I’ve got a lot of stories saved up to blog about, but like a lot of folks, have things to do besides blog. As such, I’ve got a large number of those news stories that are still worthy of comment, but not timely enough any more for full posts. So here goes with a few of those:
There’s no longer room at the inn at a Manhattan church that’s sheltering Occupy Wall Streeters after a holy vessel disappeared from the altar last week.
When the Rev. Bob Brashear prepared for Sunday services at West Park Presbyterian Church on West 86th Street, he noticed parts of the bronze baptismal font were gone.
In a fire-and-brimstone message to occupiers later that day, he thundered, “It was like pissing on the 99 percent.”
In Brooklyn, at another church housing OWS protesters, an occupier urinated on a cross, according to Rabbi Chaim Gruber, who has angrily abandoned the OWS movement.
…
The artifact vanished just three weeks after a $2,400 Apple MacBook vanished from Brashear’s office. He told the occupiers that even when the 100-year-old Upper West Side church extended help to addicts during the 1980s drug scourge, no visitors touched its $12,500 sacramental instrument.
“Not even crackheads messed with that,” he said.
Occupy Wall Street: Piss-spraying desecrating thieves that are worse than crackheads.
‘This is a very private room,’ he said. The next thing I knew, he was standing in front of me, his face inches away, his eyes staring directly into mine.
He placed both hands on my shoulders and guided me toward the edge of the bed. I landed on my elbows, frozen halfway between sitting up and lying on my back.
Slowly, he unbuttoned the top of my shirtdress and…
And if you don’t believe it, notice the video is from Stars and Stripes. And so is this story:
This week, 14 noncommissioned officers at Camp Zama took turns wearing the “pregnancy simulators” as they stretched, twisted and exercised during a three-day class that teaches them to serve as fitness instructors for pregnant soldiers and new mothers.
Army enlisted leaders all over the world are being ordered to take the Pregnancy Postpartum Physical Training Exercise Leaders Course, or PPPT, according to U.S. Army Medical Activity Japan health promotion educator Jana York.
Somewhere, there is a balance to be struck on gender issues between having a Democrat president exploit his position to overwhelm and overpower a 19 year-old girl and the PC-gone-totally-weirdo idea of strapping a “pregnancy simulator” on Army Sergeants.
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(Yes, technically field daying the folder would mean cleaning it into nothingness, but I’m just going to use it as a term to title & tag these clean-up posts.)
The Fort Collins company, which makes sights, recoil pads and other accessories, started in 1996. But like Magpul Industries Inc. of Boulder County, HiViz said it’s not happy with the gun control measures approved by the Colorado Legislature and signed into law by Gov. John Hickenlooper. Magpul Industries announced last month it will be leaving Colorado.
Pass anti-gun bills, expect gun companies to leave. Leftists are happy with this, but that’s because there’s still someone making guns for their enforcers, and other than that, they want to destroy all gun companies. They will find that their enforcers will be denied a lot of tools now, though.
“I make this announcement with mixed emotions,” Phillip Howe, president and CEO of HiViz, said in a statement. “Colorado is a beautiful state with great people, but we cannot in clear conscience support with our taxes a state that has proven through recent legislation a willingness to infringe upon the constitutional rights of our customer base.”
HiViz gets it. And they’ll be keeping their customer base by supporting them.
If there’s a silver lining for all the people who were eagerly waiting for that Troy Carbine and were vastly dissappointed, it’s that Dick’s isn’t doing so well in the financial department.
At a time where the only thing a company has to do to sell firearms, ammo and accessories is to unlock their doors, Dick’s sales have flat-lined. In fact, their sales dropped 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 compared to 2011 and their shares 10 percent in the last quarter.
Dick’s CEO pointed his finger squarely at, well, Lance Armstrong. “People had a very negative reaction to the Livestrong brand,” he said at an earnings report.
Except while Dick’s sales are going soft, other companies are doing quite well. Cabela’s has been doing very well due to firearm sales – and those firearm sales have brought people in to the store to buy other products as well:
“First-quarter results exceeded our expectations on every line of the income statement,” said Cabela’s Tommy Millner. “In addition to expected increases in firearms and ammunition sales, we saw particularly strong performance in softgoods and footwear.”
Cabela’s at the floor level has a general approach within the company that it’s best to underpromise and overdeliver, and that may well extend to their higher levels as well.
“Without firearms and ammunition, same-stores sales increased just 9 percent — still strong, but clearly much of Cabela’s growth was driven by gun buyers,” wrote Jeremy Bowman of the Motley Fool. ”As the stock has now tripled in the past year and a half, investors may want to take a cue from their senators and sell while the stock is hot.”
We suspect it’s a bit early to start bailing on Cabela’s, that gun sales will stay strong for the coming months. What we can be sure on, however, is that while this boom is also a bubble, Dick’s failed to get in on much if any of it.
Cabela’s is wise enough to know that people are coming for the guns, but staying for the rest of the store, and that guns sales are a government-induced artificial bubble. They probably will be continuing to do very well, even if their stock price begins to plateau.
Demand is still exceeding supply, and the bubble increase in demand (assuming the government doesn’t get progressively more tyrannical and spin us into Mad Max territory), is going to end up leaving an ultimately higher permanent demand than existed before the bubble started.
Some people are getting into the gun market so they can get their homeland security rifle and that’s it.
Some are getting into it because they think it’s a “last chance”, and some are getting into it because of concerns that guns will be more difficult to acquire – not a last chance, but a last easy option. Some are getting into it because others are, and they want to see what it’s all about.
The public’s interest in firearms will have changed by the millions of votes in favor of the Second Amendment – the millions of votes not made at the ballot box, but with the money in Americans’ wallets.
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The American public is still taking the Brain Gremlin’s advice:
This has been done a few times here, addressing the initial 450 million rounds of JHP, then addressing it with Social Security’s investigators, and then debunking it again, but the story of DHS’s millions and billions of rounds keeps resurfacing. And it’s good to ask questions, but some of them have answers that have already been given, and others are answers that just aren’t was widely known because they’re just a bit specific and technical.
Homeland Security’s procurement officer is grilled in Congress on why federal agents who rarely fire weapons need several times more bullets annually than an Army officer. Who or what are they shooting at?
Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz on Thursday asked Nick Nayak, DHS’ chief procurement officer, a question we and others have been asking: Why has the Department of Homeland Security been buying so much ammunition?
The military doesn’t actually shoot that much. Military personnel walk around on base unarmed, and their issued weapons are locked up in armories, stored far from ammunition (hence why civilian security stopped Hasan at Ft. Hood). There just isn’t that much shooting done – for example, rifle qualification in the Marine Corps has been an annual thing for years. Infantry may fire more rifle or machinegun rounds, armor crews may fire more machinegun rounds, but admin and intel and logistics and motor T and the like will fire maybe once a year.
By contrast, federal law enforcement goes everywhere armed. They even fly armed. Pistol, rifle, and shotgun qualification for federal law enforcement is often a quarterly event. They carry guns every day, everywhere, in contrast to the military, which carries when deployed or on assignment, and sometimes not even then.
Law enforcement often operates as individuals who encounter violent criminals who are an immediate, personal threat to their lives. The military operates as a large group, and in such a manner that overwhelming force is used to prevent losses. A law enforcement officer is responsible for their own safety in an immediate and personal way, and can only fire when personally threatened. The soldier, sailor, airman or Marine is responsible for his own safey as well, but in a different way, and very rarely is he alone, and he can fire when a target is present – whether or not that target is a personal threat to his own life. The law enforcement officer usually can’t run and hide from a thug with a knife 10 feet away, but the soldier can usually take cover from fire 500 yards away and call for an airstrike.
Apples and oranges.
Chaffetz notes that DHS is currently sitting on more than 260 million rounds of ammunition. Their current claimed rate of expending bullets works out to between 1,300 and 1,600 rounds per officer each year, while the Army averages 350 per officer. Nyak agreed with the math, but insisted that DHS goes through roughly that amount every year, almost exclusively for training. But if it’s for training, there’s another question to be answered.
Another question is why so many hollow-point bullets are being purchased?
Federal law enforcement fires a lot more rounds per year. They shoot a lot more. They are issued ammunition for training and duty, and that ammo is the same. The last thing you want to do is issue out some full metal jacket ammo for training and have someone carry it to the field. The reason jacketed hollow points are used is because they’re very effective at energy transfer. They’re good for stopping bad guys.
And that’s what law enforcement does. Law enforcement shoots to stop. Not to kill, but to stop an immediate, personal threat on the officer’s life.
That’s an important distinction, and one that needs to be made.
Full metal jacket rounds penetrate easily, but don’t do as much energy transfer. They don’t create wounds that are immediately disabling the same way that JHP rounds do. There is a plethora of information about this on the internet.
Full metal jacket:
Jacketed hollow point:
The duty and training ammo is the same because the agent training with it will know how it fires, how it recoils, and they’ll know how to handle it. FMJ loads do not recoil the same out of a defensive pistol as a JHP duty/defensive round, either. Ammunition is manufactured to its use, and JHP is manufactured to have to stop a threat, so the ammo is hotter, and recoils differently, which has effects on follow-up shots.
Pistol rounds in FMJ are not the best there is for self-defense, and are often wholly inadequate.
The duty and training ammo is also the same because if the agent were to bring a magazine loaded with FMJ to the field, and if the agent needed to stop a threat, the rounds wouldn’t perform as well. If that threat overpowered him and the agent was killed, his family would have a pretty decent basis for a lawsuit on their hands. Even if it were found to be the dead agent’s fault, the lawsuit would be expensive, as would the loss of an agency’s investment in a trained agent.
How many millions of dollars would that be, and how many millions would the repercussions be as compared to just buying JHP for everything? Bean counters do those kind of numbers and find it’s probably easier just to spend the money once and just use JHP.
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There have also been specific incidents in which FMJ rounds have been used in the field by federal law enforcement, and failed.
In 2009, a Border Patrol BORTAC unit in Arizona tracking rip crews ran into an armed smuggler group, one of whom decided to engage one of the BORTAC members with a revolver. The BORTACer did what he could to try to avert the attack by attempting to blind and disorient the smuggler with a high-power flashlight and get the subject to surrender. Even knowing he was spotted and caught, the smuggler turned to fire. The BORTACer had to fire 14 rounds with his rifle, 11 of which hit his assailant. The first 10 were center-of-mass hits, and did not stop the attacker. The smuggler, despite receiving 10 wounds from a rifle, was still able to fire all 6 rounds from his revolver at the agent. What stopped the attacker was the last round – a headshot. The ammunition used by the BORTACer was 55 grain FMJ.
Would the smuggler have died due to the FMJ in the body? Yes, later. But as demonstrated, it did not stophis attack.
The law enforcement officer is responsible for all of his rounds. He’s not shooting in a war zone. The military soldier, sailor, airman or Marine is not responsible in the same way for every round he fires.
HotAir quotes IBD here:
As former Marine Richard Mason recently told reporters with WHPTV News in Pennsylvania, hollow-points (which make up the bulk of the DHS purchases) are not used for training because they are more expensive than standard firing-range rounds. “We never trained with hollow points. We didn’t even see hollow points my entire 4-1/2 (years) in the Marine Corps,” Mason said.
As already noted, with pistols especially, performance is different, both for training purposes and especially for application purposes in the field.
The reason the Marine Corps doesn’t train with hollow points is twofold. One is that the Hague Convention of 1899 outlawed the use of soft points and hollow points (so even though the US didn’t agree, they weren’t exactly in use much), and the other more important reasons are that the military may have to engage targets through concealment and/or cover, or to destroy materiel as well as personnel.
A JHP round will deform when it hits an object, as it’s supposed to mushroom out and cause more immediate damage to an immediate assailant that needs to be stopped RFN. An FMJ round is much more likely to penetrate objects and still retain some performance, enough to cause disabling wounds or injuries which will take a combatant out of the fight, even if it’s a few minutes later from blood loss.
For example, federal law enforcement is unlikely to shoot through walls or doors because they have to be sure of their target, and prove ability, opportunity, and intent of a lethal force threat to be legally justified in a shooting. If someone runs into a building to hide, you probably don’t keep shooting, because they’re probably no longer an immediate lethal force threat. It’s time to call the negotiators and sit.
By contrast, if a Marine or soldier has a target that runs into a building to hide, shooting through walls or doors is quite often an option. That’s because the person they’re going after isn’t even called a threat, but a target. The military doesn’t have to wait to fire in self defense (discussions of bad ROEs aside), the military identifieds targets and destroys them. Law enforcement reacts to threats.
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JHP and FMJ rounds are used for different things. DHS knows enough to buy it cheap and stack it deep, just like serious citizens have done for decades. That’s just a matter of economics. Is it good to ask questions? Absolutely.
But it would be better to find out what Napolitano knows about terrorists that get in the country, and maybe why she’s allowed to not answer questions.
Or why Eric Holder, who’s killed DHS personnel in ICE and USBP through his Fast and Furious program, isn’t in prison.
Every time Congress has taken a serious look at proposals to boost Internet sales taxes, it has rejected them. That’s probably why pro-tax Senators are trying to rush through an online tax hike with as little consideration as possible.
As early as Monday, the Senate will vote on a bill that was introduced only last Tuesday. The text of this legislation, which would fundamentally change interstate commerce, only became available on the Library of Congress website over the weekend. And you thought ObamaCare was jammed through Nancy Pelosi‘s Democratic House in a hurry.
For Senators curious about what they’re voting on, it is the same flawed proposal that Mike Enzi (R., Wyo.) introduced in February. It has been repackaged to qualify for a Senate rule that allows Majority Leader Harry Reid to bypass committee debate and bring it straight to the floor.
Yup, rushing it through, no committee debate, no discussion, no time for input.
Mr. Enzi’s Marketplace Fairness Act discriminates against Internet-based businesses by imposing burdens that it does not apply to brick-and-mortar companies.
Almost every bill these days has an Orwellian name. There is nothing “fair” about this act.
For the first time, online merchants would be forced to collect sales taxes for all of America’s estimated 9,600 state and local taxing authorities.
New Hampshire, for example, has no sales tax, but a Granite State Web merchant would be forced to collect and remit sales taxes to all the governments that do. Small online sellers will therefore have to comply with tax laws created by distant governments in which they have no representation, and in places where they consume no local services.
Meanwhile, New Hampshire’s brick-and-mortar retailers will bear no such burden. They will not be required to collect taxes on the many customers who drive across the Maine and Massachusetts borders to shop in New Hampshire. Bill sponsors say it would be too big a hassle to force traditional retailers to ask every walk-in customer where they live, but these Senators are happy to impose new obligations online.
What this does is it creates barriers to competition for the online marketplace. It’s cronyism – the physical stores are having government be their thug enforcer.
Right now, internet companies have the advantage of reduced taxes, and they have a broad customer base, as they have access to any customer with internet access. Brick-and-mortar stores have the advantage of specific taxes (no use tax), no shipping charges, and they allow customers to actually see what they’re buying before they purchase it.
Brick-and-mortar stores have the added cost of maintaining a store; but only suffer online disadvantages if they don’t expand their business online. Some online businesses have already dominated certain markets, but with the viability of searches and search engines that will help the consumer seek out the best price, all they have to do is offer the best product at the lowest price. That’s capitalism.
What the brick-and-mortar stores want now is to force their online competitors to suffer the myriad of regulations that exist throughout the nation. Making a medium-sized online business (something like OpticsPlanet, for example) know every state, city, township, county, municipality and local district’s tax status might be possible, but it will drive their prices up as they hire lawyers. Making a little business comply with the same regulations is an exercise in using government to destroy competition.
In general, that’s the case, because Walmart usually exemplifies free markets. In this particular instance, however, Walmart has looked at its balance sheet and decided that it’s in its best interest to use government force to crush its competitors. Walmart does provide a lot of good for its customers, but ultimately Walmart is only a creature as moral as the system it exists in. When it recognizes the demands of customers and represents them, it does well and is as moral as its customers who drive it; when Walmart exploits the governmental system that lets it collude with the IRS to destroy competitors, it’s as villainous as the vampiric politicians who enable it.
Any Internet seller with more than $1 million in annual sales would be forced to serve all of the nation’s tax collectors.
Note that says “$1 million in annual sales”. That doesn’t mean $1 million in profit. A company could barely be breaking even after expenses and find itself destroyed by the taxation burden and regulations it now has to wade through. The red tape would be monstrous.
This bill, and all federal bills like it also tax citizens in addition to state-baseduse taxes. The citizen is already hit for taxes if they buy things out of state when they do their end-of-year state taxes (there’s often a “minimum use tax” whether or not you bought anything online), and now they’ll be hit for taxes from the business. This is a federal bill to make you pay more taxes for products, taxes which most every state is already assessing you for.
This rush to tax is an attempt to overturn the Supreme Court’s 1992 decision in Quill v. North Dakota that forcing businesses to collect and remit taxes to jurisdictions where they have no physical presence was too big a burden.
In Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, the Supreme Court ruled that a business must have a physical presence in a state for that state to require it to collect sales taxes. However, the court explicitly stated that Congress can overrule the decision through legislation.
The power to tax is again the power to destroy.
The WSJ piece ends with this:
Some of our conservative friends are backing this Internet tax raid as a way to raise revenue to avoid more state income-tax increases. More likely the new revenues will merely fund larger government.
They aren’t conservatives. They’re RINOs. Raising taxes reduces the benefits for producers, and increases the demands on consumers. People will make less money per unit, so they will make fewer units; people will pay more per unit, so they will buy fewer units. Volume will decline, consumers will suffer, and all but the chosen winner businesses and the redistributor politicians will suffer. “Revenues”, a polite way to say government taking from you (while giving you nothing that you need), will not be increased. It will simply fund more pet projects of worthless “representatives” who will seek to bring home pork barrel projects to get themselves reelected. This is Bastiat’s example of everyone plundering everyone.
If you want to steal from the people of the US in order to line your filthy thieving nest with taxes that destroy businesses, this is one way to do it. If you’re a scum-sucking almost-obsolescent whip-and-buggy maker who wants to make sure no one can be more successful than you and that their businesses are destroyed so you can feast on their carcasses, this is a great tool to use government force to destroy their success because you’re too lazy to earn it yourself; all the while screwing over your customers because you’re too weak to make an honest buck.
It’s forcible redistribution, government finding the winners and crushing them at the behest of the losers and subsidizing the losers that harm the consumer.
Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada) mocked Second Amendment rights activists while announcing his support for a ban on assault weapons and limits to high-capacity magazine clips on the Senate floor today.
REID: In the 1920s, organized crime was committing murders with machine guns. So Congress dramatically limited the sale and transfer of machine guns. As a result, machine guns all but disappeared from the streets. We can and should take the same common-sense approach to safeguard Americans from modern weapons of war.
Starting from the end of this statement and working back, modern weapons of war aren’t legal (without a lot of licensing) precisely because of the National Firearms Act of 1934 that Reid is alluding to. But wait, you say – the National Firearms Act came out in 1934? Yes, yes it did.
Frustrated that people continued to consume so much alcohol even after it was banned, federal officials had decided to try a different kind of enforcement. They ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohols manufactured in the United States, products regularly stolen by bootleggers and resold as drinkable spirits. The idea was to scare people into giving up illicit drinking. Instead, by the time Prohibition ended in 1933, the federal poisoning program, by some estimates, had killed at least 10,000 people.
Although mostly forgotten today, the “chemist’s war of Prohibition” remains one of the strangest and most deadly decisions in American law-enforcement history. As one of its most outspoken opponents, Charles Norris, the chief medical examiner of New York City during the 1920s, liked to say, it was “our national experiment in extermination.”
Early progressives had decided that intemperance needed to be squashed, even if it meant murdering some 10,000 citizens who drink by having government poison them.
The 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition in 1933, and just like that, the revenue stream for bootleggers and organized crime evaporated overnight. Coupled with the beginning of the Great Depression exacerbated by FDR’s policies impacting the entire economy, organized crime wasn’t making the same kind of money and thus it wasn’t the same threat it was in the 1920s.
Reid continued saying he’d vote for Feinstein’s “Assault” Weapons Ban:
That is why I will vote for Senator Dianne Feinstein’s assault weapons ban – because we must strike a better balance between the right to defend ourselves and the right of every child in America to grow up safe from gun violence. I will vote for the ban because maintaining law and order is more important than satisfying conspiracy theorists who believe in black helicopters and false flags. I will vote for the ban because saving the lives of young police officers and innocent civilians is more important than preventing imagined tyranny.
There is no “balance” as you move towards tyranny, even if you mock those who warn of tyranny. There can be no right to grow up safe. These are wonderful abstract concepts that are high-minded, but impossible. You cannot “grow up safe”. The world cannot be made into a safe place.
“Maintaining law and order” would mean enforcing laws first. Obama doesn’t even enforce gun laws. Mocking people who oppose the bill as conspiracy theorists just means you don’t have an argument.
Lastly, Reid claiming to want to save the lives of young police officers by destroying the Second Amendment they swear an oath to – as part of the Constitution, just means that he cares about protecting organs of the state but not about the rights of the people – the same rights that cop swears to uphold.
As to “saving the lives of innocent civilians” being more important that “preventing imagined tyranny”, scroll back up and read about the Chemist’s War. The US government actively poisoned people in order to push its Progressive “good idea” of Prohibition, whether people wanted it or not. The same time that the Senate was looking at banning machineguns, the same government was poisoning people. Also in the early 1930s, not only was the government banning the right to own machineguns “for the greater good”, they were also infecting black people with syphilis as guinea pigs in the Tuskegee experiment. There were also forced sterilizations and such going on in the name of eugenic racial improvement, another Progressive idea, all “for the greater good”.
Reid, just like politicians at that time would’ve, is arguing that people should surrender their rights for their own good because government really wants to help them… It wants to help them so much it murders them for their own good – from poisoning people to support Prohibition to sending guns to narcoterrorist cartels to kill people to support gun control.
There is no “imagined tyranny”, there are just increasing levels of tyranny. With history as our guide, we know we need to stay well-armed to stay safe, and we know that a government that mocks us ultimately means us harm. They aren’t by, for, and of the people.
Harry Reid is also indulging in the Broken Window Fallacy. The complaints he makes today about protecting children and cops are ones that are visible. The tyranny that others warn against isn’t here yet, and takes time to materialize. But this isn’t some Manbearpig fantasy, we have all of human history to see the repetition of tyranny as Innocents Betrayed illustrates above. We know what happens when governments get powerful. We have seen the US government in the last four years send guns to narcoterrorist cartels and hush it up afterwards. We have seen the US government poison over 10,000 people just to push Prohibition.
There is no imagined tyranny. It exists, creeping, always encroaching, and always there.
BERLIN (AP) — German authorities launched dawn raids on the homes of over 200 suspected tax cheats Tuesday, acting on information gleaned from a CD containing the confidential account details of thousands of Swiss bank clients.
There’s no way that Germans launching mass raids on groups of people they feel are moneygrubbing hoarders… yeah… there’s no way this could go wrong.
Then again, the German police knocking on Timmy Geithner‘s door and asking for “income tax papers, please”, might not be so bad.
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There’s a joke about the difference between heaven and hell, and how it’s just a matter of who does what jobs.
In heaven, the English are the cops, the Germans are the engineers, the French are the lovers, the Italians are the cooks, and the Swiss run everything.
In hell, the English are the cooks, the Italians are the engineers, the Swiss are the lovers, the Germans are the cops, and the French run everything.
HARTFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork) — Connecticut state lawmakers came to an agreement Monday on what they said will become some of the nation’s toughest gun control laws.
Connecticut state lawmakers came to an agreement Monday on what they said will become some of the nations toughest laws that infringe on the right of the citizen, bragging that they’ve done more to squash the puny serfs than anyone this week, all through “agreement” between one ruling group and another ruling group on what they should do to the peon citizen.
As CBS 2′s Lou Young reported, the deal included a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines, such as the one that was used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre in Newtown. The deal also calls for a new registry for existing high-capacity magazines, and background checks that would apply to private gun sales.
One small step for a tyrant, one giant leap for tyranny!
Another registry would be set up for dangerous weapons offenders.
Y’know, we used to not put dangerous people on a list. We used to put them in prison until they either learned and stopped being dangerous, or until they just stopped being.
Connecticut House Speaker Brendan Sharkey (D-Hamden) said he hopes the agreement sends a message to Washington, and the rest of the country.
“This is the way to get this job done; to do it in an effective, meaningful, thoughtful way, and to do it on a bipartisan basis, because our children deserve no less,” Sharkey said.
It sends a message that the Second Amendment shall be infringed, and sends a message that, on a bipartisan basis, between different stripes of tyrant, our children deserve to grow up in a society in which the state will dictate to them what they may do, and how they may do it, because the state knows best for the little people, who all need to be controlled, lorded over, supervised, and taken care of.
Criminal background checks would now be required of all prospective gun purchasers. Currently, federal law exempts so-called private transactions, which can include online sales and sales at gun shows.
So-called “private transactions” between so-called “private citizens” who think they’re so-called “free men” whose lives shouldn’t be subject to “so-called” tyranny and control by government.
Where do you buy guns online? Every online gun shop I see requires a transfer via FFL holder, as does every private seller on Gunbroker or Auction Arms. The only exceptions are antiques. Is there really a problem with blackpowder pistols being sold online?
In a compromise, legislators did not ban existing ammunition magazines of more than 10 rounds. Instead, already purchased high-capacity magazines will have to be registered.
In a compromise, citizens’ rights were only partially stripped, and rights that citizens thought they had will now have to be registered, though the state may be unsure of when they acquired these “rights”, so they may have to surrender them anyway, and they may not be able to pass these rights on to their children. It’s a compromise in which you compromise your rights, and the state increases its power. What a wonderful compromise! Just the tip, baby.
Gun control advocates in Sacramento are putting a new twist on an old NRA slogan: “Guns don’t kill people — bullets kill people.”
Democratic lawmakers are pushing like never before to regulate or tax ammunition sales. They say the logic is simple: A firearm is nothing but an expensive paperweight without ammunition.
And a printing press is nothing without ink, and a computer is nothing without electricity. Goodbye, Bill of Rights, hello tyranny!
“It’s a way to red-tape the right to bear arms to death,” said Chuck Michel, the California Rifle and Pistol Association’s attorney, promising to sue if any such bills pass. “It’s all part of a campaign of shame, the fight to make it as difficult as possible for law-abiding citizens to make the choice to have a firearm for self-defense.”
As lawmakers mull how to curb gun violence in the wake of December’s massacre of school children in Newtown, Conn., some note that California and federal laws also forbid those who aren’t allowed to own firearms from owning ammunition — but there’s no way to tell who’s buying it.
Skinner’s bill would require all ammo dealers to be licensed and all ammo buyers to provide identification information that would go to a state registry. The registry could then be compared with a state database of people prohibited from owning guns and ammo because of crimes, mental health issues or other reasons. It also would tip police to massive purchases.
Because a RIGHT means begging the state for a license.
Another bill, SB53 by state Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, would require a background check and an estimated $50 fee for a one-year permit to buy ammunition.
Because a RIGHT means begging the state for a license.
10 percent tax on ammunition to fund crime prevention — might merge with another lawmaker’s proposed nickel-per-round tax to fund mental-health screening for children. Bonta, D-Oakland, said his tax is mostly about generating money to “combat the gun violence in our communities,” but could have the “secondary benefit” of stemming “rampant sales.”
These are a couple boxes of .22s, with Indiana Jones and a horse for scale:
That’s 1100 rounds. In the beforetimes, back before the panic, that would run you about $20/box, so $40 total (a few years prior, before QE and metals prices spikes and Obama, they’d be $10/box). With a nickel tax per round, you’d be looking at a $27.50 tax per box. So even at recent prices, the price would go from $20/box to $47.50/box.
That $40 couple of boxes there would be $95. And that’s before local sales taxes.
The power to tax is the power to destroy.
- Chief Justice John Marshall
Shall not be infringed means shall not be infringed. Except to the ruling class, to whom it means, “license, regulate, tax, eliminate, shut up, destroy, destroy, EXTERMINATE!”:
AB 48 by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley — Would require ammunition sellers to be licensed; ammunition purchasers to show identification; ammunition sellers to report all sales to the state Justice Department, which would create a registry of ammunition purchases. First hearing: April 2.
AB 187 by Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland — Would impose a 10 percent tax on all ammunition sold in the state, with the revenue directed to a fund for crime-prevention efforts in the state’s high-crime areas. No hearing date set.
AB 760 by Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento — Would impose a 5-cent tax on each bullet sold in California, dedicating the revenue to an existing program to screen young children for mild to moderate mental illness — and intervene with strategies to address their problems. First hearing: April 15.
SB 53 by state Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles — Would require anyone buying ammunition to first pass a background check and receive a one-year permit, for an estimated $50 fee, from the state Justice Department. First hearing: April 16.
And in Congress, because the Second Amendment can’t be infringed enough at the state level:
S.35, the Stop Online Ammunition Sales Act of 2013, by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. — Would require face-to-face purchases of ammunition, require licensing of ammunition dealers and reporting of bulk purchases of ammunition. A companion bill in the House, HR142, is sponsored by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y.
S.174, the Ammunition Background Check Act of 2013, by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. — Would require an instant background check for the purchase of ammunition and would restore pre-1986 requirements that sellers track their inventory and keep records of their customers. Purchases of 1,000 rounds or more, or thefts of large amounts of ammunition, would have to be reported to law enforcement.
In regular old economics, we’re talking about the government establishing a barrier to entry for you as a citizen in order to stop you from exercising your rights.
The bill would require gun buyers to provide proof of insurance from a company approved by a state insurance regulatory authority for “losses resulting from use of the firearm while it is owned by the purchaser.” In a nutshell, you need to take out a preemptive policy for any violence you might inflict with your firearm — which doesn’t really make sense, because the people inflicting non-defensive gun violence are criminals anyway. This is just another poorly disguised legislative attempt to deter gun ownership, and man, talk about regressive! Looks like self-defense is only for people who can afford to take out an extra insurance policy.
The oh-so-esteemed bureaucrats at the United Nations have been looking to slap some regulations on the small arms trade via an international treaty for quite some time, but the United States has never really cottoned on to that idea. The Senate has to ratify all treaties by a two-thirds majority, and in one of the amendment votes to their budget just last month, the Senate voted 53-46 to specifically prevent the U.S. from signing on to the U.N.’s proposed Arms Trade Treaty.
The Obama administration don’t care. The president expressed a willingness to get behind such a thing near the start of his tenure, conspicuously backing off as last November’s election approached but then jumping right back on the progressive globalist bandwagon.
The Senate, however, has vowed to block ratification, which requires a two-thirds majority and is needed for the treaty to be legally binding on the U.S.
Allowing magazines that carry 10 or more bullets to remain in the hands of gun owners would leave a gaping loophole in the law, said Mark Barden, whose 7-year-old son, Daniel, was killed in the shooting.
“It doesn’t prevent someone from going out of the state to purchase them and then bring them back. There’s no way to track when they were purchased, so they can say, ‘I had this before,’” Barden said. “So it’s a big loophole.”
This is where things get unpleasant. It’s very difficult to explain to someone who’s still in the throes of grief that the rights that we as American citizens have recognized by our Constitution are in fact natural rights, and also rights that are inherently necessary to protect ourselves as individuals and as a group from tyranny small and large. It’s very difficult to explain to someone that their son shouldn’t have been murdered because the mental health system, which has stigmatized mental health so severely, has made it so people who need help or who should simply be locked away can get help or can be secured far from normal society.
It’s very difficult to break past that wall and explain to people that the very real fears of government tyranny are very real fears – because governments invariably end up becoming tyrannical unless they’re kept in check. It’s very difficult to penetrate that wall of grief and explain that restricting the rights of American citizens, infringing on their natural rights of self-defense, giving the state more power over their lives, and ultimately putting flawed men who are in government charge of those of us citizens will never bring his son back.
It will never bring his son back, and it will never prevent the Bath School Disaster, or the World Trade Center bombing in 93, the Oklahoma City bombing in 95 – but it will cause the Amanda Collins of the world to be raped again. It will enable government use of force against a disarmed citizenry. It will enable police brutality and governmental corruption. It will lead to a nation where there are the Rulers and the Ruled.
It may not do it tomorrow, and it may not do it in idyllic Connecticut, but it will. History is very harsh, and history is right. History shows us what will happen, and history shows that the only place where governmental tyranny has been stymied is in nations where the people retain the individual power to resist oppression.
Sadly, it’s a very big picture and someone grieving for a lost child is unlikely to look at the big picture and wonder if they are not asking for something that not only would have not, could have not, and cannot save their lost child, but that will ultimately make the world a more dangerous, repressive, destructive place where hundreds, thousands, or millions of children might die because of his requests.
Men and women are three-part beings. We all consist of body, soul, and spirit. When we refuse to acknowledge a third part of our make-up, we create a void that allows evil, prejudice, and hatred to rush in and reek havoc.
“Spiritual presences were present within our educational systems for most of our nation’s history. Many of our major colleges began as theological seminaries. This is a historical fact.
“What has happened to us as a nation? We have refused to honor God, and in so doing, we open the doors to hatred and violence.
“And when something as terrible as Columbine’s tragedy occurs — politicians immediately look for a scapegoat such as the NRA. They immediately seek to pass more restrictive laws that contribute to erode away our personal and private liberties.
“We do not need more restrictive laws. Eric and Dylan would not have been stopped by metal detectors. No amount of gun laws can stop someone who spends months planning this type of massacre. The real villain lies within our own hearts.
“We do not need more religion. We do not need more gaudy television evangelists spewing out verbal religious garbage. We do not need more million dollar church buildings built while people with basic needs are being ignored.
“We do need a change of heart and a humble acknowledgement that this nation was founded on the principle of simple trust in God!
“As my son Craig lay under that table in the school library and saw his two friends murdered before his very eyes–He did not hesitate to pray in school. I defy any law or politician to deny him that right!
“I challenge every young person in America , and around the world, to realize that on April 20, 1999 , at Columbine High School prayer was brought back to our schools. Do not let the many prayers offered by those students be in vain.
Our dear leader that resides in the glorious District of Columbia has issued a proclamation concerning the month of April:
Official photographic portrait of US President Barack Obama (born 4 August 1961; assumed office 20 January 2009) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
All Americans deserve the chance to turn their hard work into a decent living for their families and a bright future for their children. Seizing that opportunity takes more than drive and initiative — it also requires smart financial planning. During National Financial Capability Month, we recommit to empowering individuals and families with the knowledge and tools they need to get ahead in today’s economy.
Listen to our dear leader he knows what he’s talking about look at the financial success of our glorious country basking in deficits numbering in the trillions, by spending more money than his 43 predecessors. The great one wishes to empower his subjects by encouraging each citizen to use his credit with the evil banks, charging their cards to the maximum balance and then when we can no longer afford our debts, cause the evil banks destruction allowing the savior to take control and throw the evil bankers in jail. Don’t worry comrades the leader has more to say!
My Administration is dedicated to helping people make sound decisions in the marketplace. Last year, we partnered with businesses and community leaders to roll out new public and private commitments to increasing financial literacy. We released a new financial capability toolkit to help schools and employers as they launch their own initiatives. And with our College Scorecard and Financial Aid Shopping Sheet, we are working to give families clear, transparent information on college costs so they can make good choices when they invest in higher education. Together, we can prepare young people to tackle financial challenges — from learning how to budget responsibly to saving for college, starting a business, or opening a retirement account.
Our glorious leader has made it his policy to see that each and every one of the unwashed masses has the ability to succeed in the evil capitalist marketplace. He will raise taxes on the evil rich and give it to the hard-working workers. He has previously helped the low by giving out abacuses, and giving out large amounts money to record numbers of the proletariat who can longer find work in our excellent state-run and regulated industries. Our leader has also promised to find ways to send your children to places of higher learning where they can be properly indoctrinated to be excellent workers for the state and to not question the infallible knowledge and wisdom of our esteemed leadership in Washington. These children will be the pillars that the state shall be built on in the coming years, and with the guidance of our great leader this all can be made possible. Don’t worry comrades there’s more:
We also know that too many families are living paycheck-to-paycheck, unable to take advantage of tools that would help them plan for a middle class life. That is why we must build ladders of opportunity for everyone willing to climb them — from a fair minimum wage that lifts working Americans out of poverty to high-quality preschool and early education that gets every child on the right track early. These reforms would encourage the kind of broad-based economic growth that gives everyone a better chance to secure their financial future.
Our great leader also knows there are those that suffer in our glorious socialist state. No worries comrades! He will increase your pay at the local collective farm, when that farm can no longer afford that wage DO NOT WORRY! The state will take control of your farms and pay you for you work. We will also begin to teach children at a very young age that the state will take care of them and nurture until they give their lives to the state through years of work or a glorious death in a far away battlefield. Our leader with now close with the following words:
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 2013 as National Financial Capability Month. I call upon all Americans to observe this month with programs and activities to improve their understanding of financial principles and practices.
This is the best part comrades! Our leader has used both his name and a personal pronoun! He is reaffirming his glory and power! He should all bow down and worship the infinite wisdom and laud our great leader and join him in glorious socialist activities of calling the kettles and pots black, whatever that means!
The decision of the government in Cyprus to simply take money out of people’s bank accounts there sent shock waves around the world. People far removed from that small island nation had to wonder: “Can this happen here?”
…
Whether in Cyprus or in other countries, politicians tend to think in short run terms, if only because elections are held in the short run. Therefore, there is always a temptation to do reckless and short-sighted things to get over some current problem, even if that creates far worse problems in the long run.
Seizing money that people put in the bank would be a classic example of such short-sighted policies. After thousands of American banks failed during the Great Depression of the 1930s, there were people who would never put their money in a bank again, even after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was created, to have the federal government guarantee individual bank accounts when the bank itself failed.
But who guarantees the government?
One of the big differences between the United States and Cyprus is that the U.S. government can simply print more money to get out of a financial crisis. But Cyprus cannot print more euros, which are controlled by international institutions.
This new money buys just as much as the money you sacrificed to save for years. More money in circulation, without a corresponding increase in output, means rising prices. Although the numbers in your bank book may remain the same, part of the purchasing power of your money is transferred to the government. Is that really different from what Cyprus has done?
So what’s the solution?
Realistically, Milton Friedman pointed out on many occasions that there really is no way to combat inflation, as it’s created by government. You have to control the government to reign in spending. If you can’t, it’s best to buy things because things hold their value, and if their price is set at pre-inflation prices, you don’t lose as much purchasing power as you pay it off in weaker and weaker fiat currency.
And because quantitative easing really only works until it collapses the nation, the best advice is still this:
ShortTimer
JBH
