Currently under Florida law, I am not allowed to carry on my campus, Florida State University. On my campus that reported 17 sexual assaults in 2014; on my campus that uses maybe 10 uniformed officers at any given point in time to protect the whole campus; on my campus that refuses to back campus carry as a way for women to legitimately protect themselves from assault; and on my campus which claims sovereign immunity when they are unable to protect these women: I am told I am safe and I do not need a gun.

While President Thrasher and university officials would have you believe that I am not defenseless, and even, that I am safe on campus, I would beg to differ. I already used pepper spray once; do you want to know how that ended for me? I was left shaking and crying, half naked on campus grounds, with cut marks all over my body. That’s what pepper spray did for me.

Source: Rape survivor’s open letter to Florida State Sen. Diaz de la Portilla on campus carry | TheHill

Powerful stuff. De La Portilla needs to hear from this woman and everybody else who is a target in a Florida Campus. So I will ask of you a small favor that will take you less than a minute. First, highlight and copy the following email address:

portilla.miguel.web@flsenate.gov

Next go to the article linked above and find the “email this” icon.

Paste De La Portilla’s email address and send it. Let’s fill his inbox so he cannot say he never saw her side of the issue.

We cannot have a Florida version of Harry Reed screwing with the lives of people for whatever petty desires he may have.

Dear Mrs Watts and Facebook executives,I read your interview with Fast Company where you made a comment about how licensed dealers do not sell on Facebook and how Facebook Closes Gun Groups will solve the problem of the groups being plagued with criminals buying and selling firearms illegally. I have to say as a licensed FFL dealer, the owner of Florida Gun Classifieds http://floridagunclassifieds.com which allows users to post ads to buy and sell firearms online, and the administrator of one of Florida’s best gun groups on Facebook, Florida Gun Classifieds,

Source: Facebook Closes Gun Groups: An open letter to facebook and Shannon Watts of Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense in America

It is a damned good reading. Theirs is such a narrow beam of thought, it never calculates what may happen, only what they think it has to happen because they wanted it to be so.

Times are tough and if you have what it takes, there is a great position with Moms Demand/Everytown.

The Deputy National Organizing Director is an experienced senior strategist who creates and oversees field and volunteer organizing campaigns, electoral work, ballot initiatives, work with impacted communities, whatever it takes to move states and eventually the federal government forward on gun violence prevention legislation. This position oversees organizing work in a section of the country, creating and implementing a vision for organizing efforts that build our power for the long-term while winning short term victories. Everytown seeks an individual who can develop leaders and build movement ­building strategies.

Source: Job (Los Angeles): Deputy National Organizing Director for Moms Demand – idealist.org

And what will you do?

“…this position (Deputy National Organizing Director) is keeping their eye on the long game, assessing opportunities and challenges, working alongside the policy staff to push gun violence prevention legislation and set the NRA back on their heels.

My oh my! And where is this position to be filled? Next door to the NRA in Virginia? Nope: L.A. San Francisco or Chicago….but wait, aren’t those locations already pacified and living under the benefits of strict Gun Control? Taking coals to Newcastle does not seem a good expenditure of Bloomberg’s monies.

And then this was interesting:

Everytown for Gun Safety is the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country with more than 3 million supporters and more than 40,000 donors.

Really?

That is barely breaking a million of unpaid followers. And if we add Moms Demand…

Maybe a bit more than a million and a half? And that is being generous and say that there are no people following one group that follows the other.  And the Pro Gun people like myself that are on their lists to keep track of them.

And only 40,000 serious enough to send donations?

But it is well-known that Moms/Everytown are “flexible” when it comes to count their own heads.

Anyway, go ahead and send your resume and let us know how it goes. At least you won’t have a bouncing check at the end of the month.
(I think)

That’s 11 cops to stop one guy with a knife who had already wounded several people. Now imagine 4 or 5 guys with knives across the city at the same time…. You have a police force shut down for good because of cutlery.  An utterly waste of resources and taxpayer’s money.

This is the crap terrorist watch for. They can overwhelm the system on the cheap and go for juicy targets for a high number of kills.

Stick with the classics:

One Riot, One Ranger.

Hat Tip: Chuck B.

There were some cute ones, but I have to go with Snickers.

Yes, Willem Dafoe is unpalatable as hungry Marilyn the same way as he was as “sexy hooker” in Boondock Saints…

And that is the genius of it.

I know, the favorite was Kevin Hart’s Hyundai ad “First Date. But I will prefer the “original idea” ad from eight years ago.

Today, one of my YouTube homepage recommended videos was a Los Angeles Times spot on a Katie Couric produced documentary debuting at Sundance called Under the Gun.  I guess YouTube’s algorithms can’t tell a pro-gun video from an anti-gun video, or they are trying to prosthelytize for the antis.

I watched the video.  I understand why the brilliant minds over at South Park decided that a Couric should be the standard unit of measure for human feces – with 1 Couric equivalent to 2.5 lbs of crap.

Every bit of the video was a bad faith argument for more gun control.  It starts with the duplicitous statement that mass shootings are on the rise.  They are not, but the antis like to claim they are coming up with a definition that is way outside of the common understanding of the term “mass shooting.”  The director, Stephanie Soechtig, then in part blames lax gun law for the rise in mass shootings.  To prove her point, she admits to engaging in the illegal purchase of weapons across state lines.

Ms. Soechtig and Ms. Couric then go on to drop about a ton of Ms. Couric’s namesake on the typical anti-gun/anti-NRA taking points:

“It’s interesting to see how much of the narrative about the gun debate has been dictated by the NRA.”

“Most of us agree” on the need for more gun control, but it’s the extremists in the NRA that is keeping us from achieving utopia.

NRA represents only 5% of gun owners and that 74% of NRA members want universal background checks

By this point I had had enough and went to the movie’s webpage and lo and behold, who were the official partners for the movie?

Every anti-gun group and their uncle, that’s who.  The journalism of Walter Duranty was less biased than Couric’s in this film.  But it being promoted as an objective documentary to counter of lies of the NRA.

This is the problem.  Antis argue in bad faith.  They start with a lie and it gets worse from there.

On CNN’s Obama town-hall on guns, Obama had the audacity to say to America “it is easier for a 12 or a 13-year-old to purchase a gun, and cheaper, than it is for them to get a book.”  Obama has promoted the falsehood of the “internet loophole” as a way that felons can buy guns.  Hillary Clinton has doubled down on both the internet and gun show loophole as things she intents to close as president.  Antis will go on TV and try to scare people into supporting them with ridiculous statements about ghost guns that have “the ability with a 30-caliber clip to disperse with 30 bullets within half a second. Thirty magazine clip in half a second.”  Celebrities on daytime TV will talk about how Americans have easy access to machine guns.  And of course any gun owner will tell you that the most lethal part of any gun is the shoulder thing that goes up.

Antis lie.  That is what they do.  There is no claim too outlandish.  No fact that can’t be distorted.  To them, every person with a concealed carry permit is a racist just itching to kill, and every person shot in self defense is an innocent angel.  The NRA is the enemy, and no matter the cause of the shooting, it’s always the NRA’s fault.  Always.

No wonder we can’t have “an adult discussion” about gun control.

The VPC made a big deal last year with the fact the number of firearms deaths in the US was about the same as the number of traffic fatalities in the US.  This comparison was not accidental.

“Comparing the two national icons, cars and guns, yields “a statistic that really resonates with people,” says Chelsea Parsons, co-author of the report for the Centre for American Progress. Resonance is certainly needed. There are about 320 [million] people in the United States, and nearly as many civilian firearms. And although the actual rate of gun ownership is declining, enthusiasts are keeping up the number in circulation.”

They couldn’t help but espouse the lie that the number of gun owners in this country is decreasing.  Americans have bought 100 MILLION guns since 2008 with month after month of record gun sales every time a politician opens his or her (stupid) mouth.  The fastest growing demographic of gun owners is Gun Culture 2.0, (generally) younger people who are less about hunting than personal defense and owning cool stuff.  But of of course it is a dwindling number of old white guys who are stockpiling all these guns… but I digress

The comparison  between guns and cars is designed to promote more government regulations of guns.

“Overall, the C.D.C. numbers indicate that gun deaths are trending somewhat upward as motor vehicle deaths continue on a steady decline, thanks in large measure to serious government safety regulation aimed at reducing fatalities and injuries that is notably missing in the sphere of firearms.

In fact, guns remain the only consumer product not regulated at the federal level for health and safety, in keeping with the wishes of the gun industry and compliant lawmakers.

‘Teddy bears get tested to make sure they can withstand use and abuse by kids, but guns don’t get tested to make sure they don’t go off when accidentally dropped,’ notes Kristen Rand of the Violence Policy Center.”

So in 2015 guns and cars killed about 33,000 people, each.  About 60% of those gun deaths, or about 21,000 are suicides.  That is tragic.  About 5% or 1,600 deaths were the result of accidents, with about 600 or so happening to children.  That leaves the remaining 35% of gun deaths, or about 11,000, due to homicide.  The exact numbers vary year to year, but the the relative percentages of suicide/accident/homicide remain pretty consistent.  This contrasts with motor vehicle deaths, in that they are about 100% accidental.

When it comes to reducing the number of gun deaths, there are things we can and should do.  For example, there should be more access to publicly funded mental heath facilities and that we should change the laws to make it easier for people with suicidal idealization to seek help without it ruining their lives.  Antis, however, are quite happy to restrict YOUR constitutionally protected rights to do… nothing to reduce the number of gun deaths.

So surprise, surprise, when I was reading the news and another death statistic flashed before my eyes.  In 2104, 47,055 people died of drug overdoses, 1.5 times than died of gunshots.  Most of those overdoses came from opioids, both natural (like heroin) and synthetic.  About 38% of those deaths were from prescription drug abuse.  Heroin abuse is on the rise, with most of it coming into the US through Mexico.  Along with heroin, most of the meth coming into the US comes from Mexico.

What is it that I hear from the left?  Drug decriminalization.  Wealthy celebs are going before the UN to advocate for it.  In Colorado, where Marijuana was legalized, overdoses one harder drugs are skyrocketing because just like we all learned in high school health class… Marijuana is a gateway drug.  I don’t see anybody advocating for safe storage laws for prescription pain killers.  The idea of serious border security is criticized and called unreasonable and racist by the left, to the point were many want to just to an open borders system.

We can debate the pros and cons of unrestricted immigration, but could we at least agree that we should stop the flow of narcotics into the US?  I guess not.

Drugs are killing 1.5 times as many people as guns in the US, and the same people that want to crack down on civil liberties “if it saves one life” are the same people exacerbating the drug problem.  If I, as a law abiding gun owner, have blood on my hands for all the people who died from gun shots because I support the NRA.  Than every person who derides boarder security, called for open borders, or says “legalize it” had 1.5 times the blood on their hands.

But they refuse to admit that.  Why?  Because it’s not about the number of lives lost.  It’s about control.  Your gun is a bigger threat to their nanny state machinations than some kid dying from a But Lite and Vicodin cocktail.