Testimony of Joyce Lee Malcom in Favor of H.R.822

This document contains the testimony of Joye Lee Malcolm, Professor at George Mason University school of law comparing the approaches to self defense of the United States and the United Kingdom.

This brief testimony compares two approaches to crime prevention and public safety, the American approach of permitting armed citizens to carry weapons for protection and the British approach of disarming subjects of guns and all other means of defense with the promise the state will protect them.

I have never read a better short summation of the reasons justifying laws allowing citizens to be armed in public than this.

This is a must read document.

600 bills, $12,000,000 and a part-time Legislature

In this article, which I was reading because it mentioned AB 144, the Open Carry ban, one finds this little factoid:

“Many aren't worth the paper their glowing news releases were printed on — and certainly not worth the $20,000 legislative cost, on average, that each bill ate up in processing. “

So, let's do the math, shall we? 600 bills means that our frivolous legislature has wasted most of the $12,000,000 that has been spent on the pile of steaming BS that it sent to the Governor's desk.

This seems to be a pretty powerful justification for switching to a part-time legislature.  It seems to work for a lot of other states.

When will we, the citizens, learn that we get the government we deserve?

Urge Governor Brown to Veto AB 144, AB 809, and SB 427

AB 144, AB 809, and SB 427 have all been passed by the state legislature and have gone to Governor Brown's office for his signature or veto.  Please contact Governor Brown to urge that he veto these bills.  Governor Brown's office may be contacted by:

Governor Jerry Brown
c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814

Phone: (916) 445-2841
Fax: (916) 558-3160

Here is the text of my fax:

Governor Brown,

As a citizen of this great state, and a lawful firearm owner, I am asking you to veto the following bills that will come before you for signature:

AB 144 - This is a piece of legislation in search of a problem. Carrying of unloaded firearms in public cannot possible be a threat to the public at large because the firearms are, by law, required to be unloaded, and subject to inspection by police officers. Banning a poor substitute for a real defensive carry mode is simply bad law. A good law to adopt would be a shall-issue style CCW program similar to those adopted by other states in recent decades. Requiring citizens who wish to carry in public to do so concealed would allow citizens to protect themselves and prevent alarming the general public.

AB 809 - Long gun registration will be an expensive program to adopt at a time when the state is in fiscal crisis. In addition, experiences in Canada and New York state, and other places that have registration laws, have shown that firearms registration systems do not help police solve crimes. Laws should be effective in accomplishing the goals used to justify them. AB 809 would not be effective.

SB 427 - This is another attempt to regulate handgun ammunition, an attempt that was mooted by the courts when AB 962 was overturned at a very low level in Federal Court. SB 427 is similarly bad law, certainly to attract a lawsuit, almost certainly to be overturned or stayed by a permanent injunction. Once again, laws should be effective in their stated purposes, and SB 427 is not, and thus worthy of a veto.

For the forgoing reasons, I urge you to veto AB 144, AB 809, and SB 427.

Nancy Pelosi: Limitless Mendacity

USA Today has a new article written by Nancy Pelosi: "Pelosi: Unlike GOP, Democrats will focus on jobs".   Pelosi writes:

The American people have made it clear: Our nation's top priority is job creation. No recovery can take place until we address kitchen table concerns of America's families: having a steady paycheck, being able to make ends meet, and helping our small businesses and entrepreneurs attract customers, grow, and hire.

Well, I could agree that the GOP has been pretty ineffectual when it comes to legislation that might favor job creation, but Pelosi was the Speaker of the House at a time when both houses of Congress, and the Presidency, was controlled by Democrats.

What did we get?

Stimulus that did not stimulate anything but the national debt, Obamacare which made business extremely cautious about hiring, and increased regulations that impose additional costs on business, and higher unemployment than the Democrats in power thought possible. 

This article seems to be nothing more than a first attempt at damage control leading into the 2012 election year.  And if the comments are at all typical, then the Democrats are in trouble.  This one is especially telling:

Hey Nancy, talk to Rick Perry in Texas about jobs. He gets it.

Yes, let's all talk to Rick Perry in November, 2012.

"Shall Issue": The New Wave of Concealed Handgun Permit Laws

I have added a new link to my "Get The Facts" section which leads to the article "Shall Issue: The New Wave of Concealed Handgun Permit Laws". While an older article, published in 1994, it is worth re-reading to get an understanding of the scholarship performed and political issues that overcome in other states that have gone shall-issue as preparation for what we might face in California if certain court cases result in outcomes favorable for carry rights.

California, New York, and Illinois are the last great bastions of restrictive gun laws, but the trends are favorable.  About the only thing that can thwart liberalized gun laws in these states would be the apathy of the citizen, or a few more Supreme Court appointments by President Obama,

We should all work to prevent both.

Global Warming Models Take Another Hit

Anthropogenic Global Warming, otherwise known as the The Scam To Take Control of The Economy, takes another hit as this story reports data that blows another hole the the climate models used to predict the dire outcomes that await human kind.

My persistent objection to the global warming doom-criers is that they treat model predictions as if they were data!  This is the exact opposite of the scientific method.  All of these models are hypotheses of the climate system.  Models should be used to make predictions of future trends, and then observations should be made to determine if these predictions are verified.  If predictions are verified, then the hypotheses are deemed to be correct.

What is happening is that observations are being made that contradict the models, thus undermining the predictions made using the models.  Our understanding of the climate is simply not great enough to make drastic changes in public policy.

Patrick Moore - A Realistic Environmentalist

I stumbled over this video of Patrick Moore's remarks at the Environmental Policy Conference hosted by the Washington Policy Center.

While the audio cuts out at around the 34 minute mark, probably to spur DVD sales of Moore's presentation, what is included is nothing less than a breath of fresh air to this skeptic who has long regarded the modern environmental movement to be nothing more that a bunch of scientific illiterates trying the jam the cause du jour down the public throat.

He has a book, Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout, that is not in the San Jose Public library, but which I intend to obtain and read as soon as possible.