Several news sources referred to the cache as an “arsenal” or even an “enormous arsenal.”
Again, I’m not condoning terrorism. In fact, I condemn terrorism in the strongest possible way.
I’m just commenting on the use of the word “arsenal.”
A year ago, I would have looked at 2,500 rounds of rifle ammo and 2,000 rounds of handgun ammo and said (again, condemning terrorism) “that’s a decent start for an emergency preparedness situation.”
Now I look at 2,500 rifle rounds or 2,000 pistol rounds and say “that’s about a workday’s worth of ammo.”
I would hate to read how a journalist would describe the collection I have in my garage. One man’s “enormous arsenal” is another man’s “I’m running low, next time Cabela’s is having a sale on ammo, I should stock up.” It’s all a matter of perspective.
Both of my Brothers-in-law are getting married within the next 12 months. My wife was recounting to me their wedding plans. In the course of the conversation, as conversations about marriages with women go, the topic of my proposal came up. Suffice it to say, my proposal wasn’t all that great. I was also 21 at the time and still in college. In my own defense, 21 year old college kids aren’t the wisest or most romantic, despite what they (we) may think.
So I felt it was incumbent upon me to propose again, with a big romantic gesture.
I walked over to her, where she was sitting on the couch. I got down on one knee. I took her hands in mine. Kissed them. Looked lovingly into her eyes, and said:
“My love. Would you like to file your taxes jointly with mine, even through it is fiscally more responsible for each of us to withhold at the higher single rate?”
This is all I want to say about the Colorado Planned Parenthood shooting:
First of all, I do not condone mass shootings. I feel like I shouldn’t have to say that, but I just want to make it clear.
As per the issue of abortion. On principle, I don’t like it, but I accept it as an ugly reality of modern day life. A necessary evil. The least worst option available at that moment. Consequently, I am pro-choice, but from a mainly libertarian perspective. I just don’t like the idea of the government having the power to make that choice on another person’s behalf. Done.
Here is what I noticed in the media coverage of the PP shooting compared to other recent events.
Following the PP shooting, Democrat politicians and liberal pundits took to the airwaves and internet to #StandWithPP and condemn the “violent rhetoric” of the GOP that (supposedly) caused the shooting. The undercover PP videos were roundly condemned again. The left mounted a national media defense of Planned Parenthood and an attack on gun rights.
Following the Charlie Hebdo massacre and Texas “Draw Muhammad” shooting Democrat politicians and liberal pundits took to the airwaves and internet to bend over backwards to explain how there are limits to the 1st Amendment, freedom of speech doesn’t mean we should go around insulting Islam just because we can, we shouldn’t “punch down” by criticizing Islam, and how #JeSuisCharlie is defending white privilege. The left mounted a national media attack waffling on the freedom of speech.
Watching all of this has left me with one conclusion.
If the right to kill unborn children is more important to you and a more defensible position to you than the freedom of speech, there is something fundamentally wrong with your political ideology and perhaps your soul.
Politics being what they are, I am waiting for the inevitable backlash in the form of:
“Black Lives Matter has too much power.”
“The city should have stood up to the protesters.”
“Things will only get worse in Chicago now.”
Well, let me remind you that McCarthy’s covering up of a bad shootmurder by a police to protect an incumbent mayor was the least of his crimes against the people of Chicago.
Gary McCarthy systematically denied thousands of Chicagoans their 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendment Constitutional rights. Not to mention the wake of civil rights violations he left behind him in Newark, New Jersey.
There is NOTHING defensible about Gary McCarthy. My only hope that this story doesn’t end with his firing. May he spend the rest of his life in prison and then eternity in hell.
Just about anybody who has been following the news of the refugee situation has probably heard of the “Crisis in Calais.” As I understand it, the terminal for the French side of the Eurotunnel, that connects the UK to France, is just outside Calais. Nearby is a tent city refugee camp. Many refugees want to make it from mainland Europe through France to the UK, because the UK has the best social welfare system for refugees. Much of the news I’ve seen has been sympathetic to the refugees. Vice went all out with a video that was more tear-jerkingly sympathetic than the Sarah McLachlan ASPCA commercials.
Then I saw the video below. It is 15 minutes long. It is profane. It is the dashcam of a Hungarian truck driver trying to make it through Calais to the Eurotunnel cargo loading dock. This is what the refugee crisis in Europe looks like up close without media spin.
I am amazed that it only has 322 views (as of this posting). It it eye opening. Hundreds of refugees walking in the middle of the road, throwing rocks at trucks, trying to hop on and ride them. The driver claims the refugees slash the truck canvas. The entire time, I saw maybe a dozen French police. This situation was entirely out of hand. The closest thing I’ve ever seen to this was video from Israel when Palestinians would gather in the streets to throw rocks at passing cars (note the rock throwing trend).
I’ve written in the past about Europeans buying guns because of the refugee crisis. Watching that video, I know that sooner or later some of those truckers are going to start packing heat. I know that if my daily commute had me run a gauntlet where people tried to get into my vehicle and slash it if they couldn’t, I’d be driving with a pistol under my leg – legal or not.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, self defense laws in Europe don’t exist. Whatever. All it is going to take is for a some refugees near Calais to pull a couple of Reginald Dennys on some Eastern European truck drivers. The next time they try to do it to a truck from the Czech Republic, the Refugees will be facing down the business end of a CZ-75. Handguns will pour out of the countries where it will be easier to obtain them.
The French police, for all the success they’ve had in raiding terrorist cells following the the Paris Shootings earlier this month, are hopelessly incapable of stopping this type of uncivil activity. It’s a matter of numbers, there are just too many refugees and too few police. The French police acknowledge that an uprising in one of the refugee camps will be “pandemonium.” They’ve practically lost control of the camps already.
This is what Europe is facing first hand, and it’s bad. I fear it will only get worse. Just wait until these hop-ons turn to stabbings. The Israelis and French Jews known what I mean.
Washington DC Chief of Police Cathy Lanier, was interviewed by CBS News for a segment on Active Shooters. The whole video is worth a watch, but her segment is what is important and worth 2 minutes of your time.
Three points in her interview stood out at me.
She says that people have three options in an active shooter scenario: run, hide, or fight.
Most shooters do all their killing inside of 10 minutes.
The best police response time is about 5 minutes.
I wanted to double check on the response time she quoted and got a national average of 11 minutes. The best data I found is from 2007 and tabulated here.
Her three options of run, hide, or fight, come directly from a video put out by the FBI and Ready Houston.
“Fight. Act with aggression. Improvise weapons. *Guy picks up chair* Commit to taking the shooter down, no matter what.”
A chair? The FBI and D.C. Chief of Police want me to channel my inner Bobby Knight at an active shooter? Throw a chair and choke the guy?
The only flying metal object I have any faith in stopping an active shooter is copper jacketed and moving at 950 feet per second.
But of course in D.C., the only option is a chair, since Chief Lanier has authorized on 44 carry permits since concealed carry was mandated in D.C.
To be fair, the FBI, Chief Lanier, they’re starting to get it. Once upon a time, and still in many places around the country, the advice from law enforcement was “keep your head down, don’t attract attention to yourself, call 911, wait for police, and if you come face to face with the gunman, be complicit with all his demands and do nothing to antagonize him and get yourself killed.”
At face value, this advice may have made sense when it comes to say… a bank robber who is after money. But in the face of shootings by crazy people like in Tuscon or Sandy Hook, or religious zealots in Ft. Hood or Paris twice this year, that advice is worth the cost of your funeral. If you can’t get away, fight back, because if you’re trapped in a room with a gunman like that, you’re as good as dead already.
But the FBI, Chief Lanier, and others need to take their thinking to completion. If you are going to give the advice to fight back, you have to give the people the tools they need to fight back.
In the case of Chief Lanier, I know it’s tough for her to make that jump in logic. She’s from inside the liberal D.C. Beltway. I don’t know if she believes it personally, but the culture there is that the average citizen is just too stupid and dangerous to carry a gun and if they have one, they’ll only make things worse.
Fortunately, it’s not a lost cause. The attitude in Chicago is very much the same, and earlier this year an Uber driver from Chicago stopped a mass shooting before it had the chance to be a mass shooting. If Chicago can come around, so will D.C. and NYC.
For people like these, even acknowledging that the police won’t get to you in time and you may have to defend yourself is a huge ideological change. They’re getting there. I just hope it doesn’t take any more mass shootings for it to finally *click*.
But, since this one comes directly from the White House, I think I might comply. My dad is coming up to visit us for the holiday. I’m going to hot smoke a duck on the BBQ grill (eat your hearts out Progressives). And we will have a conversation that goes something like this:
Dad: “How is working in the gun industry.”
J.Kb: “I didn’t know it was possible to enjoy something so much with clothes on.”
Dad: “Great.”
J.Kb: “So how about we discuss gun control like the White House wants?”
Dad: “Ok, you go first.”
J.Kb: “I love it when they talk about gun control. I can’t wait for Hillary to run with gun control as a central part of her strategy. I really hope Obama threatens us with a lame duck gun control push.”
Dad: “But what happens if they actually get a ban?”
J.Kb: “The GOP still has a majority in Congress, so that is a hurdle to jump. But still, there are huge numbers of Law Enforcement who have stated an intention to refuse to uphold new gun bans. When compliance was voluntary, only about 10% of people complied.”
Dad: “You’re not too afraid.”
J.Kb: “You think cops in Alabama are really going to go door-to-door looking for guns? No officer, that’s not a gun safe… that’s a refrigerator. ‘Carry on son'”
Dad: “You’re just being cynical.”
J.Kb: “You raised me.”
Dad: “Touche. Speaking of guns, when can I get something from you at the insider price.”
J.Kb: “Friends and family discounts come out the week before Christmas.”
Dad: “I let you know what I want. By the way, this duck is delicious.”
