Barb has some rhododendrons. We weren’t really watching them and hadn’t noticed the profusion of blooms until the neighbor mentioned it to her. From our perspective it was just grass, trees, and green shrubbery until POOF! It’s a collection of blossoms taller than our heads:
Nice!
Your right to life isn’t dependent on whether respecting your life would yield the best set of consequences. It is absolute and unrelenting, even if it would be more beneficial to others if your right were violated. It would be wrong for me to override your right to life in order harvest your organs to save five people, even if in doing so I produce a more beneficial outcome.
Your life has basic dignity that cannot be defeated in the name of social utility. It isn’t dependent on the outcome of a cost-benefit analysis. The same goes for other rights that are derived from the right to life. For example, it would be wrong to rape someone even if doing so would save ten lives. Rights function as moral “trump cards” that override appeals to utility.
Timothy Hsiao
February 27, 2018
Why Americans Have A Right To Own Guns Even If That Makes Us Less Safe
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
After some discussion and a few behind the scenes changes Gene Econ and his crew will again be adding to your Boomershoot experience. As far as participants are concerned there will be no visible changes from what you have enjoyed in previous years.
Learn about Boomershoot. Then sign up for our next event!
Registration opens for staff 5/19/2018 9:00:00 AM Pacific Time.
Registration opens for previous year participants 5/23/2018 6:00:00 PM Pacific Time.
Registration opens for everyone 5/27/2018 9:00:00 AM Pacific Time.
There are no significant Second Amendment obstacles to local and state gun control at this point.
Don Kilmer
May 15, 2018
California Cities Are Free to Regulate Gun Stores Out of Existence
[The twisted bit of reasoning that led to this particular situation is:
No historical authority suggests that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to sell a firearm.
If you read the appeals court ruling a little deeper you will see they don’t see any reason why the manufacture of all firearms couldn’t be regulated out of existence. Sure, you have a right to keep and bear “arms” of some sort, but no right exists for someone to build them or parts to repair them. The same would appear to be true for ammunition.
Assuming you want to retain some semblance of the right to keep and bear arms in the all the states there are three paths ahead of us.
Option 1 is probably a lost cause in places like California, New Jersey, New York, and other tyrannical states.
Option 3 is far too uncomfortable to give serious consideration until all other options are exhausted.
We have to get behind option 2 and make it a reality while preparing for option 3.—Joe]
Anyone who wants an AR15 is too crazy to own a gun. And yes, I do want to take your guns. But I know that’s unrealistic. However outlawing future sales of Assault rifles is extremely reasonable- even for Scalia. The ones being unreasonable and tyrannical are the gun nuts.
Insipid @insipid42
Tweeted on May 12, 2018
[I would be more likely to agree with the first sentence if the words “who wants” were replaced with “who doesn’t want”.
What a stereotype. If you read just a little bit of the Twitter threat linked about you will find Insipid is hitting on all three of the SJWs laws:
1. They always lie
2. They always double down when confronted with their lies
3. They always project
And don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you, “No one wants to take your guns”.—Joe]
Yet another limp gun junkie peacocking his pew pew. #BobKeller #FuckTheNRA #GunContolNow #NRAIsATerroristOrganization
Blurtsy TouRIOTte’s @blurtsy
Tweeted on April 15, 2018
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!
Via a tweet from Jonathan @CorrelA_B who says:
The fixating on strangers’ genitalia is par for the course with #guncontrol extremists – hence #MarkleysLaw (@JoeHuffman).
The simultaneous calling for the murder of ~6,000,000 peaceful Americans by way of the #NRAIsATerroristOrganization tag? Ironically, that’s why we own guns.
They declare us terrorists then we get stubborn about giving up our guns. Odd how that works out. You would think they would be smarter than that. I mean, how much dumber could they be?—Joe]
I shot in another ASI match yesterday at Renton Fish and Game Club. I did about the same as I did last time. I came in 5th out of 69 shooters. I had six seconds of penalties in a five stage match.
I prefer USPSA matches because of the added complexity and problem solving required. But I still have fun with ASI.
Via email from Barron
With such smart people as opponents, delivering such clever arguments, we might as well give up right now.
Or, we could just add them to the list of people who resort to Markley’s Law in the first few seconds of discussion and laugh at them.
I’d had it backwards this whole time. I’ve told town hall participants and reporters in the media that we can protect the Second Amendment and also protect people’s lives. What these kids have taught us is their right to learn, their right to go home, their right to live is supreme over any other right. We should put that first.
Rep. Eric Swalwell
D-California
Questions and answers with the lawmaker who wants your assault weapons
[In other words, the Second Amendment is null and void because he says so. And unless we get a good SCOTUS ruling in the next five to 10 years his vision could be the way it plays out.
His end game is something we need to think about. No door-to-door confiscations. If you get caught with a gun you go to jail. Sure, you can hide it and get away with it for a long time. But you someone will sell you out, a relationship will turn sour, or you’ll get in an accident as you drive to the deep woods to shoot it. We loose that game because the culture will slowly die.
So what do we do? Show up at the first guy’s trial with 100’s of people open carrying AR-15? Burn down the court house?
I’m not sure that is the best way to win friends and influence people in the way we want them influenced.
My best approach is “sanctuary states”. States which refuse to cooperate with the feds on these sort of issues. But that can escalate with blocking of Federal grants and other money. And that is just the start.—Joe]
Via email from JavaMan:
I was driving the other day and thinking. I do that a lot lately. And I came upon a convoy of “weekend warriors” – National Guardsmen, I believe (I don’t think it was Regulars, although I could be wrong) and later on the trip back home as I was thinking about the anti-gunners argument that “No-one should have an military style weapon… what with it’s ‘high capacity clip’ and pistol grip, etc…”
Maybe you’ll see where I”m going with this.
Following that reasoning no one should have a vehicle or any other equipment that can perform as well or better than anything the military has. Like cars that go 70, 80 or more MPH! We should all be limited to 50 mph as a military convoy is on the highway! And why would anyone need a 4X4 … only the military should have those. And then there are the various Hummers out there.
I know, just a wild and crazy thought but I though may be you could consider it when someone posits “no one should have something that the military might have” argument.
I think the argument is sound. But logical arguments are not the currency of our opponents. Hence it will have no more value to them than if we offered a $100 bill to a caveman in hopes he wouldn’t hurt us. He would probably take it as an insult, club us over the head, and take our pocket knives while leaving our corpses to be eaten by the vultures and maggots.
Given the chance, anti-gunners would do the modern day equivalent.
We need responses the caveman will understand.
Anti-gunners don’t like you. They don’t just want to take away your guns. They want to take away your rights. They want to humiliate you. They want to force you to obey. They want to bring you to heel. Why do you think they care that so-called “Red Flag Orders” or “Extreme Risk Protection Orders” or “Gun Violence Restraining Orders” violate more than your Second Amendment rights?
…
But anti-gunners don’t want to prevent violence by unstable, dangerous people. They just want to take guns.
Sean D Sorrentino
Facebook post, May 9, 2018
[H/T Sebastian.
Sean makes a good case.—Joe]
Via Sean D. Sorrentino who has his own comments on the topic:
I consider myself a libertarian but I wouldn’t say this is what I want. The “Metro Gun Share Program” would appear to be something operated by the city or county. I think it should be a private enterprise endeavor.
I’m glad to see this:
The National Rifle Association sued New York state officials over what it described as a “blacklisting campaign” targeting companies that try to do business with the group.
The organization filed a complaint Friday in Syracuse federal court accusing New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state Department of Financial Services of abuses of regulatory power aimed at stifling the gun-rights advocacy group’s right to free speech.
Earlier this month, the state financial services department fined insurance broker Lockton Cos. $7 million and a unit of Chubb Ltd. $1.3 million over an NRA-branded insurance program called Carry Guard. The agency claimed the program illegally permitted gun owners to receive liability coverage even if they were charged with firearms-related crimes. Carry Guard has been criticized by gun control advocates as “murder insurance.”
While I think it has to be done I can’t imagine the district court gives it much more time than it takes to say, “Case dismissed!”. This, almost for certain, will have to go to SCOTUS to get any traction. I just hope we get one or more friendly justices there by the time it arrives.
2nd AMENDMENT: The gateway drug to freedom addiction.
GraySkies
Signature line used in a forum post on February 16, 2018
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
If you can fight you generally don’t have to. When skillfully integrated, the ability to respond with aggression and violence decreases rather than increases the probability that actual aggression will become necessary. If you say “No!” early in the cycle of oppression and you mean what you say which means you state your refusal in no uncertain terms and stand behind it then the scope for oppression on the part of oppressor will remain properly bounded and limited. Forces of tyranny expand inexorably to fill the space made available for their existence. People who refuse to muster appropriately self protective territorial responses are laid open to exploitation as much as those who genuinely can’t stand up for their own rights because of a more essential inability or a true imbalance in power.
Naïve, harmless people usually guide their perceptions and actions with a few simple axioms: people are basically good; no one really wants to hurt anyone else; the threat (and certainly, the use) of force, physical or otherwise, is wrong. These axioms collapse, or worse, in the presence of individuals who are genuinely malevolent.
Jordan B. Peterson
2018
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos
[Daughter Jaime and I share an account on Audible and generally pick books that we are both interested in and then discuss them. This was one of the books she picked that, from the title, I wasn’t particularly interested in. Even after she said that this was a book that she was putting on a list for her son to read when he got older I just didn’t have any interest. But then, I ran out of books on my phone and decided to at least start it rather than immediately go searching for another book.
I am extremely pleased with what I found.
Among other things Peterson is a psychologist. In this book, what he tells us is how our minds work and how to make them work better.
What Peterson says in the quote above works on many scales on many topics. From the personal, to the political, to the international. The grand scope of this would not come as a surprise if you read the chapter. He tells us the knowledge in this quote was learned by animals 100 million years before the arrival of dinosaurs. It is an essential part of all animals today.
Extrapolating only the smallest amount you realize what he says is an argument for the right to keep and bear arms. It is instructive on how to retain our rights.—Joe]
After reloading 300 rounds of .223 I started reloading .40 S&W to practice for Steel Challenge and USPSA matches. I reloaded 750 rounds before Boomershoot consumed all my spare time.
This brings my lifetime reloaded ammunition totals to:
223: 4,813 rounds.
30.06: 756 rounds.
300 WIN: 1,591 rounds.
40 S&W: 81,080 rounds.
45 ACP: 2,007 rounds.
9 mm: 21,641 rounds.
Total: 111,816 rounds.
Via a tweet by Firearms Policy:
One of the largest public pension funds in the nation voted Wednesday to use its financial might to pressure gun retailers across the country to stop selling military-style assault weapons and accessories like rapid-fire “bump stocks” used at the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting.
The $222.5 billion California State Teachers’ Retirement System said it will try to unseat board members at companies that resist and could dump its stock in those retailers if they still refuse to conform to laws already in effect in California.
These people should be prosecuted for conspiracy to infringe upon the rights of the citizens of the United States.
It is ridiculous to suggest guns are part of the solution to knife violence.
Dr. Karim Brohi
May 7, 2018
At NRA Convention, Trump Slams Gun Control Laws in France & U.K.
[Apparently this crap for brains doctor has never heard the phrase, “Never bring a knife to a gun fight.”
I would like to suggest the good doctor should visit a USPSA match in the U.S. carrying a knife and see how much knife violence is possible.—Joe]
On the left, victimhood is a prime source of authority, and discourse revolves around establishing one’s intersectional credentials and detailing stories of mistreatment that reinforce them. Within the ecosystem of the left, demonstrating that you have suffered harassment or microaggressions is a big win. But among the country as a whole, the dynamic is very different.
Jonathan Chait
April 22, 2018
Democrats Have Great Female Presidential Candidates. They Need to Avoid the Victim Trap.
[The Brady Campaign and other anti-gun organizations repeatedly make this error. Apparently they don’t seem to understand that when they use someone who was shot in a mass shooting as their spokesperson they are not presenting someone who is an authority on solutions regarding those type of events. The truth is they are being represented by someone who is an expert victim with no experience as a victor.—Joe]
I carried a gun all the time. I used to have a Mac-10, I used to have a .44, a 380, a 9 millimeter.
Those gangs, those criminal people, that want to do criminal thing they will go to the black market and purchase the gun.
Hieu Nguyen
Former San Jose gang member
May 6, 2018
San Quentin Inmates Join The Gun Control Debate
[Others interviewed also spoke of how easy it is to buy a gun via the black market.
What found most interesting was that the author thought it insightful to ask people who made such poor decisions they ended up in prison what they thought what public policies should be.
But, this is San Francisco. Perhaps they were just making sure the criminals would still have plenty of job opportunities.—Joe]