Category Archives: Freedom

The Solutions are Simple

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  • The personal solution is easy. Make sure that someone can shoot back.
  • The public solution is time tested. We’ve done it for the last decade, and we’ve never had a school attacked where they had a public program of armed school staff.
  • The legal solution is simple. Make property owners responsible when they disarm the people who obey the law. If you stop me from protecting my family, then you become responsible for their safety.
  • The media solution is easy as well. Most mass-murderers kill innocent people so the mass-media will show us their face, their name, and their manifesto. Stop giving mass-murderers a multi-million-dollar publicity campaign.
  • All that might sound simple, but the political solution is harder. We have to ignore quack cures that have failed in the past.

Rob Morse
September 19, 2023
Can There be Good News About Public Violence?

The public solution is difficult, in part, because most politicians put up a vigorous fight when they are to lose even the smallest amount of power. And having an armed populous seriously shifts the power balance away from them.

Crazy Talk! Or is it?

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Why do Republicans still fight for their beliefs knowing they will be wiped out, like any other minority group in history? Their beliefs are archaic and improper, so why fight against the advancement of the human species?

Anonymous question from Quora
2023

You have to wonder… Yes, it is crazy talk. But, it could be Russian or other bad guy trying to stir things up. Or it could be just some troll getting their jollies. But it also has a small chance of being someone sincerely believing what they are saying and not afraid to say, “the quiet part out loud”. Hitler’s Mein Kampf wasn’t taken serious by the majority of people when it was first written either but within a few years the mindset took over a nation.

Ideas are more dangerous than tools…

Sending a Message

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But here’s what I do think. It’s a pretty resounding message.

Michelle Lujan Grisham
New Mexico Governor
September 9, 2023

The above quote was obtained from the video embedded in this tweet:

See also New Mexico governor issues order suspending the right to carry firearms in public across Albuquerque.

It’s interesting to me that she openly admits the order will not be obeyed by the criminals, but it is about “doing something” and sending a message.

Hence, you can believe she knows it is ineffective in the stated goal of making ordinary people safer and she is doing it anyway to “send a message” that she could not have sent by sending a statement to the media. Or her real goal is to infringe upon the rights of hundreds of thousands of people and use the old tired excuse of, “for the children”.

Via Kyle Seraphin @KyleSeraphin:

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Via the NRA:

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And perhaps one of the most surprising takes on the topic is from David Hogg:

I support gun safety but there is no such thing as a state public health emergency exception to the U.S. Constitution.

Even the anti-gun people realize one of their own has gone too far, too fast.

I assess, that with high probability, Governor Grisham’s order will not last the 30 days she proclaimed it would, Furthermore, with all the people pointing out 18 USC 242 and other legal remedies, she may even be removed from office over this.

She sent a message. The people are sending their own message. Who has the most effecting messaging?

We live in interesting times.

Existential Threat to the ATF

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The ATF has brought it on.

Time to challenge many of the 1968 Gun Control Act provisions.

There are no historical analogs for requiring a gov’t license to buy/sell used guns.

No analogs for stopping private sales of used guns across state lines.

2A Rights aren’t wheat.

2A History @2aHistory
Tweeted on August 31, 2023

While I’m in strong agreement with the goal and the correctness of the assessment, I am not certain the timing is optimal. The ATF has a lot of support with the current administration and will view this as an existential threat.

This existential threat to the ATF could likely be made an election issue and pull votes from the side of freedom.

Bonus points if your comments indicate you know what the reference to wheat is about.

We are at War

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We are at war. It has never been about Donald Trump—it’s about forcing Americans into submission. The sooner we realize it, the sooner you will begin to fight, and win.

Allen Mashburn
September 1, 2023
The Left’s Relentless War on Donald Trump and Everyone Who Disagrees with Them

Some people, particularly those who have little control over their own lives, have a burning desire to control others. This is symptomatic of most cases of personality disorders. This is an indicator that the claim, “Liberalism is a mental disorder” has more than a little truth to it.

It Should Not Even Exist

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Recently, the Secretary of Health and Human Services advocated for gun violence to be declared a public health emergency to grant HHS power to restrict Americans’ right to keep and bear arms.  The Department of Health and Human Services was never intended to implement gun control of any kind.

Mike Braun
US Senator from Indiana
July 21, 2023
Senator Braun’s offers amendment to protect Second Amendment from “national emergency declaration” gun control

It goes deeper than that. The Department of Health and Human Services was never intended to exist. There is no mention of it or the “services” it provides in the U.S Constitution.

But, I suppose, limiting its scope should be considered a good thing.

It is About Control

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I had to read several paragraphs in this article before I was fully convinced this wasn’t some sort of satire:

President Biden’s alcohol czar says Americans may be told by officials to have no more than two beers a week.

Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) George Koob told the Daily Mail on Thursday that the U.S. may follow Canada’s footsteps on alcohol guidelines.

Currently, American guidelines recommend men limit themselves to two drinks per day while women should only have one drink. The American recommendations are up for review in 2025.

Canada’s guidelines recommend only having two drinks per week.

Koob, who said he partakes of a couple of glasses of “buttery Californian Chardonnay” a week, said he was watching the Canadian “big experiment” with interest.

The feds have an “alcohol czar”? This is crazy stuff. They want to control everything! When will I wake up from this dystopian nightmare?

It is Not About Safety

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New York City, a bastion of gun control, has reportedly been experiencing a sharp rise in stabbings and slashings over the past four years. Despite having some of the strictest gun control laws, the city remains quite dangerous for many residents.

While the Supreme Court’s decision in New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen has made it harder for states with anti-gun governments, places like New York are still finding ways to restrict the right to keep and bear arms. Unfortunately, it does not appear these laws are truly keeping people safe.

Jeff Charles
August 19, 2023
Stabbings, Slashings on the Rise in Gun Control Haven, New York City

Referenced by the quote above, NYC stabbings and slashings surge in 2023 by 26%

Stabbings and slashings are surging this year across New York City – skyrocketing 26% since 2019, according to disturbing new NYPD data obtained by The Post.

Since Jan. 1 through Aug. 13, the city has seen 3,365 nonfatal stabbings, compared to 2,666 four years ago. The number is also up 5% from the same period last year, which saw 3,208 nonfatal incidents of knife violence.

So far this year, 53 people have died by blade — a shocking 29% increase from 41 in 2019.

The evidence is clear, gun control is obviously not about safety.

No, the ATF Cannot Legally Regulate “Ghost Guns”

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Political observers expect the Washington Post and the New York Times to carry water for Joe Biden’s Department of Justice gun control agenda. It’s surprising when the conservative National Review seemingly bends over backwards to defend the weaponized agency in a poorly researched and written piece.

On August 9, National Review published an item with the confident title “Yes, the ATF Can Legally Regulate Ghost Guns.” The ill-informed piece was written by a summer intern. If it was an unpaid internship, the publication got every penny’s worth.

NRA-ILA
August 21, 2023
National Review Wrong on ATF Frame or Receiver Rule

Words matter. And when those words are legislative law they matter even more. The ATF, and this summer intern, are ignoring and/or deliberately misreading the word of law.

Ignoring the word of law and/or deliberately misreading by politicians and judges should be a punishable offense. And in some cases it is. But of course, that law is there just to make us think we have some protection against those who use the power of government to deny us our rights. That’s not reality. The reality is, that ultimately, you have to defend your own rights. That is why we have the 2nd Amendment.

The left has thrived on destruction and decay

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The left isn’t wrong when they paint conservatives as natural enemies of “our democracy.” There is nothing conservative about the radically egalitarian system that governs the country, which turns politics into a race to the bottom, a game at which the left naturally excels. The left, in all times and places, has thrived on destruction and decay. The muddled, obese, foreign mass that is today called “the American people” has only a faint connection to the sturdy, adventurous Anglo-Saxons who founded the nation. Their values – freedom of speech, property rights, religious toleration, free enterprise – it is not surprising to find, are being trampled by the government we now have, which imposes tyranny from above with the support and legitimacy of “we the people,” or what has become of the people, below.

Matthew Boose
August 18, 2023
The Right Can’t Beat The Left At Its Own Game

You don’t have to read much history to discover this basic truth, “The left, in all times and places, has thrived on destruction and decay.” Their seeds are planted in troubled times, they grow roots with unhappy people, they carefully ferment anger and envy to build their mass, then when they show themselves as terrible weeds they repress and kill those who bear the fruit, grain, and flowers of society to retain their terrible monopoly on the nutrients of life and a healthy society.

Mandated Freedom of Speech Training

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A Texas District Judge ordered Southwest Airlines to send three of its lawyers for religious freedom training after they fired a flight attendant who expressed religious views on social media.

District Judge Brantley Starr ordered on Monday that Southwest has to organize religious freedom training and send a short notice to all its flight attendants regarding the protections on religious speech, after a lawsuit filed by flight attendant Charlene Carter.

Jana J. Pruet
August 12, 2023
Southwest Ordered to Attend Religious Freedom Training

The backlash against wokeness is getting legal backing.

I wonder if other companies are picking up on the message?

I look forward to companies getting court mandated training on respecting people who exercise their rights under the 2nd Amendment.

Advocates for Flagrantly Violating the Constitution

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We suggest an unlikely source of continuing power, after Bruen, for states to disarm individuals they deem dangerous: qualified immunity. Qualified immunity shields state officers from monetary liability for many constitutional violations. In short, unless a previous case “clearly established,” with high factual particularity, that the officer’s conduct was unconstitutional, the officer does not pay. Thus, a state law enforcement officer may, after Bruen, confiscate an individual’s firearm if the officer deems that person too dangerous to possess it. The officer’s justifications may conflict with the federal courts’ understanding of Bruen or the Second Amendment—perhaps flagrantly. But unless a previous, authoritative legal decision examining near-identical facts says so, the officer risks no liability. And because each individual act of disarmament will be unique, such prior decisions will be vanishingly rare. The result is a surprisingly free hand for states to determine who should and should not be armed, even in contravention of the Supreme Court’s dictates.

Guha Krishnamurthi
University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
Peter Salib
University of Houston Law Center
Qualified Immunity as Gun Control
July 5, 2023

This looks to me like a conspiracy to violate rights and perhaps other crimes by Krishnamurthi and Salib. Can’t they be satisfied with the current violations of the constitution?

If violating the constitution, and openly admitting they know it is unconstitutional, becomes pervasive I could see the response become correspondingly unlawful.

Quote of the Year!

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If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill.

No limit.

Please let us know.

Elon Musk @elonmusk
Xeeted on August 5, 2023

Free speech absolutist? It sounds like it.

This is very cool if it results in the destruction of the cancel culture.

But, of course, it depends on what the definition of “unfair” is. Who is to be the judge of that?

Violent Criminals are Their Allies

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Zero tolerance doesn’t apply to stopping criminals. The Biden administration reserves that focus for the firearm industry.

Larry Keane
Senior vice president for government and public affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation
July 27, 2023
ATF has shut down nearly 2,000 gun stores since the implementation of its new “zero tolerance” policy

This is not news to most of us:

They are just being more blatant about it.

Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

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Government, almost by definition, DOES restrict our freedoms. Those polled aren’t wrong in the least for seeing it that way. The constant struggle is keeping this necessary evil contained to the minimum required for a functioning society.

Orgs like Everytown are part of a broad spectrum of authoritarian social engineers. They want people to be docile, preferably stuffed into cities, owning nothing, and restricted to a narrow Overton window of acceptable opinions and lifestyles. The Chinese social credit system is their model.

Guns are a threat to this (as is free speech, which is why that is also a target for them). Not even really guns themselves, but the individualist ideas they can awaken simply by accepting the natural right to bear arms. Because once you accept the natural rights framework, the Bloombergian government dystopia they want is unacceptable.

Notice how the very same people who want to ban guns also tend to want social media to censor more speech, want the government to tax everything they declare undesirable, want to punish thought crimes with a widening net of “hate speech” restrictions that shutter the Overton window, and constantly find new things they want banned.

This is also why they insist on federal gun laws. They know Boise or Manchester are doing just fine with minimal gun control laws, which drives them insane. It proves the problem in their violent cities is their own fault, and not due to gun rights. The authoritarians can’t allow such counterexamples to exist.

Control, control, control. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

Kostas Moros @MorosKostas
Tweeted on July 28, 2023

Orwellian

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The revenue officers we represent will continue to efficiently and effectively carry out their mission of helping taxpayers meet their lawful tax obligations through other means of communication,

Tony Reardon
National president of the National Treasury Employees Union
July 24, 2023
IRS halts most unannounced visits to taxpayers, citing safety concerns

This has to be the most Orwellian thing I have read outside of an Orwell book.

Via Stephanie who said:

“Knocking on someone’s door today is a different scenario than it was 10 or 15 years ago, and there have been significant reports from IRS employees where they have felt unsafe,” he said.

—

I say it’s a step in the right direction. Thieves should always feel unsafe.

Tyranny of the Minority

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Tyranny of the minority: Liberal law profs urge Biden to defy the courts and the public

“I shall resist any illegal federal court order.”

When “the Court’s interpretation of the Constitution is egregiously wrong,” the president should refuse to follow it.

Those two statements were made roughly 60 years apart. The first is from segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace (D). The second was made by two liberal professors this month.

In one of the most chilling developments in our history, the left has come to embrace the authoritarian language and logic of segregationists in calling for defiance and radical measures against the Supreme Court.

In a recent open letter, Harvard law professor Mark Tushnet and San Francisco State University political scientist Aaron Belkin called upon President Joe Biden to defy rulings of the Supreme Court that he considers “mistaken” in the name of “popular constitutionalism.” Thus, in light of the court’s bar on the use of race in college admissions, they argue that Biden should just continue to follow his own constitutional interpretation.

We live in interesting times.

Prepare appropriately.

Surprise Visit From the FBI

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A long time Boomershoot staff member had a surprise visit from the FBI today:

I can’t quote what they said exactly, but it sounded like a normal opening speech. They were standing about six feet back from the door, had their credentials ready to flip open (but at a totally unreadable distance), sad said something like the following, as I peeked my head out while holding the dog back by the collar as she checked them out, too.
Them: “REDACTED <first name, last name>?”
Me: “who’s asking”
Them: “Were with the FBI (flashes ID), and we wanted to ask you a few questions about boomershoot. You are not in trouble or anything, but we are following up some leads on it…”
Me: “Do you have a warrant?”
Them: “no, but-“
Me: “Come back with a warrant.” (close door in their faces and lock it).
 
They walked away, didn’t hear them saying anything. A minute later they drove away.

<shrug>.Probably just another “tip” from some freedom hater.

Usually they just call me.

The Only Legitimate Framework

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This court is not interested in the outcomes of single cases alone. The conservative majority has greater ambitions: to impose its conception of the Constitution as the only legitimate framework within which to interpret the law.

Caitlin B. Tully
June 25, 2023
Rethinking the Liberal Giant Who Doomed Roe

She says this as if it were a bad thing. And, in my mind, how could it be legitimate any other way?

I am reminded of Lewis Carroll’s Humpty Dumpty:

When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’

’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’

’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.

And that is why the political left is so upset at the current SCOTUS. The political left is intent upon being the master of all and if the U.S. Constitution were to be interpreted as written they would have, comparatively, no power.

A Sign of Things to Come

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The press’s war against free speech

The injunction barring federal agencies from communicating with these firms was blocked from going into effect by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on July 14. But no final judgment in the case has been entered, and, whatever the ultimate result, the wisdom of government speech suppression — and the bizarre and outspoken support thereof by large parts of the press — remain continuing issues.

Doughty’s 155-page opinion cites allegations that White House and other government officials have “significantly encouraged” and “coerced” social media firms Facebook, Google, and Twitter to suppress information not just occasionally, but repeatedly, and often in peremptory and threatening tones. Those allegations have been backed up by the “Twitter Files” investigations of liberal writers Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger.

The bewailing at this opinion came in loud and clear. The Washington Post, as columnist Mary Katherine Ham pointed out, lamented that Doughty’s decision “could undo years of efforts to enhance coordination between the government and social media companies.” The New York Times worried that Doughty’s decision “could force government officials … to refrain from notifying the platforms of troublesome content,” and “could curtail efforts to combat disinformation.”

When the only information you have access to is that which is approved by the government it is time for the 2nd to defend the 1st. The case referenced must be decided in favor of the plaintiffs to head off some seriously bad times.

All the opposition to the case does accomplish something. The enemies of freedom are self identifying. That is never a bad thing.