Standard Mischief

I really don’t know what they’re protesting, or why. I usually find stuff like this fascinating but I really can’t spare the time right now to do the digging. But that doesn’t matter. I find the following statement highly disturbing:

“By order of the City of Pittsburgh Chief Police, I hereby declare this to be an unlawful assembly. I order all those assembled to immediately disperse. You must leave the immediate vicinity. If you remain in this immediate vicinity, you will be in violation of the Pennsylvania Crimes Code. No matter what your purpose is, you must leave. If you do not disperse, you may be arrested and/or subject to other police action. Other police action may include actual physical removal, the use of riot control agents and/or less lethal munitions which could cause risk of injury to those who remain.”

Dave Rock (of Davesfarm, my guilty pleasure on youtube) had a raid recently. Well, maybe that’s the wrong term. He had an inspection of his property by an agent of the local government for unlicensed vehicles. Of course, for the inspectors personal safety, he’s allowed police protection, and he got it. Dave says the entire Lucan Ontario police force came out for a warrentless look-see. They road-blocked the entrance and apparently fanned out and searched the place. Dave made two videos of the whole over-reaction. To the officers credit, not one got threatened with arrest, no one got tasered, and no one demanded that the video equipment be shut off.

I’m unclear of the motivation from the government here. His place is out in the middle of nowhere. His neighbours don’t seen upset, and he seems to have found a productive niche producing videos that people like to watch and he gets micro-payments in ad revenue from. There’s allegedly a “hater’s club”, that allegedly have their own page where they allegedly post highly redacted stuff with the code word “alleged” all over the place, allegedly as a remedy against being sued for libel.

It’s being reported that the Bylaw enforcement officer has been flooded with so many emails from pissed-off teenagers that he’s had to shut his address down.

House bills are well into the 7000’s by this time of year. So why the low bill number on the failed bailout bill? Well, It’s nothing other than a little legislative standard mischief (insert Ben Franklin quote here).

Apparently, what we have here is a bill that had already been passed by the House and handed over to the Senate which also passed it with changes. Normally then the bills go into what’s called a conference committee, to become a unified bill that both houses must again vote on. It’s in here that the magic happens.

The bill was amended in committee with the bulk of the bailout language. Things are done this way because coming out of Conference committee makes a bill harder to amend.

*Poof*, the “Defenders of Freedom Tax Relief Act of 2007″ becomes the “Corporate Welfare for Irresponsible Lenders and Others That Cook Their Books – Anti-House of Cards Act of 2008″*

I should also note that the quick and dirty word count I did yesterday could be wildly off. I forgot that even though we have this “transparency in government” fad, the text of Bills before Congress does not make it into THOMAS until several days after the vote. Since the critters themselves could not possibly read the legislation before they vote on it, I suppose it’s an article of faith that the language of the Bills remain unchanged on their way from Congress to the President’s desk for signature.

* just kidding on the name

Yup, we here at the waffle news network can confirm that Mr. Heller and two other plaintiffs (who no one seems to be able to name – UPDATE: The Ass. Press have updated their story without notice and say that the other two plaintiffs are Amy McVey and Absalom Jordan),  have filed suit against the DC semi-auto ban and the trigger lock requirements that seem to make it nigh impossible to keep functioning firearms available in case of emergency.

I heard the news a few hours ago at WTOP, but after my last blunder, I felt I needed to verify the facts.
Reason

The Ass. Press

FOX news

I’m pretty sure that this time around, when DC refused to issue a permit for Mr. Heller (in defiance of the supreme court order), they probably didn’t mark right on his application “Disapproved DC code 7-2502.02” (PDF) which quite possibly was the only thing that gave Mr Heller standing before the supremes the first time around. Like I said before, the gobs of press present on the very first day of registration epically failed to report accurately on DC’s initial refusal to issue a permit, but perhaps Heller’s crack legal team brought their own video recorders. I’d hate to see this get tossed out on “standing” because DC refused to issue an “Exhibit A”.

Or at least that’s the theory. I’m not really getting any good coverage from the news. Mark Segraves of WTOP radio is jumping through the hoops and blogging about the whole incident.

At 7 a.m. Thursday, the Metropolitan Police Department will open its doors at Headquarters and begin taking applications for permits. If you already own an illegal handgun, you’re in luck. Because of the 90 day amnesty program, you can bring your gun (unloaded and wrapped up) to the police and apply for a permit. If, like most people, you don’t have a gun, you can begin the permit process, but good luck getting a gun. Without a gun store, or someone to transfer the gun, it won’t happen legally.

But I’m going to try.

It’s important to note, I have no desire to own a gun. In fact, once I get the gun, I’ll turn it over to police or sell it back to the gun store where I bought it. I simply want to walk through the entire process to see how it does – or doesn’t – work.

Oh jeez, someone needs to take this poor guy to the range.

He does report this from seeing Dick Heller in line:

I’m in line with Dick Heller, the guy who brought the lawsuit. He has been told he can bring his revolver from Maryland and register it, but not his semi-automatic. “The city has rejected me again,”

If you’re scratching your head over the title I chose for this post, well, I got it from Say Uncle. He links to this story at the WaPo:

An officer from the gun unit will meet the applicant at the door and take temporary possession of the gun to ensure safety at headquarters.

Because, you know, all those violent felons are just begging for a chance to shoot up police headquarters.

Officers will tag the gun and conduct ballistics tests before returning the gun to the owner. Paperwork indicating that registration is in process will be provided.

That last sentence there leads me to believe that the police will hold on to the firearms for weeks until they are reluctantly forced to return them. If I’m guessing right, after the police fingerprint you, take photos of you, take down the information from your DC issued drivers license and take a crowbar to your wallet, the police still won’t let you walk out of there with your firearm. Nope, they’ll hold your firearm for a useless and expensive “ballistics fingerprinting” and you’ll be issued “paperwork indicating that registration is in process” that you can use to protect yourself from crime. Remember to show your paperwork to the criminal that forces themselves into your home.

NRA: The Truth About Ballistic “Fingerprinting” 8:59 min.
Click here to view the video in a pop-up window | Direct link

I also want to note that in Mark Segraves story, he covers the fact that there are no Federal Firearms License holders that are ready, willing, and able to facilitate the transfer of handguns to DC residents. Since we now have NICS, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, is there any reason to keep the antiquated federal law on the books that bar a resident of one state from buying a handgun in another jurisdiction? I’d be far happier if that was struck down rather than having another messy and drawn-out court case that forces DC to approve a firearms dealer in a bricks and mortar storefront.