Gun Free Zone

Via Kurt Hofmann’s Twitter Thingie

Now that was funny. Double your fun when you remember that FDR’s National Recovery Administration, same as the Washington and Chicago Gun Bans, was found unconstitutional by SCOTUS.

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 🙂

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.

When the darlings of your “Anti Gun Violence” movement are a coward:

Colin Goddard

and a Muslim Terrorist:

Adam Gadahn

Seriously Ladd, take a vacation.

Via the Weapon-Blog the reposting Ammoland Aaron Zelman’s letter to Ted Nugent creeps out again. Mr. Zelman ticks out a series of points which he said would have help/convinced him to join the NRA. They are the salient points and foundations of the Jews For The Preservation Of Firearms Ownership, the group he founded.

So Basically Mr. Zelman wanted the NRA to become the JPFO. So why do we need a JPFO after all?

The NRA does not fight in the realm of Hollywood blockbusters where the All-Or-Nothing guy wins at the end. In real life that person loses much more than he ever dreams of winning. In this fight, we barely cannot to lose that big, it is hard enough when we lose little.

If anybody disagrees with what the NRA has achieved, please stand up and reject every single pro-gun law that it has achieved to pass. And then start from Zero. Yes, Big Fat Zero, have Congress take us back to 1968. Don’t be a frigging hypocrite and enjoy the goodies provided by the NRA while bad mouthing it. Put your guns away and don’t dare pulling them out until all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico-Guam-Virgin Islands-etc are under the banner of Constitutional Carry thanks to your efforts and not one single solitary contribution from the NRA and its members.

Otherwise shut the hell up and direct your “pissiness” against Brady, VPC, CSGV and the rest. Stop attacking your fellow Gun Owners.

Paul Helmke throws a major hissy fit and gets picked up by the Orlando Sentinel.

“Given that Florida has some of the highest violent crimes rates in the nation, some of the weakest gun laws, and a gun death rate higher than the national average, Gov. Rick Scott and the legislators cowered by the gun lobby should know better than to support any measure that makes Floridians more vulnerable to guns.”

Of course, things are not so well in Mr. Helmke’s neighborhood. Washington DC where Mr. Helmke lives and has strict gun control laws has a murder rate of 22 per 100,000 in 2010. (Data: District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department & Census Bureau). Florida has “some of the weakest gun laws” according to Mr. Helmke, yet it  had a murder rate of 5.3 per 100,000 in 2010. (Data Florida Department of Law Enforcement & Census Bureau) and the US Murder Rate for 2009: 5 per 100,000. (Data: FBI Uniform Crime Report). That means that Mr. Hemkle is somewhat right but only if you account for hyperbole: Florida’s crime rate is 0.3 percent higher than the Nation’s average but DC’s is actually 400%+ higher that the country or Florida.

Overall, violent crimes across the board in the Gunshine State have dropped according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

If their cause is so noble, why do they resort to lies? Why must they resort to hyperbole? Because their cause is not so noble after all.