DC Police have a point

And I side with them on their determination that gun cameras, while well intentioned, are actually pretty useless.

Council member Harry Thomas Jr. on Tuesday introduced a bill requiring Mayor Adrian M. Fenty to come up with a "plan for the installation of video and audio recording devices on service firearms of all police and special police officers."

The police argue that the video/audio will only tell part of the story:

Kristopher Baumann, the head of the D.C. police union, said the cameras would come with high costs and no benefits.

The lack of footage showing a confrontation before an officer draws a gun makes the captured evidence useless, he said, and every officer would have to be retrained because
the camera alters the balance of the weapon.

Yup. My thoughts as well. Thomas says that he intends to reintroduce the law basically until something better comes down the road. Who really cares that the legislation sucks. We have to do something damnit!

Legislation that speaks volumes

But does nothing to stop violent criminals, and sounds like it kicks dust on the otherwise dead corpse of the right to bear arms in DC. Hey, at least they're doing something, right?

The D.C. Council on Tuesday adopted an emergency anti-crime bill that further tightens the city’s gun laws, raises mandatory minimum sentences for certain felonies and criminalizes riding in a vehicle where there is an illegal firearm.

And by illegal firearm, DC Examiner Staff Writer Michael Neibauer actually meant to say, but didn't, is that it includes every firearm; because carrying one in your car is illegal as far as I have heard.

So what about Americans who are on a peaceable journey with their firearm while on their way to states who still give a damn about the rights of their citizens; like New Hampshire? Oh, I'm sure there will be some exception for those folks. Sure, sure. There's no way that innocent people get ensnared in carefully calculated laws such as this. It's only for the criminals, you see.

Not all of the council members voted for the law. Apparently, they are acutely aware of the constitutional disaster that the anti-gang part of the legislation would have brought: allowing arrests of groups of people for assembling is a tough nut to crack indeed, but the same council members could care less about the constitutional right to bear arms; even after the smackdown they received last year in the Heller case.

Mendelson dismissed the argument that law enforcement lacks crime-fighting tools to battle the summer crime spike. There needs to be a legislative focus on “more effective strategies,” he said, not constitutionally suspect proposals that may not work.“

Between the police and the prosecutors, we have two volumes of the D.C. Code,” he said. “There are plenty of tools.”The emergency bill sets harsher penalties for using a stolen vehicle to commit a violent crime, creates a gun offender registry and eases the way for prosecutors to detain an allegedly violent criminal pretrial.

So now we see the two faces of the beast.

On one hand, DC has plenty of words written down on paper for their half hearted attempts to stop crime; in essence, there's no need to pass the part of the bill that's "constitutionally suspect." On the other hand, the council passes the bill with a "constitutionally suspect" part of the law because making something more illegal will surely stop crime this time.

It reminds me of what Kevin at The Smallest Minority always says: "Do it again, only HARDER!!"

I'm not imagining things here folks. The council members have selective hearing when it comes to rights, and it's almost like they have no idea of this phenomenon. Almost:

Critics argued that civil injunctions threaten civil liberties — innocent bystanders may be swept up by police and tagged as gang members by the courts, they said. The proposal, said Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh, was “gimmickry” and would lead to racial profiling.

“Once a young person is labeled as a gang member, whether they are or not, that is a tag that can never be removed,” said Ward 5 Councilman Harry Thomas Jr.

You don't say?

So there's no way that gun owners will be swept into this and be "tagged as gang members" by "gimmickry" gun legislation? And once they end up convicted of transporting their scary looking STI MatchMaster across the utopia of DC, you can count on them earning a "tag that can never be removed."

How does that not threaten civil liberties?

Dumbassery: What could go wrong edition

John Hinckley Jr. will be given a drivers licence!

Hell, we give them to people who aren't even citizens of this country, right? Who cares if we give one to a murderous nutbag.

But don't worry folks. He's been court ordered to carry a taxpayer funded cellphone! Maybe the judge will tell him under the strongest possible terms that he is NOT allowed to text while driving. And since it has GPS, there's no way he can ditch the phone in order to avoid being tracked!

Isn't justice fun!!

And just to be absolutely sure that any more nutcases don't shoot sitting presidents or their aids, we should go ahead and take guns away from all the sane citizens that we can. That will help.

Cutting edge crimefighting tools to stop suicidal spree shooters!

WASHINGTON – Citing recent killings in Arkansas, Kansas and the nation's capital, Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday said new hate crimes law were needed to stop what he called "violence masquerading as political activism."

Yes, because we all know that psychopaths who strike a notion to kill Jews at a museum or Soldiers at a recruiting station, and who are not concerned whether they survive the deed, will be deterred by hate crime laws.

What a freaking diabolically genious plan you have there AG!

Oh, please sir! Save us all from the evils of crazy men with toughly written words! And act fast, because there's bound to be another scumbag neo-National Socialist (that will be called "right wing" by ABC News and other propaganda outlets because he is a veteran) planning an attack right now.

Idiot.

New footage doesn't look good

The Oklahoma Highway Patrolman that clashed with an EMT almost a month ago says his dashcam vindicates his actions.

I can't agree from what I see.

Any disputes about a traffic violation, failure to yield to a police cruiser with flashing lights, or whatever, should have been dealt with at the hospital. The moment the EMT said he had a patient in the car is the moment all arguing should have stopped. Both the cop and the EMT have a sworn duty to protect the public, and the woman in the back of the ambulance is "the public."

If it were my ass in the back of that ambulance, you can bet that I wouldn't be happy waiting on the side of the road for two professionals who serve the public to finish their dick measuring contest. Take me to the hospital already.

Now I'm confused

PITTSBURGH -- In June, Pittsburgh police arrested one of their own after discovering a man on the city's South Side was grazed by a bullet from an off-duty police officer's gun.

The off duty cop had a BAC of .11, but was found "not guilty of aggravated assault, drunken driving and reckless endangerment" by the judge. I find that odd since a citizen would surely have been found guilty under the same circumstances, and there would probably be another charge for carrying a firearm while intoxicated.

The part where it gets really confusing is here:

"In this particular case, we had testimony that Mr. Abel was assaulted, there were witnesses that saw Mr. Abel assaulted, and it's his responsibility as a citizen and as a police officer to pursue that person who assaulted him," Hanlon said.

So he had a duty as a citizen to pursue an antagonist with a firearm while intoxicated? Good to know. Somehow I don't think the same rules apply to those without a badge.

Gun turned against scumbag

But. . .but. . .I thought only criminals know the secret judo gun grab.

Sucks for him.

Violence in LA

LOS ANGELES -- Celebration turned to near riots in Los Angeles after the Lakers defeated the Orlando Magic to win the NBA finals Sunday.

The Los Angeles Police Department says about 25 people were arrested after some threw rocks and bottles, damaged police cruisers and set several small fires in the streets outside Staples Center.

This is because they were celebrating. I guess all of the non-rioting citizens are lucky the Lakers didn't lose.

I'm pretty tough on California, but it stands to be known that only coastal California is crazy. I point out this article to show that there is something more to the violence in LA, and in other metropolitan cities, than guns or gangs.

When you have a populace that finds it perfectly acceptable to torch businesses and turn over police cars because they're happy, then you have a populace that will never be civil no matter what the situation, and you're not going to keep the peace with stupid laws.

Unfortunately, those arrested in the rioting will more than likely get a slap on the wrist and be turned loose; no doubt they will be at the next major game for some more mayhem.

Movie Guns updates

I have updated Movie Guns VIII - Miami Vice, as well as Movie Guns XI - Blood Diamond as part of my effort to fix my screwups.

I also would like to point out that I just saw the movie trailer for Public Enemies staring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale that is based on the story of John Dillinger. To really get your pulse racing, the film is directed by Michael Mann, so you can bet on the gun slinging to be top shelf.

Massive technical difficulties

So, my home PC is no longer on the rocks (it's at least running under it's own power) but the big ass 22" screen is TU. While I was on travel, I was going to do a Movie Guns on my work laptop since I didn't have the kids around to otherwise direct my attention.

Sadly, my new work PC has the same problems as my old one, in that it can't capture images from a movie. Pasting a picture into MS Paint, or any other program doesn't work, so no Movie Guns yet. To top that off, coming home from travel took way longer than I had anticipated, so that is where I've been.

O'Hare Airport sucks.

Now, the time has come in my home renovation to do my man cave, so the home PC is unplugged and buried under stuff in a back room, but my wife's new computer is available. Also, my mother kindly gave me a laptop to use in the meantime, but both of these lack the big ass screen that I believe gives me such nice screen caps.

I have an idea though, but I don't want to give it away just yet in case I'm really just an idiot. Brilliancy or bust!

I'll keep you posted.

This is my rifle, this is my gUUUUUUUn!!

Where art thou, CTone?

Sorry about the lack of posting lately, I've been running at full tilt. I've got some goodies for you to show for it though.

I've been on travel to Rock Island Arsenal, Il: a beautiful island in the middle of the Mississippi River that has been building weapons to slay our enemies for almost one hundred and thirty years. And let me tell you, they've got stuff here that I've never seen before, and some of it is flat out amazing.

The island was built in the early 1800s as a Fort, but was converted into an arsenal to house the US' war machine. The terrain is very flat, and most of the buildings are massive structures built with what looks like huge stone block dredged from the depths of the Mississippi. One has the feeling that this installation was built to withstand years of bombardment and siege warfare. All around the arsenal are guns of every sort that bristle out towards the surrounding Illinois and Iowa.

Now, we gunnies always talk about guns, but in reality we are talking about firearms, or small arms. The two terms are nowadays generally considered interchangeable, but there are major differences that military folk are quick to point out. Firearms are weapons that are carried by the individual. Guns are big crew served weapon systems that fire special purpose projectiles.

I got the chance today to go to the Rock Island Arsenal Museum, and I have some gun porn to show you that might shed some light on what I'm talking about. Here we have an example of a firearm:


That is a gorgeous example of a Nambu pistol, if you don't mind me using 'gorgeous' and 'Nambu' in the same sentence.

Here is a gun, taken outside the museum:


See what I mean?

Some more guns:






Here are some mortars:


There was about a hundred feet of wall in the museum that was covered with firearms of every imaginable type. I suspect that even the most knowledgeable gunnies would scratch their heads at some of the stuff I saw there. Keep in mind that these weapons are behind six inches of glass, and so the picture quality might not be the best:





Obviously I'm not going to try to identify them as there are so many, and there are plenty that I've never seen before. The good thing is that there are numbered tags on all of them, and there are binders every ten feet or so for you to find out the type of weapon and history behid them. I'm not going to post all of the pictures that I took - you'll have to go to the museum yourself and check it out, but her are some of the more strange looking weapons:





You don't want to be hit with those last ones!

Think you can ID any of em'? I've got news for you, that's only the begining! What do you think about this:


Or this death ray looking thing:


Confused yet? So am I. It reminds me of the movie Demolition Man, when Wesley Snipes says "wait a minute. . .this is the future. . . where are all the phazer guns?"

I have no idea what these are:


I did look some of them up, like this M16 looking pellet gun manufactured by Daisy as part of the "Quick Kill Project," whatever the hell that was:


Or how about number 5895:


Would you have ever guessed that it's a High Standard Model 10 Police modified in a bullpup configuration with a flashlight built into the handle? Nope, me neither.

How about these Gwinn Firearms Bushmaster pistols:


That's just a taste though. There are walls and walls and walls of Broomhandle Mausers, M1911s, Sigs, Berettas, Brownings, revolvers of every shape and form, machine guns, submachine guns, rocket launchers, muskets, trade guns, wall guns, howitzers, sabers, you name it.

Keep in mind that all of these deadly things were at one point designed by some intrepid and thoughtful individual who believed that somewhere, someplace, a Soldier or Marine might perhaps be interested in hunting down and killing someone with one. I love America!!

If you ever get the chance to go, I highly recommend it. And the best part is that it's free!!

My Gateway is busted

My two year old Gateway is all jacked up, but it's running. Unfortunately, I'm not on it because the monitor is dead. The warranty is two years from what I can gather, and it's been right at two years. A quick Google search shows that my monitor is known for dying a quick death.

I remember a time when people took pride in building shit that lasted for awhile. Those days are over.

My computer is not the only thing that's screwed up. I got a HTC Fuse for Christmas, and when I have time I'm sending it back because it's so jacked up it barely works. I have two pages of stuff I've wrote down that doesn't work, and that's not counting the stuff that's just part of the design. That it answers calls in my pocket is a design problem; that it forgets every phone number in my speed dial is a defect. I have to hard reset sometimes several times a day because it locks up and won't work.

Junk.

When will people start making quality products again? Electronics these days are especially unreliable, and I don't trust my lively hood to them.

I will have lots of time next week, and I will be using a laptop to do the Movie Guns post. I wanted it done this weekend but that's impossible right now. Stay tuned.

Have no fear citizen! Crime camera is here!

DC officials are going to stop crime in Adams Morgan by. . . . .putting up a "crime camera."

I thought those didn't stop crime?

This piece of breathtaking ingenuity comes after council member Jim Graham proposed banning late night pizza joints in the area because of "Behaving the way they do in terms of music, in terms of letting people hang out and also in terms of tolerating a certain level of violence."

See?

If you're a business owner, tourist, or otherwise good person enjoying the night life in DC, then you're enabling scumbags to cause crime. Maybe someone should propose a curfew, since the only reason to be out at night, besides going to a club or a pizza joint, is to rob said people and shoot one another. It's for your own good folks.

I can't get over the fact that those elected to office in DC insist that you should leave your safety to the police, but then turn around and blame business owners for putting up with violence; like they should do something about it. You can bet that when the first citizen walks outside his or her store and tells the thugs to stop fighting, and they pull guns and shoot them dead, that Graham, Fenty, and Lanier will come out and say that they shouldn't have gotten involved.

Maybe it's time for another "All Hands on Deck," because DC is kinda hard up for money these days, and you know that ticketing drivers and barricading neighborhoods is great for the vibe.

Sheesh. DC residents: you voted these morons in office, so you get all the government you deserve. Enjoy it.

Late start this morning

Blogging will be light today and tomorrow. Actually, I wouldn't count on any blogging tomorrow as I will be otherwise engaged in something else.

As a side note, my computer went tango uniform this week, but my mom managed to bring it back from the edge of its demise. I have to get a new monitor cord before I can fire it back up, and when I do I will be working on my next Movie Guns post, which will surely be a Mega Post.

I have been putting off this particular film for a long time, as I know that I will be way over my head. I realized though that I do not have any more time this week than I did the last, so I'm going to grit my teeth and get to work. This is one of my first requests by the way, and I take such requests seriously.

If I haven't responded to your request, it's because I sometimes lose track of comments from older posts, so send me another comment or shoot me an email.

Assault rifle crime

Well, the rifle didn't assault, but the man holding it did. Either way, the 30.06 used is closer to the term than, say, the rifle used here.

Crime down last year

According to the FBI.

Can anyone tell me what's up with that Walther P99 in the picture? It looks like the slide is broken.

Update: As pointed out in comments, the Walther is actually a pellet gun.

Thanks much!

On the recruiting station shooting

Well, it looks as if the scumbag responsible converted to Islam and decided to go out and kill Soldiers. Too bad he didn't give them the chance to a fair fight by meeting them on the battlefield. I guess his faith and desire for martyrdom wasn't as strong as his desire to be famous; now he will get a wrist slap from our justice system and spend like thirty years in prison.

It's so weird that the shooter didn't turn out to be a veteran with a Ron Paul bumper sticker.

There's also some dispute about the "small arsenal" that whats-his-face had:

At the time of the shooting, the subject had approximately 200 rounds of ammunition available, police said.

A couple lines later we find out what constitutes an arsenal:

But the car was loaded with a small arsenal. Officers who searched the car found more than 100 rounds of ammunition, an SKS assault rifle, two pistols, and two military books.

Wow. Not to be picky or anything, but a one hundred percent increase in ammunition for an arsenal makes for pretty terrible reporting. I guess that mathematics is passed up in journalism training for more useful skills like sensationalism.

Also, an SKS is not, nor was it ever, an assault rifle.

On California's budgeting nightmare

SailorCurt has a hilarious post of a letter to The Governator on tightening that fiscal belt.

A must read!

Strong legislation needed

Witnesses told 7NEWS that a fight between gang members precipitated the shooting. Geneva, who didn't want her last name used said that she saw gang members flashing signs and fighting with each other just before the shooting.

Obviously we need to outlaw gangs and ban gang signs, that's just common sense, but the first thing that crossed my mind was that they have violent gangs in Colorado.

Colorado? Really?!?!

Anyways, it's pretty horrible that an innocent person was killed. I don't have much sympathy for gangbangers that kill each other, but bystanders are a different matter.

One more condemnation should just about do it

Or maybe a strongly worded letter. From the UN.

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea has transported its most advanced missile, believed to be capable of reaching Alaska, to a launch site on its west coast near China, news reports said Monday.

The reclusive communist country was also reportedly bolstering it defenses and conducting amphibious assault exercises along its western shore, near disputed waters where deadly naval clashes with the South have occurred in the past.

OK, so North Korea stopped rattling their saber and has now started swinging it around wildly above their head.

CAPTAIN DIPLOMACY, DO SOMETHING!!! HURRY!!!!

North Korea is bitching about US and South Korean spy planes, but correct me if I'm wrong in that spy planes are pretty much obsolete. I mean, we have satellites, so why would we bother with putting a pilot's life at risk by sending him into harms way when we can just get the intel we need from Google?

On another note, I always get a case of the giggles when the news shows something as phallic as a ballistic missile being raised with a name that looks like it says "Tapadong."