John de Witt

It seemed obvious to me from the beginning that the officer would be found not guilty of any criminal charge but would have a very difficult time indeed trying to defend a "wrongful death" civil suit. Is there something I'm missing, or is it that ignorance of our legal system is that widespread?

Their new gun laws coming down the pike seem intent on limiting people to ten shots in self defense. Since it's statistically unlikely that's enough to stop two assailants, Californians will have no choice but to trust in God.

I was thinking about MD (and other states) with restrictions on magazine capacity. How about a law that says whenever a citizen empties his restricted magazine without stopping a gunfight, each of the legislators who voted for the restriction is automatically guilty of a felony, loses his position and any salary/retirement benefits, and spends at least a year in prison?

When the NRA suggested universal background check might be used by the government to form an illegal registry, it was a crazy conspiracy theory. What he wants instead is for the additional ATF and FBI agents to use that data to pore through a database to detect illegal gun sales, checking the name and address of private sellers, and to whom they've sold the guns (plus all their personal data). The database isn't a registry?

In the same week she made fun of pro-2A people for being paranoid about "black helicopters" coming for their guns, and also recommended we "consider" a program of widespread firearm confiscation. Perhaps the paranoid aren't so paranoid after all!

Another crazy commits murder/suicide, this time in Uhersky Brod. Isn't it odd that nobody's mentioned CZ firearms are made there? I can't imagine such a shooting in Ilion, NY (God forbid!) without a mention of Remington. I hesitated to ask this question at all, and am posting it in Hunting rather than News or Politics, for what I think are obvious reasons.

So far as I can tell, 23 April marks the anniversary of America's first gun "buy back program." It didn't turn out quite as expected for General Gage in 1775 Boston, and may it be even worse for today's politicians!

Yahoo! is currently running a story on neighborhoods overrun with hogs in northern CA. They've set out traps, so far catching zero hogs. Doesn't anybody in San Jose have a bow?

Assume General Brereton, though new to the job, decided not to wait on MacArthur, who had obviously gone into a funk to the point of being useless, and ordered B-17's to Formosa, and the rest of his aircraft to Mindinao, out of reach of the Japanese planes.

Add to this Admiral Kimmel, despite having heard the cry of "wolf" so many times, had put his fleet out to sea, and Bellinger put out scouts (you can decide whether they find the Japanese "strike force" for Pearl, but they spot the incoming flights). Subsequently, with no major vessels to bomb at Pearl, the Japanese destroy the oil facilities on Oahu. How does the Pacific war play out over the next year or so?

It seems that with the recent rash of shooting rampages, there's a significant amount of one-upmanship involved. We've had plenty of calls for bans on "assault weapons," which would have little or no impact. If we're infringing on one of the first couple of amendments, why not simply ban the publishing of the shooter's name? It seems that would be a disincentive to these sicko's, and it would inconvenience nobody except a few newsmen who try to stretch the first amendment a lot farther than they're willing to go with the second.

Putting aside the emotions involved in feel-good/do nothing positive/pain in the rear laws, now that New York has coerced you into carrying two 1911's instead of a Glock 19, are you really that worse off? Yes, the two 1911's will be more expensive, and heavier, but won't you still come out OK? And have any New Yorkers actually asked their representatives why they want to make 45 ACP more popular?

Yahoo! news has reported that out of 40 people, 5 were killed and 20 wounded in a tour bus crash in Oregon. Is it time to outlaw these vicious assault vehicles?

Sorry, not a hunting question, but I wanted the perspective of hunters and shooters.

CBS News ran a story this morning of a policeman in Boca Raton who shot out the window of a burning car to drag to safety a woman trapped inside. Not to take away anything from Jalil, the officer who performed an act of bravery, but it seems to have been a strange concept to the people at CBS that firearms are useful tools. Comment?

One of the best emergency nurses I ever knew, with over twenty years' experience, was offered a job at $22/hour. She's been assaulted, urinated on (not by accident), spat on, etc. And if the SHTF, you can bet the hospital isn't even thinking they might back her up. And we wonder how to get good people to do a good job!

Jackson City Coucilbuffoon Kenneth Stokes has been sharply critical of the EMS system after they had to wait over twenty minutes for the Jackson Police to show up at the scene of a shooting. His position is that the ambulance crew should have gone in there without waiting for the police to secure the scene. He hasn't yet clarified how he thinks getting the EMT-P's shot is supposed to have made the situation better. Anybody want that job?

I keep seeing this comparison come up. I understand why Ruger started this mess, since they were trying to sell their little carbine. But does anybody know a factory load with a bullet in the 165-170 grain range, or even a handload, that'll get it to 2000 fps? Especially from the short-barrelled guns it's usually shot from? That's the bullet weight on which 30 WCF gained its reputation, and I don't see that being a possibility in the tiny Russian case. Let's try a little honesty, especially when we're considering it for use in hunting!