In an interview discussing his support for arming the Libyan rebels, Bill Clinton was quoted:
“We’re trying to build a world in which people resolve their differences
in nonviolent ways,” he said. “And we’re trying to build a world where
no ruler can cavalierly kill its unarmed civilians.”
For those that regard facts, correlation, truth, and falsity important (i.e. people unlike MikeB302000 and other anti freedom people) this is an awesome article.
Here are some of the graphs to give you a hint of the content:
Obviously as gun ownership increases there is more freedom.
Gun ownership goes up when the economy of the nation is better.
Homicide has a slight negative correlation with gun ownership. But this graph doesn’t tell the complete story because it doesn’t include the murder of citizens by their governments. Nearly 100 million people were murdered by their own governments in the 20th Century. All the major genocides were enabled by strict gun control. These numbers are not included in the above graph and if included they would give the above graph a huge negative correlation.
As gun ownership goes up the corruption goes down. I find this one of the most interesting graphs. I wonder about the causation. Do corrupt government restrict gun ownership out of fear or is corruption lower because people own guns? Both? Neither?
You couldn’t even prove the White House staff sane beyond a reasonable doubt.
Ed Meese
On the Hinckley verdict regarding the shooting of President Regan.
[I should have posted this on March 30, the 30 year anniversary of the shooting, but I forgot about it.
While there is a great deal of hyperbole in this quote it does have a grain of truth.—Joe]
The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs.
Karl Marx
[In this age with both state and Federal government collapsing from the weight of “entitlements” I find the irony of this funny in a very sad, sick sort of way.—Joe]
Sometimes you just have to shake your head at the lack of a rational thought process. This particular instance is brought to you by Elizabeth Guernsey, 26, a graduate of Trinity College who is pursuing a master’s degree in “urban studies”. “Urban studies” probably explains everything:
In fact, the federal government has passed only three major pieces of gun legislation over the past century. Two of these bills followed the assassination and attempted assassination of public officials. The National Firearms Act of 1934 made it illegal to carry hand grenades and machine guns. The Firearms Act of 1968, passed after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, regulates the firearm industry and prevents interstate firearm transfers. The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993, named for James Brady, who was shot during the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan, requires background checks for those purchasing firearms.
These pieces of federal law are critical to keeping illegal guns out of our communities. Perhaps we should applaud politicians for using the moment after a president or congresswoman is shot to push for improved gun regulations. But why have public officials been unable to pass laws in light of the 9,484 ordinary people killed each year by gun violence?
First off, these three laws are far from all the Federal laws on the books. Alan Korwin has an entire book on just Federal Gun Laws—all 271 of them.
Next, the laws she describes as “critical to keeping illegal guns out of our communities” actually created “illegal guns”. Machine guns, short barreled shotguns, and suppressors weren’t “illegal” until it was required that an exorbitant tax (at the time) was placed on them with NFA 1934. Without registering the gun and paying the tax the guns were illegal to be privately owned. Again, GCA 1968 prohibiting the private transfers of firearms across state lines created “illegal guns”. And finally the background check mandated by the Brady Act in 1993 has nothing to do with guns. It only has to do with people. Her statement about the criticality of the laws in “keeping illegal guns out of our community” is a total disconnect from reality.
Finally, as pointed out by the CDC and others there is no evidence that any of the gun laws on the books has made communities safer. I find it very telling that neither the issue of effectiveness of laws infringing upon a specific enumerated right, or the issue that such a right even exists was mentioned by Ms. Guernsey. But what do you expect from someone who has crap for brains and the best they can do to establish self-esteem is attempt to acquire a degree in “urban studies”?
Operation Down-Low began over a friendly game of Horse at the White House, between members of the Fox News White House detail, the Secret Service and the President. After several beers and bumps, the President was encouraged to consider the option to offer an olive branch to the right and join the NRA. The following morning, it was made clear to the President that he had indeed bet Fox News correspondent Wendell Goler that if he lost, he would join the NRA.
Goler won the game by three points. While the President strongly protested, NRA negotiators pointed out that there was video of both the bet and the game itself, and that the President would lose his core constituency of black voters if word got out that he not only welched on a bet, but did so with a fellow homeboy.
Brad Kozak
April 1, 2011
Obama Joins the NRA
[I don’t usually get into the April 1st stuff (there are exceptions), but I thought this was pretty good.—Joe]