The DC bank robber is given more money that taxpayers have to pay for. My past coverage here.
People do not seem to respect gravity these days.
ACLU opposes DC's gun grab. My past coverage of said gun grab here, here and here.
Mother stabbed to death while fighting with two thugs who were trying to carjack her. They had taken her keys, but her 4 month old was in the car and she fought to get the keys back.
Fire can be used as a weapon and is totally unregulated!
Kalifornia high school student killed by a school police officer. Typical Kalifornians blame the cop, the school and just about anything else besides the student, who smashed a cop in the back of the head with a baseball bat, knocking him to the ground. In the story, the cop drew his sidearm when the kid was about to hit him again and accidentally dropped the magazine. He pulled his backup from an ankle holster and killed the student.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
More on Wal-Mart
Over at Armed Canadian. Go read it.
Past coverage here.
I don't have much time this week to give stuff like this my full attention. Fortunately, the more prominent gun blogs have things covered.
Past coverage here.
I don't have much time this week to give stuff like this my full attention. Fortunately, the more prominent gun blogs have things covered.
Anti-gun trash from NBC4
Video interview with a VA Tech survivor who is "looking to turn her pain into something positive." That something would be gun control, to include "closing Virginia's gun-show loophole," of which there is no such thing.
Not true, but she doesn't know that. She would be better served trying to close the madman loophole, or stopping continental drift.
There are all of the typical lies and bias throughout this piece, including showing a rally of ProtestEasy guns which they call "advocates" of gun control, as opposed to what the pro-gun side is usually called -- "gun lobby." A quote I found interesting:
People like this girl live inside of a dream world of safety that pushes the "it can't happen here" mentality. I can understand being shocked, or caught off guard, but it seems to me that she lives in a world that is full of puppies and unicorns, and that the reason is because someone else is tasked with making everyone safe. You are your own first responder. Now here's your dose of stupid for the day:
There you have it folks. It was not Cho's fault.
"Right now anyone can walk into a gunshow......go to a private dealer.....and buy..like...an AK-47."
Not true, but she doesn't know that. She would be better served trying to close the madman loophole, or stopping continental drift.
There are all of the typical lies and bias throughout this piece, including showing a rally of ProtestEasy guns which they call "advocates" of gun control, as opposed to what the pro-gun side is usually called -- "gun lobby." A quote I found interesting:
"I thought it was blanks inside the gun....or I thought it was a bad prank."
People like this girl live inside of a dream world of safety that pushes the "it can't happen here" mentality. I can understand being shocked, or caught off guard, but it seems to me that she lives in a world that is full of puppies and unicorns, and that the reason is because someone else is tasked with making everyone safe. You are your own first responder. Now here's your dose of stupid for the day:
[speaking of Cho] "Of course there are times when I hate him...especially when I'm in pain, and crying, and of course but really.......he was a victim of the system."
There you have it folks. It was not Cho's fault.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
I suck
Yesterday was buy-a-gun day and I had to postpone as it was also my anniversary. My wife does not love guns and roses, and if I had walked throught that door with a shiny new firearm then she would have certainly shown me hers.
Either way, she has given me the green light to buy a wannabee AK, so that is in my very near future.
Either way, she has given me the green light to buy a wannabee AK, so that is in my very near future.
Jimmy sucks
Really. I don't have much time today so I'll direct you over to The Liberty Zone for some good ol' Jimmy Carter bashing.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Desperation and effective armed resistance
From someone who was there. Marek Edelman is a Jewish doctor who lead part of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto against the nazi army.
When the nazis started to take away the Jews, Edelman and a couple hundred others took up what arms they could find and fought back. Who were these brave individuals:
Boys and girls fought off a professional army of well equipped nazi soldiers with no training and few weapons.
Courage and bravery like this are hard to find these days.
Some claim that there is no way that American citizens could ever resist the might of the US military, but they don't have a clue as to what armed resistance is, or what the stakes are:
How could the entire US military, scattered across the globe, and engaged in "the long war," engage its own citizens in a drawn out war on its own soil, within its own cities, and without many of the resources that it counts on to win in a non-linear war? It's not like every Serviceman could just come back to the US and fight their own people. Who would watch the interests of the country abroad? How many would throw down their chevrons and join the other side?
The Army could not call in an airstrike onto a townhouse in downtown Chicago because they couldn't knock out that determined shooter, nor could they fire a 120mm HE round from the main gun on a M1A1 into the top floor of a condo in Myrtle Beach because some good ol' boy was busy picking them off one-by-one with his grandpappy's Springfield 03. Get that out of your head.
There are an estimated 80 million gun owners in the US, and the total number of personnel in the US armed forces stands at around 1.5 million active, and about the same for reserves. If 220 starving Jews could hold back Hitler's finest by fighting with pistols and pitchforks, then the American people could surely destroy any government resistance to the last man; thus ensuring that the reins of power stay where they belong.
Anyone who says otherwise needs a history lesson.
When the nazis started to take away the Jews, Edelman and a couple hundred others took up what arms they could find and fought back. Who were these brave individuals:
"I remember them all — boys and girls — 220 altogether, not too many to remember their faces, their names,"
Boys and girls fought off a professional army of well equipped nazi soldiers with no training and few weapons.
Several hundred young Jews took up arms in defense of the civilians — the first act of large-scale armed civilian resistance against the Germans in occupied Poland during World War II.
His fighters, between the ages of 13 and 22, scraped together guns and ammunition that they and the Polish resistance managed to smuggle in from the outside.
Courage and bravery like this are hard to find these days.
"Every moment was difficult. It was two or three or 10 boys fighting with an army," Edelman said. "There were no easy moments."
But they were outnumbered and outgunned.
"It lasted for three weeks, so this great German army could not cope so easily with those 220 boys and girls," he said with a grain of pride.There are fellow citizens among us that scoff at the idea of effective armed resistance. This man says otherwise.
Some claim that there is no way that American citizens could ever resist the might of the US military, but they don't have a clue as to what armed resistance is, or what the stakes are:
"How we burned in the prison camps later thinking: What would things have been like if every police operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive? If during periods of mass arrests people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever was at hand? The organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt."— Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Nobel Prize winner and author of The Gulag Archipelago, who spent 11 years in Soviet concentration camps.
How could the entire US military, scattered across the globe, and engaged in "the long war," engage its own citizens in a drawn out war on its own soil, within its own cities, and without many of the resources that it counts on to win in a non-linear war? It's not like every Serviceman could just come back to the US and fight their own people. Who would watch the interests of the country abroad? How many would throw down their chevrons and join the other side?
The Army could not call in an airstrike onto a townhouse in downtown Chicago because they couldn't knock out that determined shooter, nor could they fire a 120mm HE round from the main gun on a M1A1 into the top floor of a condo in Myrtle Beach because some good ol' boy was busy picking them off one-by-one with his grandpappy's Springfield 03. Get that out of your head.
There are an estimated 80 million gun owners in the US, and the total number of personnel in the US armed forces stands at around 1.5 million active, and about the same for reserves. If 220 starving Jews could hold back Hitler's finest by fighting with pistols and pitchforks, then the American people could surely destroy any government resistance to the last man; thus ensuring that the reins of power stay where they belong.
Anyone who says otherwise needs a history lesson.
A storm brewing
In Pennsylvania. This story is about gun rights in Pennsylvania, and how there will be a showdown between political candidates tomorrow.
They give Paul Helmke from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership a sound bite, but no retort from the gun rights side was printed. Typical.
There was some mention of the Heller case, and how that effects the political climate. Absent throughout the article was any mention of Philadelphia's Mayor, Michael Nutter, defying Pennsylvania law by passing anti-gun laws.
I may actually watch tomorrow's debate just to see those two idiots impale themselves on gun control. It's not like they can hide it now.
They give Paul Helmke from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership a sound bite, but no retort from the gun rights side was printed. Typical.
There was some mention of the Heller case, and how that effects the political climate. Absent throughout the article was any mention of Philadelphia's Mayor, Michael Nutter, defying Pennsylvania law by passing anti-gun laws.
I may actually watch tomorrow's debate just to see those two idiots impale themselves on gun control. It's not like they can hide it now.
Wal-Mart Boycott
This is unacceptable. I originally found out about this over at Sebastian's blog, and he now has a link provided to tell Wal-Mart where they can stick their new surveillance program.
Wal-Mart no longer sells firearms in my area, and I used to buy 98% of my ammo there, as well as other things like targets, air guns and groceries, but no more. As a matter of fact, I purchased my first firearm, a Mossberg 500 12 gauge, there when I turned 18.
This afternoon I will send a nasty-gram letting them know that I will also be buying groceries elsewhere. I will just have to start mail ordering my ammo from now on.
Wal-Mart no longer sells firearms in my area, and I used to buy 98% of my ammo there, as well as other things like targets, air guns and groceries, but no more. As a matter of fact, I purchased my first firearm, a Mossberg 500 12 gauge, there when I turned 18.
This afternoon I will send a nasty-gram letting them know that I will also be buying groceries elsewhere. I will just have to start mail ordering my ammo from now on.
Death by hands and feet
A fistfight led to the death of a 22 year old man. No weapons, other than the God given flesh covered ones, were involved.
In Hollywood, fistfights only result in bloody lips and bruised egos. Here in the really real world we know that hitting people is not good because of the potential to maim or kill a fellow human. Should we register everyones hands and feet?
My point in all of this is that mankind is born with the tools to kill, and the carrying of a more effective tool to offset this threat does not turn otherwise good people into killers, nor does it "give" verbal altercations the chance to be lethal; that potential is always there.
Here's another example.
In Hollywood, fistfights only result in bloody lips and bruised egos. Here in the really real world we know that hitting people is not good because of the potential to maim or kill a fellow human. Should we register everyones hands and feet?
My point in all of this is that mankind is born with the tools to kill, and the carrying of a more effective tool to offset this threat does not turn otherwise good people into killers, nor does it "give" verbal altercations the chance to be lethal; that potential is always there.
Here's another example.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Dirty dancing
In the capital of the greatest nation on earth...that would be DC (don't laugh), the city that bears George Wahington's name, a fellow patriot was arrested for the crime of...dancing. Yes, dancing.
This heinous crime was carried out on the steps of the..wait for it...Thomas Jefferson Memorial!
The story brought to you by: Liberty Is My Homie, who was an eye witness. Read it.
Remember what I said about terrorist chopping ninja's who don't have terrorists to chop? When you can't enjoy your freedoms on the steps of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial without arrest by armed state agents, in the Land of the Free, at its freakin capital, then we are on the brink of an all out police state...if we're not already there.
This heinous crime was carried out on the steps of the..wait for it...Thomas Jefferson Memorial!
The story brought to you by: Liberty Is My Homie, who was an eye witness. Read it.
Remember what I said about terrorist chopping ninja's who don't have terrorists to chop? When you can't enjoy your freedoms on the steps of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial without arrest by armed state agents, in the Land of the Free, at its freakin capital, then we are on the brink of an all out police state...if we're not already there.
Great Quotes II
From Sharp as a Marble in response to Senator Obama's absurd comment:
That's funny!
I'm in a bitter mood. I'm going to go hump my gun while I read Leviticus. I'm tired of getting hoodwinked.
That's funny!
The tale of two elitists
Here at Legions Fate, I avoid posting on the political clown show that is the current presidential race, but this is definitely worth mentioning.
Senator Obama sticks his foot in his mouth by basically saying that gun owners are bitter, and then Senator Clinton tries to pin him for being anti-gun, and then Senator Obama criticizes her for acting pro-gun.
Both of these fools are as anti-gun as it gets. Don't fall prey to their petty Jedi mind tricks.
Not to leave anyone out; lets not forget the anti-gun track record of Senator John McCain either.
Senator Obama sticks his foot in his mouth by basically saying that gun owners are bitter, and then Senator Clinton tries to pin him for being anti-gun, and then Senator Obama criticizes her for acting pro-gun.
Both of these fools are as anti-gun as it gets. Don't fall prey to their petty Jedi mind tricks.
Not to leave anyone out; lets not forget the anti-gun track record of Senator John McCain either.
Serial bank robber?
They're giving away free money in DC now, too! Is this a trend? Hey, they're just creating their own power trip!
Look at the robber's picture. How the hell do you not notice this guy?
So why is Flavor Flav robbing banks? This is going to continue until someone shows these guys that taking what is not yours is unacceptable.
Look at the robber's picture. How the hell do you not notice this guy?
Authorities said they involved a 45-to-50-year-old black man who stands 5 feet 1 inches to 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighs 115 to 120 pounds, and has a light to medium complexion and a series of scars on the left side of his face. He is known to wear a dark suit and tie of a black, puffy coat with dark pants. He also has worn sunglasses.
So why is Flavor Flav robbing banks? This is going to continue until someone shows these guys that taking what is not yours is unacceptable.
More Virginia citizens are armed
More than 44,000 concealed handgun permits were issued in 2007, and over 4,000 have been issued since February of this year.
Phillip Van Cleave of the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) was mentioned in an article about this great phenomina that is surprisingly void of hysterics. It's here at VCDL's new blog, The Sentinel, go take a look.
Phillip Van Cleave of the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) was mentioned in an article about this great phenomina that is surprisingly void of hysterics. It's here at VCDL's new blog, The Sentinel, go take a look.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Movie Guns III
This week's post is on the movie Shooter, staring Mark Wahlberg, who plays the character Bob Swagger. I have not had the pleasure of reading the book "Point of Impact" by Steven Hunter, of which the movie is based on. I have heard that the book is better.
The movie is about a Marine Corps sniper who is set up by some shady contractors as the shooter in the assassination of the Ethiopian archbishop. There are some really cool weapons in this movie, and I decided to post some of them for your viewing pleasure.
The first guns shown in the movie is the USMC M40M3 in what would be 7.62x51mm NATO, wearing a Unertl 10x power scope.
In the background you can see the spotter with an M4 with mounted M203 grenade launcher with an Aimpoint CompM4.
I'm not sure who's bright idea it was to put two alleged Marines in U.S. Army ACU's (Army Combat Uniform), nor do I know whom it offends more; Army Soldiers or Marines.
I do believe that the reason the spotter is carrying an M4 instead of an M14, or at least an M16, considering they are snipers, is because they are also toting a Barrett M107 chambered in .50 BMG which is wearing Nightforce optics.
There are two interesting things about the scene where they are under attack from the gunship. First is that the snipers both engage the gunship with their rifles until the spotter gets killed, at which point Swagger picks up the Barrett. Why not use the Barrett first?
The second thing is that Swagger hand cycles the action of the Barrett for every shot. I would think that the reason is because that blanks probably do not have the oomph to cycle the bolt. You can clearly see the case stuck in the breech before he racks the round home.
Next up we have a beautiful Cheytac M200 Intervention chambered in .408 Cheytac with a Leupold Mark 4 ER/T M1.
Of note is that the minute marks on the optic are spray painted with the rest of the rifle, as are all of the other minute marks throughout the movie. I don't believe this to be SOP, but if there are any real shooters out there who are in-the-know, please leave me a comment.
Just a couple of feet from the muzzle in this picture is a large dog that would surely be deaf from the blast, if real cartridges were being fired.
Up next is an unknown type of .22 caliber rifle with a homemade suppressor. Once again, if anyone knows what type of rifle this is from the profile, I would love to know.
I found this to be pretty cool. Swagger and an FBI agent are making pipe bombs, and he is using IMR-4350 to fill them.
The next gun that I captured from the film is in the hands of this...operator? I hate that word.
It is an H&K G36, which as we all know makes him a super pimp, bad ass! Because...like...it's an H&K, and it like totally rocks, and everyone that wields one is a stone cold, super ninja!
Is it me, or is it getting all tactical up in this piece?
Too bad this guy becomes fixed blade fodder shortly after this frame by falling victim to Swagger's knife, which is also interesting because the guy dies almost immediately after being stabbed in the kidney. Ahh, realism.
On to the next! What we have here is Swagger shooting an M4 with an Aimpoint CompM4.
Right before this frame, Swagger is running with this M4 and decides to change magazines. It appears that he drops the magazine, re-seats it, and then racks the charging handle, at which point you can see a cartridge fly from the ejection port. Ooops.
He is also firing on auto when you can see that the selector is on semi-auto. I know, it's a movie and all, but I have an eye for these things.
Also, check out that muzzle flash! That is definitely not an A2 flash hider. I have heard that blanks make lots of flash so that the viewers can tell when the weapon is being fired.
Notice anything unusual about the brass being ejected? It's definitely a blank. Also, you can see the spray painted Leupold with the covered minute marks. Strange.
Another gun that came up towards the end of the movie is this gaudy Beretta 92F with chrome plating and pearl grips.
The gun has four rounds in it when it is used to gun down a bad guy who is played by Elias Koteas, who I have a hard time seeing as a strong character since I still picture him as Casey Jones from the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The movie is about a Marine Corps sniper who is set up by some shady contractors as the shooter in the assassination of the Ethiopian archbishop. There are some really cool weapons in this movie, and I decided to post some of them for your viewing pleasure.
The first guns shown in the movie is the USMC M40M3 in what would be 7.62x51mm NATO, wearing a Unertl 10x power scope.
In the background you can see the spotter with an M4 with mounted M203 grenade launcher with an Aimpoint CompM4.
I'm not sure who's bright idea it was to put two alleged Marines in U.S. Army ACU's (Army Combat Uniform), nor do I know whom it offends more; Army Soldiers or Marines.
I do believe that the reason the spotter is carrying an M4 instead of an M14, or at least an M16, considering they are snipers, is because they are also toting a Barrett M107 chambered in .50 BMG which is wearing Nightforce optics.
There are two interesting things about the scene where they are under attack from the gunship. First is that the snipers both engage the gunship with their rifles until the spotter gets killed, at which point Swagger picks up the Barrett. Why not use the Barrett first?
The second thing is that Swagger hand cycles the action of the Barrett for every shot. I would think that the reason is because that blanks probably do not have the oomph to cycle the bolt. You can clearly see the case stuck in the breech before he racks the round home.
Next up we have a beautiful Cheytac M200 Intervention chambered in .408 Cheytac with a Leupold Mark 4 ER/T M1.
Of note is that the minute marks on the optic are spray painted with the rest of the rifle, as are all of the other minute marks throughout the movie. I don't believe this to be SOP, but if there are any real shooters out there who are in-the-know, please leave me a comment.
Just a couple of feet from the muzzle in this picture is a large dog that would surely be deaf from the blast, if real cartridges were being fired.
Up next is an unknown type of .22 caliber rifle with a homemade suppressor. Once again, if anyone knows what type of rifle this is from the profile, I would love to know.
I found this to be pretty cool. Swagger and an FBI agent are making pipe bombs, and he is using IMR-4350 to fill them.
The next gun that I captured from the film is in the hands of this...operator? I hate that word.
It is an H&K G36, which as we all know makes him a super pimp, bad ass! Because...like...it's an H&K, and it like totally rocks, and everyone that wields one is a stone cold, super ninja!
Is it me, or is it getting all tactical up in this piece?
Too bad this guy becomes fixed blade fodder shortly after this frame by falling victim to Swagger's knife, which is also interesting because the guy dies almost immediately after being stabbed in the kidney. Ahh, realism.
On to the next! What we have here is Swagger shooting an M4 with an Aimpoint CompM4.
Right before this frame, Swagger is running with this M4 and decides to change magazines. It appears that he drops the magazine, re-seats it, and then racks the charging handle, at which point you can see a cartridge fly from the ejection port. Ooops.
He is also firing on auto when you can see that the selector is on semi-auto. I know, it's a movie and all, but I have an eye for these things.
Also, check out that muzzle flash! That is definitely not an A2 flash hider. I have heard that blanks make lots of flash so that the viewers can tell when the weapon is being fired.
The rifle on the ground to the left and the rifle on Swaggers back are both Remington Model 700's chambered in .300 Winchester Magnum; a cartridge I love to shoot. 
Here's a close up.
Here's a close up.Notice anything unusual about the brass being ejected? It's definitely a blank. Also, you can see the spray painted Leupold with the covered minute marks. Strange.
Another gun that came up towards the end of the movie is this gaudy Beretta 92F with chrome plating and pearl grips.
The gun has four rounds in it when it is used to gun down a bad guy who is played by Elias Koteas, who I have a hard time seeing as a strong character since I still picture him as Casey Jones from the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
He does well as a bad guy, mind you.
The last gun I have for you is an M1911A1 of some undetermined make. This gun is used to destroy the last of the bad guys, and is the last weapon used in the movie. Other than that, there is nothing special about it considering that you can't get a good look at it. 
That's all I've got. I'll have more next week!
That's all I've got. I'll have more next week!
Friday, April 11, 2008
.44 MOA at a mile with a .338!
Bad ass! I want one to hunt bears, because a mile is about as close as I want to get to one that's not behind bars.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Stand and be judged
I have been thinking lately about the requirements to carry a concealed handgun, and there are so many things about it that I just don't like. It comes as no surprise to me that there is someone else that shares my resentment towards the whole "permit" system, AKA "CHP," "CHL," "CCW" etc.
Make no mistake; when your state, local or even federal government requires you to fill out paperwork, to be fingerprinted, to have your past life investigated, to be judged, rated or otherwise fondled by those who you have voted into office, then you are, in fact, asking for permission to exercise your right.
Now, I don't like the word "permit" either, but that's what came to mind when I walked away from the courthouse where I asked the county judge to grant me rights that I already had from the day I first drew breath. Not only that, but I had to prove that I had training to exercise this right, and had to pay a fee on top of that.
I often wonder at how we got to this point in our freedom minded society where we ask for things of which we don't need permission, pay fees for things inherited, and ask for judgment to be performed upon us to make us feel more qualified about ourselves. Peer review, it is not.
There are those who carry a firearm concealed with the lawful qualifier of the "CHP," and belittle those who lawfully open carry without the granting of a "license," as somehow their fellow man has deemed them to be superior by handing them a piece of paper. I grin in painful disdain at the very sight of these shiny things, which are sold in every gun magazine that I have ever picked up.
Somehow I can't help but to draw a parallel to many of the television shows where folks stand before a "panel of experts" and wait to be judged for their actions. Granted, they are not asking permission to exercise a right, and they're being judged for their previous actions vs. the chance of future actions, but it does highlight that they are looking to be held in higher esteem by those they find themselves inferior to.
I'm not knocking competitive spirit; I'm just pondering the idea that some feel that in order to be qualified at something, that that qualification has to be determined by someone better than themselves. Is this a self esteem issue?
In my eyes this goes along with the idea that only a cop "licensed and authorized by the state" shall be the only one professional enough to stop a criminal, as if we are all too stupid to accurately determine if our life or limb is in danger of being destroyed by some scumbag.
Remember the spin the media put on the story where Jeanne Assam gunned down a goblin in a church? Apparently she was "qualified" by being a "security guard" with a "license" to have a handgun for protection in order to lawfully engage in a firefight with the man. Good thing she was predetermined to not be crazy so that she could use her right!
We "license" police to attend to society's protection without interruption, and to that end we hold them accountable -- thought not so much these days -- for actions against individuals within the community to ensure that rights are protected, but I am under the firm belief that it is every one's duty to protect his or her community.
This is not to say that everyone in society should be a vigilante, but that everyone should be vigilant. We should intervene when it is morally right to do so, up to and including righteously gunning down a scumbag with accurate fire from defilade, in support law enforcement. To force a citizen to prove themselves worthy of this right by obtaining a permit or license beforehand is madness.
Licensing for many careers is often a laughable idea that often causes unknowing folks to be less cautious when choosing a person or business to perform a service.
In a past life I was an electrician. I am very well trained, with both formal school education and "on the job training" with two of the most professional master electricians I have ever met, and they taught me how to do quality work.
Now that I'm out of the business, it's almost embarrassing to see the terrible work performed by many of the popular "licensed" electrical companies when I do fix-it work around my house or a friends.
However did the Egyptians survive without "titled" interior designers?
Licensing sets the bar at a fixed point, and has no bearing whatsoever on the quality of the task performed, nor the principals or integrity of the person who holds it. The individual can change his or her mind at any time, and there is nothing that prior restraint is going to do to stop it.
That people who carry a concealed weapon for protection do not start blasting into crowds of innocents has nothing to do with being licensed by a judge, or shielded by these shiny things, it is because that virtually all of them have no desire to hurt their fellow man.
We need to cast out this mindset that we are all incapable of protecting or providing for ourselves unless someone better than us says we may.
Make no mistake; when your state, local or even federal government requires you to fill out paperwork, to be fingerprinted, to have your past life investigated, to be judged, rated or otherwise fondled by those who you have voted into office, then you are, in fact, asking for permission to exercise your right.
Now, I don't like the word "permit" either, but that's what came to mind when I walked away from the courthouse where I asked the county judge to grant me rights that I already had from the day I first drew breath. Not only that, but I had to prove that I had training to exercise this right, and had to pay a fee on top of that.
I often wonder at how we got to this point in our freedom minded society where we ask for things of which we don't need permission, pay fees for things inherited, and ask for judgment to be performed upon us to make us feel more qualified about ourselves. Peer review, it is not.
There are those who carry a firearm concealed with the lawful qualifier of the "CHP," and belittle those who lawfully open carry without the granting of a "license," as somehow their fellow man has deemed them to be superior by handing them a piece of paper. I grin in painful disdain at the very sight of these shiny things, which are sold in every gun magazine that I have ever picked up.
Somehow I can't help but to draw a parallel to many of the television shows where folks stand before a "panel of experts" and wait to be judged for their actions. Granted, they are not asking permission to exercise a right, and they're being judged for their previous actions vs. the chance of future actions, but it does highlight that they are looking to be held in higher esteem by those they find themselves inferior to.
I'm not knocking competitive spirit; I'm just pondering the idea that some feel that in order to be qualified at something, that that qualification has to be determined by someone better than themselves. Is this a self esteem issue?
In my eyes this goes along with the idea that only a cop "licensed and authorized by the state" shall be the only one professional enough to stop a criminal, as if we are all too stupid to accurately determine if our life or limb is in danger of being destroyed by some scumbag.
Remember the spin the media put on the story where Jeanne Assam gunned down a goblin in a church? Apparently she was "qualified" by being a "security guard" with a "license" to have a handgun for protection in order to lawfully engage in a firefight with the man. Good thing she was predetermined to not be crazy so that she could use her right!
We "license" police to attend to society's protection without interruption, and to that end we hold them accountable -- thought not so much these days -- for actions against individuals within the community to ensure that rights are protected, but I am under the firm belief that it is every one's duty to protect his or her community.
This is not to say that everyone in society should be a vigilante, but that everyone should be vigilant. We should intervene when it is morally right to do so, up to and including righteously gunning down a scumbag with accurate fire from defilade, in support law enforcement. To force a citizen to prove themselves worthy of this right by obtaining a permit or license beforehand is madness.
Licensing for many careers is often a laughable idea that often causes unknowing folks to be less cautious when choosing a person or business to perform a service.
In a past life I was an electrician. I am very well trained, with both formal school education and "on the job training" with two of the most professional master electricians I have ever met, and they taught me how to do quality work.
Now that I'm out of the business, it's almost embarrassing to see the terrible work performed by many of the popular "licensed" electrical companies when I do fix-it work around my house or a friends.
However did the Egyptians survive without "titled" interior designers?
Licensing sets the bar at a fixed point, and has no bearing whatsoever on the quality of the task performed, nor the principals or integrity of the person who holds it. The individual can change his or her mind at any time, and there is nothing that prior restraint is going to do to stop it.
That people who carry a concealed weapon for protection do not start blasting into crowds of innocents has nothing to do with being licensed by a judge, or shielded by these shiny things, it is because that virtually all of them have no desire to hurt their fellow man.
We need to cast out this mindset that we are all incapable of protecting or providing for ourselves unless someone better than us says we may.
TSA engineered negligent discharge
Found at SaysUncle: TSA "safety" rules led to the Federal Flight Deck Officer shooting a hole in his plane.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)