… no posting until I stop leaking all manner of bodily substances.

I was watching Mythbusters earlier today (rerun) where they were testing the myth about diving and swimming into the water in order to escape a barrage of bullets. The myth ended up being confirmed. There’s a great quote comparing a bullet from the M1 Garand (ooooh jealousy!) to a bullet from the .50 cal, “This kills you, this kills you and everyone else in the room.” A description that’s apparently quite accurate.

Have a look at the beast yourself. Observe the impressive water tower that occurs when the bullet hits:

Reading up on the M107 Long Range Sniper Rifle, I came across this … very fascinating bit of information:

Leaders and scouts viewed the effect of the 50 cal round as a combat multiplier due to the psychological impact on other combatants that viewed the destruction of the target.

“My spotter positively identified a target at 1400 meters carrying an RPG on a water tower. I engaged the target. The top half of the torso fell forward out of the tower and the lower portion remained in the tower.” 325th PIR Sniper

“There were other personal anecdotes of one round destroying two targets and another of the target “disintegrating.”

One shot. Trained sniper. .50 Cal. Ow.

Okay, this may be exceedingly morbid, but I wonder what varmint hunting would look like with one of these things bolted to the railing of your deck in the back yard. “Heeere little squirrelly …” My guess is you’d have nothing more than a small puff of fur fluttering through the air with no other visual evidence of it’s demise to speak of.

If you haven’t been able to tell already, I’m a big fan of H.P. Lovecraft and Cthulhu in general. Something about a big tentacled blob that makes people go insane and die appeals to me for whatever reason.

I am also sans any ink. As a blank canvas, I can state unequivocally that if I ever DO get a tattoo, I’d seriously consider something as bad-ass as this:

Explain that one to your kids!

Bill Quick over at Daily Pundit suggests to write in Fred Thompson and send a message to GOP and the Dems. It makes sense.

But … well … considering that if anyone currently available becomes President we’re all going to either die or go insane anyway, I think the choice is quite clear …

… besides, I hear cultists get the privilege of being consumed by unimaginable madness last.

Armed Canadian takes apart the mandatory registration argument with this most excellent piece of fisking wonderfulness:

Explain how knowing who has guns will prevent a criminal from killing people? It’s not like a criminal is going to register theirs beforehand. Plus, a criminal doing so would be violating their own 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination and thus would be provided an affirmative legal defense in the event they were found in possession of an unregistered gun. Sound far-fetched? It isn’t. Courts have upheld this.

So, please explain why registration will prevent another Virginia Tech? It won’t and I’ll tell you why. In Canada, where they have gun registration, a man used a legally acquired rifle that was registered with the police to kill 19 students at Dawson College in Montreal in September 2006.

Excellent! Read it all!

Note to the anti crowd - repeating logical, successful arguments against you does not somehow prove your point.

This is off-the-charts idiocy.

SEUNG-HUI CHO didn’t get the guns he used to kill 33 Virginia Tech students and faculty, including himself, from a gun show. But legislation to close the loophole in Virginia law that allows certain purchases at gun shows without a background check is justified if we are to prevent a recurrence of the madness and sadness of April 16.

How, shit for brains? You defeat your argument, and then argue your point anyway. Is this REALLY the best you can do?

On Friday, the Republican-led House Militia, Police and Public Safety committee killed its version in a 13-9 party-line vote. The legislation was added to the docket late Thursday in an apparent effort to head off supporters’ organizational efforts. Be aware that GOP panel members have received thousands of dollars in contributions from gun-rights advocates.

Be aware that the EEEEEEEEEEEVIL GUN LOBBY has your representatives wrapped around their filthy little blood-stained trigger fingers!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAA!

The legislation has been greeted with a firestorm of criticism from gun-rights advocates across the commonwealth and the country. Their outrage is predictable, but their fears groundless. The Second Amendment states that “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.” The infringement of that right, however, is not at issue here. The idea is to keep guns out of the wrong hands, and all should stand united in favor of it.

Require background checks for eBay sales! We cannot allow unregulated “straw” purchases of vintage ALF lunchboxes!

“Guns don’t kill people; people kill people,” gun-rights advocates say, but that’s the point of the legislation: Keep guns away from people who might use them to kill people. It won’t be 100 percent successful. Neither is the law against robbing banks. The point is, if you rob a bank, the law provides a punishment. That serves as a deterrent to others.

Only in the twisted mind of a mentally deranged leftist anti-gun collectivist globule of subway ichor can you compare robbing a bank to buying an inanimate object.

Is there a law against killing people? Yes. Is there a punishment for it? Yes. And still it’s not a deterrent. People rob banks anyway, even though there’s a risk of capture or death. The author of this steaming little pile of anti-crap has so twisted themselves within a web of their own arguments and the words bouncing around their comfortable little echo chamber that it’s impossible for them to actually make sense.

Common sense suggests the need to extend background checks (already used in stores) to gun shows. This shouldn’t be a problem: If a gun buyer has nothing to hide, why would he or she object?

How did this whole “background checks do not exist at gun shows” thing get started? Last I checked, if you’re a dealer at a gun show, you damn well better be conducting background checks.

Between 1994 and 2005, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System blocked 1.4 million sales to prohibited purchasers. Virginia State Police say background checks by licensed dealers stopped 2,668 improper gun sales in Virginia in 2005 alone.

Tech shooter Cho’s history of mental illness was not accessible in the background checks he underwent.

I love it. It’s a greatest hits piece of arguments that can’t be refuted. They’re just restated along with the anti agenda to mask the fact that the IQ of these arguments is about in line with a burlap bag filled with farting sea cucumbers (hmmm. Do they fart? Likely not, but I believe the comparison is accurate nonetheless).

A responsible society seeks out the causes of tragedies such as the Virginia Tech shootings and strives to prevent them.

They were. Dumbass.

Gun-rights advocates may invoke the Second Amendment, but in the case of this common sense legislation, that dog won’t hunt. Those who oppose the legislation are shooting themselves in the foot–and putting the rest of us at risk.

Yeah, and why do we need to stop with gun shows, right? Why not extend it to our homes? Let the ATF come in and double check our gun safes and locks just to be sure we’re not endangering ourselves and society!

If we don’t have anything to hide, why should we mind, right?

With this attitude at higher learning institutions leading the way, we are in major, major trouble:

“The fewer places people are allowed to carry guns, the better,” said lawyer Scott Drabenstadt, who represents the man disabled in the shooting. “There are places where it is entirely inappropriate, especially universities and schools.”

Well, damn. If only someone told the VA shooter that what he was doing was “innappropriate.”

“Apart from law enforcement and our security, we are against having guns anywhere on campus,” said Bellarmine University President Joseph McGowan. “We are in favor of our students shooting holes in bad ideas but with their minds and words.”

Oh how cute! I’m sure psychopathic killers are all too interested in hearing about how shooting holes in as many heads as possible is a “bad idea.”

No war was ever won by shooting holes in bad ideas with minds and words. When you’re in a fight, and it’s a fight for your life, you need more resources than dropping to your knees and begging your killer to spare you.

And of course, what’s a gun article without the money quote from P-to-the-H dawg:

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Handgun Violence, said his organization strongly opposes the measure.

“The colleges and universities are the ones who should be making the decision on how to keep people safe,” he said.

Didn’t see that one coming.

Lookit Philly getting all puffy chested:

Philadelphia - District Attorney Lynne Abraham, flanked by Attorney General Tom Corbett and State Sen. Vincent Fumo (D-Philadelphia), announced the arrests of 112 straw purchasers of illegal weapons yesterday.

Well, I’m sure if Pennsylvania would’ve passed some laws making them wait a month to buy hand guns, this wouldn’t be possible!

Ms. Abraham touted the work of the Gun Violence Task Force, a relatively new program which employs retired police officers to investigate crimes involving straw purchases.

Great! Give them something to do, no problem with that. This, however, is a little suspicious to me:

Most notably, the taxpayer-subsidized program allowed investigators to arrest two individuals linked to the Oct. 4 shooting of two armored car guards in North Philadelphia.

Jason Lighty, 26, of the 6200 block of Catherine Street, and Eric Benson, 25, of the 1500 block of Ellsworth Street, employed with National Car Rental, at one time allegedly owned the gun that police confiscated in the robbery attempt.

See, there’s not enough information there. “allegedly owned the gun” doesn’t make any sense. They did, or they didn’t. If they did, how did it get to someone who was shooting at armored car guards. If they didn’t own it … well … what gives?

My guess, they owned it, needed some cash, and sold it to someone. That someone went all pulp-fiction on a couple of armored car guards. Then, he got caught. No one-gun-a-month law would’ve helped that. No mythical “gun-show-loophole” to speak of. No “locked and in a safe” law prevented it. Two people allegedly sold a piece to some gang banger. No restriction on your average law-abiding gun-nut would’ve prevented that. But I digress …

The gun used by Mustafa Ali, 36, the suspect charged with the killing of William Widmaier, 65, and Joseph Alullo, 55, as they serviced an ATM outside a Wachovia Bank at Cottman Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard. One survivor, Joseph Walczak, the driver of the armored vehicle testified at Mr. Ali’s preliminary hearing last week.

“We’re going to find out how these straw purchases happened and track them all down,” Ms. Abraham said during the press conference.

“GRRRRR,” added Ms. Abraham, showing her teeth to the small, crowded room of reporters.

The task force, which uses $5 million annually in state tax funds, allowed the Attorney General’s office, which oversees the program, to hire 15 new firearms examiners.

I guess your average, every day police officer is too busy to be bothered with this stuff. Looking for ways to spend the public’s money, are we?

“We want to send this message to straw purchasers that you will do time in jail,” Mr. Corbett said.

… as he thrust his arms into the air and balanced on one foot, adding, “I’m going for that snake-slash-ninja approach!”

“Anyone who is a straw purchaser deserves to see the inside of a prison.”

Just seems like they’re trying way to hard for some kind of threatening sound byte. I’d prefer this one:

“We’re going to encourage law-abiding citizens to carry concealed, so they can pop a cap in your sorry ass if you decide to go running around the streets like a dumb shit holding that thing sideways and missing anything beyond 6 feet in front of you.”