10 years, 6 months ago
If you’re like me, you admire the fine, beautiful machinery in a revolver. They beat plastic guns without mercy. I love me a nice wheel gun. But if you aren’t a revolver aficionado, there are things you need to know. This is the very first one. Watch. Learn.
10 years, 6 months ago
Further reading confirms copies of the judgment were served to Attorney General Eric Holder, as well as to the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility and the Office of Inspector General. Leaving the door open for further action, the opinion noted pending a final response from DOJ, “the court will reserve the question whether one or more of defendant’s attorneys acted in violation of the court’s rules and should be disciplined thereunder.”
Like I said, “this is criminal activity, and if it can be proven to the standards of the American Bar Association, they could be disbarred. Finally, if it can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, they could face criminal penalties.” People need to be disbarred and in prison over this.
This bill is an exact copy of one he introduced last July, H.R. 5344. At that time, he actually came out and said that he wants private citizens to be more vulnerable to gunfire … How one would “protect the safety” of “the general public” by outlawing safety equipment is left unexplained. Even many of the armored backpacks, sold for use by school children, would be banned.
PPEs are awesome, unless of course it makes you more protected from totalitarians trying to rule over you.
What Baghdad movie-goers think about American Sniper. It’s instructive.
So let me get this straight. Being an actual terrorist has to do with geographical interests and not methods or intent? Okay. Got it.
Mike Vanderboegh on Gottlieb on smart guns. Very well. I’m not opposed to people spending their money the way they want. If Gottlieb wants one, let him buy one. Leave me out of it. And don’t ever … ever … EVER … tell me what kind of gun I can have or must buy.
10 years, 6 months ago
We just discussed how at least one of the proposed pieces of legislation in Texas is licensed open carry. A deal may very well have been struck well before the session concerning what the Governor expected to come to his desk. This isn’t the only open carry bill in Texas, and so the show isn’t over yet. But there is a cold wind blowing concerning the promises made to the voters.
Texas never met a gun-rights bill it didn’t like.
But if one actually fails to pass the Legislature this session, the author of the state’s 1995 handgun permit law knows why.
A bill to allow Texans to pack pistols without a permit won’t pass “because of the Tarrant County open-carry group’s obnoxious behavior,” former Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson warned by email Tuesday.
Earlier Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said a different bill allowing open carry with a permit “does not reach to the level of prioritizing” before adjournment June 1.
Basically, Patterson said, that bill might have a chance if Open Carry Tarrant County stays home.
Patrick’s comment will “stir up a lot of folks,” Patterson wrote, adding: “I hope these folks don’t make another scene.”
Patterson called that “foolish.” Watkins’ comment: “Shame on you.”
Patterson wants the Legislature to pass bills allowing open carry and carrying at public colleges, both with a permit.
Since he worked hard for permits, he likes them.
Consider me shocked – a member of the ruling class likes it when the government gets to approve or disapprove of rights. The promise strategically didn’t include constitutional carry, and the so-called “obnoxious” behavior of open carry advocates has given him a convenient excuse for something he never wanted to do in the first place.
Another report (thanks to MackH) tells us more about the political machinations.
Speaking the day after pro-gun advocates again flocked to the state Capitol, Patrick said he thought “Second Amendment rights are important” but he didn’t think “there’s support in the Legislature to pass” a bill to legalize the open carry of handguns. In Texas, you can openly tote long arms like rifles and AR-15s, but the same has been illegal for handguns for more than 125 years.
“On open carry I’ve been very consistent, that if the votes are there, the bill will pass out of the Senate,” said Patrick. “But I’m not an open carry person myself. I wouldn’t open carry but I respect people’s right who want to.”
[ … ]
While Patrick’s comments on open carry Tuesday morning were nothing new – he ‘s made similar statements on news programs and at town hall meetings in the recent past – they seem to contradict campaign material that promised the then state senator and radio show host would more actively support the effort. On his campaign website, one of the five “Second Amendment” issues Patrick lists as priorities is to “fight for open carry.” A campaign ad also includes a promise to “support” the effort.
In a retweet of a San Antonio Express-News story from November 2013, Patrick campaign consultant Allen Blakemore also stated, “@DanPatrick supports open carry.”
If this all sounds like politicians making promises in order to get elected and then reverting collectivist after being elected, it’s because that’s exactly what happened. And as to the propaganda that this all has to do with those “obnoxious” open carriers, Sebastian fell for it hook, line and sinker.
Remember, before their little stunt, this was supposedly a done deal … So far all all the OC Tarrant County folks have accomplished this session is getting the legislature to install panic buttons, and scuttling a bill that looked like it had the legs to pass. What else will they manage to accomplish in this legislative session?
Right. They’re all a-skeered of the open carriers, enough to install “panic buttons.” It sounds to me like they aren’t a-skeerd enough. The legislators are supposed to be in our employ, and maybe what they need to see is more voters carrying guns.
As for the open carry bill they floated, I’d sooner have nothing. As I’ve said, licensed open carry in a state with no stop and identify statute for enforcement is a shooting-by-cop waiting to happen. And I certainly don’t support empowering the police state any more by giving them a stop and identify statute. That would be making something bad even worse.
Gun rights advocates are better off to hold out for constitutional carry rather than begging for scraps that fall from the master’s table. As for Texas politicians, color me unimpressed. They seem like a lot of hot air and no action or honesty. I guess the underhanded, conniving, bullying days of Bob Bullock are still going strong even as Bob lays in the grave.
10 years, 6 months ago
“The bill is taken almost word for word from The Kelly Report, a multi-authored, gun control perpetual wish list released last year from Kelly’s office,” Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership reported Tuesday. “Authors of the Kelly Report include such veteran gun control advocates as Harvard’s David Hemenway, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (formerly known as Handgun Control, Inc.), and National Urban League President and former New Orleans mayor Marc Morial.
Read all of David’s article. If you want me to respect you, show me children raised to adulthood, or gray hair, a life well-lived, or something that shows you are a man. This person is an unserious little boy. As for the promised gun control, bring it. We’ll see who wins that fight.
Also, read about David’s insurance policy. Hmm …
Actually, that wouldn’t be a new development, with the Violence Policy Center having espoused such bans on what they call “intermediate sniper rifles” (to distinguish them from “heavy sniper rifles”–mostly firing the .50 BMG cartridge) since 2001. If that effort ever comes to fruition, does anyone seriously believe they’ll not eventually find their way to warning us of the dangers of private citizens’ access to “light sniper rifles”?
More recently, we’ve seen an especially hysterical anti-gun group (and an anti-gun group has to really work to distinguish itself from the crowd in its level of hysteria) calling for a ban of rifles “too accurate” for private citizens–and stunningly, wants private citizens limited to rifles that miss 70% of the time …
Read all of Kurt’s article. Everything is proceeding just as I had foreseen.
I had previously asked the question of a purchase at Walmart, “If someone had purchased a really nice bolt action .308 with expensive glass, what would the press have done if this had gotten into criminal hands? Perhaps call it a “sniper rifle?”
And in this same spirit, Mike Vanderboegh weighs in.
Personally, I can think of no more wonderful outcome than if the movie prompts the firearm prohibitionists to go after deer rifles. They mess with Elmer Fudd at their peril and frankly the Fudds could stand being reminded that we are all guests at this disarmament party.
Yea. It isn’t just that AR-15 with the high capacity magazine they don’t want you to have. That nice .308 bolt action rifle you’ve been thinking about – you know, the one you want to put the nice Nightforce or Vortex scope on? Yea, that rifle. That’s the one. They don’t want you to have that either. Just because. You can’t be trusted.
10 years, 6 months ago
The secret was out about a week ago.
Another hot topic this session is open carry and Senator Perry already has an idea of what may come of that.
“I think you will see open carry on multiple levels. I think at the end of the day, Governor Abbott was very clear and Lt. Patrick has said the same thing. So, if an open carry bill meets the desk of the governor, it’s going to get signed. I would say if there is a bill that comes out of the house or senate chambers regarding second amendment it will be a license to carry” Senator Perry said.
As if on cue, the bill that has been filed follows what is likely a “behind closed doors” or “gentleman’s agreement.”
AUSTIN – State Sen. Craig Estes filed a bill on Friday that would authorize open carry of modern handguns in Texas by anyone with a license, so long as the handguns are carried in shoulder or belt holsters.
Texas is currently one of the few states that does not permit citizens to openly carry modern handguns under any circumstances. The other states that deny their citizens the right to carry handguns openly are: California, Florida, Illinois, New York, and South Carolina.
“Texas is one of only six states, including California, New York, and Illinois, that still completely ban open carry,” said Estes, R-Wichita Falls, who represents Palo Pinto County. “As Governor Abbott recently said, ‘If open carry is good enough for Massachusetts, it’s good enough for the state of Texas.’”
[ … ]
If passed, the new license to carry created by this bill would replace the existing concealed handgun license. Applicants would have to meet the same requirements that they currently do to get a concealed handgun license.
That’s really too bad for Texans. The government shouldn’t be in the business of licensing anyone to engage in a constitutional right. Voters might want to let their elected officials feel their disapprobation.
Now, how is this law to be enforced? Texas has no “stop and identify” statute. Either massive confusion is on the way, or more onerous laws like a new stop and identify statute will be part of this bill (or some future bill). Terrible. Just terrible.
10 years, 6 months ago
An advocacy group staged a protest at Harris Teeter in the Myers Park neighborhood Saturday, demanding that the grocery chain stop customers from openly carrying guns in its stores.
Members of Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense in America chopped up their customer loyalty cards and told a store manager they would not shop at Harris Teeter unless the policy is changed.
“We’ll come back if the store is safe,” one protester said.
The group has been lobbying Cincinnati-based Kroger, which bought Harris Teeter last year, to ban openly carried guns in stores even in states such as North Carolina where “open carry” is legal. Members have recently seen success persuading well-known chains, including Target and Starbucks, to ask customers to leave firearms outside their doors.
But Harris Teeter said it won’t change its policies, which allow open carry in states where it’s legal. Harris Teeter operates about 200 stores in eight states, but most are in North Carolina.
Gun owners in the state can openly carry firearms in most public places. A permit is required to carry a concealed gun.
“We have and will continue to adhere to the firearms and concealed handgun laws as outlined by the states in which we do business,” Harris Teeter spokeswoman Danna Jones said in an email. “We believe this issue is best handled by lawmakers, not retailers.”
The company gave a similar response in November after Moms Demand Action delivered more than 72,000 petitions to Harris Teeter’s Matthews offices asking it to halt the open carry of firearms in stores.
Moms Demand Action, which pushes for tougher guns laws, was founded after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012. A gunman killed 20 children and six adults in the school.
The organization boasts members in all 50 states, including 384 in the local chapter that organized Saturday’s protest.
About 10 women, men and children held placards in the Harris Teeter parking lot, cut their customer loyalty cards in front of television cameras and carried a letter to the store manager.
They said they do not oppose the Second Amendment right to bear arms but added that some stricter controls are necessary to protect children.
“It’s not about the guns; it’s about the people,” said Christy Clark, a Huntersville mother and leader with Moms Demand Action. “Moms, kids and stores cannot tell the difference between a good guy and a bad guy.”
Look Christy, if moms and kids could tell the difference, like this instance when Harris Teeter stores were robbed at gun point, you couldn’t do anything about it. You couldn’t protect your children, because criminals don’t obey laws or follow rules (even if Harris Teeter made such a rule).
You see, I carry a weapon in Harris Teeter stores, as I do everywhere else. The fact that you can’t see it doesn’t mean that I’m not a bad guy, and if I open carry, that doesn’t mean I’m not a good guy. This all has to do with your private psychological peculiarities, and says nothing whatsoever objective concerning anyone else. This all has to do with things going on in your mind, not reality.
Moreover, if you do ever get into a situation in which you need protection and your husband isn’t with you, one of us might just save the day. I wouldn’t rely on the police if I were you. Their response time is far too long, and they have proven again and again and again that they can be very dangerous people with guns.
Harris Teeter doesn’t want this fight. There are far too many of us and they don’t want to lose the business. So I recommend that you go somewhere you’re wanted and leave the Harris Teeter parking lots free for folks who want to shop there.
On a related subject, this sign is still hanging on a column at the Harris Teeter at Matthews Township.
I spoke to a front end manager about this and got a call from the manager before I even got home from shopping and was told to feel free to exercise my constitutional rights at Harris Teeter. The sign needed to come down and they just hadn’t gotten to it.
But the sign is still there. It’s simple folks. Get a ladder and cordless drill. I’ll help, and post pictures of the event. And everyone will go home happy.
10 years, 6 months ago
1. Do you believe that the Constitution is the “supreme Law of the Land” and that the Bill of Rights acknowledges a birthright of all Americans?
2. If so, should these rights be proactively protected from infringement by all levels of government, including city, county and state?
3. Please give some examples of gun laws you consider constitutional.
4. Please give some examples of gun laws you consider unconstitutional.
5. Does the right to bear arms include the right for any peaceable citizen to carry them concealed without a permit?
6. Do you believe that Americans have a right to own, use and carry weapons of militia utility?
Yes, yes, none of them, all of them, yes, and yes. How did I do? Read David’s entire list. I’ve become very disenchanted with the process. The NRA can’t even get the most basic things right, you know, like working to protect gun ownership and use.
Our RON (Remain-Over-Night) is hidden well up the mountain in a draw, deep in the tangled nightmare of a laurel thicket, known to the locals as an “Ivy Hell”. The name speaks for itself.
Andy spotted the potential location as the four of us patrolled slowly following the spur northwest, first in a diamond formation then later, as the trees and vegetation thickened, into a Ranger file formation, down from the ridge line of the mountain behind us.
Andy was walking point and, as the compass man, reading the terrain and keeping us on course. Al, the second man in the patrol, was keeping the pace count. Andy noted, as he frequently looked back, that Al was maintaining a good interval far enough back to be just barely visible to Andy.
Passing the large laurel thicket about 500 meters down in the draw he stopped, turned to Al, and made eye contact with him. Andy slowly raised his support hand to shoulder level, palm open, fingers pointed up, and moved them in a tight circular motion …
This is good stuff. It sounds like it happens in my neck of the woods, or at least where I can get to in a short time.
Mike Vanderboegh on the GOP caving on immigration. Because the GOP sucks.
Mike Vanderboegh on the latest CleanUpATF post. Read it all.
Outdoorhub has a review of the new Savage .17 HMR rifle. According to this review, the Ruger 77 is the better of the .17 HMR rifles when the review was done. I’ll tell you what. How about each manufacturer sending me their models and I’ll test them out myself? I can be reached as described at the contact page.
10 years, 7 months ago
The Army on Wednesday formally pushed back release of a final solicitation to produce its new handgun.
Originally projected for a Jan. 2 release, the Army decided to delay the Request for Proposals beyond January “to allow for improvements to the RFP as a result of feedback received from Industry,” according to a notice posted on the government solicitation website FedBizOpps.
No date for future action was proposed, other than to say it would not occur in January. Despite the delay, the notice also reiterated commitment to the pending competition to produce the Modular Handgun System, which will include ammo and a holster as well as a pistol.
“The Army remains committed to the MHS program and ensuring that it is executed using full and open competition,” the notice said.
Uh oh. What political machinations underlie this delay? Is Smith & Wesson not the frontrunner as they thought? To all firearms manufacturers – the military is a fickle mistress. She will break your heart.
As for polymer frame pistols, I won’t buy any more. I like the balance and slender (single stack) profile of the 1911 too much (here we all pause in respect to John Moses Browning). Furthermore, when I think about my plastic pistols I think about machines, utilitarian pieces of equipment that rattle too much and have that crappy, cheap feel but usually perform their intended function.
When I think about 1911s I think about works of art. Even more than 1911s, revolvers (finely made) are works of art, pieces of craftsmanship, something I would be proud to turn over to my children as a heritage. I’ve searched in vain, but I cannot find a picture of anyone actually carrying a wheel gun in either the Iraq or Afghanistan theaters. Kudos to anyone who can find such a treasure. Please send it our way.
And if you carried a revolver in any theater of war, you are a man among men. I want to know you.
10 years, 7 months ago
Registration precedes confiscation–maybe by years, or even decades, but that’s the only purpose it serves, and no government can forever resist the seductive siren song promising the opportunity to secure ever more power to itself, by putting that purpose into effect. The Sandy Hook Advisory Commission has helpfully reminded any of us who may have forgotten that axiom.
Yes, and in the mean time, registration serves the purpose of the state deciding who gets to purchase firearms until final confiscatory actions. Oppose a national gun registry by any means necessary.
So they don’t want people to know what they’re selling? The “military-bred weaponry” to which he refers is how these companies make their living, and they’re hardly secretive about it. His op-ed column, after all, is replete with posters (the ones that are “almost always in capital letters”) advertising these companies’ wares. The images are on the companies’ websites, and in advertising they pay for in various gun magazines.
That, after all, makes rather a lot more sense than trying to hide their advertising. The very purpose of advertising is defeated if that advertising is not seen.
Josh Sugarmann apparently doesn’t even understand basic economics. I’ve seen so much from the SHOT show – and I didn’t go – that I want it all to go away. It’s gun manufacturers seeking the goose that lays the golden egg, and I won’t pay the kind of prices I’ve seen for most of these firearms. So perhaps the manufacturers don’t understand basic economics either. But I expect the prices to go down.
Mike Vanderboegh. You have to watch this video. No really. You need to watch this. Who says the A-10 is “unlovely?” I certainly don’t. To me it’s the greatest aircraft for field support ever manufactured. I guess the idiot general wants to spend his money on new toys like the super great … ahem … wink, wink … F35, that piece of crap that’s so expensive we couldn’t afford it alone and had to go in with other countries to build it, those countries having the plans and specs now.
And good grief! Am I going to have turn the NRA loose to their own demise and forever forswear membership? They can’t even get the simplest of things right.
Via David Codrea, Dave Hardy gives us a realistic explanation as to why compromise doesn’t work in the long run.
Commenting on revelations about Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and Department of Justice (DOJ) actions in the case of retired agent Jay Dobyns against his former employer, attorney David Hardy equated them with “a BATF and DOJ Watergate… or worse,” Friday. Noting that actions taken over a civil lawsuit evidently have included concealing evidence, secret threats against witnesses, and surveillance of attorneys and witnesses, the new information lends further credence to Dobyns’ allegations and appears to show government lawyers engaged in a criminal conspiracy.
I’ll have more to say about this later.
WeaponsMan gives us a review of American Sniper. Some of what he says dovetails with what I said. I finally got a chance to talk to Daniel about the film, and he didn’t like the portrayal of Marines. He also had a number of technical nits, like digital cammies before they were in Iraq, MRAPs before they were deployed to Iraq, etc. It’s one man’s view, and it doesn’t mean that it represents reality. It represents reality according to what he saw and believes. Again, I think Bradley Cooper did the best acting I think I’ve ever seen on screen. This is a must see film, extremely noteworthy cinema.
WeaponsMan gives us a suggestion for what to do if you don’t intend to watch the idiot bowl. And I don’t.
From We Are The Mighty, this is a nice rundown of some of the more notable exploits of Carlos Hathcock.
10 years, 7 months ago
There is a stir among gun rights advocates – or at least, presumed gun rights advocates. On the one hand, there are the open carriers and opponents of I-594 and their advocates in the state of Washington (and other places like Texas and New York where even Sheriffs are recommending that your thrown your SAFE act pistol permit recertification invitation in the garbage), and on the other hand are Alan Gottlieb, Dave Workman, Bob Owens (who seems like a late comer to the pragmatic approach), and many of their readers. See for instance this article at Zelman Partisans, this one by Bob Owens, and this article, this article, this article, and this article from Mike Vanderboegh.
As you might be able to guess from my history, I am not an advocate of pragmatism. I have been a vocal and uncompromising opponent of universal background checks (and anything that enables such statism) from the beginning. But before we rehearse and and expound on the reasons for my opposition, first let’s survey the pragmatists. Bob Owens’ prose is stunning.
A small group of long gun open carriers lacking the discernment, basic common sense, and the political savvy of your average garden snail made complete fools out of themselves as they dangerously brandished firearms in the Washington House gallery last week during I-594 protests …
… knuckle-draggers like those pictured above don’t understand the long-game, and can’t grasp that the average citizen thinks that a person carrying a long gun to a protest of any sort is most likely unhinged.
We need to do a better job of patrolling our own, folks, because if we don’t find a way to control these cretins, the forces of gun control will be certain to exploit them for every bit of political capital that they can.
“Garden snail” … “knuckle-draggers” … “fools” … “cretins.” These are words for open carriers normally reserved for web sites like Mother Jones, Balloon Juice, or perhaps Salon. I am an open carrier (at certain times), and while this example is atypical of open carriers, it’s important to remember that even if it is perceived to be theatrical, it has context and it was provoked.
Earlier this summer, Rep. Jim Moeller took to Facebook and issued what some gun-rights advocates perceived as a challenge.
“I will refuse to conduct the business of the state as long as any ‘open carry’ nuts (are) in the gallery,” Moeller, D-Vancouver, wrote on his Elect Jim Moeller Facebook page.
Open carriers have experience with open carry of weapons being legal but also being bullied about their choices, or even worse, put in an unsafe position because of their legal choices. It’s also important to remember that while open carry may not appear to be the norm today, it wasn’t always this way in America.
In the colonies, availability of hunting and need for defense led to armament statues comparable to those of the early Saxon times. In 1623, Virginia forbade its colonists to travel unless they were “well armed”; in 1631 it required colonists to engage in target practice on Sunday and to “bring their peeces to church.” In 1658 it required every householder to have a functioning firearm within his house and in 1673 its laws provided that a citizen who claimed he was too poor to purchase a firearm would have one purchased for him by the government, which would then require him to pay a reasonable price when able to do so. In Massachusetts, the first session of the legislature ordered that not only freemen, but also indentured servants own firearms and in 1644 it imposed a stern 6 shilling fine upon any citizen who was not armed.
When the British government began to increase its military presence in the colonies in the mid-eighteenth century, Massachusetts responded by calling upon its citizens to arm themselves in defense.
Weapons were used for hunting, self defense, and yes, amelioration of tyranny. It wasn’t too many days ago that we rehearsed the jihadist attack on Charlie Hebdo and the goofy “reenactment” that the boys from TTAG did. And goofy it was, but I did have the good sense to observe that “when defending against attackers with foreknowledge and rifles, you would rather have foreknowledge and rifles yourself.”
Islamists are being given sanctuary in the U.S., and Islamic calls to prayer are heard over loud speakers in Detroit, Michigan (and have been for about a decade now). Beyond that, tens of millions of Hispanics and Latinos have flooded across the border, some of whom included very violent gang members who have been so bathed in violence and death that they are said to perpetrate it not only for the sake of crime, but for the sake of the violence itself. Some strategists see the capability to conduct criminal operations and perpetrate violence to be far greater among the cartels than any Middle Eastern or Asian Islamic group.
As if the potential need for self defense isn’t enough, America now has two hundred trillion dollars of unfunded liability, now has full orbed socialized medicine, and has aborted more babies than Hitler killed Jews. The time would have come and already left that the founders of this great nation would have put their foot down and drawn a line in the sand.
But as a community we still seem to be asleep, or at least comfortably deluded. The most instructive and educational of all of the links I have provided above comes not from the authors, although some are very good, but from the comments. Consider this one.
As an advocate of freedom, I’m dismayed at the flawed thinking of so many not so responsible gun owners disregarding the efforts of so many responsible citizens that are trying to preserve and restore our 2nd Amendment rights. Many gun rights advocates are working hard to encourage responsible and knowledgeable leadership out of our legislature. The few that want to use a firearm as a tool of intimidation or civil disobedience will make it even more challenging for the rest of us to convince our representatives that an armed society is indeed a polite society.
Next, consider this.
While open carry may not be ‘illegal’ in a particular case, doing so is not often the right thing to do. There was a time that, even here in California, we could sling a rifle across our shoulders and ride a motorcycle out to the range and no one freaked out. Then, we had the ‘open carry’ crowd start trying to attract attention, gathering in large groups and parading around, getting loud and vocal and,in general, acting like prissy little drama queens. As expected, people reacted.
The first commenter also slammed the open carriers for horrible muzzle control. I am not defending poor muzzle control, and if they were brandishing or threatening in any way, they need to learn the rules of gun safety and mature a bit before doing this again. That is both illegal and unsafe. But that’s a side show compared to the real issue. To the first commenter convincing his representative is what it’s all about, even though that hasn’t worked to stop socialized medicine, abortion and oppressive taxation. From the land of make believe we come to the second commenter, for whom the problem started not with collectivists pressing down with statist gun control laws and regulations, but with open carriers who exercised their rights to carry (and what would have been the catalyst for just such a “display” as suggested, he doesn’t say – it just started happening one day I suppose). Then there is the hand-wringer, what I consider to be the capstone of the anti-open carry argument.
While I support the concept of unfettered right to bear arms, the reality in most of these “United States” is that one’s appearance on the street with a handgun openly strapped to one’s belt is unsettling to the hordes of liberals out there, and their reaction is definitely averse to our rights, and a threat that they perceive, to them.
Whenever CCW is an available alternative, we should prefer it, and avoid any display of firearms to those idiots who oppose our rights. The objective is not to prove some point, it is to be safer and to be better able to defend ourselves and our families, and CCW serves both objectives well.
Someday perhaps, most Americans will recognize that carrying a gun is not a bizarre fetish, but is a commitment that Americans make, in order to be free, and to incidentally guarantee the freedom of those who do not understand. That day has not yet come, and will come more quickly if we avoid unnecessary confrontation.
I yearn for the day when every housewife can choose to openly strap on a handgun when she goes grocery shopping, or to the mall. Until then, CCW is a better pathway to our freedom.
That day will “come more quickly if we avoid unnecessary confrontation.” Finally, from the delusional to the defeatist. Consider Sebastian.
I have no problem with the “I Will Not Comply Crowd.” I live in a state with a similar regime to Washington for handguns, and it’s probably one of the most ignored laws in the commonwealth. I have no problem with civil disobedience. I don’t disapprove of what the sticks have been doing in Connecticut, because I don’t think there’s anything we carrots can do to help the Nutmeg State, for the time being. We’re challenging the law in federal court, and maybe, maybe down the road we could federally preempt it using Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. That’s thin gruel, and I recognize that. But we are trying, and I think over the long run we have a good chance of being successful.
The big strategic question of gun rights in the last two years of the Obama Administration is how we defang Bloomberg, because he, without a doubt, is the single biggest threat our gun rights have faced since the 1990s. He’s not going to be intimidated by sticks; he has enough money to hire his own private army to protect him if he wishes. He’s not going to be concerned with carrots either, because most of us aren’t billionaires, and don’t have the money to throw around the political process that he does. So what do we do?
And this brings me to my main points. Background checks are not a problem because they currently constitute a national gun registry. If you recall my previous discussion on the subject, I played “devil’s advocate” to see just how close the ATF could come to such a monster. I am still skeptical that the schema is in place (or could be put in place without a lot of additional pain and work). But the danger in universal background checks is twofold. First, it would indeed put the procedures and protocol in place for a national gun registry. Second, it makes the government the ultimate arbiter of God-given rights.
There is an intensely moral element to control of this sort. Gun control is evil, a sign and symptom of wicked rulers. Sebastian doesn’t think so.
I really don’t like it when churches insert themselves into political matters under the guise that these are really spiritual matters. Murder, rage, and vengeance — these are all matters of the spirit. Gun control is a matter of politics.
But to the educated man or woman, politics is ethics, which is a category of philosophy, or a description of a comprehensive world view, including metaphysics and epistemology. It’s all related, and has to do with how you know what you know, how you assign truth value, and what lies beyond the physical. That which is so intensely moral is not ripe terrain for compromise. And a proper anthropology – a right view of mankind – knows that “the heart [of man] is deceitful above all things, and is desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). Only God understands it, and all attempts by men to divine the intentions and correct the maladies of the heart end in despair and failure.
Lastly, there is an element of eschatology in these demurrals from the pragmatists. They see failure where many see potential success. But fear not, God has always had His remnant, and He will not allow liberty to perish from the earth. The chains always fall off, sometimes by His mighty hand, other times by using us as secondary causes and only by the utmost of peril to our lives, health and wealth – but always by His kind providence.
As much as I detest the propensity to compromise, especially out of fear of defeat, and as much as I loath Gates, Bloomberg and their minions, I don’t think what they do is all that significant. Nor do I think that Gottlieb is all that significant. He will be irrelevant in future circles of lovers of liberty, and I don’t think he will sway many minds. Rather, with one commenter to this piece by Clair Wolfe I think that “the seed of the larger problem lies in the troubling correlation between politically and socially conservative people and their acquiescence to, even active subservience to, authority” (see here also my Foundation of Liberty).
And as much as I am accused at times of “preaching to the choir,” I think that the choir is a rather small ensemble of singers. The problem is one of heart, or moral fiber, and of faith. The collectivists turn to the state as their god, and the rulers mutually enjoin the people into the herds who need the state to determine the difference between right and wrong for the great unwashed masses.
Thus, most people would have no basis on which to demur if the state decided to kill every third man named Jerry before NFL games as a sacrifice to the football gods. Utilitarianism has a very dark side. For those who would oppose it with force but with no foundation, they are no different than Machiavelli. The salient and important question is whether the people will wake from their slumber in enough time to prevent the degree of pain that can come from this conflict. There is a massive cultural and religious war going on in America, and gun control is one front in that war. People will gird their loins and engage now, or suffer the consequences later.
