A number of years ago I got to participate in a mass shooting. About a dozen friends went up to some property we owned with a private range. Range backstop was a big hill.

We placed targets out to about 200 yards. But being the lazy ass people that we were, some of the targets were just stapled to trees.

We sent thousands of rounds down range that day.

And while you all might think that a Tannerite booms are impressive…

We got to watch a 100+ ft tree come down. We’d cut it down with gun fire.

FBI: A “mass shooting” is any incident in which at least four people are murdered with a gun.

Unclear if the exclude gang violence. I think they use to.

Gun Violence Archive (GVA): Four or more people struck with bullets. Nobody needs to die for it to be a mass shooting.

Mass Shooting Tracker: Four or more people hit by bullets.

Note that some of these include the shooter themselves being shot, others don’t.

Some include gang violence others don’t.

The reason we can have more “mass shootings” than there are days in the year is because of the twisted definitions.

When Karen hears “Mass Shooting Incident” she sees dozens of bodies laying on the ground, blood around. When she hears “Four Children Killed in Mass Shooting” She sees the images from Sandy Hook of kindergarteners laying in pools of their own blood.

The reality is that by alarmest standards a “mass shooting” can be two gangs flinging bullets at each other which ends up with 2 on each side getting a stitch or two. Four dead might mean to 17 year old animals dead in a drug deal gone bad.

A “school shooting” can be anything from Sandy Hook (real school shooting) to some animal shot in a drug deal in the parking lot of an administration building used to store buses, after dark.

If it bleeds it leads, if it doesn’t bleed, get more ketchup.

Vai the Atlantic: The Rifle That Ruined America

Written by Ryan Busse who is a senior policy adviser to the gun-control advocacy group Giffards.

Amazingly enough that’s what they tell you about the author. They correctly describe Giffards.

According to Ryan, 20 years ago nobody bought AR-15 style weapons. (I should check mine, I’m sure it was made after 1986 and prior to 1999) And only a few companies were making AR-15 platforms. (Maybe because the government was standing on the scales of economics)

And he was out there working hard to keep evil AR-15s out of the gun culture.

Up until about 2006, only a handful of companies were making AR-15s. They were outliers, producing rifles mainly for law enforcement and the military, and in the domestic commercial market AR-15s accounted for just a fraction of total gun sales, which averaged from 6 million to 8 million guns a year. The social norms that governed gun ownership and the firearms industry were clear: Assault rifles and tactical gear were a creepy, fringe interest that had no place in a complex democratic society.

Got that, tactical gear was creepy. If you had to dress like a FUDD to be able to fit in with gun culture.

And even though the intent was to ban all AR-15s, it never really happened, so you can ignore the AWB of 1994. Which implies you can ignore the fact that there was no change in crime statistics that can be directly tied to the 1994 AWB.

Ryan is proud that he fought to keep tactical equipment out of the marketplace, because tactical equipment is dangerous.

I was looking at a Winchester ’94 with saddle ring. That saddle ring was “tactical” for its time. The sling points on my hundred year old (plus) rifles were tactical. The reproduction ammo pouches were tactical. But for Ryan having a vest that holds spare magazines and an IFAK is just to dangerous.

The thing to note is that this article is well written. Articulate. It sounds calm and reasoned. But it includes biased statements that make it easy to make assumptions. “NRA leadership held closed-door business meetings” The implication is that they were secret meetings. The NRA convention wasn’t canceled after Columbine. Never mind that the convention is also the annual meeting that is required. The NRA decided to be aggressive instead of conciliatory in their messaging and stance.

Remember, when some criminal does criminal things over there, you should surrender over here.

And then we get to the kicker, Firearm manufacturers use irresponsible marketing.

Via The Atlantic: Leave Joe Biden Alone

You need to realize that the author isn’t a Hard Core Democrat. He started as a Republican and worked for moderates and centralist, just like Joe is a Centralist.

The Joe Biden who ran in 2020 appeared wiser, sadder, somewhat deflated, and seemed to be taking on the presidency as a public service and a burden. Time and tragedy had tempered Biden, and I liked him even more than I did in his flashier, Jason Sudeikis–like youth. These days, I think he’s done a pretty good job, especially given the fact that he’s dealing with a pandemic, revelations about an attempted American coup d’état, and an economic slowdown over which he had no control.

See, nothing that Joe has had to deal with is his fault. It was all thrust upon him as he took on the Presidency to serve the public. Joe can’t control gas prices souring up over $5.50/gal (but Trump is responsible for gas being over $2.00/gal). Joe has no control over a pandemic for which there are multiple vaccines, medications and treatments (but trump was responsible for every WuFlu death, even now). Joe’s just there to serve the public, like a kindly grandfather.

You should also know that Joe has single handled managed to keep us out of WWIII. Trump only managed to keep us out of all new conflicts. And the gas prices we are complaining about are all because of the Putin Price Hike.

And those evil republicans plan on impeaching poor old Joe. But it isn’t for cause, it is because Republicans don’t have “a plan to govern the country.”

Don’t give them the link. My BP has spiked enough for the lot of you.

Via ABC News WJLA: Fairfax Co. parents rally before school board meeting over ‘malicious misgendering’ policy

Ok, twisted headline from their site. The Fairfax County School Board is voting on a policy that will label “misgendering” “malicious” which will allow a child to be suspended for bullying.

Thus if Jimmy puts on a skirt, walks into the girls bathroom to take a dump and somebody says “Dude! What do you think you are doing?”

The person doing the questioning is a bully and can be suspended.

If Jimmy, in his dress in class, over hears Jill say to Sally, “He’s a freak” She can get suspended as a bully for the “He’s” but not “a freak”

In this case a number of Fairfax County Parents organized a rally to fight for first amendment rights for their kids and to stop this stupidity.

“This is a violation of our children’s first amendment rights,” said one protesting parent. “We should not be for compelled speech, no one should.”

After a late night debate over the adoption of the district’s latest Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook which largely focused on the future of cellphones in FCPS classrooms, the board decided to pass the amendments with a number of follow-on options.

Via Fox News: Elon Musk promotes free speech at Twitter all-hands meeting, says the media ‘almost never’ gets it right

“I think it’s essential to have free speech and … be able to communicate freely,” Musk said in an edited video of his remarks released by Project Veritas. “If there are multiple opinions … just make sure that we’re not sort of driving a narrative.”

Side note, notice how Project Veritas videos are always described as “edited”, as if they didn’t edit this article and everything else they present. That’s what they are suppose to do, in order to reduce it to the point where people will actually read, watch or listen. The difference is that Project Veritas will always release the rest of the uncut footage.

Elon Musk is rapidly becoming a hero to me, in his fight for absolute free speech. I do know that my heroes have warts and that just because somebody is doing good in one field it doesn’t mean they aren’t my opponent in another area.

“How many times had the media gotten it right? I would say almost never,” Musk said. “Not never, but almost never.”

And here is the wart:

The billionaire then stressed the difference between “freedom of speech” and “freedom of reach,” suggesting that he is open to allowing “outrageous things” to be said on the platform that “doesn’t get amplified” and get “a ton of reach.”

If they are allowed to put a cone of silence around speech they dislike then it is still a form of silencing offending voices.

And note that Fox News has “edited” Elon’s statement to pull out two and three word quotes and strung them together with their own words. What did Elon actually say?

Via WLBT Jackson, MS via WLOX.com: Lawsuit filed alleges two bills would send public money to fund private school, violating state constitution

“This is the most brazen attempt to give money to private schools that I have ever seen,” said Will Bardwell, senior counsel at Democracy Forward. “Once public money starts going out the door, the injury is going to occur, so we’re going go to be asking the chancery court to put the program on hold until we can establish that it’s unconstitutional.”

So everybody that is hurt by the pandemic lockdowns and panics were able to apply for grants and loans. Public schools were able to get money. But those darn private schools can’t get any relief from government inflicted damages.

From 90 Miles From Tyranny