How Helene Affected The People Of Appalachia

Herschel Smith · 30 Sep 2024 · 11 Comments

To begin with, this is your president. This ought to be one of the most shameful things ever said by a sitting president. "Do you have any words to the victims of the hurricane?" BIDEN: "We've given everything that we have." "Are there any more resources the federal government could be giving them?" BIDEN: "No." pic.twitter.com/jDMNGhpjOz — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 30, 2024 We must have spent too much money on Ukraine to help Americans in distress. I don't…… [read more]

Kickin’ The Can With Jerry

BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 2 months ago

Then of course there is this.

The Dark Side Of The Universal Background Check Bill HR8

BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 2 months ago

Utah Shooting Sports Council writing at Ammoland.

H.R. 8 is sold as a “background check bill” to keep guns away from bad people, but we know from 50 years experience that less than 1% of the bad people who fail the background checks are prosecuted.

What is needed are not more background check laws, but enforcement of existing laws. If bad guys are illegally trying to purchase a firearm, they need to be punished. The lawmakers pushing H.R. 8 do not want to do that. They are not serious about stopping bad people from getting guns, they only care about gutting the Second Amendment.

I stopped reading right there.  Because.  Existing laws.  Infringement.

The Hunt

BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 2 months ago

David Codrea:

It’s telling that The Hunt is coming from an industry that relies on fantasy depictions of gun use for so much of its profits and special operator class armed security for protecting its elites while simultaneously being such a major social and political influencer for disarming its customers.

I haven’t heard much about this silly tripe, but I did see one short clip where someone who was being hunted by Antifa was cowering in fear and trying (unsuccessfully) to hide.  From this little clip, it’s obvious that the “hunters” don’t understand their supposed prey.

‘Nuff said.

This Is What Happens When The Government Won’t Punish Lawbreakers

BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 2 months ago

AP:

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Vigilante attacks and mob justice appeared to be on the rise in Mexico this week as violence mounted, more than two dozen bodies appeared along roadsides and the government ruled out any new crackdown on criminal gangs.

Prosecutors in the northern state of Sinaloa said Thursday five young men have been murdered in recent days, and in all five cases toy cars were carefully placed atop their corpses. The men were apparently car thieves, and the toys indicated both the reason they were killed and served as a warning to other thieves.

The latest such murder came Wednesday. Prosecutors said the victim had been identified as the same man seen on security camera footage earlier that day stealing a pickup truck at gunpoint from a woman outside her home in the state capital, Culiacan.

The National Human Rights Commission said 43 people have been killed in lynchings so far this year, and 173 injured. That was up from the already-record year for mob justice in 2018.

“Those who take justice into their own hands commit acts of barbarism, not justice,” the commission said.

Vigilantes say they have to act because authorities won’t crack down on criminal gangs, which have become more brazen and have begun returning to the grisly mass executions that marked Mexico’s 2006-2012 drug war.

Actually, there is a strong history of constables gathering a Posse of locals and enforcing justice.  I much prefer it to the [in]justice we see today.

As for Mexico, it is a failed state, right on the Southern border.

Liberty, If Not Already Annihilated, Is On The Brink Of Destruction

BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 2 months ago

“This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty…. The right of self defense is the first law of nature: in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.”
– St. George Tucker, Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1803

Cited by David Codrea.  His article at Firearms News is full of important commentary on the current state of affairs, and the apparent current support for a new AWB if only enough rulers would favor it.

Don’t miss the fact that Mitch McConnell feels pressured.

“The urgency of this is not lost on any of us,” McConnell said.

But he noted the bar for legislation includes passing the House, garnering 60 votes in the Senate and a presidential signature.

He did not rule out looking at a ban on assault weapons, but noted there is a dispute over whether the 1994 ban that expired in 2004 had showed results.

“It’s certainly one of the front and center issues,” he said. “But what we can’t do is fail to pass something. What I want to see here is an outcome, not a bunch of partisan back and forths, shots across the bow.”

It’s urgent.  They must do something, because politics.  Codrea points out that Trump has jettisoned his base of gun owners.

Since Donald Trump was elected, the gun community has seen the president bypass Congress and ban bump stocks, support over 21 gun purchases, a Department of State over 32-round magazine ban for civilian firearms exports, push red flag laws which destroy the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th Amendments, and a complete ignoring of the evisceration of the 2nd Amendment in the states of: CA, OR, WA, IL, NM, NV, VT, FL, NY, NJ, MA, etc… And then there is his statement that he “doesn’t like” silencers.

Yes, and I’ll point out one more time that Florida received an influx of Puerto Ricans after the hurricane who will likely vote collectivist, Trump won North Carolina by a small margin, and he is in trouble in Ohio, possibly Georgia and perhaps even Texas.  The road to victory in the next election is narrow.

But it’s like that when you have no principles and undercut the very base you used to put you in office.  We are where we are because enough people didn’t ask Trump the hard questions on his core belief in gun rights (or enough people didn’t listen when I asked the hard questions on core beliefs).  It appears he doesn’t have any.

Combatting Terrorism Center At West Point Discusses “Right Wing Extremism”

BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 2 months ago

CTC:

In addition to this, over the last few years, we have seen—certainly across the English-speaking and Western world—an increase in seriousness and coherence of extreme right-wing groups. It used to look like the extreme right was made up of political movements, and when they conducted violent acts, it was often a lone actor. What we are seeing now is groups of likeminded individuals coming together and talking in a type of language and approach that is used by violent Islamists, using words such as “embracing martyrdom.” In part, this is a response to the broader political context. The far-right parties and movements now have an increasingly coherent narrative, and stronger links to a shared philosophy. Books which espouse this extreme right-wing philosophy are readily available on Amazon, where they have multiple five-star reviews, very few negative reviews, and through algorithms lead the reader to other similarly extreme material. We have not yet worked out, as we did previously with violent Islamist material, what is and is not acceptable on the extreme right-wing side of the ideological equation. The New Zealand attack demonstrated this very clearly when he titled his manifesto “The Great Replacement,” drawing on a French right-wing philosophical tract of the same name.

This apparently passes for scholarship at the center.  We’ve discussed this before, how the nexus connecting the shooters in New Zealand, El Paso and Dayton is: Eco-terrorism, a desire for universally guaranteed income, belief in gun control philosophy, and general anti-religious zealotry.  The shooters were much closer to Antifa than any right wing cause, as pointed out just today (fortunately for readers, you hear it here first).

She passes on the false narrative that these were right wing extremists.  But the important thing isn’t that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.  I expect that.  The important thing is that the CTC at West Point has their eyes on “right wing extremism” in America.

Whatever that is.

Visa Will Continue To Support Gun Purchases

BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 2 months ago

IBT:

Visa Inc. said it won’t stop customers from using its services to buy guns in the United States.

The CEO of Visa, the world’s dominant credit card outside China, said the company will continue to facilitate gun purchases as long as it remains legal for Americans to buy firearms. Visa acts as a payment processor for purchases.

In contrast, other payment companies such as PayPal and Square don’t allow their services to be used for gun purchases. Mastercard, however, has taken a position similar to that of Visa’s as regards the self-regulation of gun purchases.

“We are guided by the federal laws in a country, and our job is to create and to facilitate fair and secure commerce,” Visa Chairman and CEO Alfred Kelly told CNBC. “We shouldn’t tell people they can’t purchase a 32-ounce soda. We shouldn’t tell people they can’t buy reproductive drugs.”

Visa’s stand on its role in facilitating gun purchases hasn’t changed over the past year.

Thus will I continue to support Visa.

Trump Endorses Universal Background Checks

BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 2 months ago

That thing we fought so hard for, the hard won victory that required throwing Eric Cantor out of office, is going to come to pass.  The republicans are all on the band wagon now and Trump is pushing for it.

President Donald Trump endorsed an expansion of background checks for U.S. gun buyers following the massacres in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, but said there’s “no political appetite” to renew a ban on military-style rifles.

“I’m looking to do background checks,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House on Wednesday to visit the two violence-stricken cities. “I think background checks are important.”

While he said there’s not enough support in Congress to re-enact what was commonly known as the assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004, he indicated he would discuss the idea with lawmakers. “I will certainly bring that up,” he said.

Remember those words: “I will certainly bring that up.”

So now Trump has ensured that he is a one-term president.  Between the bump stock ban, red flag laws, and universal background checks, he has alienated millions of gun owners.

Other pretend-conservatives have jumped on the band wagon as well. David French has never failed to disappoint me.

A so-called “red flag” law fills the gaps in criminal law and the laws governing mental-health adjudications by granting standing to a defined, limited universe of people to seek temporary seizure orders — called gun-violence-restraining orders — for a gun if they can present admissible evidence that the gun’s owner is exhibiting threatening behavior.

Properly drafted, these laws can save lives while also protecting individual liberty. Improperly drafted, they grant the state an overly broad tool that can be systematically abused to deprive disfavored citizens of a fundamental constitutional right.

He then lists a number of things he pretends will ensure against the improper use of this tool.  It doesn’t matter.

French calls himself a Christian.  I will make no claim whether he is or isn’t.  But I will certainly make the claim that he is an ignorant Christian if he is one at all.  He has bought into the wizardry and community witchcraft of psychiatry.  He may as well advocate howling at the moon at midnight on a full moon and throwing chicken bones over his shoulder.

Some Christian.

John Richardson’s Blog Has Been Banned By Google

BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 2 months ago

His blog, No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money via Gun Free Zone.

According to Uncle (in an email to me), Google accused him of selling guns, which of course is ridiculous.

John seems to think it might be related to his criticism of the NRA.

I don’t claim to know.  I do know that if you’re using BlogSpot (owned by Google), you’re subject to their terms and conditions.  Get off of it.  Back up your content.  Pay another host.  Say goodbye to Google forever.

A Quick Note On The Cult Of Personality

BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 2 months ago

So Orange Man’s daughter has called for federal red flag gun confiscation laws.

“Congress should enact Red Flag laws/ Extreme Risk Protection Orders in EVERY state and increase resources dedicated to mental health support.”

Prior to the election I visited reddit/The_Donald enough times to learn that not only was it a cult of personality, part of that personality had to do with Ivanka.

Quite literally, the readers were pushing for her candidacy for president immediately after Orange Man.  She’s pretty, said they.

So now how do the cult members feel about it now that pretty girl wants to take their guns based on the word of a single angry person and a midnight signature by a corrupt judge?


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