Found: One Troll

The Arizona 2010 legislative session swung into gear last week, and via the Arizona Citizens Defense League Alerts, I have learned that SB1102 and HB2347 are this years’ Constitutional Carry bills. I’m pleased to see that both of my state representatives are co-sponsoring these bills. Last year we had a good chance of passing a similar bill, but unrelated budget negotiations caused it and many other bills to stall in committee. Here’s the text of the alert:

AzCDL has been laying the groundwork for Constitutional Carry since we began: http://www.azcdl.org/html/our_goals.html .  In the last two legislative sessions we came very close.  This year Senator Russell Pearce, along with 16 co-sponsors, filed SB 1102, and Representative Frank Antenori, along with 17 co-sponsors, filed HB 2347.  Both bills have the following features:

- Eliminate the prohibition and penalties for adults carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.
- Include defensive display in the justification for deadly force (similar to HB 2015 & SB 1021).
- Allow CCW permit holders to carry in “non-secure” public buildings.
- Remove the unloaded firearm requirement when picking up and dropping off school students.
- Allow LEOSA certified retired Law Enforcement Officers to carry on school grounds.
- Require confiscated firearms to be sold rather than destroyed.
- Eliminate the training requirement to obtain a CCW permit.

We urge everyone to send a thank you note to Senator Pearce (rpearce@azleg.gov) and Representative Antenori (fantenori@azleg.gov) for introducing these bills.  If your Senator and/or Representatives co-sponsored SB 1102 or HB 2347 please send them a thank you message.  If they are not a co-sponsor, we urge you contact them and ask why not.  You can find the co-sponsors of SB 1102 here:
http://www.azleg.gov/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1102o.asp .

You can find the co-sponsors of HB 2347 here:
http://www.azleg.gov/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/hb2347o.asp .
You can find contact information for your legislators here:
http://www.azleg.gov/alisStaticPages/HowToContactMember.asp .

We are expecting a firestorm from the anti-rights zealots, so we will be asking your help to ensure the passage of SB 1102 & HB 2347 throughout this legislative session.  Warm up your keyboards!

SB 1102 & HB 2437 aren’t the only important bills we’re expecting this year.  For months, AzCDL has been working behind the scenes with pro-rights legislators on a number of paradigm shifting bills.  Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, other bills are still being filed.  Senators have until February 1, 2010 to introduce bills and the deadline in the House is February 8, 2010.  Along with Constitutional Carry, the following firearm related bills have been filed:

HB 2015 (Burges) – Adds defensive display of a firearm as an alternative to, or in conjunction with, the use of deadly physical force.

HB 2016 (Burges) – Allows out of state applicants whose rights have been restored to obtain a CCW permit under the same conditions as Arizona residents.

HB 2017 (Burges) – Clarifies that NRA instructors may teach the school gun safety courses.

HB 2041 (Kavanagh) – Adds school districts, charter schools, community colleges and state universities to the definition of political subdivisions where a law enforcement officer may carry a firearm.

HB 2201 (Lujan) – Creates a crime for firearm “Straw Purchases” made in Arizona.  AzCDL opposes this bill.

HB 2271 (Ableser) – Increases the penalty for possessing a firearm at a post-secondary institution from a misdemeanor to a class 6 felony.   AzCDL opposes this bill.

HB 2307 (Antenori) – Exempts firearms manufactured and sold in Arizona from Federal oversight.

HB 2406 (Antenori) – Clarifies the “no firearms” signage requirements for restaurants.  Also changes the affirmative defense language to “not an offense.”  Finally, it restores the requirement that a person “knows the possession of a firearm is prohibited” in an establishment.

HB 2543 (Gowan) – Strengthens state firearms preemption laws, adds firearms storage and reloading components to the list of things political subdivisions cannot regulate, and removes the prohibition on carrying a firearm in public parks without a CCW permit.

SB 1011 (Harper) – Allows college/university faculty members with CCW permits to possess a concealed firearm on campus.

SB 1015 (Harper) – Similar to HB 2406.

SB 1021 (Pearce) – Identical to HB 2015.

SB 1098 (Pearce) – Identical to HB 2307.

SB 1101 (Pearce) – Expands the list of law enforcement officers exempt from concealed weapons permit requirements.

As bills are filed, we will add them to our website: http://www.azcdl.org/html/2010_bills.html .

These alerts are a project of the Arizona Citizens Defense League (AzCDL), an all volunteer, non-profit, non-partisan grassroots organization.  Join today!  http://www.azcdl.org/html/join_us_.html

AzCDL – Protecting Your Freedom
http://www.azcdl.org/html/accomplishments.html

Copyright © 2009 Arizona Citizens Defense League, Inc., all rights reserved.

You can sign up for AZCDL alerts right here.

I’m a bit disappointed in these bills. The bill introduced last year, SB1270, amended the law to be much more like Vermont-style carry, removing the requirement to have a CCW permit for most reasons. Perhaps these new bills will be amended to be a bit more liberal.

Edited: I totally misread those bills. They do bring Vermont-style carry to Arizona just like last year’s bill did. Woot!

So I came home on Friday to the lovely sound of silence. The power company was working on my street and shut off the power to the neighborhood. Unfortunately, when the power came back my PC did not. After several hours of troubleshooting, it seems that my video card is defunct. From what I can gather, there was a defect in the manufacturing for that generation of Nvidia cards that caused their heatsinks to develop microfractures after long periods of use at high temperatures. Since it was a high end card, it was always hot. When the card cooled to room temperature, the cracks widened and now it overheats as soon as the OS loads.

Since I had planned to spend this weekend vegging out on Mass Effect in preparation for the arrival of ME2 later this month, I popped over to Best Buy to find a new card. Apparently, Best Buy no longer stocks high-end video cards in their stores. I guess that makes sense, since their selection of PC games has long since dwindled to copies of Hoyle 73, Fast Food Tycoon, and The Sims 57. Frustrated, I headed next door to Fry’s Electronics, who didn’t have what I wanted either, but did have high-end cards from the current generation. I grabbed one in the hopes of getting my uber-rig back online this weekend.

It was not to be. The machine would not even POST with the new card installed. My damaged card could do better than that! That’s what I get for buying from Fry’s. I brought the ‘new’ card back to the store where the girl at the returns desk helpfully verified that the device they sold me was, in fact, as functional as Ted Kennedy.

Defeated, I went home and ordered the card that I wanted. A better card than the one from Fry’s at a much lower price – even after expedited shipping – than I paid to those assholes.

There is a silver lining to this ordeal, however. About year ago I had to RMA my motherboard after my new mobo got toasted barely a month after I installed it. It was a huge pain to get all four of my DIMMs installed in the original motherboard; there was much tweaking of voltages and timings involved in getting it to run 8 gigs of low latency DDR3. I never bothered to do that again with the new board. Today, since my computer’s case was open and I had nothing better to do, I got the two extra DIMMs I’ve had on my desk for a year reinstalled in my PC. So, although I have a barely functioning video card that I can’t use to do anything fun, at least I have 8GB of RAM, again.

“KHAAAAAAAAAAN” – James Kirk, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

“The Eagle has landed.” – Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11

“I don’t care, I’m still free, you can’t take the sky from me” – Theme from Firefly

“Yes, it’s true. This man has no dick.” – Peter Venkman, Ghostbusters

What do all these quotes have in common? None of them are on GeekDad’s list of 100 Quotes Every Geek Should Know.

Via E-mail, I just learned that Owen “Buz” Mills, owner of the Gunsite Academy in Paulden, Arizona, will be running for governor this year and has invested more than $2 million dollars of his own money in his campaign.^[1]

The Outdoor Wire writes:

Former ironworker, Marine, and cable mogul turned shooting school owner Owen “Buz” Mills has filed the necessary paperwork to run for governor. Sources tell us Mills has been making the rounds with Republican leaders for some time and decided it was “time to step forward and do something” about the mess Arizona is in.

I like this guy already. It’s too soon to say, “I’m voting for him,” but he certainly looks like a promising candidate.

1. Sorry about the login required there. It’s the only source I had. [↩]

I attended the Red Wings vs. Coyotes game (short version – Coyotes got their asses kicked 4-1) with some friends tonight, and I think I’ve identified the main reason I hate going to sports games. Of course, I generally dislike crowds, but it seems that everyone at these games has removed the filter between their brain and their mouths. Perhaps it was never installed to begin with. Being surrounded by loud people yelling any damn thing that comes to mind defines a place very close to Hell for me.

I just got home from a rockin’ New Year’s Party. I hope everyone else had a good time last night and has a great 2010!

It’s the end of the year, which means last night was the year-end recap for Gun Nuts Radio. I actually called in last night to gripe about Crappy Nappy, Arizona’s former governor and everyone’s favorite Secretary of Homeland Security. I can’t wait to see (or hear) what those Gun Nuts are doing next year.

Since I consider this blog to be mostly SFW, there’s a fair warning in the post title.

Anyhow, this post over at The Pervocracy reminded me of this little ditty by MC Frontalot:

Of course, lots of things remind me of nerdy songs.

I will be spending the day cooking steak and then hiding from family. I hope yours goes well!