Snuffy Faces the Consequences.

That obnoxious turd Father 'Snuffy' Pfleger has been suspended from his church for being, well, an obnoxious turd.

This, for newer or non-Illinois readers, is the Priest who threatened to 'snuff out' an FFL dealer while protesting w/ Jessie Jackson (who later moved onto more media grabbing pastures).

Actions have consequences. And all we hear from the gun ban advocates are apologetics "He didn't 'really' mean that".

Hopefully this time it will be permanent.

Firearm Ownership Poll?

W/ the VPC touting their report that firearm ownership is dying (right before 65,000 people attend the 2011 NRA Annual Meeting) Linoge asks the question:

If someone called claiming to be from a legitimate polling agency (Gallup, for example), would you answer accurately/truthfully as to whether or not you had firearms in your house?

Go and take the poll.

The @CSGV, Ladd Everitt, 'Traitors', and Opinions.

Ladd Everitt at the CSGV likes to call people 'traitors'. In this instance it's when he can't pigeon hole simplistic answers to a complex debate. He attempted to do so to Sebastian SIH by deliberately misconstruing what Sebastian said.

@SebastianSH No, it's the fact that you think you have the right to determine on your own what "causes" justify violence. That's treason.

Sebastian replied:

@CSGV "It's the fact that you think you have the right to determine on your own what "causes" justify violence." Not what I said.

@SebastianSH Then please do clarify who decides when it's time to shoot and kill gov't officials and law enforcement officers. #p2 #politics

Note they've completely redirected the topic in an attempt to entrap.

So SIH gives his opinion.

@CSGV Too complicated for Twitter Haiku, but it would have to be organized by state or local governments. Unorganized resistance is anarchy.

Well Ladd Everitt glommed onto that like a frat boy to a drunk sorority girl.

Since they couldn't get me to give them a yes or no answer and can't provide evidence of me endorsing violence, they once again returned to the character attacks and insults.

@SebastianSH They are hardcore insurrectionists who spend a great deal of time trying to justify the use of political violence. #p2 #peace

@TrailerDays @SebastianSH We just did, b/c you refuse to state that you have no right to engage in political violence against our gov't. #p2

@TrailerDays @SebastianSH You're a sad little insurrectionist who embraces violence, the epitome of a traitor to our nation. #p2 #politics

@TrailerDays @SebastianSH Why don't you have the guts to state what you believe? It's obvious, why not own up to it like Sorrentino? #p2

@linoge_wotc @SebastianSH Do you have the guts to renounce right to individual political violence? Or are u also a coward & traitor?

So Ladd didn't get the 'hive mind' response he wanted nor simplistic answers he could play the Socratic method on. And then he just made up more nonsense and threw out the insults. Just like he did to Cam Edwards in an e-mail sent to NRA news. I mean really. These are the kinds of taunts a 10yr old might use on the playground.

And his final reply to this post:

@TrailerDays Thank you for formally documenting that you're an insurrectionist. Handy link to refer back to. #p2 #politics #Highered #peace

Humpty Dumpty really needs to learn the meanings of words before he uses them. I can't wait for him to put me on their Facebook page so I can get a flood of hits from the gun blogs.

Lying sack of crap

Helmke saying the Brady Campaign never pushed for DC or Chicago gun bans???

Seriously folks, he's losing it.

Update: Based on some of the comments, I'm linking to an old post in case people missed it.

Update from Thirdpower: Since they've enabled 'reasoned discourse' and don't allow comments, let's not give them any traffic. Video embedded.

Det. Joseph Bielevicz. Ignorant or Lying?

In the days before 65,000 attendees arrive in Pittsburg for the NRA Annual Meeting, the usual hit pieces are coming out. This one by a City Detective pushing the old meme that the NRA wants to arm criminals. Unfortunately for him though, in his long winded attack, he makes a (at least one) glaring error:

Do you, as a resident of Pennsylvania, want to know how many guns were recovered and traced last year in your state? That's easy -- just gather the chiefs of Pennsylvania's 1,150-odd police departments in a big room and have them cobble together the trace data from their respective agencies.

Want a breakdown of how many handguns, shotguns and rifles were recovered? Ditto. Because, while the NRA is understandably against releasing individual gun owners' names, it also opposes the public dissemination of even the most basic statistical data on gun recoveries.

Apparently this 'Detective' of 18yrs is either lying or is completely ignorant of this thing called the internet. Let's help him out. Here detective. Using this magical tool called the 'internet', I went to www.atf.gov. From there I typed in 'search' "Trace Data". It took me there. Then I clicked on 2009 and Pennsylvania.

There ya' go Detective. Took me a whopping 2 minutes, and that only because I had to get up and let the dog out.

So why didn't you mention that? Are you honestly clueless about simple resources like that or are you deliberately lying and using your job title as stump to publish 4 pages of nonsense and ad hominem character attacks.

Here's an idea. Do your damn job.

But looking at your history of pushing for gun control laws, you're more interested in spreading the usual BS than solving crimes.

Bitter has more on this ignorant hit piece over at SIH.

Wishful Thinking

In an effort to maintain their funding from the Joyce Foundation, the VPC puts out a report repeating the myth that gun ownership is in decline just two days before 65,000 people are set to attend the NRA Annual Meeting.

I wonder if they recognize the irony.

Note that they didn't repeat this last year when there was an increase in the numbers. Guess that doesn't fit w/ their meme.

They've been beating this drum for years as litigation, legislation and the firearm culture as a whole continues to sweep the nation. Their reasons for the alleged decline are mostly just as laughable. And Gallup has household ownership at 39%, a difference of almost 7% and personal ownership at 28%, a difference of 8%.

I guess they've got to do something to keep the money rolling in. What a gig.

Ignorant Victim or Lying?

A VT victim wants universal background checks:

That shooter was able to buy a gun the same way and he was mentally ill, as was the NIU shooter. Background checks for all private sales will prevent happened to me,

Um, no. Both the NIU and VT shooters passed background checks because they had never been formally diagnosed w/ mental disorders and been committed like they should have been. Even if there were checks for 'all private sales', they still would have gotten their guns.

Never mind the fact that Illinois has the FOID which the ISP is supposed to keep up to date w/ and collect it if a person becomes a prohibited person.

Don't use your victimhood to push an issue you know little about.

How about a movement to improve the mental health system? Oh, right. That has nothing to do w/ restricting guns. Can't do that.

OpEd in Chicago Tribune on IL CCW

...More legislators realize that, too. They're aware of the survey done for the Illinois State Police that found the overwhelming majority of police officers believes the streets would be more dangerous if people could carry concealed weapons and the overwhelming majority of citizens opposes the idea.

-March 23

1997.

This is the exact same crap they're saying now, 14 years later. None of the PSH has come true. The ISP is generally neutral and the 'overwhelming majority of citizens' are fence sitters on the issue unless asked in Chicago or a push-poll. And Illinois is now on of only two states that entirely bans CCW.

IL House Vote on Concealed Carry Soon

From IllinoisCarry.com:

IL House of Representatives Expected to Vote Soon on
Right to Carry Bill HB148!

Illinois state representatives return to Springfield Tuesday, April 26 and many believe a vote on Right to Carry bill HB148 is imminent. It is urgent that you call your state representative and firmly but politely ask them to support your right to protect yourself and your family. Urge them to vote YES on HB148.

Every single vote will be critical for passage of the bill and it is common knowledge that legislators in the northeast portion of the state tend to oppose this legislation. If you live in the northeast part of the state, this call to action is especially important. If you have family or friends living in that area, please call them and urge them to contact their legislator.
Need help finding your state representative?
Go to Illinois State Board of Elections or call 217-782-2000

Don't let Illinois be the last.

We make our own History

Earlier this month I made the yearly pilgrimage to what is advertised as the world’s largest Knife Show. It brings blade makers from around the globe to Eugene Oregon and I tell you what…It’s so large that it’s best to attend both days in order to see it all properly. Anything with a sharpened edge is on full display; knives, swords, machetes, bayonets, axes, scythes, scissors, shears and even Klingon Bat’laths. I picked up a pair of Freddy Kruger nose pickers just for the novelty.

Although the Knife Show is the star, the surrounding buildings have a Gun Show, a Home Depot style building materials show and a used book sale.

THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of people milling about a huge complex in THE most liberal, hippie infested city in Oregon. We had Japanese master sword makers who didn’t speak English, and members of the Hagana from Israel showing bladed fighting techniques.

The Japanese are always my favorite tables. The common theme is absolute works of art, mirror finishes, an open box of free band-aides and not a price tag in sight. One year I actually asked for a price on a sword and my chubber died when he said, $50,000.

Truth be told, some tables had piles of rust I still couldn’t afford. $750 for a pocket folder with a “sharp” edge on one side and fork tines on the back side. It was made specifically for amputees from the Civil War who only had one arm.

I feel fairly confident about doing some basic research about the current value of guns, but I am at a complete loss trying to appraise bladed weaponry.

But I suppose that’s the attraction for me. The next time I’m at some random garage sale and I spy one of those rusted pieces of crap dragged down from the attic with a price tag of 50 cents on it, I’ll try my best to contain myself as I talk them down to a quarter.

Can’t really put it into words, but owning small bits and pieces of American History is a desire of mine. My GrandFather gave me a Civil War era cannon ball measuring just under 1.5 inches many years ago. It’s a rusty old pock-marked and cratered moonscape of a sphere, I’m guessing for the Hugh’s Cannon, and it’s one of my prized possessions.

Funny thing about my GrandFather, he gave away all the possessions he owned, including his home while he was still alive. He didn't want anyone to fight over "stuff," but if they decided to anyway, he wanted to settle the matter himself, in the flesh. There were no fights, no questions and no debate. GrandFather gave away his treasures as he saw fit, and that was that.

GrandFather always did give the best gifts, even if I didn't recognize how special they would become to me at the time.

They Are Their Own Worst Enemy

A few weeks ago, Haiku debates involving my old buddy Ladd Everitt brought two gun bloggers, who didn't much care for eachother, to the realization that they are on the same side, unifying the front a little bit more.

Well again he proves the axiom from Napoleon:

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

In his efforts to smear firearm advocates, he took a relatively unknown blogger and brought him into the limelight. Going from, as Tango described it, "a soap salesman at a hippie convention" to easily quadrupling his numbers if not more in just a few days. Getting links from near half a dozen other bloggers highlighting the levels that PuSH'ers will go to try and silence us.

It's also highlighted the weakness of the CSGV as a whole as these bloggers, which Ladd has referred to as the 'darkest corners of the internet', created the overwhelming percentage of that traffic.

Could Ladd be another Mary McFate? He was in charge of the Wash DC MMM when it went defunct.

"300"?

No Spartans these.

No Lawyers reports on a 'Large' (according to Ladd Everitt ) protest outside a PA gun shop Saturday.

HGC claims between this and another protest on Saturday there were over 300 attendees:

Thank you to everyone who participated in this weekend's Philadelphia events -- the Good Friday Vigil at Delia's Gun Shop in Tacony and Holy Saturday Vigil at Mike's & Kate's Sport Shop in Burholme. Between the two events we welcomed 300 people witnessing to the power of prayer and determination to bring an end to gun violence!

Let's take a look at the Sat. photo:


So unless over 250 people were at the Friday demonstration (doubtful, especially considering no media presence that we've seen), methinks they were exaggerating just a bit (ie lying) or they were counting people who happened to walk by as 'supporters.

John makes the same comparison I did to a PEGhead protest last year. Where are their numbers? This is 'large' to them? Our coffee meets and phone conferences are larger.