Tank of gas … $65.

Ammo … $100.

Firing a fully-automatic 9mm, 30-round capacity submachine gun mere yards from the socialist state of Massachusetts?

Priceless …

More to come …

The Firearm Blog is one year old! Wonder if I can get some RPGs from him? :-)

Congratulations!

DAMN YOU DAMP BASEMENT!

All of my weaponry has been left aside while I’ve been re-doing the SKS. So everything stays in the safe. Leave the Mosin in a safe for all of THREE WEEKS and rassafrackin’ colonies start growing on it! ARGH!

Looks like it’s time to bust out the steam cleaner …

So I’m in the basement, cleaning up the (as Sally from Cars would say) “newly refurbished” SKS. And I’m looking for a teeny little cleaning head I have to get into the pin assembly and get a little bit of gunk out.

And … where did I drop it?

I search. Damn. Not on the table.

I search. OH! There it is on the floor. Silly me.

So I lean down, go to pick it up and it fricking SLITHERS AWAY!

For cripes sake what the hell is that THING that I was about to stick into my SKS … why … it’s BORE LIZARD!

Click for super close up of BORE LIZARD!

Something tells me the little guy would’ve been pretty pissed to get dipped into a jar of Hoppe’s #9 and crammed into the firing pin assembly of a (newly refurbished) Yugo SKS. Probably wouldn’t be able to do it anyway, he was kinda squirmy.

So I promptly put him in a small container and let him loose in the backyard.

STAY OUTTA MY BASEMENT! Or so help me I’ll use you to clean the barrel of the .22!

Politicians at war with the citizenry!

SPRINGFIELD - People may be nervous about the economy, but Gov. Deval L. Patrick heard from Western Massachusetts municipal leaders Thursday afternoon that potential disaster looms on the November ballot.

Any time you hear the words “potential disaster” and “ballot” it means someone is going to have less power than they used to having.

Patrick, holding a public meeting of his cabinet at the Bangs Community Center in Amherst, listened as Northampton Mayor Mary Clare Higgins called for the public to rally against a ballot question that would eliminate the state’s 5.3 percent income tax.

AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! “Come on people! Take arms against tax elimination!” That’s some funny shit right there. Something tells me folks won’t exactly be whipped up into a frenzy over that one.

Look at these quotes …

“I’m really challenging the whole room that we need to work together on this question,” Higgins told an overflow gathering of more than 175 people.

… and …

Chicopee Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette, echoing Higgins’ concern, said the ballot question “ought to scare the living daylights out of any thinking person.”

… and …

Bissonnette then put the issue in monetary terms, saying passage of the question would cripple Chicopee’s $150 million annual budget.

“We’ll cut that by a third if this thing passes,” Bissonnette said.

DISASTER! For politicians. For the citizens it actually might be kinda nice.

How did it get on the ballot? Good old fashioned hard work and pissed off liberty-minded citizens:

The question got on the ballot after a petition drive by the Committee for Small Government, led by Libertarian Carla Howell, got the necessary 11,000 signatures.

Nice job, right there.

I love watching politicians squirm. It makes me happy. Like donuts and coffee, well-written code, the smell of gunpowder in the morning, or a Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon.

Leslie A. Kirwan, secretary of administration and finance, said personal income taxes account for about $13 billion of the $28 billion state budget. “This is the most staggering challenge that faces us,” Kirwan said. “It’s very important that all of you do as much as you can to see that that ballot question does not prevail,” she said.

That’s just pure awesome. I love that it’s a “disaster” that there’s a challenge posed by thousands of like-minded residents.

And if you ever wondered if Deval Patrick was a complete tool, this should put to rest any doubt you’ve ever had in your mind:

“I don’t meet people who like paying taxes. … I don’t like paying taxes,” he said. However, the governor recalled living in Darfur in the Sudan after he graduated from Harvard College. There were no taxes - and more.

“(There were) no roads. No hospitals. No schools. No public safety,” Patrick said.

BBWAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! That’s it right there. Get rid of MA taxes and it’ll be farking DARFUR! Slaughter in the streets! No roads! No hospitals! No Schools! No PUBLIC SAFETY! Oh … stop … laughing too hard … gonna pee … Public Safety … in … Assachusetts … BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Deval Patrick is trying to tell you that no taxes are the reasons Darfur is what it is. If that holds true, then if MA doesn’t have a state income tax, everyone will have to live in dung huts, half of them will have Aids and Malaria and every day hundreds of people will be slaughtered by psychos wielding machetes. Oh, and Bono will show up regularly to hand out mosquito nets! In The Name Of Love!

Forgive me if I feel that’s a small stretch.

The governor then went to Holyoke for an outdoor town hall meeting at Holyoke Heritage State Park. Hundreds of people gathered in the evening heat as Patrick, his suit coat off and shirt sleeves rolled up, took questions and offered that the work of government is really the work of the public.

“Government is about us helping ourselves,” Patrick said.

No. Helping yourself is about helping yourself. Government nowadays (and particularly in MA), is about taking your money and funding billion dollar boondoggles, socialized health care, a disarmed citizenry (well, except for Jay), and politicians who sound as if though they’re about ready to spend every last penny and pull every trick in the book protecting state income tax.

Now, you knew this comparison would be inevitable … New Hampshire has no personal income tax and last I checked … we have roads. Schools. And pretty much everything else they DON’T in Darfur.

Darfur … oh, man, my sides hurt from that one …

I’m … er … wicked excited about the Northeast Blogger Shoot.

I will be bringing an obnoxious, impossibly annoying guest …

Your days are numbered, Furbish-speaking evil toy …

Public Function PieceOfShit(OS As String) As Boolean

If OS <> “Linux” Then
      PieceOfShit = True
      Else
      PieceOfShit = False
End If

As if there was any doubt …

This is probably one of the more ridiculous things I’ve read in a long time … when are the anti-folks going to stop lying? Never, that’s when.

When Deputy Chief James Scott started with the New Orleans Police Department 36 years ago, the criminal weapon of choice was the Saturday Night Special, a cheap, low-quality handgun that packed little punch and wasn’t capable of doing much damage.

Oh yeah. I get shot by those all the time. Leaves welts. Dumbass. Wasn’t capable of doing much damage? Put it against your head and pull the trigger, it will definitely change your mind … by splattering it outta yer skull.

Three decades later, Scott admits to being terrified at some of the weapons police discover on the streets of New Orleans such as the “street sweeper,” a modified shotgun capable of shooting up to 12 rounds of shells.

Where can I get one? Ebay? No?

“The only purpose for a gun like that is to kill people,” Scott said. “It’s not for hunting or target practice — it’s just a killing machine. That’s a pretty terrifying weapon.”

It’s a counter-insurgency weapon and it’s classified as a destructive device, which means I doubt highly that gun shops in the area are pushing these things out after just a wee little background check and a $200 payment. I could sit here and say, “OMG! He had an RPG! That’s not for plinking or killing groundhogs!” This Deputy Chief James Scott fellow is acting as if though he sees Strikers out there every night. But oh no! Here comes the biggest line of bullshit … like … EVER …

“We also see a lot of AK-47s. Since the hurricane, we’ve confiscated 6,000.”

Six thousand AK-47s? According to the census bureau (yeah, it’s a wikipedia cite, go away if you don’t like it), post-Katrina population of New Orleans in 2007 is approximately 274,000. 60% of it’s pre-Katrina population.

6,000 AK-47s in a population of 274,000 (according to the 2007 census) would indicate to me that you’ve got one AK-47 per approximately 46 residents. New Orlean’s population immediately following Katrina was 223,000. So clearly, everyone in New Orleans had an AK-47. Grannies. Babies. Mentally ill. Felons. Probably some dogs and cats too, you know. All of ‘em were wandering around with mil-surp wonderfulness strapped to their back.

Bullshit. Either a knowing blatant lie, or a gross misquote.

But where do criminals get such high-powered weaponry?

Ebay for $100!!!

Contrary to popular belief, they do not purchase them through sinister back channels on the black market from shadowy arms dealers. The majority of guns the NOPD confiscates were at one point purchased legally, eventually finding their way into the hands of drug dealers through two simple methods — burglary and straw purchases, where the criminal gets someone with a clean record to buy the weapon.

Can’t do that. That’s illegal.

Most of the guns the NOPD confiscates are stolen from a legal gun owner’s home or vehicle. The sad thing, Scott said, is that this can be avoided.

Right. By paying attention and shooting the slimy little cretin when he breaks into your car at 2AM. Or, you can hook up a car battery to your door handles with a little bit of clever wiring. Put a switch on your dash to control it. That’ll be the last door that shocked little bastard will try to get into. Heh.

“People will leave guns in unlocked cars and it angers us because it gives someone access to a weapon that can be used on a citizen or law enforcement officer. It’s a matter of people being too lazy to pick their gun up and bring it into their house. They just think no one is going to break into their car because they can’t see the gun.

And when one out of 50 cars has an AK-47 sitting on the passenger seat, it’s a criminal’s dream!

“But the next thing you know, their gun is missing and it’s out on the street where it can change hands five times and that’s a scary thing.

Strikers and AK-47s for everyone! Like handing out cigars when a baby’s born!

“How would you feel if your gun was used in a murder just because you decided to leave it in your car?”

Spare me the guilt trip, douchenozzle (thanks Nicki), I’d be pissed off because something of mine was stolen and I wasn’t there to beat the everloving shit out of the thug who did it. I didn’t pull the trigger. It’s inanimate. There’s no emotional connection there. I’d be just as pissed off if someone stole my chainsaw and hacked apart some poor sap standing at an ATM. I’d be MORE pissed off because I’d never get the damn thing back. It certainly wouldn’t be MY fault someone stole something from me and decided to kill someone with it. You know … might want to actually blame the criminal for the crime.

Straw purchases are often made through a family member or girlfriend who can make a legal purchase through a gun shop.

And you mean to tell me when they fill out the background check form, they’re checking the box that says, “Are you purchasing this weapon for someone other than yourself?” I doubt it. Of course, lying on that form is illegal too, isn’t it? Or can I just fill in “Mickey Mouse” next time I purchase a gun?

“A convicted felon can just pay a friend $50 to buy him the gun,” Scott said. “I’d say that accounts for about 30 percent of the guns we recover off the street.”

And with 6,000 confiscated AK-47s, you guys must be raking in about 5 billion handguns a day in confiscations! You sound like Dr. Evil … “Five Hundred BILLION AK-47s!!!”

Law enforcement officials say the reality is that anyone can get their hands on a firearm if they really want one.

Finally, some truth.

In Louisiana, the average child can obtain a gun within three hours, typically by taking one from a family member or a friend, said Special Agent Austin Banks with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives New Orleans Field Division.

Okay … WTF? Are they replacing sack races with “Find Daddy’s Gun” in the local fairs now? “Okay Billy … somewhere in that haystack is a loaded Franchi Spas-12! Get ready … get set … GO!”

“Everybody knows somebody who has a legitimate gun. That’s just the way it is in Louisiana,” Banks said. “People buy guns for protection and then they hide them in the closet or stick them underneath the mattress and generally they forget about them. But the children don’t. They’re seekers and if they really want to, they’ll find that weapon.”

Apparently everybody knows somebody who has an AK-47, too. What the hell kind of degenerate mess is New Orleans according to this guy? AK-47s everywhere, lead-sniffing kids hunting them out and strapping them to their big-wheels or some such thing? Obscure semi-auto shotguns from South Africa around every other corner?

Of the 8,338 firearms the ATF confiscated in Louisiana in 2007, 2,181 or 26 percent came from New Orleans. Baton Rouge had the second highest total at 1,316 (16 percent), followed by Jefferson Parish at 1,128 (13.5 percent).

You’ll excuse me if I immediately do not believe that even 50% of those ATF seizures had anything to do with a crime and had everything to do with paperwork. I also think the ATF would be mightily concerned about where those thousands of AK-47s ended up. These numbers aren’t adding up.

The most popular gun among New Orleans criminals is the .40 caliber Glock that sells for an average of $450 and the AK-74 that can be purchased after-market at a gun show for as little as $100, Scott said.

Even more popular than the AK-47 is the .40 caliber Glock! There’s one of those for every 10 people! And …

Wait a second … AK-74s available at a gun show for $100?

Okay. That’s just funny.

But money is rarely an object to drug dealers when heavy firepower is the issue.

But lying is rarely an object to anti-gun monkeys when agendas are the issue.

“A drug dealer makes $450 in half a day’s work so they don’t blink an eye buying the high-end guns,” Scott said. “It’s glamorous for them to have the expensive weapon like the Glock compared to standing out there with a five-shot revolver.”

You think a Glock is expensive! Try purchasing a 12-shot “destructive weapon”. Does the ATF know about those?

The average gun will circulate on the streets for more than five years before it turns up in a crime and is confiscated, Banks said. And the damage it can do in that period is incalculable. So gun owners need to do everything they can to properly secure their weapons, he said.

Hey, I’ll agree with that. That’s why I carry mine broken down into the smallest parts possible and stuffed into my socks and underwear. After all, if it’s stolen, it’s just my fault. Dumbass.

“Guns in the criminal world are a high commodity,” Banks said. “They’re a necessity to the evil deeds that they do and they’ll do whatever it takes to get one.”•

That makes no sense. Gah. I need a shower.