A Short Story…

Terry from the Boomershoot staff emailed this to me and honestly it’s worth the read.

Once upon a time there was a street fair. It had striped awnings and bright colors and from far and near, farmers came with wagons full of produce to sell at the street fair. The produce was plentiful and cheap and the crowds it drew were huge which created all sorts of concerns for the government.

So the government created a Ministry of Street Fairs which it funded by taxing the produce sold at the fair. At first the Ministry brought some some order to the street fair, but it would periodically launch new “street fair initiatives” to justify another expansion and pay for them by raising taxes on the produce.

Just keep reading.  For many of us the results were obvious, others however will continue to insist the story is wrong and their false view of the world is real.

I wanted to snap something as the quote of the day but honestly, it only works as a story.  Go, read, spread it far and wide.

Quote of the Day – Tim (4/30/2013)

“With a terrorist on the loose and literally thousands of police and even military officials searching to no avail, suddenly the idea of having an AR-15 handy to keep a dangerous terrorist from conducting his grand finale in *your* house with *your* loved ones starts to make a hell of a lot of sense, don’t it?”

Tim – The Idiocy of “Outdated”

April 25th, 2013


[Despite the complete trampling of civil liberties, was it a LEO who found the fugitive?  Was it in an area where citizens could easily and readily obtain arms for their own defense?

Tell me, why is it that people grabbed cameras instead of shooting the assailants who were threatening their neighborhood.  Oh calling the police worked great all right, turned the neighborhood into a total war zone and endangered the lives of additional people.  Instead of fighting back to defend themselves and in so doing aiding law enforcement that was risking their lives to protect them, they grabbed a camera.

They grabbed a camera instead of firing one round and taking down the last assailant.  Instead of firing from an elevated position with a clear line of fire to the aggressors, they grabbed a camera.  They grabbed a camera and instead gave the government an excuse to abuse their neighbors and friends at gun point.  They grabbed a camera instead of taking the risk that goes with freedom and liberty.  They grabbed a camera and signed their name as a supporting participant in the death of American Liberty. -B]

 

The Company I Keep…

I am very glad I can call Mike Jefferson my friend.  Why might you ask?  Well watch this.

I kind of have to laugh though.  I met Jefferson actually through his previous wife who is a fellow blogger though now she doesn’t really blog.  As he said over at his place and is worthy of note here, he gave this speech the same day as our government was doing this.

I hate to say it, but I’m getting an early 90’s vibe again about the governments use of force against its people.  Only this time we have a bunch of people cheering and talking about how they’d appreciate a warrant-less cavity search.  In the words of Samuel Adams,

“If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”

The republic is in the most dire of straights friends.  Even those who we thought were friends of liberty have now betrayed us.  I don’t know how this ends, but usually I’m pretty good at staying in the middle and seeing both the dark and the light.  Currently the light at the end of the tunnel has been extinguished and there is no telling if it will ever be found again.

Well This Sucks…

I’ve hated GE for a long while.  Well one of the biggest issues with GE is they are an overly large conglomerate that has their fingers in just about everything.  Well one of their conglomerate parts is doing something to make me hate them even more.

This month, Glenn Duncan, owner of Duncan’s Outdoor Store in Bay City, Mich., said he received a letter from GE Capital Retail Bank in which the lender said it had made “the difficult decision” to stop providing financing services to his store. Other gun dealers have received similar notices.

GE is at least the second big financial firm to retreat from the gun business following the school shootings, which claimed the lives of 20 first-graders and six adults in December.

Here’s the really bad news, you can try really hard but I doubt you’ll be able to fully escape the reach of GE.  That said, I’m going to try really hard, harder than I currently do.

If I could I would create my own financial institution specifically to fill the gap.  In this horrible economy there has been one section doing well consistently.  Seriously you would be daft to go bail on firearms or ammo manufacturers currently.  If you’re looking out for your company or your investors, other than BS government regulations, what threat is there to your product and market, none.

Given the fact that the market is seeing a sustained peak of demand, manufactures can not keep up, and stock prices keep going up how would this be a smart economical move?

If you said it wasn’t you’d be right.  The CEO of GE is a big Obama supporter and has received many favors for his support.  Obama I think just called in a favor.

Quote of the Day – Paul Barrett (4/24/2013)

The gun debate has been tilting toward the pro-gun side for more than a dozen years. The Boston Marathon bombings will continue that trend.

Paul Barrett – The Boston Terror Will Benefit the NRA, Hurt Gun Control

April 23rd, 2013


[Let me start off by saying, Paul was trying to be fair though there were a few comments that I don’t really agree with.  For example attacking Wayne LaPierre or this little bit at the end of his article.

But the NRA and some of its friends are not interested in rational discourse. They thrive on slippery-slope reasoning, according to which any limit on guns is a mere precursor to firearm registration and confiscation. As any gun manufacturer will tell you, the 9/11 attacks helped sales at firearm counters around the country and strengthened the NRA’s hand in lobbying against greater federal restrictions.

Paul most people, even the NRA, are willing to have a rational discourse.  The problem is there are so many irrational people on the other side trying to control the conversation the only reasonable thing is to just shut it all down.  For example look at Fienstein and what she was pushing and trying to tack on to that bill.  Moving further forward that bill honestly didn’t have anything really to do with background checks.  The people pushing for the bill even admit it would have not made any difference at  any of the mass shootings.

So is it irrational that we want to put on the breaks, let the emotion die, and approach this in a rational and reasoned manner instead of an emotional hysteria?

There were a few other errors, such as the comment regarding background checks for commercial firearms sales.  That is already required by federal law, so are we redefining commercial sales to include any sale?  Including letting someone borrow a firearm? At which point if you exempt it, today’s exemption is tomorrows loophole, not to mention how do you define and prove “borrowing”.

Paul’s conclusion though is correct and can easily be seen with this poll.

Sixty-nine percent say if they were in a situation similar to Bostonians, they would want a gun in their house.  

That includes a large 88-percent majority of those in gun-owner households, as well as 50 percent of those in non-gun homes.

As noted by Weer’d the lock-down also occurred in one of the most difficult areas to get a gun permit.  I expect there will be a large influx of new owners in that area.  Many of them will have an experience much like this individual.

“You’ll need a license for that,” the clerk informed me when I asked to see a modestly-priced BB gun.  Surprised but undaunted, I whipped out my drivers license and slid it across the counter.  At which point it was obvious to me that it was obvious to him I’m not a gun person. 

“To buy a gun in New Jersey you need a Firearm Purchaser ID Card from your Township’s police chief.  Even a BB gun.  Can’t even take one down to show you without it.”

Many had a wake up call last Friday.  Couple that with incidents like this, it’s no wonder people want to buy firearms for their own defense.

Then Angela Kramer softly pleads for help as the gunman who killed her parents and brother seconds earlier searches for her inside the family’s Darien home.

“I’m in my house. There’s shooting,” Kramer tells the operator in a low voice immediately after the loud gunshot.

Kramer’s 911 call lasted for more than 55 minutes until police searched the darkened house and rescued her from her hiding place.

Boy, Chicago’s restrictive gun laws while pushing reliance on the police really helped that family now didn’t it.

Last weeks incident served as wake-up call to many, doubly so since it was a citizen who was confined to his house that found the man on the run after they lifted the lock-down.  I’m sure that man probably would prefer to have a firearm the next time he investigates something out of place.

*As an additional aside.  I’ve met Paul and his wife both and they were both extremely nice.  I do not think Paul was trying to slight gun owners as a whole or even directly wanted was was really in that bill.  Odds are the particular publication for which he works had a serious hand in the tone of the article.

I do not know of any gun owner who actively supports giving firearms to criminals.  We all know damn well how that would have a negative affect on us and our rights.  What we don’t want though is the state coming in and arbitrarily denying or delaying the rights of law-abiding people because in the end, we know the criminals will still get their hands on a firearm.  The comments within that article do nothing more than aid in driving a wedge and turning off the other side causing them to ignore you and your position.

I do not think any firearm owner would complain about providing additional tools to aid people in “doing the right thing”.  Where we all have a problem is trying to trace that and enforce it under law.  It becomes this complicated problem fraught with danger because it will become all to easy to criminalize someone who would actually be innocent. -B]

 

State Sponsored Criminals: FBI and BATFE

Given today is the 20th anniversary of the end of the Waco siege, it stands to reason that I would place that event on the list.  The acts committed this day were horrible and no one was ever held accountable for the decisions and actions that led to the deaths of 76 people, including 27 children.

I remember coming home from school that day.  I remember going up to my dad while he sat in his chair fixated on the TV.  I do not remember what it was I had done that I wanted his attention for.  I do remember him promptly picking me up as I started to speak and putting me on his lap while telling me to be quiet.  When I looked at the TV, this is what I saw.

BRANCH DAVIDIAN

At the time I didn’t understand what was going on.  I didn’t understand what my dad knew happened 8 months earlier.

I was in 3rd grade, I had no real concept of the details of what was going on.  Later I would receive that education, my dad would make sure I was aware of what I saw in the flickering glow of that television.  This day marks one of two major events that molded my relationship with the state.  It was a lesson delivered front and center about power and the abuses that can be dealt to citizens without any fear of consequence.

I am not putting a number with this.  Frankly I’m getting tired of trying to keep track of which number I’m on.  Further this event was so horrible and had so many actors one can not easily list them, much less enumerate them.

State Sponsored Criminals: The BATFE and FBI

Because by all means kill the victims you claim to be there to save, that’s how you make yourself look good right?

SSCC #570: San Diego County

San Diego County and a sheriff’s detective might be liable for using excessive force and conspiring against a deputy’s ex-girlfriend with a “SWAT-like” raid of her home, the 9th Circuit ruled Tuesday.

The federal appeals panel in Pasadena, Calif., revived Michelle Cameron’s excessive force and conspiracy claims against San Diego County and Sheriff’s Detective Michelle Craig.

Why would the officer do such a thing?  To intimidate his ex to gain an advantage in the ongoing custody dispute.

State Sponsored Criminal #570: Michelle Craig

Because when you’re a cop in a custody dispute, use physical force and hide behind the law while doing so to intimidate your ex-spouse.

Quote of the Day – Barack Obama (4/17/2013)

The gun lobby and its allies willfully lied about the bill.

Barack Obama – In Response to the Gun Control Vote

April 17th, 2013


[Said like a true politician.

No Mr. Obama, we just don’t take kindly to being lied to, abused, mistreated, and being held responsible for the actions of others.  You and your cohorts tried to pass a bill and we merely read it and told everyone one’s in it.  You can go read in the bill yourself about every statement I’ve made regarding the bill.

You’re upset because you couldn’t pull the wool over our eyes and we fought back.

Lastly Mr. President, what part of “Shall Not Be Infringed” is so hard and difficult for you to understand?-B]