Where a Hispanic Catholic, and a Computer Geek write about Gun Rights, Self Defense and whatever else we can think about.
Miguel.GFZ
Semi-retired like Vito Corleone before the heart attack.
Consiglieri to J.Kb and AWA.
I lived in a Gun Control Paradise: It sucked and got people killed.
I do believe that Freedom scares the political elites.
“Firearms was the one area in Media where ignorance was bliss…If you cover Flower shows, your editors…would mandate, would require, they’d make it necessary that you know something about flowers!”
Michael Bane – Down Range Radio podcast # 509
And I would compliment the above quote with his article in American journalist Review:
What is going on here? Do the time-honored rules of journalistic objectivity apply in every case except firearms? Have we, as journalists, reached such an overwhelming consensus that “guns are bad” that we’re willing to look the other way while a journalistic tradition that’s taken more than a hundred years to build is methodically disassembled?
I could make a long-winded comment about the silliness of this new ad campaign, specially if you are allegedly selling a product that is supposed to show actual physical strength but I rather let reality do the talking.
Fantasy:
Reality:
Ouch.
PS: Robert G over at Facebook made an interesting observation:
“Now the feminists will be pissed because it shows a woman on a product used for cleaning and cooking.”
Justice isn’t cheap. It takes both money and commitment. Deep blue socialist cities are busy spending tax money on political kickbacks. There isn’t enough money and political will remaining to power the justice system. Over 90 percent of the criminals arrested will be offered plea bargains. Socialist prosecutors and judges let repeat criminals out of jail for time served. Lots of criminals commit new crimes while awaiting trial or while out on probation.The explosion in crime changes the way honest people live. Prosecuting the flood of violent crimes leaves no time or money for anything else. Property effectively becomes worthless when property crimes are no longer prosecuted. Criminals take what they want. Neighborhoods where mobs are allowed to run riot are not the places where companies will build and hire. They can’t even afford the insurance in those areas
No doubt there is a “balkanization” of neighborhoods in many of the major cities across the US. How much is the politicians being unable to fix it and how much are crime and violence tools for their successful stay in power?
Venezuela is a great example of control of the population by fear using unchecked violent crime. I it is being used as guideline by politicians here, they should be removed from office most expeditiously.
Hot tar and feathers included as part of the severance package.
Last month in Nashville, Tennessee, a group of protesters crossing a street with safety monitors in orange vests lining the route were struck by an SUV rolling through the pedestrian-filled crosswalk, according to police.
“We were accompanying people across the street,” protester Jack Wiley, an orange-vest-wearing safety monitor, told a local television station. “And while we were doing that an SUV started to turn, and we asked him to stop. And he chose not to stop.“And he kept going, inching forward, and then he struck three of us,” Wiley said, “And three of the people on the safety team tried to prevent him front hitting anybody else.“We had to jump on the hood to protect ourselves after he hit us.”
…The event was captured on video. No charges against the driver have been filed yet.
The witnesses stated a group of protestors ran out into the roadway in an attempt to stop the vehicle and surrounded his car. The witnesses advised several people jumped on the hood of the vehicle only after the driver continued to drive through the crowd in an attempt to get away.
Also, I was unable to find the video. Not saying that it does not exist or it may show not quite the innocent narrative spouted by the affected party, but I do find it suspicious that people who revel at being in the limelight and love to advertise their victim status cannot produce the evidence of their victimization.
“In 2013 we paid $134 million in state taxes to Connecticut, and if we would have kept on the same pace, Connecticut would have $140 million more today,” McGuigan said on Monday. “That is 10 percent of the budget deficit.”McGuigan was referring to the state’s projected $1.4 billion budget deficit for the fiscal year that begins July 1.A Malloy spokesman challenged the NSSF argument that the governor’s tough gun policies had a chilling effect on the firearms industry.
Mind you, They are not any safer that they were before and now the Governor was gun related fees applicable to residents quadrupled to help cover the deficit. But with the same breath they deny that gun restrictions made any impact in the state.
From the same article:
In 2013 Connecticut had 8,000 people working in the firearms industry and related fields. Last year that number was 4,900, the NSSF said.
PTR Industries and Mossberg take jobs somewhere else, but nah, it had no effect at all.
To finish this overly long dissertation, I want to go over two unintended consequences brought by the lust of power some people seem to have. If you still don’t know that Gun Control is just about the Power to control people, you have now been advised.
I wrote about handguns and concealed carry officially being now a daily occurrence plus now we have the AR rifle and similar semi-automatic rifles being commonplace thanks to the efforts to ban them and ban the right of the people to defend themselves or simply own them because they can. Two things happened with such popularity and demand, I am going to go over them really quick.
Yes, there was a brutal demand for both pistols and rifles. Companies rushed to offer not only the main product, but inundated the market with accessories to improve shooting. We went from painting the sights with phosphorescent paint to tritium sights to red dots. The furniture of the rifles became modular and lighter if for nothing else to attach lights and laser. Pistols and even some revolvers were designed to have a rail to carry the light and/or laser and the latest is the miniature red dots. All these things came about a demand that needed to be satisfied and companies did so engaging in a dirty and beautiful free market exchange; capitalism at its best. And I am not even mentioning ammunition, reloading supplies, ear and eye protection, slings, holsters, belts, pouches, etc. When the economy tanked, the gun industry not only did not follow but flourished. Where companies were eliminating shifts and firing employees, Gun & Accessory manufacturers were adding personnel and increasing working hours. When the failed economic policies based on soft Socialism kept failing, dirty ugly Capitalism was doing good in the Gun Culture. Freedom creates wealth. Freedom provides wanted products and satisfied customers. Statists want to control production, demand an outcome based on their wish list. Regulating & taxing the hell out of things till you overpay for soda and can’t add salt to the damned french fries without incurring in the wrath of your “Betters” does not a “better world” create. Guns and Capitalism? Free Market with satisfied customers? No wonder the Left is having kittens.
Much to the chagrin of Gun Controllers who have no problem painting us as irresponsible hicks shooting to the air as if we were in a Bedouin wedding, Firearms Training Schools started to pop across the country when more people came into the culture. And the same for sporting matches involving the rifle and/or pistol. Not only we have a sizable population that is armed, but also knows to use the guns safely and effectively. And if that alone was not bad enough, many firearm classes are teaching not only to how to shoot but when to legally to shoot. This has resulted in people suddenly being extra aware of attempts by politicians to penalize and restrict the instances where a citizen could exercise self-defense and bringing out a new generation of people who became very involved in the political process at state and national level. Some of those new people have fought with an amazing effectiveness, like the little lady below who is the scourge of Gun Control advocates in Texas..
Rachel Malone. Don’t mess with Texas or her…or both.
See? I already distracted myself of the point I wanted to make. So we have a healthy market on both the hardware (guns and “accessories”) and the software (training.) Besides your civilians reaping the Free Market Capitalistic goodies, another group of dedicated people suddenly benefits from all this “gun madness”: Our own Armed Forces.
OK, you are going to complain and say some stuff was done for the Military on purpose, but who designed it? Who tested it? who shot it till it broke and bitched loudly about it? Who called/emailed the manufacturers with improvements and even new ideas? And that is just the hardware side of things, because training has changed and it was brought about by the civilian side thinking “You know? this way of shooting/reloading/etc does not make a lick of sense. We have to come up with a better one.” and when the military instructors were slow to change, men and women in uniform paid out of their own pockets to go to civilian schools and learn new things that would keep them alive in the battlefield. And allow me to include cops in that mix, not as many as the should, but just the same.
And you want to know something funny? All that new training policy? all those developments in hardware? All were researched without costing taxpayers one red cent. Sure, they went through the process all stuff for the military goes through to be officially part of, but the R&D part was pretty much paid by the Gun Nuts. So, when some gun control idiot yells at you and says “You wanna play with machine guns, join the military!” you can proudly tell them “I am part of its Research and Development team that helps them win battles and stay alive. What is your part?”
In closing (as in general closing) it is us, the Gun Nuts, the armed “rednecks” of all flavors that have stood against Gun Control because we figured pretty quick that it is not about guns but about Control. It is hard to control a population that not only is keen on voting, but may have the resources and training to keep politicians in check. You simply cannot oppress somebody who can transverse your body with a third of an ounce of lead and copper projected at high-speed from several hundred yards away. Or as I heard Massad Ayoob say many years ago:
Hunting ain’t fun when the “bunny” shoots back.”
Sitting here in my “office” (dear Lord, I need to clean this place), I take a look around and see that just on reloading dies I have on one shelf of my bench I could have gotten 8 years in prison back in the old country. That on the amount of ammo I have for one caliber alone, I would be serving possibly another eight to ten years. And the simple semi-auto rifle with a $100 red dot I own would have classified me as Enemy of the State, earned me a trip to the National Intelligence Service where I would have a “sad and mortal accident falling off the toilet” or getting killed “while attempting to flee.” But instead, all I own is not only legal here but my gorramed right! Ain’t that a kick in the ass?
I just wish I was a better writer to explain to you how sweet and how liberating owning a gun can be for those of us who were born and raised under less enlightened regimes. The idea of Rights and Freedom can be overwhelming and some never stomach it, that is why you see many minority members taking the side of Gun Control and sadly some do it because they want to be the ones in control and to have a chance to become the little dictators they saw back home. Sorry fellas, there are “traitors” to the race/color/religion/etc like me that having tasted Freedom, have become intoxicated by it and we will make damn sure you either change your mind, move back to where you come from or become part of the ecosystem if you try to replicate the banana republics we escaped from.
