Category Archives: Quote of the Day

Quote of the day—Damon Root

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Since joining the Court in 1993, Ginsburg has, in case after case, proven herself to be a reliable champion for the liberal side. When the Court declared the University of Michigan’s affirmative action program for undergraduate admissions unconstitutional in Gratz v. Bollinger (2003), Ginsburg accused the majority of turning a blind eye toward “the stain of generations of racial oppression [that] is still visible in our society.” When the Court came within one vote of declaring the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012), Ginsburg denounced the “stunningly retrogressive” idea that Congress might lack the lawful power to force individuals to buy health insurance.

Damon Root
January 5, 2019
The Case of the Notorious RBG
Examining the life and legend of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
[Barb and I recently watched both of the recent movies about Ginsburg (RGB and On the Basis of Sex). Assuming the movies are mostly true, she did some really good work knocking down numerous sexual discrimination laws. We really enjoyed them. And gun rights advocates can learn from her strategies—pick your battles, clients, and venues carefully.

What the movies didn’t even hint at was some of the Constitutional warping, and mutilating, decisions she participated in. See the source for the quote above for more on that.

In somewhat related news:

Ginsburg misses third consecutive day at Supreme Court

Her absence Monday marked the first time in more than 25 years on the court that she missed an oral argument due to her health.

Perhaps she will consider retiring. She has earned the rest.—Joe]

Quote of the day—BigWallSection @peter_and_louie

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There is no infringement in keeping track of your guns, registering them, transferring title, spot raids by ATF to make sure you don’t mistakenly sell them without reporting, or lose them. No infringement on responsible owners.

BigWallSection @peter_and_louie
Tweeted on January 7th, 2019, deleted by January 8th, 2019.
[This is what they think of, and occasionally share in an unguarded moment, the right to keep and bear arms.

I wonder if cell phones were treated as such (for all intents and purposes a modern day “printing press” and all around “free speech” tool) he would still adhere to this opinion.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Roberta X

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If you need some damn leader to follow or loathe, please look for a new hobby and/or a better religion: this is the United States and our “leaders” are supposed to be doing the legislative and executive grunt work or making sure the streets run on time and the criminals are kept on the run, not to mention avoiding foreign entanglements and providing for the common defense.  They’re not supposed to be shining examples on a hill in the sunlight whom you should aspire to emulate.  Most of them are lawyers who weren’t all that good at practicing law and thought writing laws might be easier; the evidence suggests they don’t have much knack for that, either.

Roberta X
January 7, 2019
Populism And The Cult Of Victimhood
[Articulating it perhaps a bit more succinctly, I think of them as “public servants.”

Whether you thing of them as “leaders” or public servants completely changes how you think about their role in society.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Steve Pomper

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What is clear is the danger of groups and people who advocate Trask’s position. Trask clarified WAGR’s goals. “This is the first part of our comprehensive gun violence prevention initiative that’s going to make major changes in Washington State’s law and do some big reforms [emphasis mine].”

Okay, now I’ll agree with Trask. His and WAGR’s positions are quite clear: Infringe on Washingtonians’ gun rights in any way possible until you can find a way to completely usurp American’s gun rights.

Steve Pomper
January 4, 2019
Gun Store Owner ‘Resists’ State’s New Gun Law
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Daniel Gannon

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Gun control now has a new precedent: The agenda of the president is more important than due process and the Constitution.

Daniel Gannon
January 4, 2019
Gun rights eroding. You were warned.
[This has been true for, probably, 200+ years. Still, it’s good to have it clearly articulated.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Budd Schroeder

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We look at the gun-free zones as laughable for criminals because for them, it’s a killing field. They can go and do their dastardly deeds – if you would – without fear of somebody being there to stop them.

Budd Schroeder
January 4, 2019
Niagara County DA says she will not prosecute SAFE Act provision
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Associated Press

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Prosecutors told the judge that Burke, who has publicly opposed the National Rifle Association and proposed multiple gun-control ordinances over the years, had 23 guns at his offices alone.

Associated Press
January 3, 2018
Powerful Chicago council member charged in federal probe
[You probably will have to put some special effort into finding where it says which political party Alderman Ed Burke belongs to. But you can take an educated guess and almost for certain get it right in about 100 milliseconds.—Joe]

Quote of the day—William Strauss and Neil Howe

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An impasse over the federal budget reaches a stalemate. The president and Congress both refuse to back down, triggering a near-total government shutdown. The president declares emergency powers. Congress rescinds his authority. Dollar and bond prices plummet. The president threatens to stop Social Security checks. Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling. Default looms. Wall Street panics.

William Strauss and Neil Howe
1997
The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy
[See also: 2019 FROM A FOURTH TURNING PERSPECTIVE.

Via email from Chet.

Extremely “interesting times” ahead—if the prophecy is correct.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Alan M. Gottlieb

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Our challenge of the California Unsafe Handgun Act (UHA), if the high court accepts it for review, could be a critical wake-up call to lower federal courts that continue to employ what they call an ‘interest-balancing approach’ to deciding gun control cases because that strategy is forbidden by the 2008 Heller decision. It is time to bring a halt to what is essentially a revolt by the lower courts against the landmark Heller opinion, and the Pena case could provide that vehicle.

Alan M. Gottlieb
SAF founder and Executive Vice President
December 2018
SAF SEEKS SUPREME COURT REVIEW IN CHALLENGE OF CALIF. HANDGUN STATUTE
[One of the key things at issue in this lawsuit is that microstamping cannot be practically implemented yet California insists that all new gun designs incorporate it. This results in a ban on the sale of new gun designs. And as older guns cease to be manufactured this will result in no new guns being legally offered for sale in California.

This would appear to me to be a good starting point to build precedence for a strong Second Amendment.

See also: Order that gun makers do impossible en route to Supremes.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Robert Spitzer

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They’re not going to attract women, they’re not going to attract ethnic minorities, they’re not going to attract mainstream Americans, because they’re too far down the path of kind of rabid, apocalyptic, angry, defensive style that has increasingly been their meat and potatoes for 20 years. I don’t think the needle’s going to move a whole lot in the year to come.

Robert Spitzer
December 30, 2018
Professor at SUNY Cortland
2018 Was A Bad Year For The NRA, And The Worst Could Be Yet To Come
[Those who call the NRA extreme always make me smile. Just keep thinking that.

I know lots of gun owners who refuse to join the NRA. Without a single exception it is because the NRA gives in too easily.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Andrew M. Cuomo

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Ladies and gentlemen, this nation is in crisis. The social fabric is fraying and it is nearing its breaking point. We must stand up to this tyranny once again. Not with muskets the way our founders did. But with our voices and our votes and with the power and example of our action here in New York.

Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York
December 17, 2018
Cuomo declares NY independent from federal government
[From the same article:

His agenda, which includes marijuana legalization, gun control measures, and environmental protections, is New York’s Declaration of Independence, Cuomo said.

I like this response:

The new state motto could be Freedom through Over-Regulation. Or, how about, True Liberty Flows from Tyranny?

It’s like Lyle says sometimes. Cuomo wants independence from the Federal Government so he will have, “freedom to do wrong.”—Joe]

Quote of the day—Adam Winkler

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Where did Michaels Bellesiles go wrong?

Not when he took on the gun lovers. They’re used to being attacked. Not when he made a surprising discovery about an important facet of live in early America. Historians do that all the time. Bellesiles went wrong, where so many anti-gun people go wrong, by hoping that appearances are all that matter.

Adam Winkler
2011
Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America
[Bellesiles was the author of the completely discredited book Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture

Winkler is not known for being a friend of gun owners. I have been hesitant to purchase his book simply because I didn’t want money going to him. I had run out of Audible books I really wanted to listen to and this book was suggested as being of possible interest when I was looking for other books. In a moment of somewhat desperation for another book I purchased it.

I’m a little over 10% of the way through the book and I don’t really have much to complain about in terms of what I would suspect to be false or misleading. He appears to be factual and fair. If I find information to the contrary as I continue listening I’ll let you know.

You might question that assessment when I he uses the phrase “gun lovers” in the quote above. He also refers to “gun grabbers” so I give him a pass on the “gun lovers” language.—Joe]

Quote of the day—BJ Campbell

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Germany has almost eight times more guns than Ireland, but Ireland has three and a half times more gun homicides than Germany, by rates. Why is that? Well, let’s be honest with ourselves for just this once on the internet. It’s because Germany is full of Germans, and Ireland is full of Irish. Culture.

Consider some off-graph data for a moment. If we combine the USA suicide rate and homicide rates into one rate, of all methods and not just guns, we get 4.9 + 13.4 = 18.3. South Korea’s suicide rate alone is 24.1 per 100k, and they’ve got almost no guns. Waive it away though, because oh, that’s cultural.

Now let’s look at Ye Olde Red White and Blue Outlier: The United States of America. Let’s compare our country to the other countries in the plot. We got the country kicked off by repeatedly coating tax collectors with searing hot tar and covering them with chicken feathers, moved on to shooting them, and then we won the war in no small part by applying the emerging concept of “interchangeable parts” to firearms. You’ve heard that AR-15s are basically build-a-bear rifles made of interchangeable parts, right? Since our storied and violent beginning, we’ve been at war 225 of our 242 years of existence. We nuked two cities. We have troops stationed in 150 different countries. When we want to eradicate poverty, or illicit drugs, or terrorism, what do we do? Declare “war” on them. At the beginning of every baseball game, we hoist a flag with a star for every territory taken by force from the natives and singing a song about rockets and bombs.

BJ Campbell
March 30, 2018
The Magic Gun Evaporation Fairy
[Interesting insights.

Campbell also made QOTD with his post from March 13th as well.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Jonathan Wolf

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As many as 520,000 Americans own bump stocks, according to ATF estimates, meaning that Trump’s most significant gun control policy achievement to date outstrips Obama’s by nearly a full order of magnitude, as measured by the number of individuals affected.

Jonathan Wolf
December 26, 2018
Second Amendment News By The Numbers: Bump Stock Ban Makes Trump More Of A Gun Control President Than Obama Ever Was
[When talk of the bump stock regulation “review” came out I was certain that it was just a delaying action to let the noise die down. At worst I thought a bump stock ban would be traded for carry reciprocity and maybe even removing suppressors from NFA34.

I’m extremely irritated that we have to spend scarce resources fighting this in the courts. I would much rather those resources be directed at removing restrictions on semi-auto firearms at the state and local level.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Steve @EnragedApostate

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It might take years & a lot of ordnance blowing away gun fondlers to kingdom-come, but it will be worth it. Go ahead & reach for it: give us the justification gladly.

One way or the other, this planet is going to get on with the process of being civilized and being rid of you knuckle-draggers.

Steve @EnragedApostate
Tweeted (and here) on September 26, 2018
[Who is this “us” he is referring to? It can’t be law enforcement because over 70% of them have a favorable opinion to not enforcing more restrictive gun law and over 60% would not enforce more restrictive gun laws if they were Sherriff or Chief! Less that 20% say they would definitely enforce more restrictive gun laws. The military aren’t going to be any more inclined. And people like him aren’t going to be doing it.

Beyond his delusion what is important is that this is what they think of you and they want you dead.

And, apparently, Steve didn’t get the memo. The gun is civilization. Those who claim “civilized countries” are disarmed have it exactly backward.

Another observation worth noting is that I’m willing to bet Steve is another one of those anti-gun people who have difficulty grasping numbers. Someone so eager to commit genocide would be well advised to get a better grasp of reality.—Joe]

Quote of the day—America’s 1st Freedom Staff

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Rasmussen’s telephone and online survey of 1,000 American adults asked the question point-blank: “In crimes involving use of a gun, which is more to blame—the shooter or the availability of guns in America?” An astonishing 31 percent of people placed the blame on the inanimate object, the gun, and not the person pulling the trigger. Unsurprisingly, Democrats were much more likely than Republicans—51 percent to 13 percent—to blame the object over the person.

It’s worth asking: Do these same people think access to vehicles is more at fault than drivers? Are knives more at fault than stabbers? If not, why? What makes guns different?

Actually, we can tell you what makes guns different—a political agenda. Liberals have long been on a mission to obliterate guns, the Constitution and freedom in America. Gun control has never been about guns; it has always been about controlling people. The only difference today is that anti-gunners are openly admitting their end game. And if they must give ridiculous answers absolving human beings from any responsibility governing their own actions, well, so be it.

America’s 1st Freedom Staff
December 25, 2018
Blaming Guns, Not Killers
[They are twisting things a bit here. The question wasn’t about whether guns or people were to more to blame. The question was whether the availability of guns or the shooter were more to blame. Still, it’s an interesting insight into the mindset of people.

I suspect that if the question about gun availability had been preceded by appropriate other questions the result would have turned out much different. For example:

Question 1: In crimes involving alcohol such as spousal abuse and date rape which is more to blame—the person or the availability of alcohol in America?

Q2: In crimes involving knives such as murder and assault which is more to blame—the person or the availability of knives in America?

Q3: In crimes involving cars such as bank robberies and manslaughter will driving at high speeds which is more to blame—the driver or the availability of cars in America?

Q4: In crimes involving use of a gun, which is more to blame—the shooter or the availability of guns in America?

Then, what I would like to see is how many people, if given the opportunity, would go back and change some of their answers.

If I had a big enough sample I would order the questions at random for each person and see how many “preloading questions” were needed to get a different answer to the gun availability question.

And then perhaps a week, a month, and a year later, ask each of the people who seemed to be responding to the “preloading” just the gun availability question. Is it possible that if they were lead to a certain conclusion by asking questions in a particular order of they will remain of that mindset for an extended time?

Psychology is so very interesting. Rational thought is just a thin veneer over a swamp of emotions.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Eric “Nuke ‘em” Swalwell

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I talk to young people across the country, and they say we have consensus on what to do about gun violence. We have consensus about what to do on immigration and the Dream Act. We have consensus on what to do to address climate change.

I don’t know if those pieces of legislation will make their way to the president’s desk, but once in for all, you’re going to see votes in the House of Representatives on issues that the American people have consensus on. So we’re going to start to go big.

Eric “Nuke ‘em” Swalwell
U.S. Representative
December 24, 2018
House Dems to focus on gun control, immigration and climate change, Swalwell says
[Yes, this is the same guy who said a conflict between the government and gun owners would be decided by the nukes.

I find it telling that he get his “consensus” on these extremely controversial subjects from “young people”. Does seek foreign and economic policy advice from children too?

Being as it is unlikely anything along these lines will make it through the Senate and to the President this might be a good thing. All the politicians with “young people” as their top policy advisors will expose themselves for targeting in the next election.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Paul Sanders

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Have you ever thought about the underlying theme of gun control? 

“It’s too easy to get a gun.”

Exactly what does that mean?  Simply “getting a gun” is a harmless action.  What one does after they obtain it is what matters.  Since we can’t control what someone does with a firearm after they obtain it, we simply prevent them from getting one in the first place, or so the idea goes.

There are a couple of big problems with this premise.  First of all, we have this little thing called due process.  In a free society, we simply do not deny someone their rights based on what they “might do.”  You can spin it any way you like, that is simply not how a Constitutional Republic is supposed to function.  Our founders would roll over in their graves at such a suggestion.

Secondly, if you take the “solution” to its logical conclusion, we must make it impossible for everyone to get a gun so nobody can misuse it.  There is simply no other conclusion to which you can arrive.  Preventing someone from purchasing a firearm based on suspicion of future behavior is a fool’s errand.  The only way for it to be effective is to apply it to everyone.

So, when someone says, “Nobody wants to take your guns”, what they really mean is, “We want to make it impossible to ever get one in the first place.”

Paul Sanders
December 23, 2018
The Flawed Premise of Gun Control
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—John Crump

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New Jersey’s standard capacity magazine ban is now in effect making New Jersey’s one million gun owners criminals in the eyes of the state. But in an act of mass defiance, New Jersey residents refuse to comply.

Any magazine holding more than ten rounds is now illegal in the Garden State. The standard magazine for an AR-15 holds 30 rounds. Glock 19s, which is the most popular pistol in the United States, holds 15 rounds. Anyone who is possession of larger magazine is committing a fourth-degree felony.

John Crump
December 14, 2018
Million Plus NJ Gun Owners Defy State Law, Refuse to Turn Over Banned Gun Mags
[Via email from Chet M.

The article says as near as they can determine there have been zero magazines turned in. But that was almost two week ago. So there probably have been a few people who have complied by now. I expect the numbers will be small. Perhaps higher than in some other places like California, Colorado, and Connecticut where the numbers run in the five to 10 percent compliance rate.

So… what will the authorities do about the mass defiance? My guess they will not do anything overt. But if you get pulled over for a minor traffic violation and they find a 15 round magazine (or plant one) in your car you will find yourself facing 18 months in prison and a $10,000 fine for each magazine they found. They law was never about public safety. It was virtue signaling. Now it can be used selectively punish people who have not hurt anyone.

It’s about control.—Joe]

Quote of the day—James Densley @theviolencepro and David Squier Jones @SquierDavid

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Leading experts in criminology, public health and law consider background checks performed by a licensed firearm dealer, law enforcement agency or other neutral third party arbiter to be the most effective way to reduce rising gun deaths, including suicides. And about 80 percent of all Americans support background checks for private sales and at gun shows. Polls show majority support for comprehensive background checks even among NRA members, but to pass common sense gun laws, lawmakers need super-owners to share in that common sense and speak out against the NRA’s more extremist positions.

The first step is redefining and reframing universal background checks as good succession planning. Only by closing the private sale loophole can super-owners ensure the safe redistribution of their valuable collections.

James Densley @theviolencepro and David Squier Jones @SquierDavid
December 21, 2018
Want Better Gun Control? Win Over The NRA’s Core Members.
[<SNORT!>

Apparently, someone, hasn’t read the memo. Study after study has shown background checks do not reduce “gun deaths”. It’s a good hypothesis, but it just doesn’t work. Just as the gun owners said it would not, since, well, since at least the mid—1990s when I first got into the debates.

More likely, and the “redefining and reframing” transparent intention of deception is a good clue, these people don’t care about the failure of the background checks. They want “universal background checks” for the registration “benefits”.

Just say, “No!”—Joe]