David Codrea:

Noting he is prohibited from commenting on grand jury proceedings, perhaps the DA’s mindset can be gleaned from a statement that is on public record. Berberian had previously maintained the shooting was inappropriate and illegal due to what he called “community standards.” In Marin County, those standards place a political “stigma” on gun ownership, and Berberian’s personal hostility to gun ownership, where he goes so far as to invite citizens to “surrender” their firearms to a “buyback” program, is seen by some as an “unhealthy obsession.”

Community standards?  Perhaps we need a community standard that takes corrupt DAs out behind the jail to find a lamp post and some rope.

David is following up that awful commercial made by the anti-gun nuts. “The producer of an anti-gun “public service announcement” video appears to have violated California law regarding either real or imitation firearms on school premises, a Freedom of Information Act response by the North Oakland Community Charter School implies by default. Documents provided to Gun Rights Examiner in response to a Public Records Act request partially corroborate the school executive director’s earlier claim that “NOCCS does not allow, condone, or support bringing weapons of any kind (real or replicas) to school.”

David is pointing people to a debate appended to one of his articles, where Bruce Krafft argues as follows:

And after some argument, he says “You believe that immigration will be a net drain despite the fact that some 50% of new businesses are started by 1st generation immigrants.”

Let’s be clear here.  I can answer David’s first question with clarity and intentionally include not just some sort of vague, murky “natural” right (I am not a follower of John Locke and his ilk).  I believe that the God of the Bible has granted every man the right to defend his family the way he sees fit.  Now to Mr. Krafft’s problem.

He is a simpleton.  All of that has abolutely nothing whatsoever to do with whether the U.S. recognizes aliens, gives them sustenance, recognizes rights, or anything else.  Just as I can point to God having granted the right to self defense and amelioration of tyranny to all men everywhere, I can also point to a sovereign state’s resposibility to secure its borders, protect its heritage, and secure its freedom from tyranny.

Allowing voters in who would undermine that runs directly contrary to a state’s God given duties.  What another state recognizes (or not) for its citizens isn’t our concern.  That is between God and those evil rulers.  Just as we cannot be the police of the world, we also cannot ensure every man’s rights are observed by allowing our borders to be violated.  Setting one concept over against another (in a Morton’s Fork) is fodder for college freshmen.  We aren’t college freshmen, we think more clearly than that.  As for the notion that “immigrants start this,” or “immigrants did that,” or “we are all immigrants of some sort,” I am completely unmoved.  This is a play on emotions because Mr. Krafft knows he has lost the argument.  I don’t vote or advocate based on emotions.  Go emote with someone who cares, Mr. Krafft.  David titles his post at WoG “A Libertarian Paradox.”  Philosopher Gordon H. Clark once said of paradoxes, they are a “charlie horse in the head.”  So this too.  There is no logical problem here, just a lack of clear thought.

In an exchange I knew nothing about until today (I have been out of pocket for a while), Mike Vanderboegh is contemplating potential arrest at the WA state house as part of “I will not comply” protests.  David weighs in with Mike asking him to reconsider, and for a rundown of his own reason you will have to read David’s letter to Mike.

I have nothing at all to add to either Mike’s reasons or David’s counterarguments.  This is entirely a personal decision, neither dictated nor forbidden by Biblical precepts.  Perhaps there is wisdom to be gleaned, but that’s not the same thing as rules, sin, righteousness and the like.  I have not been a part of things like this because I have a job, and that job quite literally required me over the past several weeks to work about 20 straight days without time off.  Moreover, my job requires that I stay free from felony arrests, and even lesser charges could be problematic.

That said, I do get that there must be a line in the sand.  Every man must make those decisions for himself.  I cannot suffer the notion that the federal government has a list of every firearm owned and who owns them.  What I would do about that is none of your business until I tell you and make it your business.  The one thing on which I disagree with David is this: “And no, I don’t see a way to back out of this without losing face.”

Oh, I don’t know about that.  Haters will always hate.  Anonymous commenters annoy me, and like David I require that men go on record, at least with me if not others.  But posting an anonymous comment ridiculing Mike’s decision, one way or another, impresses me as sound and fury signifying nothing.  It’s like the little yap-yap dogs who run up to my 82 pound red and rust Dobbi, Heidi, making all sorts of unappealing noises, until she looks their way, and then they turn tail and run.  I think Heidi must be amused.  I know I am.

That’s what I recommend for Mike.  Amusement is appropriate in some circumstances.  But if you want to go to WA, do it.  If you don’t, then don’t.  Here is how you tell folks your decision.  You simply tell them.  That’s the end of it.  I don’t embarrass easily (engineers usually suffer from over-confidence and an almost pathological inability to care about the views of others – so I acknowledge there’s a problem with us, but I’m confident that problem doesn’t apply to me).  So maybe I’m a bad one to offer counsel.  But I just don’t see the issue with “saving face.”  It doesn’t have even the slightest traction with me.

WeaponsMan has a demurral for the M-14 / M1A lovers.  Well, I suspect that this will draw out as many violent remarks as haters of the 5.56 mm round and M-16/M-4/AR-15 platform.

David Codrea:

Further reading confirms copies of the judgment were served to Attorney General Eric Holder, as well as to the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility and the Office of Inspector General. Leaving the door open for further action, the opinion noted pending a final response from DOJ, “the court will reserve the question whether one or more of defendant’s attorneys acted in violation of the court’s rules and should be disciplined thereunder.”

Like I said, “this is criminal activity, and if it can be proven to the standards of the American Bar Association, they could be disbarred.  Finally, if it can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, they could face criminal penalties.”  People need to be disbarred and in prison over this.

Kurt Hofmann:

This bill is an exact copy of one he introduced last July, H.R. 5344. At that time, he actually came out and said that he wants private citizens to be more vulnerable to gunfire … How one would “protect the safety” of “the general public” by outlawing safety equipment is left unexplained. Even many of the armored backpacks, sold for use by school children, would be banned.

PPEs are awesome, unless of course it makes you more protected from totalitarians trying to rule over you.

What Baghdad movie-goers think about American Sniper.  It’s instructive.

So let me get this straight.  Being an actual terrorist has to do with geographical interests and not methods or intent?  Okay.  Got it.

Mike Vanderboegh on Gottlieb on smart guns.  Very well.  I’m not opposed to people spending their money the way they want.  If Gottlieb wants one, let him buy one.  Leave me out of it.  And don’t ever … ever … EVER … tell me what kind of gun I can have or must buy.

David Codrea:

“The bill is taken almost word for word from The Kelly Report, a multi-authored, gun control perpetual wish list released last year from Kelly’s office,” Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership reported Tuesday. “Authors of the Kelly Report include such veteran gun control advocates as Harvard’s David Hemenway, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (formerly known as Handgun Control, Inc.), and National Urban League President and former New Orleans mayor Marc Morial.

Read all of David’s article.  If you want me to respect you, show me children raised to adulthood, or gray hair, a life well-lived, or something that shows you are a man.  This person is an unserious little boy.  As for the promised gun control, bring it. We’ll see who wins that fight.

Also, read about David’s insurance policy.  Hmm …

Kurt Hofmann:

Actually, that wouldn’t be a new development, with the Violence Policy Center having espoused such bans on what they call “intermediate sniper rifles” (to distinguish them from “heavy sniper rifles”–mostly firing the .50 BMG cartridge) since 2001. If that effort ever comes to fruition, does anyone seriously believe they’ll not eventually find their way to warning us of the dangers of private citizens’ access to “light sniper rifles”?

More recently, we’ve seen an especially hysterical anti-gun group (and an anti-gun group has to really work to distinguish itself from the crowd in its level of hysteria) calling for a ban of rifles “too accurate” for private citizens–and stunningly, wants private citizens limited to rifles that miss 70% of the time …

Read all of Kurt’s article.  Everything is proceeding just as I had foreseen.

I had previously asked the question of a purchase at Walmart, “If someone had purchased a really nice bolt action .308 with expensive glass, what would the press have done if this had gotten into criminal hands?  Perhaps call it a “sniper rifle?”

And in this same spirit, Mike Vanderboegh weighs in.

Personally, I can think of no more wonderful outcome than if the movie prompts the firearm prohibitionists to go after deer rifles. They mess with Elmer Fudd at their peril and frankly the Fudds could stand being reminded that we are all guests at this disarmament party.

Yea.  It isn’t just that AR-15 with the high capacity magazine they don’t want you to have.  That nice .308 bolt action rifle you’ve been thinking about – you know, the one you want to put the nice Nightforce or Vortex scope on?  Yea, that rifle.  That’s the one.  They don’t want you to have that either.  Just because.  You can’t be trusted.

David Codrea:

1. Do you believe that the Constitution is the “supreme Law of the Land” and that the Bill of Rights acknowledges a birthright of all Americans?

2. If so, should these rights be proactively protected from infringement by all levels of government, including city, county and state?

3. Please give some examples of gun laws you consider constitutional.

4. Please give some examples of gun laws you consider unconstitutional.

5. Does the right to bear arms include the right for any peaceable citizen to carry them concealed without a permit?

6. Do you believe that Americans have a right to own, use and carry weapons of militia utility?

Yes, yes, none of them, all of them, yes, and yes.  How did I do?  Read David’s entire list.  I’ve become very disenchanted with the process.  The NRA can’t even get the most basic things right, you know, like working to protect gun ownership and use.

Dan Morgan:

Our RON (Remain-Over-Night) is hidden well up the mountain in a draw, deep in the tangled nightmare of a laurel thicket, known to the locals as an “Ivy Hell”. The name speaks for itself.

Andy spotted the potential location as the four of us patrolled slowly following the spur northwest, first in a diamond formation then later, as the trees and vegetation thickened, into a Ranger file formation, down from the ridge line of the mountain behind us.

Andy was walking point and, as the compass man, reading the terrain and keeping us on course. Al, the second man in the patrol, was keeping the pace count. Andy noted, as he frequently looked back, that Al was maintaining a good interval far enough back to be just barely visible to Andy.

Passing the large laurel thicket about 500 meters down in the draw he stopped, turned to Al, and made eye contact with him. Andy slowly raised his support hand to shoulder level, palm open, fingers pointed up, and moved them in a tight circular motion …

This is good stuff.  It sounds like it happens in my neck of the woods, or at least where I can get to in a short time.

Mike Vanderboegh on the GOP caving on immigration.  Because the GOP sucks.

Mike Vanderboegh on the latest CleanUpATF post.  Read it all.

Outdoorhub has a review of the new Savage .17 HMR rifle.  According to this review, the Ruger 77 is the better of the .17 HMR rifles when the review was done.  I’ll tell you what.  How about each manufacturer sending me their models and I’ll test them out myself?  I can be reached as described at the contact page.

Kurt Hofmann:

Registration precedes confiscation–maybe by years, or even decades, but that’s the only purpose it serves, and no government can forever resist the seductive siren song promising the opportunity to secure ever more power to itself, by putting that purpose into effect. The Sandy Hook Advisory Commission has helpfully reminded any of us who may have forgotten that axiom.

Yes, and in the mean time, registration serves the purpose of the state deciding who gets to purchase firearms until final confiscatory actions.  Oppose a national gun registry by any means necessary.

Kurt Hofmann:

So they don’t want people to know what they’re selling? The “military-bred weaponry” to which he refers is how these companies make their living, and they’re hardly secretive about it. His op-ed column, after all, is replete with posters (the ones that are “almost always in capital letters”) advertising these companies’ wares. The images are on the companies’ websites, and in advertising they pay for in various gun magazines.

That, after all, makes rather a lot more sense than trying to hide their advertising. The very purpose of advertising is defeated if that advertising is not seen.

Josh Sugarmann apparently doesn’t even understand basic economics.  I’ve seen so much from the SHOT show – and I didn’t go – that I want it all to go away.  It’s gun manufacturers seeking the goose that lays the golden egg, and I won’t pay the kind of prices I’ve seen for most of these firearms.  So perhaps the manufacturers don’t understand basic economics either.  But I expect the prices to go down.

Mike Vanderboegh.  You have to watch this video.  No really.  You need to watch this.  Who says the A-10 is “unlovely?”  I certainly don’t.  To me it’s the greatest aircraft for field support ever manufactured.  I guess the idiot general wants to spend his money on new toys like the super great … ahem …  wink, wink … F35, that piece of crap that’s so expensive we couldn’t afford it alone and had to go in with other countries to build it, those countries having the plans and specs now.

And good grief!  Am I going to have turn the NRA loose to their own demise and forever forswear membership?  They can’t even get the simplest of things right.

Via David Codrea, Dave Hardy gives us a realistic explanation as to why compromise doesn’t work in the long run.

David Codrea:

Commenting on revelations about Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and Department of Justice (DOJ) actions in the case of retired agent Jay Dobyns against his former employer, attorney David Hardy equated them with “a BATF and DOJ Watergate… or worse,” Friday. Noting that actions taken over a civil lawsuit evidently have included concealing evidence, secret threats against witnesses, and surveillance of attorneys and witnesses, the new information lends further credence to Dobyns’ allegations and appears to show government lawyers engaged in a criminal conspiracy.

I’ll have more to say about this later.

WeaponsMan gives us a review of American Sniper.  Some of what he says dovetails with what I said.  I finally got a chance to talk to Daniel about the film, and he didn’t like the portrayal of Marines.  He also had a number of technical nits, like digital cammies before they were in Iraq, MRAPs before they were deployed to Iraq, etc.  It’s one man’s view, and it doesn’t mean that it represents reality.  It represents reality according to what he saw and believes.  Again, I think Bradley Cooper did the best acting I think I’ve ever seen on screen.  This is a must see film, extremely noteworthy cinema.

WeaponsMan gives us a suggestion for what to do if you don’t intend to watch the idiot bowl.  And I don’t.

From We Are The Mighty, this is a nice rundown of some of the more notable exploits of Carlos Hathcock.

Kurt Hofmann:

… much of the Mexican drug cartel violence uses weapons–like those so infamously used in France recently–far more powerful than those legally available to most U.S. citizens–machine guns, grenades, rocket launchers, etc. If some handguns and “assault weapons” can so easily cross the U.S./Mexico border going south, heavier weapons can do so coming north, along with all the drugs (and illegal aliens/future Democrat voters).

Perhaps the gun ban zealots should re-think their love of open borders.

Yes, but I don’t think they will.  The collectivist mindset will always reflexively revert to more and more government control, including control over weapons.  The collectivists won’t see the problem as open borders.  They will see the problem as the availability of weapons at all among non-state actors.  Thus, they will push for tighter and tighter control over guns, regardless of the fact that this control has absolutely no effect on criminals.

Mike Vanderboegh sends an open letter to Alan Gottlieb.  Mike has more patience than do I.  I consider Alan to be a lost cause, an irrelevant fixture on the gun control scene, a tool for the collectivist media to exploit.  I’m not depressed, and I am not encouraging you to be a defeatist.  I just don’t think Alan will play a role in the coming festivities.

David Codrea:

The role of citizen disarmament in assuring the killers would succeed was expanded on by Kurt Hofmann in his latest JPFO Alert   …

“Let there be no doubt, we are asking that all weapons will be issued for self-protection only, and to designated personnel that will undergo thorough investigation and training by local authorities,” Margolin continued, essentially revealing he never learned the lesson of Alfred Flatow on the dangers of letting “authorities” determine who they will allow to have guns – and who they will not.  While Margolin is on the right track, he’s on the wrong understanding of what a right is. Certainly European Jews have a right to keep and bear arms, and not just sanctioned designees – it’s a human right, one that’s recognized in the Second Amendment, but not dependent on the Constitution, and not limited to Americans. Likewise, it is not limited to European Jews, and any who presume to withhold or dispense it, that is, to “grant” it, assume the roles of usurpers and tyrants, the very people we’re supposed to have guns to guard against and repel.

I’m sorry to lift so much prose out of the article, but it is involved while still worth the time to read it.  David is emphasizing a theme I’ve pressed before.  I don’t believe in the second amendment.  I believe in God.  The almighty gives me the right to bear arms, and no man can legitimately take it away.  What God has spoken is law for all men, everywhere and in all ages and epochs.

Mike Vanderboegh links a piece where a number of armed women drive off a recent Boko Haram attack.  Well, I guess they aren’t such bad asses after all when facing gun fire, are they?  Pussies, they are?

David Codrea:

Allowing a citizen’s fundamental rights to be stripped without his having been found guilty of a crime, especially on the say-so of an ex-partner with strong motives, flies in the face not only of due process, but also in terms of the nature of rights, and the powers of government supposedly bound by delegated authority. “Do you know of any other right that that requires a citizen to undergo a compelled interrogation under penalty of perjury as a precondition to receiving (or being denied) permission to exercise it?” writer Don Cline asks … For her part, Giffords has not explained …

Anything.  She hasn’t explained anything at all, except by her actions that she is still a meddling collectivist control freak who is butting into the business of other people.  I am reminded of the comments by reader menckenlite concerning mandatory state review.

Control freaks love psychiatry, a means of social control with no Due Process protections. It is a system of personal opinion masquerading as science. See, e.g., Boston University Psychology Professor Margaret Hagan’s book, Whores of the Court, to see how arbitrary psychiatric illnesses are. Peter Breggin, Fred Baughman and Thomas Szasz wrote extensively about abuses of psychiatry. Liberals blame guns for violence. Conservatives blame mental illness. Neither have any causal connection to violence.

Take a look at what this Ukrainian granny can do.

The government is still trying to financially choke the firearms industry.  You do realize that this administration is full of pathological liars who will say one thing and do another, don’t you?

Chris Murphy on Islamic militants in Paris.  Because he’s a pathetic rube and a tool.

Via Mike Vanderboegh, White House still focusing on domestic “extremists” (because Obama hates America).

David Codrea:

I understand some have differences, but those are not with JPFO itself, and that’s important enough for me not to automatically abandon my inclination to do what I can to help the organization survive, thrive and grow. If you don’t agree, I’ll not waste any more of your time trying to persuade you. Stop reading and go in peace. This message is intended for those of you who would like to join me in doing what we can to help this entity called JPFO.

I’ve already stated my position.  I align myself with people, not organizations.  I don’t have a lot of money to donate, but I have a Google page rank of 5.  I want to assist David Codrea and Kurt Hofmann.  If that means that I assist JPFO in the process, then so be it.

David Codrea:

In order to counter the well-financed propaganda effort, Nevadans for State Gun Rights has created a fact sheet that presents counter-arguments to those voters are being exposed to, and that warns against the loss of rights should they heed what the Bloomberg coalition is trying to make them believe. Supporters who object to and wish to respond to Sen. Smith’s Everytown talking point-parroting “editorial” can submit letters to the Gazette-Journal being careful to observe the paper’s requirements, including limiting them to 200 words.

This is simple folks.  Do what needs to be done and the gun controllers can be defeated.  Don’t be knots on a log.  Stop watching idiot TV sitcoms at night.  Spend time doing something useful (I know, my readers don’t watch idiot shows anyway, and they’re busy people.  Still, please add Nevada into your do-list over the coming weeks and months.  Patriots there need you.).

In case you haven’t read Kurt Hofmann’s latest at JPFO, please do so.  I previously linked this piece.

Mike Vanderboegh links an article on supply of the Ukrainian military.  I’ve discussed this before, and you know I’m a sucker for logistics.

Mike Vanderboegh says we are not all Charlie.  Hmm … I think Ned Weatherby said something just like that here.

Mike Vanderboegh, all over America, the government is cracking down on preppers.  Wood stoves are mentioned again.  The EPA is as out of control as I’ve ever seen anyone or any organization.  The regulations on stoves are immoral and obscene and the EPA doesn’t have a God-given right to tell people how they may heat their home.  Thus I recommend disobeying those regulations since, being immoral, they have no binding obligation on men.

David Codrea:

With an administration policy abetting immigration by disparate cultures with incongruous goals, such attacks may be inevitable. If and when one does happen, the probability is that it will occur in an area where private carrying of firearms has not been normalized, and is discouraged or outright prohibited. As for any and all laws in place, the attackers will ignore them, as they always do.

I think David is saying – with some degree of regret for those to whom he refers – that there will be a price to pay for your collectivist voting history.  You are an easier target for the terrorists.

David Codrea:

New House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz took his first action for the new congress by renewing the subpoena to compel Attorney General Eric Holder to produce documents related to Operation Fast and Furious “gunwalking” …

We’ll see where this goes.  But Jason Chaffetz, for all of his appearances to oppose the establishment, is an establishment kid.  If he likes Boehner, that says something about his character.

Kurt Hofmann:

So now, any gunsmith or machinist who is hired by the “gun” owner to complete the machining is going to be ruled to have “manufactured” a gun, and will thus be held to the same restrictions that apply to all commercial gun manufacturers. The BATFE is insisting on having its cake and eating it, too. They have previously argued that an 80% receiver ceases to be an 80% receiver, and becomes a “firearm,” if the manufacturer does so much as scratch an outline showing where material needs to be milled away; but now, if the buyer of what the BATFE recognizes as an incomplete receiver similarly removes some of the material that must be removed in order to make the receiver function in a firearm, and then turns it over to a skilled professional gunsmith or machinist to finish the work, the professional ends up being considered the one to have “manufactured” the gun.

In order to understand how Kurt got to this point you have to read his entire article.  I was shaking my head.  I shouldn’t be, but I’m surprised almost daily at the control freaks who make up the federal government.

Mike Vanderboegh on the thin blue line.  So here are two questions.  First, when is the last time you “lost a rifle?”  Second, when is the last time you shot at a dog, missed and killed someone?  Readers can weigh in.

Mike Vanderboegh: Ghostly Echoes From History, Part IV.  Mike begins with my favorite quote from John Adams.  “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  This is a pregnant statement and perhaps we’ll explore it in detail one day too.  In the mean time, read Mike.

David Codrea:

It’s not often I find myself in agreement with a “gun control” zealot, but in this case, I’m on board with Rejina 100 percent. By all means, if you don’t want her to think you are a coward, please share. Some may even want to start with these guys.

It might actually be rather nice if the whole thing got a little more legal scrutiny than it has to date.

David Codrea:

Perhaps when enough citizens realize the police can’t protect them and won’t allow them to protect themselves, their attitudes and political choices will change, or at least their inclination against proud and defiant civil disobedience. Some of us would love to help, but we can’t force people not to enslave or harm themselves. Meanwhile, those of us who already know the score will continue to protect ourselves and our rights, and oppose that New York state of mind whenever the fascist Mayor of Everytown tries to impose it beyond the five boroughs.

I’ve said before and will continue to drive the point that totalitarians will answer for every crime committed upon their people that could have been prevented or ameliorated if they allowed their people to defend themselves.  Politicians and police who lobby against the God-given right of self defense will ultimately answer to the one who gave those rights.

Kurt Hofmann:

And that’s another problem for your side, Diamond–the principles on which our republic (as opposed to your “democracy”) was founded are indeed worth dying for, in the eyes of many of us, and perhaps an even bigger problem for you, worth killing for. So if you and your “decent Americans” decide to appeal to “authoritarian government” to deal with us, bring it.

As I survey the ideological landscape, it’s not entirely clear to me yet that the totalitarians get the fact that the civil disobedience we see now in New York, Connecticut and Washington are based on irreducibles, axioms that define character and circumscribe actions.  Let’s hope they do before they do things from which there is no return.

Mike Vanderboegh:

Faith in God (Part III)

The Long Game (Part II)

Squirrel Away As Much Powder As Possible (Part I)

Read them all.