This week has been a pretty dramatic one both legislatively and judicially.

The bad news is that with the complicity of the NRA, Carolyn McCarthy was able to get her NICS "enhancements" passed through the House.  In general principle, we are all in favor of keeping firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill.  But we just disagree with this bill in how it goes about doing so.   Alan Korwin does a good job of summarizing why this bill is bad.  Let's hope we can get this bill amended in the senate to be less arbitrary and give citizens fair recourse to regain their rights.

You've all heard by now that the illegal amnesty bill failed to gain cloture and is dead.  I don't know why Bush staked himself so firmly on this issue.  Will this loss hasten the lame duck period? 

This is very encouraging.  Let's hope that Fred Thompson stays the course, and doesn't crumble under the pressure from proponents of mediocrity in the spirit of "compromise".  We've already lost too much safety and security in the name of "common sense" gun laws.

Hear what he had to say.

A man in Newton, NJ has plead guilty to charges of posession of a firearm without a license.  What was the firearm he is accused of posessing?  A BB gun.

Some may view BB guns as toys or nostalgic fodder from "A Christmas Story," but local police and the state legislature have stressed the potential harm of unchecked pellet gun usage and ownership.

He's now a felon for owning a BB gun without the permission of the State of NJ. 

Get me outta here.

[UPDATE]  It gets worse.

 Turns out that Sussex County prosecutors are trying to pin weapons charges on a guy for an Airsoft pistol.  NJ State weapons laws  which were written so broadly to encompass BB guns do not include Airsoft in their scope since they do not fire metal projectiles.  The prosecutor isn't yet going to trial with this.  He's trying to get the guy to plead guilty.  Luckily, the guy has himeself an attorney who refuses to take the weapons charges rap.

In other news,  NJ Herald editorial staff does not insist that writers at the paper arrange their sentences into cohesive paragraphs.