Thursday, April 26, 2007

Guest Editorial: Diligence Awards

[Foreword: Andy Barniskis' emails are invariably well-reasoned, instructive , challenging and engaging. He has given me permission to post the following.]

Diligence Awards
Andy Barniskis

House Bill 1029: This legislation would allow individuals with a valid Pennsylvania license to carry a firearm to purchase additional guns without the cumbersome, expensive and redundant requirements of subsequent background checks through the Pennsylvania Instant Check System (PICS).

Correspondent writes:

What can you really have against this? Opposing it sure makes you sound pretty anti-gun, yourself.

Andy responds:

I'll start with the practical and then move up to the philosophical.

Carry permits are fundamentally a means of establishing a gun OWNER registration system, which in my opinion is more dangerous than the firearms registration systems everyone [rightly] gets so hot and bothered about. Why worry if some percentage of your GUNS are registered, if YOU are registered as the type who owns guns? Do you suspect being a "registered owner" might supply "reasonable cause" for an otherwise random search, someday in the future?

Thanks to some of our Real Gunnie, reciprocity-maven compatriots here in Pennsylvania, we are already on the way to having a centralized, computerized, 24/7, JBT-accessible registration of CCW holders (which will record your name FOREVER, even if you give up your CCW tomorrow) instead of the decentralized, 67- county system of the past. As bad as the county-level system may have been, it at least provided some hope that 67 bureaucracies, most of them rural, would lose or confuse some records, and possibly destroy outdated records. We could hope that if freedom ever broke out and we got Vermont/Alaska Carry, at least some of those counties would destroy all of their past records. Wishful thinking, maybe, but not impossible. The centralized system is going to be hardwired to the FBI, BATF, and possibly even accessible by (e.g.) the Southern Poverty Law Center, if they can dream up a use for it. (And don't tell me "Oh, but that will be ILLEGAL. . .") Tell me ANYONE's record is EVER going to cease to exist!

But hang on, I'm still not addressing the specific issue.

This legislation will create an implied (initially) and required (later) legal linkage between the CCW system and the IBC systems. As I'm writing this, the NRA and Rep. McCarthy are conspiring to make YOUR medical and mental health records -- and how will those be defined in the future? -- readily accessible to NICS/PICS. Meaning they will logically become linked to the PA CCW granting system. So, when Sister Mary Katherine tells someone in her eighth grade class that a trip to the principal's office for acting out in class will go on their "permanent record," she may be telling more truth than she'll ever know.

Maybe I'm sensitive to it, because the last big lawsuit I filed against a public official, was against my county sheriff for trying to make a "doctors note," attesting to mental health, a part of the application requirements for a CCW. It was illegal under PA law, and I don't think I have to itemize all the ways it could have been (and probably was) abused before my suit put a stop to it. Now, I'm supposed to cheer because the same thing that I fought and won against at the county level, is going to be imposed on us via a 24/7 electronic system at the state/national level that WILL eventually be linked to NICS/PICS?

And by "pro-gun" people?

Moving on to the tactical/political level: I have never made a secret that for me the gold standard of individual gun rights is that we should not have to seek permission from The State to acquire, own, or carry a gun. Unfortunately, I'd say the majority of firearms hobbyists I encounter seem to regard holding a CCW as imbuing them with some special status as a "Real Gunnie," and (referring to outside Pennsylvania) the harder it is to get a CCW, the more CCW holders seem to hold themselves in high regard. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I recently listened to a national radio talk show, and the STRONGEST advocates for restricted access to carrying firearms were self- identified "certified firearms instructors!" These people, sad to say, are one of the strongest constituencies IN OPPOSITION to fundamental rights, and yet to a man they regard themselves as "pro-gun" -- they want you to have a gun, as long as you satisfy THEIR criteria for it.

Now, add to the mix that this legislation grants additional benefits for those holding a CCW; they can walk into a gun shop, flash their CCW, and wave off the background check, to the admiration of the kids and counter-loungers; "Gosh Elmer, that feller must have a LICENSE to do that! He must be a real Gun Guy, you betcha!"

Think that feller is going to be much of a constituent for losing his self esteem, via the abolition of CCWs, should the day come when the rest of us make that possible? It's hard to call legislation that serves hobbyists' convenience "anti-gun," but I'd suggest it is appropriate to call it "anti-rights" in its practical effects on the masses and their attitudes.

And last, I must wax poetic, with a true story that is nonetheless also allegorical:

My uncle was captured at Corregidor in 1942. Eventually he was taken to Japan, where he spent almost the entire war as a slave laborer in the Mitsubishi Shipyards, building ships (well, A ship) for the Japs.

The Japs would give "diligence awards" of extra food, cigarettes, and privileges to prisoners who did good work. According to my uncle, many was the time they beat the hell out of fellow prisoners who earned or accepted diligence awards. I once asked "How badly?" and he just grimaced and shook his head.

For most of the time they had no idea how the war was going. According to the Japs, Japan was winning. They never heard of the Battle of Midway or any of the island landings. The first positive hint they had was, the first time they saw a B-29 fly overhead at high altitude, probably in late 1943.

But they resisted. When the one ship they completed was launched, it rested in the harbor for a few minutes, then promptly sank. Welders like my uncle had laid cold welding rods and other debris in joints and welded over them. Under the first stresses the welds snapped, and the ship sank. They EXPECTED to be executed, en masse, but they weren't. The Japs had used Jap civilian labor on the ship, too, and with their bizarre sense of "honor," they could not punish the prisoners without punishing their countrymen the same way.

Nevertheless by war's end only eight of the 350+ men he had been captured with were left alive. Standing 6 feet tall, my uncle weighed less than 100 pounds when liberated. I've never asked him this -- I've never had to -- but with hindsight, wouldn't it have been better to accept "diligence awards," so that maybe a handful more would have survived? In the big picture, what difference would it have made if they had helped the Japs launch another cargo ship or two?

The idea of course was unthinkable, even during those long months when it appeared possible that the Japs WERE winning -- just as it appears now the anti-freedom forces in our own country have won, hands down, on some issues.

You of course see the analogy I'm making: I WILL not believe the war for true gun RIGHTS -- not privileges -- is lost. While the fight goes on, I WILL not countenance the acceptance -- much less the SEEKING -- of "diligence awards" from our enemies, in the form of special privileges granted in return for willing acceptance of our present state of subjugation.

--Andy

Freedom: It's for the Dogs

Claire Wolfe shows us how a humble doggie knows what many of us have seemingly forgotten.

What does that have to do with eliminating BATFU?

Follow the link and find out.

Magic Marker Challenge Prof Speaks

Speaking of college professors, M. Terry points me to some video clips related to a story we posted on the other day.

Sure is great the way diversity and tolerance are encouraged in our institutions of higher learning, ain't it? I mean, our kids are free to be Leninists or Trotskyites, or even jihadists.

America--that's why I love her!

Second Amendment Obsolete? Abolish it and Watch What Happens

Mike Vanderboegh has written an open letter in reply to a sheltered professor's ill-reasoned rant.

My Dear Jeffery,

You really ought not extrapolate from your own cowardice and impute your own weeniehood to the self-reliant citizens you seek to disarm. If you truly believe the 2nd Amendment is obsolete, then I suggest you and your friends abolish it and watch what happens. And do it quickly please, while I'm still young enough to fight in the civil war you start.

Just because you would cave to any government diktat does not mean we would. Indeed, I can just about guarantee that at least 10% of us gunowners are "cold dead hands" types, which means you'll have to kill upwards of 8.5 million of us to accomplish your goal. Remember, we're the ones with the guns, and we will not go gently into that good collectivist night.

Aren't you the least bit concerned that folks who are willing to die for their country might be willing to kill for it too? Certainly we would intend to sell ourselves as dearly as possible. And do you think that we would fail to include the people who urged the policy upon such an oppressive government? There are no free lunches, Jeffery. So please, be careful what you wish for, you may get it. But hey, if you feel lucky, go ahead and abolish the 2nd Amendment. You'll find out just how "obsolete" the Founders' concept of the citizen militia really is.

Mike Vanderboegh
PO Box 926
Pinson, AL 35126

Disclaimer: No weenie college professors were actually harmed in the creation of this email.

Gun Bans Don't Work

School massacres occur regardless of the law.
And sometimes they occur because of it.

Jennifer Freeman gives us another Liberty Belles exclusive.

Gun-Free Talk

[H]as the NRA changed it's position on "gun-free" schools? It seem incongruous to call for their end and, in the same breath, to urge support of an organization that has stood beside the antis in supporting legislation to create victim disarmament zones.
Good question, Alan! Great one, actually.

And the reply?
I don't agree with the NRA on everything, but I do know they are vital to our gun rights. I don't know what their policy is on gun free school zones.
Well, you do now, Mr. Gresham. Alan even gave you source references.

So can we count on your voice joining with those of us calling on NRA to end their inexplicably anti-human position?

Jerry Adler Wets Pants for Newsweek

Many ordinary citizens now have 9-millimeters for protection as well, which means, inevitably, that they get used to settle arguments between spouses or friends.
Right, and we know they're never used to save lives, right, Jerry? They're just too dangerous for "ordinary citizens," and we're so stupid and out of control, why, we'd just use them to "settle arguments." It's not like we possess anywhere near the awesome intellect, judgment and morality of, say, "The Only Ones" who do.

Being an "authorized journalist" and all, you'd tell us if there was another side to the story--wouldn't you? Because otherwise, that would make you just another lying shill for Brady Campaign propaganda who has cast all journalistic ethics to the side in favor of cushy writing gigs for a national magazine. I want to believe better of you, Jer.

Regardless, it's nice to see the 9mm has regained the crown for "weapon of choice." A while back, I was getting worried...

Anybody else notice--while the title is "Story of a Gun," the window tab says "The Weapon: A Day in the Life of a 9mm"?

"The Life"? I guess these must be those self-activating guns we're always hearing about on the news that just go off and kill and kill and kill again?

[Via HZ]

Johnston Home Invasion Officers Indicted

A grand jury has indicted three current and former police officers in the November shooting death of an elderly Atlanta woman during a police raid.
We've talked about the Kathryn Johnston outrage before here on WarOnGuns. It would be nice to think that justice will be done, but I'm suspending judgment. Besides, nothing will bring that poor soul back to life.

If I were optimistic, I'd hope this would be a catalyst for the American people to rethink when no-knock dynamic entries are truly justified--like, say, at Virginia Tech. You'll notice when it's just a little old lady, no one in body armor is hiding behind trees.

This Day in History: April 26

"Sybil Ludington rode horseback over this road the night of April 26, 1777 to call out Col. Ludington's regiment to repel the British at Danbury, Connecticut."