Sarah Brady is doing God’s work. Yes, in the end America must follow the way of other democracies and disarm.
Charles Krauthammer
April 8, 1996
Both Sides Blowing Smoke In Gun Debate
[This was nearly 20 years ago and some people still believe this. What they don’t seem to grasp is that totalitarian societies are much more likely to be disarmed than democracies. Either that or they yearn for a totalitarian society and wish to enable it.—Joe]
Not really about guns, but a cool title and an interesting song, particularly if you like blues.
Jack White a relative piker (born in’ 75) compared to most of the folks that have made the Friday gun-song list, but he’s got some talent. I always find it fascinating how many different types of voices can sound “good,” even when they are not really what I’d call smooth. His voice sounds pretty rough and strained to me, but still “good.” it is a bit like listening to the “Perhaps Love” duet between John Denver and Placido Domingo: Denver sounds great, until the professional tenner starts singing, and you realize how much difference there is in the “quality” of their voices.
Me? I sing in the (off)key of pirate, and hov no professional training or knowledge or particular skill, but I sort of know what I like when I hear it.
The atmosphere in congress right now, and Washington D.C. generally, is more favorable than it has been since 1966.
John M. Snyder
CCRKBA Public Affairs Director
September 27, 2003
Gun Rights Policy Conference, Morning Session 1
[The quote isn’t in the web page at the link, I pulled it from the recording I picked up at GRPC 2012.
While the quote is from 10 years ago today there is a good chance what he said is still true. Snyder has been part of the gun rights movement since the 1960’s. His perspective is very valuable.
For over 40 years many of the same people fought against the anti-gun forces. Many of the pro-gun organizations have been around for nearly that long and at least one, the NRA, has been around much, much longer. How many anti-gun people and organizations have been around for 40 or more years? I can’t think of any.
Perhaps that tells us something. Perhaps pro-rights people become more passionate and more dedicated the more they learn about the ideas and consequences of adopting policies advocated by our opposition. Or maybe it means our opposition become disillusioned as reality sinks in. Gun control creates victims. It does not prevent predators.—Joe]
Weird week. Got word Monday that one of my neighbors had died from cancer, as we had feared. He’d lost a lot of weight and his hair a few months ago. When we politely inquired about his health, he always said something dismissive like “getting by.” A very nice old Polish guy, always ready to lend a hand, the sort that moved to America because he was American at heart. Ran his own business out of his home, never a personal complaint, always thoughtful. The sort of guy that when the power to his house went out in the middle of winter for a week, he just shrugged and said it was like camping, but with a more comfortable bed. Continue reading
Helpless people must find something to think about while waiting for their kings and princes to do something about the killing. Instead of doing something about it themselves, they blame the freedom that left the killer free to kill, instead of the lack of freedom that prevented them from being able to stop him.
Daniel Greenfield
September 22, 2013
The Central Planning Solution to Evil
[H/T to Caleb.
Another way to think about it is that the political jurisdictions in this country that heavily restrict firearms and have high crime rates are in an awkward position between freedom and a centrally planned police state. You may be able to achieve low crime rates in a benevolent police state but run a high risk of poverty, political corruptions, gulags, reeducation camps, and genocide. Or, you can have the appearance of chaos, the uncertainties, and the insecurities of a free society.
The question is, “Which way will those states, and this country, teetering on the edge of a police state, trend toward in the next few years?—Joe]
We can test the hypothesis that Heller and McDonald played a substantial role in sapping the strength of the gun control movement by taking serious gun control off the table by looking to see whether the gun control movement had greater intensity before Heller and McDonald.
Mike Dorf
September 25, 2013
The Non-Paradoxical Role of the Supreme Court With Respect to Gun Control
[Dorf is law professor at Cornell. Even though he appears to have an anti-gun bias he has done a thoughtful and fair analysis of the political dynamics of gun control as well as the post the above quote was taken from.
I believe it was Sebastian who hypothesized after the Heller decision that people would stop supporting the anti-gun organizations because banning guns was off the table. Basically, if the end game wasn’t confiscation then what was the point? Dorf addresses that and arrives at essentially a softer version of the same conclusion.
What Dorf doesn’t address and perhaps doesn’t understand is that with the Heller decision gun rights supporters now see most existing gun control laws as infringing the rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment. Viewed through the lens of the First Amendment, any law that has a chilling effect (in the legal sense) on the exercise of the right to keep and bear arms should be struck down as unconstitutional. The outrage at having our rights violated motivates us and increases the intensity of gun rights people. Most hard core anti-gun people surely recognize at least some portion of this and are demoralized by it.—Joe]
Another example of a thief making a bad choice. Car thief drives a stolen car to the scene, accomplice / girlfriend with him. Tries to steal a truck. Owner of said truck confronts him. Guns were drawn, shots fired. Oh, did I mention the truck owner was a former marine? A story with a happy ending, because hits with a 9mm are a more convincing argument than misses with a .45.
UPDATE: Another story with more info. Looks like the former marine drew first in an attempt to stop the thief. Legally, that make his position more dicey. OTOH, the cops may look at the dead perp’s rap sheet, the rap sheet of of accomplice / girlfriend, and weigh it against a former marine with Iraq service and a valid CPL, and say “Who are we kidding? Good job, carry on.”
The “elevator pitch” for a product is what you say if you find yourself in an elevator with a potential buyer or investor. It is something that has to get to the core of the item, pique their interest, and be very brief. It has to grab the attention, give enough to make them want more, not give away to much, and it must not misrepresent the item. I’ve been working on it a little bit, trying to get it “just right,” with enough mystery and enough “feel for the story” in a few brief lines. The best version will get posted on the main The Stars Came Back” topic page. Continue reading
Need to ramp up mental health programs? Damn straight – starting with the afflicted folks that comprise the “from my cold, dead hands” lobby.
David W. Guth
January 25, 2013
Vol. 7 No. 7 — Mental Health and Guns
[H/T to Hognose.
This is the same Guth who expressed a desire that sons and daughters of NRA members be killed in mass shootings.
Interesting view of the world. He is wishing for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent children and he thinks people exercising a specific enumerated right and defending those rights need mental health care.
I’ve got news for Mr. Guth. The purpose of the Second Amendment was so the people could defend themselves against those that wished death upon the innocent. In other words the Second Amendment was about people protecting themselves from the likes of Guth.
And what is it with those on the left and mental institutions? It must be the projection of them at some level knowing they need help with their mental problems that they advocate that we get treated for mental health problems. If you listen to them for very long you will almost start to believe it yourself. It’s only will you start looking at the data and listening to them advocate for the deaths of thousands of innocents that you realize these people are nuts!—Joe]
I received an email from a Ms. Leanne W. yesterday suggesting this web page as a good source of pro Second Amendment material. Yup. Lots of good links there.
@linoge_wotc @bostonraider13 I really don’t give a fuck what you call your boy toys. I call them all little dick replacements.
Rabid Soledad Badger (@rabidbadger)
Tweeted on February 28, 2013
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday! Via another tweet from Linoge.—Joe]
As long as there are those who fight to make it as easy as possible for dangerous people to get their hands on guns, then we’ve got to work as hard as possible for the sake of our children … to do more work to make it harder.
Barack Obama
President of the United States
September 21, 2013
Citing shootings, Obama says must ‘go back at’ gun-control push
[One of the criminals that supposedly prompted this renewed push to make the exercise of a specific enumerated right more difficult via enhanced background checked had a military security clearance. How much more thorough of a background check does this guy think one should have before they can exercise their rights?
The only conclusions I can come up with are that he, and others like him who advocate for more rigorous background checks in response to the Washington Navy Yard shooting, are either totally irrational and/or evil. Regardless of the conclusion there is no point in “conversation”, “compromise”, or “debate” with people who are insane and/or evil. There is nothing to be gained from talking with crazy and/or evil people. I’ve been there and done that. It will only drive you crazy. Your only option is to get them out of your lives.—Joe]
A civilized society must disarm its citizenry if it is to have a modicum of domestic tranquility.
Charles Krauthammer
April 8, 1996
Both Sides Blowing Smoke In Gun Debate
[Reference needed.
I would cite Lenin, Chicago, and Washington D.C. for starters.—Joe]
The Clash was a popular punk rock band mostly in the late 70s and 80s. Surprisingly, they were a fairly political band. A lot of punkers were against “the man” and leftists, and they were no exception there, but they also didn’t like the bleak “nothing is worth it” nihilism that so many embraced to justify their lack of morals.
Anyway, another Friday, and other gun song.
If someone is so fearful that they are going to start using their weapons to protect their rights, it makes me very nervous that these people have weapons at all.
U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman
May 15, 2001
Supposedly from MSNBC Investigates report on The .50 Caliber Militia
[I haven’t been able to verify the quote so if someone finds that it is bogus let me know.
If someone is using weapons to protect their rights Waxman wants to take them away? Then he has a lot in common with the KKK (see “No Guns for Negros”). The only conclusion I can draw from this is that Waxman has plans to infringe the rights of the people and he wants to avoid resistance.—Joe]
Looking at the headlines, it looks like the Navy Yard shooter is fading from the above the fold news with incredible speed, considering the number of bodies he left in his wake. I wonder (rhetorically) if it’s because it doesn’t fit the left’s narrative on guns and race? He’s black, obviously crazy, and used a PC weapon (a pump shotgun, perhaps purchased on “Sheriff” Joe Biden’s recommendation). So, they “see nothing to be learned,” and much egg of their face from the early blather reporting.
No one in this country should have guns.
Judge Robert C. “Brunes” Brunetti
September, 2013
Second Amendment Rights Attacked Behind Closed Doors
[Don’t ever let anyone tell you “No one wants to take your guns away.” People who say that are lying. It’s what gun grabbers do.
See also Nobody wants to take your guns (via correia45).—Joe]
To them Stalin is a feature, not a bug.
DumbGeezer
September 2013
Comment to Dr. Grover Furr – An Example of Recto-Cranial Inversion
[I believe there is more than sufficient evidence to support this hypothesis.
Do not forget that in every genocide the victims outnumber the perpetrators by at least 100:1 and that you have an inalienable right to keep and bear arms and use them in defense of innocent human life.—Joe]
I’m still wondering about Fast and Furious, and we’re what, a couple dozen scandals removed from that now, each one taking the former one off the main headlines? You couldn’t make this stuff up– It would be taken as way too far beyond believability.
1. In your best, logical assessment, America’s enemies would rather see American citizens;
A) armed.
B) disarmed.
2. In your best, logical assessment, America’s enemies would rather see U.S. Military personnel;
A) armed while on and off duty inside U.S. military installations.
B) disarmed while on and off duty inside U.S. military installations.
3. In your best, purely logical assessment, America’s enemies;
A) approve of the second amendment to the U.S. constitution and would like to see it protected and enforced.
B) disapprove of the second amendment to the U.S. constitution and would like to see it limited, eroded and degraded as much as possible.
4. In your best, purely logical, most detached and rational assessment, America’s enemies would rather see American citizens generally;
A) capable in the use of arms, having arms and ammunition of their own, being self sufficient and largely independent individually, largely fearless and moral, hopeful, principled, and more able to help their friends and neighbors in times of need such that outside help from official authorities is not crucial to survival.
B) ignorant in the use of arms, having no arms or ammunition of their own, being largely dependent on government programs for their sustenance, medicine, energy, education, transportation and protection, largely fearful and demoralized, unprincipled, and less able to help their friends and neighbors in times of need such that outside help from official authorities is crucial to survival.
You will be graded on your answers.