@nra Gun Appreciation Day is a Freudian term for wishful thinking penis day. #guncontrol
Jim of Pennsyltucky (@jimdigs)
Tweeted on January 19, 2013
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday! Via still another Tweet from Linoge.—Joe]
Author Archives: Joe
Vampire season
Barb L. and I just got back from the lumber store after purchasing 1000 stakes:
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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]
Biden’s brain cell still lonely
Vice President Biden keeps demonstrating his profound ignorance and stupidity:
Biden also suggested that [Newtown school shooter] might have been killed sooner had he had to spend more time reloading.
“Think about Newtown,” Biden said. “Think about how many of these children or teachers may be alive today had he had to reload three times as many times as he did.”
The transcript of that speech doesn’t report anything about Biden saying the shooter was killed by police so Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake may be solely responsible for that sentence. In the transcript Biden does claim the police responded in two and a half minutes. That is probably false unless you want to claim one or more cars having started to move in the direction of the school qualifies as “responded.”
The shooter started his attack at about 9:35 AM and stopped about 9:46 AM to 9:49 AM after firing 152 rounds. See also this report.
The shooter killed himself at least 10 minutes after beginning his attack. Some reports have it as police arriving 20 minutes after the attack started. I have also used this number but recent reports indicate it was significantly less that that. Biden is either purposely ignorant and/or stupid if he thinks what he said is true. And even if it was true two and a half minutes is enough time to fire a lot more than 152 rounds even with 10 round magazines.
Reloading an AR-15 takes a bit longer than it does for my STI Eagle but I got 40 rounds on target in 16.8 seconds which included three reloads and clearing a malfunction:
Extrapolating to 152 rounds and you get 63.8 seconds for trigger time and magazine changes. When shooting dozens of passive “targets” the thing that takes the most time is the target transition and acquisition. This includes moving to a new position to view the next target and getting an appropriate sight picture. It’s not the trigger or reload time which can frequently be done in parallel with the target transition and acquisition.
Even if the police did arrive two and half minutes after receiving the first call the number of magazines required simply doesn’t matter. Many of the magazines he used were dropped after firing only 15 of the 30 rounds they contained. If he had been required to use 15 magazines instead of the approximately 10 that would have only added another, at most, 15 seconds. And that assumes he wasn’t doing something else at the time he made the magazine changes such as moving to a new shooting location. If he was doing the magazine changes in parallel with moving it could be that it would have made zero difference in time.
I can only conclude Biden’s brain cell is still lonely and/or he is deliberately attempting to deceive the public.
At first I cringed
When I saw the title “The five minute NRA speech that would change the gun control debate forever” I cringed. I expected the article to be something along the lines of advocating the NRA saying, “We were wrong. Assault weapons are evil.” I was wrong:
The time for partisanship is over; now is the time for action. And that’s why the NRA is requesting the assistance of the ACLU.
The Sandy Hook tragedy, the Virginia Tech shooting, the Aurora “Batman” shooting, the Tucson shooting – all of the killers had something in common: They were all mentally unstable young men who were prescribed mind-altering psychiatric drugs.
The only thing I disagree with is that speech would change the gun control debate. For most politicians and many activists their gun control agenda isn’t about saving lives. That isn’t even debatable anymore. It’s about control, money, and security theater.
Addressing the extremely difficult problem of how to appropriately deal with mental illness isn’t something that lends itself to simple, even if false, answers and sound bites. Politicians don’t get elected by getting people to think about complex issues. They get elected by offering simplistic “solutions” to distressing emotional events and/or situations.
Don’t expect pigs to fly and don’t expect politicians to advocate people thinking.
It’s not over
Via email from the CSGV:
Where We Stand on the Assault Weapons Ban
By now, many of you have heard about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s announcement yesterday regarding the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013. Speaking at a press conference on Capitol Hill, Senator Reid announced that the Assault Weapons Ban will not be part of the base gun violence prevention bill he brings to the Senate floor next month.
The reaction from gun violence prevention advocates was fierce and immediate; many felt betrayed. The press quickly reported that “the Assault Weapons Ban is dead in the Senate.”
The press is wrong.
There’s no doubt that Senator Reid’s statement could have been more sensitive and thoughtful. But it’s important to understand the procedural hurdles he is contemplating. If there is a filibuster by Republicans, Senator Reid will need 60 votes to bring a gun violence prevention bill to the Senate floor for a vote. He is weighing whether he can get those 60 votes in a package bill if the Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) is included. His estimation is that it is better to leave the AWB out of the bill he brings to the floor, so that he can break a filibuster and get it there in the first place. Once it’s on the floor, Senator Reid has been clear that he will allow Senator Feinstein to introduce the AWB as an amendment to the bill. This strategy would ensure that all the important pieces of the Senate Judiciary Committe’s package (universal background checks, anti-gun trafficking penalties, and the Assault Weapons Ban) actually get votes, as opposed to none of them.
And let’s remember what the sponsor of the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013, Senator Dianne Feinstein, said on January 27th of this year:
“There will be a package put together. If assault weapons is left out of the package…I’ve been assured by the majority leader I will be able to do it as an amendment on the floor, which is the way I did it in 1993. So, that doesn’t particularly bother me.”And it shouldn’t bother us either.
Let’s all stay focused and get the up or down votes on the Senate floor that gun violence victims and survivors so richly deserve. Please continue to call your Senators at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to vote YES on universal background checks, the assault weapons ban, and tougher criminal penalties for straw buyers and gun traffickers.
Thank you as always for your support!
Sincerely,
Josh Horwitz
Executive Director
Barb S. and I used to say, “I’ll believe it when the check clears the bank.”
In regards to anti-gun legislation being dead: I’ll believe it when the perpetrators are convicted. Until then we need to be on guard because it isn’t and won’t be over for a long time.
Quote of the day—Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership
The State of New York has resorted to a “turn in your neighbor” program, for enforcement. Knowing that people will not willingly comply, the state has resorted to a tried and true tactic of turning the citizens upon each other to aggrandize the power of the state.
Does this strike a responsive historical cord, in anyone???
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership
March 20, 2013
And so it begins
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
Quote of the day—Magpul Industries Corp.
We have said all along that based on the legal problems and uncertainties in the bill, as well as general principle, we will have no choice but to leave if the Governor signs this into law. We will start our transition out of the state almost immediately, and we will prioritize moving magazine manufacturing operations first. We expect the first PMAGs to be made outside CO within 30 days of the signing, with the rest to follow in phases.
Magpul Industries Corp.
Facebook statement, March 18, 2013.
[H/T David Hardy.
What gun owners did to politicians in 1994 over the AWS should happen to the legislators and governors of states that even attempted to implement these repressive laws. Then they should be considered politically untouchable and used as examples to others for the rest of their lives as if they were Grand Wizards of the KKK.—Joe]
Wow!
Via Sebastian.
What investigators found was a chilling spreadsheet 7 feet long and 4 feet wide that required a special printer, a document that contained [his] obsessive, extensive research — in nine-point font — about mass murders of the past, and even attempted murders.
But it wasn’t just a spreadsheet. It was a score sheet.
Someone that dedicated and reasonably intelligent cannot be stopped short of an extremely repressive police state. Attempting to legislate preventive measures for someone like that is insane in any society and should be criminal in a free society.
What can, and should, be legislatively done is to enable and strengthen the defense of the potential victims.