Gun Control "works" in Chicago

Courtesy of Second City Cop, we learn that Chicago had 108 people shot in the week of June 19-26, 2009, with 7 homicides. It seems that the Chicago handgun ban for law-abiding citizens is working very well, after all, it wouldn't do for any of the gang-bangers to run the risk of a victim shooting back at them. One thing noted in the comments section is that the CPS "honor students" doing the shooting aren't very good shots. However, most of the victims seem to be members of the same subset as the shooters and not a great loss to society. The problem is that innocents like a nine-year-old girl staying with her grandmother and her gangster father for part of summer vacation get shot and killed because the animals on the street don't really care who gets hurt.

Next time the reverends, like Jesse Jackson and Father Pfleger, get "up in arms" about CPS "honor students" and young people "just turning their lives around" dying in the streets, perhaps they should protest against the culture of casual violence, not talking to the "po-leeses," and hostility to the police in the neighborhoods like Englewood where this seems to happen most.

ECS

The silence is broken, and I'm underwhelmed

Since I never received a response to my question asking if it was White House policy that a slain late-term abortion provider was more important than the murder of a young American soldier and wounding of another, I just left this message on the http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/ page for the President:

I am completely underwhelmed by the President’s statement concerning the murder of Private William Long and wounding of Private Quinton Ezeagwula by Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammed, a Muslim convert formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe, in Little Rock, Arkansas. While the President was “shocked and outraged” by the murder of Doctor Tiller in Wichita and characterized it as a “heinous act of violence,” the best he could do for two young soldiers was that he was “deeply saddened” by “senseless violence.” I have news for the President: Unlike the murder of Doctor Tiller, the attack on Privates Long and Ezeagwula made perfect sense to their attacker whose chosen middle name means “holy warrior” in Arabic. They were American soldiers, hated because they were soldiers, Americans, and free men. He considered them his enemies, the enemies of his “religion of peace,” as he considers all of us who refuse to accept Islam as our religion or dhimmitude subservience to Muslims.

The President’s lukewarm expression of condolence to Private William Long’s family and concern to Private Quinton Ezeagwula and his family do not impress me as credible due to the delay before he made it. Within hours of Doctor Tiller’s death, the President made his statement of outrage, and the Attorney General ordered the US Marshal’s Service into action. Within days after the murder of a young American soldier and the wounding of another, the President is “saddened,” and the Attorney General does exactly nothing.

As a retired soldier, I respect the office of the President of the United States, but I am having great difficulty in respecting the person of Barack Obama, right now.

Sincerely,

ECS
CPT, Armor
US Army (Ret.)

Hope is not a plan; not all change is good. WE are the civilian national security force! Our enemies are among us. Prepare to defend yourself and your country.

ECS

Murder in Little Rock; Silence in the White House (Updated)

Two young soldiers, straight out of Basic Training, are standing outside the Army-Navy recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas, when a vehicle pulls up and shots ring out. One soldier, William Long, 24, of Conway dies. The other, Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville falls seriously wounded but able to crawl to the recruiting station door. A short time later, police stop a vehicle on the interstate and arrest Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammed, 24, formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe, a convert to Islam. He is later charged and pleads not guilty to first degree murder and fifteen (15) counts of engaging in a terrorist act.

The young soldiers had not been deployed anywhere. They were assigned as "hometown recruiters" for two weeks. Soldiers dying in a combat zone is unremarkable. Soldiers being targeted in Little Rock because they are American soldiers seems remarkable to me.

Muhammed had reportedly gone to Yemen on a Somali passport to study jihad in a religious school. Once back in the states, he apparently decided to put his training in the "religion of peace" to use. This, too, is unremarkable.

What is remarkable to me is the utter silence about these murders, this act of domestic jihad, from the White House. The same President who decried the murder of Dr. Tiller, a late-term abortion specialist in Kansas, hasn't said a word about young soldiers being murdered in Little Rock, hasn't said a word of condolence to the families, and hasn't condemned the actions of this thug acting in the name of Allah. I guess in his eyes, the soldiers and their families aren't worthy of the same concern as an abortionist.

While we haven't heard from the President or Attorney General, Daris Long, the father of the fallen soldier, a former Marine, spoke eloquently to KATV, Little Rock, of the pain his family has suffered and the goodness of others. With his father as an example, William Long should have proven to be a fine soldier.


ECS

Goodbye, Wayman Tisdale

Well, we lost a great native son today when Wayman Tisdale, an Oklahoma schoolboy and college basketball legend, an NBA veteran, a smooth jazz artist, and a remarkably humble, dedicated family man, lost his brave two-year fight with cancer at age 44. Local reaction to his passing was immediate and heartfelt. ESPN provided this look at him as a basketball player, a man, and a musician. Unlike some so-called "stars" in the NBA, Tisdale excelled without falling prey to the temptations contrary to his Christian faith. Wayman Tisdale, in everything he did, from basketball, to music, to his fight with cancer, and to his family, was a man. He'll be sorely missed.

ECS

Even the Canadians "get it."

This is nothing that apologists for the Obama administration will want to read, but it rings true.

ECS

Free Roxana Saberi (updated)

This American was arrested by Iran, tried in one hour by a kangaroo court, and sentenced to prison for espionage in one of the biggest violations of human rights and justice I've noticed lately. Write or call the White House, your Senators, and your Congressman to protest the lack of action by this administration.

This is what comes of "wanting to have a dialogue" with barbarians.

ECS

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Update - An appeals court reduced Roxana Saberi's sentence from 8 years to 2 years suspended, and she is free now. I haven't heard if she will be allowed to leave Iran, but I've been in migraine hell for about a week.

ECS

World's Biggest Gun Show this weekend!

This weekend, as usual, I'll be going to the Wanenmacher's Tulsa Arms Show at the QuikTrip Center (formerly the Expo Square building, formerly the International Petroleum Exposition Building) at the Tulsa State Fairgrounds. Even given the hours the show will be open, it normally takes almost two full days to really see everything. I'm going to check with my next-door-neighbor the police officer to see if he wants to go, but his weird hours may prevent it. I took Andrew to his first gun show* a month or two ago, and he was like a kid in a candy store. He might go completely nuts if I can get him to the Wanenmacher Show.

Several years ago, I rented a table at the show to liquidate a large amount of reloading supplies that my wife's late cousin left to his sister. After paying rent for the table, I was able to give his sister more than $1,000.00 in cash. I'm still looking to liquidate a bunch of rough stock blanks for the do-it-yourselfers out there.

Tips -

1. Look at the tables for "Do Not Handle Without Permission" signs before you go fingerprinting somebody's stuff. Even if you don't see a sign, it's good manners to ask before picking up the "BelchFire .78 Magnum" that you've never seen before.

2. Take some cash with you because a lot of the people with tables don't take plastic or checks.

3. Wear walking shoes or hiking boots. Eleven and a half acres of concrete are hard on the dogs. Sneakers don't provide enough support, and you'll be worn out before you get half-way done if you wear cowboy boots.

4. Take something to drink with you unless you like paying $16.00 a gallon for pop at the concession stands.

5. As a corollary to 4., take a break and go out for lunch. There are a number of fast food places nearby from McDonald's and Burger Street to McAllister's Deli. There is an all-you-can-eat Mexican restaurant named Casa Bonita which has a big rep. The best place to eat for gun-show-goers, in my opinion is Jim's Coney Island just north of 21st Street on the east side of Harvard. Coneys, yeros, baclava. It's all there; it's all good.

6. If you see something that you just have to have that might be somewhat rare, like a modified choke 28 inch vent rib barrel for a Browning Sweet Sixteen, get it. You can either carry it or take it out to the car, but if you don't buy it, it won't be there when you get back. (This is something that my brother learned the hard way.)

7. If you are buying ammunition in bulk, either take it to the car/truck right then, or ask the guy if you can leave it for later pick-up.

8. If you take guns to trade/sell/have appraised or just want to be seen hauling around a really cool gun, please watch where and how you handle them/turn with them or show them to someone else. Some of us don't want to get brained by the barrel or stock of your rifle/shotgun or have it pointed at us. We may react...badly or rudely.

9. If you hear someone behind a commercial dealer's table telling someone that "Taurus," for example, makes all the "Smith & Wesson" revolvers, don't be afraid to ask the moron what S&W builds in that nice factory in Massachusetts.

I'll see you there.

ECS