Guns, Cars, and Tech

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  • It was bound to happen

    In every state where Restaurant Carry has been proposed, opponents have screamed this would happen:

    Patron arrested after putting gun to waiter’s head

    The argument is that even though it is illegal to drink while carrying, waiters would be forced at gunpoint to serve alcohol to permit holders. Well, it looks like it only took two years for that to happen in Tennessee.

    Oh, except the guy wasn’t drinking. Or eating. Or a customer at all. And he didn’t have a permit. And isn’t legally allowed to have a handgun in the first place. And this didn’t happen inside a restaurant.

    So, other than that, this is a perfect example!

  • The solution is obvious

    Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman says we need an alien invasion to get us out of this economic slump.

    NASA Scientists say aliens might invade because of emissions.

    So clearly we need to remove these stupid emissions regulations in order to save the economy. Who am I to argue with these guys?

  • The folly of “Posted Properties”

    In a lot of states, there is a provision in the concealed carry law that allows property owners to prohibit legal concealed carry on premises. The gunny term for this is a Posted Property. Sometimes we just say “that place is posted.”

    Here in Tennessee, TCA 39-17-1359 is what governs us.

    It’s a bit chatty, but basically it says that if there is a “Circle-slash” graphic, or a text sign that says “AS AUTHORIZED BY T.C.A. § 39-17-1359, POSSESSION OF A WEAPON ON POSTED PROPERTY OR IN A POSTED BUILDING IS PROHIBITED AND IS A CRIMINAL OFFENSE,” then you can be charged with a crime*. If you, as a carry permit holder, are caught carrying in one of these places, it’s a Class B Misdemeanor. The punishment? A $500 fine, and a Class B Misdemeanor on your record for the rest of your life. The fine is nothing, but having to answer “Yes” on those employment questionnaires that ask if you’ve ever been convicted of a crime will cost you a lot more in lost wages. This is why I don’t ignore these signs.

    You may noticed that I threw the “if you are a carry permit holder” qualifier in there. The reason for that is if you are caught carrying a firearm in a place that is open to the public (like a business), and you don’t have a carry permit, that’s an entirely different offense. It’s also why we have carry permits in the first place, to exempt us from that law. In Tennessee, that law is TCA 39-17-1307. It’s a Class A Misdemeanor, which is just shy of a felony. Unless, of course, you’ve previously been convicted of a felony–in that case you’ve got another Class E Felony on your hands. Now, this law does not specify sentences so that’s up to the judge, but a Class A Misdemeanor is punishable by a fine of up to $2000 and one day short of a year in the county jail.

    So let’s say Bob and Jim are both carrying pistols. Bob has a carry permit, Jim does not. Neither has ever been so much as arrested for a crime. They each head to Toys R Us to pick up a Tickle Me Elmo. On the way in, they see the sign that prohibits weapons.

    If Bob walks in, his potential marginal cost is walking out with a criminal record and a $500 fine. If he stays outside, nothing happens to him.

    If Jim walks in, his potential marginal cost is only the $500 fine. Without the sign, he’d still be facing a criminal record (worse than Bob’s), a $2000 fine, and a year in jail–even if he stays outside.

    The obvious question we always ask is, If Jim hasn’t been deterred by the potential of a year in jail and a $2000 fine, why would he be deterred by an additional $500 fine? That would be assuming that he was actually charged with both crimes, which I doubt would happen. The answer, of course, is that he wouldn’t, and only an idiot would believe otherwise. And in this example Jim is not intent on robbing, raping, or murdering anyone, nor has he been to jail before.

    Which brings us to the real reason why posting is a complete joke:

    (more…)

  • There I fixed it.

    Problem: Casey, our 9 month old Belgian Malinois puppy figured out the trash can contains tasty morsels.

    Solution:

    image

  • Mental note

    When buying a new gun, take note of the slide mounted safety. When the firing pin mysteriously stops making contact with the primer, check to make sure an overzealous RSO didn’t engage the safety while you were putting up a fresh target.

    I haven’t owned a pistol with a manual safety in a little more than three years. This morning I took possession of a Walther P22. After three rounds of shooting, it stopped going bang. The slide mounted safety on a P22 is just a simple hammer block, so when it is engaged, the hammer will fall but never touch the firing pin. Since I am not accustomed to manipulating a safety before firing, it didn’t occur to me that an RSO would engage it.

    That a gun with its slide back and magwell empty is unsafe unless the hammer block is also engaged will forever remain a mystery to me. And if it’s a rule that they should do that for me, why didn’t they catch it the first two times? Or tell me?

  • Weekend Discussion

    Thoughts or suggestions for a replacement for bittorrent RSS feed site http://ezrss.it ?

  • Friday Funny

  • Housekeeping stuff

    My server doesn’t seem to want to keep time. It was off by about 20 minutes yesterday when I manually synced with pool.ntp.org. This morning it was off by 5 hours. Meh.

    I’ve added a Resources page and a Contact page. The Resources page will contain stuff I use to research, and so far I’ve got links to the Lexis-Nexis version of Tennessee Code Annotated and the TN General Assembly page. I’ve got links somewhere that provide direct camera feeds rather than having to use the stupid Silverlight stuff on the TGA video page.

    I added some Social Media stuff to the bottom of posts. Just felt like the thing to do.

    Also, if you know of a good place to get header graphics, lemme know in the comments.

  • New Shooter!

    Coming late February 2012: lilwizard!

    I’m hoping for 2/23 since that’ll be a pretty easy date to remember. 3/08 would be too cruel to my wife 😀

    I got to hear the heartbeat this morning. Fricken cool.

  • You know what I haven’t talked about?

    Cars. So here we go:

    Lexus has released a Lexusified Prius, called the CT 200h. It’s $30,000 for the base model, has 98hp, gets 43mpg on the highway, and has a 0-60 time in the 10 second range.

    For $4,000 less, I’d rather have a TDI Passat that gets the same mileage.

    Of course, I haven’t paid more than $4000 for a car since 1999, so it’s not like I’m likely to buy either one today. Four years from now after they’ve lost 60% of their value to depreciation, however….