The American Citizen Won

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the District of Columbia cannot ban a citizen from keeping a handgun at home, throwing out one of the nation's strictest gun control laws.

Writing for the 5-4 majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said that the Constitution protects an individual's right to keep and carry a gun.

The only bad news was the decision was 5-4, it should have been 9-0. Its a reminder that elections count and if you don't want the USSC to reverse it when the next president appoints two more liberal justices, vote in November. Sitting on the sideline is not an option, it is the same as voting for the other person.

California gun owners face further harrassment

I admit I am using the headline of the article.

This is very bad new for gun owners.

AB2062 is scheduled to be heard on Wednesday, May 7 in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.Sponsored by State Assembly Member Kevin De Leon D-45), AB2062 would require that law-abiding gun owners obtain a permit to buy handgun ammunition and would impose severe restrictions on the private transfers of handgun ammunition. Applicants for a "permit-to-purchase" would be required to submit to a background check, pay a $35 fee, and wait as long as 30 days to receive the permit.

Yes, lets just rely on the police to protect us

The 911 system and the police departments are good. But they cannot protect us from crime happening to us.

A woman called 911 saying someone was breaking into her home, shots were heard and then silence. 911 couldn't save her. A 9MM or .357 magnum could have.

To those who say only police and the military should be allowed guns, please explain how a person will defend themselves in this situation? And you know the bad guys will always have guns if they are willing to pay enough to get them.

Gun Buyback

Alex Tabarrok has a blog and editorial about the Oakland gun buyback. Oakland would pay $250 for every turned in gun, no ID and no questions asked. So the first two people in line were gun dealers from Reno who turned in 60 guns for a quick $15,000 for taking away their old inventory.

Nice work if you can get it.

Hat tip Instapundit

Obama and the Second Amendment

The good Senator Obama and Democratic hopeful is on record as a lawmaker who has restricted gun rights with the intent to allow only to those firearms pertaining to hunting and target shooting. Nowhere does he mention any support for handguns or semi-automatic weapons for any other purpose. In fact, the Democratic senator is involved in several organizations to disarm America. His position statement is filed under "Sportsmen" (click on link and find it in the linked PDF) and it is telling (emphasis mine):

Millions of hunters own and use guns each year. Millions more participate in a variety of shooting sports such as sporting clays, skeet, target, and trap shooting that may not necessarily involve hunting. As a former constitutional law professor, Barack Obama understands and believes in the constitutional right of Americans to bear arms. He will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns for the purposes of hunting and target shooting.

If we remember correctly, the Second Amendment was the right of the citizenry to bear arms for the purposes of defense, not just hunting and target shooting. Obama himself notes that he "did not grow up hunting and fishing", so his familiarity with guns may be only academic, and not practical.

But is that all? Even if we were to grant that types of firearms could be classified as "state approved" or "state disapproved", it makes no logical sense to suggest state approval would lesson any category of crime or make the public safer. A gun is a gun is a gun.

What the anti-gun lobby pushes for in such seemingly conciliatory words is a slow war of attrition. Win by slowly eroding the enemy's position. I suggest should the law of the land restrict ownership to hunting longarms and target pistols, the next logical step for the anti-gun lobby would be to remove even these rights as well towards the ultimate goal of zero firearms altogether. After all, how can you restrict the use of a shotgun to skeet shooting? It's the operator; not the instrument. It's a slippery slope, my friends, and the government cannot legislate intent as much as it thinks that it can.

Senator Obama's mealy mouthed "position" is a thinly guised attempt to fool some into thinking he supports the Second Amendment and thus garner their support for his election. True, all candidates will attempt to posture, but only Obama would take away our guns.

(H/T: Bob Owens at Pajamas)

Another school shooting

A gunman killed 5 people before killing himself at Northern Illinois University yesterday.

If students or faculty were allowed to carry concealed weapons, could this have been avoided or at least few victims? I believe so.

With friends like these . . .

Yes, I borrowed the title from the article. Why did the Bush administration file a brief with the Supreme Court supporting the Washington DC gun ban? I think the appellate court was correct and hope the Supreme Court upholds them by at least a 7-2 margin.

Afternoon Updates

Three stories I found over lunch and wanted to highlight.

Another reason why citizens need to arm themselves. The police cannot guarantee your safety. Hard to listen to the video, but do it. Especially true for women.
Hat tip Glenn Reynolds.

GM claims they have a process on making ethanol for about $1.00 a gallon. It sounds almost too good to be true, but here is hoping it is. Hat tip Glenn Reynolds.

And finally, in South Carolina, Fred Thompson is gaining at the expense of Mike Huckabee, which is good news for Fred supporters. But McCain is now leading in the state (who I dislike only a little less then Huckabee).
Current polling data:
McCain at 28%
Huckabee at 19%
Mitt Romney at 17%
Fred Thompson at 16%
Rudy Giuliani and Ron Paul are tied with 5%
Hat tip Glenn Reynolds (Yes I read Instapundit and highly recommend it, wide range of items discussed there)

I hope Fred does better and McCain falls, actually while I haven't made up my mind yet, I'm leaning more towards Fred then anyone else. Mitt or Rudy would be next in line.

Do NOT let your wife/girlfriend see this

More on the guy who took a rifle and made it cute by putting Hello Kitty on it.

Read the comments on the thread, a lot of guys are now having to see how to get a copy of the gun for their wives and daughters, all because of a paint job.

The gun is a real Stag 2H rifle with a MonsterMan grip, ambi-selector, an A1 stock, a YHM Phantom muzzle brake, and a C Products 10/30 magazine.

This will drive the anti-gun folks crazy

The law of unintended consequences is alive and well in the State of California.

Guns are evil because they look scary etc. etc. etc.

Go and check out the HK AR-15 at RifleGear.com. No, HK does not stand for Heckler and Koch but rather Hello Kitty. Yep you read that right. Go over and check out the gun. Perfect gift for your 8 year old daughter, introduce her to weapons early so she will know how to use them correctly and how to defend herself if or when the bad guys come and the police are not around.

Hat tip Of Arms and the Law