With all the anti-gun owner stuff going on when the NRA called last month I immediately upgraded my membership:
When some Republican fundraiser called me yesterday I told him, “I’m very nearly a one issue voter. I care about gun ownership rights. You guys just passed a bunch of gun control stuff. We are done! I’m giving my money to the NRA. If you want it you need to earn it from them.” He tried to keep talking but I hung up on him.
Leftism is, at its core, based upon the abject and unapologetic denial of observable reality.
They’re not just insane, they’re proudly insane. Point out their hypocrisy until Gabriel blows his horn, and it won’t affect them a bit. We’re dealing with people who have knowingly and willingly turned their backs on any form of logic and reason. The only reason they’re winning is that sane people haven’t stepped up and put them in the rubber room where they obviously belong.
Wraith
April 11, 2018
Comment to Quote of the day—Alan Korwin
[I don’t think a “rubber room” is appropriate for all of them. Some belong in prison.
And there are alternatives which I believe will work with most of them. But it’s a time consuming process and requires some isolation.—Joe]
Via email from Brian Keith:
Nearly all politicians are people who want to rule over other people. It should be no surprise that when they achieve power they want to exercise it. It is what gives meaning to their life even if it is none of their business what they want to control.
Don’t ever forget this telling insight into their minds:
If you put out a reg, it matters. I think that’s really where the thrill comes from. And it is a thrill; it’s a high… I love it; I absolutely love it. I was born to regulate. I don’t know why, but that’s very true. So as long as I’m regulating, I’m happy.
Marthe Kent
This is why we have a constitution which enumerated the limited powers of the government. It was supposed to protect against this sort of crap. It hasn’t. There is no branch of government specifically tasked with arresting and prosecuting those who violate their oath of office. Hence, we ended up with a huge mess and in the middle of a (5th generation) civil war.
Congrats to NRA experts on a tremendous plan for the schools — the left would have to show blatant hypocrisy and self-defeating behavior to turn this down. Schools need this, it can only help. The left may be inclined to fight it, solely because of its eminently qualified source, which would be an utter and dangerous shame.
Alan Korwin
April 2, 2018
NRA Is The Devil! — Or Maybe Not.
https://www.nationalschoolshield.org/
[Alan usually has the anti-gun people figured out. This time he is thinking rationally and fails to predict their response correctly.
“The left would have to show blatant hypocrisy and self-defeating behavior to turn this down”?
No. It would be self-defeating to them if school shootings stopped. School shootings are the absolute best tool they have in their fight against gun owners! The more the better! More money for their cause, more support for restrictive gun laws, because, “What we have isn’t working we need more restrictions on guns!”
Via Stephanie:
She also points out Massad Ayoob once said:
Gun-free zones are hunting preserves for psychopathic murders.
The political left created the problem of school shootings. They then use the problem to justify a new “solution” which will make things worse. Hogg, in so many ways, with his crap for brains “solutions”, was produced by leftists and is a tool of the leftists.
Via email from Brian Keith:
It makes sense. Just ignore what Mao Tse-Tung said:
Every Communist must grasp the truth, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
When the tyrant starts loading you into the cattle cars you should just come up with a catchy chant and march away from the trains. That should work just fine.
Oh, maybe the anti-gun people, nearly all of them with a communist streak, do understand the truth of Mao and that is the reason they want to take our guns. Their plans are that it is we who are loaded into the cattle cars. Gee, I never thought of that before!
If a bureaucrat has the authority to state that AND ENFORCE IT, there is no Republic. Literally any cabinet head, or possibly lower, can declare outlawry, steal property, seize anything, without even the pretense that an existing law was broken. Law will be whatever they say it is, any day of the week. Any religion can be illegal or mandatory. Anything can be contraband or mandatory. The rule of law simply fails to exist. If this doesn’t terrify you, I guess you can go now. Good luck. There’s nothing I can do when they quite literally do come to put you in those camps you fear, which just became a solid reality.
Michael Z. Williamson
March 24, 2018
If You Hate Guns, I Need Your Help
In regard to the ATF making a rule to ban bump stocks.
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
Very unfortunate as this is caused by Trump spreading HATE. Why is it ok for him to do it but if it was normal citizen they would be arrested for inciting this type of behavior.
Joe Gallagher
Tweeted on April 3, 2018
Regarding the active shooter at YouTube Headquarters.
[Wow! I knew Trump was incredibly persuasive, but this is almost unbelievable.
Well… actually, I don’t believe it at all. Gallagher has some sort of mental disorder if he believes this.
And, in fact, if politics were involved (highly speculative at this point) in this shooting the odds are that the shooter was a Democrat and if the victims were not random then the chances the victims were not Democrats are higher than local demographics would predict. Hence, Gallagher has crap for brains and/or he is deliberately attempting to troll people.—Joe]
The thing that’s so powerful about students is that, when you haven’t had your idealism broken yet, you’re able to speak from a place that has no confusion, where there is a clear set of values.
Bill Murray
March 22, 2018
Bill Murray Endorses Gun Control Movement, Compares Parkland Students to Vietnam War Protesters
[This reminds me of something I saw on Facebook. A parent wrote about how proud they were that their children were being “leaders” in regards to gun control. This was a place were I couldn’t confront them, but I wanted to ask, “Would you want your kids being “leaders” on foreign policy too? If not, then why do you want them being “leaders” on domestic policy?
When the German National Socialists passed the Weapons Control Act of 1938 I’ll bet you could have found lots of people who said essentially the same thing as what Murray says about gun control. Idealism, check. No confusion, check. Clear set of values, check.
The same could be said for many those who supported the KKK, Jim Crow Laws, Westboro Baptist Church, and Marxists.
In most cases there are also succinct words for these type of people. “Ignorant”, “Prejudiced”, and “Bigoted”.—Joe]
The people, among the most highly regulated on earth, told themselves that they were free because they retained the means of revolt. Just in case things ever got really bad. No one, however, seemed to have too clear an idea what “really bad” really meant. The people accepted the fact that their government no longer even remotely resembled the plan set forth in their original constitution. And the people’s values no longer remotely resembled those of their Founding Forebears. The people, in their naiveté, really believed that the means of revolt were to be found in a piece of inanimate metal! Really it was laughable. And pathetic.
No, the rulers knew that the people could safely be trusted with arms. The government educated their children, provided for their retirement in old age, bequeathed assistance if they lost their jobs, mandated that they receive health care, and even doled out food and shelter if they were poor.
Jeff Snyder
October 18, 2004
Walter Mitty’s Second Amendment
[This relates to what Lyle said the other day.
I have Snyder’s Nation of Cowards which is a collection of his essays. Nearly every paragraph of every essays qualifies as QOTD material. And as Sean F. told me a few months ago, Snyder is just mind blowing with his views on the right to keep and bear arms. If I could get every anti-gun person to read just one simple book, this would be it. I’m tempted to buy a stack of them and hand them out to people. It is absolutely amazing stuff.—Joe]
Demonstrators should seek more effective and more lasting reform. They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment.
…
A constitutional amendment to get rid of the Second Amendment would be simple and would do more to weaken the N.R.A.’s ability to stymie legislative debate and block constructive gun control legislation than any other available option.
John Paul Stevens
Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice
March 27, 2018
John Paul Stevens: Repeal the Second Amendment
[H/T to Paul Koning.
Although it doesn’t seem to be they are saying it these days, don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.
Apparently Stevens has forgotten about U S v Cruikshank:
The right there specified is that of ‘bearing arms for a lawful purpose.’ This is not a right granted by the Constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence.
Oh, and I think he is also unaware there is the small matter of 300 to 600 million firearms currently in circulation, extremely low compliance with existing requirements to register or turn in firearms, over 60% of the police say they will not enforce more restrictive gun laws, and the tens of billions of rounds of ammunition that will have to be “collected” before the guns are confiscated.—Joe]
There may be many different answers to school shootings and other massacres. There may be none. One thing that cannot be argued by rational people is that the answer to these realities cannot consist of advocating more violence against people, whether it be at the hands of deranged lunatics or the government. Disarming individuals has never, and cannot make those individuals safer.
Rich Burgess
President of Connecticut Carry
March 26, 2018
With Regards to the ‘March for our Lives’
Emotional Collectivism Makes You Vulnerable To Those With Bad Intentions
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
It’s really a matter of putting public pressure on the president. This is where the Second Amendment comes in, quite frankly, because you know, what if the president was to ignore the courts? What would you do? What would we do?
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D)
March 2018
Congressman suggests Second Amendment as means of opposing Trump
[Via email from Lyle who commented (and also suggested this was appropriate):
If nothing else it demonstrates once again that they understand the constitution. They oppose it, not because they fail to understand it, but because they do understand it.
I cannot find fault with this conclusion.—Joe]
Faced with a generation of defeat in the gun debate, the Left is increasingly turning to one of its favorite weapons in the culture war, stigma. It’s mobilizing its tribe — including progressive corporations, Hollywood, and the mainstream media — to not just make policy arguments but also to shame and insult Americans who disagree. The goal is to make gun ownership culturally toxic.
But shame is weaker than love. Gun owners who’ve experienced a threat possess or carry a weapon because they love their families. Teachers who wish to carry a weapon at school do so because they love the kids under their care. These folks know that their responsible gun ownership makes their communities and families safer.
Why does the Left keep losing the gun debate? Because it’s hard to persuade any man or woman to surrender an unalienable right — especially when exercising that right helps preserve the most vital right of all, the right to live.
David French
March 5, 2018
Why the Left Won’t Win the Gun-Control Debate
[It’s hard to win a debate when you are being shouted down by an angry mob or going into hiding because you and the lives of your children are being threatened.
It may not be long until the “debate” goes non-linear and gun owners will be required to use a much louder voice to get their points heard. It’s too bad the restrictions on suppressors haven’t been lifted yet.—Joe]
John Robb has presented us with an extremely interesting scenario:
Weaponized social networks have seized control of the political process from the traditional political parties and their media gatekeepers. They are in charge now and, more importantly, they are rapidly evolving. Getting more powerful with each passing day.
…
This effort gets teeth, and the capacity to impact millions of people simultaneously, through a list. A list of gun owners. A list built in part using leaked/stolen government data and through the reporting of friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, and more. A list that is potentially stored in a blockchain for durability and enhanced with rumors (statements or pictures of people on the list that makes them look dangerous). With this list in hand, network members would then turn up the pressure on individuals:
- Employers would refuse employment or fire individuals who own guns, in the name of workplace safety, at the urging of other employees.
- Parents would put pressure on schools to ban the parents who own guns from attending school functions or put in place extra security at schools targeting children living in gun owning households.
- With pictures and and a little open source facial recognition software, anyone on the list could be IDed by anyone with a smart phone.
Get the picture? In short, everything from getting access to a building to renting an apartment to getting a date could get very hard for reputed gun owners to do nearly overnight.
All without legislation or government regulations.
Scare you a bit? It should.
I can see this happening in leftist enclaves but in the vast area of the country where guns and gun owners are accepted. The boycotts and shunning only work when those your are shunning are a small enough minority that you don’t really need them. Are they going to boycott most of the farmers, miners, and others who supply their water and energy?
That boycott won’t last more than a week and the payback may be far more than they bargained for.
And when the mobs surround the homes of gun owners I see visions of the shopkeepers with rifles on top of their buildings during the L.A. riots.
And what about the police? They are generally on our side even though their political overlords may not be. Will they be “unable to identify” the person who drove off the rioters attempting to torch someone in their car.
But, even in the best case imaginable above, the better result is to never get into the situation. Gun owners all need to “come out of the closet” and make it clear we are normal people. We do not have blood on our hands from the school shootings. We did not create the victim disarmament zones. We offer calm, rational, solutions and our opponents offer angry mobs.
My boss at work just finished up some management training and shared the following video with our team.
If you tilt your head just a bit you can map the lessons of this video into the the form of our U.S. Constitutional government as it was originally intended.
It also helps you realize why an authoritarian system of government will always underperform a liberty based form. It’s about decisions being made where the information is. And furthermore, you only have to squint just a little bit to see why, individual gun ownership must remain an individual choice.
Via email from daughter Jaime I received a link to this March 2, 2018 speech by Nick Freitas, delegate to the Virginia house of Representatives.
I sometimes think politicians don’t have a clue about much of anything. This guy does a good job on our issue:
Some of the comments from YouTube:
This guy is brilliant, articulate and dead right. On all counts. Logic, truth and facts are his friends, as they are the deadly enemies of the Left.
I was waiting for a bald eagle to land on my shoulder during that speech.
Democrats walked out during the speech, claiming they were offended. Dems are such a joke.
We need to push sanctuary cities and sanctuary states for undocumented AR15s. Stop the breaking up of innocent ARs from their families.
The day the adult stood up.
I always thought that honesty would rule the day. I always thought that integrity would rule the day. I always thought that telling the truth would rule the day. And it doesn’t.
Gary Johnson
2016 Libertarian Presidential Candidate
February 2018
Gary Johnson: ‘I Always Thought Telling the Truth Would Rule the Day. And It Doesn’t.’
[After years of behaving as if this hypothesis were true I finally concluded that it was irrational to expect people to be rational.—Joe]
The American Left was not caused by socialism or radical ideology. The causal relationship was the other way around. The hive-like behavior was a constant, a part of the American biology. When the socialist paradise collapsed, the Left switched to sexual and racial utopianism. That means when the current rage heads burn what’s left of society, only to not arrive at the promised land, they will find some new fantasy to embrace. The Hive is eternal.
thezman
March 7, 2018
The Eternal Hive
[Via email from Peter G.
One of my hypothesizes has been that the political left always needs something to hate. From before the U.S. Civil War until the 1960s the target was primarily their slaves, then the freed slaves, then capitalism and blacks in general. In the 1960s blacks were replaced by gun owners. As the collapse of the USSR and other socialist and communist political systems fell from grace whites and men were added and capitalism was deemphasized.
Z Man’s claim also appears to match my observations.
If Z Man is correct, one extrapolation indicates that the end is near and it won’t be pretty.—Joe]
I’m a Fascist… the only time people of real character show up is when the
government crushes the population with it’s heel.
Josh Baker
June 2, 1996
[He may have a point. We may also soon be able to test his claim.—Joe]