Back In the NRA

I let my membership in the NRA lapse in 2016 - - money is tight, and I felt complacent, as I should never have, knowing that leftists, gun grabbers and Communists (but I repeat myself) never rest in their efforts to take guns from law-abiding Americans. After the Florida shooting I renewed my membership - - so I'm good for supporting the murder of schoolkids for the next year.*








*this is what is referred to as "humor" or "sarcasm."

"We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident...

...that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the the pursuit of close kin.

"Incest a 'fundamental right', German committee says.

Anti-incest laws in Germany could be scraped [sic] after a government-backed group said relationships between brothers and sisters should be legal."

Over At Reason Magazine...

...Brian Doherty discusses three Second Amendment cases that might eventually be decided at the Supreme Court.

Some Advice On Where To Draw the Line

via Sipsey Street Irregulars.

LESSON NO. 1: If a bureaucrat, or a soldier sent by a bureaucrat, comes to knock down your door and take you someplace you do not want to go because of who you are or what you think -- kill him. If you can, kill the politician who sent him. You will likely die anyway, and you will be saving someone else the same fate. For it is a universal truth that the intended victims always far outnumber the tyrant's executioners. Any nation which practices this lesson will quickly run out of executioners and tyrants, or they will run out of it.

LESSON NO. 2: If a bureaucrat, or a soldier sent by a bureaucrat, comes to knock down your door and confiscate your firearms -- kill him. The disarmament of law-abiding citizens is the required precursor to genocide.

LESSON NO. 3: If a bureaucrat tells you that he must know if you have a firearm so he can put your name on a list for the common good, or wants to issue you an identity card so that you be more easily identified -- tell him to go to hell. Registration of people and firearms is the required precursor to the tyranny which permits genocide. Bureaucrats cannot send soldiers to doors that are not on their list.

Click the link to read the clear-eyed rest of it. #1 sounds like it could have been written by Heinlein.

A Righteous Response To a City's Proposed Gun Bans

"Gun Range Prohibits Police After City Considers Ban."

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- A rural Vermont firing range has told the police department in Burlington that its officers are unwelcome to train at the facility because the City Council has advanced a measure to ban semi-automatic rifles and large-capacity magazines in the state's largest city.

The City Council's action earlier this month threatens constitutional freedoms, Robert Boivin II, board chairman of the Lamoille Valley Fish and Game Club Inc., wrote in a letter to police department, city and state leaders terminating use of the gun range by Burlington police.

The firing range is in Morrisville, about 50 miles northeast of Burlington. The city of 42,000 residents has a police force of just less than 100 officers.

The club's executive board "can no longer support the City of Burlington with such a prejudice against our club and its members, and has voted to suspend the City's use of our range for its law enforcement. This action is effective immediately," Boivin wrote in the letter, dated Tuesday. It was provided Wednesday to The Burlington Free Press.

Well done, Lamoille Valley Fish and Game Club! Wish more businesses and ranges would make anti-gun jurisdictions and politicians pay the price in such a manner.

Only 2200 Members? That's Embarrassing.

The organization Knife Rights, which advocates for the rights of knife owners in much the same way that the NRA does for gun owners, is hampered by a much smaller membership than its more famous sister:

Doug Ritter was carrying two pocketknives and a Leatherman on his belt as he entered a suburban barbecue restaurant near his home in Gilbert, Arizona. "If we were in New York City right now, I could be arrested and sentenced to a year in prison for carrying these knives," he told me as we stood in line at the counter.

Sitting down to carve into a big platter of pork and brisket, Ritter, the founder and chairman of Knife Rights Inc., laid out his arguments for restoring our right to carry switchblades, double-edged daggers, combat knives, bowie knives, stilettos, and cutlasses on any street in America. "Knives are essential tools used by millions of Americans every day, at work, at home, at play," he said. "And on rare occasions, they're also used as an arm in self-defense, or to defend one's family. When the Second Amendment talks about the right to bear arms, it doesn't specify firearms in particular."

I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm not a member of Knife Rights. I'm a member of the NRA, but I carry and write about guns much less than I do about knives. Here on my desk as I type this I can see 7 knives, and there's a couple more in the desk drawers. So I really have no excuse not to join Knife Rights. And those of my readers that carry a knife regularly, you should consider it too. 2200 people are small in the scheme of things when it comes to standing up for rights in the halls of Congress: one million people is another matter entirely.

I'll be joining Knife Rights on Friday when I get paid. Here is the Knife Rights website.

Tutorial: How To Talk Of the Bill of Rights...

...the way a gun control advocate talks of the Second Amendment:

These days, gun control advocates, knowing that they lost the argument when the Supreme Court made its historic Heller and MacDonald decisions affirming that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, give lip service to the Second Amendment when they argue for gun control. They take their cue from President Obama, who will say things like "I support the Second Amendment, but believe there are common-sense measures we can take, blah blah blah." That but is the point at which they stop lying and begin telling the truth:

I support the Second Amendment, but... don't think anyone "needs" an "assault weapon."

I support the Second Amendment, but... think we need to close the gun show loophole (i.e., ban the private sale of guns between individuals).

I support the Second Amendment, but... don't think anyone should own more than 100 rounds of ammunition.

You see how this works. In the first half of a statement you mention the particular article of the Bill of Rights that you intend to trample in the second half of the statement. Let's try a few of our own, using other parts of the Bill of Rights:

I support the First Amendment (right to free speech), but... think that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a blithering idiot that needs to be ball-gagged.

I support the First Amendment (right to freedom of religion), but... not for Muslims. Those people are a menace.

I support the Eighth Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment), but... think that Piers Morgan should be tarred, feathered, and ridden out of the United States on a rail.

You see how it works. The next time you're in a debate with a gun grabber, recognize it and turn it against him in the same way.

The Most Fundamental Human Right of All?

The right to decide for yourself the term of your life, and to have the means legally to facilitate the ending of it with dignity, with minimal interference from the State.

Comment In Passing, Devil's Advocate Edition

Those of you who oppose abortion and would like to see Roe V. Wade overturned by the Supreme Court would do well to remember that this would make it perfectly acceptable for liberals to advocate for similar Supreme Court overturn on the Heller and McDonald gun rights cases.

Quote of the Day

Just yesterday at work, the temp agency representative was looking up someone on Facebook. Evidently they had posted a comment about a boss. She didn’t find it…she wasn’t a friend. However, she was looking and it chilled my blood to witness it.

From The Dax Files by Dax Montana.

That's the crunch about our so-called right to "free speech." No one really gives a rat's ass if an employer uses blog posts, Facebook posts or Tweets against you, because it's not a government action. The result, however, is just as effective as if government did do it: you're hesitant to be honest and to speak your mind, knowing that someone will be offended and bring it to the attention of those who have power over you in the private sector.

Eric Holder & Company...

...finally get one right:

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has urged a federal court to side with a Howard County man in a lawsuit over his cellphone being seized by Baltimore police at the Preakness Stakes after he filmed officers making an arrest.

The federal attorneys say the lawsuit “presents constitutional questions of great moment in this digital age.” They asked U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg to rule that citizens have a right to record police officers and that officers who seize and destroy recordings without a warrant or due process are violating the Fourth and 14th Amendments.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, which is representing the plaintiff, Christopher Sharp, said it believes this is the first time the Department of Justice has weighed in on the topic of recording police.

Holder must really be trying to make up for Fast & Furious. This will piss off cops and police departments all over the country.

h/t Radley Balko.

Citizen Journalist Stands Up To NYPD

A video from Reason magazine online. It should be noted that, after several hours of standing off the NYPD, the female journalist was finally forced into a pen with other journalists by female NYPD officers.



The First Amendment in action.

Human Right To Gastric Bypass Surgery?

I don't think so, but this is UK we're talking about.

If you can invent a "human right" to gastric bypass surgery, you can invent a "human right" to just about anything, can't you?

- - A human right to cosmetic surgery because you're ugly as sin.

- - A human right to a boob job because your titties are too small.

- - A human right to a sex change because you want a do-over.

All paid for with other people's hard-earned money. Not your own money.

Excuse Me, Their WHAT?

Killers, child sex offenders and a rapist are among nearly 50 dangerous criminals who are on the run but whose identities are protected by government officials because of human Rights laws.

*shakes head disgustedly*

The Magnificent Bill Whittle On Gun Rights

Watch it, pass it on: