Virginia to be One of the Few, The Proud

...for Constitutional carry that is. At least that's how I'm reading this. Your Buddy the Gun Enthusiast posts about HB 2069.

MORE: I really should read the VSSA's blog more often. They have an update of the progress of other RKBA bills making its way through Virginia's lower house.

SnowMyGod!

I love the way Northern Virginians react to snow. Half the population, the Southerners, overreact. And the other half of the population, the Northerners, underreact... and they both tend to get it wrong. We live on the corner to our subdivision, so the traffic hilarity is something we get to witness all the time.

Tonight some lady got her car stuck in front of our house and abandoned it right in front of our driveway, blocking us in. I was nonplussed. She came back an hour later with her husband to get it unstuck, so I went out to help. After we got the car out, she admitted to me that she was completely embarrassed to have had this happen because she's from Syracuse. I told her she wasn't the first person I've dug out... not even the first person from Syracuse.

Because it is a wet snow, the trees and power lines are sagging, we are experiencing brownouts, and there are occasional bright flashes of light as transformers blow up or short out or whatever. We both crept outside for a minute to see the flashes, and thats when I saw a man running down the street yelling, "Don't panic! Nobody freak out!"

I'm sure that somewhere there is somebody out and about in sandals and a t-shirt buying 3 palettes full of toilet paper.

No Word From the NAACP

In regards to my post on John McNeil, I did send off some emails Sunday afternoon to the NAACP national headquarters and to both the Georgia and North Carolina conferences. I've yet to hear back after 2 business days.

I've asked them three simple questions:

1. Is there a legal defense fund setup for John McNeil?
2. Has a petition for pardon been filed with the Governor of Georgia?
3. How can an individual help, even in a small way?

For the first question, I can see myself giving something to a legal defense fund for John McNeil but I don't see myself giving money directly to the NAACP in hopes that it goes toward McNeil's defense.

Black Man Wrongly Convicted in Self Defense Shooting of A White Man

In 2005, John McNeil rushed to the aid of his son who had been threatened in the family's backyard by Brian Epp with a knife. When McNeil arrived on the scene, Epp charged toward him. McNeil pulled his gun and fired a warning shot into the ground. But Epp kept coming until McNeil ended the situation with a single shot to the head. In 2006, McNeil was convicted of felony murder despite a police investigation that found the shooting to be self defense, eye witness testimony backing up that claim, and character witnesses testifying to the ill-temper of Epp.

McNeil also lost on appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court in 2008. However, Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears dissented saying:

I share the majority’s reluctance to overturn a jury verdict. However, I conclude that no rational trier of fact could find, based on the evidence presented at trial, that the State disproved McNeil’s claim of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt. Accordingly, I must dissent.

Epp was white. McNeil is black. Sears is also black. Could this be an issue of the justice system mistreating a man due to his race? It certainly wouldn't be the first time a person has been convicted in a righteous self defense shooting, but the only people taking notice of this case seem to be black. The NAACP says "Ask why gun rights advocates have not supported John McNeil." The answer is probably that most of us have never heard of this case. I only found out about it after listening to Kenn Blanchards's (The Black Man With A Gun) Urban Shooter Podcast, and he only heard about it because the NAACP called him. I can't find an article on it in either the Atlanta Journal Constitution or the Marietta Daily Journal (Marietta is the county-seat of Cobb County, where the shooting occurred).

It does appear that well-known gun rights advocate David Codrea did touch on this story a couple of months back, but his column descended into the issue of the NAACP's anti-gun stance instead of truly focusing on what appears to be a miscarriage of justice. That's unfortunate, especially since the national NAACP has no official anti-gun stance -- or so they said to Kenn Blanchard. The anti-gun activities are the products of the state and local chapters.

The gun-unfriendly nature of the NAACP and whether or not John McNeil is black and Brian Epp was white are irrelevant. What has happened here is that a man has been wrongly convicted in a self-defense shooting and pressure needs to be applied to correct this injustice. Perhaps the Governor of Georgia can be persuaded to grant McNeil a pardon. In the interests of black people and white people and people who care about the natural right to self defense, this case needs more publicity.

Interestingly, there is one more nexus between this story and gun rights. This shooting took place in Kennesaw, Georgia. In 1982, Kennesaw passed a law requiring every household to maintain and have a firearm. While the law is not really enforced and contains a loophole for anybody who doesn't want to abide by it, the city was responding to a gun ban in Morton Grove, Ill. and taking a stand for gun rights.

Links:
Justice for John McNeil - PDF of a glossy with lots of information.
NAACP armed defense endorsement is inconsistent with group's anti-gun stance - David Codrea's column.
S08A1221. McNEIL v. THE STATE. - from the GA Supreme Court
Another Black Man Convicted of Murder Charge Gets Life in Prison: He Says it Was Self-Defense
199 Good Year - the Urban Shooter Podcast episode where Kenn Blanchard discusses this case.
Self Defense Leads to a Life Sentence in Georgia -- NAACP press release.

We Mock Them Because It Is Easy

The Underpants Gnomes’ Theory of the Arizona Shootings


BREAKING–Scientific discovery may disprove Planck Time


"Encourage political leaders to ditch violent rhetoric," writes Salon's War Room blog.

As I think about it, the mental process seems to be something like this:

Lefty: Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement encourage hatred and violence!

Questioner: How do you know?

Lefty: Because whenever I think about them, I’m filled with hate and a desire to do harm!

"Eagerly awaiting Andrew Sullivan's explanation re how Palin had Giffords shot for knowing too much about Trig's birth"


"I can see causation from my house"

Just To Be Clear

I know I write a lot about gun rights here, but I'd like to be clear about one thing. People who are BAT-SHIT-CRAZY should not be allowed to own guns, say for instance all the lunatics who believe Sarah Palin is responsible for the recent Arizona shooting. If your mind has jumped the shark of logic on this one, please turn yourself in to the authorities before you do harm to an innocent person.

A Silly Gun Fantasy

I often thought it would be cool to cut down the barrel of my Mini-14 to make it an SBR. With the side folding ATI Strikeforce stock, such a configuration could be used for shooting at a zombie horde while driving -- left hand on the wheel, right hand on the grip with the rifle rested on the door.

Of course, this is completely silly as the side mirror would be shot off... and with a Mini-14, it is likely the ejected casings would crack the wind shield... or at the very least bounce around the cab finding a spot underneath clothing to sizzle skin. Then there is the issue of the bulk with the ATI stock while folded, not to mention the added ATF hassle of getting permission to have an SBR. This just has impractical written all over it.

A better idea would be something like a Sig 556 pistol. There would no cumbersome side folded stock, it would likely be lighter, shorter, and easier to wield, and the casing would eject with a high degree of predictability on to the passenger's lap.

Yes, that is a far more realistic weapon choice for the often encountered situation of needing to drive your pickup truck through a massive zombie horde.

Meet Up with Kenn Blanchard on Thursday

Kenn Blanchard announced in his Urban Shooter Podcast #195 that he was doing a meet-up at the Silver Eagle Group for some shooting and potential food afterward. Unfortunately #195 fell off the end of the tail end of show notes, and so the information about the meet-up wasn't readily available. After emailing him last night, he's put a blog post and tweet about it. I'm gonna attempt to make it.

Silver Eagle Group (SEG) is a premiere shooting range in Ashburn, VA. It is very new and very shiny and clean. I've shot several IDPA matches there and have even taken two courses there, though I am not a member. Non-members can also show up and shoot. One thing SEG is not is urban, being in Ashburn which is incredibly suburban.


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Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all. And in case you accidentally clicked on a horrible video link posted by some douche, here's a much better song to start the new year with... including a great fight scene.

For The Record

My thanks to JayG of the MArooned blog for putting me on his blogroll. I've been reading his blog for a couple of months now, and even mentioned a couple of his posts both here and in Twitter. If you are into guns, check him out.

In adding me to his blogroll, he mentions the mini-van thing with 'we can overlook the "minivan driving" part'. So, for the record, my other car is a pickup truck sporting these two bumper stickers.

I also have a VCDL magnet on the truck as well.

That is all.