And amazing concert dedicated to a great musician.

The Official Keith Emerson Tribute Concert (Fanfare For The Uncommon Man)

Fanfare For The Uncommon Man: The Official Keith Emerson Tribute Concert (Live) by Keith Emerson on Amazon Music Unlimited

So yes, I am doing the old fart waving a fist in anger…OK, not so much anger as simply amazed at how things are out there and not always smart or an indication of progress.

I have not had a sinus attack in ages which is weird when you realize I live in hot humid Florida and next to a lake to boot.  It was an old school brain splitter, so I knew the usual meds found at the 7-11 check out counter next to the cookies and the condoms would not do squat.

I have heard that the good stuff requires to have it picked up at the Pharmacy counter, but I had never experienced that particular Federal regulation joy before. And to add to the pleasure, the Pharmacy had experience some sort of computer glitch and there was some issue with the prescriptions which led to long frigging lines.

While waiting and bored out of my school, I saw a couple of things that made me shake my head heard. First, that some people actually need these products:

I guess the level of trust among humans living under the same roof or related to each other is rather low. Face it, if you are doing drugs, you do not need a test to know, so its application is to find out if somebody else is an addict or user, something happened that made the inherent trust disappear. I guess the Nicotine test is to see if a kid is vaping because plain smoking is rather obvious and easy to detect.

And this one is a monument to gullibility.

I saw this and thought “Well, I have thickened the occasional sauce and I know you make gravy thick by adding flour or cornstarch.”

Guess.

Yup, Cornstarch.

I had to check with Walmart:

The top is $0.66 per ounce and the Wally world is $0.07 per ounce. Nine times higher at the pharmacy because it is packaged and sold differently. I don’t think heroine or coke have the big of a mark up.

OK, old fart rant mode is off.

But they fight back.  Amazing how behavior changes when your target suddenly identifies himself as gun owner.

Asians fight back against white supremacists in Dallas pic.twitter.com/9Layc6BEpX

— ELIJAH SCHAFFER (@ElijahSchaffer) June 19, 2021

And no, I have no problem with the fact that she was a female being “re-educated” by two males.  You pay your monies and you take your chances and the possession of a vagina should not be a shield against self-inflicted stupidity.

RogerG sent me this:

And this is why I don’t believe Skynet will ever happen.

As expected, some people in Social Media were not happy about by my Juneteenth meme. While mostly chose the ban button, a couple made comments and this one in particular is an old tired explanation sans explanation.

And then… Inspiration!

Hell, I believe this would more valid than all the BS they keep selling.

And here we have another episode of “I am a Gun Owner But…”

I’m a combat veteran and I like my guns. I would also like stronger gun laws | Column (tampabay.com)

I wanted to buy a gun. I should be more specific. I wanted to buy a Taurus TX-22 to add to my ever-growing collection of firearms.
When I went to a local sporting goods store to pick up the pistol I had ordered, the clerk asked me to fill out the paperwork for the standard background check. While he was running that through the system, I browsed the store, finding an additional $200 in merchandise — which I may or may not have needed. After 30 minutes, I walked out with my new prized possession.

You, a citizen of the United States of America while trying to exercise you rights to acquire a legal product and your Right to Keep and Bear Arms, was required to submit to a background check to prove you were innocent from sin and crimes. That he has been told upfront by the Powers That Be that he is Guilty till proven Innocent does not face him or bother him. In fact, the rest of the article is the gentleman explaining why he supports more of that. However, if I were to demand a background check before he could enter or purchase an item from a store I own, he would throw a hissy fit and probably accuse me of being racist.

The toughest thing I did that day was decide on which brand of insect repellent to buy.

Anything with Deet over 50% concentration. There, I just save you a stroke.

The federal background check — the safeguard that ensures I am not a convicted felon or a domestic abuser with a restraining order — was a breeze, as it has been every time I’ve gone through it

You just said you wasted 30 minutes waiting to prove you are not a felon, a mental defective or a wife abuser. I do not call that a breeze.

That’s why I am perplexed that updating our federal background check laws has been so difficult.

He actually wants to waste more of his time and ours and to make sure we are still considered Felons till we prove otherwise! So wonderful of him!

The U.S. Senate is about to debate the issue, and as a gun enthusiast, a father, a combat veteran and an NRA-certified pistol instructor, I implore them to pass a bill to make the system work better.

And what bill would that be? It is not like I don’t trust you, but you just begged to inflict more restrictions upon your fellow Americans so, no we don’t trust you.

Not many things find approval on both sides of the political aisle these days, but an expanded background check policy does.

Ah! Back again with this silliness. Let’s see if he has something new to say.

Nine out of ten Americans, including most veterans and law enforcement, support background checks. The reason is simple: Background checks keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, and therefore, save lives.

I am really don’t care to give credence to those numbers. Those stats have always been found suspicious once we delve into how they were sampled and if I may remind Mr. McFarlin one more time, the Bill of Rights are not to be subjected or interpreted according to the latest popularity contest.  I do recall one time in our history where a majority of Americans  supported having people with his skin color to be kept in chains and force them to do work.

States that require background checks on all gun sales have lower rates of homicide, suicide, and gun trafficking.

I believe you may want to revise those numbers, specially after the Covid vacation. Specially Illinois with all its restrictions

 Since the inception of the current law in 1994, more than 3.5 million sales have been denied, successfully keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people.

And once again I will have to ask the question I have been asking since I started blogging: Where are the 3.5 million prosecutions for the violation of the Federal Background Check laws? Or are you are also telling me that you are in full accord to let Felons walk the streets freely after they tried to illegally acquire a dangerous weapon? You are OK with the Federal government failing to incarcerate dangerous criminals? Damn, that is nice to know.

 In 1993, I was in elementary school, and the internet was in its infancy. Back then, no lawmaker could have predicted the robust online marketplaces that exist today.

Thank God or they would have fucked that one up too.

And, naturally, those marketplaces do now exist for guns. In fact, each year one gun-selling site offers more than 1.2 million ads for firearms that would not legally require a background check.

I keep seeing this statement made but without the juicy parts. Which site is this? I suspect he is confusing not having an automatic BGC the moment you click OK as free and unrestricted firearm commercial transaction between adults. Anyway, that is what should be anyway.

The catch is that the federal background check law is silent on sales brokered online and completed person-to-person when they are made by anyone other than a federally licensed gun dealer.

Really? If you engage in the business of selling gun without a license even if it is online, you will get a visit from the Three Letter Agency.  And I am pretty sure that I recall something or other about the Interstate Selling of Firearms without following the proper procedures.

The law was created at a time when the expectation was that sellers typically knew the buyers personally. As a law-abiding citizen, a seller was essentially vouching that the other person was also a law-abiding citizen. The law was simply not written in a way that contemplated the massive market that has emerged and enables the transfer of firearms between two strangers.

This is just such a massive load of bullshit. About my only concern in a private transaction is that the firearm is not stolen and I will want a receipt. I cannot and should not care if the seller shoots up Heroin or beats up the significant other when he sells me a a gun.  And I doubt pretty much that if I ask if a buyer is a Felon, he’d confess he is one which is why the laws put the onus on the criminal, not on the innocent party.

So, over the past three decades, states have instituted a patchwork of gun laws to try to shore up the existing federal law. But still nearly 30 states don’t require background checks on all handgun sales, including private sales arranged online and at gun shows. I’ve bought guns in Florida, Virginia, and North Carolina, and each experience was relatively simple for someone like me who can pass a background check.

So what? You want the experience to be harder? More inconvenient for your fellow citizens? What are you asking for?

But why should these laws vary from state to state?

That annoying little thing called Federalism.

If anything, it makes it confusing for the gun buyer.

Which is why our goal is to REMOVE the tens of thousands of gun laws in the books and not demanding to add MORE laws. The principle is not that hard, I can’t figure out why you cannot seem to grasp it.

And why do the majority of states allow dangerous people to do an end run around the federal laws by seeking out private sellers online?

I wonder how the bad guys used to get their guns before the Internet existed. Oh yeah, the same way they do now: Stolen firearms bought in the Black Market.

Updating the federal background check law would make everything uniform. Not only would the updated law increase safety and reduce gun deaths, but it would also make it a lot simpler for gun owners like me to understand the laws across states

“I am an idiot, please Federal Government come and rescue me from myself.”
We know how this movie ends, don’t we?

 Let’s just say that I am glad that I am not on active duty anymore, moving every three years and trying to keep up with each state’s requirements.

If there only was an easy to access source of information where with a simple click of a device, he could obtain the knowledge he requires about guns in every state he lives in… Oh yes, the frigging Internet!

In the military, when it comes to firearms, we believe in training, safety, and accountability.

This last one did not have time to age, well or otherwise. From June 15 of the current year. So much for “training, safety and accountability,” right?

Stolen U.S. military guns are used in violent crimes on America’s streets – Portland Press Herald

When I am instructing my students on pistol use, I rely on those same tenets. When I am storing my guns at home, I am always conscious of what I learned in the Army.

Oh dear God, help us. Another idiot who actually thinks what he learned in the military applies in civilian life.

Now, I am asking the Senate to show some accountability themselves, by passing common sense, bipartisan background check legislation that will save lives.

And once again: The active Background Checks laws has not been enforced and MILLIONS of prohibited persons were never prosecuted for their blatant violation of Federal Law. And yet we have another “Gun Owner But…” imbecile demanding to expand the failure even more to include private sales that still they cannot prove it has an influence on street violence, but sounds good in the Narrative therefore it must be true.

Hat Tip RogerG