Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
James Madison
[And this is why those that wish to govern us also attempt to keep the masses ignorant. It is only by enforcing ignorance that they can become our rulers.–Joe]
We are aware of the problem of handgun violence in this country, and we take seriously the concerns raised by the many amici who believe that prohibition of handgun ownership is a solution. The Constitution leaves the District of Columbia a variety of tools for combating that problem, including some measures regulating handguns, see supra, at 54-55, and n. 26. But the enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table. These include the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home. Undoubtedly some think that the Second Amendment is outmoded in a society where our standing army is the pride of our Nation, where well-trained police forces provide personal security, and where gun violence is a serious problem. That is perhaps debatable, but what is not debatable is that it is not the role of this Court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.
Justice Antonin Scalia
June 26, 2008
District of Columbia, et al., petitioners v. Dick Anthony Heller, No. 07-290, Page 64
[It’s not the role of our legislators or the executive branch either. The only legal way for them to try is through a constitutional amendment and even that has some serious problems because the formation of the union was dependent upon those first ten amendments known as the Bill of Rights.–Joe]
I concluded, unhappily, I had been born into a world dominated by a rampaging monster called ‘law’ that was both all powerful and all stupid.
Fred Hoyle
[The most recent info about the TSA is what reminded me of this. But every waking minute of any day would also qualify.–Joe]
We are freeing men from the responsibilities of freedom, which only a few men can bear.
Adolf Hitler
[This is attributed to Adolf Hitler by a few people but I am of the opinion that this might be “too good to be true”. I cannot find it in a speech or writing of his. But then my reference materials are limited to English and mostly on the web.
Still it could easily be the slogan of politicians in this country for the last 80 years. The so called “freedom” from want and and “freedom” from fear are the classic examples. The many others which have followed such as the welfare state, government run health care, bans on recreational drugs, and repressive firearms laws are mostly just details of the implementation.
But once the politicians come to the realization some people resist the Utopian vision through their own “selfish desires” and that the ultimate freedom from responsibility is achieved in death we then find ourselves back to Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Pol Pot.–Joe]
Tomorrow’s battle is won during today’s practice.
Samurai maxim
[This is true of USPSA, IPDA, and steel challenge matches too. And even more importantly it is true of your encounter with a thug who wants your money or your life.
Note that the maxim has nothing to do with the hardware you carry. The caliber of your gun, the number of rounds you carry, and the terminal characteristics of the bullet are far, far less important than your training and your practice.–Joe]
On the one hand, I want to give you props for partially doing the right thing, and on the other, I’m not sure I want someone who can’t be trusted with a gun handling my food.
David Codrea
Pizza Hut gun policy change reflects larger societal attitude
June 20, 2010
[I’ve said something similar before about a can of gasoline and a book of matches. But the idea is much older than my first post where I mention it in October of 2004. I first heard the essence of it from an employee of mine who gave credit to his father. That was in about 1994. Who knows how long he had been saying it or where he heard it.
What I find interesting is they never try to refute it. They just ignore it.–Joe]
What’s next? How about Starbucks on the side of our M1 tanks?
State Sen. Steve Russell
June 14, 2010
A School Prays for Help
[Although his comment was in a completely different context and unrelated in intent I, of course, thought of it in terms of delivering a cup of Starbucks finest to Paul Helmke at his office in my personally owned, Second Amendment guaranteed, M1.–Joe]
At the risk of making you feel a little ookey, I know I’m not the only one with concrete plans for the day I see the “Joe Huffman Arrested” headline.
Phelps
June 17, 2010
Comment to And your point is?
[Great. I’m the canary in the coal mine.
Just keep in mind that this canary knows how to use explosives in the mine.–Joe]
Can we institute a murder tax too? After all, if paying a tax makes felonies ok then why not issue tax stamps for murder? Everyone has a better off dead list, wouldn’t it be nice to just pay a tax and get to work?
Alan Andrews
June 17, 2010
US’s biggest fail of the 20th Century?
[Yes, it’s a felony to not pay some other taxes as well, not just a tax on removing a few millimeters of steel from a tube. But still, it makes the point and that is pretty funny.–Joe]
There is absolutely no criterion for truth. For reason, senses, ideas, or whatever else may exist are all deceptive.
Even if such criterion were at hand, it could not stand apart from the feelings which sense impressions produce. It is the faculty of feeling that distinguishes the living creature from inanimate things. By means of that feeling, the living creature becomes perceptive of both itself and the external world. There is no sensation or perception of anything unless the sense is irritated, agitated, or perturbed. When an object is indicated, then the senses become irritated and somewhat disturbed. It is impossible that there be an unperturbed presentation of external things.
The subject is more or less persuaded by the image it perceives. The strength of that persuasion depends on the disposition of the subject and on the degree of irritation produced by the image. It is not the distinctness of the image that constitutes its credibility.
The only way we can ever obtain certitude is by the difficult process of examination. We cannot be satisfied with evidence that is incomplete and only probable. Our certitude is always a precarious one. Science relies on probability, not on certitude.
Carneades
Greek philosopher 214-129 B.C.
The Fallacy of the Criterion of Truth
[As near as I can tell a very high percentage of the population subscribe to the first sentence and then their subscription ran out or they turned on the T.V. to have their brains sucked dry. My discussions with many anti-gun people provides a large base of evidence to support this conclusion.
A vastly smaller percentage thought through things enough to arrive at the conclusion articulated in the first paragraph.
It is but a very small percentage of the population that make the difficult journey to the finish the last paragraph. And even those that do sometimes still conclude that because science is not certain it must be wrong and hence their certainty of something at odds with the evidence is just as valid as the science on the same topic which says else is very probable.
As son James learned, people will literally say and believe, “Because something is irrational doesn’t mean you don’t have to believe in it.”
This insistence on certainty of belief in the absence of, or in spite of, evidence drives politics and enables politicians to herd the masses like cattle. I wish there were a cure for this terrible disease. But I fear that at best there will, someday, be an adjustment in the percentages when Darwin laughs as billions struggle and fail to learn the lesson before they inevitably fail the pop-quiz of some global catastrophe.–Joe]
If there’s an unequivocal opposite to growing up around guns it’s being raised by New York Jews.
I grew up believing guns were bad. That’s what my parents taught me. But they also taught me to read. That was their first mistake.
Andrew Rothman
June 3, 2010
Testing Minnesota’s gun show loophole
[Being able to read isn’t a necessary or sufficient condition to arrive at the conclusion that private firearms ownership is a net benefit to society but it certainly does help.
I agree that ignorance, willful as well as unintentional, are huge problems which enable and create anti-freedom people. But I think reading comprehension and the ability and willingness to determine truth from falsity are the critical items.–Joe]
A war put off is not a war avoided.
Charlton Heston
[I don’t know the context of when this was said but it probably wasn’t meant to be the one I am thinking of.
For decades there have been gun owners who were willing to “give them what they wanted” so they could keep their hunting rifles or shotguns or some other firearm not currently under attack by the bigots. Every concession with the enemies of freedom emboldened them. Every inch of territory they owned gave them more legitimacy. Just look at California, Chicago, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York City, and Washington D.C.
How many lives have been lost or ruined with the rampant crime enabled by disarming those victims? And the enablers make no effort to hide the fact they are nothing but petty tyrants ready to shoot those that question their decisions. They should have been slapped down 70+ years ago and countless lives, billions of dollars, and millions of man hours could have been saved.
I understand that sometimes you have to retreat and give them a
little ground so that you don’t lose the entire war but we must do our best to prepare the
ground so that reclaiming it will be easier when we return with
greater forces. With the “assault weapon” ban of 1994 we did just that.
Our side insisted the legislation include funding on studies of the effectiveness of the ban and an expiration date. Both of those helped reclaim the territory in later years.
The battle over NFA34 was lost without much resistance put up by gun owners and gun organizations. We were completely unprepared–condition white.
With the political climate of 1968 the battle was tough, our preparedness was pathetic, and we lost. We must remember these losses and never let ourselves be unprepared. We now have the initiative and we should not drop it. The battle in the courts will last decades just as the battle in the legislatures has lasted decades.
But always remember putting off the battle does not mean that it is avoided. It may require a strategic and temporary retreat but just as there is no compromise between someone intent on raping or killing you there is no compromising with the enemies of liberty.–Joe]
America is a collection of stupid people. You will not try to reason with them. You will resort to the most shameless non sequiters, strawman arguments, appeals to vanity, and whatever all else in shaping public opinion. Here is my argument against gun control:
It is a statistical fact that only beautiful people own guns. You will never in a million years see an ugly person with a gun. Ergo, if you see a person with a gun, that person is attractive.
Christopher King
June 13, 2010
I’m done trying to have rational debates. I will now resort to pure emotion
[In case someone tries to use me as an case in point to refute the FACTS (proof by vigorous assertion) above–I didn’t start shooting regularly until after I went bald. Other than that I could be used as proof of the above.–Joe]
Handgun Control Inc. often quotes from Cruikshank, which says, “the bearing of arms for a lawful purpose is not a right granted by the Constitution.” They never quote the next sentence from that decision: “Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence.“
The Court stated in Cruikshank that since the First and Second amendments limited only the Congress they did not prohibit the Ku Klux Klan from conspiring with local officials to prevent newly freed black slaves from holding political meetings or having guns. It boggles the mind to hear so-called “Liberals” proudly cite the Cruikshank decision.
Neal Knox
October 9, 1987
The Gun Rights War, page 74.
[In 1992 or 1993 I received a mailing from HCI with this quote in the letter.* That letter sealed my relationship with them. It was like remembering where you were when you found out President Kennedy had been shot.**
I was in the bathroom next to the kitchen in our house in Moscow Idaho. I remember setting the letter down on the counter next to the washbasin. I was stunned. Had the Supreme court really said the 2nd Amendment doesn’t mean what it says? I was very shaken by this. HCI wouldn’t put something that profound in writing if it weren’t true. They couldn’t. It would be devastating to their cause if it was found out they had lied. Right?
I don’t remember how I checked up on it. But within a few days I had discovered what Knox had reported in 1987. HCI hadn’t really flat out lied, they “just” didn’t tell the whole truth. It had to be deliberate misinformation on their part. It was, as Knox said, the very next sentence which refuted their point.
This infuriated me. I have not forgiven them. Changing their name to “The Brady Campaign” did not help. That they used Jim Brady’s injury as a justification for a law that would not have prevented, in even the most optimistic scenarios, the tragic shooting of Jim Brady and President Reagan reinforced my opinion of them as deliberate deceivers.
In 2004 then Brady President Michael D. Barnes claimed they had about “a half million” members. Then a couple weeks ago I found out they only have about 50,000 members and that is only if you want to include those that haven’t donated any money in over two years. If you measure “membership” as most people do then the real numbers are about 28K or less.
When they said they would not share supporter names with unaffiliated groups they lied.
There is a reason I have frequently called their lawyer “Half-Truth Henigan“.
When I asked Paul Helmke why he was not concerned with the total violence rather than just “gun violence” it was because I wanted to point out to the rest of the audience that Helmke was, as usual, selectively reporting data that would propagate his half-truth.
Deception has been a part of their organization for decades. I believe deception has become institutionalized in their organization. It is a part of their culture. Perhaps they believe the end justifies the means. I don’t really know why. I just know that to this day they still deceive. And it isn’t all that important to know why. It’s just important that we destroy them politically and as an institution. They may have good intentions but Hell is paved with good intentions and their political goals enable evil.
When Brady people hear or read my name or links to my blog posts in relation to news that hurts them it I want them to know something. I want them to know a major part of the reason I am on their case is because I have never gotten over them sending out a deliberate half-truth in that letter nearly 20 years ago.
*Yes, it’s possible that they still have my name and address in their list of “members” even though I have never donated any money to them. I did send them my address requesting they keep me informed…
**Okay, so that doesn’t resonate with all that many people anymore. How about like remembering where you were when you found out the twin towers where hit by an airplane?–Joe]
Any right or freedom not worth fighting for is but a temporary privilege.
Sheriff Richard I. Mack
From My Cold Dead Fingers–Why America Needs Guns, Third Edition (“Final Chapter”), page 212.
[Not only must it be worth fighting for but people must actually go out and do the fighting and voting.–Joe]
When I have been interviewed by foreign journalists, even German ones, they usually start off by asking why multiple-victim public shootings are such an American problem. And of course, they are astonished when I remind them of the attacks in their own countries and point out that this is not an American problem, it is a universal problem, but with a common factor: The attacks occur in public places where civilians are banned from carrying guns.
John R. Lott Jr.
June 11, 2010
Gun Control and Mass Murder
[H/T to Dave Hardy.
I would have said “private citizens” instead of “civilians” but he still gets the point across.–Joe]
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Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence
June 9, 2010
http://www.bradycenter.org/donate/events/dc
[The link used to go to this content. Searching for Helen Thomas on their site still yields the link above but the page has been removed. I wonder why?
Since they seem to have lost the web page I’m pleased to offer it back to them and even host it on my site at no charge.
The Brady Campaign–The 21st Century social equivalent of the KKK.
Update: Their web page about honoring Helen Thomas works again. Sebastian speculates.
If I were in management of an organization that were embarrassed by someone we honored by giving them an award I think I would do just the opposite of what they did. I think I would leave the web page (the Internet is forever once it hits the tubes–you can’t take it back so why try?) but update it with a statement that you were unaware (assuming that is true) of the persons embarrassing beliefs and have revoked the award.
They appear to have tried to just hide the evidence which is the wrong thing to do. Will they do the right thing now? They haven’t in the past. Let’s hope they continue to fumble along and further confirm my claim they are ordinary bigots who are not ashamed of their beliefs and the people they associate with.–Joe]
Their ignorance is pitiful — their lives have been too easy. Had they
experienced Dachau, they would have a better idea of how precious freedom is.
These leftist should leave America. These Sarah Brady types must be educated to
understand that because we have an armed citizenry, that a dictatorship has not
yet happened in America. These anti-gun fools are more dangerous to Liberty than
street criminals or foreign spies.
Theodore Haas
Full Interview with Holocaust Survivor, Theodore Haas
[I was reminded of this quote by The Brady Campaign connection with anti-Semite Helen Thomas.–Joe]
Privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States … are chiefly defined in the first eight amendments to the Constitution of the United States… . These eight articles … never were limitations upon the power of the states until made so by the Fourteenth Amendment.
John Bingham
1871
Bingham was a primary architect of the 14th Amendment.
[This is something to keep in mind as later this month, after being more than 140 years overdue, the Second Amendment is finally acknowledged as a barrier to state and local governments infringement on a specific enumerated right. Bigots ignore the spirit and the intent of the law. We have a legal system. Not a justice system.
Although I haven’t read all of Alan Gura’s briefs so maybe he did use this but if he didn’t it would seem to me he overlooked powerful support for his approach to incorporation of the Second Amendment.
I found this while reading The Gun Rights War, page 75.–Joe]
One of the most interesting projects I worked on altered my perceptions of the civil rights movement and tested my convictions about nonviolence as an effective form of direct action. The Coalition sought to rebut claims by gun rights activists that gun control is historically racist; and violent, armed action is the method by which African Americans obtained important rights.
While researching the Deacons for Defense and Justice (DDJ), a small movement of men that took up arms to protect their communities in southern states between 1964-1968, I learned what it must have been like to stand up to a violent mob. In this case, that mob was the Ku Klux Klan. During this time, advocates of violence were much more prevalent than I had been taught. Student groups like the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) became much more militant during the 1960s, especially after seeing the terror of the Klan in the south.
Yet I also came to understand that while it may have been necessary for some African Americans to arm themselves to protect the lives of those they loved, it really was nonviolence that gained national attention and helped thrust the civil rights movement ahead.
Caitlin Rosser
June 7, 2010
Former intern for Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
Holding Fire, Finding Peace
[If I’m reading this right she learned the same lesson she would have had I been her mentor instead of someone at an anti-gun organization. Non-violence is the way of everyday life but the ability and willingness to deliver violence in the defense of innocent life under unusual circumstances is what makes it possible to live a life of relatively free of violence.
I have to wonder how successful she was in being able to achieve the coalition’s goal to “rebut the claims by gun rights activists.” I did a search on the CSGV website for her name without getting any hits. One might conclude that means she didn’t come up with the desired answer. She appears to be a smart girl so maybe she figured things out even while interning with a well meaning but extremely misguided organization.
After spending four months with the CSGV she has now been an intern at the U.S. Department of Justice for two months. I wonder if she is an advocate for non-violence there as well. I don’t expect that would go over too well with those that have to make contact with those that regularly prey on the innocent.
One might even imagine that if she continues to learn the lessons that life has to offer at the DOJ she might next get a job, virtually next door, at NRA headquarters. She would fit right in with nearly all the NRA PR people I have met, female, smart, and blond (I said “nearly” — Danielle probably isn’t considered a blond).–Joe]