weapon” was coined by gun banners who knew they could confuse the public who doesn’t know the difference between a full auto and a semi auto. It worked, and we got the Clinton Gun Ban (aka, the “assault weapon ban”).

Of course, the AR-15 platform is the most popular model rifle being made, and people use them for hunting, self protection, plinking, informal competition, national match competition, and pretty much any other type of shooting, because these rifles are robust, rugged, accurate and fun.

So, I decided we need a better descriptive term. Jim Shepherd, editor of The Shooting Wire (www.shootingwire.com) had a
suggestion. Jim Kenzie, producer of Tom Gresham’s Gun Talk had a good one — Utility Rifle. I like that one.

So . . . here’s your chance to vote. I’m putting several options on the Gun Talk web site in a sort of poll. I’m doing educational talks for the media on the AR-15, and I’d like to use a good, descriptive term that carries our idea of what this rifle is, and how it is used.

“Homeland Defense Rifle” was suggested by somebody a while back, but every time I hear the word “Homeland” (as in “Dept. of Homeland Security”) I expect to see people in black leather trench coats and knee-boots clicking their heels and giving stiff-arm salutes.

Anyway, if you’re interested go vote, but in my personal opinion they’re “semi-automatic rifles,” no different than a Remington 7400. And Tom? This is a “tactical rifle” too.

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Question:.

Reader Peet protests:

I have read your blog for a long time – been challanged and educated. But you have one MAJOR failing: As a dial-up user, I pray that, some day, you will learn something about image compression.

It is a minor problem for folks with fast connections, but it’ll be WEEKS before the huge images scroll off and I can read you again.

OK, how many of you out there are still on dial-up? I know loading the page can be slow, especially if Technorati or HaloScan are down, but should I start using thumbnails with links to the full-size image? You are the readership – I need to at least make the appearance that I’m trying to keep you happy!

Here We Go AGAIN!

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Via Gun Law News, meet Joaquin Jackson, NRA Board member and gun bigot, reincarnation of Bill Ruger, er, Jim Zumbo, um, clueless idiot, ah! “Only One.”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSGySNLyACE&w=425&h=350]

He’s apparently an ex-Texas Ranger, so that explains the “Only Ones” mentality.

I personally believe a weapon should never have over a – as far as civilian – a five round capacity. If you’re a hunter, if you’re a hunter, if you’re going to go hunting with a weapon, you shouldn’t need only but one round.

This after stating:

I feel like if we lose the Second Amendment, then somebody will take the first, then they’ll take the third, and the fourth and there will be a domino effect….

His statement was made in an interview in 2005, and apparently the YouTube video is a recent post with no date. The NRA is now attempting damage control:

Recently, concerns have been raised in response to statements made by NRA Board Member Joaquin Jackson to Texas Monthly in 2005. We have received questions from NRA members who are seeking clarity as to NRA’s positions on the subject matter discussed in Mr. Jackson’s interview. To be clear, NRA supports the right of all law-abiding citizens to Keep and Bear Arms for all lawful purposes. We will continue, as we have in the past, to vigorously oppose any efforts to limit gun ownership by law-abiding citizens as an unconstitutional infringement on our Second Amendment freedoms. These efforts include opposition to any attempts to ban firearms, including firearms incorrectly referred to as “assault weapons”, and any attempts to place arbitrary limits on magazine capacity.

Mr. Jackson also attempts to defend himself on that page:

Recently, some misunderstandings have arisen about a news interview in which I participated a few years ago. After recently watching a tape of that interview, I understand the sincere concerns of many people, including dear friends of mine. And I am pleased and eager to clear up any confusion about my long held belief in the sanctity of the Second Amendment.

In the interview, when asked about my views of “assault weapons,” I was talking about true assault weapons – fully automatic firearms. I was not speaking, in any way, about semiautomatic rifles. While the media may not understand this critical distinction, I take it very seriously. But, as a result, I understand how some people may mistakenly take my comments to mean that I support a ban on civilian ownership of semiautomatic firearms. Nothing could be further from the truth. And, unfortunately, the interview was cut short before I could fully explain my thoughts and beliefs.

In fact, I am a proud owner of such rifles, as are millions of law-abiding Americans. And many Americans also enjoy owning fully automatic firearms, after being cleared by a background check and meeting the rigorous regulations to own such firearms. And these millions of lawful gun owners have every right – and a Second Amendment right – to own them.

As a hunter, I take great pride in my marksmanship. Every hunter should practice to be skilled to take prey with a single shot, if possible. That represents ethical, humane, skilled hunting. In the interview several years ago, I spoke about this aspect of hunting and my belief that no hunter should take the field and rely upon high capacity magazines to take their prey.

But that comment should never be mistaken as support for the outright banning of any ammunition magazines. In fact, such bans have been pursued over the years by state legislatures and the United States Congress and these magazine bans have always proven to be abject failures.

Let me be very clear. As a retired Texas Ranger, during 36 years of law enforcement service, I was sworn to uphold the United States Constitution. As a longtime hunter and shooter, an NRA Board Member, and as an American – I believe the Second Amendment is a sacred right of all law-abiding Americans and, as I stated in the interview in question, I believe it is the Second Amendment that ensures all of our other rights handed down by our Founding Fathers.

I have actively opposed gun bans and ammunition and magazine bans in the past, and I will continue to actively oppose such anti-gun schemes in the future.

I appreciate my friends who have brought this misunderstanding to light, for it has provided me an opportunity to alleviate any doubts about my strong support for the NRA and our Second Amendment freedom.

And I suppose you have a “wide stance” as well.

Sorry, Ranger Jackson, that doesn’t fly with me. As a former law enforcement official you were one of “the Only Ones” – and apparently liked it that way. Fully-automatic rifles were not mentioned – hunting was. (A five-round capacity for fully automatic weapons? How stupid do you think we are?) I will not accuse you of supporting a ban – you did not. You stated your personal opinion, and the word “ban” wasn’t mentioned.

But it was implied that you wouldn’t oppose one.

I sincerely hope that since that 2005 interview you’ve changed your mind on the topic, but this shuck-and-jive routine makes me think that you have not.

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Quote of the Day, Pt. II

From Kenn Blanchard:

Guns are not the problem with the increase of violence in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Detroit and New York. The problem is the community is waiting for someone else to fix the broken home, the un-parented child, the illiterate graduate, and the spiritually bankrupt. We collectively spend more attention and give more love to animals than we do our children. And then when they grow up into prostitots, thugs and mirror the images from People magazine we want to blame something. I have seen the enemy and it is us.

(H/t to PGP)