The Internet is Forever

So this goes along with my stupidity lasts post from yesterday along with how despicable and nasty the other side is.  You see, a particular jerk tweeted some nasty things at some friends of mine.  It was quite obvious he was attempting to stereotype gun owners in the classic sense.  Insulting my friend Erin in the process.

It devolved into him bitching about America and general nastiness, but then it became epic.  He left a tweet and I said, well I’ll screen shot it when I get home… Well he memory holed the bastard by the time I got there.  Bad news for him, it was still sitting in my browser this morning.

Here’s what was in his feed this morning:

Notice what tweet he sent down the memory hole.  Such a nice comment that, because you know wishing illness and death, a miserable one at that, on another human being is the mark of tolerance and willingness to coexist.  This is why they dislike firearms, they have no self-control and wish violence and hate upon others.  They project their behavior and attitudes onto everyone else and assume that everyone is like that.

I have no doubt that he would be more than happy to have his government eradicate those he deems undesirables with differing opinions.

As we say time and again, gun-control is bigotry, even gun controls roots very roots are racist, and this man is a shining example of it.  Don’t like “X” prevent them from having a gun so you can safely beat them up.  It’s kind of difficult to beat up and harass a minority when they can shoot you for trying.

Guess those on this side of the gun debate are horrible people for wanting to ensure that everyone has equal access to firearm and not discriminate on who has a right to armed self-defense and who does not.

When all you have is stereotypes and bigotry, you have no argument.

It Appears Big Companies Do Learn From Past Mistakes

So via Sebastian I discovered today that both Ruger and Smith & Wesson have pulled out of the ESOS show.

There’s three parts to an apology and honestly I think both Ruger and Smith & Wesson just nailed the third part so hard its’ going into orbit.

It appears that the exhibiter is doubling down on stupid and going for broke.  Sadly it looks like they played the cards so they won’t feel the pinch this year.  Next year however no one is going to want to go to this pile of crap.  The controversy surrounding it is going to kill it.  Which honestly, if the company is anti-gun, may very well be their goal.

There are numerous other vendors pulling out, many of whom stand to take a financial hit for standing behind  gun owners.  Folks, that isn’t right, we should support them for what they have done and make the positive press they get from doing so actually count.

So, like Sebastian, I’m going to place an order from GUTNTAG, and honestly I think we need a list of all the companies who are pulling out to support us.  We need to spread the word far and wide and increase visibility.

So to any vendor for the ESOS show.

Please contact me if you are a vendor and are dropping out of the ESOS show and would like 6 months of free advertising on the website.  It isn’t much but every little bit helps.

Now as for the list, I would be more than happy to organize the list and post it, however I’m on the exact opposite coast and am a bit far from this loop.  If anyone wants to take point on this great, if someone wants to gather the info and bump it to me, I would be just as happy with that.

I am quite glad to see the outcome of this happening in a way that is amenable to gun owners and is a solid indication that, “No, we’re not going to negotiate, we’re not going to back down, and we’re not going to be bullied.”

And this just in, how stupid are they going? They’re going for full retard!

Due to Reed Exhibitions’ refusal to reconsider their decision to ban Modern Sporting Rifles from the February 2-10 Eastern Sports Show in Harrisburg, PA, the National Rifle Association has decided to withdraw from the show. We had called on Reed Exhibitions to reconsider their decision; unfortunately they have steadfastly refused to do so. As a result, the NRA will not be participating in the upcoming show in Harrisburg or in any other shows hosted by Reed Exhibitions that maintain this policy. We are disappointed that Reed Exhibitions has ignored the concerns expressed by attendees, the outdoor industry and the NRA in not reconsidering their position to ban the display of Modern Sporting Rifles.

Emphasis mine.  Yup, they just gave another example like Zumbo and others how not to approach the firearms community.

h/t Uncle on the NRA.

At least some stupidity lasts…

For those of you who have never seen it, I present you the Carolyn McCarthy incident.

Well I was searching for it for someone at work and discovered this:

Yes, that’s right folks, if you Google “Shoulder Thing That Goes Up” US Rep. McCarthy is displayed as the person you’re looking for.  I do find something satisfying about her ignorance being placed front and center.  I just wish if you searched for her name the first result was that video.

Never fear though because sling swivels are now on their way to replace the shoulder thing that goes up!

This is why we find our selves in the predicament we’re in.  The media is either grossly or willfully negligent and the general public believes everything they say without fail.  This would be funny if it weren’t for the fact that I’m sure some politican is going to hold this up in a legislative session and say we need to ban it!

Never mind the fact that grenade launchers are destructive devices along with each and every grenade.  I personally have never seen one in the civilian market, even with all the gun shows I’ve been to.  I’ve never seen a real RPG either.  Yet this same group of media and journalists that label a sling point a bayonet mount says they can be obtained at gun shows.  Remember though, we’re supposed to trust them because they have done careful research and are “educated” on the topic.  When I was 4 I could have done a better job of identifying the different parts and the associated terms for a firearm.

Quote of the Day – Jennifer Hast (1/22/2013)

I’ll not rejoice if your delusions come crashing down.  I’ll not celebrate the day you discover that evil comes in many forms and will use any tool available. I hope that day never comes. Truly, I hope you live out all of your days in blissful ignorance and die peacefully in your old age.

JenniferI’ll Not Rejoice
January 21st, 2013


[Honestly go read her post, it is something that many of us on this side of the debate have encountered all too often recently.  We all know that anti-rights cultists are violent and down right despicable in what they say and how they act.  If you’re on the other side of the debate, think long and hard about the actions and words of your fellow supporters.

It is the only way they can debate and appear to be winning.  Be so down right mean and vicious that the people on the other end want nothing to do with them.  I haven’t been as active on the twitter front lately because honestly, the crap gets old, and most of them have absolutely no interest in an actual conversation.  They want to lecture us.

I did however have a nice conversation with a friend from high-school recently on Facebook and my patience was continued mainly because of the ties she had with my family growing up.  Honestly though I think it’s those ties more than anything that helped facilitate a civil discussion and a willingness to listen to the other side of the debate.  That’s the biggest issue right now, no one really wants to listen, they have their preconceived answers and are not even willing to be polite and listen to the other side.

The thing is, one side of this debate is listening and responding, for the most part there are some who aren’t, the problem is the response more often than not is the opposite of what those on the other side want to hear.  As Joe said, we need an accurate problem statement.  No one though has even bothered to try to create one, instead they throw out solutions, solutions that in many cases don’t actually solve any problems relating to what the proponents claim.  When people rebuke their solution they are played down, diminished, called names, and have violence wished upon them for a differing of opinion.

It does not help your position to behave in such a manner and to the many watching it indicates a lack of maturity and inability to support your position.  I am flattered by the comments that Garand Gal made about Linoge, Sean, Erin, and me.  But please don’t feel like you have to support us.  Is it nice, you bet, fire support is a wonderful thing, especially when viciousness like that starts getting thrown around.  It’s good to see a friendly face and it does give you that extra sense of, yes this is worth it.  But, and this is a big but, often it is emotionally draining and tiring.  In the end it ends up being nothing more than wrestling with a pig, sure you may think you win but the pig just wanted you covered in mud.

If you feel it’s worth it to spend time discussing with someone, by all means do so, and if you see a reasonable discussion going on, by all means chip in, just don’t be a dick, let them do it on their own if they’re going to.  The time spent with chatting with my family friend paid off, she’s no longer focused on the tool and can see from this side of the debate.  There’s a few other things still to work out but it’s a start and a good one at that.  Sadly she’s not physically close otherwise I could go more easily hands on.  It ends up there were some people who made very poor decisions regarding firearms around her while in college and it has provided a very negative view of gun owners.

Pick and choose your battles and work where you think you can gain the most ground if you’re going to spend a lot of time on it.  Last week a particular individual kept wasting my time and kept running in circles.  I kept trying to escape out of the conversation but she kept dragging me back.  Finally after calling me an extremist for not wanting to be lectured I asked to be dropped from the conversation.  She did, for about 30 minutes and then mentioned me in another tweet.  I went off, ripped apart her argument again, and then said leave me the hell alone.  She then tweeted me again, this time it wasn’t falsehoods or lies just a general antagonism so ignored it, yesterday morning her account was evidently suspended.

Let me say right here right now, I had nothing to do with it.  I didn’t report her, I didn’t even block her.  I do however have a strong feeling with her behavior that she went down the same road as the individual debating with Jennifer.  In so doing I’m reasonably sure she used some not so nice words and possibly made threats towards someone’s safety.  Honestly, that woman wasn’t worth my time at all beyond illustrating to the world how dumb her idea was for “smart guns”.  Pick and choose your battles wisely and do your best not to get sucked in because you have to constantly fight their lies, because that’s what they do, spout lies and drivel so you come back with facts.  Some times it’s just not worth it.  Overall though in the grand scheme, this fight is most definitely worth it and the effort of debate is a small price to pay. -B]

2011 Brady Scores vs. 2011 FBI UCR

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.

image

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:

image

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.

image

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.

image

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.

image

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

image

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.

Quote of the Day–Say Uncle(1/17/2012)

But Obama has now asked the CDC to study the link between video games and violence. Personally, I played a lot of Pac-Man and Donkey Kong as a kid so I walk around swallowing pills and swinging a hammer at any gorilla I see.

Say UncleNRA v. Obama

January 17th, 2012


[I laughed when I read both of those sentences.  First yet another example of a point made by the NRA and fearless leader has turned around to follow it.  Again, when I read it I heard exactly this in my head:

I know they will never come out like that and say it, but I can keep wishing right?

Except I don’t really think the NRA is right on this one though.  Our Narcissist and Chief hates the First Amendment until it is politically convenient and beneficial for him, otherwise he hates it like he does the second.  I am pissed at the NRA because I honestly feel like they threw video games and the First Amendment under the bus.

I grew up on Mario, last I checked I’m not running down the street eating mushrooms and jumping on Goombas

I played Duck Hunt and have yet to actually go duck hunting or even bird hunting in general.

I played Excitebike and I didn’t go into the extreme sports.

I played Super Off-Road, again I don’t find myself taking my truck into crazy off road courses*.

I played Doom, last I checked I haven’t had an urge to go to Mars and start killing hell spawned aliens because they killed my pet bunny.

I played Command and Conquer, the whole series, and I have yet to end up as a general in some war over Tiberium

I played Duke Nukem 3D and I still haven’t found myself running around saying “It’s time to kick ass and chew bubble gum and I’m all out of gum” while killing alien invaders.

I played Quake III Arena and have yet to find myself wanting to create a real arena death match and kill everyone else inside. 

I played Unreal Tournament in many modes with Capture the Flag and Football being my favorites.  I have yet to feel the urge to actually shoot someone during a game of capture the flag or football.

I played Rainbow Six and have yet to find myself wanting to run around shooting people thinking they’re terrorists who’re intent on bio-warfare.

I played Ghost Recon and have yet to run around killing people thinking they’re ultra nationalists planning on rebuilding the Soviet Union.

I played Soldier of Fortune and have yet to run around shooting the limbs off of people.

I played Call of Duty and have yet to feel the urge to run around killing people while dressed as a soldier.

So can someone please explain to me given all the different games I played, note that’s not even all of them, and my countless time spent playing them I somehow didn’t end up screwed up but it’s responsible for screwing up a bunch of other people?  Many of those games listed above were controversial at the time and used as a crutch to explain evil deeds done by evil people.

I’m sorry, but video games aren’t the problem.  I still play new games, hell I spent my Thanksgiving killing virtual people in new and creative ways, still don’t have the urge to do it for real.  I guess I’m defective. –B]

*That isn’t to say I haven’t gotten it stuck.

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

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

Farm DadGun 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]