Appalachian State 34, No. 5 Michigan 32

An amazing game. Completely unexpected upset. Appalachian State played like a team possessed.

Northern Iowa University Faculty Senate Votes Against Letting Campus Police Carry Guns

At a special meeting on Friday, the University of Northern Iowa Faculty Senate voted overwhelmingly against arming campus police.

The senate debated the issue for nearly an hour late in the afternoon as the campus emptied for the long holiday weekend. Ultimately, it decided the university would be safer if campus police did not carry guns. The final vote was 11 in favor of a motion to oppose arming campus police, with three voting against and one abstention. . . .

Professor Jerry Smith makes a strong point about police not being able to respond to an attack. Yet, I think that there is a further point. Not only will unarmed police be unable to respond, but if one believes in deterrence, unarmed police will actually make the attack more likely. The killers engaged in these multiple victim public killings have the warped objective to try to kill or wound as many people as possible and how successful they are is related to the amount of time that elapses between when the attack starts and when someone else with a gun is able to arrive on the scene. To the extent to which one can reduce these killers return to harming others, you can deter some attacks from occurring. Basically, some simple economics.

I find it amazing that even professors really believe that campus police, with the same training as other officers, carrying guns will make the campus less safe. The discussion about officers shooting African-Americans as a reason not to arm campus police is truly remarkable.

Thanks to Richard Featherstone for sending me this link.

More on Salmon

The Endangered Species Act Out of Control (Fox News)

Is this really a gun control picture?

My first reaction to this picture where it says "Good People! No Guns!" was that it is too bad that the good people didn't have a gun. Of course, the statement at the bottom makes the conclusion clear, but it would have been nice if someone had asked this six year old what the solution to these good people not having guns is. This contest was held by Flashbunny.org. I confess that I am somewhat dubious that this was done by a six year old boy. The hand writing is too well done.

Possibly I should put up a similar contest.

Evolution explains why women like shopping

WOMEN really are better than men at shopping. And they really do prefer pink. And, surprisingly, it is possible that these facts are connected. The first conclusion was drawn by Joshua New of Yale University and his colleagues. The second was drawn by Anya Hurlbert and Yazhu Ling of Newcastle University in England. The connecting theme is that in the division of labour that forms the primordial bargain of human hunter-gatherer societies, it is the men who do the hunting and the women who do the gathering.

Blackberry-picking aside, urban humanity does little gathering from the wild these days, so Dr New decided to look at what seemed to him to be the nearest equivalent—shopping at a farmers' market. There is a fair amount of evidence that men are better than women at solving certain sorts of spatial problems, such as remembering the locations of topographical landmarks. Many researchers suggest such skills may have been important in the past for man-the-hunter, who needed to be able to find his way round the landscape. If that is the case, then woman-the-gatherer might have been expected to develop complementary skills not shown by males. And that, as he writes in this week's Proceedings of the Royal Society, is what Dr New found. . . . .

Banning Tag at School

What type of society are these kids being trained for?

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A Colorado Springs elementary school is banning the game of tag on its playground -- after some children complained that they'd been chased or harassed against their will.

Assistant Principal Cindy Fesgen of the Discovery Canyon Campus school said running games will be allowed, as long as students don't chase each other.

Fesgen said two parents complained to her about the ban, but most parents and children didn't object. . . . .

Arming Police on Campus?

Richard Featherstone, an Assistant Professor of Criminology at Northern Iowa University, sent me a letter that he wrote. Given the debate about guns on campuses and the upcoming votes in Iowa on arming campus police, I thought I would point to one part of his letter:

A federal 1995 study indicated that among public campuses with 10,000 or more students, 89% had armed officers. Since the publication of the study more universities, like Brown University and the State University of New York Geneseo, have chosen to arm their campus police.

Concealed Handgun Permits in Michigan

Earlier today I talked to a reporter from the Detroit Free Press, Dawson Bell, and he indicated that there are 140,000 permit holders in the state as of a month ago.

When Trade Protection and Environmentalism Collide

Do they realize that higher prices mean that fewer people will buy their so important energy-efficient light bulbs?

The European Commission has decided to retain import tariffs on Chinese-made energy-efficient light bulbs for up to another 12 months.

The decision was made even though only one of Europe's four energy-efficient light bulb producers, Germany's Osram, had called for more time to adjust.

The tariffs, introduced to stop cheap Chinese imports entering Europe, can add up to 66% to the price of bulbs. . . . .

An earlier discussion on the environmental problems with these energy efficient bulbs can be found here.

Glenn Beck's Radio Show (Updated)

I am supposed to be on Glenn Beck's Radio show at 10:35 AM EDT on Thursday.

Transcript of Senator Larry Craig's Police Interview

A copy of Senator Craig's police interview is available here. After reading this, I am not exactly sure what to make of this case. Could I see someone dropping a piece of paper and having their foot briefly move up to the side of the stall divider? Sure. I guess that I would want to have something a lot more definitive about someone than that. This seems like awfully weak evidence. The thing that worries me the most is that I had no clue that this type of action could get you arrested. I could just imagine myself wiggling around in a stall sometime and accidentally creating this "signal." Is it possible that Craig knew what he was doing and it happened exactly as the officer describes with the intent that the officer attributes to the events? Sure. But while I am inclined to believe the police officer, I would like something more here as evidence. Apparently the officer knew Craig was a Senator before this interview took place and that could introduce all sorts of biases.

The biggest problem that I have is that sexual relations in a restroom should be punished. I don't think that simple foot tapping or even having one's shoe briefly touch another person's shoe should be a criminal offense.

UPDATE: After reading the transcript again, especially the beginning, I have become more convinced that Craig did something wrong. What convinces me of that is Craig's claim that the officer had tried to entrap him. At the very least that implies that Craig positively responded to some advance by the officer. Possibly Craig simply mispoke, but it would have been better if he had simply said that the police offiicer was inaccurate, which is what he says later on in the discussion.

West Virginia has 82,000 Permits

Eight other states [besides Pennsylvania] formally recognize West Virginia's estimated 82,000 concealed weapons permits, but West Virginia has yet to enter into an agreement with them to recognize their permits. The states are: Alaska, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Vermont.

This is about 5.72 percent of the state's adult population.

Concealed Handgun Permits Fall Dramatically in New York City

Well, the politically connected people who used to get approved for permits were normally not the ones who need them the most. At least this means that it won't have a big impact on crime.

The number of New Yorkers who may carry pistols legally dropped this year, while permits issued to allow people to keep pistols in their home increased, according to police statistics.

Mayor Bloomberg has sought to cut the number ofconcealed weapons on city streets, and since he has been in office it has dropped dramatically. This year, 2,516 New Yorkers received a permit to carry a concealed pistol. The city issued 2,555 such permits in 2006, almost 50% fewer than the 4,789 that were given out in 2004. . . . .

I will be on Glenn Beck's CNN program Tonight

I will be appearing on Glenn Beck's program on CNN tonight. The topic will be concealed handgun laws. His program starts at 7 PM EDT. I don't know when during the hour the segment will run.

A transcript of the interview can be found here.

New Op-ed: More Guns, Not Less, Would Prevent Shooting Massacres

My newest op-ed is up on Fox News:

With school starting, the April 16 attack at Virginia Tech that left 32 dead is still on many people’s minds. Some are looking for guarantees that such an attack won’t happen again.

But Virginia Tech’s just released report on how to stop future tragedies was pretty disappointing, and this coming week’s Virginia Governor’s task force report isn’t likely to be any better. The university proposes more counseling for mentally troubled students, internet based billboards to alert students of emergencies, putting both the police and fire departments into the same building to allow better coordination, more surveillance cameras, and locks that make it easier for students to get out of buildings. . . . .

Reminder of talks at Minnesota State Fair

I will be at the KTLK booth with Jason Lewis from 5:30 to 7 PM this evening (near the Hoyt Entrance). I will be doing the show with Mitch Berg from 7 to 8 PM (at the AM 1280 booth on the other side of the fair).

Governor Ed Rendell will stop gun sales in Pennsylvania for 5 days in September

HARRISBURG -- More than two dozen gun dealers and a state lawmaker filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to block a planned four-day freeze on gun sales to allow an upgrade of the state's computerized background check system. . . . .

Gun dealers have complained that they received insufficient notice from state police about the planned Sept. 2-6 interruption in sales, which falls during the first few days of dove and Canada geese hunting season. . . . .

Senator Larry Craig Arrested for disorderly conduct in June

Larry Craig has probably been the most important single Senator on the gun issue. This seems like very bad news. It appears as if he pleaded guilty to the charges. If this is true and it is truly very sad, it appears that Craig should resign from the Senate.

Sen. Larry Craig was arrested in June in Minnesota and paid $575 in fines and fees for a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct, FOX News learned Monday.

A Hennepin County (Minn.) District Court spokesperson said Craig's case was put off and could be dismissed after one year of unsupervised probation. A 10-day prison sentence was stayed. . . . .

Arizona School Suspends 13-Year-Old for Doodle showing a Gun

MESA, Arizona — Officials at an Arizona school suspended a 13-year-old boy for sketching what looked like a gun, saying the action posed a threat to his classmates.

The boy's parents said the drawing was a harmless doodle and school officials overreacted.

"The school made him feel like he committed a crime. They are doing more damage than good," said the boy's mother, Paula Mosteller.

The drawing did not show blood, bullets, injuries or target any human, the parents said. And the East Valley Tribune reported that the boy said he did not intend for the picture to be a threat.

Administrators of Payne Junior High in nearby Chandler suspended the boy on Monday for five days but later reduced it to three days. . . . .

If you follow the above link, you will see a copy of the picture that this 13-year-old drew. This doodle doesn't seem very threatening to me.