I Am TJIC

I’m sure everybody reading this already knows who TJIC is. If not he’s a blogger who has the unfortunate combination of living in Massachusetts and being against the government. Because of this unfortunate combination he lost is second amendment right because he exercised his first amendment right:

A blog threatening members of Congress in the wake of the Tucson, Arizona shooting has prompted Arlington police to temporarily suspend the firearms license of an Arlington man.

It was the headline “1 down and 534 to go” that caught the attention. “One” refers to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head in the rampage, while 534 refers to the other members of the U.S. House and Senate.

Was the post distasteful? Yes. Was the post inflammatory? Yes. Was the post overall in poor taste? Yes again. Was the post protected speech under the first amendment? Yes. That last yes makes every other yes irrelevant.

Likewise TJIC didn’t threaten anybody. No specific names are mentioned just a general clause that states he doesn’t like politicians. This would be akin to tossing the writers of Mars Attacks! in prison because their movie depicted both congress and the President being killed by the martians. Now I badmouth politicians all the time and have made many remarks about horrible things we should do to them but it’s talk, speech, and satire (mostly).

But this event demonstrates the fact that we are not free people in this country. Sure some of us are more free than others depending on where you live but ultimately we’re all peasants at the mercy of our rulers in government. They seem willing to leave us mostly alone so long as we don’t criticize them while they make our lives even more restricted each day and steal more and more of our money. The second we cross them though, the second we criticize an illegal war, the second we speak against them we’re given labels such as terrorist, communist, and of course unpatriotic. Our rulers in government has passed laws that allow them to use their monopoly on the use of force to arrest, torture, and even murder people with these arbitrary labels.

So yes I will join this meme going around the gun blogs and say I to am TJIC. I am a man who disagrees with the government and has openly stated as such. If our government would respect the very laws put into place to keep them in line this entire post would be unnecessary. But this post is necessary because we are not free people and our government doesn’t respect the restrictions that were put into place during the founding of this country.

Major Editorial Oversight

Read the following article and see if you can point out the editorial oversight, I’ll wait.

Found it?

While walking home from the busstop this week, a 13-year-old Norwegian school boy stumbled upon four wolves. In the end, it may have been his love of heavy-metal music by the band Creed that saved his life.

Emphasis mine. You know an editor isn’t doing their job when heavy-metal and Creed appear in the same sentence without some kind of not operator included. Creed isn’t metal.

Likewise if I were a pack of wolves I’d fucking run if somebody blared Creed at me. Hell I’m a human being and I try to avoid listening to Creed. I’d say those wolves were probably a sign from Thor to the kid telling him to stop listening to shitty music. Next time it’ll be deaf wolves, just sayin’.

Amazingly Accurate Observation

Linoge has made a great observation of hypocrisy. You know all those people currently bitching about women being subjugated at the SHOT Show because they’re employed as “booth babes?” That’s kind of a double standard considering nobody says a word when automobile manufacturers do exactly the same thing though their women are generally more scantily clad.

If you’re going to bitch about something at least don’t be a hypocrite, be consistent.

Potential Addition to Banned Shotguns in the Works

Via Snowflakes in Hell I learned that everybody’s favorite agency of overreached government authority is up to its old tricks against. The Bureau of Everything Fun Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is going to issue new rules regarding shotguns:

Today, the ATF announced at the 2011 SHOT Show that a new ruling would be issued on Monday, January 24, 2011, regarding the importability of certain shotguns. ATF informed the audience at the ATF Townhall meeting that they wanted to ensure that they were properly and justly enforcing the requirements of a shotgun being for a “sporting purpose.”

What does this mean? Most likely that future importation of popular sporting shotguns such as the Saiga AK-based shotgun will become verboten. Although it’s a very popular three gun shotgun the ATF will completely ignore that fact I’m sure. Basically the Saiga has the bad fortune of being an awesome shotgun that accepts magazines that hold more shot shells than is politically accepted.

ATF ruling on shotguns is also the reason the SPAS-12 became illegal to import because it served no “sporting purpose” (even though I’ve used mine to shoot clays several times now). The worst part about this whole situation is the people don’t get a say, the ATF has the authority to do pretty much whatever the fuck they please and we slaves can just shut up and like it. Well we can shut up and like it or work to abolish the ATF. Personally I’m down with the second option.

Glock’s SHOT Show Event

Remember when Glock announced that they would be having a big event at SHOT Show this year and I said to prepare to be underwhelmed? Well, I was right:

I posted a few weeks back that Glock was going to have a press conference on Tuesday. The conference was canceled, so I don’t have any exciting news there.

That’s just slightly more uninteresting than I was expecting anyways. Glock makes a damn fine gun but they really don’t do anything all that exciting.

The Need for 30 Round Magazines

For those anti-gunners who keep asking, “Why do you need 30 round magazines” Alan over at SnarkyBytes has your answer:

I have a machine gun that fires 1400 rounds a minute. It can empty a 30 round magazine in less than two seconds. It would empty a ten round magazine in less than half a second.

Also rights have nothing to do with needs. I have a right to keep and bear arms, it shall not be infringed, and there is nowhere in the Constitution that declares any authorization for any restriction to that right. If you can’t get that simple concept through your head then I fear for you, I fear you will forget something really important like how to breathe.

Right to Carry Law Moving in Wyoming

It seems Wyoming is destined to be the next state that “gives” its citizens the right to carry a concealed firearm. The Wyoming Senate committee gave their recommendation on approval at the right to carry bill. It’s nice to see logic can find hold in some places:

Matthew J. Huntington, a Cheyenne-based “freedom lobbyist,” told the committee that an armed citizen was at the scene in Tucson and ready to shoot to stop the violence. The gunman responsible for the shooting was tackled before the armed citizen could act.

“If that tackling didn’t happen, and the shooter loaded that second magazine and continued, that gentleman who was legally carrying would have been able to stop the threat at that point in time,” Huntington said. “The overall point is that when you make it easier for legally armed citizens to carry guns, you make it harder for bad guys to commit violent crime.”

Of course one of “the only ones” doesn’t like the idea and spouts hypothetical situations that haven’t been a problem in Vermont, Alaska, or Arizona so far:

Casper Police Chief Tom Pagel told the committee that any change to the state’s existing concealed carry system demands careful consideration.

Pagel said more than 21,000 people in Wyoming already have state concealed-carry permits. He said only 1 or 2 percent of applications result in denials.

“Where I see the potential risk to this is citizen to citizen,” Pagel said. “Something that might be a fight will end up with gunplay.”

Being the three states with right to carry laws in place don’t have any issue I think we can all just drop this “blood in the streets” argument.

Another Demonstration of Why You Can’t Rely on the Police

Jay over at MArooned posted yet another example of why you can’t rely on the police to protect your life. A woman had to resort to defending herself with a vacuum while she waited 35 minutes for the police to arrive:

A Williamson County woman fought off an intruder with a vacuum cleaner. She was desperate for help, waiting for almost 35 minutes for law enforcement to arrive.

The single mom described that 35 minutes like the scene of a horror movie as she watched a man walk from windows to doors doing anything to break in to her home.

Yes it took 35 minutes for the police to finally arrive at her home. This is why you should always have a plan for defending yourself. Obviously I recommend using the best tool for the job which is a firearm but that’s not the only means of defense at your disposal.

Your life is far more valuable than the life of some scumbag who is willing to bring harm against your person. People out there clamoring for laws restricting firearms are only trying to make it more difficult for you to obtain the best tool to defend the most important thing you have, your life. When these same people claim you should just call the police remember that the police are not legally obligated to protect you and can’t instantly teleport to your location. There will always be travel time required for the police to get to your location and an officer must be available to send to your aid. You need to have a plan to fend for yourself until the police arrive (if they arrive).