Archive for the 'Gun Control' Category

Houston Chronicle:

I own guns. I am a bird hunter, and I own shotguns for that purpose. I also own a single-action, six-shot revolver loaded with shotshells as protection against poisonous snakes on our small piece of land in the country, where copperheads are as common as mosquitoes. My father taught me to shoot guns responsibly before I was a teenager. I am teaching my kids to do the same.

I am also, like so many, appalled at the gun violence endemic in our country, violence amplified this past week by the on-air murder of two journalists …

Those opposed to any gun control claim that guns, as inanimate objects, don’t kill people. If one maintains that logic, then neither do automobiles kill people. But we regulate automobiles so law-abiding citizens are able to utilize them safely and not in ways that are likely to maim and kill. (As the father of a son approaching driving age, I’m particularly thankful for that.)

“And yet, driving is not a constitutional right, whereas gun ownership is,” some will say. Indeed, in recent Supreme Court decisions District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago, the Court ruled that United States citizens have, under the Second Amendment, just such a right to own handguns in addition to long guns (like shotguns and rifles). Though I am a priest and certainly not a legal scholar, I was raised by a mother who is an English teacher, and I would argue that in its recent rulings the Supreme Court failed the grammar lesson.

[ … ]

Today, our militias consist of professional National Guards, not local Minute Men with a musket above the mantel. The right to bear arms is predicated (literally, grammatically) on a social institution that no longer exists.

[ … ]

As I said at the outset, I am a gun owner who keeps and uses specific kinds of firearms for the intentions for which they were constructed. That said, on the topic of gun violence, statistical and anecdotal evidence coincide. We indeed have a festering societal problem, and as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, I say we have moral problem. At least for those who follow the God of Jesus, a God whose vision for the world is that we “beat swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks” (Isaiah 2:4), the gun violence in our country is a symptom of soul sickness. Something must be done to stem the tide, and an unfettered access to guns is no better solution than attempting to put out a fire with gasoline.

[ … ]

Why do we wish to own guns? Hunting, sporting, and home and/or personal protection seem to me to be the legitimate answers to the question. The guns I own are exactly adequate to those uses. (If I were a deer hunter, I would also own a deer rifle.) What is unneeded for any of these purposes is an assault rifle, or even a semi-automatic pistol with a high capacity magazine. Such weapons are designed for the sole and express purpose of incapacitating many people quickly, which is, lamentably in our broken world, the sometime responsibility of law enforcement and the military. It is virtually never — even in a home invasion situation — a circumstance legitimately faced by private citizens.

Personally, I favor prohibiting private ownership (not only sales) of assault rifles and other military-grade firearms and at least prohibiting sales of semi-automatic pistols with high capacity magazines.

To begin with Mr. Thompson, I consider your title to be preening and honorific rather than Biblical and pointing towards your responsibilities.  “Teaching elder” would do much better, but if you prefer to preen and your flock allows it, that says as much about them as it does you.

Next, I do have a number of questions for you.

First of all, I notice that you turn to a number of quotes from Supreme Court justices rather than time-honored and well-grounded Biblical exegesis concerning the duty of self defense (let’s dismiss your silly citation of Isaiah since this refers to the eschaton, and instead focus on Biblical scholarship).  Why is that?  Why would you prefer to refer to the opinions of man rather than of God?

Second, since it’s just a feasible to commit suicide with a shotgun, bolt action rifle or single shot revolver as it is with a semiautomatic pistol, do you see suicide from the aforementioned weapons to be acceptable and even preferable to those from the later?  Said another way, I’m going to go out on a limb and unequivocally state that no one has ever put the barrel of a single shot gun in his mount, pulled the trigger, and then done it again for good measure, as if having a semiautomatic would have made the job easier.

Third, why does an alleged teacher of the Bible diagnose a moral ailment and turn to the state for a solution rather than the shed blood of Jesus Christ and His salvific work on the cross?  Where in Scripture does it tell you that the state is a solution to the moral ailments of mankind?

Fourth, you say you want peace, but I assume you know that we won’t turn in our weapons peaceably.  So are you prepared for the SWAT team deaths in front yards all across America if the state follows your advice and outlaws semiautomatic firearms?  Are you prepared for blood running in the streets because of the civil war you want to start?

Fifth, you claim knowledge of home invasions and what it takes to repel them and save your family.  Has your home ever been invaded by a gang of armed criminals?

Finally, I notice that you don’t call for the disarming of police.  Have you ever read Dietrich Bonhoeffer?  What would you have done if the secret police had come for your peaceable neighbors in the middle of the night?  Would you have preferred to stick with your honorific title, “Very Reverend,” or would you have stood in the gap for the those who could not defend themselves?  What would you have done?  What will you do?  Who or what is your inspiration and from whence to you get your courage?

These are hard questions sir.  Think just as hard to answer them.  Bath your thoughts in prayer.  Turn to the Scriptures instead of the state.  Forsake worship of Baal and realize that men can never be the solution to the moral ailments that mankind created for himself.

David Codrea:

Back in 2007, Parker ran for the Virginia House of Delegates as a Democrat. At the time, Virginia Citizens Defense League, the state’s premiere grassroots gun rights group, sent its political questionnaire to all candidates. Their tally sheet shows no responses to the questions next to his listed name, which, per VCDL, “frequently indicates indifference, if not outright hostility, toward the right to keep and bear arms.”

Parker has a past, and David rehearses it well.  I suspect Parker isn’t really prepared to do “whatever it takes” to end our gun rights.  That would mean strapping on a pair, picking up a gun, and helping the SWAT teams as they perish on our front lawns trying to disarm Americans.  Parker doesn’t really believe we will give up peaceably, does he?

Keep praying for Mike Vanderboegh.

“No citizen should buy a gun to defend himself.”  Does that include LEOs too?

Mexican cartel influence on and control over American cities.  Get your guns and ammunition now.  Be prepared to use them.

Why, turn against peaceable citizens, of course.

With non-fatal shootings on the rise in Boston this year, public safety officials are reaching out to the city’s legal firearm owners in the hopes of cutting down on the number of guns that end up with criminals.

“Police serve an important role in reducing gun crime, but more can be done with your help,” a letter from the Boston Police Department and addressed to firearm owners states.

Police are offering free gun locks and are reminding firearm owners of information on how to report a gun sale, loss or theft; information on how to turn in a firearm, if so desired; and advice on proper weapon storage.

“Without better enforcement and education, we’re letting things slip through the cracks and legally purchased firearms are falling into the hands of criminals,” Commissioner William Evans said in a statement.

The statement cited a recent study that found that 32 percent of traceable handguns that Boston police recovered from 2007 to 2013 were originally purchased from a licensed Massachusetts dealer. And of the Massachusetts-sourced firearms, “almost 85 percent of them were recovered from someone other than the original, legal purchaser.” Sixty-three percent “had not been reported as transferred or sold to the Massachusetts Firearms Records Bureau, even though such [transfer reports] are required by law,” the city statement said. And just 11 percent of the Massachusetts-sourced guns were reported lost or stolen.

I wouldn’t report a sale either.  It’s none of your damn business.  This is pathetic.  This is literally all the collectivists have left in their tool bag against violence: going after peaceable citizens.

Actually, it may indeed be about the last refuge for the totalitarians.  When you create an entitled, criminal class who thinks you owe them a living, color TV, place to live, iPhone, food and medical care, there is nothing police can do to ameliorate the damage wrought by those social programs.

Entitlement creates monsters.  Monsters cannot be domesticated.

Very bad news for Mike Vanderboegh.  Keep him in your prayers please.  I know I am.

It’s possible to kill the Iran nuclear deal, but John Boehner stands in the way.  He’s a drunken sot, a scandalous pig, a lazy bum without scruples, morality, decency or character.

David Codrea:

This appears to be yet another in a never-ending list of examples demonstrating that for “progressives,” every day is Opposite Day. The whole object of child protective services is to protect children, and of family services to serve families. In this case, the tax-feeding bureaucrats would clearly rather see children killed than protected by foster parents with a gun, and they’d rather see children institutionalized in state facilities than have the opportunity to live in a nurturing home environment.

New Jersey Supreme Court to deal with gun control.  Personally I couldn’t care less whether a former LEO gets to continue to carry unless you roll everyone else into the calculus.  But it’s interesting to note that Chris Christie appointed the majority of the justices.  Let’s see which way they go.

Popular Mechanics on why don’t we have smart guns?  We do – nobody wants them.

To all of you who have contacted me offline, I appreciate the well wishes and prayers for my oldest son Joshua.  He is doing incrementally better each day but still needs prayer.

Fox News:

Second Amendment groups are accusing the gun control lobby of putting law-abiding owners of firearms in danger by urging people to call the police on anyone carrying a gun in public.

As more states relax rules about open-carrying of guns, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has taken to social media to urge the public to assume gun-toters are trouble, and to call the cops on anyone they feel may be a threat.

“If you see someone carrying a firearm in public—openly or concealed—and have ANY doubts about their intent, call 911 immediately and ask police to come to the scene,” the group wrote on its widely followed Facebook page. “Never put your safety, or the safety of your loved ones, at the mercy of weak gun laws that arm individuals in public with little or no criminal and/or mental health screening.”

That approach, according to a blog post by Ohio-based Buckeye Firearms Association, could give rise to needless, tense confrontations between police and gun owners. The association and other similar groups liken the tactic to “swatting,” or the act of tricking an emergency service into dispatching responders based on a false report. Many online harassment campaigns have been known to participate in the practice.

“This practice is exactly what they [Coalition to Stop Gun Violence] are doing,” said Erich Pratt, spokesman for Virginia-based Gun Owners of America. “It’s one thing if someone is using a gun in an illegal or unlawful manner. No one is questioning that. But this clearly sounds like swatting.”

The gun control groups are certainly clearly to blame for putting lives at risk, but the primary responsibility for this lies in the fact that there is such a thing as a SWAT team at all for deployment in situations like this.

If the 911 operators and police would simply educate the public like they should, this sort of thing wouldn’t happen.  911 – what’s your emergency?  “I see a man carrying a gun down the street.”  Ma’am, that’s not illegal.  What’s your emergency, is he brandishing it or threatening anyone?  “Well, no.  But I can’t be sure of anything.” Ma’am, you are using the valuable 911 time that might be needed in real emergencies, so if you don’t hang up we intend to press charges for misuse and abuse of 911.  Click.

That’s all this takes.  It’s a lie to assert that every call must be investigated.  They don’t investigate your “widdle tummy hurting,” any more than they investigate why your cable TV stopped working.  In states where it isn’t illegal to open carry, 911 should be one stop shopping for explaining that police are only deployed when crimes are committed.  And claiming that the cops have a need to know who you are runs directly contrary to the notion of legitimate “Terry stops.”  No … they … don’t.  Not even in “stop and identify” states, for which the stipulation is suspicion of a crime.

The New Yorker:

Away from the world for August, in a house without Internet or television and only spotty, the-satellite-must-be-passing-over phone reception, I was, until Wednesday, thinking more or less benign thoughts about gun owners, if not guns. As I chronicled last year, I have only just learned how to drive, and, license in hand, or in glove compartment, I’ve been driving for the first time on the little winding roads of the beach town where we’ve spent vacations for the past thirty years. Despite having been anti-car and ostentatiously pro-bike for all those years, I have to admit that I love being in the driver’s seat. The overwhelming rush of freedom and possibility, the sense of autonomy—no need to request a lift, no UBER app to press—is overwhelming. You get in, and you go.

This in turn made me realize, a little more empathetically, what I had only intuited before—that guns, for many Americans, are a sort of secondary, symbolic car: another powerful symbol of autonomy and independence. The attachment to them that so many Americans show—unique among the civilized peoples of the world, and at a cost so grave that the rest of that world often turns away, appalled—is nonetheless understandable to anyone who comes late to driving: to have potentially lethal power within your grasp is an immensely empowering drug. Cars are obviously in a different category, because their benign use is so much greater than their lethal one. But they are tools of the same country, of which I am now a citizen.

[ … ]

For the deeper truth is that cars are not, or not only, symbols of autonomy. They are, in every sense, vehicles of it. Guns, however, have an almost entirely symbolic function. No lives are saved, and no intruders are repelled; the dense and hysterical mythology of gun love has been refuted again and again.

The few useful social functions that guns do have—in hunting or in killing varmints, as a rural man such as my father has to do—can be preserved even with tight regulations, as in Canada.

Good heavens.  What a child.  Take note: killing varmints is the only legitimate function for guns.  Here’s a fact for Adam – modern game management practices increases herd size and health.  Period.  But in order to comport with his world view, he would rather see herds suffering and starving and the herd unhealthy.  Hunting anything but varmints is anathema to him.

But that’s not the most significant illogical leap he makes.  If you took note before, take careful note now.  “No lives are saved, and no intruders are repelled.”  Adam knows.  Forget that lives are saved every day and intruders repelled on a regular basis because men and women have guns.  And forget that whether something has utility isn’t a stipulation for rights and liberties.  Adam knows better than you and (in yet another flaw in his thinking) wants the bad men in government with guns to enforce his idea of “better.”  At heart, collectivists are control freaks.

Their utility is denied because he starts there as a pre-theoretical commitment.  He presupposes that to be the case, and in logical or rhetorical parlance, it’s called presupposing the consequent.  He reasons in a circle, and most collectivists make the equivalent or some related error.  But of course, Adam is cocooned inside a world of his own making, sure to suffer himself if society breaks or even falters.  That car and newfound freedom he adores won’t save him.  My guns won’t save me either if God calls and it’s my time.  But at least I will have attempted to effect my moral duty of self defense.

Please remember my oldest son Joshua in your prayers.  He’s having a rough go of it from back surgery.

Via David Codrea:

A college student was sexually molested at LaGuardia Airport by a uniformed TSA agent who demanded she go into a bathroom with him after she got off a flight so she could be searched for a weapon, sources told The Post.

As I’ve said before, “the TSA is filled with goobers, hicks, pedophiles, perverts and criminals.”

David Codrea:

In other words, “gun control” doesn’t stop the bad guys and only serves to give them a killer advantage over the “law-abiding”?  Who knew?

In this case, surviving train passengers are lucky there were some men on board who would not go down without a fight. And the defenders are lucky their bravery, instincts, training and skills were enough to overcome all of their assailant’s advantages.

It would have been better and much easier if someone had been armed other than the criminal.  This could have ended far differently.

Via Mike Vanderboegh, black activists call for lynching white people and cops.

“Find a mother f**ker that is alone. Snap his ass, and then f***in hang him from a damn tree. Take a picture of it and then send it to the mother f**kers.”

Maybe everyone should start carrying guns, huh?

Defense News:

The Pentagon’s top weapons tester confirmed to a small group of reporters on Thursday that his team will pit the full-up F-35 joint strike fighter against the A-10 Warthog and potentially other aircraft during comparative tests slated to take place in 2018.

Because the A-10 is awesome and the F-35 sucks.

The National Interest:

For decades, naval architects have concentrated on building ships that, by the standards of the World Wars, are remarkably brittle. These ships can deal punishment at much greater ranges than their early 20th century counterparts, but they can’t take a hit. Is it time to reconsider this strategy, and once again build protected ships?

That fifth generation warfare thing not working out so well for you, boys?

I had missed it when it happened, but the LA Times reminds us on one incident with the Stockton Police Department that ought to calibrate your expectations concerning police.

The more than 600 rounds that Stockton police fired during a rolling gun battle with bank robbers last year that left a hostage dead by officers’ bullets was “excessive” and “unnecessary,” an independent review found.

The Police Foundation, a research group based in Washington, D.C., released a detailed report Monday on how Stockton police responded to the July 16, 2014, armed robbery of a Bank of the West branch, where three gunmen took three women hostage and fired at officers from a speeding SUV.

The group found that 32 officers unloaded more than 600 rounds during the hour-long rolling gun battle, which spanned three counties, 63 miles of highway and reached speeds of 120 mph. One of the hostages, Misty Holt-Singh, was killed when she was struck by 10 police bullets, authorities said. The two other hostages jumped or were thrown from the vehicle during the chase and survived.

Police officials said they fired on the vehicle to potentially save lives because the men in the car were shooting indiscriminately. The gunmen disabled 14 police cars with gunshots, the report stated.

[ … ]

The report said that a few officers engaged in “sympathetic fire,” in which officers fired their weapons because others were shooting.

In some cases, officers opened fire while colleagues were in front of them. The report highlighted an example during the final standoff, in which one officer lay prone on the ground and did not shoot while an officer next to him, standing, fired “round after round.”

“‘What’s your target?’ the prone officer yelled, thinking he was missing something,” the report stated.

“‘The car!’ responded the officer,” according to the report.

Good Lord.  This is even worse than the New York Police in the empire state building three years ago.  600 rounds, indiscriminate shooting, lack of muzzle awareness and discipline, rolling gun battle in a urban and suburban settings, lack of awareness of their backstop, lack of precision fire, and the list could go on.

Ridiculous.

From reader Mack, in other news, the anti-gun movement’s intellectual elevator runs a few floors short of the top.

Lori Haas, director of the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence’s Virginians for Responsible Gun Laws campaign, says that requirements for a concealed carry permit are too lax, especially compared to the hundreds of hours of training required for police officers.

“We feel that the current regulations regarding concealed handgun permits in Virginia are woefully inadequate in regard to training,” said Haas, referencing online concealed permit classes that count toward a permit. “The notion that someone can sit in front of a computer and learn about firearm safety and be considered able to physically, actively handle an active shooter situation is fantasy.”

Uh huh.  Well, no more so that believing the police will protect you.  Apparently it was safer for the hostages in the Stockton gun battle to jump out of moving cars than be around when the police got busy.

But okay, I’ll bite.  So if Ms. Haas wants you to have more tactical training, then get more tactical training.  No, not training she or the state approves, but training you think you need to do the job of self defense.  And collectivist Haas can kiss our collective asses.

Independent Mail:

CHARLESTON – A Charleston state senator says he will introduce gun-control legislation in response to recent gun violence in his home city.

Democratic state Sen. Marlon Kimpson said the June 17 shooting at the Emanuel AME Church and more recent gun violence show the need for tightening restrictions on gun ownership.

Reading about gun violence in the newspaper regularly, Kimpson said he hopes the state Senate will give his proposals serious consideration when they return to work in January.

“I don’t think there is any dispute that there is a direct correlation between weak gun laws and violence,” Kimpson told The State Monday. “It is within our power to do something about it.”

Kimpson’s proposals would:

• Require background checks to be conducted through the State Law Enforcement Division and the federal system before a gun sale can be completed
• Ban assault weapons, defined as semi-automatic firearms designed and configured for rapid fire and combat use
• Close a three-day loophole that allows some S.C. gun purchasers to buy and take home a gun before a background check has been completed. That rule, and other errors in the federal background check, allowed alleged Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof to purchase a gun.
• Require reporting of lost or stolen guns
• Require state registration and permitting of all guns

The gun control proposals likely face an impossible uphill battle.

[ … ]

But Kimpson said the Charleston church shooting that killed nine African Americans including a state senator has “opened people’s minds to doing things in the State House that have never been done before.”

Perhaps Kimpson isn’t thinking what I’m thinking when he talks about people “doing things … they have never done before.”  At any rate, this bill stands a snowball’s chance in hell of passing in South Carolina.

But let’s recall collectivist Larry Martin of Pickens.  The boys in South Carolina have work to do.  You need to handle Larry, and then you need to pass constitutional carry.  Kimpson can stand back and watch in irrelevance.

David Codrea on Trump on immigration.  So I’ll tell you now what I think.  He will do an about-face in order to keep all of that cheap Hispanic and Latino labor because business likes it (given that we are supplying corporations with welfare by allowing them to underpay their workers and send them to hospitals as their primary care physician).  What he’s saying is well crafted to fool.  At any rate, my prediction is that he will disappoint you if you put yourself in his camp.

David Codrea on the threats to military members:

“the brothers don’t need to attack them in military bases or secured buildings. they can now turn up in their houses. in their homes. this is war, what did you expect? u think u can bomb the islamic state and we don’t do nothing back? soon, very soon you will see.”

Bring it.  I look forward to putting a .45 230 grain fat boy in your stomach.  And your buddies too.

Mike Vanderboegh on the new Pew poll concerning gun control so-called “conservatives” support.  Yea, I saw this too, and I’m not sure what to make of it.  Either the poll was a well crafted lie because of the way the questions were posed, or a majority of Americans really do support universal background checks and registration.  Either way, it doesn’t matter, which is why I hadn’t posted on this.  I agree with Mike.  Come and get ’em.  Are you prepared for civil war?

The surgeon general stands by his comments on guns being a health issue.  That’s okay.  I think he should stand by what he’s said.  I stand by what I said as well.

The problem is that Mr. Murthy isn’t a real doctor.  He may have passed his boards, but that doesn’t mean anything.  I know a few engineers who passed the engineering boards and who are a hazard to the safety and health of the public because they’re incompetent.

Mr. Murthy hasn’t spent his life like my family physician, diagnosing prostate cancer and high blood pressure, dealing with the health issues men and women face, watching the elderly die in his care, and working a full day at the office only to work until midnight at home because of the obscene Obamacare paperwork (like my doctor does) our totalitarian president has heaped upon him.

I’ve explained what I would do with one of these doctors who ask questions with which they have no business, but that sidesteps the real issue here.  The issue is that if Mr. Murthy was a real doctor he would treat patients and sit by their bedside as they pass away, find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, or some form of cancer.

Mr. Murthy is just another collectivist who looks exactly like the one who nominated him.  We know his stripe, we’ve seen a thousand just like him in this administration.  In the end it doesn’t matter what post he holds or doesn’t hold.  He will pass from the world having done no good for mankind, in spite of the title “doctor.”  He will not weep over patients, he will not cure disease, he will not pray over their suffering.  He has sold his soul.

He’s just a little boy.  Nothing more.

Via Uncle, switching calibers.  Dude.  I don’t care what caliber you shoot.  Learn to hold the gun the right way and lock those elbows.  And just to think, I’m not even a SWAT member and know this!