Wednesday, March 09, 2016

Moneyed #GunsOut Selfie Campaign Relies on Ridiculous Emotion and Ignorance

Supporters are urged to take “selfies” while flexing their biceps and to tweet them to their followers using a #GunsOut hashtag. [More]
Just when you thought the gun-grabbers couldn't get any more ludicrous...

"Unlocked Door"

A burglary goes wrong when the homeowner returns home to find the door ajar. Entering the home unarmed, he confronts the burglar and makes a run for his handgun. The worst happens! [More]
This week on "Stop the Threat"...

Ken, Ken, He's Our Man!

If he can't do it, no one can! [More]

Right...?

[Via Mack H]

UPDATE: Well that was fast. I can't read it because they say I've reached my five article limit,but the headline says he withdrew his name.

I, Paranoid

Within Patriot group circles, the response has been more like paranoia, outrage, and some tactical patience. “This action is leading to justifiable speculation and worries that others who assisted in security operations and who were at Bunkerville to show solidarity with the cause of resolving western land disputes may now find themselves rounded up,” David Codrea, a columnist for GUNS Magazine, wrote on the Oath Keepers website on February 18. “… It may be that a massive operation is in the works, but to react imprudently without actual intelligence is a good way to escalate things to the favor of those who wish to discredit the Patriot movement.” [More]
How is being accurate in expectations you're now confirming "paranoia"?

I guess I should be glad he chose to cite me as the one counter voice to the DoJ and SPLC, but it sure ain't hard to see where the "correspondent's" sympathies lie.

Opposite Day 'Progressives' Know Best

The gun-control lobby and groups representing domestic-violence survivors both have said in General Assembly committees that women would not be capable of defending themselves with a firearm in an emergency. [More]
Yeah -- didn't we just prove that at the Louisville mall...?

[Via Keith B]

Breaking All the Rules

Hero woman shoots her stalker in the throat after desperate chase through mall that began when he started following her in food court [More]
These people would evidently rather she had been killed:
Please know that Fourth Street Live! has a code of conduct ... no weapons ...
[Via William T]

Sounds of Silence

Headline and lede aside, this is surprisingly non-hysterical for a HuffPo piece. [More]

[Via Keith B]

Mixed Feelings

Chaffetz wants to take guns away from 'Rambo' BLM, Forest Service agents [More]
That's the cold end. The hot end, where actual meaningful change can be made, addresses the constitutionality of those departments in the first place.

I could accept taking away arrest powers as a good first step. That said, infringing on having means of DEFENSE as a job condition carries with it a special relationship duty on the part of the employer to protect -- or at least it should.

I don't expect anything to come of this, but we'll know more once we have a bill number. Then we can get the GovTrack assessment on its likelihood to even make it out of committee -- anybody want to lay odds it'll be more than 2%?

Yeah, pretty cynical. I haven't been that impressed with Chaffetz actually doing anything, as opposed to making self-serving noises.

[Via Mike M]

Como un Buen Vecino

A Mexican national suspected of killing his neighbor and three other men at his neighbor's Kansas home before killing another man about 170 miles away in Missouri was arrested early Wednesday, authorities said ... Serrano Vitorino is in the country illegally, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement. He was deported from the U.S. in April 2004 and illegally re-entered the country on an unknown date.  [More]
These guys never seem to live next to Grover's house, do they?

[Via Geordan]

Just What I've Been Looking For

A way the authorities can track my guns! [More]

I'm sure this would never be abused. Aren't you?

Official Three Percenter

[More]

This time-wasting, click bait cookie-spreader I got suckered into really isn't all that hard for those of us cursed with trivia-saturated skulls. I just thought the "3%" acknowledgement was ironic.

Unclear on the Concept

For me the choice is clear – Ted Cruz. [More]
What's not clear is how you reconcile that assertion with this:
Is he eligible? I don’t know for sure, but I suspect not – at least not by my understanding of what the founders had in mind when they ratified the Constitution.
That's your criteria, and the appropriate one, Mr. Farah -- what the founders had in mind. If you have resolved your suspicion, it would be helpful if you explained it to the rest of us.

We're the Only Ones Connubial Enough

He was charged with assault with a firearm and criminal threats stemming from a domestic dispute with his husband that led to Friday’s standoff. [More]
Welcome to the party, pal.

Shock and Awe

...400 soldiers in the 67th Signal Battalion at Fort Gordon, Georgia, were subjected to a “white privilege” briefing, including a PowerPoint presentation instructing the attendees: “Our society attaches privilege to being white and male and heterosexual …” [More]
Forget "our enemies'"not being afraid of us -- what's happening here is the rulers are molding attitudes against those they consider their enemies. They're furthering the official demonization of those who challenge the legitimacy of their "fundamental transformation."

The Execution of LaVoy Finicum

An FBI agent is suspected of lying about firing twice at Robert "LaVoy" Finicum and may have gotten help from four other FBI agents in covering up afterward... [More]
Government not only failed in its duty to resolve matters without bloodshed, it contributed to the conditions making it all but inevitable when their demand for obedience was forced upon a man who would not kneel. They knew this man of unbending principle had never initiated violence and would only react if forced. They set things up so that would be the outcome.

He told them at the first roadblock he was going to go to turn himself in to Sheriff Palmer. Given the circumstances, he could have been escorted securely to do just that, to resolve things peaceably. The enforcers had waited all that time -- they could have called Palmer, assured Finicum he was on his way and no action would be taken, and waited another couple hours.

Lying FBI agents shooting into the truck with no identified threat target as Finicum was trying to exit with his hands up not only violates rules of engagement, it criminally endangered the occupants. As an aside, considering all the years its been in existence and all the money that's been poured into it, how many hostages has the Hostage Rescue Team actually rescued?

Finicum was shot in the back. As for the "justification" that he was going for his gun, not only would self-defense have been warranted, all we really have to go on to accept that, without better video and sound from on-scene recorders, is the word of people who were part of a kill team that is now being investigated for withholding critical information.

This whole thing did not have to happen. Finicum DID initially emerge with his hands up. Government actions prevented that scenario from unfolding. And now they're making noises about how justified they all were.

Another thing that's instructive about all this is in comments under another article about not releasing the names of the police shooters just yet. The hatred, the reveling and joy in the death of a man they revile, and the outright bigotry against Finicum's religion are all evident in those who think agents of the monopoly of violence ought to be able to kill with anonymity. If someone made similar slurs against Islam, these same Prozis would be screaming "Bigot!" and worse. And funny, how they'd take a polar opposite position had a person of a different set of circumstances been killed in a different place, like, say, Ferguson.

I said "Prozis," a term I use to combine "progressive" with Nazi, which is what they really are, as much as they try to project and pin that label onto advocates of Constitutionally-limited government. It's not just an example of Godwin's Law when they really do hate, and really do want the state to crush anyone who's not part of their cult.

As for what happens next, I won't be surprised to see push-back as more and more people have personal lines in the sand forcibly crossed. I don't see that as having a calming effect -- quite the opposite. I won't be surprised if some totally unforeseen wild card decides "it's time."

Whether the Rubicon has been finally crossed or not, and whether more are going to be dragged into this, is yet unknown. I guess we'll all find out.