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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.

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.

The Numbers Say Fight Back and Do Not Worry

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So through various posts there has been a smattering of information that honestly should be stitched together so it’s more easily found.

First up is this number which reiterates what many of us in the pro-rights community already knew.

Like Linoge I feel the sample size is a bit on the smaller side but there are a couple of reasons for that.  First he made sure to only include data points that are relevant and applicable.  Second though is better explained by this piece from Chicago Magazine.

This has to be weighed against perceptions of crime which, as Matt Yglesias has written, have in recent years become “unmoored from reality.” Crime has dropped; the perceived rate of crime has not. Is the same possible for rare cases of mass murder? Grant Duwe, research director for the Minnesota Department of corrections and author of (to my knowledge) the only longitudinal book-length study of mass murder in America, suggests it is: “the 1966 massacre committed by Charles Whitman in Austin, Texas marked the onset of a wave of mass public shootings that lasted until the end of the 20th century. Although it may seem that mass public shootings are still on the rise, the data show that 26 occurred between 2000 and 2009, a significant drop from the 43 cases in the 1990s.”

It causes an extra realization that validation needs to be performed on the actual numbers as appearances can be deceiving.  The media blasts about any and every incident because it does well for their ratings as well as a decrease in frequency makes them more news worthy.  (You watch the news not to know what is constant, but what has happened that is unexpected.)  Reporting on a decrease in the frequency doesn’t bring ratings or viewership.

Further someone has examined the odds of dying in a mass shooting.  Unsurprisingly they aren’t high.  Here are the conclusions but I suggest reading the whole thing, it’s definitely worth it.

We should always strive to continue to reduce all risks of death, especially the preventable risks of other humans, wherever possible. But the risks will always exist. If your chance of dying in a mass shooting is 0.000003% and your chance of dying in a car accident is 0.9%, with a whole lot of other risks in between, I think it’s reasonable to ask if there aren’t a lot of easier and more effective ways to try to use the government’s limited resources to save lives than trying even harder to prevent the next shooting tragedy than we already are.

The odds aren’t quite as low as say being struck by lightning within a year, except that his numbers are for lifetime odds.  In which case your lifetime odds of being struck by lightning is 1/10000 or 0.01%.

So why is it that mass shootings appear to be such a common occurrence?  The answer is simply visibility.  The media made terrorist attacks look unbelievably common despite the fact that again lightning is a bigger threat to your personal well being.  The media can scream so loud and for so long on the same topic that it often seems like the problem is worse than it actually is.

There are those of us who will take our time, do our research, and find the facts on a topic before moving forward.  Our opponents on the other hand want the media to scream and yell.  The more the media makes this look like a common occurrence, because it makes them look relevant.

The facts are in though.  Our opponents are irrelevant and those facts are becoming obvious to all the adults in the room.  The adults in the room are having a conversation and we all wish the children throwing the tantrum would shut up so the adults can continue speaking.  It’s not worth spending time worrying about a statistically unlikely event.

Is life, is not safe.  I know that, most everyone knows that.  Frankly I’d rather go out, live and enjoy my life without some nanny trying to control my every action.  Even if they do, I could still be struck by lightning, is congress going to ban lightning?

Why statements to create FUD aren’t an argument…

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First for those who don’t know, FUD, is Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.  It is significant because honestly it is the only thing our opponents in the gun control debate can argue with.  Facts and statistics are not on their side and we know it by the rants about “blood in the streets” that never actually seem to happen.

The thing is, guns are by no means the only place where Puritans use FUD to attempt to destroy freedom and liberty.  The best recent example was I-1183 which privatized liquor sales in the state of Washington.

This was a giant exaggeration. The initiative limited new licenses to stores of at least 10,000 square feet unless there are only smaller stores in a trade area. It left “trade area” to be defined by the Washington State Liquor Control Board, which has not yet done it. As a result, no store of less than 10,000 square feet has been given a new license, though some of the stores grandfathered from the old system are minimart-sized. There may be some new minimarts licensed to sell spirits, but not 1,000 of them.

The No on 1183 campaign argued the state was better at verifying that buyers are old enough to buy alcohol. Before liquor privatization, state stores had a tested compliance rate of 94 percent, while private stores selling beer and wine had a rate in the 70s. But the liquor board has just tested the new retailers, and the compliance rate in July was 92 percent.

He continues to point out that the statements made by the pro-side have held true.  Most importantly was this quote from a distiller within the state:

At the state’s oldest craft distiller, Dry Fly Distilling in Spokane, co-owner Kent Fleischmann says, “Our production is way up.”

Imagine that, you get the government out of something and sales go up, creating jobs, and wealth.  Isn’t it amazing what happens when people finally get over the FUD and the government is forced to get the hell out-of-the-way?

Here’s a tip, if someone’s main argument is the equivalent of “think of the children”, “I feel ‘x'”, or any variance like it and they are arguing that government involvement is the cure tell them to go screw off.  Move on and don’t bother arguing because they are currently suffering from PSH and are irrational.  Further their only argument is to attempt to pluck your emotional heart-strings, yeah I feel empathy, but what about the empathy for the innocent person whose rights you’re violating to make yourself feel better?

FUD is a huge red flag in any argument and it should be drug out into the middle of the square and exposed as such.  It’s good to see all the horror predictions fall down so that those who were against I-1183 can become the modern social pariah equivalent of:

Quote of the Day – John Robb (8/8/2012)

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While there are still some details to sort out, it’s pretty clear that making weapons at home using 3-D printers from commonly available materials is going to become much more commonplace in the near future. In fact, as 3-D printing technology matures, materials feedstock improves, and designs for weapons proliferate, we might soon see the day when nearly everyone will be able to print the weapons of their choice in the numbers they desire, all within the privacy of their own homes.

John Robb – A Working Assault Rifle Made With a 3-D Printer

Popular Science (7/26/2012)

[When even Popular Science is admitting the obvious we all see, it makes me ponder how much longer our opponents will remain in denial.  Every once in a while we see glimmers of anger.

I will say this right now though.  There will be no bargaining.  We will not negotiate with those who would deprive us our rights.  Their attitude towards us has been scorched earth, if only by piece meal.  It has been us who have compromised historically, no more.  It is time to sweep these people into the dust bin of history with the likes of other bigots throughout history. -B]

ht Sebastian

Someone once asked me a question…

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They saw my XD on my hip and I actually had my mag carriers on and the asked me the following:

Why did you put on your gun to come to the movie theater?  Do you really think something is going to happen?

To which I replied,

I put on my gun because I got dressed and criminals don’t call ahead.

It ends up last night, or early this morning depending on your view, there was an incident in Colorado.

A gas mask-wearing gunman opened fire early Friday at a suburban Denver movie theater, leaving at least 12 people dead and dozens more injured, police said.

It took no time at all for the gun grabbers to start dancing in blood though.  My personal favorite was the woman on twitter who informed me since no one shot back, we obviously didn’t need to have the right to arms.  Let me start at the beginning, pardon while I synopsize I’ll get to why in a minute.  She posted a tweet yesterday stating how she had physically fought off a rapist and she didn’t need a gun to do so and was glad her attacker didn’t have one.  She then used that statement as a justification for a total ban on firearms. This is how I replied:
<
Here’s the rest of the conversation, remember from the bottom up, I know it’s annoying I can’t figure out a way to change it.
So after the tweets last night I thought the conversation was over.  Well it was until she had some new blood to go dance in as you can see by her comments this morning.

Notice how she called me the ass and implied I was making assumptions but provided absolutely no answers to the questions I asked.  Her solution when I presented arguments she couldn’t handle or respond to was to block me.  All I wanted was for her to justify her position with facts and logic.  Obviously the force is weak with this one.  Especially with this awesome tweet after she blocked me.
So even with my previous examples of people defending themselves and others, the fact that there wasn’t a CCW holder in the theater means that the right is pointless.  Tell me, why wasn’t there a cop in the theater?  It is not the job of the CCW permited populace to protect everyone else.  Our duty is to ourselves and our families.  If we end up protecting you in the process, that’s a bonus.  If we choose to intervene on your behalf, we could end up being hung out to dry by the legal system so why would we?

Most entertaining though is she says that we’re eating our words this morning.  Except we never claimed that guns were some sort of magic talisman, it’s just that it serves no purpose to disarm the law-abiding but to ensure their victimhood.  She cannot argue against this point and she knows it.  That’s why she hasn’t even attempted to answer any of my questions.

She may have blocked me, but she can’t exactly stop the signal.  Feel free to go tweet at her if you like.  (Do NOT harass her, just try and get her to justify her position.)

Back to the subject of the movie theater, unsurprisingly the media has already gone into PSH mode and have resorted to using the Journalist’s Guide to Firearms Identification.
So take this as yet another reminder.  Be careful out there and carry your damn gun, you probably wont know when the wolf comes knocking.
h/t Weer’d

 

On Being on Top of the Food Chain

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So Tuesday I mentioned an incident where some enterprising individual thought he would stand his ground with a bison and lost.  I stated the following:

When armed however we are far superior to those other predators.  It’s tools that make the difference and for that reason your position on the top of the food chain is considered negotiable to mother nature.

I have also previously talked about how we are self demoting ourselves and our position on the food chain.  Well the situation isn’t getting any better.  Actually it’s going down hill fast and it appears it is showing no signs of stopping.

Like several other neighborhoods in West Seattle, the Seola Beach area is sandwiched between ravines and greenbelts, so it’s not surprising that coyotes live there. But in the last few weeks the animals have been showing up more and more, and residents say the coyotes are taking an aggressive stand.

The solution to this problem isn’t to kill the varmints.  No that would be bad.  The answer is to live trap them and relocate them.  Which is funny when you see the following shortly there after.

And the neighbors aren’t just worried about their own safety, either. Many believe the coyotes are killing off pets.

"Neighbors have talked about losing cats and dogs," said Kristi Coluccio. "Good dinner for coyotes, too."

The situation actually is bad enough that parents are fearing for their children and keeping them inside.  If you’re that fearful, why don’t you deal with the problem permanently.  Relocating the animals is only temporary.  Even then the animals no longer fear humans.  They have no reason to.

The animals are acting aggressively towards humans because they do not appear to be a threat, and actually appear to be walking 180lbs meat popsicles with much smaller juicier varieties that haven’t aged as much.  When their buddies bob and frank don’t eat dirt after being around humans they don’t associate humans as being dangerous.

For a long time wild animals avoid humans because by god if we saw them, we killed them.  Animals learned, and rightfully so, who the top predator was.  We have shoved our predatory status to the side though, and now many are acting surprised that wild life are learning there is no longer a need to fear humans.

Why should Wiley E. Coyote fear humans when a bunch of hippies have run to the state whining about how animals should be protected.  How humans shouldn’t be allowed to hunt them.  How the animals just want to live in peace and are not a threat to humans.

Yeah listen up there sparky and shut your patchouli eating ass up for a second and listen to me.  Any wild animal if given the chance would kill you, doubly so if it is any type of predator.  It is our tools and our history that causes animals to give us wide berth.  You’re meddling with the system has lowered our status on the totem pole and has opened up innocent people to animal attack.  Not only attack though but disease and pestilence carried by the animals is now left to spread unchecked.

Don’t come crying to me as this gets worse, and it will.  Mice are already problems in DC, and what’s that, you can’t kill the mice?  Mice that can carry bubonic plague and other diseases.

Do I like animals? Yes. 

Do I kill animals for the “thrill of the kill”? No.

I kill them for many reasons ranging from food, to pest control, to effective conservation.  Conservation? I hear you ask.  Yes conservation since over population actually weakens a herd as a whole limiting available resources limiting the overall health of the animals.

Besides, none of you tree hugging hippies can say a damn thing to me.  You know why?  Because while I try to act ethically and put an animal out of it’s pain and suffering, you tree huggers made sure I spent an extra 45 minutes waiting to get the O.K. from the state.  Why?  Because you were delusional about the condition of the deer and what needed to be done.  Yeah, who really cares about the animals again?  Not to mention hunters spend way more on conservation than you tree huggers.

My suggestion to the residents, get some of these and start shooting the damn things.

h/t Ry via email.

Can We Start Ridiculing TSA Agents Publicly Yet?

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About a year ago I called for people to start verbally harassing and otherwise making people who work for the TSA ashamed of what they do.  There were a few people who seemed to think that it was a pointless idea and that those people were just doing a hard job.

Here’s my problem with that.  TSA agents blatantly violate and ignore their own rules and regulations, and then you have some agents while violating said rules, they act in a way as to desecrate a deceased loved one.  Then they laugh about what they just did.

“I was told later on that she had no right to even open it, that they could have used other devices, like an X-ray machine. So she opened it up. She used her finger and was sifting through it. And then she accidentally spilled it.”

The agent’s response?

“She didn’t apologize. She started laughing. I was on my hands and knees picking up bone fragments. I couldn’t pick up all, everything that was lost. I mean, there was a long line behind me.”

The TSA website has the following statement regarding their policy on human remains:

 Out of respect to the deceased and their family and friends, under no circumstances will an officer open the container even if the passenger requests this be done. Documentation from the funeral home is not sufficient to carry a crematory container through security and onto a plane without screening.

So I’m sure this particular agent will receive some extra training but that doesn’t excuse her attitude and behavior toward this passenger.  Behavior such as this from TSA agents is not the exception but the norm. There was a recent congressional report for Congressman Marsha Blackburn that detailed only 50 of the numerous crimes since 2005.  Most disturbing of the 50 detailed was the following statistic:

Theft is followed closely by sex crimes and child pornography charges, with 14 such incidents listed in Blackburn’s report. Six TSA employees were charged with possession of child pornography; one of them got caught because he “uploaded explicit pictures of young girls to an Internet site on which he also posted a photograph of himself in his TSA uniform,” the report notes. Eight others were charged variously with child molestation, rape (including child rape), and even running a prostitution ring. It’s not hard to figure out why persons possessing such proclivities would seek jobs where they would be able to ogle and grope other people’s private parts with impunity.

So I again ask, why do people put up with this behavior and not start causing discomfort?  At a minimum you might make them police their own instead of everyone just looking the other way.  Heck, even the legal system is looking the other way and the real reason these individuals are in trouble is they got caught.  That’s why they are given probation for knowingly and willfully committing a crime.  Not just probation, but their record will remain clean without a conviction.   Whereas if you’re unlucky enough to get in an auto wreck from bad weather, you end up with a conviction, even though you intended no malice or harm.  They willfully violate other agency rules and cause damage to medical equipment.  Then after they’ve done the damage they play dumb about it.

Our congressional representatives instead of actually attempting to solve the problem have instead just exempted themselves from the indignities and crimes done by the TSA.  There have been a few instances where the TSA has abused a congress critter but the furor quickly dies out.  Our legal system as shown above is refusing to hold agents accountable for their actions.  For all intents and purposes though government has been shown to be incapable and inept and reining in the monster they created.  So other than hanging agents from trees, running them out on rails, and buckets of tar and feathers what is there left?  What is left to cause agents to either police themselves or leave the corrupt service they have created?

Agents themselves have absolutely no issue disgracing, abusing, and otherwise violating the public which they supposedly serve.  Their job itself is a farce and nothing more that a wasteful joke intended to make those who are sheep feel better.  The batting average of the public at large for stopping terrorist attacks since September 11th is 1000.  The batting average for the TSA since that date is 0.  Sure they’ve lucked out and found items people forgot about, but they have yet to actually find someone who set out with an intent to deceive the system.  They actually fail red team tests on a regular basis.

So given this information, why do the people who actually succeed at stopping terrorist attacks put up with this garbage from a bunch of high school dropouts who are incapable of reading at a 1st grade level?  I think any kid could read that statement from the TSA above and know thou shall not open the urn.

At this point, I want to see a group of passengers start chanting, “Two by two hands of blue”* while others continue to educate the agents on why they’re a bunch of tyrannical tories who deserve no love from their countrymen.

The TSA has created this us vs them environment and the sooner we all realize it already exists the better.  The only argument I have heard against calling these jack booted thugs out as they are was that we could increase the rift.  Well the rift is already pretty damn big, what the hell else do you want?  A hole through the middle of the earth, would that finally be big enough for you to say the time is now?

Personally I think verbal abuse isn’t enough any more, a rail, tar, and feathers I think still might be too nice for most of these folks.  Start off verbally and if they double down on stupid, break out the rail.

*If you don’t get the reference, go watch Firefly… now.  Seriously why are you still here? It’s on Netflix and Hulu and you can watch the whole series and Serenity in a day.

h/t To Uncle on this one.