A couple of erstwhile car thieves in Marietta, Georgia didn't quite have what it took to successfully complete their thievery:

Two U.S. car thieves failed to make their getaway in a car they had just stolen because they couldn't figure out how to use its manual transmission, a witness said on Wednesday.

The teenagers armed with a gun approached a man outside a pizza restaurant in Marietta, Georgia, late on Monday. They stole his wallet and the keys to his Honda Accord, got into the car but couldn't make it start because it had stick shift, according to John Williamson, 18, a restaurant employee.

"The kid was just sitting in the car trying to start it but he had no idea what to do. He looked dumbfounded. The only thing he had going was the radio," said Williamson who witnessed the scene.

While the thief was trying to start the car, restaurant employees called the police who arrived and caught the teenagers as they tried to escape into nearby woods.

Unlike many parts of the world, the majority of cars in the United States are automatic and many drivers are unused to driving "stick shift" vehicles, in which a clutch pedal must be depressed to change gear.

This from Reuters U.K., which must be providing some chuckles for those superior Europeans.

It's providing some chuckles for me, as well.

Walnut Creek, California:

Now comes another reason to stay put in the La-Z-Boy: A man sitting in his easy chair was shot in the head by his wife, but the sturdy recliner absorbed most of the bullet's force and left him virtually unscathed.

The couple had been arguing at home on Sunday evening, said Contra Costa County sheriff's Lt. Charles Skuce. Then Jan Kamp stood behind her seated husband and fired a gun at the back of his head, Skuce said.

Because she fired through the recliner, the bullet only slightly wounded Norman Kamp, 57, Skuce said.

Norman stood up from his chair, followed his wife into the kitchen and declared, "You shot me," according to authorities.

Jan Kamp fired a second shot at her husband, but missed, Skuce said. He retreated to a neighbor's house in the unincorporated Pacheco area of the county, where he called 911.

But of course, no details on what kind of gun it was.

UPDATE:  Important details here that paint an entirely different picture of what happened.  Via Ride Fast & Shoot Straight.  Wife was apparently on meds and alcohol that essentially meant she was messing with a gun while intoxicated.  The shooting was negligent, not intentional.

UPDATE UPDATE:  Several other bloggers have ranted about this incident from various points of view.  The only reason it interested me is because the guy's chair allegedly slowed a bullet down enough that it didn't seriously hurt him, and I just wondered what kind of gun it was.  According to the link in the first update, it was a .357 magnum.

We must limit purchases to one a month for eyebolts and plastic cable ties:

He made two separate purchases, at 9:14 and 9:16 a.m., at Valley Hardware in Christiana. Police said he bought eyebolts — large bolts with open circles at their ends — plastic cable ties and a box of assorted hardware.

It's for the children.

By now I'm sure everyone has heard/read about the Amish School Shooting.  Another subhuman freak has chosen this time, not to simply attack a place where people are forbidden to defend themselves, but to attack a people who do not believe in using any form of violence even for their own defense.

And what if some insane anti-Amish zealot decided to go on an Amish killing spree?

Amish communities would end up being guarded by non-Amish people with guns, that's what.  Either that, or be slaughtered en masse.

People can live this sort of "idealized" lifestyle only because those around them 1) allow them to do so, and 2) provide them with certain measures of peripheral protection, either directly or indirectly.

Either way, my conclusion is the same.  People can live in peace only if they are willing to kill those who would take that peace away from them--or they are willing to allow someone else to do the killing for them.

Worthless sacks of sh*t like the man who killed these people aren't interested in talking to anyone.  There's no way they can be talked out of what they are going to do.  There is no compromise.  There is only life and death.

There may not be much of a point to this post, except that I am so sickened and outraged by this act that I can hardly think straight.  A supposedly religious belief that even simple self-defense is a sin is alien and abhorrent to me.  It is beyond my understanding; it is beyond my ability to even attempt understanding.

The murderous act of killing people like the Amish is even more alien and abhorrent to me.  I can't get my head around either side of this problem, except to think that both the killer and the victims were wrong.

Yes, I'm shocked.  And stunned.  Shocked and stunned.  And aghast.  Shocked, stunned, and aghast.  Willie Nelson was caught with marijuana.

Hard to believe.

What's really hard to believe is that they didn't seize the entire bus.  It sounds more like a publicity stunt than a drug bust.

Semi-personal experience:  a cousin-in-law of mine was once busted for possessing 4 grams of weed.  He lost everything--the only thing they didn't get was his boat because it was docked several miles away at the lake and they didn't know about it.  Relatives arranged the sale of his boat to scrape up bail money.

Yep.  Willie's "bust" smacks heavily of pre-arrangement, to me.

From Pennsylvania News:

"It's a clear indication that there's too many guns on the street," Fox said. "(Police) get some guns off the street, only to be faced with the same people back on the street within days or weeks to commit the same type of crime over and over again."

Which is it, oh exalted one?  Maybe you should try getting people off the street instead of guns.  And keep them off the street, you know, so that "over and over again" part can stop.

What a horribly tragic situation.  One more--or even better--two more guns on the street may have helped these people to survive the encounter.

Link tnx to Thank G-d for Guns.

Next, they'll be throwing people into the river to see if they float.

Disgusting.

From The Telegraph via Free Republic:

In Westchase, residents do not want to talk about buying guns, fearful it will only make them more of a target. But a local business-woman said: "I always hated guns and would never touch one. I could not understand the mindset of the women I knew in Houston who not only owned and handled guns but drove around town with one in the car. "But never is a word we should not use. Six months ago, with my blessing, my husband bought a gun and went, with our 23-year-old daughter, to a class to learn how to use it, clean it and learn the laws that go with it. After another recent murder, I now have one too, although it still freaks me out." Texas offered shelter to nearly 400,000 evacuees from Louisiana at one stage, including thousands ferried by bus from the squalid nightmare of the New Orleans Superdome. About 250,000 are still scattered across the state.

As someone who spends a lot of time pounding the streets in San Antonio, I've heard of (admittedly anecdotal) similar problems in S.A.

I don't go out and intentionally look for ways to bad-mouth the people of the state of Wisconsin, but lately things have been looking bad for them.

This article, about one Jon Bartlett, an ex-policeman who is facing several charges on various subjects, is what set me off this time.  He recently got busted for making false statements on the paperwork to buy a firearm.  Here's the punch line:

Bartlett, who was fired 15 months ago, continues to receive full pay and benefits under a state law unique to fired Milwaukee officers. A recent report found no other similar law in the country.

So you see the inspiration for the title of this post.

Also note the bias in this article.  The headline makes it look like he walked into some place and tried to buy a machine gun, and that's why he got busted.  Actual details stashed in the sidebar show that he really tried to purchase a semi-automatic version of the weapon, which is not a machine gun, and got busted for lying on the paperwork.

Note to John and Gina:  the "machine" part means it keeps firing as long as you hold down the trigger.  The "semi" part means it only fires one time for each pull of the trigger.  These terms are mutually exclusive.  We gun folks usually call these "sub-guns," since the "semi-automatic" part has made the "machine" part impossible.

Look at the expression on this guy's face.  This is a person who is seriously in need of a near-fatal beating.  But that's just my opinion.  Not so "Only" anymore, eh Jon?

Pahrump Valley Times:

Westfall later explained to officers that he had brought the gun along "for protection from people who go to those parties."

Idiot.

(By the way, where can I get one of those silver Rugers?)