The Democrats anti-gun fervor has hit somewhat of a roadblock in the far left state of Washington.  It seems that an assault weapons bill has been introduced into the Washington legislature that will ban the purchase and possession of these weapons by civilians.  We won’t deal here with the fact that all previous attempts to ban these weapons have failed.  The Democrats goal is not to find a solution to the problem --- instead it’s to batter and subdue independent and self-reliant Americans into compliance with the dictates of their superiors in government.  As I said last week, this is more about reigning in non-compliant citizens than it is making our streets safer.  Need proof?  FINE … then tell me of one single gun control measure that has been introduced by Democrats in their gun control frenzy that is designed to get guns out of the hands of criminals.  By that I mean the guns that are already out there in the pockets of gang bangers, urban thugs, drug dealers, home invaders, and the rest of the people who’s mothers are so fond of saying “He’s a good boy,  just fell in with the wrong crowd.”

So what happened in Washington?  Well the Washington Democrat-controlled legislature knew that they couldn’t get away with a law requiring  that all of these so-called assault weapons be turned in.  So they allowed people who already own them to keep them if they would just succumb to a registration scheme.  Then .. the kicker.  If you told the government that you already owned an assault weapon the local Sheriff would be allowed to enter your home once a year to conduct an inspection to see that you’re storing the gun safely.  No warrant.  He just shows up and tells you he’s there for your annual home inspection. 

Well … someone sure screwed the pooch on this one.  Even liberal Washingtonians didn’t like it .. and now we have Washington Democrats pointing fingers at each other.  “He put that mandatory inspection clause in there!”  “No… HE did!”  “No I didn’t!  That other guy did!”  Finally they got down to blaming some nameless, faceless aide somewhere who just put that into the bill on his own.

For those of you who live in Georgia, does this remind you of anything?  Remember Covington?  About 12 years ago?  Covington city officials – Democrats – decided that they wanted a little home inspection program of their own.  This one wasn’t about guns.  This was about the temperature of your freezer and other items.  They passed a nifty little city ordinance that mandated an annual inspection of every dwelling, rented or owned, in the city.  They knew that their subjects wouldn’t necessarily like this, so they put some rather strong enforcement mechanisms into the bill.  Basically – this was the routine.  If you failed to make an appointment with the friendly city inspectors they would arrange to have you taken into custody and held at the Covington City Jail while the inspection was being carried out.  You had no right to have anyone present while your home was being searched. Ostensibly, the inspection was to make sure your water heater wasn’t making the water too hot, and your refrigerator wasn’t keeping your food too warm.  Maybe they would look for dust bunnies and bed bugs too … there didn’t seem to be any limitations.

Frankly, I don’t know what became of the mandatory home inspections in Covington.  I suspect some politicians lost their precious positions of power over that one.  Thankfully Americans still have a strong belief in the sanctity of their private homes.  But … considering the abuses they seem to be willing to suffer at the hands of government now, that won’t last.

HANDICAP SPATULAS

I just wrapped up a stay at a resort with about three swimming pools and five hot tubs.  Sure enough --- next to every single one of them was a handicap spatula, a device for scooping handicapped bathers out of their wheelchairs and dipping them into the water.  Now I don’t have any problem at all with making these publically accessible pools and spas available for use by the handicapped.  The problem here is that 0bama’s Justice Department, charged with enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act, has mandated that portable spatulas just won’t do.  The all have to be permanently installed.  So you have the asinine situation of a pool and a spa within six feet of each other, each with their own flipper.  

OK … here’s the kicker.  I talked to the resort manager, and he told me that not once .. never .. has one of these handicapped spatulas ever been used.  He told me that some kids did try to use one as a helicopter simulator and had to be chased off.  What, pray tell, would be the problem with portable lifts?  I guess some “activist” for the handicapped got their hands around the throat of some cubicle-dwelling government hack in the Justice Department to get this regulation enacted.

I sometimes call this the “tyranny of the handicapped.”  Accommodations are fine, but the insensitive truth of the matter is that there are limits to the degree to which someone’s disability should become a burden on others.

Somewhere in Florida – perhaps a reader will remind me where – there was a small city with a limited municipal bus system.  About six busses.  Here comes the Justice Department to tell this town that they had to get new busses that were wheelchair accessible.  All of them.  The town commissioned a survey to find out just how much of a demand there would be for transportation services for people in wheelchairs.  The study showed that there might be a need for four …. that’s FOUR … rides for wheelchair bound people in the course of any given year.  So the city went to the Justice Department with a proposal to purchase a handicapped-accessible van and hire a team of drivers.  The van would be available 24 hours a day to pick up anyone in a wheelchair, take them wherever they wanted to go in the city, and return them home.  The busses only ran 18 hours a day.  The van solution would have been much cheaper than buying six new handicapped accessible busses.  The Justice Department said no.  Get new busses.  So … the city simply closed down it’s municipal bus system, sold the busses, and now those in wheelchairs are completely on their own.

Government.  Gotta love it.