(Excerpt from The Legend of Homie Coyote: America’s Guy Fawkes)

Oy!

And a couple more for good measure:

Go forth and enrage the phony “patriot” in your life!

In the aftermath of the Orlando terrorist attack, there has been — predictably — renewed mainstream attention on the completely nonexistent “gun problem” in America. Fortunately, the narrative doesn’t stick so well when the perpetrator was a known radical Islamist on record as giving his acquaintances hell (or whatever it’s called in Muslim doctrine) over their pulled pork platters touching his burger at a barbecue. It’s even less compelling when the guy was allegedly on one (or more) of the federal government’s completely unlawful “watch lists,” demonstrating once and for all again the abject folly of these affronts to due process. The death knell for #GunSense* in this attack, however, is the fact that it was targeted at a group already marginalized for centuries — one that has made tremendous (if mostly superficial) gains in the last several decades.

And for all that time, Democrats have taken the LGBT vote for granted, making assumption after assumption that “alternative” denotes “liberal,” that one’s sexual orientation or gender identity should and would net the party a “D” in every column come every election day. Unfortunately, due most recently to court rulings on gay marriage and the whole bizarre bathroom distraction, it seems to be working. But under the surface, these initiatives are unimaginably insulting: The LGBT community is being exploited like a circus sideshow of freaks by the government it believes serves their best interests. Gay marriage a big win? No, folks, this is mere capitulation to government’s assertion that it is the sole licensor of love between individuals, that it has any conceivable say in who and how you love yourself and others. And as much of a sham** as all marriage licenses are***, the bathroom brouhaha is even more of a joke. The state thinks that where you piss in public matters more to you than the basic civil rights it regularly withholds from you and everyone else. The bathroom stink is a literal shit show, as if baking brownies (or baking cakes) is what the silly, childish LGBT community is really all about.

Because, LGBTers, that’s what #GunSense — and the politicians who promote it — think you are: children. In Orlando, there are no kids’ graves to dance on, so you’re filling in. Just like it’s unthinkable to arm youngsters in the face of violence, so too is it unthinkable to arm LGBTs. After all, you cannot be trusted to make mature, responsible, traditionally “moral” decisions, can you? Just like kids, you need a parent or guardian to take care of you, to salve your skinned knee and hurt feelings, to tell you you’re great. You aren’t a real adult. You aren’t a real individual. You are a ward. You are property.

It is dehumanizing, it is marginalizing, and it is — in so many awful ways — the epitome of pandering.

Which gets me to my main point:

Pandering is an important concept post-Orlando, and the LGBT community would do well to pay close attention to where it’s coming from and how it’s framed.

The government, naturally, will continue to use the Orlando victims’ lifestyle associations to foment a false “minority issue,” making the push to further limit firearms rights based on the terroristic threats that “gun nuts” present to the so-called “othered” others. It is in the controlling agency’s interest to tell you that you are a target and must kowtow to authority in order to maintain your ever-more-tenuous, hard-fought freedoms. This is textbook pandering, and it is textbook unacceptable. Even to straight guys like me.

But it is “straight guys like me” who represent the other side of the pandering problem. And that needs to be addressed.

See, to those in the LGBT community, it may feel that, all of a sudden, the erstwhile anti-gay good old boys aren’t so bad. It may feel as if a bunch of formerly homophobic hillbillies are coming out of the woodwork from every end of the Internet to tell you to arm up and fight back, that they’ve got your back 100 percent when all they ever did before was look at your butt and laugh theirs off. It may feel like an uncomfortable case of “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” It may feel less than genuine. It may feel like pandering.

It isn’t.

At least, it mostly isn’t. The majority of pro-gunners I personally (or passingly) know do not now and have never given a single moment’s thought or concern to the non-aggressing lifestyle choices of others. Yes, there are some Second Amendment activists out there who only “support” LGBT rights as a simple means to the otherwise noble end of expanding pro-gun influence. That sort of manipulation cannot be avoided, but it also cannot be allowed to push the many new (and understandably tentative) pro-gun fence-sitters back over to the Straight Ticket For #GunSense side. Defense rights are too important an issue — too natural a necessity — to scare anyone off through such misgivings.

The reality is this: The “intolerant Right” really isn’t as intolerant as the Left and its media outlets have been telling you. Of course, as in all collectives, pockets of ugliness do exist. And those who claim to support Liberty while simultaneously denying the humanity of the LGBT (or any other) community are struggling with a cognitive dissonance not unlike that faced by targeted minorities who trust the very masters who openly seek to disarm them.

Of course, if you are at all unsettled by the potential pandering coming from the the Second Amendment side, it is important to realize that even if you’re just receiving lip service in the advancement of gun rights for all, the operative concept is “for all.” At the very least, you are getting valuable information that can help you develop the necessary attitude to see to your own safety and the active defense of those you hold most dear.

There is also this happy fact to consider: Many pro-gun, anti-LGBT bigots have also had their eyes opened and minds broadened by the events in Orlando. What once seemed like a sociopolitical impasse has been climbed over and conquered. For many “traditional conservatives,” it no longer matters who you love or what you do behind closed doors, because they’ve been awakened — like so many in the LGBT community — to the fact that the freedom to be is more important than the freedom to be gay or straight or otherwise. The latter freedoms are redundant, shielded under the umbrella of defense of the former. It should never take a tragedy to make intelligent people see the fragile nature of their freedom, nor should it take death and destruction to make folks put aside unimportant differences in deference to the only thing that truly matters. But the tragedy’s happened, and tragedies always will. We of all colors and creeds and genders and beliefs that comprise Gun Culture 2.0 merely hope everyone can learn from it.

You dont need permission (especially not mine!) to be who you are. Love wins. You just might need to defend it one day.

So go to the range, rent some guns, and become familiar with the tool that defines Liberty’s state of the art. If you dont have a rental facility in your area or can’t currently afford the expense (firearms training isn’t exactly the cheapest best thing ever), check out Operation Blazing Sword. There, you can get in touch with many good people around the country who are stepping up to offer free (or nearly free) shooting lessons for LGBT folks new to the scene.****

If you happen to be in the Florida panhandle, I hope to see you and yours at the range.

Remember, the best relationships are the ones that survive.

Footnotes:

*Linguistically speaking, #GunSense is a blending of the term “gun control” and the word “nonsense.” Logically speaking, it’s a redundant, pathetic portmanteau, more French in spirit than even the word that describes it.

**You do get tax breaks on taxes that shouldn’t exist in the first place, so I guess that’s something.

***An interesting parallel between marriage licenses and gun control is that both concepts were constructed around governmental limitation of black integration. Freedmen were not allowed arms to fend off the rampant abuses they faced once unshackled, just as intermarriage between blacks and whites was to be stymied via the issuance of relationship permission slips. The gun license, like the marriage license, has its deepest roots in blatant legislated bigotry.

****Note to volunteer instructors: Dont screw up. The rest of us expect you to do a good job, to be patient, and to be familiar with the requisite dos and donts. So dont offer your range, time, money, or advice if you’re not going to follow the Four Rules and make the experience a welcoming one for all involved.

Hello there. Finally getting to the finishing part of this project. Been getting life out of the way lately.

After sanding the parts surface down to a 1000 grit finish its on to the buffing.  This is my 1 HP floor buffer. it spins at 1850 rpm. Anything above 2200rpm you will have difficultys, it will melt the compounds and embed them in your work,makes a mess too. I use 8 or 10 inch buff wheels. This one is a spiral sewn one. It is medium hard. I use emory compound which is black on this one and is course. On steel it does a remarkable job as you can see here. Sorry I dont have any buffing photos, had no one to take pictures.Now we move on to cleaning with degreasers  at 140 degrees and soap with a distilled water rinse. Once it is clean,on to nickeling. A good quick clean test is dip the part in water and pull it out. If the water runs right off its clean. If the water rolls around an area, that area is not clean. I will have more on this soon.Next pic is ready to drop in nickel tankPic6 The colored plugs are in all the holes in this receiver because we dont want to fill the holes with plating as then the pins wont fit and you will chip the plating.This is my nickel tank. It get heated to 130-140 degrees,has air agitation,comes from the pvc pipe which goes back to a big blower that uses filtered air. Small tank next to it is the nickel rinse tank. Receiver went in for 1 hour and came out like thisNow this gets CAREFULLY washed as you can scratch it. then it is ready for black chrome. Black chrome is just that,black but the nickel shine through it.Chrome gets its shine from the nickel under it, the chrome top coat is like a clear coat over a basecoat paint job. It protects the nickel from the world. I will have more projects soon guys. I appologize  for the delay. Any questions,comments send them in.

Republicans and Democrats are split far apart on abortion and gun laws in general. The funny thing is that Democrats don’t care about polls that disfavor them, but will immediately take to referring to polls that disfavor Republicans. With the 4 gun control measures blocked yesterday, USAToday says that:

“Democrats say the GOP is out of step with the American people, pointing to polls that show a majority want stricter gun laws. An NBC News/Survey Monkey online poll conducted after the Orlando massacre last week found 61% of those surveyed support stricter gun laws; 38% opposed them. The survey also found 60% support a ban on “assault weapons” and 38% oppose it.”

So just because some survey determined stricter gun laws are favorable, we should enact laws that reflect it? There is a lack of process there. Surveys can be inaccurate, but more importantly they do not have the power to destroy the second amendment. By that, I mean that some of the stricter laws suggested are moderately to extremely infringing on our right to bear arms. One such proposal was the Feinstein proposal which was blocked. I know that there are many laws that we- those of us in the firearms community- feel as if our rights are already being infringed upon. But for people to suggest that lawmakers should follow knee-jerk reactions and surveys taken on emotion, and for those people to ignore the right that they do not wish to use is not a clean way to go. Miguel pointed out that gun control people should heed the due process of our rights because they would then sound more reasonable. It would force them to carefully consider what laws they want put in place.

And what does this have to do with abortions? Well, according to CNN polling: “58 percent of Americans oppose all or virtually all abortions” and “only 40 percent of Americans generally favor legalized abortion in most instances.” The article also pulls polls from previous years were the percentage against abortions is in the 60’s. So does this mean to Democrats that anti-abortion laws need to be instantly put in place? Absolutely not. Polls are just estimates to try find out what the percentage of the population agrees or disagrees with. Those who support legal abortions, at least in most cases, point to the ninth and fourteenth amendment. Those are the two amendments that were largely used to decide Roe V. Wade. The ruling under Roe left it so that abortions are legal and laws relating to abortion should be under the standard of strict scrutiny.

So when a poll’s majority says gun laws need to be stricter, Democrats support a democracy and mob rule. However, when poll’s majority say abortions should only be done under strict circumstances, Democrats favor our Constitutional Republic.

On a side note, I absolutely hate the Republican/Democrat splitting on situations purely based on party lines. The two party system is crap, and instead of ideologies, people are choosing to align with an entire party’s ideology when voting. So, I don’t like to just say sweeping things like “Democrats do [insert bad things]”, but in this case of gun and abortion laws I did so because the situation has been a party-line split historically.

An XDS-9 came in the mail today for a customer. I turned the case to the side and there it was: the “NOT LEGAL IN CALIFORNIA” warning.

Always so special, Kali. They take really good care of their citizens there. From special lawnmowers to special (that is, limited) firearms–I’m sure safety has arrived and everyone enjoys an idyllic and bucolic lifestyle.  And with the recent batch of laws, folks on the internet have again turned to debating what can be done, if at all, to stop or reverse firearm legislation there. Some are sure it’s too late now and there is nothing to do; it will continue to get worse. Others say there is perhaps a glimmer of hope, given some recent court rulings, and things would get better.

One of the side effects of prohibitions is that over time you don’t just ban the object or action (or severely limit or control their use) but also eradicate the culture around it. And by culture we don’t mean the core “gun culture” as we identify it, but also all of the peripheral things that go along with it: merely a general awareness by the population at large that guns exist, that people use them, that there are businesses around them, marketers for those businesses and so on. Once that is gone, then it becomes even more difficult for the core gun culture to achieve not just legislative wins but also cultural acceptance. It becomes a bit of a vicious circle: there is no gun freedom because there is no gun freedom to be wanted and demanded. After a few generations nobody will be left to remember what it was like to have it. Granted, in today’s modern world of instant communications and cheap travel, people can see how things are elsewhere, so perhaps a possibility of change for the better. Of course, the upcoming election is likely to determine many things. But that’s another matter altogether…

After a town hall meeting for PBS NewsHour in Elkhart, Indiana, Obama took questions from the audience.

A gun store owner, Doug Rhude, mentioned how people that drive drunk are held responsible for their actions without affecting good drivers. He did this to relate to his next point, “why then do you and Hillary want to control and restrict and limit gun manufacturers, gun owners and responsible use of guns and ammunition to the rest of us, the good guys, instead of holding the bad guys accountable for their actions?”

Obama’s first reply, “First of all, the notion that I or Hillary or Democrats or whoever you want to choose are hell-bent on taking away folks’ guns is just not true.”

He goes on to say that he has never proposed a confiscation from responsible gun owners. He also talks about how driving accidents used to be much worse until studies were done and laws were put in place for better roads, seat belt restrictions, and air bag requirements. Obama then says that any attempt to do the same for guns is immediately seen as destruction of the second amendment.

So, what immediately caught my eye was Obama’s first reaction was to focus on confiscation when Rhude asked about why gun rights are being restricted. He did it to make a point. He compared cars to guns, which is a slippery slope. “When we talked about background checks: if you buy a car, if you want to get a license- first of all you have to license, you have to take a test. People have to know that you know how to drive. You don’t have to do any of that with respect to having a gun.” Comparing licensing with background checks, sure, I can hang with that for a moments discussion. But to say that background checks aren’t done is terribly false. NICS reports that 11,698,006 checks have been done this year. So maybe I misunderstood what he said, but I don’t see what else he could be saying.

Obama’s next talking point is the no-fly list. He claims the government has found people who often visits ISIL/ISIS sites and is a sympathizer. These people is on the no fly list but is allowed to buy a gun, ” ’cause the NRA won’t let me.” Now, most of us here know why this is a weak argument (lack of due process, no official list of people, many people on the list don’t actually belong on the list, etc.). I’m sure he does it to make it seem outrageous to people not familiar with how messed up the system is.

He ends the talk with saying that there is way for common sense gun laws that will not restrict lawful citizens from having guns to use for hunting, sporting, and protection.

Personally, it feels like an empty speech to me. I’ve heard these same things over and over. Obama even called gun violence a public health issue, even though gun homicides are around .4% of U.S.A. deaths each year. I would be open to hear about “common sense” ways to lessen deaths by guns. However, many proposed gun laws just restrict law abiding citizens. Magazine restrictions, gun free zones, and banning certain firearms does not stop a shooting or robbery from happening. Those do negatively affect citizens that wish to have better protection. Even demanding individual sales to have background checks won’t stop strawman purchases. It just places a burden on lawful people wishing to sell a firearm.

That’s about all I have to say about that. The topic was highlighted since the president spoke about it, and I don’t believe much will come from his speech other than more misinformation about the no-fly list.