The fact that “gun blogs” are a thing makes me really worry about America.
phlcstgan
August 24, 2011
Comment to Gun Blogger Ignores NRA Undermining Gun Law Enforcement Measures
[The fact this person has such an aversion to our Bill of Rights makes me really certain they do not belong in the U.S.—Joe]
The arguments of the gun-control crowd are like an annoying barfly that needs to be sent home. Expanding the rights of lawful gun owners makes everyone safer.
The Washington Times
August 22, 2011
EDITORIAL: No gunfights at the saloon–Crime rate drops as concealed-carry restrictions are relaxed
[While an appropriate metaphor in the given context I think the Brady Campaign is more accurately viewed as a geriatric sports team. Former President Paul Helmke was never a strong player and there was evidence of Alzheimer’s and/or profound stupidity. And this was the best and brightest the Brady Campaign was ever able to field on their team! With a “star” player that feeble it shouldn’t be too surprising that up and comer Colin Goddard hid under a desk at Virginia Tech waiting to be shot rather than attempting to fight back, and second stringer Dennis Henigan is an invalid who soils his own bed.—Joe]
Chicago and Toronto are roughly equal in size. Yet Chicago averages 450 gun murders per year, while Toronto has fewer than 60. Why are Chicagoans seven times more violent and deadly than Toronto residents? Maybe it’s because Canada has sensible gun control laws.
The Charleston Gazette
August 21, 2011
Gun murders: American curse
[And maybe the Charleston Gazette editors are ignoramuses. My friend from Toronto legally owns 40 guns. Most of them are handguns. Handguns, until recently, have been banned in Chicago. How much more “sensible” than banned do these idiots want the gun control laws to be?—Joe]
Finding someone to stand up and take responsibility for the feds’ ill-advised gun-walk-to-Mexico program has been anything but fast. Only the denying, obfuscating and bus-throwing-under has been furious.
Dallas Morning News
August 19, 2011
Editorial: Details only get worse from ATF’s Fast and Furious fiasco
[That seems to capture the situation so far pretty well.
H/T to NRA-ILA.—Joe]
For each firearm a “Genuine Reason” must be given, relating to pest control, hunting, target shooting, or collecting. Self-defense is not an acceptable reason.
…
If only America responded to our incessant shooting rampages with half this vigor and political consolidation.
Melissa Rooney
August 20, 2011
From Down Under
[Self-defense is not an acceptable reason? I almost made that the QOTD by itself. The most basic of all human rights, the right to defend your life, is “not an acceptable reason.”
Tell that to the people I pointed out here. Or tell Ms. Rooney, Molōn labe!—Joe]
Let me be very clear: we monitor the risks of violent extremism taking root here in the United States. We don’t have the luxury of focusing our efforts on one group; we must protect the country from terrorism whether foreign or homegrown, and regardless of the ideology that motivates its violence.
We are on the lookout for criminal and terrorist activity but we do not – nor will we ever – monitor ideology or political beliefs. We take seriously our responsibility to protect the civil rights and liberties of the American people, including subjecting our activities to rigorous oversight from numerous internal and external sources.
Janet Napolitano
Head of Department of Homeland Security
April 16, 2009
Homeland Security chief responds to right-wing extremism report
[Really? I wonder what sort of action Ms. Napolitano and her organization have taken in response to those responsible for operation Fast and Furious. It involved criminal activities and arguably terrorist activities as well as strong hints that it was aimed at infringing upon the civil rights of American people.—Joe]
Joe Waldron sent out an email with an alert from the NRA. Here are some important points (emphasis in original):
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has imposed a ban on the use of traditional ammunition for all upland bird hunting on all WDFW pheasant release sites across the state. This restriction was adopted by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission two years ago but its implementation was delayed until this hunting season. The Commission adopted the restriction during the course of its 2010-2012 hunting season-setting process.
With this in mind, it is critical that hunters and sportsmen participate in the 2012-2014 season-setting process, which is just getting underway. The WDFW will be hosting a series of public meetings next week to take comments from the public as the first step in the process. You can bet that the anti-hunting extremists will be represented at these meetings so the importance of hunters and sportsmen participating cannot be overstated!
…
…
No scientific studies have been cited showing population-level impacts on any species. The WDFW seems to be acting on emotion and politics, citing the “potential” for problems associated with traditional ammunition as the basis for these far-reaching restrictions.
The NRA believes that the current push to ban the use of traditional ammunition in Washington is part of a new strategy being used by anti-hunting and anti-gun activists all over the country to attack our hunting traditions and firearm freedoms. Traditional ammunition bans have a significant chilling effect on hunting by pricing hunters out of the market while hunters’ ranks are already in decline. The opposition’s “next logical step” will be to propose a complete traditional ammunition ban throughout Washington. This is the pattern in other states so don’t think “it won’t happen here!”
…
With that in mind, it is important for you to attend the WDFW meeting in your part of the state. The following meetings will run from 7:00-9:00 p.m.:
– August 22 – Federal Way Community Center (Alder & Birch rooms), 876 South 333rd St, Federal Way
– August 23 – Edison Place Event Center (Edison Room), 201 North Rock St, Centralia
– August 24 – The Lincoln Center (Monroe Ballroom), 1316 North Lincoln St, Spokane
– August 25 – Clarion Hotel & Conference Center (Selah Wapato rooms), 1507 North First St, YakimaIn addition to attending one of the above meetings, please comment on the issues at the WDFW’s hunting website. Your voice matters! Comments must be submitted by Tuesday, September 20.
It’s another case of policies being implemented by a theocratic government of the self-anointed.
And, if you anti-gun liberals don’t want law-abiding citizens to have the guns, then go to the auctions, buy the guns, and destroy them yourselves. This still provides money to the communities for education.
Roy Denney
Aug. 15, 2011
Sales would aid communities, and gun haters could help
[Great idea! And I would be okay if they expanded the program to buying guns, with their own money of course, brand new from their friendly nearby gun shop. Buy them all send them all to hell. For the children–of course.—Joe]
Nations grown corrupt
Love bondage more than liberty;
Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty.
John Milton
[I think there is more than one way to bondage. But bondage is a form of corruption so it may be that the correlation is so strong that it is difficult to distinguish them under many circumstances.
The key lesson to be learned here is that bondage is easy and that liberty is strenuous. It would be so easy to let the government make all my decisions for me and to provide me with my basic necessities. Everything that I need and in return I give them the minimum of what I can make them think are my abilities. Wouldn’t life be much easier then? Shouldn’t everyone do that?
As a friend of mine explained, “Here. Have this piece of candy. It tastes really good. It causes cancer and it will kill you 20 years from now but for now it tastes really good.”—Joe]
The City considers live firing-range training so critical to responsible firearm ownership that it mandates this training as a condition of lawful firearm possession. At the same time, however, the City insists in this litigation that range training is categorically outside the scope of the Second Amendment and may be completely prohibited. There is an obvious contradiction here.
Diane S. Sykes
July 6, 2011
Circuit Judge
United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit
RHONDA EZELL, et al., v. CITY OF CHICAGO
[One never hears claims that the anti-gun people are too smart or that their logic is impeccable. It’s nice to see judges and the general public coming to the realization that these guys are mostly nuts and should be treated as such.—Joe]
Those that voluntarily submit themselves to licensing and training requirements, register their firearms, store them legally, are in fact subject to, in some ways, to more strict regulation than individuals that are convicted of violent firearms offenses.
Solomon Friedman
August 12, 2011
Collector, Not Criminal
[This is in Canada, not the U.S., but some of the things he says apply to people who hold a Federal Firearms License. Is it too much to ask that firearms owners exercising their natural right to keep and bear arms be treated no worse than violent criminals and pedophiles?
If I have the time later today I have some interesting info to report about my efforts to defeat the anti-gun people in Canada.—Joe]
We don’t see the role of government as guaranteeing outcomes, but allowing free men and women to flourish based on their own vision, their hard work and their personal responsibility.
Rick Perry
Texas Governor
August 13, 2011
Texas Gov. Perry jumps into 2012 Republican race
[Those are the right words to get my vote. But I have a feeling those same words absolutely inflame some people. The same sentence that included the quote above completed with, “said Perry, who has never held a private sector job…”
How does what Perry said relate to a “private sector job”? It appears to me the reporter was just looking for some way to draw some blood from Perry. And, of course, like most people on the left the truth is of little importance if a falsehood serves their purpose better. It appears Perry was in the cotton farming business from 1977 until 1984.—Joe]
Every government is a scoundrel.
Henry Mencken
[Of course. What do you expect when people exercise the power to collect money at the point of a gun instead of earning it? Who but a scoundrel is attracted to a job like that?
Government is a necessary evil and as Jefferson (perhaps mistakenly—note 1), Thoreau, and Baker have said that government is best which governs less.—Joe]
Although the majority of Americans favor stricter handgun controls, and a consistent 40 percent of Americans favor banning the private sale and possession of handguns, many Americans do believe that handguns are effective weapons for home self-defense and the majority of Americans mistakenly believe that the Second Amendment of the Constitution guarantees the individual right to keep and bear arms.
Violence Policy Center
1988
Conclusion to Assault Weapons & Accessories in America
[It wasn’t a majority of Americans that were mistaken in their beliefs about the Second Amendment. It was the bigoted minority—like those that supported the VPC and the Brady Campaign and would not believe us no matter how many times we told them and explained it to them.—Joe]
Both Heller and McDonald suggest that First Amendment analogues are more appropriate, see Heller, 554 U.S. at 582, 595, 635; McDonald, 130 S. Ct. at 3045, and on the strength of that suggestion, we and other circuits have already begun to adapt First Amendment doctrine to the Second Amendment context.
Diane S. Sykes
July 6, 2011
Circuit Judge
United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit
RHONDA EZELL, et al., v. CITY OF CHICAGO
[This occurred over a month ago but the taste is still incredibly sweet. The Second Amendment is to be treated like the First Amendment. Learn to use that analogy when you have discussion with the anti-gun people. If we learn to use it correctly I’ll bet it will have a great effect on them.
And to give yourself a nice warm glow read up on “chilling effect” and ponder those implications.—Joe]
Obamageddon. Barackalypse Now. The only silver lining I can find is that as far as 2012 goes, Obama’s a Debt Man Walking. Anybody want to tell me he’s not landslidable now?
Rush Limbaugh
August 8, 2011
Quoted in a Tea Party newsletter.
[Maybe. The election is a 15 months from now. 15 days is a long attention span for many voters.
And silver lining? Nope. With the current price of silver that is way too optimistic of an outlook. I could believe a lead lining. That would have sort of a tarnished silver look to it. I mean really–will there be a replacement available that is any better?
If I could vote for anything right now it would be for the Feds to just go away. Or maybe to throw about 90% of the Federal politicians into a tar pit and dump a few truck loads of chicken feathers on top. Flaming cow dung on top that is optional.
The states can take care of themselves. If some of the states go bankrupt they can sell off their assets. Why not put city, county, and maybe even state governments up for auction? Who would disagree with the claim that Apple, Google, and Microsoft could do a better job of running there own cities than the bozos that try to do it now.
Forget elections for the government entities that went broke. Sell them off to whoever wants to have them. Let people run them however they want as long as people can move out with their property if they want.
What do you want to bet that states of BillGatesand SteveJobs will be much better places to do business, live, raise your kids than the People Republic of GeorgeSoros? And the village of RonJeremyVille will have a night life and adult entertainment which will make sin city Las Vegas look like the city of angels. It would be the most densely populated patch of land on the planet that no one claims to have ever visited.
I’m more than a little cynical right now.—Joe]
The disease is socialism. Every little bit of it, and the perpetrators aren’t on the front lines. They use the poor for their dirty work. So regardless of the system to be used, the perpetrators, who tend to work from cover and often hold official positions, are the ones who need “schooled”. Go after the queen bee and you get the whole hive.
Lyle @ UltiMAK
August 10, 2011
Comment to What caliber for riots?
[In essence I agree and have a big blog post in mind about this. My disagreement with the above is that removing the “queen bee” will not be of any use if there isn’t an appropriate replacement for “her”. In the case of Europe and probably several states in the U.S. the great majority of the population cannot comprehend a free society.
I remember having a conversation with one person who insisted that “someone or something” had to be “on top”. It was either government or God that must rule the people. He didn’t trust government, governments were corruptible and had a strong tendency toward evil. Therefore it had to be God that ruled. Our government must be subservient to (his, of course) God.
I explained that is not how our government was set up and it didn’t have to be that way. Our government was found by the people and for the people with only certain enumerated powers that were granted to it by the people. Any involvement by god(s) was merely as an observer. The “one on top” is the people that granted the powers to the government.
The concepts presented yield a confused look and a mild protestation that “the people” couldn’t exercise power sufficiently wisely for that to actually work. The discussion was dropped after that because I think the light bulbs were starting to come on with the realization that god(s) and governments always communicate through people anyway so the situation wasn’t any better with his view of the world.
I think the same mindset exists in the socialists/progressives/leftists. They think of it as their people or their opponents ruling over the losers rather than a free society with government defending the rights of everyone.—Joe]
Their extremist rhetoric against the Tea Party is outrageous. People who peacefully participate in the political process are not terrorists. Let me say that again, since important things are worth repeating: Peaceful participation is not terrorism.
This is an administration that won’t call terrorists, terrorists, but they have no problem slapping that label on the American middle class, which kinda lets ya know who they really regard as being the enemy.
Hint: It’s not the jihadis, with whom they share an anti-American agenda. It’s the people who want America to succeed with whom they have a problem and with whom they do not share an agenda.
If we’re terrorists, then shoot us, or shut up and stop making fools of yourselves!
Chas
August 8, 2011
Comment to You’re all a big bunch of meanies!
[As son James pointed out after I showed this comment to him last night, “Well… we are their enemies—ideologically.” Yup. And as Lyle (and here) and history frequently points outs, when the left starts loosing they do crazy, scary, violent stuff. We may be headed for those times where they do treat us as terrorists. The rhetoric is ramping up for it.—Joe]
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Henry Mencken
[I’m unable to find the date or the context but the ‘net seems unanimous in attributing it to Mencken.
Mencken makes a very important point whether it is a First, Second, Fourth, Fifth Amendment or natural rights issue. The oppressors make it difficult because they get to choose the “poster children” who will have standing to challenge the oppressive law. This is the main reason I am far more tolerant of the ACLU than many of those that I keep company with.—Joe]
It’s a shameful law. The gun lobby is determined to force guns into every corner of our society. That does not make us safer.
Dennis Henigan
Interim president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence
August 6, 2011
South Florida cities, counties forced to scrap gun laws — NRA-backed state law forbids local regulation of firearms
[The law is not shameful. It’s shameful that Henigan’s organization even exists.
Henigan has it exactly backward. The “gun lobby” is slowly reducing the force that was determined to remove guns from every corner of our society. The only thing the “gun lobby” is forcing is for governments to stop using force against people who exercise constitutionally protected rights. It’s no different than repealing laws prohibited blacks from voting and it’s time for Henigan to face the music and shut down his organization. We need to move past this shameful chapter in our history and closing down the Brady Campaign would be a major step in the right direction.—Joe]