I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

David Codrea:

Perhaps one day, applying St. Ambrose’s admonishment to Mumbai will mean JPFO members will feel right at home with a “gun culture” that supports the dignity of all peaceable human beings by not infringing on their choices. That’s the beauty of freedom, and something “Ugly Indians” seem incapable of grasping, as they use their media megaphones to demand colonial mindset defenselessness be imposed on the country that welcomed them in.

But letting ideas do battle in the marketplace and recognizing God-given rights to self defense would run contrary to the collectivist world view of our ruling elite!  That’s why our ruling elite are so anxious to let so many in who would further empower the rulers.

Kurt Hofmann:

When elected officials undertake actions that they fear would anger those they claim to “represent”–fear so strongly, in fact, that they seek to hide their involvement from the voters–they dodge accountability for their actions. The residents of these legislators’ states are their employers–their superiors. In what other line of work is it acceptable for the hired help to do their jobs in a manner that’s hidden from their employers?

But if they did things in an open manner that would return us to the very republic our founders envisioned and mitigate the power of the ruling elites.  We can’t have that happening.

Mike Vanderboegh:

This opinion piece in the LA Times by Jared Diamond was also mirrored at RealClearDefense. Diamond is no Media Matters collectivist putz. He is a Pulitzer Prize winner and thought of as a deep thinker in certain quarters. So when he writes of “the enemy within,” you have to take him seriously. And who are “the enemy within?” Why us, of course.

Read the piece at Sipsey Street Irregulars.  Use of the military would violate the law and recognized historical precedent.  But failure to do so would mean that the ruling elite might actually be held accountable for the tyranny they perpetrate.  Expect to see more calls for use of the U.S. military in counterinsurgency and stability operations in America, as well as further militarization of the police.

Lead ammunition ban passed in California after the federal government knowingly and intentionally (with malice) withheld key technical data and information.  That doesn’t surprise you, does it?

David Codrea:

Claiming to be “a conservative on economic matters,” billionaire David Koch told ABC News in a Sunday interview that he considers himself “a social liberal.”

[ … ]

While Americans for Prosperity (provided with start-up funds by AFP Foundation Chairman Koch with his brother Charles) claims it is “’sitting out’ the immigration debate …

Very well.  We may decide to sit out the next election too.  We’ll see what’s most important to the David Koch and the GOP – immigration issues (and the Chamber of Commerce) or control over the government.  Queue it up and make your decision, boys.

Kurt Hofmann:

So, to whom should Bushmaster, Camfour, and Riverside Sales not have “entrusted” an AR-15 rifle? Any private citizen–any civilian who is not a law enforcement officer. Any of us, in other words, who are not paid government muscle.

That’s what they’re really after.  It’s an attempted end run around God-given rights to bear arms.  It’s unclear at the moment what will happen in the progressive, activist courts in the Northeast, but if it turns sour, gun manufacturers know where they’re welcome.  You do know that, right?

Joe Newby:

A Houston police officer has sparked an internal investigation after an encounter with an open-carry activist legally carrying an AR-15, The Blaze reported Wednesday. The encounter was captured on video, Jon Street said, after the officer attempted to delete the video. After threatening to jail the man for not having ID, he is heard telling the protester that he was “tired” of seeing open-carry “idiots.”

Well, we’re tired of you too, so the feeling is mutual.

David Codrea:

In both cases, the slain individuals were black. That suggests this latest DeWine effort has less to do with training and more to do with Ohio officials being scared to death they’ll see community rage erupt in their cities as has happened in Ferguson and elsewhere. The Brooklyn slaying of two NYPD officers will no doubt put an even more critical urgency to the matter.  It’s a shame, because racial fears that appear to be at the heart of DeWine’s new-found embrace of police training standards did not even factor into the request he rejected, as it was predicated on the assumption that all peaceable people have a right to keep and bear arms, regardless of skin color or any other irrelevant factor.

They do, and so apparently DeWine is a racist.

Daily Caller notes that some pro-gun legislation was enacted in the most recent obscene spending spree.  Whatever.  Here’s a note to the rulers from me.  I don’t bow down for table scraps.  And you’d better untie that cord of servitude to the Chamber of Commerce on immigration issues, or you won’t see me at the polls any more.

David Codrea:

Democratic Virginia State Delegate Joe Morrissey “is on a leash,” Henrico County Sheriff Michael Wade told CBS 6 in a Tuesday report on the jailed politician’s work release arrangement. Morrissey, 57, was convicted last week of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and sentenced to 12 months in jail with six months suspended for “an inappropriate relationship” with a 17-year-old administrative staffer in his legal office who is now reportedly pregnant … So when Morrissey attacked the right to keep and bear arms in 2013 by bringing an AK-style rifle onto the floor of the House of Delegates “in a wild stunt aimed at rallying support for tougher gun laws …

Hey, laws and morality are for the peasants.  Otherwise, what good is an election anyway?

Kurt Hofmann:

Among “progressives,” it’s an article of faith that gun rights advocacy and racism are inextricably linked. One writer goes so far as to argue that broad recognition of gun rights in the U.S. causes cops to shoot black men … No matter that American “gun control” has its roots in a desire to keep African-Americans disarmed and thus powerless

Here in my state we still have laws that require the approval of the CLEO to purchase handguns, laws that have historically been used to prevent those horrible Negros from getting their hands on things that can hurt the good folks.  Hey, what good is a Jim Crow law if it can’t be used to generate revenue whilst encoding bigotry in the law books?

Uncle:

A man who can’t use his arms was in a car with others. The police pulled them over. The police found a gun in the car. And are charging the man who can’t use his arms with possession.

Hey, it’s New Jersey.  If the cops and prosecutors can’t be stupid there, what the hell is happening to this great country?

Kansas City opinion pages, weapons force difficult decisions for police officers.  Hey, if they would just follow the same rules I have to, the decisions would be much easier for them.

David Codrea:

The noncompliance with gun laws pledge was backed up with acts of civil disobedience throughout the afternoon, as various activists “transferred” firearms to one another without going through any government oversight checks. For their part, the Yes on 594 Twitter account has argued that handing off a gun is not a violation, claiming without further clarification when challenged, that “law enforcement agencies have been clear for months: that’s #NotATransfer.” That contention of an exception is not supported by the Ballotpedia description of “the effect of the … measure.”

Because they didn’t plan for disobedience.  They planned for willing sheeple who wouldn’t cause trouble.

Barrett Firearms inks a deal.

KIEV, December 12 (Sputnik) – The Ukrainian state-run defense concern Ukroboronprom said Friday its subsidiary Ukrinmash had signed a deal on small arms delivery with US Barrett Firearms.

“The representatives of company Ukrinmash – the leading exporter of the Ukroboronprom state concern – signed a contract with Barrett Firearms. Weapons will be delivered for the needs of Ukraine’s Security Service and National Guard,” Ukroboronprom said on its website.

Good for Barrett, and good for The Ukraine.  To the minions of the shirtless, metrosexual megalomaniac tyrant Putin, may a .50 round from a Barrett blast open your skulls.

News from Iraq:

Four young Christians were brutally beheaded by ISIS in Iraq for refusing to convert to Islam, according to a British reverend forced to flee the country.

Canon Andrew White, known as the Vicar of Baghdad, told the horrifying story how of the youths, all under 15, were murdered for standing up to the jihadists.

The vicar of the city’s St George’s Church, the only Anglican church in the whole of Iraq, has had to leave the country for Israel amid constant threats on his life by Islamic State.

In a harrowing interview with the Orthodox Christian Network, he said ISIS had killed ‘huge numbers’ of believers in Jesus.

‘Islamic State turned up and said to the children, “you say the words that you will follow Mohammad”’, he said, his voice cracking with emotion.

‘The children, all under 15, four of them, said “no, we love Yesua; we have always loved Yesua; we have always followed Yesua; Yesua has always been with us”.

‘They [ISIS] said, “Say the words.” They [the children] said, “No, we can’t”.

‘They chopped all their heads off. How do you respond to that? You just cry.

Here’s how you respond to that.  You take a rifle and blow a hole through their skulls before they ever invade your home, or if they’re already in your home, you blow a hole in their belly or groin with a 230 grain .45 fat boy.  Any more questions?

Don’t be sheeple.

In 1961, curious about a person’s willingness to obey an authority figure, social psychologist Stanley Milgram began trials on his now-famous experiment. In it, he tested how far a subject would go electrically shocking a stranger (actually an actor faking the pain) simply because they were following orders. Some subjects, Milgram found, would follow directives until the person was dead.

The news: A new Milgram-like experiment published this month in the Journal of Personality has taken this idea to the next step by trying to understand which kinds of people are more or less willing to obey these kinds of orders. What researchers discovered was surprising: Those who are described as “agreeable, conscientious personalities” are more likely to follow orders and deliver electric shocks that they believe can harm innocent people, while “more contrarian, less agreeable personalities” are more likely to refuse to hurt others.

The methodology and findings: For an eight-month period, the researchers interviewed the study participants to gauge their social personality, as well as their personal history and political leanings. When they matched this data to the participants’ behavior during the experiment, a distinct pattern emerged: People who were normally friendly followed orders because they didn’t want to upset others, while those who were described as unfriendly stuck up for themselves.

“The irony is that a personality disposition normally seen as antisocial — disagreeableness — may actually be linked to ‘pro-social’ behavior,'” writes Psychology Today‘s Kenneth Worthy. “This connection seems to arise from a willingness to sacrifice one’s popularity a bit to act in a moral and just way toward other people, animals or the environment at large. Popularity, in the end, may be more a sign of social graces and perhaps a desire to fit in than any kind of moral superiority.”

Another unnecessary rescue story.

Most were out Black Friday shopping or recovering from Thanksgiving feasts on Friday morning. Jason Hodges headed out for a hike. What started out as a leisurely walk through the woods turned into a 13-hour ordeal and rescue mission involving more than a dozen Rabun County volunteers and emergency personnel.

Jason headed to Patterson Gap around 10 a.m. with his father’s dog, Peaches. The avid hiker was visiting his parents at Lake Burton for the holiday and intended to return to his family by lunchtime. He decided to go to the top of the mountain, heading off the trail and down animal paths. After enjoying the vista, he headed back on what he thought was the Appalachian Trail.

The College Park man and his canine friend circled the mountain several times. Then Jason decided to head straight down to find his parked truck, wading through dense thickets of mountain laurel. With no food or water, he and the dog stopped to take a drink from a nearby stream. Nearly three hours had passed.

“Everything just started to look the same,” he said.

It was then that Jason realized the worst — he was lost.

Meredith Hodges received a call that any wife would dread. She said it’s not unusual for her husband to get lost while hiking …

Good grief.  Learn to navigate.  Take maps.  Take a compass.  Know the terrain.  Wear good boots, take a day pack, a parka, a Mylar survival blanket, a knife, a gun, a protein bar, water, 550 cord, a rubberized poncho for a ready-made tent (using the 550 cord and two trekking poles), a high lumen tactical light and fire starter.

It’s so simple.  Don’t be that guy.

David Codrea:

GOA stood alone among national gun rights groups in November, warning that passing the bill will result in giving Congressional Democrats control of Congress for the next 10 months, as the “so-called ‘long-term CR [continuing resolution]’ … would set policy and spending until the end of the fiscal year (September 30, 2015).” Their solution was to call instead for “a ‘short-term CR’ into January, February, or March. This would allow the newly elected Republican Congress to set spending and policy for the federal government for most of next year.”

And that’s exactly what has happened.  The Democratic party is evil, but the GOP is a cowardly shell of humanity, without even so much as a thread of dignity or character left.  But the reason I lifted this quote from David’s article is that it reminds me of a comment left here at TCJ when we discussed this.

seriously ? they think the lame duck Senate can pass gun control ? so far the GOP House has stopped everything … quit crying wolf … this is just a fundraising stunt …

Yea, not so much, huh?  Read all of David’s piece at Examiner.

If you’re a machinst and live in or near Huntsville, Alabama, Remington wants to offer you a job.  If I was a machinst and lived in Huntsville, Alabama I’d take it.

The Texas Legislature is flooded with proposed gun legislation.  The legalization of open carry is a no-brainer and shouldn’t take any more than a minute or two to pass, after a couple of hours to craft the law.  We’ll see just how smart or stupid the Texas Legislature is.

Nullification works.  Of course it does.  It just requires the heart, character and stomach to stand up to the federal government.

David Codrea:

Noting it was largely due to the gun rights vote that Republicans captured the Senate and widened their lead in the House, what will change as a result, if anything, is unclear. If restrictions remain unchallenged, it will recall the many times rules objectionable to gun owners have quietly been allowed to remain in place. Still, there is one change that could be insisted on now, and if it derailed the spending approval process either in a Harry Reid-controlled Senate, or if Barack Obama rejected it, that decision would fall squarely on the Democrats: Congress could, if it wanted to, restore funding to allow for relief of firearms disabilities — or at least it could after January if it passed a short term resolution and left the long term bill for the incoming majority.

Per the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, “prohibited persons” convicted of state-level offenses can contact their state attorney general to learn their options for civil rights restoration. Federal offenses currently require a presidential pardon, with other lawful options provided for in the Gun Control Act of 1968 closed off due to an appropriations technicality, once implemented due to maneuvering by Sen. Charles Schumer.

Not that they will, but the GOP should push that issue.  But the GOP has proven cowardly on too many occasions for me to count.

Mike Vanderboegh on more Jonathan Gruber absurdity.  Now we learn that he is a eugenicist on top of everything else, in the spirit of Margaret Sanger and other Nazis.

Hiker shot on California hiking trail.  Folks, carry guns in the bush.

NO.  Next question.  Can we end our love affair with guns?

David Codrea:

Obamacare is still “anti-gun” and a proper concern for gun rights groups to seek repeal of, the question becomes “How?” Even with the new majority, Republicans will still find themselves as many as 13 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.

That’s where NRA could come in – if Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre and ILA Executive Director Chris Cox wanted it to, or could be persuaded to follow through on. NRA political grades are a powerful tool the politicians in all but incontestable “blue states” vie for, and there are so-called “pro-gun Democrats” in states like Montana who are dependent on them to retain their seats. Even those currently rated lower than an “A” would have powerful incentives not to go into their next election with a markedly lower rating than their challenger. It may even take only one or two “defections” to act like a crack in the dam, convincing balkers that their political fortunes are best served by opposing an administration centerpiece that Americans are increasingly rejecting, with approval at “a new numerical low” providing additional cover for crossing party lines.

See also this followup.  True enough, Obamacare is anti-gun and intentionally designed that way.  Moreover, it is socialist and totalitarian in nature, meaning that the same people who support Obamacare support gun control.  This is appropriate ground for the NRA in my opinion.  But the NRA endorsed Governor-elect of Maryland, Larry Hogan.  You want to know the real bitch in all of this?  Hogan didn’t ask for the endorsement, and is dedicated to defending the laws of Maryland against suits to overturn them (yes, the recent Maryland laws infringing on the second amendment).  I am in favor of pressing the NRA to get score the Obamacare votes, but does anyone really think that an organization who would whore itself like they did for Hogan is ready for the big time on the national stage?

David takes on Mark Morford.  My take is here.

Mike Vanderboegh will be speaking at the We Will Not Comply Rally.  Folks, you know how much I loath I-594.  If I could be there, I would tell them (the rulers) to kiss my ass.  I would not comply either.

Mike notes that a gun-mounted flashlight plays a role in another Denver police shooting.  We’ve discussed this here.  Folks, gun-mounted lights can be done right (and I have them) as long as you know about and avoid sympathetic muscle reflexes, but I’m opposed to police using gun-mounted lights because I think most of them are so incompetent.

David Codrea:

What is clear is the promise of a reward and the guarantee that the person receiving it will not have to provide their name lends itself to the potential for abuse. Not only could gangland competitors be effectively removed, an opportunistic criminal could reap rewards for phoning such a calculated tip in, including the possibility of exploiting unsuspecting police to permanently eliminate reported rivals. Also unstated is what safeguards are in place to ensure rogue law enforcement officers don’t themselves create a tip to do an end run around Fourth Amendment protections, artificially establishing phony “probable cause” opportunities for stops, searches and seizures that would otherwise not present themselves.

It all sounds so Orwellian doesn’t it?  Their designs will have come to fruition when families are informing on family members to the god-government.

David Codrea:

Members of Oath Keepers, a national group that includes current and retired military and law enforcement personnel, have rejected orders from St. Louis County Police to abandon posts on top of private businesses that invited their protection, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Monday. The order to stand down was issued under presumed authority of a county ordinance prohibiting unlicensed security personnel.

Do you need any more evidence that the police aren’t interested in your protection or property?

Kurt Hofmann:

If the government’s hired muscle is shooting too many people, too indiscriminately, the answer is not to voluntarily surrender the means of defending against them. If they are unnecessarily shooting people out of fear, it’s well past time for them to stop shooting, out of a much greater fear of the consequences of such shootings. That greater fear can only be imposed by people equipped to make shooting citizens unnecessarily a terminally dangerous activity.

Kurt upbraids Matthew Yglesias, who is a little boy and whose readers are his boy-followers.

Dave Workman (via Mike Vanderboegh):

As Monson put it, “There is no way I would bring a family into downtown Seattle right now. The criminals have won. The gangs have won. The protesters are out of control” … Some might suggest that Seattle tilts so far to the left that it’s a wonder the city hasn’t slid into Elliott Bay. But the city also has a dichotomy. On the one hand, the liberal/socialist core population obviously leans toward the “only-cops-should-have-guns” philosophy, except when it comes to cops actually using their guns to stop criminals …

Yea, progressives can be paradoxical, no?  And as for losers, criminals, and ne’er-do-wells taking over the city, it’s not much different in Portland.  Expect it to head your way, Washington.  And yet the politicians are concerned about things like focusing on guns and making sure that grandfathers don’t give firearms as presents to grandsons.

Via Mike, police and dogs again.

The body language section of the “Police & Dog Encounters” videos is designed to teach officers how to quickly size up the potential threat presented by dogs. And dog behaviorists and police trainers say you can’t just eyeball a dog, decide that it looks like a pit bull or Rottweiler, and decide it’s dangerous.  In the body language section of the “Police & Dog Encounters” videos, dog trainer and author Brian Kilcommons works with four Chicago PD officers on how to approach dogs that are not very happy about having strangers in their territory. “Dogs don’t lie,” Kilcommons says on the video. “They tell you what they are thinking.” That may be true, but you have to know how to interpret what the dog is saying.

Good grief.  Just good grief.  As I’ve said, you bunch of little screaming girls, go spend some time at a farm or ranch and buy and raise a dog.  Good grief.  It’s shameful that cops have to be taught to do things that most little boys can already do.

Finally, Mike gets some nice props.

David Codrea:

The thing is, transporting these children, sheltering them, feeding them, clothing them, bathing them and dealing with the waste they generate will all have an environmental impact, and while seemingly negligible compared to the totality of things, that’s added to the millions of heretofore illegal aliens already in the country now empowered to stay, and to those on their way, attracted by seeing “migrants” who came before them rewarded for lawbreaking. Their long-term impact as an aggregate on the environment and on the resources needed to provide energy, sustenance and disposal, can hardly be considered negligible. Nor can the immediate and continuing impact of environmental destruction left in their wake …

How much more of an impact will the president’s immigration directives have on the environment than the off-chance a person defending their life may (or may not) need to fire off rounds of ammunition that may (or may not) leave traces within national park boundaries? … Why not figure out the best jurisdiction to get an injunction halting Obama’s action until an environmental impact study can be completed.

Progressives are liars.  They pretend to care about the environement but don’t.  If they did, they would lobby for the startup of nuclear power plants.  Rather, progressives use their pretensions as a cudgel for their other causes.  As for the environmental impacts of immigration and lack of border security, we’ve discussed that here.  They don’t care.  Perhaps a judge can be found who would pay attention only to the law, but s/he wouldn’t care about the morality of the situation.

David Codrea:

 Obviously both of these individuals were not part of what the citizen disarmament cult disparages as “the gun culture,” as the lack of respect for even the most basic of safety rules indicated by the report points to people absolutely unfamiliar with basic rational gun-handling. The obvious ridiculous and senselessly dangerous way this woman evidently ended her own life unsurprisingly brought out ridicule-based comments, including predictable “Darwin Award” references.

“She deserved to die,” a gay Huffington Post reader from Yale weighed in. “Trailer lady deserved it.” Talk about tolerance and concern for “different” people of perceived lower economic status!

Progressives only pretend to care about the lower class.

From Uncle, here is a list of top handgun manufacturers.  I’m kind of surprised that Springfield Armory isn’t on the list.

Don Surber: Do not rebuild in Ferguson.  Yea, but when I said the same thing, I was somehow the devil.

David Codrea:

Time was, the turkey was considered a game bird. The Pilgrims at Plymouth feasted on them. Generations later, Ben Franklin considered it such a useful fowl that he nominated it for the national bird.

Of course, this was in the days when the right to bear arms was taken for granted, when free people hunted turkeys for sustenance, all the while honing marksmanship that would serve them well in time of need.

Fast-forward to present-day Boston, a place of sacred tradition, the literal forge for our heritage of individual liberty. Except Boston is now a place where traditions have been betrayed. Its current overlords have succeeded in disarming the whole people in a way that General Gage could never have conceived possible.

So successful have these rulers been that the city that gave us Sam Adams and Paul Revere is now a city under siege …

David Codrea:

At Wednesday afternoon’s White House ceremony for the traditional annual presidential pardon of turkeys from being served up for Thanksgiving dinner, Barack Obama likened the action to his executive order last week on illegal aliens. The president made the remarks before assembled press with daughters Malia and Sasha present before sparing the lives of turkeys Mac and Cheese, the beneficiaries of his latest order.

That’s because he’s an asshole.

Kurt Hofmann:

One cannot help but wonder about Ensley’s blustering “we’ll take them.” Does he propose to personally take part in the confiscations, or would his participation be limited to cheerleading from the sidelines. Personally, I strongly suspect the latter.

Yes, but I prefer the former.  At least that would make an honest man out of him.

Magpul finalizes departure from Colorado.

Uncle: Will the Army drink the Kool-Aid?  I don’t know.  But I’m not worried about what the Army does.  To S&W, I say again like I have to every gun manufacturer.  Don’t even start down the path of relying on government contracts to keep your company solvent.  It’s like shooting heroin once.  Just say no.  Just don’t do it.

Mike Vanderboegh:

It is possible to condemn rioting and lawlessness in the streets without embracing the militarized police state.

It is also possible to call into question the righteousness of Wilson’s use of deadly force without embracing arson and pillage.

These are not mutually exclusive propositions.

Yea, but when I said the same thing, I was somehow the devil.