72 Year Old Janitor Charged In Evanston School Gun Case

This is a very sad case. The janitor was caught with the gun on school property.

Scott had been with the district 29 years, 14 of them at Kingsley Elementary, NBC5's Sharon Wright reported.

Police said Scott purchased the .38-caliber revolver illegally on the streets a year and a half ago and reportedly carried it with him 24/7.

"Mr. Scott apparently carried this weapon, had it in his possession, because of some situations that he dealt with some gang members and possibly because of some personal acquaintances he had," Evanston Police Chief Frank Kaminski said.

Robert VerBruggen kindly provided me with a link to another story about the incident here. The discussion of it there is more troubling. Thanks to Robert for the link.

Terrorism as an Excuse: Another CBS campaign

I have a new op-ed up here on the 50 caliber gun ban campaign.

Volokh.com posts the discussion that I had on the National Academy of Sciences Report

Instapundit has in turn linked to the posting at Volokh.com

I was thinking about writing this

Russell has been a co-author of mine:

The truth is, there’s no such thing as a safe drug. Every drug has side effects. It’s only a matter of degree. And there’s usually a tradeoff between safety and effectiveness. Powerful drugs are more likely to have side effects. Everyone who undergoes chemotherapy understands that life is about tradeoffs—about the likely costs and likely benefits.

Cautiousness is always in order when you introduce a powerful drug into your body. You don’t want to die from a dangerous drug. But you also don’t want to suffer or die because the right drug is not available.

In this world of imperfect safety, why do we give the FDA the authority to make these choices for us? The FDA is the ultimate one size fits all solution. If arthritis makes my life a living hell, why can’t I decide to take on a greater risk of a heart attack? The choice between pain and risk should belong to me and my doctor

"Scientists say deer hunting must increase"

The solution seems obvious to me: lower hunting fees and pay for any other costs out of the general fund. Reducing any training requirements might also be considered.

Concerned that a ravenous deer population is destroying Pennsylvania forests, a group of scientists says the state Game Commission is politically incapable of pursuing the best solution for keeping the animals under control: allowing more hunting. They say that's because the commission is funded mostly by hunting-related taxes and fees, and the agency caves in to pressure from hunters - many of whom, ironically, do not want the state to allow them to kill more deer.

Put this under the Bizarre Law Category: Man Charged For Wife's Seat Belt Death

This man not only loses his wife but is charged for negligent homicide because his wife exercised here own choice:

She died at the scene of the crash, but her husband walked away. State police say the difference is he was wearing a seat belt. Troopers tell 9 News shortly after 12:30 p.m., the couple was headed west on I-10 near the Prairieville exit, when their truck's rear tire blew out. The vehicle began to spin out of control, eventually flipping in a group of trees. . . .

State Trooper Johnnie Brown says, "It's a very simple portrait of what happens when you don't wear your seat belt. The possibility of being ejected, the death that can result from that. Conversely, you have the husband that was wearing his seat belt and survived the crash with relatively minimal injury." Trooper Brown says the driver, 49-year-old James Stanton is being charged with careless operation and negligent homicide because troopers say he was responsible for making his wife wear her seat belt.

General Notes on National Academy Report

While I have made some general comments about the NAS report, I thought that I would give more detailed comments here.

Government funded propoganda?

I'm not excusing Armstrong Williams, but is it really unusual for the government to try to influence voters' opinions with information paid with tax dollars? My book, The Bias Against Guns, was written to make this point more broadly. Just look at all the money spend my the Clinton administration on propoganda. Rush Limbaugh makes the right point:

Now, here's a little bit of irony here. How can journalists question his ethics for taking marching orders from the Department of Education when those very same journalistas take their marching orders from the Democrat fax machines? . . . The idea here that Armstrong Williams is the only person that has taken money to work on something he agrees with. What do you think sustains the environmentalist wacko movement but government grants? How many professors get government grants to do research projects on things they passionately believe in and they go out there and they write position papers and they're inculcating young skulls full of mush with the pap that they end up believing. There really isn't any difference. He broadcasts on radio and television. All these other people write papers that the mainstream media then public sizes to who knows where, it gets broadcast all over college campi and classrooms.

The Stolen Election in Washington State?

John Fund has another article on the Washington State Governors election:

Slade Gorton, a Republican former state attorney general and U.S. senator who is advising Mr. Rossi, says . . . "The law is quite clear in giving a court the right to void any election where the number of illegal or mistaken votes exceeds the margin of victory, and it has done so in the past."

Drug Re-importation: A Doomed Disaster

My latest op-ed is up at Foxnews.com:

as Canada's Internet drug sales to the United States have topped $700 million, the Canadian Minister of Health Ujjal Dosanjh says the shipping drugs south should stop. Some blame the Bush administration for putting pressure on the Canadian government, though both governments deny this. Others claim that it is a matter of public safety. But the explanation is much more straightforward: Canadian drug sales to the United States threaten the free ride that Canadians and other countries have received.