Category Archives: Freedom

Quote of the day—Ezra Klein

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This is what House Democratic leadership fears: that Ocasio-Cortez and the Squad, through their dominance of social media and their centrality on conservative media, will become the faces of the House Democratic majority.

…

Trump took a fight House Democrats were having with each other and turned it into a fight they are now having with him. In doing, he rallied House Democrats around the Squad, and made himself the Squad’s chief opponent. “The Dems were trying to distance themselves from the four ‘progressives,’ but now they are forced to embrace them,” Trump tweeted. “That means they are endorsing Socialism, hate of Israel and the USA! Not good for the Democrats!”

Ezra Klein
July 16, 2019
Trump vs. “the Squad”–Trump reunited the Democrats to further his narrative.
[“The Squad” is the far left wing of the Democrats and their politics will be unacceptable in the vast majority of U.S. political jurisdictions. Speaker Pelosi knows this. She has data, from the quoted article, which says:

…the weird poll that Democratic officials apparently leaked to Axios to emphasize the damage Ocasio-Cortez was supposedly doing to the party. The poll was of non-college educated white men, and the post-publication controversy has swirled around whether it’s appropriate to call this group, which went heavily for Trump, “swing voters.”

But more telling was the framing of the poll by whoever leaked it. The Axios headline read “AOC defining Dems in swing states,” even though the results didn’t include any data to that effect. What the poll did show was that 74 percent of the respondents knew of Ocasio-Cortez, and 53 percent knew of Omar. How many other House Democrats have that kind of name recognition?

“If all voters hear about is AOC, it could put the [House] majority at risk,” an anonymous “top Democrat” told Axios. “[S]he’s getting all the news and defining everyone else’s races.”

Trump apparently saw this and made three tweets (and here and here):

So interesting to see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly……

….and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how….

….it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!

The Democrats went berserk saying this was racist. Trump’s racist tirades against “the Squad,” explained:

Trump is just castigating them as foreign because he says racist stuff.”

I find it telling that the tweets have to be explained as racists rather than demonstrate the racism directly. Ordinary people can clearly see they aren’t racist. The political left is like a paranoid person who imagine they see “people out to get them” everywhere. Healthy people don’t see the imaginary threats but that doesn’t reassure the paranoid. To the paranoid, as is the case with the political left, they interpret the fact that only they can see the “threat” as proof of their special powers.

With these three tweets President Trump bonded, essentially, all Democrats with “The Squad”. This bonding is a political albatross.

President Trump confirms:

Congresswomen, who I truly believe, based on their actions, hate our Country. Get a list of the HORRIBLE things they have said. Omar is polling at 8%, Cortez at 21%. Nancy Pelosi tried to push them away, but now they are forever wedded to the Democrat Party. See you in 2020!

Tim Pool describes it as 4-D Chess:

Via email from Chet who also asks, in a somewhat different context:

Would it be possible to do this for the first and second amendments? For example coming up with really, really outrageous positions that would distract the opponents of the bill of rights?

I’m of the opinion that:

The vast population of this earth, and indeed nations themselves, may readily be divided into three groups. There are the few who make things happen, the many more who watch things happen, and the overwhelming majority who have no notion of what happens.

On a good day I watch things happen. To accomplish the analog to President Trump’s manipulation of the Democrats but in defense of the First and Second Amendment is beyond my capacity. Suggestions?—Joe]

Antifa takes a casualty

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A domestic terrorist attacked the holding facility for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement a few miles from where I live:

Early Saturday morning, that man, Willem Van Spronsen of Vashon Island, returned to the Northwest Detention Center, the holding facility for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, this time armed with a rifle and incendiary devices, according to Tacoma police.

Police said Van Spronsen tossed lit objects at vehicles and buildings, causing one car fire, and unsuccessfully tried to ignite a propane tank.

Officers were called by an ICE employee who saw the rifle. Soon after they arrived, officers reported “shots fired,” said Tacoma police spokeswoman Loretta Cool, although it is unclear who fired first or if Van Spronsen fired at all. The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office classified his death as a homicide.

The four responding officers all opened fire and then took cover, uninjured. After medical aid arrived, officers found Van Spronsen dead. He had multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s office.

The Puget Sound Anarchists are taking credit:

We Are The Fire That Will Melt ICE – Rest in power, Will Van Spronsen [Olympia WA]

…

Early this morning around 4am our friend and comrade Will Van Spronsen was shot and killed by the Tacoma police. All we know about what lead up to this comes from the cops, who are notoriously corrupt and unreliable sources for such a narrative. The story that we do have is that Will attempted to set fire to several vehicles, outbuildings and a propane tank outside the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma which houses hundreds of immigrants awaiting hearings or deportations. He successfully set one vehicle on fire and then exchanged gunfire with Tacoma police officers who fatally shot him. He was pronounced dead on the scene. We find his actions inspiring. The vehicles outside the detention facility are used to forcibly remove people from their homes and deport them, often to situations where they will face severe danger or death. Those vehicles being destroyed is only a start of what is needed. We wish the fires Will set had freed all the inmates and razed the entire Northwest Detention Center to the ground. And we miss our friend and wish from the bottom of our hearts that his action had not ended in his death.

Will Van Spronsen was a long-time anarchist, anti-fascist and a kind, loving person.

He left a letter before executing his attack. It sounds like he was deliberately committing suicide by cop (click to enlarge):
Spronson0

Spronson1

This is totally on the backs of the political left. They are the ones fanning the flames.

The police have been arresting some of these thugs. But I expect the violence will continue to increase until arrests, convictions, and the occasional justified homicides have thinned their ranks much further. It’s too bad the leaders of the political left are not taking legal heat but that’s not the way it works. It’s the useful idiots like the yesterday’s terrorist who pay the ultimate price for the political evil of the left.

Quote of the day—Andy Ngo @MrAndyNgo

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But now I recognize, you know, they nearly killed me on the 29th. And I can’t be so naïve as to think that the police will actually be protecting citizens, law abiding citizens, anymore.

…

The provocation to them can be just existing with the wrong ideas. You saw how they, I mean, it’s still surreal to me to see the mainstream response to the Covington boys. Like this visceral hatred for somebody because of the look on their face or the hat they were wearing.

Andy Ngo @MrAndyNgo
July 8, 2019
Antifa Attack, What Is Happening In Portland? | Andy Ngo | Rubin Report

[H/T to William Taylor.

At an hour and 15 minutes it is a bit long but I found myself drawn more and more into it. The first paragraph of the quote above is at about 59:34 in the video. The second paragraph is from about 1:09:15.

As I listened to the first part of the quote above I immediately thought, “He still has a lot of naivety. The police have never been required to protect people. He needs to read Dial 911 and Die.”

 

The second paragraph above hit me the hardest with the word surreal. I’ve read a lot of books about the Holocaust, the mass murders of the the USSR, and the genocides of Rwanda, Uganda, Ottoman Turkey, and many others. And three books on what Japan did in Nanking in 1937 and 1938.

Surreal is how many of the people who lived through those horrific events described it as things became more and more deadly. Those people didn’t think it could happen there. But in hindsight they discovered the signs were all there. With refuge parents from South Vietnam Ngo is far less naïve than most but still he has difficulty believing the facts.

It is easy to extrapolate from our present day situation into a horrible nightmare. Don’t let a normalcy bias pull you in too far. Look at the facts and judge them rationally.—Joe]

The truth is no defense

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John Lott reports in the New York Daily News:

Twitter has locked my account. I can’t post anything or read messages from other users. The reason? In March, I tweeted that the perpetrator of the New Zealand mosque shooting was “a socialist, environmentalist, who hates capitalists & free trade.” I also wrote that the killer believed his attack would “lead to more gun control” in New Zealand and the United States.

What I tweeted was entirely accurate, and Twitter hasn’t bothered to provide me with an explanation for why they locked my account, but they have made clear that it was this tweet that supposedly violated their terms.

Just as in the USSR and so many other authoritarian countries the truth is no defense. You must also adhere to that which is politically correct or suffer the consequences. In the USSR if you didn’t get a bullet to the back of the head it was five to ten years in the Gulag for expressing an uncomfortable truth which questioned the political narrative. It’s exceedingly clear we have people in this country sharing the belief of their authoritarian brethren that silencing political opponents is appropriate.

Fortunately we don’t have a majority of them in positions of political power such that they can enforce bullets to the back of the head or banishment to Siberian Gulags for expressing the truth in public here.

At least not yet.

Remember the words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and keep your guns read for use should the situation change.

Interesting times

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Via a comment from Chet:

You have wonder if this is what it was like in the middle 1930’s for minorities in Nazi Germany. There was a double standard enforced by both society and government when laws and social norms were violated. And people just kept accepting the increasing levels of injustice. They must have thought, “This is crazy! It has to get better soon, right?”

No. It doesn’t have to get better from here. Mass hysteria can go to lengths that are unimaginable to people that haven’t lived through it.

Currently pointing out reality can get you censored, fired from your job, and banished from social media and by your friends. This bad, but not as bad as it can get. At many times and places insistence on reality has resulted in a death sentence.

Celebrate diversity

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I’m all about diversity. Let me share a little bit of it with you.

I found this on Gab via Jan Conboy @javelina:

BulletDiversity

My bullet collection is far more diverse than this but I don’t have a good picture of it.

I have this to keep some of the mud out of the hitch on my SUV:

I received this shirt on Friday from Maj Toure @MAJTOURE:

20190707_170935

And from 13 years ago:

Quote of the day—Aesop

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Freedom isn’t free.

We can pointlessly argue “Should be” all we want. If people aren’t willing to kick up a fuss over these kinds of jackassical laws, they’ll lose the rights they don’t defend.

Aesop
July 3, 2019
You Get The Rights You’ll Defend. And No More.
[Truth.

There are some suggestions for dealing with the stupid ammo restrictions that recently went into effect in California. We should be engaged in some creative thinking for dealing with the idiotic laws in other states too.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Candace Owens @RealCandaceO

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The Democrats don’t want black Americans to improve in the same way that drug dealers do not want their addicts to get clean.

Victimhood has been administered into the veins of black Americans by Left-wing politicians, hellbent on creating government junkies.

Candace Owens @RealCandaceO
Tweeted on June 29, 2019
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—L. Neil Smith

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We are at war now, a slow-motion, sneaky Civil War. If you deal with socialists. no matter what they call themselves, as anything but your mortal enemies, who want to kill you, and cook you, and eat you (to quote Bruce Willis)—if you fall for the blandishments of their foul, demented, idiot accomplices in the Republican Party—you are inviting extermination of everything you value and hold dear.

L. Neil Smith
December 2018
Why They Hate Donald Trump
[H/T to Tam.

It’s called a 4th generation war:

One of the key components is winning the culture component. Come out of the closet as a gun owner. Take a new shooter to the range. It’s a gateway “drug” to freedom.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Harvey

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If Trump were to have a socialized medicine plan, it would cover treatment for whatever disease it is that causes liberals to consider socialism a good idea.

Harvey
June 26, 2019
Trump Truths: TrumpCare
[I find it humorous but the last I checked there wasn’t a cure for stupid.

Well, I suppose that isn’t entirely fair. A fair number of smart people believe socialism is a good idea because they believe they would be one of the special ones in power.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Frederica Wilson

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Those people who are online making fun of members of Congress are a disgrace, and there is no need for anyone think that is unacceptable [sic]. We’re gonna shut them down and work with whoever it is to shut them down, and they should be prosecuted. You cannot intimidate members of Congress, threaten members of Congress. It is against the law and it’s a shame in this United States of America.

Frederica Wilson
U.S. Representative to Congress (D)
July 2, 2019
[Via a tweet from Ali Alexander.

She goes on to blame President Trump for the general disrespect of Congress and the media.

I would like to suggest that if Rep Wilson didn’t have such crap for brains as to not realize people have the right, guaranteed by the First Amendment, to make fun of members of congress then she might enjoy a little more respect. But since you can’t fix stupid it looks like she is going to have to suffer being mocked and disrespected as long as she continues to open her mouth in public.—Joe]

Update: Others have expressed similar opinions but Michael Z. Williamson wins the Internet so far. This is just part of one of the first paragraphs of Challenge Accepted, Congresswhore

Per the First Amendment, Common Law, and in fact, Common Sense, I have the right to mock you however I wish. If I think you have the manners of a Denebian Slime Devil, then that’s what I’ll say. If I think you’re a textbook Demorrhoid–ignorant, retarded, bigoted, stupid and humorless–I’ll say so.

That’s the warm up.

Quote of the day—Paul Sperry

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Fast and Furious was a Justice Department program that allowed assault weapons — including .50-caliber rifles powerful enough to take down a helicopter — to be sold to Mexican drug cartels allegedly as a way to track them. But internal documents later revealed the real goal was to gin up a crisis requiring a crackdown on guns in America. Fast and Furious was merely a pretext for imposing stricter gun laws.

…

Team Obama conspired to derail investigations into who was responsible by first withholding documents under subpoena — for which Holder earned a contempt-of-Congress citation — and later claiming executive privilege to keep evidence sealed.

But thanks to the court order, Justice has to cough up the “sensitive” documents. So far it’s produced 20,500 lightly redacted pages, though congressional investigators say they hardly cover all the internal department communications under subpoena. They maintain the administration continues to “withhold thousands of documents.”

Paul Sperry
May 21, 2016
The scandal in Washington no one is talking about
[Via Say Uncle, Miguel.GFZ, and Andrew Branca.

Will the criminals finally be brought to justice?

Check out the date on the quote. That was over three years ago. So the answer is, almost for certain, no.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Thomas Sowell

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The only reward for putting up with craziness is more craziness.

Thomas Sowell
March 6, 1999
THOMAS SOWELL: Back again – random thoughts
[Barb and I have decades of experience with this on a personal level. And we all are seeing the clear and irrefutable truth of this in the political arena. We see it in economics, immigration policy, and especially with our specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms.

The only way to deal with crazy is to not tolerate it. In many cases it is quite surprising how quickly they can put on a semi-rational face when you just say “No!” and have the means and will to enforce it..—Joe]

Voting out of big government

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Just a few days after being sworn into office President Trump signed an executive order which required federal agencies to cut two existing regulations for every new regulation they implement. A year later he made a big deal out of repealing 22 regulations for each new rule issued.

Since I don’t spend that much time in Idaho and I live in Washington state, which it is a bigger threat to me, I don’t pay much attention to Idaho politics. But Joel M. was paying attention and sent me an email with nothing but a link to how the Idaho state legislature opted to—in essence—repeal the entire state regulatory code. Wow!

Following a link I learned that even though the Governor is an advocate of reducing regulations he wasn’t a significant force being this regulation reset:

All of those rules expire on July 1 — except the ones Little chooses to keep on a temporary basis until the Legislature can consider them early next year.

“This is an unusual situation,” said Jaclyn Kettler, a Boise State University political scientist. “It does open up a pretty big opportunity for Gov. Little.”

The situation in Idaho contrasts with other states, like Wisconsin, where the GOP-controlled Legislature sought to limit the powers of the Democratic governor.

Little said residents can trust him to be fair.

“I’m not looking at this as an opportunity to do mischief,” Little said during a public appearance Tuesday. “I do not want to exacerbate this thing. This was not our deal. We did not do this.”

Little has made clear his desire to cut regulations in Idaho, issuing an executive order in January requiring state agencies cut two rules for every new one.

A lot of people have said things that amounted to “we can’t vote our way out of big government.” But there is now some evidence that assertion may be in error.

We live in interesting times.

.

Eating their own

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It’s long been observed that the political left frequently eats its own when it gets enough power. Just look at what happened in the USSR. Tens of millions murdered by their own government or put in the gulags. Read The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation (Volume One) for a taste of what went on there. Large numbers of those people believed they were loyal supporters of the communist government.

The problem that once you have purity tests and people to maintain political purity the requirements get more and more strict. Just think of the “micro aggression”, “dog whistle”, and “code word” criteria being enforced in many instances in this country. It becomes a positive feedback loop with escalating standards of purity.

I review this as background for what is happening at Google (via an email from Chet who describes it as “Google’s civil war”):

San Francisco Pride organizers say they won’t ban Google from the annual Pride Parade on Sunday, despite receiving a letter signed by almost 100 Google employees concerned about how their company handles hate speech.

The employees asked for Google to be banned from the pride parade on June 30th. The company came under fire this month for refusing to remove homophobic videos targeting a journalist. Instead, YouTube banned hate speech and demonetized the channel. However, the company still offered a platform for the pundit, Steven Crowder, to direct his viewers to a site to purchase merchandise.

Google management will have some “interesting” choices to make if the DOJ and/or congress tells them they need to cut the crap on attempting to swing elections at the same time 10s of thousands of employees are demanding they adhere to more higher and higher levels of leftist politically purity.

Quote of the day—The Annoyed Man

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I think we are ultimately headed for some kind of violent showdown between the left and everyone else. They no longer know when to back off, and they lack the moral filters necessary to coexistence. We’re going to end up in an existential fight for our most fundamental rights, and literal self-preservation.

The Annoyed Man
June 22, 2019
Comment to MN: Self defense shooting trial built on gun control bumper sticker
[Certainly a case can be made for that. But it seems to me that they back off when they get some serious push back. I think at least some of them are more in touch with reality than we sometimes give them credit for. They may be crazy but they may not be stupid. They can “sober up” for short periods of time if they really need to.

Think about it. For a while there were marches with vandalism and sometimes riots nearly every week all over the country. And now how often do you see that?—Joe]

Quote of the day—Stephen P. Halbrook

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In 1931, Weimar authorities discovered plans for a Nazi takeover in which Jews would be denied food and persons refusing to surrender their guns within 24 hours would be executed. They were written by Werner Best, a future Gestapo official. In reaction to such threats, the government authorized the registration of all firearms and the confiscation thereof, if required for “public safety.” The interior minister warned that the records must not fall into the hands of any extremist group.

In 1933, the ultimate extremist group, led by Adolf Hitler, seized power and used the records to identify, disarm, and attack political opponents and Jews. Constitutional rights were suspended, and mass searches for and seizures of guns and dissident publications ensued. Police revoked gun licenses of Social Democrats and others who were not “politically reliable.”

During the five years of repression that followed, society was “cleansed” by the National Socialist regime. Undesirables were placed in camps where labor made them “free,” and normal rights of citizenship were taken from Jews. The Gestapo banned independent gun clubs and arrested their leaders. Gestapo counsel Werner Best issued a directive to the police forbidding issuance of firearm permits to Jews.

Stephen P. Halbrook
December 2, 2013
How the Nazis Used Gun Control
[See also the Belgian Corporal.

Avoid gun registration as best you can. And never register your guns in such a way that you can’t plausibly deny still owning them a month or two later. “Tragic boating accident” is the classic out. But there are lots of other ways.

Trading guns with close relatives in another state is sometime a legal and viable option. Or a chain of legal trades/purchases across families linked by marriage might work too.

If you don’t need for the trail to go cold in the short term quietly buy a gun from an elderly relative. In a dozen years or so the trail dies with the relative.

Move to another state, even if for a month, and purchase or trade there.

Never put yourself in a position to have your guns confiscated.—Joe]

Meet Washington state legislators

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Via email from Boomershooter, and Venezuela refugee, Luis:

I’ll have as speakers Senator Phil Fortunato, representatives Matt Shea and representative Robert Sutherland.

They are strong legislators that have stand and defend the 2nd Amendment.

They will be speaking in my district about what happen in Olympia in the last legislative session.

clip_image001

I sometimes see Fortunato at pistol matches at Renton Fish & Game. I like to hang out near him and hear stories about legislative stupidity. It confirms my belief that government power should be limited as much as is practical.

Luis spoke for a few minutes this year at Boomershoot. He is very concerned about the path Washington State is going down. It reminds him of what happened in Venezuela and he is working hard to prevent that from happening here.

Gun cartoon of the day

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ClassBeQuiet

This is a based on what has to be a deliberate lie. Lyle said it best yesterday:

There’s that insidious “Arm Teachers” lie again. “Arm” is a verb. It’s something you’d be doing TO teachers; arming them. As though they don’t get a say in the matter. That’s the big lie in all of this. It evokes images of poor old Mrs. Jones being dragged, kicking and screaming, out of her Kindergarten class and hauled, by grim men in sunglasses, to a shooting range where she’d be forced, crying and shaking, and against everything she believes in, to learn to shoot a 44 Magnum.

In fact all anyone ever wanted was get the fuck out of the way of those teachers who already have training and carry permits, who are already carrying guns responsibly everywhere BUT the schools they work at, and allow them to also carry at school where they could then have a chance of defending innocents should the need arise.

…

allowing armed teachers to also be armed at school is not a government program. It is the elimination of existing government interference. It isn’t something government would DO. It is something government would STOP DOING.

I think part of the problem is that anti-freedom people find it difficult, or even impossible, to imagine a solution to a problem to involve less government.

Closely related, they are unlikely to ever admit that government caused a problem which is now in need of a solution. The “gun free zone” concept was sold as a government solution to a relatively rare problem. The unintended (I’m being generous with giving them the benefit of the doubt) consequences of this was mass shootings in these “gun free zones”. The last number I heard was something over 90% of all mass shootings occur in these victim disarmament areas. Mass shootings are a government created problem. The politicians who implemented these murder zones should be prosecuted.

The whole concept of “free markets and free minds” is alien to them. Alien, scary, and to be fought against with all power at their disposal. And when that power isn’t enough they must diminish the power of those who oppose them. Hence, disarming those who value liberty becomes a high priority.

Gun cartoon of the day

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NraImage

First off, there is no “epidemic of firearm mass murder”. Murder rates are at something like a 50 year low. The mass murder rate in the U.S. is in the same general range as the rest of the world. Unless you want to compare the U.S. with Europe in the 20th century. In that case the rate is far, far, lower. And you know why? Because the so much blood was spilled by governments murdering their own citizens. Closest the U.S. has had that might be compared is some of the Indian wars. And guess what, the North American natives were banned from owning firearms.

Genocide and firearm restrictions are closely related:

Which leads is the main point to be made about this cartoon. The cartoonist leaves no doubt what they think of the NRA, gun owners, and those who insist the specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms means what it says, “shall not be infringed”.

With such an attitude they are the same path to the murderous behavior of European governments in the 20th Century. If you give up your guns, or even register your guns, we are at a much higher than acceptable risk of a similar result here.