People in civilized cities who don’t want your little substitute penises going off in parking lots and killing their children have no say
Roger Canaff @rogercanaff
Tweeted on April 24, 2017
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!
Childish insults. It’s what they do when they realized they are on the wrong side of the law, have a philosophically losing position, and are outwitted.—Joe]
The numbers are subject to change but the current count is 50 dead.
The shooter was on the 32 floor of the hotel across the street from a music festival.
No known motive. The best info on the shooter I have seen is here.
Speculation the shooter was a Democrat is premature. Speculation that Democrats will immediately use this horrific act for political gain is a winning bet if you could find someone to bet against you.
Consider Title XV of the sportsmen’s bill, also known as the “Hearing Protection Act,” which makes it easier for gun owners to buy silencers for their weapons. The uninformed might suspect that silencers are used by people who want to fire weapons without being caught by cops or observed by witnesses. But more and more hunters are finding that conventional earplugs and muffs are not adequate for today’s weapons — for example, quail hunting with an M777 howitzer or grouse hunting with an FIM-92 Stinger missile launcher.
Dana Milbank
September 11, 2017
The NRA’s idea of recreation: Assault rifles, armor-piercing bullets and silencers
[One might guess Milbank is so out of touch with reality that he believes the right to keep and bear arms is about recreation. And one also has to wonder what part of “shall not be infringed” he doesn’t understand.
But, just as likely is that Milbank does have at least a passing grasp of reality and knows he can’t put up a valid argument so he just goes straight to mocking.
We can make most of the stuff Milbank is “concerned” about in our garages with cheap metal working equipment and a trip to the local hardware store. These changes in the law are a mere recognition of reality. The existing law did nothing to improve public safety and made life more hazardous for good and gentle people who just want to be left alone. But to be left alone is asking too much from authoritarians like Milbank. So, I won’t be asking. I’m telling.
Molṑn labé, Dana.—Joe]
Why don’t we have a “terrible implement of the soldier” test? That would actually be in line with the intention of the Second Amendment.
Hoxw
September 19, 2017
Comment to Article on Heller’s “firearms in common use” test
[Hoxw is making reference to:
“The power of the sword, say the minority…, is in the hands of Congress. My friends and countrymen, it is not so, for The powers of the sword are in the hands of the yeomanry of America from sixteen to sixty. The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom. Congress has no power to disarm the militia. Their swords and every terrible implement of the soldier are the birthright of Americans.”
Tench Coxe
Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.
It’s a good question and a good point.—Joe]
The only way Republicans are going to come to their senses is if people start dropping their leaders with weapons which should never be available to the general public. SmartenTFU
Craig Coelho
September 21, 2017
Comment to House GOP pushes to loosen gun rules
[So…. people are only considered sensible if they advocate the infringement of the specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms.
This is what they think of you.
And the not so thinly veiled threat of violence. He must be a “progressive”, violence is in their nature.—Joe]
Looking through the Small Arms Survey’s gun stockpile info, I came across some eye-opening stats. http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/de/weapons-and-markets/stockpiles.html …
Takeaway #1: 41% of the world’s civilian-owned guns are in American hands.
Takeaway #2: In the U.S., civilians possess 70 times more guns than cops + the military.
Takeaway #3: American civilians possess 2½ times more guns than the world’s 20 largest militaries — combined. http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/H-Research_Notes/SAS-Research-Note-34.pdf
Takeaway #4: Americans own 70 million more guns than all of the world’s militaries — combined.
Takeaway #5: American civilians own 11 times more guns than all the cops on earth.
Takeaway #6: American law enforcement agencies are outgunned by civilians 235 to 1.
Jennifer Mascia @JenniferMascia
Tweeted on August 29, 2017
[I think the number of guns in U.S. civilian hands is probably closer to 350 million 400 or 500 million (or perhaps even up to 660 million).
If my experience at matches is any indication private citizens are far better shooters than nearly all police officers and military as well.
At least it’s a start.
H/T Glenn Reynolds.—Joe]
The scientists who lead the national organization of ear doctors have no excuse for ignorance of how suppressors prevent hearing loss. The ignoble reason that they and other leaders of organized medicine have shirked their moral obligation to prevent human infirmity is prejudice, fueled by a willful ignorance.
Timothy Wheeler
July 18, 2017
Medicine’s shameful silence on silencers
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
There is one elephant in the room that is largely ignored in the discussion of crime in Latin America: the stringent gun-control laws present in these countries.
While the previously mentioned factors cannot simply be discounted, the lack of coverage on Latin American gun control policy is rather alarming.
Countries like Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela feature some of the most draconian gun control policies in the region. With crime rates at already high levels, gun control simply makes matters worse for law-abiding citizens fearful of criminals.
José Niño
August 23, 2017
Gun Control Laws Have Failed Latin America
[There is no justification for the infringement of the natural right to self-defense and the right to keep and bear arms.—Joe]
League of Women Voters
September 15, 2017
LWV position on gun control explained
[The Heller decision explicitly calls out handguns as protected by the Second Amendment. Apparently the LWV doesn’t concern itself with limiting government to constitutional limits.
Don’t they understand that the constitution isn’t a serve yourself buffet? You should remember this position statement should someone suggest infringing the Nineteenth Amendment. Or maybe suggest it yourself when someone wants to infringe other guaranteed rights.
And don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]
I want to admit upfront that gun ownership can not be a universal human ethic. A universal human ethic is true for all time in all cultures in all situations for all humans. And guns have been around only for 650 years or so. So, by definition, there can be no universal human ethic to “own guns”. Stating it as though there is (which unfortunately is done by both sides of the debate) is a straw-man, making the American position even harder for other cultures to understand.
Gun ownership is not a fundamental human ethic, but a derived right from a universal human ethic — the right of self-ownership.
Dennis Pratt
August 27, 2017
Why does the U.S. think gun ownership is an inalienable right given that literally all of the developed world doesn’t feel the same way?
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
GRPC is at the end of this month:
Come meet national gun rights leaders and your fellow grassroots activists at the 32nd Annual Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC 2017) in Dallas, Texas at The Westin Dallas Fort Worth Airport on September 29, 30, & October 1st, 2017. This is your once-a-year chance to network, get an insider look and plan pro-gun rights strategies for the coming year. Past GRPCs have outlined victory plans and made public the latest firearms trends. They allow you a first-hand chance to hear movement leaders–and make your voice heard. This year we’ll take a look at critical issues such as: city gun bans, “smart” guns, concealed carry, federal legislation, legal actions, gun show regulation and state and local activity. The full roster of GRPC 2017 speakers has not yet been set. Past speakers include: Alan M. Gottlieb, Joseph P. Tartaro, Eugene Volokh, Wayne LaPierre, Michael Reagan, Larry Elder, Rep. Bob Barr, John Lott, Mark Walters, Sandy Froman, Rick Patterson, Gene Hoffman, Tim Schmidt, AWR Hawkins, Massad Ayoob, Tom Gresham, Alan Gura, G. Gordon Liddy, Larry Pratt, Emily Miller and many others.
I won’t be attending this time because I’m using all my vacation this year for a (almost) once in a lifetime opportunity elsewhere (details after Barb and I get back).
GRPC attendance, but not travel and lodging, is free and I highly recommend it. Sign up here.
The Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey of 1,200 adults found 48 percent of Americans said they or somebody else in their household owned a gun. That’s 3 percentage points higher than when the same question was asked last year. It’s 9 percentage points higher than when the question was asked in 2011, the low point of the poll’s findings for self-reported gun ownership.
The United States Census Bureau estimates there are 249,454,440 adults currently living in America. If the Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey is accurate, that equates to 119,738,131 Americans with a gun in their home.
Stephen Gutowski
September 12, 2017
Poll: More Americans Have a Gun in Home Than Ever Before
Nearly 120 million Americans have a firearm in the home
[H/T SayUncle.
This is almost for certain a lower bound on the estimate. As the NRA says in regard to the same poll:
Polling data on gun ownership rates is inherently suspect. Gun ownership is a personal decision, and given the politically-charged nature of the topic and government efforts to restrict gun rights, some gun owners are reluctant to share this personal information with strangers. This could result in polling that underreports gun ownership. Other research further suggests that female spouses living in gun-owning households tend to underreport firearm ownership.
We are winning the war on guns. Keep taking new shooters to the range.—Joe]
If DOAbayman and his ilk really think that us gun folk sit around and dream about shooting people, what must be going through his head? Does he dream of boxcars, re-education camps, and gibbets? Or just more mundane things like beatings and stonings?
Defens
September 8, 2017
Comment to Quote of the day—DOAbayman
[Good question.
But, from long experience dealing with people with mental health issues, it’s not a productive use of your time to try and understand the chaos inside their minds. Just avoid them as best you can and have simple and effective plans for your encounters with them.—Joe]
the only good reason to have a gun is for expensive recreational activities like hunting or target shooting. otherwise you’re that a****** sitting at home with a gun collecting dust hoping someone breaks into your home so you can live out your fantasy.
DOAbayman
September 3, 2017
Comment to Would you accept this Gun Rights / Gun Control compromise?
[This is what they think of you and our specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms.—Joe]
Where does anyone get off requiring a free citizen to get permission to exercise a right?
Who has legitimate moral authority to impose prior restraints on rights that, depending on your beliefs, are either “endowed by our Creator” or inherent to the condition of being human?
And where do they get off legally, since Supreme Court precedent acknowledges:
“This is not a right granted by the Constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence. The Second amendment declares that it shall not be infringed …”
The Cult of Statism is determined to impose faith in a monopoly of violence enforced by follower disarmament, even though all credible observations show its tenets to be superstitious nonsense. And we know what happens to non-believers, heretics, infidels…
David Codrea
September 6, 2017
Amish Photo Exemption Bill Raises Questions about Gun Owner Control Laws and More
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
The only compromise I’d be a fan of; you don’t have a gun and we don’t send you to jail.
TrampsLikeUs
September 3, 2017
Comment to Would you accept this Gun Rights / Gun Control compromise?
[Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]
Of the more than 57,763 restrictive gun laws called gun controls we know of, not one has made anyone safer, or one has reduced crime, and not one has reduced the incidence of politically motivated murders. Given that not one gun control law has produced the promised results, to cut crime, make people safer, or reduce politically motivated murders, perhaps it would be well to examine just what these wonderful laws that were going to eliminate crime, guarantee safety for all, and stop murders such as the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand actually do.
…
Given the facts, and that the facts are easy to obtain, why are we having this demand for gun control, a law that has never delivered on advocates promises, why the demand to add to the longest consecutive string of failures in human history?
Grizzled_Stranger
August 31, 2017
Comment to A case for gun control
[Note: I corrected a few typos from the original.
Grizzled_Stranger is, almost for certain, asking a rhetorical question. As I have asked many times before, “Since we know gun control doesn’t make the general population safer, what is the real reason some people advocate for gun control?”
Most people these days know the answer. It’s about control, it’s not about public safety. Many people feel their own lives/minds are out of control and it makes them feel good if they can control something and/or someone, even it is other people and/or their property.
For others, they like the power of being able to control other people. People with guns are not nearly as easy to control as those without guns. These people have the same mindset as Vladimir Lenin.—Joe]
The Japanese Constitution, in stronger terms than its American counterpart, guarantees, social equality for women, creates a right to counsel, prohibits prolonged detention, outlaws courtroom use of confessions extracted under duress, and bars convictions based solely on confession. Today, every one of these provisions is routinely violated; action in accordance with those constitutional commands is the exception rather than the rule.
David B. Kopel
1992
The Samurai, the Mountie and the Cowboy
[This reinforces a lesson I have learned many times in other domains and contexts. If you don’t have the means to enforce a contract the contract can and will be violated. The Japanese peasantry were long forbidden to own weapons. Any constitutional “guarantee” in such an environment is laughable. And even in our political environment only a tiny shadow of the constitutional limitations of government are enforced. But one can imagine how, with the right to keep and bear arms, it could be enforced and the limits to government restored.—Joe]
Dianne Feinstein made herself an enemy of gun owners for decades (see also here, here, here, here, here, and here). It has been clear she will never be voted out of office. She will only stop being a threat when she retires or dies. Now we have some hope it will happen relatively soon:
Feinstein — who at 84 is the oldest U.S. senator — also left politicos wondering whether she plans to run for reelection next year.
Although Feinstein was a motivator for me to create Boomershoot. So, I suppose she does have that going for her.
A funny thing happened after the election…the Left started buying guns.
…
I know, because I was approached by several congregants in synagogue, and when I asked why they had a sudden interest in firearms ownership, they told me they were concerned about the need to defend themselves against a government out of control. (Ironic, that
explanation—when we freedom-lovers felt that way about then-president Obama, a real and demonstrated threat to freedom, and we were mocked and ridiculed.)
I don’t know where this will lead us. But I do know that many of these first time buyers are in for a surprise when they learn that the Second Amendment community is welcoming, open, and tolerant. That we’re happy to greet new shooters of any political or social background. But more than any of this, I hope they learn the Second Amendment is a right, not a privilege.
Rabbi Dovid Bendory
Rabbinic Director, JPFO
A Funny Thing Happened After the Election
The Bill of Rights Sentinel, Vol 1, No 9, page 3
[A better way to tame an out of control government is to dramatically trim its powers. One would think an explanation of constitutionally enumerated powers would be sufficient enlightenment but, as those who wrote and ratified the 2nd Amendment into The Bill of Rights knew, sometimes words are not enough and more drastic measures are required.—Joe]