Please die. Preferably by gunfire. Your policies are killing so many people every week.
Angela McCarthy @ninjagrrrl7734
Tweeted on August 26, 2018
[The account has been deleted or at least temporarily suspended. Here is the screen capture (via a tweet from BFD @BigFatDave):
See also a similar wish for the death of Dana’s children.
They want you dead. Don’t ever give up your guns.—Joe]
I don’t really have a need to download them.
I’m just downloading them because some black robed cocksucker in Seattle doesn’t think I have the right to do it.
FedUp
August 1, 2018
Comment to Gun Controllers, Politicians and Judges Think They Can Stop the Free Flow of Information. They’re Wrong.
[Further developments here and here.
You can also get everything you want here.—Joe]
The Seattle judge found the arguments of the tyrants more convincing than those of who yearn to be free:
The private defendants raise the more substantive argument that a preliminary injunction will impair their First Amendment rights, a loss which, “for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury.” Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347, 373-74 (1976). The First Amendment argument raises a number of challenging issues. Is computer code speech? If yes, is it protected under the First Amendment? To answer those questions, one would have to determine what the nature of the files at issue here is: are they written and designed to interact solely with a computer in the absence of the intercession of the mind or will of the recipient or is it an expressive means for the exchange of information regarding computer programming and/or weapons manufacturing? Are the export controls of the ITAR a prior restraint giving rise to a presumption that they are unconstitutional? Is the AECA a general regulatory statute not intended to control the content of speech but only incidentally limiting its unfettered exercise? Or is the government attempting to regulate distribution of the CAD files because of the message they convey? Depending on which level of scrutiny applies, does the regulation advance important governmental interests unrelated to the suppression of free speech and avoid burdening more speech than necessary or is the regulation narrowly tailored to promote a compelling Government interest?
The Court declines to wade through these issues based on the limited record before it and instead presumes that the private defendants have a First Amendment right to disseminate the CAD files. That right is currently abridged, but it has not been abrogated. Regulation under the AECA means that the files cannot be uploaded to the internet, but they can be emailed, mailed, securely transmitted, or otherwise published within the United States. The Court finds that the irreparable burdens on the private defendants’ First Amendment rights are dwarfed by the irreparable harms the States are likely to suffer if the existing restrictions are withdrawn and that, overall, the public interest strongly supports maintaining the status quo through the pendency of this litigation.
For all of the foregoing reasons, plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction is GRANTED. The federal defendants and all of their respective officers, agents, and employees are hereby enjoined from implementing or enforcing the “Temporary Modification of Category I of the United States Munitions List” and the letter to Cody R. Wilson, Defense Distributed, and the Second Amendment Foundation issued by the U.S. Department of State on July 27, 2018, and shall preserve the status quo ex ante as if the modification had not occurred and the letter had not been issued until further order of the Court.
I’m on the side of Code Is Free Speech and suggest you get your 3-D printed gun CAD files there.
Because a gun symbolizes a part of the male anatomy (the bigger the better!) and firing a gun emulates an ejaculation. That’s why.
Stephen Jordan
August 21, 2018
Comment to I Would Still Like To Know Why Gun Owners Love Their Guns.
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!
One has to wonder if that answer is because of peer reviewed research or direct personal knowledge. It has to be direct personal knowledge because all the survey results I have seen, which ask why people own guns, come up with “personal protection”, “recreation”, and “hunting” in the top places.
Via email from Weer’d Beard.—Joe]
This is what Cori @Fiainn thinks of you. She tweeted it August 26, 2018 at 7:52 PM.
Last Sunday Barb and I hiked up Mount Catherine. We were hoping that by driving east of Snoqualmie Pass and getting up near 5000 feet in elevation we could get out of all the forest fire smoke around home. No such luck, but it was a nice hike anyway. We probably will go back sometime when the air is clear and we can see something in the distance other than the haze.
The drive to the trailhead really requires a high clearance vehicle. Even with my Ford Escape we bottomed out once on some particularly high rocks. The trail is pretty nice. It’s not a walk in the park with a wide smooth path, but it’s not one of those trails which “you have to believe it in order to see it” either (been there, done that, got lost, it wasn’t our favorite outing). The last little bit near the top is steep and it little more than dirt steps in the side of the mountain. No big deal when it’s dry but it could be treacherous when it’s wet.
The site of the mass shooting in Jacksonville today has this in it’s rules of conduct:
a. The commission of any act defined by Federal, State or local ordinances as a criminal act is prohibited. These include, but are not limited to: graffiti, property damage, defacing, damaging or destroying any real or personal property, etc.
b. Possession of a weapon, even if legally carried (except by law enforcement officers) is absolutely prohibited on Landing property
c. Using or possessing fireworks is prohibited
A mass shooting in a “gun free zone”. This comes as no surprise. It is to be expected. Most people will be hard pressed to name a mass shooting that doesn’t occur in a “gun free zone”.
Of course this won’t stop the anti-gun people from demanding the entire country be turned into a gun free zone.
The idea that the guns caused the violence doesn’t hold up. That’s like claiming The Trace is a real media outlet because they have keyboards.
NRA-ILA
August 24, 2018
What Really Drove the Early ‘90s Crime Wave?
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
As I posted yesterday two new shooters, Chris and Vic, were preparing for todays steel match at Holmes Harbor Rod and Gun Club on Whidbey Island. We were on the same ferry and chatted on the way across the sound:
Today’s stages were a bit more difficult than usual and prone to penalties:
Stage one, above, required the shooter to shoot the white plate four times then shoot the yellow stop plate. This was fairly easy but I was handicapped by the fact that I can’t count very fast. They told me after I had finished that I was shooting the white plate five times instead of six.
Ignore the cardboard to the left of the two steel plates.
Stage two was one of the tough stages. It was very easy to hit the stop plate and incur the miss penalties for the white plates not yet hit.
Stage three was a much more typical stage but it was still a bit difficult with the two small plates on the right.
Stage four was another fairly typical stage. Moderate sized plates at a moderate distance.
Stage five was rather evil. Four large plates and then a tiny plate in front of a “no-shoot” plate (I’m pretty sure this is outside the rule book of any steel match types I have ever seen). A hit on the “no-shoot” plate incurred a six second penalty.
This deer can be seen in the picture of stage five. Look at the center of the pictures at the top of the berm. It left as soon as we started shooting.
I thought stage four was the easiest stage. But compared to me, Vic and Chris actually did better on stage five
This is Vic shooting stage 1.
Vic and Chris did good for new shooters. Complete match results are here. Vic and Chris shot in the rimfire, iron sighted pistol division:
| Rimfire PI Iron | |||||||||
| Final | Name | ISSA# | Division | Time | 1: Bay 1 | 2: Bay 2 | 3: Bay 3 | 4: Bay 4 | 5: Bay 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huffman, Joe | RPII | 65.99 | 8.57 | 12.78 | 16.77 | 15.30 | 12.57 | |
| 2 | Koch, David | RPII | 102.13 | 10.37 | 24.00 | 30.99 | 20.62 | 16.15 | |
| 3 | Speck, Greg | RPII | 123.37 | 12.51 | 30.21 | 32.27 | 32.38 | 16.00 | |
| 4 | Carson, Vick | RPII | 146.08 | 17.26 | 35.00 | 27.69 | 47.39 | 18.74 | |
| 5 | Stone, Christopher | RPII | 213.69 | 22.48 | 49.38 | 46.44 | 68.64 | 26.75 | |
I also shot in the centerfire, iron sighted pistol division:
| Centerfire Pistol Iron |
|||||||||
| Final | Name | ISSA# | Division | Time | 1: Bay 1 | 2: Bay 2 | 3: Bay 3 | 4: Bay 4 | 5: Bay 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alldredge, Thomas |
CPI | 81.78 | 10.98 | 23.65 | 17.00 | 16.05 | 14.10 | |
| 2 | Huffman, Joe |
CPI | 88.24 | 12.68 | 21.84 | 20.51 | 18.18 | 15.03 | |
| 3 | Bigby, Alexander |
CPI | 97.94 | 12.28 | 31.81 | 19.91 | 18.48 | 15.46 | |
| 4 | Sun, Eric |
CPI | 119.64 | 11.97 | 33.49 | 27.56 | 28.72 | 17.90 | |
| 5 | Koch, David |
CPI | 132.40 | 16.21 | 29.95 | 25.13 | 41.63 | 19.48 | |
Update: Vic gave me some pictures he took—with his drone:
Many civilians saved lives during terror attacks and in an era of ‘lone terrorism.’ The more skilled civilians carrying weapons, the greater the chance of thwarting attacks without causalities and reducing the number of casualties.
Gilad Erdan
Israel Public Security Minister
Eradan eases gun-control rules
[Anytime, anyplace, gun regulation is reduced as well as improving the lives of the innocent directly affected it makes it more difficult for our opponents in this country to make their case.—Joe]
A few days ago a co-worker, Vic, told me he had someone call him up from “back home” (the Washington D.C. area). It was a young guy, Chris, who just got a job (Support Engineer) at Microsoft and didn’t know anyone in the area except Vic. So Vic has been “taking him under his wing” and helping him get settled in. Vic asked if I would take Chris to the range and teach him to shoot and prepare him to participate in the Fun Steel match at Holmes Harbor Rod and Gun Club tomorrow. Vic has been wanting to go for several months but never followed through on it. This time, with Chris needing to do something fun and different over the weekend, it looks like Vic will be following through.
Vic was in the Air Force many years ago and had mostly rifle training with a small amount of pistol training. When I took him to the range he was using a “cup and saucer” grip and I offered some coaching. He readily agreed and he picked it up really quick. His accuracy was good and his speed was great for a relatively new pistol shooter.
Chris, on the other hand, had never shot a pistol. He shot a little bit of rifle when in the Boy Scouts several years ago. We started out with the grip, stance, and dry fire. After about 20 “shots” with me chanting the mantra, “Trigger prep. Sight alignment. Squeeze. Follow through.” Chris got to the point where there were no noticeable wobbles of the gun as the hammer fell on the Ruger 22/45. I loaded the gun and told him to keep doing exactly what he had been doing. There wouldn’t be any significant recoil and the suppressed .22 would be very quiet. The target was at 3 yards and the first shots were just to the left of the bullseye. Out of the first 20 shots only one was out of the black with several in the bull (see the right target in the picture below).
We brought the target back and talked a little bit about his shots. I told him things were looking good and to add something new. Keep his focus on the front sight at all times.
He took another 20 shots. It was a much tighter group with more shots in the bull.
Here’s that new shooter smile and his target:
I took the suppressor off and told him we were going into competition mode. I had him start with the gun pointed at the floor ahead of him, told him about the range commands for steel matches, and told him to shoot five rounds, hitting three targets once and one target twice. His first string was almost funny. He was a little too excited and only put holes in the general vicinity of the targets. I told him to calm down a bit and remember the mantra, “Trigger prep. Sight alignment. Squeeze. Follow through.” for every shot. The next strings were much better. He shot about another 60 rounds at various ranges as if they were strings of fire for the steel match and only had about a half dozen misses. I used the shot timer for about half of those and we could see his times getting better while maintaining good hits.
He is very unlikely to win the match tomorrow but I think he will do well enough to feel good about the experience. Zero to match shooting in less than 24 hours!
State Supreme Court orders gun control initiative back on Washington’s November ballot
Washington voters will get to vote on a gun control initiative this November after all.
The Washington Supreme Court today reversed a lower court’s decision blocking Initiative 1639 from the November ballot, ruling that Secretary of State Kim Wyman does not have the legal authority to reject it.
…
State law governing the acceptance of intiative [sic] petitions is narrow, Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst said. “It does not allow for pre-election review of the form, process, subtance [sic] or constitutionality of an initiative petition,” she wrote.
Instead, it only allows a court to examine whether the petitions have the required number of signatures from voters.
“There is no actual challenge to the county of signatures,” Fairhurst wrote.
Wyman can’t be ordered to keep an initiative off the ballot “based on readability, correctness or formatting of the proposed measure printed on the back of the petitions.”
See Encouraging news on I-1639 for background material.
I look forward to someone using the argument “does not allow for pre-election review of the form, process, substance or constitutionality of an initiative petition” when the wording on the back of petition says it will ban all guns while the official wording says it will repeal all gun laws.
A coalition of prominent gun control, teacher and civil rights groups is threatening legal action against the Department of Education if it moves forward with a controversial proposal that would allow states to spend federal funds on guns for school personnel.
“We are extraordinarily concerned with this dangerous, and what we believe to be unlawful, proposal under consideration to supply teachers with federal funds to buy gun for their classrooms, instead of books and school supplies,” said Giffords Law Center chief counsel Adam Skaggs, whose group, which was co-founded by shooting victim and former Rep. Gabby Giffords, is taking the lead on the potential suit.
I know this isn’t a sure thing but if it does end up being a win for us I know daughter Jaime, big fan of President Trump, is going to ask me, “Are you tired of winning yet?” My answer will be, “Nope, we have a lot more battles to win before I get tired of winning.”
In the mean time, I’ll just keep cleaning and lubricating my guns with Liberal Tears:
Update: Liberal Tears are not currently available on Amazon. But they do appear to be available here.
Lott’s report serves as nothing but bad news for Democrats who have fully embraced gun control as a campaign plank going into the midterms this fall.
John Boch
August 20, 2018
Lott: 7.14% of Americans Have Carry Licenses, Up 273% Since 2007
[Generally I think this is true. But it might help solidify their support in areas guns are already heavily regulated and support for Democrats may be weakened because of the good economic news. In heavily regulated areas people can’t imagine knowing “someone like that” who would carry a gun in public and are scared of people who exercise their right to keep and bear arms. The support of Democrats for more gun control to “protect them” from “people like that” could be a net positive in some geographical areas. On a national basis? It’s going to be a net loss.—Joe]
You know, it’s a little bit frustrating to be sitting in this chair as a United States District Court judge and seeing this is an issue that should be solved by the political branches of government. And I really hope and wish that the executive branch and Congress would face up to this and say, it’s a tough issue, but that’s why you got into public service to begin with.
Robert Lasnik
U.S. District Court Judge
August 21, 2018
3D-printed guns: Federal judge in Seattle frustrated over case, could make decision by Monday
[My initial response was, “The issue was resolved long ago and is still resolved. There is no Federal law against 3D-printing a gun. Therefore there isn’t anything the court can say except, ‘Case dismissed.’”
But reading a little closer it appears the argument of the anti-freedom people is a little more twisted:
The legal dispute before the court centers on ITAR, a law that involves regulating the export of certain weapons — not the potential dangers that may result if criminals print out guns and later use them to commit offenses.
Okay, unless ITAR is directly challenged, which it is not, the court has to assume ITAR is valid law. And then the question, “Is the Federal government following the letter of that law?” is a fair question that is a valid for the court to get involved in.
Wilson’s lawyer has to be scoring some points with this argument:
Chad Flores, a lawyer representing Wilson, also raised the arguments that other files for 3D guns are already available online, and Wilson could simply disseminate his plans legally by other means.
My client could mail the files at issue to everyone in the country and violate no law.
Next week we find out which side is more convincing to Judge Lasnik.—Joe]
Remember that rights are moral principles which define and protect a man’s freedom of action, but impose no obligations on other men. Private citizens are not a threat to one another’s rights or freedom. A private citizen who resorts to physical force and violates the rights of others is a criminal — and men have legal protection against him.
Criminals are a small minority in any age or country. And the harm they have done to mankind is infinitesimal when compared to the horrors — the bloodshed, the wars, the persecutions, the confiscations, the famines, the enslavements, the wholesale destructions — perpetrated by mankind’s governments. Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. When unlimited and unrestricted by individual rights, a government is men’s deadliest enemy. It is not as protection against private actions, but against governmental actions that the Bill of Rights was written.
Ayn Rand
1963
POV: Man’s Rights; The Nature of Government
[Via email from Stephanie.—Joe]
People come to me and say, ‘Cody, tell us why you want to do it.’ No, no – more like all these authorities, all these powers, they will have to justify why they should have the right to stop me.
…
If they could build a system that could prevent people from downloading that pistol, it would be far more dangerous and the effects would be far more terrible than that little pistol. Power wants to know everything, surveil everything, absorb everything. This impulse should be checked.
Cody Wilson
August 14, 2018
3D-printed gun inventor welcomes Seattle legal battle
[I would make the correction that it is actually all these authorities will have to prove they have powers delegated by the people to do what they are attempting to do. The 1st and 2nd Amendments reinforce the fact the Constitution did not give them any such power.
Also, I would say, “must be checked” rather than “should be checked.” It fails my Jews In The Attic Test.—Joe]
having a weapon makes you an adult. I think not. It doesn’t even make you virile or a man. It’s just a form of penis envy. Feeling a little light are you?
Mark Wetzler @Wex2
Tweeted on August 8, 2018
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!
Via a tweet by Jonathan @CorrelA_B
Also in response to Wetzler:
Micro penis obsession is well documented among gun grabbers. pic.twitter.com/PywlhpTCVe
— Rodrigo Santos (@Judgedrift) August 9, 2018
Agreed.—Joe]
I think expanded police forces and police technology, subject to civilian control, will be sufficient to do any necessary killing of citizens who are needed to be killed.
Rob Shattuck @RobShattuckAL06
Candidate for U.S. Congress
Alabama 6th District
Tweeted on August 17, 2018
[The background for this is a gun control thread:
There are many laws banning or restricting items for which there is a market. It is true such laws can have limited or no success (e.g., Prohibition, unlawful drugs, child pornography). I don’t think society is ready to give up trying to impose restrictions. #alpolitics
Rob Shattuck @RobShattuckAL06 Aug 16
And none of those three things are protected by the Constitution. This time you are targeting a specific class of items that is protected by the Constitution. There is a big difference.
It’s the end of the World as we know it…again @AntCar0123 Aug 17
And laws banning those items tend to have a reverse effect as those items become more available. Hell, prohibition helped usher in the age of organized crime.
It’s the end of the World as we know it…again @AntCar0123 Aug 17
I have acknowledged problems and difficulties society has in enacting restrictions and prohibitions. I don’t think those problems should be considered an absolute impediment to restricting guns. #alpolitics
Rob Shattuck @RobShattuckAL06 Aug 17
Have you acknowledged that you’d need many people with guns and the willingness to kill their fellow citizens to properly enforce such a thing? Have you acknowledged that as you push for more restrictions the other side will push against you harder?
It’s the end of the World as we know it…again @AntCar0123 Aug 17
While it is a little unusual for leftists to openly admit it, if you dig deep enough it always boils down to this:
It’s very generous of a candidate for U.S. congress to confess this is what he has in mind for U.S. gun owners. One has to wonder if he is bright enough to realize he probably just got himself put on a few lists of people who do not plan on being on the receiving end of the rifles.—Joe]
So much ado about nothing. People have been making guns since the founding of our nation. As far as these files go, they are already out there and anyone can get them. Criminals don’t make crappy ass plastic guns, they simply buy quality firearms from the black market or steal them. More political grandstanding by Ferguson to make his sheep feel safe. The only way you’ll ever be safe is if you take some personal responsibility and learn self defense by the method of your choosing (martial arts, knife, firearms or all the above). Practice self awareness and get training. The police and government are under no legal obligation to protect you. Stop being a victim and take control of your life.
Mark Brockway
August 16, 2018
Comment to Seattle judge blocks publication of 3D-printed gun design
[I would like to make a minor correction. People were making guns long before the founding of our nation. Other than that, Brockway has it right.—Joe]