CHICAGO—Promising that every effort would be made to limit the impact on residents’ day-to-day lives, Chicago officials announced Wednesday that a fleet of plows was working around the clock to clear more than 18 inches of fresh bullet casings that had blanketed the metropolitan area overnight.Sources at the city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation confirmed that over 250 ammunition-removal vehicles had been deployed to deal with the knee-deep layer of spent cartridges, which have been steadily accumulating on Chicago’s streets, alleys, and pedestrian walkways since the previous evening.

Source: City Of Chicago Working Around Clock To Clear 18 Inches Of Bullet Casings From Streets

I know it is The Onion, but my first thought was: “Just let it be known in a couple of gun forums that there is free brass to be picked up in Chicago and in less than a day, the streets would be clean .”

And if you think I am joking, ask anybody who is involved in IDPA, USPSA or competitions were brass is ejected. I call them Range Chickens, because the second the Safety Officer call the range safe, they dive for brass like hungry chickens after a worm.

If you have done but 5 minutes of online discussion about guns, you have met somebody like this:

Long ago I used to get upset at the shallowness of individuals like this. But I figured out soon enough that their prejudices and ignorance were an amazing advantage to our cause. As long as they keep believing we are sub-humans incapable of rational thought, they will continue to make the mistake of underestimating us. And I like that.

The Liberals have admitted (not without a lot of teeth gnashing) that the NRA and gun owners helped Trump. Even Bloomberg’s The Trace said that “The NRA Placed Big Bets on the 2016 Election, and Won Almost All of Them” yet, you do not see them changing tactics or understanding because they went straight for the money as excuse when we damn well know that although money helps, it is not the determining factor. But that billionaire Bloomberg and Co. still go back to the same script reflects that they cannot break their own narrative. And I am fine with that.

The other advantage we already discussed in this blog is that they cannot seem to be able to discuss guns without going straight for the personal attacks. Let Them. We know damn well that words do not hurt, but small pieces of lead traveling at 85o fps or more do inflict heavy damage. Let them call you whatever names they want, let them generalize and group us into whatever their filthy imaginations can com up with. You see, those who are in the fence or maybe have not thought about guns probably know gun owners and after reading stuff like in the screen capture will end up thinking: You know? Joe next door is a gun owner, I have seen the NRA sticker in his car and he is the farthest thing from what those guys are saying!” And right there we might have won a supporter or at least we denied the Opposition one.

So, keep engaging them but be polite, you don’t need to respond in kind.  Offer well grounded data like the FBI stats and be smart about it. Hell, if you are good, troll them a little so they can be triggered into a good foaming at the mouth. Do whatever is necessary to keep them within their actual (and losing) narrative.

Because when the Enemy is making a mistake, you do not correct them.

By nailing the little things — the casual assertiveness, the sharp dress, the impatience for nonsense — her character’s larger transgressions later in the film feel more believable. The same cannot be said for the cause she fights for; gun control advocates spout sub-Daily-Kos silliness, claiming, for example, that Texas regulates sex toys more stringently than guns with a straight face. I think part of the problem is that filmmakers didn’t consult with people heavily involved in the issue in order to see if the film made sense.

‘Miss Sloane’ shows what happens when Hollywood abandons political common sense – Washington Post

Ouch! That has to hurt.

“We didn’t offer the script to the Brady Campaign, we didn’t offer the script to any Second Amendment groups,” director John Madden said when I asked if he had consulted with the NRA or other gun rights groups when making the film. “We didn’t want the film being adopted by one side or the other of the argument, because it isn’t a polemic. … I don’t think — the film is not political in its intent. It’s political in its milieu and it’s political in its, you know, the background of the story. But it’s more about political process to me.”

So the director and the screenwriters did not consult the people they were talking about and went in with their own preconceived notions of the issue.  And they do it so poorly that even the Washington Post thinks it sucked. Conceited much?

Hat tip Sam C.

This is from last year, but I find it more touching than anything else I can come up with now.

“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.  And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
–1 Corinthians 13: 12-13

I am gonna try this new “feature” and see how it goes. The Opposition sometimes posts stuff that is stupid, but it does not require a full post but a brief mention.

Let’s begin with Everytown.

So it is not the carrying of a concealed weapon but they choose to use “hidden” to give it that extra sinister edge. And apparently we won’t carry anywhere else but the big cities? How did they come up with that? Phone poll of registered Liberals?

Next, Moms Demand return to their “Black Live Matters for White People” mode:

I already expressed my opinion about these new strategy and I will only remind people who when the enemy is making a mistake, you do not interrupt them.

And our friends with the Cult Coalition to Stop Gun Rights Violence follow suit since they are also getting some of that Bloomberg Money.

Yes please, keep doing the same thing that will alienate every cop in the country against your cause. Thank you.

Next is a double mention for Brady Campaign and the Washington Post:

“Nope, it is not Islamic Terrorism…OK, maybe, but we are not sure. But we do believe it was the Christmas party that triggered the sensitive feelings of the two radical (redacted because of RACISM!), as it is well-known that Adeste Fideles is a microagression on certain cultures.”

Miguel and I have both covered the panic being experienced in New York by the possibility that President Trump might enact the Holy Grail of gun rights laws: national concealed carry.  A complete repeal of the NFA being the Ark of the Covenant of guns rights.

Not to be outdone, the LA Times had to opine why national reciprocity would be a disaster in “with Trump’s victory, the NRA takes aim at public safety.”  Being the LA Times, you can be assured that this editorial was reasonable and unbiased… or not.

First sentence:

The extremely powerful but highly irresponsible National Rifle Assn. spent $30 million this year helping elect Donald J. Trump and $10 million more backing six pro-gun Senate candidates (five of whom won).

Highly irresponsible NRA.  The LA Times is just another organization that lays every gun death at the feet of the NRA.  That there are millions of law abiding gun owners who don’t commit crimes on a daily basis and don’t want their rights restricted because of the actions of a tiny minority of people doesn’t matter.  It’s not some gang member or petty criminal that is irresponsible.  It’s the NRA.

The NRA’s president, Wayne LaPierre, has already released a video statement trumpeting the victory, patting gun owners on the back for making it possible and calling for a renewed push to dismantle state and local gun-control laws. “Our time is now,” LaPierre said. “This is our historic moment to go on offense.” 

After the Brady Bill, AWB, and countless local and state gun bans, in which gun owners had their rights taken away and told it was “a compromise.”  No more “be lucky we’re not being more restrictive than this” definition of compromise.  It is time we go on the offensive and start taking back our rights.  I want my cake back.

At the top of LaPierre’s wish list is an absurd and dangerous federal law to require any state that issues permits for carrying concealed weapons to recognize similar permits issued by other states, even if they have different eligibility and training requirements and even if they have less stringent restrictions on gun ownership. Proponents of so-called concealed-carried reciprocity equate it with state driver’s licenses, which are recognized nationwide. But that’s a false comparison. All states follow similar standards for issuing driver’s licenses, and basic vehicle and traffic laws are largely standardized. That’s not so for gun laws, which vary widely by state, not to mention that county and city governments are allowed to enact their own restrictions based on local needs and preferences.

Let me be technical here: BULLSHIT!!!

The basics of concealed carry is like the basics of driving.  If you know how to operate a car and the basic rules of the road, driving in LA is not too different than driving elsewhere in the country.  The purpose of having a relatively common standard for drivers licenses is to make sure that drivers have a basic knowledge and competency of how to handle a vehicle.

The rules on gun safety, knowing what places are prohibited, etc. are roughly the same state to state, e.g. can’t carry in a school, government building,  parade/public demonstration, etc.  If you know these, there is very little practical difference between carrying in Los Angeles or New York as there is carrying in Miami, Dallas, or Indianapolis.  In theory, a CCW permit should be like a drivers licence.

In practicality it is not.   Various states place more restrictions on CCW, not for safety, but because they want to make prohibitively difficult to get a permit and keep the numbers of CCW permits low.

This is not the same as drivers licences.  Let’s try that thought experiment.  LA has some of the most congested roads in the country.  So hypothetically, LA wants to cut down on traffic.  The City and County of LA uses its influence to change CA state law making it necessary to show “good cause” for getting a drivers licence.  Just wanting to be able to drive to work doesn’t count.  You have to have a business that requires driving, like if you are a contractor and you have a truck, then you can get a drivers licence but only for the purposes of doing your job.  To get this licence requires 100 hours of drivers ed and an 4 hour drivers test on the LA freeways.  How many people would get that licence in CA?  Presumably a much smaller percentage of potential drivers than have CA drivers licences now.  Of course, drivers licences from the other 49 states are no longer recognized in CA so visitors and tourists can’t drive into the state or rent a car when they fly in.

Well that is what CA and other states have done with CCW.

Utah’s limited restrictions have made the issuance of concealed-carry permits something of a cottage industry for the state. Two-thirds of Utah’s 632,276 permits as of the end of last year were in the hands of nonresidents.

By comparison, California — with 33 times Utah’s population — has only 79,834 active concealed-carry permits, according to the state attorney general’s office. Among other things, California has a more stringent training regimen and requires a person seeking a permit to show good-cause for needing to carry a concealed weapon.

The whole point of CA’s CCW system is to make sure that regular Californians can’t carry in the state.

A California resident could simply apply for a permit from Utah and start walking around Los Angeles with a hidden handgun, no matter what California voters and lawmakers say.

Damn those flyover country bumpkins, and their civil rights.  We can’t allow that type of rifraf in our State acting like free citizens.

It’s not like Los Angeles, or most of CA for that matter, hasn’t spent the last few year thumbing its nose at Federal immigration or drug laws because of CA lawmakers.  Violating the Constitutional right to keep AND BEAR arms is just old hat by this point.  If it were up to CA, all Federal law and the Bill of Rights would have some fine print added to it that says “Void in the State of California.”

Makes me wonder: If states can legalize Marijuana which requires a federal tax stamp to posess in the state, can a Red State do the same for NFA items?  I wan’t some brand new full auto legalized in my state, regarless of what the ATF says.

In its 2008 Heller decision (which we think was wrongly decided), the Supreme Court ruled that the 2nd Amendment confers on individuals the right to own a gun for protection in the home.

Yep, the Editorial board of the LA Times overrules the Supreme Court.  Got forbid some flyover knuckle draggers thing that SCOTUS make up a right in Roe v. Wade, they are ignorant misogynists.  But if SCOUTS reads the 2A and believes that actually applies to the people, we can’t have that.

Reasonable minds in Congress need to head this off before the NRA and its legislative acolytes make American even more dangerous by undercutting reasonable gun controls.

Bah!   We want to keep California a slave state, and if we can’t, we’ll secede.  Long live the Confederated Counties of California.  Disarmament Today.  Disarmament Tomorrow, Disarmament FOREVER!

Here we go again.

The first gun bill filed for next session was House Bill 6001, by Lithia Republican Jake Raburn, who wants to let concealed-weapon permit holders carry loaded guns in airport terminals. Here’s the rationale from bill supporters: If a terrorist opens fire, people with concealed weapons could protect themselves and others.

But if bullets start to fly, these same folks could add to the bloodshed if they fire back and hit innocent bystanders, or if law-enforcement officers don’t know which person with a gun is the bad guy.

Florida pro-gun push ill-timed, ill-advised after Pulse: Where We Stand – Orlando Sentinel

We’ve been hearing the same excuse in Florida for over 25 years now and still the massacre and LEO confusion has not happened. But I do love that they bring the Pulse Shooting, a Gun Free Zone, as bloody shirt to fight a bill that gets rid of more Gun Free Zones.

And once again, the editors show their amazing capacity for creative writing (lying?) with the following load of manure:

Last year, key legislators showed real backbone in standing up to the National Rifle Association, one of the most politically powerful lobbies in Tallahassee Three highly publicized bills backed by the NRA — one to let people carry concealed weapons on university campuses, one to let gun owners openly carry their weapons most places and one to make it easier to use a Stand Your Ground Defense — were defeated.

But Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, a Miami Republican who wouldn’t take up the campus- and open-carry bills as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, lost his re-election bid in November. His successor as chairman, Sarasota Republican Greg Steube, is an avid gun-rights legislator.

The bills had great support in both chambers, but it was only the ministration of Bloomberg-bought Diaz De La Portilla who refused to allow the bills to go to the floor and eventually cost him the seat. I cannot imagine how pissed he has to be with all that money “invested” around the super condos in his old district going somewhere else.