blogs/gun control

The Root of Reasoned Discourse

Posted on by Caleb

Sebastian goes into some detail explaining his thoughts one why Reasoned Discourse and hysterics from the anti-gun faction is so commonplace.

I think the reason for the vitriol is that we have unwittingly hit on a nerve.  The LA Times article presented gun owners in a human light.  For those who have their identities wrapped up in who they are not, which is ignorant, paranoid, rednecks compensating for some kind of inadequacy and reacting to an irrational fear of crime stoked by the right wing establishment, it’s horribly destabilizing to a smug sense of self to read that those types of people might actually have things in common with you.  They may even have a serious point of view!

It’s quite true; especially later on when he discusses how many anti-gun people view a lot of pro-gunners (especially those with blogs) as “shills for the NRA”.  I’ve always found that amusing, because anyone with a modicum of knowledge about our culture would know just how often many gun owners get pissed off at NRA.

Uncategorized

Why I bought a big tv

Posted on by Caleb

So I can watch Dirty Harry in all it’s glory on my plasma HDTV from 10:15 to midnight last night.

There were a lot of parts in there that I didn’t remember, as it’s been quite some time since I last saw the movie, and the guns, oh the guns were just magnificent.  Clint Eastwood’s Model 29 is an unlikely gun for a cop, but who cares?  The deep, deep-so-deep-it’s-almost-black bluing on that pistol is just gorgeous; when he’s pointing it at the bank robber in the trademark scene I can’t but help think that “man, that is a handgun”.

The badguy’s guns aren’t as great, he uses a nondescript hunting rifle, but of interesting note are the MP40 that he uses to shoot Clint’s partner, and the Walther P-38 (or P-1) that he steals from the liquor store clerk.

Of course, the most lasting impression from the movie is just how well Clint Eastwood plays the anti-hero archetype – the flawed hero/anti-hero seems to be so common in films today that it’s become passe, as all sorts of actors who don’t have the chops to play the role are being asked to play it.  Clint stands head and shoulders above most of them with his portrayal of Dirty Harry.  Suffice to say, it was quite refreshing to see that they did at least remember how to make movies back in the 70s.

blogs/humor

Planned happiness is creepy

Posted on by Caleb

The Chinese government is training their people on how to clap and cheer for the upcoming Olympic games.

I can only imagine what would happen to them if they get it wrong: “It’s arms UP!  BLAM”.  Honestly though there aren’t a lot of things that I find more amusing that totalitarian governments planning out cheers and other kinds of mandatory morale.

Uncategorized

Hay guyz let’s shoot some cops

Posted on by Caleb

Comments like this one really, really piss me off – in fact they piss me off so bad that the only comments I’ve ever deleted other than obvious spam were along the same lines of “let’s shoot some cops”.  The comment below was made in reference to a fellow who was arrested for legally openly carrying and then made some poor choices after the fact – but at least he was smarter than this guy:

Why? Because I believe that submitting to this sort of infringement and then trying to seek redress in the courts is a de facto surrender of my 2A rights. I would shoot the bastards [the police] on the spot without a second thought [emphasis mine]. As it is, I frequently carry concealed without a CCW because I refuse to submit to an unconstitutional permitting process.

Talking about shooting police in a public forum, website, or anything like that is always a dumb idea.  If some guy is getting arrested for carrying legally and decided to shoot it out with the cops, I will be the very first person to throw his ass to the legal wolves, because murdering police officers is never, ever going to make our case.

Whether or not I personally have a line that I won’t allow the government to cross isn’t even the issue, because like everyone else, I do – but I certainly won’t be bragging on the internet about how I’d “shoot the bastards”.

In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m usually “pro-law enforcement” on here; in part because both my dad and I work/worked in law enforcement.  I believe that as a movement, it only helps gun owners to have the police on our side, and as many of us know a lot of rank and file cops are already on our side.  But all this crap about shooting cops because they’re “infringing” on your rights is stupid.  If one CCW holder decides to get blasty-blasty with the police, it screws over every single other law abiding gun owner in the country, because don’t think for a minute that the media wouldn’t blare that incident all over the news night and day.

On the other hand, if a CCW holder is wrongfully arrested and detained, and fights the battle through the legal system and wins, instead of ending up a dead idiot, he becomes a legal precedent.

I guess I should thank my lucky stars that most people who talk about shooting cops on the internet are armchair commandos, and would never actually go through with it in real life – of course, that doesn’t lessen the stupidity of saying things like that.  Alienating law enforcement will never help us expand our right to keep and bear arms, and will only increase the current divide in public perception between “us and them”.

news

Your papers, please

Posted on by Caleb

You have got to be kidding me, someone tell me this is just a stupid joke.  By way of LawDog, I learn that the DC Staatspolizei are planning on blocking off neighborhoods by designating them “Safety Zones”, and then stopping all vehicles entering the neighborhoods and getting ID from the drivers, or finding out if they have a “legitimate” reason to be in that neighborhood.  I wish I was making this up:

Under an executive order expected to be announced today, police Chief Cathy L. Lanier will have the authority to designate “Neighborhood Safety Zones.” At least six officers will man cordons around those zones and demand identification from people coming in and out of them. Anyone who doesn’t live there, work there or have “legitimate reason” to be there will be sent away or face arrest, documents obtained by The Examiner show.

I am absolutely stupefied by this, and while I can’t match LawDog’s poetic levels of outrage, mine is just as high as his.  Exactly where did Mayor Fenty and his lapdog Chief Lanier get the idea that it would be okay to tell citizens when and where they can and cannot travel in their own country?  Have we actually reached the point where armed police are going to demands the “papers” of US citizens to allow those citizens to travel to their own homes?

And how exactly do they plan on enforcing this crap?  Who’s to say that what one cop considers a legitimate reason will be considered legitimate by the next cop on a different shift?

The more I think about this, the more depressed I get – DC is supposed to a symbol of our liberty and what makes America such a great nation.  Instead, it’s a hole, a pit, where people are deprived of their liberties, their arms, and now their ability to travel without saying “by your leave”; all because some bureaurats (not a typo) have decided that they, the anointed, are in the right to deprive their subjects of said liberty in the name of “safety”.  It’s a disgusting display.

gun control/news

Adventure Outdoors update

Posted on by Caleb

Last week I blogged about the case against Adventure Outdoors, how they decided to accept the default judgment and not proceed with a bench trial; I placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of the activist anti-gun judge in the trial.

Jay Wallace, owner of Adventure Outdoors emailed me yesterday clarifying and reinforcing the conclusion I had already drawn from the news coverage:

Adventure Outdoors’ decision is motivated by the fact that it will not receive a fair trail. The City selected the district judge that it desired to hear this case in violation of Adventure Outdoors’ right to due process. Six days before trial was scheduled to begin, the court deprived Adventure Outdoors of its Seventh Amendment right to a trial by jury and indicated that it would serve as the finder of fact. Based on its findings of fact and conclusion of law in the N.A.A.C.P. v. Acusport, Inc, the Court has already concluded  that Adventure Outdoors has contributed to firearms-related public nuisance in New York City and a trial would accordingly be a mere expensive formality.

Essentially, when the judge decided to now allow the trial to actually be decided by the jury, it was over for Adventure Outdoors – they made the decision that it wasn’t going to be worth it to fight out a bench trial that they knew their chance of winning was slim and none; instead they decided to accept the default judgment and then appeal from that position.  More from Jay Wallace:

When the judge took away our constitutional jury, we could read the writing on the wall. We could not afford to spend/borrow $400, 000.00 in a no win situation. The court had already put in writing how it felt about the gun industry. I saw a light at the end of the tunnel and heard a whistle blow and I could see a large glass window with a man in a conductor suite. I believed it to be a train, so I moved out of the way in order to fight on an even playing field. Let Bloomberg keep spinning the facts with his press of a button press releases, truth and perseverance will bring him to his knees. I will not go away!

As I said in my email to him, I hope he does keep fighting.  I have long maintained that Mayor Bloomberg is no better or different in his tactics than a schoolyard bully, and the only way to stop a bully is to stand up to him.  I applaud Jay Wallace, and hope that he has success in his upcoming appeal of the default judgment.