"Be nice. Be Polite. Have a plan to kill everyone you see."

Been there. Done that. Carrying a weapon now, come to think of it.

Update: And while I didn't read this in advance of my experiment, every word holds true:

There is nothing like having your finger on the trigger of a gun to reveal who you really are. Life or death in one twitch — ultimate decision, with the ultimate price for carelessness or bad choices.

It is a kind of acid test, an initiation, to know that there is lethal force in your hand and all the complexities and ambiguities of moral choice have fined down to a single action: fire or not?

In truth, we are called upon to make life-or-death choices more often than we generally realize. Every political choice ultimately reduces to a choice about when and how to use lethal force, because the threat of lethal force is what makes politics and law more than a game out of which anyone could opt at any time.

But most of our life-and-death choices are abstract; their costs are diffused and distant. We are insulated from those costs by layers of institutions we have created to specialize in controlled violence (police, prisons, armies) and to direct that violence (legislatures, courts). As such, the lessons those choices teach seldom become personal to most of us.

Nothing most of us will ever do combines the moral weight of life-or-death choice with the concrete immediacy of the moment as thoroughly as the conscious handling of instruments deliberately designed to kill. As such, there are lessons both merciless and priceless to be learned from bearing arms — lessons which are not merely instructive to the intellect but transformative of one's whole emotional, reflexive, and moral character.

The first and most important of these lessons is this: it all comes down to you.

No one's finger is on the trigger but your own. All the talk-talk in your head, all the emotions in your heart, all the experiences of your past — these things may inform your choice, but they can't move your finger. All the socialization and rationalization and justification in the world, all the approval or disapproval of your neighbors — none of these things can pull the trigger either. They can change how you feel about the choice, but only you can actually make the choice. Only you. Only here. Only now. Fire, or not?

A second is this: never count on being able to undo your choices.

If you shoot someone through the heart, dead is dead. You can't take it back. There are no do-overs. Real choice is like that; you make it, you live with it — or die with it.

A third lesson is this: the universe doesn't care about motives.

If your gun has an accidental discharge while pointed an unsafe direction, the bullet will kill just as dead as if you had been aiming the shot. I didn't mean to may persuade others that you are less likely to repeat a behavior, but it won't bring a corpse back to life.

These are hard lessons, but necessary ones. Stated, in print, they may seem trivial or obvious. But ethical maturity consists, in significant part, of knowing these things — not merely at the level of intellect but at the level of emotion, experience and reflex. And nothing teaches these things like repeated confrontation with life-or-death choices in grave knowledge of the consequences of failure.

There's a certain kind of freedom that comes with the responsibility of carrying arms that is hard to properly express to those who don't. People who have done so have tried to tell me that before, but it isn't something that translates easily to print. Yes, guns can take lives.

But far more often, experience truly bearing arms help hone and reveal character.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:14 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
Post contains 656 words, total size 4 kb.

One man is dead and another is wounded in what may be a gang-related confrontation:

Shots erupted in a packed Seattle-area shopping mall Saturday after an apparent argument between a gunman and two other young men, killing one of the men, creating panic among shoppers and sending police on a store-to-store search for the shooter, authorities said.

The Southcenter Mall in Tukwila was locked down for six hours as police tried in vain to find the gunman. Officer Mike Murphy, a police spokesman, told The Associated Press there were "thousands" of shoppers at the mall when the shooting took place just before 3:45 p.m. He said the gunfire may have been gang-related.

"It's a possibility," Murphy said.

The two injured men were taken to Seattle's Harborview Medical Center, where one of them died. A hospital spokesman said Saturday night the second victim was in critical condition.

The gunman used a pistol and fired multiple shots, Murphy said. He said at least four or five people were detained for questioning, but none of them was the shooter and some had been released. He said some of those detained were witnesses.

My advice remains the same as it was after the Omaha, Nebraska Mall shooting roughly this same time last year.

• Get in.


• Get low.


• Get out.


• Keep moving.

The odds of getting shot in a mall shooting are extremely low, but you can reduce those odds even further by being in a self-aware, ready state (yellow, for Jeff Cooper disciples) and take these common sense steps if you hear or see a similar violent situation developing. There's no need to be paranoid, but after so many events like this in recent years, it is immature to pretend that such events can't happen.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:26 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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"I could sell a hundred ARs an hour, if I had them."

That was the word from the man behind the counter at my local gun shop yesterday afternoon when I stopped in. As if to put an exclaimation point on his claim, two men added their names to an ever-growing waiting list to purchase AR-15 carbines within minutes of my entering the store.

Two months ago, the first two racks of rifles to great you as you entered Fuquay Gun & Gold would be bristling with AR15 carbines, AK-pattern rifles, and a smattering of SKS carbines. Today, those same worn racks are almost bare except for misfits from the Island of Misfit Martial Toys—a pair of Saiga Ak-pattern shotguns, a .22 caliber AR-clone, and a nearly $900 VZ-58 with the ugliest stock I've ever seen.

Fears of an Obama administration attempt to raise prohibitive taxes and reinstate bans on so-called "assault weapons" and standard capacity magazines have led to rushes on many kinds of semi-automatic rifles and pistols, especially those with high capacity magazines. Until recently, Obama's transition website indicated his intention to reinstate the ineffective 1994 Assault Weapons Ban that passed under President Clinton and expired in 2004 under President Bush.

Local news reports from other gun shops across the country seem to indicate that a run on military-style semi-automatics and ammunition of all types may continue for months as long-time shooters and new gun purchasers stock up in preparation for what many expect to be one of the most divisive, anti-gun federal governments in years.

Update: Janet Reno's Deputy Attorney General during the Clinton years, Eric Holder, seems to be Obama's choice to be the next Attorney General. It wasn't until Glenn Reynolds highlighted a post at the Volokh Conspiracy that I realized how dangerous of a selection Holder is to gun owners.

Earlier this year, Eric Holder--along with Janet Reno and several other former officials from the Clinton Department of Justice--co-signed an amicus brief in District of Columbia v. Heller. The brief was filed in support of DC's ban on all handguns, and ban on the use of any firearm for self-defense in the home. The brief argued that the Second Amendment is a "collective" right, not an individual one, and asserted that belief in the collective right had been the consistent policy of the U.S. Department of Justice since the FDR administration. A brief filed by some other former DOJ officials (including several Attorneys General, and Stuart Gerson, who was Acting Attorney General until Janet Reno was confirmed)took issue with the Reno-Holder brief's characterization of DOJ's viewpoint.

But at the least, the Reno-Holder brief accurately expressed the position of the Department of Justice when Janet Reno was Attorney General and Eric Holder was Deputy Attorney General. At the oral argument before the Fifth Circuit in United States v. Emerson, the Assistant U.S. Attorney told the panel that the Second Amendment was no barrier to gun confiscation, not even of the confiscation of guns from on-duty National Guardsmen.

As Deputy Attorney General, Holder was a strong supporter of restrictive gun control. He advocated federal licensing of handgun owners, a three day waiting period on handgun sales, rationing handgun sales to no more than one per month, banning possession of handguns and so-called "assault weapons" (cosmetically incorrect guns) by anyone under age of 21, a gun show restriction bill that would have given the federal government the power to shut down all gun shows, national gun registration, and mandatory prison sentences for trivial offenses (e.g., giving your son an heirloom handgun for Christmas, if he were two weeks shy of his 21st birthday). He also promoted the factoid that "Every day that goes by, about 12, 13 more children in this country die from gun violence"--a statistic is true only if one counts 18-year-old gangsters who shoot each other as "children."

After that, Holder's plans for gun owners gets worse.

And as "stace" noted in the comments, Obama's desire to reinstate the ineffectual "assualt weapons" provision of the 1994 crime bill is back on his web site as a goal for his administration.

Update: Even Better! I'm starting to understand why the protégé of a Marxist domestic terrorist would favor someone like Holder. He'd regulate the Internet as well.

Reasonable restrictions seems to be the only way these people can view the Constitution. For our own good, of course.

Final Update: Screening to keep gun owners out of his administration?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:52 AM | Comments (45) | Add Comment
Post contains 759 words, total size 5 kb.

1 I want one. I'm afraid of guns. They scare me. But some things are more dangerous than a gun in the hands of a free citizen of a democracy. Like a Marxist Socialist in the White House... because Marxists have killed 100,000,000 human beings and are the most murderous politicians in world history, I believe. But an armed citizenry is a protection against mass murder by Marxist Socialist politicians - the most genocidal politicians on the planet, perhaps. See, I used to call those guns "AR's" for "Assault Rifle". But that's not really what they are. They're "C&BS". "Check & Balance Systems". I think we need our Check & Balance Systems now more than ever here in the USA. All sytems must operational and prepared for the exercise of our Constitutional Right. Now, if the Founding Fathers wanted us ARMED against a Government that could go genocidal on us, did they really believe we were supposed to honor politicians in order to honor God?? Do Christians really understand that we are to view Marxist Socialist politicians, for example, as evil?? And protect ourselves?? Because they might try to kill us?? That's what the Founding Fathers were MOST concerned about... because they knew history... and they did not exalt politicians or believe that honoring politicians in office was necessary to be a good Christian. They thought being armed against the Government so officials wouldn't get all power hungry and turn murderuos... and having no trust in the Government... was being Christian. I want a Check & Balance System because it's one of the most effective deterrant against politicians acting like they're God and deserve our worship and think they can take away our Constitution and our Rights... even to life. Politicians are dangerous people that are most prone become very evil and dangerous when the people don't have those Check & Balance Systems against a Government gone Socialist, for example, which is a Government System responsible for 100,000,000 murders of citizens of it's own countries. I pray my fellow citizens are armed to the hilt... and rise up to protect and defend the right to bear arms if this Government tries to take that right away. Because the next step by a Marxist would be genocide, imo, and Obama is a Marxist, imo, based on the facts. Grace.

Posted by: ld at November 20, 2008 12:55 PM (tdrxf)

2 If I had more disposable cash laying around, I'd definitely be stocking up on ammo. Unfortunately, I live in NJ so any restrictive gun measures would probably put the rest of the nation where I'm at now, so there's none that I can buy now anyway that I feel are at risk. But the thought of the rest of the country being like NJ scares the daylights out of me.

Posted by: Mike Gray at November 20, 2008 01:41 PM (kZVsz)

3 Went to Georgia Arms (georgia-arms.com, ammunition supplier) yesterday (National Ammo Day), and couldn't get what I wanted - for example, they were all out of .45 hollow-point. Couldn't get 124 grain 9mm, they only had 115gr. Now, these people go to all the gun shows around, sell bullets by the thousand (go see), and they can't keep up with the demand in the last month. Hmmmmmmmmm.

Posted by: Bill Johnson at November 20, 2008 01:50 PM (5LUFO)

4 Wow, man. You people are delusional. I'm gonna go smoke some dope and fuck your daughter.

Posted by: The Fool at November 20, 2008 02:09 PM (CsI/m)

5 Fool, you are fooling yourself if you think you have a shot. Maybe what you meant is you will go fuck yourself, for that you are in practice. To the decent folks above, you will find Saiga rifles are still a bargain and there is a .308 available.

Posted by: megapotamus at November 20, 2008 02:14 PM (LF+qW)

6 My daughter was taught to beat up smelly, greasy, unwashed hippies like you, Fool. So on that score, you are SOL. I just picked up my FN-FAL in .308 yesterday, been wanting to add one to the collection. This gun is built like a tank. Feels much more "solid" than my AR in the same caliber. Now just gotta start the handloading in earnest.

Posted by: DIAF at November 20, 2008 02:16 PM (M+Vfm)

7 Oh, you boys would be surprised what your daughters do when you're not around. Bwahahahahaha

Posted by: The Fool at November 20, 2008 02:20 PM (CsI/m)

8 Dear "Id": AR stands for "Armalite Rifle", the original manufacturers of the AR-15. see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR-15 by common definition, for a weapon to be considered an "assault weapon" it needs to be a rifle chambered for an intermediate caliber, capable of both semi and fully automatic fire. the media will tell you otherwise, but as usual, they are wrong. it *is* possible to own an assault weapon here in the US, but you must pay all the taxes on one, and live in a state that allows them, such as Arizona. the vast majority of "AR's" sold in the us are semi-automatic only, and therefore are just rifles. as for being afraid or scared of guns, does your car scare you? or your kitchen knives? guns are simply tools that are as safe as anything else in your house or garage, provided you are properly trained, understand how they w*rk, and treat them as you would any other useful but potentially dangerous piece of equipment, like a chain or skill saw..... call up the local shooting range and make an appointment with an NRA certified instructor for a weapons safety course. they are reasonably priced, and you're likely to find that you're a lot less scared when you actually know something about how guns are handled.

Posted by: redc1c4 at November 20, 2008 02:46 PM (vLw7K)

9 By all measn, follow redc1c4's advice and spend as much time as you can at the local shooting range playing make believe soldier boy. And while you're at the shooting range, I'll be smoking dope and introducing your daughter to Mr. Johnson. She's gonna love it.

Posted by: The Fool at November 20, 2008 02:59 PM (CsI/m)

10 Boy, you guys are just suckers. Running out and spending your very hard-earned dollars because the gun industry tells you to. Sheesh. Go ahead...buy all the guns and ammo you want. Knock yourselves out. But trust me folks...if the US Government comes for your guns (which they won't)...you don't stand a chance against a modern-day SWAT team. Obama is not a Marxist, or a socialist and raising taxes a little bit to dig out the economy is not the end of the world.

Posted by: Roger Goldman at November 20, 2008 03:22 PM (uabyl)

11 Forget you Mr. Goldstein, you're delusional if you think Obamamaniac isn't intent on taking my hard earned assault rifle from my cold dead pried apart fingers. Typical lie-beral nonsense, hey look over there, not over here, presto, the A.R. is gone! Poof! Then what are we to do? We're screwn. Concentration camps, that's what. You betcha!

Posted by: Kirk R. at November 20, 2008 03:28 PM (uabyl)

12 Kirk R. Your a moran! I voted Republican my entire life, like my father and his father. Do you want to live in a world without AR like we did from 1994 to 2004!!!11!! JUST WAIT. Maybe if you were in a concentration camp, it would help you think more clearly!

Posted by: Roger Goldman at November 20, 2008 03:33 PM (uabyl)

13 Roger it is seid that those who do not remember there history aro doomed to repite it. A lot tof pepole seid the same thing about Hilter!!!!!

Posted by: Rich in KC at November 20, 2008 04:30 PM (siQqy)

14 And while you're at the shooting range, I'll be smoking dope and introducing your daughter to Mr. Johnson. She's gonna love it. Posted by The Fool at November 20, 2008 02:59 PM Yeah, she'll love the stupified look you'll have on face when you see what does to Mr Johnson. But look on the bright side. At least the dope you were just smoking will help deaden the pain of being gelded.

Posted by: GTJ at November 20, 2008 05:36 PM (Pyq82)

15 Remember, when Barack's ATF or FBI agents come to the door in vests, you know what to do, right? I still think we ought to skip the guns and go right to the fertilizer bombs. I mean, if you really believe that the federal government is now going to be the enemy, why would you stop at these varmint guns? It's gonna take more than that to hold back the inevitable dictatorship that's a-comin' with Obammy in the White House. Right guys?

Posted by: TruePatriot at November 20, 2008 05:36 PM (k+bOm)

16 @GTJ - Yeah, she'll love the stupified look you'll have on face when you see what does to Mr Johnson." Dude, you are SO right. I got baked this afternoon and ran into your daughter at the Walmart. She took me out back behind a loading dock and boy did she surprise me when she began licking that thing like a lollipop. But what really left me with a stupefied expression was when she went for the totally gooey facial at the end, licked Mr. Johnson clean, and then swallowed the entire jism load! Needless to say I was one happy hippie.

Posted by: The Fool at November 20, 2008 07:13 PM (CsI/m)

17 The Fool - in my admittedly limited experience, gooey facials are a fabrication of the pr0n industry, hardly the way a real-world male wants to expend himself. Now, back to the point (so to speak.) I'm not a big gun type, but I'm figuring that it might make sense to pry open the depleted piggybank for that AR15 and that new CTS-V 'cause it's looking more and more like the Congressional loony-bin is going to stage a full-on assault on everything fun, the only question is whether the Obama administration will be out front cheerleading or passively acquiescing.

Posted by: mrkwong at November 21, 2008 12:38 AM (G8Eo0)

18 Heeyuck!

Posted by: Punkin at November 21, 2008 01:30 AM (dbXEu)

19 You're an idiot, Goldman. The organ's of state security are not sufficient to stand up against an armed populace in a state of rebellion, as history has shown in dozens of cases. Also, in the event of such a breakdown of constitutional rule in the U.S, a great deal of the army and police would be on the side of the rebels, civil wars work that way. That's not going to happen today, this year, next year or ten years from now. But fifty years? A hundred? You honestly think you know what history has in store for the republic? Arms in the hands of the people are the final check against tyranny. The FIRST thing any would-be tyrant does is disarm his victims. READ SOME HISTORY, GENIUS.

Posted by: Amos at November 21, 2008 02:48 AM (ckdWX)

20 If one takes a look a the past, Govt's typically institute gun bans before the killing of citizens starts. Ask any Nazi concentration camp survivor how did it start. Secondly, with Mexico's drug lords openly killing their military, police,and citizens like its open season, what do you think they would do to the US if they knew citizens here had no ability to protect themselves? Wait- dont they have gun control there?

Posted by: BroomO at November 21, 2008 06:21 AM (XFksb)

21 That reminds me...I'll be first in line tomorrow morning when the local gun show opens for business.

Posted by: W-K-B at November 21, 2008 07:03 AM (6DvsC)

22 Goldman, You must get your information from the mainstream media. Or you are just ignorant. Obama has surrounded himself with America haters his whole life! I think you are a victim of the " Oh it's all just republicans lie" crowd.This guy has NO experience!And is the number one lib in the senate! I'm sure that he'll try to fill every judicial slot opening no matter how small with socialist's. And people like you will say" Oops ,guess we were wrong" TOO LATE THEN DUMMY!

Posted by: marine43 at November 21, 2008 07:41 AM (mS3ud)

23 Roger Goldman at November 20, 2008 03:22 PM: "...raising taxes a little bit to dig out the economy is not the end of the world." Yeah, we'll tax our way out of the recession. After that, we'll dig our way out of a pit, climb our way off of a tower, and eat our way to a svelte new figure! That's the ticket!

Posted by: Troll Feeder at November 21, 2008 08:47 AM (iP3Ql)

24 A SWAT team is not made of Terminators or Aliens or Predators from a hollycr@p movie. It’s people with good training and good kit provided by the people they have sworn to serve and protect. And they don’t stand a chance against the people armed and in revolt. Just how many SWAT are there? And how many of them are willing to kill the people they swore to serve and protect? Don’t kid yourself and don’t drink the liberal-communist cool aid of the almighty state. Neither the state nor the security forces stand a chance of the people says “ENOUGH!!!” And you will see many LEO, SWAT included and many a soldier of all kinds joining the ranks of a revolution. They don’t live in limbo. They are Americans, too. Only liberal-communists entertain the concept that the people are powerless because that’s how they feel themselves and how they would want the rest of the people to be. Surprise!

Posted by: Jorge Banner at November 21, 2008 09:34 AM (qQL6L)

25 Bob, the AWB is back up on Obama's website now. "They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent." http://change.gov/agenda/urbanpolicy_agenda/

Posted by: stace at November 21, 2008 09:37 AM (JO0c/)

26 Anyone that calls the current slew of gun buyers "alarmists" is only fooling himself. The current Democratic party and most of the Republicans in Washington worship the toilet that Kofi Annan used to crap on. They love the UN. It's easy to pick out the ones that don't give 2 cents about your *inherent* gun rights. Its the ones that say, "I love the 2nd Amendment! I think you should be able to hunt!" Alarms should be going off on your crap detector big time. Remember the 2A is there to keep government from making laws about an INHERENT right. A right given to you by your creator, whether that be God or some sort of primordial soup. The 2A does NOT grant you a right.

Posted by: Buddy at November 21, 2008 09:52 AM (D+TTb)

27 In the current economic meltdown, it's not a SWAT team you need to worry about; it's the drug-addled poor people and crystal-meth zombies who are coming to take whatever you've got. We're planning to hug our own little armalite too, but sheesh; we're going to have to get in line along with millions of others. When we have to take all of our money out of the bank, during the run on it, we will need an armory to protect it. ;o}

Posted by: mountainaires at November 21, 2008 10:21 AM (vHTDa)

28 The only "hunting" I see covered in the 2A is the hunting of tyrants and their lapdogs.

Posted by: Claymore at November 21, 2008 10:33 AM (yUnwD)

29 Obama doesn't know his history. Even Fleet Admiral and Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy Isoroku Yamamoto understood America when he said, "You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass." There will be hell to pay if Obama and his administration even try.

Posted by: le comat at November 21, 2008 10:58 AM (7jRCm)

30 The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the - Web Reconnaissance for 11/20/2008 A short recon of whatÂ’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.

Posted by: David M at November 21, 2008 11:18 AM (gIAM9)

31 SWAT teams tend to do very poorly when they meet with armed resistance. They rely on surprise and intimidation. When those don't work, then it the history of assaulting starts to play out -- you begin losing 4 or more assaulters per defender. Just last week, a SWAT guy was killed by a housewife with a handgun who thought he was a burglar. If you watch for them, you regularly see SWAT getting shot by homeowners that they are raiding. Homeowners who did not know that they were coming, and were completely surprised, often asleep when the invasion begins. Homeowners who do not train regularly with their weapons. Homeowners who do not have a specific intent to defend themselves from the police and are simply reacting and panicking. If faced with the prospect of assaulting a home where the owner knows that they are coming, trains regularly with his weapons, and has a specific intent to protect himself from them, it would be the SWAT guys panicking.

Posted by: Phelps at November 21, 2008 11:35 AM (m7Fyt)

32 " This year will go down in history, for the first time a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and our world will follow our lead into the future!" . . . Adolph Hitler, 1935

Posted by: flathead at November 21, 2008 11:56 AM (qkgvD)

33 Gun grabbing will never go far in this country because the effete, gelded wusses (e.g. Barack Obama) who think this is a great idea, will never be the people who have to carry it out. \ It will be people who believe in the Second Amendment. And they won't do it and the geriatric hippies, pansy eggheads, slimy trial lawyers, race baiting poverty pimps, slacker college students and other drains on society who voted for Obama, aren't going to enforce it either.

Posted by: Brian at November 21, 2008 12:02 PM (YCShX)

34 I live in Virginia where gun ownership is high. That is reassuring to me on many levels. In the first place, if you have followed Australia's experience, crime has RISEN as gun ownership has fallen. Need I say more? Only those who are feeding on liberal pablum would deny that our nation is in grave danger from seditionists within and heaven-knows-what without. Personally, I'm happy to take responsibility for my own safety and freedom over a life of protracted and ever increasing subjugation!

Posted by: Gayle Miller at November 21, 2008 12:05 PM (zX5o+)

35 Obama can have my guns when he pries them from my cold dead hands.

Posted by: southerngrace at November 21, 2008 01:12 PM (m+wgi)

36 flathead: That quote is a fake, IIRC. There are some other quotes about gun control by other members of the Nazi Party (as well as notables like Stalin) that can be verified, however. (Old talk.politics.guns habit. I think it's still on the pro-gun FAQ for that newsgroup.)

Posted by: Patrick Chester at November 21, 2008 02:57 PM (MOvul)

37 i picked up a Ruger P95 about 2 weeks ago and 100 rounds for a starter gun. it was only $360 and 47 for the amo i used the economic stimulus check the Gov sent me to pay for it i might send a letter to Plaosi and Reid thanking them for it

Posted by: insonh at November 21, 2008 05:48 PM (A2jkJ)

38 Goldman you don't know your recent history. An armed population can more than stand up to modern military power - remember Northern Ireland? Guns are illegal there but enough got into the hands of the IRA to cause the British Army many many casualties and the IRA wasn't that organized or that proficient with them either. Our military has no idea how to handle an armed population - look at what is happening in Afghanistan now; the big Army is locked down on large bases while guys like me roam around the country at will because we are not hampered by the Big Army Stupidity Syndrome which strips away all initiative and common sense inside active combat zones. Get a clue mate - owning your own weapon is the first step to becoming a free man.

Posted by: Baba Tim at November 21, 2008 10:09 PM (2A4MS)

39 I have many guns, and boh can have them whenever he wants... bulletts first

Posted by: bite m at November 22, 2008 12:21 AM (I4yBD)

40 Seriously though, a lot of people better pray for my continued good health, or quick death, b'cuz if i ever am diagnosed as terminal, I will start on my own personal list of aesthetic deletion. that's people whom I think the world would be better without. the recent lists of nominees have made that list grow substantially, but i am up to the task...10 in the 10 ring at 200 yrds.

Posted by: bite me at November 22, 2008 12:29 AM (I4yBD)

41 I managed to get one of the last two boxes of .45 hollow-point, but most everything was sold out at Wal-Mart. They didn't have anywhere to send me because everyone else was out too.

Posted by: Karen at November 22, 2008 02:25 AM (47kZo)

42 "And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? After all, you knew ahead of time that those bluecaps were out at night for no good purpose. And you could be sure ahead of time that you'd be cracking the skull of a cutthroat. Or what about the Black Maria sitting out there on the street with one lonely chauffeur -- what if it had been driven off or its tires spiked? The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If... if... We didn't love freedom enough. And even more -- we had no awareness of the real situation. We spent ourselves in one unrestrained outburst in 1917, and then we hurried to submit. We submitted with pleasure! ...We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward." Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, "The Gulag Archipelago."

Posted by: maximus otter at November 22, 2008 06:16 AM (plIbI)

43 I think it’s considered chic to refer to “Godwin’s Law” if comparisons to Hitler are made, and that is intended to show how just ridiculous such a comparison is, thereby taking it off the table. But, that dude forecast, in his own writings, just what he was going to do, long before he actually did it. Barry’s made his positions clear a long time ago. As with his predecessor, people simply couldn’t accept that he was serious, that he actually meant it. They probably still wont accept it, even while he does it. After all, he is practically worshiped as the leader of a revealed religion. Perhaps, Jim Jones would be a better comparison. (UPDATE - After posting this on another blog, with that line above, I just learned that someone named Jim Jones is on Obama’s short list for National Security Advisor. You just can't make this stuff up.) -

Posted by: Paul_In_Houston at November 22, 2008 02:38 PM (VuVGB)

44 If faced with the prospect of assaulting a home where the owner knows that they are coming, trains regularly with his weapons, and has a specific intent to protect himself from them, it would be the SWAT guys panicking. Not really. Because their doctrine says they won't be coming in after you. Depending on circumstances they'll just secure the perimeter cut off the water and wait, or if time is an issue they'll call in the Waco Killers (aka FBI HRT.) It is true that armed citizens, singularly or even in small groups, cannot withstand the forces of the government. Offer resistance and you will be killed. The point of being armed is not to survive arrest it is to make your arrest difficult, problematic and very public. The living John Brown was just another abolitionist crank. Dead by the hand of government he became something else entirely.

Posted by: ThomasD at November 23, 2008 12:11 PM (UK5R1)

45 European Resistance was able to stand up to the nazi machine. No SWAT or LEO or National Guard is going to do much better against the American people when the ENOUGH is given. Those who decide to obey the orders of the tyrant will be dealt with. Many won't and will join the ranks of the revolution. "The tree of liberty must be refreshed, from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants." When Thomas Jefferson wrote that he wasn't talking about any foreign land, he was talking about America.

Posted by: Jorge Banner at November 23, 2008 06:46 PM (P5/sF)

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The new Orange County, CA Sheriff doesn't like citizens having the ability to defend themselves, and may take almost half of the concealed carry permits presently issued from their legal permit holders, for no good reason at all.

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Armed with a single-shot .22-caliber rifle, an eight-year old in Arizona ambushed his father, shooting him in head and chest, pausing to reload between each shot. He then methodically killed a second man who lived at the home, again with shots to the head and chest, again pausing to reload between each shot. Despite blind and immediate media speculation of child abuse, there is nothing to indicate the father was anything other than a loving father and hunter who taught his son to shoot so that they could share his love of the outdoors. The moral of the story? Love your kids. Teach them to shoot if you want. But always lock up your firearms.

In Alaska, Gov. Sarah Palin's controversial helicopter-borne culling of wolf packs has proven to be life-saving for an Alaskan caribou herd in danger of extinction. At times, shooting even beautiful wild things is a better option than doing nothing. Her pragmatic approach to wildlife management offers a caribou herd a second chance. Don't look for the animal rights groups that attacked Palin for the culling program to congratulate her on it succeeding.

Advocating the shooting of people, however, especially the President-Elect, isn't a good idea, as some N.C. State students are no doubt learning.

State has what it calls the Free Expression Tunnel where students are encouraged to communicate controversial ideas and thoughts without criticism as an exercise in free speech. That free expression stops when racial slurs are spray painted, along with the graffiti "Shoot Obama." The NAACP is now involved, pushing for the students involved to be punished by the University since criminal charges will not be filed. The right to free speech is not a freedom from responsibility.

But what about shooting some friends of the President-Elect? Is that permissible?

Someone pointed out that Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, and others in the domestic terror group called the Weather Underground formally declared war against the United States, but that they were not aware that the WU ever signed a formal peace treaty. If someone decided to take a shot at members, could they argue they were targeting known enemy combatants?

I strongly suspect that defense would utterly fail in court, so I'd advise not testing it. Besides, if someone was successful in terminating them as they planned to do to 25 million of us, what would President Obama do? He'd no longer be The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers.

And speaking even more of Obama and guns, it appears that his campaign and election have done wonders for gun and ammunition sales, even as his policies seem ripe to wreck the rest of the economy.

Gun shops across America are seeing a massive increase in sales of both guns and ammunition as a result of Obama's historic victory. His record of supporting bans on all semi-automatic firearms and all handguns, his stated desire to reinstate the ineffectual Clinton-era ban on assault weapons, and fears that a Democratic Congress may attempt to raise prohibitive taxes on firearms has led to a shortage of certain kinds of firearms and ammunition across the country. In particular, semi-automatic rifles that would potentially be affected by such a ban are difficult to keep in stock, and many retailers are back-ordered.

I only how much more sales will increase when Americans learn that Obama actively sought to undermine the Second Amendment as a director of the rabidly anti-gun Joyce Foundation.

Quite by accident, Barack Obama seems poised to do more to increase gun ownership by American citizens than any President in history.

If I wasn't so bitter and clingy, I'd be thrilled.

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Especially the Second Amendment:

John Faulkner and his wife, Brenda, thought Wednesday was a good day to buy a handgun.

"I'm 37 years old, and this is the first time in my life that I am really scared for our future," said Faulkner, an oil field worker, as he perused the collection of weaponry in A Pawn Shop here.

At Aurora's Firing Line gun shop, Steve Wickham was also purchasing. "Anything I can get my hands on," he said as he cradled a $699 9mm handgun.

Same thing in Lakewood: "I was selling guns before I even opened the door," said George Horne, owner of The Gun Room. "It's gone completely mad. Everyone is buying everything I've got on the shelves. Sales have been crazy."
By midday Wednesday, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation's "Insta- Check" background check — required for the sale of a firearm and typically about 8 minutes long — was jammed with waits lasting more than two hours.

Gun-shop owners and buyers said the urgency was fueled by Barack Obama's presidential win and Democrats' increasing their majority in Congress.

"I'm here because of Obama," Wickham said. "I think he's misinterpreted the Second Amendment. It's not about the right to hunt. It's about the right to defend yourself."

These scenes are being repeated all across the country.

As severe the rush is now, it would be even worse if more Americans knew of Obama's attempt to corrupt Constitutional scholarship while at the anti-gun Joyce Foundation. Barack Obama is a gun-banner at heart, and there is every reason for Americans to doubt his campaign's more moderate rhetoric when compared to his actual record.

Buy guns, America. It's good for the economy, good for the development of our nation's moral character, and our last bulwark against tyranny.

While you're at it, consider hitting the Paypal link in the sidebar to the right as a belated blogoversary present. What, you think that SLR 106FR is going to buy itself?

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Fearing a gun-grabbing President-Elect and Congress, Ruger is issuing an "Inaugural Special" on Mini-14 magazines.

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