Articles by Herschel Smith

Philly.com:

Sixteen of the nation’s top retired military commanders are urging Congress to pass gun control legislation, arguing that there are many steps that can be taken to curb gun deaths that do not violate the Second Amendment.

In a letter they plan to send to Congressional leaders, the retired commanders, including Army Gens. Wesley Clark and Michael Hayden, Navy Admiral Eric Olson, Air Force Lt. Gen. Norman Seip and Marine Brig. Gen. Stephen Cheney, argue that Congress is “no longer speaking or voting for the majority of Americans, including gun owners” when it comes to the issue of firearms.

“There is no acceptable excuse for our elected leaders to avoid addressing this as a national crisis,” they write.

The group is part of the veterans coalition of a gun control group founded by former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly. They laid out their arguments in a letter they plan to send to Congressional leaders.

[ … ]

The letter comes as a House panel this week voted to advance a measure that would expand the ability to carry concealed firearms across state lines. Under the bill, known as concealed carry reciprocity, a person with a concealed-carry permit and a photo identification would be able to have a concealed weapon in any state that allows them. The gun owner would still have to follow state and local laws regarding where and what type of weapons can be carried. The National Rifle Association has called the bill its “highest legislative priority in Congress.”

The legislation is scheduled for a House vote next week. Its sponsor, Richard Hudson, R-N.C., said in a statement that the bill is extremely popular and “momentum, common sense, and the facts are on our side.”

Giffords said the bill weakens public safety, and Retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal said he agrees.

“In the aftermath of two of the country’s worst mass shootings, it’s an affront to both our safety as a nation and the common sense of its citizens that Congress would consider actually weakening our gun laws,” McChrystal said. “Untrained and potentially dangerous people have no business carrying guns in our communities, but the concealed carry bill in the House would allow exactly that.”

Well isn’t this special?  A list of traitors self identifies – again.  We knew this about some of these men, such as Petraeus and McChrysytal.  We also knew that Petraeus is an adulterer and McChrystal is a murderer (of the men at Ganjgal).  I’m not certain whether we also knew that about the other signatories to this abomination, but if not, then welcome to the party.  You’re on our very own list now.

At least with people who haven’t sworn to uphold and defend the constitution (some people grow up hating liberty and never once utter words of commitment to anyone or anything but themselves), urging gun control wouldn’t be out of character, even though still contrary to duty and righteousness.

But these are men who have taken the oaths they have, and then behave contrary to everything to which they have agreed.  Oh well, Petraeus did that with his wife too, and McChrystal did that to the men at Ganjgal.  Men who can’t be trusted … can’t be trusted, ever.  They prove it in all of their ways, in all of their words, and in all of their actions.

The military is rife with such men just as is law enforcement.  You cannot use exterior accoutrements as an indication of quality of character.

Statement from GOA:

Springfield, VA – Executive Director of Gun Owners of America (GOA) Erich Pratt made the following statement after the House Judiciary Committee’s actions on concealed carry reciprocity and background check legislation:
“Over 1.5 million law-abiding Americans who make up Gun Owners of America commend the House Judiciary Committee for reporting H.R. 38, the concealed carry reciprocity bill.

“GOA applauds the committee passage of H.R. 38 and encourages the House leadership to take up the bill right away. This legislation will allow decent Americans to carry in any state in the country with confidence that they would not become entrapped by the fascist gun laws of anti-gun states.

“GOA also sends special kudos to Republicans on the Judiciary Committee who shot down an attempt by Democrats to delete the Constitutional Carry protections in the bill.  Gun Owners of America opposed the amendment that sought to only limit concealed carry reciprocity to permit holders and was happy to see that provision go down to an inglorious defeat.

“Finally, Gun Owners of America condemns the committee’s approval of the ‘Traffic Ticket Gun Ban’ (H.R. 4477).  This deceptive legislation would add hundreds of thousands of additional names into the NICS system, thus blocking thousands of lawful gun owners from purchasing guns for offenses as slight as unpaid traffic tickets. Not only that, it would lay the groundwork for an anti-gun administration to troll every government health and welfare program for the purpose of imposing gun bans on recipients with PTSD, ADHD, and Alzheimer’s — the latter would jeopardize the inheritance of many valuable gun collections.  The Obama administration already tried to do this with Social Security disability.  In the future, there may not be a pro-gun Congress to disapprove similar moves or a pro-gun president to sign it.”

But then there is this from reddit/firearms.

From The Military Arms’ Channel page:

I have spoken to GOA again today and here is an email as of about 15 minutes ago.

“Tim,

To clarify several things.

First, recent gun politics has been a very fluid situation, with a lot of different statements from different people on the Hill.

On the combination of reciprocity and fix NICS – currently, we do expect the House Rules Committee to combine the bills Tuesday.

On the YouTube video you sent. I believe this YouTuber mistook the markup transcript (this document) for what was actually passed by the Judiciary Committee. That document, which is over 300 pages in length, is the a transcript of the hearing, not what was passed by the Judiciary Committee. The two amendments that were added, (here and here) are not certainly 300 pages in length, nor are they killer amendments. The standalone reciprocity bill is still a clean bill.

Again, this is a very fluid situation, why don’t we talk tomorrow for a game plan?

Thanks for your activism!”

In the end, what came out of the committee is a pretty clean HR 38. They added two amendments which aren’t “poison pills” in the view of the GOA.

Now for the bad news.

GOA does now expect the House Rules Committee to combine the bills on Tuesday. It’s not done yet, but at this time it does look like Massie’s concerns are valid as the GOA are now saying they expect the HRC to try and merge them into one bill.

If this does happen, sadly, we will have to defeat the legislation. It will be another Hughes Amendment at that point. Since Bill Clinton was on the only U.S. President to have “line item veto” power for a short time before it was ruled unconstitutional in 1998, Trump won’t be able to fix a broken bill… just like Reagan couldn’t. And just like with Reagan, the NRA will likely tell Trump to sign the bill into law if it makes it to his desk as they’re strong advocates for the NICS system (they wrote the original law for Clinton).

If we pass a combined bill, we will have to accept the fact that NICS will get a whole lot worse and you can expect a whole bunch more delays and denials coming out of the NICS system.

If you ever talked to your doctor about being depressed, you’re not able to own a firearm. If you have been diagnosed with ADHD, you’re no longer eligible to buy a firearm. Have you sought help with your finances before? You’re no longer eligible to own a firearm. Are you over 65? You may no longer be eligible to own a firearm. Hell, if you have an unpaid traffic ticket, you’re no longer eligible to buy a firearm under HR 4477.

Sooo…

Blow up the phones on Monday. I’ll see if I can get a stream going with the GOA to talk about it Monday. We’ll have to do what we can to try and stop the House Rules Committee from merging them. The reality is, there’s little we can do given how fast and fluid this process has been. I’ve never seen anything like it before.

Then there are the reddit commenters who call BS on the GOA take on things.

As for my own take, I have none at the moment.  I will offer up two remarks on this and in fact any other bill that comes to my attention.  First, I absolutely do not support any bill I haven’t read in its entirety.  I have not read this one.  Second, I do not support any bill, ever, under any circumstances, for any reason whatsoever, that includes more gun laws.  I do not believe in compromise.

If readers have spent more time studying this than I have, please feel free to weigh in via comments.

David Codrea:

Pelosi also has no problem ignoring due process when it comes to enacting citizen disarmament edicts. Case in point, she’s a big supporter of so-called ”No Fly/No Buy” to deny guns to Americans who have not even been charged with a crime, let alone convicted of one.

Then there is this remark, with which I agree.

And she’s absolutely inconsistent and hypocritical in defending Democrat Conyers, Al Franken and Bill Clinton while calling Republican Roy Moore “a child molester.”

And the comment of the day goes to American Patriot, who says, “If I talked like her after being pulled over by an officer I’d be in cuffs & hauled away for DUI without being tested [f]or drinking for that matter.”

Trying to reason with Pelosi is like trying to teach my dog calculus.

This is Grassy Creek Falls from the top.

Ridgeline was closed for maintenance, and since I didn’t look at the web site prior to striking out Friday morning, I had to find out by meeting a fellow biker on the trails.

I decided to get back down the mountain by riding Jim Branch trail.  I had anguished my way up that trail before, but never gone down it.

It was a rockin’ trail, very fast and rowdy.  But this isn’t surprising since there are no bad trails at DuPont.

Canton Rep:

“There’s a sort of implied pacifism by clergy and rabbis, but the Scriptures don’t support that,” he said. “The concept of the shepherd is that he’s someone who leads his flock, feeds his flock and protects his flock.”

Oyler cites Luke 22:36, when, at the end of his life, Jesus warned his disciples they would be in danger and appears to instruct them to purchase a sword for protection. It’s a contrast to Luke 9, Oyler said, when Jesus sent them out unarmed.

“We are targets,” Oyler said. “As the shepherd of the congregation, I believe I have a responsibility to have a tactical (plan) to protect my congregation … what we do ministry-wise is a little unique. We don’t ingratiate ourselves to everyone.”

Let’s not carry this too far.  While I concur that protecting your neighbors and loved ones is required, it is required of us all, not just pastors.

If you want properly to care for your “flock,” teach good doctrine.  That includes the notion that every man takes a vow when he starts a family to protect his family and give his life if necessary.  It isn’t the pastor’s job any more than your manager at work.  That’s why I’ve never been impressed at LEOs being “sworn,” as if this is something big, unique or special.  All men are sworn.

To be sure, your congregation should have a security and tactical plan, and you should create it and practice it with the other congregants.  But when it comes to a man standing over your family in the pew getting ready to take the life of your wife or children, don’t you dare look to someone else to do the protecting.

Houston Public Media:

State Attorney General Ken Paxton suggested on Fox News that good people with guns might stop the bad ones.

“If it’s a place where somebody has the ability to carry there is also the opportunity that the gunman will be taken out before he has the opportunity to kill very many people,” Paxton said.

But how often does that happen, that a bystander saves the day with a gun?

That question was just one of many we wanted to look into. For some answers we talked with Ashraf Mozayani.

“Very very low number you are looking that somebody protects themselves with the gun,” she said.

How would Mozayani know?

For years, she saw the result of gun fire first-hand when she worked at the medical examiner’s office.

“I have been the lab director and chief toxicologist for Harris County Institute of Forensic Science or at that time we called the medical examiner’s office from 1996 to 2012,” she said.

If someone died in Harris County and required an autopsy, Mozayani was a part of a team analyzing the report.

“In any medical examiner office every morning you usually sit at the table and see every case that comes to the office,” she said.

Mozayani said she rarely saw a report of a fatality where someone used a gun in defense.

Here’s a quick note to Marissa Cummings of Houston Public Media.  Congratulations on winning the stupidest MSM article of the month award!  You should be very proud.

For proof that guns are rarely used in self defense, you turned to a ME who examines dead people.  Of course, you leave out the instances where a person has been shot and lives (which the ME wouldn’t see), and instances where no round has had to be discharged (which the ME wouldn’t see), and also instances where a gun was simply safely carried by someone if needed for self defense and it never had to be used (which law enforcement and the ME wouldn’t see), but could have been used for its intended purpose.

This last category is most important, because it exists for the amelioration of risk, which as we have all learned, is the product of probability and consequences.  Assault is a high risk evolution because the consequences are so high.  Carrying a weapon and being prepared to deploy and use it ameliorates that risk.

Merissa, sit back, get a stout cup of coffee, and think about these things for a while.  Try again later after intense study.

Washington Examiner:

Illegal immigration costs taxpayers in all 50 states a total of $89 billion, and California, where an illegal on Thursday was cleared of murdering Kate Steinle despite admitting to the shooting, pays the most at $23 billion, according to a new map of the costs.

The website HowMuch.net, working with figures from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, found that Californians pay more than twice as much for illegal immigrants than the next closest state, Texas, where the price tag is $11 billion.

When federal costs are included, the price tag nationally soars to $135 billion a year.

Actually, I suspect this number of low.  I hope you enjoy all of that low cost landscaping labor.  You’re paying big for it.

The cost will soar to new heights in the coming years as immigration takes its toll on liberty (via WRSA).

I’d like to point out Trump’s 2016 margin of victory in a few key states.

Michigan: 13,080
Wisconsin: 27,257
Pennsylvania: 68,236
Florida: 114,455

That’s a grand aggregate margin of 223,028. Between then and November 2020, approximately 4.4 million legal migrants will alight in America. In addition, some estimate 100,000 have already decamped from Puerto Rico to Florida this year alone. Of that number, I would say Trump can count on the wavering support of three.

Does he understand this math? Do even the most terminally cucked Republicans?

The progressive project didn’t stop because Hillary wasn’t elected.  We got a reprieve.  That reprieve won’t last long, and the demise of liberty is ongoing.  It doesn’t matter if the men pressing it are full-orbed statists or if they just want to stay in office and are morphing their party to favor the votes.  The results are the same.

We recently discussed the new S&W Performance Center 686.  Jeff Quinn gives his take.

Christianity Today:

“I think gun control proponents are misguided in trying to persuade others of their position in the way they usually go about it,” said Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, in The Washington Post.

“There are not two sides here about whether shootings should be stopped, laws enforced, and criminality punished, but rather two sides about whether gun control is a prudent way to carry out those common goals.”

Earlier research by PRRI showed that evangelicals were the only religious group “in which a plurality (40%) say that putting more emphasis on God and morality in school and society is the most important thing that could be done to prevent future mass shootings.”

Evangelical leaders have stronger feelings about addressing gun violence through legislation, according to a survey released by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) in August. Most denominational heads and ministry presidents surveyed own a firearm themselves, but 55 percent agreed gun laws should be stricter.

“Evangelical leaders have nuanced views on guns,” said NAE president Leith Anderson. “They accept the Second Amendment, but also deeply grieve when weapons are used to take innocent lives.”

Moore told Religion News Service (RNS):

I don’t think that any gun control measure that I’ve seen would be effective in addressing these issues.

I hold to conservative views on the Second Amendment, but I don’t hold to my views here in the way that I would something clearly revealed in Scriptures. I certainly don’t hold to those things the way that I would the fundamentals of Christian doctrine and ethics, which is why I have very close co-laborers in Christ who are proponents of gun control. They haven’t persuaded me of that, but I don’t see them as being on another “side.” We both are looking toward the same goal.

No, No, NO, NO and a thousand times NO!!  We are NOT working towards the same goal and we are not on the same side.

One side wants to enable people to perform their God-given duty of self defense and defense of loved ones, neighbors and family, and the other side wants to turn to the state, the usurper of God’s providence, for cradle-to-grave protection and security.

I saw the ridiculous statement from the NAE (National Association of Evangelicals), which is anything but evangelical, when it first came out, and I thought it was so stupid that I didn’t bother with it.

And yet for some reason I simply don’t understand, they apparently think they represent evangelicals in America and get press accordingly.  From nuclear weapons disassembly to being pro-immigration and pro-redistribution of wealth, and being anti-gun, the NAE is a shill organization, worthless in every way, a mouthpiece for collectivist thinking draped in clerical accoutrements.  With the world collapsing around them, the best they can come up with is to have a “racial reconciliation Sunday.”

Ignore them.  And carry a gun at all times.