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.

CSGV and Public Good

I have no idea why the Coalition to Stop Gun Rights Violence got into this discussion of the Public Good (specially when they only care about making citizens into corpses) but I found this post in their Facebook wall:

I don’t presume to be an expert of the Federalist papers, but I can do some basic Google-Fu. So I went through Google Books and found the following:

(Click to enlarge)

So, we actually have 23 mentions of Public Good in the Federalist Papers. Again, I have no idea why CSGV is mentioning Public Good, but once again it shows they have no idea about where the Constitution comes from or what is it about.

Question of the Week

After a rewarding day at the range, your buddies and you decide to go to a local steak house for nourishment. Whike waiting for a table, you notice that Joan Peterson, Ladd Everitt, both Bradys, Colin Goddard (under the table,) Rosie O’Donnel, Paul Helmke and others of the same persuasion are already violating their oaths to PETA. All of the sudden and from the four corners of the restaurant, Adam Gadahn and several AlQaeda members jump up, shoot guns in the air and demand that the US withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan in the next 15 minutes or they will start executing hostages. You must do something NOW!

After a brief moment of thought you decide:

  1. Go to the nearest Longhorn since the you hate the Outback blooming Onion but still want steak.
  2. Five Guys Burgers. Nothing beats a big greasy All-American burger after a day shooting.
  3. (Readers, you can add your own action in the comment section)

And yes, it means I will not lift a finger to help those who rather see me dead at the hands of my enemies than having the ability to defend myself.

How I Became A Gunnie.

Jennifer is asking Gun Bloggers about how they ended up being gunnies so I guess I better add my story.

Mine was a long and slow transition. As any kid growing in a country where there was no Gun Culture, I was both fascinated at what I saw on TV and the movies, yet under the heavy influence of “Guns are Bad” and Only Police and Military should have Guns.” Dad was not preachy about guns but Mom was steadfast against Guns and that violence is bad.

When I reached my teens and the obligatory socialist phase one must go through, I was Anti Gun. I saw the violence that Man can inflict upon his fellow human being and I was sold into the whole “Peace” bullcrap. The socialist phase did go away quickly, but there was nothing else out there to anchor myself to. I did not know I was a conservative because the concept was/is not known in those locales.

I had the chance to attend college in Tennessee and here is where I got introduced to guns in a different light. People owned guns without shame! A friend took me to my first gun store after my apartment was broken into and I got cleaned up of my few personal possessions. It was an unreal world to me; back at home, just touching a gun that was not yours could land you in a world of hurt and now I was manipulating a Mini 14 or slobbering over an used shotgun with markings from the Tennessee Department of Corrections (I’ll always be sorry I did not buy that gun!) or constantly petering Carl, the resident gunnie with questions. I eventually bought this little .25 caliber Beretta tilt-up barrel and I became a gun owner.

Still, I was not a gunnie. That came to happen soon after. My downstairs neighbor was in my apartment watching MTV (back when it actually played music and had no fake drama) and we heard banging noises coming from his place. I opened a door and we saw this critter trying to kick his apartment door down and even though we challenged him, he cussed us out and kept at it. The look of pure animal violence in his eyes scared the crap out of me so I ran to my bedroom, grabbed my little Beretta and returned to my front door. By this time, Critter was climbinn the stairs while buddy was trying to “reason” and tell him to go away.

Next thing I know. Critter’s eyes went big with surprise, stammered cusses, did a 180 and flew out the building. I realized that my arm was extended forward, gun was in hand and aiming at the general direction where Critter was a moment ago. It clicked right there: Crime was aborted, Violence was snuffed, I had the answer I was looking for.

Right there and then I was a Gunnie 🙂

On SWAT Raids for Useless Crap.

I will not bore you mentioning the many instances where SWAT teams have been used for totally stupid cases, but I do want to say that there is a dangerous mindset going on that will result in one final raid-that-should-not-have-happened with dangerous consequences.

Several steps should be taken in order to avoid there silly-dangerous raids. Nothing much in order of money expenditure, but it will require a considerable usage of frigging common sense.

  1. Whomever issues the bad warrant must be liable both criminally and monetarily. By shifting the liability from the County/City to the individual, we eliminate the sense of invincibility associated with the “Good Luck Suing City Hall” mentality.
  2. Just because your have a SWAT team, does not mean you have to use it every day. I know police forces must justify their budgets with action, but lawsuits and bad press will cost more at the end. Sending SWAT to arrest somebody for a stupid transgression just to show the politicos you are doing something with the team is asinine. and that brings us to
  3. SWAT leaders have the right and the responsibility to reject serving a warrant if they think it is an overkill. Overdue library books or having the music too loud do not require a dynamic entry, flashbangs and battering rams.
  4. Use better Intelligence to allocate resources appropriately. We had a case in South Florida where a SWAT team executed a warrant on a house where allegedly a bad hombre, major drug dealer lived. The tip was given by an informant and very quick check showed that the person of interest had a Concealed Weapons Permit. The SWAT team was called, the raid was done, the alleged criminal heard the commotion, went for his sidearm and ended up dead. When air cleared and the followup investigation proceeded, it was found that the super-dangerous criminal was a kid in his 20’s who worked as a bartender, lived with his mom and had to take public transportation to work because he sold his car to help his Mother with the mortgage. The subject did have pot in the house, but what it amounted to a couple of joints. This was hardly the ruthless killer living in an armed compound that demanded the use of a SWAT team but nobody took the time to actually do a bit of research on the subject and finding out that he was just a regular Joe.

Suspicious minds make the point that the misuse of SWAT teams is just a reflection of our way into a Militarized Dictatorial society. I believe that mostly is a heavy case of Heinlein’s Razor: “You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity.” However I do anticipate one nasty conflagration where things will go utterly bad for everybody involved with a high casualty number and right after that, the politicians will descend on the remains to make political hay out of the situation.