This is an unfortunate example of a religious leader interjecting himself into a political discussion. I understand that is something tempting to do because we all seek popular recognition, especially at his level. But in his statement he fails to see the irony he creates by assigning an almost evil intent to the inanimate object rather than seeking and healing what ails the souls of those who use the object to commit evil which is what he is duty bound to do. It is the equivalent of blaming the cross for the Crucifixion of our Lord.
Miguel Gonzalez
June 4, 2022
Christian Science Monitor: “Has the gun become a sacred object in America?”
[Via an email from pkoning.
Nice analogy! And he did an awesome job handling the questions of the CSM reporter.—Joe]
Of course, as Gideon J. Tucker said:
No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.
Therefore, untrustworthy should be your default view of politicians until conclusively proven otherwise, or they are dead, which ever comes last.
If you live in or plan to visit Washington state effective July 1, 2022 standard capacity magazines holding more than 10 rounds will be illegal to:
manufacture, import, distribute, 22 sell, or offer for sale
Existing magazines in the state can be taken out of the state and then brought back in.
The law has been challenged in court but it is likely to take years to wind it way through the courts and a successful reversal of this unconstitutional law is not guaranteed.
You should seriously consider purchasing all the magazines you expect to need NOW. Here are a few options:
Taking issue with a decision by District Attorney Larry Krasner, Mayor Jim Kenney said Wednesday that anyone who fired a weapon during Saturday night’s mass shooting on South Street deserved to be jailed — including the man prosecutors said had acted in self-defense.
Speaking at a virtual gun-violence briefing, Kenney said: “Anybody who fired a gun that day should be locked up.”
Krasner’s office took exception to the mayor’s comments. “He’s not a cop, he’s not an attorney,” said Jane Roh, Krasner’s spokesperson. “The DA and our entire office is incredibly frustrated with the gun violence that’s happening.
“But just like the mayor, we are bound by the law, we cannot invent crimes that don’t exist and facts that aren’t true.”
Would the Mayor insist someone who used a rock to hit and kill the guy who just shot him be locked up too? I’m betting the answer is no. The mayor is prejudiced against gun ownership and using a gun for self-defense.
If he somehow manages to someday get his way and anyone who defended innocent life against imminent danger of serious injury or death is prosecuted then it would be my desire that the mayor and anyone assisting him in such a crime be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
See also this article.
More than 400 officers have left while crime has soared. This past week The Seattle Times and KUOW reported new sex assault cases aren’t being investigated because of understaffing. Meanwhile, the softer approaches envisioned for community safety still are in the pilot stages.
This past week the city announced it is refunding 100,000 parking tickets and voiding another 100,000 because of an oversight — namely that the parking enforcement officers, who are civilians, were not regranted the authority to write tickets after they were switched out of the Police Department last fall.
Danny Westneat
June 4, 2022
Seattle’s botched experiment with defund the police keeps getting worse
[Emphasis added. I cannot believe these people are this stupid. It has to be intentional. These people are verifiably evil.—Joe]
We will stop you.
We will repeal your laws.
We will restore natural rights.
We are winning.
You will cope and seethe.
Firearms Policy Coalition @gunpolicy
Tweeted on June 6, 2022
[Donate to the Firearms Policy Coalition here. I donate nearly $1700/year to the Firearms Policy Foundation and get a tax deduction.—Joe]
If found this very interesting:
Stop conflating mass shootings with mental illness
It’s important to understand the most common underlying factors that lead to violence: untreated anger, family violence, past history of violent acts, growing up where violence is used, and being young and male. To be clear, anger is not a mental illness. Hatred of others is not a mental illness.
It strikes me as probably true and gives us insight as to why Federal law against people who have been involuntarily treated for mental illness being banned from gun ownership is mostly useless and should be repealed.
A bigger issues is, “Can this this knowledge be leveraged in some way to reduce violent crime without infringing upon the rights of individuals?”
Economics has a concept called “revealed preference.” The gist is that a person’s observed actions reveal more about their preferences than what a person might profess to prefer. As applied to anti-gun politicians, despite all the noise they might make about stopping the criminal misuse of guns, their actions reveal that their policies are designed to attack the rights of law-abiding Americans.
…
For FY 2017 there were a grand total of 12 prosecutions out of 112,000 denials. When, all else being equal, there is a 1 in 10,000 chance of being prosecuted for a crime in which the perpetrator necessarily offers himself up to the government, the goal isn’t public safety, it’s to control the law-abiding.
NRA-ILA
June 6, 2022
Gun Control is About Stripping Rights NOT Stopping Crime
[They are, of course, referring to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)..—Joe]
Via email from Rolf:
I think I could write the equation for the probability density function for that. Of course, it would violate mathematical law and prove the claims of the anti-gunners invalid. But, as they wouldn’t understand the concept, let alone the math, I won’t bother.
The words and concepts are all there. But I’m not sure he is putting it all together to arrive at the obvious conclusion:
Nobody talks tougher on guns than the left. We want to regulate them, seize them, control them, even ban them.
The uncomfortable part of this stance is: Who is going to carry all this out, though, if not the police? Police who are stopping, searching, interfering — all the things various city actors have understandably said they are most skeptical police can do safely and without racial bias.
Recently, I wrote about how Washington state’s aggressive gun control laws, which ban AR-15 gun sales to people under age 21 and also institute a 10-day waiting period, would likely have prevented the recent Buffalo and Texas mass shootings (because both were committed by 18-year-olds who legally bought their guns).
What they don’t prevent are the types of gun crime that Seattle is awash in right now — where drug dealers, gang members or others steal guns or pick them up on an ample black market.
He needs to ask himself, and then his entire readership, just one question.
Michael Moore Urges 2nd Amendment Repeal: Get Dogs, Not Guns
“I know that there are Democratic Party leaders that do not want me saying this. … I make no apologies for it because I understand the history of this country, and I don’t think we should be afraid to say this: Repeal the Second Amendment. Repeal the Second Amendment,” Moore urged.
“You don’t need a gun,” Moore added. “If you’re afraid of somebody breaking in, get a dog.”
If a dog is going to be a deterrent to a violent predator then they have to be large and capable of inflicting serious, life threatening, damage. So, essentially you have the same level of damage as a firearm but instead of under your complete control it is under the control of an animal brain over which you have moderate control.
The way I see this is that if you believe a dog is better than a firearm it means you believe some dog brain has better judgement and is less likely to make a mistake in defending you and yours than you are. Plus there is the lack of availability when you go to work, the store, or the movies, etc.. That is also a “cost” of making that tradeoff.
For this increased reliability and decreased availability you are willing to a pay a lot more. This says to me that the increased reliability must be an order of magnitude or so better than what you have with a firearm 100% under your control.
This makes perfect sense in the case of Moore. But he should not be speaking for others who are not so mentally handicapped that, by his own indirect admission, he believes a dog is ten times smarter than he is.
We have reached the point at which Democrats have to literally pretend Republicans don’t have better solutions.
Scott Adams @ScottAdamsSays
Tweeted on June 8, 2022
[I am inclined to dismiss “pretend”. All appearances are they are very serious. There are other hypothesis which match the available evidence better:
Of those two I’m inclined to go with the second option. They have been informed so many times by so many people for so many decades and there is so much evidence that must be overlooked by so many people that I have to rule out a mass delusion that infectious and lasting this long.—Joe]
Don’t tell Barb, she thinks the 250+ shirts I had back in 2013 were sufficient, but I have found some shirts calling out to me.
Here is a small sample:
Via a tweet from NRA @NRA:
Mass shootings are effective for Republicans at demoralizing their opposition and training their base to unlearn any lingering sense of empathy. Historian Ruth Ben-Shiat argued in October in the Washington Post, that gun violence “fosters political, social and psychological conditions that are propitious for autocracy.” A major GOP campaign message going into the midterms is that “woke” Democrats are letting criminals run amok in the cities. Dramatic gun violence really helps sell this message, which is why Republicans are guaranteed to block any bill that would make it even slightly harder for violent and unhinged people to get guns.
Amanda Marcotte
June 6, 2022
U.S. gun laws are causing mayhem and mass murder — and Republicans couldn’t be more thrilled
[This is what they think of you.
The way I remember the history of gun rights in this country over the last 30 years is that (mostly) Republicans celebrated the reduction in violent crime as it became easier to carry guns to protect yourself in public. Another contributor to that decreasing violent crime rates was the increased incarceration of repeat criminals. But, as numerous people have pointed out in the comments, the political left doesn’t know their history.—Joe]
Support for ‘assault weapons’ ban hits all-time low following Uvalde shooting: Poll
New polling shows that support for an “assault weapons” ban in the United States has hit an all-time low despite calls from Democrats to implement a ban following a deadly mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
In a Quinnipiac University poll, conducted last week and published on Tuesday, 50 percent of registered voters support a nationwide ban on semi-automatic long guns compared to 45% who oppose which represents the lowest level of support since February 2013 when Quinnipiac began asking that question.
The highest level of support for the ban was 67% in February 2018, days after the Parkland school shooting that left 17 people dead.
From a legal and philosophical standpoint it doesn’t really matter if 99% of the population disagrees with you. And of course just because 99% of the population is totally convinced the earth is flat does not mean that it is flat.
But from a practical standpoint it sure helps if the number of people in opposition are relatively low. That only 50% of the population is in favor of violating our right to keep and bear modern sporting rifles and the trend is in our favor is good news. It will make it easier to get court decisions in our favor and to get legislators and politicians in the executive branch to stand up to the criminals. And ultimately, with enough support, to prosecute the criminals who have infringed upon our specific enumerated rights.
We are winning.
Semiautomatic rifles are weapons of war. Refusing to act and save lives in this moment is an immoral abandonment of your constitutional duty.
House Democrats @HouseDemocrats
Tweeted on June 8, 2022
[I hope they enjoy their trial.—Joe]
SAF and Aero Precision have teamed up to sell specially marked Magpul PMAG® magazines:
In addition to getting a high quality magazine SAF and Aero Precision share this:
With the passing of SB 5078 we have partnered with the Second Amendment Foundation to help in the legal battle against this unconstitutional law. The net proceeds from each of these magazines sold will go directly to the Second Amendment Foundation to help fund legal action to defeat this unconstitutional bill.
I bought a few. You should consider doing the same.
