Three Reasons I Love Guns

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September 16, 2011

1. Life is finite. Which makes life precious. But not to everyone. There are plenty of people in this world who don’t value any human life other than their own, and maybe not even that. They certainly don’t value my life and the lives of my loved ones. Whether through malice aforethought or as a “simple” and expedient means to an end, they would end my life and the lives of those who give my world meaning. A firearm is by no means the only way to protect against evil intent. But a gun is an extremely effective method for thwarting those who would inflict grievous bodily harm and death on me and mine. My gun gives me a fighting chance to fight for my life and the lives of my family, friends and (should I choose) community. I love that about guns.

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Retraction: George Mason University’s Freedom Index is Anti-Gun [Not Necessarily]

By

Foghorn

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September 16, 2011

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Here at TTAG, we like to think we get things right most of the time. The rest of the time our readers correct us, and we make every effort to fix the issue in a timely fashion. One article slipped through the cracks a few months ago, and as I’m sitting here sending it to that great big circular file in the sky I just wanted to apologize on the behalf of TTAG for being asleep at the switch that day. Here’s what happened…

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Weekend Photo Caption Contest

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Dan Zimmerman

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September 16, 2011

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Ex-9/11 Commissioner: Civil Rights Suck. Guns? What Guns?

By

Robert Farago

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September 16, 2011

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Former Illinois Gov. James Thompson has a few things to say about his work on the 9/11 Commission and the current state of America’s defenses against terrorism. “Our credit card companies know more about us than the government does,” Thompson told the AP. “We ought to grow up and say hey, we’re facing the kind of threat in America we have never, ever faced before. We have to adopt measures we have never, ever considered before.” Like ditching our Constitutional rights? Didn’t we already do that? And here’s something Thompson and his fellow commissars never mentioned: civilian gun ownership . . .

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Defending the Self-Defense Case Pt. 4

By

Robert Farago

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September 16, 2011

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[The following article was written by attorney Lisa J. Steele for nacdl.org. It’s republished here with the author’s permission. Click here for part 1.]

The law is well settled that, while a man may kill another in self-defense, he may not do so if he has other probable means of escape. When his back is to the wall, and the question is whether he shall die or his assailant, he may slay his assailant to preserve his own life; but, if he has probable means of escape without doing so, he must resort to such means before he is justified in killing his adversary. Human life is too sacred to be taken unnecessarily.”
– Comm. v. Ware
137 Pa. 465, 479, 20 A. 806 (1890)

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Court OKs Widow’s Suit Against Houston’s Sanctuary City

By

Robert Farago

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September 16, 2011

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“[Houston] Officer Rodney Johnson [above] spotted a speeding vehicle doing 50 MPH in 30 MPH zone,” thecypresstimes.com reports. “The speeding vehicle was a white Ford pickup truck operated by Juan Leonardo Quintero-Perez. Johnson pulled over Quintero for speeding and requested to see his driver’s license. Quintero did not possess a driver’s license and Johnson decided to arrest him. Johnson handcuffed Quintero and performed a pat down search. After being handcuffed, Quintero was placed in the backseat of Johnson’s police car. Johnson sat in the driver’s seat his patrol car and began writing a police report . . .

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The Atlantic: World War II in Photos

By

Foghorn

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September 16, 2011

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The Atlantic has a great 20-part series of photographs from various parts of World War II running on their website. They’re publishing one part every week (on Sunday) until October 30, 2011. So far they’ve published photos covering everything from Talvisota to Pearl Harbor and even the North African campaign. If you’re as interested in this period of history as I am (or just looking to kill some time between TPS reports) I recommend giving it a click.

Click here to view the galleries.

New York Times: Supreme Court “Misread” The Second Amendment

By

Robert Farago

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September 16, 2011

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The New York Times hates guns. And the causes of guns. Like the Second Amendment, whose assertion of Americans’ right to keep and bear arms strikes them as a typo of some sort. Their latest editorial on the topic takes Florida voters and their duly elected representatives to task for passing and enforcing a law that removes local gun control regulations which, by the way, violate the Second Amendment. “In 1987, the Legislature passed a law that allowed the state to pre-empt the whole field of gun and ammunition controls, but it had very little effect on real life. ‘No Guns Allowed’ signs and other notices were kept up in appropriate places as communities continued to enforce gun ordinances already on their books.” Illegally. You know: in contravention of the law. Which was a good thing, apparently . . .

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Gun Tweet of the Day: TopShotDustin Blacklists TTAG from TS3

By

Robert Farago

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September 16, 2011

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Yesterday, I published an interview with the most recently eliminated Top Shot competitor. I pinned the blame for Paul Marinaccio’s losing performance on his lack of a hat. (True story. The Corner Shot gun uses a video screen. In the wrong light, you can’t see squat.) Top Shot’s PR person called to convey Mr. Marinaccio’s displeasure. The NJ Detective felt I’d mischaracterized his explanation as whining. So I tweaked the post a bit, adding a tip of the hat to winner Jake Zweig. We good? I heard nothing back and thought nothing of it. Then, at some ungodly hour, Christian camp counselor Dustin Ellermann went all Old Testament on me . . .

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Undocumented Alien on Gun Rights: You May be More of A Criminal Than I Am

By

Robert Farago

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September 16, 2011

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Found this comment by Julio in our post Close the Illegal Immigrants Driver’s License Loophole:

Im 33 years old i being working a full time since i was 15 years old even when i was undocumented and as far as i can remember i always being paying taxes im a legal resident now never commited a crime actually the only member of my family that has ever being in jail was my US citizen brother im about to became a us citizen soon i only ask everyone to be hones to your self and other if the 14 million undocumemted immigrants where white would you feel the same because as far as i know they dont ask permmision to take money from my paycheck to pay uncle sam hes money and is the same to every one where do they get that they dont pay taxes or are criminals please dont believe the racist people ask the guy that cuts your grass or the guy that cooks your food if they dont pay taxes or want to kill you (you will be surprice that maybe you have commited more crimes than them or owe uncle sam more money than them)

Tip of the Day: Three’s Just About Always a Crowd

By

Dan Zimmerman

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September 16, 2011

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You can probably imagine how a love triangle could devolve into a volatile situation. No one likes to share in that department and it’s easy for feelings to get hurt. Rarely does someone like Rick decide to be magnanimous and step aside while Ilsa and Victor Laszlo fly off into the sunset. Or the fog. In any case, it didn’t go nearly as well when James Szczuka of west Knox County, TN woke up to find someone else sleeping with his girlfriend…

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No Thoughts About Buildings or Food. Just Guns, Bullets and Holsters

By

Eric

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September 16, 2011

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Robert:

Warning, I am a bit OCD about gear, skills, etc. It goes with the [surgical] profession. Or the profession attracts the personality. Anyway, I am just starting an email thread with random thoughts to ping you with. Maybe something will strike you as worth writing about, maybe not. No big deal to me, just an outlet if you don’t mind reading and commenting occasionally. Most of the below remarks are culled from an ongoing email discussion with a friend about things I have discovered as new to guns and CCW . . .

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