Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Here's what's wrong with the world today:

Seriously, how long is Ishida going to keep this up, it only keeps getting better since he started ... over a week ago already?

There's something wrong with this country, a phrase from V for Vendetta, a lesson to be learned from this cartoon.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

No less than lethal .... murder?

Or: when police officers blatantly violate directions and people die.

Suppose that a man is threatening to jump into his death, standing on a ledge three floors up, what is the right thing to do? Call in a negotiator, set up an inflatable cushion?
Well, according to one NYC "only one", deploying a stun gun is the way to go!

Let's see

  1. Officers had radioed for an inflatable bag as the incident unfolded, but it had not yet arrived
  2. the guidelines issued with the expansion in June specifically state that when possible, the stun guns "should not be used ... in situations where the subject may fall from an elevated surface
  3. So far this year, stun guns have been used 180 times. No other deaths have been reported.

No not murder, negligent manslaughter ... if anything.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Oleg Volk needs you!

If you've been wondering what's up with the high road forum, get over here , read and weep ... or better yet, join the scores of arduous gun rights supporters in bankrolling legal action against a died in the wool thief!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Yee of little faith

  • I didn't know that the current crisis/bailout issue could be made funny until I say that.

Not only can almost anything be made fun of, I don't think Tatsuya Ishida is nowhere near finished.
Point to prove: Today's cartoon.
In bad taste or funny as hell? I for one laughed and felt a little guilty, what about you?

*UPDATE*

One day later ... the boost you need to keep fucking liberty.

Assault flatulence

Monty python may have jokingly said "I fart in your general direction", but passing gas has been considered an offensive act ... and by offensive I mean to say that a man who farted in the vicinity of a police officer has been charged with battery on a police officer.

Do we need gas control laws to protect our policemen, and: is this why some local governments seem hell bent on shutting down junk food outlets?

Time will tell, or probably won't.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

When you say "assault weapons ban"

... all I hear is: ban on robust entry level guns that are cheap and easy to maintain by people new to the shooting sports.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Secret bomb ingrediƫnt my ...

Whenever the media get their hands on an amateur bomber, they turn and twist stuff around faster and harder than the large hadron collider.

Acetone peroxide becomes "the mother of satan", fertillizer is a national threat and aluminum powder is a "secret ingredient" that makes bombs super-duper dangerous with a twist. Yeah I'm snapping at you, wired ...

Aluminium has been used for ages to increase the density of explosives as well as correct or intentionally throw off the oxygen balance. Aluminium, Al by it's scientific name has seen extensive use by amateur high energy chemists in compositions such as ANAl wax, ANNMAl and many more. The military uses it in huge crude explosives. It is not a secret, it is common practice for military ordonance and amateur concoctions alike.

Stop with the PSH! Needlessly scaring people to terrorist acts defeats the purpose of terrorism, don't do their job for them!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Man recovers the rifle issued to his father in Korea

  • It is a rare person who does not attach some sort of value or emotion to some physical object or to an event. A home becomes more than a building. A statue of the Virgin Mary, a crucifix, a flag or a song, or even a photograph can stir emotions greater than the value of the material item. (...) our guns are more than metal and wood.
From the essay "metal and wood" by Dennis Bateman


A veteran who served in Korea with a .30 carbine managed to retain the serial number of his service weapon. With this number, his son managed to track down and acquire the rifle.
Much reminiscing ensued.

Not just pieces of wood and metal ... not something that could ever be "bought back".

The rich will go on.

A beautifull, heart warming story that has so many hooks and angles: the conflict between the rich and poor, love that transcends classes, the expendable nature of some human life, the allusion to nudity and a pig to sing about the downfall of the US economy all summarized in a five strip cartoon.

Check it out!

Saturday, September 20, 2008

A quiet day ...

... nothing much to blog about, so here's some gun porn:

A .50 beowulf AR

Friday, September 19, 2008

Belgium is making a mistake (education)

School starts Monday, we had the introduction /slash/ first chance to pick up books and rosters today, as well as a speech about the introduction of educational credits ... learning credits they're called.

If you're just in it for the guns -what the hell are you doing *here*- you might want to skip todays post. I think education is a great way to further society, so it concerns me, and what I've learned today is upsetting.

So the fedgov is trying to get more bang for their buck when pumping money in the higher education system. They want people to get into school, enjoy a subsidized education under high speed low drag conditions before hopping into the job market without looking back and becoming yet another high earning taxpayer, paying enough taxes to continue to support subsidized education, the boomers retirement, healthcare for the masses and welfare for the unfortunate.

Starting this year, each student who enrolls in one of Belgiums many fine colleges or universities will be allotted 140 "learning credits" (LC). Enrollment in a course requires a certain amount of LC's. For example, my course in chemistry would have cost me 6 points, which are refunded if you pass the course. The first 60 points you earn back are doubled, so you can end with 200 points max if you successfully complete a 60 point program.

Of course, if you fail, nothing gets refunded, and you just lost your learning credit rating. This is intended to prevent people from enrolling in a class without the sincere intention of seeing ot to the end.
Also, when you succesfully complete a masters education, you LOSE 140 points, just like that! In an effort to force academics out of the academy, the government will now cripple their credit rating.

If you do not have the adequate amount of points to enroll in a course, you'll be required to pay a higher enrollment fee. The government doesn't subsidize any courses you can't put on your own credit, but they also prohibit colleges and universities from asking more than twice the enrollmetn fee, even though the real cost of a course can be five times the subsidised rate! This will result in institutions refusing applicants.

Now, I'm going to my senior year, and everybody who's already enrolled is also just given 140 points, so this doesn't really apply to me ... thank god. I bended around the university for a year you know ... touristing is what they call it. While I did earn multiple academic credits, I didn't take the thing serious. I learned a LOT, I enjoyed myself and I grew as a person, I could! Education was not expensive, I had my parents to provide me with a home and food and clothes and whatnot ... I did fine, and now I'm doing GREAT in a collega that I *am* taking serious.

So when we were geting this explaination about the new situation, I turned to a university buddy of mine (yes, plenty of folk from the university ended up in the same college as me) and said: thank god they're only doing this now. Everybody else next to me agreed.
Said buddy tried and failed his freshman year in the university twice. Not for a lack of dedication or intelligence, it just took him that long to figure out that that wasn't what was right for him, he blazed through this colleges courses at the same speed as me.

Under the current system, he would have been out over a hundred points, I would be at 90-something. He might not be here, and I wouldn't be nearly as confortable.
Don't tell me it's a hard life and school is about work ok! If there's ever going to be any time for me to relax and enjoy life, it's now, and my parents live in a country with a 45% tax pressure rate to make that possible!

Yeh, that's the price you pay for socialized healthcare, subsidized education and whatnot, 45% of what you "earn". That's what I'm looking at for roughly fifty years, so don't tell me I can't take these years of MY life to myself.

I believe this new policy will turn some people away from higher education, it will degrade the academic level of my home country and all I can do is sit here, rant about it and think to myself: thank god I already had my year of fun ... sometimes I disgust myself.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Student planned to shoot and bomb others ...

... but apparently didn't have a gun or explosives.

Contrary to what KSN is claiming, police did NOT find explosives in the home of a student who had claimed he wanted to shoot and bomb other students. After this was heard by other students and passing it on to the proper authorities, the angry ones house was raided and an incendiary device was recovered.

While I'll be the first to admit that incendiaries are very dangerous (more so than explosives in my opinion), they are not explosives. Firebombs aren't "explosives" and even then: incendiary device could be anything from a thermite grenade* to a Molotov cocktail or just a plastic bottle of coleman fuel.

* military designation: AN-M14 TH3

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

World of crafty terror?

So the fed is starting to worry about terrorists discussing their evil schemes ... over world of warcraft?
Well, terrorists or other criminals could hypothetically use these games chat channels, coupled with some code-language to discuss the detail of their crimes. I mean, it would be perfectly possible to set up a drug deal over WoW (drugs are the anti-WoW after all), I suppose one could be talking worse as well.

I just feel like people are digging deep here, and I hope they've got better avenues than this one to pursue ...

  • some day soon, we might find secret agents in World of Warcraft, along with the druids and orcs and night elves.
Hm, 60's era LSD ring infiltration all over again eh?

Monday, September 15, 2008

Is this guy serious?

Ah the internet, a place for free sharing of ideas and opinions. A place for social networking, a place where aspiring artists can be heard, and a place were by the cover of anonymity you can openly call for the extermination of a demographic as well as their innocent and uninvolved family.

I'm talking about a Mr. Anonymous over at Marilyns, responding to a post where a man pulled out a gun after a road rage incident:

  • This so-called 'preacher', Thomas Howell, needs to be disarmed and arrested again but this time he should be tired to a chair, his entire family brought before him and shot with his gun. It is what these Bronze Age neaderthals teach with thsir god based eye-for-an-eye savagery. Then he needs to be shot as well.

    In fact everyone who buys or owns a gun needs to be killed with their own death machines, its the only way to get through to them and high time too!
    I'm sure the non-violence people here agree with me that is how to create a peaceful world. Kill off all the supporters of violence in our self defece!

    Good to see I am agreed with, kill all gun owners and their infected families for the safety and betterment of all mankind. Then we will have peace.

    no they can not, guns take over the minds of people and make them feel like gods with the power of life and death over everyone else. there is no treatment or cure for the insanity of guns once exposed to the. the only hope for the rest of us is for the gun owners, their families to be taken and tied up then killed and the guns finally melted down.

    its the only way. the only way to get rid of the source of the mental infection of guns and the people who believe in them destroy everyone who comes in contract with them. once that law is passed and put into effect we will get a handle on the plague of gun violence by destroying them all, guns and gun owners. see? it just takes a law to make the killing legal for public safety sake and that will justify it. i'm serious.
(all emphasis mine)

Now, this could be another idiot trying to smear the other side, there's no way to tell really. But this day and age, it would not surprise me that there really are people like this. Remember: a full out race and class war if McCain is elected?

What's your take on this?

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Smartguns with sensored grips?

There's been a bit of chatter lately about the new "smart guns", guns equipped with grips that feel your grip as to determine who is holding the gun. Only if the authorized user is holding the gun, is it supposed to be able to fire. I'd like to theorize a bit about the pitfalls of this ideology.

No, I'm not going to make the "lend it out", "change your grip" or "criminals would rip the safety out" arguments over again. I'd like to focus on the "information" aspect.

The following text is strictly speculation, based on no evidence whats however, I am merely fantasizing, bear with me or tune out.

From pictures, I venture to guess that these grips have pressure sensors in them at various places. The lock and key model applies to this perfectly. Just like a key needs to be of specific height at every pin, I guess that your grip would have to be of sufficient strength but not too strong at each sensor. Just like locks allow for small deviation in key tooth height, a gun locking system would have to allow for some slight deviation as well.

This deviation, let's call it "tolerance" will be a factor of great interest; too loose and the lock will open for every grip. Too tight and even an experienced shooter will not be able to operate his own firearm. Laws would have to be drafted to regulate this tolerance, if not, a gun grip producer could market grips with such tolerance that pretty anybody with the same grip technique and hand size could operate a locked firearm, even if it wasn't "registered" to him/her.

There's a bigger problem. This information would have to be stored in the locking device, and can therefor be tampered with. A chip burner would become a pretty wise investment for a black market gun dealer or straw purchaser. This is assuming that the information is stored on a chip. I suppose it could be a magnetic strip such as on the credit cards that get hijacked cloned and altered on a regular basis by fraudsters and identity thieves. Heck, it could be a flash memory chip for all I know, which would pose even less of a challenge.

This may sound like organized crime turf, but is it really? People who buy defensive guns want the most reliable ones. Your average gun owner just might decide to make his gun more reliable by loosening up the tolerances, defeating the purpose of making his gun childproof for one. Said gun would have a higher chance of unlocking for a criminal as well.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Less than lethal, a comprehensive text

So I found this Brit text about alternatives to likely lethal weapons, a.k.a. firearms.
The article contains a lot of information concerning these less than lethal alternatives, such as their capabilities and flaws. A great read if you're new to the subject, or would just like to see what kind of bean bags are around and such.

Much more interesting to me were the comments both in the article and those added by readers.
Here's a nice conclusion:

  • The limitations of Tasers and impact rounds mean that firearms officers cannot be instructed not to consider the use of anything except "less lethal weapons".

    "It would be inappropriate for commanders or supervisory officers to attempt to restrict the deployment of an authorised firearms officer to a particular less lethal technology or personal safety tactical option,"

In plain English: A less than lethal only policy is a recipe for disaster. Police officers should not be restricted to such gizmo's, not without the availability of a normal likely lethal weapon as backup. Why you ask?

  • "Additionally, it has been shown that it is possible, in certain circumstances, for some individuals to maintain enough control to aim and fire a weapon while under the effects of Taser."

A taser does not always stop a violent attacker. A gun isn't guaranteed to do so either, but you get multiple shots, and each one has a fair chance of stopping a lethal attacker. I'd venture to say that a single 9mm round (cops carry glock 17's over here) isn't guaranteed to stop an attacker, I'd even say one may very well survive it, even if the shot incapacitates him. But with such a weapon, you can easely have up to a dozen rounds available.

What? Do I shock you? (no pun intended) Yes I am talking about killing people. No, I do not like the prospect, I vamue life and dream of a world free of violence, still I talk about cutting life short, why? Let me quote some commenters with whom I completely agree:

  • As a former Police Firearms officer I believe that short of many police offiers losing their lives in such incidents there are no other alternatives but to shoot a person dead if he or she will not lay down their firearm when ordered to do so, if they fail to lay down their arms they know the consequences of their actions. (...) (The Police Officers) are protecting their own lives as well as members of the public.
  • Let me get this straight: Your officers have to put their lives on the line for you and then fumble through 3 or 4 options while a criminal is endangering their lives and those of the truly innocent people around them. If the criminal happens to die in the police response, it's the fault of the officer? You don't deserve them. Defend yourselves.
A truely interesting read.

Yesterday silence.

So yeah, I spent all of yesterday playing the original fallout game, in expectation of bethesda's rendering of the third installment hitting shop shelves in October.

I took a combat heavy character with the "good mannered" trait, my initial combat skills were crippled, but I could talk, barter and gamble like noone else. After some scientific exploits, a little persuasion and some hard work as a doctor, I leveled up and got acquainted with small arms.
I eventually turned into a compulsively gambling computer hacker that could blow a super mutants eyes out with a bolt of plasma at 50 feet.
But I ended up destroying both the military base and the cathedral with some hacking work, and lockpicking skills I picked when standing in front of the last locked door in the game.

Later in "real" life, I wanted to do a piece on that hammer-attack, but uncle beat me to that.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The reinstitution of banishment

Justice:

  1. A crime is committed by a person or group of people.
  2. This person is brought before a judge and a jury of his peers.
  3. He is tried and judged, and if applicable: sentenced to undergo a punishment.
  4. The person serves his time, repays his debts.
  5. The person is once again a free man.

Well, often there are some additional conditions, you can lose your right to vote or that to own a target rifle, but generally, you do the time and your time is done.

Not so in Manchester New Hampshire where the major seeks to return to the dark ages by effectively banishing a man who has previously served his time. The man, a convicted killer who has been released from prison after serving his 25 year sentence and ten years more, now lives in a boarding house where probation officers intend to monitor him. Mister major demands he be removed and placed elsewhere, in someone else's city.

The major joins the ranks of other countless majors who seek to usurp additional powers, other than those granted by the electorate. He does not want this man, who was already punished for his actions, living in "his" town. "His" town? ... the majors? Isn't it the town of the people who live there?

I have little sympathy for this criminal as a person. He did after all kill somebody, but he also served his time, forfeited a certain amount of civil rights and now he is a free man once more. Free to go and live wherever he pleases. He needs not be punished any further by being bounced forth between nanny statist trying to control his life further.

Furthermore, I find it repulsive that an elected official show such a lack of faith in the justice system! Why doesn't he want that guy around? Does he know something we don't about the effectiveness of prison terms, probation and rehabilitation? Does he intend to openly admit that the prison based justice system doesn't work? If so, does he not have bigger fish to fry than dogging this one old man who just spend 35 years in captivity?

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

golf club accident leaves 7 y/o dead.

It's a scene from cartoons and comics, one person swings an object such as a baseball bat, a wooden beam or plank, and accidentally hits somebody over the head with it.

Well, it happened with a golf club recently, and the person struck was a seven year old child. The boy did not survive the incident.

The video of that girl handling a rifle sparked outrage in some, provoking comments such as "she should be doing girly stuff". Well, accidents can happen everywhere, and some sports are more dangerous than others.
Kids die in accidental shootings too, but at a far lower rate. That girl doing fire drills, she's probably safer off than the other girl in cheerleading.

Think about that.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

One response after a home invasion, the right one?

In the past, couple had fallen victim to home invaders, violent criminals who attacked these folk in their own home, a place where they should be safe, should be ... not were.

They were not safe, they were attacked and robbed and they took action in hopes of preventing that from happening again. Hope misplaced, proven so by a lack of change.
Watch through this video and see how well their precautions worked.

They placed one or more cameras, then their house was invaded again. The camera's caught images of their attackers, hopefully allowing the police to arrest them, but they did not stop the intruders, did not prevent them from assaulting and injuring them. I hope for their sake that they realized that as they lay in their hospital beds.

A gate might have stopped their attackers, the sight of a gun may have turned them away, such precautions might have safeguarded them from harm. The camera only served as an aid for punishing the criminals after the fact. Had those invaders opted to kill them, they would be just as dead.

"Never again" is an intention and a promise that needs to be enforced. If you desire to never again be subjected to violence, then it falls onto you to be able to enforce that desire in an effective manner.

Current events in the UK: the list.

I'll pass on reciting the countless acts of violent crime this week. They just keep coming and coming without end, check for yourself.

What I'd like to share with you this week is the list ... the list of 25 teenage fatalities, victims of Londons violent criminals. 25 ... at last count.

Two of them were shot to death. Only two, or ... oh my god there were two of them?
Only two, as if to mean that guns are available after all and ever so deadly as compared to knives or other sharp objects which were used to kill ... well pretty much everybody else.
Oh my god two, if you honestly believe that strict gun control prevents gun crime.

One of these kids was killed with a shard of broken glass for crying out loud, how are you going to gt rid of their weapons? How are you going to prevent them from ganging up on their victims and beating them to death? By making it illegal ... even more so?

Twenty five and counting.
Who still remembers when the time to act was passed by?

Saturday, September 6, 2008

McCain, or: not knowing how to pose

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: the worst McCain picture ever!



Found here, thanks to Runaway_Stapler

Friday, September 5, 2008

Politics and food, or: My way! My way! My way!

Politicians often try to do the right thing, that is: try to do what they think is right. What they think is good for you. Usually I blog about guns, and you've all -I suppose- read the argument that you don't "need" that AK-clone. Right? "You don't need it, I don't want it myself so I don't think you should have it either" is what they say.

Well, that ideology and the fatal flaw is illustrated in something else today: junkfood.

The Albuquerque Major is bent on banning junk food from vending machines on City property and demands it be replaced with healthier food. He calls it:

  • "Get rid of the bad stuff that none of us need,"

Now, the people who "run" these vending machine have tried to introduce healthy food in their vending machines in the past. They have allowed the people the freedom to choose what they stuff their face with, and the people chose to leave those healthy snacks where they were, letting them go stale in the machines.

Knowing this, the major has no interest in allowing the people a choice, he instead has opted to force his opinion on the people he serves:

  • "We absolutely want to continue to have them in our facilities if they can convert to healthy choices 100 percent,"

Yeah, that's a man who defends the rights of the people right there (/sarcasm)

Look I think people should eat healthier too, but you can't force that choice on them! furthermore, I seriously doubt that those who intend to eat healthy things will bring fresh food with them from home. What, you forgot that a healthy diet is something to be upheld consistently? That it requires variety far beyond what vending machines offer?

The nutritional idiocy aside, you can't just force your will onto the people! It's on city property now, but what's next? Banning new fast food outlets? Oh forgive me, its called "health zoning". Just like it's not oppression of freedom to peaceably assemble, it's instituting "free speech zones".

Keep your eyes open to what's happening around you, because it's the same thing all over but closer to home.

Spyspace? Facebook for spooks?

Granting credibility to the long established rumor that government agencies have trouble sharing ... information that is, they are now to start using "A-space", a social networking site for members of the US intelligence community. It would allow them to share intel quickly and efficiently, information that would otherwise remain classified within one agency.

A good evolution, or a huge security risk once 4chan gets wind of it?
How long until somebody misplaces a flash drive with sensitive information?

An interesting concept with an intriguing future!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Man plotted to molotov RNC.

A man was found in possession of multiple molotov cocktails. He intended to disrupt the republican national convention by causing a power outage, he also intended to use his firebombs against law enforcement personnel should they try and stop him:

  • “I will light those pigs on fire.”

Fortunately, nobody was actually injured.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Poetry

So when listening to Joey DeMaio singing "dance on a string" in "Blood of the kings" reminded me of a poem by Oscar Wilde which I once helped my sister analyze for her homework, I just had to share some of it with you.

  • Yet each man kills the thing he loves
    By each let this be heard,
    Some do it with a bitter look,
    Some with a flattering word,
    The coward does it with a kiss,
    The brave man with a sword!

A classical education, do *you* have it?

Laser rifles on the coming?

Chemical based lasers are already a reality, even if not battlefield tested at the moment. One problem though is that these devices are big and heavy, unfit for small arms. As a matter of fact, the first likely carrier would be a boeing 747.

But now, wired reports of an electrical laser under development, the kind that is small enough to be turned into a laser rifle ...
Yes I am sitting here with a grin on my face, what off it? :p

UK squirrel hunters.

American squirrels are bigger, stronger and more aggressive than the European red squirrels. They also carry a virus that kills off the reds, and are therefor a menace to the UK's native squirrel population.
As the reds numbers fall, hunters are trapping and killing grey squirrels to cull their numbers, and selling off the meat to high end butchers.

There's the usual complaint about how ethical it is to shoot a caged squirrel in the back of the head with an air rifle while there are other options available such as contraception ... not exactly sure how that would work but somehow I doubt it will be a bit more costly than this method.

Maybe this will help to bring hunting back into normality in the UK, I certainly hope so.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

When cops try their best ...

... but there best just isn't good enough.

Police officers were called to the scene of a man with a gun in what I presume to be a bad part of town. They came across two men. One man was ostensibly carrying what appeared to be a handgun. When ordered to do so, one man surrendered and put up no fight whats however, the other one, the one with the "gun" didn't.

Less than lethal measures were deployed but they failed. And then when the man appeared to reach for his gun, officers used normal guns, which did incapacitate him.

The man was homeless, the gun was a fake. Police fire claimed one more, innocent victim: a man who was grazed by a police bullet, he wasn't seriously hurt fortunately.

Look, these cops did their best. They started by talking, they tried to end it with less than lethal means but when those failed they had to make a split second decision and they chose to survive, not knowing they didn't have to take another life for that.

I suppose this case will be added to the long list of "innocent victims of gun violence" and "innocent victims of police violence" ... I think those cops did a good job in a crappy world and I hope they don't beat themselves up over it.

Monday, September 1, 2008

One gun a month, my two cents.

With gun legislation, there are several driving forces behind the laws. Some laws can be rightfully considered aimed at banning guns, or making them otherwise unavailable to the people. California's microstamping law may turn out to be like this, making certain firearms prohibitively expensive.

Other legislation is more cunning, making it a little more difficult to become a gun owner, to buy a "fun gun" for example, it is my belief that the focus on bayonets is a law like this, as I have said before.

But there's also legislation that truly has been thought of -at least in part- to help tackle gun crime. While there's always the "slippery slope" argument, some proposed laws do envision criminal or otherwise questionable activity. I'd like to talk about "gun rationing" laws in that regard.

Ostensibly, the law is supposed to curb gun trafficking, disallowing criminals from buying a large amount of guns (more than one per month) for resale to people who cannot (or rather not) buy their guns from a licensed dealer. By only allowing one gun a month to be purchased, proponents of such legislation hope to decrease the amount of guns that end up on the black market. This of course depends entirely on the idea that an unlicensed gun dealer sells significantly large amounts of guns (or at least more than one per month) and isn't capable of finding somebody else to purchase more guns legally.

It's not the effectiveness that entertains me, it is the manner in which gun control proponents seek to tackle the problem as a whole. They choose to prevent criminals from buying multiple weapons legally, cutting the problem off at the root. This also prevents some honest from buying that .22 when they figure out that a .357 wasn't a good choice for their first handgun, or prevents some people from buying a "his and hers" set in the same month, but the idea is that this generally only affects the criminal element and some "legislative flyers*" are acceptable.

While I personally doubt the actual "need" for a law like this, such legislation has been introduced in a lot of places. I'd like to propose a revision:
Why don't you limit the amount of private sales per month? If Joe Citizen wants to buy an S&W collectors set consisting of 5 wheel guns, why not let him? Don't prevent him from spending money and keeping some local merchant in business, but force him to keep those handguns in his possession for some time. Prohibit selling off bulk purchases. If you limit the amount of private sales to one per month, but still allow sale through FFL's then:

  1. Criminals can't legally dump more than one handgun per month on the street.
  2. Citizens can still legally buy guns at will.
  3. The "guns show loophole" disappears almost entirely
  4. Sale through licensed dealers is encouraged.

There'd need to be some control mechanism of course, a mandatory checkup by an FFL for example, as to not burden the police with yet another gun law to enforce. He/she'd take note that you still posses the guns that bought in an under one month period.

Again, I'm not arguing that we need rationing laws to begin with, I'm just saying that if you're going to introduce them out of the intention to stop criminals, do so in a manner that doesn't harm the law abiding.

*I henceforth lay claim to this term.