The Supreme’s Spoke, Now What?

Commentary by David Petronis, June 27, 2008

              There were quite the mixed reactions about yesterday’s Supreme Court decision recognizing the fact that our Second Amendment to the Constitution meant what it read, that the right of the individual to own firearms shall not be infringed.  That it was indeed a right to have a firearm at home to protect one’s self and family.  But also that some common sense restrictions of ownership may be applied, so now what?

            "If there is an individual right, then bureaucratic discretion in permitting and registering guns is going to be minimized," a lawyer who financed the case currently before the Supreme Court, Robert Levy, said, adding that, "you cannot allow bureaucrats the option of denying people constitutional rights."  That from the New York Sun while reporting on possible problems with the New York City strict gun laws.  

              What that lawyer jargon means is that Mayor Bloomberg ain’t happy!  There could well be some changes coming in New York and Chicago and San Francisco and any other city or state restricting access or ownership of handguns by competent law abiding individuals.  A final end to fuzzy Militia requirements is at hand.

              New York’s Daily News reported that, John McCain seized on the Supreme Court ruling Thursday as a wedge issue against Barack Obama, who said, he was for tossing the District of Columbia's handgun ban but also favors regulation.  Obama agreed with the court that owning a gun was an individual right but also said local governments should be able to put restrictions on gun ownership.

              McCain called the ruling a "landmark victory for Second Amendment freedom" and ripped Obama for refusing to join him in backing the plaintiffs who brought the case to the Supreme Court.  Gun ownership was a "sacred" right akin to free speech and assembly, McCain said, as opposed to Obama's "elitist view that believes Americans cling to guns out of bitterness," reported the Daily News.

              So, John McCain is for the ruling and favors the right of the individual to own guns for self protection and Barack Hussein Obama sits on the fence and says he was for it but that there should be government restrictions.  When does BHO’s “change” come, when he falls off the fence or when the wind blows the right way?  I’m sorry my friends, Obama’s wind will never blow right he will always be facing left and liberal.

              The Gazette in Schenectady, NY had typical reactions from the anti-gun groups that were predictable to say the least.  These were from the “Keep America Safe from Gun Violence” type of groups; you know “the more guns out there the more gun violence there will be”, groups.  And I do believe they are accurate in their assumption. 

              The more law abiding citizens feel comfortable with their right of gun ownership then more of them will own them and keep them in their homes for self protection.  With more guns in homes then more burglars will probably be shot, hence more “gun violence,” as I see it, a good thing.

              I can hear the boys from the hood now after one of their own assumes room temperature.  “Mon, dat hoodie never did nuttin nobody.  Alls ‘e want waz a little doe fo’ som blo!  Den’s dis whitey goes’n blasts ‘em. Mon, dem guns is BAD.  Brak ‘il get ‘em.  Da hood gotta vote.”  And don’t think that I believe the hood is all black but the scenario sure scares me.  Especially all those potential hood voters!  Just remember New Orleans when even the Police were out grabbin’ the free floatin’ goodies and wanting to take the guns away from the whiteys protecting their homes.  As an aside, with all the news and reporting of the floods in Iowa and vicinities did you see any pictures of farmers saving big screen plasma TV’s for food trading later?  Any rioting over FEMA not saving them or their farms? Don’t think so.  Any busses parked in water?  Could it be a difference in culture?  I know, it’s all tougher down river.

              When someone comes into my gun shop and asks what to buy for home protection, I don’t steer them to the handguns, I show them the slide action shotguns.  One sales pitch I use is to have the customer close their eyes and listen.  Then I jerk back the slide and pull it forward as if loading a round in the chamber of this pump 12 gauge monster.  I ask, “What would you do on hearing this in the black of night?”  “If the intruder doesn’t turn white and run just from the sound, you have a much better chance of blowing his head off with this,” I say.  Then, “Cash or charge?”  But handguns do have a profound purpose while walking your dog thru the jungle; they are very concealable and available readily.  Now the court needs to take this right of self protection a step further than only in your home to where it could really matter, on the street as in concealed carry.  Here in New York that is supposed to be what a handgun permit was for, concealed on your person, out of sight, for protection.  When and where the first Judge got it into the brain that it would be a much better idea  to put “Hunting and Target Shooting” on the permit as a restriction of when and why one could carry a firearm, I don’t know.  But it is Legislation from the Bench and should be illegal or unconstitutional and be struck down as such.  NRA, sic ‘em!

               Yesterday a little sanity came down from on high, finally the good guys won for a change.  Perhaps a few more perps will receive their final blessings with accolades of how rising gun violence is a direct response from this Justice ruling, but you and I know the truth.  Bad guys are going to have bad days ahead.

Gun Rights Stand Test of Time

Commentary by David Petronis,

June 26, 2008

              Well, it’s swell!  Five out of nine Justices of the Supreme Court of the USA agreed that our Founding Fathers had it right all along these past two hundred and some years since they penned the Second Amendment.  The Right of the People to own guns shall not be infringed.  But what does that say about the other four in robes?  Probably none of them have been mugged yet.

              In seriousness, with that small margin this historic vote along party lines could well have been cast in a different manner.  What should have been Nine to Zero, this vote made Justice Kennedy the most powerful man in the US, the swing man.  As are the “Independents” who will swing this November 4^th election one way or the other because they can’t seem to take a stand until they see how the wind is blowing.  Whether Justice Kennedy is one of the great men who weighs all options or simply votes his convictions on an issue or just throws a dart, I don’t know.   Regardless, this time he targeted the right spot in our Constitution and saved our day in court.  This ruling could have very far reaching effects on all our besieged rights.

              I would imagine the National Rifle Association is partying down in DC about now. And probably getting ready to assault a few more gun banning laws and cities in the near future.  I heard Chief James Tuffey of the Albany Police Department comment on the radio today that it wasn’t the legal guns that he was worried about but rather the illegal “straw man” purchases made in other, less regulated States than New York, then filtered here onto his streets.  He said that he favored a Federal Law that would be applied to all gun purchasers equally in all the States.  Well, States Rights issues aside, as a gun dealer and as a firearms carrier I would even go along with something like that if all gun carry permits were then recognized as Federal Carry Permits, good anywhere in the USA.  I think even the good old NRA would find that compromise interesting.

              The news today was full with reporting of this court decision.  Most call-in folks to radio talk shows were pro-gun and liked the ruling.  But the news spots had to find the guy who thought this was disastrous and how it was so important now to vote for democrats this November.  I’m sure his life on earth will forever now be terrorized by gun-totin’ Republicans!

              So what about the New York State pistol permits that are labeled for “Hunting and Target” shooting only, in some counties?  Is it legal for a local Judge to apply his “feelings” to your Constitutional Right to gun ownership?  Probably not, though never been challenged.

              Today’s ruling explicitly stated that Citizens have a right to have a gun in their home for self protection.  Does that mean the “Castle Doctrine” laws that forty or so other States have adopted must be legally available in all States?  Like here in New York?  NY says we citizens have to run out the back door if someone is trying to break in your front door, the “escape route” option.  I am going to have the idiot running in the front door hitting the floor from a blast of .44, no option here.  Will I now be legally protected?  Unfortunately, this ruling by the Supreme’s doesn’t address any of these issues.

              It was still a great day for gun owners and sane people throughout this great Country.  At last a little sanity has come down from on high and, at least today, all is right with the world.

Want to Save the Pine Bush?

Commentary by David Petronis; June 21, 2008

              There’s a very simple solution to saving the Pine Bush and the endangered species scientists say live on because of it.  Saving the Karner Blue butterfly would be among this amazing plan.  People from all over the country could be sporting Blue Butterfly t-shirts before you know it.  How could this be done, you ask?

              Let me tell you a buffalo story, like in Buffalo Bill.  Not much more than a long lifetime ago millions of bison roamed the western plains and not many folks cared, except maybe the Indians who used them for everything from food to shelter to clothing.  A combination of trying to rid the land of Indians and a new affinity for cheap buffalo robes back east nearly wiped the herds out.

              A small industry actually started up as train travelers could shoot as many of these wandering beasts as they could while riding the rails west.  Quite the sport in those days while ridding the country of a food source for those indigenous folks Americans didn’t really need on “their” land.  Shootin’ all those wild things was the way to go.  Now what does all that have to do with butterflies?

              Imagine if a company bought all those wild bison from the government for two bucks a head.  In about ten minutes those free shooters would have been paying for the privilege, no doubt beseeched by Pinkertons.  And if the herds started running low a way to boost them up for continual slaughter would be found.  What good is a capital venture if you run out of merchandise to capitalize?  If Buffalo Bill wanted to make a name for himself he would have needed to fork over some cash.  The moral is, if someone owned those buffalos surly as the day is long you wouldn’t be shooting them ---- at least not for free!  You don’t see train riders today taking pot shots at range cattle from their scenic view rail cars do you? 

              Enter the butterfly amongst the Pine Bush.  Simple solution is to sell the whole sandy pile to a capitalist and put a high quality restaurant with expensive gift shop on the property.  Blue Butterfly shirts and Pine Bush tour walks will be streaming in and out the gate while those cute little caterpillars dine on Lupine in no time.  Instead of needing to SAVE the Karner,  customers will be bringing surplus ones home mounted under glass in a nice picture frame for the den. 

              Scoff at this, you say.  If you owned an attraction that could make you money ---- lots of money ---- and with some taxpayer dollars and plenty of volunteer help, wouldn’t you want to raise as many of these bugs as you could?  For as long as you could?  With a few common sense restrictions in place, I believe my plan would easily work.  Capitalism is synonymous with problem solving and is always the best way to go.  Maybe even butterfly soup?

Just to Prove a Point about Capitalist Americans …

A recent study conducted by Harvard University found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year.  Another study by the American Medical Association found that Americans, on average, drink 22 gallons of alcohol each year.  It all kind of makes you proud to be an American these days because that means, on average, you and me the real Americans, get about 41 miles to the gallon.  And Remember, if you drink and celebrate this Fourth of July,  walk an extra mile.

Unnecessary High Price of Crude

By David Petronis, June 5, 2008

            China and Cuba are drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico just 60 miles off the coast of Florida but US companies can’t.  There are 86 BILLION barrels of crude estimated to be in deposits under the waves.  Enough for the entire country to use for ten years plus twenty times our use of natural gas, but we can’t tap it.  The Chinese can.

            In a remote part of Alaska that mimics the size of most of the northeast states combined we can be pumping over one million barrels of oil a day into our own economy and for our own use.  The area known as ANWR or the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is huge and remote.  The drilling location would be confined to an area about the size of a large airport but we can’t drill there.  As our New York State Senator Charles Schumer says, “… enough to lower gasoline prices by fifty cents a gallon.”  But, according to him, only if we import that much more from increased production of Saudi Arabian crude.

            He among all the other democrat Senators and more than half of the liberal republican ones all voted against drilling in ANWR.  This, my fellow sheep, is now costing you and I a lot of money and perhaps the entire economic health of our United States.  They and all of the current Presidential Candidates, Hillary Clinton, Barack Hussein Obama and John McCain, have blocked new drilling for the past decade or more from ANWR and over 85% of the offshore areas of our own coasts.  Yet have allowed our adversaries in commerce and ideology to do just that.  As we grow older and dumber each day the Russians are exploring the Bearing Sea for oil and drills are reaching for our crude in the Gulf of Mexico.  The question is why them, not us?

            Seventy-one Senators voted to oppose drilling in the Arctic while most of the rest voted to stop filling the Strategic Oil Reserve so that crude went into the mainstream supply.  What they should have done if they really want to shake up the speculators is to sell our Reserve supply at these high prices and buy on the back-drop. Did you know that speculation in the futures oil market has already surpassed $5.00 a barrel? Hard ball players are betting that the US Congress and the current green policy madness will help them reach that figure in no time.  What can we do?  Stay home and pout?

            While the US auto industry is laying off workers and closing manufacturing plants, the airline industry is grounding planes and mailing pink slips and the housing industry is all but in retreat from doubling of material prices while our Senators and Congressmen are fiddling around like Nero as the economy and our way of life goes up in oil fumes.  This has got to stop!

            In 1995 the then hero of the democrat party, President Bill Clinton, vetoed the bill to drill in ANWR.  It passed the republican Congress.  Since then Al Gore with his own industry of carbon footprint sales and trade-offs has managed to scare the world into believing that the sky is falling, overloaded with carbon from your SUV.  The problem is that most of you believed his idiocy.  See the Scientific Report on the subject.  When local folks start taking notice that we have no control over the weather or the next ice age perhaps they will wake to the fact that democrats would not be good as rulers of the earth.  That is unless you wish to be or are already a hermit, herbalist, green peace supporter, tree hugger, cool-aid drinker, vegetarian, communist, socialist or fur hater; for you there is no hope of redemption and you will find and drive a bicycle or three-wheeled Euro-car. GM really doesn’t matter to them and they only fly on the wings of Angels or wisps of pot puffs.  Wasn’t it Hitler who promoted the Volkswagen?

            There is a moral to this story.  When you think of the change Barack Hussein Obama is going to bring to your driveway are you going to be better off?  When his administration drives gas prices to $7.00 a gallon you won’t be able to afford that bike.  All that saving of stuff and money will be valueless because our buck won’t be worth the wheel barrow you need to carry it in.  And you might as well become a veggie eater now because cardboard and old shoe soup really sucks!  You think taxes on your house are high today?  Don’t worry about it because the schools will be used for community shelters anyway.  The high cost of teacher’s union salaries won’t much matter anymore; most will be out of a job.  Before that lever gets pulled for any democrat OR liberal republican you had better know what the future really holds.  You kids who know everything and that everything has to change better wake to the reality that you have seen nothing yet in your short inexperienced lives.  We haven’t even started with the gas lines yet and food is still plentiful on the market shelves.  Keep dreaming of change and one day you might actually be living with your nightmare.  How can hope be the lesser of the evils?

            My God, where has life’s journey taken us?  Why have you forsaken us?  Look to your own inequities and failings He might respond, ‘You are the chosen ones who chased My words from homes and schools.  You people alone are responsible for your own path to destiny.’  And as always truth will be told, we are the ones who enabled the Representatives of our society to walk the path we laid.  Our votes, our complacency and our inaction to adversity have brought us to this time of reckoning. If we don’t change the course we’ve let swerve then truly the Piper will be paid both in capital and in pain.

            The Conservative cause is the only way to our Salvation.  Can I get a Halleluiah? Better yet, can we get some gumption to get out there and vote some good people into office?  Both local and national candidates need our deepest thoughts before the lever is pulled or the last chad chafed to the earth.  George Bush has kept this Country safe from any terrorist attack while from within Al Gore has terrorized the world.  Someday even facts have to be recognized, not changed.

The One, the Only, He has Come!

Commentary by David Petronis, June 2, 2008

      Barak Hussein Obama has now resigned from his church because he doesn’t want his Pastor or his mentors or his other church member brothers and sisters to have to endure any more controversy in the news simply because he is running for the democrat candidacy for President of these United States.  Isn’t that special?  Isn’t that the most unselfish act you have ever heard?  BHO is giving up his church of twenty years so no more controversy and threats will be aimed at his Trinity United Church members by the media.  Wow, what a guy!  Sounds more like BULL.

There’s Something Smelly in Mickyville !

 May 17 ~ Opinion by David Petronis

           I own a very interesting shop on Main Street in Mechanicville.  My building sits close to the Hudson River and low and behold, I called it Hudson River Trading Company.  My name is David Petronis, President of my 13,000 square feet of wondrous things.  I am there from 10 to 5 almost every day but people constantly come by and tell me they never find me open.  I do gun shows on most weekends, that’s the main business.  Buying and selling collector firearms and related vintage outdoor sports memorabilia.  Business traffic in downtown Mechanicville is, in a word, nil.  Thousands of cars go by but with no place to park nobody stops.  A few years ago I had an idea and I just revived it a few weeks ago.  I had a “Going Out for Business” sale.  I put a big sign in the window, made up some fliers, ran a few ads and had 150 people stop in for the weekend.  Most of them coming in because they thought I was going out of business and wanted to see what I had before I left.

            Now, that’s some way to run a business.  This past Mother’s Day weekend I put my sign back up, ran a few ads and had another 100 people in.  If I wasn’t going out for business I probably would have had 10.  The reason I started our unusual sale, with another sign affixed to the window, “Need to Pay the Sewer Tax,” was to pay the sewer tax!  What’s a sewer tax you ask?  Well, supposedly that’s what all the other towns and villages in Saratoga County pay after some sort of computation of some ridiculous schedule that somebody dreamed up that insists I should pay for “4 Units” of sewer usage with my one lowly toilet and sink in the entire four story building.  So, instead of paying a minimum $160. sewer bill based on water usage, the city of Mechanicville in their great wisdom and need for whatever additional moneys they try to raise they’ve computed that my one toilet is now worth, to them anyways, $217. times four units, which total about quadruples my original bill.  Now I have to try to raise money by having a sale.  Being creative I then tied the sewer tax in with my sale sign and seeing that every other business owner in town was thoroughly irritated that this new formula was put on the business man’s shoulders and not distributed to any home owners, where the votes are, I had many comments from the business folks about how thoroughly they enjoyed my sign.