- Give ’em hell, Nicki!
- Alas, here is a gun owner who very, very much seems to get it. Then doesn’t.
- Australia’s notorious gun confiscation didn’t work as well as hoplophobes claim — and wouldn’t work here. (You already knew that, didn’t you?)
- Father of wounded Oregon student refuses to participate in Obama’s political display. Local VIPs aren’t planning to welcome Our Glorious Leader either.
- J.D. Tuccille: With 3D printers, all things are possible. And so are all panics.
- Media more deadly than “gun nuts.” (Stolen from Joel)
- John McAfee brings his famously wild brain (and unfortunately a lack of solid stats) to his claim that we should forget gun control and worry more about EZ EMPs. Challenged on the EMP question, he backs up his claim that a smart kid could destroy a city. I don’t know how good his information is, but this’ll make you think. His smackdown of Obama’s single-issue silliness is good, in any case.
About 2 or 3 years ago or thereabout, the magazine Popular Mechanics had an article about an EMP bomb. There were a lot of controversy about printing information about the bomb. Particularly with regards to the Muslim terrorists getting that information. Hadn’t been done… yet.
Which made me think that, yes it is possible.
On that vox article, the pic shows a dude racking the slide of a Glock with his finger on the trigger. Lame.
I suppose the article sounds half-assed from our point of view, but that guy must have felt a bit like he was coming out of the closet. He needs to get out more.
McAfee makes the assumption that politicians want to solve problems. Nothing could be more ridiculous.
BTW, back in the days I was dabbling in political campaigns, it was clear that there were a couple kinds of single-issue voters – those who opposed abortion, and those who opposed gun control. There is nothing really wrong with using a single issue as an indicator of who you are looking to vote for, assuming you are voting. If you can’t trust a guy on issue X, your most important issue, why should you trust him on anything else?
However, Obama is trying to make it go the other way. He wants people to adopt the single issue viewpoint *against* firearms. This is just pie in the sky. The issue does not really work that way, fundamentally. Very few people are going to make their vote depend only on which guy is taking a more anti-gun position. Anyway support for “RKBA” has been increasing lately, not decreasing. It’s amazing any half-competent politician could imagine that would work.
Claire, ran into this very interesting article over on Western Rifle Shooters:
http://www.salon.com/2015/09/26/how_to_explain_the_kgbs_amazing_success_identifying_cia_agents_in_the_field/
Good thing to keep in mind when the festivities start…
The cultural shift on gun rights is well under way, but it isn’t going the direction Hiatt wants.
Guns are flying off gun store shelves, new shooter and new hunter classes are full, the rise in concealed handgun licensees is over 12,000,000 and not slowing down, and more and more schools are allowing teachers to carry. Hiatt’s even (finally) admitted that voting for “modest” gun control is politically risky and for confiscation, which is what they really want, is political suicide, which can only be because a healthy majority of U.S. voters are pro-gun.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have another sold-out Hunter Ed class to teach, another 30 or so beginning hunters, most of whom are teens and tweens. See you at the polls.
The hilarious part about politicians getting panty-bunched over printing guns is that 3-D printing is a high-tech 21st century solution to a 19th century basic metalworking problem. In second world countries all around the globe people in areas so rural they barely have electric lights are producing AK-47s by hand, while their children make the ammo.
“Alas, here is a gun owner who very, very much seems to get it. Then doesn’t.”
Sorry, Claire, but I fail to see where he doesn’t. At the risk of agitating the regulars here, I think we do need a few common sense gun laws in this country if for no other reason than to simply keep guns away from children, the mentally ill, and other idiots who shouldn’t be allowed within 20-feet of a gun. I’m skipping criminals here for the obvious reason. How such laws would be implemented to be fair and not impact the innocent is a challenge I leave to better minds than mine.
BTW, I carry concealed whenever I got out because life has a bad habit of coming at you from left field when you least expect it.
Sam, here’s where I perceive the “not-getting-it-ness”:
Well, yes it’s very nice not to fear murder in a church or anyplace else. But he implies that such confidence is enhanced by not bearing arms. What kind of laws does he want here?
Also:
Again, how does he expect any special gun laws to stop these things?
And how is a “gun death” suicide worse than a suicide by jumping off a bridge or drinking drain cleaner?
How is “gun death” by homicide worse than being stabbed to death, bashed over the head with a bench grinder, or being blown up by a bomb?
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have another sold-out Hunter Ed class to teach, another 30 or so beginning hunters, most of whom are teens and tweens. See you at the polls.”
🙂 Well said, as usual, LarryA.
Since when did lawmaking have anything to do with “common sense”?
Someone is not paying attention.
Sam, you might take a look at Harry Browne’s book, “Why Government Doesn’t Work”.
See particularly chapter 5, “If You Were King”
http://jrbooksonline.com/PDF_Books/why_govt_doesnt_work.pdf
we still live in a society where we should be able to move freely — and go to church, of all places — without a rational fear of being murdered.
Really? Tell the people in Charleston that. Or the hundred or so estimated victims at the New Life Church, who are still alive because a CHL shot the killer with her 9mm. Or the folks at the Boiling Springs Church who didn’t have to duck a killer with the shotgun a CHL convinced him to drop. Or the two ladies working in the Illinois church office whose beating provided testimony supporting Illinois concealed carry.
OTOH, if we do get to a society where we can move freely without fear of violence, we won’t need gun control. If everybody was as peaceful as most gun owners, it wouldn’t make any difference how many guns people owned. [progressive heads explode]
Claire, it is interesting how we can read the same words and perceive them differently. My take was that he was bemoaning the fact that one needed to be armed in a church. He finds that particularly abhorrent considering his background. Frankly, even though I’m an Atheist, I can’t blame him. Nor can I blame those who are highly incensed that our schools are no longer safe places for our children.
In the same vein, I find it abhorrent that I live in a society where I feel the need to travel about with a gun on my hip. The reality is that we live in a much more dangerous world than the one in which I grew up. Something has gone terribly wrong in our society. I can understand the frustrations of those who have lost loved ones to gunfire and want to sweep every last gun off the streets. It’s a reaction born out of grief and anger.
However, I don’t believe that is the answer because the Second Amendment is critical as a check on the power of government. Sadly, those who have lost loved ones play right into the hands of those who would disarm the American population – yes, I’m talking to you Diane Feinstein and Michael Bloomberg and Barack Obama!
I seem to be rambling here. Something I tend to do as my grey hairs will attest. Bottom line, we are more in accord than not, Claire (and Paul and Larry, et al). I strongly believe in our right to keep and bear arms. I just wish we didn’t have to. 🙁
I strongly believe in our right to keep and bear arms. I just wish we didn’t have to.
Amen. Every time I put my gun on I pray I’ll get through another day without needing it. It would be wonderful to live where guns were for target shooting and hunting because people were so peaceful and the government so benign self-defense was unnecessary.
But taking guns away from the peaceful ones has never proven to be a step in that direction.
0700 on the east coast. Obama is probably in Oregon by now. It’s likely he will make some kind of speech. I’m disgusted. This isn’t mere blood dancing – it’s dancing on the fresh graves of the victims.
And in the news this AM – yet another campus shooting – in Arizona this time. Talk about suspicious timing! Nothing could be more convenient for helping him push his anti-gun agenda. It almost looks planned, doesn’t it? (Wink,wink, know what I mean?, know what I mean?)
I, on the other hand, think it’s a sign of the times that so many are “going off their rockers” simultaneously.
ifeminists.com:News presents this article http://www.ifeminists.com/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.29252.3 citing increase in male suicides from ages 10 – 24. Granted this is in Europe, but will we be far behind? It’s not even the suicides that appall me — it’s the age group! Suicide is a sign of hopelessness, of giving up — at 10 years of age?!
We in America take it out in rage, on others; Europeans take it out on themselves. But what’s the difference? (Apart from the libertarian POV. And in that, European males are more ethical than American males; at least they don’t take a victim with them.) The American mass murderer gives all sorts of reasons for his actions, but all it comes down to is he feels he has *nowhere to go.* And this makes it “a sign of the times.”
(I also think a certain amount of copy-catting is being done, but not necessarily for the purpose of drawing attention to oneself. I think it’s possible it’s infectious; desperation in one incites desperation in another — “if he can do it, so can I, and now’s the time.”)
Pat – you can’t compare us to Europe. They have gun control and almost zero murders. Our Proxident said so himself.
Reading about the fear of printed guns reminded me of how much fun I have using people’s own stupidity to work them up to even more stupid behavior (only when it won’t get somebody killed). So I think it would be fun if we started posting that 3-d printers can be used to print deadly viruses by the trillions. I mean, like, one page of printed marburg or ebola could wipe out Chicago, y’know? Let’s give them something to really worry about. And maybe we shouldn’t have printers in schools either – it’s for the children!
I expected better from John McAfee.
“…mass murders, prior to 1980, were virtually unknown.” Bah! Humbug! It took me like 2 seconds (being generous) to recall the words “Valentine’s Day Massacre”. How about the Kent State University Massacre in 1970? Oh, yeah, that was OK because it was government against dissidents armed with flowers. My bad.
david — And the Texas tower shootings back in, what, the 1960s? And Richard Speck. And the Starkweather-Fugate spree in the 1950s. And the Bath school bombing in the 1920s. And the “In Cold Blood” murders Capote wrote about.
Yes, McAfee’s blarting out “facts” without research. He’s guilty of doing what the antis do. I linked because I thought his EMP info was interesting.
“Claire, it is interesting how we can read the same words and perceive them differently. My take was that he was bemoaning the fact that one needed to be armed in a church.”
Definitely different takes. But he wasn’t bemoaning the need to carry firearms in church. He was saying it was absurd that anyone would even recommend such a thing and that some (unspecified) law is needed to make us safe in church without firearms.
He wrote both the paragraphs I quoted to justify why he thinks some (obviously new, more) laws regulating guns are needed. The questions I asked in my earlier comment remain. What gun laws would change the situations he bemoans in those two paragraphs? It’s curious and telling that he didn’t say what specific legislation would prevent church shootings or stop criminal street violence or prevent suicide.
David — I wasn’t comparing, in that sense. I was talking about the atmosphere that permeates the world today. Certainly Europe, as well as America, feels the heavy cloud of “the sky is falling” hovering over it. And every country reacts in its own way.
We talk about the SHTF, and young people have picked up the vibes. One of the reasons so many are coming home to live is the uncertainty they feel, the “what’s the use” hopelessness they are wrapped in. Government’s desire to take care of everybody, plus (I suspect) many parents’ inadequacy in raising their kids with backbone, have contributed to their feeling of helplessness. (Yes, I know they should think for themselves, but I’m talking now about what IS, not what OUGHT to be.)
Obama’s non-Policy, plus the EU, plus the Middle East debacle, plus, plus, plus — have all been successful in keeping people fearful, dependent, and uncertain. When people are unsure of their future, they will BLAME ANYONE and DO ANYTHING, rational or not, to change the status quo and feel in control of their lives — or in control of… something!
My comments aren’t about gun confiscation, though, so I’ll quit.
While nobody can truly trust all of the statistics being gathered about crime and the use of guns, it seems that the overall numbers are decreasing, reported as such by many people who might have incentive to lie or hide this. Yet a great many people believe that crime is increasing, as well as the myth of increasing “mass shootings.”
I suspect that the perception of increased crimes with guns is more a matter of wide spread MSM reporting – mostly of those that fit their agenda – while ignoring anything that would contradict that agenda.
The good news is that, evidently, fewer and fewer people actually believe anything they see or read in the MSM, especially print media or TV, and nearly 50% no longer believe anything told to them by a politician. I can live with that. 🙂
Claire – Not to pick nits, but wasn’t Speck a knife killer? Still – mass murderers, all. Juan Corona was another. 25 migrant workers that we know about – and a machete man as I recall. So much for saving lives by eliminating guns. Knives have the advantage of being silent when used, so those guys likely would never have used a gun. Oh, and there was that guy who set up a phony boarding house for women at one of the World Fairs – Chicago I believe. After he was done with his killing and whatever, he burned their bodies, so nobody is really sure how many he got. Again, no evidence of a gun.
I liked the EMP article BTW, and the ‘proof’ one was even better. Even the ‘little’ $300 EMP could shut down a comm center, or a part of the grid if used tactically. So that was really useful info – as a way of showing our congress (word for screwing, remember) just how precarious our infrastructure can be. But it could also be used tactically against an enemy’s comm center – leaving their ‘field’ troops deaf and dumb for all practical purposes.
Pat – I understood your social observation wasn’t about guns. But I don’t believe that kids who come home for the reasons you state really feel that way. I think they are just too weak minded to deal with being independent. Of course, that’s arguing about what COLOR egg hatched a limp chicken – the chicken is still limp. I have 5 adult daughters and only one ever came home to live – and I had to argue with her to get her to let me help her out. Oh, and one came home for two weeks when she broke up with a BF, then went right back out. She just needed to feel coddled a little. Maybe my ‘observations’ are colored by my experiences…?
“Not to pick nits, but wasn’t Speck a knife killer?”
Can’t recall whether he was knives or strangulation. (Just looked it up: knives and strangulation — and he had a gun with which he subdued them.) But wasn’t McAfee talking about mass murder, not just mass shooting? You list another sadly notable bunch. The Chicago World’s Fair murderer was H.H. Holmes (among other names). And let’s not forget the Boston Strangler.
Seems mass killings and serial killings have a long, long history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_serial_killers_before_1900
Folks, keep in mind the Internet. The reason the sky appears to be falling is that travesties get much broader exposure than they did previously. The good old days maybe weren’t so good after all, but the murder reporting mostly stayed within each community. As ML noted, crime is way down (probably having a lot to do with the spread of CC laws).
[He was saying it was absurd that anyone would even recommend such a thing and that some (unspecified) law is needed to make us safe in church without firearms.]
I guess I don’t get this attitude at all. If a person has made a decision to carry, why have exceptions? Is a church so holy, and a gun so unholy, that the two just can’t mix? Why?
We are throwing too many “shoulds” around here. The world isn’t as it should be, waaahhh! People shouldn’t have to carry in a church, waaahhh! Come on, just deal with reality and stop whining. The world as it is, ain’t such a disaster after all. The only real drawback to carrying is that a standard pistol gets a little heavy at the end of the day. If that bothers a person, a mouse gun will take care of it.
That’s an impressive list of mass murderers Claire. Thanks for pointing it out – I’m such a dinosaur that I seldom think about going to Wikipedia for info, yet it’s one of the most convenient places to look for things.