Category: RKBA

The Good, the Bad, and the Appearence-Challenged

April 18, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Wednesday April 17, 2013 will be remembered as a huge victory for the gun rights proponents – and it should be. Even with a sensational tragedy, countless victim stories, full-court press by the media and the Obama administration (but I repeat myself), the Senate couldn’t come up with the votes to pass any of the gun control measures before it.

Activists should hoist their drink of choice and salute themselves. They made their voices heard. That’s the good, and it’s very good.

The bad, in my opinion, comes is with the exception of Feinstein’s overreaching dream amendment, all of our wins were not because the majority of the Senate supported our side, but because there weren’t enough votes to block a filibuster. Just like British rights, that’s based on a rule that can be changed. Both sides have threatened to change that rule when they were frustrated by it. IMHO, at some point, the Senate will be dumb enough to actually change the rule. The point is we need a solid majority – not a solid-enough minority – to protect us from these bills in the future. And there will be more of this in the future. We won a huge battle, but not the war.

The ugly is that this defeat may drive the gun control advocates to the states. They’ve already won battles there in Colorado, New York, Maryland, and Connecticut. I expect to see more action on the state and local level, and I expect it to be more of this cloak-and-dagger, passed-in-the-middle-of-the-night action.

This battle is finished, and we salute those that stood with us, and rejoice in the outrage and lamentations of our opponents. Today we celebrate, for tomorrow the war continues.

Victims and Truth

April 11, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Yes, the words of victims have special poignancy, but what they don’t have is any special truth. Grief drives us to look toward the heavens and demand an answer from any nearby Deity. Grief drives us to demand a solution to the fundamental insoluble problem, which is that the world is as it is. Bad things happen, often to good people, and grief drives us to…do something.

Michael Bane, RIVERDANCE With Blood

You should really RTWT. Michael really gets into how victims are harvested for political purposes. Humans have evolved with this belief in the story. It’s why witness accounts are desired in court, even though human beings tend to make lousy witnesses. It’s why companies fear bad reviews, even when the statistics say they have a better product or provide a better service. Stories have power in the human mind.

Teh Stupid, It Hurtz!

April 4, 2013 / / 0 Comments

I’ve seen this multiple places, but I’ll borrow from Miguel. (Thanks, Miguel!)

I truly empathize with the gunnies in Colorado. First, they had that atrocious law passed and now one of their representatives shows not only how ignorant she is of firearms, but how little she thinks of the concerns of the serfs under her.

First the ignorance:

“What’s the efficacy of banning these magazine clips? I will tell you, these are ammunition, they’re bullets, so the people who have those now, they’re going to shoot them” says Rep DeGette. According to her, “the number of these high capacity magazines is going to decrease dramatically over time because the bullets will be shot and there won’t be any more available.”

Okay, this isn’t “Guam tipping over” level of ignorance, but it does show that she has no working knowledge of the devices she wants to ban.

Granted, ignorance has never stopped any legislator on either side of the aisle, but then there’s her mocking of a constituent. Watch the video. It’s enough to get your blood warmed for the whole day.

Teh stupidz hurts more when laced with condescension from the fool!

So, About England’s Murder Rate

April 3, 2013 / / 1 Comment

Via Kevin comes this blog post from Extrano about how Britain’s Home Office determines its “official” murder rate.

Why? It is a matter of policy. As Chief Inspector Colin Greenwood points out here, the Home Office believes it unfair to brand a man a murderer until he has been tried, convicted, and exhausted his appeals.

As a result, murders that have not been solved are not included. If indications in the Telegraph are correct, that would substantially reduce the homicide rate in itself. Murders that have resulted in an arrest but no conviction are not counted. Convictions that have not been appealed are apparently not counted. And the number of minorities reported as murder victims is far below either the demographics or of reason.

RTWT, including the links.

This calls into question the assertions that gun control works because of the much lower murder rate reported in Britain. I would like to see if Australia and Canada follow similar methodologies (being part of the Commonwealth).

As the saying goes, “Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.”

Knives on a Plane!

March 6, 2013 / / 0 Comments

From Say Uncle comes an article that the TSA will allow small knives on planes starting April 27th. Their length threshold has me baffle. Who the hell came up with 2.36 inches (6cm) as an acceptable length?

In some regards, this is the knife equivalent of the seven-round limit. We can’t trust you with a standard length knife, but a neutered length blade is okay.

Do I have any knives under 6cm? I wonder. Oh wait, here’s one.

Dangerous Gorillas

February 20, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Please view this before continuing on with the post. It’s only about 90 seconds of your time.

I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t see it the first time through either. Then I was listening to the Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast as they discussed this news item about radiologists so focused on finding the expected anomalies, that they completely missed the gorilla in the pic. Click to make big

I’m sure your thinking This is all very interesting, but what does it have to do with me in my life? During the discussion of the radiology experiment, Steve Novella mentioned an experiment in 1959 where a researcher dressed up as a ghost and walked across the stage during the previews of a movie. According to the story, only about half of the people even noticed it. This phenomena is called selective attention, and it has real implications for maintaining situational awareness.

Let’s think back to the Aurora theater shooting. After looking at the video and the article, ask yourself this. Would you have noticed the guy in a costume until he opened fire? Here’s the damning part about the radiology experiment. We in the self-defense community think we’ve been trained to notice such anomalies, but so did the radiologists. Instead, they only focused on what they were supposed to be looking for. For myself, I don’t think I would have noticed until the gunfire. I realize this is a possible weakness, and I will try to remedy it in the future by being more observant. This is also where planning for contingencies comes in handy. If this happens, I’m going to do this… Why? Because you’re shortening your reaction time. Selective attention means a shorter window to implement any reaction to the threat. Contingency planning means when the threat occurs, all you’re doing is implementing.

Be watchful for the gorillas out there. Some of them are dangerous.

Friday Quote – Michael Z. Williamson

February 15, 2013 / / 0 Comments

First they came for the blacks, and I spoke up because it was wrong, even though I’m not black.

Then they came for the gays, and I spoke up, even though I’m not gay.

Then they came for the Muslims, and I spoke up, because it was wrong, even though I’m an atheist.

When they came for illegal aliens, I spoke up, even though I’m a legal immigrant.

Then they came for the pornographers, rebels and dissenters and their speech and flag burning, and I spoke up, because rights are not only for the establishment.

Then they came for the gun owners, and you liberal shitbags threw me under the bus, even though I’d done nothing wrong. So when they come to put you on the train, you can fucking choke and die.

Michael Z. Williamson, author

This quote came from this blog post. RTWT, because it rightly sums up how I feel when it comes to those considered to be “on the left” of our political spectrum.

When the Clinton AWB was passed, I was in the infancy of my awareness. I knew it was happening, but not how it would affect me. Now, I am fully aware of how the proposed legislation would affect me and those I care about.

Molon Labe, biotches.

Don’t Let Sandy Hook Become America’s Port Arthur

February 12, 2013 / / 0 Comments

For those who may not know, Port Arthur is a city in Tasmania, Australia. On April 28, 1996, a gunman killed 35 and wounded 23 before being captured by the police the following day. Like Sandy Hook, the atrocity shocked the nation’s people. The Australian government, in response, enacted strict gun control laws. We can see the echoes of this tragedy on our nation with the cries from the usual suspects for more gun control. Unfortunately, we are also seeing echoes of Port Arthur in the appearance of conspiracy theories that the government was the true culprit. (For a synopsis of the Port Arthur conspiracies and rebuking, I would recommend Brian Dunning’s Skeptoid episode. BTW, why aren’t you listening to every episode of this great podcast?) Just as we must take a stand to fight the onslaught of gun control measures being bandied about, we must also fight those that attempt to denigrate the horror of the event by claiming it was the work of a shadowy government like some B-movie plot.

This is perhaps the most dangerous time for gun owners since the Clinton Assault Weapons Ban. Our opponents and their willing myrmidons (look it up) in the media have a rag covered in children’s blood, and if waving won’t get them what they want, they’ll try to rub our collective noses in it to shame us. None of their proposals would have stopped the tragedy at Sandy Hook, but that doesn’t matter. As far is they’re concerned, now is their time and they intend to push it as far as they can. We must be willing to push back – hard. We must be willing to contact our senators and representatives. Ruger (yes, that Ruger) and Smith & Wesson (yes, that S&W) have tools to help let your elected officials know that you oppose any and all legislation that would curb your Second Amendment rights. It’s better to write your own letter, even better to call their offices. Even if your congress critter is solidly pro-gun or solidly anti-gun, make your voice heard. I think some of the other bloggers are right, and this may be the fight that decides the flow of the debate for the next decade.

As hard and nasty the fight against the antis is going to be, we must also fight against those who would perpetrate conspiracy theories about what happened that horrible morning at Sandy Hook. There are already YouTube videos of how there were multiple shooters, faked social media posts, and “crisis actors” brought in to pretend to be parents of “slain” children. The Blaze (which I’m not normally a fan of) does a great job of taking down most of these crank theories. Here, at least, we have allies who are often our opponents in the gun control debate – the skeptical community. This may be a chance for outreach to a community of individuals who are supposed to be swayed by reason and facts. Or at least proving that those conspiracy nuts are an infinitely small group of people who claim they are on our side of the debate.

One murderer has foisted on the gun community a slew of battles. We’ve lost some (New York) and won others (Chicago), but this is just the beginning. We must fight for our rights and for the truth behind those rights from all those that would threaten them.