Quote of the day—Lee Williams

Dear Gabby, Shannon and Mike,

The instant the first Russian T-80 crossed the Ukrainian border, the whole world could see the uselessness of everything you’ve ever said and everything you’ve ever done. You’ve been overtaken by events – mooted and muted in one fell swoop, so scram. Leave the field. It is time for you and your gun-ban groups to go.

There’s a madman with nukes on the loose who’s just 50 miles off Alaska’s port bow. No one knows how far he’s willing to go, so you’re out. The adults are taking charge. Your services are no longer required. Please take the Demanding Moms and their creepy husbands with you, open a box of wine and have yourselves a good cry. Ukraine learned nearly too late that the right to keep and bear arms saves lives, while the civilian disarmament pipedream you’ve been peddling for decades costs lives.

Lee Williams
March 2022
An open letter to Gabby Giffords, Shannon Watts and Michael Bloomberg
[There’s more but I found this the best part.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Lauren Boebert @laurenboebert

Remember.

Ukraine gave up their nukes in exchange for promises of security.

We see how that turned out.

This is why we must NEVER give up our guns to any government.

Lauren Boebert @laurenboebert
Tweeted on March 7, 2022
[This makes perfect sense to me. The principles which apply at a national level make sense when scaled down to an individual level.

But yet some people seem to think it is total nonsense. And they don’t (or can’t) explain why it is nonsense in a way that makes sense to me:

Oh my God, how are you not getting this? Two totally separate things. It’s like comparing apples to a dragon.

Does that mean we’re all getting nukes? We can pile them on a bookshelf behind us in Zoom conferences. Pose with them in Christmas photos. Have shirts that say, “Over my radioactive body.”

Comparing rifles to nukes is an extreme comparison considering that fact individuals can’t just walk into their local Walmart or bass pro shop and purchase a nuclear weapon.

Excellent argument for a 5th grader.

One screen. Two movies. Each think the other is delusional.

Reality is tough. Really, really tough.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Jason Ouimet

Having successfully removed the “violence” component from the federal “domestic-violence” prohibitor, gun controllers set to work on removing the “domestic” component. The current version of the federal Violence Against Women Act (H.R. 1620 or VAWA) would alter the types of relationships that give rise to a prohibiting “domestic violence” conviction to include “dating partners.” There is no temporal or cohabitation limit to the definition of “dating partners.” Ladies, next time you see that cad who ghosted you after two dates, don’t throw a drink in his face—it might cost you your gun rights under the federal government’s increasingly ridiculous definition of “domestic violence.”

Over the last half-century, gun-rights supporters’ enthusiasm to protect the ownership and availability of the types firearms necessary to exercise the Second Amendment right has altered the political landscape. Now, as gun-control supporters increasingly set their sights on gun owners, gun-rights supporters must marshal that same passion to combat the more complex anti-gun campaign to expand prohibited-persons categories. At stake is more than just what types of guns Americans may own, but whether the average American will qualify to own any firearm at all.

Jason Ouimet
Executive Director, NRA-ILA
March 6, 2022
From Prohibited Firearms To Prohibited Persons
[I found this to be an interesting observation. With the new ban on standard capacity magazines in Washington State the article could have had better timing but it is still a valid point.

The anti-gun people have opened up a new front in the war against the right to keep and bear arms and to a large extend gun rights advocates have been caught flat-footed. We do not have a good response to this new type of attack.

In part we have ourselves to blame. We have often said things to the effect of, “It is the criminal, not the gun.” And, we were unable or unwilling to prevent the enactment of laws against convicted felons owning firearms (even though they had “paid their debt to society”). So now when they push us down the slippery slope of any type of conviction it is tough to get traction and push back.

As it stands there is no connection between being a violent criminal threat and being banned from firearm ownership. An petite elderly woman with a felony conviction for $1,000 of tax fraud 50 years ago and has lead an angelical life since is banned from protecting herself with the most effective self-defense tools. But the Antifa thug with dozens of arrests for assault, battery, and arson but no convictions can purchase artillery pieces just like the rest of us normal people.

We need a good response to this threat and absurdity.

My thought is since NICS, and background checks in general, have not changed the violent crime rate we should push for the elimination of these costly infringements which do nothing for public safety. That’s the logical approach.

Am more emotionally based response might be, “If someone is safe enough to be allowed in public with gasoline and a book of matches they are safe enough to be in possession of a gun in public.”*

A better one might be, “Background checks don’t make us safer.** What is the real reason you are doing this?”

Short and clever sound bites are best. Any ideas?—Joe]


* I can’t take credit for this observation. I think it was someone named Jason who, probably in the late 1990’s, told me his father pointed this out to him.

** California’s Background Check Law Had No Impact on Gun Deaths, Johns Hopkins Study Finds

New Washington State gun law

The short story with pictures from this thread:

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What you also need to do is donate money to SAF and FPC to fund the appeal of Duncan v. Becerra to SCOTUS.

I’m ahead of you Tom Gresham @Guntalk

Tom:

If I were a Washington State resident I’d be online this morning, ordering at least 100 magazines for a modern rifle (AR) as well as other standard capacity mags. The governor will sign the mag ban passed by the legislature.

Me (some time ago) with my grandson:

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Quote of the day—sacrebleu14 / SA Hinchcliffe @sacrebleu141

Bullies.

Like those who demand women, BIPOC, Ethnic, & LGBTQ+ communities to be forcibly disarmed. Unable to protect themselves.

Oh wait…

that is @washdems to #wastate Women, BIPOC, Ethic, & LGBTQ+ communities

#waleg #wapolitics #wa2A #wcraimage

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sacrebleu14 / SA Hinchcliffe @sacrebleu141
Tweeted on February 27, 2022
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—tommybigdick @tommybigdickpr1

Any person who voluntarily goes near or touches a gun literally does not have a brain or soul and its completely okay to end such an individual cos they are already dead and exist in hell.

tommybigdick @tommybigdickpr1
Tweeted on February 24, 2022
[Via In Chains.

This is what they think of you. They want you dead.

Prepare appropriately.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Rob Romano (@2Aupdates)

Those stupid gun nuts keep saying that the federal assault weapons ban didn’t work, but I can’t find proof of a single bayoneting during the 10 years it was in effect.

Rob Romano (@2Aupdates)
Tweeted on March 2, 2022
[That should be proof enough for anybody.—Joe]

Up is down, truth is false

Nineteen Eighty-Four was a dystopian novel. It was not a how-to manual.

Yet we have an organization who advocates for the banning of firearms, a specific enumerated right, being called a civil rights organization:

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Evil has become incredibly brazen.

Prepare appropriately.

No one needs an AR-15 or AK-47

Via the JPFO:

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Quote of the day—Alan Gottlieb

The gun prohibition lobby would have America become vulnerable to such aggression as we are now seeing on television screens from coast to coast. This isn’t some action movie Americans are watching, this is real life, and it vividly illustrates why so many of us fight day and night to protect and defend our Second Amendment rights.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the good citizens of Ukraine. We can only hope that gun prohibitionists, or at least their supporters in the establishment media, learn something from this tragedy. To live in peace, one must always be prepared to defend it.

Alan Gottlieb
CCRKBA Chairman
February 24, 2022
CCRKBA: ‘UKRAINE CRISIS UNDERSCORES IMPORTANCE OF SECOND AMENDMENT’
[I do not expect, and I doubt Gottlieb does either, gun prohibitionists will “learn something from this tragedy” that will cause them to reduce their efforts to disarm private citizens. I expect many of them would celebrate the destruction of the USA and imagine they can, and should, accelerate that destruction by eliminating or neutering the 2nd Amendment.

We live in interesting times. Prepare appropriately.—Joe]

Quote of the day—March for our lives @GregWooll5

By the way banning AR15s is not anti 2A.

March for our lives @GregWooll5
Tweeted on February 21, 2022
[Lot’s of good responses. My favorites:

Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Voting Rights is Job #1 @KeepingSunny

There are no good guns. And normal people don’t want their kids around any kind of gun. None.

Voting Rights is Job #1 @KeepingSunny
Tweeted on February 20, 2022
[This is what they think of us and our culture.

Prepare appropriately.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Colion Noir @MrColionNoir

My goal was always to make 2A mainstream. Some want to keep the 2A community small. I want it to be so big that there is no more 2A community, it’s just engrained in the culture. I want gun commercials during the Super Bowl. I want big time actors sponsored by gun companies.

Colion Noir @MrColionNoir
Tweeted on February 11, 2022
[+1.

This is compatible with my goal (from May 30, 2019):

A gun is like a book. Possession, use, and purchase is a specific enumerated right. You should be able to be purchase them anyway, anytime, and anywhere.

That is my goal. Get used to it.

We both have more work to do.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Igor Volsky

The significant increase in gun violence over the last couple of years is simply too hard to ignore and, I do believe the President when he says and when he said that this issue is a priority for him,

Igor Volsky
Founder of Guns Down America
February 14, 2022
‘We’re not asking for magical things’: Anti-gun violence groups launch campaign to pressure Biden four years after Parkland
[Completely ignoring that over 92% of violent crime in the US does not involve a gun. Completely ignoring the “defund the police” component to the increase in violent crime. Completely ignoring the lack of prosecution of violent criminals which are caught. Completely ignoring the early release of violent criminals from prison using the excuse they were in danger of catching COVID-19 while in prison. Completely ignoring gun ownership is a specific enumerated right.

It is not about crime. It is about taking Guns away from ordinary people.

Just as interesting is that there is such a new anti-gun organization. This organization was founded in late 2016. Apparently the half dozen or so other organizations, many of which have been around for decades, weren’t effective enough for Volsky.

What he doesn’t seem to understand is that his message of “building a future with fewer guns” has already been tried by many of the existing organizations. And if they ever get any traction with the politicians gun sales skyrocket. It is an “adaptive response” as explained by Chet just the other day.

And don’t let anyone get away with telling you, “No one wants to take your guns.”—Joe]

Quote of the day—Forrest Cooper

In his book, Antifragile Nicholas Nassim Taleb describes his concept as something which gains from disorder or resistance. Having no word to accurately describe something that is the opposite of fragile, he argues that the term robust does not go far enough, and is neutral at best. Antifragility is a trait, whether it be in markets, military strategies, or bone mass, that grows off of the volatility of their environments.

The phenomenon that is American Gun Culture has responded to censorship in an antifragile way. This can be seen in the sudden spike in firearms purchasing whenever politicians push for banning certain firearms, as well as by continuing to grow despite political and cultural opposition. While social media platforms normalize censoring firearms-related content, the culture revolving around firearms shows that it doesn’t need their approval to continue thriving.

Forrest Cooper
February 7, 2022
Censorship and Antifragility: Aero Precision
[Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder is a good book. It is a novel, (but obvious in hindsight) way of looking at things. As an engineer it helped me think about the design of reliable systems. It can help the gun rights community think about better responses to attempts at infringements too.

Gab is a good example. They were deplatformed on multiple axis simultaneously and came back stronger than before.

One might also say Boomershoot was an antifragile response to a law introduced by Diane Feinstein. The word did not exist at the time, but it certainly fits the facts.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Natasha Abel

Based on the percent of firearms licenses, about 1 to 5 percent of adult residents had a firearms license in Massachusetts counties. But Iwama found no consistent effect of the new legislation on reducing four types of violent crime (murder or nonnegligent manslaughter, aggravated assault, robbery, rape). Her study did find that a one-percent increase in denied firearm licenses and denied firearm licenses following statutory disqualifications increased robberies 7.3 and 8.9 percent, respectively.

While the percentage of denied firearms licenses and firearms license applications had little to no effect on violent crimes, Iwama suggests state lawmakers revisit their legislation to ensure that it is being implemented as intended and address challenges identified. In particular, are these findings the result of a longer-than-expected lag in enforcement following passage of the legislation? Are they due to individuals obtaining firearms in nearby states with looser gun laws? Or is it possible that the 2014 law is being enforced differentially by county?

Natasha Abel
October 22, 2021
Study: Massachusetts Gun-Control Legislation Has Had No Effect on Violent Crime
[Or is it possible that what I and others have been saying, for almost 20 years, gun control has not and will not make the general public safer?

Study after study agrees with me but researcher Janice Iwama confirms the findings of dozens of other researchers using data from all over the country (for example: a 2018 study on background checks and my thoughts on background checks in 2013) and concludes it must be an implementation problem specific to Massachusetts. She doesn’t understand (or believe) that it was never the intention of the law to increase public safety.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Adam Kredo

The ATF maintained in its response to the 2021 investigation that the “sole purpose” of its database and ongoing efforts to digitize out-of-business records “is to trace firearms used in crimes.”

More than half-a-million traces were performed in 2021, according to the ATF, and just under half a million in 2020. The ATF, however, says it does not have the ability to determine if the database actually helps solve crimes. The ATF’s National Tracing Center “has no ability to determine the successful prosecution of hundreds of thousands of crime gun traces it completes annually, nor does it have any way to link a trace for a specific prosecution for a particular year,” the agency informed Congress.

Adam Kredo
January 31, 2022
Biden Admin Has Records on Nearly One Billion Gun Sales
[There are number of things of interest in this:

  1. One billion gun sales!
  2. The ATF says they can’t even tell us if there has ever been a single crime solved via the tracing of a gun.
  3. Yet they continue to do a half million gun traces per year – to what purpose?

If the nearly sole purpose was to return stolen property to its rightful owner and they were successful most of the time I would wouldn’t complain too loudly.

If they were instrumental in solving hundreds of thousands of violent and/or property crimes every year I wouldn’t complain too loudly.

Neither of those two scenarios are true.. All evidence indicates the ATF are the criminals.

Prepare appropriately.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Congress of the United States

We would urge that you consider rescinding the proposed regulation that would require FFLs to preserve firearm records older than 20 years. Indeed, the evidence provided by ATF thus far demonstrates that such records likely have little utility in prosecuting crime, yet raise serious concerns about whether ATF is creating a prohibited national gun registry.

Congress of the United States
Signed by 36 members of Congress
Letter from Congress to the ATF
[See also:

We live in interesting times. Prepare accordingly.—Joe]

Quote of the day—John R. Lott

With violent crime increasing over the last two years, Americans want a solution. But President Joe Biden constantly frames violent crime as only a gun problem. Again, it was the sole focus of Biden’s speech in New York City on Thursday. Even when he mentions police or prosecutors, it was in terms of enforcing gun control laws.

But this “guns first” approach ignores a basic fact – over 92% of violent crimes in America do not involve firearms. And while Biden blames guns for the increase in violent crime, the latest data show that gun crimes fell dramatically.

John R. Lott
February 4, 2022
Biden’s ‘guns first’ approach to violent crime ignores basic facts
[I’m reminded of the television news several decades ago. When they would report on crime an symbol of a handgun would appear in the corner of the screen during the crime report. It didn’t matter if was burglary, a stabbing, or shoplifting and no gun was involved. They were attempting to make guns synonymous with crime.

The democrats defund the police, fail to prosecute criminals, and then tell us they are going to increase restrictions on firearms. This isn’t stupidity or ignorance. This is evil. As I have said before, this the communist way.

Prepare appropriately.—Joe]