Remember our little scuffle with Lucian K. Truscott IV?

Apparently he got his pink panties in a wad over others [I presume he isn’t referring to me in his followup] fisking his piece.  So he now comes with Youuuuu might be a gun nut if …. (I know, some editor at Salon should have told him to stop doing drugs and rewrite the title).

I don’t care what they say. That’s not a civilian weapon. That’s a weapon designed for use by the military to kill human beings. The thing costs $1,249.95. It is, of course, sold on the open market to any civilian who walks in with the scratch to buy one. The people who buy weapons like this are, strictly speaking, gun nuts.

[ … ]

But less than one percent of our population is in the military. The rest of us are civilians, and these things are being marketed and sold to civilians. They use of the term “tactical” to yank at the heartstrings of arm-chair warriors, to make them feel like they’re buying something big and powerful. “Tactical” is a purely macho word. It’s used to appeal to gun nuts. Sadly, it seems to be working.

I am a gun owner. My guns are locked away in a storage locker right now. I own a 12 gauge Remington pump-action shotgun, a .32 revolver, a .38 revolver, a .22 bolt action rifle I inherited from my grandmother, and a .177 bolt action rifle my brother gave me. I’ve never owned a semiautomatic weapon. Not even one. The last one I shot was an M-14 in the Army in 1965.

I come from a military family. You would think a family of Army officers would have owned a lot of guns. You’d be wrong. My father owned the 12 gauge pump-action shotgun I inherited from him and the .45 caliber Army-issue Colt pistol he inherited from his father. My grandfather, a four-star general, owned two guns: the .45 pistol he gave to my father in 1951 when he left for the war in Korea, and the German Luger taken from Field Marshal Albert Kesslering, commander of Nazi forces against whom grandpa had campaigned the Fifth Army in Italy.

That’s it.

The whole commentary is so emotional, disjointed and hysterical that it’s really difficult to boil it down to a few quotes, but I’ve tried.  Here you get the gist of this.

A man who has never seen combat is trying to tell you that if you want semi-automatic weapons, you’re nothing but an “arm-chair warrior,” a tacticool LARPer who wants to hurt people.

A man who received an other than honorable discharge from the U.S. military is trying to trot out his creds having shot an M-14.

A man who was caught making $600 worth of long distance telephone calls on a stolen credit card is posturing the military history of his honorable family to tell you you’re some kind of nut.

A man who never intended to deploy to Vietnam nonetheless parasitically sucked off of the good will of the American taxpayer for his education, and then got out because they threatened to send him to war.

Here at this web site we debate and discuss the theological and philosophical roots of the American system, the God-given duty of self defense, and the necessity of the amelioration of tyranny to preserve human life, among many other things.  We try to dive into the deeper issues of mankind, ethics, epistemology, truth, and justice.

So in summary, thanks Salon.  If this is the best you can do, we’ll continue our scholarship unabated.  You can keep your shrieking cowards.  But do please try to do a better job of editing poor Lucian next time.  He rambles so much it sounds sophomoric.

Philly.com:

If you Google the name Jabir Kennedy, you will read about a fugitive wanted for gunning down four men, one fatally, during Christmas week 2017 in the Elmwood section of Southwest Philadelphia. You will read that the “armed and dangerous” fugitive turned himself in a week later and was charged with first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder.

Well, that’s partly because Google sucks, and partly because this is all the information the DA’s office and cops  wanted you to know.

So when the case reached its conclusion this month, there were no headlines for what turned out to be a rarity in the criminal justice system: an admitted gunman in a quadruple shooting acquitted by a jury of all charges.

Let that wash over you again.  “Assistant District Attorney Sheida Ghadiri argued during the trial that the gun Kennedy fired belonged to him, that he knew how to use it given that he shot four of the five men he fought with, and the number of bullets he fired — eight to 10 — was too many to be self-defense.”

Yes, she wanted you to die.  Self defense isn’t a right recognized by the state, at least not any more.  And God help you if you ever put yourself on the line and defend someone you don’t know who is in distress.  You see, the only agents recognized by the state for dispensing violence are those commissioned by the state to do so.  To the communist, the state is the beginning, middle and end of all things.

I have absolutely no confidence in the so-called justice system, neither judges no juries.  Fortunately, they go this one right.  They tried to convince the jury it was more complicated than that (read the rest of the article if you wish), but in the end it’s simple.  Man is made in God’s image and thus has a solemn duty before the Almighty to defend his life.

Via WRSA and Instapundit, this commentary from Quillette:

The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long that nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster.

This has all been going on for a very long time.  Statism and self-hatred didn’t begin in the 1960s.  It was well-ensconced into the culture by the time I matriculated.

I recall sitting in history classes at Clemson University in 1977, and rather than survey the philosophical thought that led to the American war of independence, which would have kept my attention even if I disagreed with his view, he prided himself on using every class to choose the most irrelevant and meaningless event, spending massive amounts of time doing things that were useless to the class, except for trying to convince them of the evils of colonialism or how America would have been better off with just the noble savage.

So if you ask the typical college student today to catalog how gun control preceded and enabled Idi Amin’s genocide of Christians in Uganda, or to explain the Calvinian roots of the covenant theology that led to support for the American revolution among the clergy and their sermons, he would probably be too busy talking on his cell phone to pay attention.  And if Google couldn’t answer, he won’t know.  If Google can answer, it will be a lie.

This story comes from The Epoch Times.  The full article is at the link, but the video is embedded below.  I’ve watched it all.  It’s a no-nonsense, very clinical survey of exactly what the deep state accomplished in the run up to the election to protect HRC and take down Trump.  That deep state is still in existence today, even though the senior players are different at the CIA, FBI, State Department, and so on.  The invisible leadership – the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bilderberg Group, the bankers, the IMF, remains as it always was.

Attention to the Main Stream Media.  This is called “investigative journalism.”  Your Marxist professors didn’t teach you that in journalism school.  But you too can do it.  You just have to ignore what your professors taught you, be good, be honest, be forthright, be unbiased, search for the truth, work hard, and go where the facts lead you.

It will be hard, but it’s a road you can take.

Fox News:

David Smith had long been a competitive shooter, and he wasn’t going to allow a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease to end his hobby.

The 46-year-old, now considered by Guns.com a “powerhouse on the competitive circuit,” and who just scored a spot at the 2019 World Rifle Shoot in Sweden, was first diagnosed with the crippling nervous system disorder eight years ago.

But rather than shrinking away, Smith confronted Parkinson’s head-on and developed what he calls “gun therapy” as a means to control the tremors that come with the illness.

And when he lifts his firearm to the ready, those debilitating shakes disperse. In the gun world, he is the “Parkinson’s Shooter.”

“The disease had taken away everything from me in terms of my ability to eat and drink or do anything without help. Shooting was all I had left, it was all I could do,” Smith told Fox News Thursday. “It made me feel normal.”

At the time of the diagnosis, Smith considered himself to have a strong “body-builder type” physique and good health – but that twitch in his finger wasn’t going away. For some time, the feeling of doom was debilitating and he ended up in a wheelchair. Although those around him kept cautioning him to “take it easy” and enjoy not working, Smith wasn’t willing to stop pushing boundaries.

Before Parkinson’s surfaced, Smith – who worked in the scrap metal business – had been going to the range a few times a month for most of his life, but stepping it up changed his life.

“I now shoot 5000 to 6000 rounds a day, treating it as an eight-hour workday,” he explained.

Smith’s “gun therapy” is focused on neuroplasticity, where he can shoot repetitiously using intense focus, hand movement, control, and agility training, which entails running with his firearm and fast firing. His preference is shooting rifles rather than handguns, but he says both come with the benefits of steadying his hand.

According to New York-based psychologist Dr. Norman Fried, while the label “gun therapy” may leave some Americans uncomfortable, a movement called “competitive shooting” may be implicated in healing some side effects for patients with Parkinson’s disease.

“Through extreme dedication and long hours of practice, David Smith may have found a way to help his brain rebuild neural pathways – or reroute cortical connections – that were impacted by his disease. The dopamine rush that comes from this exercise may indeed be at the core of a movement to help some sufferers of brain injury to heal,” he said.

And folks, this man is good.  Make sure to watch the video at Guns.com.  I’m not embedding the video because it’s a Facebook video.  This is a heartwarming story.  God bless him, and I hope he keeps it up.  He is an inspiration.

News from New Mexico:

ALBUQUERQUE – A nonprofit that pushes for gun-control laws nationwide sent letters Wednesday to numerous New Mexico sheriffs, asking them to provide records related to their coordinated stance against gun-control laws that they do not plan to enforce.

The Brady Center, a Washington, D.C.-based organization, said it requested emails from the sheriffs under the state’s Inspection of Public Records Act, with demands for emailed communication among sheriffs and gun-lobby representatives.

Attorney Jonathan Lowy of the Brady Center said his group is seeking the emails to learn “what possible basis” the sheriffs have for declaring they won’t enforce the laws. Brady also wants to obtain any communication the law enforcement officials had with the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights groups.

I’d be nice to tell them to blow it out of their collective asses, but since it comes with a requirement by law, the Sheriffs are answering.

But I can answer for them.  Concerning “what possible basis,” it violates the constitution.  There, I’m glad I could be of assistance.  Now, go back to your worship of Baal, you pagans.

Dear Cecile,

I notice that the link you provide to notify the New Zealand Police that I intend to turn in my firearms doesn’t allow me to enter any information.  That sucks.  I’m absolutely livid about this.

I’ve decided to turn in some firearms.  Actually, I need to be more precise.  I have 8616 firearms, and by my calculations this is somewhere on the order of a $10 million collection.

I’ve had a talk with God about this, and after that talk I’ve decided to turn in one, leaving me with 8615 firearms.  I know what you’re thinking?  Why would he turn in just one?

Well, the specific firearm I intend to relinquish is an XM556 Microgun.  I’m sick and fed up listening to my wife complain about all of the ammunition sitting around.  Also, the floors of my house are beginning to sag from all of the weight.  Every … single … room.  Finding a place to put it all has been a bitch.

This has turned into a $10,000 per week habit.  I know you think I need an intervention, Cecile, but you’re too late.  I’ve conducted my own intervention, and I’ve decided to break the habit.  It’ll be hard, and I need your prayers.

So please, please inform the New Zealand Police that I intend to turn in my 5.56mm Gatling gun.  In fact, please also forward this post to your contacts in the New Zealand Police.  I thought I’d drop it in UPS, and within a week or so it should show up on their doorstep.  Or if you’d like, I can send it to you for safe keeping.  Be careful, though.  It’s addictive.

Yours very truly.

ps: I decry and herewith denounce the troll who said he had nuclear weapons he wanted to turn in.  I would never do something like that.

Commenter meep:

Look at all the paid anti NRA posters. You either are with us gun owners or against us. If you cant keep your mouth shut about the NRA you are no better than the gun grabbers

Hmm … keep my mouth shut.  But wouldn’t that run contrary to having a blog in the first place?

Hey, wait.  You mean I could have been making money all of this time?  If I’m no better than a gun-grabber, at least I could get paid for it.

Reason:

Chandler, Arizona, cops broke through the door of a family’s home in the middle of the night, stormed in, pointed their guns, handcuffed the father, and watched as the state’s Department of Child Safety (DCS) took custody of the parents’ three kids—all because mom had decided her toddler’s fever was not serious enough to merit a trip to the hospital.

It was dinnertime on February 25 when the pregnant mother took her 2-year-old to the doctor with a fever of over 100. The doctor told her to take him to the emergency room, fearing that because the boy was unvaccinated, perhaps he had meningitis—a life-threatening disease.

The doctor called the hospital to alert them. But by the time the mother and child left his office, the boy was “laughing and playing with his siblings,” according to this excellent piece by Dianna M. Nanez in The Arizona Republic. Mom took his temperature again, and it was almost normal. So instead of going to the emergency room, the family went home. The mom called the doctor to say her boy’s fever had broken and she wasn’t going to the emergency room. The doctor told her she should go anyway, so she agreed she would—but then she didn’t.

That’s when the madness began.

The hospital called the doctor to tell him the toddler hadn’t arrived. The doctor called DCS. And DCS requested the cops check on the family as a caseworker headed over.

And then, according to The Arizona Republic:

It was after 1 a.m. when officers kicked down the family’s door. One officer carried a shield, while another was described as having “lethal coverage.” Officers pointing guns yelled, “Chandler Police Department,” and entered the house.

The rest of the story is equally nuts. The kids were all placed in separate foster homes.

As I’ve said before:

I can discern where you stand by asking you two questions: [1] Who owns children, and [2] To whom have they been given for governance and training?

My answers are simple: [1] God, and [2] Parents.  If you believe that parents own children, you believe in slavery and you deny God’s ownership of all of His creatures.  You own your dog, not your children.  If you believe that anyone but the parents have been given responsibility for governance and oversight, teaching, training, love, discipline, correction and rebuke, you are a communist.

Thus, the state is run by communists. They think that rather the parents being granted sole responsibility for the moral and physical well-being of their children, the state owns them.

That’s wicked.  Busting into this home was wicked.  Pointing guns at people in a home is wicked.  Separating those children and putting them into a foster home was wicked.

There is no excuse.

The Washington Post:

New Zealand’s gun lobby shares many of its goals with the United States’ National Rifle Association, the world’s biggest gun lobby organization, which supports aligned politicians financially and uses social media to attack its opponents. Some of the NRA’s frequent arguments may also apply in New Zealand, with an estimated quarter of a million gun owners in a country of only 5 million people.

[ … ]

But unlike the NRA, New Zealand’s interest groups have predominantly lobbied the government quietly, rather than threatening politicians with the scorn of their powerful voter base. The perceived silence of those lobbying organizations led to some calls from gun enthusiasts for a bolder and more vocal stance. New Zealand’s gun lobbies were probably well aware, however, that they are not the NRA and never will be, despite the aspirations of some of their members.

The country’s lobby mainly represents a core of rural supporters, whereas more than 86 percent of New Zealanders now live in urban areas and form a largely liberal majority. In the United States, the ratio of citizens living in urban areas is slightly lower. More important, however, the U.S. system of representation and the way congressional districts are drawn increase the significance of rural Republican voters disproportionately. That helps explain why the NRA can pressure politicians into following its demands, even though NRA supporters account for only a fraction of all U.S. voters.

[ … ]

“Our form of government, with a Senate that gives extraordinary power to rural states over urban states and is deferential to states’ rights, makes it difficult to advance relatively modest gun-control measures, much less more sweeping measures,” said Webster, the gun policy expert.

In contrast, New Zealand’s election system is designed in a way that the number of lawmakers a party has in Parliament is aligned with its share among all votes cast. The mixed member proportional voting system — which is also in place in countries such as Germany — is supposed to prevent small interest groups from being able to gain disproportionate influence over lawmakers. To pass legislation, only a simple majority is needed.

This is what happens when writers who have no knowledge of American culture consult with “gun experts” (i.e., progressive gun controllers) for analysis and perspective (take a quick look at their creds, they’ve likely never set foot in middle America among the “great unwashed masses”).  The entire article turns out to be a joke.  So let’s spend a few minutes fisking this, shall we?

First, we learn this from WiscoDave at Kenny’s place about what is going on in New Zealand.

My brother is a plumber in NZ he said a lot of work sites have come to a grinding halt because they can’t buy PVC pipe. ….he said NZ is basically burying their guns and gun City is running low on stock of semi autos.

It isn’t obvious whether there will be turn-ins, confiscations, or massive non-compliance.  We’ll wait and see.

Next, it’s the bad ole’ electoral system that’s at fault.  It can’t be the millions upon millions of AR-15 owners out there whom the FedGov knows will not comply with such a thing, nor the hundreds of millions of pistol owners who will do the same.  No, it’s the electoral system which is at fault.  Without it, according to the authors, we would have gun control on par with the rest of the world because that’s what people really want.

Third, notice the ubiquitous meme of the evils of the NRA, awful bullies they are, and how they can allegedly turn on their members like a light switch.  What’s not mentioned by these authors is that the NRA is losing membership, but gun owners are hardening their positions while the NRA tries to catch up.

Among educated readers here at TCJ, the NRA is known not as the largest gun rights organization on earth, but as the largest, most well-funded, most well-connected gun control organization on earth, having given cover or impetus for the National Firearms Act, The Gun Control Act of 1968, the bump stock ban and red flag laws popping up all over the nation.  It’s a game they play, you see, where they support gun control, tell their members they need money to fight it, and enrich themselves in the process.  But American gun owners, many of them, are no longer falling for it.  Thus, everyone whose address is known by the NRA is receiving ever more frantic calls for money from Chris and Wayne.  It’s sad, really.

What the authors don’t understand is that gun owners are not a top-down kind of people.  They don’t wait for “leaders” to tell them what to think like the statists do.

And that’s why New Zealand gun control won’t work in America (and may not work in New Zealand either).  It has nothing whatsoever to do with the electoral system, nor the NRA, nor any of the other bits of “wisdom” imparted to these authors by the “gun experts.”

American gun owners won’t comply.  And that’s the end of the story right there.  It’s really rather simple, and I could have boiled this all down to that single sentence.  The authors were probably paid by the word for that story.  In the future, journalism classes should force their students to go live somewhere other than Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Duke or NYU.  They need some perspective from someone other than their Marxist professors.

American gun owners won’t comply because they know the history of people who turn in their guns.  It always means loss of rights, and sometimes it means loss of life (It’s funny how someone who knows a lot more than these two authors, like Dave Kopel, can write such a clear-headed commentary for the very same news organization, The Washington Post, yes?).  Gun control always precedes utter totalitarianism.