Quote of the Day

Gun capitalism is legitimized through the kind of bill President Biden signed into law in 2022. The bill authorized things like new money for mental health and red flag laws — which are good, but also inherently signal that gun consumerism is perfectly legitimate and can continue so long as we make sure the guardrails are there.

The U.S. is one of the few if not the only country in the world that approaches gun policy in that particular way. I think that until we are ready to confront gun capitalism, we’re going to continue in the cycle that we find ourselves in.

Ben Tumin
March 19, 2024
Why Is There a Gun Problem in America? The Gun Capitalists Are Partly to Blame | Teen Vogue

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I used to read some of the small communist newspapers I found laying around in downtown Seattle. They had the same twisted view of reality. Capitalism was unquestionably to blame for all the evil in the world.

Prepare and respond appropriately.

* Image from Gun Control: Good for the Noble, Bad for the Greedy – Imgflip

Quote of the Day

Those who want to outlaw drugs must first outlaw, among other things, chemistry and horticulture.

Those who want to outlaw strong cryptography and cryptocurrency must first outlaw, among other things, math and computer science.

If it was even possible to get rid of guns, drugs, and crypto — it isn’t, but if it was — the politicians who want to do so would have to figure out how to get us to give up everything modern, from the bicycle to the automobile to the microcomputer to the smart phone to most of the food we eat to accomplish their objective.

They’d have to outlaw Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), the set of fields that they’re constantly complaining not enough students are going into.

Thomas L. Knapp
March 16, 2024
Opinion: ‘Gun Control’ is a call for returning to the Stone Age – Newton Daily News

There is a lot of truth in this but one must realized it isn’t really about banning these things. As Ayn Rand pointed out, it is about controlling people.

Quote of the Day

Those who would outlaw weapons must first outlaw the knowledge of weapons. And those who would outlaw the knowledge of weapons must outlaw knowledge itself.
         Similarly, civilization consists of more than just impressive public buildings and a battery of arbitrary rules. Its continued existence depends absolutely on the day-to-day good will of each and every individual. History (especially recent Soviet history) proves that this good will depends on how well individual rights are respected. Alienate the individual, lose his good will, and you lose civilization itself.
         Think I exaggerate? Take another look at Beirut, Los Angeles, or the World Trade Center.
         Every day we learn again how dependent we’ve been all along on individual self-restraint. Self-styled liberals label this lesson “terrorism” because it makes them feel better and helps them to forget until tomorrow. But it doesn’t matter what they call it. In sufficient numbers, disaffected individuals become armies of chaos, reducing whole civilizations to archaeological rubble. And, as with most violence in our culture, it is self-styled liberals who will make it happen here.

L. Neil Smith
Armies of Chaos (lneilsmith.org)

Quote of the Day

Given the empirical evidence, police agencies may use gun buyback programs not with the expectation of reducing violent crime, but to satisfy the public’s expectations. When serious crime problems occur, mayors and police chiefs are under pressure from their constituents to ‘do something dramatic and effective’ about the violence.

Scott W. Phillips, et al.
November 1, 2013
An Evaluation of a Multiyear Gun Buy-Back Programme: Re-Examining the Impact on Violent Crimes

Via Gun buybacks: Findings from decades of research (journalistsresource.org).

In other words, to make the general public feel better.

I suppose in some ways it does make me feel a little better. I almost always feel better after a good laugh.

Quote of the Day

Blackshear, a Dayton Democrat, now calls modern rifles “mass casualty weapons,” as though the gun, rather than some deranged criminal who might create mayhem, is somehow responsible for a hideous crime. According to a news release from his office, his bill is a response to a tragic 2019 shooting in Dayton’s Oregon district.

Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
March 6, 2024
CCRKBA: OHIO REP. BLACKSHEAR INVENTS NEW TERM TO DEMONIZE GUNS | Citizens Committee For The Right To Keep And Bear Arms

As pointed out by Alan Gottlieb:

The gun prohibition movement has tried the terms ‘assault weapons’ and ‘weapons of war,’ and even ‘weapons of mass destruction.’ Now, all of a sudden, Rep. Blackshear has come up with something new to incite the same old anxieties anti-gunners have always had over the fact that Americans like firearms and dislike the efforts to ban them.

Anti-gun people are always trying to put lipstick on their pigs. It’s just another tool of deception in their playbook.

Quote of the Day

If anti-gun lawmakers can continue to chip away at gun ownership, in any small, even meaningless, way, they feel vindicated in their efforts at disarming honest Americans.

Doug Howlett
March 5, 2024
Fixing What Ain’t Broke: Hawaii Seeks to Ban .50-Caliber Guns – The Truth About Guns

It’s not about public safety. And it never has been. For probably most people it is about the feelings. But it has also been about the safety of criminals. This includes the common everyday criminals as well as the government thugs and tyrants.

Image via Rolf.

Quote of the Day

Today, we join 27 other states in passing Constitutional Carry. I promised the folks of Louisiana that I would champion Constitutional Carry into law, and within two months, I have honored that commitment.

Jeff Landry
Governor of Louisiana
March 5, 2024
NRA-ILA | Louisiana Becomes Nation’s 28th State with NRA-Backed Constitutional Carry (nraila.org)

Twenty seven states out of 50. That is a good start.

Another 23 then we can start working on Canada, Mexico, and other human rights abusing nations. I think some economic sanctions would be a good start. If not, there are more “persuasive” options available.