Shameless Plug: "Not Obliged"

So much for disarmed subjects of the crown relying on the police for protection. But what could be more important than an octogenarian under potentially lethal and immediate attack? Police departments, after all, have limited resources. Perhaps there was a critical emergency endangering more lives and a tough decision had to be made? A riot? A terrorist act? A fire?

Well, no, actually.

"Not Obliged," with special guest star Cryptic Subterranean, is my Rights Watch column for the December 2007 issue of GUNS Magazine, on sale now at obliging newsstands throughout the Republic.

WarOnGuns regulars will recall our coverage of the Thames Valley Police. This is an expansion on that story that illustrates how outrageous the bureaucratic arrogance and incompetence really is.

Stanley Still Crouching

Stanley, there is nothing bold about anything you propose. It is the same old contemptible servitude that the powerful have always imposed on the weak.

What I said to Mayor White goes double for you:

I wonder what these constituents would say if they were provided the truth about the racist origins and continued discriminatory application of the gun control measures you promulgate? Have you told them about the Slave Codes, that would allow a black man to be whipped (or worse) for possession of any kind of weapon? Or the post-Civil War Black Codes, designed to keep the newly emancipated from obtaining the means of defense during the heyday of Klan terror?

Why don't you circulate the following Louisiana statute among a few of the churches that you get your precinct walkers from, and see what they have to say?
"No negro who is not in the military service shall be allowed to carry fire-arms, or any kind of weapons, within the parish, without the special written permission of his employers, approved and endorsed by the nearest and most convenient chief of patrol."

If that doesn't make an impression, why not try the following offering from Mississippi?

"No freedman, free Negro, or mulatto not in the military service of the United States government, and not licensed so to do by the board of police of his or her county, shall keep or carry firearms of any kind..."

Oh, hell, Mayor White, let's cut to the chase and clue them in to Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857):

"Protection of the ‘absolute rights of individuals' to personal security, liberty, and private property is secured in part by ‘the right of bearing arms'--which with us is . . . practically enjoyed by every citizen, and is among his most valuable privileges, since it furnishes the means of resisting as a freeman ought, the inroads of usurpation."

Tell them how racist Supreme Court Chief Justice Taney concluded that blacks, as legal scholar and civil rights attorney Professor Don B. Kates has recorded, "could not be ‘citizens,' because if they were, they would have the right to vote, to assemble, to speak on political subjects, to travel freely, and ‘to keep and carry arms wherever they went.'"

Now tell them how the City of Cleveland has neither the legal obligation nor the capability to protect them, and how your police will not arrive in most life-and-death situations in time to do anything but tape off the crime scene, cover the body and take a report. Then make sure you tell them that you don't credit them with having the judgement or maturity to be entrusted with the means of personal defense, in spite of landmark peer-reviewed studies from Florida State University and the University of Chicago that conclusively demonstrate the crime-deterring, life- saving value of guns in private, law-abiding hands.

I suspect you won't tell them any of this. And, because of the unique privileges and stature that you enjoy in your position, this is especially contemptible.

To have risen to such a prestigious and powerful position speaks of many positive and remarkable characteristics that you must be blessed with, including intelligence, determination and leadership. But a true leader would use his authority to preserve, protect and champion the freedoms of those he serves. How sad, how telling, and how ultimately treasonous that you have chosen to misapply yours for your own gain.

And rather than being a leader in liberty, you have opted to become just another one of the plantation's overseers.

Mike's Fast Track

Three men were killed over the weekend in separate gun attacks in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, New York police said Sunday.

Sure glad to see MIKE ON FAST 'TRACK' TO CURB GUN CRIME.

Maybe he can make all our home towns as safe as the Big Apple.

Whose Life Is It, Anyway?

Doctors fear such proposals would go against patient confidentiality, which is at the centre of their medical ethics. A spokesperson for the British Medical Association said: "If the victim wants the police to be called, they will be called. We don't want to see a blanket rule that a doctor should report something to the police. People won't go to hospital if they fear the first thing a doctor will do is call the police. And that won't help the police."

I thought we were already "required" to do that here...? I'm surprised that not SOP in the UK.

Scaring White People...

...over Ron Paul and the North American Union.

I side with the conspiracy wackos, but that's OK. I'm used to having people roll their eyes at what I rant about.

But I'm willing to be educated if I'm wrong. I just need something more than dismissive generalities to convince me that I am.

Fair Dinkum

A PSYCHIATRIST who brought a pistol into Melbourne Magistrates Court has been spared jail.

Jerry Gelb, 49, was sentenced at Melbourne County Court today to a 12 month intensive corrections order...

They oughtta do like "A Clockwork Orange," strap him in a chair and keep his eyelids forced open as they brainwash him with drugs, images and sound.

That'll teach him how crazy it is to take measures to protect his life.

And how about that pal of his, getting fined for having a wooden pole?

Forget about putting another shrimp on the barbie--if Aussie authorities have their way, there won't be a man with a spine left anywhere Down Under.

Not that we're doing that much better here, mind you, as evidenced by the majority of posts on this blog.

Their Own Private Idaho

Simple mathematics: Taxes + Heavy Labor Costs + Frivolous junk lawsuits = A very costly gun.

Ryan Horsley encourages gun manufacturers to go where they're appreciated.

He also makes it clear that school kiddies had better be careful if they're caught drawing a picture of the state.

Public Enemy

High-school senior Kim Peters carries an Olympic identification badge and an Arizona skeet-shooting members' card, but neither got her out of a four-day suspension for bringing shotgun shells onto school grounds.

She'd better watch that posing with guns--didn't a similar action by a friend get Peyton Strickland murdered by home-invading "Only Ones"?

She even looks like an extremist.

[Via Featherless Biped]

This Day in History: October 29

Four armed American vessels sail from Cambridge as part of a fleet created to cruise the coast in search of enemy transports carrying arms and provisions.