This story from the AP relates closely to the article about online police scanners that we’ve talked about in the past. For more information on police scanners, see that article which has been updated with our favorite police scanner smartphone apps.
“The practice of encryption has become increasingly common from Florida to New York and west to California, with law enforcement officials saying they want to keep criminals from using officers’ internal chatter to evade them. But journalists and neighborhood watchdogs say open communications ensure that the public receives information as quickly as possible that can be vital to their safety.
“The transition to encryption has put police departments at odds with the news media, who say their newsgathering is impeded when they can’t use scanners to monitor developing crimes and disasters. Journalists and scanner hobbyists argue that police departments already have the capability to communicate securely and should be able to adjust to the times without reverting to full encryption. And they say alert scanner listeners have even helped police solve crimes.”
I’ve been disappointed on countless occasions to pull up to my favorite shooting spot on BLM land and see it littered not just with brass, but shotgun shells, wood crates, glass bottles, televisions, computers, water heaters and all sorts of other trash left behind by people too lazy to pick up after themselves.
I see it as a privilege to be able to shoot on that land without range fees and without the need to follow someone else’s rules. Apparently others see it as an invitation to leave the manners at home and litter openly—in most cases to a severity they would never even consider doing on the side of the road or in their neighbor’s back yard.
When I go to this area, I take garbage sacks with me and when we’re done shooting, we spend a good 20 minutes cleaning up other people’s garbage (in addition to our own) in the hopes of dispelling the reputation that shooters are so often labeled with. I encourage you to do the same.
If getting rid or improving that stereotype weren’t enough, maybe the threat of being banned from shooting on BLM lad will be. Check out this article:
“Gun owners who have historically been able to use public lands for target practice would be barred from potentially millions of acres under new rules drafted by the Interior Department, the first major move by the Obama administration to impose limits on firearms.”
From the proposed policy:
“When the authorized officer determines that a site or area on BLM-managed lands used on a regular basis for recreational shooting is creating public disturbance, or is creating risk to other persons on public lands; is contributing to the defacement, removal or destruction of natural features, native plants, cultural resources, historic structures or government and/or private property; is facilitating or creating a condition of littering, refuse accumulation and abandoned personal property is violating existing use restrictions, closure and restriction orders, or supplementary rules notices, and reasonable attempts to reduce or eliminate the violations by the BLM have been unsuccessful, the authorized officer will close the affected area to recreational shooting.”
Let’s all work together to keep the freedoms we enjoy—in this case, I don’t believe it’s so much about politics as manners and a common sense.
A gunman opened fire in a Brazil school today killing 11 and injuring twenty or more before turning the gun on himself. If you’re interested, you can read the full article here, but it got me wondering about gun control in Brazil. I don’t know anything about the motivation behind the shootings, but my heart goes out to the families and all those affected.
In case you’re interested, I’ve copied a few points I found interesting below from Wikipedia’s article Gun politics in Brazil:
Because of gun politics in Brazil, all firearms are required to be registered with the state; the minimum age for ownership is 25 and although it is legal to carry a gun outside a residence, extremely severe restrictions were made by the federal government since 2002 making it virtually impossible to obtain a carry permit. To legally own a gun, the owner must pay a tax every three years to register the gun, currently at R$ 60, and registration can be done via the Internet or in person with the Federal Police.
Although Brazil has 110 million fewer citizens than the United States, and more restrictive gun laws, there are 50% more gun deaths; other sources indicate that homicide rates due to guns are approximately four times higher than the rate in the United States.
The total number of firearms in Brazil is thought to be around 17 million with 9 million of those being unregistered.
Scouts in the UK will now be a little worse-prepared after they were banned from carrying pocketknives due to the fears of those in charge of health and safety.
I can’t imagine scouting without having a pocket knife. If the Scout Motto was “Be Prepared,” it must now be “Pander to People’s Fear of Anything that Could in Any Way Be Dangerous.”
A good knife is one of the most essential tools required to be prepared. Without it, it becomes extremely difficult to build shelter, make good use of rope (in any form), provide food, start fires, cook, eat, fashion other tools, and the list goes on. Excerpts from the Telegraph article are below:
“Dave Budd, a knife-maker who runs courses training Scouts about the safe use of blades, wrote that the growing problem of knife crime meant action had to be taken.”
Yes, because there are so many Boy Scouts involved in violent crimes involving knives, I’m sure.
“The series of high-profile fatal stabbings [has] highlighted a growing knife culture in the UK.
And this step by the Scouts will help deflate that growing “knife culture”…how?
“I think it is safest to assume that knives of any sort should not be carried by anybody to a Scout meeting or camp, unless there is likely to be a specific need for one. In that case, they should be kept by the Scout leaders and handed out as required.”
The day the BSA does the same thing is the day I pull my boys out.
This article in the Huffington Post, drawing on comments from P.J. O’Rourke suggests that gun control is futile. In the clip below, Mr. O’Rourke makes some good points (that only the law-abiding citizens pay attention to gun control laws, for instance). But somehow, Blaise Zerega’s apparent fear of guns got a hold of those comments and manifested in them something completely different.
In discussing the pork (yes, I’ll say it. it is pork after all) that was placed in an amendment to the credit card reform bill that would allow concealed weapons in our national parks, Blaise Zerega says:
Scary thought: Next time you’re in a traffic jam in Yosemite, don’t honk your horn at that knucklehead blocking the road while taking a picture of El Capitan. If the GOP has its way, soon “point-and-shoot” will take on whole new meaning.
First of all, are you kidding me?!? You’re suggesting that the GOP would be “having its way” if people shot other people for honking at them in the park? It’s this kind of tripe that paints the entire Huffington Post staff and gun control groups in a bad light in the first place.
I’m not going to sit here and argue the merits of allowing lawful concealed weapons permit holders to carry their weapons into a national park (although I defy anyone to give me a good reason why a national park should be treated any different from anywhere else a permit is valid). But can you see the twisted logic he’s trying to pull over the common sense of anyone dumb enough to give his article the time of day (I know, that includes me)?
O’Rourke points out that in most cases gun control doesn’t work because it’s only the law abiding citizens that pay attention to, and obey the laws. Then we get an agenda-wielding HuffPo writer watching O’Rourke’s comments through his foggy “guns are the enemy” mentality and goes off to concoct a scare-tactic scenario that goes exactly against the point that O’Rourke made. Unbelievable.
So let’s lay it out for your readers Blaise: What O’Rourke was actually saying is that, in your scenario, congress passing a law allowing permit holders to carry their legal firearms into a national park would have absolutely no effect on whether that guy in the car in front of you would show you a “new meaning of point-and-shoot” when you honk at him. If he’s a ccw permit holder, he is in overwhelming likeliness, a law-abiding citizen who will wave you past him (although perhaps with just one finger). If he’s a criminal with a gun, well, your chances haven’t changed any as a result of the new law.
So let’s quit with the scary stories and find something productive to say…
Take a look at the video, it’s an interesting look and worth the two minutes it takes to watch. Definitely a better use of your two minutes than reading another bumbling Zerega diatribe.
I wouldn’t say gun control is futile, but I would say that the way most gun control groups are going about it is. Practical Gun Control has it’s place in empowering citizens with training, confidence, safety instruction and reasonable controls (age limits, mental-health requirements, felon restrictions, etc). Legislation that supports the Right to Bear Arms while also keeping guns out of the hands of criminals should be supported.
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