Take The Bullets, Not The Guns
BY Herschel Smith
6 years ago
That is the title of a Las Vegas Sun letter to the editor.
The March 16 letter to the editor, “Bullet control is the answer,” hit the nail on the head. It’s not guns or people that kill people, it’s bullets. Without the correct bullets, every AR-15 would instantly become a wall-hanging collector’s item. Banning the sale, use and possession of bullets used in these weapons to anyone other than military and law enforcement would eliminate the need to take anyone’s gun.
Mandatory prison time for selling, using or possessing these bullets would eliminate stockpiling. The right to confiscate vehicles and houses where such bullets are found would further discourage people from hanging onto existing supplies.
Of course, the National Rifle Association would say that would leave the bad guys as the only ones with the bullets. True, but an automatic 10-20 years for anyone using this type of weapon in the commission of a crime or 40-to-life when it results in death would assist law enforcement in weeding them out one by one.
Note that it is quite alright to the letter writer for peaceable men and women to be left with the criminals being the only ones with ammunition, as long as one by one, the cops chase down criminals who use ammunition after commission of crimes – against peaceable men and women. The letter writer doesn’t care about you, just outlawing ammunition.
This isn’t an oddball view. It can be seen at some point on virtually every major newspaper editorial page, and virtually every progressive politician has floated the idea. You’ve seen it as have I.
Listen to your enemies. Learn from them, especially when they publicly inform you of their tactics. Plan accordingly. By my calculations, Trump (being I suspect a one-term president) gives us about two more years.
On April 4, 2018 at 11:10 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
Re: “The March 16 letter to the editor, “Bullet control is the answer,” hit the nail on the head. It’s not guns or people that kill people, it’s bullets.”
It would be interesting to know who wrote that letter, and if the author was an independent actor or someone in the employ of the deep-state and its proponents.
These days, if one has the money – and men like George Soros and Michael Bloomberg certainly do – almost anything can be bought. Hiring a bunch of no-names to write letters to the editor against firearms isn’t just easy to arrange – it is ridiculously easy.
Bear in mind how much of the so-called “information” you read in the MSM is actually carefully-crafted propaganda.
The author of this letter, whoever he is, does not understand the history and economics of prohibition movements very well. Prohibition movements, such as those which attempted to ban the making and consumption of alcoholic beverages during the 1920s and early 1930s, inevitably failed because the power of free markets, albeit those in the underground economy, was greater than the power of would-be regulators.
As the would-be banners of alcoholic beverages learned to their dismay, the government can’t really ban anything; all it can do is change the conditions under which something is bought or sold. By outlawing alcohol, the prohibitionists believed that they would prevent alcoholic beverages from being produced, distributed and consumed. They were mistaken.
All prohibition did was to force the alcohol market out of the light and into the shadows of the black market and underground economy. Once there, the trade in illegal spirits flourished, and record-setting profits were made by the mob and others willing to flout the law.
Wherever sufficient demand for a good or service exists, sellers of those goods/services will move to satisfy those demands, if not in the legal, above-board market, then in the illegal, off-the-board, and underground black markets instead.
The black market in banned firearms and/or banned ammunition would positively dwarf the black markets of the past, whether in alcoholic beverages or illicit drugs. And the weapons sold therein would raise the hair on the necks of the anti-gun crowd. Mil-spec all the way. Think of AK47s and RPGs for sale in street markets in Mogadishu – and you’ll be on the right track.
For several reasons, the gun-banners are up against it concerning the banning of ammunition.
First, the science behind modern brass-cased firearms ammunition is mature and over a century old – well-established and well-disseminated. Virtually every major nation on earth has at least one sizeable ammunition plant churning out small arms ammunition by the millions of units/year. If those sources prove insufficient, any decent chemist can formulate and produce propellant. The metallurgy behind making brass cases is relatively simple. Primers are a bit tougher because of their chemical complexity, but are also doable for someone who has the requisite background.
Remember, a successful underground or resistance movement will not have to churn out millions of rounds of small arms ammunition to be effective. It will merely need to produce enough serviceable ammunition to allow irregular forces to capture stockpiles from the enemy. The template for this is seen in the successful insurgency by Filipino and American personnel against the Empire of Japan during WWII.
Second and equally-troublesome for the would-be gun/ammunition banners is the fact that even if production was stopped tomorrow, there are already billions (trillions?) of rounds of small arms ammunition in existence – right now – around the world. A ban would immediately force ammunition prices through the roof, and much of this excess ammunition would flow towards the U.S. in search of greater profit margins. Again, it is that whole thing about markets and how producers tend to find ways to satisfy demand, regardless of the bureaucrats decree.
And that isn’t all. In order to enforce such a blanket decree against the private ownership of ammunition, the government (or whoever is charged with enforcing the ban) would have to field an enormous army of secret police, soldiers, investigators and other functionaries who would themselves be armed. Care to guess who would immediately become priority targets for any resistance movement? Obviously, these people – themselves bearing arms and ammunition – would be prime targets.
No sane person would wish for such a scenario to occur – least of all this writer – but whoever said fanatics like Soros and Bloomberg were sane?
On April 5, 2018 at 12:09 am, Pat Hines said:
Relying on memory, about 7 billion rounds of ammunition (of all calibers) are sold in the US every year.
The wise among we normal people have been acquiring adequate “resources” of consumables for our self defense tools for many years.
That said, there is a SCOTUS case that states consumables used in the exercise of a right cannot even be taxed differently than ALL other products, much less have access diminished. See Minneapolis Star v. Commissioner.
Of course, as we see with the proposed bump stock ban, things can change when the US government becomes lawless.
http://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/blog/index.php?itemid=455
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/460/575.html
On April 5, 2018 at 1:29 am, J said:
“Mandatory prison time for selling, using or possessing these bullets would eliminate stockpiling.”
Ummmm, OK.
On April 5, 2018 at 6:23 am, Talktome said:
As long as you don’t care about personal liberty, I suppose this letter sounds like a great solution. Now, once we look at it through the lense of reality we realize some of the “solutions”have been tried, without making a dent in criminal activity. Further, as you noted, this asshole doesn’t care if innocents are unarmed victims because somehow the cops will catch and lock the criminals up. Just, wow. This is like the idiots wanting to tax individual bullets. I guess shall not be infringed means something different to controllers.
On April 5, 2018 at 7:19 am, John said:
The 2nd Amendment guarantees ammunition as well.
“A well-regulated militia” – “regulated” means well trained and supplied. “Supplies” includes ammunition, because without it, bearing arms would be pointless.
Therefore, inhibiting/infringing the sale of ammunition is a violation of the 2nd Amendment.
On April 5, 2018 at 8:10 am, D'Narius said:
John,
All we have to do is mention the Second Amendment. That’ll stop the gun grabbers! There. Problem solved.
With all due respect, c’mon wake up. The 2A is effectively a dead letter and has been since the National Firearms Act in June of 1934. Remember that the SUPREMES said that one was “constitutional”?
There is nothing to stop them from putting a 1000% tax on all ammunition- an idea put out by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) during the Klinton Regime in the 1990’s. Question: What odious feminazi, dictatoress wanna-be occupied his seat at the trough from 2001 to 2009?
The rub is that would be totally “legal” as CONgress has the power to tax anything it wants to. Isn’t that what SUPREME Court Justice Roberts said when the court ruled that Obamacare was therefore constitutional?
Now, what are we going to do about it?
I know, I’ll write a strongly-worded letter to my Senator and a letter to the editor. That’ll get some action…
On April 5, 2018 at 9:15 am, Fred said:
Georgia Boy,
“Bear in mind how much of the so-called “information” you read in the MSM is actually carefully-crafted propaganda.”
Nothing on TV is not permitted by fedgov. None of it. Nothing in the MSM papers is not permitted. None of it.
——–
They can have my ammo. It will have been pre separated from the casings though, so, um, yeah, well, there’s that.
On April 5, 2018 at 9:33 am, DAN III said:
Ban small arms ammunition for citizens ? Time to ban ink for the printing presses used to distribute anti-Freedom messages and words of tyranny.
Seems the communists such as the Las Vegas letter writer believe they are immune to Patriots defending themselves from the tyranny of .gov and it’s Tory supporters.
Sometimes….violence IS the answer.
On April 5, 2018 at 9:39 am, DAN III said:
John @ 0719,
Understand the 2nd Amendment, in essence, is dead, fini, kaput. No different than the 4th and 5th Amendments along with the rest of the CON-stitution.
I suggest you read some Amerikan history.
On April 5, 2018 at 11:05 am, Gryphon said:
Yeah. Like the Uncounted TRILLIONS of Rounds now out there are going Away…
It Amazes Me to No End that libtards like this think that “If We only can Pass the Right Laws, Everyone will Obey them and Give Up their Guns…
The Stupid, It BUUURNNS!!!
BLOAT – Buy Lots of Ammo Today.
On April 5, 2018 at 11:36 am, Georgiaboy61 said:
Re: “Nothing on TV is not permitted by fedgov. None of it. Nothing in the MSM papers is not permitted. None of it.”
Fred, you are exaggerating. Since the spooks down at Langley thought up Operation Mockingbird in the 1950s during the height of the Cold War, the CIA (and assorted other three-letter agencies of the federal government) has been “influencing” media content. Never mind that the agency isn’t supposed to operate on U.S. soil or against U.S. citizens; that firewall was breeched a long time ago. And thanks to regulations hidden in one of the annual military appropriations bills, it is now “legal” for the government to craft propaganda aimed at its own citizens.
“1984” wasn’t supposed to be an instruction manual – but here we are.
On April 5, 2018 at 11:37 am, Georgiaboy61 said:
Re: “Fred, you are exaggerating.”
Ooops… must need another cup of joe; that should have read “you are not exaggerating”….
On April 5, 2018 at 12:06 pm, Bill Robbins said:
California’s efforts to ban ammunition are well underway. The once-simple act of purchasing plain-old ammo, by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes, has already become more costly and time-consuming, and next, come mandatory background checks, I believe, starting in July 2018. With background checks will come registration, quantity limits, and, with inevitable abuse of registration lists, searches of vehicles and residences. Driving into CA from AZ, NV and OR will will include not only passing through agricultural inspection (for plants and insects and transfer of ag pathogens), but also, “ammo checks.”
On April 6, 2018 at 12:29 pm, anonymous said:
Agreed, go big on ammunition just to have it.
Be advised though – shooting it is loud enough to gain attention and possibly be reported to the police. Like assault weapon bans making it criminal to have possession of one, it is much harder to take them out and practice with it. You have to stay in practice somehow .
On April 6, 2018 at 1:32 pm, jim said:
Do you think Joe Van Rhyn will be able to handle himself when the criminals kick in his door at 2 in the morning? I’m sure a good socialist liberal democrat living in Las Vegas does not have the means to defend themselves. Maybe he can write a nice story about it if he lives..
On April 6, 2018 at 2:32 pm, BA said:
Mr. Van Rhyn obviously believes nothing bad will ever happen to him – the police will protect him. He has a website where he sells books he has written, and where he provides a residential street address to mail checks to buy his books. This guy is absolutely clueless.
On April 6, 2018 at 2:45 pm, Dan said:
Congress does NOT have the power to tax anything it wants to. The preamble to the first 10 amendments explicitly states that the purpose of the amendments is to further restrict and clarify the powers previously delegated tot he federal government. There are only two delegated powers that could be used to infringe upon the right to keep and bear arms. These are the power to regulate interstate commerce and the power to tax. Therefore the purpose of the 2nd amendment was to prohibit the federal government from using the power to regulate interstate commerce, or the power to tax, to infringe upon the preexisting right to keep and bear arms. All restrictions based upon the commerce clause and all taxes on arms are unlawful.
Obviously the federal government is rogue and recognizes no restrictions on their authority. No need to further that obvious falsehood by suggesting that the NFA, or any tax on arms, is in any way legitimate or lawful.
For those who have read it here is the germane text of the preamble:
“THE Conventions of a number of the States having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added:”
On April 6, 2018 at 8:05 pm, Ray said:
It doesn’t matter what congress or the court can or cannot do under the constitution or the law. They do not obey that NOW. Why would any of you think that they will follow the constitution or the law in any possible future? There is one, AND ONLY ONE way, to make this stop. Kill every single person on the “left” and every single person in government AT ANY LEVEL, that violate the constitution. Otherwise this never ends until the communist’s win and we and our posterity are ended in a death camp. Everything else is a fantasy.
On April 7, 2018 at 3:44 am, DAN III said:
Ray@2005,
Couldn’t agree with you more. One can wipe their ass with the CON-stitution for all the good it has done to limit the tyranny of the scum one calls “government”.
Sometimes, violence IS the answer.