Quote of the day—jvalver

Because of our “car culture” – 80 people die a day in auto accidents. Thus the US Taxpayer, which still owns part of GM is responsible for those deaths along with the AAA and license bureaus. Heck- 95 people die each year from lawnmower accidents. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac promoting home ownership should be held accountable because of a “homeowner culture”. Local communities should be held accountable too. They have ordinances about letting grass grow too high, thus a homeowner does it themselves if they can’t afford a landscaper.

jvalver
May 17, 2012
Comment to Racial issues: Face truth about gun violence
[Remember this the next time someone from the Brady Campaign, CSGV, or VPC says something about the NRA or gun manufactures are responsible for a death or injury inflicted by someone using a gun.

It might also be worthwhile to point out they have been creating a culture of hoplophobia and we should “hold them responsible” for the people that were unable to defend themselves because they didn’t have a firearm.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Alan Korwin

What we really need is research and medical-treatment programs for the poor, unfortunate people who are terrified of guns, won’t go near guns, who would not defend themselves or their families if they had to, and who, very plainly, hate guns.

Hate is a terrible thing.

It must be confronted vigorously, righteously, and in a forthright manner. Logic and law do not confront hate, or help lessen it. We must learn not to tolerate gun hate, anywhere we find it.

Hoplophobic behavior in government, schools, and all facets of public life must be recognized for what it is, exposed, and rooted out or treated. Seemingly utopian pacifists are free to profess their love of a weapon-free world, but they must start by disarming the evil, criminal and tyrannical. Disarming the general public is a vent for their twisted fear and hatred, a grotesque affront to freedom, and unacceptable. Disarming an innocent person is an act of violence.

Alan Korwin
HOPLOPHOBIA–A modern scourge.
January 24, 2005
[As a Libertarian I’m generally more closely aligned with Phil (see the last paragraph of this post) than with any mainstream political party. However I would give consideration to a government paid for treatment facility for government employee first offenders hoplophobes as an alternative to prison. But as long as they present no threat to others the poor tormented souls of the Brady Campaign, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, and the Violence Policy Center should pay for their own treatments.—Joe]

Quote of the day—David Carson

Why is supporting the Bill of Rights a good thing?


David Carson
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Comment to The VA Tells the Truth About Guns. The NRA Can’t Handle It.
[It’s nice for our opposition to explicitly say what we already knew about them. They either cannot or will not respect the rights of others. They not only see no need to put limits on government but actively oppose and ignore limits on government.


In answer to Carson’s question, “Just because“.—Joe]

Quote of the day—James T. Brown

The National Rifle Association has caused more death and injury to Americans then any terrorist group.

James T. Brown
May 1, 2012
Letter: NRA lobby is an assault on U.S.
[If you squint and hold your head just right you might be able to say that he is technically correct. But the path is somewhat tenuous and leads to protective violence rather than criminal violence.

Brown, of course, did not intend his comments to be taken in this manner. Brown should be given all the scorn and ridicule normally given to those that claim teaching of evolution, mixed race marriages, or women being allowed to vote is responsible drought, earthquakes, and the milk cows going dry.—Joe]

That’s an easy one

Clayton wants some help:

I have been asked to help write an amicus brief challenging a state discretionary permit issuance. In state after state, as shall-issue laws have worked their way through the legislative process, opponents of shall-issue have repeatedly stated that “blood with run in the streets” “It will be like the Wild West” and similar claims.

Our enemies are one of the best sources for ammunition to be used against them. There own words are riches just waiting to be mined.

The keyword “site:” can be used with both Google and Bing. This restricts your search to just a single domain. Hence the search phrase site:bradycampaign.org “wild west” yields good results (Google yields a few more than Bing but I’m not convinced they are better). site:vpc.org “blood in the streets” is somewhat less interesting.

Quote of the day—Gore Vidal

Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.

Gore Vidal
[I normally would find something of this nature funny but with too much truth in it I, as well as the humor, suffers.—Joe]

I love my spud gun

I’ve posted quite a bit about my spud gun.

I ended up with an old target from 2004 in my truck load of stuff I brought back from Idaho last night:

WP_000574

That is a 0.5 inch five-shot group from 100 yards which I shot with factory ammo (300 Win Mag, Black Hills Match which is loaded with a moly coated 190 grain Sierra Match King bullet). That is a typical group at that range. I’ve had smaller groups at 200 yards but not with as many shots and those aren’t typical.

I am very, very pleased with this gun and ammo. I just wish I had more occasions to shoot it. My clock tower just isn’t the right place for it at this time.

Equipping my clock tower

Friday night son James and I packed all of Barbara’s stuff into a U-Haul truck and I left for Idaho with it. Saturday with help from Jacob and Nancy I unloaded the truck and loaded up a bunch of my stuff in Idaho. Tonight son James, and daughter-in-law Kelsey helped me unload the truck and pack the stuff up the stairs to my clock tower.

The water bed is still nothing but a bunch of pieces of wood:

WP_000572

The reloading bench is inaccessible behind a sea of boxes:

WP_000573

But everything did fit and after I put things on shelves and in closets then go through things and throw away stuff that I haven’t touched in 20 years I think I’ll have enough room.

I will need some help putting the bed together but other than that it will just take a couple weekends on my own to sort through the stuff.

The toughest part was getting the gun safe up the stairs. It fell once but didn’t get scratched because it landed on James’ leg. The leg will heal on it’s own. Scratched paint requires assistance.

Thanks to everyone that helped.

Unique Boomershoot 2012 picture

I’ll bet there was only one person looking in this direction when the fireball went up.

I heart fireballs.

I’m on the right with the bullhorn. Ry is on the left near the fireball.

Quote of the day—Margrit Novack

Why would anyone, other than law enforcement, need to carry a loaded gun into national parks or wildlife refuges? How many more of these demented decrees from George Bush do we have to endure before his reign ends? Why exactly does he feel the need to accommodate a few insecure individuals who need to carry a loaded gun to compensate for their lack of manhood? Was that perhaps Dick’s idea?

Despite the sheer stupidity of this last-minute decision, I’m not too worried.These immature gun fanatics are not the type who would visit and appreciate a national park anyway. They are mostly found in bars where they, in drunken stupor, shoot themselves in the legs.

Margrit Novack
December 13, 2008
Guns in parks shows lack of manhood
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!—Joe]

Quote of the day—Roger Sherman

Conceived it to be the privilege of every citizen, and one of his most essential rights, to bear arms, and to resist every attack upon his liberty or property, by whomsoever made.

The particular states, like private citizens, have a right to be armed, and to defend, by force of arms, their rights, when invaded.

Roger Sherman
Roger Sherman, during House consideration of a militia bill (1790)
Quoted in Debates in the House of Representatives: Third Session, December 1790 – March 1791. Ed. William C. diGiacomantonio et al. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1996,. 92-93.
Volume 14 of the Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, March 4, 1789-March 3, 1791.
[Via Proclaiming Liberty: What Patriots and Heroes Really Said About the Right to Keep and Bear Arms by Philip Mulivor.

Update: As pointed out in the comments by Sean the nature of the argument is interesting. The states have the right to be armed just as private citizens do. As, I think it was, Lysander Spooner pointed out a government has no power which was not granted it by the individuals who formed the government. It is therefore a logical impossibility for the state to grant private citizens rights or powers since the state cannot have any rights or powers which the private citizen did not already have.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Ann Coulter

… Republicans eventually had to fight a Civil War to get the Democrats to give up slavery.

Alas, they were Democrats, so they cheated.

After the war, Democratic legislatures enacted “Black Codes,” denying black Americans the right of citizenship — such as the rather crucial one of bearing arms — while other Democrats (sometimes the same Democrats) founded the Ku Klux Klan.

For more than a hundred years, Republicans have aggressively supported arming blacks, so they could defend themselves against Democrats.

Ann Coulter
April 23, 2012
Coulter: Gun control and self-defense
[Great article. As is usual for Coulter there is lots of snark.-Joe]

Winning

Via a SAF Tweet.

Liberal Whoopi Goldberg Admits She’s a Member of the NRA:

GOLDBERG: But it is also, is it also, John, because those folks are saying, okay, here’s what I have in my house. I’m letting–the government says — I want you–I’m an NRA member, as you probably know or don’t know.

STOSSEL: You packing now?
HASSELBECK: Maybe?
GOLDBERG: You don’t want to find out.

I despise emulation of celebrities but I recognize it probably is hard-wired into the human brain. Therefore this is great news. Not only has she “come out of the closet” as a gun owner and NRA member but she is a black female who comes across as reasonably smart, rational, and likable. This makes it more difficult for the anti-gun people to make their usual claims about gun owners being stupid/ignorant/insurrectionist racist white males.

Quote of the day—Dave Mustaine

When people in Washington say they’re going to take away my guns, they better bring theirs if they’re going to take mine.

Dave Mustaine
May 8, 2012
MEGADETH’s DAVE MUSTAINE On Gun Control, Lineup Changes And Winning Awards
[The people in Washington have no problem sending people with gun to take our guns. Just ask Vicky Weaver and David Koresh… oh, yeah, you can’t ask them because they were murdered by the people Washington sent.—Joe]

Guess

How many rounds in the jar?

ba-ammo-jar-200

Guess closer than anyone else and win 400 rounds of .223.

Quote of the day—Emily Miller

The District needs to realize that it cannot choose to exempt itself from a fundamental provision of the Bill of Rights.

Emily Miller
March 6, 2012
MILLER: Gun owners win a round: Second Amendment rights advance in District and Maryland
[Unfortunately such a realization seems to require a (figuratively) 2×4 between the eyes. Fortunately we have such a 2×4 with SAF and Alan Gura. It’s tragic it took over 30 years to connect for the first time and so many people had, and still have, their rights infringed upon and no public official has ever gone to jail over it.—Joe]

Never mind that just direct me to Gault’s Gulch

Atlas Shrugged Part 2 is being filmed and you could be an extra if you help out with their social media efforts:

So, what do you need to do to get on set? You need to get busy…

  1. Follow us on Twitter and retweet any of our tweets.
  2. Like us on facebook and share any of our posts.

The more you tweet and share, the more chance you have to be cast so, tweet and share early and often.

We’ll be selecting an extra this Friday afternoon and flying the selectee and a guest to LA this coming Monday, May 14th – all expenses paid. Or, most expenses anyway – flight and hotel for two nights.

I’m going to be busy with other things on Monday and I don’t really pay much attention to Facebook anyway. I just want to know where I can find Gault’s Gulch.

Quote of the day—Philip Van Cleave

It wasn’t some industrious Virginian smuggling guns to New York City, it’s people coming from New York to Virginia to get guns by some illegal means. It’s really their problem. They need to keep their criminals and drugs in New York. I’m not giving up my rights because New York can’t control its criminals.

Philip Van Cleave
May 7, 2012
Critics say Va.’s gun laws could encourage trafficking
[This, of course, reminds me of something Tam once said:

Where the hell do you get off thinking you can tell me I can’t own a gun? I don’t care if every other gun owner on the planet went out and murdered somebody last night. I didn’t. So piss off.

Van Cleave puts a more politically correct spin on it but still gets the message across.—Joe]

“Impressive” gun collection?

The Willamette Week is easily impressed (emphasis in the original):

In addition to the relatively small quantity of weed, the feds found an impressive gun collection in Barnes’ house.

Within the defendant’s bedroom agents found a loaded 9mm handgun on the floor, a loaded .410 Taurus revolver on the floor, a loaded double-barrel coach shotgun behind the bedroom door, and loaded .357 caliber pistol in his dresser. In total, agents found 14 various firearms within the residence and garage.

I know a guy who occasionally attends Boomershoot has 59 guns in just one safe.

Brady Center gets a failing grade

Charity Navigator gives the Brady Center an overall score of 44.06 out of 70 with a low to midrange two-star out of four rating.

The NRA Foundation gets a 58.46 out of 70 rating with a high three-star rating.

That settles it. I know which one of those is going to get my money now.