December 27, 2012

Why was that prop so important to David Gregory?



"Yeah, asking for permission is pretty damning when you ignore what you are told directly from the law enforcement authority and do it anyway."

But what it tells us is that the prop was really, really important to Gregory. Let's think about why. He knew he was going to have NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre across the table and that he'd push him with one question after another, building the pressure. Here's how that moment looked:



You hear the tension in Gregory's voice as he's about to confront LaPierre with the prop — actually 2 props: the high-capacity magazine and then the smaller one. At the point when Gregory picks up the first prop, you see his eyes dart over to the side. He doesn't have the script memorized, but the precise text is important as he displays one prop and then the other. He need the prompter.

Of course, if this prop display is supposed to be explosive, it doesn't work, because LaPierre is good at not getting agitated. Predictably good, so Gregory's routine looks silly to me. But maybe it inflamed some people in the "Meet the Press" viewership. Maybe there were lots of folks at home going "OMG that thing is huge!!"

I'm trying to think of other examples in political/policy debates when somebody whipped out a prop for dramatic effect. Especially examples where it really worked. I remember President Clinton waggling his pen. Anything else?

ADDED: I was thinking about the value of a fetus replica for a pro-lifers, and, googling, happened upon this 3D-printed replica made from an MRI image.

UPDATE: I figured it out!

199 comments:

MadisonMan said...

It would have been very interesting had LaPierre asked Gregory if he knew he was violating the law by possessing the cartridge.

HoftheP said...

I bet it was a plastic replica.

rehajm said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
John Cunningham said...

Ross Perot's charts? Adlai Stevenson's recon photos of Soviet missiles in Cuba?

kentuckyliz said...

Scofflaw.

Roger J. said...

"Journalism" reduced to farce. Gregory is a fucking idiot, and I suspect if pushed on facts, he would be reduced to blabbering. Must have frosted Gregory's ass when his respondent did not rise to the bait. His respondent simply ignored him--a good teaching point with respect to trolls on blogs.

Ruth Anne Adams said...

Rick Lazio whipped out a paper that he purported to be a pledge for Hillary Clinton to sign.

But then he supposedly invaded her personal space in a menacing/misogynistic way and she got elected.

Too bad she couldn't withstand the Immaculate Concussion as well.

Fritz said...

Joe McCarthy's list.

rehajm said...

Khrushchev's shoe.

Michael said...

Apparently Clinton liked the props: he also showed a prototype "Health Security" card during his address to Congress in September of 1993 to pitch comprehensive health reform legislation.

Anonymous said...

Even if he violated the law, so what? Is it really a good use of proprietorial discretion to prosecute what could be argued to be an expression of free speech.

SteveR said...

The thing that strikes me about the incident is how Gregory and the MTP production team did not have a read on LaPierre.

And on it goes with folks like Dylan Byers thinking the reaction is somehow a sign of weakness.

We are laughing at you, inside the Beltway, inside the bubble, ignorant when you think you are so smart, pseudo elites.

rehajm said...

I think Bill Gates once gave a TED talk on malaria and let a bunch of mosquitos loose in the auditorium.

Tank said...

I remember when George Bush whipped out that aircraft carrier for his mission accomplished moment.

Unfortunately, we're still sort of "accomplishing" ... (crickets).

Roger J. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
miss j said...

Feynmann's iced O-ring during the open meeting of the Rogers Commission.

Levi Starks said...

I think Mr Gregory's best defense would be that he had absolutely no idea how to use the magazine.

Nonapod said...

The high capacity magazine was obviously his prestige, a flourish to put the marks in awe of his theatrical brilliance.

TosaGuy said...

Regardless of any charges that may or may not be brought.....David Gregory lost the argument for the gun control side.

Known Unknown said...

I would love to use the ample tax code in a debate sometime. Just toss those heavy books on the floor with a big "THUMP!" to make an impact.

Matt Sablan said...

Already commented on this; Gregory said it was real, acted as if it were real, etc. We need to know how he smuggled it into DC; did he involve a conspiracy of people to help him break the law?

It's not funny to flout the law openly -- especially when it is a law you WANT other people to respect.

Hagar said...

I think you mean , Freddy.

And Gregory or NBC won't be "prosecuted," but it is good to expose both them and the D.C. authorities to some ridicule over their general silliness and hypocrisy and generally use the opportunity to make them as unconfortable as possible.

Matt Sablan said...

"Even if he violated the law, so what? Is it really a good use of proprietorial discretion to prosecute what could be argued to be an expression of free speech."

-- Yes. He was specifically told not to do what he did, and he knew he would be breaking the law. If Gregory is allowed to break the law because he makes a point you like, then we are not a nation of laws.

If Gregory were a Tea Party advocate as a guest on Meet the Press, he'd already be in jail.

Matt Sablan said...

Or, if we don't think it is a big deal for Gregory to have it, it isn't a big deal for anyone to have them.

Hagar said...

"prosecutorial" went down somebody's memory hole!

Michael K said...



12/27/12 9:14 AM
Blogger EMD said...

I would love to use the ample tax code in a debate sometime. Just toss those heavy books on the floor with a big "THUMP!" to make an impact."

In Tom Clancy' novel "Executive Orders" the Sec Treas piles the tax code on a table for a Congressional hearing and the table collapses.

Too bad it wasn't a real moment.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

When Gore debated inspector Perot on CNN... Gore whipped out a picture of two men he claimed were responsible for making the great depression worst.

Notice what Perot did with the picture.

Hagar said...

The "if it's possible that X might reduce the carnage, isn't it worth trying?" is a silly argument.

harrogate said...

This horse was dead before it got beaten. The only way it could really be brought alive would be if Gregory or someone at NBC actually were to face aggressive prosecution. Otherwise the audio-optics say:
useless caterwauling on the right.

CWJ said...

Actually, as scary props go, Gregory's magazine was pretty pathetic. My reaction was "what, that holds 30 rounds? Those must be some pretty small cartridges."

Matt Sablan said...

Harrogate: Breaking the law is serious, especially if people on the left want me to respect gun control laws. If simply being important enough and on their side is enough to make the left decide we don't need to enforce the laws, then all I see is a tyrannical use of prosecution against people they don't like. Any person in D.C. who is charged with violating any part of their gun code is being discriminated against if Gregory, and whoever he conspired with to break the law, are not charged.

Are we a nation of laws or men?

Matt Sablan said...

What if Gregory decided to toke up on the air? What if he decided to slap someone around on the air? At what point do we decide that Gregory being important and in agreement with the left falls away to enforcing the law?

CWJ said...

Also, Freder Frederson's comment works just as well with Nakoulah the movie guy as it does with Gregory. Yep, its all about power, agenda, and whose ox is being gored.

Paul said...

It looked like a Bushmaster 30 round aluminum magazine to me.

Yea if I had waved that in D.C. in front of a camera I'd be in jail to, permission from the ATF (if given) does NOT apply to state or local laws (and that includes D.C.)

What if I wave a bag of meth and say it's illegal? Would I be jailed for posession? You BETCHA!

Levi Starks said...

Response to Mr Gregory:
Sir, you keep calling that a 30 round clip, but have you ever actually tried to get that last round into the clip?
It's really tough, and in the end most people don't try, and if they do, it weakens the spring and it wears out faster.
I prefer multiple smaller clips, they're easier to conceal, and it's easier to keep track of your remaining ammo.

gerry said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Then there was the "bloody glove" that OJ was asked to try on... and of course "it didn't fit".

I was freaking out screaming at the tv because I can remember so many times using that tactic as an excuse not to wear something I didn't like... something I was being ordered to wear.

chickelit said...

I think the name "harrogate" is a bit of a prop as pseudonyms goes...it screams British anti-gun Sullivanist to me.

Now chickelit is a more of mystery...no one really knows the story behind that one. It's more foil than tin foil chapeau.

gerry said...

Even if he violated the law, so what? Is it really a good use of proprietorial discretion to prosecute what could be argued to be an expression of free speech.

Please explain this sentence. "...proprietorial discretion to prosecute what could be argued to be an expression of free speech" might be simplified to "...a prop in an interview"?

At the same time, of course, Gregory was demonstrating that illegal stuff may be acquired and used to make a point, either by idiotic talking heads or insanely vicious gunmen.

And now, as an added bonus, he's demonstarting that such laws do not apply to idiotic talking heads, but only to D.C. ordinary folk, who are in fact mostly black.

Unknown said...

It's hard to tell if Gregory is brandishing his ignorance or attempting to exploit the ignorance of the audience. Probably some of both.

I'd ask Gregory how long it takes to change magazines for an AR-15?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Here is another take on the unexpected prop.

Bob said...

Response to Mr Gregory:
Sir, you keep calling that a 30 round clip. Actually, it is a 30 suppository dispenser. Bend over and I'll demonstrate."

Anonymous said...

Freder Frederson's comment works just as well with Nakoulah the movie guy as it does with Gregory.

Gregory is on probation? Good to know.

Coldstream said...

Effective usage of a prop?

How about Obama breaking out Candy Crowley in the 2nd debate?

Insufficiently Sensitive said...

You left the last two letters off the item that President Clinton waggled.

edutcher said...

If he wasn't such a twerp, it would have been loaded with live rounds and he'd have slammed it into a weapon and proceeded to cut down 30 cardboard cutouts of little kids.

Then they could bust him.

CWJ said...

Freder, Your point was prosecutorial discretion, not probation. Your attempt to shift the goalposts is duly noted.

jimbino said...

Joe McCarthy's list of "members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring" who are employed in the State Department.

harrogate said...

chickelit, I don't have much of a position one way or the other on gun laws. I do not believe that you can eliminate crazy and evil acts of violence through gun laws. At the same time I think efforts to maintain the broadest possible interpretation of gun rights, often break down into fanaticism.

Many fetishize guns. It's a cultural, more than a legal problem.

Big Mike said...

Is it really a good use of proprietorial discretion to prosecute what could be argued to be an expression of free speech.

Yes. Next question. Do you understand why?

Shouting Thomas said...

Blogger publishes addresses of White Plains Journal-News staff.

These are the guys who published the addresses of gun owners in the NYC area.

KCFleming said...

I am enjoying CNN's decline immensely.

Let's pray the Koch brothers buy their carcass and keep Gregory around as an errand boy.

Big Mike said...

At the same time I think efforts to maintain the broadest possible interpretation of gun rights, often break down into fanaticism.

@harrogate, I used to feel the way you did. For example, on the surface it would seem to make sense to arrange for licensing, because to me the most dangerous person in the world is someone with a gun who is basically afraid of it, doesn't understand the big four rules of safety, doesn't take care to secure it, and fundamentally doesn't know much more than how to load it and pull the trigger.

But in present-day Chicago we see that licensing restrictions can be made so onerous that it basically precludes everyone from being licensed. (People will own guns anyway, they'll just be unlicensed and we'll be worse off than before.)

Registration originally made sense to me. But in the UK they used registration as the first step in confiscation.

So I appreciate how slippery the slippery slope really is.

harrogate said...

Matthew asks,

"Are we a nation of laws or men?"

At the end of what I consider to be a very good rejoinder to my post. This lines up perfectly with his opposition to torture and calls for American politicians who have given orders for torture, to be brought up on war crimes charges.

But also, Matthew, notice that I did not say I think it is irrelevant that he broke the law on air. But your question, "are we a nation of laws or men" is not one so morally clean as you seem to believe. Why is it universally recognize as ridiculous that an 18 year-old having sex with a seventeen year old will technically have the same "sex offender" tag that a child molester would have? We know it's stupid even as we recognize it as the law. Ah well. Life in the big city.

But even so, it is not getting the kind of traction in people's minds that Ann and some commenters here wish it were. This might be because people on the whole, who become acquainted with this story, will know that it would be ridiculous to "throw the book" at Gregory.

Rusty said...

And now, as an added bonus, he's demonstarting that such laws do not apply to idiotic talking heads, but only to D.C. ordinary folk, who are in fact mostly black.


God forbid the darkies are allowed to defend themselves. Why, if they do, pretty soon they'll start to question why they need democrats.

sonicfrog said...

Lem... Loved that Gore prop fail. And, to make matters worse, the idea that Smoot-Hawley created the Great Depression is laughable considering our reliance on foreign trade small in that era. S-H didn't cause those rural banks to fail. Many were being propped up by some of the larger urban banks. When those ran out of money in the Great Crash, the small banks had nothing to rely on, and that's why you saw a sudden uptick in rural bank failures.

Al Gore is a joke at Climate Science, and he's a joke at economics too.

Shouting Thomas said...

At the end of what I consider to be a very good rejoinder to my post. This lines up perfectly with his opposition to torture and calls for American politicians who have given orders for torture, to be brought up on war crimes charges.

God, the lefties never tire of this old chestnut!

garage mahal said...

Gregory headlined some GOP events and those groups aren't coming to his defense.

Imagine that.

Curious George said...

"Hagar said...
The "if it's possible that X might reduce the carnage, isn't it worth trying?" is a silly argument."

Of course it is, but he used "possible" in the set-up, "if it was possible. So we have two uses of "possible", in the question using the definition "able to be done" and in the answer "maybe".

Weak sauce. But I'm sure Gregory thought he knocked it out of the park, as did gun haters.

Roger J. said...

Harrogate: you asserted than "many fetishize guns..." OK. Now do you have any definition of "fetishize" or any empirical data that suggest that "many fetishize guns." ?

I doubt you that you do, but will be more than willing to look at your data.

Shouting Thomas said...

The "fetish" thing is the universal lefty attempt to infantilize and ridicule gun owners. That bit is in every anti-gun post I receive on FB.

The apparent intent is to suggest that guns have no utility, but that gun owners need guns to get off sexually.

It has replaced the "your gun is a substitute for your small penis" meme.

garage mahal said...

I love ribs!

rremington said...

That is NOT a "High Capacity Magazine". That is a STANDARD CAPACITY magazine. We are loosing the language.

DADvocate said...

Liberals think guns are phalluses. Gregory thought he'd whip out a big phallus and make a scene. Being an ignorant liberal journalist, little did he know people familiar with guns considered it a typical phallus and were not impressed.

BTW - Howard Kurtz says what Gregory did is OK because "But I don’t think Gregory was planning to commit any crimes." (Except violating D.C.'s gun laws.) I don't plan on commiting any crimes either. I'm going out to purchase a Bushmaster AR 15 and parade around D.C. I'm sure Kurtz will defend me.

Tim said...

Freder Frederson said...

"Even if he violated the law, so what? Is it really a good use of proprietorial discretion to prosecute what could be argued to be an expression of free speech."

Even if someone else violated the law, so what? Is it really a good use of proprietorial discretion to prosecute what could be argued to be an expression of self-defense under the 2nd Amendment.

FIFY, tool.

sdharms said...

Ann- you asked for other examples of props. I cant recall exactly what the prop was, but I do recall Clevon Little in Blazing saddles saying, "let me whip this out"

Rialby said...

When Clinton's Sec of Defense, William Cohen, brought a bag of sugar to This Week w Sam Donaldson to explain why we needed to bomb Iraq - because they had Anthrax: image here

Ruth Anne Adams said...

It appears to be a paper making him Sheriff of Rock Ridge.

Tim said...

"I'm trying to think of other examples in political/policy debates when somebody whipped out a prop for dramatic effect."


Did you say "whipped out a prop for dramatic effect?" LBJ exposing himself.

sonicfrog said...

Hagar said...
The "if it's possible that X might reduce the carnage, isn't it worth trying?" is a silly argument."


What about the question the gun control advocates won't consider, at least not in public:

If it's possible that X probably won't reduce the carnage, is it worth trying anyway?

Whatever gets passed, it's going to be one of those useless "It's For The CHILDREN!!!!" laws that I so detest. "We have to do SOMETHING!!!!".

Maybe you should just shadup for a change.

I'm only kidding of course.... Or am I????

Michael K said...

"if Gregory or someone at NBC actually were to face aggressive prosecution. Otherwise the audio-optics say:
useless caterwauling on the right."

Maybe if his name was O'Keefe.

Tim said...

rremington said...

"That is NOT a "High Capacity Magazine". That is a STANDARD CAPACITY magazine. We are loosing the language."

Right.

Eventually, under Liberal Newspeak, "High Capacity Magazine" > 1 round.

Anonymous said...

While we are now having a "national conversation" on firearms regulations, we have yet to have a similar conversation about what changes we must make to the treatment of citizens with mental health issues, not to mention how we are going to fund any changes that we decide to make.

If we get down the road a few months on these topics and the loudest voices on the left still give the highest priority to funding the waging of a new war on firearms accessories, above funding improvements in mental health or school safety, we will know who the real 'gun nuts' are. And they won't be the people with NRA bumper stickers.

Stephen T. Smith said...

Personally,I see some phallic photoshopping fun in my future!

Gregory, "It's so biiig!"



Sorry... couldn't resist...

Tim said...

Pogo said...

"I am enjoying CNN's decline immensely."

Pogo, I know you know Gregory works for NBC...

Fritz said...

Liberals all got pretty happy when James O'Keefe was prosecuted for a misdemeanor while preforming his media stunt. It wouldn't hurt Gregory to have to consult with a parole officer before going off on a jaunt.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

lol @Ruth Ann

Anonymous said...

"Eventually, under Liberal Newspeak, "High Capacity Magazine" > 1 round."

30 -> 10 -> 7 -> 5 -> 3 -> 1 -> ZERO.

Mayor Bloomberg beat you to it:

"But if he had his preference, Bloomberg said he would go farther than the 1994 ban and outlaw all automatic and semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines. The mayor said magazines shouldn't be allowed to contain more than five or six rounds.

"If you haven't hit the deer with three shots, you're a pretty lousy shot. The deer deserves to get away," he said."


http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bloomberg-blasts-nra-connecticut-actions/story?id=18029157

BF said...

Even if he violated the law, so what? Is it really a good use of proprietorial discretion to prosecute what could be argued to be an expression of free speech.

How Dare you Prosecute Mr. Gregory! Don't you know he's white and rich?!?

Tank said...

Michael K said...
"if Gregory or someone at NBC actually were to face aggressive prosecution. Otherwise the audio-optics say:
useless caterwauling on the right."

Maybe if his name was O'Keefe.


This is why he must be prosecuted and put in jail.

Alinsky. Use their rules against them.

cubanbob said...

Even if he violated the law, so what? Is it really a good use of proprietorial discretion to prosecute what could be argued to be an expression of free speech.


Freder has a conceptual problem with equal application of the law when it doesn't advance his cause and harrowgate has a fetish with gun control and the anti-gun nuts suppressing other people's second amendment rights.

David said...

Joe McCarthy! "I hold in my hand . . . . "

Nonapod said...

I was thinking about the value of a fetus replica for a pro-lifers, and, googling, happened upon this 3D-printed replica made from an MRI image.

It's interesting to note that it's currently legal to 3D print gun parts (including lower receivers) Although Thingiverse keeps deleting the design files.

garage mahal said...

@Roger
I'm off to the great white north, but I think we need to do another food swap. I have a entire chest freezer of venison. And I'm motivated :-)

DADvocate said...

"If you haven't hit the deer with three shots, you're a pretty lousy shot. The deer deserves to get away," he said."

First, it's not about deer hunting. It's about our rights. Second, many states already limmit the number of shells that can be in your gun at one time for hunting to 3. My pump shotgun cam with a wooden dowel in the magazine to prevent it from holding more than 3 shels at once, 1 in the chamber and 2 in the magazine.

jeff said...

In DC there have been occasions where someone with a forgotten single round in their bag has been thrown to the ground, handcuffed and taken to jail. People who have otherwise never been in trouble and in a case or two were soldiers coming back via Walter Reed. If those folks are to be prosecuted, then so should Gregory.

Anonymous said...

In for a nickel in for a dollar. Gregory should have had the whole gun and the clip loaded with blanks. Then he could have let off a few rounds and scared the snot out of the sound techs. or at least have woken them up.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Seven Machos said...

WHITTAKER CHAMBERS!

Anonymous said...

During the 2008 election, many Repubs were waving tire pressure gauges to mock Obama's energy policy.

dbp said...

We used 20 and 30 round magazines in the Marine Corps and they seemed big to me at the time, probably because my hands are so small. In the picture at the top of this blog post, the magazine looks downright dainty. Maybe Gregory has huge hands, but whatever the case, it doesn't look threatening at all.

If Gregory knew anything about guns, or had any brains he would have flummoxed LaPierre by holding up a 20-round magazine from a .308 rifle such as a HK91 and called it a 30-round Bushmaster magazine.

1. The 20 round .308 is far larger and more intimidating than a 30 round .223.

2. LaPierre would have been so taken-aback by the mislabeling that this might have rendered him speechless.

From Inwood said...

Circle the wagons dept, Media division:

Even the WSJ is poo poo-ing this "attack" on poor David. Actually, it's worse that that. The WSJ would have us believe that there's a "journalist" exception to this sort of crime:

"It isn't clear that Mr. Gregory is guilty of anything other than perhaps overzealousness in pursuit of the conventional gun-control wisdom, which is not a crime unless we want to empty newsrooms and fill up jails from coast to coast."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324669104578203613386495482.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop

The Ironic is lost on the Moronic dept:

Even after being advised by the cops that it would be illegal, Gregory just knew that his High Moral Elite credentials would trump anything he did. He's probably right.

As someone has noted: "What Mr. Gregory is really guilty of is being an arrogant, mindless ideologue. Sadly, he is a repeat offender, incapable of reform."

Mike said...

I seem to recall George H. W. Bush taking out a bag of crack when he was giving a War on Drugs speech.

Unknown said...

Harrod said

=======.......At the end of what I consider to be a very good rejoinder to my post. This lines up perfectly ....Life in the big city.

But even so, it is not getting the kind of traction in people's minds that Ann and some commenters here wish it were. This might be because people on the whole, who become acquainted with this story, will know that it would be ridiculous to "throw the book" at Gregory. ....... ======


My comment is that Harrod's bullshit velocity per word metric skyrocketed here. Matthew Sablan asked the simple question 'are we a nation of laws or a nation of men' and Harrod nearly melted down.

The left has long been converting us to a nation of men and expecting the right to continue to respect 'the law'. Poor Harrod wants to squirt ink on that frightening point.

Harrod knows that Potentate Gregory is above the law as are all the Potentates Kennedy, Potentate Sec Clinton, Potentate Harry Reid (the law requiring a budget), and way too many of our political elites of both parties.
Gregory's exposure to DC gun violation is just an example.

This 'seizure of the law' is a huge part of the rush by we 'the people' to exercise our rights. Hope the political class starts to get this.

dbp said...

From a legal standpoint, if the authorities fail to prosecute a blatent violation of a law, can this be used as a defence if you are later accused of breaking that law?

madAsHell said...

cuz it looks like a boner

Unknown said...

======In DC there have been occasions where someone with a forgotten single round in their bag has been thrown to the ground, handcuffed and taken to jail. People who have otherwise never been in trouble and in a case or two were soldiers coming back via Walter Reed. If those folks are to be prosecuted, then so should Gregory. =====

Is so good it should be posted twice. It would do Gregory a world of good to share a cell with a perpetrator like these.

McTriumph said...

This is what the senate in tends on voting on in 2013.

http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/assault-weapons

Am I going to register my existing hand guns, submit to a back ground check, be photographed, fingerprinted and my rights approved by the ATF? FUCK NO!

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Either we have laws...or we don't.

If you can waive the laws for some, the favored few who are allied with the powers that be at any certain moment in time, you do not have a nation of laws.

If the laws are selectively applied to punish those who are out of power, then we are not a nation of laws and are instead a dictatorship or on the level of a banana republic such as Chavez's Venezuala.

More importantly, if we do not apply the laws equally to all: Why should anyone anywhere at anytime obey ANY laws?

America....slip sliding away.

Sofa King said...

Even if he violated the law, so what?

LOL, definitely saving this one.

LordSomber said...

I'm trying to think of other examples in political/policy debates when somebody whipped out a prop for dramatic effect.

"Young lady, are you familiar with the penal codes of this state?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm1rif1fASk

Unknown said...

Here's harrods buddies in the UK banning KITCHEN KNIVES!!!!

This is not parody.
----
Instead of gun crime, the UK worries about knife crime. And has been practicing knife control.

The UK outlawed the switchblade and gravity knife in 1959.

In 1988 possession of a pocket knife with a blade larger than 3 inches in public became illegal.

In 1996, it became illegal to sell a razor blade to anyone under the age of 16.

In 2007, you needed a license to be able to sell “non-domestic knives.”

Despite all that knifepoint robberies rose by 10 percent this year and there are some 60,000 stabbings each year. So the push is on to outlaw long kitchen knives. Once that’s done, surely utopia will be at hand.

A team from West Middlesex University Hospital said violent crime is on the increase – and kitchen knives are used in as many as half of all stabbings.

They argued many assaults are committed impulsively, prompted by alcohol and drugs, and a kitchen knife often makes an all too available weapon.

They consulted 10 top chefs from around the UK, and found such knives have little practical value in the kitchen.

None of the chefs felt such knives were essential, since the point of a short blade was just as useful when a sharp end was needed.

The researchers say legislation to ban the sale of long pointed knives would be a key step in the fight against violent crime.

“We suggest that banning the sale of long pointed knives is a sensible and practical measure that would have this effect.”

Certainly no law-abiding person needs a long blade kitchen knife. No one is talking about outlawing all kitchen knives. Just the ones with long blades. No reason for anyone to go beyond a paring knife anyway.
-----

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/british-doctors-call-for-ban-on-long-kitchen-knives-to-end-stabbings/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4581871.stm

William said...

I don't think Gregory was trying to win the argument or, for that matter, even to dramatize his point. He wished to demonize his opponent. He did not want to discuss the issue. He wanted to make Lapierre look fanatical and ridiculous. I personally think Gregory dramatized his own smugness and sense of superiority, but I probably wasn't the demographic he was aiming for.....The pro abortion crowd won their argument and did not use democratic means to do so. When you argue gun control that's at the back of everyone's mind.

BooneBoy said...

These anti gun people like Gregory should be invited to the NRA convention or similar venues. Then they should take part in a round table discussion in front of an unfriendly audience; just like 2nd Amendment advocates do when they appear on MSM TV.

BooneBoy said...

These anti gun people like Gregory should be invited to the NRA convention or similar venues. Then they should take part in a round table discussion in front of an unfriendly audience; just like 2nd Amendment advocates do when they appear on MSM TV.

Roger J. said...

@garage--assume you are going up for ice fishing? great white north and all? good luck!

send my your mailing addy on my email and I will send you a package of ribs late next week. Don't think you will be able send the venison very easily, but if you can, would love to have it. Brats and cheddar are always winners.

Hope all is well

The Pathetic Earthling said...

George HW Bush had police get a bag of crack for a drug policy speech in 1989. It was pretty silly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAQxHDZvo50

bagoh20 said...

Dirk Diggler

X said...

McTriumph said...
This is what the senate in tends on voting on in 2013.
http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/assault-weapons

Am I going to register my existing hand guns, submit to a back ground check, be photographed, fingerprinted and my rights approved by the ATF? FUCK NO!

12/27/12 11:17 AM


I'm in favor of common sense restrictions on the 19th amendment.

Paul said...

Unknown,

It will go farther than that. After knives they will ban martial arts training. After all, a good strong youth with serious kick-boxing training will be able to strong-arm the week unknowing 'subjects'.

We all know in U.K. the CCTV is a joke. Millions of cameras and the 'yobs' just wear hoodies to conceal their faces.

Soon England will be reduced to a spoon served at soup time. Then one day the MUSLIMS will come and it's the Fall of Rome all over again.

X said...

submit to a back ground vapors and hysteria check, be photographed, fingerprinted

Big Mike said...

@Freder, DBQ answered the question I posed to you. Contemplate her answer.

Curious George said...

"garage mahal said...
I'm off to the great white north..."

Me too. Trying to get a hold of my plow guy to make sure he's done my drive, because I have a 700# planer being delivered tomorrow. It's bad enough that the semi has to transfer it to a trailer I will rent out on 51.

Gahrie said...

I'm in favor of common sense restrictions on the 19th amendment.

I'm seriously starting to believe that the 19th Amendment was a huge mistake. Seriously.

I am not some Neanderthal. I work in a profession dominated by women, most of my superiors are women and I respect and admire many women.

Except when it comes to voting.

I had a very intelligent, well educated, accomplished professional woman tell me a couple of months ago:

"None of the rest of that matters to me...Romney wants to take away my freedom of choice and access to birth control."

How do you answer that?

Paul said...

X,

Yea I saw Feinstein's screed.

But there are both Republican and Democrat senators who know what will happen if they pass that bill. And in the House there is no way it will pass in any form.

But see, Feinstein has a CCW permit, Porker Moore has bodyguards (well he did before they got arrested in NY for a unlicensed handgun!) Heck all the rich liberals have guns and bodyguards and limos.

Laws are for the little people ya know.

bagoh20 said...

I think we should invade England and confiscate everything. We only need one barely-armed platoon. Hell, we could probably just get a few hundred American gun owners to yell "boo!", then just take over the place while they change their undies.

Chip Ahoy said...

I am surprised how small it is.

I would be very curious about that magazine. I am curious. Gimme that. ping ping ping how does this work? ping ping ping cartridges falling all over the desk ping ping oh this thing here catches ping ping then this spring ping ping ping so how many ping ping things does this ping ping hold? It's not very ping heavy ping at ping all.

I thought it ping would be a lot ping bigger.

Jeeze, I thought it would be more like a badass bandolier with 50 mm cartridges. I'm disappointed. That looks like a toy what I'm seeing. But I cannot be tricked into watching that video my internal v-chip denies it so it's possible he whips out one bitter than that later on.

Whenever conservatives talk about how stupid liberals sound when they talk about firearms, I'm thinking, wow, I'm stupid too because I don't know the differences you're ridiculing about either.

For instance, why do you ridicule when they specify the size of bullets. Like it's ridiculous to think the larger the number the larger the caliber. But a 50mm IS bigger than 22. The bigger the caliber the more powerful the gun. Bigger = scarier. Bigger= maybe not so wise to have in cities.

Why is that ridicule-worthy? And remember as you answer, that I am but a child of the universe, golden, trying to get back to the ga-a-a-a-ar-ar -den, and try not to be such a fuck'nMinuteman with your answer.

Darren Duvall said...

I am reasonably sure that by the time the police make it to NBC News in DC the magazine will be shown to have been disassembled with the spring gone or without a follower. This would make it no longer a magazine under the definition of the law (a shoebox can hold 100 rounds of .223, it's not a magazine either). Problem solved.

I also am reasonably sure that one or more of the computers at NBC News would have digital traces of searches for "Disassemble AR-15 magazine" and links to YouTube videos showing how.

Unknown said...

The Clancy thing was inspired by a real event - Reagan in a speech (before Congress?) brought out the tax code (multiple large volumes) and dropped them on the table in front of him, in a couple of cases pantomiming that it was so heavy it hurt his fingers. Perhaps this was around the 1986 tax reform push? I do not have link to the video but remember chuckling at the time. (Of course, the tax code is much larger now than it even was then.)

bagoh20 said...

The Brits need to stop goofing around and outlaw anything pointy. A gang of hoodlums with sharp sticks could wreak havoc.

Michael The Magnificent said...

To those unfamiliar with how you reload a magazine-fed semi-auto rifle/pistol, limiting magazine size may seem like a solution to active shooters.

But to those who are familiar with reloading a magazine-fed semi-auto, it's as silly a solution as solving the obesity problem by limiting spoon size.

Let's say you hi-capacity magazine haters get your way. When a killer's 10-round magazine is empty, he'll press one button to drop out the empty magazine while reaching into his pocket for a full 10-round magazine that he'll slide into place, and continue firing.

As long as he has full magazines in his pocket, he can continue shooting, reloading, shooting, reloading, shooting, etc.

Shouting Thomas said...

I am surprised how small it is.

You should see it when it's erect!

DADvocate said...

"Young lady, are you familiar with the penal codes of this state?"

One of the great moments in cinema. I bought the DVD just to make sure my kids received proper cultural enlightment.

Chip Ahoy said...

pound time = xx minutes xx seconds

#t=02m12s

This is magic code, a spell that works for YouTube videos.

Harry Potter, I know you don't like this class but I must insist. You cannot expect your magic to work effectively if your subjects must watch a whole video for your point, you must take your subject directly to your point. Add this magical specifying spell to the end of your magical YouTube link alpha/numerical string spell, and deliver your subject direct to your point, and become a much more effective wizard. POW right in kisser.

Crunchy Frog said...

Registration originally made sense to me. But in the UK they used registration as the first step in confiscation.

In NOLA as well.

Chuck66 said...

My favorite Clinton prop (public one, not the cigar) was when he praded up on stage a:

-Female
-Black
-Ederly
-In a wheel chair

He got a four-way victim to use as his prop in promoting some bill.

harrogate said...

"and try not to be such a fuck'nMinuteman with your answer."

If Chip were serious, he'd know the "Minuteman" rhetoric is all stalking horse bullshit. But he's clearly still rattled from, well, from what happened. We can leave it at that.

MadisonMan said...

I seem to recall George H. W. Bush taking out a bag of crack when he was giving a War on Drugs speech.

I think you could argue -- reasonably -- that he was not in possession of it, since he obtained it from the Police for a demonstration (presumably agreeing to return it to the police after the speech).

If Gregory is charged (I suspect he will not be), I presume this will be his defense (unless he tries the tried-and-true journalistic freedom approach).

iowan2 said...

What I would like to see is someone hold Gregory to the same standards as Randy Weaver. His atrocities against society weren't anywhere near what Gregory has done, and the Govt saw fit to stage an armed attack on his cabin and kill his wife,(while holding their infant in her arms) and son.
So rationalize this anyway you want, but it does illustrate the idiocy of govt regulation and how everybody is a criminal if the govt says so. Gregory should be forced to live with the laws he advocates for.

Anonymous said...

I sense he overcompensates a lot in his life.

Hagar said...

Chip ahoy,
For instance, why do you ridicule when they specify the size of bullets. Like it's ridiculous to think the larger the number the larger the caliber. But a 50mm IS bigger than 22. The bigger the caliber the more powerful the gun. Bigger = scarier. Bigger= maybe not so wise to have in cities.

I am going to assume you are serious.

First off 50mm ~ 2 inches, so that is a cannon (ack-ack or mountain howitzer) and no kind of a rifle.

The common calibers we use refer to fractions of an inch.

.22 in common use means a .22 Long Rifle rimfire cartridge and commonly fires a 40 grain lead bullet with 104 ft-lb energy at the muzzle.
The .223 Remington used in the AR-15 fires jacketed bullets, 36 to 77 grain with abot 1,200 ft-lb energy at the muzzle.

See the difference?

Likewise a .50 cal. Browning as used in the M2 machine gun is nothing like the various .50 caliber cartridges now made for some handguns and rifles.

Erik Robert Nelson said...

I still don't see the logic behind smaller magazines. It literally takes three seconds for me to switch out a magazine on an AR-15, and I don't fire them all that often. None of these suggestions seem likely to make any difference when it comes to gun violence. It's all feel-good nonsense.

Rusty said...

Chip. I think its because you can fit many much smaller cartridges in a high capacity magazine than a larger caliber cartridge. A magazine for an equal number of .50 cartridges being heavier and unwieldy.

Anonymous said...

I still don't see the logic behind smaller magazines.

Erik: It doesn't make sense in and of itself. It's part of a long-term slippery slope campaign to whittle away gun rights.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

It's all feel-good nonsense.

Isn't it always?

Michael Haz said...

David Gregory just wanted to confirm that he has the biggest clip in town. Media guys are like that.

Anyhow, his reporting on Fast and Furious has been total crickets. And his kids attend a school that has armed security personnel.

Show boating doofus.

Unknown said...

====First off 50mm ~ 2 inches, so that is a cannon (ack-ack or mountain howitzer) and no kind of a rifle.===

Obviously you are unfamiliar with modern sniper rifles

http://commission-blackops.com/crazy/how-much-does-a-barrett-50-caliber-sniper-rifle-cost-i15.jpg


nor more aged 106 mm recoilless rifles used until late in the 1970s

http://olive-drab.com/od_infweapons_recoilless.php

Lydia said...

Romney: "You said in the Rose Garden the day after the [Benghazi] attack it was an act of terror? It was not a spontaneous demonstration, is that what you are saying."

Obama: "Get the transcript."

Candy Crowley waves a sheet of paper.

Big Mike said...

It literally takes three seconds for me to switch out a magazine on an AR-15 ...

Practice a few times in front of a mirror and then have your wife time you. Bet you're closer to two seconds than to three. Maybe below.

damikesc said...

Even if he violated the law, so what? Is it really a good use of proprietorial discretion to prosecute what could be argued to be an expression of free speech.

These are laws he is advocating to be passed nationally. If they didn't stop him, why would they stop anybody?

This horse was dead before it got beaten. The only way it could really be brought alive would be if Gregory or someone at NBC actually were to face aggressive prosecution. Otherwise the audio-optics say:
useless caterwauling on the right.


Actually, it's pretty bad for the gun control side.

Again, if laws you support don't stop you from violating them intentionally --- they aren't terribly useful laws.

Lem... Loved that Gore prop fail. And, to make matters worse, the idea that Smoot-Hawley created the Great Depression is laughable considering our reliance on foreign trade small in that era. S-H didn't cause those rural banks to fail. Many were being propped up by some of the larger urban banks. When those ran out of money in the Great Crash, the small banks had nothing to rely on, and that's why you saw a sudden uptick in rural bank failures.

Branch banking laws are what caused small banks to fail (Canada had no similar problem with bank failures). When a bank is not allowed, by law, to diversify their loan portfolio much --- since they couldn't run offices elsewhere, most loans were involving one specific line of work --- they will fail quickly when a downturn hits.

Sigivald said...

On the other hand, it's possible that, being denied permission, they found or made an inoprative or restricted-internally-to-ten-rounds magazine that was in a standard capacity* 30 round shell.

Which would, I believe, be legal there, while for prop purposes being effectively the same as the real thing.

(* High-capacity my ass. 30 rounds has been standard for 5.56mm STANAG magazines for over 40 years - and the other standard of 20 rounds is equally called "high-capacity" by these savage liars**.

** I call them that because nobody's fooled by "high-capacity" talk, except those whose only source of information is those liars in the first place. Standard scare-tactics and divide-and-conquer strategy.

The cosmetic nature of the "assault weapons ban", and the redefiniton of the term "Assault weapon", and the invention of "assault pistol", ad nauseam*** - liars and cheats, substituting scare tactics for argument.

*** It really does make me sick if I dwell on it.)

Sigivald said...

On the other hand, it's possible that, being denied permission, they found or made an inoprative or restricted-internally-to-ten-rounds magazine that was in a standard capacity* 30 round shell.

Which would, I believe, be legal there, while for prop purposes being effectively the same as the real thing.

(* High-capacity my ass. 30 rounds has been standard for 5.56mm STANAG magazines for over 40 years - and the other standard of 20 rounds is equally called "high-capacity" by these savage liars**.

** I call them that because nobody's fooled by "high-capacity" talk, except those whose only source of information is those liars in the first place. Standard scare-tactics and divide-and-conquer strategy.

The cosmetic nature of the "assault weapons ban", and the redefiniton of the term "Assault weapon", and the invention of "assault pistol", ad nauseam*** - liars and cheats, substituting scare tactics for argument.

*** It really does make me sick if I dwell on it.)

Steven said...

Even if he violated the law, so what?

Don't you understand? That's the question people in favor of the magazine law have to answer. Either a law against simple possession of a 30-round magazine is a reasonable law, or it is not.

If such a law is reasonable, anyone in favor of laws against simple possession of 30-round magazines should be able to explain exactly why David Gregory should be prosecuted for his blatant violation of the law. If it is unreasonable, then the law should be repealed.

See, it's a fork. If David Gregory shouldn't be prosecuted for openly, blatantly, and indisputably breaking the law, the law is obviously unreasonable. If the law isn't unreasonable, then David Gregory should be prosecuted for openly, blatantly, and indisputably breaking the law.

Pick either position you like.

LZ said...

It would be effective if a journalist used a replica 9-month fetus and asked the head of NOW or Planned Parenthood, "Is it's ok to kill this?" How about this (pull out an 8-month replica).

That would get uncomfortable fast.

X said...

David Gregory supports this law. He is in favor of government men with guns arresting him and shooting him if necessary.

SDN said...

Poor Freder. So uninformed. The law he violated specifically says intent doesn't matter. He had it, it was illegal, and the proof was broadcast to millions. Open and Shut.

Unless you're a leftist hypocrite.

SDN said...

"From a legal standpoint, if the authorities fail to prosecute a blatent violation of a law, can this be used as a defence if you are later accused of breaking that law?"

Raises an immediate 14th Amendment "equal justice" claim; also a 14th Amendment "due process" claim.

Hagar said...

@Unknown,

In military parlance, a weapon that fires anything bigger than a .50 Browning is a cannon.
Thus 20mm (~3/4" cannon).

The Barret. 50 you show fires a .50 Browning, but from a bi-pod and with some modern high-tech mods to minimize the recoil effects to the shooter.

The "recoilless rifle" - and unlike you, I have fired one - is no infantry rifle, but a rocket launcher. I think the 57mm that you show is O'Reilly's "bazooka." The one I fired was a 75 mm, and I think the Army also had a 90mm and a 105mm.

Quaestor said...

What I don't understand is why easy targets like LaPierre don't do opposition research on people like Gregory when they get the invite to appear on programs like Meet the Press and Face the Nation. They must know that after the brief pleasantries the host (always, always a dependable liberal/leftist Administration mouthpiece) is going to try and skewer them with some stupid stunt like Gregory's show-n-tell with the 30-round 5.56mm magazine.

With a simple email to the Breitbart admin or to O'Keefe or to PJTV LaPierre could have armed himself with a devastating rejoinder to Gregory's mocking reply to the reasonable suggestion that schools need arms friendlies in residence.

LaPierre: So you say the suggestion is risible, David? Yet you send your kids to a private Quaker academy with armed guards on site.

Gregory: But... that's not the same as...

LaPierre: It's exactly the same, unless you think children of the elites are more deserving of protection than poor kids.

Hagar said...

The .50 cal. semi-auto "sniper" rifles are an outgrowth of the Korean War.
The guys up on the line, being Americans and mostly farm and ranch boys, figured out that they could rig a .50 cal. Browning M@ machine gun with a rifle telescopic sight and fire the things single-shot with great effect at longer distances than the Chinese thought were in rifle range.
So, naturally, when they got home, those involved in gun making went to figuring out how get this into a little more reasonable size package than a "light fifty."

Steve Koch said...

Hagar said...
"First off 50mm ~ 2 inches, so that is a cannon (ack-ack or mountain howitzer) and no kind of a rifle."

Unknown said...
"Obviously you are unfamiliar with modern sniper rifles

http://commission-blackops.com/crazy/how-much-does-a-barrett-50-caliber-sniper-rifle-cost-i15.jpg"

Hagar is right, 50 caliber is half an inch, while 50 mm is about 2 inches. I fired 50 caliber machinegun during MP AIT, what a beast of a weapon.

"nor more aged 106 mm recoilless rifles used until late in the 1970s

http://olive-drab.com/od_infweapons_recoilless.php"

That weapon is a rocket launcher, it does not fire bullets. I fired rocket launchers in MP AIT as well, cool experience.

holdfast said...

50mm =/= .50 inches. I would think Europhile lefties would at least have a basic grasp of metric.

.50 inches is about 12.7 mm. The most common round of that size is the .50 BMG (Browning Machine Gun) round. Anything firing a .50 BMG is illegal under the Connecticut Assault Weapons Ban.

I always liked the 84mm Carl Gustav reconciles rifle. Firing it was good for cleaning the snot out of your sinuses.

http://www.canadiansoldiers.com/weapons/lightweapons/lightantitank/carlgustav.htm

holdfast said...

Sorry "recoilless rifle".

To be clear, not actually a "rocket launcher" because it's a single massive explosion that fires the round, not a sustained rocket motor (though later variants had both together). What makes it "recoilless" is that instead of pushing against a bolt or breach block like a conventional gun, the explosion pushes against the air outside the back of the barrel. Which is quite inefficient, which is why the explosion is so damned powerful, going off next to your head. Good times.

chickelit said...

@Quaestor: LaPierre could have disarmed Gregory with that comeback and I wish that he had. One reason I think LaPierre didn't was because he didn't want to contribute to the "gotcha" standards set by the Left. The fact that we're having this discussion now shows that 1st Amendment rights are still healthy, though the 2nd is under threat.

Personally, hope that these talk show hosts like David Gregory and Piers Morgan continue their descent into self-parody.

Hagar said...

Not all that inefficient if you don't watch where you are going when someone near you is firing one of those!

Paul said...

Actually .50 BMG is .51 BMG, now .50 AE is really .50 inches!

Keep in mind folks one inch is 25.4mm but rifled weapons are based on land and grove diameters and sometimes they measure by one or the other. And many times cartridge names are skewed to sound fancy, like .44 magnum is really .429 and .38 special is actually .357 diameter.

Oh and my .270 WSM deer rifle (a 500 yard flat shooting gun) is actually .277 diameter bullet (or 6.8mm) I can stretch it out to 1000 yards quite easily with a good laser range finder and shooting table. The .338 Laupa is about the most one uses for sniping from a conventional rifle you can lug around by yourself (well in Rambo the guy did run around with one but at 30+ lbs it's not so realistic.)

Now about cannons and recoilless rifles and bazookas. The Browning .50 cal. is borderline. Real excellent heavy round but even with a 'shell' holding HE it is not much. The 20mm, around .79 inches may use 3/4 and ounce of PETN. Good for aircraft and unarmored vehicles but not so much for AFV unless the AP rounds are used with depleted uranium. You can own a .50 BMG rilfe in most states and I have never heard of a nutjob using one to kill.

Ah.. I could talk guns all day.

Hagar said...

and Unknown, Sir, I will have you know that according to the US Army, I is a .50 caliber expert, I is!

Steve Koch said...

It looks like it would not be very difficult to manufacture high capacity clips so even if they were outlawed, people who are willing to break the law would still be easily able to get the big clips. The effect of such a ban would leave law abiding citizens at a disadvantage when attacked by a criminal.



bleh said...

Now that I watch it again, I'm struck by how angry Gregory seems. The fast, fidgety movements. His voice almost cracked. He looked indignant and on the verge; LaPierre looked calm.

Hagar said...

Nah, he is just hyper and worked up to keep his job.
Those guys are well paid, but not much job security.

Hagar said...

I believe the various .38 and .44 calibers refer to the approximate O.D. of the brass at the neck.

And the bullet diameters of the .38 and .357 are not quite the same; there is a silly.oo1" difference one way or the other.

Firehand said...

Hagar, .38 Special and .357 Mag bullets are the same nominal diameter: .357". The .357 Mag cartridge case is 1/10" longer than .38 Special(so you can't put a magnum cartridge in a .38 revolver), and they gave it the name rather than call it a .38 Magnum.

Gregory is finding out what it's like to be a gun owner informed that he can go to prison for having a metal box with a spring inside that's longer than- well, than people like Gregory approve of.

Oh, that 30-round magazine is actually the standard for the AR15 family for quite a while; smaller ones are 'reduced capacity'. People like Pelosi and Feinstein and Schumer call them 'high-capacity' because it sounds scary. To them.

sinz52 said...

Another famous prop was President Carter's cardigan sweater whenever he addressed the nation--a symbol of his attempts to be a role model for energy conservation.

Another prop was LBJ's gall bladder surgery incision in 1965.

There was worry that LBJ was much sicker than was publicly known. LBJ showed off the incision from his recent gall bladder surgery to show that was all that was wrong with him.

Paul said...

Yes .38 Spl. and .357 Magnum are both .357 inches and not .380.

9mm Makarov (9x18) is 9.2mm.

Your .30/30 rifle is .308 and closer to a .31/30 (the second 30 denotes the weight of power in grains it was first designed for.)

But the 30-06 was a .308 inch round first adopted by the U.S. military in 1906.

Oh there are tons of weird designations but...

As for the 'high-capacity' the AR-15, forerunner of the M-16, used a 20 round box magazine first. Later in the Vietnam War when the VC and NVA used AK-47s with 30 round magazines we upgraded to our own 30 round mag. What is more we usually never carried 20 rounds in the 20 round mags nor 30 in the 30 round mags due to compression. 18 and 28 respectively (but I've heard that in the 20 round mag many had the springs in reverse and that was the cause of the bolt-over-base jams. Other jams were maintenance related with the M-16 but that's another story.

My Glock 32, .337 Sig (actually .355 sig but oh well....) has a 13 round magazine. One packs the gun with maybe a spare mag at most and it conceals quite well in the winter. Otherwise the Glock 33, short 10 round version also in .357 Sig, is a better CCW gun.)

Do note... nuts can just get more many mags and guns to do the same deeds.

Oh, did you guys here in China a nut used his car run over 13 kids? Fortunatly none killed but you can see how easy it would be for and insane person at schools here in U.S to kill dozens just that way. So what next, ban cars?

I still say institutionalization is far more the answer. Way to many insane people on the streets.

AllenS said...

Well, I've never seen a picture of it, but evidently, John Kerry has a hat.

Rabel said...

Althouse wrote:

"He need the prompter."

Is that a Beatles lyric?

Methadras said...

AllenS said...

Well, I've never seen a picture of it, but evidently, John Kerry has a hat.


Yeah, but it's his ass, hence why he's an asshat.

Hagar said...

Now explain the 38-40.

Rusty said...

Hagar said...
Now explain the 38-40.


.38 caliber with 40 grains of black powder?

chickelit said...

I'll bet Jake Diamond is impressed with the numeracy of Althouse lemmings.

Ruth Anne Adams said...

Althouse:

Here's the models used by pro-lifers.

And believe me, they are pretty impressive. When my girls, now 9, see and hold the 26 week baby and learn that they were that small at birth, it's a powerful message.

jungatheart said...

"Which is quite inefficient, which is why the explosion is so damned powerful, going off next to your head. Good times."

WHAT???

mariner said...

The magazine wasn't important. What was important was giving a middle finger to law-abiding gun owners.

Gregory knows he'll never be prosecuted for violating gun laws, even on national TV.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

My SIL fetishizes abortion rights. Does that mean her opinion is illegitimate?

Fr Martin Fox said...

Since Mr. Gregory's violation of the law is no big deal, merely technical, and--per Howard Kurtz--a "waste of time" to investigate, let alone prosecute (because he had no bad intentions)...

Then if the gunnies have a big rally in D.C., on the mall, and a whole bunch of 'em bring the exact same magazine with them and hold them up to the cameras, that's no big deal, right?

It's the "David Gregory exception."

kentuckyliz said...

"If you haven't hit the tyrant with three shots, you're a pretty lousy shot. The tyrant deserves to get away and continue his tyrannical rule," he said."

There, FIFY.

kentuckyliz said...

The freeze frame pic on the video embed looks like a tampon case.

Hagar said...

@Rusty,

No. It is a .40 caliber necked down from the 44-40 WCF.

SGT Ted said...

David Gregory has always been a smarmy leftwing asshhole.

chickelit said...

deborah puzzled: WHAT???

Think of a marksman getting his eye pretty close the sights of a rifle. It turns out one's head is pretty close to the back end of the barrel where the bullet fires from.

n.n said...

Manipulating perception to realize their preferred reality. They did exactly the same thing to nurture a phobia of nuclear processes and technology.

These people's success relies principally on exploiting human greed, emotion, and base desires.

They manufacture or amplify differentials and gradients in order to advance their political, economic, and social standing.

jungatheart said...

Chick, did you not get my hard-of-hearing joke :)

chickelit said...

I did not. I confused your punctuation with naive astonishment. In retrospect, that is uncharacteristic of you and I should have looked twice.

jungatheart said...

Not at all, I knew it was risky.

Here, found this yesterday, a youtube playlist of all things German:

http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=NygJsSp6IEg
&list=PL9uGykIK
48d5woHiHh4OPYSkmkErt20cD

Hagar said...

@Chicelit,
On a recoilless rifle your head is near the middle of the tube, which is where the grenade, or whatever you want to call it, is fired from.

Shanna said...

Are the Brits trying to outlaw a chefs knife when they talk about 'long knives'. Or a bread knife? Or a carving knife? You can't chop an onion with a pairing knife. Ridiculous!

Bruce Hayden said...

The guys up on the line, being Americans and mostly farm and ranch boys, figured out that they could rig a .50 cal. Browning M@ machine gun with a rifle telescopic sight and fire the things single-shot with great effect at longer distances than the Chinese thought were in rifle range.

Didn't realize that it started in Korea. Carlos Hathcock, the most famous American sniper in the Vietnam war, used such to set his distance kill record (2,500 meters - which he held from 1967 to 2002).

Bruce Hayden said...

Whoops - Hathcock's record kill using a scope on an M2 was 2,500 yards (not meters), which translates to 2,286 meters, and almost a mile and a half.

Synova said...

"My SIL fetishizes abortion rights. Does that mean her opinion is illegitimate?"

Only if she's not married.

Unknown said...

====The "recoilless rifle" - and unlike you, I have fired one - is no infantry rifle, but a rocket launcher.====

Don't know why you assume that I have not fired a recoilless rifle. It was still being trained in the mid 70s.

This weapon meets the definition of 'rifle' in that the there was rifling on the barrel. Someone above described the unusual experience of the explosive gases being vented from the breech end. Its kind of like spending a moment in hell.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M40_recoilless_rifle

Firehand said...

As I recall, recoilless rifle used a shell in which the case that held the powder was perforated; when fired, you got part of the blast of expanding gas going backward out of the vents in the breech as well and the rest of the gas pushing the projectile forward.

The balance of rearward blast mostly canceled out the recoil of firing the projectile; it also meant "Make sure there's nothing behind you that you're not willing to fry before you press the trigger."

Jason said...

The Brits never were much on cuisine.

Rusty said...

Ahha! Good to know.
Thank you.

DirkB said...

I remember back in 1988 when Herb Kohl ran against Susan Engeleiter. During a debate she pulled out a coffee cake that she had bought from a Kohls grocery store for a couple bucks and claimed Herb's company was selling it to the Govt for $7.52 each.

We found out a few days later that the coffee cake from Kohl's company (Not Kohls Grocery store) was actually about 3 times bigger, for the military and would serve 18 people. Plus it was packed in a metal case and had a shelf life similar to that of the half life of uranium. If I remember correctly it was a turning point in the campaign and Engeleiter lost big at least in part because of her theatrics. I can't speak for anyone else but I know in my mind it was a deciding factor on who I voted for that year.

It was a shame too as up to that point I felt pretty good about voting for her. After that there was no way I was going to cast a vote for someone who so dishonestly misled the voters.

Here's a link for those too young to remember the incident:
http://articles.philly.com/1988-11-01/news/26244476_1_proxmire-susan-engeleiter-political-hardball

chuckR said...

What are the odds that right now someone is NOT doing a 3D CAD takeoff of popular magazines? From there, you go to a 3D printer - pricey and maybe not as sturdy as stamped metal or injection molded plastic but the technology is moving fast and so are the cost reductions. If you outlaw Objets and Stratisys' only outlaws will have Objets and Stratisys'.

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Rusty said...

chuckR said...
What are the odds that right now someone is NOT doing a 3D CAD takeoff of popular magazines? From there, you go to a 3D printer - pricey and maybe not as sturdy as stamped metal or injection molded plastic but the technology is moving fast and so are the cost reductions. If you outlaw Objets and Stratisys' only outlaws will have Objets and Stratisys'.


Once you've made the mold or die for one, you've made the mold or die for thousands.

VekTor said...

Michael The Magnificent said...

As long as he has full magazines in his pocket, he can continue shooting, reloading, shooting, reloading, shooting, etc.


The answer to that is obvious. Clearly, we need more stringent pocket control laws.

We can't have people walking around with high capacity pockets, now can we? Think of the children!

While we're at it, let's make sure they also can't have a shoulder thing that goes up, or they might be able to defeat the clearly intended purposes of our laws.

Firehand said...

Chuck, ask and ye shall receive:
http://www.pagunblog.com/2011/10/12/more-on-that-3d-printed-ar-15-magazine/

And yeah, a magazine is a box with one end closed, a spring, a sliding piece called a 'follower' and the other end formed to feed the cartridges; that's it.