“Military-style” no longer cutting it, now it’s “law-enforcement style”

[T]he suspect, Aaron Alexis of Texas, bought a law-enforcement-style shotgun ? an 870 Remington pump-action ? and used it on Monday as he rampaged through the navy yard, said the officials, who requested anonymity because the investigation was continuing.
[snip]

The gunman then perched himself above an atrium where he fired down on people who had been eating breakfast, officials said, adding that he used shotgun shells that had roughly a dozen large ball-bearing-like shots in them, increasing their lethal nature.

?When he discharged, the pieces of lead would spread the farther they went,? the one official said. ?It is similar to weapons used in bird shooting but on a more serious scale. These were not bullets but many small pieces of lead flying through the air.?

– The New York Times

Evidently The New York Times is not satisfied with simply calling the Remington 870 “a pump-action shotgun” and had to slip “law-enforcement style” in there to make it sound particularly scary.?Also, they evidently haven’t heard of buckshot before and make it out to be some sort of special, unusual, extra-deadly type of ammo.

Is a shotgun loaded with buckshot dangerous? Absolutely.?It’s a gun. Putting black plastic furniture on one of the most popular shotguns in the country for sporting, self-defense, and yes, law-enforcement use doesn’t make it any more dangerous than the same shotgun with wood furniture.

You’re Not Helping

The new Fox & Friends host, Elisabeth Hasselbeck (formerly the lone conservative on ABC’s The View) suggested during the Tuesday morning show that “the left” was trying to make Monday?s mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard about “gun control.” Instead she pointed out that the country doesn’t need a national registry for guns, it needs one for to [sic] track video game purchases.

-?GamePolitics
As a gun owner and a gamer, I find remarks like this to be firmly in the “you’re not helping” category. Millions of people in the country (and many more all over the world) — including myself — enjoy playing video games, including those with violent content. The vast, overwhelming majority of gamers are ordinary people who go about their lives without harming anyone.
Is there some overlap between violent madmen and those who play video games? Almost certainly, just as there’s some overlap between violent madmen and those who use toothpaste, watch movies, hold particular religious beliefs, listen to certain musical groups, hold a specific political view, etc. However, as far as I’m aware, there’s no conclusive evidence that any of these things have a causal relationship with violent outcomes.
As fellow gun-rights supporters have pointed out, violent crime rates have dropped over the last few decades while the number of privately-owned guns has increased. Over the same time period the sale of video games, including violent ones, has also increased as has their realism and detail.
Blaming video games for violent crime is a bold claim. Is it possible? Perhaps, but if I may quote Carl Sagan, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” Such evidence is not forthcoming. Making unsupported claims of this type is silly, counterproductive, and makes gun-rights advocates look absurd by association.

Back in the saddle…sort of

So, good news: after two years of spilling liquid nitrogen on myself, pulling my hair out, hitting multi-million-dollar instruments with a socket wrench, and crying into beer late into the night I finally got my masters degree a few months ago.
Better news: I also got accepted for the PhD student gig here doing much the same work, which is fun, and for better pay, which is better. While it’s a lot of work, I can focus on my research and not have pesky classes taking up my time.
Mixed feelings: I’m still in Switzerland. This is a fantastic country and I love living here (though my German is pretty rough). We’ve settled in nicely and are doing well, but my wife and I miss the friends and family back home. Sure, we’ve got some friends here but living in a country where one has only a basic command of the language and spends ~10 hours a day in the lab is somewhat…limiting in a social sense. I haven’t been to the range in ages but maybe I’ll get a chance in November when I head back to the US for a whirlwind tour of weddings, Thanksgiving, and visiting friends and family.
Bad news: Now that my schedule is a bit more relaxed?less frantic, I should be able to spare a bit of time for writing here. You poor bastards.

Arizona news: HB 2455 gets signed!

Excellent news!?HB 2455 passed!
HB 2455 clarifies that firearms surrendered?voluntarily?to police (for example, as a result of a “gun buy back” program) cannot be destroyed and must (assuming they’re legal and not stolen) be sold to licensed dealers who can in turn sell them to private citizens who pass a NICS check.
Previously, the police were only prohibited from destroying guns that were “recovered, lost, or abandoned” and there was some confusion as to whether or not guns that were?voluntarily?surrendered to police were “abandoned” — this bill clarifies the issue by adding “surrendered” and “or otherwise received”.
Many thanks to the AzCDL, the state legislature, and the governor?for getting this done!

On Donations

I’ve been a Life Member of the NRA for many years now and while I occasionally disagree with certain things they do ((I’m not a big fan of Wayne LaPierre and think that his constant demonizing of “liberals”, while occasionally well-deserved, is driving otherwise-sympathetic people away from the NRA and gun rights in general when our side needs them the most.)), overall I’ve been quite happy with them.
In addition to subscribing to several pro-gun blogs, twitter feeds, and mailing lists, I also subscribe to several belonging to anti-gun-rights groups just so I can keep up to date on what’s going on. In particular, I’m interested in the so-called “moderate groups” like Mark Kelly and Gabby Gifford’s?Americans for Responsible Solutions which, despite their mild name and claims to being moderate, continue to promote the same tried-and-ineffective policies like bans on popular guns, limiting magazine capacity, banning private transfers, and other policies that seem to come directly from groups like the VPC and the Brady Campaign.
In the days leading up to the big Senate vote, I received several letters from ARS asking for donations and support for their cause. Instead, I donated twice the amount ARS requested to the NRA-ILA.
Budget permitting, I will continue to do so for the foreseeable future and?recommend?that you do too.

Gun Control Fails

Thanks to the efforts of Sebastian and Bitter over at SNBQ to liveblog the recent Senate vote and by streaming C-SPAN live video, I was able to watch the various restrictive gun control measures fail.
I was worried about the Toomey-Manchin amendment, as it would likely have been the basis for even more restrictive gun control, and given the momentum to the anti-gun-rights groups. Fortunately, all the measures failed, with Feinstein’s AWB and the magazine limit bill both failing to achieve even a simple majority.
Well done, everyone. The side of liberty won this time, but we must remain vigilant.

Sorry for the inactivity.

Shock! Alarm! There’s actually a new post!
As you might have noticed, I’ve been inactive for the last year or so — things have been extremely hectic in the lab and I’m in the “crunch time” for my dissertation. More soon.
For those who don’t follow it already, I strong recommend reading Shall Not Be Questioned at http://www.pagunblog.com/ — Sebastian and Bitter keep up to date with pretty much all gun-related news and information.

EU committee on piracy at sea finds that putting armed guards on ships reduces piracy

The committee admits it has “changed” its view on the use of armed guards since its last report on the issue, in 2010, finding that “no ship with an armed guard has been pirated and the use of guards has not escalated violence”.

via BBC News – EU anti-piracy fight with warships ‘must go on’.
That’s really no surprise: pirates are in it for quick money. If guards on a ship fire a couple warning shots at their tiny little boat it indicates that they’re on guard for pirates and it seems likely that the pirates would say “screw this” and hightail it out of there.
It’s also good to see the Europeans recommending that they continue to help police that area of the world: stopping piracy is everyone’s business.

I wonder…

…if anyone at the Mars Curiosity mission control named the rock they recently lasered “Alderaan”?
If I were them, I totally would. I’d also say “Commence primary ignition!” if I were the guy sending the “go” command, or “You may fire when ready!” in Tarkin’s tone if I were one of the directors.
Hey, if you can’t have fun shooting lasers at rocks on another planet, what can you do?