YIPPIE-KY-AYE, y'all...

Thoughts for Friday:

London Calling
Hey, I was there, too
You know what they say
Some of it is true...

— The Clash

Me and my cowboy hat have rounded up the old mare and are headed to Phoenix. I'm waiting for my flight at DIA, so I wanted to post a couple of quick notes.

Last night , Paula "The Zipper" Zahn weighed in on .50s. I did not see it, but according to people who did see it, the report was par — CNN bought a Barrett bolt-action through an intrastate transaction with no background check. Then they shot the gun through an old airplane emergency exit door they'd scrounged at a junkyard. It penetrated, of course, as any rifle bullet would.

I don't think I've really articulated really well why the .50 caliber controversy bothers me so much. Put as briefly as I'm capable of putting things, the attacks on the .50 caliber are attacks NOT on the .50 caliber per se, but on what ALL rifles do — shoot long distances accurately, penetrate better than handgun cartridges, have more "firepower" than other hand-carried firearms and, in general, are far more lethal than handguns.

Let me repeat that: ALL RIFLES — NOT JUST .50 CALIBER — GENERALLY EXHIBIT THOSE CHARACTERISTICS! If .50s are banned because they're rifles, it's an enormously powerful precedent!

More later...