Kurt Hofmann:

Registration precedes confiscation–maybe by years, or even decades, but that’s the only purpose it serves, and no government can forever resist the seductive siren song promising the opportunity to secure ever more power to itself, by putting that purpose into effect. The Sandy Hook Advisory Commission has helpfully reminded any of us who may have forgotten that axiom.

Yes, and in the mean time, registration serves the purpose of the state deciding who gets to purchase firearms until final confiscatory actions.  Oppose a national gun registry by any means necessary.

Kurt Hofmann:

So they don’t want people to know what they’re selling? The “military-bred weaponry” to which he refers is how these companies make their living, and they’re hardly secretive about it. His op-ed column, after all, is replete with posters (the ones that are “almost always in capital letters”) advertising these companies’ wares. The images are on the companies’ websites, and in advertising they pay for in various gun magazines.

That, after all, makes rather a lot more sense than trying to hide their advertising. The very purpose of advertising is defeated if that advertising is not seen.

Josh Sugarmann apparently doesn’t even understand basic economics.  I’ve seen so much from the SHOT show – and I didn’t go – that I want it all to go away.  It’s gun manufacturers seeking the goose that lays the golden egg, and I won’t pay the kind of prices I’ve seen for most of these firearms.  So perhaps the manufacturers don’t understand basic economics either.  But I expect the prices to go down.

Mike Vanderboegh.  You have to watch this video.  No really.  You need to watch this.  Who says the A-10 is “unlovely?”  I certainly don’t.  To me it’s the greatest aircraft for field support ever manufactured.  I guess the idiot general wants to spend his money on new toys like the super great … ahem …  wink, wink … F35, that piece of crap that’s so expensive we couldn’t afford it alone and had to go in with other countries to build it, those countries having the plans and specs now.

And good grief!  Am I going to have turn the NRA loose to their own demise and forever forswear membership?  They can’t even get the simplest of things right.

Via David Codrea, Dave Hardy gives us a realistic explanation as to why compromise doesn’t work in the long run.

David Codrea:

Commenting on revelations about Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and Department of Justice (DOJ) actions in the case of retired agent Jay Dobyns against his former employer, attorney David Hardy equated them with “a BATF and DOJ Watergate… or worse,” Friday. Noting that actions taken over a civil lawsuit evidently have included concealing evidence, secret threats against witnesses, and surveillance of attorneys and witnesses, the new information lends further credence to Dobyns’ allegations and appears to show government lawyers engaged in a criminal conspiracy.

I’ll have more to say about this later.

WeaponsMan gives us a review of American Sniper.  Some of what he says dovetails with what I said.  I finally got a chance to talk to Daniel about the film, and he didn’t like the portrayal of Marines.  He also had a number of technical nits, like digital cammies before they were in Iraq, MRAPs before they were deployed to Iraq, etc.  It’s one man’s view, and it doesn’t mean that it represents reality.  It represents reality according to what he saw and believes.  Again, I think Bradley Cooper did the best acting I think I’ve ever seen on screen.  This is a must see film, extremely noteworthy cinema.

WeaponsMan gives us a suggestion for what to do if you don’t intend to watch the idiot bowl.  And I don’t.

From We Are The Mighty, this is a nice rundown of some of the more notable exploits of Carlos Hathcock.