Category: RKBA

Gun control is the complementary and alternative medicine of public health policy. It is homeopathy and acupuncture and chelation, and what little positive benefit we see from it is more wishful thinking of the placebo effect than actual results. It never fails to astound me how so many educated, intelligent people who purport to believe in evidence-based medicine can still swallow this snake oil from the hucksters and carnival barkers who peddle it.

Ambulance Driver, in this post.

This has got to be one of the best metaphors I have seen for gun control in a very long time. Thanks Kelly, you just gave us a way to talk with the skeptical community in terms that they understand!

Like most people I read in horror as the first reports came in about the tragedy at Sandy Hook. That someone would go in and murder children is truly the epitome of evil. Yet even as I saw the news blasts come across my phone, there was the small part in the back of my head that knew what the political response would be. Why? Why do I have to even think about that? Fortunately, Sebastian was nice enough to go into my mind and write this post.

The money quote:

Yes, wouldn’t it be nice, if as gun owners, we could just experience grief and sorrow along with the rest of the country. Instead we have that impending feeling of doom over what the media, the politicians, and the people in society who don’t much care for civilian gun ownership, are going to do to our lives, liberty and often times livelihood. What if we could go through something like this, without worrying about how much we’re going to be the scapegoats?

And just in case we, as gun owners, thought maybe we wouldn’t be put in the crucible again to defend our rights, John Richardson was nice enough to compile the opportunists’ quotes.

On our own side, there have been calls to arm the teachers and to lock down the schools even tighter. While I would support letting concealed carry holders carry on school grounds, are we going to force teachers to carry weapons? If we have the freedom to choose to carry weapons, shouldn’t they have the right to choose not to?

The problem is that both sides are responding emotionally to an event that evokes that primal fear in us. As humans, we should be discussing this on a rational basis, not an emotional one. In truth, violence in schools has been on the decline. Nick Gillespie from Reason spells it out fairly well in his article “4 Awful Reactions to Sandy Hook School Shooting – And Thoughts on a Better Response:”

According to data compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics, schools have been getting safer and less violent at least over the past couple of decades… During the school year of 1992-93, for instance, the number of on-location murders of students and staff at K-12 public schools was 47 (out of population of millions). In 2009-2010 (the latest year for which data is listed), the number was 25. Over the same period, the rate on victimizations per 1,000 students for theft dropped from 101 to 18. For violent crimes, the rate dropped from 53 to 14. And for “serious violent” crimes, the rate dropped from 8 to 4.

Over the next weeks and possibly months, we will be bombarded with theories as we try to grapple with “Why?” At the very end, it came down to one evil person who decided to commit atrocities. I don’t know how, or if, we could ever stop this sort of thing from happening.

Boing Boing is one of those sites I check for geek stuff. I realize most of their editorial staff are on the opposite side of the political aisle than me on most issues. Generally, I can ignore it. Then there’s this post.

Black Friday, Texas style: Mall shopper who pulled gun on line-cutter “within rights,” say cops

The headline is completely misleading about the event, and the entire article’s tone is designed to fit into the stereotypes our opponents have of us. It isn’t until reading the last sentence of the excerpt from the original news story that the reader learns the gun didn’t come into play until a physical attack was made.

Don’t read the comments unless you’re in good health or have taken substantial blood pressure meds. The few pro-gun commenters try, but they’re drowned out by the sheer volume of recycled billshit.

Post title h/t to Unc

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi was presented at the Republican National Convention as one of the fresh, new faces of the Republican Party. Her office has been diligently fighting Obamacare. Wonderful, great. So, why does she have to go and prove that the Republicans take the gun-rights vote for granted as much as the Democrats take the black vote.

Apparently because I decide to carry a gun, I am 95% likely to be a criminal. Robb Allen has a great write-up here.

According to AG Bondi:

[A]n overwhelming majority of Floridians are not licensed to carry concealed weapons. As of August 31, 2012, the number of concealed weapon or firearm permits issued in Florida is 971,263. Where Florida had an estimated population of 19,057,542 in 2011, the percentage of the population that is licensed to carry a concealed weapon is only five percent (5%). Given the small percentage of the population that is licensed to carry a concealed firearm, the overwhelming majority of firearms, or 95%, are not licensed to be concealed. Thus, an officer’s suspicion that a firearm is not licensed would be reasonable because, in any given case, there would be, statistically speaking, a 95% likelihood of illegality.
State’s Brief on the Merits, Mackey v. State SC12-573 (Fla 2012) (internal citations omitted, emphasis added)

When I read this, I was incensed, to put it lightly. I wanted to foreswear voting for this woman in any capacity. Then, I calmed down and thought back to one of the gems that I picked up at the Gun Rights Policy Conference. We know that many people are ignorant of firearms and the gun community. So why should we expect the politicians to be any different? We should at least try to educate them before rallying our forces to lay siege.

Thankfully, we have Florida Carry.

The rights of Floridians to keep and bear arms are well recognized in the U.S. and Florida Constitutions as well as in Florida general law. To allow detentions and arrests based solely on a person’s possession of a firearm without more, and then to require a person to prove through an affirmative defense that their possession of the firearm was lawful would swallow whole the right. As inconvenient as it might be, the need for enforcement of firearms laws preventing carrying by the unlawful and unskilled, must sometimes give way to the God-given right of the people to both lawfully keep and bear arms, and be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.
…
The state’s position can be summed up that in order for a citizen to exercise their right under the 2nd Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article I Sec. 8 of the Florida Constitution, the citizen must give up their rights under the Fourth Amendment, to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. According to the Attorney General, persons in possession of a firearm should be presumed to be committing a crime, and should be required to prove before a court of law that their conduct is in fact lawful.Should the Court find in the State’s favor in this case, this would be the first time in American jurisprudence that the exercise of a fundamental individual right has required the abdication of another fundamental right.
Amicus Curiae Florida Carry, inc.’s Brief in Support of Appellant, Mackey v. State SC12-573 (Fla 2012) (emphasis added)

If you live in the state of Florida and have not joined Florida Carry, why not?