REDIRECTING . . .

The DeclareArms blog has been merged with the DarkTopo blog. You will be redirected automatically, or you're welcome to take matters into your own hands.

"Gun Show Undercover" on HuffPo

Story by Michael Bloomberg.

Interesting photography. I'd like to point out that my gun show coverage is decidedly NOT undercover. I'd also like to point out that if anyone stuck a gun in my face the way the investigators appear to in those photos, my civil discourse with that person would end very quickly. Perhaps these "private sellers" are more tolerant. Also, the guy in the first photo looks like event staff. What's up with that?

Locked and unloaded.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090923/ap_on_re_us/us_ammo_shortage

"Range is going hot!"

[more to come . . . ]

Fear of regulation drives gun, ammo shortage

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-03-29-ammo-shortage_N.htm

Gun-toting woman divides community

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/36036369.html

LEBANON, Pa. - Before heading out the door to go to Wal-Mart, Meleanie Hain fussed over her children, grabbed her coat and keys, then ran upstairs to get one more item: her loaded Glock 26, which she strapped to her hip.

She never leaves home without it.

DeclareArms complete!

. . . except for being entirely unfinished.

My original intent with this project was to document shooting events between Super Tuesday and Election Day, and then fall into a heap of journalistic accomplishment. Well, the election is over, and I've accomplished a great deal here, but I don't want to stop shooting.

One thing I've learned over the years is that if you think you know what you're doing, you're wrong. My intent for this project--pursuing some kind of publication or exhibit--was pretty off-target. And of course, The District and the election filled up the late summer like mosquitoes on a screened-in porch.

I guess I'm always looking for that one amazing photograph that will finish the project. As if Joe Rosenthal said, "Oh, I've photographed some marines raising a flag on Iwo Jima. I can stop now."

The reality is, most documentary projects either take much longer than the three years I've spent on this one, or take much more money that I've spent on this one. So the project continues . . .

Gun amnesty program triggers negative response

"If you turn in an illegal or unregistered gun, you won't be charged and, in return, you'll receive a free digital camera and photography lessons from Henry's camera stores."

http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1276138

"Why I intend to carry a handgun."

"Then it hit me. This is how it is done. This is how you take a life. My target was fictional, but in my mind he was still a threat. I felt no sadness."

The Shoal Creek Youth Group Shoot

NOLA: Gun/ammo sales spiking ahead of Gustav.

http://www.nola.com/hurricane/index.ssf/2008/08/gun_ammo_sales_are_brisk_ahead.html

Women and Guns

A poorly written story from WWAY in Wilmington. What's really interesting are the comments left by readers.

And then this, from a lady on GlockTalk.com:

"You know, call me cranky because I still have to take a shower and go to church and here I am posting on GT, but do we need this kind of patronizing crap any more?

Are there STILL women out there who think the world is a great place if you just put on your happy cap and wriggle your nose? Do they STILL need to be told that self-defense is "okay" for them to do and that "lots" of women are doing it these days before they get their collective heads out of their asses and start being somewhat serious about the collective security of themselves and their families?

And still the old saw about how a gun can be turned against someone and used against them, just in case you have someone who's wavering on the fence, make sure you turn them away by giving them the specter of a situation that's not likely to happen."

After court ruling, towns rush to repeal gun bans

Very Occassionally

you'll run into a political candidate that takes things seriously. You'll get no endorsements here, or even a mention, but I was at a political event recently and saw this:



This was in a restaurant that has just recently posted a "No Firearms" sign. Guess it worked.

Armed America's Kyle Cassidy plugs A Declaration of Arms!

Kyle Cassidy had some nice things to say about the project on his blog:

"Max Cooper has done some really beautiful photo essays about gun stores and gun owners."

Armed America is absolutely brilliant work, and approaches the issue from a whole different perspective.

Heller vs. DC

"[Today's ruling] would have us believe that over 200 years ago, the framers made a choice to limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to regulate civilian uses of weapons." - Heller vs. the District of Columbia, Dissenting Opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens

...

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government" - Thomas Jefferson, Proposed Virginia Constitution, T. Jefferson Papers

"I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials." — George Mason, in Debates in Virginia Convention on Ratification of the Constitution

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." - Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers

"The great object is, that every man be armed ... Every one who is able may have a gun." - Patrick Henry

"O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if, to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people!" - Patrick Henry, in Virginia Ratifying Convention demanding a guarantee of the right to bear arms

...

“That history showed that the way tyrants had eliminated a militia consisting of all the able-bodied men was not by banning the militia but simply by taking away the people’s arms, enabling a select militia or standing army to suppress political opponents . . . During the 1788 ratification debates, the fear that the federal government would disarm the people in order to impose rule through a standing army or select militia was pervasive in Anti-federalist rhetoric.” - Heller vs. the District of Columbia, Majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia

,,,

This is no small concern. What was ruled on today was literally the life and liberty of every American citizen. A coworker of mine said he was more concerned with finding a new controller for his Tiger Woods video game. I went to Subway for lunch, and the line stretched out the door with staring people who were not talking about anything, much less the Heller ruling. I passed cars on Merrimon Avenue; were their drivers armed, or fearing others who were?

To paraphrase Johnny Cash, those who ignore Heller are "rich folks eating in a fancy dining car, drinking coffee and smoking big cigars," oblivious to their engineer, their direction, and their tracks. "I know I had it coming," says the man in Folsom Prison. "I know I can't be free."

"A Declaration of Arms" is now on its own domain!

Update your bookmarks, folks. The project is now at www.declarearms.com!

Comfort.

"Perhaps it comforts you that the police were patrolling, but did you ever consider that they might not have had to patrol to the extent they do had our original rights never been tampered with or watered down? Just my thought."

I certainly consider that. In fact, considering that is in essence what this site is about.

To clarify, it doesn't particularly comfort me that "the police" are patrolling. I have been through some scary moments out there in the middle of the night, and have yet to be helped by a police officer. What comforts me about the encounter was the professional way I was treated by a competent officer. It makes me think that an armed citizen might not be so much of a pariah after all.

But never was I deluded into thinking the police could protect me. Generally, they do a great job, but even I, in my ivory darkroom, have enough street sense to know you're on your own out there.

Declaration of Arms down for a bit

Transferring the site to its own domain name. This may take a few hours, then it will back and better than ever.