08:26 – The lead story in the paper this morning is about the Winston-Salem Gun & Knife show, which is currently running. It’s an annual two-day event, running from Saturday morning through Sunday afternoon. The all-time record attendance was several years ago, when 6,400 people attended. As of 11:00 a.m. yesterday, 2,500 people had already attended, so it seems likely they’ll shatter the attendance record this year.
I do wish our politicians would repeal the Gun Control Act of 1968, which made mail-order gun sales illegal. That way, people wouldn’t have to drive all the way to a gun show to buy guns. They could just order them on-line from Amazon or eBay. While they’re at it, they should repeal the National Firearms Act of 1934, which put controls on automatic weapons, sawn-off shotguns, silencers, and destructive devices. Both are unConstitutional, and in their absence we could simply order anything we needed on Amazon. The first things I’d order would be a couple of G3’s, a small supply of Stingers, and a few RPG antitank missiles.
Jerry Coyne’s been posting on this topic, I’m surprised that you haven’t posted in reply:
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/12/23/christian-leader-david-barton-whatever-the-governments-got-weve-got-to-have-the-same-thing/
and
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/adam-gopnik-writes-on-gun-control-again/
I’ve thought that “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” meant that a “well regulated militia” was one, and only one of the reasons for allowing people to bear arms, but a lot of liberals are saying that it’s the only reason, and so if you’re not in a state organised militia you can’t own guns. Period. One of Jerry’s fanboys is saying that even the cops should be disarmed. Jerry seems to be endorsing the opinion that the right to bear arms independent of a militia is an innovation that’s only 30 or so years old.
The usual suspect libtards have been trolling that line for many years now, that the only way we can have guns is if we are in an official militia organization and go to regular drills and training, etc., etc. They can kiss my ass. Coyne is an academic/biologist who ought to stick to his area of expertise and quit bloviating like a typical Hollyweird dipshit actress on theology and the Second Amendment. Gopnik and Wills can also kiss my ass.
I agree with Robert totally on this; repeal those Acts and let’s get down to it ASAP; but the State is terrified of us and there is no shortage of ass-hats like these who have no shame in politicizing the issue over the bodies of small children.
I think there should be an upper limit on the weaponry an individual is allowed to own. It’s overkill to allow a single natural person to own their own battleship, aircraft carrier, or more than about half a dozen B-52s.
I do wish they’d left out that explanatory first clause. It was and is gratuitous. The Right conferred by the Second Amendment is: “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”
The problem with that is that if you give them an inch they’ll take a mile.
The original idea of the Founders was that the government should fear the people. Jefferson in particular was an anarchist and believed that we should have a fresh revolution every 20 years.
Our federal and state governments should fear the wrath of the people. If they attempt to use force of arms against the people, they should know that the people are well armed enough that that attempt should fail. If the feds think about deploying troops against the people, they should know that those troops will face hordes of civilians armed with hordes of assault rifles, machine guns, and other “military” weapons. If the feds think about deploying tanks against the people, they should know that those tanks will come up against swarms of anti-tank missiles.
That’s why I’m against not just restrictions on civilian ownership of weapons, but any kind of registration or records of who owns what.
“t’s overkill to allow a single natural person to own their own battleship, aircraft carrier, or more than about half a dozen B-52s.
I don’t know about overkill, per se, but for sure the economic/financial aspects preclude this; we will have to go in on such purchases in groups. The people in town here will gather together and see if we can’t get us a surplus aircraft carrier or two and borrow the F16s from the VANG base thirty miles to our south. If we bring the whole state in on the deal, we can probably pick up three or four B52s as well.
…any kind of registration or records of who owns what.”
That genie is outta the bottle, too; long ago. A lot of legal, per se, purchases of firearms are in State databases/records but a whole lot of others are most emphatically NOT. Tons and tons of various types of weapons have been purchased at shows and in private sales for decades now. My next-door neighbor may well have a bazooka and a machine gun for all I know.
Putting an upper limit on the number of arms shows that the accent is in the wrong place: people are dangerous or not, not the weapon(s).
I would gladly submit to training and tests before buying a weapon. In this regard, I think psychological tests have a place. They are successfully used as part of a battery of tests for selecting people to train as pilots, for example.
Once I have proved to have the right mindset, there should be no barriers to what or how many weapons I may possess.
The problem with the psych testing is, again, give them an inch and they’ll take a mile. You support a strongly-armed civilian populace as a check on government overreach? Sounds like you’re paranoid and probably delusional. No guns for you.
That ignores the entire issue of whether psychology is a science. I think it is not, at least as applied to individuals, but I hardly have an informed opinion. There’s also the abuse of so-called psychology by the USSR and the PRC and probably other nations, in which those deemed (by government “psychologists”) to be unstable were shipped off to camps. Yah, not a whole lot of faith in government psychology, here.
These kids who shoot ’em up in movie theaters and schools have been diagnosed as unstable loonies, but yet nothing is done with that information to prevent us from their killing their moms and going on shooting sprees. Why should government collect yet more information? Clearly the government is interested only in neutralizing citizens against the government—not against each other.
Maybe, just maybe, one State could rise up and say “eff you feds, we’re allowing any weapon with no registration”. The population influx and revenue from small sales taxes would probably make up for any lost federal benefits.
Yawn, I just woke up from my dream.
“…Once I have proved to have the right mindset…”
And what would that be, pray tell? Whatever State shrinks determine it to be? As with SteveF and Robert, I agree with the slippery-slope argument they refer to; proven track record of various state entities with regard to ownership of firearms by private citizens.
“Clearly the government is interested only in neutralizing citizens against the government—not against each other.”
So it would appear; and there are some who claim that these various incidents fill the needs of Our Nanny the Almighty State very nicely. Too nicely. Many unanswered questions from the events and the State holds all the informational cards.
In answer to Miles’ earlier question about links in text popping up everywhere, see this page from Mozilla
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/887190
People say it is caused by a couple add-on extensions and/or a third-party toolbar. Probably was caused by installing some software that also puts on ancillary other stuff without telling you plainly, and defaulting it to be installed. I have had a couple of those disasters, and I consider myself careful.
Here is a nice story for the Xmas season:
http://www.nypost.com/f/print/news/national/wings_of_an_angel_m7W8NXNsFsgsqcf5YKPGzO#axzz2FT0BW2mJ
Warning: OFD got teary. And that takes something.
Soldiers have more valor than their governments do.
A really good essay on why the usual gun control/do something right now for the children tropes are wrong or won’t work. Written by a pretty good sf/fantasy author that has the proper credentials:
– used to own a gun shop. One that sold full auto gear to law enforcement.
– is a CCW instructor in Utah
– used to shoot in competitions.
http://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/an-opinion-on-gun-control/
http://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/an-opinion-on-gun-control/
Nice essay! I am a big fan of Larry Correia and have read all of his books to hit trade paperback to date. Nice combination of military sf and urban fantasy. Or maybe that is urban fantasy and milsf.
http://www.amazon.com/Monster-Hunter-International-Larry-Correia/dp/1439132852/
@OFD:”And what would that be, pray tell?”
You should direct your prayers to the correct Authority, not to me. :-]
The “right” mindset, IMHO, is one which wants to defend, rather than attack, and using the appropriate level and quantity of force to achieve this goal. This can incude pre-emptive action.
The tests could be compiled by an objective and non-aligned panel of people, not necessarily all psychologists. Psychological testing requires a lot of testing on the tests, to make sure they are appropriate to the population tested, objective, consistent, etc. The decision is therefore not left to an individual.
Thanks Chuck, I think I’ll ask my nephew to reinstall Windows on that machine. I couldn’t install Skyrim either (I think there was a non-working version on there already.) I’m not sure how long that machine would stay secure though. My sister is really quite oblivious to security.
Regarding mail-order guns, wouldn’t you want to inspect the actual gun you were buying?
Not necessarily, especially if I were buying new. One Remington 870 or Ruger Mini-30 is just like another.