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Monthly Archives: August 2012

Denial – It’s their current state…

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Via Tango I came across this wonderful study done by Harvard in 2007.  Lately I have reiterated more and more that our opponents are living in a serious state of denial and this is yet another nail in their coffin.

The money shot from the conclusion:

This Article has reviewed a significant amount of  evidence from a wide variety of international sources. Each individual portion of evidence is subject to cavil—at the very least the general objection that the persuasiveness of social scientific evidence cannot remotely approach the persuasiveness of conclusions in the physical sciences. Nevertheless, the burden of proof rests on the proponents of the more guns equal more death and fewer guns equal less death mantra, especially since they argue public policy ought to be based on that mantra.  To bear that burden would at the very least require showing that a large number of nations with more guns have more death and that nations that have imposed stringent gun controls have achieved substantial reductions in criminal violence (or suicide). But those correlations are not observed when a large number of nations are compared across the world.

(Emphasis mine.)  Even more entertaining though was this comment after that shot.

Over a decade ago, Professor Brandon Centerwall of the University of Washington undertook an extensive, statistically sophisticated study comparing areas in the United States and Canada to determine whether Canada’s more restrictive policies had better contained criminal violence. When he published his results it was with the admonition:

If you are surprised by [our] finding[s],  so [are we]. [We] did not begin this research with any intent to “exonerate” hand‐guns, but there it is—a negative finding, to be sure, but a negative finding is nevertheless a positive contribution. It directs us where not to aim public health resources.

Are you grinning yet?  If not you should be because remember this is coming out the liberal bastion of Harvard.  Not to mention the comment made about a study done by the University of Washington, another liberal bastion out of the Peoples’ Republic of Puget Sound.  Back to Harvard though, this is the same Harvard who said the following about the 4th of July in 2011.

 “Fourth of July celebrations in the United States shape the nation’s political landscape by forming beliefs and increasing participation, primarily in favor of the Republican Party,” said the report from Harvard.

Even 5 years ago Harvard saw the writing on the wall and indicated the burden of proof is on the anti-rights cultists.  Further often as of late we see the following across twitter from our opponents how gun ownership is at its lowest rate ever.  That guns are not being bought in record numbers, yet the facts clearly state otherwise.  Again, some of it comes right out of their own back yard such as this piece out of a New York CBS affiliate:

Statistics show a new trend — an increasing number of gun owners are now women.

For reasons ranging from sport to protection, the number of females buying guns has seen a spike in the last few years, CBS 2′s Ann Mercogliano reported.

Yet remember, gun ownership is at an all time low.

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE: RGR) is on pace to beat its own record of 1,114,700 firearms produced in one year, set in 2011. On August 15, 2012 Ruger produced its one millionth firearm of the year, a Ruger® SR1911™ pistol which will be hand-engraved by Baron Technology, Inc. and auctioned off to support the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action.

Yet remember, gun ownership is at an all time low.  Not to mention “fewer and fewer people are interested in owning firearms”.

So I have a question.  If ownership and interest is at an all time low, who pray-tell is buying all these firearms?  Where are all these firearms going.  I know the ATF bought bunches of them and were sending them over the border to Mexico, but that little hole has been plugged up for a while now.

Our opponents do not understand their logical fallacies.  They cannot grasp that just because there are fewer gun deaths they’re not actually safer.  They cannot comprehend that violence is violence no matter the tool.  The honestly believe that you’re safer with more crime as long as guns are used less often.

Denial is a stage of grief and honestly this abundance of Peterson Syndrome is a symptom of their grief.  They have lost and not just by a bit either.  We dropped a 105mm Howitzer in the middle of their happy parade and have exposed them for the evil bigots that they are.  The worst part about those evil bigots though is they prey upon the fact that many people honestly want to do good and help people.  They then spread their lies, misinformation, and logical fallacies corrupting good people.

Honestly though, I wouldn’t mind if a majority of our opponents forever remained in the first stage.  If they do progress I want them to rapidly progress to bargaining and skipping over anger.  Given their propensity towards violence, especially when on the losing side, it would be a very bad and dangerous thing.  Doubly so if they started trying to engineer failure in an attempt to “aid” their cause.

Denial, it’s not just a river in Egypt.  It is the current home of our opponents and will remain so for the foreseeable future.  I can live with that.

SSCC #393–Virginia Beach

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At least this one’s getting prison time.

A former Virginia Beach police officer was sentenced to 10 years behind bars Monday for child sex crimes.

But it’s bad, very very bad.

He’d been on suspension without pay since he was arrested in December 2011 for aggravated sexual battery and taking indecent liberties that occurred over three years with a child younger than age 13.

Have no fear though because the judge did the following:

The judge Monday imposed a 30-year sentence and then suspended 20 suspended years, Commonwealth’s Attorney spokeswoman Macie Pridgen told WVEC.com.

Honestly, he should have left it at the maximum sentence.  Even then I don’t think it’s really enough

State Sponsored Criminal #393: Michael Alan Chilldres

Because after 18 years with the department, he felt he was free and clear to do as he wanted.

Earworm Wednesday–08/22/2012

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Take your pick for your desired visual absorption.

Naval Aviator Version:

Base Jumper Version:

Music Video from the band  Why watch this one, the other two are just awesome?:

AWOLNation – Sail

I’m totally doing this…

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So on my way to a meeting this morning I was talking with some coworkers and the subject of these stupid decals came up.

I said it was stupid, explained why and hit the end with the classic comment of,

My family walks single file to hide our numbers.

I am not the only one to agree with that sentiment.  Then I had an epiphany and said the following immediately there after.

Me: You know something though, they have those zombie decals and I would totally put those on my rig….

Coworker: But you just said it was stupid and listed off numerous valid concerns.

Me: I never said it would be representative of my family.

Coworker: What the hell would it be then?

Me: Confirmed Kills.

Considering CSGV’s current decent into PSH over the zombie meme(link safe), I seriously will put them on my truck once I get my hands on some.

Repeat After Me…

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If I carry a concealed weapon, I will not be a dumbass and will use a holster unlike this individual.

A Flagstaff man accidentally fired his gun inside a crowded McDonald’s into a wall, which ended with debris hitting fellow customers, police said.

The 24-year-old man had the firearm in his waist band, the police report states, and when he leaned against the back wall, the weapon discharged.

Young man, tell me you aren’t a sports fan because you should have learned from Plaxico’s mistake.  This is not how responsible people carry firearms.  We use a good sturdy holster.  Not that cheap nylon crap from Uncle Mike either.  It should be in a real freaking holster.

You were aware of the mass shooting and you did not want people freaking out about your gun, yet you couldn’t be bothered with using a real holster?  Tell me, how did that negligent discharge work for keeping it all on the down low?

I would like to point out however this is yet another example of the hole in “training requirements” assuming boy wonder here had a CCW, which he probably is, obviously satisfied the training requirement but evidently he skipped class on buy a holster day.*  The bottom line is there are many people that live in states that have no training requirement and they don’t do this type of crap.  Then within states with the training requirement you still have people who do.  Maybe it isn’t as much the training but the attitude of the person carrying the gun.  You can lead a horse to water but you can not make him drink.

My guess on what happened given the description is that clothing got within the trigger guard and when he leaned back it applied pressure and went bang.  The other option is he violated rule 5 but I don’t think he would have put a hole through his jeans without also penetrating himself.

*Though it seems that military service satisfies the requirement, maybe they never told him to use a holster for sidearms.  About the best alternative option is participation in organized shooting sports.  I do not know specifically what sports they consider acceptable, however if it’s IDPA or USPSA they don’t let you do Mexican carry.  They tell you to use a freaking holster and what happened is exactly why.  Small-bore rifle and bullseye on the other hand, that just means you can hit the broad side of a barn, not that you know how to carry.

SSCC #391 & #392 –Little Rock

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This one there is way too much in the way of fishy going on for it to be acceptable.

A man police say shot himself in the head while his hands were cuffed behind him in the back of an Arkansas patrol car tested positive for methamphetamine, anti-anxiety medication and other drugs, according to an autopsy report released Monday that listed his death as a suicide.

Two officers patted him down and didn’t find a weapon.  He was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car, he pulled a stashed weapon out and shot himself, in the head, while in handcuffs with his hands behind him.  No I’m not making this up, this isn’t from The Onion either.

Know what’s interesting about that video, in every officer they didn’t have the cuffs cinched down.  There was a lot of play and free movement ability with the cuffs up the forearm.

So at minimum what this department is saying is that our officers are so inept at their jobs that two of them could not find an expertly hidden firearm that was easily within reach of someone in handcuffs.

Further our officers are incapable of properly securing said handcuffs as to maximally limit movement while not causing issues with circulation.*  Further we have even more problems that cause it to fail the smell test.

The autopsy report comes days after police released dashboard camera video recorded the night Carter was shot in Jonesboro, about 130 miles northeast of Little Rock. Part of the video showed Carter being patted down and ended before officers found Carter slumped over and bleeding in the back of a patrol car, as was described in a police report. Police later released additional video they said was recorded after Carter was found.

If you looked that up in the dictionary you would find it under “convenient”. No matter how you cut this story the officers were at a minimum inept, at worst cold blooded killers.

Could this man have actually killed himself?  Possibly, especially given the following if true:

Carter was searched twice, and police said they found a small amount of marijuana, but no gun. After the first search, an officer put Carter into a patrol car without handcuffing him. He was later searched again, handcuffed and returned to the same car.

He could have removed the weapon and stashed it if that is true.  Stashing anything and everything in the car is a good idea if you can make sure you’re prints aren’t on it.  Once he was in cuffs maybe he figured it was over and gave up.  Who knows, but that is yet another example at a minimum of police ineptitude at minimum that cost a man his life.

State Sponsored Criminals #391: John Doe

#392: John Doe

*I have been placed in cuffs by officers for demonstration purposes and every time those cuffs weren’t going to go half way up more forearm, at most you got 1/2 inch of play.

h/t JayG and Weer’d

In Which I Think We All Know Why

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Given the following incident, I think the answer as to why his roommates did not renew his lease becomes obvious.

When he came to collect his belongings on Saturday night, the two residents were escorting Simpson out of the house when Simpson grabbed a shotgun, racked it, and pointed it at them. The residents ran to the back of the house and called Pullman Police Department.

I wasn’t kidding when I said this was a lively time of year for little old Pullman.  Though this year so far has been considerably more lively on the firearm front than usual.  Now I don’t have specifics but I know it’s safe to say that pointing a shotgun at someone is against the law.

I have a feeling there is more behind the scenes here, however the answer is not to the shotgun.  Incidents like this though are what our opponents grab and latch onto as a reason why college students should not have firearms.  Many students, as well as employees are disarmed by the schools policies yet things like this still occur.  Yet this incident occurred only a half mile from the last incident.  Not to mention that students have been attacked walking home after class through these neighborhoods.  It’s as if all those policies and laws don’t really do anything except prevent responsible law-abiding people from having or carrying arms legally*.

So I would like to stand up, applaud, and thank this moron, James Simpson, for supplying ammunition to the enemy and furthering their goals to keep their honest law-abiding fellow students disarmed to be easy prey.

*After VT,  I know for a fact that there was a decent number of people who started carrying against school policy to class.  They did so after they discovered there was no real legal bite to the policy.  At worst they could be expelled if caught and the individuals felt, “Concealed means Concealed” and if they need it expulsion is the least of their worries at that time.

Doubly interesting is a good chunk of those who carried were engineering students.

Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes

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Honestly I don’t weep or feel sorry for the kids involved in this:

A boy, who was a passenger in the carjacked vehicle, was pronounced dead at the scene.  The other three juvenile occupants in the vehicle were apprehended at the scene by Irvington officers.  They were a 14-year-old, a 15-year-old and a 17-year old.

Except it goes from bad to all around unpossible.

Police say they found a weapon in the carjacked vehicle.

Underage minors can’t legally have a firearm.  Carjacking is against the law as well.  So is threatening someone with a weapon.  Why didn’t the law stop them?

It’s almost as if the law is merely a tool to punish bad behavior.  Nah, that couldn’t be it because the anti-rights cultists keep insisting laws help prevent and stop violence.  Never mind the fact they merely provide a method of punishment.

Bummer for the car owner that probably now has a totaled Jaguar.  It’s a good thing that NYC is so restrictive on their distribution of Concealed Pistol Licenses as well.  That car owner could have effectively defended his life and property from those kids wielding an illegal weapon.  It’s a good thing someone else made the decision for that car owner to disarm him.*

*If you can’t tell, I’m being  sarcastic the fact is it is not the states job or role to tell be how they should be defending themselves and their property.  The state carries no liability when you’re shot by a carjacker so what right do they have to sit in the back and force you to be shot?