Monday Reading List

BY Herschel Smith
10 years, 7 months ago

I have a new featured article on Bilderberg, The New American Century And The Rise Of Intelligence.

David Codrea on a U.K. columnist posing the question should the world intervene to stop U.S. gun violence.

If ingrates like Porter and his smug followers don’t like us, our Constitution and our guns, maybe they’d be better off providing for their own defense — that is if they wouldn’t rather just surrender to the coming Caliphate they seem bound and determined to incubate. Besides, it’s not like such effete wankers pose much danger of forming a humanitarian brigade to come over and “liberate” us from our guns, although as is common with their lot, including our own domestic breed of hoplophobe, they’d no doubt cheer on someone else assuming the labor and the risks of carrying out their will.

I second that.  And my reaction when I read this silly U.K. commentary was “How are you going to disarm us when we’ve got the guns and you don’t, and don’t believe in them?  You’re not going to send in the … ahem … U.N., are you?”  As another good rebuttal to this, see Stormbringer (courtesy of John Jay).

Kurt Hofmann on veterans who want to keep their guns being wary of seeking treatment for PTSD.

Their next most likely avenue of attack, then, may very well be to seek new ways to block gun purchases by military veterans who have received any kind of mental health treatment. Over a decade of combat has produced hundreds of thousands of veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The killer is said to have been suffering from PTSD, stemming not from his time in the military, but from his experience helping as a responder at the September 11. 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Yea.  This guy didn’t have PTSD.  I’ve been around a whole platoon of Marines who were diagnosed PTSD, and they didn’t act like that.  If you are a veteran you’re advised to listen to Kurt’s counsel here.  Mental health will be the new whipping boy, despite the observations I’ve made in the past about its uselessness as a determinative indicator of future violence.

Furthermore, while it’s one thing to say that you care about PTSD, it’s another thing to behave that way.  Former Soldiers and Marines who were deployed in Iraq have it tougher than you think, and employers aren’t just falling all over themselves offering jobs.  Veterans, if you’re smart, you’ll be careful just what you communicate to whom.  Your country doesn’t appreciate your sacrifice.

Mike Vanderboegh:

Taiwan develops smart munitions against China – when we refuse to help them.

Like I’ve said concerning that ridiculous “sunshine diplomacy” between N.K. and S.K.  It will end when we stop providing their umbrella of protection and they have to defend themselves.  And not only that, Japan should go nuclear.  They have enough good nuclear engineers to do it.  China is advised to consider a potential nuclear Japan and Taiwan on their shores.  Pleasant dreams, boys!

Next, listen to this lecture on the American Second Amendment.

Only a few blocks away from the US Capitol in Washington, in the heavily guarded US Naval Sea System Command headquarters thirteen civilian and contract workers were killed when two shooters entered the building and opened fire. Police and federal agents were informed and surrounded the base. All streets leading to the base were cordoned off. The first shooter was identified as veteran Navy reservist Aaron Alexis while investigation on the second gunman continues. After the incident, a sombre President Obama paid homage to the “patriots” – who “know the dangers of serving abroad”, but also faced “unimaginable violence they wouldn’t have expected at home”. US flags flew at half-mast, on Friday.

‘Unexpected’ would not be the most accurate description for America’s violent gun problem. Mass shootings in 2012 alone were a damning indictment of the national crisis on the possession of arms: schoolchildren killed in Sandy Hook, people attacked at a local theater in Aurora, devotees shot and killed at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, citizens assaulted in California and, other recent incidents are only some of the instances of gun crime that took place last year. Missing from this timeline of growing gun violence are the victims of gang war from racially gentrified neighborhoods.

The Second Amendment in the US Constitution signifies a citizen’s right to own and arm himself against potential threats of violence. There is favour and opposition by Republicans and Democrats both, on the issue of possession of weapons. However, powerful pro-arms lobbies, such as the National Rifle Association (NRA), successfully resist debate on the curtailing of arms ownership. Opposition to the reckless amassing of guns should not be seen as an offence to the Constitution or the Founding Fathers of the United States. There is enough reason and logic, along with growing proof, that administrative discipline of guns ownership will only help to preserve the values and people of America, and not otherwise, as the NRA would have Americans believe.

How nice.  Pakistan, who allows the Tehrik-e-Taliban to run around unmolested in the Northwest Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Area, and who allows Lahore to become a hotbed of radicalism, while Muslims kill Christians en mass, is lecturing us on our second amendment.

Finally, the AR-15 in Hawaii.

As has been extensively reported, following the presidential election and Sandy Hook, national (and Hawaii) sales of “black guns” have gone ballistic. A December 23 Star Advertiser story reported that OGC Tactical, a Kalihi gun store that specializes in black guns, had a ten-fold increase in sales in the week following the announcement of President Obama’s gun control task force.

Not surprisingly, the sales spike precipitated a block long line of gun owners snaking along Beretania Street, waiting patiently to register their newly purchased arms with the Honolulu Police Department.

How many AR 15s, or in gun industry parlance “Modern Sport Rifles”, are there are in Hawaii?

Numbers from the NRA report that, from 1986 to 2007, at least 1,626,525 AR-15-style semi-automatic rifles were produced in this country and recent press accounts have put the current number closer to 5 million. Suffice it to say, there are thousands of AR 15s in Hawaii and more are on the way.

[ … ]

So who exactly are these people?

A national survey by the NSSF, the gun industry trade group found:

  • The typical MSR owner is 35-plus years old, married and has some college education.
  • Nearly half (44 percent) of MSR owners are current or former military or law enforcement members.
  • 39 percent of all MSR owners purchased their most recent MSR at an independent retail store, with the average purchase price being $1,083.

I flat out don’t believe that statistic, that is, that 44 percent of MSR owners are current or former military or law enforcement.  I just don’t believe it.  Someone has go to prove it to me before I’ll pass that on as fact.

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This article is filed under the category(s) Recommended Reading and was published September 22nd, 2013 by Herschel Smith.

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