Thor’s Hall

A tragedy struck today in Tacoma. Kind of close to home as I have a lot of extended family that lives in the area. The story is here.

Over the past few years I have become a big advocate for self defense.  Close in to moderate distances.  These are the kinds of stories that drive me nuts.  Here we have a school teacher who has done all the “right” legal things to protect herself from a known threat, and she is slain by that threat because he has no qualms about violating the law.

There are many things that could have been done to prevent this tragedy,  including the deceased taking an active role in carrying a weapon for defense.  In this case nothing less than a firearm would have been appropriate.

I pray that the victim is not one of my relatives (so far no word), and hope that people begin to separate themselves from the emotional arguments about gun control and start to focus on the facts and statistics.  The phrase “An armed society, is a polite society” rings very true.

I have stayed away from the Sotomayor confirmation debate.  This is a battle that is not going to go the way that I would like it to.  There are too many in the Senate that need to play the political game of giving in on somethings and calling in those favors on other issues.

She will be confirmed, and it will be bad for the country.  I think Joe Huffman summarized one of the biggest things that has bothered me in the initial hearings.

Bitter and Sebastian has been pointing out just how bad nominee Sotomayor is on the right to keep and bear arms. This is probably the most damning.

She does not want to admit that people have a right to self-defense. She is smart enough to know it is a slippery slope to the acknowledgment of the right to keep and bear arms if she were to admit that. The British have learned that lesson sliding down the slope in the other direction–if there is no right to keep and bear arms then there is no right to self-defense.

Alan Korwin gives Sotomayor some pointers on what the U.S. Supreme Court has said about self-defense. It’s not a question mark at all. The conclusion:

The Supreme Court has recognized, addressed and answered all the most fundamental questions about self defense. The idea that they have never addressed this core American issue is completely false, as the numerous cases clearly demonstrate.

In my view, the woman may be very well qualified to be an attorney where she can argue the merits of a case from her particular view point.  The flip side of that is that because she brings those views to the bench, and applies them as her “wisdom” to her judgements she is disqualified from being a judge.  Much less a Supreme Court Justice.

I have been spending a lot of time recently contemplating the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the principles and values that this country were founded on.  Ted has managed to sum this up in less than 5 minutes.  Of course Ted does tend to go a little bit over the top in the words that he chooses but he covers the concepts nicely.

Interesting news report out of Chicago here.  It seems that citizens within the city are not “law-abiding”.  What you say, citizens are breaking the law?   In the midst of all of the focus on gun control particularly in large cities, it is quite apparent that the gun control laws are not working.  We all saw the statistics from DC on how crime increases when weapons are tightly controlled.  It appears that Joe Citizen is recognizing this as well.

Two interesting points from the article:

Gun instructor John Matuska says a majority of his students are women. He estimates that 150,000 otherwise law-abiding Chicagoans are packing pistols illegally.

“It’s their way of immediate protection,” Matuska said. “They would rather take a chance with a judge or a jury than take a chance with the bad guy and not have one.”

And

CBS 2 talked to a shop owner who said that if he had obeyed the city’s ban, he’d be dead.

“We were actually broken into, you know, during the day,” he said.

He owns a small business on the South Side. He doesn’t want us to reveal his identity. Although it’s illegal in Chicago, he often packs a .25 caliber pistol. He claims it saved his life twice, most notably when a robber hit him from behind with a hammer.

“As he reached to hit me again, I drew my pistol,” he said. “He saw the pistol, and I shot and missed him totally ’cause I was half-knocked. He took off running.”

Chicago police who responded did what officers often do in the city’s toughest neighborhoods. They pretended that the victim had not broken the law by defending himself with an illegal handgun.

“Nothing was said about the gun going off,” he said. “The police come over to make a report. The guy said to me, ‘Well, you’re lucky you weren’t killed. You should’ve had a gun with you. If you had killed the guy, then you would have had to say you took the gun off him.’”

It is a mainstream media report so take it for what it is worth.  150K people carrying illegally?   That’s probably why they removed the magnetometers from the Sear’s Tower.

Our friends in Great Britain have begun to realize some of the problems with the programs that they have adopted.  Socialized medicine, doesn’t work.  Nationalize and subsidized industries, not working so well.  Gun control, protests in the street.

What does it take for the US Leadership to learn from the lessons of others, and our own past?

This is one of those messages that is meant to be a spoof, yet it rings so very true.

Remember the police are there for Law Enforcement, not crime prevention.  You are on your own for personal protection and crime prevention.

Did you know that you can draw a direct correlation between murder rates and gun laws?  This should come as no surprise to anyone.  This is kind of old news, and has been reported in many other places.   Let’s take a look at the example of North Dakota

Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says North Dakota has had only two murders so far this year. He says that’s the lowest yearly number for the state in at least 30 years.

Stenehjem says North Dakota averages about 11 homicides annually for the past several years, after a high of 22 in 1993. 16 were reported last year.

TWO.  Oh, and the method of used was stabbing.

Where guns are allowed, with little restrictions, one will see lower rates of violent death.

NORTH DAKOTA STATE LAWS — Click On Law Below For Details
Assault Weapons
Are there limitations on assault weapons? No

Ballistic Fingerprinting
Must handguns be ballistic fingerprinted prior to sale? No

Child Access Prevention – CAP
Are gun owners held accountable for leaving guns accessible to kids? No

Child-Safety Locks
Must locking devices be sold with guns? No

Childproof Handguns
Are only authorized users able to operate handguns? No

Gun Dealer Regulations
Must gun dealers adhere to state licensing and/or oversight systems? No

Gun Manufacturer Accountability
Do cities have authority to hold gun makers legally liable? No

Gun Show Loophole
Are background checks required at gun shows? No

Guns at Work
Are businesses forced to allow guns in the workplace? No

Guns on College Campuses
Are colleges/universities forced to allow guns on campus? No

Juvenile Sale
Is it illegal to sell handguns to anyone under 21 years of age? No

Large Capacity Ammunition Magazines
Are there limitations on large capacity ammunition magazines? No

License or Permit to Purchase
Is a license/permit required to buy handguns? No

Limit Bulk Purchases
Is there a one-handgun-per-month limit on sales? No

Limits on Concealed Handgun Permits
May police limit carrying concealed handguns? No

Microstamping
Must new semi-automatic handguns be sold with microstamping technology? No

Preemption – Local Gun Laws
May municipalities enact law stronger than the state’s? No

Record Keeping
May police maintain gun sale records? No

Registration
Are all guns registered with law enforcement? No

Report Lost/Stolen Guns
Are firearm owners required to report all lost or stolen guns to law enforcement? No

Safety Standards
Are there consumer safety standards on guns? No

Saturday Night Specials
Are there limitations on ‘junk’ handguns? No

Shoot First
Is deadly force allowed to be a first resort in public? Yes

Universal Background Checks
Are background checks required on all gun sales? No

Waiting Period
Is there a waiting period on gun sales? No

Here’s an interesting piece from a UK writer.  I covers his visit to a small Idaho town out west.

They tell me that about one person in 50 on the streets of Moscow, Idaho, is legally carrying a concealed pistol. A lot more have them in their cars. I rather approve of this, though I don’t think I’ll join in.

Many of those packing heat are women combining a hard, practical feminism with a conservative view of the right to bear arms.

The important thing is that you don’t know who is armed and who isn’t, and nor do potential rapists and muggers. I am sure this arrangement improves everyone’s manners no end.

It is certainly a very polite place and shoot-outs here are a good deal rarer than they are in gun-controlled London or Manchester.

Go read the whole thing – it’s an interesting view.

This has been floating around for a bit.  It still is worth the post, and the air time.