My Self-Defense Fantasy

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sun, 16 Sep 2001 12:00:00 GMT

Ryan Garland - America's Tragedy as Seen by the World - Pictures sent in from all over the world. Tears and sniffles from yours truly. I particularly liked this one from the European Union, but go look at all 4 pages: [heart]

John Bergstrom's Attack Comics - Make Love Not War - a graphic rendition of the change in Americans after Black Tuesday.

John Bergstrom's Attack Comics - Hands Across America 2001 - another expression of the same message.

In the light of Tuesday's terrorist attacks, I've been fantasizing about how to properly defend myself in my car. I've chosen my dream weapons, a Taurus PT145 .45ACP pistol under my armpit (23 oz of stopping power; I'd settle for, likely prefer except for magazine capacity, a Glock 36), a Mossberg 590A1 compact shotgun loaded with buckshot in a floor mount, and a Savage 116FCSS .30/06 in the back seat (with scope, sling, and a few 20-shot magazines). Problem is, the shotgun's barrel is too short to be legal, 20-shot rifle magazines are illegal (though it appears that 10-shot magazines are OK), possession of a loaded rifle or shotgun in a vehicle is illegal, and it takes 4 months to get a pistol permit in Columbia County, assuming they give me one at all, and then it may be for sport and hunting only. The state is standing in the way of me protecting myself. Talk about infringement of my rights... Of course, I'd attend ASAP a course at Lethal Force or Front Sight, and I'd spend lots of time practicing at the range. This is just my fantasy. The .45 under my armpit would suffice for most situations, and a .30/06 in the trunk with loaded magazine at hand (I think this is legal) will be close enough for longer range requirements.

Demitria Monde Thraam - 9/16/2001 - Good bit of humour in the light of Black Tuesday. May be offensive to some (the Taliban would likely behead her if she published it in Afghanistan, and the d.e.a. nazis wouldn't be too happy with it either), but I liked it. After today you'll have to scroll down to "9/16/2001". [anodyne]

"Psst! Hey, Mullah guy. You there. Listen up. I can't have you misrepresenting my Word.. About those opium poppies. I gave humanity those flowers way back in the beginning. Remember "all things growing from seed"? Or however I put it. It was such a long time ago, and I've been sort of busy lately what with so many humans petitioning for Apocalyptics that I have half a mind to...oh, never mind.

Garry Reed - Collateral Damage and Roosting Chickens - Mr. Reed characterizes the WTC & Pentagon bombings as the should-have-been-expected results of supporting Israel all these years.

My first reaction to Islamic kamikazes commandeering jetliners full of people and smashing them into buildings full of even more people was "You bastards!" My second reaction was vented toward our own insolent bureaucrats. "You bastards! Your brain dead foreign policies have finally gotten thousands of us killed!"

If you're standing next to an idiot who's poking a stick into a hornet's nest for no particular reason other than he has the power to do it, and you're the one who gets stung, who are you most angry at? The hornets or the idiot with the stick?

Make no mistake. There has to be two responses, not one. First, swat down the terrorist hornets. Then take the stick away from the idiots.

Don Marti at Linux Journal - Open Letter to Michael Eisner, Chairman and CEO, Walt Disney Company - implores Mr. Eisner to stay home rather than buying, er... lobbying for SSSCA (Security Systems Standards and Certification Act) from congress in Washington. Puts a human face on the likely ramifications of this abomination, should it pass.

I hear you're planning a trip to Washington, DC next month to close the deal on a computer censorship bill, the SSSCA, you're buying from Congress. I'm writing to ask you to please stay home.

I'm not asking because of concerns for your safety. All Americans are getting back to regular work and travel, and that's the right thing to do. But you and your bill should stay out of Washington, DC, and let our elected representatives do their jobs.

Here's why.

On the morning of September 11th, I was wondering about one thing. Nothing the mass media could spare the time to answer, though. My question was "What happened to Jim and Ari?" They work in a building facing the World Trade Center, and often use the subway station underneath.

In mid-morning, an internet server still chugging along on lower Broadway passed along the answer. "I just talked to Ari. He and Jim are OK."

That was it. A few words, passed along by a freely available mail program on an old Pentium system in the corner of an office. Words that ended up copied many times and passed along to internet places where Jim and Ari's friends gather. Low-budget Internet hosts you've never heard of, with names like zork.crackmonkey.org and barley.nylug.org, running software you've never heard of, with names like Postfix and GNU Mailman.

The SSSCA has not yet been presented to the senate. The alleged draft at Cryptome begins:

(a) IN GENERAL.--It is unlawful to manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide or otherwise traffic in any interactive digital device that does not include and utilize certified security technologies that adhere to the security systems standards adopted under section 104.

(b) EXCEPTION.--Subsection (a) does not apply to the offer for sale or provision of, or other trafficking in, any previously-owned interactive digital device, if such device was legally manufactured or imported, and sold, prior to the effective date of regulations adopted under section 104 and not subsequently modified in violation of (a) or 103(a).

Should this fascist garbage be instituted, we'll have pre-ban and post-ban computers, just like we now have pre-ban and post-ban gun magazines.

Claire Tristram at Technology Review - It's Time for Clockless Chips - Nice to see clockless logic come back. I took a course, 6.032, in 1975 that developed a set of self-timed components and explored how to use them. Besides, I like the metaphor below. Slashdot comments here. [/.]

"We're replacing dictatorship with anarchy!" Karl Fant tells me emphatically.

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Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair