Political Self-Defense

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 16 Jan 2003 13:00:00 GMT

From The Federalist:

"The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected." -- Will Rogers

From kaba:

"If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns. Only the police, the secret police, the military, the hired servants of our rulers. Only the government -- and a few outlaws. I intend to be among the outlaws." -- Edward Abbey

From smith2004:

"Voting Libertarian is political self-defense."

Too Stupid to Be President - Dr. Dumblove - "or how I learned to stop worrying and love a state of perpetual war." Flash animation. A takeoff on Stanley Kubrick's 1964 classic movie, Dr. Strangelove. Hehe. [smith2004]

Birdman Bryant - French Lube Ad - a jpeg of a magazine ad by a Brazilian agency for a lubricating gel (like K-Y jelly) targeting the French market. They wanted an ad that was not offensive or tasteless. Looks innocent until you think a little. Oh my... [birdman]

Jeff Cooper's Commentaries - O Three - a banner year, the hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers and the Springfield '03 rifle, memorial services for Joe Foss, 45 action story from Vietnam, "a rare and expensive rifle made in Austria," which 22 rifle and handgun for the house, misquoting by press implies celebrity, militia weapon qualifications, "Political correctness is the oppression of the majority by the minority," Islamic light bulb joke, importance to shootability of a good trigger, proper scope placement, vaccination, the classic American Peacemaker, "To surrender one's personal weapon is to invite disaster," Australian hoplophobia, leopard seal attacks, language translation considered beyond the reach of technology, Steyr Scout put one gunsmith practically out of business, Arab missile incompetance, newspeak, Fred Wells "700 BMG improved" pilot, 45-70 and 30-06 compared, Remington 600 carbine in 350 Remington Short Magnum, lead spray from steel targets, one has but to ask, the Denver Park fox, crocodile prey, Christmas is a Christian holiday and America is a Christian nation; get used to it.

I wish to point out firmly that I do not recommend the 22, either rifle or pistol, as a primary house defense gun. As a couple of readers have suggested, it will do for lack of anything better, in cool hands, but its primary purpose is not combat shooting. It is a recreational and utilitarian device to be used for the training of the young and the leaning down of the varmint population. Also it is a very satisfactory pot shooter in jurisdictions where small game may be legally taken for the table. For whatever purpose, you must have one. There over the kitchen door it is the evidence of a well run household.

...

"The love of violence is inherent in the human (male) spirit. The attempt to train it out of boys is both futile and immoral."

The Guru

...

In contrast one thinks of Hartmann, the all time high scoring fighter-pilot who, when asked to leave his pistol outside when being awarded his medal by Hitler, declaimed that "If the Führer doesn't trust me, I do not want his medal."

...

And now the Steyr Scout has been discovered to be an "assault rifle" in California. Before we moved thence we were under the impression that California was about to be washed into the sea. We made it just in time.

...

The bad news: Only 13 percent of American young men know where Iraq is.

The good news: Most of the them are US Marines.

Kim du Toit - End Of An Era - Today's is the last daily Gratuitous Gun Pic from Mr. du Toit. He's reviewed all the guns he cares about. He will consider requests and new releases. [kimdutoit]

Joyce L Malcolm at BBC News - Why Britain needs more guns - elementary my dear Watson, but nice to see this printed by the BBC. [highroad]

Ronald J. Hansen at The Detroit News - New law jails gun supplier - Illinois once again proves that when prohibition ended, the organized criminals moved into the government. They convinced a man who supplied an M1 rifle that was used in a murder to plead guilty to second degree murder. If the lawyers claim that he did it to allow the perp to "scare somebody" was true, then an accessory to assault charge might have been justified, but not murder. Of course we'll never know much about this case since they wrangled a plea. [trt-ny]

"Today is the day I've been waiting for for two years," said Michael Duggan, the county's prosecutor. Duggan called the case historic and promised similar charges against others who recklessly give guns to others.

"We believe that supplying a gun to an angry person to go scare somebody constituted second-degree murder," he said.

Duggan wants to use the same murder charge to whoever supplied the suspect in the Dec. 21 slaying of a Livonia jeweler and his mother and three children.

Detroit Police Chief Jerry A. Oliver Sr. said the department will routinely investigate who supplies guns to suspected killers in other cases. He said the added responsibility will not drain other investigations.

John le Carré at Times (UK) Online - The United States of America has gone mad - and how! [rrnd]

America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War.

The reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams. As in McCarthy times, the freedoms that have made America the envy of the world are being systematically eroded. The combination of compliant US media and vested corporate interests is once more ensuring that a debate that should be ringing out in every town square is confined to the loftier columns of the East Coast press.

...

How Bush and his junta succeeded in deflecting America's anger from bin Laden to Saddam Hussein is one of the great public relations conjuring tricks of history. But they swung it. A recent poll tells us that one in two Americans now believe Saddam was responsible for the attack on the World Trade Centre. But the American public is not merely being misled. It is being browbeaten and kept in a state of ignorance and fear. The carefully orchestrated neurosis should carry Bush and his fellow conspirators nicely into the next election.

...

Last Friday a friend of mine in California drove to his local supermarket with a sticker on his car saying: "Peace is also Patriotic". It was gone by the time he'd finished shopping.

Add comment Edit post Add post

Previous Posts:
Happy Birthday, Christopher!
The Death of Politics
Reefer Madness Revived
Guns Still Allowed in Checked Luggage
Rule II: Never Let the Muzzle Cover Anything You Are Not Willing to Destroy
All Your Bits Are Belong to Us
PowerBook G4 17"
Fifth Amendment Denies Drug Tests
A Drug War Carol
One Ring to Rule Them All

Navigation

History

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