Category Archives: Politics

A Step Toward Machine Gun Competitions in High Schools

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Quote of the Day

Mr. Burlison is also introducing legislation to repeal the 1934 National Firearms Act, which taxes, registers, and restricts gun owners.

Kerry Picket
January 7, 2025
GOP lawmakers introduce legislation to abolish ATF – Washington Times

See also GOP Congress Targets ATF, Even Introduces Legislation to Make Machine Gun Ownership Legal Without Special Paperwork.

The headline is concerned with abolishing the ATF. Slinking into view with a single low-key sentence is a WMD against Federal gun laws.

I think it is unlikely to pass on its own this year and or even the foreseeable future. But if Musk and Ramaswamy trim two trillion from the budget via the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), then I could see the ATF and the NFA as part of the eliminated waste.

This would result in my vision of seeing machine gun competitions in high schools by 2032 being realized.

Practice Being a Non-Conformist.

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Often it’s perfectly fine to blindly follow rules and guidelines, but sometimes, every once in a while, it can permit atrocities to happen: from cruel conspiracies against that one person in your friend group who’s a little different all the way up the scale to genocidal actions. So it’s absolutely vital to be able to think about the norms we follow, and, from time to time, to break the less useful ones just to make sure we still can. We need to practice non-conformity to make sure we can do it when we need to. It’s always wise to take a minute to think, ‘Do I really agree with this, and could it harm anyone?’ before acting. 

Marie Snyder
January 2, 2025
Stand Out: How to Prevent Obeying in Advance – 3 Quarks Daily

Via email from Chris M.

Following this advice is tougher than you think. This behavior extends from seemly insignificant curiosities to the mind boggling horrific.

For example. Turn off all the lights in a room and shine a light through a pin hole in a wall. Ask the group of people in the room to report which direction the light is moving. After discussing it, they will agree the stationary light is moving and the direction of that movement.

We have examples from the other end of the scale as well. Virtually no one in a group will use their shovel to attack their murderers. This is true even if they are knowingly digging their own graves. Everyone else is digging, so the individual conforms to the norm.

Practice being a non-conformist. It may save your life and/or the lives of thousands or even millions of others.

Interesting Perspective

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As I witnessed the despair and incomprehension of liberals worldwide after Donald Trump’s victory in November’s U.S. presidential election, I had a sinking feeling that I had been through this before. The moment took me back to 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down, signaling the beginning of the end of Soviet Communism and the lifting of the Iron Curtain that had divided Europe since the end of World War II. The difference was that the world that collapsed in 1989 was theirs, the Communists’. Now it is ours, the liberals’.

…

 Living through such moments in history teaches one many things, but the most important is the sheer speed of change: People can totally alter their views and political identity overnight; what only yesterday was considered unthinkable seems self-evident today. The shift is so profound that people soon find their old assumptions and choices unfathomable.

…

Trump captured the public imagination not because he had a better plan for how to win the war in Ukraine or manage globalization, but because he understood that the world of yesterday could be no more. The United States’ postwar political identity has vanished into the abyss of the ballot box. This Trump administration may succeed or fail on its own terms, but the old world will not return. Even most liberals do not want it back.

Ivan Krastev
January 3, 2025
Why Liberals Struggle to Cope With Epochal Change

I found this very interesting. I’m not sure I agree with it. I’m not even sure I understand it. But it certainly gives me some food for thought.

During the first quick reading, I was seeing the collapse of Marxism as being inevitable. The U.S. version was less deadly than the Soviet version and the collapse less disruptive. The replacement with a freer society is inevitable.

On the second, more careful reading, Krastev sees a darker future for the U.S. This is the part I don’t really buy. But prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future*. So, who really knows?

* Quote Origin: It’s Difficult to Make Predictions, Especially About the Future – Quote Investigator®

Ninth Circuit Court Scolded by One of its Own

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And to paraphrase James Madison, if judges were angels, nothing further would need be said. But unfortunately, however else it might be described, our court’s Second Amendment jurisprudence can hardly be labeled angelic. Possessed maybe—by a single-minded focus on ensuring that any panel opinions actually enforcing the Second Amendment are quickly reversed. The majority of our court distrusts gun owners and thinks the Second Amendment is a vestigial organ of their living constitution. Those views drive this circuit’s caselaw ignoring the original meaning of the Second Amendment and fully exploiting the discretion inherent in the Supreme Court’s cases to make certain that no government regulation ever fails our laughably “heightened” Second Amendment scrutiny.

…

Until the Supreme Court forces our court to do something different than balance our view of the utility of some firearm product or usage against the government’s claimed harm from its misuse, the Second Amendment will remain essentially an ink blot in this circuit.

Lawrence VanDyke
Ninth Circuit US Circuit Judge
November 30, 2021
DUNCAN V. BONTA No. 19-55376

Via Chuck Petras @Chuck_Petras -> Kostas Moros @MorosKostas -> Google…

SCOTUS needs to exercise force.

Their Goal is not Public Safety.

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The slim ball politicians in Washington State are continuing their assault on gun owners and dealers with HOUSE BILL 1132 which reads in part:

A new section is added to chapter 9.41 RCW to read as follows:
(1)(a) A dealer may not deliver more than one firearm to a purchaser or transferee within any 30-day period.

(b) A dealer may not deliver more than 100 rounds of .50 caliber ammunition or more than 1,000 rounds of any other caliber of ammunition to a purchaser or transferee within any 30-day period.

(2) Subsection (1) of this section does not apply to any of the following:

(a) Any general authority Washington law enforcement agency or limited authority Washington law enforcement agency as those terms are defined in RCW 10.93.020;

(b) Any correctional facility as defined in RCW 72.09.015;

(c) Any private security company as defined in RCW 18.170.010;

(d) Any federal peace officer, general authority Washington peace officer, or limited authority Washington peace officer who as a normal part of the officer’s duties has arrest powers and carries a firearm, as those terms are defined in RCW 10.93.020, and is obtaining firearms or ammunition for law enforcement purposes;

(e) The criminal justice training commission;

(f) Any federal firearms dealer, federal firearms importer, or dealer, as those terms are defined in RCW 9.41.010, who is obtaining firearms or ammunition for resale;

(g) Any person who may, pursuant to RCW 9.41.113(4), claim an exemption from the background check requirements of RCW 9.41.113;

(h) The exchange of a firearm where the dealer sold that firearm to the person seeking the exchange within the 30-day period immediately preceding the date of exchange or replacement;

(i) The return of any firearm to its owner;

(j) The receipt of firearms by a person who acquires possession of the firearms by operation of law upon the death of the former owner who was in legal possession of the firearms, provided the person in possession of the firearms can establish such provenance. Receipt under this subsection is not “distribution” under this chapter;

(k) Any private party transaction where the seller is, at the time of the transaction, required under state law or by court order to relinquish all firearms;

(l) Any private party transaction where the seller is any of the following:

(i) The personal representative of a decedent’s estate who is transferring the firearm to one or more heirs or beneficiaries of the decedent’s estate pursuant to the decedent’s will or the laws of intestate succession;

(ii) The holder of the decedent’s property who is transferring the firearms pursuant to RCW 11.62.010 to the successor of the decedent, as defined in RCW 11.62.005, or the surviving spouse of the decedent pursuant to RCW 11.04.015; or

(iii) The trustee of a trust who is transferring the firearms to one or more trust beneficiaries upon the death of a settlor of the trust; or

(m) Any person who is a licensed collector as defined in 18 U.S.C. Sec. 921 and the regulations issued pursuant thereto, and who has a current certificate of eligibility issued by the department of justice.

(3)(a) Any person who violates this section commits a class 1
civil infraction and shall be assessed a monetary penalty of $500.

(b) If a person previously has been found to have violated this section, then the person is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable under chapter 9A.20 RCW for a subsequent violation of this section.

(c) If a person previously has been found to have violated this section two or more times, then the person is guilty of a gross misdemeanor punishable under chapter 9A.20 RCW for each subsequent violation of this section.

Who are they targeting with this law? It is just the dealer. A person purchasing ammo can go to a different seller every other day. They can then purchase 15,000 rounds in a month without running afoul of this proposed law. They can even buy any number of rounds from a friend.

Via email, Rolf proposed a motive for this seeming absurdity:

Depending on the enforcement regs, I think I may see its primary purpose.

It a limitation on FFLs selling you more than X. Not a prohibition on you buying more than X.

That means the DEALER must track by ID all purchases and maintain those records.

If they don’t, then a government informant walks in 29 days apart as part of a sting operation…..

Constant harassment of dealers is the only goal.

This is plausible. But I think it is just as likely that they really are that stupid. The law doesn’t have to make sense. It is just (what they want to be) the law.

If you insist this has to make sense in some way, then Rolf has a decent hypothesis. Think about it this way. Excluding the Las Vegas music festival shooting a few years ago, where over 1,100 rounds were fired, can you name a crime that utilized more than 1,000 rounds? And even in that incident, Purchases from just two dealers would have supplied more than enough ammo.

This makes it crystal clear their goal is not public safety.

These criminal need to be prosecuted. I hope they enjoy their trials.

The First and Second Amendments Cannot Coexist

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We don’t make this statement lightly, but the folks over at Giffords and Brady have filed an amicus brief in a matter, challenging all of Maryland’s new sensitive places, that actually argues that the First Amendment and the Second Amendment cannot coexist, and because of that, the 2A will always take a back seat to the 1A.

William Kirk
December 30, 2024
The Most Dangerous Gun Control Argument You Will Ever Read

What other rights must you only exercise one at a time? If you exercise your right to freedom of religion, do you forfeit your Third Amendment rights and you will be required to quarter troops in your house? Or how about, if you insist on a warrant before your house is searched, you then forfeit your “privilege” to a lawyer when being questioned by the police.

I don’t say “privilege” lightly, because this is what they are demanding. The government gets to decide when, where, how, and if you get to exercise a specific enumerated right. Their demands change the exercise of a right into a privilege.

I don’t think the courts will buy this argument. I would like to think the lawyers writing this brief know it too and are doing this just for the money.

I hope they get slapped down with extraordinary harshness.

Disregard for Court Rulings Must Be Soundly Rejected

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from across the political spectrum have raised the specter of open disregard for federal court rulings. These dangerous suggestions, however sporadic, must be soundly rejected.

John Roberts
Supreme Court Chief Justice
December 31, 2024
Roberts warns against ignoring Supreme Court rulings as tension with Trump looms

One has to wonder if there are specific cases he has in mind when he says this. More importantly, what actions will the court take to enforce their decisions?

It is About Bullying, not Crime Reduction

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“Stupidity” may apply in terms of whether they honestly believe such restrictions will reduce or prevent crime, but rights-hating Democrats know such measures infuriate and frustrate gun owners, which is exactly what they want to do. Were they in elementary school, one might argue, this would be called bullying, because they know they can get away with it.

Dave Workman
December 30, 2024
WA Lump of Coal: Dems File HB 1132 Limiting Gun, Ammo Buys

They have been bullying us for decades. I expect it will get worse before it gets better. It will only get better when they start paying a price. I don’t know when or if that will happen, but I know it should happen.

There are at least two ways this can come about legally. 1), they are prosecuted; or 2), the court assigns a monitor to them. The monitor would report to the judge periodically.

I would like to see the politicians and activists supporting this crap spent time in prison. I’m thinking the sentence length should he double the number of days the offending law was in force.

Great Britain as Our 51st State

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Time is not on our side. As the Eurozone crumbles and American protectionism ramps up, our flimsy state will be crushed like an ant between two great elephants. To see Britain lose itself within America would surely be a tragedy of world-historic proportions. But the alternative – to sink complacently into powerlessness, spurred on by politicians who can hardly define what “nationhood” even means – doesn’t bear thinking about. The politics of self-interest is clearly beyond our miserable band of modern leaders. 

Why not jump on to the America First bandwagon and throw in our lot with the winning side? If nothing else, we might get better fast food out of it.

Poppy Coburn
December 26, 2024
It’s time to become the 51st state of the US

Coburn is advocating Great Britain join the U.S.A as our 51st state! That is a new one to me.

That deserves as least a little thought. My initial thought is that I need to be convinced it was a good idea.

Canada would bring a lot of natural resources to the union. The proximity would make productive use relatively easy. The political culture of central Canada could be considered a match. I think this would work to the benefit of both peoples.

As much as I would love to see the introduction of the 2nd Amendment to Great Britain. But other than a decade or so of amusement and plenty of work for firearms instructors and gun manufactures what do they have to offer. We already have decent access to our pick of their human resources. I have worked with numerous software engineers from there. My stepdaughter is going to school there. She was welcomed into a top-notch school for her doctorate in Computer Science. They have some awesome building and history. But we can already visit and partake the joys of that. The politics are painfully to the left of here. Their healthcare sucks. So why buy the cow when you can get the milk for a good price? What am I missing?

Global War Over 2+2=4

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One day, in the near future, a global war break out will with every human on the planet participating.

On one side, their banners will proclaim the war cry, “2+2=4”.

On the other side, their rainbow banners will state, “That’s racist!”

Alice Smith (@TheAliceSmith)
Tweeted on March 29, 2022

While I think this is overstated to make the point, I do think it has more than a little truth in it. And that is very depressing. It is between the sane and insane. It is war about reality and delusions.

Did Isreal Use a Nuclear Weapon In Syria?

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In a step that has shocked the entire world, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) carried out an airstrike on the weapons depot in Tartus, Syria on 16 December 2024. Through the massive strike, Israel reportedly destroyed the Scud missile facility located in Syria. However, reports are speculating that the damage caused by the strike was more serious and a small nuclear weapon might have been used by Israel. 

…

Reports have added that the European Union’s Radioactive Environmental Monitoring found that the amount of radiation increased in Turkey and Cyprus hours after the intense blast, pointing towards a small nuclear attack.

Abhijeet Sen
December 24, 2024
Did Israel explode a small nuclear bomb in Syria? Spike in radiation report says…

I cannot find any confirmation. So, I am going to say it probably is not true. Here is what I did find:

Even if they did not use a nuke, just the speculation will shift the Overton Window. This will make actual use more acceptable.

Prepare appropriately.

Never Underestimate the Power of Human Stupidity

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If you need a license to kill deer why don’t you need one to kill humans?

David Hogg 🟧 @davidhogg111
Tweeted on April 2, 2024

This is so mind warping stupid I started wondering if he knew it was stupid but thought he would manage to sell it to the general population as something profound.

Looking further in the thread I found the answer 75 minutes later:

Plenty of people will think this is dumb- good for you. I’m not looking out for an election and I’m entitled to my own opinion no matter how much you disagree.

David Hogg 🟧 @davidhogg111
Tweeting on April 2, 2024

Yup. He is that stupid. He really thinks it is something profound.

It is people like this that we are up against. And yet, we came close to losing the war.

Change Our Culture One Person at a Time

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Support for stricter gun laws has declined significantly over the years, while the desire for more relaxed laws has grown. In 1990, a substantial 78% of Americans favored stricter gun control, with only 2% wanting more lenient regulations.

By 2010, support for stricter laws had dropped to less than half (44%). However, it rebounded in 2020, rising to 57%.

In 2023, opposition to gun control reached a two-decade high, with 15% of Americans wanting less strict regulations.

Cassandra McBride
December 19, 2024
How Many Americans Want Stricter Gun Laws in 2024? The Decline in Gun Control Support

Via email from Sam J. at Ammo.com.

The support of the courts for the right to keep and bear arms is not enough. We must also change the culture. The trend is in the right direction, but we are far from where we need to be yet. We need a solid majority in opposition.

Here are some ways you can do that:

  • Come out of the closet as a gun owner and Second Amendment advocate.
  • Be active on social media and make sure the comments to anti-gun advocates are politely and factually ratioed.
  • Gun ownership is a civil right. Be a civil rights advocate.
  • Consider shaming those opposed to civil rights.
  • Take a new shooter to the range.
  • Introduce people virtually and/or physically to Boomershoot. The KING5 Evening Magazine video is the most effective introduction to the shooting sports I know of. It is a completely different reality from the world of gun ownership the mainstream media feeds them.
  • Attend town hall type meetings of your politicians and politely confront those who want to infringe upon our rights.

Change our culture one person at a time.

Gun control is Icarus

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Gun control is Icarus…and it got too greedy, arrogant, and flew too high. There’s only one ending to this story and looking at cases around the country…fantasy is almost up. Enjoy losing.

Johnny Silverhand @MegaManX1984
Posted on X on December 21, 2023

A little something is lost without the entire context, but I wanted to have the above in case any of the below disappears. Here is the entire context:

Restricted Weapons

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Via mNich @mNich_1138 and Chuck Petras @Chuck_Petras:

If anything, as public servants our law enforcement should be restricted from using all the weapons available to those whom they serve.

Washington State Hazards

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From: New map shows where damaging earthquakes are most likely to occur in US 

Volcano’s, high taxes, high crime, and a high probability of damaging earthquakes. Seattle is not nearly as attractive as it was when I first moved here just out of college.

I knew about the occasional earthquakes and was thrilled to experience three of them. Now that I’m older, I know just how serious they can be. I would rather not wait around for “the big one.”

The nearest volcano, Mount Rainier, was sort interesting in an abstract way when I arrived. And it is an incredible mountain. It is awe inspiring to go hiking on it. And it seemed to be dormant enough to not worry about.

Mount St. Helen’s blowing up a little over 100 miles away made volcanoes much more real. It obliterated everything within a six-mile radius. And that is just the complete destruction area. There was more:

The deadly pyroclastic surge—a fast-moving, super-hot cloud of ash, rock, and volcanic gas—traveled as much 18 miles away from the blast. The hot lava, gas, and debris mixed with melting snow and ice to form massive volcanic mudflows that surged down into valleys with enough force to rip trees from the ground, flatten homes, and completely destroy roads and bridges. Rivers rose rapidly, flooding surrounding valleys. Ash fell from the sky as far away as the Great Plains. Two-hundred-and-fifty miles away, ash blanketed Spokane, Washington, in complete darkness.

Mount Rainier is about 50 miles to the south from where we live now. Previous mud flows from Rainier have traveled several miles north of where we live. Those flows were in the valleys. We live part way up the side of a mountain. Therefore, I’m not too worried about being directly and immediately impacted by the blast and mud flows.

But even with only some mild ash at our house, the infrastructure issues would be catastrophic because of mud and pyroclastic flows destroying roads, power lines, water lines, and sewage lines. The people issues resulting from a major Mount Rainier blast following the infrastructure destruction would affect everyone for hundreds of miles around. I would rather not have to directly deal with that.

The politics, and especially the gun laws, have gone from benign to oppressive. I can avoid a lot of the pain by leveraging my Idaho connection. But it is a constant source of irritation.

Living in the “Bellevue Bubble”, as Barb and I like to call it, certainly has its advantages. But I really need an option to bug-out if things become an imminent hazard.

Taxation is a Form of Censorship

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Taxation is a form of censorship.

It prevents citizens from expressing their own purchasing choices in the marketplace, and forces them to conform and contribute to government choices instead.

Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith
The great-great-great-granddaughter of Adam Smith.
Posted on X, December 20, 2024

This is an interesting way to think about it. I can’t say that she is wrong. But I’m not sure there is practical alternative to at least some limited form of government.

Evidence of the Idiocracy

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Global security leaders are warning nuclear threats are growing as weapons spending surged to $91.4 billion last year. At the same time, private bunker sales are on the rise globally, from small metal boxes to crawl inside of to extravagant underground mansions.

Critics warn these bunkers create a false perception that a nuclear war is survivable. They argue that people planning to live through an atomic blast aren’t focusing on the real and current dangers posed by nuclear threats, and the critical need to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Meanwhile, government disaster experts say bunkers aren’t necessary. A Federal Emergency Management Agency 100-page guide on responding to a nuclear detonation focuses on having the public get inside and stay inside, ideally in a basement and away from outside walls for at least a day. Those existing spaces can provide protection from radioactive fallout, says FEMA.

Martha Mendoza
December 8, 2024
Nuclear bunker sales increase, despite expert warnings they aren’t going to provide protection

I have to know. Does it require special training to be that blind to incongruent statements? Or are some people just naturally impervious to irrational thought?

It is times like this that I could be convinced that our society has made life too easy. It was a mistake to prevent stupid people from removing themselves from the gene pool with demonstrations of their stupidity. I must conclude Idiocracy was brilliantly prophetic. And we should do almost anything to prevent that prophecy from happening.

Another thing to point out is that “government experts” are telling you that you don’t need an underground bunker. I wonder if anyone they have told that to has asked if they have access to an underground bunker?

And/or tell them to convince all the politicians they don’t need an underground bunker. And if they are needed, politicians must come after those necessary to rebuild a post-apocalyptic world. This would include all the construction workers, miners, and factory workers. It would also include teachers, engineers, and medical care people. Law enforcement, bankers, and business leaders are essential too.

I believe politicians should know they will not have access under any circumstances. It is the job of politicians to prevent us from getting nuked. If they fail at their job, they should pay a higher price for that failure than anyone else. This policy ensures they have the proper incentive.

Cut and Paste from the Playbook

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With just over one month remaining in his disastrous term, Joe Biden just couldn’t restrain himself from once again rolling out his one-size-fits-all gun control wish list in his statement from the White House. Demanding that Congress quickly pass universal background check (registration) legislation and ban so-called ‘assault weapons’ and ‘high-capacity magazines’ in response to this terrible crime is one of the stupidest, but expected reactions from a career gun prohibitionist whose history of gaffes is legendary.

Joe Biden knows 15-year-olds can’t legally buy handguns anywhere in this country, so a call for background checks is irrelevant. Police have recovered a handgun which was used in the shooting, so calling for a ban on semiautomatic rifles and their magazines is also irrelevant and dishonest. Indeed, such demands underscore just how irrelevant Joe Biden and his gun ban agenda have become.

Alan Gottlieb
CCRKBA Chairman
December 7, 2024
CCRKBA BLASTS BIDEN’S REACTION TO WISCONSIN SCHOOL TRAGEDY | Citizens Committee For The Right To Keep And Bear Arms

To be fair, I doubt Biden had any input into that statement. It is most likely some intern. Someone who does not know the difference between an AR-15 and a Glock 17. Of course, they know even less about the law. They just did a copy and paste from the “School Shooting” page in their playbook.

Household Gun Ownership Rates in the U.S.

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How Many Households in the U.S. Have a Gun in 2024?

Spoiler for the states that interest me the most:

  • Idaho: # 6 with 53%
  • Washington: # 39 with 34%
  • Kentucky (my youngest daughter lives here): # 12 with 49%
  • Montana: # 1 with 64%
  • Hawaii: # 50 with 8%

Of course, these numbers were via surveys. Respondents sometimes have an incentive to not tell the truth or not participate if they do own a gun. This will be represented as a negative bias in household ownership numbers.