Quote of the day—Mark Walsh

Illinois is really important nationally. The country needs one state people can look to and see it’s still doing the right thing.

Mark Walsh
June 29, 2011
Director of the Illinois Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence
Ill. likely to see fierce battle over gun control
[And if they were the last state in the union that still had legalized slavery, Jim Crow laws, or outlawed alcohol what would be the response?

Nationally both Illinois gun laws and anti-gun organizations are a disgrace and nearly irrelevant. It’s time to shame them into the dustbin of history.—Joe]

With accomplishments like these who needs failures?

If I had a list of engineering “accomplishments” that were projects that failed to achieve their goals I wouldn’t be in the engineering profession for very long. But somehow the Brady Campaign doesn’t see it that way (or at least publically doesn’t want to admit it) when it comes to the failures of Paul Helmke. Their list of “accomplishments” strike me as failures or irrelevancies:

  • responding to the decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court in Heller and McDonald in a way that makes legislation implementing common sense restrictions on guns more likely in the future; [FAIL! It’s now three years post Heller and no significant gun control legislation has passed Heller or McDonald addressed.]
  • helping pass the NICS Improvement Act in 2007, which law has already helped spur the addition of another million records to the Brady background check system; [IRRELEVANT! The NRA supported this legislation.]
  • engaging a new generation of victim advocates, such as Virginia Tech survivor Colin Goddard, in the fight for sensible gun laws; [IRRELEVANT! How many are of the “new generation” are voting anti-gun?]
  • supporting the filming, release and distribution of two new documentaries on the gun issue — Living for 32 and Gunfight; [IRRELEVANT! How many people have watched it and changed their position? The numbers are statistically insignificant.]
  • pursuing an aggressive media strategy, including national television and radio, as well as local, newspapers, magazines, and web outlets; [FAIL!  My pathetic YouTube videos get more traffic than the Brady Campaign videos do.]
  • the Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence initiative; [FAIL! I have never heard of it. If I haven’t heard of it then almost for certain the number of people who have heard of it and acted upon it is vanishingly small.]
  • beginning relationships with professional athletes such as Plaxico Burress; [FAIL! I can’t see this as an accomplishment for either party in the relationship. It’s a suspect and very odd relationship that will go nowhere.]
  • advancing Brady’s “assault clips” campaign and targeted district strategy; [FAIL! This campaign has achieved zero legislatively and even if it were to get passed by some legislature it probably will not pass the “in common use” test of the Heller decision.]
  • enlisting 100+ sponsors for bills to close the gun show loophole and ban assault clips; [FAIL! This legislation didn’t even come up for a vote let alone get lip service from the President.]
  • implementing successful defensive efforts in the states to stop “guns on campus” as well as helping pass strong pro-active legislation in places like California; [FAIL! We made several steps forward and zero backward.The right to self-defense on campus was passed in several states. It was not repealed in any.]
  • leading the Starbucks “open carry” campaign; [FAIL! Starbucks told them to mind their own business.]
  • steering the organization through the most serious economic downturn since the Great Depression; [FAIL! Income is down by how much? It’s so much that Helmke barely has enough to pay his salary and keep the lights on in his office.]
  • supporting the writing and promotion of a new book on the gun issue, Lethal Logic by Dennis Henigan; [FAIL! The book is full of half-truths from the front cover on and everyone knows it. And in the book Henigan admits it is difficult to determine whether the presence of guns leads to high crime rates.]
  • getting more attention from the White House, Administration, as well as many leaders on the Hill than in the past decade; [FAIL! And what has the attention gain the Brady Campaign in terms of getting their legislative agenda passed? Zip.]
  • budgeting for new investment in donors that resulted in thousands of new donors and supporters. [FAIL! Where’s the money?]

Reasoned Discourse

As reported by AntiTango, LInoge, and Sebastian Joan Peterson has outlined what facts she will and will not allow in the comments to her blog. She would do well to remember what Gandhi had to say on the topic.

Quote of the day—SantaMoniker

I wish you were right about the timing being appropriate for banning and impounding guns in the USA.


Unfortunately, the gun nuts are claiming that if there had been another person with a gun handy at the Gifford shooting he or she would have saved the lives of those killed and prevented Giffords from being almost killed.


These people are mad and there will never be a good time. It just has to be done when someone has the guts to do it.


The argument used by the NRA types that guns are needed for self-defense is farcical. There is almost never a gun-related death reported in which a gun was used by a person defending themselves. The vast majority occur in the home among family members or various criminal shootings.


I cannot think of a single good reason for anyone in the USA to have or carry weapons.


SantaMoniker
June 24, 2011
Comment to Time to target gun control
[SantaMoniker must have blinders on or have a severe inability to think because I can think of millions and millions of reasons. And that doesn’t even include possession by the police and the military.—Joe]

Think it through

In a letter to the editor in The Columbus Dispatch Greg Ward whines:

Thursday’s Dispatch carried the news that state lawmakers have passed legislation allowing concealed-carry permit holders to carry guns in bars, restaurants and some stadiums, as well as making it easier for weapons to be carried in a vehicle.

As if that weren’t, in itself, troubling news to the police, restaurant owners and employees and other people with common sense, there appears to be far worse news on the horizon: A Republican legislator has introduced a bill that would eliminate the need for gun permits “and allow anyone who ‘qualifies for a permit’ — but doesn’t have one — to carry a concealed weapon.”

The wording begs the question: How will our law-enforcement officials know if a person “qualifies” to carry a gun unless that person has had to submit his qualifications to be judged?

It’s really very, very simple. But apparently Ward has the mindset of “Unless specifically allowed it is forbidden.” I thought this mindset went out the door with the collapse of the USSR but apparently there are still people stuck in the past.

The individual does not have to get permission from a LEO and being “judged” before being “allowed” to carry a concealed firearm. It is probably beyond the capacity of Ward to view things from the constitutionally mandated view of “innocent until proven guilty” and “that which is not prohibited is allowed” but I’ll explain it for him anyway.

Law enforcement cannot search people to see if they have a concealed weapon unless there is probable cause to search them or there are special circumstances that require a search for the safety of the officer. Hence the LEO will do the background check after having doing a legal search and finding a concealed weapon. At that time the individual will provide their identity and the LEO will do the background check.

There. That wasn’t so hard, was it? I’m betting Ward still won’t be able to grasp it. It’s an alien mindset for far too many people.

Idaho Senator Arrested

Seems he got drunk and took someone else’s vehicle out for a joyride, “looking for The Promised Land”.  That would be an unsuccessful joyride, I’d expect.  I guess if he’d driven his own vehicle into, say, a river and killed his date, he’d be OK.  As it is, he’ll probably be fired.  I wonder if he keeps his pension after this.

Project ‘Fast And Furious Gun Restrictions’

The more I see on this scandal with the BATFE, the more it stinks.  Here are several issues I have, in no particular order.  To me they’re obvious quirks in the story that aren’t being discussed.  If someone knows of these being brought up and addressed, please do share;


The Old Media are actually covering this to some extent.  They don’t cover anything unless it in some way promotes the leftist cause.  They’re actually being critical of the BATFE, but wait.  The “problem” is being spun as one of too few restrictions.  BATFE is bad, not because they’re idiots or self-serving thugs looking for more funding, or outright criminals or tyrants, but because they didn’t stop gun purchases.  Keep an eye on this.


Very large purchases of guns were supposedly “allowed” to take place.  We’re being asked to believe that Mexican criminals purchased up to dozens of guns at a time, on several occasions.  First; if these were real straw purchases wherein there was a genuine worry about secrecy, they’d take place in dibs and dabs, so as not to attract attention.  Second; why would powerful Mexican cartels with international influence be interested in paying hundreds of dollars more, per gun, in the U.S. compared to getting them at global street prices?  Even the cartels would know about our background check system at gun stores, yet these purchases supposedly took place at gun dealerships, where they would know that such large purchases would attract immediate attention.  But they did it anyway?  Too many stinky points.  I say the purchases were engineered, either by, or in close cooperation with, BATFE, and not simply “allowed”, as we’re being asked to believe.


We’re told that hundreds of these guns were found at crime scenes (I think I heard the number 800 dropped the other night).  What?  Really?  Hundreds?  That’s an awful lot of clumsy, absent-minded, criminals, isn’t it?  Leaving their guns, so painstakingly straw-purchased at inflated prices at U.S. retail dealerships, behind at crime scenes to be found in very short order by our super heroes?  Stinky, stinky, stinky.


A big government operation, not to shut down Mexican cartels, not to investigate corruption in Mexico that’s threatening people in the U.S., not to revisit the effects of our War On Drugs, but instead to draw attention to how our evil gun rights in the U.S. lead to death and destruction in other countries.


These issues aren’t being brought up in the press or by the Congressional “investigations”.  Nope.  Instead it’s all about; “You bastards! Why didn’t you guys stop gun sales?”  All this after Obama promised anti gun rights groups he’d be doing something for them “…under the radar“.


I think the indignation we’re hearing from the press and from Congress is all feigned.  Good Cop, Bad Cop.


My younger brother and I put together a list of socialist tenets many years ago.  It’s been lost to computer upgrades and internet evolution, but one of those tenets was; “When restrictions on freedom produce disastrous results, freedom is to blame and the solution is more restrictions.”  Look for it in this case.  It’ll happen, I guarantee.  It’s in the DNA of it.

Someone Doesn’t Know Their History…

…as Dan here at UltiMAK said about this.


I’ve often said that the socialists are calling the anti-socialists socialists for not being socialist enough.  Or the Communists are angry at the socialists for not being communist enough.


Christie is being called “Hitler” for trying to cut government spending.  The name-caller would have more credibility if he simply called Christie a “snotty nosed poopy pants”.


There is the fact that the communists are often bitterly angry at Progressives (who believe in achieving the goals of Marx through progressive steps).  The communists think the time is right to pounce– to take off the masks and have the “People’s Revolution” right now.  The Progressives are still in progressive mode, so there is a real conflict, but invoking the name of a famous socialist, as an epithet, doesn’t help their case.


There is also some conflict between the National Socialists verses the global socialists (FDR, Stalin and Hitler all held the same basic tentets, but differed only on the details and the execution) but I’m no more interested in the details than in the differences between rival crime gangs.  They’re all enemies and they all have to be ground into the dustbin of history if we’re going to have a free society.


ETA; You public employees around the country seem to be terrible confused.  See, you’re not “The People”.  You’re The Government– our servants.  Big difference.  Your jobs, your pay and your benifits, exist at our pleasure.  It’s when you tell us what our jobs, pay and benefits etc. should be, that’s Nazi-ish.  Get it?


HT to Drudge.

Exposing Leftists

College students are asked to sign a petition to impose Affirmative Action upon the basketball team (for diversity), to redistribute GPA points, ban conservative talk radio, etc.  Good stuff.  Enjoy.


What I took away was the students’ apparent total lack of ability, or preparation, for these discussions, meaning that high schools and universities aren’t encouraging such critical thinking at all.  I believe my son, who just graduated from high school, could give these petitioners a resounding talkin’ to.


HT to Glen Beck

Plaxico teaming with the Brady Campaign

Isn’t extraordinarily odd that Plaxico would team up with the Brady Campaign? There are two basic reasons I have to conclude this:

  1. If he had a class in basic gun safety while in grade school like I did (I think it was in the 5th grade) he would have known to have used a holster. The Brady Campaign would (and do with the Eddy Eagle program) scream bloody murder if schools were to teach gun safety of any type.
  2. He went to prison after violating repressive (and probably unconstitutional) laws against carrying a firearm in public. Had these laws not been in existence he might not have gone to jail (there might still be legitimate laws against reckless endangerment or discharging a firearm inside the city limits, etc.). The Brady Campaign supports these laws.

I find this very much like a person of color married to a Caucasian getting a divorce and supporting a white separatist group after getting beat up by members of the KKK for their choice of marriage partners.

Could he have “made a deal with the devil” to get paroled early?

Hypocrisy and failure

As the NRA says, the Brady Campaign will say anything at anytime to get what they want:

Yesterday, however, the Brady Campaign spoke with a new enthusiasm for “states [and cities’] rights,” demanding that Congress “Let D.C. residents govern themselves,” while complaining “Every year we see members of Congress interfering with the fundamental American principle of self-government.” This nonsense follows the group’s opposition to limiting state and local power over the right to keep and bear arms through the Supreme Court’s McDonald v. Chicago decision last year.

The Brady Campaign should stop their hypocrisy and phony arguments. The notion that the group believes in the Tenth Amendment is laughable. Everyone knows that the group believes in restricting the right to keep and bear arms any way it can, with federal gun control, state gun control, local gun control, by executive regulation, by court decisions, by lawsuits designed to bankrupt gun manufacturers, and by any other means it can think of. Trying to cast itself as a defender of our country’s federal system, it only discredits itself even more than usual.

Is it that they have crap for brains or do they think everyone else is afflicted?

In other news their YouTube videos viewing statistics are telling:

  • Beau Bridges Presents the Lifetime Achievement Award to Jim & Sarah Brady: Added 1 day ago, 6 views
  • Sarah Brady at the 2011 Brady Center Gala in Washington, DC, Added 2 days ago, 10 views
  • Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi Pays Tribute to the Work of Jim and Sarah Brady, Added 3 days ago, 31 views
  • President Clinton remarks on Jim and Sarah Brady, Added 1 week ago, 86 views

Compare that to my video, Planting the Seeds for Gun Owner Rights in India , added 2 days ago with 124 views.

When some third tier, part time gun blogger in the middle of Idaho throws together a crude video of some people going shooting and gets 10 times the attention than a D.C. based organization with the ear of movie stars, the Speaker of the House, and a former U.S. president it’s a sure thing that Paul Helmke isn’t earning his 250K/year salary. They should just fold up shop or break out the Tequila while we maintain a suicide watch.

Something to keep in mind

I did not know that:

Police said a hotel worker found the guns inside a trash can around 9 a.m. and alerted police. Both guns had one round in the chamber and two in the clip.

Police called the ATF, who ran the serial number. According to the ATF and FBI, the way the gun was loaded is consistent with a professional hit.

My hypothesis is the “ATF and FBI” either didn’t say that or are just making random stuff up.

Quote of the day—LiberalActivist

Murder was pretty much nonexistent until the righties came along.

LiberalActivist
June 6, 2011
Forum post on the topic, “Your stance on gun control…
[I’m not really surprised at the existence of lies and absurd claims by liberals anymore. But those lies reach depths that do amaze me. Another example from this same guy, “Republicans were pro-slavery during the Civil War while the Democrats were anti-slavery. Just remember that.” I guess he doesn’t remember and is unable to look up the political party of President Lincoln.—Joe]

Can he really be this stupid?

I received an email this morning:

From: XXX YYY [mailto:XXXYYY@hotmail.co.uk]
Sent: Sunday, June 05, 2011 8:45 AM
To: joeh@boomershoot.org
Subject: large bomb.
i want to make a large bomb capable of taking down a large building. i have made HMTD and some other explosives before, but what would be the easiest way to make a bomb like this? could it fit inside a large rucksack?

Huh? Really?

I forwarded it to New Scotland Yard with the following:

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Sunday, June 05, 2011 5:19 PM
Subject: FW: large bomb.

I received an “interesting” email this morning. The email address is UK based so I presume this is your problem. The email properties with the IP address of interest are:
Received: (qmail 4964 invoked from network); 5 Jun 2011 15:45:25 –0000
Received: from unknown (HELO m1pismtp01-001.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net) ([10.8.12.1])
(envelope-sender XXXYYY@hotmail.co.uk)
by p3plsmtp03-05.prod.phx3.secureserver.net (qmail-1.03) with SMTP
for <joeh@boomershoot.org>; 5 Jun 2011 15:45:25 –0000
X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: Aq8XADKk602dNwDbY2dsb2JhbABTglKEG5Evjh8KFwkLCBMFIqgxjmKPD4YhBJVKgQuJXw
Received: from dub0-omc1-s20.dub0.hotmail.com ([157.55.0.219])
by m1pismtp01-001.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net with ESMTP; 05 Jun 2011 08:45:25 –0700
Received: from DUB102-W9 ([157.55.0.237]) by dub0-omc1-s20.dub0.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.4675);
Sun, 5 Jun 2011 08:45:24 –0700
Message-ID: DUB102-w983F450C57CD57C33B6A5F9610@phx.gbl
Return-Path: XXXYYY@hotmail.co.uk
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary=”_76ccd730-8744-405d-b6d5-19c72abdedaa_”
X-Originating-IP: [94.3.167.145]
From: XXX YYY XXXYYY@hotmail.co.uk
To: joeh@boomershoot.org
Subject: large bomb.
Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2011 16:45:23 +0100
Importance: Normal
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 05 Jun 2011 15:45:24.0199 (UTC) FILETIME=[957DDF70:01CC2397]
X-Nonspam: None

Good luck and let me know if I can be of further service.
Joe Huffman
Moscow, Idaho, USA
208-301-4254

Quote of the day—J_Spicoli

I like the republican idea of guns in bars better – a great way to cull the gene pool in my estimation.

J_Spicoli
June 2, 2011
In answer the the Yahoo question, How did The Brady Campaign successfully block the republican “Guns on Campus” bill in Texas?
[To disambiguate this guys orientation I did looked at a bunch of his other answers. He is a big Obama supporter so I presume he is generally anti-gun.

Regardless of his orientation this guy has crap for brains. There is no justification for advocating the death of innocent people. This is just another example of violence being part of the nature of liberals.—Joe]

Quote of the day—baldguy

Registration allows guns which are used in crimes to be tracked to help law enforcement to learn where they came from, and to target that source. The only reason to oppose such a measure is to allow the trade in illegal guns to continue, and to allow people to be killed by them.

baldguy
May 27, 2011
I’ve said it many times: as a start, register every gun; license every gun owner.
[The “only reason to oppose such a measure”? That bald guy is severally lacking in imagination. I think one only needs a single counter example when dozens are possible. But even that is the wrong approach. The correct approach to demand such dimwits demonstrate the effectiveness of such a proposal when there are so many examples of their failure. Unless, of course, they are measuring effectiveness in a far different manner than sane people.—Joe]

I know people like this

Not only do I know people like this I am getting a new job because I cannot work with someone like this.


Via email from Barron.

Quote of the day—Susan Glick

The bottom line is that Florida’s concealed-carry law puts guns into the hands of criminals.

It is ironic that the gun lobby’s ‘model’ concealed carry law is designed to actually reward criminals who plea bargain, a practice that the gun lobby’s rhetoric routinely and vehemently condemns. Under the Florida law, Patrick Purdy, perpetrator of the 1989 Stockton, California schoolyard massacre, and the gun lobby’s poster-boy for the evils of plea bargaining, would not have been prevented from eventually obtaining a concealed carry license despite his previous arrests and convictions for drug possession, illegal possession of dangerous weapons, firing a pistol in a national forest, and resisting arrest.

Florida’s law has made it substantially easier for individuals with criminal records or criminal intent to go about armed. The findings in Concealed Carry: The Criminal’s Companion demonstrate that Florida’s concealed carry law is definitely a model one not to be followed.

Susan Glick
November 1, 1995
VPC Health Policy Analyst
New Study Shows Florida’s “Model” Concealed Carry Law Puts Guns Into the Hands of Criminals
[Note the date, 1995 before you get too wound up over this. History has shown the were demonstrable wrong on the “model one not to be followed” and their efforts to stop the shall issue concealed carry laws from steamrolling the nation were futile.

Even if we ignore the hints they prefer a system where accusations and not convictions are all that are required to deny a person their specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms they still have serious problems with their mindset. It may take few extra seconds to grasp but their basic premise is incredibly stupid. Almost any normal person would realize this within a minute after putting it down on paper. That they don’t recognize this shows how broken their mental processes are.

How can they possibly claim, “Florida’s law has made it substantially easier for individuals with criminal records or criminal intent to go about armed.”? Or “The bottom line is that Florida’s concealed-carry law puts guns into the hands of criminals.”? Do recreational drug users have any problem finding a supplier? Does anyone think that the criminal who wants a firearm will have trouble finding a supplier or tucking a gun into their waistband if they can’t get a concealed carry permit?

The anti-gun people have long demonstrated they have crap for brains and this is just one more example.—Joe]

Logical Contradiction

NRCC Chairman, Pete Sessions, just sent out a letter.  First sentence;



While House Republicans are working hard to return our country to economic prosperity and strengthen and secure Medicare…


Let me see if can put this into perspective.  While House Republicans are working hard to run our economy for us (because we’re too stupid and/or evil to do it ourselves) and to try, once again, to make socialism viable.  ETS; Or are they working hard to free the economy so it can work, AND trying to make socialism viable?  They don’t say.  That’s about how I read it.

Quote of the day—Bob Walker

FreedomChannel.com will be a valuable tool to reach Americans from all political persuasions. The fight against gun violence should not be a partisan issue and we look forward to getting our message out to the public through FreedomChannel.com.

Bob Walker
President of Handgun Control, Inc.
November 4, 1999
HANDGUN CONTROL PARTICIPATES IN LAUNCH OF NEW POLITICAL INTERNET SITE, FREEDOMCHANNEL.COM
[One would think it has to be satire when an organization with a name like “Handgun Control” gives praise to an organization with “freedom” in its name. But FreedomChannel.com was an Orwellian construct. Apparently they really believed that if their slogans are repeated enough people will believe them. It was a slogan taken directly out of the book, WAR IS PEACE, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH, and, obviously, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.

Apparently they thought people would fail to recognize Nineteen Eighty-Four was dystopian novel rather than play book to achieve their goals.—Joe]