Mexican government officials have complained that the availability of sophisticated guns from the United States have emboldened drug traffickers to fight over access routes into the U.S.

…

“Some recent Mexican army and police confrontations with drug cartels have resembled small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades,” the warning said. “Large firefights have taken place in many towns and cities across Mexico, but most recently in northern Mexico, including Tijuana, Chihuahua City and Ciudad Juarez.”

So, what you’re saying is that automatic weapons and grenades are available on the US market? Damn, and all this time I thought I couldn’t own those. I guess I’d better get down to Big 5 and pick up a Stoner & Pineapple special!

If that hasn’t gotten your blood pressure high enough yet, check out this additional ABC buffoonery. Amazingly, even when something is illegal (straw purchases, smuggling, possessing firearms in Mexico, trafficking and using drugs, etc. ad nauseum), people still do it. According to ABC, that is somehow my fault.

I spoke to several of the bloggers who had accounts locked and every single one was convinced that it was Obama supporters who had flagged the blogs in some kind of concerted effort to silence them. But when I asked for specific evidence of this, most simply pointed out that only anti-Obama blogs were targeted — a fact that is certainly suspicious but not especially conclusive.

Not all members of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy are exactly unimpeachable, but this kind of chicanery seems more prevalent among the Left.

War bill helps Iraqis, may ignore Katrina victims

NEW ORLEANS – A long way from Iraq and the war debate in Washington, Herman Moore sat outside a tent in a downtown New Orleans homeless camp, trying to make sense of a proposal that helps Iraqi war refugees but will likely exclude Hurricane Katrina victims.

First of all, am I detecting just a hint of bias in this headline and first paragraph?

Second of all, this is a war spending bill. Why should a war spending bill contain spending unrelated to the war? Domestic spending in this bill can be described in one word: Pork.

So, I asked the salesman, “What E46s do you have on the lot?”

He asked, “What are you looking for, a 335i?”

The 335i is an E90, dumbass, not an E46. Now, I don’t expect most of the snobs and yuppies who buy BMWs to know the difference between an E46 and an E90, but some of us actually care about driving rather than posing, and we know the difference between the two. Is it too much to ask for the dealer to know the difference?

Stein: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers [i.e. biologist P.Z. Myers], talking about how great scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed … that was horrifying beyond words, and that’s where science — in my opinion, this is just an opinion — that’s where science leads you.

Crouch: That’s right.

Stein: …Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.

Crouch: Good word, good word.

Kind of ironic that Ben Stein played Kevin’s science teacher in The Wonder Years.

But then, what do I know? I’m just an Typical White Person.

DENVER – A gun belonging to the pilot of a US Airways plane went off as the aircraft was on approach to land in North Carolina over the weekend, the first time a weapon issued under a federal program to arm pilots was fired, authorities said Monday.
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The “accidental discharge” Saturday aboard Flight 1536 from Denver to Charlotte did not endanger the aircraft or the 124 passengers, two pilots and three flight attendants aboard, said Greg Alter of the Federal Air Marshal Service.

I’d be interested in finding out how this pilot fired his weapon. I should point out that a gun doesn’t “just go off”. Someone fires it by pulling the trigger. Incidents where a gun is fired unintentionally are more properly called negligent discharges since they result from an act of negligence.

This quote at the end of the story pisses me off, since it comes from an “aviation expert” who really should know better:

“If that bullet had compromised the shell of the airplane, i.e., gone through a window, the airplane could have gone down,” he said.

Explosive decompression due to gunfire is a myth. Obviously this guy needs to watch fewer movies and more MythBusters.

As for the negligent discharge, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the democratic Congress use it as an excuse to strip pilots of their ability to defend themselves and the passengers.

Update: More here, including photos.

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — Elizabeth City State University is offering counseling to faculty and students after some became unknowing participants in an emergency response drill.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reported in Wednesday’s editions that an armed man burst into a classroom Friday, threatening to kill students. The drill came eight days after a gunman killed five people and himself in a classroom at Northern Illinois University.

Anthony Brown, vice chancellor of student affairs, said ECSU was testing its response to such shootings. E-mail and text messages were sent five days before the drill, notifying students, staff and faculty, he said.

“The intent was not to frighten them but to test our system and also to test the response of the security that was on campus and the people that were notified,” Brown said.

But not everyone got the word, including assistant professor Jingbin Wang, whose American foreign policy class was held hostage.

“I was prepared to die at that moment,” Wang said Tuesday of the moment the gunman entered the room.

The “gunman” was in fact a campus police officer, but the prof and students didn’t know that:

The seven students were lined up against the wall, and the intruder threatened to kill the one with the lowest grade point average. Wang said the man told them that he had been kicked out of school and that he needed a lung transplant.

First, I’d like to know just what the hell the hair-brained administrator who came up with this “drill” was thinking. Oh, never mind, they weren’t thinking. Fucking Moron doesn’t begin to describe this person.

Second, I’d like to point out that waving a gun around and threatening to kill people — even if it’s “just a drill” and a “toy gun” — is a good way to get shot by a law-abiding gun-owner, as North Carolina is a shall-issue state. It’s also a good way to get tackled, cut, bludgeoned, or tasered.

And lastly, I’ll just say: Unleash the Lawyers. It’s inevitable that the school will get sued, and quite rightly, for this little stunt.

Update: Instapundit agrees with me: “The guy’s lucky that nobody shot him, or cold-cocked him. Which would have been an appropriate response to what seemed to be going on.”

Update Mar 7, 2008: This is an interesting point: a mouse that Brenda found in her garage showed more bravery than any of these students:

Not one of the students fought back. Not one thought to pick up a chair or a desk, or even a book, to defend themselves. They all lined up against a wall and passively waited for death.

One of the students said, “I was prepared to die at that moment.” Several students say they considered leaping from a window.

My mouse had more courage than this. Against insurmountable odds, it growled at me and prepared to fight, even to its death. The college students who meekly bared their throats to those who wanted to rip them out are dead already – they just don’t know it.

I would think that people would know better by now. When a gunman bursts into a classroom, they’re there for only one purpose: to commit a massacre. They aren’t there to steal books or wallets; they’re there to kill everyone in the room. I’d also think that people would know that fighting back is the only way to save their lives against a murderer. Alas, many people tend to disappoint me.