A friend of mine at work shared an interesting story.  A few weeks back we had discussed gun ownership.  I purchased a handgun about a year ago, and he was thinking about buying one.  I told him it went pretty smoothly for me… I went to the County Sheriff’s office, filled out the forms, and a week later I had my purchase permit.

So, he went ahead and got his permit.  It took two weeks instead of one (possibly they are a little backed up with requests?).  Then he went a big box outdoor store here in town and purchased a 9 mil.  No big deal.

Except he couldn’t purchase any ammunition.

Not that he needed something rare and hard to find.  They were out …

Dick Heller, of DC v. Heller fame, finally got a gun permit today. 

Unfortunately, that’s only part of the story.

The District is treating semi-automatic handguns as “machine guns”.  So, the registration he succeeded at acquiring only allows him to have a revolver in his home.

Heller recently sued the city again, alleging that the registration rules adopted by the D.C. government after the ban was overturned are too cumbersome and violate the spirit and letter of the Supreme Court decision.

We discussed this story as the case went to the court, and as the decision was handed down. 

The District is, in my opinion, doing all they can to thumb their nose at the Supreme Court on this one.   We can certainly …

Des Moines Register columnist Rekha Basu wrote an interesting piece for today’s paper on the foibles of unrestrained and anonymous commenting on newspaper web sites, such as that hosted by the Des Moines Register.

It was a very informative piece and I think can help give some people perspective into the issue of unmoderated and anonymous commenting, the impacts it can have on people when those who abuse the forum attack others, and the opinions of those that in particular are vitriolic in their content.  The piece touches briefly on some of the driving issues behind how a newspaper determines its approach to filtering content.  It was very effective in providing significant information, an excellent job of reporting from the various stakeholders.

The piece fails, …

Thank goodness, albeit another split decision, the court came through with a good decision. In DC v Heller, the court ruled in favor of gun ownership. We discussed this case back when arguments wrapped up in April. For those of you that are sure to argue that my position yesterday was that the court should have stayed away from the state’s right to legislate on the death penalty, one must understand that there are significant differences here.

One (death penalty) has to do with the meting out of punishment, which is certainly addressed in the 8th amendment.  For that reason, the court certainly has a role in ensuring that the 8th Amendment is not abrogated.  In Kennedy v Louisiana, however, the case does …

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

- 2nd Amendment, US Constitution

As you may already know, the Supreme Court heard arguments today regarding the case of a Washington DC resident who wants to own a gun and keep it in her home for self defense purposes. The law in the District of Columbia prohibits her from owning having a handgun in her home… from even owning one. For background on the case, the SCOTUSBlog.com site (SCOTUS stands for Supreme Court Of The United States) has some good information. From their site:

Within seconds after the defender of the District law, Washington lawyer Walter Dellinger,

…

I’m still a little overwhelmed by the events of Valentine’s Day.

People died or were injured and should not have been. It never should have happened. As with any other shooting of this type, we will have days of analysis about the drugs that this young man stopped taking, about the easy availability of the weapons he used, and why stronger measures need to be put in place to limit the availability of these weapons from unstable members of the public.

What a bunch of nonsense.

I was hit with a surprisingly poignant question from my wife after the death toll was first announced:

Can I learn to fire a gun?

Wow. That hit me like a ton of bricks.

One thing about your friendly …

I’m not going to address the Second Amendment tonight.  That can wait a day.

The shooting at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb is painful.  To parents and friends of the victims, I can only express my deepest sorrow for your loss.  I pray the God will comfort you at this time.

I have no other words tonight.…