Archive for the 'Gun Control' Category

Wired:

25-year-old radical libertarian Cody Wilson stood on a remote central Texas gun range and pulled the trigger on the world’s first fully 3-D-printed gun. When, to his relief, his plastic invention fired a .380-caliber bullet into a berm of dirt without jamming or exploding in his hands, he drove back to Austin and uploaded the blueprints for the pistol to his website, Defcad.com.

He’d launched the site months earlier along with an anarchist video manifesto, declaring that gun control would never be the same in an era when anyone can download and print their own firearm with a few clicks. In the days after that first test-firing, his gun was downloaded more than 100,000 times. Wilson made the decision to go all in on the project, dropping out of law school at the University of Texas, as if to confirm his belief that technology supersedes law.

The law caught up. Less than a week later, Wilson received a letter from the US State Department demanding that he take down his printable-gun blueprints or face prosecution for violating federal export controls. Under an obscure set of US regulations known as the International Trade in Arms Regulations (ITAR), Wilson was accused of exporting weapons without a license, just as if he’d shipped his plastic gun to Mexico rather than put a digital version of it on the internet. He took Defcad.com offline, but his lawyer warned him that he still potentially faced millions of dollars in fines and years in prison simply for having made the file available to overseas downloaders for a few days. “I thought my life was over,” Wilson says.

Instead, Wilson has spent the last years on an unlikely project for an anarchist: Not simply defying or skirting the law but taking it to court and changing it. In doing so, he has now not only defeated a legal threat to his own highly controversial gunsmithing project. He may have also unlocked a new era of digital DIY gunmaking that further undermines gun control across the United States and the world—another step toward Wilson’s imagined future where anyone can make a deadly weapon at home with no government oversight.

Two months ago, the Department of Justice quietly offered Wilson a settlement to end a lawsuit he and a group of co-plaintiffs have pursued since 2015 against the United States government. Wilson and his team of lawyers focused their legal argument on a free speech claim: They pointed out that by forbidding Wilson from posting his 3-D-printable data, the State Department was not only violating his right to bear arms but his right to freely share information. By blurring the line between a gun and a digital file, Wilson had also successfully blurred the lines between the Second Amendment and the First.

“If code is speech, the constitutional contradictions are evident,” Wilson explained to WIRED when he first launched the lawsuit in 2015. “So what if this code is a gun?”

The Department of Justice’s surprising settlement, confirmed in court documents earlier this month, essentially surrenders to that argument. It promises to change the export control rules surrounding any firearm below .50 caliber—with a few exceptions like fully automatic weapons and rare gun designs that use caseless ammunition—and move their regulation to the Commerce Department, which won’t try to police technical data about the guns posted on the public internet. In the meantime, it gives Wilson a unique license to publish data about those weapons anywhere he chooses.

You can’t stop the signal, man.  The controllers can’t win.  It’s impossible.  It’s as impossible as FedGov winning a counterinsurgency campaign.

The DoJ decided to make peace.  Here’s a suggestion to the rest of the controllers: make peace.  You won’t like it very much if you don’t.

UTT:

The right to keep and bear arms exists with or without a U.S. Constitution and with or without a United States of America.  The right exists in nature and is, therefore, a right that exists for all humans.  If the right to defend and protect oneself exists, then we have the right to bear the tools to do so.

The Second Amendment does not GIVE us the right to bear arms, it PROTECTS it.

Marxists and Jihadis know the inalienable rights to self-defense and free expression are bedrocks of free Western societies, and that is why they attack it with such fervor.

Using the Islamic Law of Slander under the mask of “Islamophobia” jihadis have persuaded many Western leaders to shut down all expression which offends muslims.

This is, as the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood calls it, Civilization Jihad by OUR hands.

Now, Islamic leaders (aka “Jihadis”) are working with the help of their Marxist friends to disarm free people while arming themselves.

Case in point:  the jihadi Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is forcing Britons to surrender  even kitchen knives using the lie that he seeks to “protect” the community.  Meanwhile, stabbings in London continue to skyrocket because they are being perpetrated by muslims who are not surrendering their weapons, not even their kitchen knives.

Here in the United States, sources inside the muslim community tell UTT Muslim Brotherhood mosques and organizations are encouraging muslims to purchase firearms and join the NRA, while at the same time the jihadis’ Marxist collaborators are pushing to disarm Americans.

Using their seditious Marxists allies in the media, every domestic left-wing and jihadi attack – including those in Alexandria (VA), Las Vegas (NV) or Orlando (FL) – is used to demonize weapons and create momentum for anti-gun legislation, instead of highlighting the Marxists and jihadis actually doing the killing.

We’ve known this for quite some time, but John reminds us.  ISIS, for example, were gun controllers.

Any one of its members who breach this promise will have their hands cut off.

“No drugs, no alcohol and no cigarettes allowed,” it added.

No public gathering other than those organised by ISIS will be allowed at any stage. No guns will be allowed outside of its ranks.

With all due respect to John, I don’t like the expression that “The right exists in nature.”  Nature promises absolutely nothing to you, any more than it promises that the Wildebeest won’t perish by being eaten by Crocodiles as it crosses the rivers.  Nature doesn’t recognize rights.

Only God grants rights and responsibilities, and only God can take them away.  The state doesn’t exist to protect you or your family except from foreign invasion (a duty at which it has failed, and miserably so).  God has given that solemn duty to you.

It’s not surprising that Islamists are coupling with the NRA, as the NRA exists as the largest and most successful gun control organization in the world.  We have the Hughes amendment, the Gun Control Act of 1968, and the NFA because of the NRA.  Now we have the bump stock ban (a pretext for banning semiautomatic firearms in the future), and also at some point in the future we may have universal background checks.

You have enemies on all sides.  Some of them pretend to be your friends.  Only a doltish fool would disarm under such circumstances.

Insty:

LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM: Further Protests as Venezuela Begins Running Out of Water.

“Locals have been protesting since 3 am due to lack of water on the Charallave-Ocumare highway, and are now requesting the presence of the media,” wrote onlooker Rocely Romero in Twitter.

The last major water shortage in Venezuela was in February 2016, when authorities announced a weekend “maintenance” session designed to maintain sufficient water levels during a period of drought. An estimated three million in Caracas consequently went without water, where the average temperature at that time of year is 68F.

The lack of clean water is the latest in a string mass shortages experienced in Venezuela under the rule of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro.

That the world’s most oil-rich nation has to import crude oil, and that a semi-tropical country can run out of water, should tell you everything you need to know about socialism.

To the statists, they own even the water you drink.  And no, that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about socialism.

There are many more things to understand, but the most salient is this.

Until now, anyone with a gun permit could buy arms from a private company.

Under the new law, only the army, police and certain groups like security companies will be able to buy arms from the state-owned weapons manufacturer and importer.

In 2012.  But socialist militants get guns.  Crime is out of control, whether by mere people looking for the next morsel, or government thugs attempting to tamp down on the violence.

Again, gun confiscations and gun controls preceded everything else.  It is the framework in which statism is born and people are killed.

The common thread that runs through all of it is a rejection of the Almighty and replacement of His authority with wickedness.

David Codrea:

“(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law. . . [and] (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.”

In other words, the law is what the UN or any of its despotic member regimes say it is–as is your “law-abiding” status. And, of course, there is no declaration that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Only God can take away what only God gives.  Rights are determined by the Almighty and no one else.  There is also this amusing article by Ted Bromund, The Ten Dumbest Things I Heard About Guns at The United Nations.

It’s tempting to dismiss them outright, but that’s a mistake.  No blue helmet is going to confiscate my weapons, but the U.N. is a problem to the extent that their views are used in America to foist gun controls, and that can happen in a myriad of ways.

But always remember: Only God can take away what only God gives.

Via WoG, this:

‘Hunting & Fishing’ ballot initiative: a thin veil covering the GOP’s apathy toward gun owners…

Other organizations may be happy with a hunting and fishing ballot initiative posing as pro-gun legislation, but we at GRNC are not fooled by a wispy, token gesture in the absence of real pro-gun legislative action. Second Amendment voters like you played a pivotal role in Republicans gaining and maintaining a supermajority in the NC legislature, but how has Republican leadership repaid you for this? Simple:

1. GOP Senate leaders, like Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, have spent a full two years ignoring gun owners, refusing to give GRNC’s ‘Permitless Concealed Carry’ bill (HB 746) even a hearing, let alone bring it to the floor for a vote.

2. Republicans in the NC House, like Speaker Tim Moore, have refused to give a hearing to the time-critical School Self-defense Act (HB 1039), which would help protect our vulnerable school children.

If that’s not a sharp enough stick in the eye, NC’s GOP Executive Director, Dallas Woodhouse, recently proclaimed on Facebook that the GOP will not move pro-gun bills during this session. And yes, you read that right, Dallas Woodhouse is not the Democrat’s Executive Director, he is the ostensibly “pro-gun” Republican’s.

4. Now, our state’s Republican politicians have further “repaid” you by putting forth a virtually meaningless ballot initiative, meant only to conjure thoughts of gun rights and to get conservative voters to the polls. Unfortunately, the ballot initiative does little or nothing to advance gun rights in our state. It definitely won’t protect school children, nor will it help you protect your family.

Good.  No one gets my vote by allowing me to pick up crumbs that fall from the master’s table.  I still want the idiotic, communistic system of CLEO approval for handgun purchases to be thrown out of the state.  I have a CHP for the simple and only reason that I cannot purchase handguns in NC without it.

Because NC republicans are communists.  Oh, and by the way, I don’t give a shit about your stupid hunting and fishing ballot initiatives.

TheAlaskan:

“Those who want your arms are planning on keeping theirs. Simple as that. To willingly disarm is to leave the field and forfeit the fight. The only “Authority” is God Almighty and He and history are on our side. The ferocity of righteousness will smite the minions of Satan, I just know it.”

Ammoland:

Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) and Firearms Policy Foundation (FPF) have announced that their extensive, 923-page opposition comment was filed with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) regarding the agency’s proposed rulemaking to ban “bump-stock” devices. The FPC Comment and its 35 exhibits can be viewed online in their entirety at https://www.firearmspolicy.org/fpc-fpf-opposition-atf-bump-stock-ban.

The FPC Comment in opposition was filed on the groups’ behalf by attorneys Joshua Prince and Adam Kraut of Firearms Industry Consulting Group (FICG) after President Trump directed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to use executive actions to unlawfully and unconstitutionally expand the scope of statutes to force the dispossession and destruction of legally-acquired property–without just compensation–and subject possibly more than 500,000 Americans to severe federal criminal penalties.

Here is a summary of the arguments.

• ATF’s Proposed Rulemaking (docket no. 2017R-22) is procedurally flawed and violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA)
• ATF’s proposed rule violates the Constitution in numerous ways, including:
  • I – Separation of Powers
  • I – Ex Post Facto Clause
  • Fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms protected under the Second Amendment
  • Rights to due process, fair notice, and just compensation for the taking of property protected under the Fifth Amendment
• ATF’s proposed rule exceeds its statutory authority
• ATF’s proposed rule is arbitrary and capricious
• ATF’s proposed rule is unconstitutionally vague
• ATF failed to consider viable and precedential alternatives
• ATF’s proposed rule is not supported by policy considerations
• ATF’s proposed rule “should be withdrawn and summarily discarded, or, in the alternative, ATF should elect Alternative 1 and abandon the proposed rulemaking in its entirety.”

I really appreciate the hard work these men put into attempting to stop really bad regulation that has potential far-reaching consequences in the future.

I have not had a chance to read all or even much of what’s there.  Suffice it to say that the ATF is legally required to read and respond, even if their responses are stolid and doltish.

I’d also like to reiterate that I’ve made my own comments, and James Wesley Rawles has made a large number of very astute comments.  I’ve also followed up my initial comments with the following queries.

1. Note for the record any and all registered professional engineers employed and/or contracted and remunerated by the ATF or DOJ, whose job it was to provide input, calculations, analysis or opinions on the technical issues pertaining to this rulemaking.  Provide those analyses for our review, and list the PEs by name, license number and state.  State laws for all fifty states require that such analyses be traceable and sealed or stamped by the PE.  If no PEs have reviewed the technical issues pertaining to this rulemaking, say so with specificity and clarity.
2. Note for the record any and all licensed professional gunsmiths employed and/or contracted and remunerated by the ATF or DOJ, whose job it was to provide input, analysis or opinions on the technical issues pertaining to this rulemaking.  Provide those analyses for our review, and list the gunsmiths by name, license number and state.  If no gunsmiths have reviewed the technical issues pertaining to this rulemaking, say so with specificity and clarity.

With all due respect to the lawyers who have worked hard on this, and the mechanics and fabricators who are far better than I am, the machinists who can do things I can’t, and the backyard engineers out there who can rig things I’ve never thought of, I request – no, I demand – that these last two questions be answered officially and in the public record.

A lawyer isn’t an engineer.  A mechanic isn’t an engineer.  A machinist isn’t an engineer – I mean by that a registered professional engineer who is licensed in one or more states.  An engineering license connotes legal liability and financial and fiduciary responsibility, to the point of lose of business and personal possessions and even bankruptcy.  Not even a professor of engineering holding multiple PhDs impresses me in the least.  A PhD isn’t a PE (professional engineering) license.

I demand to know what registered professional engineers were involved in the determination(s) made by the ATF regarding this rule change, their names, states registered, and license numbers.  I retain the right to litigate the lack of technical review and accountability and seek damages to gun owners by all available means, as well as seek censure of the PEs involved in this process.

Following up this post, this video documents the legal response to the Miami Beach Police Department thus far.  The LEO point that they are allowed to point weapons at armed men even if armed legally (for the purpose of officer safety) is idiotic beyond belief.

If that’s true, they should go around pointing weapons at everyone since anyone could be concealing a firearm.  At any rate, this point of logic will be lost on LEOs since .. well, just because.

Via WRSA.  Bad things.  That’s what.

Before the 1945 Soviet occupation of Romania, the people had the right to own guns. I remember my father telling me his dad owned a double barreled shotgun he used to hunt rabbits with as well as a Luger picked from the retreating German troops (German soldiers were getting rid of all their military equipment by simply throwing it out of the troop transport trains).

When the communists took power in 1949 following falsified elections, the first law they enacted was total gun  confiscation (for the greater good of course).Then after they made sure the population was disarmed they started the arrests, imprisonments, reeducation camps and killings.  So practically since 1949 it was illegal to own any firearms in communist Romania.

Then there is this very important observation.  Listen carefully dear men.

After so many years of restrictions and servitude for over two generations, the perception of the Romanian population about gun rights changed in worse; I must admit when I first came to the US I too was surprised to see how owning guns is something normal and affordable and I too believed guns in the hands of untrained people can be dangerous (and keep in mind I served 2 years in the military so I was familiar with firearms).

After so many years of war and occupation the overwhelming majority of the people were sick and tired of the war so they believed what the propaganda of the new regime was telling them. They were lied that the government will protect them, that guns must be surrendered for their own safety, that since the war is over there is no need for guns anymore.

I’ve made the same observation before, albeit thankfully without first hand knowledge.

Every single one of the genocides in the twentieth century – every … single … one – from Hitler to Stalin to Pol Pot to Idi Amin to the Turkish Ottoman Muslim extermination of the Armenian Christians, was preceded by gun confiscations.

Nothing good ever comes from surrendering your firearms.  The founders knew that and gave us the 2nd amendment – if we can keep it.  And again, make careful note that reeducation and propagandizing is all part of the larger strategy for subduing the American culture to the wishes of the controllers.

David Codrea:

Who thinks the Bloods, the Crips, the Latin Kings, MS-13, Vatos Locos, the 18^th Street Gang and all the others will have their activities curtailed in the slightest? Gun-grabbing Opposite Day “progressives” are sticking it once more to the “law-abiding” and creating even more incentives for a dangerous black market (and attendant “turf wars”) to flourish.

It’s always the peaceable men who suffer under the yoke of bondage.  It’s almost like they’re trying to turn otherwise peaceable men into fighters.

And I’m assuming that since New Jersey is such a safe place anyway, criminals won’t benefit from this, will they?