Tag: Gun Rights

I’m Glad Other People are Are Doing the Real Work

Overall I have it pretty easy when it comes to blogging. Most of what I write are opinion pieces backed by the facts I used to form my opinion. I also write in length about topics that are philosophical in nature and require only reason to explain. For posts involving hard facts I can usually find the information I need quickly and cite it appropriately.

When I need a very well done graphic that explains the fact that more guns doesn’t correlate to more gun violence I simply have to link to Walls of the City and let Linoge do all the heavy lifting.

While people like him do all the real work I just sit back and collect a check… never mind, I just sit back. But speaking of checks if the Joyce Foundation wants to give me some money for writing this blog I’d be happy to take it. I won’t change my message or anything though, I’ll just take the money.

The Fellowship of Fail

One of the major advantages the pro-gun movement has is the fact bloggers are willing to get the message out for free. I’m starting to think we’re just suckers because both all of the anti-gun bloggers get paid by the Joyce Foundation as pointed out by Days of our Trailers:

In June, I noted that the Joyce Foundation pumped $425 large to the ‘New Venture Fund‘ to support messaging research on gun violence and gun policy and support the development and launch of a new online organization.

Media Matters (a $400K recipient itself) has now launched a new website.

Guess what? Now the shills have a new disclaimer on their websites:

This post is written as part of the Media Matters Gun Facts fellowship. The purpose of the fellowship is to further Media Matters’ mission to comprehensively monitor, analyze, and correct conservative misinformation in the U.S. media. Some of the worst misinformation occurs around the issue of guns, gun violence, and extremism; the fellowship program is designed to fight this misinformation with facts.

Aw look at that, now they can create a giant circle jerk amongst themselves. I’d call it the Fellowship of Fail but I’m not a nice person.

On a side note it appears as though I’ve found my direct opposition, behold and anti-gun Minnesota blogger. Yes I’m actually linking to the site because it amuses me to find such ignorance openly on display in my neck of the woods. It’s written by a Brady Bunch board member, Joan Peterson whose average post length surpasses my own. Unfortunately for her I post far more frequently and have far higher quality posts so in the end she loses the non-existent blog competition. I look forward to using a blog run by a fellow Minnesotan for post fodder.

Chicago Still Making the Possible Impossible

Although the McDonald vs. Chicago court case forced the city of Chicago to repeal it’s complete handgun prohibition the officials are fighting the decision tooth and nail. First the city said citizens can jump through innumerable hoops to get a permit but one of the requirements would be to receive training. Of course in-city ranges were prohibited so one couldn’t actually get the required training which created a de facto ban. The ban on ranges within the city was struck down so now the officials are looking for a new way to uphold the handgun prohibition and their new scheme is yet another catch 22 situation:

It would require gun range owners keep records of everyone who used their facilities after ensuring each patron had a state firearm owner’s identification card and city firearm permit.

Aldermen are retooling the gun-control ordinance they approved a year ago under Mayor Richard Daley. The measure outlawed shooting ranges within city limits, even as it required firearm training for people before they could get a gun permit.

In order to get a permit you must take a class at a range but in order to take a class at a range you must have a permit. So the question must be asked, what will be the next scheme when this one inevitably fails in court? Perhaps they’ll require a written test but prohibit any pointy objects such as pens or pencils inside the testing center.

A tip of the old hat goes to Days of our Trailers for this story.

My Application was Rejected

Uncle sent out notice that the Brady Campaign is looking for a new CEO. My application was rejected because it seems the Brady Campaign has no interest in a libertarian gun nut who specialized in making fun of anti-gun individuals and their constant parroting of lies. Still I found some rather humorous points in the requirements page:

The Brady Campaign has embraced building this grassroots strength as one of its most important priorities for the years ahead.

If the Brady Campaign has made establishing a grassroots movement against gun rights a priority I’d had to see how badly they’re failing at things they’re not concentrating on. You know what else is funny? This:

The organization is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with a staff of 25. There are 5 regional staff members in other parts of the country and the two entities have a combined annual budget of $5.3 million.

So the entire Brady Campaign headquarters staff is only 1/3 the size of the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) board of directors:

The NRA organization is governed by a large (typically 76 member) board of directors.

That made me giggle. What other hilarious gems lie within the job description? How about this:

The CEO will be a proven, results-oriented manager of people, teams, and organizations. S/He will provide the Brady Campaign with strategic leadership and bear ultimate responsibility for the organization’s programs, operations, and staff. The CEO will oversee effective program delivery and the executive team in its day-to-day management of the organization. S/he will be expected to create and execute a comprehensive strategy that utilizes a wide range of voices to deliver the organization’s messages.

So basically the new CEO will have to be accomplish the exact opposite of their last CEO. Good luck on that one guys. Though it’s good to see that the Brady Campaign understands the most important skill their next CEO will need:

While no one person will possess all of the qualities enumerated below, the ideal candidate will possess many of the following professional and personal characteristics:

[…]

A sense of humor.

Their new CEO will need that once S/He realizes the entire organization is one giant joke.

The Winners of the Scummiest Parents of the Year Award

It’s not secret that I’m avidly against so-called gun buy back programs. First of all the terminology is misleading because buying back an item implies that you at one point owned it. For example if I purchase a car from you and later sell it back to you the transaction could be considered a buy back. As I’ve never purchased a firearm from the government they can not claim previous ownership and therefore can’t “buy it back.” The other major issue I have with so-called buy back programs is the simple fact that they’re often funded with taxpayer money. Did I mention the fact that they’re completely ineffective as no criminal is going to turn over a perfectly functional firearm for a measly $100.00 gift card?

Well it seems a group of idiot anti-gunners, but I repeat myself, got together and came up with a rather moronic idea befitting their movement. Behold, a gun buy back program for children:

The guns being bought back from the streets weren’t 9 mm handguns or Glocks. Instead, they were Nerf guns or toy pistols.

And they weren’t being bought with cash. This time, the currency was pizza slices, notebooks and dress shirts.

The FATHERS group and Bona Pizza teamed up Monday for a buyback aimed at younger teens and preteens at the pizzeria at Bailey and Kensington avenues.

You know what? So long as you’re privately funding this stupidity I’m not going to kick up too much fuss but I am going to call you on the fact that you’re bloody morons. The way I see it this move is either purely stupid or purely brilliant depending on whether or not the children of the pizzeria owner end up with a bunch of new Nerf guns. Either way the justification for this buy back is sickening:

The idea was simple: Don’t let kids get used to firing weapons, even if they’re toys.

“It makes them too comfortable, holding that gun,” said Leonard Lane, president of Fathers Armed Together to Help, Educate, Restore and Save. “Then there’s no fear holding the real gun when they get older. We want to put that fear back into our children, teaching them what guns can do, how they affect their community.”

“A toy gun today, a real gun tomorrow,” said Charles Cina, owner of Bona Pizza. “That’s what we want to stop.”

Emphasis mine. I don’t even have to take any journalistic creativity here, the own of the pizzeria actually wants to frighten children. He wants to put fear of inanimate objects into them. What kind of asshole wants to put fear into a child? That kind of dickery takes a special kind of jackass in my never humble opinion.

On top of that I don’t know why there should be fear in holding a real gun. I’ve spend more time behind the trigger of various firearms than many and I’ve never felt any fear. Sure there is respect for the device and what it’s capable of but respect and fear are completely different. Respect of potentially dangerous objects is something that children should be imbued with while fear or anything is something that they should be taught to reject.

Humans are taught to fear that which they do not understand and what this group of parents is trying to do is ensure children never understand firearms. Firearms are deceptively simple mechanical devices and once you understand that guns become far less mystical and frightening. On top of that there are safety rules which, if followed, will ensure nobody is accidentally injured with a firearm. If these parents really gave a damn about the development of their children they would take their kids to a firearm safety class instead of trying to turn firearms into a mystical black box technology.

As I said humans are taught to fear that which they do not understand but before receiving this despicable lesson children are very inquisitive. It takes years of beating fear into children before they come to the conclusion that objects they don’t understand are somehow scary. Until that fear is beat into them they are curious about anything they lack an understand of. As a parent you have two options available to you; either teach your children about things they lack an understanding of or teach your children to fear things they don’t understand. The first option will teach children to strive for knowledge while the second will teach them to just do as they’re told and never question authority. The second option is also one taken by a parent who is incredibly lazy.

A funny thing happens to children who are taught how to responsibly handle firearms, they usually handle firearms responsibly. That isn’t to say you should allow children to handle firearms unsupervised; supervision, in fact, is the teaching that will take away the mysticism of the firearm and ensure children develop a proper respect and understanding of the lead throwing contraptions instead of bumbling around with one curiously which usually ends in injury or death.

I will say that any child who participated in this program should have learned one important life lesson, some people are assholes and will try to rip you off:

So kids such as Tarence Callaham, 14, a Buffalo ninth-grader, brought in his green and orange Nerf gun. In return, Tarence got a piece of pepperoni pizza, a snazzy dress shirt and the chance to shoot some hoops in the pizzeria parking lot.

Nerf guns aren’t exactly the cheapest toys on the planet. Generally you can buy a piece of pizza and a dress shirt for less than a Nerf gun. Likewise most cities have numerous free basketball courts available for use without charge and basketballs can be had for very little money. Lets look at what another child received for his Nerf gun:

Tynell Ruffins, 9, a fourth-grader at Community Charter School, got a bigger haul in return for his orange and black Nerf gun. He got the pizza, a soft drink, a notebook, a dress shirt and a Marvel Heroes folder.

Once again a piece of pizza, soft drink, notebook, dress shirt, and folder can generally be had for far less than a Nerf gun. Not only are the parents involved in this scheme trying to frighten children but they’re also ripping them off. Make no mistake, these parents are equal to scam artists that rob little old ladies of their retirement funds. That is to say these parents are scum pure and simple. With that said I do want to take one of them up on an offer they made:

“We’ve got to be willing to exchange everything and anything to get guns off the street,” he added.

Deal, for every two ounces of pure gold you give me I’ll give you one of my firearms. How about it? I’m dead serious and this offer is available to anybody.

Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here

It seems the California senate has voted, not surprisingly, in favor of shitting all over the rights of its citizens again. This time the California senate voted in favor of banning the act of openly carrying an unloaded firearm:

The state Senate acted Thursday to prohibit California handgun owners from openly carrying their weapons in public, siding with law enforcement officials who say it wastes their time responding to false alarms of armed suspects and creates a risk of confrontation.

Current law allows the open carrying of unloaded handguns in public, and many activists have exercised their right by showing up in large numbers at their local Starbucks or other public places, wearing their firearm in a holster. Sen. Kevin DeLeon (D-Los Angeles) said there is no reason for that to happen in 2011.

Yeah there’s absolutely no excuse for those stupid peasants to exercise what few rights their rulers allow them to have! How dare they abide by the law in a manner their princes and barons disapprove of! The act of openly carrying unloaded firearms may slightly inconvenience a police officer on a power trip! This will not stand!

Seriously Mr. DeLeon what the fuck is your problem:

“This is not the wild west,” DeLeon said during the floor debate. “How discomforting can it be if you walk into a restaurant, a Starbucks, a Mickey D’s and all of a sudden you see someone with a handgun?”

Yeah that’s pretty discomforting. I know I freak right the fuck out every time I see a police officer enter a restaurant or coffee shop. Oh I forgot, because of their sanction from the state it’s OK when they do it, it’s just not OK for any of the peasants to do it. I keep forgetting about the government’s double standards.

Considering the real problems California is facing it’s rather sad to see their government spending time further restricting the rights of the citizenry. Perhaps if those “representatives” spent half as much time working on real problems California wouldn’t be as much of a shit hole as it is. Never mind since working to “fix” problems is what got that state in the position it currently is.

If you live in that state you should give serious consideration to moving out while you still can; you never know when the state Soviet will decide to erect a wall between California and the rest of the United States.

The Consequences of Fast and Furious Continue to be Revealed

Will you look at that, another violent crime linked to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive’s (ATF) botched Fast and Furious operation:

In the second violent crime in this country connected with the ATF’s failed Fast and Furious program, two Arizona undercover police officers were allegedly assaulted last year when they attempted to stop two men in a stolen vehicle with two of the program’s weapons in a confrontation south of Phoenix.

Yet according to the government we need to enact stricter laws against the purchase of firearms on the American Mexico border even though the government itself is the one smuggling the guns.

But New York’s Strong Gun Laws Made this Impossible

Ladies and gentlemen I’m not sure how this is possible but it appears as though there was a tragic shooting in New York over the Labor Day weekend:

Three people were killed and two police officers were injured in a gun fight in Brooklyn Monday evening — the latest bloodshed in a violent holiday weekend in New York City that saw at least 48 people shot.

An exchange of gunfire between two men broke out in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood around 9 p.m. Monday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference.

Some of the top minds in the country are baffled by this as we were assured by the anti-gunners that New York’s strong gun laws would prevent such tragedies as this from ever occurring. I’m sure Bloomberg and his posse will be demanding more stringent gun laws throughout the country because as we all know if something doesn’t do what you want you just need to try it again harder.

Manufacturing Outrages

Miguel over a Gun Free Zone has been covering the anti-gunner’s latest manufactured controversy, a Republican fund raiser where they raffled off a Glock pistol to raise money for the party. I glossed over the “controversy” because other people were already doing a great job of covering it and honestly I’ve been paying little attention to the ongoings of the anti-gunners as of late. But now that the pistol has been successfully raffled and everybody is still alive I thought a recap would be a good idea just in case anybody every believes that this situation was controversial. First and foremost we need to note something that was well stated in the story:

The model of Glock is not the same as the one Jared Lee Loughner used in the Jan. 8, rampage. The gun used by Loughner was a Glock 19. The weapon being raffled is a Glock 23.

I’m throwing this out there because many of the anti-gunners claimed that the raffle was for the exact same gun that was used to shoot Giffords. Seriously, the verbiage some of those idiots were using would lead readers to believe that a representative of the GOP walked into the evidence room, confiscated the gun used to shoot Giffords, and raffled it off at their fundraiser. What the anti-gunners were trying to twist and mutilate to fit their mission was the simple fact that the pistol being raffled was made by the same manufacturer as the gun used by the psycho who shot Giffords. Guess what? I own three Glock pistols, many of the local police departments issue Glock pistols, many militaries issue Glock pistols, and most people I know have at least one of the damned things. They breed like jackrabbits which is possibly the reason they’re such a popular firearm.

Do you know who else owns a Glock pistol? Giffords:

A gun, by any other name, is just a gun. Unless it’s a Glock semi-automatic pistol raffled off by Republicans in Pima County, which just happens to be the same county where Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 other people were shot, six of them killed.

Then it’s an outrage.

Or so we’re supposed to believe.

[…]

By the way, Giffords owns a Glock.

Emphasis mine. That’s it, argument over! No, seriously, we’re done. I’d like to thank Snowflakes in Hell for providing the closing argument.

The fact of the matter is Glocks are extremely popular pistols and thus it’s not surprising that they end up being used in crimes from time to time. This wasn’t a case of some GOP crony sitting in the Arizona Republican Party office wringing his hands in glee as he came up with the single most offensive plan he could conjure up to raise money for his party. It just ended up being a case where the GOP wanted to raffle off a firearm to raise money because gun rights is one of the things they pay lip service to periodically. As Glock pistols are popular it made perfect sense to select one to raffle off at their fundraiser.

The simplest explanation is usually the right one as this case demonstrates.

ATF Sends Ironic Letter to Licensed Dealers

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) have sent out a letter to federally licensed firearms dealers to keep a look out for terrorist trying to buy firearms:

While the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has received no specific threat information associated with the anniversary, we encourage you to exercise increased awareness and vigilance as the anniversary approaches. The security of your business operations, particularly your firearms inventory, is very important; and you should heighten your security precautions in light of this upcoming anniversary.

I wonder if you’re supposed to inform the ATF agent who is forcing you to sell the firearm to the suspicious person or if you’re required to go through the red tape of submitting a formal report.