The key tactic in any argument with a gun control advocate is to demand the citing of any instance where relaxing gun control laws has increased crime. And, I suspect, you can also do well by demanding the citing of any instance where imposing gun control on the general population has decreased crime.
Ricketyclick
More Flintlocks, Less Crime
August 13, 2010
[This is similar to Just One Question. And in fact takes it a short step further. This is fine with me.–Joe]
I’m not sure how to take this one.
It could be the kid is frowning because there are so many laws which are so complex that he has to start when very young in order to learn them all. Or it could be the artist intended to say the kid shouldn’t have to worry about the existence of guns and should be listening to fairy tales of a different type.
To rule is easy, to govern difficult.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
[I wonder if this contributes to why we have such a terrible situation with our government. Politicians, and to a large extent the populous, want to be rulers when the Constitution and the more Libertarian citizens expect them to direct the affairs and policies of the country within very limited constraints. Those who would be rules see it is easy to be what they want to be and those who would govern within the given limits while managing to take the heat from the press and people who want “money for nothing and chicks for free” realize the job is going to be tough with few thanks.–Joe]
The nearest houses are at least 500 yards away and I hear just the crackle of the high voltage power line, some birds and a distant combine. I have WiFi and my Windows Phone 7 to blog with. I like it here.
I dropped some stuff off and am straightening some things up. Then I have to drive back to my underground bunker near Seattle. I wish I could stay longer.
Where are the people whose lives have been saved by people with guns?
Oh, that’s right! They make a very determined effort to ignored the benefits of gun ownership.
In 1981 Morton Grove became the first American community to ban the sale and private possession of handguns. The law led to court challenges by the NRA on both the federal and state level, where it was found to be constitutional. The Morton Grove ordinance and subsequent court cases have stood as concrete proof that American communities have the right to ban handguns and that such laws are constitutional.
Violence Policy Center
March 22, 1995
Historic Morton Grove, Illinois Handgun Ban May Be Overturned as Result of National Rifle Association-Backed Gun Law Preemption Campaign
[That “concrete” was made of wistful thinking and lies. It’s time for the VPC to admit defeat and close up shop.–Joe]
What I said yesterday about that cartoon applies to this cartoon as well.
According to the “just enforce current laws” argument, we should, for instance, tolerate the “gun show loophole” in federal law that allows criminals to buy guns from private sellers at gun shows without background checks, because we can always hire more federal agents to track down the criminals after they get the guns. Doesn’t it make more sense to require background checks to block gun sales to criminals in the first place?
Dennis Henigan
August 5, 2010
Obama Gun Policy: Fear and Fallacy
[Mr. Henigan,
Perhaps you missed that day in law school when they talked about “prior restraint”.
To answer your question, Dennis, only if you are of the opinion it also makes sense to block book sales to political and religious extremists, and cosmetics and revealing clothes sales to women with a known history of prostitution. Would you support a sister organization that advocates for the registration and licensing of lipstick? Should we give book and cosmetics sales enforcement to the ATF as well?
We could work on completing the entire alphabet for them. Alcohol, Books, Cosmetics, Drugs, Explosives, and Firearms (ABCDEF) is a pretty good start, don’t you think?
The entire premise of your organization, to prevent “gun violence”, is incompatible with a free society. It’s time for your organization to be shut down and for you, your co-workers, and your supporters to admit your crimes, and apologize for the decades of bigotry that have cost the lives of thousands of people.–Joe]
Lying in an attempt to win. What else can it be? Certainly the NRA has never said anything like that. My guess they could not even find a gun owner who has said anything like that else.
Oh, and do you want to know what a NRA spokesperson really looks like? Here is a picture of a couple of them from the NRA convention last May:
Sorry about the poor picture of the one on the right. She probably just heard the latest lie from some anti-gun bigot claiming the NRA was a bunch of baby killers or something.
Can you see any resemblance between the artist’s rendition and reality?
Lies, it’s all they have to work with.
Woman at cashier of dinner buffet to her companion: Oh! I forgot my money. You will have to pay for my dinner.
Companion: Okay. No problem.
Woman to cashier: He has to pay before he can f**k me.
Cashier (shocked): That isn’t the way it is supposed to work here.
Woman: Oh!
[pause]
Woman (with perplexed look on her face) to her companion: Does this mean I’m supposed to pay you?
Cashier: [closes eyes and shakes her head]
I heard enough more to verify the woman wasn’t some bimbo. She was playing a mind game for sport with the cashier and the people listening in.
I think this is the very first time I have seen the news media use the phrase “assault weapon” correctly:
Police say an altercation between two, three-man groups,
all under the age of 21, escalated to an assault with a deadly weapon. A knife,
later found in one of the vehicles in which one group of young men was riding
has been identified by police as the assault weapon.
I hope it becomes a trend.
As I pointed out during the October 1985 testimony before Hughes and Rodino, the proposed ban couldn’t possibly reduce crime with licensed machine guns, since there was none. Further, their bill was an admission that the 50-year-old National Firearms Act had demonstrably failed to reduce crime with machine guns. Those facts made no difference, for the anti-gunners’ objective is not to reduce crime, but to get rid of guns.
That’s not alarmist rhetoric. It’s both a logical conclusion and an historical fact. No matter how restrictive a gun law exists, the anti-gunners always come back for more.
Neal Knox
September 26, 1987
Keep The Second Out Of Court–For Now
The Gun Rights War, page 177.
[Emphasis in the original.
That was almost 25 years ago. The big deception of the anti-gun people is still alive today.
We need to kill it. We need to drive a stake in it’s heart. We need to bury it. We need to build a monument on it’s grave to all the tens of millions of people whose murder was enabled with gun control.
About 10 years ago I told Alan Gottlieb the gun rights movement should start a national campaign with the slogan, “What is the real reason?” Sell or give away T-shirts, put up billboards, advertise in newspapers, magazines, radio, and television. Ask the anti-gun people, “What is the real reason you want to restrict firearms?” We have hard proof that it is not about reducing crime. There has to be another reason and they aren’t telling the public what that reason is. Force them, through public pressure, to disclose that reason.
Alan was of the opinion that it was too difficult to get the message across. “What is the real reason?” makes sense to us, but to the vast majority of people it would pass right over the top without even ruffling their hair.
I wonder if times have changed enough. The Internet makes it easier/cheaper/faster to get the message out. Perhaps now is the time to start asking that question.–Joe]
As usual the anti-gun people have to lie to make their case. Fortunately for us lying isn’t enough to win anymore.
The artist is almost for certain referring to the Tiahrt Amendment. Here is what Wikipedia says about it:
… the Tiahrt Amendment, which prohibits the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
(BATFE) from releasing information from its firearms trace database to
anyone other than a law enforcement agency or prosecutor in connection
with a criminal investigation. Additionally, any data so released is
inadmissible in a civil lawsuit. Some groups, including the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition,
believe that having further access to the BATFE database would help
municipal police departments track down sellers of illegal guns and curb
crime. These groups are trying to undo the Tiahrt Amendment. Conversely, the Tiahrt Amendment is supported by the Fraternal Order of Police, as it allows municipal police departments full access to BATFE trace data in any criminal investigation.
If we had lost the Heller case there would have been no McDonald case. And things could have gone downhill like they did in the U.K.
Then with a serial stabber in the news we could be getting media releases from the VPC and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Knife Violence demanding stronger knife control.
No one needs a semiautomatic weapon on the streets of Chicago, and no convicted felons or domestic abusers need a weapon anywhere in Illinois. These are not questions of constitutional rights — they are questions of public safety and common sense.
Kathleen Strand
August 9, 2010
Spokeswoman for Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulia.
Mark Kirk supports court’s overturning of gun ban–Alexi Giannoulias opposes ruling used to gut Chicago law
[It’s called The Bill of Rights. Not The List of Sometimes Allowed Needs. And we have nine U.S. Supreme Court Justices that disagree with her.
I think she needs to take a remedial course in U.S. government before she involves herself in any further discussion of politics.–Joe]
And when has anything like this ever happened at the NRA? Or even at any place of employment that did not have a victim disarmament policy?
As is usual for bigots they base their opinions on unrealized fantasies.
Two years ago, I never would have guessed that the sharpest focus of the ATF
under President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder would be cigarette
smuggling. I guess that’s what happens when the Administration refuses to say
or do anything about guns.
He fails to make note of the fact that gun ownership is a specific enumerated right of individuals. Tobacco use is not. If the people of the ATF are to keep their jobs then they need to have at least some support of the people they are supposedly serving. They get beat up pretty bad when they mess up with gun owners. Cracking down on cigarette smuggling is politically safe. It may even be revenue positive.
I would like to think weaning the ATF off of guns on keeping them on a diet of tobacco and alcohol might be a partial solution to our problems with them.
Eventually they should be weaned of the government teat entirely and forced to get productive jobs in normal society like everyone else. But I don’t see a big downside them focusing on the cigarette black market in the short term.
I also support a ban on semi-automatic assault weapons, which have no legitimate hunting purpose. This will limit access to multiple-round
clips like the one used in the tragic killings in Killeen, Texas.
Bill Clinton
August 10, 1993
[This is the 17 year anniversary for that statement Bill. How did that work out for you? Any advice for present day politicians facing the mid-term elections?–Joe]
Nice representation of the NRA as Nazis. And, of course, no concept of due process or the effectiveness of the “terrorist watch list”.
The gun representation is pretty messed up too.
Can we drive anyplace we want to go after this?
We can drive to the Bahamas, right?
Barbara Scott
August 9, 2010
After going through TSA at the St. Louis International Airport.
[Her experience was rather ordinary compared to mine. But I have mine on video for mocking later when I’m a little more removed from the situation.
In other news we have treated all the chigger bites, removed all the ticks, and are waiting for our plane to board and take us back to the Seattle area. Once we get home we will remove our sweat soaked clothes and take a shower.
It will be good to be back home in our underground bunker.–Joe]