Gun control has always been a weapon of the elite ruling classes to keep the masses in a state of subjugation. When all you have is the vote, you don’t really have much. Elites can manipulate the masses into voting the way elites want them to vote, or can outright manipulate the system (see Venezuela). An armed population will always have an actual say in how things are run.
Sebastian
August 8, 2017
You Don’t Say: Gun Control Disarms Poor
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
Every time I learn of another abused, desperately scared woman who uses a firearm effectively to defend her life and her children’s lives, I cannot help but wonder how the so-called “gun safety advocates” would have wanted things to turn out. Of course, they almost never admit it publicly, but most of them want a world without guns. For these at-risk women, it means a world without protection.
It’s not about gun safety for these anti-gun advocates. That is the NRA’s domain. Gun-ban advocates refuse to accept or acknowledge the simple and unavoidable fact that if their dangerous dream were ever realized, it would leave the weak helpless to the desires of the strong. The rules of the Stone Age would dominate once again.
Darren LaSorte
August 3, 2017
Would Gun-Banners Rather Nicole Carney Had Been Murdered?
[To answer the question of the title of the article, in a word, yes. Anti-gun people do not respect the rights of individuals. To them, the ”needs” of the many outweigh the rights of the few. It’s the old meme about two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner and finding a well armed sheep.
I have found examples of firearm empowered women are one of the most effective debate tools we have in our “toolset”. If they are anti-gun then they are, indirectly, anti-women. They may claim men need to be taught to “respect women” or “not to rape”. But the inescapable truth is that some men are very poor students and refuse to adhere to their lessons. Efficient and effective instruction is required and the women who are the most efficient and effective instructors at “teaching men not to rape” use well placed jacketed hollow points*.—Joe]
I’ll speculate it was largely due to an intellectual factor, the invention of the printing press; and a physical factor, the widespread use of gunpowder. The printing press destroyed the monopoly the elites had on knowledge; the average man could now see that they were no smarter or “better” than he was. If he was going to fight them (conflict is, after all, what politics is all about), it didn’t have to be just because he was told to, but because he was motivated by an idea. And now, with gunpowder, he was on an equal footing with the ruler’s knights and professional soldiers.
Right now I believe we’re at the cusp of another change, at least as important as the ones that took place around 12,000 years ago and several hundred years ago. Even though things are starting to look truly grim for the individual, with collapsing economic structures and increasingly virulent governments, I suspect help is on the way from historical evolution. Just as the agricultural revolution put an end to tribalism and the industrial revolution killed the kingdom, I think we’re heading for another multipronged revolution that’s going to make the nation-state an anachronism. It won’t happen next month, or next year. But I’ll bet the pattern will start becoming clear within the lifetime of many now reading this.
Doug Casey
August 4, 2017
Doug Casey on the End of the Nation-State
[For more background on his thoughts regarding this topic see Doug Casey on Phyles.
I’ve been wondering, for about 30 years now, how the rapid changes in communication might affect government. What new forms of government might come about now that worldwide communication is essentially free and messages travel at the speed of light. It never really occurred to me that perhaps the nation state would evaporate. Casey points out another factor that affects the continuing viability of the nation state, cheap transportation.
Sure, I’ve read science fiction books where a planet would be owned by a corporation and was, in essence, an evil government. But Casey is talking about something different here. He talks about Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age and Snow Crash as possible examples.
I’ll have to think about it more.—Joe]
The problem with socialism isn’t that you run out of other people’s money. The problem with socialism is that *you run out of fucking food.*
David Hines @hradzka
Tweeted on August 4, 2017
[H/T email from Ry.
Examples of this are left as an exercise for the reader.—Joe]
Government is not civil: it is naked force. I have practiced medicine for 48 years. Government has not helped.
Robert Margulies
August 4, 2017
Comment to Interesting law suit
[I’m reminded of a George Washington quote.—Joe]
How to Know When You Are Not The Beneficiary Of Cognitive Privilege:
You read Marx, and you didn’t get the joke.
Tirno
August 2, 2017
Comment to I guess we have not reached Peak Social Issues
[I came to a similar conclusion when I read The Communist Manifesto.—Joe]
The close surveillance of gun owners and householders comports with the police tradition of keeping close tabs on many private activities. For example, the nation’s official year-end police report includes statistics like ‘Background and Motives for Girls’ Sexual Misconduct’. The police recorded 9,402 such incidents in 1985, and determined that 37.4 per cent of the girls had been seduced, and the rest had sex ‘voluntarily’. The two leading reasons for having sex voluntarily were ‘out of curiosity’ for 19.6 per cent, and ‘liked particular boy’, for 18.1 per cent. The fact that police keep records on sex is simply a reflection of their keeping an eye on everything, including guns. Every person is the subject of a police dossier.
David B. Kopel
1993
Japanese Gun Control
[Japan has extremely low rates of crimes committed using a gun. And, as you can guess from the details about sexual conduct of girls, they also have a police state. They visit every home twice a year. The confession rate of criminal suspects is 95%. And the police routinely engage in torture or illegal treatment.
If someone suggests we should implement Japanese type gun control in the U.S. let them know they can’t have the same “success” as Japan without a police state to back it up. Implementing a police state here would be “challenging”.—Joe]
Russia did not hack the Democratic party emails. Instead, an American intelligence whistleblower leaked them.
George Washington
December 12, 2016
Intelligence Officer Who Personally Met the Democratic Email Leaker Confirms Leaker Is with AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE Services
[It’s certainly plausible. American intelligence services have the capability. And that Hillary was so casual and flippant about her blatant security lapses was more than enough motive for everyone I have talked to who spent time in the intelligence community.—Joe]
Observe the paradoxes built up about capitalism. It has been called a system of selfishness (which, in my sense of the term, it is) — yet it is the only system that drew men to unite on a large scale into great countries, and peacefully to cooperate across national boundaries, while all the collectivist, internationalist, One-World systems are splitting the world into Balkanized tribes.
Capitalism has been called a system of greed — yet it is the system that raised the standard of living of its poorest citizens to heights no collectivist system has ever begun to equal, and no tribal gang can conceive of.
Capitalism has been called nationalistic — yet it is the only system that banished ethnicity, and made it possible, in the United States, for men of various, formerly antagonistic nationalities to live together in peace.
Capitalism has been called cruel — yet it brought such hope, progress and general good will that the young people of today, who have not seen it, find it hard to believe.
As to pride, dignity, self-confidence, self-esteem — these are characteristics that mark a man for martyrdom in a tribal society and under any social system except capitalism.
Ayn Rand
The Voice of Reason
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
Gun ownership is an inherently political act. In fact, it’s a transformative political act. The more Americans who own guns, the safer our Constitutional republic will be. Without a shot fired.
Robert Farago
July 20, 2017
The Trace: ‘The NRA’s Campaign of Cultural Warfare is Working’
[Take a new shooter to the range, give them a great experience and save the republic.—Joe]
It was silly for Seattle to withhold this information, but we’re pretty certain why the city did it. The council was told that this tax could generate between $300,000 and a half-million dollars, but now it appears the city has collected just over $100,000, which is an embarrassing shortfall.
As a result the city has essentially lost money on this scheme because now they have to pay our attorney fees, plus a small penalty. On top of that, the city has lost tax revenue because one major gun dealer has moved out of the city and another has reported considerable sales losses. That is tax money the city will never realize.
Alan M. Gottlieb
SAF Executive Vice President
JUDGE FINDS AGAINST SEATTLE IN PRA CASE FILED BY SAF, MAGAZINE EDITOR
[Almost for certain, even without paying SAF lawyer fees, the city of Seattle lost money by creating a tax on guns.
But, it was never really about “revenue to provide broad-based benefits through research and prevention programs”. It was about raising the cost of exercising a specific enumerated right. They succeeded in driving sellers out of the city and encouraging legal buyers to travel out of the city.
They should be prosecuted.—Joe]
Michael Hammond, legislative counsel for Gun Owners of America, claimed that “he’s ‘probably’ the guy who, after the Newtown massacre, killed the bipartisan bill that would’ve required background checks on commercial sales of guns. He had ‘a very big role’ in designing opposition in the Senate.” That’s too bad. I would have preferred a guy who “probably” pushed through legislation so that not one more person since that massacre was ever shot in the United States. Let’s work toward that — keeping everyone safe and preventing any danger of anyone being shot ever again. We need gun control.
David Fallick
July 24, 2017
We need gun control
[If Fallick believes there is legislative action possible such that “not one more person since that massacre was ever shot in the United States” he has to be the all-time winner of the Crap for Brains award.
That is industrial grade stupidity.—Joe]
Planting a Mole in the Brady Campaign is like sending a torpedo at a sinking ship.
Weer’d Beard
July 24, 2017
Comment to Brady Campaign is hiring
[I can’t see any advantage to having a mole inside of the Brady Campaign either. They just aren’t effective enough at anything except generating material for us to mock to be a threat.
I could see it being useful to have someone inside who leads them further into self delusion and irrelevancy. It would be amusing for them to spend a ton of money “getting back to their roots” and openly advocate for the things they did when they had the most power in the White House.—Joe]
ALL AMERICANS can apply for DC gun carry permit, not just residents. Here’s link, but ignore the good reason part!
Emily Miller @EmilyMiller
Tweeted on July 26, 2017
[Amazing. I started carrying a gun in the mid 1990s and DC not only prohibited carry, it also prohibited handgun possession unless the gun was registered with DC before 1976.
I still see the requirement to be registered and pay money to exercise what is acknowledged to be a specific enumerated right as an infringement of that right but it is a extreme improvement.
We have a lot of people to thank for this change, Alan Gura, CATO Institute, SAF, and the NRA are the most obvious but Emily Miller and her book were also significant contributors.
If you squint just a little you can see constitutional carry in DCs future.*—Joe]
* Yes. I know DC had constitutional carry for a few days three years ago (to the day of Emilly’s tweet) but it did not persist. This may not persist either but this time it is going to last more than a few days.
Instead of smart people with guns there should be no people with guns
ThatNormalBunny
July 24, 2017
Comment to video How a Hacker Fired a Locked Smart Gun Using Only Magnets | WIRED
[Don’t ever let someone get away with telling you that no one wants to take away your guns.—Joe]
It’s important, especially for black women, to learn how to shoot. We need to learn how to defend ourselves.
Marchelle Tigner
July 24, 2017
Black women picking up firearms for self-defense
[The reason given for it being especially important for black women is that black women are more likely to be victims of domestic violence.
This is an AP story and is an extremely important trend:
It’s hard to find definitive statistics on gun ownership, but a study by the Pew Research Center released this month indicated that just 16 percent of “non-white women” identified themselves as gun owners, compared with about 25 percent of white women. Other Pew surveys in recent years have shown a growing acceptance of firearms among African-Americans: In 2012, one found that less than a third of black households viewed gun ownership as positive; three years later, that number had jumped. By then, 59 percent of black families saw owning guns as a necessity.
If the advocates for gun rights get the African-Americans on board we will politically crush the anti-gun advocates.—Joe]
A lot of people talk to their dogs and share their innermost secrets. With cats I’m not sure what they’d have to say.
A lot of times it might just be ‘you idiot, just feed me and leave me alone’.
Con Slobodchikoff
Professor at Northern Arizona University
July 23, 2017
This new technology may soon be able to translate your pet’s sounds into words
[I laughed and laughed at this. It reminded me of something daughter Xenia said to me once.—Joe]
Some people might claim that the people being robbed aren’t innocent because they’ve been accused of a crime but civil asset forfeiture occurs before somebody has been found guilty of a crime, which is the problem. Under a justice system where one is supposedly innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt there is no justification for stealing an accused individual’s property. So, yes, Jeff Sessions announced that his department is going to be stealing from innocent people and that should have everybody up in arms.
Christopher Burg
July 19, 2017
Jeff Sessions Announces Justice Department Will Increase Theft
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
The bottom line is that the Left already knows their gun control schemes do not work; criminals and terrorists have proven it. Yet they keep demanding that Americans submit to more and more restrictive gun laws.
Perhaps it is not gun control they are seeking. Maybe they are just seeking control.
AWR Hawkins
July 21, 2017
When Gun Control Fails
[There is one thing gun control is good for. Genocide.—Joe]
Sadly, liberals don’t care about stopping violent crime. They care about their own rabid ideology.
One of many examples where liberals are actually hurting the people they think they are protecting with their reckless ideas.
Andrew Mark Miller
July 20, 2017
Gun Control Study: Carry Permits Up 190%, Violent Crime Down 18%
[Perhaps the masses of “useful idiot” progressives think they are “protecting” people. At the top levels they know better. They are in it for the power. Guns and the truth are power. Stalin knew this and knew the masses must not have guns or ideas of their own. The high level progressives know this too. The data is so overwhelming that have to know it. That they say things like “fake but accurate” with complete sincerity and even after getting caught can’t understand why they should get fired or even apologize is proof they care far more about their rabid ideology and power than the truth and what is best for the people in general.—Joe]