Category Archives: Freedom

Quote of the day—Kurt Schlichter

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I’m not advocating violence – I am warning liberals that they are setting the conditions for violence.

And that better worry them, for the coastal elites are uniquely unsuited to a world where force rules instead of law. The Serbs were, at least, a warrior people. The soft boys and girls who brought us helicopter parenting, “trigger warnings” and coffee cups with diversity slogans are not.

I know the endgame of discarding the rule of law for short-term advantage because I stood in its ruins. Liberals think this free society just sort of happened, that they can poke and tear at its fabric and things will just go on as before. But they won’t. So at the end of the day, if you want a society governed by the rule of force, you better pray that you’re on the side with the guns and those who know how to use them.

Kurt Schlichter
April 5, 2015
Liberals May Regret Their New Rules
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Michael Z. Williamson

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It is essential that we stop this sort of rampant assininity, and it proves the point that the neurotic gun haters will never be satisifed. Bans on full auto are not enough, bans on self-loading sporting rifles don’t sate them, bans on 1930s military collectibles are only a waystop.  We’ve reached the point where a 19TH CENTURY RELIC is an “assault weapon.”

DC has already ruled that a lead muzzle loader projectile, with neither rifle nor powder, is a felonious weapon.

We must fight the war with reason, rhetoric and the law now, or we will most certainly have to fight it later in the streets.

Michael Z. Williamson
December 15, 2015
The Slippery Slope of Definitions
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Bob

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All this talk of theirs has gotten really tiring. These guys need to start kicking down doors or STFU.

Bob
December 9, 2015
Comment to Bring it.
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Here’s their plan

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If anyone ever tells you “no one wants to take your guns” you can just point them at the NYT or any number of other people that have some vague thought of “ban guns” without any thought given to how that might actually be carried out. And we, rightly so, claim they don’t understand what would be involved in such an effort.

Here is someone who as thought it through a bit more. And note that they envisioned Act II Step 1 as happening today, December 11, 2015:

What has to go?
All magazine fed, self-loading firearms.
Yes, that means handguns too.
Yes, that includes your 4 shot Remington hunting rifle.

…

Act I Step 1:
The POTUS issues a EO, commanding the BATFE to “audit dealer records” – ie, look for “strawman sales” by reviewing each of the dealers Form 4473 records.
This is actually easier if the dealer has adopted the eForm 4473

For handwritten forms, an OCR scanner would be carried, the form scanned, and information corrected on a laptop prior to the next scan.

What can’t be done? Is hold a news conference.
It can’t be done by BATFE Agents alone, as this demands too many bodies in too many locations, at the very same time.

We as a nation, will have to let a few things slide, while various agencies supply personnel to work with BATFE Agents.
Yes, a same day, nationwide “I’m here to review your records”.  Close every single gun seller that day, days, or week(s) until the audit is complete.  Sold a hundred guns in your entire existence? We’ll be gone by 4pm today.  Sell a hundred per day?  You can re-open after the end of the year.
It’ll put you out of business?  Impact hunting season and holiday sales? (Which next to DiFi’s failed AWB II is the most money you make in a year?)  That’s sad.
CLOSED… can read GONE OUT OF BUSINESS.
We score that as a win… you and your fellow death merchants can retrain as Baristas.

So, now we have ALL the records scanned… and a comprehensive list of who purchased what gun where.  Those are sorted for make and model.

Shotguns.
Semi-auto shotguns.

Rifles.
Semi-auto rifles.

Rimfire rifles.
Semi-auto rimfire rifles.

Handguns.
Semi-auto handguns.

(save ALL of this data for later)

Step 2: permit the dealers to reopen – however, now the eForm 4473 is 100% required,
and in a slight tweak, batch processing is done once a week, where the forms are uploaded “to the cloud”.
(as-if ‘the cloud’ isn’t on those servers already)

Step 3: Prioritize you list.

Act II Step 1:

Strike a deal with the Republicans.  For public consumption, word it as ambiguously as possible… as was the ACA (just pass it and we’ll find out what’s in it) and stuff it into the next Continuing Resolution.

On this 11th day of December, 2015 this 114th Congress does hereby resolve to instruct the Department of Justice to audit all Federally Licensed Firearm retailers for compliance with 18 USC as condition of their license, and direct all necessary resources to do same.  The Director of the BATFE, the Attorney General of the United States, and the Director of Homeland Security may adopt policies and procedures necessary to effect this Congressional mandate.

About those Republicans:
First, they’re really not that happy with massive civilian gun ownership, they just like the cash from the pro-gun crowd.
BREAKING NEWS!!
They like the cash from Wall Street, and Corporate America better.

Give Congress the choice between:
a) massive controls on financial transactions, killing their benefactor’s proven-risk derivative market
– or –
b) massive (armed) civil unrest when we pull a Greece and shove a total economic collapse onto the American taxpayer?
Rationed water, electric, heat, food and fuel and a 65% tax on your income.

Everyone other than a Tea Party Republican will choose to eliminate the risk of option b.
The motion will pass.

There’s going to be a political quid pro quo. I’d hang my hat on “illegal immigrants” taking it in the neck. How and why, is below.

Step 2:
Federalize (“second”) the National Guard of the respective states.  Just as we could send them to war in Iraq, we can deploy them as deputized federal agents. One BATFE agent to 3 or 4 guardsmen.

Step 3:
Go door-to-door with your list of gun purchasers, and get access to the guns.  A massive VIPR-like sweep.
No gun? Where is it?
Who has it? Where’s the paperwork?  No gun, no paperwork?
You’re coming with us… the weather in Cuba is fine.
Sadly, it appears the nationwide cell phone network is down, unless you’re using a government contract cell phone.
Yes, surprise is key.
Oh, by the way… you have ID don’t you?  Born here?  Let’s run that ID.
So… you’re here on a visa, that expired in 2003.
You’re coming with us, the weather in Minot, North Dakota is fine.
There’s your required quid pro quo to the Republicans.

Step 4:
Anticipate the Federal Court Injunctions.
Injunctions which are enforced by… the DOJ and US Marshals.
Who are preoccupied in carrying out the mandate of Congress.
You’ve reached the DOJ, leave a message at the beep.

Step 5:
Mistakes happen.
Somewhere in the process, an “honest mistake” happened.

Knock, view, verify and record the presence of the named firearm in the possession of the named owner – or find out who has that firearm – was misinterpreted.

Knock, bash-in the door, verify the presence of, and confiscate the named firearm – became the process.

Rules of Engagement were defined as: “take no incoming fire – lethal means authorized”.
A few “rogue operators” decided that if it looked sketchy, breach the door after the flash-bang grenades, and engage anyone seen with a firearm in proximity using lethal force.

Step 6:
The number of confiscated firearms becomes a problem.  National Guard units are directed to turn the contraband over to Active Duty Military Police.  Certain weapons may be re-purposed by the government, exported to allies, used by agencies, or stripped for parts.

Light alloys are put into a grinder, steel and stainless steel are cut with a plasma torch to render  non-salvageable (prevents theft in transit), then taken to a smelter to be melted down.

Step 7:
The higher Federal Courts, and perhaps the SCOTUS weigh in.

Answer A: “It’s gotten out of hand, and we can’t reach all of the field units… your order to cease is understood and complied with at the Executive Level.  The logistical issues however, preclude prompt compliance in the field. The majority of units are out of contact, operating independently beyond range of communications.”

Answer B:
Arrest those Judges.  What part of Congressional Mandate didn’t you understand?

There’s going to be some issue, with a few mouthy Governors complaining about “…patent misuse of the Guard, violation of the Constit…” Yep.
We’re sorry, the Governor’s new conference has encountered technical difficulties.
To Jamie, and Sports!

It’s amazing what a FBI Agent can do for video production: “Cut the feed, NOW. Otherwise? You’re coming with me, the weather in Cuba is fine.”

The prevention of an armed civil insurrection requires a total lockdown on the ability to communicate.  The NSA knows this. Anyone studying the Arab Spring knows this.

The email servers of the various pro-gun groups “appear to have sustained a prolonged DoS attack by some overseas entity in Asia“.

Facebook decided that a new version of their photo and written content filter was worth Beta testing, and all gun-related images and commentary ceased to be shown.
Yes, the “nipple filter” took down the gun fetishists.

There is a lot more. But the bottom line is this is not someone who has some vague vision of rainbow farting unicorns carrying away all the guns being turned in for destruction and everyone living happily ever after.This is someone envisioning bypassing legal restraints, separation of powers, and with the complete disregard for the Bill of Rights imprisons or murders whoever stands in their way.

Of course they are still totally delusional about how that would turn out. They didn’t look at the numbers. I have. Out of nearly 11,000 posts here it’s the post popular post ever.

Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that people wanting to take your guns are just spouting off or political grandstanding.

Quote of the day—Ken White

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Republicans! Don’t get me started. You can’t sneer at constitutional rights for a decade and a half and then expect them to be a credible shield when you abruptly decide they matter again. With few exceptions, Republicans arguing about Second Amendment rights resemble a kid becoming a sudden rules-lawyer halfway through a game of Calvinball.

Ken White
December 7, 2015
Talking Productively About Guns
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

When will they come for the guns?

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Via email Mac asks:

Joe,

If those on the no fly list are to be prohibited from buying guns, what about those they already own?  When will the government come for them?

Good question.

I don’t know the answer. I suspect that is a constitutional infringement the government doesn’t want to cross right now.

Something of a side note is that while researching this I learned there are two lists which I had merged into one in my mind. One is the the “No Fly List”. The other is “Terrorist Watch List.”

From the WSJ:

The National Counterterrorism Center runs a central repository of more than 1 million people called Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE. The TIDE database, which includes about 25,000 Americans as of 2013…

An unclassified subset of the TIDE database is made available to law enforcement as part of the Terrorist Screening Database. That database contains biographical and biometric information about potential terrorists and can be accessed by local, state and federal law enforcement officials who don’t have security clearances. As of 2011, that database was said to contain about 420,000 names, according to the FBI.

The Transportation Security Administration receives an even smaller list of people subject to travel restrictions drawn from the Terrorist Screening Database. In addition to the 16,000 names on the no-fly list in 2011, another 16,000 were on the selectee list. The selectee list doesn’t prevent individuals from flying but subjects them to extra scrutiny.

About 25,000 Americans on the terrorist watch list. According to the US Census Bureau in 2012 there were about 220 million people in the U.S. 21 and over. This means they suspect about one out of 9,000 people of being terrorists. And about one out of every 7,000 people on the lists associated with commercial flight. That isn’t as big a list as what some people have been saying.

The practical problem I see with the government attempting to “come for the guns” which the people on the lists already have is that how do they know which of the people on the list possess guns? If they don’t know which people actually have guns they would have to search their homes and any other place those people might have stored the gun(s). They can’t get a search warrant unless they have probable cause of a crime being committed, a description what it is they are looking for, and where they believe to find the object. “Guns in the home or car or storage unit because they are on this list” probably is going to have the judge frowning at you rather than signing it.

But the issue of blocking sales to people on this list is a different issue because it doesn’t involve the 4th Amendment. The 2nd Amendment is considered by many people to be a second class (if it is recognized at all) right. The 4th Amendment has a process in place which attempts to protect people from having this right infringed.

A comparable process to that proposed to the purchase of a gun being subject to a background check which involves one or more secret government lists would be to subject sales of religious and political books to the same background checks. Of course most people would claim it’s not the same thing at all. My response is, “You are absolutely correct. Ideas are far more dangerous than guns. Haven’t you hear of all the people murdered by those inspired by The Communist Manifesto, Mein Kampf, as well as the The Holy Qur’an and The Holy Bible?”

But to answer Mac’s question I think it will be quite a while before they start collecting those guns already in the hands of people on the lists. But I think it is a great question to ask of those advocating for restricting sales to such people. If they don’t bring up the 4th Amendment issues themselves then you bring them up. And then follow up with the 1st Amendment issues if such a background check were required for reading materials or church attendance.

Gun cartoon of the day

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IsisAndGunControl

Note the shoes.

Via Tyler Durden, How Gun Laws ‘Work’ In Reality.

This message in this is so obvious and we have been saying this sort of thing for so long that it would be difficult for me to be convinced those pushing gun control don’t also know this. For nearly 20 years I’ve been asking, “What is the real reason they push gun control?” Examples:

I probably should make that a category on my blog.

Sympathy in this case is difficult

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The French have been working hard for years to show the Muslims that they mean them no harm. THAT, we are told, is how you get along in peace with people of other cultures, and if other people hate you then there must be a good reason; you need to look at yourself and see what you can do to make them stop hating you.

The French have also adopted the idea of massive violations of the right of honest citizens to keep and bear arms. Criminals will have whatever they want, but the honest must be disarmed.

Predictably then, we get this quote after last night’s coordinated jihad attacks in and around Paris. This was from someone at a rock concert;

“We lied down on the floor not to get hurt. It was a huge panic. The terrorists shot at us for 10 to 15 minutes. It was a bloodbath.” (That’s from CNN if you want to look. I’m not linking to them)

If all you can do is lie down and hope, while people around you are being shot, for 10 to 15 minutes, then your tactics suck. Dozens of people died on that scene, like the helpless sheep they worked so hard to become.

They’ve brought this upon themselves, I’m very sorry to say, and it’s difficult to have much sympathy for them. We’ve tried for years to warn them.

The left in the U.S. sees all this and says to themselves; “We totally need more multiculturalism and more gun control.” That attitude, that insanity, is the enemy as much as any jihadist, for it is that attitude that has emboldened the jihadists. They must be laughing their asses off at our stupidity.

We are at war

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Via a link on Facebook by Greg Hamilton we have pictures of the (fake) car bomb (see also here) the Islamic wannabe terrorist tried to detonate and murder 25,000 people in Portland Oregon in 2010:

PortlandBomber-FBI-1PortlandBomber-FBI-2
PortlandBomber-FBI-3PortlandBomber-FBI-4
PortlandBomber-FBI-5PortlandBomber-FBI-6
PortlandBomber-FBI-7PortlandBomber-FBI-8

To me, one of the more interesting parts of the story is this:

The evidence admitted at trial provided the public a rare glimpse at FBI techniques used in terrorism sting investigations. Most terrorism cases don’t go to trial; they often end in a guilty plea instead.

This is consistent with what Greg said on Facebook and what I have heard hints of before:

Dozens of these have been prevented. Some so early they never became a story.

Carry your gun. It almost for certain won’t help with a real car bomb but it could be very useful in a mass shooting incident.

War has been repeatedly declared on us by these people. We are at war whether you want to believe it or not.

Quote of the day—Lyle

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It’s just a labor camp, and work sets you free, so really they just want to set you free…

Lyle
December 2, 2015
Comment to Quote of the day—Comrade Enver Hoxha‏@ComradeEnver
[That is so twisted that it’s essentially true.—Joe]

Quote of the day—brookster1

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Less guns means less shootings. End of story. No statistic can circumvent this simple formula. We need less guns.

brookster1
December 2, 2015 1:30 PM PST.
Comment to Active shooter reported in San Bernardino, Calif.; authorities say multiple victims, as many as three attackers
[“End of story.” I presume thins means discussion needed or allowed. Just so ou know, this means they would eliminate the First Amendment as well as the Second.

Don’t ever let someone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Comrade Enver Hoxha‏@ComradeEnver

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@NRA The best way to stop violence is a prompt march of you delusional fanatics to the nearest labor camp.

Comrade Enver Hoxha‏@ComradeEnver
Tweeted on December 1, 2015
[Via a tweet from Linoge.

This is what they think of you. This is what they want to do with you.

Take appropriate action.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Shabtai Shavit

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With this enemy, we have to push aside arguments on law, morality and comparisons of security and the rights of the individual. That means to do what they did in World War II to Dresden. They wiped it off the map. That is what has to be done to all the territorial enclaves that ISIS is holding.

Shabtai Shavit
Former chief of Mossad
November 15, 2015
Experts Explain How Global Powers Can Smash ISIS
[Opinions vary. Read the article for other views.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Sean Davis

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Democrats aren’t doing this because they think it’s the only possible way to prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons. We know this because we’ve established that the attorney general already has all the power she needs to indict, arrest, convict, and sentence known, dangerous terrorists. Democrats are doing this because they think it will benefit them politically. In the wake of a massive terrorist attack on free, innocent people in Paris, Washington Democrats have decided that their real enemy isn’t ISIS. Just like Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton declared in a recent debate, their real enemies are Republicans.

And they’ll do whatever they can to defeat these dangerous electoral terrorists…even if it requires the wholesale elimination of the constitutional right to due process.

Sean Davis
Co-founder of The Federalist
November 23, 2015
Sorry Democrats, But There Is No ‘Loophole’ That Allows Terrorists To Legally Buy Guns
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Robert J. Avrech

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The beasts of Islam have declared war against all of Western civilization. And there is no appeasing them. The more you give the more they demand.

And unless the EU stands with Israel against the beasts of Islam, the EU will drown in its own blood.

Robert J. Avrech
November 15, 2015
Paris and The Beasts of Islam
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Larry Correia

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Militant Islamist Wahhibi douchebags want to kill you. Period. Don’t make excuses for them. Don’t try to explain them away. They literally want you to submit or die. This isn’t rocket science. Just ask them. They’ll tell you.

Larry Correia
November 16, 2015
Thoughts on Paris
[This is probably one of the most important points you must understand in this war. This isn’t something you can negotiate with them about. It’s not about some piece of desert which contains oil, forcing capitalism on them, poverty, or some misunderstanding that some “smart diplomacy” can fix. You cannot bargain with them anymore than you can bargain with a psychopath who wants to torture and kill you for his pleasure of watching you suffer and die.

You might get concessions from them that slow their attack some. But their long term goals and nature have not changed since the origin of Islam hundreds of years ago. Our country has fought since Jefferson was president. Reading about their mindset and their attitudes at that time is eerily similar to what I read about them now. I am firmly convinced the only long term options we have are:

  1. A low grade war or series of wars that never ends.
  2. We are conquered by them.
  3. We fight to win and completely destroy the religion as it is currently interpreted by those who demand world domination.

The only questions are which option do we chose and if we chose to fight and win how do we do that. I read one post on Facebook by someone I greatly admire which said, in part,

It’s not going away from magical thoughts.

“You can’t kill your way out of this war/to victory”

Really? I guess you’ve never heard of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. We killed the fucking shit out of them and they cried uncle and never raised a fist against us again.

In fact, no war has even been won in the history of mankind that was won any way but killing so many of the enemy that HE admitted he was beaten.

It’s not a good option. There are no good options. This is only the best option.

The Islamic people attacking the west have explicitly said:

The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam.

…

We call you to be a people of manners, principles, honour, and purity; to reject the immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling’s, and trading with interest.

…

You are the nation who, rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire. You separate religion from your policies, contradicting the pure nature which affirms Absolute Authority to the Lord and your Creator.

…

If you fail to respond to all these conditions, then prepare for fight with the Islamic Nation. The Nation of Monotheism, that puts complete trust on Allah and fears none other than Him.

Their religious belief is that non-believers must convert, submit, or die. We must chose the option which they do not offer. That option is that we fight and completely neutralize those who insist the world be Islamic.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Tom Trinko

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In the end, liberal identification with criminals leads to the police knowing that the politicians don’t have their backs and to a reduction in effective crime control. It’s not an accident that liberals disagree with Giuliani’s “Broken Window” policing philosophy, since liberals don’t seem to care about the victims of “petty” crimes.

We need to tell the American people, our friends and neighbors, the truth that liberals aren’t like honest folk instead liberals identify with criminals and therefore support laws that favor criminals over victims and society.

Tom Trinko
October 31, 2015
Why Liberals Identify with Criminals
[H/T to Ed Driscoll.

There is far more to this than Trinko elaborated on in his post. In The Gulag Archipelago, Volume 2: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, 1918-1956 by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn there is extensive reporting of how the criminal class was the natural ally of the communists because the criminals would steal from and murder those with property. I.E. those who bettered themselves above the “common person”. Also political heresy, ideas contrary to communist thought, was considered more dangerous than thieves and murders to the communists and were treated as such.—Joe]

Preventing gun violence

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Via email a few weeks ago from “longtime reader” Mike H. we have Taking executive action on guns, McAuliffe bans firearms in most state offices:

After facing resistance to new gun-control measures in the General Assembly, Gov. Terry McAuliffe used his executive authority Thursday to bolster prosecutions of illegal gun sales and ban firearms in most state offices.

In an executive order signed during a morning news conference in Richmond, McAuliffe established a task force that will direct state resources toward gun prosecutions, ordered the Virginia State Police to create a tip line to let people collect rewards for reporting gun violations and enacted an immediate ban on openly carried guns in executive branch offices.

“Gun crimes are not acts of God,” McAuliffe said. “But for too long, certain politicians and lobbyists have told us that gun violence in America is some sort of natural phenomenon, something we cannot do anything about. Today, we are gathered to recognize that we are not helpless to gun violence, that we can prevent it.”

Really? McAuliffe is “recognizing” he can prevent gun violence? Citation needed.

Is he also going to “recognize” he can prevent religious violence by restricting religions?

I’m in agreement with Matt Irwin.

 

Quote of the day—Matt Irwin

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Any politician who wants gun control should not only never make office, but should be banned from politics for life.

Matt Irwin
November 6, 2015
Comment to McAuliffe Attempts To Claim Virginia Loss Wasn’t Because Of Gun Control
[Of course. It’s no different than they wanted to implement speech, religion, or book control.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Bookworm

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My reversal on guns came about because I realized that gun’s are a predicate requirement for individual freedom and security.  I’ve created five principles that justify this conclusion.  These principles are:  (1) Armed citizens are the best defense against the world’s most dangerous killer: government; (2) I am a Jew; (3) I am not a racist; (4) a self-defended society is a safe society; and (5) the only way gun-control activists can support their position is to lie.

Bookworm
October 1, 2015
Five reasons that the benefits that flow from guns far outweigh the risks inherent in guns
[There are a lot of different reasons people can reverse their position on a subject. If you want to have the power to change minds it is important to have as many different tools in your toolbox as you can. You may need to try a great number of them before you find the tool that works in any given situation.—Joe]