Last Night on Armed American Radio

Real crime does happen to real people and can visit you where you live, work and play. Mark brings examples of crime in his own neighborhood as a reminder to stay aware. Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers along with David Codrea address the state of affairs in the nation today, Concealed Carry Magazine Executive Editor and active duty law enforcement officer, Kevin Michalowsk. [More]

Stewart and I were on in Hour Two.

Fighting Bloomberg in Nevada

You could spread the word.  You could donate. [More]

Will you?

Captain's Log

Circumstances have me behind the 8-ball, so I don't have time right now for individual post links per my normal practice. Just go over to the site and check out all that's new. [More]

It Can't Happen Here

Guess again. It already has. [More]

[Via Eric]

"I Will Not Comply"

And guess who will be encouraging that... [More]

Jump-Starting AZ

The Bradys are staking a claim so Bloomberg doesn't totally overshadow them. [More]

This Kitaeff Kapo appears to be Arizona's answer to Mike Weisser. It looks like he does custom stuff out of his house. Regardless, any gun owner who does business with him is giving aid and comfort.

We're the Only Ones Afraid Enough

I don't suppose you guys would like our help or anything...? [More]

Gun disability relief funding ban could be challenged in spending bill

If restrictions remain unchallenged, it will recall the many times rules objectionable to gun owners have quietly been allowed to remain in place. Still, there is one change that could be insisted on now, and if it derailed the spending approval process either in a Harry Reid-controlled Senate, or if Barack Obama rejected it, that decision would fall squarely on the Democrats: Congress could, if it wanted to, restore funding to allow for relief of firearms disabilities -- or at least it could after January if it passed a short term resolution and left the long term bill for the incoming majority. [More]

Today's Gun Rights Examiner report notes the more we're told things will change, the more they invariably stay the same.

Madres Demanda Acción

Not exactly what Mike 'n Shannon had in mind, is it? [More]

[Via Jake S]

UPDATE: It pissed me off to realize this is based on a 2013 video and presented as a new story by an "author, researcher and investigative journalist."

We're the Only Ones Searching Enough

Beloit Police Ask Residents To Volunteer To Have Their Homes Searched For Guns -- Chief Of Police Says He Hopes Initiative Can Help Residents Begin Thinking Differently About Guns [More]

Remember the old legend that a vampire can only enter your domicile if you invite him across the threshold?

You can send your "invitations" to @BeloitPolice1, message them on Facebook, or just approach Chief Dolt Norm Jacobs directly.  Make sure you let him know you fully appreciate just what a Wisconsin Only One who "thinks differently about guns" is capable of.

[Via Keith D]

Yep, It's Pretty Much Like That

Good comment. [More]

This Day in History: December 8

The Evening promising a favorable Time, the Troops were upon the point of embarking when a very sudden Squall of Wind from the West, & a heavy rain came on, which prevented the execution of my Design. [More]

Tonight on Armed American Radio

Messed up on my Tweet and gave the link for last week's (12/7)--here is the correct info for the 12/14 show:

Mark moves the AAR Crossbreed Holster Studies on site to the classroom in Norcross, GA for a live broadcast immediately upon completion of the Massad Ayoob Group MAG 20 class. Joining Mark "in-studio" for this special event program are guest hosts Massad Ayoob and Gail Pepin with their guests, AAR Regular Contributor, Amber Kunau, Concealed Carry Magazine columnist, Beth Alcazar, David Codrea, Claude Werner, and more!

Also, Mark told me later by phone, Rob Pincus will be calling in. Also, George "Mad Ogre" Hill.

The program broadcasts from 8 to 11 p.m. Eastern (adjust for your locale). Click here to find a list of stations nationwide, or here to listen via live streaming.

Wahlberg pardon bid ignores outstanding gun questions

The questions those processing his pardon application may want to investigate include, has Wahlberg -- and those providing him with weapons in the course of his acting career -- been in violation of the law on multiple occasions over the years? What would happen to a “prohibited person” of lesser fame, wealth and connections for possessing firearms without receiving a full pardon, and would they have the means to obtain one? [More]

Today's Gun Rights Examiner report notes anti-gun actors shouldn't be the only ones who can flout "gun laws."

The Handmaiden of Apathy

I'm talking about negativity. I see it being used all the time as an excuse for doing nothing, in particular as a response to observations on how gun owners could pressure NRA to help repeal Obamacare by scoring votes. It generally manifests itself in three ways:

• It's not part of the "single issue" and NRA should stick to guns: It IS a "gun issue" if those making that charge would actually read the article and face the points it makes. And as shown in yesterday's follow-up, that is exactly what the antis are hoping gun owners will say.
• It's useless to try to get the NRA to do anything: Oh really?  That will come as a shock to those of us who dragged them kicking and screaming into Gunwalker, and into scoring votes on Kagan, Sotomayor and Murthy, or who made sure they knew the ruckus that would be raised if they caved after Sandy Hook. Funny how MOST saying that have never tried, or of the ones who have, how many have helped to create outside pressure. A friend tells those who maintain NRA is unresponsive: "They figure they've already got your money, and they figure if you're lobbying them directly instead of embarrassing them publicly and multiplying your effort to hundreds or thousands of other members, then you're not a threat and they've got you in the harmless trap of thinking they give a crap what you think. IMHO, forget lobbying the NRA directly. Forward widely [he's talking about my article] and call the talk shows. That's where the NRA can be pressured, where they can't keep you from directly and indirectly informing other members and donors. There are lots of folks who are donors and annual members who could be pushed to GOA. Only lever on the NRA, only thing they really give a flying F about is $$$,$$$,$$$ and power. If they get too much heat they will be forced to take a position to keep from losing members." 
• Someone else quoted the definition of insanity the other day, without ever documenting what it is he has done over and over again, or how a new idea being offered for the first time qualified as a repeat. I'll tell you a same result you can expect every time: Badmouthing as an excuse to do nothing, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy to claim "See? I told you so!" Lather, rinse, repeat. That's what's insane. And toxic to freedom.

Rational and moral people will do everything in their power to protect themselves and their loved ones from the terrible and personally unpredictable consequences of everything going to hell. Why anyone should believe that those who, through inaction guarantee such an outcome, will suddenly summon all that is needed to resist and prevail under a bold "Molon Labe!" cry of Internet defiance, is beyond me, especially when many of those same people invariably reject and discourage simple things they are easily capable of supporting.

I sure hope Mike is right about Three Percent who are actually serious, with all that implies. We're going to need every one of them, because I have no doubt most comment commandos are neither prepared nor predisposed to actually do anything besides bitch and act like anonymous badasses. The enemy is counting on those talking the liberty game to be doing just that, too personally ignorant and weak, disorganized and squabbling to even put on a decent show of strength to peaceably resolve something they all complain about -- while that is still possible.

I've seen too many powerful concepts expire unnoticed in the crib from ideological SIDS instead of growing to their full potential, all of their premature deaths preventable, but all condemned by neglect. That and by infiltrator/disruptors.

A Day That Will Live in My Heart

It was more than a day of infamy.

The man who gave me the love, support and example I needed turned 21.

I miss you, Dad.

Other Key Facts

Comment from "Carlos Perdue" under yesterday's GRE:

Excellent article. Another key fact, Obamacare passed cloture with exactly 60 votes. Only one Democrat would have needed to be flipped and it never would have passed. On Christmas eve day 2009, the day of the cloture vote, the NRA had 10 "A" & "A+" rated Dems, 2 "B" rated (including Harry Reid), and 4 "C" rated. They could've easily flipped one D for the reasons Mr. Codrea points out. But they followed the establishment Republican/NRA tradition and worked with Reid & Obama to "fix" a socialist program, giving "A" & "B" rated Dems in pro-gun states the necessary cover to vote for it. Doesn't take much searching to find articles with statements like this: "U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wrote the now famous Obamacare gun provision which he inserted into PL 111-148 with the help of NRA President Wayne LaPierre. Why would a Democrat, Senator Reid, do this? When Senator Reid was up for re-election a couple years ago, he (a well known gun advocate) contacted Mr. LaPierre to help him get gun owners to vote for him." The NRA is responsible for the passage of Obamacare. But the NRA can now undo the damage and play the key role in repealing it. For the reasons Mr. Codrea discusses, now that 0-care is increasingly unpopular with the electorate and even anti-gun Democrats like Schumer are showing buyer's remorse, if the NRA does the right thing it could be easier in 2015 to get a 2/3 majority of those voting (e.g. 12 D votes for 66/99), than it would've been to get just one vote to kill it in the first place on Christmas eve day 2009. That's because it may again be the case that all the NRA has to do is flip one vote and the rest will follow, like the cascading fall of the Iron Curtain after Poland legalized Solidarity and it won 99% of the seats up for election, followed by the mass defection of 600 East Germans into Austria at the Pan-European Picnic. Given Zerocare's unpopularity and buyer's regret, it would most assuredly be far easier to get one "A" to flip now than it would've been in 2009, even though there are not as many "A" rated Dems now. But chances are the NRA would get every "A", and some or all "Bs" and "Cs", and indirectly some Ds and Fs, like Schumer. The NRA can be pressured to do the right thing by members, gun rights activists and conservatives calling talk shows, and by quitting NRA and moving to Gun Owners of America. GOA identified Obamacare as gun control and a Trojan Horse confiscation vehicle from day one, still maintains that position, and never fell for the Reid-NRA "fix". Similarly, the NRA is the key to winning the immigration/amnesty issue. The same pressure can be applied to get the NRA to stop indirectly supporting amnesty and excessive immigration. GOA has been alone among national gun rights groups in identifying invasion and amnesty as the great destroyer of gun rights in America, pointing to the tragic immigration-induced loss of California and studies showing that today's immigrants, including Catholics, come from corrupt, anti-freedom, anti-gun cultures and continue to lean heavily Democrat, socialist, and anti-gun after they get here despite craven establishment-Republican his pandering efforts. Others such as Rush Limbaugh observe that "Amnesty is Republican Party Suicide" -- which means it is also permanent gun rights suicide.

Those are important factors to include in the mix.  Compare them to this bit of "apologia":

Looks like the type of "reasoned" sentiment we routinely see from self-styled "pragmatists" arguing limited "political capital," doesn't it?  Thing is, a quick click on the guy's DISQUS profile shows other comments including "Another Teahadist meets her maker" in response to a "gundeath" from someone who actually appeared to be one of his. That marks him as a troll, acting out the demonstrable sadist-psychopath / infiltrator-disruptor role that defines such pathetic moral and intellectual defectives.

Still, the comment is not without value -- just as we see editorials and statements by doctrinaire Democrats advising what Republicans should do on this or that issue -- under the guise of being helpfully observant, of course -- what's really happening is they're hoping idiots will be persuaded to put their (and our) heads in a noose. What's obvious is, "progressives" do not want NRA to become more effective by including issues that impact gun rights in the scoring criteria -- and that ostensible "pro-gun" voices discouraging that by crying "Single issue!" (a demonstrably false excuse) are pulling on the same side of the rope as the gun-grabbers.

They can try, but there's no getting around that key fact.

Anti-gun bigot’s projection shows just who the true ignorant and fearful haters are

Funny, isn't it, how “progressives” represent themselves as caring about the people on the lower-end of the economic spectrum, yet are the biggest cheerleaders the “One Percent” could hope for when it comes to the true egalitarian power sharing that an armed citizenry provides. And it’s curious, how an ideology that once extolled the virtues of “peasants” and “workers,” at least until power was secured, has produced effete snobs who attack the worth and question the refinement of other human beings who do not share their infatuation with degenerate totalitarianism. [More]

My latest JPFO Alert notes a self-styled sophisticate, who in true "progressive" Opposite Day fashion, reveals himself to be just another prejudiced, provincial clod.

A Winning Combo

Your entries and this month's gun giveaway contests... [More]

We're the Only Ones Illuminating Enough

A Denver police officer accidentally fired his gun while trying to turn on a flashlight mounted on his weapon in March, the department's third flashlight-related discharge in two years, records show. [More]

I can't tell you how many times that's happened to me.

Maybe that's why Chief White calls for "progress on gun control," questioning why we mere citizens would want the same "no practical use ... soldiers in a war" firearms his trained "light'em up" Only Ones are obviously so much more qualified to handle.

Illuminating, isn't it?

[Via cydl]