They must need more gun control

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The Seattle area,via their dominance of state politics, pushed a bunch of gun control down our throats in the last ten years. They promised us less “gun crime” for the tax on gun sales (Seattle only) the extended waiting periods, the standard capacity magazine bans, the training requirements for semi-auto rifles, and the banning of sales to people under the age of 21.

You would think with all those “gun safety” laws Seattle would be much safer now than it was ten years ago. Some people don’t see it that way:

A good August is when nothing happens. But this one has been more like the devil’s month, as some call it in South America.

During a time that, one hoped, was going to mark some summer recovery from the social dislocations of the pandemic, Seattle is instead continuing to slide backward — dangerously so in the areas of street crime and drugs.

Seattle has seen 11 homicides this month — making this the deadliest single month in the city as far back as the police’s crime dashboard has records (to 2008). The previous high for any month was nine homicides, and for any August before this one, six.

They must need still more gun control and defunding of the police.*

If that is their response then you know it’s not about “safety” or prevention of “gun crime”. It means they are delusional and/or it is about the control of ordinary people and/or the destruction of our society.

* Sarcasm.

Quote of the day—Max Weisman

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Advertisements on public transit should not subliminally advocate for the purchase of firearms.

Max Weisman
August 29, 2022
Advertising dollars are powerful—When it comes to gun violence prevention, Philadelphia’s ads can do better.
[This tyrant want-to-be openly states his intent to infringe upon the First Amendment as well as the Second Amendment.

I could see a better case being made that firearms related advertisements are public service announcements and should receive discounts.

At least it is nice to have his crimes documented. I hope he enjoys his trial.—Joe]

Quote of the day—John Robb @johnrobb

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21st Century planned scarcity.

As in, “let’s not expand into space for energy and resource acquisition, or take the actions on earth necessary in the short term (nuclear power), because scarcity induced totalitarianism is much safer, just, and deserved.”

John Robb @johnrobb
Tweeted on August 28, 2022
[It’s the ongoing conflict between centrally planned and free markets.Or the zero-sum versus non zero-sum mindset. There exist people who crave and even insist on control. These people believe there MUST be someone, organization, or something in control. They are certain they and the world are a better place if control is exerted over a wide set of peoples action.

Some people believe the world would be a better place if most property and (possibly “or” instead of “and”, but this would be rare when you get down to the details) economic decisions are controlled by some supposedly superior being. This superior being is typically a government controlled by a committee and/or a dictator. These people fall in a spectrum that can generally be considered socialist to communist.

Some people believe the world would be a better place if social position and activity decisions (particularly sexual behaviors) are controlled by some supposedly superior being. This superior being is typically a government controlled or at least guided by a set of religious leaders. These people fall in a spectrum that can generally be considered democratic theists, many monarchists, to theocrats.

In the more general case people can be classified as being on a scale from anarchist to authoritarian. Here I am referring to the somewhat less common definition of anarchist as the organization of society on the basis of voluntary cooperation, without political institutions or hierarchical government rather than a state of disorder and chaos.

All social organizations have tradeoff. And under various situations some organizational types are vastly superior to others. For example an anarchist society does not do well against a communist society in search of hosts to satisfy their parasitic requirements. Yet, not too far up the spectrum from anarchist a society with government formed for the protection can economically and technologically, hence militarily defeat a similarly sized society near the authoritarian end of the spectrum.

I find our current political climate annoying because, as Robb indirectly points out above, a frightening number of people are demanding “progress” toward authoritarian government. There is actually a “sweet spot”, by many measures of societal “health”, which lies far closer to the anarchist end of the scale. This is an old, and mostly ignored, observation. History appears to be nearing another catastrophic rhyme.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Jefferson Mack

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They may try to take our freedom away. Somebody is out there planning it right now. But there is a surprise waiting for them, a spirit they don’t understand.

Every man with a radar detector in his car, anyone who ever cheated on an income-tax form, every seventeen-year- old who has figured out how to buy a bottle of beer, every- one who knows the taste of out-of-season trout, every driver who ignored a parking ticket, anyone who ever made some wine in the cellar but neglected to fill out the federal form the law requires, every woman who needed and got an abortion back when they were illegal, every man that’s made an illegal bet on a football game, every bureaucrat that blew a whistle and embarrassed the guy at the top all these people are already secret freedom fighters.

You are out there waiting, waiting for the day when things get serious, when the people in charge stop trying to limit freedom and start trying to take it away altogether. You will be free, because you will insist on it.

Jefferson Mack
1986
Secret Freedom Fighter: Fighting Tyranny without Terrorizing the Innocent, page 5.
[Read the whole thing.—Joe]

Progress

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Winning firearms freedom one lawsuit at a time.*

A federal judge has struck down a Texas law preventing individuals aged 18 to 20 years from carrying handguns in public, in the first major court ruling on Second Amendment rights since the Supreme Court recognized a constitutional right to carry firearms in public for self-defense.

…

The Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), which brought the lawsuit here, hailed the new court ruling.

This doesn’t directly matter much to me or my children but my grandchildren may benefit from this in another decade or two.

* It was the Second Amendment Foundation which originally claimed the mission statement after the McDonald decision. But more recently it appears the FPC has been racking up the greater score. It is a target rich environment so there is room for many players to score points.

Quote of the day—Badlieutenant @badlieutenantX

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Guns can’t make your penis bigger or stop you from being a virgin

Badlieutenant @badlieutenantX
Tweeted on June 4, 2022
[It’s not only another Markley’s Law Monday, it is another science denier!

I presume he is sharing this because he had to learn it from personal experience.

Via a tweet from In Chains @InChainsInJail.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Aidan Johnston

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It proves what GOA has been saying for decades, which is that the origin of gun control is racist.

Gun laws come from a majority trying to suppress or dominate or control a minority, whether it be a minority of Catholics in early America, or a minority of Native Americans when there’s colonials trying to take over the continent.

Aidan Johnston
Gun Owners of America director of federal affairs
August 23, 2022
New York Trying To Resurrect Racist Laws To Restrict Gun Ownership
[New York City’s Sullivan act of 1911, restricting purchase and carry, was openly known to be racist and celebrated by the NY Times for this:

The first person convicted under the law was an Italian immigrant named Marino Rossi who was traveling to a job interview and carrying a revolver for fear of the Black Hand. At sentencing the judge declared: “It is unfortunate that this is the custom with you and your kind, and that fact, combined with your irascible nature, furnishes much of the criminal business in this country.” Prior to Marino’s arrest, others had been arrested under the new law but were released without charges. Whether this was part of the law’s intent, it was passed on a wave of anti-immigrant and anti-Italian rhetoric as a measure to disarm an alleged Italian and immigrant criminal element. The police department who granted the licenses could easily discriminate against “undesirable” elements. Days before the law took effect The New York Times published an article saying “Low-browed foreigners bargained for weapons of every description and gloated over their good fortune in hearing of the drop in the gun market before it was too late”. After Rossi’s conviction The New York Times called this “warning to the Italian community” both “timely and exemplary”.

And, as can be expected today, Sullivan, the creator of this racist anti-gun law, was a Democrat.

Today’s Democrats are invoking even earlier laws which prohibited native Americans and Catholics from exercising their rights to keep and bear arms as justification for modern day infringements.

They have no shame. I hope they enjoy their trials.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Adam Kotsko @adamkotsko

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My ideal land use distribution (based heavily on KSR): all agricultural land is collectively owned and scientifically managed to balance quantity, quality, and variety of food against sustainability and ethical practices. No single-family or corporate for-profit farms.

Adam Kotsko @adamkotsko
Tweeted on August 22, 2022
[I think “KSR” means “Knowledge and Social Responsibility.”

As collective farms have always worked out so well when and wherever they have been attempted.

As Robb Allen @ItsRobbAllen said:

My God, the hubris & ignorance to believe this level of central management is even possible is simply breathtaking.

Prepare and respond appropriately.—Joe]

Hypersonic bullets

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These are believed to be good for anti-material. Not so good for animals you plan to eat:

China is working to downsize its hypersonic weapons program to the small arms level, as seen in recent tests of prototype hypersonic bullets on live targets.

Researchers from an army medical center in Chongqing recently fired 5-millimeter steel projectiles at Mach 11 speeds against sedated live pigs to understand the effects of hypersonic bullets on human targets, the South China Morning Post reported this week.

Citing a paper from the Acta Armamentarii peer-reviewed journal of the China Ordnance Society, the South China Morning Post report noted that hypersonic bullet shots to the thigh did not instantly kill the pigs but caused severe injuries throughout their bodies.

The news report said that the pigs sustained extensive internal damage, mainly bone fractures and bleeding in the intestine, lung, bladder and brain.

It said that the bullets penetrated the thigh at speeds between 1,000 to 3,000 meters per second, but at 4,000 meters per second, the rounds instead left a large wound cavity at the point of impact.

…

The report also said such hits resulted in crater-like wounds, liquefying both bullet and flesh.

4,000 m/s is 13,123 f/s. A typical 9mm handgun bullet is typically traveling about 1,100 f/s at the muzzle. A 5.56 NATO bullet fired from “weapon of war” which “explodes the heads of children”* is typically a little over 3,200 f/s at the muzzle.

I expect they will, or perhaps already have, done testing on human targets as well as pigs. The CCP is like that.

* Registered trademark of the Gifford’s Group.

This is what they think of you

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I don’t identify as Republican but for those of you who do. This is what New York State Governor Hochul thinks of you:

Gov. Kathy Hochul, who hasn’t proven shy about issuing orders, had one for the state’s Republicans this week — all 5.4 million of them: “Just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong, OK?” she said. “You are not New Yorkers.”

If you can move beyond the frankly disgusting political partisanship and intolerance, her message is fiscally irresponsible, even dangerous. The governor probably already knows this, but the state’s extensive public sector is heavily reliant on personal income taxes paid by residents, and with nearly $14 billion in projected budget gaps over the next five years, it can’t afford to lose any taxpayers, let alone 5.4 million of them.

The Empire State has already lost 1.5 million residents in the past decade, and there’s no sign of that trend letting up. In fact, more than 350,000 New Yorkers relocated during the 12 pandemic-plagued months leading up to July 1, 2021.

I suspect she cares even less for “my type” of people than she does Republicans.

I find it interesting that parasites, left unchecked, destroy their hosts. However some, such as your gut bacteria, evolve into a symbiotic relationship and are kept under control by the host.

This appears to be true at all level from a virus all the way down to communists. Hochul apparently doesn’t know the number of known cures for her type of parasitic infection are limited and don’t involve a long term symbiotic relationship.

A good start

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U.S. Judge Throws Out Texas Gun Ban For Young Adults After Supreme Court Ruling:

A federal judge in Texas threw out the state’s ban on people between 18 and 20 years old from carrying handguns on Thursday in what appears to be the first major judicial decision since a landmark ruling on weapons rights by the U.S. Supreme Court in June.

The challenge to the Texas statute that bans young adults not in active military service from having handguns in public was filed in 2021 by the Firearms Policy Coalition, a gun-owners’ rights group.

I (with my employer matching component) donate over $1,000/year to Firearms Policy Coalition Action Foundation. These donations are tax deductible.

There are other cases triggered by the Bruen decision working their way through the courts. The most important being the challenges to “assault weapons” and magazine sizes. I expect these will take several months if not years to actually bear results that make a difference. But getting the ban on 18 year-old people from carrying guns is a good start.

Mugme Street news

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Just another day on Mugme Street:

Suspect in fatal downtown Seattle attack pleads not guilty

A Seattle police officer was driving east on Pike Street around 3 p.m. on the day of the attack and heard a man yelling for help, the charges say. As she approached Third Avenue, she saw a man, later identified as Fulk, raise a metal bar over his head and strike Peterman twice in the back of the head, say the charges.

Fulk delivered a third blow to Peterman’s temple after Peterman had fallen unresponsive to the ground on the southwest corner, charging papers say. The officer noted in her police report that Peterman was unarmed and used a walker to ambulate, the charges say.

Though Fulk attempted to walk away, he was quickly arrested at the scene, according to the charges. It is unknown whether the two men knew each other.

“The defendant admitted to officers that he was trying to kill the victim, and while acknowledging the victim was the first that he attacked in this manner, [he] made it clear this victim would not be his last,” Senior Deputy Prosecutor Gretchen Holmgren wrote in the charges.

This happened at 3:00 PM on a Tuesday afternoon. It was not on a Saturday night after the bars were closing and decent people were at home safe in their beds.

I used to work in the Century Square building which has one corner on Third and Pike. Of course you know it was against policy to have a firearm on company property. The policy was the for the safety of everyone.

SCOTUS doesn’t represent public opinion

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Opinion | The Supreme Court is Now Operating Outside of American Public Opinion – POLITICO:

The guardrails that kept the Court close to public opinion are failing. Even though Democratic candidates have won a majority of the two-party vote in seven out of the last eight presidential elections, six out of the court’s nine current justices were appointed by Republican presidents. This resulting majority is strong and reliably conservative, and our data shows that it appears to be settling into a position that reliably corresponds to Republican Party preferences — and is to the right of the vast majority of Americans.

They say this as if it were a bad thing.

If you were think about this a little bit you might come to the conclusion that they don’t really understand that the courts are not supposed to represent public opinion. Their job is to represent the law. The U.S. Constitution being the highest law of the land is the primary reference for all their rulings. For example, if a majority, or even a super majority of the public were of the opinion that people should be able to sell their children/white males/Asian females/whoever into a lifetime of slavery SCOTUS has the legal requirement to, and should have the backbone to, firmly say, “No.”

Perhaps they just need things explained to them. Right?

No. That is not the reality of the political landscape. Many do understand that SCOTUS is acting correctly when the uphold the constitution. The political left is now explicitly saying the quiet part out loud:

In a New York Times essay, law professors Ryan D. Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale are calling for the Constitution to be “radically altered” to “reclaim America from Constitutionalism.” In order to accomplish this dubious objective, they call for shifting from the “Pack the Court” to “Pack the States.” The attack on “constitutionalism” is chilling but these professors are not the first to lash out at our Constitution as the scourge of social justice.

The New York Times column called for citizens to view the Constitution as the real enemy and to push to “radically alter the basic rules of the game.” The attack on our Constitution has become something of an article of faith for the far left in recent years.

Recently, Georgetown University Law School Professor Rosa Brooks drew accolades for her appearance on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” after declaring that Americans are “slaves” to the U.S. Constitution and that the Constitution itself is now the problem for the country.

CBS recently featured Boston University Professor Ibram X. Kendi, who proclaimed that the Second Amendment was little more than “the right to enslave.”

MSNBC commentator and the Nation’s justice correspondent Elie Mystal has called the U.S. Constitution “trash” and argued that we should ideally just dump it. Mystal, who also writes for Above the Law, previously stated that White, non-college-educated voters supported Republicans because they care about “using their guns on Black people and getting away with it.”

Doerfler and Moyn make the same case with a twist in seeking to pack the states. They insist that “The real need is not to reclaim the Constitution, as many would have it, but instead to reclaim America from constitutionalism.” Rather than recognize that this document has produced the longest standing and most stable democratic system in history, professors denounced it as a “some centuries-old text” because it stands as a barrier to their social and political agenda. The problem, they suggest, is that many liberals still believe in constitutionalism as opposed to raw majority power.

Prepare and respond appropriately.

Quote of the day—Damion @commiedamion

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If your family “suffered under communism” that says a lot more about your family than it does about communism. Good people don’t suffer under communism – slavers and exploiters do.

Damion @commiedamion
Tweeted on August 19, 2022
[Wow! Just WOW!

Evil cannot flourish without believing it is doing good.

Prepare and respond appropriately.—Joe]

The FBI is non-partisan*

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As if we didn’t already know this stuff was happening:

Mark Zuckerberg tells Joe Rogan that Facebook algorithmically censored the Hunter Biden laptop story for 7 days based on a general request from the FBI to restrict election misinformation.

Tweeted by Minds @minds on August 25, 2022

It’s nice to have it confirmed. It is a shame the people in the FBI who inflicted that damage upon our country can’t be made to pay reparations. When assessing the fines be sure to include the sale of their donatable organs to the highest bidders.

* Sarcasm.

I love living in the future.

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This was from the SpaceX + T-Mobile Update a few minutes ago but it is not the main message for today.

We would love to have T-Mobile on Mars.

Elon Musk
August 25, 2022
SpaceX + T-Mobile Update

The real message wasn’t quite as cool, but it was still awesome stuff.

Sometime late next your existing T-Mobile phone will have messaging (not necessarily voice or data until later) connectivity anywhere in the lower 48 states, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, large portions of Alaska, and wide areas of U.S. territorial waters.

The vision is no more cell phone dead zones. Emergency services in your most remote areas anywhere in the country and eventually the entire world. The price? Free for most existing T-Mobile service plans.

There were some interesting technical problems which had to be solved. It works in the lab and they are confident it will work in the real world.

Among the problems are:

  • The satellites are traveling at 17,000 MPH and compensated for the doppler effect is required.
  • The satellites are 50 miles away and the satellite antennas need to be about five meters by five meters to receive and transmits signals to the cell phone antennas.
  • Because of the larger antennas they plan to use SpaceX Starships rather than Falcon 9s..

I love living in the future.

Quote of the day—In Chains @InChainsInJail

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The left has never gotten over losing their slaves. Now they just hide their disappointment behind authoritarian central planning.

In Chains @InChainsInJail
Tweeted on August 22, 2022
[Hmmm… that does explain some things:

  • Gun control.
  • Forced “volunteer” public service work.
  • “Free” medical care.
  • “Free” child care.
  • “Free” housing.
  • “Free” education.

Prepare and respond appropriately.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Nina Turner @ninaturner

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Student debt cancelation isn’t paid for by the taxpayers, the federal government is the lender.

It’s costlier for the government to hold on to the debt.

Nina Turner @ninaturner
Thought leader. Activist. Senior Fellow at @RacePowerPolicy. Former Ohio State Senator & Professor.
Tweeted on August 21, 2022
[“Thought leader”? Yeah, I can see that. She is thinking of things almost no one else thinks of. Of course that is because she is delusional and/or evil, but still, it is “leading”.

I wonder which political party she identified with to get elected as an Ohio State Senator. Having crap for brains apparently isn’t a disqualifier.

Prepare appropriately.—Joe]

Another front in the war on gun owner rights

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Interesting approach:

Democrats and advocates seeking to address gun violence argue that owning a gun does not make your home safer, a case for false advertising, and that marketing offensive “tactical operations” with military-grade weapons constitutes unlawful use of the product.

They will never give up, will they? First the Second Amendment and now the First.

Perhaps they should demonstrate the truth of their claim by disarming the police for a few years and see what their safety record looks like before and after the disarming.

Another suggestion is that they put Gun Free Zone signs up around their property and stickers on their vehicles

As long as they don’t self identify as unarmed I consider people who don’t own guns as freeloaders on those that do arm themselves.

Quote of the day—Sindy Benavides

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What’s important to us is addressing mental health, gun control reform, addressing misinformation, disinformation and malinformation. We want policy makers to focus on common sense solutions so we don’t see this type of violence in our communities. And we want to see the implementation of policies that reduce violence.

Sindy Benavides
August 19, 2022
Biden to host unity summit against hate-fueled violence
[Via email from Chet.

I interpret this as insistence the First and Second Amendments be deliberately infringed based on the delusional belief this will reduce criminal violence.

Prepare and respond appropriately.—Joe]