Typical discourse with a gun control fan

Arguing logic, law and Constitutionality with a card-carrying member of the gun control camp, is usually about as productive as trying to piss up a rope, but I had some free time the other day.

Gun control fanboy:

So what can be done?

First, universal background checks must be strictly enforced, and connected to a nationwide database. Gun purchasers should be screened for prior convictions of violent crimes, especially domestic violence. Gun purchasers should be screened for mental health issues. Mental health providers should be required to flag patients with mental health issues that make them a danger to themselves or others. The U.S. military and the VA should be required to flag all soldiers who are being treated for PTSD or other mental disorders that make them a danger to themselves or others.

Second, all guns should be licensed. All new purchases should have a seven- to fourteen-day waiting period, allowing sufficient time for background checks to be performed. A database of those who purchased and those who own guns should be available to law enforcement.

Third, all open-carry and concealed-weapon laws should be repealed, putting an end to the Wild West mentality in many states and communities. Only law enforcement should be permitted to carry firearms in public.

Fourth, the manner in which the government and insurance companies handle mental health treatment must be changed in ways that make it possible for people to get prompt, ongoing, and comprehensive care.

Fifth, school leaders must address the ongoing bullying crisis in public schools. Teachers must be taught to be aware of bullying and to take steps to stop it when they see it happening.  While I suspect it is impossible to put an end to cliques, schools must do a better job of fostering inclusiveness. Perhaps it is time to put an end to the jocks-rule mentality that dominates most schools.

Sixth, semi-automatic firearms such as the AR-15 should be immediately banned. Any firearm capable of firing large-volume bursts should be banned. There is no legitimate reason for anyone to own military-style firearms.

Seventh, large (high) capacity magazines and clips should be immediately banned. There is no legitimate need for owning guns with large-capacity magazines, nor is there any reason for owning clips holding dozens of rounds of ammunition. It also goes without saying that bump stocks such as the ones used in the Las Vegas massacre should be outlawed.

Eighth, politicians should be banned from taking financial or in-kind donations from the NRA and the gun lobby. The NRA, along with the Ted Nugents of the world, are part of the problem. These promoters of the means of violence should not be given larger-than-life influence over the political process. (As my editor mentioned to me, this would surely not pass constitutional challenge. Fine. Let’s reverse the effects of Citizens United. Let’s make public the names of ALL campaign donors. Let’s ban corporate donations, soft money, and the other endless ways politicians hide who and where donations are coming from. In fact, let’s federally fund elections and limit campaigning as Great Britain does to a short time before time election day. In other words, GET THE FUCKING MONEY OUT OF POLITICS!)

My response:

I can appreciate the emotion after events where people have lost their lives, but we should always strive to be factually correct, no? Unless of course disinformation is the goal, which many in the gun control camp have proven themselves (in their own words) complicit in.

AR pattern rifles (of which their are many, many varieties of) don’t fire any faster than any other semi-automatic firearm, the rate of fire is how fast you pull the trigger…..as with any semi-automatic firearm. Semi-automatic firearms also don’t fire “large volume bursts”. Nor, if you’ve read some other media falsehoods recently, do they render hunted animals ‘destroyed’. As evidenced by the many thousands who hunt with AR pattern rifles. But I mean, hey…..if you want to ban the AR-15 and call it a day, I could almost get behind that. Since it wouldn’t affect my AK or Galil.

And “legitimate reason”? I can come up with a hundred. It’s beyond absurd to me that you would grant the State the power to dictate what a Citizen has a “legitimate reason” in owning something explicitly tied to a Constitutional Right.

Now, I largely agree with your statement on background checks. However, they are already tied to a national system (NICS). It’s the individual states and localities that have been failing to submit information to the DOJ, that would prevent many of these criminal shooters to legally acquire a firearm. The only means to enforce ‘universal’ background checks however, is a firearm registry….which aside from being a pipe dream, wouldn’t net nearly half of the legally owned firearms in this country. I have unkind words for anyone whop would deny a Veteran the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, due to a PTSD rating.

I think open carry is foolish, but open and concealed should be legal. Yes, bullying on school should be punished. Parents should also teach their kids to defend themselves. Bullying isn’t remotely new. People committing suicide pr conducting a mass shooting, is.

Magazines. Here we go again with “legitimate need”. Whatever number you’d offer as the top end would be arbitrary and undefendable other than the emotion behind the offer. Gun owners already have broad definition of standard capacity and high capacity. We’re good with that.

But….I’m perfectly fine with the gun control camp directing all of their ire against the NRA. That organization is corrupt and ineffective. State-based groups and national ones like SAF and GOA are far, far more effective in the legislative and judicial realm.

This nation is trying to put a band-aid on a problem that isn’t the guns (which are more difficult to acquire than at any time in our nations history). The problem is the self entitled, leisure pursing society that cares more about disposable consumer goods and social media distractions, than they do parenting or protecting their families.

And the expected response:

I don’t argue back and forth with gun nuts. Disparage me by calling me irrational or acting emotionally—who wouldn’t after countless mass shootings?— I don’t care. Guns are the problem. We must do whatever is necessary to regulate and control firearms. Until we do, the slaughter will continue.

And:

Yes, we are coming for your guns.

Facts and logic aren’t necessary when all you need is emotion, right?

Linguistic Demonization

The use of labels to shape culture away from fact based narratives…….and toward emotion based falsehoods.

With regard to the shooting and the weapon in Monterey Park……I’d already read multiple accounts of sock puppets stating that the firearm was capable of “rapid-fire” (!!!!!!).

This is what happens when information (“news”) is passed to the public sans facts. This firearm, like every other semi-automatic firearm, fires one round for each pull of the trigger. This, other than minor adjustments of trigger weight, no semi-automatic is capable of what they refer to as “rapid-fire”. Which of course, they’re trying to equate these extremely common firearms with “machine guns” to the gullible public.

This morning however, they’ve amped it up a notch. In a press conference aired this morning on CNN, I was treated to a law enforcement speaker calling the firearm in question an “assault pistol”. He even specified “not an ‘assault rifle’, but an “assault pistol”.

They’ll be coming after our handguns now, without a doubt. Stay frosty.

I may or may not have a problem……..Updated

And my family may or may not enable me…..

Late entry…….daughter #1 just returned from England & Scotland on a trip with her Honors College. She toured a distillery and brought me back a little Highlands souvenir. ❤️

So…..who won the war?

Maybe I’ve missed it, but this year I haven’t noticed the hours of cable news bloviating, endless tweets and posts, and general harrumphing from the seasonal Karens…..over other people’s choice of holiday salutations. Was there a cease-fire? Salvation Army peacekeepers enforcing no-greeting zones? Did both sides adopt an irregular warfare model, laying in wait to ambush soft targets with a short fusillade of dithyrambs?

More investigation from the front lines is required.

One issue that I will stand firm on, is that the ‘Elf on the Shelf’ is a deep state Trojan Horse, intended to groom our youth into accepting State surveillance even within our own homes. I will not be dissuaded from this theory.

I hope everybody had a fruitful Fetivus yesterday, and their list is now cleared for the new year…..and new grievances.

The Trump GOP

I usually check out The Strident Conservative most days, and found this gem today. For those who don’t know me well (via blogging that is)…..I left the ranks of reliable Republican voters in 2000. I’m a card carrying member of the Libertarian Party, though I have some significant differences with the national platform. While I consider myself a Conservative, the mainstream definition has been perverted…..so perhaps I should switch to Classical Liberal. The Libertarian Party most closely represents my politics (extreme fiscal conservatism/extreme social liberalism/extreme self sovereignty). No other party, and almost every candidate of those parties are remotely close to these ideals. So I work for change and choice. I vote, and sans an LP candidate, usually vote Republican….on the rare occasion, a Democrat. Though I will not cast a vote on a race if all candidates (usually a ‘both’) are equally awful. So, given the effect trump has had on the GOP, I’m interested in pushback by actual Conservatives. I’ve found The Strident Conservative to be one of them…..although I don’t come at Conservatism from a religious perspective.

In the summer of 2016, when the Republican National Committee hijacked the Republican Convention to ensure Trump’s nomination, I wrote an article declaring that as a conservative, I had moved from being “Never Trump” to also being “Never GOP.”

The reason I decided to make this move was twofold.

First, steamrolling conservatives who were opposed to Trump’s nomination solidified the GOP’s standing as an enemy to conservative values. Second, selecting Trump as the Republican Party’s standard bearer meant the destruction of the conservative movement was assured.

This wasn’t a surprise. The post-Ronald Reagan GOP has been working on getting rid of conservatives ever since The Gipper turned over the reins to George H.W. Bush and rode off into the California sunset. Their work culminated in 2012 when Republicans changed the rules to ensure conservatives could be weeded out of presidential primaries, and in 2014 when party control was handed over to Mitch McConnell to wage an all-out war against the TEA Party and other conservative groups.

Since the 2016 election, Trump and the GOP have confirmed my decision by proving there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between them and the Democrats. We’ve witnessed fundraising groups like the Senate Conservatives Fund sell out to Trump, and we’ve been betrayed by so-called conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus as they sold out first to Trump and then the Republican establishment.

Sadly, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has also been severely damaged by Trump as the Fellowship of the Pharisees have traded morality and Christian values for cheap grace and a seat at Herod’s table. Jerry Falwell, Jr., Robert Jeffress, Franklin Graham, and other members of the Fellowship have not only given Trump a “mulligan” for his immorality and lack of character, but they have also attacked Christians for not supporting him.

The completion of Trump’s trifecta of destruction is, of course, the so-called conservative media. Once the defenders of conservative values, media outlets like BlazeTV have become pro-Trump echo chambers.

There are those who continue searching for ways to rationalize their #NotHillary vote in 2016, despite every fear expressed about Trump being realized. Using the same double-speak and lying used by Trump himself, these cult-like followers of the NY liberal will heap unconditional praise on him while scolding — or worse — the nonbelievers.

Trump’s Republican party doesn’t represent conservative values, which is why I am “Never GOP.” And while some continue to file me away as an “Orange Man Bad” conservative for refusing to bow at Trump’s altar, I’m also “Never Trump.”

I’m a Constitutional conservative and a Christian, and that’s never going to change.

I Cannot Stop Laughing……

I mean seriously…….instead of the realistic blob of orange trans-fat, he’s pimping wild fan-fiction art?

While most of his supporters were likely expecting an announcement like who his running mate would be, or just ranting about his election loss (again….again….again….), they get this?

Oh well, I guess grifters are gonna grift…..

The Gun Control Debate in Ine Image

File Under: You’re Kidding me, Right?

Apparently we’re waiting on POTUS’s signature that would seal a prisoner exchange with Russia.

We’re trading convicted international arms dealer Viktor Bout….widely known as the “Merchant of Death”……….for a fucking basketball player?

Seriously?

Capitalism is Not What You Think

It has largely become fashionable to attack Capitalism, to lay all the problems that workers are facing on that system, as if it were the creation of…

Capitalism is Not What You Think

I’ve said it before: Do the honorable thing

Lt. Mariano Pargas of the Uvalde Police Department has resigned from his position, days before he was likely to be dismissed at a ‘special meeting’ of the city’s council.

Pargas, 65, was the commanding officer on the scene when 19 children and two teachers were shot dead by crazed gunman Salvador Ramos on May 24 at Robb Elementary School.

The resignation comes days after CNN published damning audio and video that showed the officer failing to act and properly relay information about the unfolding attack.

The dispatcher told Pargas that there were eight or nine students still alive inside of the classroom. He asked the dispatcher: ‘This calls you got in from the… from one of the students, what did they say?’ She answers: ‘Ok, Khloie’s going to be, it’s Khloie. She’s in Room 112, Mariano, 112.’

The dispatcher goes on to tell Pargas: ‘Eight to nine are still alive. She’s not too sure… She’s not too sure how many are actually DOA or possibly injured. We’re trying.’ He replies: ‘Ok, ok thanks’ and then hangs up.

A minute later, Pargas is shown relaying the information he obtained to a Border Patrol agent inside of a Robb Elementary School hallway. However, when Pargas goes outside to talk with a Texas Ranger outside of the school, he didn’t mention the 911 call.

McLaughlin said: ‘I think if we’d have had this, all this, and I think if we would have had your video and what we saw and everything we saw last night, I think Mariano would have been gone sooner, in my opinion, would have been gone.’

The sorry excuses for Law Enforcement Officers making the (in)decisions at Uvalde, should be locked in a room with their service weapon and 1x round. They don’t deserve to be upright and breathing.