Let's Talk Numbers

Why doesn't anyone challenge these people when they start talking about guns and gun violence? Where are the homicides, what are the circumstances surrounding those homicides? Who used the gun? Where did they get it? Should they have been in possession? Anyway, check out the current field of candidates for the Democratic nomination for President and think about those questions while you read about the fight Cory Booker says he's going to bring to the NRA if he becomes president. Go Read It

The Problem in New Zealand

New Zealand had a mass shooting. They already have a bunch of gun control laws in place and it still didn't stop the shooter. As I'll always say, you can't stop a criminal with words on paper.

They are asking who knew what and when, a place where we in the U.S, often start after such a sad event. Here that frequently translates into how the NICS system failed and someone who shouldn't have a firearm ends up with one. Who knows what New Zealand will find out. A certainty is that New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced their laws will change, "the country will ban semiautomatic weapons, assault rifles and high-capacity magazines." For me that begs the question, "If gun crime is already rare, how does a full ban help?" Which should immediately be followed up by asking how New Zealand will go about collecting all the guns. A hearty pat on the back to anyone who guessed that they'll use their registraton rolls as a collection list. Good luck New Zealand gun owners, you're going to need it.

Go Read It (You may need to use an incognito window.)

No New Laws...Enforcement, Please

Latest shooter shouldn't have had a gun. Big surprise that the laws we already have aren't being enforce like they should. Go Read It

Yeah, Right

Like anyone on the gun control side would ever listen to what "super-owners" have to say. Go Read It

Not a Part of The Solution

Mocking the idea that maybe there's a solution that we haven't thought of yet. Nice. Go Read It

What a Surprise [Sarcasm Off]

Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy has just released a study of the relative effects of stringent gun laws. They found that a country like Luxenbourg, which bans all guns has a murder rate that is 9 times higher than Germany, where there are 30,000 guns per 100,000 people. They also cited a study by the U.S.National Academy of Sciences, which studied 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and it failed to find one gun controlinitiative that worked.

Go read it at Examiner.com.

Unintended Consequences

The editors at the Florida Journal News who published a map of gun owners in a couple of counties in Florida were fired from the newspaper. The firing may not have been directly related to publication of the map, but the article sums up the law of unintended consequences quite nicely.

Layoffs took place company-wide for the Journal News parent Gannett. There is no indication the gun map played a role in the layoffs, however the controversy may have had an effect on the Journal News’ bottom line as multitudes of subscribers bailed on the daily paper.

Go read it.

Chemical Deterrent

Why, oh, why do I keep hearing people recommend using wasp spray for self-defense? Sheesh. If you are interested in defending yourself--and aren't interested in carrying a firearm--please use something that is labeled as such, i.e. pepper spray. You know that some criminal is going to sue you because they have some sort of "neurological damage" after you hit them with bug killer. Don't. Just don't.

Transnationlism [hark, ptooey]

This is something that people have been worried about for a long time, the U.S. losing its sovereignty to an international bunch of bureaucrats. Shifra over at TammyBruce.com sorts it out quite nicely. 

And during Obama’s push for gun control, there was talk of the United Nations taking control of guns in the U.S. “What in the world,” I thought, “does the U.N. have to do with our Second Amendment rights?”
Then, two weeks ago, I came across a Wall Street Journal interview with former Senator Jon Kyl, entitled “American Sovereignty and Its Enemies.”
And suddenly, “The Big Picture” became all too horrifyingly clear.
Because all of these news items were, in fact, very connected, by a term called “transnationalism.”

Transnationalism, it turns out, is just a fancy, non-conspiracy theorist sounding term for a "New World Order." Imagine that.

Go read it.

Things Are Looking Up?

I'm generally not one to trust the polls circulating, but this one stands with my own personally-observed anecdotal evidence.

...Pew finds that "a majority of Americans – 56% – say that federal courts fail to provide adequate limits on the telephone and internet data the government is collecting as part of its anti-terrorism efforts." And "an even larger percentage (70%) believes that the government uses this data for purposes other than investigating terrorism." Moreover, "63% think the government is also gathering information about the content of communications." That demonstrates a decisive rejection of the US government's three primary defenses of its secret programs...

Now if I can just start convincing some folks that being part III% is a good idea, too.

Go read it.

Pay No Attention to The Man Behind The Curtain

Don't fall in too much love with your suburban home because Barack Obama has his eye on it...and your money.

Krulig’s Agenda 21 Building One America group proposes the creation of a regional tax-base sharing revenues in which suburban tax money is directly redistributed to nearby cities and economically depressed concentric zones of inner-ring suburbs. Building One America also seeks to move the poor out of cities by imposing mandatory low-income housing quotas for middle-class suburban developments. 

Go read it.

That Sick Feeling You Get

When you realize that you are being watched.
I'm hoping a bunch of people have developed it recently. Major Garrett over at CBS News National Journal may be helping some of those who were asleep to wake the heck up.

The larger question is this: Can efficacy justify a gradual dismantling of liberty? Can it, and should it, erode or erase basic human aspiration, central to revolution and the Constitution, to own one's humanity without government search, seizure, or perpetual data collection and storage? A government that promises near-perfect prevention of terrorism or crime will also demand near-endless compliance from you about access to all you do, say, think, write, spend, save, invest, imagine, live, and hope. It might also demand your genetic blueprint.

And an excellent question it is, too. The answer must be an emphatic no.
Go read it.

Many NY Sheriffs Won't Enforce SAFE Act

“When we perceive a law is not well designed and will not promote the public good, then I strongly believe we have a duty to do what we can within the legal processes to oppose and change the law and to help craft a better one,” Putnam County Sheriff Donald Smith said.

Go read it.

I Never Thought It Would Come To This

But, I'm throwing in with Britney Spears. Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America has lost their minds.
Go read it.

There's Apoplectic And Then There's Apoplectic

I don't know why the hubbub over weapons coming to 3D printing is really bothering me, but it is. I think it's just because people who should know better are jumping up and down and shouting that crazy people will be making weapons in their basement.

Because it isn't. Kokesh's march is just the latest product of the great American panic machine, the mechanism by which the extreme right works itself into spasms of apoplectic terror over threats that don't exist.
"We're going to be under Shariah law!"
Except we're not.
"We've become a socialist country!"
Except we haven't.
"There's a war on Christmas!"
Except there isn't.
"They're trying to take our guns away!"
Except that it is now theoretically possible for a mental patient to manufacture his own gun in the comfort of his aluminum foil-lined basement. That's a sobering development with far-reaching implications barely considered, much less addressed, by lawmakers, though this technology has existed for over a decade. Since Wilson's test, there's been a flurry of calls for legislation. On Friday, the federal government ordered Wilson to remove the blueprints from his website. All of which is the very epitome of locking the garage after the Hyundai has been hot-wired.

Speaking of working oneself into spasms of apoplectic terror...people have been making weapons in their suitably decorated basements since the first hole was dug. So the Hyundai analogy is a bit late, the cow go out of the barn a long time ago.

So, I'm here to tell the ninnies in pressland, 3D printers aren't going to be much aid anyone in making a gun right now. The printers are too few and far between to be a serious source of concern. The real concern from my vantage point is that some of these people who should know better are finally coming to grips with the fact that the determined person cannot be stopped.
Yes, Virginia, there are boogeymen. And, my dearest V, the boogeymen have always had the ability to make improvised weapons. Humans are smart animals and have a long history of giving themselves bigger and better claws and teeth. Just because the process has been streamlined by a fancy piece of tech that could potentially be housed in someone's living room doesn't mean they weren't already making items that scare you. It's just that before someone had to make a trip to the local home improvement store to get some pipe and lumber. Realization sometimes makes a thunderous crack when it dawns, huh?

Go read it.

Zero Tolerance -- Seriously, I Mean, Seriously?

I really just don't know what to say about this one. I think the headline says it all.

Two Boys Suspended For Pointing Pencils Like Guns

7 years old, 7. Most 7 year olds can't remember where they took their shoes off an hour ago. 

A two-day suspension. Seriously? 

I have zero tolerance for Zero tolerance.
Go read it.

Pay No Attention

to the man behind the curtain, says President Obama at Ohio State. Here are a few of the juicy tidbits

And that’s precisely what the Founders left us — the power, each of us, to adapt to changing times. ...
To conquer fascism and disease; to visit the Moon and Mars; to gradually secure our God-given rights for all of our citizens, regardless of who they are, or what they look like, or who they love.

why does he get to say, "secure our God-given rights" when he's the one trying to take them away? Oh, that's right, he has the bully pulpit and we're just the peons who dare to challenge him.

The founders trusted us with this awesome authority. We should trust ourselves with it, too. Because when we don’t, when we turn away and get discouraged and cynical, and abdicate that authority, we grant our silent consent to someone who will gladly claim it.
So you can’t give up your passion if things don’t work right away. You can’t lose heart, or grow cynical if there are twists and turns on your journey. The cynics may be the loudest voices — but I promise you, they will accomplish the least. It’s those folks who stay at it, those who do the long, hard, committed work of change that gradually push this country in the right direction, and make the most lasting difference.

Amen to that. Wait, he meant the opposite of what I mean. Go back and reread that paragraph. It's quite telling. Silent consent and claimers of power have gotten us to this point. Rugged individualism will only serve to sink us deeper into the rights-stripping quicksand. Standing united we can regain the rights we have lost.

I think about how we might perpetuate this notion of citizenship in a way that another politician from my home state of Illinois, Adlai Stevenson, once described patriotism not as “short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.” That’s what patriotism is. That’s what citizenship is. 

Defenders of the Second Amendment need to remember all these words. Go read the full transcript.

Stuntman

Everyone allows this one to slide, except maybe the guy's wife.

Seeking to make a point about firearms, a Michigan man decided to open carry his .45-cal. handgun at his daughter’s school and later uploaded the footage to YouTube.

Go read it.

Texas, My Texas

"Okay, everybody in town should get a gun and ammo."
Go read it.

Fascinating Police Poll

Numbers I actually believe.
One of the poll questions analysis:

2.) The majority of respondents -- 71 percent -- say a federal ban on the manufacture and sale of some semi-automatics would have no effect on reducing violent crime. However, more than 20 percent say any ban would actually have a negative effect on reducing violent crime. Just over 7 percent took the opposite stance, saying they believe a ban would have a moderate to significant effect.

The author goes on to say:

Contrary to what the mainstream media and certain politicians would have us believe, police overwhelmingly favor an armed citizenry, would like to see more guns in the hands of responsible people, and are skeptical of any greater restrictions placed on gun purchase, ownership, or accessibility. 

No doubt.

Go read the story.

Go see the PoliceOne.com poll takeaways.