Well, I see nothing wrong with this:

Johnny Depp is keen on teaching his children to handle guns.

The ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ star, who learnt shooting at the age of six in Kentucky where he grew up, wants to pass on his experience to his kids.

“We would just go out and line up a bunch of cans and shoot with rifles, handguns and at times, submachine guns,” the Daily Star quoted him as saying.

He lives in France, now.

By the way, a quick search on Google didn’t turn up anything connecting him to support for gun control but I’m sure he votes for liberal politicians who do.

How ridiculous is it? Check this out:

Given this nation’s strict gun control law, were police overreacting when they swooped on a TV broadcaster that had allowed a celebrity to handle a hunting rifle during a live broadcast?

The Shiga prefectural police insist they were perfectly within their rights, but TV networks are outraged, citing the fact the weapon was not loaded.

[….]

Shiga prefectural police regard the incident, in which a hunter with a gun permit allowed TV personality Noburo Harada, 57, to momentarily handle the rifle during the show, as a serious breach of a law concerning the storage and management of firearms.

[…]

The program in question was set in Yogo, where Harada and other cast members were served a pot of wild boar meat. The hunter who had killed the boar appeared in the scene. He offered the unloaded weapon to Harada and asked,”Do you want to hold it?”

The host of the show held the rifle for all of six seconds and then handed it back.

THAT constitutes a weapons violation in loopy Japan, where only the criminals have guns:

The shooting of a gang leader in southern Japan on Sunday, in apparent retaliation for the fatal shooting of another mob leader, has prompted police to step up their guard.

[…]

In May, Japanese police nabbed a former gangster after a standoff lasting more than 24 hours during which the man shot a policeman dead after wounding his own son, daughter and another police officer and holing up in his suburban house.

In April, a gangster shot a fellow mobster in a Tokyo suburb and hid in an apartment before shooting himself, and another gangster shot dead the mayor of Nagasaki, shocking a country where gun control is tough.

By the way, criminals and mutants, as we’ve seen elsewhere in the world, will use any device they can — even in Japan:

A Japanese man “tired of the world'’ went on a stabbing rampage in downtown Tokyo today, killing six people and injured 12 others, seven years after eight children were murdered in a knife attack at an elementary school.

And remember, the Brady Bunch blames personal firearm ownership for high rates of suicide yet Japan has about 33,000 suicides per year.

Anyway, the point of all this is that in Japan, if a legally licensed rifle owner hands an unloaded rifle to someone for just a few seconds, that is enough to bring a swarm of cops down on them. Apparently they have way too many cops in that country with little to do.

Frankly, that doesn’t happen to often when it comes to gun control. Here’s a bit from an editorial regarding the “One-Gun-a Month” law that just went into effect, from the Daily Record:

Let’s put rhetoric aside and look at the one-gun-a-month law objectively. It is not easy to become a legal buyer of guns in New Jersey. Among other things, it requires fingerprinting, personal references and a background check by the local police department. The process from start to finish normally takes more than 30 days. When a resident successfully completes that process, he, or she, is eligible to buy a gun. (This is not a right to legally carry a gun, which is an additional application process.)

If a person is cleared to buy a gun in New Jersey, why seek to limit the number of guns that can be bought? Many of the people who legally buy multiple guns are collectors of one type or another, or recreational and competitive shooters. Their backgrounds already have been investigated. Let them buy their guns. We have referenced those who “legally” buy guns for a reason, knowing that lawbreakers are unlikely to adhere to gun-control laws in the first place.

Every so often some common sense creeps into a liberal newspaper.

Closet case “Reverend” Fred Phelps and his Topeka, KS church have one a round allowing them to protest at soldier’s funerals in Missouri. From the AP:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider Missouri’s appeal of a court order barring the state from enforcing a law restricting protests near funerals.

State lawmakers in 2006 enacted two new laws creating buffer zones between demonstrators and funerals and processions. The legislation targets a Topeka, Kan., church whose members have picketed outside the funerals of people killed during the Iraq war, stating that they believe soldiers are dying as divine punishment because the United States harbors homosexuals.

Months after the laws took effect, Westboro Baptist Church member Shirley Phelps-Roper filed a lawsuit seeking to have the protest bans tossed out over free speech concerns. A federal appeals court in St. Louis ruled that Missouri cannot enforce the protest ban until the lawsuit is resolved.

Church members protest the funerals holding signs with such sayings as, “God Hates Fags.”

Ugly speech, hate speech, call it what you will. It’s inappropriate, in my opinion, but if you ban some speech, others can ban almost any speech they don’t like. Liberal colleges do this all the time. Liberals would like to ban conservative talk radio because they consider it “hate speech.”

I don’t believe in banning speech any more than I want to see gun rights curtailed.

And, frankly, the spectacle that the Phelps crowd creates — as hurtful as it is for family members at a funeral — is probably a good thing in terms of generating sympathy for the rights of gays. Let me put it this way: I doubt that Phelps and his goons, with their ridiculous signs, have won over any supporters. If anything, it has caused some, a few anyway, of realizing what prejudice looks like to the recipient.

Murfreesboro, Tennessee, has been considering banning concealed weapons in its parks but put that ordinance on hold. Now, the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association is warning them that there will be no “Spring Fling” if they do NOT enact the ordinance. From WTVF 5 (TN):

If Murfreesboro decides to allow guns in parks it could cost the city the annual Spring Fling event and the $3.5 million it brings in from tourism.

The executive director of TSSAA said there is no way they would allow the week-long high school sport state tournaments to be played at a park where guns are allowed.

Well, I don’t think they realize that the new TN law taking effect in September only allows legally permitted CCW in parks. Illegal carry (by criminals) has been going on a long time. The kids would probably be safer with a few law abiding citizens around if — God forbid — there was an incident.

Update: The City seeks a compromise:

The Spring Fling injects $3.4 million into the local economy. Murfreesboro has hosted the last four Spring Flings and a new contract will be awarded in August. Softball, boys soccer and some tennis matches have been held in Murfreesboro city parks.

“Maybe we don’t have a blanket law having it in effect all the time,” Gilley said of the law that takes effect on Sept. 1. “We can have it up to the event holder’s request.”

But Murfreesboro Mayor Tommy Bragg said the city should treat all park users the same.

“Kids in parks are kids in parks whether they are in TSSAA events or any other events,” Bragg said. “It would be hard for me to see a compromise for the TSSAA and then not adopt it when children are present in all of our parks.”

Hmmm, Gilley might have the better idea — leave it up to the sponsor of the event. Still, they’re using public property and a person’s rights shouldn’t end at the border of publicly (taxpayer) owned property.

These days there are more and more stories like this:

A tow-truck driver was shot in the face and back with birdshot Sunday when he tried to repossess a pickup truck.

Johnny James Platt Davis said he went to the house after a man failed to pay $1,587 that was due in late May.

He told Dorchester County deputies that he was connecting the tow truck to the pickup at about 2:50 p.m. at 118 Jewel Drive when the pickup’s owner came out of his house with a shotgun, according to an incident report.

Davis told deputies that he yelled, “OK, OK, I’m dropping it,” but the pickup’s owner racked his shotgun and fired at him. The pellets ricocheted off the truck and struck Davis’ brother in the wrist as he sat in the tow truck.

There are a lot of folks behind in mortgage and car loan payments. Repossessions are way up. I recommend that if you’re behind in car payments, talk to the lender; don’t just ignore the problem. Usually something can be worked out. If it does come to a “repo,” you’d better just sit back and let it happen — not threatening the guy with the recovery truck who is, after all, just doing his job. You don’t own your car or truck until you make the last payment and have the Title in hand.

Unemployment is up. The economy is in shambles. Iran is out of control. North Korea is (supposedly) planning to lob a test missile towards Hawaii in four days, and all NBC News can find to report about is the death of Michael Jackson. Give me an ‘effing break!

You can interpret “lot” as meaning a parcel (in this case, containing several containers) or as in a large quantity. Either way, if I lived in South Africa, I’d be nervous right now:

Over 80 litres of nitric acid were stolen from the cargo section of the Port Elizabeth airport, Eastern Cape police said on Tuesday.

Captain Andre Beetge said two men armed with handguns held up security at the cargo portion of the airport at 7.10pm on Monday.

The men stole nine containers of the concentrated nitric acid. Each container held between nine and ten litres of the liquid.

Police believed the men had orchestrated the robbery to steal the acid.

Nitric acid was used in the production of fertilisers, explosives and rocket fuels, and in a wide variety of industrial metallurgical processes.

I hope their anti-terrorism efforts are as effective as the ones we have here.

New rules set to take effect in Florida on Wednesday would alter schools’ “zero tolerance” policies. From WCTV TV:

Lawmakers made a revision to the zero-tolerance policy. Students will no longer be expelled for violations such as bringing plastic butter knives to school or drawing pictures of guns.

Now if they’d also stop expelling kids because they take an aspirin on their own . . .

I had posted about this (upcoming) event at a Kentucky church several weeks ago. The service was last Saturday:

As the 5 p.m. service began yesterday, about 40 people – many carrying small firearms – sat in the Pentecostal church sanctuary.

“We are wanting to send a message that there are legal, civil, intelligent and law-abiding citizens who also own guns,” Pagano said in greeting the audience, which included people who don’t belong to his church.

“If it were not for a deep-seated belief in the right to bear arms, this country would not be here today,” he said, drawing hearty applause and exclamations of “amen!”

I would have expected a bigger crowd, given the advance publicity given by local newspapers there.

See also this post from last week about several churches in California that will welcome CCW carrying congregants.

I don’t like cruelty of anyone or anything. Call me a wimp but I truly believe that animals — “pet” type animals such as dogs and cats — are especially vulnerable because they are often willing to trust us humans. Even in Vermont, home of the crunchy-granola type liberal, there are some bastards amongst us who would hurt, in this case, a kitten:

Staff at the Central Vermont Humane Society are looking for anyone with information about a 7-month-old kitten that was found off Graniteville Road and had been doused in gasoline.

In the last couple days, the semi-local TV station has reported that the kitten is doing all right now.

I hope the mutant who did this to that kitten, isn’t.

OKAY, so I have three cats of my own [Actually, their own! — ed.] and as a desperately poor person (at this time) I still buy their food first and then, with whatever is left over, my own. Lately, they are eating better than I am but that’s OK. They come first, every time. That’s the promise and responsibility I (and anyone should) take on when adopting a pet.

I live on a major road, Rt. 5, and I don’t let my cats out of the house. I rent the second floor. The apartment is large enough and, gratefully, they haven’t much inclination to explore the outside world. I’m thankful because I couldn’t stand the thought of coming home to a pet that was hit by a car and crawled up on the porch to die.

Anyway, this brings another week to a close here at Alphecca. Thank you so much for stopping by and for your donations.

We live in strange times and I’m scared for what our country will look like in a few years, after the Obama administration gets through with its socialist agenda.

Have a great weekend and I’ll be back, blathering away about our rights, on Monday morning.

Here’s a picture of the princess, Gracie* — almost a year old, now — that I rescued from the side of the road about 11 months ago, the Amazing Grace, about four minutes ago, climbing up to the couch I was sitting on:

What a wonderful addition to my humble family! I’m so glad she allowed me to adopt her!

*Her name comes from two sources: She’s gray. Duh! And, someone abandoned her and her sibling (dead in the road) and was homeless; Something I’m not that far-off from. I remembered the expression, “There but for the grace of God . . .” when thinking of a name for her.

So, the bill that Democrats won’t let anyone read before passage is going to increase foreign oil imports and pump prices.

Hope and change!

I guess it’s part of entering old age, or at least older middle age, that celebrities I watched or listened to while growing up are dying off. In the last two days, we’ve lost Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson.

I know little about Farrah Fawcett other than her public persona and that she was losing the battle with cancer. She certainly was beautiful, though.

Oddly enough, a friend of mine knew the McMahons and said that he (not the wife) was a very generous, kind, and pious individual.

Michael Jackson . . . Was it his crazy upbringing that caused all of his personal demons? I don’t know and I won’t dwell on the negatives of his life. One thing is certain; he was, at his peak, a brilliant singer performer. I still consider Thriller one of the ten best rock albums of all time.

Pardon a bit of snark here but, S.C. Gov. Sleazebag Sanford must be on his knees thanking God that news coverage of Jackson’s death will push his own problems right off the front page of the news.

In New Jersey, they just can’t get enough gun control; just ask the criminals. From NJ.com:

Firearms sales in New Jersey would be limited to no more than one per month under controversial legislation that had stalled earlier this year but won final approval early this morning in the rush before the Legislature’s summer recess.

The bill’s sponsors and supporters argue the law would stem the flow of guns from other states and prevent criminals from distributing handguns throughout New Jersey.

I must be clueless; can someone please explain to me how limiting state residents to purchasing one gun per month will in any way stop criminals from “distributing handguns throughout N.J.?” The logic behind such thinking is bizarre.

By the way, according to the article, in order to “quell” the concerns of sportsmen, Gov. Jon I-Bought-This-Election-Fair-And-Square Corzine issued an executive order requiring a review of the law after 90 days. No doubt, when they see that criminals have completely ignored it, they’ll decide to limit the law abiding to one gun per year.

I’ve said here before that criminals tend not to pay for things they want, including guns, and they certainly don’t go to gun stores (thereby having to submit to an NICS background check) to get their guns. Well, at least not during normal business hours if you catch my drift. A new book on the subject of criminal use of firearms confirms that:

The book — underwritten by the U.S. Justice Department’s Project Safe Neighborhoods program — offers an often-overlooked perspective on the motivations behind gun crime, said Mark Pogrebin, professor of criminal justice at the School of Public Affairs at the University ofColorado Denver.

[….]

The interviews indicated that gun-control laws would have had little effect on the study subjects’ criminal behavior. Most got their guns through a variety of ways, including borrowing, stealing and taking them by force, the professor said.

The book, “Guns, Violence, and Criminal Behavior: The Offender’s Perspective,” features interviews with 67 Colorado prison inmates convicted of various firearm crimes.

Another of Obama’s anti-Second Amendment picks might soon be confirmed, this time for State Department legal advisor. From CQ Politics:

The Senate easily surmounted a procedural hurdle to [Harold Hongju] Koh’s confirmation by agreeing to the motion to invoke cloture on the nomination 65-31, setting up a final vote before the July Fourth recess.

[…]

Conservative opposition to Koh’s views on international law blocked his nomination from coming to the floor under unanimous consent.

“If we adopt Mr. Koh’s argument about conforming to international norms, including stricter gun control, it may bring us more in line with some other countries but it certainly would not be in keeping with the interpretation of the U.S. Supreme Court with respect to that second amendment,” Minority Whip Jon Kyl , R-Ariz., said after the cloture vote.

See, Obama doesn’t have to enact gun control on his own volition. He can blame it on the (phony) claims of Mexico or demands by the U.N.

In Iowa, a guy pulls a gun on a store clerk. Clerk pulls out his gun. A “face-off” and then the thug flees. From the Des Moines Register:

Dominic Mathew told officers he was working behind the counter shortly after 6 p.m. when he saw a man in his 20s walk through the front door. The man moved toward the beer cooler, then turned quickly around and reached for a gun. He had a blue bandana over his mouth, Mathew told police.

He demanded money from the cash register.

Police said in a report: “Dominic refused and reached under the counter and pulled out a handgun. The suspect and Dominic supposedly had a face-off with the handguns, according to the victim.”

The would-be robber fled and disappeared into a nearby apartment complex. No arrests have been reported.

And, no money was stolen.

According to the FBI NICS (instant background check on purchases), the Obama administration’s stimulus for the gun industry might be coming to an end. From Smart Money:

When the Democrats swept into Washington in November, gun fanciers scrambled for 15-round pistols and tactical rifles equipped with grenade launchers , flash suppressors and bayonets — in fear the new administration would reinstate a ban on the sale of such weapons. Gun makers Smith & Wesson Holding and Sturm, Ruger have shown great sales gains the past couple of quarters. Their stocks have shot up as much as fourfold. But now the gun industry’s leading indicator — the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s monthly count of the instant background checks it runs for gun dealers — is settling back toward pre-election levels. While November background checks were 42% above the year-earlier level, last month’s were up just 15%.

I’m not so sure that the drop in instant checks is an indicator right now. I suspect it’s more likely that manufacturer inventories are at an all time low. Dealers report waiting times of up to six months for popular rifles such as the AR-15 while gun makers struggle to keep up with demand. That is, if dealers don’t have the guns to sell, then there’s nothing to run an NICS check on. Hence the “lower increase” over last year during May.

On the advice of a security firm, several churches in Southern California are becoming proactive:

This week some Southern California Church Leaders came to that very same conclusion, and took up a position advocating not only a very discreet security presence of professionals, but also took the advice of their consultants and adopted the policy of advocating concealed carry of handguns among the congregation.

It’s not about wanting something to happen but rather it is like that fire extinguisher in the kitchen; you hope you never have to use it and more than likely you won’t. But, it’s a good idea to have it there.

I find it fascinating that all the usual “in the tank” networks devote half their “news shows” to covering voter fraud in Iran but couldn’t spare two minutes to cover any of the ACORN or New Black Panther scandals here in the U.S. during the 2008 presidential election. Oops! I forgot; their guy won.

It’s that plugs for gifts thing. From Yahoo News:

Savvy consumers often go online for independent consumer reviews of products and services, scouring through comments from everyday Joes and Janes to help them find a gem or shun a lemon.

What some fail to realize, though, is that such reviews can be tainted: Many bloggers have accepted perks such as free laptops, trips to Europe, $500 gift cards or even thousands of dollars for a 200-word post. Bloggers vary in how they disclose such freebies, if they do so at all.

The practice has grown to the degree that the Federal Trade Commission is paying attention. New guidelines, expected to be approved late this summer with possible modifications, would clarify that the agency can go after bloggers — as well as the companies that compensate them — for any false claims or failure to disclose conflicts of interest.

I need to get in on that action. The BFG-50 didn’t count since Serbu made me return it. So . . .

Attention firearms makers! Give me a gun (that I can keep) and I promise you hundreds of words of GLOWING PRAISE! I’m willing to bet it will be the best rifle/handgun/shotgun I’ve ever held in my hands. I won’t be able to stop gushing about it for weeks!

OK, let’s see how that works out.

If you’re being interviewed by a news organization, please be careful of what you say. It doesn’t help our cause if you feed red meat to the NY Times:

“[Obama] . . . has his dish full right now,” Mr. Cerca said about Mr. Obama. “He has no time for gun laws. If he starts screwing around with gun laws, I think the American people are going to flip out. And they’re going to go to Pennsylvania Avenue. And they’re going to line them up on Pennsylvania Avenue, every Congressional person there. And they’re going to shoot every other one.”

Mr. Cerca owns a gun store in New Jersey. Statements (regardless of veracity) such as his exactly fit the stereotype of the “angry white male” gun owner that the Times would like to use to scare its readers into supporting more gun control.

The NY Times found several customers buying guns there who are not worried about gun confiscations and who also support additional gun control laws.

Kim Jong II is clearly a nut case. Now, he’s going to test fire a long-range rocket towards Hawaii on July 4th. From the Daily Mail (UK):

North Korea may launch a long-range ballistic missile towards Hawaii on American Independence Day, according to Japanese intelligence officials.

The missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles, would be launched in early July from the Dongchang-ni site on the north-western coast of the secretive country.

Intelligence analysts do not believe the device would be capable of hitting Hawaii’s main islands, which are 4,500 miles from North Korea.

Whether it can reach the islands or not, it is clearly an act of intimidation. If Obama — who, so far, hasn’t sat down for tea and crumpets with the North Korean leader — had any balls, what should his (that is, the United State’s) response be?

It’s really too bad that China is being so protective of the rogue state because that limits things a bit. Otherwise, I’d suggest lobbing a nuclear missile right back at them.

No doubt there will be lots of “UN sanctions” imposed; that’s about as effective as slapping a rhino with a fly-swatter.

From the “Only cops should have guns” files:

A Denver police officer has been suspended after allegedly brandishing his gun at a McDonald’s restaurant in Aurora after his order took too long to fill.

[…]

Sources familiar with the case, and the fast food worker’s account of what happened, say two off-duty Denver police officers placed an order from their car in the early morning hours of May 21. But once at the drive through window, the employee said the men became agitated and angry at how long their food was taking. The men thought they were being ignored, according to contacts familiar with the worker’s account. The male clerk then said one of the officer’s flashed his police badge and pointed a pistol through the drive through window in a threatening manner, before driving off without paying.

Classy, huh?

[via Drudge]

The Massachusetts law requiring that all firearms be kept locked up could be unconstitutional following the SCOTUS decision in Heller vs DC. From the Boston Globe:

The state’s highest court plans to review the constitutionality of a recently challenged state law that requires gun owners to lock their weapons, making it the first test in Massachusetts of a landmark US Supreme Court ruling that Americans have the constitutional right to own guns and stow them as they see fit.

The SJC decided to review the law less than a year after a Lowell District Court judge dismissed firearms charges against a Billerica man whose handicapped son was accused of shooting a BB gun at a neighbor and who then showed police officers where his father kept other unlocked weapons.

The Lowell judge cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in dismissing the case against Richard Runyan of Billerica, who in April 2008 was charged with improperly storing a semiautomatic hunting rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun, and a drawer full of ammunition.

Two things. First, a gun that is locked up is useless during an immediate self-defensive need.

But, secondly, When there are children in the house, they need to be taught firearm safety and if there are young children, or friends of children present, the guns should be locked up.

In all cases, children need to know that they can only handle a firearm under adult supervision. In the Billerica case, it’s obvious that (even though it only involved a BB gun) the son was not properly schooled in firearm safety.

The Pennsylvania Appeals Court has struck down two gun control laws but upheld 3 others. From Philadelphia Inquirer:

Two key provisions of Philadelphia’s latest attempt to impose local gun controls - banning assault weapons and “straw purchases” of handguns - were invalidated yesterday by a state appeals court.

Following judicial precedent that doomed previous Philadelphia gun-control laws, Commonwealth Court held that the state Supreme Court ruled in 1996 that only the legislature has the authority to enact gun laws. Counties and municipal governments are out of luck.

But the 6-1 majority in Commonwealth Court affirmed part of the 2008 decision of then-Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Jane Cutler Greenspan and allowed three other provisions. They require reporting lost or stolen handguns, allow temporary seizure of guns by police after probable cause is demonstrated, and bar gun ownership by people subject to protection-from-abuse orders.

I’m trying to figure out what a local “ban on ’straw purchases’” could be since federal law already prohibits it nationwide.