Sunday Gunday, some actually real-gun related content: Vice is Terrible edition

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/evd4we/the-good-guy-with-a-gun-theory-debunked

So, Vice, the most trustworthy of sites, partnered with the most unbiased source of The Trace to write an article about how guns are really the worst, ever, forever. I would love to give you a nice rundown and debunking, but it honestly hurts to read because there's so much shit science. Pretty much every statement is "We started with the assumption that guns were awful, and then when we looked we could find reasons to pin all ills upon them"

Having places that became more gun-friendly have less decline in crime doesn't mean ZOMG GUNS FUEL CRIMINALS, It might just be related to the fact that most of those places that kept their gun laws strict are contributing most of the crime.

Just... Have a read, if you can tolerate this much obvious bullshit packaged from an ivy league school that wishes you'd accept that you are a vile heathen and should submit to their will.

A musing on candidates

Sadly, nothing amusing about the candidates we're being offered.

On one hand, one is likely to pick a fight with something like 5-10% of the population. If we're doing things right, they'll fight back, and we'll fight back with them, and it'll all come to nothing.

On the other hand, the other is guaranteed to pick a fight with between 33% and 100% of the population, depending on whether they notice the entire bill of rights being put through the shredder and if they can be bothered to care.


One might be ugly, and looked back by history as another black stain to learn from, so long as liberty manages to hold out against the attacks that beset it.

The other WILL be messy, and could very easily destabilize the entire planet.

Perspective Matters: Away Game Repost

Saw this image shared by Sheriff Jim Wilson on Facebook and decided to expand upon it a bit. Here's a comparison of our "gun death epidemic" to the other causes of death that, you know, actually make up the majority of deaths.

Perspective matters. This is made from slightly older CDC data and involves a bit of rounding, but it's very close to accurate still.

According to the most recent report, there were 33,636 deaths related to firearms. 21,175 were suicide (about half of all suicides), 505 were accidental, and 11,208 were homicide (there's a few missing, probably legally justifiable and police related and whatnot). It's also important to note that both homicide and suicide are OVERWHELMINGLY men's issues, but I'll discuss those in a different post to keep things focused.

That same newer CDC data provides further perspective;
Accidental falls accounted for 31,240 deaths. You are approximately equally likely to trip and fall and die as you are to die to a firearm. Remember that every time you take the stairs, stand on a balcony, or hike a path on a slope.

There were 48,545 deaths from poisoning, of which about 80% (38,836) were accidental. You (or your children) are 1.15x more likely to die of eating/drinking the wrong thing accidentally than by all gun death combined, and nearly equally likely to be deliberately poisoned as you are to be killed in an assault with a firearm.

33,804 people were killed in car accidents. Almost all gun death involves at least one willing participant (the criminal shooting, or the person committing suicide), while very few car accidents involve any willing participants.

Septicemia, a precursor to sepsis, also known as blood poisoning, accounts for 38,156 deaths. That is to say, death by infection when it spreads to the blood. That infection you have is more likely to lead to your death than all gun related deaths combined.

Alcohol related causes (everything from alcohol poisoning to a terminal case of "Hold my beer and watch this!") accounted for 29,001 deaths. It's important to note that alcohol is purely a luxury, and serves exclusively to inhibit the user and impair judgement. Enjoying a night at the bar is very nearly as likely to lead to your death as all gun death combined.

Ever go to the doctor? Around 400,000 people die to preventable medical errors every year in the US. http://www.healthcareitnews.com/…/deaths-by-medical-mistake… It seems it's likely rolled into other statistics on the CDC list, but taken separately it's the #3 killer of Americans, behind cancer and heart disease (584,881 and 611,105 respectively). Included in that are around 100,000 deaths from catching other infections acquired at the hospital http://www.nytimes.com/2007/…/19/washington/19hospital.html…

As a sidenote related to mass shootings and so-called assault weapons (a manufactured category that most of the people attempting to ban can't actually define); Even the US, which is supposedly the world capital of them, almost never breaks 100 deaths per year (using the FBI definition of 3+ deaths in a public place, not gang related). For reference, on average 183 people will be killed in animal attacks throughout the US based on data from 2001-2013 https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/chart-the-animals-that-ar…/

Every death is a tragedy, but with our sensationalist media it's desperately important to remind yourself where the real problems lie. Treated as a single monolithic category, guns amount to around 3% of all deaths in the US. While it's important not to overlook small causes lest they add up, guns are far from the overwhelming epidemic they are made out to be, and what problems are associated with them would be better solved by targeting the underlying causes (legacy of racism and disadvantage leading to gang violence, social mores that cause men to commit suicide vastly more often than women, and so on) is more effective than simply blaming the object.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/…/liberal-media-gun-grabbe…/ a somewhat biased site with a mostly unbiased collecting of data from the report for readability.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr64/nvsr64_02.pdf the CDC report on mortality released in feb 2016, using data from 2013ish.
http://www.youargue.com/…/38-putting-murder-by-gun-in-persp… a slightly older thing putting things in perspective with graphs and such.

Contentious Topics

Guns have always been one. I'm presently penning a substantial entry that will be crossposted both here and on social media, in response to a number of those I share said media with. I may well lose some friends, but when they're demanding I be forcibly stripped of my possessions for the behavior of another, and armed men with guns sent to kill me if I refuse (The implicit conclusion to calls for confiscation), are they really my friends?

Internet Argument Referee

More at the link. These seem like they'd be rather handy when arguing with the anti-gun forces if not for all that reasoned discourse they're fond of.

Zimmerman

I have a theory.

If you call the press and say "George Zimmerman Did A Thing", you can get 100% of reporters within 100 miles and the interest of all journalists in the country.

They'll probably have the report that Zimmerman is a big mean doodie head published faster than various emergency services can arrive at any given scene.

Galdernit

Something in intermediate caliber pistol with a wrist brace was on my list of things to buy. The ATF has figured out that if you let people have a really easily available loophole around a stupid, bullshit law, they're going to take it, and have moved said wristbraces into weird legal territory of "perfectly legal unless you do things with it in which case it becomes Super Illegal Forever" because once something gets classed as an SBR it is an SBR forever because that makes perfect sense.

Don't get me wrong, I still plan to get my .300 BLK and/or 5.45x39 pistols because along with SMGs, intermediate caliber pistols are something I have an unabashed, unreasonable love for (also, because They say you should use a pistol for home defense, right? It's technically a pistol, it counts!)

Headlines; What they say vs. what really happened.

http://www.jrn.com/tmj4/news/Actor-known-as-Screech-from-Saved-by-the-Bell-arrested-in-Ozaukee-County-286876021.html

Screech from Saved by the Bell got arrested up here right near my town. The headline that shows up all around the social media says it's because of the switchblade he had.

What they DON'T mention until you actually click through for more, is the fact that he stabbed someone in a barfight and fled the scene. Quite a world of difference between assault and "You had something we said not to have".

For reference, carriage of arms without a license (anything, even a 1.75" blade pocketknife, can still be counted as a concealed weapon if the police decide they don't like you) is a misdemeanor, and I believe that so is possession of a switchblade, because WI is still stuck in the 50s where only gangsters and greasers have switchblades and banning them turns them into harmless law abiding citizens.

To the surprise of some people, history repeats itself.

https://adaptivecurmudgeon.wordpress.com/2014/11/10/history-as-a-cure-for-unreality/

Adaptive Curmudgeon, the wisest of wise-asses, takes a look at people failing to learn from history.

Read the whole thing, and the article he links inside it.

End The List; away game crosspost

A thing from facebook, might as well post here since I haven't rambled about guns in a while.

I'm sure I'm completely opposite the message whoever made this intends to carry it, but I actually agree on the ends, even if we likely disagree on means. Notice something EVERY one of those has in common? If you said "Gun Free Zone", you'd be dead on. They say the definition of insanity is trying to do the same thing over and over and expecting different results. It's not the real definition, but it DOES call into question the sanity of going "Wait, do it again, but HARDER, it'll work THIS time! WAIT WAIT, let's make EVERYWHERE a gun free zone, that'll surely work!"

No, no it won't. CDC's look at guns not long ago showed that there are at least 1.5x as many defensive uses as criminal. Recent FBI study (for all that the way they handled the data is skewed as heck, to the point of invalidating the study) indicates that you're FAR more likely to die by falling off a bicycle than get hit by a mass shooter, so gun control to stop a statistical anomaly? Not a good plan, you'll mostly block lawful users (who may use it to DEFEND themselves), for marginal benefit against trying to stop a technology that is LITERALLY 1000 years old.

Want to know a good plan? Shoot the bad guys. Several of the recent mass shooters specifically passed on larger, easier to access targets in favor of those with the magical "no guns" signs to defend them. Several of them wrote manifestos, or video rants, about how they had to find someplace good and defenseless so they could get a proper body count. There are instances of the bad guy shooting the first person to respond with a gun before they saw there was a gun, seeing the gun AFTERWARDS, and immediately killing themselves. Their power fantasy generally ends the instant they face armed resistance.

Just about every mass shooting, even mass killing (most of which are totally ignored as "local" news, even when they have equal or higher body count than that of ones performed with a gun. No media bias, right?) in the past 50 years has happened in a Gun Free Zone.

Let's End The List, and remove schools as targets for crazy people in search of defenseless targets. Most of my principals were former military or police or whatever. Let's give them back access to the guns they were trusted to use, to protect those in their care. Let's allow teachers who want to engage in concealed carry. Instead of trying to pass laws that do NOTHING to prevent mass shootings that they just had waiting for some innocent blood to dance in to try and garner support, let's actually admit that something does not work and try something else.

I've got links to sources for any numbers I cite, but I'll need a bit of time to find everything and pull it together. Just had to get this rant about denial of reality off my chest.

George Takei

Summerfest

Summerfest, world's biggest music festival,  is right in my backyard.  I'm also fairly certain that it's a GFZ. A few problems have happened in years past. I'm not sure if I want to go or not.

Fight me for gun control

The way I see it, there are a few main reasons people support gun control. If you happen to be reading this and are one of them, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt, and assume you're just outside your area of expertise. You mean well, but you don't have any experience with the reality of combat, of fighting, of self defense. I've gotten lectured on the ins and outs of self defense by plenty of folks who couldn't throw a proper punch to save their life or figure out which end of the gun the bullets come out of without a manual and a committee.

I'm assuming, if you support gun control, your premise is that you and others are able to defend yourselves as well or better without firearms.The other option would be the belief that without guns, there wouldn't be any crime or need to defend yourselves, which is clearly wrong based on all of human history.

So prove it. If self defense is so much better when nobody has a gun, step into the ring with me. You'll have all the pads you want, and I'm a skilled martial artist so there's no risk of me actually harming you (I've practiced fighting without harming my opponent for around 15 years). I'm pretty well set for fighting. I've spent a significant portion of the better part of my entire lifespan training. Odds are pretty darn good that I'm bigger than you, tougher than you, better at fighting than you, and despite being incredibly out of shape due to surgery, I'm still likely stronger, faster, and probably more fit than you. All in all, I'm a good example of a believable-but-very-bad-case opponent.

I like sparring weapons, so I'll see what I can find in the way of foam padded or rubber or whatever ones, so you can attempt to use whatever you please against me after the first bout, if you'd like.

Either way, with or without weapons, the rules are simple. You must interact with a mock-phone for 30 seconds to represent a call to the police. You must then hold out against me for 3 minutes, assuming a very good response time on the part of the police. That's it.

If you step into the ring, I don't intend to go easy on you. To go any easier than absolutely necessary would be a disservice. I want you to understand the reality of a fight. If I've done my job well, you'll have nightmares about it. I do this because I want you to be safe. I've spent a significant amount of time dedicated to learning about fighting in its many forms. My pursuit of excellence has taught me that true melee combat is one of the most vicious, brutal things you can find, and tends to heavily weight the odds against anyone smaller, weaker and less willing to utilize violence.

If you have no prior training in self defense, I'll give you an hour long lesson. In that time, I've yet to find someone I couldn't get to be fairly competent with a firearm. Assuming you aren't like me and absolutely love to spar, you're unlikely to put in much time or effort, so that seems like a realistic amount for someone who took a self defense class once. And then you'll get to put those freshly trained skills to the test immediately, instead of waiting months or years to let them get rusty.

So how about it?

Teach a lady to shoot

Because 'people' like this exist
http://jezebel.com/lessons-from-a-day-spent-with-the-ucsb-shooters-awful-f-1582884301

Idolization of mass killers, pent up stupid anger, talking about how it should be their right to rape whoever they please revenge for "oppressing" them, the whole deal. Those in places without guns available just casually pass it off with "eh, bombs are easy". These things theoretically still count as human, but I'd much prefer they get ventilated if they ever work up the nerve or imbecilic narcissistic fury than someone who might actually amount to something get hurt.

People like these are why I go out of my way to teach every woman and girl that I know who's willing to learn the basics of safe gun use. To be fair, I try to teach just about everyone who wants to learn, but I specifically prioritize ladies and gay/bi folks.

Net Neutrality

Kind of a big deal. You know, thinking about it, I can't think of any other thing that's more likely to trigger Americans to go all French Revolution on the people responsible. Even if they manage to kill net neutrality, I don't really see it ending well for whoever had a hand in it.

Early thoughts on Fort Hood

Another mass shooting in a gun free zone? Stop the presses! Can't wait to be lectured about guns, tactics, and laws by people who know absolutely nothing about guns, tactics, and laws. 

Can we PLEASE stop banning the military from the carriage of arms? Even if it's rank limited, have to get promoted once or twice (and presumably still have to hit 21 before you qualify for a permit, as it is in most places). 

And that's all I'll say until a week or so from now when there's actual information out. I'll be keeping the victims and their families in my thoughts. 

"Justice" system

http://www.examiner.com/article/pennsylvania-judge-sentenced-to-28-years-prison-for-selling-teens-to-prisons Via Michael Z Williamson's facebook.

Always remember, power corrupts, and the corruptible are attracted to power.

Remember also, there are plenty who've gotten into the rungs of the criminal justice system who have little interest in justice, and will instead pursue the highest bidder or a chosen agenda. The farce that was the Zimmerman trial comes to mind, with its myriad issues.

Try not to fall into it, but remember that you probably commit 3 felonies a day. Just remember, whenever someone says "there ought to be a law!" that it will almost certainly eventually be enforced by SWAT team, no matter how trivial it is.


Still, when the system is/was actually working properly, it works/worked fairly well.

DC Corruption

According to Nancy Pelosi, apparently corruption is something that only republicans do. Democrats are clean and infallible, working tirelessly only for the Greater Good!
http://rare.us/story/daily-show-rips-obama-and-democrats-for-being-so-corrupt/

Jon Stewart is usually something of a leftist cheerleader, but it's not too uncommon for him to notice egregious crap and call them to task.

I wonder if they listen to themselves when they talk?

http://gunfreezone.net/wordpress/index.php/2014/01/08/a-gun-control-advocate-view-of-the-bill-or-rights-mostly-invisibility/
Miguel has a run in with someone who pretty much says we should throw out the entire bill of rights, because it applies to people she doesn't like.

http://www.ncgunblog.com/2014/01/07/bullymoms-anti-gun-anti-freedom/
Moms Demand Whatever claims that they aren't extremists who want to ban everything, except that they believe that completely banning the sale of guns is the only common sense thing (I mean, you can still HAVE guns, if someone died and gave them to you! Heaven forbid you BUY them though!)


I've had my own run ins with leftists of extreme degree. Two people I knew from high school actually work for the Democrat party. My sister and her husband (both of who's parents were teachers) are also diehard "liberals", although working in a prison has helped my sis figure out that a lot of the laws that will supposedly fix everything forever are basically bullshit. Here are some things I've heard them say in debates, paraphrased but left as closely to what they said as I can remember;

"Defense against tyranny isn't a valid reason anymore. The government has so much power that if it wanted to by tyrannical, there's nothing anyone could do to stop it!" while arguing to give the government more power by disarming everyone.

"We already infringe upon a bunch of rights, so that's not a reason not to do it more!" while arguing that who cares about rights? Lets just infringe more upon the ones he doesn't like, instead of infringing on all of them less.

And of course, one of my favorites,
"I don't believe your facts" with regards to the Zimmerman bullshit
Must be nice to just invalidate any evidence that doesn't fit your worldview with the power of your belief.

Another good one was the claim, with no evidence of any kind, that background checks are inherently racist, and the only way to make them fair is to demand universal background checks.

Trust Your Government megadump

I'm kind of disheartened that I have enough material for linkdump of this size this fast.

SMBC might give too much credit, even. Many such laws seem to be doing exactly what they were intended

 http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-peculiar-story-of-united-states-v.html I've previously mentioned this one, but it fits in with a few others. The government, setting up a show trial to claim legitimacy for banning a whole bunch of things. The argument was that they weren't protected because the military (at the time) didn't use them, but now the military uses all of them extensively, so how about that?

http://onlygunsandmoney.blogspot.com/2013/12/calguns-does-little-digging-into.html Turns out a lot of what some locales try to ban as "excessive or unnecessary for self defense" are simultaneously mandated for self defense to the nobles who are exempt from gun law.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2013/06/salinas_v_texas_right_to_remain_silent_supreme_court_right_to_remain_silent.html Meanwhile, it has been decided that not only can anything you say be used against you, not saying anything can also be used against you.

http://reason.com/blog/2013/12/30/la-dui-checkpoints-now-with-more-saliva
http://reason.com/archives/2013/12/28/americas-internal-checkpoints In a related matter, papers please. Police checkpoints have been popping up all over the country, in some cases refusal to use a breathalyzer gets you forcibly dragged from your car to have blood taken. I am frankly astonished that nobody has reacted to this happening in the United States of America with a rifle round. 

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/20/n-m-woman-billed-5000-after-cops-order-warrantless-redundant-cavity-searches/ By the way, try to stay calm when you've been forced to exit your car, and hope that there aren't any police with drug dogs who like to watch, or you can be warrantlessly medically raped and handed the bill for the violation of your privacy.

http://triggerfinger.org/weblog/entry/9215  Of course, warrants seem not to be treated as important as they used to be.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2013/12/23/utah-made-it-easier-for-cops-to-seize-innocent-peoples-property-and-not-a-single-lawmaker-voted-against-it/ Don't worry, police only have the power to seize your property and force you to prove it wasn't used for anything nefarious for the public good. That some departments pay around 40% of their budgets by selling confiscated property is completely beside the point.

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-obama-care/121813-683475-obamacare-interferes-with-residential-and-travel-liberties.htm#ixzz2nt5oKeR8 Back on the topic of travel and troubles therewith, don't forget that the wonderful new law so beloved by the American people makes your insurance pretty much only work at home, so you either can't travel or have to buy an extra plan to cover travel or if you tend to live in two different parts of the country during different parts of the year. One more thing to love about it, on top of its collection of all of your personal information on not-very-secure servers

http://gizmodo.com/surprise-its-super-easy-to-identify-people-from-metad-1489840907
http://gizmodo.com/the-nsas-trying-to-build-a-quantum-computer-so-it-can-1493410244
http://gizmodo.com/the-nsa-actually-intercepted-packages-to-put-backdoors-1491169592
Speaking of privacy, the NSA is pretty sure such a stupid concept is terrible for national security. Far safer to have the government monitor basically everything you say or do, any reasonable person would see that!

http://gunfreezone.net/wordpress/index.php/2013/12/30/no-need-for-mens-rea-you-can-also-be-a-felon/ Don't worry, your government only arbitrarily decides previously fine things are now illegal and that you must be arrested for violation because it loves you!

http://blog.joehuffman.org/2014/01/03/unarmed-man-goes-on-shooting-rampage/ However, if the police decide to open fire on you for whatever reason, some places think it's your fault if they hit anyone else. 

http://borepatch.blogspot.com/2014/01/boston-swpl-types-find-out-what-big.html At least some faint hope remains, as the encroaching bureaucracy's tendrils cause problems in Media Approved (tm) areas, and people actually hear about it.

http://gizmodo.com/the-complete-list-of-everything-banned-by-mayor-michael-1490476691 One of the kings of arbitrarily declaring things to be illegal just left office, and here's a handy list of everything he banned or tried to ban.
http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/31/bloomberg-leaves-office-today-protected-by-firearms/ It is of course important to note, he only thinks it's YOUR rights that should be infringed upon. Not his, of course, he's far more equal than you!

http://www.ma-rooned.com/2013/12/oh-this-is-gonna-be-gooooood.html Still, there's some hope. At least some nanny statists can be consistent! Too evil for the people, too evil for the police! I wish him the best of luck at showing his true colors and what he really thinks of people.

http://gunfreezone.net/wordpress/index.php/2014/01/02/instructions-to-all-persons-of-japanese-ancestry/ Just remember, your government loves you, and all those bad things that happen everywhere else could never happen here. Just remember, 1984 is a warning, not an instruction manual!


I think I need to go snuggle my cat, it's depressing how quickly I wound up with all this material.

Mythbusters for Gun Rights

They keep testing gun myths. On TV. And finding by and large the myths, including those pushed by the media, are wrong

-Suppressors are not a magical mute button that screws onto the end of a gun
-Spray Firing From The Hip is completely and totally useless if you actually want to hit anything
-Intermediate calibers are not "so powerful that hunters don't use them to avoid destroying the game", and are in fact nowhere near as powerful as most hunting rounds.

I'm sure there are others. At some point if I'm feeling ambitious I might try to find the scenes from all the shows and cut them into one big video. It's one thing to have the John Q. Random on the internet tell you you're wrong, that can be easily deflected by reality denial, but having the mythbusters inform you that you're wrong and an idiot (with results that were aired on national TV)? More effective.