Tag: Gun Rights

I Love it When a Plan Backfires

Shortly after the shooting in Newtown Mr. Obama issued 23 executive orders that he claimed would help reduce gun violence in the United States. One of those orders said, “Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.” It’s been half of a year since those executive orders were issued and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has completed it’s study. What did it find out? The opposite of what it was planned to find out:

1. Most gun deaths in the US are due to suicide, not violent crimes with guns or accidental shootings. This is a said statistic, but again, this goes back to mental healthcare, not guns.

“Between the years 2000-2010, firearm-related suicides significantly outnumbered homicides for all age groups, annually accounting for 61 percent of the more than 335,600 people who died from firearms related violence in the United States.” [Source]

2. Mass shootings account for a negligible amount of crime in the US. In fact, mass shootings are one of the rarest forms of violent crime in the country.

“The number of public mass shootings of the type that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School accounted for a very small fraction of all firearm-related deaths. Specifically, since 1983 there have been 78 events in which 4 or more individuals were killed by a single perpetrator in a day in the United States, resulting in 547 victims and 476 injured persons.” [Source]

3. This one is probably our favorite. The study admits that self defense is a common occurrence and happens at least as much violent crimes involving guns. This is a direct busted myth to the anti gun argument that guns are almost never used for self defense.

“Defensive use of guns by crime victims is a common occurrence […]. Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million per year, in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008.” [Source]

4. Furthermore, on self defense, if you carry a gun and fight back against a violent assailant, you are less likely to be killed or harmed than someone who decided to fight back and employ another self defense tactic or weapon.

“Studies that directly assessed the effect of actual defensive uses of guns […] have found consistently lower injury rates among gun-using crime victims compared with victims who used other self-protective strategies.” [Source]

That has to hurt. I’m sure this study, as with most studies that fail to propagate the state’s propaganda, will never buried deep in some hole and never acknowledged again. It’s also likely that several people at the CDC will no longer have jobs as that is often the price of failing to tow the party line. Still, the report is pretty good for gun owners because it shows that even government agencies can’t successfully coverup the fact that guns are useful tools for self-defense.

Magpul Demonstrates How it’s Done

Since Colorado passed its recent ban on standard capacity magazine Magpul has been demonstrating how to fight for gun rights. With the ban taking effect on July 1st, Magpul has decided to have a little shindig on June 29th:

ATTENTION COLORADO!

Come on out and join the festivities at Infinity Park in Glendale, CO, this Saturday, June 29, celebrating FREEDOM on the last weekend before the unconstitutional mag ban takes effect, and get your last shot at purchasing PMAGs. We’ll be there, and we’ve ponied up a LOT of PMAGs. First 1500 through the gate get a Boulder Airlift or Free CO PMAG FREE! Food, live music, and a helo-borne aerial delivery of PMAGs. Proceeds from mag sales go towards the legislative and legal fight for 2A rights in CO. Get tickets and pre-purchase PMAGs at:

www.freecolorado.net

“GLENDALE— Saturday, June 29th, Free Colorado, a non-profit organization advocating for the rights of gun owners, will host “A Farewell to Arms” Freedom Festival. This event marks Coloradan’s last chance to celebrate the ability to own standard capacity magazines prior to new Colorado laws taking effect on July 1st.

The first 1500 attendees through the gate over the age of 18 will receive a free Magpul Gen M2 MOE 30rd magazine featuring either the Free Colorado or Boulder Airlift design, courtesy of Magpul Industries Corp. Tickets for attendees and magazines can be pre-purchased online at www.freecolorado.net.”

I’m glad to see Magpul is doing what it can to ensure as many standard capacity magazines are distributed in Colorado before the ban becomes enforceable. After July 1st it will be up to us gun owners living outside of Colorado to ensure our friends inside of Colorado can still get access to standard capacity magazines. Together we can render this ban irrelevant.

It’s a Thug’s Life in the IRS

Look, I get it, the state needs to threaten people with violence in order to coerce them into paying taxes. If we’re going to give people guns and send them out to threaten peaceful people could we at least hire competent individuals:

Special agents at the IRS accidentally shot their firearms 11 times between 2009 and 2011, and at least three of the cases “may have resulted in property damage or personal injury.”

Agents actually fired their guns accidently more often than they intentionally fired them in the field, according to an audit by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

Emphasis mine. Give a man a gun and he’s held accountable for his actions. Give a man a gun and a badge and he’s unaccountable for anything. I still think gun control advocates should be focusing their efforts on these unaccountable government thugs instead of people like me. If I negligently discharged a firearm in public I’d be brought up on charges yet government agents who negligently discharge their firearm in public are let off. Who’s more dangerous, the accountable individual or the unaccountable thug?

Most People Seem to Be Comfortable with Firearms

Apparently there’s a very slight uproar because gun rights activists here in the Twin Cities are planning to openly carry their firearms at the Open Streets event. For those of you unfamiliar with the event it’s a day where several major streets in Minneapolis are shutdown to motorized vehicles so bikers, skaters, and pedestrians can traverse them unopposed. As a biker and a gun rights activists this story intersects two of my interests. While a few people have been rather hysterical about the fact that there will be people openly carrying guns at the event, the president of the Minneapolis Bike Coalition demonstrates the general response I’ve noticed to open carry:

The idea that the events were being turned into a gun-toting event came as a surprise Tuesday to Ethan Fawley, president of the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition, which first hosted Open Streets two years ago. This year, Open Streets joined with the city for the series of events.

“It’s an open event,” he said. “It’s a family friendly, fun, kid-oriented event and we want healthy, active living to be the focus of the event. We don’t want sideshows. We want people to be out enjoying their neighbors and playing in the streets.

“My initial reaction to this is that it’s a distraction and it’s unfortunate from that perspective. We hope people will come out and be safe and have fun.”

“We’re expecting thousands of people at each event,” he said. “We had 10,000 people on Lyndale last year.”

Priem said Open Street organizers will not ask the gun owners not to attend. “Everyone is welcome at Open Streets,” she said.

People openly carrying firearms should be a non-issue and Mr. Fawley seems to be treating it as such. I open carry whenever I ride my bike, not because I’m trying to be a gun rights activist on the trails but because concealing a firearm while riding a bicycle is an exercise in futility. My act of openly carrying a firearm on bike trails has been met with no negative interactions. Nobody has screamed in terror, ran off the trail, or otherwise acted in an irrational manner. Some people have asked me for directions and made small talk with me while we waited for cars to pass at street intersections. Most people ignore my existence just as they ignore everybody else.

Open carry, at least in the Twin Cities area, seems to be becoming a non-issue for most people, which is great in my opinion. Since Minnesota created a legal means for individuals to carry firearms no notable incidents have arisen involving permit holders using their firearm in a violent manner. Minnesotans are learning a lesson that was well-known in history, just because somebody is armed doesn’t mean they’re violent.

I think this general acceptance of, or at least willingness to ignore, armed individuals is due, at least in part, to years of open carry activism. Some gun rights activists like to bitch about open carrying harming gun rights in general but, based on what I’ve seen, the opposite appears to be true. People are paying far less attention to armed individuals and that was the goal from the start.

Gun Rights Advocacy I Can Get Behind

Longtime readers of this blog know that I’ve given up on the political means to defend gun rights. The state has too many reasons to disarm the people to be reliable upon to uphold the right to keep and bear arms. Instead of begging politicians to carve out a few exceptions in their plan to leave the people defenseless I advocate the people perform acts of civil disobedience. When the Colorado politicians passed several restrictive gun control measures, including a prohibition against standard capacity magazines, I advocated the people of Colorado to start manufacturing standard capacity magazines and buying them from surrounding states. As it turns out, I’m not the only person following this line of thinking:

At least two formal events have popped up on Facebook that are encouraging Colorado gun owners to engage in civil disobedience and break the recent law that prohibits the sale or transfer of gun magazines capable of holding more than 15 rounds.

The events encourage participants from Colorado and other surrounding states to buy, sell and swap magazines that can hold more than 15 rounds in disobedience of the law.

Actions like this stand a far better chance of rendering Colorado’s magazine ban irrelevant than any political activism. First, buying standard capacity magazines from another state means you’ll have standard capacity magazines immediately whereas relying on political activism means you may not have standard capacity magazines for years or ever. Second, thumbing your nose at the law demonstrates how impotent the state really is. The state may catch one or two people to make an example out of but, as with any law, the state will be unable to catch a vast majority of offenders. Demonstrating the state’s impotency is the best way to encourage more people to ignore its decrees.

As they say, Rosa Parks didn’t vote her way to the front of the bus. In the same way gun owners aren’t going to vote their way to more freedom. When you want freedom you must take it.

How to Acquire a Firearm Without a Background Check

Gun control advocates have been harming about supposed loopholes that allow individuals to purchase firearms without first submitting to a background check. They’ve come up with fancy names for these supposed loopholes such as the “gun show loophole” and the “private sale loophole.” Oddly enough, they never discuss another way to get around background checks, be a violent revolutionary in a country that isn’t on friendly terms with the United States government:

President Barack Obama’s decision to begin arming Syria’s rebels deepens U.S. involvement in a regional proxy war that is increasingly being fought along sectarian lines, pitting Sunni against Shiite Muslims, and threatening the stability of Syria’s neighbors.

Another way to get around background checks is to be a member of a Mexican drug cartel.

Why haven’t gun control advocates spent any notable time discussing these loopholes? Unlike the “gun show loophole” and the “private sale loophole” the violent revolutionary loophole and the Mexican drug cartel loophole are almost exclusively used by violent individuals. Perhaps these loopholes aren’t discussed by most gun control advocates because the same organization they want to close the gun show and the private sale “loopholes” are also creating the violent revolutionary and Mexican drug cartel loopholes by supplying both of those organizations with arms.

The New York City Council Demonstrates Its Ignorance

The New York City Council decided to open their mouths and confirm to the entire world that they are, in fact, complete fools:

On Wednesday, the New York city council introduced a new bill that would make it illegal to use a 3D printer “to create any firearm, rifle, shotgun, or any piece or part thereof,” without being a licensed gunsmith. And even the creator would be required to notify the New York Police Department and register the gun within 72 hours of completion.

How does those bureaucrats plan to enforce this bill? Are they going to search every building in New York City for 3D printers? Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did pull something like that, but it would still be impossible because there aren’t enough police officers in New York City to search every building simultaneously. If every building isn’t searched at the exact same time then owners of 3D printers can just move them to buildings that have already been searched. Furthermore, even if they were able to order every building searched for 3D printers, they would have to assume the mere presence of a 3D printer implied guilt of fabricating 3D printed firearms (again, I wouldn’t put it past them, but it would be hard sell).

This is another example of a bill that is entirely unenforceable and therefore meaningless.

The Distraction of the Week

Bitter over at Shall Not Be Questioned notes that the critters in Congress are talking about bringing up gun control measures again.

At this point I’m thoroughly convinced that gun control is serving as nothing more than a distraction. With the recent military sex abuse scandal, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) scandal, trial of Bradley Manning, , talks of arming potential al-Qaeda operatives in Syria, reveal that four American citizens have been assassinated with drones, Supreme Court decision dictating that Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) samples can be taken from anybody being arrested, and various other scandals the federal government is currently involved in it seems as though Congress, the executive branch, and the judicial branch are desperate to get the spotlight off of their misdeeds. Gun rights are an emotional issue here in the United States and emotional issues serve as the best distractions.

My guess is Congress is hoping people will get riled up about gun control and ignore all the other shit that is currently going on in Washington DC. On the upside, if my theory is correct, they are unlikely to pass any gun control legislation because that would mean an end to the distraction. With the way things are going in the City of the Damned all three branches of the federal government needs to extend the distraction as long as possible. I wouldn’t be surprised if the new call for gun control either results in no further action or results in debates that conclude when the various ongoing scandals finally drop out of the news.

Magazines for a Good Cause

Magpul is selling special edition magazines to fund its lawsuit against the State of Colorado for its new prohibition against standard capacity magazines:

To raise money for their fight against the new laws in Colorado which are forcing them to leave the state, Magpul is selling a special limited edition PMAG. The magazine is identical to their black GEN M2 PMAG other than a slight change to the ribbing and the addition of the Free Colorado logo and Magpul anniversary logo. They are being sold in packs of five for $64.75.

There are two special edition magazines. One of the magazines is stamped with “Boulder Airlift” while the other is stamped with “Free Colorado.” At the time of this writing the “Boulder Airlift” magazines were out of stock but the “Free Colorado” magazines showed as being in stock and Magpul’s website allowed me to put in an order (although it took several attempts as their website appeared to be getting hammered, which I hope is good news for their magazine sales).

I’m starting to think that Magpul is conspiring to gain my love an affection. First they produce the best magazines I can find for my LR-308, then they keep their word and abandon Colorado after the state’s government passed a prohibition against standard capacity magazines, and now they are raising money for their lawsuit by selling a product I actually want. If Magpul still has some magazines in stock put in an order. The worst that will happen is you’ll received some magazines, the best that will happen is Magpul’s lawsuit will lift Colorado’s prohibition and you’ll have some magazines.

Kokesh Cancels is March on Washington DC

Remember the armed marching on Washington DC being planned by Adam Kokesh? He copped out:

The activist who threatened to lead an armed march on Washington on July 4 has canceled the event but is urging people to converge on the 50 state capitols to protest gun regulations, according to his recent appearance on an Internet talk show.

“Please don’t come to Washington, D.C. Appeal on a state level,” Adam Kokesh, an Iraq war veteran, said in an interview Tuesday on “The Pete Santilli Show.” “We shouldn’t be begging the government to change. We should be hoping they respect our rights.”

I’m sort of shocked. Kokesh left himself an excellent trapdoor by saying the event wouldn’t happen if enough people didn’t sign up. I guess he wasn’t expecting 1,000 people to actually say they were attending. Oh well, it would have been interesting to see what would have happened as the event date approached but now we’ll never know (on the upside we do know that Kokesh isn’t one to deliver on his word).