Archive for the 'Gun Control' Category

Union Leader.

“The gun owners of America are not fooled,” he said. “Walmart has staked out its position in the culture wars, and we, the 100 million gun owners who don’t commit crimes, are like, wait a minute, you just threw us under the bus.”

Gresham, who has been carrying a concealed weapon for more than 25 years, says he hardly sees anybody openly carrying weapons near New Orleans, where he lives. “I probably have seen one person open-carrying this year,” he said. “But I know thousands of people who conceal carry every day.”

Walmart’s new policy prohibiting open carry, he says, doesn’t affect him. But the way he sees it, “these companies are doing nothing other than trying to show that they’re one of the cool kids.”

And although he’s carried around a firearm for at least 25 years, Gresham says it’s not something he likes to advertise.

Um … what?

Being a good witness to what?  People getting shot while you slip away?  Or have I misinterpreted that?

Being a good witness in terms of hiding your gun so that you don’t have to explain it?  Or do I misunderstand?

What’s he talking about?  I’m not sure, but I don’t like it.  As I’ve explained before, no man lives forever, and it matters how you die.  I refuse to allow a criminal to kill innocent women and children because I wanted to “slip away,” while hiding my gun does that for me.

This is just more of the same shaming of gun owners we’ve witnessed over the last several years.  At some point men have to have scruples and spine, and at some point men have to stop hiding their guns under a bushel.

If I’ve misinterpreted what Mr. Gresham is saying, he’s welcome to drop by and elaborate or correct me.  But based on my reading of the Holy Writ, God expects more of men than that, especially men whom He has called to Himself and given His name.

You’ve seen the lists, whether open or concealed carry.  What gripes me is when gun writers participate in the self-immolation and embarrassment of carrying a gun.  Witness Karen Townsend.

As I wrote earlier this week, this is a solution looking for a problem. Open carry isn’t common, even in gun-friendly Texas. Just as I said about being a Kroger customer, I’m a Walgreens customer and I have never seen anyone take advantage of open carry laws in the store I patronize in Houston.

None of the retailers are saying exactly how they will enforce their decision. In Texas, a retail store must post signs in English and in Spanish that state that store’s gun policy. Store management can ask a customer to leave or call law enforcement over violations to the posted policy.

So according to Karen, if more people did choose to open carry, she wouldn’t have a case to say this is a solution in search of a problem.  In other words, it actually would be a problem demanding a solution.

Folks, the right reaction isn’t to say that open carry isn’t really practiced that much.  That’s saying that there isn’t much exercise of our rights, which is a sad admission of failure on the part of the gun community.  Don’t defend gun ownership that way.  Don’t respond to the controllers by saying that the practice isn’t really that common anyway.

I’ve observed elsewhere that “All of these things are signs and symptoms of the fact that gun owners have been taught by society to respond like dogs or other pets by “operant conditioning.”  The first time you ever openly carried caused you some degree of self consciousness, didn’t it?  Just go ahead and admit it.  It’s useful to demonstrate my point.

Gun owners, and in particular open carriers, are treated like second class citizens, inferior men, uncouth savages, like those who have no etiquette, when exactly the opposite would have been true two hundred years ago.  That’s one reason I openly carry when I can.  In some small way I want to change all of this.  I open carry “For the peace, good and dignity of the country and the welfare of its people.”  So should you.”

Don’t allow them to shame you.

Forbes.

According to an application for a court order filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on September 5, investigators want information on users of Obsidian 4, a tool used to control rifle scopes made by night-vision specialist American Technologies Network Corp. The app allows gun owners to get a live stream, take video and calibrate their gun scope from an Android or iPhone device. According to the Google Play page for Obsidian 4, it has more than 10,000 downloads. Apple doesn’t provide download numbers, so it’s unclear how many iPhone owners could be swept up in this latest government data grab.

If the court approves the demand, and Apple and Google decide to hand over the information, it could include data on thousands of people who have nothing to do with the crimes being investigated, privacy activists warned. Edin Omanovic, lead on Privacy International’s State Surveillance program, said it would set a dangerous precedent and scoop up “huge amounts of innocent people’s personal data.”

As always, the pretext is law enforcement.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) department is seeking information as part of a broad investigation into possible breaches of weapons export regulations. It’s looking into illegal exports of ATN’s scope, though the company itself isn’t under investigation, according to the order. As part of that, investigators are looking for a quick way to find out where the app is in use, as that will likely indicate where the hardware has been shipped.

First, I don’t believe it will be that easy regardless of what they say.  Second, let’s grant for the sake of argument that FedGov really is pursuing the data to enforce export control regulations.  I don’t care.  I have the same opinion on the matter as I do about SWAT teams busting down doors in an effort to find evidence of Marijuana sales before being flushed down the toilet.

I simply don’t care.  If you want to enforce that law, then find another way to get your evidence.  Or better yet, go find and deport illegals rather than worry about things like this.  In other words, go do something the constitution demands you do instead of stretching the boundaries of something you choose to do.

Third, I don’t for one second put past FedGov to lie to the bench in order to build databases of law abiding citizens of who owns what.

This is an all around bad precedent, and it portends very cold winds in the annals of the American police state.

For the time being, ATN has refused.

Following initial reporting on the government demand from Apple and Google of user data for the Obsidian 4 app, ATN stated on Friday that they were not aware of the government’s request for information from the tech giants until a Forbes article broke the story. ATN advised they would not be turning over user information to the DOJ unless required by law.

“ATN has not been contacted by the Department of Justice, Apple, or Google,” the company said in a statement to American Military News on Friday.

“ATN will protect its customers and their identifying data to the absolute extent possible under U.S. law.

Very well, but that’s not Apple or Google.  Do not trust Apple or Google.

Via Dave Hardy, this piece from Stephen Halbrook.

Purportedly to fight street violence, Germany’s Weimar Republic in 1931 decreed gun registration, but warned that the records must not fall into the hands of radical elements. Unfortunately, those radical elements — the National Socialist Party led by Adolf Hitler — seized power in 1933 and used those very same records to disarm political opponents, rendering them incapable of resistance. Disarmed German Jews paid the price in the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom, a major step in the road to the Holocaust.

Political protest and violence in France prompted Prime Minister Pierre Laval in 1935 to decree firearm registration and repression of the right to assemble. What could possibly go wrong?

The registration records were critical to the Nazis, who overran France five years later, imposing the death penalty for those not turning in their guns, and conscripting the French police to ferret out violators. Despite the chance of being executed, numerous French citizens hid their firearms instead of surrendering them.

The same Pierre Laval became the chief collaborator of the Nazis during the occupation. French newspapers regularly reported the names of gun owners shot by firing squads.

The brave French, who held onto their guns despite the threat of execution, formed the basis for the French Resistance. To be sure, they never had sufficient arms, and prewar restrictions on “military-style” firearms hampered their efforts, leaving them with inferior weapons. Yet, they were able to commit acts of sabotage, gain intelligence, and sustain an underground movement to assist the Allies. After D-Day, they engaged in open armed resistance.

Such experiences are as old as humanity. Tyrants, conquerors, and dictators of every breed disarm their subjects in order to dominate and exploit them. It’s an iron law of history. Has it lost its meaning today?

Universal background checks are no good without a national gun registry, and vice versa.  This is why such cannot be allowed.

Reddit/firearms.

I suspect this is the way it’s going to be for bump stock owners.  No one will come hunting for bump stocks, but if somebody commits a crime, the possession of a bump stock will add to the charges.

Well, I guess the DOJ is proud tonight.

This podcast involves Nick Gillespie (of Reason, a libertarian publication) discussing the coming gun control.  He is the second male to speak in the audio.

It’s a sign of the times that the woman has a more manly, robust, defensible view of rights than the men, who sound like quisling, hand-wringing, scared little boys.

There are a few things I would point out after listening to this.  First, Nick gives rather curt treatment to the notion that gun control is coming.  Eventually it will whether this time or soon.

Second, Nick waxes on and on about how resistance to gun buybacks and confiscations creates problems and makes “conservatives” look bad.  Those who are the very ones, he says, who supposedly support the “rule of law,” will be the ones opposing the rule of law.

This is what happens to unprincipled libertarians who found their rights in virtually nothing at all except that’s the way they want it to be.  It’s better for you to know and understand where yours comes from.  You have the RKBA because the Almighty says so, and any other foundation will wash away and disappoint you.  Philosophers call it a “deontological basis” for defining right and wrong.

If you refuse to found your rights on solid ground, you will become like Nick, just maybe a little more stubborn and unwilling to admit that you don’t have a case to the RKBA when the ruling elite say you don’t.

Free Beacon.

Liberal billionaire George Soros’s advocacy organizations are lobbying lawmakers on Capitol Hill to repeal an act protecting firearms manufacturers from liability for gun crimes including murder, disclosure forms show.

The Open Society Policy Center is Soros’s D.C.-based 501(c)4 nonprofit that works on domestic and international advocacy and is affiliated with the much larger Open Society Foundations. The center has poured nearly $9 million into lobbying a range of issues so far this year.

Soros’s group reported spending $2.6 million on lobbying throughout the first quarter, covering international, military, and appropriations issues. In addition, the center moved into gun control advocacy and reported lobbying on “issues related to a bill to repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.”

As if we didn’t know his position before.  So the Jew who helped the Nazis find Hungarian Jews wants the people to be disarmed.  Color me shocked.

By the way, it’s easy to find the “fact-finders” who claim that George Soros never said what he said about helping the Nazis.  They are all liars, or just stupid and stolid.

Watch this video if you need proof.  It was difficult to get it to YouTube without Google scrubbing it.  Google helped Soros scrub other videos of his 60 Minutes interview, but redditors found tape (and I do mean tape, in a library, that they had to check out and convert to YouTube format), to reload it to YouTube.  Because YouTube = Google = wicked.

So don’t give me any of that crap about Soros never said this-and-that.  Yes … he … did.

Or if you need any other evidence, read this transcript.

KROFT: My understanding is that you went out with this protector of yours who swore that you were his adopted godson.

Mr. SOROS: Yes. Yes.

KROFT: Went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of property from the Jews.

Mr. SOROS: Yes. That’s right. Yes.

KROFT: I mean, that’s–that sounds like an experience that would send lots of people to the psychiatric couch for many, many years. Was it difficult?

Mr. SOROS: Not–not at all. Not at all. Maybe as a child you don’t–you don’t see the connection. But it was–it created no–no problem at all.

KROFT: No feeling of guilt?

Mr. SOROS: No.

KROFT: For example that, ‘I’m Jewish and here I am, watching these people go. I could just as easily be there. I should be there.’ None of that?

Mr. SOROS: Well, of course I c–I could be on the other side or I could be the one from whom the thing is being taken away. But there was no sense that I shouldn’t be there, because that was–well, actually, in a funny way, it’s just like in markets–that if I weren’t there–of course, I wasn’t doing it, but somebody else would–would–would be taking it away anyhow. And it was the–whether I was there or not, I was only a spectator, the property was being taken away. So the–I had no role in taking away that property. So I had no sense of guilt.  (George Soros, 60 Minutes interview transcript, December 20, 1998)

So enough said.  He is your enemy in every conceivable way.

Reddit/firearms.

Using Google, Bing, Murderpedia, Wikipedia’s Massacres, terrorism, and familicide pages I was able to find 89 mass shootings, 31 mass murders, and 14 school shootings since their 1995 Decree 64 laws classified Semi-Auto rifles with detachable magazines higher in caliber than .22 as Weapons of War and made them prohibited for civilian use. Argentina already had strict licensing & registration since 1973. And also made handguns above the caliber of .38 illegal for civilian use in 1993 (Decree 269). All these mass shootings should have 4 or more victims in one setting, session, incident or incidents without the FBI’s “cooling off period” in between. And you should all be able to find multiple sources if you Google or Bing them. Most of the sources are in Spanish so you may need Google or Bing translate. Hopefully this can aid in correcting the misinformation that mass shootings and school shootings are a uniquely American problem amongst developed nations. And showing that that applying Western European gun laws in Non-Western European countries are ineffective.

​http://www.filedropper.com/argentinamassshootings-copy

This is too good not to pass along.  Visit the reddit link to see his observations and conclusions from the data.

Now, it certainly isn’t the case that this will convince a controller not to be a controller.  Can a Leopard change it’s spots?  A controller is a controller because of a moral defect in his or her character.  But the thing we learn from all of this is what we already know, but need to rehearse again and again in order to have moral character.

Giving up your firearms never leads to more safety, for you or your family.  Never.  It only leads to the inability to defend home and hearth, a condition which the Almighty finds unacceptable.

News from New Zealand.

“We’ve got about 17,000 firearms in total – those numbers are good, but we want them to be way better, quite frankly. I’ve just got to get on and make sure that we work as hard as we can. There’s six months we’ve been given to carry out the exercise.”

[ … ]

In March, the Council of Licensed Firearms Owners said there could be as many as 400,000 weapons in New Zealand covered by the new legislation – that would leave about $500 per gun.

17 / 400 = 4.25%.

That’s low, but I would have actually expected it to have been lower than that.  I’m left wondering what that 4.25% is going to do for defense of home and hearth in the future?

And I wonder what the final percentage will be?  Do my New Zealand readers want to weigh in?  I know you’re out there.  I see you.