A quarter of Illinois’ county governments have passed resolutions declaring their county a “gun sanctuary,” including those in Brown and Greene counties.
Wow!
This is consistent with other data such as law enforcement say they would not enforce more restrictive gun laws.
Some of my teammates and I were discussing the details of an email we got from someone who claimed they had been hacked. It had a number of conclusions which were absurd on their face and the data they supplied were consistent with an alternate hypothesis which was void of any wrongdoing. Yet, we were inclined to look into it a little bit more…
Joe: What they are saying doesn’t make any sense but it’s all within the realm of standard ignorance.
Caity: I like that phrase, “Within the realm of standard ignorance.” Can I be Queen of the Realm?
Imagine the damage one of these guns, even if it was only capable of firing one shot, could do aboard a plane. Or in a government office. Or in your child’s classroom.
Alyssa Milano
July 31, 2018
Alyssa Milano: A 3D printed gun is downloadable death
[Imagine the good one of these guns could do if it was used to defend your life or the life of your child. Imagine the harm it will do if the courts somehow decide the First Amendment doesn’t apply to software used to protect freedom.
I find it very telling she thinks a government office is a particularly bad place to have a gun. World history shows governments are a much bigger threat to innocent life than all other threats combined. This puts her squarely on the side of evil.
Ms. Milano, go back to your acting. These are specific enumerated rights we are talking about and we don’t want or need your acting skills to inject emotional baggage into a question of civil rights.—Joe]
Facebook announced on Tuesday that it has identified a coordinated political influence campaign, with dozens of inauthentic accounts and pages that are believed to be engaging in political activity ahead of November’s midterm elections, according to three people briefed on the matter.
In a series of briefings on Capitol Hill this week and a public post on Tuesday, the company told lawmakers that it had detected and removed 32 pages and accounts connected to the influence campaign on Facebook and Instagram as part of its investigations into election interference. It publicly said it had been unable to tie the accounts to Russia, whose Internet Research Agency was at the center of an indictment earlier this year for interfering in the 2016 election, but company officials told Capitol Hill that Russia was possibly involved, according to two officials briefed on the matter.
…
Like the Russian interference campaign in 2016, the recently detected campaign dealt with divisive social issues.
Facebook discovered coordinated activity around issues like a sequel to last year’s deadly “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. Specifically, a page called “Resisters,” which interacted with one Internet Research Agency account in 2017, created an event called “No Unite the Right 2 — DC” to serve as a counterprotest to the white nationalist gathering, scheduled to take place in Washington in August. Mr. Gleicher said “inauthentic” administrators for the “Resisters” page went as far as to coordinate with administrators for five other apparently real pages to co-host the event, publicizing details about transportation and other logistics.
Mr. Gleicher said it disabled the event on Tuesday and notified 2,600 users of the site who had indicated interest in attending the event.
Coordinated activity was also detected around #AbolishICE, a left-wing campaign on social media that seeks to end the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, according to two people briefed on the findings. That echoed efforts in 2016 to fan division around the Black Lives Matter movement.
…
American intelligence and law enforcement officials have been warning for months that Russia’s efforts to undermine American democracy remain active and pose a threat to this year’s elections. If in fact Russian, the activity would provide vivid evidence that the kind of cyber operations used around the 2016 campaign were still in use.
I sometimes have contact with current or former people in the intelligence community. I don’t have any specific information but “it is well known” the Russians like to create internal conflict in their enemies. It is a part of their culture and even have a word for it (sorry, I don’t remember it). I have been told they organized both anti-Hillary and anti-Trump events in 2016. It’s what they do. Hacking into the DNC and Hillary’s email servers and releasing the contents wasn’t necessarily to help elect Trump. It was to create conflict.
I have to wonder… is a lot of the conflict on social media regarding firearms fueled by Russia? When you are debating some twit on Twitter are you actually wasting time talking to a paid Russian troll?
Do not be fooled by a belief that progressives, leftists hate guns. Oh, no, they do not. What they hate is guns in the hands of those who are not marching in lock step of their ideology. They hate guns in the hands of those who think for themselves and do not obey without question. They hate guns in those whom they have slated for a barrel to the back of the ear.
So, Americans listen up, do not fall for the false promises and do not extinguish the light that is left to allow humanity a measure of self respect.
Stanislav Mishin
December 27, 2012
A Russian View on Gun Ownership
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
If you look at the rate of murders not caused by guns and you compare Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and Australia, what you see is that it’s roughly the same in all four countries, although the U.S. rate is slightly higher,
Wendy Cukier
President of the Coalition for Gun Control (Canada)
July 28, 2018
Canada Is Raging Against Gun Violence—But Not Like America
[Caused? Nope. That is a deliberate lie. If they have to lie to to win it is definitive proof their intent is evil.—Joe]
A ballot measure that would put new restrictions on the sale of semi-automatic rifles qualified for the November ballot Friday, but also faced a new court challenge.
Secretary of State Kim Wyman certified that supporters of Initiative 1639 gathered enough signatures to be on the general election ballot. The campaign turned in about 378,000 signatures, more than 100,000 above the minimum required.
The initiative raises the age for the purchase of a semi-automatic rifle to 21, requires a more extensive background check for handgun purchases and requires firearms owners to store weapons securely.
In announcing that the initiative had enough signatures, Wyman said there are “concerns” whether the petition sheets complied with legal requirements, but the initiative did not run afoul of any legal requirements that are under her authority.
Previously the courts said
…the court doesn’t have the legal authority to tell Wyman to reject an initiative
…
Wyman has the legal authority to reject initiative petitions that she determines are deficient, but otherwise would have to file them. Judicial review can only occur if she refuses to accept them, and then only if the initiative’s sponsors go to court.
Wyman is the Secretary of State. At that time Wyman said:
On Tuesday afternoon, Wyman issued a statement saying she will follow the law in evaluating “fairly and impartially” whether to accept initiatives, which include whether the petitions contain all the language required.
“State law clearly defines the authority my office has for accepting or rejecting petitions,” she said.
Then on Friday:
Secretary of State Kim Wyman certified that supporters of Initiative 1639 gathered enough signatures to be on the general election ballot. The campaign turned in about 378,000 signatures, more than 100,000 above the minimum required.
…
In announcing that the initiative had enough signatures, Wyman said there are “concerns” whether the petition sheets complied with legal requirements, but the initiative did not run afoul of any legal requirements that are under her authority.
So, the courts say it is up to the Secretary of State to make sure the petition is in compliance with the law (they aren’t). The SoS says she doesn’t have the authority to reject them even though they are not in compliance. Hence the initiative will be on the ballot this fall where it is expected to pass.
So, what I want to know, is the State of Washington going then claim they don’t have the authority to enforce a law that was illegally passed?
I don’t think so.
NRA-ILA and Alan Gottlieb have both filed lawsuits to stop this fraud.
Today I was notified there are changes coming to how my blog posts are shared on Facebook:
We wanted to update you about an upcoming change Facebook is introducing to their platform, and which affects how you may share posts from your WordPress.com website to your Facebook account.
Starting August 1, 2018, third-party tools can no longer share posts automatically to Facebook Profiles. This includes Publicize, the tool for WordPress.com and Jetpack-powered sites that connects your site to major social media platforms (like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook).
I can still share them manually which means it won’t happen as much. I just don’t like Facebook for a variety of reasons and this change doesn’t endear them to me either.
No more compromise
No more compliance
BFD @BigFatDave
Tweeted on July 27, 2018
[This reminds me of something I have pointed out before:
Have you ever noticed that crazy people will act only as crazy as you let them be?
It’s time to let the crazy people know we aren’t going to let them continue the act.—Joe]
America is going to get a lot less safe.
…
are not only scary, they’re outright dangerous in the way they can mimic the look and the capacity of a hardened, fully semiautomatic weapon.
Sen. Charles Schumer
D-N.Y.
July 22, 2018
Schumer Goes Full Semi-automatic
[NRA-ILA comments:
Gun owners often share a laugh over what appears to be the profound ignorance of much of the anti-gun community. However, gun rights supporters must also be aware that some of these absurd moments might just be attempts to mislead the less informed. Understanding this, gun owners must work to better educate the public and dispel the lies our opponents traffic in.
This sort of thing is to be expected. Attention to detail and the truth would get in the way of his evil agenda. No need to quibble with him. Just do your best to keep him as far from power as you can.—Joe]
Let’s be clear: gun control is neither gun abolition nor gun confiscation. No one is trying to take away your guns, and no one is suggesting a ban in the U.S., either.
Tamlynn Torchon
July 26, 2018
Opinion: Gun control is useful, necessary and complicated
[Yes. Let’s be clear. Torchon is extraordinarily ignorant and/or lying. Therefore we can regard everything they say as worthless or evidence of their evil intent.—Joe]
In our newly published and freely available study, the connection between Christian nationalism and gun control attitudes proves stronger than we expected. It turns out that how intensely someone adheres to Christian nationalism is one of the strongest predictors of whether someone supports gun control. One’s political party, religiosity, gender, education or age doesn’t matter.
You could be a mainline Protestant Democratic woman or a highly educated politically liberal man — the more you line up with Christian nationalism, the less likely you are to support gun control.
Andrew Whitehead, Landon Schnabel and Samuel Perry
July 25, 2018
Why some Christians don’t believe in gun control: They think God handed down the Second Amendment
[Interesting observation. But probably not that surprising when you know their definition of Christian nationalism:
Americans who subscribe to Christian nationalism believe that America has always been ― and should always be ― distinctively Christian in its national identity, sacred symbols and public policies. What’s more, for adherents to this ideology, America’s historic statements about human liberties (e.g., the First and Second Amendments) are imbued with sacred, literal and absolute meaning.
If I understand this correctly they believe a higher power, the Christian God, created our nation and constitution. And, I would imagine, therefore claim that God’s creation must be in His likeness—i.e. perfection. Any utility argument, or even a principled argument, that does not address the creation of the U.S. Constitution by a perfect being is pointless.—Joe]
That pile of cash is the Venezuelan equivalent of one US dollar. Behold the power of socialism.
Cam Edwards @CamEdwards
Tweeted on July 23, 2018
[The destructive power of socialism is absolutely amazing. No other political system has been so well tested and proven again and again to be such a threat to property and lives. Only an “intellectual”, completely out of touch with reality, could honestly advocate it as an improvement in the living conditions for the majority of the people.—Joe]
A small part of the class from this weekend:
The ultra short version:
The SJW mind is somewhere on the mental disorder spectrum. Michael Savage wrote the book on it but here is another strong indicator that sort of bubbled up sufficiently for me to finally put into words.
What they call “microaggressions” and flip out over would be considered signs of paranoia in a clinical setting. They can find evidence of their delusions of persecution in the most innocent action or word. They cannot be convinced they are not victims.
They are crazy and at some level I’m pretty sure you already knew that. Perhaps my observation can help you articulate it better and confirm your own suspicions.
Right now, social justice fascism is just too valuable to them to just abandon. It works. It lets those who rightfully would have no power exploit the stupid and weak elite to exercise unearned authority. These goose-stepping aspiring Red Guards got a taste of power and they like it. And they are bad people. They have to be stopped, here and now.
Kurt Schlichter
July 23, 2018
Conservatives Reject Unilateral Disarmament In The Face Of Liberal Social Fascism
[He makes some very good points. There days when I think risking riots and civil war by standing up to the fascists isn’t worth it. Perhaps we should just let them throw their tantrums and don’t make a big deal about it.
No. Compliance with insane demands just encourages more insanity.
At the class this last weekend Greg make what I thought was great point that I have mentioned several times, expressed in different words, by my counselor. Greg expressed it more succinctly:
Have you ever noticed that crazy people will act only as crazy as you let them be?
We have to set boundaries and enforce them. Schlichter drew a line in the sand. I’m willing to enforce it. Are you?—Joe]
If you attend a class at Insights one of the things you are taught is mindset. And it’s not just the mindset you need to have to be able to do what you have to do to use lethal force to defend innocent life. You learn a little bit about the mindset of the bad guy.
One example from this last weekend was from Greg (paraphrased):
The Green River Killer took great offense when an interviewer mentioned his raping of women. He insisted he did not rape them. They were prostitutes and he always paid them for the sex. “But you took their money, because there was never any money found with their bodies.” His response was, “They were dead. They didn’t have any use for it.”
And, of course, they never said no when he came back and had sex with their bodies for several days. So how could that be considered rape?
This is part of what the Insights trainers call, “removing the paint job”. Criminals may look like ordinary people on the outside but they aren’t what most people really consider human on the inside.
This last Sunday near the end of the Street & Vehicle Tactics class Derek opened up.
The day before we learned Derek grew up on New York City. He and one other member of his family (including cousins) went into law enforcement. Everyone else became criminals. He knew more criminals and saw more criminal acts by the time he was a teenager than I probably will in my entire life.
He went to the funeral of the first person he knew who was murdered when he was eight years old. His dad would tell him to take a particular coat when he went out, because that was the one that had the .38 special revolver in the pocket—he was eleven years old. When he went to college the police told their class to not go to a particular convenience story because they would get robbed. He saw multiple people come back from that corner in their underwear—even when there was snow on the ground. Taking their pants was the easiest way to make sure they got everything in their pockets. When we were practicing avoiding a mugging he showed us how a professional team of muggers would do it. If you stepped into their “kill zone” when a gun discreetly shoved into your ribs and calm, quiet, voice would tell you what to do and you would be on your way in half a minute without you wallet, phone, watch, etc. They then would reset to their start positions and wait for their next victim to enter their box. He told us of his cousins telling him of stories about how they jacked someone for their wallet in a parking lot and details of other crimes.
That was Saturday. On Sunday he said he wanted to share some things he had never shared with a class before.
He said he had a realization from watching our reactions to his stories the day before. He asked, “Before you were 25, how many of you went hunting? Went fishing? Hiked in the forest? Swam in a lake?” Nearly all of us were able to answer most of the questions with a yes. Then he said, “I didn’t do any of those things. I never even dreamed I might be able to do any of those things when I was growing up.”
His lesson rambled some. He obviously had not practiced it. His lesson was that our world view is dramatically different from many criminals. It is so different that we can’t really comprehend how different it is. There are a lot of similarities in some respect. Some of them have families they are supporting, most of them have families that love them.
But we don’t just have a different tribal label. We are so different in so many way that we probably cannot think like them.
Frequently they are firmly committed to a life of crime. Just like a drug addict or alcoholic, counseling doesn’t work unless they made the choice to seek it out. And he is now a counselor!
He found a path away from that life when he was young and can now socially blend in to either world. He wanted to share that insight about both worlds with us. We, almost for certain cannot and should not expect our standards of behavior and belief in a specific social contract to be shared by them. They have a much different social contract.
While many of us may be ignorant of their culture and beliefs to the point of extreme denial and extreme conviction that they must be like us, they know, sometimes with great passion, that we are not like them. Frequently, they do not want outsiders in their territory. If you do tread on their territory be on the lookout for signs of hostility and heed the warnings.
If you support this proposal then you must support a keeping homeowners honest act. While the vast majority of homeowners are law abiding citizens, studies would suggest that over 90% of illegal drugs distributed in any given area are distributed by a few bad apples. To have all homes periodically searched to prevent illegal drug sales is just common sense.
Mark
July 17, 2018 at 1:24 pm
Comment to Senators Blumenthal and Murphy offer new bill to increase gun dealer oversight
[The ATF should be a chain of convenience stores, not a regulatory agency.—Joe]
Trying to stab people who carry guns is generally a bad idea:
All the odd red dots are the result of getting shot while trying to stab a bunch of people with a knife.
For the past three days I have been taking a class, Street & Vehicle Tactics with a bunch of other guys. One of the things we did was work at the Tueller Drill from both sides while being watched and coached. Today we finished up the training using Airsoft guns and (extremely soft) plastic knifes to make it as realistic as possible.
Everyone were pretty good shooters and with some training and coaching we could survive a bad guy with a knife suddenly charging at us from far less than 21 feet. At 21 feet it was trivial to draw from concealment and put a half dozen rounds into someone’s chest before they reached you. We also learned that at less than arms length away your neck could easily be sliced open before you had time to flinch.
Also interesting thing was that no one I talked to remembered seeing or using their sights. At those ranges you just pointed and shot. And you would get good hits too. The only misses I saw were when the shooter stepped off to one side and shot as the bad guy was moving past.
Just how difficult is it to draw and shoot when someone is charging at you? How much time do you really have? What can you do beside just stand there and shoot? It was really good information to know.
But what I found most interesting was that by doing so many repetitions that it almost got routine. I started to get relaxed rather than getting stressed. Then, “Now I remember! I can move faster when I am relaxed.” Deliberately relaxing my muscles and having an almost detached state of mind I could put more rounds into my target or let him start from a much closer position and still get shots on target before he could get to me.
How is it, then, that “assault weapons” magically transform into “counter-assault weapons” when handled by the police? And how do they revert to “deadly assault weapons” when handled by everyone else?
The fact that people believe that law enforcement may use these weapons demonstrates, of course, that people understand that the weapons have obvious and legitimate utility for defense of home, community and nation. This one fact shows that the guns are not evil of themselves, and do not whisper to their owners, taunting them to shoot children playing at recess or innocent bystanders in drive-by shootings.
This one fact shows that people understand that the responsible use of firearms depends foremost on the purpose and character of the person who wields the weapon. And because we know these things, this discrepancy between how we view police holds the key to understanding what the assault weapon ban is really about.
Jeff Snyder
Who’s Under Assault in the Assault Weapon Ban?
The Washington Times, Aug. 25, 1994, page A19
See also, Nation of Cowards 2001 page 64
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
