My opinion of Long Gun Open Carriers is well-known and need not to be repeated.  However, it is interesting that Moms Demand have used the arrest of two of those activists while taping police procedures on public property as crying rally.

Cop Watchers is simple in concept:  Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (But who will guard the guardians?) There is the unfortunate (and becoming expensive) belief among Police Departments that they can control and deny the taping of their actions in public property.

I say unfortunate because they as public servants have no expectation of privacy in the fulfillment of their duties on private property just as we civilians do not have expectation of privacy  as we walked down or congregate in public places. They use an assortment of excuses (interfering with an investigation, fear for their lives, etc.) to try to block or even arrest and destroy the video or photography taken. And I call it expensive because time after time courts end up siding with the videographer and the county has to shell some serious dough in compensation.

The funny thing is that police departments have no qualms asking the public for cell phone videos of crimes committed to solve them, specially if one of their own is the victim. So it is clear that a selective application of what can people tape or not tape depending on what the police thinks.

I am betting that just in past cases, the charged will be dropped and some sort of settlement will be reached.

With the millions of people with camera-ready smartphones, the idea that you can stop and scrub an incident just because badges are present is stupid and a violation of rights.That Shannon Watts and the rest of the Moms Demand cast is OK with it shows once again that gun control is not about the guns but the control of people.

I do love when they manufacture enough rope to give themselves a nice 13 coil tie.

If you are interested in more info about Cop Watching, you may wanna follow PINAC (Photography is Not A Crime) by Miami’s own Carlos Miller. For sanity’s sake you may want to stay away from the comment section.

At least three of Hayden’s alleged victims are family members. The only one that has come forward publicly is Hayden’s older daughter and fellow “Sons of Guns” star, Stephanie Hayden Ford, who will controversially be discussing the situation on daytime television’s “Dr. Phil.”

via MONSTER: Fourth Victim Comes Forward To Accuse “Sons Of Guns” Star Of Rape [Updated] – Bearing Arms.

Bob Owens gave Bill Hayden the proper title: Monster.

I have restrained myself from commenting till now. When the first accusation came out and it was hinted that came from an ex-wife, you have to keep it at a distance because you don’t know if it is true or a thing of spite. But then the second accusation came out followed closely by the one made by Stephanie Hayden Ford  made me realize that we were looking at a depraved bastard. A fourth accusation brings him to the full position of monster.  And my take is that there are there that have not come forward and we may never know about them.

I know, we must wait for the law to run its course and I do hope it does so. And if the allegations are prove true, I hope this bastard gets the maximum the law allows and then some.

I won’t soil any more posts in this blog talking about Bill Hayden until his verdict.

Via Weer we get an update on the activities of our old friend Baldr Odinson. Go read it and see what the clone of Rev. Jim Jones is up to now.

And as you can see, he was pretty much swarmed by an ocean of adoring fans.

Oy!

Nearly two years later, Watts works full-time as the head of the group, now named Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, is a significant player in a coalition financed by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. But while polls suggest a majority of Americans still support an assault weapons ban, it is no longer one of Watts’ top priorities.

“We’ve very much changed our strategy to focus on public safety measures that will save the most lives,” she told ProPublica.

It’s not just that the ban proved to be what Watts calls a “nonstarter” politically, gaining fewer votes in the Senate post-Sandy Hook than background check legislation. It was also that as Watts spoke to experts and learned more about gun violence in the United States, she realized that pushing for a ban isn’t the best way to prevent gun deaths.

A 2004 Justice Department-funded evaluation found no clear evidence that the decade-long ban saved any lives. The guns categorized as “assault weapons” had only been used in about 2 percent of gun crimes before the ban. “Should it be renewed,” the report concluded, “the ban’s effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement.”

With more information, Watts decided that focusing on access to guns, not types of guns, was a smarter approach. She came to the same conclusion that other gun control groups had reached even before the Sandy Hook shootings: “Ultimately,” she said, “what’s going to save the most lives are background checks.“

via Why gun control groups have moved away from an assault weapons ban.

I figure the author is your average journo with no real studies on the Gun Issue and only the bare narrative on the Violence issue. The Assault Weapons ban renewal that the Gun Control activists wanted via Senator Feinstein died at birth for being so over-reaching and onerous. Now if that was the only thing they tried to get passed during that time, the article would have made sense, but we do remember that when the desire for another AWB was quenched, they immediately latched to the Universal Background Checks which also failed to gain the necessary traction in Congress.

More than a year and a half after inception and with all the brain-power and cash influx, Shannon Watts and Moms Demand have proven to be a very unsuccessful lobby group. For a group that was founded by PR specialist and has access to the best PR companies in NY, the best Watts & Co. have been able to achieve was to have some corporations throw out a press release with non-binding resolutions about allowing guns in their properties and only after a barrage of publicity targeted at such companies. If that sounds familiar, it is because it is the preferred tactic of the Reverend Jesse Jackson way back when he was relevant and only because he played the Race Card. Some have accused Jackson of using this tactic more to line his coffers with cash rather than actual social justice and the betterment of race relations. You be the judge.

I don’t make the mistake of discounting Shannon and her group: They have the money and they have the Media Access we could only hope to have in a dream, but you can only push sizzle for so long before people demand to taste the steak and Moms Demand only have a soundtrack, not real meat on the grill.

We are the 12 hour full hog in the BBQ pit: Long and laborious but tasty and fulfilling. And we don’t get our picante sauce from NY City either.

So Panera gets a wee bit prodded by Moms Demand. Big Boss gives out some terse PR piece saying that although they can’t do squat, they don’t want guns in their establishments. Shannon applauds with glee and the next day one of the stores gets robbed at gun point.

Hat tip: Robert The K.

So he left his imprint (way too overdue IMHO) in the concrete of the Chinese Theater in a way that you had to say “Yup! That is Mel.”

But what else would you expect from the guy who brought us:

Inga: Werewolf!
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Werewolf?
Igor: There.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: What?
Igor: There, wolf. There, castle.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Why are you talking that way?
Igor: I thought you wanted to.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: No, I don’t want to.
Igor: [shrugs] Suit yourself. I’m easy.

They went back to the same tune this morning:

So basically, dear Kroger: make sure we are safe by not allowing Law Abiding Citizens legally carry in your stores. But being beaten by a rampaging mob is OK with Shannon and her friends.

PS: at the end of this video (1:17), we can hear the owner of the smart-phone asking for “somebody to call somebody” to help the victim. First: You still do not know about 911? and Second: YOU HAVE A FRIGGING PHONE IN YOUR HANDS YOU DUMB *****!

Deep breaths….taking deep breaths…..

But guns in the hands of the gun nuts are dangerous in supermarkets as two individuals found out when they tried to rob a Kroger in Indianapolis and got shot for their criminal efforts.