My civil liberties are non-negotiable.
If you think guns are too dangerous to own, then by all means -don’t own one.
If you think guns are too dangerous for me to own, don’t think you won’t need one to get mine.
I like Pie
January 18, 2017
Comment to Gun control groups protest at Texas Capitol
[Anti-gun people should also look at the numbers before they dismiss statements such as the one above.—Joe]
The only thing absurd is that one wanting to buy a suppressor for his firearm would have to undergo a vastly more difficult, expensive, and time-consuming application than he did in buying his firearm in the first place!
Bob Adelmann
January 16, 2017
Call Them “Suppressors,” Please, Not “Silencers”: Bill to End Their Restrictions Proposed
[Via email from Paul Koning.—Joe]
The gun rights movement has largely been playing defense for a long time, with occasional and gradual wins here and there, now with increasing frequency in the last decade. But it’s always gotten bad press by the legacy media. There is hope that things will be going high-profile and on offense with the new administration.
The Hearing Protection Act of 2017 (HPA) was introduced January 9th. It would remove suppressors from being an NFA weapon with a tax stamp. It would also likely be a great business-stimulus. More here.
Of course, the legacy media claims it’s all about enabling hit-men and criminals. But then, accuracy was never really a priority with them.
FBI background checks, one of the strongest indicators of national gun sales, totaled 27,538,673 in 2016, shattering the record of 23,141,970 set in 2015. According to the Washington Free Beacon, “During President Obama’s eight-year tenure, the FBI has processed 157,233,157 firearms checks — 61,249,149 more than [in] the previous ten years.
Austin Yack
January 9, 2017
The Unintended Consequence of California’s Gun-Control Laws
[As near as I can tell the anti-gun people are either blissfully ignorant this has been happening, clueless of what this means, and/or clueless of how big these numbers really are. Let me now give them some clues.
And, as I have said before, if they really don’t want people buying guns the quickest and easiest way to reduce gun sales is for anti-gun politicians to leave office.—Joe]
[Assault weapons] are not used in the majority of mass shootings and not in the big picture of gun violence in America.
Michelle Gajda
Tampa
The Florida chapter leader of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America
January 13, 2017
More gun control makes Florida safer, proponents say
[She is absolutely correct. Hands and feet are use to murder more people in this country than “assault weapons”.
Please note the organization she represents.
In her organization it’s rare for someone to be this clued into reality. Expect her career there to be short.—Joe]
Most passengers were shocked to learn carrying live ammo and guns in baggage is permitted. And now terrorists are fully aware of this startling gap in US airport security.
FlyersRights.org
January 11, 2017
Passenger Group Calls for New Airport Security Measures by Airlines, TSA and Airports
[Are they also “shocked” to learn we have a specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms? If so then perhaps their educations are severely lacking.
What I am shocked about is that despite all the evidence that “gun-free” zones are hazardous and the abject failure of TSA we still are prohibited from carrying guns on our persons while on airplanes. It’s the right thing to do.—Joe]
The irony:
President Obama awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to a shocked Vice President Biden on Thursday at the White House.
…
Biden also helped oversee the president’s first-term economic stimulus package and pressed unsuccessfully for gun-control legislation after the killing of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
To be fair to Biden:
In his remarks, Biden praised Obama for serving the nation with dignity and insisted that he was not worthy of the honor.
“I don’t deserve this,” the vice president said repeatedly.
Biden was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in part, for attempting to dramatically infringe upon our freedom.
This is like something from an Ayn Rand story where incompetent villains give each other awards. This cheapens the award to the point of making it a joke. But, I suppose it’s entirely in character with Obama getting the Nobel Peace prize.
Although I can’t imagine the tarnish on the award being removed for at least a generation Trump could polish a portion of it and troll the enemies of freedom by giving the award to Alan Gura, Neal Knox (posthumously), Alan Gottlieb, and/or Wayne LaPierre.
We brought this action on behalf of the plaintiffs to establish that the state’s restrictions on the possession and carrying of firearms by foster parents is unconstitutional under both the Second and Fourteenth amendments. We’re delighted that the judge will allow our action to go forward because it is important to establish that people do not surrender their Second Amendment rights in order to become foster parents. We’re in court to make sure that the state cannot discriminate against foster parents who merely wish to exercise the rights we’ve restored in Illinois.
Alan M. Gottlieb
SAF founder and Executive Vice President
January 10, 2016
FED. COURT ALLOWS CHALLENGE TO PROCEED AGAINST ILLINOIS FOSTER PARENT RULES
[Illinois prohibits foster parents from possessing firearm. The lawsuit alleges the state is denying the foster parents their civil rights under color of law. I’m almost certain this will mean that if SAF and the parents win then the state will be required to pay SAF and the parents for their legal expenses. I just wish it would also mean proof beyond a reasonable doubt that state officials had violated 18 USC 242.
If you squint at the situation just right you can make the case we should be thanking Illinois for offering us this, almost free, low hanging fruit. It should be a relatively easy case to win and every win we get creates more case law which can then be used as leverage in more difficult to win cases.—Joe]
Hmm… The BBC reports:
FBI agent George Piro said earlier that the suspect had travelled to Fort Lauderdale specifically to carry out the attack.
Unlike Alaska, Washington, Idaho, and most other states Florida airports are “gun free zones”. So, did the murderer fly all the way from Alaska just to find a place to shoot a bunch of people where they are extremely unlikely to shoot back?
@amountainpass and seriously, stop trolling me you weirdo gun freak your need for a penis extension is not my issue
Lauren Bellhouse @lbellho
Tweeted on March 19, 2016
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!
Via a tweet from Jeff Anderson.—Joe]
As a general principle, you should assume that any weapon not yet banned by left wing state laws is so merely due to an oversight.
Paul Koning
January 6, 2017
Comment to Quote of the day—Hollis Phelps
[My only quibble is that Koning is limiting this observation to state laws. Left wing local and national governments are always looking for “loopholes” to close as well. It’s all part of the grand scheme where eventually those things which are not banned are mandatory.—Joe]
Some people deserve ironic deaths that disprove everything they lived their lives for.
Keith McFarland @KeithMcFarland
Tweeted on December 31, 2016
[Via email from Paul K.
This was in regards to this:
M. D. Harmon, a conservative columnist who frequently wrote in favor of gun ownership rights for the Portland Press Herald, died this week after being accidentally shot by a teenage boy.
Don’t ever forget that these people want you dead.—Joe]
We shouldn’t “take them away” from people who currently own them, necessarily. That would likely cause just as many problems. I’m sure there are more than a few disgruntled gun owners out there who would take a ban as an assault on liberty, and act accordingly. We should, rather, phase them out over time, similar to the way in which the CPSC dealt with drop-sides. Allow those who currently own guns to keep them, but ban the future manufacture, sale and resale of guns and ammunition for personal use.
Hollis Phelps
December 4, 2015
The Second Amendment must go: We ban lawn darts. It’s time to ban guns
[Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.
“More than a few”? I suggest they put some numbers in their spreadsheet and reevaluate the consequences.—Joe]
They are like 2nd graders on the playground. “You cannot play with my ball. You can’t have it.” I hope the secret service does take their guns. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Big guns, oh my! They must be overcompensating for a lack somewhere else, like bravery, self esteem or some part of their anatomy.
Alison Wimmer
March 10, 2016
Facebook comment on Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America page.
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!
And don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.
Woo hooo! We start the new year with a double cliché score!—Joe]
You’re wondering how I can know that other people are hallucinating and not me. That’s where it comes in handy to study persuasion and hypnosis. Delusional people leave tells.
One of the tells in this case is an ad hominem attack on whoever disagrees with you on climate science. You can see that happening on my Twitter feed today as the pro-climate-science types are coming after me in numbers. When you see an oversized reaction to what should be nothing but competing scientific claims, that’s usually a tell that someone slipped into cognitive dissonance.
Scott Adams
December 29, 2016
The Illusion of Knowledge
[And in the gun rights domain we have Markley’s Law demonstrating anti-gun people are delusional in regards to their beliefs.—Joe]
Isn’t it great to be a gun owner? Without your weapons, you’d probably have to face up to being an ignorant redneck loser, but with guns you’re the man!
g_k
4:39 PM PST, December 28, 2016
Comment to Why punishing Democrats for their gun-control sit-in is dicey territory for Paul Ryan
[This is what they think of you.
In regards to “ignorant loser” we would probably find that rule number three of SJWs Always Lie is applicable here.—Joe]
I generally avoid crowds simply because I am an introvert and find contact with a lot of people to be draining. I do it sometimes when the rewards are worth the effort (Boomershoot, NRA Conventions, family gatherings, etc.).
Things have been changing and the downside of being in large groups of people is increasing. DHS and the FBI warned us (from December 24th):
Federal authorities warned Friday that ISIS sympathizers “continue aspirational calls for attacks on holiday gatherings, including targeting churches.”
The bulletin was issued by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security and issued to law enforcement agencies and private security companies around the US.
There are no known specific, credible threats, US law enforcement officials say. The bulletin was issued out of an abundance of caution given the public nature of the posted threats and the holiday season.
The bulletin was sent Friday to law enforcement after pro-ISIS websites had published a publicly-available list of churches in the United States.
There are also more explicit threats, ‘We will make New Year mayhem’ which include the following pictures (click to see higher resolution pictures):
Stay alert, stay calm, and carry if you can.
Sebastian tells us Nevada Background Check Initiative Can’t Be Implemented:
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy New Years all rolled into one: Bloomberg spend 20 million dollars in Nevada to secure a razor thin win, and he still gets nothing. The Attorney General in Nevada checked with the FBI and the law as it was written is simply not implementable. The FBI stated that states can’t commander federal policy on the matter, and that they refuse to conduct the checks in accordance with the way Bloomberg’s new law requires.
The New York Times Editorial Board claims Europe Takes a Braver Stance on Gun Control. They tell us:
The proposals, which are headed toward a final vote by members next year, would extend bans on semiautomatic assault weapons to more models, institute medical checks for gun buyers, tighten sales on the internet and track the resale of guns to foil black-market dealers.
…
The final compromise did not ban all of the most dangerous semiautomatic weapons, like the AK-47, as some nations wanted, nor limit ammunition magazines to 10 cartridges for all of them.
Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.
As well as other errors such as saying there were 300K homicides (most were suicides and many were justifiable homicides) committed with guns in the last ten years in this country they are wrong about Europe being “brave”. They further claim that in the United States, “Congressional leaders, unfortunately, show no sign of mustering the courage of the Europeans.”
This is clearly in error. Courage would be the NYT Editorial Board taking point on the door to door enforcements of the bans they advocate for.
I’d even give them partial credit for being “brave” and “courageous” if they were to tell the truth when they write about guns. But since I haven’t seen anything approaching that from them in the last 20 years it is unlikely they will develop the integrity or courage anytime soon.
FBI background check registrations are insufficient to these people. They begged and pleaded and campaigned for background checks, and now want more, but they’re obviously not enough. The smelter is the real issue.
This is the topic Tucson raises — violation of law by elected officials in pursuit of the same irrational perverse goal their fellow leftists pursue at everyone’s dangerous expense. It is an impossible attempt to quench their paranoid fears by suppressing the rights of innocent people everywhere. The notion of guns in the public’s hands is simply unacceptable to them. It’s not political, it’s medical, they’re hoplophobic, and a dire threat to freedom. Their unbalanced actions qualify them for removal from setting public policy and destroying valuable public property in the process, in violation of law.
Alan Korwin
December 18, 2016
Tucson Melting Guns. Again
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]