Monthly Archives: January 2011

I just got robbed. By the County.

Posted on January 31, 2011 by | 8 comments
I just got $141 stolen from me. What’s worse is that Wake County made me go to the ATM to get it. Now I know why weapons are prohibited from Courthouses.
I got a speeding ticket in November. I missed the change of speed coming in to a town in eastern Wake County. The cop was nice and only wrote me up for driving too fast for conditions instead of 15 over. My intention was to plead in court today for leniency due to the fact that I haven’t had a moving violation in 10 years. One mistake in 10 years has to be worth something, especially since in the last 4 years I’ve driven over 300,000 miles just on the job. Cruise control is your friend.
In every other place I have ever been, the date on your ticket is the date of your court appearance. You go to court, plead your case, and the judge makes his decision. Not in Wake County. That date is your date for “Disposition Court.” You get a chance to demand your right to trial. Which requires you to take ANOTHER day off work to fight this stupid ticket. Is that fair? The ticket costs $25. The court costs are $141. So in order to try to save myself $166, I have to take 2 days off work, costing me much more than $166. So here I am, standing in front of the “judge” who can’t dismiss or alter my ticket, and I can’t afford to take another day off to fight it.
In many states, there is a sort of “get out of one ticket free” system. In North Carolina, it’s called “Prayer for Judgment Continued.” It means you get no points on your license. I was also under the impression that it meant you didn’t have to pay the ticket unless you got another one within a specified time. Nope. Still cost me $141 in court costs. Cash only, pay the cashier. Don’t forget to pay for parking on the way out. ($2)
How is this fair? I think that it would have been fair for a judge to have said no to my request for leniency. It’s a judgment call and I could understand him refusing. What I can’t understand is the demand that I sacrifice 2 days at work (and work Saturdays to make up the time) in order to fight a traffic ticket. This sounds to me like a system deliberately set up to prevent you from having your day in court. It privileges those with the time to waste in court, or who have enough money to pay a lawyer to waste time in court. Either way, you pay money. And then you pay again when your insurance raises your rates. If I, who actually did what I am accused of, feel this angry because of how I got treated, how does the person who got a raw deal from a cop feel? This feels like justice denied. This feels like highway robbery. And judging by the number of other people in the courthouse today with traffic tickets, highway robbery pays well. I can’t help but think that if there was a state law that said all ticket costs went to the state instead of the court, there wouldn’t be so many people standing in that line this morning.

8 Comments

Posted in About me, Rants

Let’s go with the meme. Demand for gun permits increase.

Posted on January 31, 2011 by | 5 comments
Recent violent crimes, both local and across the country, have raised interest in gun ownership and questions about the laws that govern it.
But gun rationing is alive and well under NC’s restrictive purchase permit system
Rowan County residents who want to buy a handgun must fill out a purchase permit application at either the sheriff’s office in Salisbury or Landis. Purchasers must present a valid driver’s license with a correct address and undergo a criminal background check.
Buyers can apply for up to five permits per application for $5 in cash each. One application will be accepted every 30 days.
They say that more “non-traditional” people are seeking CHPs
Barringer said several years ago, the people applying for permits to purchase or carry handguns were mostly men between the ages of 35 and 55. Now their ages run as low as 21 and as high as 94, and many of them are women.
“The number of women coming in has been unreal,” Barringer said. “This week, we got numerous calls from women wanting to know about it after what happened at Wendy’s last week.”
On the afternoon of Jan. 18, a woman was sitting in her vehicle at the East Innes Street Wendy’s drive-thru when someone threatened to shoot her, punched her in the face and stole her purse.
Barringer said she doesn’t know why interest in carrying handguns has broadened, but personal safety and protection are concerns she hears a lot. Many, like Barringer herself, want to have one when they travel.
And by their statistics, permits are up
Demand for conceal and carry permits increased three or four years ago and has held steady since then, Barringer said.
“We went from maybe 50 a month five years ago to an average of at least 100 a month now,” she said. “If we didn’t work by appointments, the lobby would be packed.”
In 2010, there were 2,815 purchase permits granted and 236 denied. The same year, 1,147 conceal and carry permits were granted (both new and renewed) and 20 were denied.

Why do they need appointments to get a government permission slip to exercise their Constitutional right? It’s this sort of thing that really gets my goat. A far better solution, to my mind, is to just repeal the law against carrying a weapon concealed. If you can buy a gun, you should be able to carry it. If you can’t buy it and you get caught with it, you go to jail. While we are allowing the bureaucracy to tie up the law abiding, the criminals are running around with guns they bought off the street.
One good thing to note. The primary opposition to concealed carry, and guns in general, is women. As more women carry, it becomes harder and harder for the anti-gunners to paint us as a bunch of violent rednecks. When “nice” women stand up and say that they shoot, hunt, and carry, those women in the middle who have been propagandized by the anti-gunners start to see the lies for what they are. People mostly don’t change their irrational beliefs due to logic. They change them when they see that their respectable friends have different beliefs. Anti-gun propaganda requires that gun owners be stigmatized as “the other.” When “decent” and “normal” people have guns, this propaganda fails. Make no mistake, whenever another man carries a gun, Sarah Brady cries. But when another woman carries, Sarah, Paul Helmke, Kristen Rand, and all the rest die a little inside. They see their movement getting crushed, bit by bit. Get your wives, girlfriends, mothers, sisters, and co-workers to the range. The financial costs of a few rounds of .22 are minor compared to the rewards we get when another woman tells her girlfriends that she “went to the range and had a great time.”

5 Comments

Posted in Gun rights philosophy, NC Politics

VPC and KKK agree. No guns for Negros (*Video*)

Posted on January 28, 2011 by | 2 comments
At the end of Violence Policy Center’s latest screed against private ownership of firearms they reach this conclusion (PDF, conclusion on page 6)
How’s that any different than what the KKK always said? No guns for Negros.

2 Comments

Posted in National Politics

Keep your dog away from your gun

Posted on January 27, 2011 by | 2 comments
A modern pistol will almost never fire if it is dropped. So what happened here?
The cops called this one an accident, and didn’t file any charges. So why did this gun “go off” when it hit the ground?
Oh, so not a modern pistol.
What’s a “Ruby” pistol?
So I’d say, if you have one of these pistols, be careful with it. It’s very old, and probably not drop safe. And keep your dog away from it.

2 Comments

Posted in Local stories

They just don’t trust ANYONE

Posted on January 26, 2011 by | 5 comments
Robb Allen at Sharp as a Marble posted something today that has much truth in it.
Why do you suppose that is? Why is it that I trust that  my neighbor won’t wander over some night with five gallons of gasoline, a lighter, and a desire to see my house flambéed with me inside it? Why does he trust me not to heave a Molotov cocktail through his window some morning? Maybe because it’s hard to imagine someone else doing something you think is wrong. I assume that since I think something is wrong, just about every other decent human being will think it is wrong as well. And since whenever I look at my neighbors I see decent human beings, I don’t fear them. Maybe if you are fighting the urge to kill others, you naturally assume that others are fighting the urge to do you in.
Here’s another guy scared to death of his fellow man. Noting that several North Carolina politicians have decided to carry firearms for self defense, he’s written this
Because we all know that the actions of a teen with a gun at school are directly comparable to the actions of adults. Because a promise from a politician to carry a pistol for self defense is “reckless.” Because normal adults carrying guns at work, the mall, at the ball field, and at political gatherings is JUST SO WRONG! Remember this story each time you pick up your gun. These guys do not trust you. They want to turn you into wards of the state because you are too stupid or too hotheaded to be allowed dangerous things. They’d rather people like the Tucson murderer kill you than you have a gun in your holster. Remember what they think of you and vote accordingly. Because if we are too stupid to be allowed to protect ourselves, why should the sort of people we elect be allowed to rule over us. Because as Robb says

5 Comments

Posted in Gun rights philosophy

“Gun Death” Grant writer

Posted on January 25, 2011 by | 4 comments
Stealing a theme from Weer’d Beard,
               
This guy got stabbed by a friend, so you’re asking why I’ve called it a “gun death.” That’s because none of the gun grabbers care about this murder. They are only concerned with gun deaths. They only want to reduce gun deaths. In their minds, this murder doesn’t count.

4 Comments

Posted in Gun Death(tm)

Just because it’s domestic doesn’t mean they aren’t felons

Posted on January 25, 2011 by | 2 comments
Have you noticed that when people try to make the argument that “most murderers know their victims,” they pretty much assume that means domestic violence? When we counter that most murderers have adult criminal records, they say no, they are domestic violence. Why do they assume that domestic violence occurs between otherwise law abiding people?
Uh oh, more people who know each other, trying to kill each other.
Lamanda Lynn Walton has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury and possession of a firearm by a felon….
Walton is a convicted felon. She was charged with felony accessory after the fact in 1997, according to the North Carolina Department of Correction website.
Oh, my… But what about the boyfriend?
West also has a criminal record. He has served time in prison for multiple drug charges, according to the NCDOC website. West also has pending cocaine and marijuana charges in Gaston County.
What have I been saying all along? Most killers have felony records. Most violence is drug related. Luckily for this guy, he’s going to be all right. At least until his upcoming drug court date.

2 Comments

Posted in Felons Behaving Badly

Lenoir County, maybe you should speak to your Sheriff’s Office

Posted on January 24, 2011 by | 4 comments
A spokesman for the Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office, Major Chris Hill, thinks NC pistol permitting should be MORE stringent
Hill would like to take the personal element out of the permit equation. He proposes the General Assembly adopt more invasive permitting laws akin to concealed-carry policies.
An application for a concealed weapon permit, which includes knives, includes a waiver granting the sheriff’s office permission to access mental health records of Dorothea Dix, Cherry Hospital, the local mental health system and the clerk of court office, which documents any time a person is committed.
Hill, who researched concealed-carry legislation for his master’s degree thesis, said the sheriff’s office frequently encounters situations where a person sought mental health services 20 years ago for alcoholism or drug addiction and the sheriff’s office has information about what has happened with the applicant since their treatment.
“We do not know what has happened during the time of treatment to now, whether they stopped going to counseling and got progressively worse or they got better and no longer needed counseling,” Hill said.
Hill proposed an electronic database that gathers information from all mental health systems in North Carolina.
Oh how nice. The Sheriff wants to know about my mental health history 20 years ago. How about finding out what my mental health is right now. And this isn’t for concealed carry, it’s just to buy a pistol. Do you get the idea that he believes you really shouldn’t have a gun at all?
I disagree with Major Hill. I think that unless you have been ruled mentally incompetent, insane, or violently criminal, you should be able to buy whatever you like. Buying a gun should not be license for the local po po to fish around in your medical history all the way back to the Reagan administration. It’s time to dump the stupid Jim Crow era pistol permit law.

4 Comments

Posted in Local stories, NC Politics

Gun Terror at the Golden Corral

Posted on January 23, 2011 by | Comments Off on Gun Terror at the Golden Corral

UPDATE: Due to being contacted by an officer at the local police department, I have changed this “story” slightly to remove the department name. For those of you not familiar with this style of story, let me explain. It is a PARODY of the type of anti-gun story you read in the newspaper. The Open Carry dinner did happen. There were no reactions of fear from anyone. There was no actual story. There was no reporter. There was no “witness.” And there was most certainly no fake quote from the local police department.
Original “Story” below:

——————————————————————————————————–

A heavily armed group of people ate dinner at the local (NC) Golden Corral last night. Witnesses say that the group of approximately 12 people entered the Golden Corral around 7PM, openly displaying pistols on their hips.

“They all sat together in the back and mostly just talked,” said one witness, who asked not to be identified because she was grounded and didn’t want her mother to know she was out of the house. “The sure seemed to think something was funny. They were laughing a lot.” When questioned by this reporter, the manager said “So what? They are polite, don’t cause trouble, and don’t slop the brown gravy all over the floor. That’s a lot better than some of the kiddie sports teams that come in here.”

The group was identified as Triangle Open Carry, a local pro-gun rights group, which apparently takes great delight in taking their guns to eat. Due to North Carolina law, Triangle Open Carry is restricted in their choice of restaurants to establishments that do not serve alcohol, like Golden Corral and Five Guys Burgers.

A spokesperson for the local Police Department contacted for this story asked why we were bothering him about it. “Did they act threateningly? Pull out their guns? Intimidate you away from the salad bar? We have important crimes to solve. We don’t have the manpower to waste harassing citizens for carrying their guns while eating dinner. You do know it isn’t against the law, right?”
The group departed just after 9pm, and there were no reported injuries. It is a miracle that disaster was averted, but with the recent takeover of the North Carolina General Assembly, it doesn’t look like there is any chance to pass emergency legislation to prevent the next such situation.

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Posted in About me, Open Carry

Is Renee Ellmers tweeting defiance?

Posted on January 22, 2011 by | Comments Off on Is Renee Ellmers tweeting defiance?
After a nasty public shooting, the anti-gunners splash themselves in the blood of the victims and attempt to shut our side up. They pretend to be on the side of the victim and then claim that since we won’t immediately cave in to their unreasonable demands, we are no better than the murderer. Armed self defense is a complicated subject that isn’t easily reduced to sound bite warfare, and in the whirlwind post shooting, it makes a certain amount of sense to stay quiet.
What happens if someone won’t shut up? I posted the two local news videos about my Congresswoman, Renee Ellmers, and her public re-affirmation of her decision last year to obtain a North Carolina Concealed Handgun Permit. At a time like this, there are four possible positions a politician can take when asked about concealed carry
1.       Repudiate past positions and pander to the anti-self defense crowd.
2.       Issue a terse statement saying “The Congresswoman, as a matter of policy, does not comment on issues related to her personal security.”
3.       Issue a statement saying “Yep, have a gun, a permit, and I carry sometimes.” And then ignore the issue until it goes away.
4.       Issue a statement saying “Yep, have a gun, a permit, and I carry sometimes.” And then do you best to make sure everyone hears your statement.
I think that Renee Ellmers is taking option 4. According to the video, the question was asked about her Permit during a conference call. Anyone can get ambushed on a conference call and end up in a news story. She could have just left it at that, but in the meantime, she has sent out two tweets making sure that her supporters (and probably her political foes) know where she stands.

It takes a certain amount of courage to stand up to the loudmouths on the other side. She risks being smeared the same way they try to smear the rest of us. I’m happy that my Congresswoman has taken reasonable steps to protect herself. No one will ever value her life more than she will value it herself, so it makes sense that she takes the responsibility to protect it. I am even happier that she publicly proclaims it, making it easier for other women to look to her and say, “Well if she can do it, I can do it.” Now all she needs to do to go down in my personal Second Amendment Hall of Fame is to march across the US House to Carolyn McCarthy’s desk and say to her, “About that ‘high-capacity’ magazine ban you’re pushing. Not just No, but Hell No!”
Representative Ellmers, if you want to go to the range sometime, I’m always up for it. And if you want any suggestions on where to get some really good pistol shooting instruction really near your home, I’ll be happy to put you in touch with the guys who taught me.

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Posted in National Politics, NC Politics