Archive for the 'Gun Control' Category

USA Today:

LIEGE, Belgium — A knife-wielding prison inmate stabbed two female police officers in the Belgian city of Liege, stole their service weapons and shot them and a bystander dead in an attack Tuesday that prosecutors fear could be terror-related.

Justice Minister Koen Geens said the assailant, who was later killed by police, was on a two-day leave from prison. Geens described him as a repeat offender who had been incarcerated since 2003 and was due for release in two years.

The attack happened outside a Liege cafe on Tuesday morning. Liege prosecutors’ spokesman Philippe Dulieu said the man crept up on the two officers from behind carrying a knife and stabbed them several times.

“He then took their weapons. He used the weapons on the officers, who died,” Dulieu told reporters. The two police handguns had a total of 17 bullets.

Dulieu said the attacker then shot and killed a 22-year-old man in a vehicle that was leaving a parking space outside a nearby high school. He then took two women hostage inside the school.

But this sort of thing is nothing new.  In Brazil the police are targeted for their weapons.  It happens in the U.S. as well as this case in the Bronx demonstrates.

So when the controllers tell you that only cops will have guns if they get their way, they are telling you [a] guns will be in the hands of men who, worldwide, perpetrated approximately 170 million murders in the twentieth century, [b] guns will be in the hands of criminals who would sooner kill you for the fun of it as to look at you, or [c] both.

Remember that.

Forbes:

This year, here are just some of the measures doctors want the AMA to back:

• Ban the sale of bump stocks. AMA delegates will consider supporting “a ban on the sale of any device, including bump stocks, that converts a firearm into a weapon that mimics a fully automatic weapon.”
• Strengthen the background check system for firearms. AMA delegates will consider supporting legislation that requires “all gun sales and transfers” to “fall under strengthened regulation.
• ”Ban on semi-automatic assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines. AMA delegates will consider supporting “a ban on the sale, transfer, manufacturer and importation of assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines to the public.”
• Increasing the legal age of purchasing ammunition and firearms from 18 to 21. AMA delegates will consider supporting “increasing the legal age to purchase firearms and ammunition.”

Know what’s happening.  Know and understand your enemies.  Know where the attacks are coming from.  Destroy the flanking maneuvers.

My father once told me that the AMA was the tightest, strongest fraternity outside of the communist party.  An enemy is dangerous if they are devoted to each other.

David Codrea:

As an aside, that the phrase “Molon Labe” is new to him shows a person profoundly ignorant of those he would turn into enemies. In fairness, his readership admittedly could leave most of us in the dust if the topics were men’s fashion tips, mixing the perfect martini or where to go for the best mankini wax job.

Then there is this.

This is existential. If Americans once more rebel against tyranny, there’s no reason to expect history will not repeat itself as far as the very personal and often violent Patriots vs. Tories conflicts that happened last time. If that does, those for whom no gun laws will ever be enough, and who egged it all on, should not delude themselves into thinking their roles will be overlooked …

I suspect that Holmes read the comments and email and saw that his prose was received poorly, deciding that he didn’t like what he saw.  So he decided to write about it again.  He was probably fabulating as to the true nature of the email, alleging personal threats when the mail had more to do with generic statements of philosophy.

As to Codrea’s first paragraph I lifted, it almost made me spit my coffee.  As to his second paragraph, Holmes and others had better take the “generic statements of philosophy” very seriously.  The people making the statements sure do.

As I said, I’m not very worried about Holmes.  I’m very concerned about nickel and dime, death of a thousand cuts, constantly dripping, constantly badgering gun owners to death.  A new AWB that doesn’t declare AR-15s illegal, just non-transferrable upon death.  New laws that make it illegal to shoot AR-15s at ranges.  New taxes and controls on ammunition.  New banking laws that make it difficult if not impossible for gun manufacturers to do business.

We’ve discussed it all before.  You know how to detect and prevent the flanking maneuvers, right?

VTDIGGER:

Democratic senators are pressing to modernize the tools federal law enforcement officers can use to trace firearms.

Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., introduced a bill that would require the federal government to set up a searchable electronic database that includes information tracing the production, shipment and sale of firearms.

Information about firearms is currently recorded and maintained by authorities, but current law prohibits that information from being accessed through a digital database.

In order to trace a firearm now, law enforcement must look through records manually, sorting through physical files that include microfilm and handwritten notes.

According to Leahy, there are currently 800 million paper records held at the West Virginia facility.

In other words, an approved, legal, unrestricted gun registry, one of the touchstones of statism.

A year ago I would have scoffed at this and its small chance of passing.  Today not so much, neither from the perspective of Congress nor the POTUS.

The Salt Lake Tribune, written by Robert Rees who teaches religion at Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, Calif., where he is director of Mormon Studies.

But no matter how much research we do or how much support we drum up to support our own prejudices about guns, we are likely just to go on shouting slogans at each other. Until we are able to permit one another’s views, we will continue to see only so far as the inside of our own heads — and reason only so far as defending our own axioms.

There is no doubt that the LDS takes a strong and unbending position against firearms except in the hands of law enforcement.

LDS Church policy restricts “lethal weapons” at church.

So do the Jehova’s Witnesses.

How a Christian chooses to protect himself, his family, or his possessions is, of course, largely a personal matter, as is his choice of employment. That said, Bible principles reflect God’s wisdom and his love for us. Out of regard for those principles, spiritually mature Christians choose not to keep a firearm for protection against other humans. They know that true and lasting security comes to those who demonstrate trust in God by living in harmony with Bible principles.​

During the great tribulation, Christians will rely on Jehovah and not try to defend themselves.

It’s truly a shame because were these folks more open minded and cared about proper exegesis of the Scriptures, it’s trivial to make an unassailable Biblical case not only for the right of self defense, but the duty to defend not only oneself but other lives as well with every means possible.

The first writer I quoted, Robert Rees, mentioned a world without “moral certainty.”  It’s no wonder that the LDS is screwed up with professors who are morally uncertain.  Moral certainty, sir, comes from the law-word of almighty God, found in the Holy Writ, and of that, I’m quite certain.

It’s so very hard to pick because there are so many good ones.  This one stood out as important by reader Zion.

Lautenberg amendment in NICS acts retroactively to convictions prior to the law and they were NEVER INFORMED. This is “EX POST FACTO”. Those priors before NICS did NOT get “DUE PROCESS” to a lifetime gun ban adding a second sentencing to a prior judgement. This is a “BILL OF ATTAINDER”. NICS IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL TYRANNY, and supporters need to be prosecuted.

Not that there is any court in the land that will say such things as this.

Free Thought Project:

In an email Tuesday night, former Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul released an ominous statement claiming that a source they have in the Senate revealed Democrats are teaming up with Republicans to push through a massive gun control bill.

According to their source, as Paul explained, “Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) are teaming up with Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to ram through one of the worst nationwide gun confiscation schemes ever devised.”

The gun confiscation bill, according to Paul, is designed to disarm Americans without any due process. The senators are using the recent tragic shooting in Texas as the impetus behind the law—in spite of the fact that this law would not have prevented the shooting at all.

As the Free Thought Project has previously reported, some states have already begun implementing laws like this one. Using mass shootings as a their ammunition, states have enacted “Red Flag” or “Risk Protection” laws which allow police to confiscate a person’s weapon before they are ever given a chance to defend themselves.

In both of the gun confiscation cases reported by TFTP, neither of the two men were suspected of committing a crime, nor had they committed a crime.

Under the fifth and fourteenth amendments, due process clauses are in place to act as a safeguard from arbitrary denial of life, liberty, or property by the government outside the sanction of law. What’s more, neither of the men were granted their sixth amendment rights to be confronted with the witnesses against them. In both cases, simple orders—under new laws—were issued, arguably arbitrarily, which stripped these two men of their property.

In spite of what officials and the media claim, when a person is stripped of their constitutional rights, albeit temporarily, without being given the chance to make their own case based on what can be entirely arbitrary accusations, this is the removal of due process.

As Ron Paul explains, this removal of due process could soon be a federal law.

I’ll observe several things here.  I’ve found Ron Paul useful and informed at times, and other times not so much.  Let’s assume that he’s well informed this time and go from there.

It doesn’t surprise me at all to see the names Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham.  If he were in better health, we’d see John McCain as well on that list.  These men are controllers, and we all know it.

I’ll also observe that while it’s bothersome and telling about the sorry state of respect for constitutional protections in America, I’m not so impressed by “due process.”  Due process means an activist social planner district attorney takes you on to destroy you and packs the jury with idiots who wear goofy-ass sports jerseys of their favorite criminal and worry about things like their “fantasy football” team.

Due process in America is a bad joke.  The problem is that America is sick unto death, and that doesn’t just mean the politicians.

I’ll close with several predictions.  First, if this does indeed make its way through the system, the NRA will support it and give all of the politicians cover for voting in favor of the bill.  Second, Trump will sign it into law if it crosses his desk.  Third, no court in the land will strike it down as unconstitutional.

We’ll see how well I have predicted, won’t we?

Sun Sentinel:

The families of two victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting on Wednesday sued the maker and seller of the weapon used in the rampage, claiming they should be held partially responsible for what Nikolas Cruz did with it.

The parents of Jaime Guttenberg and Alex Schachter want a judge to clear the way for them to claim damages against American Outdoor Brands, formerly known as Smith & Wesson, and Sunrise Tactical Supply. The Coral Springs store is where Cruz purchased the AR-15-style weapon used in the Feb. 14 shooting spree.

Fred and Jennifer Guttenberg, and Max Schachter “seek to hold defendants legally responsible for their complicity in the entirely foreseeable, deadly use of the assault-style weapons that they place on the market,” according to the lawsuit, filed in Broward Circuit Court.

Before the lawsuit can go forward, their attorneys said, judges have to clarify that gun manufacturers and sellers can be sued by victims.

“A confusingly written Florida statute stands in the way,” the attorneys wrote. “If the defendants claim that [the law] entitles them to immunity from such claims, and the courts agree,” the victims will be forced to pay the gun maker’s and seller’s legal fees instead of recovering damages.

The 2001 law, Florida Statute 790.331, explicitly prohibits state, county and city government agencies from suing businesses over the legal manufacture and sale of weapons that are later used unlawfully. The law is silent on whether victims can sue on those grounds.

The same law allows governments and victims to sue over defects in the weapons, but “the potential of a firearm or ammunition to cause serious injury, damage, or death as a result of normal function does not constitute a defective condition of the product.”

The Guttenbergs and Schachter want a judge to either declare that the law does not block them from collecting damages — or to declare the law unconstitutional.

Cruz, 19, bought his Smith & Wesson M&P 15 .223 rifle legally a year before the shooting in Parkland.

Messages left for the attorney representing Sunrise Tactical Supply were not returned Wednesday. Attempts to reach American Outdoor Brands were unsuccessful.

I suspect that the Florida statute is clear, as is the federal statute.  So one of two things happen here.  Either the judge is an activist totalitarian and declares that the suit can go forward, in which case S&W has to hire attorneys as does the Sunrise Tactical Supply, and potentially lose in court – or, the judge declares that the suit can’t go forward and S&W still has to hire litigation attorneys who will charge them a lot of money.

Although we may never be able to prove it, the lawyers for the victims may be funded by Everytown and Bloomberg (or Soros).  This should not be seen disaggregated from the holistic gun controller strategy which is a multi-front war on gun owners and gun manufacturers and sellers.  This is one manifestation of the legal battles we will face in the future, the other manifestation being law-makers at the state and federal level.

This is war.  See it that way.

Via Codrea, we learn a lot about Michael Diamond from his confession.

Most Americans would be surprised, for example, at how little time military personnel in particular spend with their weapons over the course of a career. Apart from firing on highly structured firing ranges or routine maintenance, access to your weapon on base is rare. Military Police provide security, so soldiers move about the base unarmed. There’s a reason for this: In the military, anything that reduces accidents, homicides or suicides isn’t put up for a vote. It’s a requirement.

The military’s strict rules on weapon and ammunition access can apply to wartime as well, as my own experience demonstrates. In 1991, I was a military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. My unit was mobilized and sent to Fort Bragg, N.C. Shortly before boarding a plane to Saudi Arabia I was issued my M16 along with several magazines of live ammunition.

Although I had fired countless live rounds over the years on various military weapons ranges, it’s a different feeling when you’re issued live ammunition before heading to a combat zone. This time it was real.

After a 16-hour trip — most of which I spent sitting on the hood of a truck with my back against the windshield trying to stay warm — we emerged into the intense desert heat. Because of the ear-splitting noise of departing jets we quickly inserted hearing protection, and then surrendered our ammunition.

That’s right. Once we arrived in an operational war zone, one of the first things the U.S. Army did was take our ammunition away.

Eventually, my unit moved north toward Kuwait, where we were re-issued ammunition just before the start of the ground war. Several weeks later, after successfully completing our mission in Kuwait City, we were re-routed to northern Iraq to address the Kurdish refugee crisis. On arrival, we once again surrendered our ammunition.

These military safety requirements are a stark contrast to civilian U.S. gun laws. Where the military requires background checks before a service member is allowed anywhere near a live weapon, the majority of U.S. states allow private gun sales without a background check. Where military personnel are trained to take a weapon away from a soldier who poses an extreme risk to himself or others, most states do not have laws enabling law enforcement or loved ones to do the same.

Compared to the weapons training that military and law enforcement personnel undergo, the training required of civilian gun owners is a joke — if it exists at all.

[ … ]

And where military and law enforcement undergo extensive training on how to make the right shooting decision quickly while under extreme stress, civilians receive no such training, contributing to avoidable deaths arising from poor decisions and petty disputes. In this context, the National Rifle Association’s favorite slogan about good guys with guns defeating bad guys with guns is more naive myth than solution.

It’s crucial that veterans now bring our voice and experience to the national conversation about reasonable gun reform. As a group, we understand guns and appreciate that responsible gun ownership is an important part of American life — but we also understand that a safe environment is achieved through training and regulation.

There’s a whole lot he isn’t telling you.  First of all, one of the main reasons crime is so low on military installations is that it is extremely hard now to get on board a federal reservation.  I saw this beginning when Daniel was in the Marine Corps, and while highly difficult at first, it was nearly impossible towards the end of his time in the Corps to get on board at Camp Lejeune.  They guard their borders, unlike some countries I know.  Do you understand what I’m saying?  They guard their borders.  No one gets in who doesn’t belong there.

Second, he isn’t dumb.  He’s a highly intelligent man, and what he knows and isn’t saying is that his recommended trust in the police (he says “Military Police provide security, so soldiers move about the base unarmed”) is completely misplaced.  Warren v. D.C. and Castle Rock v. Gonzalez is all the evidence you need to rightly conclude that there is no legal obligation of protection by any police, whether civilian or military.

Third, we shouldn’t have to suffer the claptrap from someone like Diamond when one of the most storied gun battles ever fought by the NYPD involved discharging 84 rounds at a single shooter, and missing with 83 of them.  Folks, I don’t know any cops named Doug Koenig.  Like all collectivists, Diamond turns LEOs into superhuman heroes.

Fourth, we shouldn’t have to listen to the know-it-all attitude from Diamond anyway.  I sent this article to my former Marine, Daniel, and he responded rather harshly.  “He’s openly admitting that he’s a POG and has absolutely no experience in weapons handling or shooting, much less actual combat.  He’s a dipshit.  He has it all wrong about who and what is dysfunctional [he could point the finger of blame at homes being wrecked by government agencies that contribute to the breakdown of home life, but doesn’t].  Furthermore, the guy is a coward.”

I thought about that some, and concluded that my son is right.  Diamond is a coward.  He’s recommending that I rely less on weapons for personal security, but refusing to provide that personal security by standing as armed guard in my home.  Also recall what I’ve said about men who write cantankerous prose without giving you a chance to weigh in with comments and email directly back to them.

Whatever you think of me and my writing, you can always send me nasty emails.  I won’t ignore them.  Sometimes I’ll even highlight them and publish them on the web site.  You can also disagree with my remarks in your own comments.  You won’t hurt my feelings.  Diamond gives you no such option, and doesn’t relinquish his email address.

What we do learn about him, other than being a coward, is that he is a traitor.  He took an oath to uphold the constitution, and now refuses to do just that.  He never believed in his oath to begin with.  He is of the same class as Stanley McChrystal and David Petraeus, both gun controllers.  Nothing he says can be trusted, nothing he does can be relied upon.

Avoid being around such men.  Turn your back on them.  Excommunicate them from your fellowship, not just because you have a disagreement with them, but because they are liars, one and all.

ABC Australia:

A hand grenade has been used to target a notorious family in a troubling escalation of gang violence in Melbourne’s north-west.

It is the first time a hand grenade explosion has been investigated in the state’s history, Victoria Police believe, underlining the fears of senior officers that underworld figures are increasingly accessing military-grade weapons.

A mother and her infant child were sleeping in a front room of the Tiba family’s Lalor house only metres away from the blast on November 19 last year.

The grenade, an M52 manufactured in the former Yugoslavia, is understood to have bounced off the house and detonated between the property and the nature strip.

A front window in the house was shattered and two cars parked on the street were significantly damaged in the explosion. No-one was injured.

The ABC has delayed reporting on the attack at the request of police.

It is unclear how the grenade was brought into Australia, or how many may be in circulation.

Hey wait a minute!  Isn’t this the land of draconian weapons control?  This simply can’t be.  You mean criminals will get weapons regardless of the law?  You mean prohibition doesn’t really work after all?