Gun Free Zone

I saw Miguel’s post about David Hogg claiming that mass shootings today are somehow related to Wounded Knee and some Harvard level deep thinking like that.

David Hogg is part of the chorus of voices calling for civilian disarmament, which has metastasized thought the Democrats and is now part of every Presidential primary candidate’s platform.

From History.com:

On December 29, the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry surrounded a band of Ghost Dancers under Big Foot, a Lakota Sioux chief, near Wounded Knee Creek and demanded they surrender their weapons. As that was happening, a fight broke out between an Indian and a U.S. soldier and a shot was fired, although it’s unclear from which side. A brutal massacre followed, in which it’s estimated 150 Indians were killed (some historians put this number at twice as high), nearly half of them women and children. The cavalry lost 25 men.

From the Encyclopedia of the Great Plains published by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln:

While these discussions proceeded in the Lakota camp, a number of Indians began singing Ghost Dance songs, with some rising to throw handfuls of dirt in the air. The troops who surrounded them perceived the singing and dirt throwing as signals to attack, and at this tense moment the fuse was lit. A man named Black Coyote (sometimes called Black Fox) refused to surrender his rifle to a soldier. The two began wrestling over the gun, and in the struggle it discharged. Immediately the nervous troops began firing, while the Miniconjous retrieved their weapons and returned fire.

The military’s rifle fire was complemented with cannon rounds from Hotchkiss guns, whose accuracy and exploding shells were formidable. The outnumbered and outgunned Lakotas fled, and for several hours intermittent gunfire continued, with the military in pursuit. Bodies were found as far away as three miles from the camp. Firing ceased, and by midafternoon the troops had gathered up their dead and wounded, as well as Lakota wounded, and returned to Pine Ridge Agency. The fear of a reprisal attack kept troops and civilians entrenched at the agency until January 3, 1891, when a military-escorted civilian burial party proceeded to the site of the massacre. There they buried 146 Lakotas in a single mass grave. Other dead were accounted for later, bringing the total to more than 250 Lakotas; the Seventh Cavalry lost twenty-five men.

So the Wounded Knee Massacre was the result of the US Government engaging in civilian disarmament.

This horrible massacre, which is a stain on the history of the United States, was the 1890’s equivalent of what David Hogg has been demanding for over a year and the Democrats are campaigning on.

By Hogg’s current standard, the 7th Calvary are the heroes, taking the rapid-fire, high capacity magazine rifles away from civilians.

This just goes to prove that any disarmament program will be a blood bath, as all it takes for the shooting to start is for one man to refuse to give up his rifle and get into a tussle over it.  The idea that several million Americans could be disarmed peacefully is ludicrous if the US Calvary couldn’t peacefully disarm a few hundred Indians.

Maybe it’s because I didn’t go Harvard like David Hogg, but I just can’t follow the logic here.

A buddy of mine sent me this:

Maine tops ‘safest states’ rankings four years after removing major gun restriction

When Maine passed a “Constitutional Carry” law allowing Maine residents to carry a concealed firearm without any special permit in 2015, opponents of the law forecast a dangerous future for the state. They said the new law would hurt public safety and put Maine kids at risk.

One state representative who opposed the bill went so far as to say it would give Mainers a reason to be afraid every time they went out in public or to work.

That’s the script.  The only thing that changes is the name of the location where the law is being proposed.

Another state representative suggested the law would lead to violent criminals with recent arrests and convictions legally carrying handguns.

Putting the rights of Mainers ahead of the objections of opponents, Governor Paul LePage signed the bill sponsored by Senator Eric Brakey of Auburn after it won bipartisan approval in the Maine House and Senate.

Now four years later, Maine has been named the safest state in the nation according to US News and World Report’s public safety rankings, which measures the fifty states based on crime data.

Did anybody who actually follows the data of Constitutional Carry expect crime to go up?

But before we celebrate and say “more guns, less crime” we need to establish some facts.

Maine has a population of 1.3 million and is the 9th least populated state.  the largest city is Portland with a population of 67,000, and the Portland MSA (metropolitan statistical area) accounts for about half of Maine’s population.

In 2018 Maine recorded only 18 homicides, and half of those were due to domestic violence.

Deaths from ancient beings taking the form of evil clowns, self-driving cars, or inter-dimensional creatures who enter through secret military experiments are not included in those numbers.

Maine is, and has been since 1992, a blue state.

Now compare that with Chicago.  Chicago is also Blue.  It has a population more than double that of Maine, at 2.7 million, and had 561 homicides in 2018.

Illinois has very strict gun laws and Chicago and Cook County, even more so.

So it would be easy to say “stricter gun laws make cities more dangerous,” but that is also not exactly accurate.

What we have here is a bucolic rural culture with a strong history of hunting and outdoor pursuits versus an urban culture with a gun culture deeply rooted in criminality.

The gun laws of each area reflect the culture of each area.

In Maine, Constitutional Carry could pass because most people there, if not themselves, have a family member who goes off into the woods regularly to shoot and hunt.  Low crime, large areas of low population density, and casual comfort with guns makes Constitutional Carry acceptable.

In Illinois, which is largely driven by Chicago politics, most people are only familiar with guns as tools for criminals, the weekend murder tally is Monday morning’s headlines, and high population density makes people scared of guns and want to restrict them as much as possible.

More guns, less crime.  Stronger laws, fewer gun deaths.  The issue is the culture.

Stricter gun laws won’t make anybody safer if the culture is inclined towards violence and loser gun laws won’t make a place more violent if the culture is not included towards violence to begin with.

Before we go about passing more gun laws, what we need to do is look at the root cause of the violence and address that.

On Monday. September 16, Joel Gilbert will preview his new documentary, “The Trayvon Hoax,” in the 500-seat Ballroom of the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The screening begins at 1 p.m. Admission is free, and Gilbert is encouraging all interested parties to come see for themselves what could be a game-changer in the way the media report racially-charged news. Gilbert’s findings are that significant.
…
Gilbert has done that and more. In the course of his relentless research into the shooting and subsequent trial, I can say without risk of overstatement that he has unearthed a legal fraud the likes of which I know no parallel. Not only has Gilbert discovered it, but he has also proved it six ways from Sunday, including DNA and handwriting analysis.

The Trayvon Hoax That Divided America Is About to Be Exposed

We need to see this. For Florida, there was so much invested in this trial to bring down Stand Your Ground and Self defense laws in general, I don’t mind seeing the skeletons in the walk-in closet.

I hope they release the video in streaming at least.

Hat Tip to Roger G.

When I was young and impulsive, specially with my words, mom would repeat over and over and old Spanish saying:

Lo cortes no quita lo valiente. (You don’t lose anything by being polite.)

But apparently being polite and maybe daring to be sensitive to the temporary whims of a population is sign of weakness and becoming a second class citizen for some. You are a true man if you behave like a dickhead because you can.

This is from a FB group discussing the video in my last post.

The OC community needs to start reigning in the extremists that truly are not for advancing gun rights but to see how far they can get away with shit. They have the mentality of toddlers pushing boundaries and do not realize how harmful it is till they get spanked… and then start crying calling mom unfair and a meanie.

Just like they are doing with Walmart.

It did not go well for the OCer. His ass got banned from all Walmart stores.

This guy’s attitude makes me suspect he knew Walmart banned the open carry of firearms but he decided to do an “audit” for shits and giggles. I am also going to assume that the management did not even ask him to leave but went straight to cops.

J. Kb. said it well: When you OC, you are a very visual representative of the Gun Culture, don’t be  dick.  And before you start going all Chest Thumper® screaming “Muh Rights !” you mustn’t forget that there is this thing called Private Property and it needs to be respected.

I do believe the OCI (Open Carry Idiots) bunch do not have an idea how much good will they burned out of regular Open Carry folks and the rest of the Gun Owners.

From Yahoo Finance:

Walmart Might Benefit from Ammunition Ban

What?

Walmart recently announced it would begin limiting certain types of ammunition sales, and now there’s evidence that the retail giant might get rewarded for their efforts. Public Pressure After the death of 22 people in a mass shooting at an El Paso, Texas Walmart last month, as well as a concurrent mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, Walmart has been under pressure to do more to help curb American gun violence.

At first, it seemed like Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon wasn’t really sure what to do beyond offering sympathy. But after increased public pressure from critics and McMillon’s own employees, some of whom organized a walkout to pressure the company into taking concrete action, Walmart took action. Walmart announced this week it would discontinue the sale of short-barrel rifle ammunition that can also be used in assault rifles as soon as the current stock is sold through, and it will also stop the sale of handguns in Alaska, the only state where the retailer still sells them, and has asked that customers not bring guns to their store in states where open carry is legal.

Poll Position Walmart is the nation’s largest retailer. Although it rarely divulges its sales numbers, but it is widely assumed to also be America’s largest gun retailer. There was reason to wonder if the ammo ban would hurt the company’s bottom line, as Dick’s Sporting Goods shares fell 6% this year after it stopped selling guns and ammo in 125 out of its more than 700 stores after the Parkland shooting.

But there’s evidence that this move might be good for the company, as a new poll from CivicScience found that “of 1,986 U.S. adult Walmart shoppers found that under the open carry changes, 29% are more likely to shop in Walmart stores and 22% are ‘much more likely’ to shop there” while 51% said their feelings were about the same as before the ban, 6% of those polled said they were less likely to shop at Walmart, and 14% were much less likely to shop. A concurrent poll about the customer’s feelings about the ammunition ban found similar results. Reactionary Walmart’s move has, predictably, generated a variety of responses, from the NRA’s expected outcry to measured praise from gun control activists and politicians such as Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke. Even conservative stalwart The National Review viewed the ammo ban as evidence that “woke capitalism is here to stay.” As far as the market’s opinion, shares of Walmart went up 1% in response to the news, and after taking an initial hit, in August Dick’s announced its best quarter since 2016.

I don’t have much faith in that poll.

Gillette explained why it went all-in with its anti-male scolding advertisement.  They were already losing money to Dollar Shave Club and other cheaper direct-to-consumer companies.  They thought they could cash in by going woke, essentially being the brand that woke Millennials and Gen Z would go to because they were progressive.  They actually wanted to sell men’s razors to moms who bought razors for their sons.

The problem was, that backfired miserably.  Turns out, going woke doesn’t attract customers, but it does drive them away.

Wal-Mart seems to have had the same thought as Gillette.  By going woke, they will attract more Lefty customers who would not be usual Wal-Mart shoppers than the number of Wal-Mart they will lose because they went woke.

First of all, poll data isn’t shopping trends.  Some Volvo driving Progressive Leftist might say that she is more likely to buy a Wal-Mart now that they have gotten rid of ammo sales, but will she?  Or will she keep driving by Wal-Mart to go to Target which is the big box store which has that customer culture already?

There is a lot of trend that indicates “Go woke, go broke” and it will be interesting to see if Wal-Mart can buck that trend.

What is scary to consider is that if it does, what does that mean for the future of Woke Capitalism in America.

Conventional wisdom says don’t insult your customer base.  When asked why he didn’t get involved in politics, Michael Jordan said “Republicans buy sneakers too.”

Woke Capitalism suggests that you can sell more sneakers to Leftists if you visibly attack Conservatives.

What is the break-even point on this?  Could a grocery store chain boost sales by having a big sign on the front saying “This store is a safe space, Trump voters not welcome.”  It might at Whole Foods.

I can only imagine that ending up with corporate-sponsored pogroms.

“Shop at Bob’s, where a portion of our profits go to bailing out Antifa.”

That seems like a very bad idea.

Hopefully, Wal-Mart will be susceptible to the same “Go woke, go broke” as everybody else has so far, just to prove that bashing Conservatives is not good for business.

Remember when I said the rabid open carry zealots weren’t helping?
Well, here you go.
When it comes to private property, the Second Amendment means only what the property owner says it does. One carries a firearm on private property at the pleasure of the owners; they have the right to stop the practice for any reason they see fit, and that includes “none at all”.
Make them exasperated/annoyed/angry/fearful enough, and they are within their rights to end the practice. While recent events may have been the “straw that broke the camel’s back”, I’m convinced well-publicized open carry shenanigans made its practitioners an easy target.
And that doesn’t help the rest of us.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: if we don’t police our own, someone else will do it for us — and we won’t like the result.
Grant Cunningham

One thing I have noticed a lot since Walmart declared its stores Off Limits to Open Carry was not the butt hurt responses of the OCI (Open Carry Idiots) but how many other Gun Owners simply said “They had it coming” or words to that effect. In fact, the number of people expressing their disgust for the OC Ultra activists was a bit of a surprise and what is worse: it does not look like anybody is willing to lift a finger to help them.

The No Compromise crowd is suddenly getting an education on political reality.  They burned so much of the good will of the regular Gun Owner, they find themselves alone when the tide shifted. They ignored the request of toning down their activism and make it palatable to more people, but they flipped fellow gun owners and carried on. Gun Owners remained silent as to show an united front and not sabotage the efforts, we basically ate a bowl of macaroni and shit and remained silent as if we liked it. So they won all, but events now show it was a pyrrhic victory. And you know? Maybe a simple “Thank you for helping pass Open Carry, guys!” may have alleviated the rancor, but not even that happened

As for Florida, we can count on being without Open Carry for the foreseeable future and in part thanks to those “activists” that had to look like rejects from a war movie and parade in tactical regalia because ultimately “Muh Rights!” apparently did not include the rights of those states still without OC. We will have to deal with the fear of getting a police department that will not make a distinction between accidental exposure and brandishing.

Thank you.