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Category Archives: Freedom

It Wasn’t Just a “Fair Weather” Crowd

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So yesterday a bunch of people showed up at the Washington State Capital in Olympia. 

I wasn’t among them for a couple different reasons.  First my wife had to work, second It would have been at least a 6 hour trip one way.  Google says 5:35 and that’s a lie, it takes that long to get to Auburn where I grew up, and it’s about an hour from Auburn to Olympia.  Third the whole state is hovering around freezing and snowing in many places, including the passes.  Yeah I’m not embarking on a 339 mile road trip that in the grand scheme doesn’t matter.  If I need to roll out to Olympia to speak against legislation I will, but that’s not what this was so my investment in time and money wouldn’t have been worth it‘

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Most news papers I’ve seen put estimates at around 1,500 people, the Seattle times is estimating under 1,000, some however have reported 2,000.  So take the estimates for what you’d like.  Given the cold and weather I’d say this was a significant turn out.  Doubly so since other major gun related events were going on yesterday and were packed as well.

The WAC show in Puyallup was packed, and put to me as “nuts”, and it appears that today is equivalent to a normal Saturday.  Considering Sundays are usually much more lax than Saturdays, the WAC show is busy.

There were rallies in 49 of the state capitals yesterday along with massive gun shows going on as well.  Hopefully everyone in attendance has taken the time to write their legislators as well. 

Also as a side note, a few at gun shows did something stupid and resulted in injuries due to a failure to observe the 4 rules.  Remember folks, right now we’re under a magnifying glass and the best way to describe these incidents as, “Not Helping”.  Never fear though because our opponents, ever ghoulish, were dancing in blood on twitter.

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There were 3 different incidents with 5 injuries.  One was a case of induced touching where he was reloading his carry piece after going through the gun show.  Some how he put a round through his hand. 

The biggest single incident was Raleigh where an idiot didn’t unload his shotgun he was intending to sell at home.  When showing clear at the table it discharged striking 2 people with shot and injuring the hand of person checking the weapon.

The last one from Ohio was done by a vendor and some how the weapon went off by opening the box.  Yeah I don’t believe that story either.  Please folks, use some brains, this is not the time to cause more negative attention for us.

How It’s Done…

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homeBitter has an update about the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show.  It appears that Cabela’s is pulling out of their top sponsorship role.

Due to recent changes made by Reed Exhibitions regarding the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show, Cabela’s will no longer sponsor this year’s event. After careful consideration regarding Cabela’s business practices, and the feelings of our customers, Cabela’s will, unfortunately, not have a presence at the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show.

As I said last night about the NSSF’s approach to the problem not being the correct one.  Cabela’s is doing this one right and holding the show against the wall by throwing all of us under the bus for one single exhibitor.

The simplest and easiest thing to do is for the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show to name the problem vendor and ban them from attendance, present and future.  Give the name to gun owners and let that vendor understand a lesson that Jim Zumbo had to learn.

As long as they hide that name, they do nothing more than redirect the wrath onto themselves.  Dealing with our enemies is bad enough and if you think you can throw us under the bus, you’ve got another thing coming.

A serious thank you to Cabela’s and I will place an order in the near future to show my support.  If you have some spare cash or are in need of something, give Cabela’s some love.  They deserve it!

NSSF, I don’t think you understand…

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So Bitter has a full fisking on the letter from NSSF regarding Reed Exhibitions banning Modern Sporting Rifles.

They started off great saying they disagree but they fall flat on their face in the last two paragraphs.

However, it would be unfair to penalize the 1,200 exhibitors or the some 200,000 sportsmen and women who will attend the show by discouraging participation at a time when the hunting and shooting sports community needs to be united in the face of political challenges.

We urge industry exhibitors and attendees to participate in the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show as planned and encourage attendees to visit the Reed Exhibitions booth at the show to share their concerns and to then enjoy the show.

Pardon my language, but bullshit!  Let me explain something to you NSSF, the management caved from the pressure of one vendor.  Why should gun owners support that kind of behavior.  You know what gun owners are good at?  They’re fantastic at running back stabbing hypocrites out of town on a rail.  What you’re saying is we shouldn’t run off these cowards who are willing to compromise on everyone else’s second amendment rights.

No, no, and NO.  Any and every firearm owner should boycott the Easter Sports and Outdoor Show and Reed Exhibitions.  You know what businesses speak in?  Money. If they sell out a portion of their customer base and suffer financial consequences, that is a lesson, do not betray your customer for fear of political backlash.

Tell me, are any of those bitching and whining anti-rights cultists going to pay money to see your exhibit?  Are any of them going to drop money on firearms or rifles?  So why in the name of god does anyone think it’s a good idea to throw your customers down the river to placate a bunch of morons who aren’t even spending money with you.

Tell me, Starbucks is smart enough to keep themselves lined up without issue and know who butters their bread.  Yet you, the NSSF, comes to gun owners and say just give them your money anyway, they don’t really hate you.  Bullshit, they obviously don’t understand who their customers are and business 101 if they are willing to sacrifice customers for people who don’t even spend money with them.

I was contemplating today trying to save up to go to SHOT 2014 and meet up with Oleg there.  I think instead I will try to go back east to visit Oleg in the fall.  I cannot help but look at that letter from the NSSF and feel that they are selling out gun owners just like the NRA has done in the past.

Tell me, why should I spend money with you if you turn around and tell others to support someone who obviously doesn’t support my constitutional rights.  Telling people that it’s ok to compromise yet again.  We’ve been compromising since 1934 and enough is enough.

Yes, you will be getting an angry call from me here in the near future and you will have to justify your shit.  I suggest you start working on that, or come up with a very good apology.  Remember, there’s three parts if you take that route.

Yes I understand there’s other exhibitors who disagree and are caught up in this mess, those exhibitors should be pulling out and leaving.  In doing so demanding refunds and costing Reed for making a poor decision to illustrate that a compromise of our rights is some how acceptable.

Update: Cabela’s has pulled out as a top sponsor!

2011 Brady Scores vs. 2011 FBI UCR

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I’ve been lazy.  I finally got around to creating a spreadsheet for the 2011 Brady and 2011 UCR data.  I’ve started getting bored with this because it’s always the same.  You can examine the spread sheet yourself, it’s linked at the bottom.

So first up is the overall scores plot.

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You will notice the trend is basically flat with an R2 of 0.0014.  It appears yet again the Brady score card criteria has no bearing on how safe or dangerous a state is.  This R2 value is actually a decrease again from the previous comparison with the 2010 data.

Moving forward lets examine just the to 10 scores:

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It’s flattened a bit more than the previous comparison.  Again there is absolutely no real correlation.  We’ll pack it down further to just all scores above 50.  The calculated correlation was 0.0159.

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A little better R2 value but still non-existent with a correlation of 0.54.  Still showing absolutely no relation between the scores or crime.

Lastly we grabbed all states with a violent crime rate below 300 per 100k.

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The average score in those states was 12.35 and again the correlation with scores was 0.38.

Yet again we see that the proposals by those who would deny us our rights have absolutely no bearing on safety or crime despite their claims.  Facts and statistics prove them to be lying.

I am going to add two new graphs onto this plot though I’m going to continue thinking of a better way to plot them.  First up is the Brady Score vs. the UCR trend in a state.

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I did the same thing with how  the Brady Scores changed between 2010 and 2012.

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Neither had a correlation with each other, though I would like to expand the data set to include multiple years.  I don’t think it’s worth the time though, no matter how you cut it, the Brady Score cards and the laws they argue for with it have no immediate relationship with violent crime rates.

I do like how that second graph helps shoot down the blood in the streets argument since there were numerous states that went to constitutional carry in 2011 as well as states gaining concealed carry.

You can get the spreadsheet here.

That locked door…

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It’s protection works both ways.

As I’ve said numerous times in debates, if don’t want me to shoot you, the solution is simple, don’t bring violence or harm to me and mine. 

That locked door doesn’t just merely exist for my safety but yours.  Enter it without my permission at your own damn risk.  There is a monster that lives within these walls and you might just let him out of his cage.

I do have another post I need to do since we’re on the topic of Gunny.  Maybe I’ll get to that today since I’m stuck at home. More on that later.

h/t Joe.

Quote of the Day – Farm Dad (1/16/2013)

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what you heard today was the sound of liberal ass sucking swampwater as it was pitched under the bus

Farm Dad – Gun Blogger Conspiracy Chat

January 16th, 2013

[With the information that has come out thus far, I agree with this 10 fold.  I like these two assessments of Obama’s executive orders and feel no need to repeat it over again.

I do love this though.

18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.

What was that? I couldn’t hear you.  Here’s how you should do that next time:

There was a lot that Obama could have done and run with but there would have been considerable political backlash.  The more this goes on I honestly feel like we’re in a “Wag the Dog” type scenario.  This by no means indicates that we can slack or that we have escaped the woods, it does indicate that the investment from the White House may not be as deep as they put on.

That said, the same talking heads as always are out in front and we know they’re not playing.  Reid has said the Senate will pursue action but has given no time-table.  Keep up the fight folks, we’re not out of the woods, but today was not the crushing blow we were all expecting.

That is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.  Sadly we need to hope that is the end and not a train coming for us. -B]

Some Historical Context…

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Most would say that’s just your standard political ploy… And they would be right, mastered through the ages by previous despots.

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How important is this principal for this type of political game?  It’s so important that Hitler inscribed it in Mein Kampf:

“The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people.”

-Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler, Publ. Houghton Miflin, 1943, Page 403

While what we have heard today so far on the executive order is by no means life shattering, we must remain ever vigilant as this is by no means a guarantee we’re out of the woods.  Doubly so since he pointed to congress to do more.

As Joe said yesterday, you should be afraid and the hair should be standing up on the back of your neck.

As a buddy of mine said:

The Taliban aren’t the only people who use human shields.