Month: March 2011

More On the ATF Smuggling Guns Into Mexico

CBS has a report on the recent “gun walker” scam performed by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms Explosives Joy and Happiness (Ministry of Boring).

It must be nice heading a government agency that create false flag situations in an attempt to get more taxpayer money. Need more money? Simple create a situation where guns are going across the border between the United States and Mexico to be used by Mexican drug cartels. All you have to do is have your agents get those guns across and then whine about how said guns are being used against people of the United States. It’s brilliant.

New Made Up Term, Assault Clips

I wish I could make up terminology just like the anti-gunners. Take the following e-mail released by the Brady Campaign (yeah they’re still around):

Yup they’re calling standard capacity magazines “assault clips” now. First off I don’t know how well a 32 round clip is going to work. Most clips hold between 5 and 10 rounds because pushing more into a magazine is a bitch. Hell Looking at the M-14 Army manual they have a section on how to use clips to load magazines and none of them are all that easy.

Wait, now I’m confused because the e-mail says the Tuscon shooter used “high capacity ammunition magazines” but the Brady Campaign is calling for a ban on “assault clips.” Wow… if you’re going to call for a ban on something at least call for a ban on the thing you claim a bad person used.

My favorite part about a magazine ban is the fact law enforcement and military are exempt. Combine that with this quote from the e-mail:

The only people who want to shoot 32 bullets in 16 seconds are the last people who should.

I’m inclined to agree. I don’t think the police or military should have this type of firepower available to them. Therefore I’m making a decree that all magazines of an arbitrarily large size should be clearly stamped “For Civilian Use Only.” Since the police and military are exempt from the magazine ban bill they must want to shoot 32 bullets in 16 seconds and thus, according to the Brady Campaign, are the last people who should be able to.

I’ll Take Three

Well I’d take three if I could legally own them. A Germany company named SIGG produced a full auto rear plate for Glock pistols that is supposedly universal. I’d love to go to the range with a full auto Glock 30SF. Why? Because it would be wicked cool and I don’t think my 30-round .45 magazine would last that long (which is cool).

If only I lived in a free country where we could legally own fully automatic firearms.

A Fair Fight

One thing that is sometimes heard are complains that using a weapon greater than your opponent isn’t fair. For instance if somebody comes at you with a baseball bat and you end up shooting them some people will call you a pussy because you didn’t “fight fair.” To me the concept of a fair fight is alright amongst gentlemen but has no purpose in a self-defense situation.

A self-defense situation implies you’re defending yourself from an aggressor who means to cause you harm. The amount of harm they mean to cause you becomes irrelevant right away because you have no way of guaranteeing your aggressor will stop at a defined point. For instance if somebody says they’re going to beat you until you’re bloody and leave you can’t guarantee your aggressor is actually going to stop when you’re bleeding. Thus self-defense situations much be treated with the assumption that your attacker means to kill you.

By this definition self-defense situations are life or death situations. When your life is on the line you should do everything you can to preserve it and this means fighting dirty. Your goal should first be avoidance of conflict. Anytime there is conflict there is no way to know you’ll walk away so if at all possible you should avoid getting into a self-defense situation. Of course there are times when such a situation is not avoidable as fighting isn’t started over heated words but by somebody threatening your life outright. Your goal, if avoidance is impossible, should be to have greater force available to you than your attacker.

This is the reason many people in the United States legally carry firearms and have firearms at home for defense. In this day and age firearms are the best weapons available for most civilians. It’s unlikely you’ll be facing off against an aggressor who has more than a firearm at their disposal but it is likely your attacker will have less. The saying “don’t bring a knife to a gun fight” rings true. If your attacker has greater force available to them it tips the scales in their favor. If your attacker has a gun and all you have are your bare hands then the scale is tipped heavily against you. You want that scale tipped to your favor as much as possible.

When carried a firearm gives its owner an increase in the amount of force available to them ensuring the scale is never tipped completely in the direction of the criminal. It gives the owner an option in a life or death situation. The beauty of carrying a firearm is the fact you don’t have to employ it if the situation doesn’t call for it. Firearms are not magical items that jump out of their holster and shoot your aggressor regardless of what the anti-gunners want you to believe. If somebody attacks you and you don’t believe the situation warrants the use of deadly force then you do not need to draw your firearm. If you find yourself in a situation that warrants deadly force the firearm is available to you. Thus the firearm becomes an option, nothing more or less.

This is why owning a firearm for defensive purposes is a good idea it increase your options and allows you to tip the scale back towards your favor. Self-defense situations are about survival. When your life is on the line the idea of a fair fight should be the first thing to go. Remember that your life is more valuable than the life of that thug who is trying to use violence to force you into complying with their demands.

Supreme Court Rules in Westboro Case

The Supreme Court has rules that the gatherings by members of the Westboro Baptist “Church” are protected by the first amendment. The decision was 8-1 which is about as much of a landslide as you can get in that court.

As much as I despise what the members of Westboro Baptist “Church” do I openly admit that it’s speech and they’re free to do it. Like all rights the freedom of speech is a double-edged sword to some. You can use any individual right for both good and bad. Just because some people use it for bad purposes doesn’t mean we should enact restrictions against it.

The thing most people fail to realize is the members of Westboro are attention whores. All these gatherings, all the shouting, all the signs, everything they do is a vain attempt to garner attention. The only way to deal with these types of people is by completely ignoring them. If we manage to ignore them they will eventually go away and find something else to occupy their time, maybe by starting a shitty band in their garages where they can sing about all the emo feelings they experience. Oh, if these yahoos come to your town remember not to touch them as they fund their operation through lawsuit money.

The iPad 2

Well Apple announced the iPad 2 yesterday and honestly it’s about what I expected, and evolutionary change to the current device. Apple added a front and rear facing (because taking pictures with a 10″ device is going to be so practical) camera, thinned the device down, and tossed out AT&T and Verizon models. The new iPad also utilizes a dual core processor which I will admit is pretty neat.

Beyond what I’ve mentioned little has changed including available storage which still maxes out at 64GB (I was hoping for a 128GB model). The price, display, and claimed battery life have all remained as they once were. I’d mention the HDMI out adapter but that works on current iPads and iPhone 4s so it’s not really an iPad 2 only accessory.

In the end not enough has changed for me to want an upgrade from my current iPad. Honestly the entire announcement was a bit lackluster as noted by the fact that Apple actually took time to talk about their little magnetically attached cover. Positively exciting.

And Then There Were Four

Wyoming has now become the fourth state in the United States to remove government interference from the right to self defense. Governor Mead signed the constitutional carry bill meaning you no longer need a permit in order to carry a firearm, in any fashion, in the state of Wyoming.

Only 46 more states to go.

EDIT 2011-03-03 11:03: Apparently my math is not great. There are 46 remaining states, not 56. Counting is hard. Also thanks Vicki for pointing that out.

Steve Lampi

I’ve recently learned that Steve Lampi, former mayor of Brooklyn Park, has died. It seems he’s been fighting with cancer that finally won the battle.

I know little about Mr. Lampi except for three things; he was the mayor of Brooklyn Park, he was a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and he was the only Minnesota member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns who responded to my Freedom of Information Act requests for information on the organization.

Although his membership in Bloomberg’s organization leads me to believe he was far from pro-gun at least his office was good enough to respond to my request for information. I won’t decry the man for belonging to Bloomber’s posse and in fact want to make this post thanking him for responding to my request. That was more than the other Minesota members of Mayors Against Illegal Guns members did.

So to you Mr. Lampi thank you. Unfortunately I know nothing else of you and hence can’t offer any further words. At least know I appreciated your willingness to respond to a request from a man who has never resided in your city.

Conflict of Interest

I have a slight moral conflict here as I oppose the use of violence outside of self-defense but on the other hand these cyclists had it coming:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oOL6fMvhww]

A hat tip to Gun Free Zone for finding this first.

Also for those who don’t understand sarcasm I have no moral conflict, what the driver in the Volkswagen did was wrong. I’m also not going to lie, I laughed hard when I watched this.