Farago Shills For Moonies

White Robert Farago attempts to defend blacks in Moonie Times Op/Ed:

Not to put too fine a point on it, Chicago's new handgun-licensing laws are inherently racist. For proof, consider Washington, D.C

Odd, there's no mention that the Moonie Times' owner--Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church--also owns a firearm manufacturer, Kahr Arms.
But let's return to Farago's silly op/ed. He claims--without any evidence--that the only folks availing themselves of guns in DC are whites who are able to afford the fees. Of course, he also neglects to mention that the vast majority of DC's black populace didn't want the handgun regulations overturned. Despite Fargo's ridiculous assertion that gun control has roots in racism--it really cannot be denied that racism and Jim Crow laws were advanced, not by denying blacks guns, but by denying them access to public institutions and voting.

Another CCW Killer

Guilty of Killing Police Officer:

In a tearful statement to the Miktarian family earlier this month, Thompson admitted he fired the shots that killed the officer during a traffic stop in the predawn hours of July 13, 2008, because of loud music coming from Thompson's car

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Of course, CCW killers are nothing new, but we're finding more and more of these folks have had numerous brushes with the law.

Mike W's Excellent Summer Vacation

Vacation Bible Gun Camp!

In Guns We Trust

Exorcist and Governor of Louisiana, Piyush 'Bobby' Jindal (R-Weirdeaux) has decided his state doesn't have enough gun violence, so he's doubling down:

Louisiana GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal has signed a law allowing holders of concealed-weapons permits to carry guns into houses of worship.

Quick thoughts: 1. If you need to bring a gun to church, you're probably in the wrong religion. 2. This, of course, will enable gunloons to actually bring what they worship to services.

Meanwhile, in Israeli Gun News

US airlines lose Netanyahu bodyguard guns

Gunloon Utopia of Israel Not so Gun-Friendly

New NRA Meme: Self-Defense Against Aliens

Let's see:
Felon with a gun? Check.
Gun show loophole? Check.
Self-defense against aliens who live under the sun? Check.

The seller initially thought Eisenman was joking, but Eisenman went on to say that every 30,000 years, aliens who live under the sun come to Earth to kill humans, and so he plans to be prepared for them because "they're going to be coming soon."

After checking his background, police discovered that Eisenman is a convicted felon. As such, he is not allowed to own handguns or rifles

.

Separated at Birth

A tip o' the hat to Laci.

Why the Brady Campaign Often Fails-and How They Can Achive Success (Part 3)

Opening the toolbox for the Brady Campaign, VPC, et al.

1. Initiate, Don't React. It's unnecessary to respond to everything the NRA says or does. Always playing defense greatly diminishes your chances of scoring. Of course, when the NRA does or says something stupid--go after them. Otherwise, make the NRA respond to you.
2. Your mission is the four Es. Enforcement. Engineering. Education. Epidemiology.
Enforcement is working to close all the loopholes. Gun show loopholes. The loopholes in the Brady Law.
Engineering-innovations that make firearms safer. Think beyond trigger locks and gun safes. Initiatives that make it easier to trace crime guns.
Education. Do you realize most Americans believe every firearm is registered? They do.
Epidemiology. This cuts across the first 3 Es. One of the things the gunloons dread more than anything is scientific studies. They don't want this information available to the public because it shines a very bright light on our problems.
3. Smeed's Law. Smeed was a British statistician who theorized about auto fatalities and the population. His friend, the American physicist, Dyson Freeman said of Smeed's Law: "People will drive recklessly until the number of deaths reaches the maximum they can tolerate. When the number exceeds that limit, they drive more carefully. Smeed’s Law merely defines the number of deaths that we find psychologically tolerable.”
Your job is to render gun violence in the US intolerable.
4. Guerilla Advocacy. Know the most effective advocacy organization? It ain't the NRA; they spend millions with little return on their investment. It's PETA. PETA does more with less than any organization going. If you're serious about reducing gun violence--PETA can provide lessons in how to get the message across.

In Part 4, I provide specific examples.

Stairway to Heaven

For your edification, I give you Rodrigo y Gabriela. This duo started out in a Mexican heavy metal band, moved to Ireland and busked for a while. Be sure to check out their other stuff.

Great Movie Moment: Bogart Edition

Australian Gun Laws Failing

Just kidding:

The use of firearms to kill people remains at historic lows in Australia, and well below gun-related murder in other countries, the Australian Institute of Criminology says.

Statistics to be published next month show that 12 per cent of Australian homicides in 2007-08 were performed with firearms.

The use of handguns has reduced dramatically. About half of all murders with firearms were committed with handguns in 2006-07, but this fell to 20 per cent the following year.

Gunloon (Herman) Justice

Everyday's a smorgasbord for gunloonery. Who wants to bet Herman Justice is an NRA member?

Herman Justice:

The dashboard-camera footage retrieved from the vehicle of pretend police officer Herman Justice shows him ordering a bewildered Metairie motorist out of her car just off Interstate 10 early Friday morning with his hands wrapped tightly around a black pistol and a bright gold badge flashing from the waistband of his khakis.


The woman stood with her hands on her car for several tense minutes as Justice guarded her, first with an extendable baton, then with a pit bull, until the arrival of a State Police trooper

.

Update: Seems NRA posterboy Herman Justice has a criminal record.

Sensibly Silly

You can always tell you're in for some fun when you get a comment from Commenter Stephen , who has a blog entitled "Sensibly Progressive."
I guess titles like "Merry Colonoscopy" or "Attractive Gangrene" were already taken.
Anyhow, Stevie sez:

First off, the NRA serves it's 4 million members. People like me. And many others. It's an organization run democratically and members, not the "firearms" industry, cast the votes. On the other side is the 50,000 or so members of the anti-gun groups

.
In 2008, NRA Treasurer and CFO Wilson H. Phillips Jr. claimed NRA membership to be "about 3 million."

Wait a minute: "about 3 million NRA Members"? What happened to "four million members strong"? Where's the missing million members? Shouldn't the Treasurer and CFO of the NRA know the membership numbers? Unless, of course, the NRA is being less than, uh, forthcoming. This would, however, help explain why an organization that gives every adult member a choice of one of three free magazines with their membership dues has a total circulation for these publications of less than 2.7 million for the six months ending in December 2007 according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

But numbers don't matter, right? The NRA is "run democratically." Not so fast, O Sensei of Sensible. The only NRA members who get ballots are those who are lifetime members of the NRA or are members for 5 consecutive years or more. Over the past decade, this means only about half of the NRA's 3 million members are eligible to vote. What this means is that the NRA undergoes a very large turnover; that is, fewer than half its membership stays in the NRA for 5 years. But that's not the striking statistic. Of the roughly 1.5 million who are eligible to vote--only about 100 thousand actually do so. IOW, one in fifteen eligible NRA voters exercise their vote. In US elections, low voter turnout is descibed as anything being less than 35-40% of eligible voters voting. In the NRA's case, only 6% of their eligible voters turn out. Low turnout is seen as an indictment of leadership; it means the electorate is apathetic, indifferent or opposed to the leadership. That's why you often see despotic regimes like North Korea or Saddam's Iraq boast about 99% orchestrated turnout at elections.

Why the Brady Campaign Often Fails-and How They Can Achive Success (Part 2)

The NRA: The NRA is in business to provide its leadership with a lucrative living and to service the firearms industry. The nonsense about protecting the Second Amendment or protecting gunowner rights is a facade. They are a lobbying organization beholden solely to the firearm industry.
Selling Fear: The product sold to the dupes by the NRA is fear. Fear of minorities, fear of the media, fear of the Government, fear of foreigners, fear of change, fear of just about everything. Is it any wonder the low-information citizen is going to turn his home (or his parent's) into an arsenal? As I sagely noted in Part 1, the very notion of change must be accompanied by pure and mortal dread.
The Brady Campaign: To combat the NRA, the BC has often tried to counter the NRA's relentless fear-mongering. But those duped by the NRA regard the slippery slope as empirical certainty. IOW, if there is even the smallest notion of sensible gun control, it will surely lead to all guns being conficated and gunowners led away to the camps.
In Part 3, I provide BC with a roadmap to success.