Posting tweet...
Powered by Twitter Tools
According to Robert Heinlein's Lazarus Long, a human being should be able to do certain things. Just out of curiousity, I'd like to find out which of these things my readers can do. Can you...
Total Voters: 83
Loading ...Disgraced former governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer recently took time off from being felated by high priced hookers to cowrite an opinion piece for Slate. Why anybody still takes him seriously is something that baffles me, but then again, I fail to see how Ted Kennedy keeps getting elected too.
Enjoy…
In this era of government ownership of financial institutions, we are getting more used to the notion that government as an economic actor can exercise its power in differing ways. After all, firms that received TARP money are subject to a bevy of pay restrictions—wisely constructed or not—and were forced to cancel showy parties and retreats.
If we can use a capital infusion to a bank as an opportunity to control executive compensation and to limit use of private planes, why can’t the government use its weight as the largest purchaser of guns from major manufacturers to reward companies that work to keep their products out of criminals’ hands? Put another way, if it is too difficult to outlaw bad conduct through statutes, why not pay for good conduct? Why not require vendors to change their behavior if they want our tax dollars?
…
More fundamentally, companies could be told to stop selling certain types of weapons to the general public. If a manufacturer did not comply with any of the limitations, then it would be excluded from the list of companies with which the government would do business.
In 2000, this idea’s time had not come. The government did not so boldly exercise its prerogatives as owner and purchaser. It did not freely insist that companies receiving our tax dollars change their practices—even in fundamental ways—if they wanted our money. Today, of course, this is the way business is done.
If President Obama wants to devise a creative way to limit gun violence, he will use his power as the world’s largest consumer to require the cooperation of gun manufacturers. If government cannot legislate the conduct it wants, then it can use market power to buy it. For the money we are spending, we should buy not only guns but some peace from gun violence.
I was talking to Breda in the IRC channel today and we were discussing a children’s book on the Second Amendment she’d blogged about. I expressed my disgust at the ideas presented in the book and the reliance on other people to provide your protection. It was then I did it… I stated that I could write a better children’s book on the Second Amendment than that. So the gauntlet was thrown down. Guess what I’m going to be doing? 
I haven’t decided on a title or anything else yet, but I’ll try and keep you updated on my progress.
-Yuri Orlov
Martha Rosenberg got sick one day and threw up an anti-rights diatribe. She scraped the soggy bits together and mailed them to The Epoch Times. Inexplicably they decided to print it. Some people children…
What’s also changing is newspapers like the Memphis Commercial Appeal are publishing searchable bases of state permit holders, despite gun owner identity “seal” laws in some states like Florida, Ohio and South Dakota, so people can see if their daycare worker or dentist is armed.
Now, the gun lobby that used to say the worst thing that can happen to a citizen is people finding out he or his house is unarmed because it might invite crime says the worst thing that can happen to a citizen is people finding out he or his house is armed because it might invite crime! Someone may steal your firearms says the gun lobby as if they were Fabergé eggs instead of “defense” weapons.
Which is more embarrassing for the gun lobby—the image that it’s afraid of you and or the image of it begging the government to protect it from you and me? What happened to no government interference? And why are they so scared, anyway? They’re the ones that are armed.
It makes you think of Larry Singleton who attacked and mutilated 15-year-old hitchhiker Mary Vincent near Sacramento in 1978 because he was “afraid of her.”
Martha Rosenberg is a writer in Chicago.
There’s more there, but be prepared to lose your lunch too.
Apparently in the first three months of this year, law abiding Americans have purchased enough weapons to outfit the armies of China and India combined. Also since NICS is per purchase and not per gun, the number of weapons is potentially much higher.
I of course don’t see this as a bad thing. Now if only we could get some ammo to go in them as well.
From here.
Federal NIC Instacheck Data
BATFE
Washinton, DC - -(AmmoLand.com)- It seem that readers of our recent post about honest Americans buying enough guns to outfit the current active army’s of China and India have been having trouble finding the hard data and facts to substantiate this article.
Here is the link to the NICS: The National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
As reported earlier each of the last few months has been a record for firearm purchases or sales in the USA with a record 1,529,635 background checks being performed in March of 2009. Firearm Sales Continue to Climb in March 2009
Chinese and Indian Standing Army Numbers:
There’s a joke in the title of this article somewhere.
ATF beefs up efforts to stop gun trafficking
HOUSTON — One-hundred federal agents and other personnel have been deployed to Houston in an effort to stop the flow of firearms to Mexican drug cartels from one of the major sources of guns seized south of the border, officials announced Tuesday.
They’ll spend the next four months in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Houston field division, developing cases against people and groups trafficking firearms to Mexico, acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson said.
Melson said 90 percent of the guns that U.S. officials have traced for Mexican authorities have come from the United States. Of those, most have been traced back to Texas, and within the state most came from the Houston area.
“The ATF has been so successful in developing leads from tracing data we saw the need to relocate personnel and put them into specific areas we’ve identified as areas for gun trafficking,” Melson said. “With this surge in capability, we hope to reduce our backlog in leads and refer more defendants” for prosecution.
The additional personnel — 72 special agents and 28 inspectors, analysts and support staff — are part of Gun Runner Impact Teams, which help support the ATF’s Project Gunrunner, the agency’s initiative to reduce the flow of firearms to Mexico.
Mexico has long tried to get the United States to curtail the number of guns — many purchased legally — that wind up with drug cartels. President Barack Obama has pledged the U.S. will do more.
Melson said the additional personnel will work in three areas: sorting through the backlog of gun trafficking leads received from firearms dealers and tracing requests from Mexico; developing cases from those leads; and sending cases for prosecution.
One of the trafficking organizations the Houston ATF office shut down was a group of 23 people who had purchased 339 weapons in 2006 and 2007, with at least 40 of these weapons having been recovered in Mexico. Two members of the group were sentenced to prison within the last month in Houston federal court.
J. Dewey Webb, special agent in charge of the ATF’s Houston division that includes South Texas in its jurisdiction, said he expects the new personnel to “make an impact in putting some of these trafficking organizations out of business permanently.”
Cynthia Tucker, she has it. I could fisk this editorial, but quiet frankly, I’m tired and there’s nothing new presented. It’s like they’re not even trying anymore. I could undo this whole editorial hog tied and blind folded.
Enjoy.
Gun violence is more serious plague than swine flu crisis
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
The deadly contagion is spreading, striking down young and old, well-heeled and downtrodden, sophisticates and illiterates. Last year alone, the affliction killed thousands in Mexico and even more in the United States.
Not swine flu. Gun violence. While federal and state authorities are preoccupied with preventing a swine flu pandemic from overwhelming the United States, the epidemic of gun violence rages on, unabated and little noted.
Last Saturday, George Zinkhan III, a well-respected University of Georgia professor, took two handguns to a community theater and killed his wife, Marie Bruce, and two of her theater colleagues while wounding two others, police said. Zinkhan left his 10-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son in his car while he went on his bloody rampage, according to authorities. Then, he dropped the children off at a neighbor’s house — he explained he had an emergency — and fled, police said.
Don’t expect that this latest mass killing will arouse any more outrage or prod any more public action than those that preceded it. In March and April, armed gunmen of curious motive and deranged sentiment opened fire in a nursing home, a community center, their own homes and public spaces, killing family, friends and strangers.
Among the lowlights of this savage spring were the murders of two children of Devan Kalathat, who shot them and three other relatives before he killed himself; the murders of five children of James Harrison, who killed them before committing suicide; and the murders of the daughter and nephew of Kevin Garner, who, similarly, killed his estranged wife, his sister and the children before turning his gun on himself, law enforcement officials said. The shootings produced outpourings of grief and outbursts of anger but few calls for tighter gun laws.
In fact, state legislatures in the South, including the Georgia General Assemly, have recently loosened laws that deal with weapons in public places. In Georgia, gun owners with concealed-carry permits may now take their firearms into state parks, onto public transit and into many bars and restaurants.
Moreover, the sales of firearms and ammunition have soared over the last several months, sparked by the election of President Barack Obama and the belief that Democratic control of the White House and Congress will lead to restrictions on gun ownership. It’s a strange notion with absolutely no basis in fact.
Witness Obama’s tepid response to Mexican authorities who pleaded for help in stopping the flow of deadly firearms from the United States into the hands of drug thugs.
After Attorney General Eric Holder suggested the Obama administration might push to reinstate the ban on assault weapons, which expired in 2004, the White House received a letter signed by 65 craven Democrats insisting that the president leave assault weapons alone. Obama agreed to do nothing.
We have an odd way of assessing risks. While swine flu may yet emerge as a full-scale pandemic, it hasn’t proved especially lethal so far. Even in Mexico, where public health facilities are not as well developed as in the United States, the death toll has crept past 150 but hasn’t claimed lives on the scale of drug-related gun violence.
Yet, swine flu has prompted the travel industry to brace for a panic; pharmacies report a run on supples of antivirals such as Tamiflu; and the news media have hurriedly produced new catchphrases for their round-the-clock swine flu reportage. President Obama has dispatched Cabinet-level advisers to assure Americans that his administration is doing everything necessary to prevent the spread of the disease.
If only we could muster half that hysteria over gun deaths.
Cynthia Tucker is editorial page editor. She can be reached at cynthia@ajc.com.
This is a new feature here at The Real Gun Guys. Periodically I will be posting, all things willing, a fresh installment of the story as inspiration permits. Please feel free to comment. Standard commenting rules apply.
Please be warned in advance that the story may contain violence, strong language, mature situations, sex and whatever else happens in real life. This isn’t a children’s story folks. Having said that, if you’re still willing, I hope you enjoy the story! This installment kicks off the serial with a bang, so to speak.
First the standard legal boilerplate:
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental
All material contained within, even though presented for free, remains the property of it’s author. If you want permission to repost it, please ask first.
So there.
I’d like to thank dixie, Gay Cynic and Árni Inaba Kjartansson for their kind assistance in the production of this story. Your help is much appreciated!
I’ve seen this floating around the web for a bit now and intended to post it before now.
Scores Killed, Hundreds Injured as Para-Military Extremists Riot in Boston Area
National guard units seeking to confiscate a cache of recently banned assault weapons were ambushed on April 19th by elements of a paramilitary extremist faction. Military and law enforcement sources estimate that 72 were killed and more than 200 injured before government forces were compelled to withdraw.
Speaking after the clash, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage declared that the extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical right-wing tax protest movement. Gage blamed the extremists for recent incidents of vandalism directed against internal revenue offices. The governor, who described the group’s organizers as “criminals,” issued an executive order authorizing the summary arrest of any individual who has interfered with the government’s efforts to secure law and order.
The military raid on the extremist arsenal followed widespread refusal by the local citizenry to turn over recently outlawed assault weapons. Gage issued a ban on military-style assault weapons and ammunition earlier in the week. This decision followed a meeting early this month between government and military leaders at which the governor authorized the forcible confiscation of illegal arms. One government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed out “none of these people would have been killed had the extremists obeyed the law and turned over their weapons voluntarily.”
Government troops initially succeeded in confiscating a large supply of outlawed weapons and ammunition. However, troops attempting to seize arms and ammunition in Lexington met with resistance from heavily armed extremists who had been tipped off regarding the government’s plans. During a tense standoff in Lexington ’s town park, National Guard Colonel Francis Smith, commander of the government operation, ordered the armed group to surrender and return to their homes. The impasse was broken by a single shot, which was reportedly fired by one of the right-wing extremists.
Eight civilians were killed in the ensuing exchange. Ironically, the local citizenry blamed government forces rather than the extremists for the civilian deaths. Before order could be restored, armed citizens from surrounding areas had descended upon the guard units. Colonel Smith, finding his forces over matched by the armed mob, ordered a retreat.
Governor Gage has called upon citizens to support the state/national joint task force in its effort to restore law and order. The governor has also demanded the surrender of those responsible for planning and leading the attack against the government troops. Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock, who have been identified as “ringleaders” of the extremist faction, remain at large.
April 20, 1775
Dear Readers,
Sorry for the slow posting lately. I am working on something I hope you will like and it’s taking a bit to get it polished up to the point where I wouldn’t be embarrassed to have anyone else but me look at it. Please be patient and I’ll have it up ASAP.
-Yuri Orlov
While not all Obama supporters are criminals, it would appear that a lot of criminals are Obama supporters!
Found here:
