You Are a Pre-Criminal

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Quote of the Day

All criminals start off as non-criminals. But if they do break the law in respect to gun use they THEN become criminals. So even non-criminals can be a problem. You should know this!

Paige Kristinson (@SquirlyGirll)
Tweeted on December 11, 2022

This is what they think of you. You are a pre-criminal and “can be a problem”.

The real problem is people like her who have no respect for civil rights. Perhaps she should consider the consequence of people like her being treated as civil rights infringers before they have actually infringed upon the civil rights of others.

15 Things You Should Never Say to a Legal Gun Owner

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Quote of the Day

  1. ‘Why do you need a gun?’
    Imagine asking someone, “Why do you need freedom of speech?” Owning a gun in the United States is a constitutional right, not a “need.” People have various reasons for owning firearms, from self-defense to hunting and sport shooting. Questioning the “need” implies you know better than they do when it comes to their personal choices or safety concerns. A tad condescending, don’t you think?
  2. ‘You must be paranoid.’
    Paranoia? Really? Owning a gun doesn’t mean someone is donning a tinfoil hat and waiting for the sky to fall. For many, it’s about personal safety, the safety of loved ones, or even the enjoyment of shooting as a sport. Labeling someone as paranoid for exercising a constitutional right is a bit of a stretch.
  3. ‘Guns are the problem.’
    Ah, the reductionist argument that blames an inanimate object for the complexities of human behavior and societal issues. Gun violence is a serious matter but boiling it down to “guns are the problem” ignores the multifaceted factors like mental health, socio-economic conditions, and more. It’s not as black and white as some would like to believe.
  4. ‘Gun-free zones work.’
    Cute idea, except for the pesky detail that many public shootings occur in designated gun-free zones. The concept ignores the fact that those bent on doing harm are not likely to be deterred by a sign on the door.
  5. ‘The Second Amendment is outdated.’
    The notion that any part of the Constitution is “outdated” opens a can of worms. Are other rights outdated too? The Second Amendment exists for multiple reasons, and its modern applicability is still a topic of fervent debate. Dismissing it as “outdated” is dismissive of that ongoing conversation.
  6. ‘You’re compensating for something.’
    Oh, the classic Freudian jab. This cliché suggests that owning a gun is a form of overcompensation for personal inadequacies. It’s a cheap shot (pun intended) that does nothing to further a constructive conversation about gun ownership or gun control.
  7. ‘You must be a Republican.’
    Ah, yes, because only Republicans appreciate constitutional rights? Gun ownership exists across the political spectrum, and assuming otherwise only serves to perpetuate divisions and stereotypes.
  8. ‘Only the police should have guns.’
    Entrusting an entire society’s safety solely to the police assumes an infallibility that no institution possesses. It also ignores the importance some place on personal freedom and self-defense.
  9. ‘It’s too easy to get a gun.’
    Before making this sweeping statement, perhaps consider the background checks, waiting periods, and federal and state laws that exist. “Easy” is a relative term and assumes that current laws aren’t stringent or effective.
  10. ‘Assault weapon bans work.’
    Defining “assault weapon” is notoriously tricky, and evidence on the effectiveness of bans is mixed. Saying they “work” is a one-size-fits-all statement that ignores the complexities of the issue.
  11. ‘Only criminals have guns.’
    If this were true, we’d have a country full of criminals. Millions of law-abiding Americans own guns for a variety of legitimate purposes. Conflating legal gun ownership with criminal activity is not just inaccurate; it’s disrespectful to a large part of the population.
  12. ‘You shouldn’t have a gun if you have kids.’
    This one assumes that gun owners are inherently irresponsible when it comes to storage and safety. Many gun owners who are parents take extra precautions to ensure their firearms are stored safely, away from their children. Just like you’d childproof your home for other hazards, the same goes for firearms.
  13. ‘You must be a gun nut.’
    For some reason, an interest in firearms gets stigmatized as an obsession or a sign of paranoia. Let’s remember that owning a gun doesn’t necessarily make someone a “gun nut” any more than owning a car makes someone a “car nut.” People own guns for various reasons: sport, hunting, and self-defense, among others. Labeling someone as a “gun nut” simply for owning a gun is a dismissive way to avoid more nuanced conversations about individual rights and responsibilities.
  14. ‘Guns kill people.’
    This is the “IT argument” that gets rolled out in every gun debate. While it’s true that firearms can be used to harm others, placing the blame solely on the inanimate object oversimplifies a complex issue. Most legal gun owners would point out that a gun, like a car or a knife, is a tool; it requires a human to operate it. They argue that the focus should be on responsible ownership and usage, rather than demonizing the object itself. This phrase can shut down meaningful dialogue about issues like gun safety, mental health, and responsible ownership.
  15. ‘You’re part of the problem.’
    The ol’ blame game—a classic! By declaring a legal gun owner as “part of the problem,” you’re not just tossing a Molotov cocktail into a nuanced debate; you’re also casually ignoring the fact that many gun owners are fervent advocates for responsible gun use and safety measures. Way to lump everyone together! This kind of accusatory tone isn’t just an over-simplification; it’s a conversation ender. If the goal is to alienate someone rather than discuss the complexities of gun ownership and societal issues, then bravo, mission accomplished!

Casey Lee
November 7, 2023
15 things you should never say to a legal gun owner

This set of statements was suggested to me by Microsoft Start (the default startup page with the Edge browser). I am rather impressed with it. It frequently suggests interesting articles about selecting a gun or a change in guns laws. I used to have Google News as my startup landing page. I never saw articles which portrayed gun owners as reasonable people or gun ownership as a civil right.

I suspect Microsoft created an algorithm to show me things I have expressed an interest in and just let it do it’s thing.

I suspect Google puts their thumb on the scales of what they believe is appropriate for people to read and think.

I have long considered Google to be evil. Nothing has changed to suggest I should change my mind.

Anti-Aging Vaccine Failure?

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This was almost a year ago. I wonder how it turned out:

Scientists will trial a new longevity drug in the UK next year that they say could increase the life expectancy of some people to up to 120 years of age.

Researchers are developing a treatment that could significantly increase a person’s healthy lifespan and, in turn, their longevity, by boosting their immune systems. This has been made possible after they found a way to slow down – and potentially even prevent – the natural ageing of T cells, a key part of our immune defences.

…

Professor Lanna has set up a London-based company called SentCell to develop the vaccine, which he says will be trialled in humans in 2023.

Asked roughly how long a person’s life could potentially be extended by this vaccine, if effective, he said “120 years”.

“[The trial] will happen in the UK next year and we expect the drug in the market as soon as possible. I cannot say more because it is confidential,” he said.

I can find lots of references in the 2018 to 2022 time frame, but nothing since then.

I asked Bing Chat for the results of the human trials and it responded with, “I’m sorry, but as of my last update in 2021, I don’t have the most recent information on the results of the human trials for the anti-aging treatment developed by Professor Alessio Lanna and his team at University College London.”

Their web site doesn’t have any information from 2023 either. I suspect things didn’t work out very well.

Most School Shooters Have Five Things in Common

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Interesting analysis:

  • Early-childhood trauma and exposure to violence
  • Anger over a recent event, resulting in feelings of suicidality
  • Being inspired by other school shooters
  • Having the means to carry out an attack

There is one thing they left out:

  • Gun free zones

There are reasonable means to mitigate all of these.

Strategy to Stop Future School Shootings

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This is not going to be 100% but I’m all for a layered approach to all types of security. This looks like a reasonable layer for school security.

Every Friday afternoon, she asks her students to take out a piece of paper and write down the names of four children with whom they’d like to sit the following week. The children know that these requests may or may not be honored. She also asks the students to nominate one student who they believe has been an exceptional classroom citizen that week. All ballots are privately submitted to her.

And every single Friday afternoon, after the students go home, she takes out those slips of paper, places them in front of her, and studies them. She looks for patterns.

Who is not getting requested by anyone else?

Who can’t think of anyone to request?

Who never gets noticed enough to be nominated?

Who had a million friends last week and none this week?

You see, Chase’s teacher is not looking for a new seating chart or “exceptional citizens.” Chase’s teacher is looking for lonely children. She’s looking for children who are struggling to connect with other children. She’s identifying the little ones who are falling through the cracks of the class’s social life. She is discovering whose gifts are going unnoticed by their peers. And she’s pinning down—right away—who’s being bullied and who is doing the bullying.

Plastic Stronger Than Steel

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This was nearly two years ago. Where can I get a plastic gun barrel for my .300 Win Mag?

Using a novel polymerization process, MIT chemical engineers have created a new material that is stronger than steel and as light as plastic, and can be easily manufactured in large quantities.

The new material is a two-dimensional polymer that self-assembles into sheets, unlike all other polymers, which form one-dimensional, spaghetti-like chains. Until now, scientists had believed it was impossible to induce polymers to form 2D sheets.

Such a material could be used as a lightweight, durable coating for car parts or cell phones, or as a building material for bridges or other structures, says Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and the senior author of the new study.

“We don’t usually think of plastics as being something that you could use to support a building, but with this material, you can enable new things,” he says. “It has very unusual properties and we’re very excited about that.”

See also Irreversible synthesis of an ultrastrong two-dimensional polymeric material | Nature.

Fallout Shelters

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I stumbled across some interesting facts on fallout shelters (emphasis added):

The former Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries often designed their underground mass-transit and subway tunnels to serve as bomb and fallout shelters in the event of an attack. Currently, the deepest subway line in the world is situated in St Petersburg in Russia, with an average depth of 60 meters, while the deepest subway station is Arsenalna in Kyiv, at 105.5 meters.[14]

Germany has protected shelters for 3% of its population, Austria for 30%, Finland for 70%, Sweden for 81%,[15] and Switzerland for 114%.

…

Switzerland built an extensive network of fallout shelters, not only through extra hardening of government buildings such as schools, but also through a building regulation requiring nuclear shelters in residential buildings since the 1960s (the first legal basis in this sense dates from 4 October 1963).[24] Later, the law ensured that all residential buildings built after 1978 contained a nuclear shelter able to withstand a blast from a 12-megaton explosion at a distance of 700 metres.

Those Swiss! See also:

Welcome to Reality

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Quote of the Day

I do not know what it means to be a liberal Jew in America anymore. I don’t know what it means to be against gun violence or against people who have guns or just against having playdates at houses with people who own guns — not when those people are all around me, when those are my people.

Amy Klein
November 22, 2023
Opinion: Taking a trip to the firing range was something I’d never do before October 7

Dear Ms. Klein,

I understand it is tough having your worldview so dramatically ripped apart. It is going to take some time to process everything. But what you are now getting a glimpse of is what we gun owners call “reality”.

  • Reality is that you have to be your own first responder. When seconds count the police are only minutes away.
  • Reality is the police have no legal requirement to protect you.
  • Reality is, worldwide historically, government police have contributed to the murder of far more innocent people than common criminals.
  • Reality is the people of Ukraine wish they had personal access to and skills with effective self-defense tools when Russia rolled across the border.
  • Reality is the Israeli people wish they had personal access to and skills with effective self-defense tools when Hamas streamed across the border to kidnap, rape, and murder innocent people. Some people were able to save countless lives because they did have access and skills.
  • Reality is you have the opportunity to acquire the skills and equipment to defend yourself and your loved ones. You may never need it, but the cost of needing it and not having it is so high that it, by far, outweighs the cost of acquiring it and not needing it.
  • Reality is tough. But millions of other people can handle it. And from reading your article, I’m sure you can handle it too.

I realize you live on the opposite side of the continent from me, but should you ever decide to visit my part of the country (Seattle area and/or North Central Idaho) I would be glad to give you a day or even a weekend of free lessons, free use of my firearms and free ammo,

For your learning comfort I can provide you access to private indoor (Five Star Rated) and outdoor ranges using silenced firearms.

Welcome to reality.

In related news: Gun Ownership Hits Record High Among American Voters: Poll.

The Courts are Busy

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Things are really jumping in the firearms legal world. These are just a few of the things happening in the last few days:

When I think back to when I first got involved in the gun owner rights activism in the mid 1990s… there were seldom more than one or two gun cases per year which made the news. Now it probably averages about one per week.

We live in interesting times.

In related news from yesterday, my company gave all employees some money to donate to charitable causes. I gave all of mine to the FPC. I also donate a lot of money to SAF who also does good work in the courts.

GOA Taking up NRA Slack

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Quote of the Day

A zealous gun rights group, even more uncompromising than the once formidable National Rifle Association, is emerging as a force in US politics with a mission to oppose efforts at gun control and ease further America’s already lax regulations on firearms.

Last year the Gun Owners of America (GOA) spent $3.3m on lobbying, a record sum for the hardline foe of gun control that now claims over 2 million members and activists, and has previously operated in the shadows of the larger NRA.

Peter Stone
November 17, 2023
As the NRA fades, a more zealous US pro-gun group rises as a lobbying power

Good to know.

I don’t think lobbying is the best place to spend the money. The courts are where most of the productive action is at the moment. But developing the infrastructure and skills for lobbying probably is a good thing.

Politicians are Sociopaths

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Quote of the Day

This is a society infected by socialism and what we need to achieve is to remove socialism from people’s minds.

…

Politicians are sociopaths who want to make us believe that we are mentally invalid in every sense because we cannot live without them.

…

If the country were divided between those who produce on one side and the other side, the f*cking politicians, the syndicalists, this whole bunch of parasites, they would sink and die.

Javier Milei
President Elect of Argentina
2023
Via Tommy Robinson @TRobinsonNewEra

This is a presidential candidate I could vote for with enthusiasm.

Argentina will be an interesting place to watch for the next few years. This is assuming he doesn’t get assassinated

Your Best Material

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Quote of the Day

Yes, because I value human life more than shitposting or having a fucking gun to substitue for a miniscule penis

YD @JustAnotherYD
Tweeted on October 30, 2023

It’s not only another Markley’s Law Monday, it is another science denier!

When you have no facts, logic, philosophy, or SCOTUS decisions on your side you go with your best material…childish insults.

Pompeii

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If we are discussing volcanic eruptions causing damage to human life and property no discussion would be complete without mentioning Mount Vesuvius and what it did to Pompeii.

Barb and I were there less that a month ago on October 28th. It is a rather solemn place.

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Continue reading →

Blue Lagoon

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Speaking of volcanos…

In September of 2022 Barb and I visited the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. Ten days ago, on November 9th, it was closed due to an impending volcanic eruptions. It will remain closed until at least November 30th. And if it gets damaged by the eruption who knows how long until it opens, if ever. I’m glad we got to visit before the eruption.

It is a major tourist attraction. Barb and I probably spent an hour soaking and swimming in the water. It was nice with stunning views, but it didn’t take too long before we got bored. Of course it probably would be more interesting if you were staying there and enjoying the restaurants, all the spa amenities, and the Norther Lights were visible.

I didn’t take any pictures from the swimsuit area but here are a few from the area near the parking lot:

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Mount Etna

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As I previously said Barb and I went on a long vacation to see some things before they are gone. Little did I know Mount Etna would erupt shortly after we visited. We were there on October 27th. It erupted just 16 days later on November 12th.

The view and scenery was nice, walking into a crater was interesting, but the wind was blowing really hard. I estimated it was between 50 and 60 MPH. We had to really lean into the wind and wear protective clothing. The wind was blowing hard enough to put rocks into our shoes.

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Continue reading →

Build Your Own Underground Shelter

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Very cool!

Radiation Exposure From a Nuclear Attack

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Quote of the Day

About 300 million people in the United States would be put at risk of death from exposure to radioactive fallout in the four days following a nuclear attack, according to a new report that models the possible effects of such a grim event. If the US is attacked with nuclear weapons , an adversary would most likely concentrate all fire on the country’s intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch facilities (silos). Any retaliatory attack from the US would come from these silos, located in Colorado , Montana , Nebraska , North Dakota , and Wyoming – and taking them out would be an enemy’s first priority.

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Kevin OReilly
November 16, 2023
Report: Nuclear war in US would wipe out 90 percent of the population

The quote is deceptive and the article title is a lie. The quote can be interpreted to mean it is likely or even certain to kill 300 million people in the U.S..  If you read it carefully you will realize this is a worst case scenario for each area of the country. In reality the worst case would be for a much smaller area:

Using weather patterns recorded through 2021, scientists simulated the aftereffects of an 800-kiloton warhead hitting every one of the 450 silos at once to cripple the US arsenal. First, they mapped how wind patterns would have carried the fallout on each day of 2021.

For the map above, they recorded the worst possible outcome for each location. In this scenario, three million people living in communities around the silos would risk receiving eight grays (Gy) of radiation in the four days following the attack, resulting in certain death – one Gy is enough to cause radiation sickness.

The information above is for radioactive fallout. This is most severe from ground bursts. Nuking population centers and military bases would probably be done via air bursts which produce far less fallout while incinerating and a shock wave destroying almost everything within miles.

Still, a rule of thumb to keep in mind is that three feet of dirt will reduce the radiation by a factor of 1,000.

I want my underground bunker in Idaho.

No Self Defense Zones

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Repeal or rule unconstitutional the Gun-Free Zone Act of 1990:

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Via Grape-kun’s PISSED! @RickyBaker_2111.

Electoral Map by Voting Group

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This is an interesting way to look at things:

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Via iamyesyouareno @iamyesyouareno.

Unlimited Thrust and Delta V

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Quote of the Day

Deploying Quantum Drive into orbit in a Rogue satellite on SpaceX Transporter 9 is a milestone for the future of space propulsion.

…

Quantum Drive’s capability allows Rogue to produce new satellite vehicles with unlimited Delta V.

…

There are many things that have held back space exploration, one of them of course is power and propulsion.

…

IVO’s quantum drive eliminates this propulsion problem by eliminating the fuel. By taking away the fuel, then you have essentially unlimited thrust.

Richard Mansell
IVO chief executive
November 18, 2023
SpaceX launches ‘zero fuel’ engine into space

Interesting. I like living in the future.

This will be very cool… If it actually works.

Consider me a little bit skeptical.