Dinosaurs are real and living among us. 🙂

Sebastian nails it so hard, it is not even funny. 

Everyone underestimated how much Bloomberg’s money would make a difference for the gun control movement. It’s made a huge difference. Our biggest asset historically has been our ability to self-organize. There have always been a sizable number of people who would support gun control, but the movement won’t organically provide the money and organizing talent to make them a force. But with Bloomberg’s money, and the money from other elites he’s bringing along, that’s no longer an issue for them. With the money a given, it will buy them a movement.

We surrendered the “horizontal interpretive communities” that got us where we are to top-down social media which are centrally controlled. I can remember seasoned activists from the 80s and 90s tell me they got their message out using informal fax networks to organize back when that was a new technology. We’ve always been on the bleeding edge of self-organization. But our community doesn’t have an answer yet for the problems being caused by Google and Facebook, who would rather see us disappear and largely have the power to accomplish that if they really wanted.

Too many people insisted on bringing unrelated culture war issues along with gun rights, which has made it difficult to expand our base, and has completely removed us as a force in one of the two major parties. I’m not saying that means we support anti-gun Dems: the damage has already been done. Our only hope is keeping the Dems confined to a minority of states to keep them from power until they come to their senses. There is some hope we can accomplish this with the Senate.

The issue of communication is easier to fix but it won’t be sexy: We go back to mail lists and Forums. It is amazing the power of the Forward button.

Money? We need to figure out how do we get several million gun owners to cough up at least $100 a year. I reckon 5 million NRA members filling the coffers with half a billion dollars will make a hurt of difference in Congress.

On the third item: Can we please get the effing Libertarian shit out of Gun Rights? I don’t care for  your “right” to go pew-pew with a big fat doobie attached to your lips or any other nonsensical shit that is not 100% directly gun related. Narrow the focus.

Other things: State organizations, support them but also participate. Tell them what you think, give ideas, criticize if they are fucking up.

Here is  copy for your perusal.

 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission official report. 

’nuff said.

Reader Paul sent me a news item about an armed Good Samaritan who stopped a drunk driver who was playing crash ’em smash ’em with private property in New Hampshire.  But what almost gave him a heart attack is that he found out about the happening via a TV station in Boston!

I tried to embed the video, but they being massholes…

Kudos for the Good Samaritan and we hope Paul recovers from this shock to his system 🙂

And I hope the TV station worker who published the video finds another job soon.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission is expected to present its final report to state officials Wednesday in Tallahassee.

A 407-page preliminary report released last month cited a breakdown in security procedures and protocol that contributed to the Valentine’s Day mass shooting at the Parkland school.

MSD Public Safety Commission presenting final report to state

I have been reading the draft with some care and formed some opinions which I will keep to myself till I read the final version. I do not expect thunderous changes but just to be sure.

J. Kb. has pointed out some great resources about what happened that day and I am not going to try to even come close to the descriptions made by the Sun Sentinel on what happen that day as they did a great job.

Rick Scott swears in as US Senator tomorrow and Ron DeSantis will be sworn in as Governor on January 8th. In the interim, Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera will likely be in charge of things, but I do not think he will do anything about the report.  If heads will roll, they will probably initiate circular movement sometime the last two weeks of the month or the beginning of February at most as I don’t think DeSantis wants to appear wishy-washy and weak. And let’s face it, collecting the scalp of Scott Israel and the Broward School Board would give him a status of somebody you do not want to f*** with. If he really wants to screw with the Democrats, he should order a full investigation in the inner workings of BSO. I am sure they have not cleaned the house like they said they did after Ken Jenne.

It would be very nice to see a Florida GOPer that actually came with a spine from the factory.

Reader Dave alerted me of this case about a week ago via the Ammoland.com article.  I did looked into it a bit further and I found out it gets worse.

According to a release, a 27-year-old man from Black Earth was openly carrying multiple firearms in the area when 39-year-old Melvin F. Bogus took a handgun from him during a verbal exchange. Bogus then pointed the gun back at the man who aimed another gun back, the report said.

And pry why and how was Mr. Bogus able to get the firearm?

The victim’s friend told police his friend was trying to make a statement about the right to bear arms, and had been on State Street a couple of times practicing open carry, police said. The friend also told police another one of their goals that night was to get phone numbers from women.

Let me get one thing out-of-the-way: You two, stop helping! Trying to score babes’ phone numbers is not how you advance the cause!

Next. Yes, it is your God-given right to carry a gun, but that does not absolve you from exercising a minimum of common sense. Why is it so difficult for some Open Carriers to use a holster with a retention device? Is it an affront to their manhood or what? Do you have a right to have and carry a gun in your personal vehicle? Yes! Is it sensible just to toss it in the back seat in plain sight and leave it there while you go shopping in Whole Foods? Of course not.

Retention holsters are expensive, I know that. But in this case, the medical bills would have been several times larger if the snatcher would have shot the OC gentleman. Get a good retention holster and if possible find a class on weapon retention.

Once again, yes it is our right to carry, but we don’t have to be stupidly unsafe about it.