Author Archives: Joe

Quote of the day—Rich Lowry

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Gun control always founders on the paradox that it is possible to write new laws for the law-abiding but difficult or impossible to reach criminals who don’t care about laws.

Rich Lowry
April 5, 2013
Lowry: The great gun control fizzle
[Sincere gun control advocates are very shallow thinkers. They think of the good that might come of the laws but not of, or dismiss, the harm it will certainly will cause. “If it saves just one life” is based upon this shallow thinking.

When the torrents of emotional pain from the latest tragedy involving a firearm have receded from all but the lowest parts of the flood plain reason and facts reappear and clear thinking makes it’s appearance again.

It should be very telling the gun control advocates are most effective when emotions run deep and run aground when the tears have started to dry.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Chuck and Pat Wemstrom

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America needs to grow up. No one should need Hummers, attack dogs or assault rifles to prove himself a mensch. More important are qualities of courage, integrity and thoughtfulness.

Real men don’t need guns.

Chuck and Pat Wemstrom
April 1, 2013
The Wemstroms: Gun debate and the male ego
[I guess police officers and our soldiers aren’t real men then. Or else they don’t need the guns they carry. And even if “real men” don’t need guns how about “real women”?

The bottom line is that assault rifles have nothing to do with proving oneself to be a mensch. They are tools and like any other tool do not bestow qualities upon the owners. For the Wemstroms to believe they do or for them to believe gun owners believe they do is a serious error on their part. It’s a straw-man argument.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Stuart Rothenberg

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But the devil is in the details. You don’t have a lot of people feeling particularly pressured to do anything.

In the end, however, gun control advocates need to get something, he says, and will have to cooperate with the NRA to do so.

The political reality is that the NRA, surprisingly, didn’t give an inch. Now the other side needs to figure out a way to negotiate.

Stuart Rothenberg
April 3, 2013
Gun Control Prospects Recede As Politics Swamp Momentum
[Why should it be surprising the NRA didn’t give an inch? If the propose laws were severe restrictions on the right to attend the church of your choice or the right to read the books you wanted do you think the ACLU would give an inch?

The right to keep and bear arms is no different. Over a hundred million people were murdered or killed in wars in the 20th Century by people who read and took to heart the works of Karl Marx. And I expect there will be millions more death in the conflict over communism in this century. Yet I have never once heard of anyone advocating for the banning of his books. 20 kids murdered by a nut case with a gun is a huge tragedy but millions of kids murdered by leftist monsters is just a number.

I want the people at large to own guns so the risk of genocide and mass murder due to advocates of communism or any other totalitarian government is pushed to near zero. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom to bear arms are a package deal. And there is nothing to negotiate.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Phelps

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Given the speed of sound and how fast you’ll drop, you’ll never hear the shot.

Phelps
March 31, 2013
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Matt Brian

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Google users have blasted the company for focusing on its April Fools antics, arguing that the time invested in polishing its gags might have been better spent keeping Google Reader alive.

Matt Brian
April 1, 2013
Google and Microsoft trade insults for April Fools
[Add me to the list of Google Reader users that is annoyed they are discontinuing it.—Joe]

Boomershoot history article

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The editor at Western Shooting Journal gave me permission to publish the article I wrote for them the history of Boomershoot here are my blog. The .pdf files for the various pages in the March 2013 issue are:

Quote of the day—Jim of Pennsyltucky

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Vampire season

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Barb L. and I just got back from the lumber store after purchasing 1000 stakes:

WP_000592

I really wanted someone to ask why we were buying so many stakes. The checkout clerk “had that look”. You just knew he was wondering but he didn’t ask.

Barb and I were ready with answers. Her answer was, “We run a tourist business of vampire hunts.”

I planned to make him work a little more and get his brain engaged before delivering the punch line. I envisioned it would go something like this:

Clerk: What are you going to do with all those stakes?

Joe: Hunting season opens next weekend in Idaho and we are going to be there for opening day.

Clerk: Okay. <pause> Uh… what are you hunting?

Joe: Vampires.

More blog posts about stake purchases and vampires are here (2006), here (2007), and here (2008). All are about this time of year and all are related to Boomershoot.

Quote of the day–Ed Pietruszka Jr.

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There is no crisis of rifle violence in this state, only a crisis of fear driven by opportunistic legislators.

Ed Pietruszka Jr.
March 31, 2013
Don’t be fooled by gun control lies
[Pietruszka was referring to Maryland but the statement is true in many other states and at the Federal level as well.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Andrew Rosenthal

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On Thursday, President Obama renewed his call for legislation, including a ban on some of the most lethal guns (so-called “military-style” assault weapons designed for the singular purpose of killing as many people as possible as quickly as possible.)

Andrew Rosenthal
March 29, 2013
What Now for Gun Control?
[Many millions of these “singular purpose” guns are in use all over the U.S. yet only a few hundred people are killed each year using a rifle of any type yet alone a “assault weapon”.

It’s long past time for the New York Times (Rosenthal works for the NYT) to openly state they are nothing more than a propaganda machine and have concern for, and perhaps no awareness of, facts.—Joe]

Random thought of the day

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While I agree with the sentiment “Because F*$k you!” when asked something along the lines of “Why do you need X?” where X is a firearm, ammo, book, religion, speech, encryption, or any other freedom I think there may be a more productive answer.

I think my answer would be:

That is a totally inappropriate question. The proper questions are:

  • Where does the government get the power for infringing upon this right?
  • What justification does the government have for infringing upon this right?
  • Where is the evidence that this infringement will be a net benefit?

Make them prove their case. It’s not up to us to prove ours.

Quote of the day—Edward J. Erler

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For Progressives then and now, the welfare of the people—not liberty—is the primary object of government, and government should always be in the hands of experts. This is the real origin of today’s gun control hysteria—the idea that professional police forces and the military have rendered the armed citizen superfluous; that no individual should be responsible for the defense of himself and his family, but should leave it to the experts. The idea of individual responsibilities, along with that of individual rights, is in fact incompatible with the Progressive vision of the common welfare.

Edward J. Erler
March 2013
The Second Amendment as an Expression of First Principles
[H/T to Dwight M. from the gun email list at work who brought my attention to this quote.

There are some excellent insights in this article.—Joe]

Random thought of the day

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Some other blogger, sorry but I can’t find the post, Robb recently said something about communists/socialists/liberals/progressives/whatever-they-call-themselves-these-days have as a basic premise that the people in general are so incompetent that they must have a strong, near all-powerful government/central-committee to govern their lives. But then they expect these same incompetent people to wisely elect, from within the general population, superior beings to govern them. That doesn’t exactly make sense.

That is all well and good as far as it goes but I think it can be further extended. In fact I suspect there are numerous examples of the following even though I don’t have direct evidence to support it.

Since the people doing the electing are so incompetent as to not be able to manage their own affairs then it must be completely beyond hope to for them to be able to distinguish who should be their rulers.

Hence one concludes that it is a logical necessity that those who would be rulers must assume their rightful role without concerning themselves with obtaining the consent of the governed.

It’s just common sense.

Quote of the day—Jay Carney

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There’s not a single measure in this package of proposals the president has put forward that in anyway violates the Constitution. In fact, they reflect the president’s commitment to our Second Amendment rights.

Jay Carney
White House Press Secretary
March 26, 2013
White House to Sheriffs: Follow Law in Enforcing Gun Control Measures

[Why yes! They do, in fact, reflect the president’s commitment to our Second Amendment rights. Never mind that the sign on the level of commitment is negative.

This really gets my blood pumping. They must think we all have crap for brains.

If there was ever a more blatant example of doublespeak I am not aware of it. While arbeit macht frei was far more sinister it was not nearly so transparent to observers on their first viewing.

This example is like the kid with his or her face and hands covered in cake frosting insisting they didn’t eat the cake. I wish Carney and those he is attempting to cover for could be spanked and sent to their room (prison cell) for the next 10 years.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Robert J. Avrech

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The one topic Sol cannot talk about are the Jewish overseers: the Judenrat, and the Kapos, Jews who collaborated with the Nazis. Of these men and women, Sol just shakes his head in disbelief. The evil of the Nazis is comprehensible for evil is ever present. But the Jews who cooperated in the genocide of their own people is beyond imagination.

The Judenrat and kapos are still with us.

Too many American Jews worship at the altar of the state. Their religion is not Torah Judaism, but the Democrat party. So closely do they identify with the power of government, they don’t even realize that they are creating the apparatus of a soft tyranny that will enslave their children and their children’s children.

Obamacare is Egyptian slavery. It is Pharaoh’s court of magicians, charlatans who create an illusion of reality.

Robert J. Avrech
March 25, 2013
Passover 2013: Of Slaves, Slavery, Judenrat, Kapos and America
[It’s not just Obamacare. It’s the entire nanny-state. And it may not be so “soft” when the economic system collapses.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Malcolm X

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Concerning non-violence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.

Malcolm X
March 12, 1964
[For the record and to keep people from getting themselves caught with a misquotation please beware that I have seen this misquoted and falsely attributed to Martin Luther King Jr. as “It is criminal to not teach a man to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.”—Joe]

Quote of the day—Elizabeth Arch

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It is sad that those two men need to prove their manhood by carrying big guns around on the streets of Portland… If they need proof, joining the military is a lot better than scaring little children.

Elizabeth Arch
January 15, 2013
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday! Via the Rivrdog comment here.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Ted Cruz

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Statists invariably have talented people drawn to politics because they believe in power. And they’re very effective at defending government control of the economy in our lives.

Ted Cruz
(Then candidate for) U.S. Senator
October 17, 2011 Issue of National Review
[H/T to Kevin for the video from which I was alerted to this quote.

This is very similar to a message in The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek. Power abusing people are drawn to powerful government positions. These people work to increase that power.

This can also be related to the line, “Because that’s where the money is” falsely attributed to Willie Sutton when asked why he robbed banks.

Banks vaults are built strong because they are subject to repeated and determined attacks. The U.S. Constitution was intended to be analogous to a vault for liberty. By limiting government to specific enumerated power people who would abuse government power would be prohibited from doing so because government was not given power to abuse on a wide scale.

But unlike a bank vault those that attack and/or defeat the Constitutional “vault” through illegitimate means are almost never caught and punished for their crimes. I believe this to be the greatest failing of our form of government and I believe it will result in the collapse of our government.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Wraith

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The Constitution doesn’t matter.  The law doesn’t matter.  We live in de facto anarchy, where it all comes down to who’s got the biggest gang, the most guns and the most sociopathic outlook on life.

Seriously, folks–that’s how it is.  This country won’t even follow Iceland’s lead in prosecuting the plutocrat banksters.  It won’t hold any Proglodyte accountable for their actions, but will hold every one of us accountable for the actions of others.  It’s never been plainer that it’s Who You Are or Who You Know that determines whether you’re subject to the law of the land.

So if you expect even one politician to face any consequences at all for their treasonous actions, you’re dumber than Joe Biden.  Period.

Wraith
March 21, 2013
Comment to Quote of the day—Magpul Industries Corp.
[He’s got a point.

I’ve been recently thinking that even true anarchy with people contracting with private firms and individuals for dispute resolution, and construction and/or maintenance of common resources (roads, forests, lakes, rivers, etc.) might be a better “government” model than what we have now.

What we have now is that some subset of the people adhere to the rules simply because they are the rules and those people end up being at a severe disadvantage to those that don’t play by the rules with a very low risk of punishment.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Robert Gebbia

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If you can make it difficult at that moment when they are serious about taking their lives, you get that chance to intervene.

Robert Gebbia
Executive director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
March 21, 2013
New Colorado gun control law could help prevent suicides
[This was while referring to the requirement that there be background checks for all firearm transfers.

Governor Hickenlooper came in a close second for QOTD in the same article with:

However many homicides we have each year with handguns, we have about 20 percent more suicides. That number drops significantly when you have universal background checks.”

Citation needed.

If that were actually true then it would be parroted by every anti-gun person in every debate. It hasn’t been. I attribute the statement to Hickenlooper doing what politicians do, which is making up stuff to fit their agenda.

But let’s look at Gebbia’s statement and indirectly show why Hickenlooper statement is almost for certain false.

The only way Gebbia’s statement makes sense is if all of the following are true:

  • A significant number of suicides are committed by people with a gun.
  • Those people only had possession or access to a single gun.
  • That gun was obtained via a private transfer.
  • The private transfer occurred in the previous few hours or at most days.
  • The FFL doing the background check also does a mental health evaluation at the same time.
  • The FFL has some sort of authority to intervene and turn them over to mental health professions before they pursue an alternate suicide method.

Will FFL’s be required to have suicide detection training? Or will the ATF just add another check box on the 4473?

My hypothesis is that neither will happen. All that is going to happen already has. And that is that Robert Gebbia just demonstrated he has crap for brains.—Joe]