Welcome once again to the Carnival of Cordite, a weekly round-up of blog posts on the subjects of shooting, gun ownership, self-defense, the Right to Bear Arms, and other related topics.
I'm pushing the Carnival back to its normal Friday schedule, which has resulted in a shorter-than-average week this week. But that's ok; it just gives me the opportunity to put more time and effort into incorporating each submission!
Let's get on with it, shall we?
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Is bearing arms an individual right? While the esoteric answer should simply be YES, the legal answer apparently depends on your jurisdiction. So the Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog has produced this handy reference, listing the various states. More importantly, check out the "Avon Ladies Killed" banner at the top of the page. We anxiously await the first dead Avon Lady, thus proving the point of the anti-gun crowd.
But getting back to the state-by-state, let's look at New York:
New York - 1788
The Constitution is Silent, however, Section 4 of the New York Civil Rights
Law provides:
A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms cannot be infringed.
Why bring this up? Because the law of New York needs to be carefully examined, what with people like Mayor Bloomberg out there causing problems. What problems? See what Uncle has to say. More from Of Arms and the Law.
Here's the real problem:
If the law allows a private-party sale of a firearm, then the entire basis for these sting operations is destroyed. If you are an individual who is allowed to buy a firearm from a dealer, it is your right to do so. If the laws of your state then allow you to sell your firearm to another person without going through a dealer, then it is your right to do so. Therefore, if you buy a gun from a dealer, then sell (or give) it to a third person, no law has been broken.
The "are you the actual purchaser of this firearm" clause of the 4473 is therefore being misinterpreted, if it is legitmate at all.
And at what point should a felon who has paid his debt to society and demonstrated positive change get his rights restored? Check out this from Of Arms and the Law.
Meanwhile, Bothenook reminds us what cops should be doing instead of harrassing decent folk:
It's not just cops who should act under pressure to fight crime. Civilians should, too. Mr. Completely has a follow-up on a hero who did just that, winding up paralyzed in the process. After saving who-knows how many lives at the cost of his own mobility, Dan McKown has received a new car, built for handicapped use:
The telephone number of Blade Chevrolet is
1-800-726-6949
If you happen to live in Washington, or Oregon, or Ohio, or Texas, or Virginia, or Massachusetts, or Vermont, or wherever, why not just give them a call and thank them for donating the car to Dan McKown. It's even toll free, so why not! I'm sure they are not expecting this, and this will probably make their day!
If you are a blogger, you might just put up a little post and encourage a few more folks to telephone?
Done and done!
IMPORTANT UPDATE HERE!
And the Civilian Gun Self Defense Blog has a news story about a self-defense shooting with a happier outcome. This sort of thing would never happen in Britain, where the police advise you to sleep with your car keys instead of defending your self and your property.
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Time for that gun pr0n!
Spank That Donkey says "free men own guns, but really free men own machine guns." And then he gives a three part video demonstrating the awesome power of the General Electric M-134 mini-gun used by our armed forces. Check out video one, video two, and video three.
And please note, STD (hmmm... maybe I shouldn't abbreviate Spank That Donkey) wants your feedback on downloading and playing these videos from his server, so please leave him comments if the videos are slow.
TFS Magnum also submitted a post about the M-134, but her blog is down at the moment and I'm not sure what's there (possibly the same video?). But she assures me her blog will be up soon (probably by the time you read this), so check it out.
And while this video has been submitted before, it is worthy of a repeat.
Fox of The Gun Blogs updates us on his AR project. Here is the rifle as it stands now:
It sounds like he has quite a bit of improvement planned:
All told, this is a very expensive project, but it's also my first AR, so I feel it should be the best I can make it.
This is actually the best plan. If you are going to make an investment, you are better off doing it right, rather than settling.
And of course, it wouldn't be a real gun blog if the AR guy wasn't immediately followed by an opposing AK guy. Check out the before:
...and the after:
Mr. Completely has results from the last e-postal match. And here's a round up of a match of a different sort. And it looks like the next generation of shooters is progressing nicely:
And we also get the good, the bad, and the ugly...
Freedom Sight might be taking the "gun pr0n" thing a bit too literally (caution: strong adult language!).
In honor of Memorial Day, View from the Porch has military gun pr0n!
And finally, Hell in a Handbasket looks at some of the guns of Dirty Harry and other action entertainment, including this beastie:
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That wraps up this week's edition of the Carnival of Cordite. If you would like to send in submissions for publication, please use the handy Carnival Submit Form from Conservative Cat (you can use this to send your work to dozens of carnivals with a single handy form). If you have multiple submissions, or if you just want to give me some feedback, you can e-mail the Carnival:
c a r n i v a l o f c o r d i t e A T h o t m a i l D OT c o m
Catch up on all your other Carnival needs with Ubercarnival and Blogcarnival. And see our archives at our Carnival of Cordite home page.
We'll see you next week. Until then, keep your powder dry!
Eugene Volokh has a similar list of state constitution RKBA provisions
http://www.law.ucla.edu/volokh/beararms/statecon.htm
Posted by: Fun Bob | Sunday, 04 June 2006 at 12:19 AM