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Category Archives: The Children

Quote of the Day – A Girl and Her Gun (01/02/2013)

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Unless you are planning on using your gun to kill or giving it/selling it to someone who is, your buy back is nothing more than another thing to make you feel good. Listen closely to what has been said a million times by a million smart folks…your feel good move WILL NOT make a flying flipping bit of difference in terms of keeping your kid, my kid, any kid safe in schools, movie theaters, banks, parks…

(Emphasis mine)
A Girl and Her Gun – I Got Your Buy Back…
January 1st, 2013

[Most of the clamoring I’ve heard recently, including the BS being introduced in congress is the same old song and dance we’ve always heard.  It’s the classic, “Do it again but only harder.”

What’s the definition of insanity again?  It happens to be the same as futility.

 The act of doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.

As Joe has so rightly pointed out though we need an orthogonal solution.  The problem is, they are unwilling to accept any solution but that which they want.  To them that is the only answer to the problem, their problem as defined by them.  Both sides of the debate admit there is a problem and want to find a solution.  One side of this debate doesn’t want to debate though, they want to lecture and do what they want.

Currently I’m sick of the BS being spouted by that particular group and as far as I’m concerned can be run out of the discussion.  We had the discussion on their talking points and they lost.  If they don’t want to grow up and actually discuss things like a reasonable and rational person, difficult given the prevalence for Peterson Syndrome, they can go sit at the kids table and eat while the grownups talk.

Ultimately A Girl’s conclusion is right:

So when another attack happens because no effective change took place I hope you are still feeling good about yourself. As for me, I prefer to do what at least has a chance of working. You will not be getting my gun. Not for 200 bucks or for $500 or for $1000 or…you get the picture.

Another attack will happen, it is an inevitability.  The choice of tool by the killer may change, but this tragedy will happen again as long as we keep redoing the same failed solutions.  China has had a string of similar incidents where a knife was used instead of a firearm.

For those of you who think that we can negotiate and retain some of our rights.  What happens when the next attack occurs? Or the one after that?  They will come and nibble again and again, stripping your rights away.  Ultimately to the point where they are trying to outlaw kitchen knives.

We stand to gain nothing by negotiating with the enemy on this front, instead we stand to lose everything.  Now is the time to stand up and fight.

If you haven’t contacted your reps, do so now.  That link will allow you to contact all your reps in one shot.  I spent some time last weekend and wrote individual personalized letters to each of my reps.  If you have the time, do it.  Don’t let the work of the past 19 years undoing the damage sink and fade into the darkness. -B]

SSCC #484 – Wicomico County

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Kendall Elmer West, 44, Salisbury was indicted by a Wicomico County grand jury this week for second-degree assault and fourth-degree sex offense — just days after he quit his job of 13 years.

According to court documents, West met the victim when she was 15-years-old through his position at Parkside High School.

Remember though folks, in response to a horrible tragedy people are not only screaming to ban guns, but throw more officers into the schools.  While not every officer is evil, it does increase the probability for a predator to end up among the sheep.

State Sponsored Criminal #484: Kendall Elmer West

Because predators need easy access while in a position of authority.

Quote of the Day – A Girl (12/18/2012)

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When I was mugged I blamed only 2 people. My attacker and myself. I can’t control him, so I looked at myself to figure out what I could do to put myself in a better position for survival should the element I couldn’t control decided to come after me again. I took responsibility. I didn’t blame the cops or the grocery store parking lot or even my parents. They had some influence as did society, but it was me who stood there and did nothing. It was me. I did not come after you or anyone else. I didn’t go to congress and ask for new laws to protect my lack of action. I took action. Law abiding, legal action and I took responsibility for my part in that day. I can tell you none of it felt good. I didn’t feel good after I picked myself up off the ground, I didn’t feel good as I hid in the bathroom and took care of my scraped up arms and back. I didn’t feel good when my so called friends turned their backs on me. I didn’t feel good when my daughter looked me in the eye and told me she didn’t feel safe because I didn’t stop the and guy. It didn’t feel good when I showed up in the park to learn how to defend myself. I felt anything but good. I felt sad and lonely. I felt lost and broken. I felt ashamed and confused. I felt scared and and hopeless. And I fought all of that everyday for over a year in order to take responsibility. In order to feel good again.

A Girl – Feeling Good
December 18, 2012

[First, go read the whole thing, it’s worth it and there were a few other quotes I almost put up first till I hit that one.

Now when I read that my immediate thought was, “No one ever said doing the right thing was the easiest route.”  I did a previous rant in the immediate wake and honestly her post and mine are intertwined together.

Feelings are driving the conversation for a lot of people right now, they want to do something, anything.  As I said before:

They want to be able to look at a physical object and blame it for what as happened.  They want to destroy the physical object and blame it for their grief.

They don’t want to admit that ultimately there was a person behind the gun.  They don’t want to admit no matter how hard they tried, they wouldn’t be able to control him.  They don’t want to admit all the efforts they took in advance to feel good in the wake of things like Columbine and other mass shootings in the end did nothing.  Not only did they do nothing, but the may have made it worse.

To them though that last thought is an impossibility   It is impossible that the actions they took to satisfy their feelings could have been counter productive.  How could they?  Their responses felt right to them in a previous time of emotional tragedy.

People currently forget that 11 years ago a group of men brought this country to its knees with a set of box cutters.  The tool is a tool and nothing more.  It’s use for good and evil rests entirely with the person holding the tool.

The principal, Dawn Hochsprung, gave her life ultimately trying to protect her students.  She was forced, by law, to be unarmed in that encounter.  The aggressor however broke numerous laws and had to actually steal the firearms to carry out his crime.  Think about that for a second, objectively.  We, as a community, trusted that woman, as well as the staff with the care and protection of our children.  We trusted that they would do what is necessary to keep them safe and educate them for the future.  We trust them enough to send our children there for a decent part of their young lives.  Yet we refuse to allow them the choice of carrying a firearm to defend our children should evil come before them.

We refused to allow the people immediately on the scene to respond to the threat posed against the children.  Instead the shooter was given 20 minutes to perpetrate his crimes.  He was given 20 minutes with defenseless victims.  Victims who were in the charge of responsible adults.  Those responsible adults, responsible for the children in their charge, were forcibly disarmed under the law.

The law in this case guaranteed the outcome.  We will never know what the outcome would have been had just one teacher been able to choose to be armed.  We can hypothesize given previous events, such as the Pearl High School incident in 1997.  But we can never actually know, all we can do is wonder.

It’s time to stop passing laws based on irrational emotion and examine a very simple and harsh fact.  When evil finally shows up, how can we react.  We focus too much on stopping evil out right and preventing it from ever happening.  While definitely a worthy goal, it is almost impossible to achieve since you cannot actually control the aggressor.  All you can do is react as quickly as possible and try to minimize damage.   What you can control to achieve that goal is yourself and your response, except in many cases the law has neutered that ability from the victims. -B]

Quote of the Day – Oleg Volk(12/14/2012)

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Mass murderers use different methods (arson, explosions, knife attacks, shootings), but two coincidence just jump out at me. The first is that almost all mass murderers are men. The other is that they seek out locations where good people are disarmed by law.

(emphasis mine.)
Oleg Volk – Coincidences in most massacres
December 14th, 2012

[A post from Sebastian also rang and a worthy QotD:

 As gun owners, if we could just experience the grief and sorrow along with the rest of the country, instead of having it intruded upon by that impending feeling of doom about what the media, the politicians, and the people in society who don’t much care for civilian gun ownership are going to do to our lives, liberty and often times livelihood? If we could go through something like this without worrying how much we’re going to be the scapegoats?

Right now my heart weeps, sad that so many children will not get to live a full and happy life because of the actions of a mad man.  There can be no question as to why he chose that target.  He wanted his victims as defenseless as possible.  There is no better way to achieve that goal than to go after children.

While I would rather mourn, console, and otherwise comfort the families who’s lives have been turned upside down by the actions of an individual I have no choice but to look forward and prepare for the fight on the horizon.  Many will try to rush forward in the wake of this tragedy, forgetting rules that should be followed in the wake of something horrifying and disturbing as such as this incident.

Recently Obama gave a statement about the tragedy and stated the following:

“As a country, we have been through this too many times,” Obama said. “We’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this regardless of the politics.”

Except there is no real 100% way to make sure that something like this does not happen again.  The only thing you can do is make sure the tools and abilities for those around who can most quickly and easily respond.  If you don’t believe me, look no further than this incident in China where a man committed the same atrocities with a knife.

The dreaded attacks on school children returned to haunt China on Thursday after 22 of them were injured besides an 85-year-old woman after a “mentally deranged” man, armed with a knife, went on a slashing spree at a primary school.

Other similar incidents have happened before, without a firearm.

There is evil in this world and the atrocities today illustrate and prove that.  There are animals who are such due to a lack of conscience, a lack of morality and not even the law will stop them.  Many would rather not have to see or deal with the evil that lies within these animals.  Even more than that, they think that inanimate objects are some how responsible for the evil.  They want to be able to look at a physical object and blame it for what as happened.  They want to destroy the physical object and blame it for their grief.

I can understand that feeling, it’s a very hard thing to be angry at something that is invisible and outside of your control.  No one likes the idea of someone else being in control of their fate, especially with regards to life and death.  They want to do anything they can to give them the illusion that somehow they do have control and they have made a difference, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Despite that feeling it doesn’t change where the responsibilities lie.  It doesn’t change the fact that a person an animal would do something like this.  The problem and responsibility lie within the head of the thing who felt this was the way to achieve his 15 minutes of fame.

I will not use this cowards name, I will not support his new-found glory supplied by the mainstream media.  I will not allow his fame to give the idea to someone else seeking their 15 minutes of fame.

How do you constrain or punish an animal  who at the end of their crime merely wants to take their own life?  They are escaping any punishment you might give them.  The only punishment that remains is one provided through faith.  At times such as this though, people with faith find it tried, often crushed.

Ultimately though, the best solution to this problem is to arm good men and women, I bow humbly to Edmund Burke on this one.

“All that’s necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.”

The disarmament of the good merely ensures their inability to act resulting in a triumph of evil.

All I really want to do right now is give comfort to those who need it.  Alas, I’m not even allowed that moment of grief in solitude without needing to deal with politics.  As Sebastian said at the end of his post though:

we may not be interested much in politics, but politics is very interested in us.

I wish I could effectively write something to help people grieve, but that is beyond my skill.  While there are times I am good at conveying emotion through the written word, this isn’t one of those times.  So I just leave you with this.

If you have kids, hug them and kiss them.  Remember that somewhere there is a Christmas tree with presents under it that will not be opened.  There will be an empty seat at the Christmas table without the glowing smile of a child at Christmas.  Embrace what you have and be thankful. -B]

SSCC #476 – Berry Hill

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A Berry Hill Police Officer has been arrested in Murfreesboro on five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor charges. The 56-year old was arrested on Friday afternoon. Originally when the story first aired, WGNS only told you about one charge of sexual exploitation, it was later confirmed that White faced five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor charges.

Often children are told to trust police officers to the point of unquestioned faith.  People forget that sometimes the most evil monsters find ways to hid in plain sight.

State Sponsored Criminal #476: Robert White

Because there could be no way that evil could hide among the good.

 

SSCC #459–Portland

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Scott Edward Elliott, 50, a 22-year veteran of the Portland Police Bureau, admitted that he used the screen name "malewantsu2004” when he engaged in an Internet-based online discussion with another person who used the screen name "doraexplora111.” Elliott received at least nine images of child pornography on Sept. 11, 2009 from "doraexplora111,” according to court records.

The ironic thing:

Elliott resigned his position with police in May. He had been most recently assigned to East Precinct’s afternoon relief patrol. He also was one of a number of officers assigned at East Precinct to help register sex offenders, part of he bureau’s Sex Offender Registration Detail.

At least they list him as a former officer, still disturbing never the less.  Doubly so since he could also easily be brought in to search for that stuff on someone’s computer.

State Sponsored Criminal #459: Scott Edward Elliott

Because being a cop and registering sex offenders some how when you do it you’re not a predator.

SSCC #458–I.C.E.

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Anthony V. Mangione, who headed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s South Florida office for four years, possessed up to 150 images of child pornography, some depicting the "extreme abuse of children," according to federal prosecutors.

He was busted while still working for ICE.  This one’s bad and I’m not going to comment on it.  This one makes the count because:

As the Special Agent in Charge of ICE’s South Florida office, Mangione supervised more than 400 employees in nine counties. He was regularly at the forefront of arrests of child pornography suspects, vowing to see them punished.

State Sponsored Criminal #458: Anthony V. Mangione

Because there are monsters in this world.

On Carelessness and Curiosity

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I previously wrote about an entirely preventable incident.  I didn’t full realize though how much of a classic style incident that was.

Paul said Carlile, 31, was in a rush to get to a wedding with his family on March 10 when he got into the family’s van, put his off-duty handgun in a cupholder between the front seats and drove to Stanwood to drop off business cards at a friend’s store. 

First off, getting a good gun and holster helps prevent this because it should get put on your belt, ankle, whatever and left there for the day.  If in needs to come off, the holster needs to come off with it.

Second is the thing people always seem to forget:

Carlile’s son, Steele, was a curious and active 3-year-old with a fascination with guns and a disdain for car seats, Paul said.

I’m not surprised by this, honestly no one should that’s ever been around kids.  Kids are naturally curious.  The best thing to do is satisfy their curiosity in a safe and controlled environment.  Most certainly though, never leave something around a curious kid that’s dangerous or deadly.

What the father did was careless and negligent given the fact they were leaving their children in the car.  Not to mention the fact he was leaving the firearm in plain sight for anyone walking by the vehicle.  That is otherwise known as a great way to have a weapon stolen.

The worst part about incidents like this is gun owners as a whole get a black eye because this man was “anointed“.  The argument of the banners being, “If he can’t properly handle a firearm, how can anyone else be expected to?”  Never mind the fact that we push education instead of prohibition.  Prohibition in this case probably lead to the accident.  It’s the appeal of the forbidden fruit left within arms reach.  The better option would be to satisfy curiosity whenever possible while reinforcing safety and discipline.