There is probably more truth in this than I would like to admit.
Prepare appropriately.
This evening I spent 2.5 hours on the cat discing my summer fallow in preparation for planting wheat on it this fall. I guess this sort of makes me a farmer.
Things would be “interesting” if the commies in this country attacked the farmers like they did in other countries. I have a rifle and know how to use it. And I know I’m not the only farmer with similar tools and skills.
It’s interesting how gun ownership is the only thing I can think of where many people feel comfortable blaming you or trying to make you feel guilty for the actions of others. Like yesterday, comments to the effect “kids were shot at a water park because you gun nuts won’t give up your toys!”
We don’t do this with anything else.
When a drunk driver wipes out a family (10,000 drunk driving deaths per year!), nobody guilts you for having a couple beers that day. Because they know the drunk driver’s crime does not mean you are irresponsible or criminal. Between all causes, alcohol kills around 2-3x as many people as die in gun-related causes annually.
STDs kill thousands each year, but aside from the very religious, few try to publicly shame the sexually promiscuous for those deaths.
Heart disease kills…more people than anything else. Nobody is protesting at McDonalds.
And guns, while they can be used for monstrous crimes, also have considerable social utility for sport and self-defense.
[and]
There are probably many more examples. Just an interesting phenomenon.
[and]
I should clarify that I mean human activity.
Obviously, people often blame entire cultural, racial, or religious groups for the crimes of one of their own.
Maybe therein lies the answer though. Gun ownership is made into its own sort of caricatured ideological identity by the people who despise it.
That’s wrong of course. As @davidyamane says in his new book, “guns are normal and normal people use guns”.
Kostas Moros @MorosKostas
Posted on X, June 16, 2024
Grouping people makes it easier to demonize all of them by the characteristics of a few. It is an easy “solution” to a difficult problem. Democrats are communists… give them free helicopter rides. Republicans are ignorant… send them to education camps.
I prefer, but certainly contribute my share of inappropriate group shaming, to judge people as individuals.
There is something reckless in a Supreme Court that can annihilate gun laws by pulling at words, toying with phrases. There are many reasons to think about reforming the higher court. Decisions like this ought to be high among them.
Dominic Erdozain
June 15, 2024
Opinion: Supreme Court’s bump stock decision is a huge step backward (msn.com)
Reading the opinion piece you realize it is Erdozain who “pulls at words and toys with phrases”. Either that, and/or he is ignorant of the topic he writes about. As usual, these people project what they do onto their political enemies.
It is the ATF that thinks it can “annihilate gun laws.” They tried that by saying the law includes a bump stock when the law actually says a machine gun is a gun that fires more than one bullet with a single function of the trigger. The ATF “annihilated” the law and replaced it with their own “law”, which is unconstitutional. Only congress can create or change law. And last Friday, SCOTUS reminded the ATF and the rest of the country of that.
Words mean things. And the ATF must abide by the words of the law. If the law needs to be changed, then persuade congress to do that. Apparently Erdozain doesn’t understand that is how things are supposed to work. He wants the president to be able to give an order and change the law at will. His desired political system is more like a monarchy or dictatorship. Lots of people agree with him.
Prepare appropriately.
The ruling came out on Friday. This came out yesterday:
Donate to @gunpolicy. pic.twitter.com/Wzo35VHMCQ
— I’m just the cook (@Shanti__Ananda) June 15, 2024
#2A TERRIBLE ERROR BY ANTI-GUN SCOTUS JUSTICES. Never interrupt your enemy when they are making a mistake. In today’s Cargill/bump stock opinion, the below statement from Sotomayor/Kagan/Jackson will have major implications for AR-15 ban cases. Their dissent reads: “Within a matter of minutes, using several hundred rounds of ammunition, the [Vegas] shooter killed 58 people and wounded over 500. He did so by affixing bump stocks to COMMONLY AVAILABLE, SEMIAUTOMATIC RIFLES.” In my view, this is a devastating legal admission by the left that AR-15s are “in common use” and cannot be banned under Heller/Bruen.
Mark W. Smith/#2A Scholar @fourboxesdiner
Posted on X, June 14, 2024
While I think it is an error on their part, I don’t think the legal implications are as clear cut as Smith implies. His claim presumes the justices will be consistent with previous writings. I could easily see Sotomayor/Kagan/Jackson saying “in common use” when they see that to their advantage as in the bump stock case. If the guns are in common use and easily simulate fully automatic firearms, then commonly available is a bad thing. In a future case, involving an “assault weapon” ban, claiming they cannot be consider in common use because they are less than 5%* of all guns in the U.S. It is “whatever is needed to justify my conclusions”, not what the word of law says, or what I said yesterday.
But, the important thing is that we should celebrate the elimination of the bump stock ban and the slap down on the ATF claiming they can rewrite the law. This is a great precedent and will be useful in many other cases.
In related news, I received a text message from lawyer friend Mike B.:
I find it charming that Sotomayor explains how to bump fire an AR-15 in her dissent. How far we’ve come.
* I asked Copilot, “What percentage of all firearms in the U.S. are of a type similar to the AR-15?” Copilot responded with:
As of the data available, AR-15s and similar semi-automatic rifles, often referred to as Modern Sporting Rifles, account for an estimated 19.8 million units1. Considering the total number of firearms in civilian possession in the U.S. is around 434 million, AR-15 style rifles make up approximately 4.6% of all firearms in the country. This percentage is based on the figures indicating that about 30.2% of gun owners, which is about 24.6 million people, reported owning an AR-15 or similarly styled rifle2. It’s important to note that these numbers are estimates and the actual figures may vary. The AR-15 style rifles have seen a significant increase in production over the years, rising from around one percent of all firearms produced in the early 1990s to almost a quarter in 20203.
Never mind that Copilot’s logic is faulty**. I can’t imagine those justices really care anyway.
** if 24.6 million people own AR-15s, the total number of AR-15 should be at something closer (or greater than) 24.6 million, I think it is unlikely there are 4.8 million people sharing ownership of a rifle which is not canceled out by millions of others owning two (or ten) AR-15s.
“No single action can solve the entirety of a gun violence epidemic,” he said. “But together, our efforts–your efforts–are saving lives. You can help rally a nation with a sense of urgency and seriousness of purpose. You’re changing the culture. And we’ve proven we can do more than just thoughts and prayers. This is more than thoughts and prayers. You’re changing politics.”
President Biden then departed for his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, where earlier today his son Hunter Biden was found guilty of three gun-related felony charges.
T.J. Muscaro
June 11, 2024
Biden Touts Measures to Curb Gun Violence | The Epoch Times
Oh, the irony… 
Some people expect President Biden will pardon his son. If he does, I don’t think it will be until after the election in November. I think a more likely scenario is the appeal will result in some narrow ruling which gives Biden, and only Biden, a pass.
In only the most unlikelist of circumstances will Biden’s appeal result in overturning existing gun law on Second Amendment grounds in such a way that it will benefit the average gun owner.
Also note President Biden claims gun control is saving lives, but they never supply the evidence to back up such claims.
I’m sorry you feel you need an AR-15 to compensate for your tiny tadger. That’s rough.
Christina Zheng @Christilynw
Posted on X, May 30, 2024
It’s not only another Markley’s Law Monday, it is another science denier!
I was referred to this by In Chains @InChainsInJail. Zheng then told me not to procreate. I suspect what she really meant was that she wants me dead, but even if she was just passing judgement on my fitness for parenthood, that she thinks she should be able to make a decision like that for others is very telling. Anti-gun people are tyrants with, at most, a thin veneer of respectability.
Gun rights politics — i.e., defending your Second Amendment — is not a spectator sport. The people determined to destroy your rights play dirty, because in their book the end justifies the means. When you are in a nasty fight, expect somebody to accuse you of hitting “below the belt.”
Your response can be a simple: “Well, I didn’t think there was anything down there I was going to hurt.”
Dave Workman
April 26, 2024
Confront The Lies (jpfo.org)
It’s not fear, it’s cock swinging when you don’t have the junk to swing.
SloneK. @king_sandirella
Posted on X on Jjune 21, 2023
It’s not only another Markley’s Law Monday, it is another science denier!
They must have an exceptionally small imagination and narrow mind to believe those are the only two options to own and carry a gun. Especially, since one of the people in the picture is a woman.
As a professor who studies the economics of violence and illicit trades at the University of San Diego’s Kroc School of Peace Studies, I think this law could have important ramifications.
That agency, part of the Justice Department, is tasked with making American communities safer.
The ATF focuses on those products because, while legal, they can cause significant harm to society – in the form of drunken driving, for example, or cancer-causing addictions. They also have a common history: All have been associated with criminal organizations seeking to profit from illicit markets.
Alcohol and tobacco products are thus usually subject to state excise taxes. This policy is known as a “Pigouvian tax,” named after 20th-century British economist Arthur Pigou. By making a given product more expensive, such a tax leads people to buy less of it, reducing the harm to society while generating tax revenue that the state can theoretically use to offset those harms that still accrue.
California, for instance, imposes a US$2.87 excise tax on each pack of cigarettes. That tax is higher than the national average but much lower than New York’s $5.35 levy. California also imposed a vaping excise tax of 12.5% in 2021.
Of the three ATF product families, firearms have enjoyed an exemption from California excise taxes. Until now.
Topher L. McDougal
University of San Diego
May 28, 2024
California is about to tax guns more like alcohol and tobacco — and that could make a dent in gun violence (goodgoodgood.co)
Even if you want to ignore the unconstitutional taxing of a protected right, I find the following things very telling:
In other words, he is lying by omission.
Of course he lied! You should not be surprised. It is part of their culture.
Supreme Court Unanimously Rules for NRA in Free Speech Case | The Epoch Times
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the National Rifle Association plausibly alleged that a former New York state official violated the First Amendment by pressuring insurance companies to cut ties with the gun rights organization.
“A government official can share her views freely and criticize particular beliefs, and she can do so forcefully in the hopes of persuading others to follow her lead,” Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the majority opinion on May 30.
“In doing so, she can rely on the merits and force of her ideas, the strength of her convictions, and her ability to inspire others. What she cannot do, however, is use the power of the State to punish or suppress disfavored expression,” she added.
This isn’t the end of the game. This just means it goes back down to the lower court to go through the trial process.
I spent an hour putting the data together. If I figured out that guns ownership has an insignificant effect on the murder rate then so did the researchers paid for by anti-gun billionaires. This data means that they knew. It means they lied to please the people who paid them.
Rob Morse
May 26, 2024
See for Yourself if Guns Cause Murder (jpfo.org)
Of course they lied! It is part of their culture.
Every day some dullard spouts off some lame version of Joe’s idiocy, so we’re just going to get out in front of it today:
F-15s should [be] sold next to Corollas on the used car lots.
That being said, we’ll take two.
Firearms Policy Coalition @gunpolicy
Posted May 17, 2024 on X.
One of the things I like about the FPC is their boldness.
A new study listing Washington as the eighth most-dangerous state in the country refutes the hype from national gun control groups which give the state high marks for gun laws, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms observed.
The study, by the Simmrin Law Group, is being reported in newspapers across the Evergreen State. Yet Washington gets an “A-” on the Giffords gun control scorecard, while the Everytown for Gun Safety gun prohibition lobby group brags that Washington is “#9 in the country for gun law strength.”
“Evidently,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb observed, “the gun prohibition lobby is living in an alternate universe. Giving the state such high ratings probably won’t make the families of violent crime victims feel any better. We’re still waiting for anti-gunners to explain how, after almost ten years of pushing increasingly restrictive gun laws, which only penalize law-abiding citizens, the number of Evergreen State murders has more than doubled. Clamping down on gun rights was supposed to reduce murder and mayhem.
CCRKBA
April 29, 2024
STUDY REFUTES HIGH GRADES FOR WA GUN LAWS BY GUN BAN GROUPS | Citizens Committee For The Right To Keep And Bear Arms (ccrkba.org)
As we have known for a long time, it is never about safety of the ordinary person. It has to be about something else.
Prepare appropriately.
More people are killed by slashing or stabbing than are killed with rifles or shotguns of any type. In 2022, according to FBI data (the most recent year for which it is available), 1,216 people were murdered with knives or cutting instruments. That same year, 489 people were murdered with rifles (of any kind), and 161 died from shotgun blasts.
So, what Australia just reminded the world about gun control is that restrictive firearms policies do not prevent murderous mayhem.
Dave Workman
2024
On The Cutting Edge – American Handgunner
What this tells us, as if we didn’t already know, is that the battle over semi-automatic rifles is not about their utility as an offensive weapon. It is about the defensive use of them. They do not want you to be able to defend yourself with a rifle.
Prepare appropriately.
Do you remember Judge Abena Darkeh? She is the judge who said,
Do not bring the Second Amendment into this courtroom. It doesn’t exist here. So you can’t argue Second Amendment. This is New York.
There is now a Change.org petition to demand her removal from her position. She should be prosecuted and sent to prison, but taking a baby step is better than nothing at all.
Sign it and spread the word.
If the Biden regime gets four more years, they are coming for your guns,
In my second term, we will roll back every Biden attack on the Second Amendment.
Donald J. Trump
May 18, 2024
Accepting N.R.A. Endorsement, Trump Pledges to Be Gun Owners’ Ardent Ally – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
And what about the Trump attack on the Second Amendment? Is everyone supposed to overlook the bump stock ban under the Trump administration?
I’m not saying a Biden second term would be better than a Trump second term. But casting the contest as voting for the lesser of two evils would have a fair amount of validity.
Also via Happy Little Memes – According To Hoyt:
While amusing, don’t post this at the entrance to your home. Should you ever be forced to defend innocence life using deadly force the meme would likely be used as evidence at your trial.
After reading about the gun class for people who hate guns, I couldn’t help but think what’s needed even more is a gun-control class for those who love guns.
Jerry Rubin
Santa Monica
May 13, 2024
L.A. Times letter to the editor
Letters to the Editor: Liberals don’t need to get a gun because everyone else has one (msn.com)
Ahhh… yes. A slightly obscure reference to the reeducation camps they are just can’t wait to send us to.
Prepare appropriately.
Parker said that even though the proposed bill would not have prevented the 33-year-old gunman who committed the mass shooting from purchasing a gun, she still thinks it’s a step in the right direction.
James Hartley
May 8, 2024
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker makes statement in support of proposed gun control measure (yahoo.com)
I find this very telling. They find excuses to implement gun control knowing that the proposed law would make zero difference in the examples they use to get the law passed. Gun control is not about making the general public safer. And they know this as they push for yet more gun control.
It is the same with almost all anti-gun activists and politicians. It has been going on since at least the “Brady Act”, which had that law been in effect before Brady and President Regan were shot would have made zero difference in the perpetrator committing his crime.
How can you tell if an anti-gun activist is lying? Yes, their lips are moving. It is an essential part of their culture.
Prepare and respond appropriately.
