In local news, the City of Minneapolis might finally be driving Koscielski’s Guns and Ammo out of business. There’s more on their about us page. Mark’s hung on in Minneapolis for far longer than anyone expected him to, the battle he’s fighting against the zoning in Minneapolis is a tough one. Hat tip to Joel Rosenberg for publicizing this.
It’s been fifteen years that Minneapolis has been trying to outlaw gun shops within city limits by using zoning regulations to make it impossible to sell guns in the city. Mark’s been fighting this all along, and since 1995 has been the only shop allowed in Minneapolis. In 2002, it became impossible for Mark to locate his shop anywhere in Minneapolis due to revisions in the zoning ordinances. He moved, and reopened anyhow while continuing to fight the city in court.
Why is this a big deal? Well, mostly it’s still legal to own a shop that sells guns, and in various legal battles, it’s been determined that using zoning to force people out of business isn’t kosher. Look into the history of “adult shops” in various cities for more on that. I don’t think it’s right to use zoning to make it impossible for a legal business to operate within the city, and neither does Mark.
Here’s some of the history: Mark reopened in July 2003, sued the city later that same month, and continued his battle into 2004. In September of 2004, Doug Grow discovered Mark’s a good guy, too. True, when facing a battle like this, Mark tends to get his back up, and is definitely a thorn in the sides of the powers that be in City Hall, but show me anyone who wouldn’t get a little prickly after fifteen years of legal fights. I really admire Mark’s persistance in this battle, and hope something can be done to help him keep his business.
With that said, here are a few non-gun-nut links for the day for those of you whose eyes haven’t already glazed over.
- The City of Minneapolis envisions citywide Wi-Fi. Sounds like a definite mixed-bag. It’ll be nice to have ubiquitous networking, but I can see this causing real problems for most of the small local ISPs who primarily offer networking service. I also wonder about the wisdom of letting the City snoop all my packets. [strib]
- The bloggers who leaked details about Apple’s Asteroid music project get press support from the AP and eight newspapers. First, it’s nice to see First Amendment protections extending to everybody, not just professional journalists, but second, I wonder why their ISPs have information about their email. Maybe I’m a complete freak, but I’m really surprised at least one of the three isn’t running his own email server. [scripting]
- James Kunstler is predicting a Long Emergency as oil production declines in the future. While I think that some of his predictions for what’s going to happen are overly pessimistic, I think there’s still something to worry about. The problem is that there’s just not the incentive to do anything about it until it’s too late. There’s a discussion over at The Claire Files Board, too. [kottke]
- Regarding yesterday’s comments about planting stuff, it’s been pointed out to me that the Balmy temps bound to drop, and the normal day for the last frost here in MN is mid-May. I know it’s too early to be planting, but the fact that everything is turning green will probably still lead me to pop some onions and garlic into the ground soon anyhow. [press-patch]