Big Brother would be so proud...

As reported by the ADN, a Fairbanks middle school student brought a gun to school (unpossible!).  The student was expelled for a year.  Okay, I can understand that.

Then the school goes around and asks all the students if they knew about the gun.  Only a few tell the truth and admit that they knew about it - many others certainly lied and denied any knowledge.

So you've found the honest ones.  What now?

Why obviously you hit them with the SAME penalty that you gave to the gun-carrying child for not being an informant!

There are just so many things wrong with this situation I don't know where to begin.

1) How soon do we end up with kids being forced to inform on their parents?
2) What happens to our society when we punish kids for telling the truth?
3) Even if you think these kids deserve to be punished, do they really deserve the same punishment as the kid who actually broke the law?
4) Even if you think the kids should have reported this situation, these are twelve and thirteen year old kids - not exactly the most logical, thoughtful and responsible beings out there.

QOTD

From Joan: "We've gone over this ad nauseous. When you guys stop saying you need your guns to defend yourself and others in public then we can talk."


I guess we see more proof here of what they really want.

Slow Posting

Chris is pretty busy at work and I'm gearing up to backpack the Grand Canyon next week, so posting here has fallen a bit down the priority ladder.

Prohibited Person commits murder

Gwen is blaming the law abiding for the actions of a career criminal.

Well, if we look at the actual source, we can get the name of the criminal who shot a man in the back of the head in the Mat-Su. Turns out he has a long record, including felonies. While the Frontiersman only mentions one assault, the CourtView records show multiple robberies and DV incidents as well. The bottom line is that all this stuff would make him a prohibited person who cannot legally touch a gun.

Gwen then accuses the NRA of brainwashing, closing with, "Gun religion, anyone?"

I really don't understand this. Because a felon who cannot legally touch a firearm committed a crime, law abiding gun owners must be held to account? In what world does that make sense? I assume Gwen is calling for the collective punishment of all auto owners to atone for DUIs, right?

Furthermore, if you look at the stats, the number of law abiding gun owners dwarfs the number of criminal abusers. Linoge did a good job summing up things graphically this year.

It seems pretty clear to me that Gwen is the one who is out of touch with reality, more so because she lives in Alaska. Her objectives are absolutely politically and realistically impossible to obtain and there is zero evidence to back up her assertions. Then again, this isn't unexpected, given that she is an anti-gun cultist with no interest in reality.

This was a tragic crime, and it looks like justice will occur. But collective punishment for the many because the police failed to enforce laws already on the books and due to the actions of one criminal isn't the way we operate, not when fundamental rights are involved.

Reasoned Discourse?

http://www.commongunsense.com/2011/10/guns-in-bars-good-idea.html

This post had some 53 comments earlier today.  Now it's gone.  Go figure.

Update: it's back now.

Nuclear Option

Apparently the Democratic party today unilaterally overturned the US Senate's tradition of the filibuster. It has gotten kind of silly but I generally approve of anything that gums up the wheels of government. That was the intent of "separation of powers," right?

The interesting thing in this byzantine political maneuvering is that Sen Begich (D-AK) was sitting as the Senate Chairman. He ruled that the Republicans had a right to gum things up. That allowed Sen Reid to call for a vote to suspend the rules and overturn the Chairman's ruling. Sen Begich then voted to overturn the rules.

This suggests that Sen Begich played a witting role in this whole process: after all, if he honestly thought the parlimentarian was correct and the rule was valid, why rule for it and then vote against it? Either he is a politician of conscience (i.e. naive) who interpreted the rules as a "strict constructionist" but then voted his conscience, or the maneuver was set up in advance with Sen Reid. Given that one doesn't overturn this type of precedent without some preplanning I find the former option unlikely.

The interesting part about this is that it suggests that Sen Begich might be a rising star in Washington. He was recently made the chairman of the party's Outreach and Steering Committee and he's on the powerful Budget and Armed Services committees. Regardless of what you think of his politics, it is good for Alaska to have powerful Senators -- especially given our limited representation based on population in the House. Sen Murkowski and Sen Begich both seem poised to play significant roles which should be helpful for our state.

"Boy" Toys and "Girl" Toys

I really thought we were past this.

Yes, if you go into a store, all the GI Joes will be in one aisle and all the dolls in another aisle.  Okay, whatever.  Yesterday, however, we were walking through the local walmart and as we walked past the toy section I noticed that the aisles were actually LABELED "Boys" and "Girls."  My jaw dropped and I just stared for a few moments while complaining loudly to Chris.  I wish I'd had my camera, I'd've taken some pictures.  How absurd is that?!

Theft at Three Bears

Nine people were charged in the theft of 38 handguns from Three Bears in Wasilla. Three Bears is a local Alaska business that runs grocery stores and mini-department stores.

I didn't look up all nine perps, but I did check the records on the oldest four. Two of them have serious arrest records, including DV, breaking and entering, and stalking. All four have a long record of run-ins, mostly revolving around DUIs, substance abuse, and traffic violations (including speeding and some other reckless driving offenses). People with clean records generally don't commit crimes involving firearms (except possibly straw buying).

Interestingly, the ATF was actually involved in this bust. It is pretty rare for me to hear about the ATF being part of the solution rather than part of the problem -- or simply harassing the law abiding -- so good for them.

Guns and Inheritance

Who gets your guns when you die?

If you don't know, you'd better figure it out and put it in your will.  While you're at it, make sure that your heirs are aware of this and, even more importantly, make sure you and your heirs are aware of the applicable laws (especially if this would involve an interstate transfer!) and how to safely handle the firearms.

When taking my CERT class, I introduced myself as a firearms instructor.  At the break, one of my classmates came up to me and told me that she had inherited some guns a while back and had no idea what to do with them.  I asked if they were loaded - she had no idea.  In addition, simply by possessing the firearms she was in violation of at least one state law.  I told her how to fix the latter and sent her to someone who could check the guns for her.  Turns out that they were, in fact, loaded.  She's now learning how to safely handle and use the firearms, but this easily could have had a not-so-good outcome.  Don't leave your heirs in this situation.