As the old saying goes: Power corrupts and absolute power will stop you from eating trans-fats.

Article here.

A lot of other people have already mentioned this, (even some non-gunbloggers), but for the sake of completeness I'm posting it, since I've griped about him before.

Frank "guns for me but not for thee" Melton finally got busted.  But of course, as one of the Ruling Elite, he didn't really get punished.

Appropriate in light of the graphic linked to in the previous post.

Trading Liberty for Safety:

"Bush won't misuse it. It'll only be used on terrorists," states one writer.

Okay, let's pretend that's true (historical evidence to the contrary). In the early 1930's, in response to a recent crime wave, the right-of-center Weimar Republic passed several "vital, necessary" laws registering firearms and prohibiting Gypsies from owning them. Five years later, a left-of-center leader was in power and used those same laws, amending them as needed, to consolidate his power. The result was World War II and the murder of millions of what the US might today refer to as "unlawful enemy combatants."

Writes Joe Wolverton II:

"Those who fail to see the dire gravity of this legislation and who prefer to take refuge in the naive partisan belief that President Bush and the Republican Congress would never abuse this tremendous power, should contemplate well the fact that both the White House and Congress may very possibly change to Democrat control in the near future. Then will the supporters of the Bush administration's grasp for power have a leg to stand on to even protest, let alone stop, dictatorial exercise of the same power under a Democrat regime run by Clinton, Feinstein, Boxer, Pelosi, Schumer, and the like?"

Like most of this administration's recent legislation and "signing statements," the MCA is a knee-jerk reaction, a product of short-term thinking that will inevitably be used for evil, just as the "vital, necessary" laws of the Weimar Republic were.

It doesn't matter which "side" is "in power."  It will be abused, sooner or later.  It's inevitable.

From The Clarion-Ledger:

The city of Jackson learned Monday that it likely will have to defend yet another lawsuit arising from the alleged actions of Jackson Mayor Frank Melton this year.

The lawyer for Sandra Moore Johnson, owner of the Upper Level Sports Bar and Grill, and her son, Tonarri Moore, notified the city that they intend to sue for Moore's alleged wrongful arrest and beating on Aug. 27. Moore has said he was beaten while in handcuffs by young men traveling with Melton in the Police Department's Mobile Command Unit early that morning.

The city was notified several days ago that a lawsuit was going to be filed over the alleged involvement of Melton and his entourage in the heavy damage done to a duplex on Ridgeway Street on Aug. 26, which occurred just hours before the Upper Level incident.

In June, Melton, the city and the Police Department were told they would be sued over the allegation that Melton made a threat against family members of Albert "Batman" Donelson in April.

The notice of a claim on Monday names the city, Melton; his two bodyguards, police Detectives Marcus Wright and Michael Recio; Police Chief Shirlene Anderson; and 10 unnamed police officers and private citizens as defendants.

Previous Melton tracking here.

Ha ha ha.

From baltimoresun.com :

Frank Melton, the flamboyant, gun-toting mayor of Jackson, Miss., was indicted along with two police bodyguards yesterday on numerous felony charges stemming from his controversial crime-fighting tactics.

[...]

Most of the charges arose from an Aug. 26 incident in which Melton, two policemen and a group of young men hired by the mayor allegedly destroyed an inner-city duplex during a purported crime sweep, according to the indictment and a source close to the investigation. The source said some of the young men are suspected of using sledgehammers to destroy the property.

Previous posts on Melton here.

You may be a CEO, but you're not one of the ruling elite.

CEO of Horseshoe Bay Resort arrested for carrying gun at airport:

Police at Austin Bergstrom International Airport arrested Horseshoe Bay Resort CEO Douglas Jaffe, 26, on Thursday morning for "unlawfully carrying a weapon in places where weapons are prohibited," says Travis County Sheriff's Office spokesman Roger Wade.

Yes, Hinojosa was arrested.  But he was never transferred to a "booking facility," he was not held in custody for several hours, and he insisted that the law did not apply to him.

And no, I'm never going to let this one rest.

Back in March I mentioned that Tom Delay had lost his Texas CHL because of his indictment.  This is part of the CHL law:  if you are indicted for a crime, your license gets suspended until you are found innocent.  Even when it's a non-violent crime like Delay's alleged crime.  (The guilty-until-proven-innocent strategy favored by despotic authorities worldwide).

My potential gripe back then was that he wouldn't be treated like everyone else because he's one of the Ruling Elite.

I guess he's not so elite anymore.  It looks like he's just given up on his CHL because none of his representatives bothered to show up in court.

Of course, this could just be part of his "I'm not a Texan anymore" strategy.

Read all the comments on the article if you want a long list of paeans from state-worshipers who just don't get it.

Colorado Springs Gazette:

Lighters, sure.

Screwdrivers, maybe.

In the frenzy to catch a plane, it’s easy to forget stuff in your carry-on bag that isn’t allowed on the flight.

But guns?

Even loaded guns?

It’s all in a day’s screening for many airport security workers, who discovered 2,149 firearms that were brought to Transportation Security Administration checkpoints across the country in the past year, said Carrie Harmon, spokeswoman for the agency's Rocky Mountain Region.

At the Colorado Springs Airport, two armed passengers were nabbed at the checkpoint in the last 10 days.

Boy, were they surprised.

Not the TSA workers — the passengers.

Walter Wayne Wright, 48, of Vancouver, Wash., told Colorado Springs police he was unaware he had a loaded Ruger .357 magnum in his carry-on bag when he tried to board a morning flight May 20.

Three days earlier, Jennifer Lynne Burghardt, 28, a Utah State University graduate student, put her bag on the X-ray conveyer — thinking the unloaded .357 Smith & Wesson was in the suitcase she’d left in a closet, out of harm’s way.

She was served a misdemeanor summons for unlawful possession of dangerous or deadly weapons at an airport — and sent on her way with a court date.

Because Wright’s weapon was loaded, however, he was charged with a felony offense and booked into the Criminal Justice Center before going back to Washington.

“It can be a felony or a misdemeanor,” Colorado Springs police Sgt. Matt Harrell said.

“We look at every situation on its own merit. There is not a cut-and-dried answer. It’s the totality of the circumstances.”

He's right.  If you're a Texas state senator, you don't get charged with anything at all.

Life is sweet for the ruling elite, ain't it, Juan?

Philadelphia Inquirer:

As police in Philadelphia struggle to stop a scourge of shootings, some New Jersey engineers say they are closing in on a 'smart' solution: a gun that can be fired only by its owner.

The prototype, developed at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, has pressure sensors embedded in the gun handle that recognize a person's unique grip.

The team says a commercial model is up to five years away, but if it works, it will trigger a singular - and controversial - state law. Within three years, all handguns sold in New Jersey would have to be personalized, with this or some other recognition technology.

Michael Recce, who dreamed up the grip-recognition concept in 1999, said the only obstacles are time and money.

'It's an engineering problem, not a scientific problem,' he said.

However long it takes, it's safe to say the university has embarked on a product-development quest like no other - wading into a contentious issue on the fault line between red and blue America.

Various smart-gun efforts have flamed out in the past, amid vocal skepticism by the National Rifle Association. Many gun owners chafe at the notion of any restrictions on their Second Amendment right to bear arms, and warn that any such modifications would make guns more expensive.

Gun-control advocates, meanwhile, are split, with some warning that personalized firearms would give owners a false sense of security.

Most see New Jersey's 2002 law as a commonsense safety measure, but they are starting to run out of patience.

'These guns should have been developed 20 years ago,' said Bryan Miller, executive director of Ceasefire New Jersey.

Duke University economist Philip J. Cook estimates that if all handguns were personalized, more than 4,000 lives would be saved each year from fewer murders, accidents and teen suicides.

Though the New Jersey law exempts law enforcement, police might also benefit from the technology. According to FBI statistics, as many as one in six officers killed each year is slain with his or her weapon.

And there's the punch line.  Of course law enforcement is exempt.  We all know they're the only ones never to have any firearms-related mishaps.

Today' email from The Shooting Wire was on the topic of Bloomberg's "sting."  I sent them the following email:

In regard to Bloomberg's "sting" operation.  If he and these so-called private detectives did as they say they did, they also violated federal and state law.  How did they get the authority to do this?  Why is no one asking about this?  A city mayor has no standing as a law enforcement officer, and neither do private investigators.  And these stings were conducted in other states.  I want to see someone asking these questions.

Do they have legal authority to commit what would be an illegal act for any other person?

If so, why and how?

I received a very prompt reply (which I only just read because I just got home from work), and here it is:

The answers are all pretty thin, but I believe the complaint about illegal taping would have to come from the dealers taped without their prior knowledge. It is illegal, but done quite often by investigative reporters, private investigators and others with relative impunity - as long as they're not attempted to be introduced into evidence. The whole process was less than honest. I've lived in NYC and the mayor has some pretty impressive powers - including, I believe, standing as a member of LE. He was, absolutely, however, fishing outside his jurisdiction.

The whole thing was grandstanding - and the NRA's all over it. I'll check on how the NRA-iLA is pursuing the vagaries of the legal questions.

Thanks for asking, Alan. We need more questioning of these sorts of shenanigans.

I still haven't heard anything back from the NY Daily Times.  More ruling elite doing what they want with no consequences, looks like.