First, one from Ned which caused me to spew my coffee all over the place from laughing so hard.

Good post, Herschel.

Went to PLOS ONE and read the “study.”

I learned, if one starts with a premise, supplies a bunch of spread sheets and horseshit gobbledegook, your “study” will be universally accepted by nutcakes if it’s published at a “scientific journal” such as PLOS ONE.

Here’s the Wiki entry about PLOS ONE:

“It covers primary research from any discipline within science and medicine. All submissions go through an internal and external pre-publication peer review, but are not excluded on the basis of lack of perceived importance or adherence to a scientific field. The PLOS ONE online platform employs a “publish first, judge later” methodology, with post-publication user discussion and rating features.”

OK – just publish clearly flawed bullshit in a “peer reviewed” publication down under, and you will immediately be taken seriously by a plethora of morons.

Remember, never underestimate the power of stupid, uninformed people in large groups. Oh yeah – never mind the little fact that gun control itself was racist. A simple way to disarm recently freed slaves.

I bet the first thing the freed slaves did was try to obtain a firearm. Now it seems that the most vocal Jewish and Black “leaders” are anti self-defense.

I guess the statement that no one went broke underestimating the stupidity of the (American) public was correct. Looks like it applies equally to the people on the island against whom we fought a war for independence. Along with the folks on their Australian penal colony. Of course the “progressives” du juor (or whatever the hell these commie, anti-freedom idiots call themselves nowadays) believe the same crap without reservation.

I suppose that it’s actually possible that the hoi polloi are actually becoming stupider, against all odds.

I think Ned’s got their number.  Next, one from Jean.

Lack of training and poor leadership of LEO’s
There is a common thread that links this story to so many others, local LEO’s despite billions of tax dollars spent, are poorly trained, ineffective, and suffer from a lack of leadership at all levels. This is compounded by corrupt local politicians and an ignorant electorate.
I recently witnessed the most inept police operation in my neighborhood. The police made a routine traffic stop. During the stop, the driver fled the police and ran into our neighborhood. The police spent several hours speeding through the neighborhood trying to apprehend the suspect. They did not dismount from their vehicles, but opted to use the “grand theft auto” method of law enforcement which resulted in vehicle damage to several cars. They also refused to engage the locals- who have very good understanding of the terrain. We told them, “the guy you are looking for has jumped into a drainage ditch that bisects the neighbor, you can not catch him in your Dodge Charger” After the traffic accident which was caused by the LEOs. A supervisor appeared, not the most inspiring leader. She took great offense at the questions that were asked:
• What is your pursuit policy in a neighborhood, why was the officer speeding at night without lights or a siren, two hours after the perp jumped from the car?
• Why did your officers refused to share information with citizens- Is the perp armed description etc.
• Why were the citizens told to return to their homes?
• How can the police department surge 8 cars into a neighborhood at night, but fail to patrol during the day (we had a daylight burglary the same day, police were slow respond.
• Who is your supervisor and what is their contact information- BTW she lied to us and tried to give us the local police number
• Was the suspect appended
• Would you like to borrow our dogs, they are well trained and disciplined, unlike your officers- ( that comment pissed them off)
They were also offended that many of the citizens /neighbors had chosen to exercise their 2nd amendment rights, which unfortunately became their main focus, not finding the suspect or policing the accident scene- Officer Grand Theft T-boned a citizen. Suspect still at large. Piss poor performance by the LEO’s.

I’m not surprised that their attention left the perpetrator and focused on you when they learned that you were prepared for self defense.  You see, LEOs are the only ones who should carry, and who should chase perps, and who should be in the neighborhood at night preventing crime, and er, running Dodge Chargers down the road at illegal speeds, and er, um, bashing them into other cars, and um, er, making it generally unsafe for innocent people out there.

The only ones, you see.

Continuing a theme we discussed earlier, David Codrea gives us this good summary of his review of the issue.

The real racists are the ones with evil ulterior motives doing the projecting. Gun rights advocates are not the ones trying to disarm peaceable people of all races — they are.

David also discusses fault lines within the gun rights advocacy community.

“Don’t buy Obamacare insurance just because the government tells you to,” Gun Owners of America advised members and supporters in a Thursday alert. “Don’t buy insurance just because the President tells you to and threatens to fine you if you don’t.”

A civil disobedience stance represents both a landmark step for a national organization as well as a bold departure from the direction taken by other national gun rights groups, particularly the National Rifle Association.

I am of course still a member of the NRA.  That doesn’t mean that I agree with every one of their positions.  The NRA hasn’t taken a position, as best as I can tell, on whether someone should participate in Obamacare exchanges.  If I take David correctly, his use of the word “silence” on the part of the NRA means that they simply haven’t taken a public position.  So be it.  I’ve issued a warning concerning gun owners and their doctors.  Be careful, boys and girls.  See also WRSA.

Kurt Hofmann discusses the federal government’s desire to affect state self defense laws such as stand-your-ground.

Even a nodding acquaintance with the Constitution would be sufficient to inform Schumer and Durbin that the federal government has no authority over any state’s self-defense laws. That fact, after all, is one that even their fellow anti-gun Senate Democrat, Barbara Boxer (D-CA), remembers–at least when it does not suit her purposes to forget it. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) evidently shares Durbin’s and Schumer’s wish to require that people under attack be forced by law to run and hide, rather than stand their ground, but seems at least to know that any such change would have to come from the states, rather than Congress.

Of course John McCain opposes stand-your-ground laws.  His record is to oppose things good and support things bad.  As I’ve said before, don’t trust the Leviathan.  They will find a way to impose their will, whether through civil rights laws or interpretations thereof, or the code of federal regulations.  You know, don’t you, that these problems will only become rectified when we secede?

Michael Bane:

Always great to wake up and learn something new! This from Business Insider, everything you ever wanted to know about the AR-15!

Very little separates a civilian AR-15 from the M-16s that are the standard-issue rifle for the American military. The military versions are semi-automatic, but also come with the ability to fire in a three-round burst; this feature is rarely used.Well, who knew? I was handling a modern military M4A1 last Friday morning, and to my uneducated eyes it appeared to be full auto. In fact, I thought the 3-round burst went away when the M4 upgraded to the M4A1. I guess since the President lies on a daily basis, it sets the tone for his busy little bee minions in the media.

Well, the idiot mayor of L.A. stated that the LAX shooter had enough ammunition to “kill everyone in the terminal.”  Oh, um, er, well it looks like he had only five magazines.  In other reports it has been called an “assault rifle,” but also semi-automatic, which as readers know is a contradiction in terms.

Don’t believe anything you hear in the media, unless it’s about democrats who want to control your soul or republicans who want to sell out to the democrats because they’re fearful, or really just collectivists in their heart of hearts.

That’s what the experts say, anyway.

Notice that gun control is called gun “gun reform,” as if there is something currently wrong with guns (guns are machines, humans make value judgments, and while some of us in the gun community would agree that the laws need reforming, the reformation we want means reversing things like the Hughes amendment).  And notice that this is called a “scientific journal,” not worthless fish wrap.  It’s all sounds oh so smart and sophisticated.

As a professional engineer I find reference to “science” in this context pitiful and embarrassing for the authors.  If they want to do science, go solve a system of second order differential equations.  They’re just playing at politics.  And finally, take note of their presuppositions: “There had already been research showing that … blacks are more likely to be shot, so we thought there must be something happening between the concept of being black and some whites wanting guns.”

Blacks are more likely to get shot.  So there you have it.  Whites who own guns must be the ones doing the shooting and therefore they’re racists.  They call that “science.”