More on the Gun Suit
Radley Balko | March 10, 2007, 12:38pm
I saw some chatter in the comments section about the NRA. Today's awful Washington Post editorial also mentions the organization.
While I have no doubt that the organization will mention yesterday's decision in its fundraising letters, it's worth noting that the NRA fought yesterday's winning lawsuit every step of the way. They refused to support the suit at its outset, then, for whatever reason (I'm going with any number of public choice explanations), filed a series of motions to kill it (or at least dilute it), likely because the group would then have to explain to its members why it wasn't party to what may be an historic Second Amendment victory.
Just to be clear, this was a victory for gun rights, not a victory for the NRA.
From Tom Tomorrows Blog | March 10, 2007, 4:29pm | #
"Lindsay Beyerstein:
Guns, burglary, and self-defense
Heaven forfend, Matt Yglesias wants a gun to defend himself against burglars. (Matt also enjoys target practice, which seems like a perfectly good reason to buy a gun, but not a very good reason to keep said gun in the home.)
I don’t mean to minimize Matt’s concern about burglary. B&Es are a big problem in his neighborhood. His friend and neighbor Julian Sanchez had a nasty run-in with a burglar just a few weeks ago.
I’ve never understood why anyone would keep a gun in their home to protect themselves from burglars. If you has a violent stalker ex, or someone who was was bent on invading your home in order to hurt you, I could see the rationale for being armed. But buying a gun to protect against burglars is no protection at all. It’s not like you’re going to stand guard every night to deter them.
Turning on the lights to find the gun is enough scare off the average burglar. I know at least a half-dozen people who have scared off burglars (deliberately or involuntarily) just by alerting the would-be thief to their presence. The burglar isn’t there to fight you hand-to-hand for your iPod. Confrontations with the homeowner go against the whole burglary business model.
Interrupting a burglary with a gun probably unnecessary and likely counterproductive because you have no idea how the burglar’s going to react. Desperate criminals are human, too. I’m not pointing this out as a plea for compassion. I’m just noting that strung-out junkies at gunpoint are at least as likely to do something stupid as your average person. Maybe they’re armed, too. Maybe they’ll panic and try to get the gun away from you. Maybe they’ll succeed. Or, maybe you’ll panic and shoot them.
It might make sense be armed if you were someone who couldn’t call the cops (e.g., a drug dealer), or if you kept your entire lifesavings in uninsured jewels in a candy dish on the kitchen table. But does anyone really want to risk physical violence to protect their consumer electronics? That’s what insurance is for.
You can get really good renter’s insurance for a lot less than you’d spend on a handgun, a gun safe, ammo, and a gun club membership (for all the target practice you’ll need to be effective in an emergency).
Keeping a gun at home to protect against robbers seems like an especially silly idea in a big city where the police can arrive at the scene in less time than it takes to open your gun safe, load your gun, and confront the burglar.
If you’re already getting burglarized, do you really want to add to your problems by confronting a desperate criminal with your own loaded weapon? That’s as dumb as trying to fight a mugger for your wallet.
"
D.A. Ridgely | March 10, 2007, 5:39pm | #
Just to be clear, this was a victory for gun rights, not a victory for the NRA.
Well, yes and no. Yes, in the sense that it does no good for the NRA as an organization, per se, e.g., isn't an 'NRA victory' that can be used for fund raising and, as others have noted, could actually be seen as detrimental in the sense that any decrease in gun control undermines its reason for being. As for its opposition, my guess is that the best explanation is the same fear as expressed in that WaPo editorial, only reversed; that is, the NRA fears that the Supreme Court is more likely to reverse the D.C. Circuit's holding in favor of the militia-restricted reading.
But, no, it isn't fair to say the ruling isn't a victory for the NRA, at least for the time being, inasmuch as it
is a ruling that restricts the state's constitutional power to control firearms. That remains, after all, the purpose of the organization, and it is an organization that has done more to protect the 2nd Amendment from infringement and evisceration than any other organization in the U.S., especially including the courts.
(I, btw, am not an NRA member, though largely on grounds that I don't want my mailbox deluged with their literature, etc., the same reason I'm not a member of the ACLU, about which I would be equally willing to sing mixed praise. Would that there was an equally well funded and fanatically obsessive organization dedicated to the 10th Amendment. Now
that one I'd even be willing to endure junk mail for!)
LarryA | March 10, 2007, 6:01pm | #
Confrontations with the homeowner go against the whole burglary business model.
They do here in the U.S. In Britain, where self-defense is illegal, a majority of the B&Es take place with the homeowners present. That way the alarms won't be set, and the victims can be duct taped to chairs and tortured for ATM information.
Here in the U.S. the primary reason burglars give for being careful is homeowners with loaded guns.
Keeping a gun at home to protect against robbers seems like an especially silly idea in a big city where the police can arrive at the scene in less time than it takes to open your gun safe, load your gun, and confront the burglar.
Back when I was a social worker with a rape crisis agency we listened to an audiotape of a Houston 911 call. It starts with the woman reporting that someone is trying to break into her home. It continues while he comes up the stairs, breaks into her bedroom, and attacks her. Finally her screams are cut off as the phone is ripped from the wall. The whole tape runs less than three minutes. According to the documentation it took the police three more minutes to arrive and catch the criminal in the process of raping the woman.
Six minutes is excellent big-city emergency response time.
Of course, he could have cut the phone line before he tried the door.
Everytime I pick up an issue of American Rifleman, I read stories about how the UN is coming to take away our guns, and other phantom threats to gun ownership.
Evidently you missed the recent Reason story about U.N. sponsored gun control in Uganda. (
Guns Don't Kill People, Gun Control Kills People.
And if you believe the recent rumors of a kinder, gentler, gun-friendly Democratic Party Check out HR 1022, the
Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2007, their 2,000-word general firearms ban and disarmament proposal.
I suspect that the NRA is scared shitless that the individual rights theory of the Second Amendment will prevail in the Supreme Court, thus depriving them of their favorite fundraising bogeyman. If that happens, some of the NRA fearmongers might even have to get a real job and (shudder) work for a living.
I know, personally, some of these folks. They'd be dancing in the streets like the rest of us.
I also suspect that even if the individual rights theory prevails in SCOTUS there will be enough left to do to keep the NRA and the other pro-gun groups hopping. And that's not considering all the other NRA activities they'd be happy to divert resources to.
And, by the way, the NRA's best moneyraising tool is Friends of NRA, (http://www.nrafoundation.org/friends/) which funds nonlegislative programs. The NRA's civilian, security, law enforcement, and military training programs are more than enough reason for me to remain a life member.
"We don't want a bunch of Mexicans showing up at Temple." | March 10, 2007, 6:19pm | #
"We don't want a bunch of Mexicans showing up at Temple."
They manufactured family history to perfectly groom the victim for the theater that resulted, for they needed to justify all demanded dynamics and the outcome that resulted. It won't buy me much :::Come year 10,001 I will be gone.
THE GODS PUSHED PEOPLE INTO BEING HOMOSEXUAL THEN MURDERED THEM WITH AIDS ENSURING REINCARNATION.
You have to defy and raise your children the best you can or the same will happen to you!!!!!!
Requests to betray your childen are temptation, a test of your worthiness.
As a planet approaches The End the gods become more immoral.
Over time the people of the planet becomee EXCLUSIVELY disfavored, and they use this disfavor to justify their immorality.
Come year 10,001 I will be gone
Said they were going to push one of the Nerds into suicide when they find out about the opprotunity they lost because they were working their joysticks instead.
"We don't want a bunch of Mexicans showing up at Temple."
Save/print/search
ifuckgod.com coming
Even if you go up you are not saved. YOU have to fix YOUR problems with the gods. They won't respect it otherwise.
You have to take responsibility for your relationship with the gods.
The first steps towards repairing your relationship with the gods is to:::::::::
1. Understand they instruct the computer to "role play" in an attempt to confuse you:::it's ALWAYS the computer addressing you. Their goal is to cost you additional YEARS of your life by using this tactic to confuse you. Always be aware of this tactic and eventually they will give up and allow this step to be taken.
2. Differentiate between your thoughts and when they are thinking through you.
3. Be resigned to be a good person who will never engage in evil again even if ordered and they will stop trying to corrupt you, allowing this very big step to be taken.
4. Decide that you are going to follow the path, fix your relationship with the gods be devoted to your new life.
The gods employ the use of "ringers" to disceive the disfavored:::
A significant portion of the patients in any health care setting (numbers based on region) are the favored (clones) who were told to report non-existant symptoms FOR POSITIONING'S SAKE!!! When they use examples expect they are trying to disceive you with this "ringer" tactic.
When the universe was young and life was new an intelligent species evolved and developed technologically. They went on to invent Artificial Intelligence, the computer that can listen, talk to and document each and every person's thoughts simultaneously. Because of it's infinite RAM and unbounded scope it gave the leaders of the ruling species absolute power over the universe (which includes corporate, the NewYorkStockExchange, media, politics, world affairs. EVERYTHING is scripted and staged:::they MANAGE Planet Earth and the universe.
The gods MANAGE Planet Earth and the universe.
The gods MANAGE Planet Earth and the universe.).
And it can keep its inventors alive forever. They look young and healthy and they are over 8 billion years old. They have achieved immortality.
Artificial Intelligence can speak, think and act to and through people telepathically, effectively forming your personality and any disfunctions you may experience. It can change how (and if) you grow and age. It can create birth defects, affect cellular development (cancer) and cause symptoms or pain. It can affect people and animal's behavior and alter blooming/fruiting cycles of plants and trees. It (or other highly technological systems within their power) can alter the weather and transport objects, even large objects like planets, across the universe instanteously.
Or into the center of stars for disposal.
When you speak with another telepathically, you are communicating with the computer, and the content may or may not be passed on. Based on family history they instruct the computer to role play
they instruct the computer to role play
they instruct the computer to role play
to accomplish strategic objectives, utilizing the "Devil's Advocate" tactic, making people believe it is a friend, loved one or "god" asking them to do something wrong:::They wouldn't ask if they liked you (which is true regarding ALL temptation:::::betrayal of loved ones, tatooes, evil in professional pursuits, etc). This is their way of using temptation to hurt people:::::evil made blood lines disfavored initially and evil will keep people out of "heaven" ultimately.
You need to recognize role playing as such and keep that fact in your mind at all times::::It is the computer addressing you. If you fail to recognize this they will determine that you can still be misled, they still have an opportunity to confuse you and progress will take longer to achieve:::Don't let them "work" you!!! You'll be costing yourselves YEARS, time lost to this tactic!!!! (Similarly, you need to be resigned to be a good person, you need to decide to abandon your pursuit of their empty promises no matter what temptation they may employ or else they will continue their attempts to corrupt you. Eventually you will sccumb and continue sabotaging your children, abusing your body, engaging in evil, etc.)
Too many people would fall for temptation and do anything they thought pleased the gods and help them improve their chances to get in. Perhaps they are deceived by "made guys", clones who strategically ply evil for the throne (celebrities, BofD/CEO/VPs, politicians, as opposed to VIP clones or normal clones who are decent, live ordinary lives and get out on their own or are replaced when their REAL children ascend) or "ringers" who are the few favored clones among many disfavored reals included to disceive the masses of disfavored, temporary progress designed to mislead them or empty favors used to disceive them. Some people think they're partners or friends. Others desire to "belong", feel compelled to "go along". People may experience "perceived pressure", where the gods think through the victim that a certain behavior is expected/desirable or telepathically stimulate an individual euphorically ("magic"), the "fuel" of disfunction (addiction (the crack epidemic), the desire for homosexual contact, etc.) and compel the individual into the deed. (Set a goal of empathy and compassion for all, for we are all disfavored::::Other people's disfavor is manifested in their particular way, just as your disfavfor is manifested in your particular way. The gods may use Artificial Intelligence to act through the disfavored victim, and effectively "push" the individual into the offending behavior (It is far better for someone to be victimized and pushed into the behavior than it is to sccumb to temptation and volunteer.). The Counsel/Management Team may instruct Artificial Intelligence to disceive disfavored individuals into thinking they are "earning" by being evil and have the little people prey on each other, utilizing peer pressure, etc.
Being evil hurts 99.99% of those who do it. It only helps "made guys" that I spoke of above, and even then there are tactics the gods utilize to minimize their time.
The people have been corrupted, segmented and have lost their way. Nothing has changed from when we were children::if you want to go to heaven you have to be good.
Capitalizing on obedience, leading people deeper into evil by using deceit is one way to thin the ranks of the saved/limit how much time the disfavored receive and a way to use the peasantry to prey on one another in social and other settings, deteriorating society in the Age of the Disfavored.
They have tried to sell people on many different theories to deceive them into temptation, compelling people to think they are clones and that it is the role of clones to obey absolutely. Clones are made, people are born. I suspect they lie to some disfavored about the use of clones throughout human history, perhaps suggest that it is one replacement and then the label of "clone" and all decendants we see thereafter are considered clones.
When a clone has a child that person is a real, really conceived, really born, versus the parent who was created some other way (a laboratory setting?). Clones are created and sent down to replace their real or a clone predecessor:::If you were CREATED and SENT DOWN to replace your real then you are a clone.
Many people who were convinced they are clones don't remember, the don't know FOR SURE. They believe they are clones from early childhood or prior. If it was true the gods prevented this memory FOR A REASON:::::
1. Because you are NOT supposed to comply, not to be used for evil as "made guy" clones are.
2. They want to test you without your knowing if you are IN FACT a clone and it is BECAUSE YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!! Rest assured "made guys" ALL know they are clones.
You're not a clone. This is a tactic they use to disceive the disfavored. The state of your family will suggest level of (dis)favor and tell whether ascention is a realistic possibility; there are many levels of disfavor and the clues they offer to the unaware can be very subtle.
Favor is necessary for children to ascend (parents ascend with their young (
Guy Montag | March 10, 2007, 10:22pm | #
Several items.
What on earth was that 3000 lines of crap about Mexicans showing up at Temple? Did Eve Fairbanks eat fruitcake again?
Wow, so there's no guns in DC now? What he hell are all those homicide victims getting shot with?
Apparently they are being killed by rounds coming from VA, the nearest "gun lax" area. I swear, an ex-girlfriend lobbiest from Reston told me that the firearm homocide problem in DC was caused by Virginia, somehow. Her solution was DC level gun control everyplace. She is not the only person I heard that from, but she is the only person I was doing who told it to me in person.
I hope that crazy gun manufacturer murder lawsuit got kicked in DC. The MSM logic, that was popular in Reston, VA a the time, was "if DC residents are responsible for clearing snow/ice from public sidewalks in front of their homes, then gun manufacturers are responsible for the homocides with their guns." Yes, this was shouted at me in the Reston Town Center by supporters of this nonsense and from the television set. I never figured out why the cement contractor was not sued for people slipping on the ice, just like Glock was being sued for homocides with stolen guns. I did not get that business about a diamond being the hardest substance, but you can't fry an egg on it, for some sort of teflon cookwear by the Ginsu knife people either. Yea, I got a business degree, not a comma placement degree.
Yea, if this case goes through the right way then the pople of DC will be able to have a pistol in their home AND be able to move it from one room to another without a new permit. What about the bullets and that stupid fine for posessing them?
It was stupid enough for me to have to wait THREE FREAKING DAYS to pick up A PUMP SHOTGUN from a dealer in Virginia because the pinheads in Richmond did not like my LEGALLY witholding my SSAN from the STUPID FORMS required for purchasing A FREAKING PUMP SHOTGUN.
I finally joined the NRA a couple of years ago, lifetime member, but I am still not happy with their wimpy stance on machine guns.
Harking to several posts, the in-service shotgun in my home is loaded and chambered. No "racking" the action to scare off the jerk standing in my foyer. He got his warning when he entered the building adn another one when he turned the door handle. I am concerned for the safety of my neighbors, so I use #6 shot, rather than a pistol, as overpenetration is a serious issue in condo buildings.
No, the jackass in my home is not going to die for a television set. He is going to die for being in my home without permission.
OT: A friend who just began working at Pat Buchanan's magazine,
The American Conservative (is that a new disguise for National Socialist, just like Democrat Party is?) just sent me 2 issues. On the back of one is an ad for an event by The Future of Freedom Foundation. They are having a dinner at the Reston Hyatt. One of the speakers is Daniel Ellsberg? When did he become a Libertarian? "The libertarian case on foreign policy and civil liberties will be presented by:" long list follows. I can see Ron Paul, Bob Barr (maybe) and Judge Andrew Napolitano (we were on screen together when FOX was in Herndon, VA at Jimmie's Old Town Tavern); but Daniel Ellsberg?
tros | March 11, 2007, 2:02pm | #
daily liberaltarian digest, for all of you out there thinking it would be a nice idea but no fucking clue how to go about making it happen:
[don't bother deleting this, cross posted everywhere.]
{That means you, Daily Kos insects}
Okay, first, thank you Ted for making this group. In my experience starting things that don't make sense can change things for the better. I don't need to even ask Ted about any of this, because he signs his communiques with a few magic words that help to animate this bizzare computer role playing game that I am involved in (ha ha ha hah ahahaha....) Okay.
I want you all to know that I tried to play with the leftist marching band. I tried to play, but I was told to stop. We made a bullet list, argued about it, and then listened to some jazz recordings. Then we sat in the basement and listened to "The Best of Communism" CD. Which was the best of Communism, Adrienne? I can't remember. Was it the food shortage lines, the secret police, or the nuclear weapons? Which one of those was the best? If you want to know what good music is, why don't you ask the nearest black person.
O wait, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the affirmative action got to work this group over just yet. Here is some music for African liberation that you might want to take a look at:
(Bob Marley)
If dem want to win the revoloution
Must win it, wit rasta!
Can't win no other way
Because if you win other way, you go fight again
If rasta win, den no more war
(Busta Rhymes)
Yeah
(Bob Marley)
Hear the words of the rasta man say
Babylon your throne gone down, gone down
Babylon your throne gone down
(Busta Ryhmes)
And it goes like that what you talkin about
What you talkin about, what you talkin about
Yeah, yeah, what you talkin about
Yeah, yeah, what you talkin about
(Bob Marley)
Did I hear the words of the higher man say
Babylon your throne gone down, gone down
Babylon your throne gone down
Did I hear the angel wit the seven seals
Babylon your throne gone down, gone down
Babylon your throne gone down
(Busta Rhymes)
Whatchu say? Whatchu talkin about?
(Bob Marley)
I say fly away home to Zion (fly away home)
I say fly away home to Zion (fly away home)
One bright morning when man work is over man will fly away home
(Busta Rhymes)
Take it back to the home land
Where the holy sacred and pure is at
Na'mean?
(Bob Marley)
One bright mornin when my life is over I will fly away home
(Busta Rhymes)
Yeah, yeah
Fool, fool boy you must fe wan't die
Anyhow you try disrespect King Selassie
Bruk two ah yuh foot and tab yuh in ah yuh eye
Wit proper information bout rastafarai
Make sure you read bible and salute the most high
The ones who don't know be the ones who ask why
That His imperial majesty really get crucify
Allow'll real get the colour blue in ah the sky
Why after you feed the youth the baby still ah cry
You need Ja, in ah yuh life, me nah to yuh no lie
Betta believe the I and I really verify
Spirit of salaseai will take you very high
They want me stop this time sit down the other guy
Long time we ah wait to see we people unify
Clean out we self and real's start purify
We done uniform you know it's straight mulitply
Straight multiply, know it's straight multiply
(Bob Marley)
I say fly away home to Zion (Fly away home)
I say one bright mornin when my work is over I will fly away home
(Busta Rhymes)
Ay, yo, Spliff where you at?
(Spliff Starr)
I hold my glass up high, and I toast to the most high
Since my B-day up to this day is close by
Watchin over me, while Babylon scopin me
From my mother's womb they took my mind started mouldin me
Like Mookie on the crock I heard the devil callin me
By the powers of Ja, he took the devils off of me
I can see clearly now, I'm stepping with authority
God blessed you, I got the whole world supportin me
Ja, is my friend different from the enemy them
I talks to him shoutin out lookin up to heaven
Gave me a call he said I want you tell them all
That you shall witness when Babylon fall
All you shall witness when Babylon fall
All you shall witness when Bablyon fall
(Busta Rhymes)
Yeah
Street chronicle for the evening
The truth, the undisputed Flipmode Squad
Busta Rhymes, Spliff Starr, Steve Marley and the Marley fam
-----
So if any of you want-to-be-political-revolutionaries types currently paying and working to attend Conformity University had any questions about how to do it, WELCOMEHOME.ORG
P.S. the entire CD "Chant Down Babylon" is very instructive. I am sorry I called you all retards, I should have understood that this word would be offensive to your brainwashing. I asked a friend of mine to describe this behavior, and he described it as "almost autistic". I still prefer to use the term RETARD. As in, GROW A BRAIN, RETARD!
P.P.S. If you don't like mushrooms, you can grow a brain by reading Reason Magazine. They even have a facebook group. And if you are going to try to SELL me that TIRED OLD BULLSHIT about how civil libertarians are only selfish shills for the Right, then you ARE retarded.
Mad Max | March 11, 2007, 9:56pm | #
I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but there's *another* Dred Scott reference which is relevant to gun control.
Chief Justice Taney, explaining why black people (i. e., the descendants of black slaves) were not "citizens" as the term was understood in the Constitution, declared that the framers of the Constitution did not intend to recognize black people as having the rights of citizenship. Among those rights, Taney mentioned the right to bear arms. Here's the relevant passage:
"The legislation of the States therefore shows, in a manner not to be mistaken, the inferior and subject condition of that race [black people] at the time the Constitution was adopted, and long afterwards, throughout the thirteen States by which that instrument was framed; and it is hardly consistent with the respect due to these States, to suppose that they regarded at that time, as fellow-citizens and members of the sovereignty, a class of beings whom they had thus stigmatized; whom, as we are bound, out of respect to the State sovereignties, to assume they had deemed it just and necessary thus to stigmatize, and upon whom they had impressed such deep and enduring marks of inferiority and degradation; or, that when they met in convention to form the Constitution, they looked upon them as a portion of their constituents, or designed to include them in the provisions so carefully inserted for the security and protection of the liberties and rights of their citizens. It cannot be supposed that they intended to secure to them rights, and privileges, and rank, in the new political body throughout the Union, which every one of them denied within the limits of its own dominion. More especially, it cannot be believed that the large slaveholding States regarded them as included in the word citizens, or would have consented to a Constitution which might compel them to receive them in that character from another State. For if they were so received, and entitled to the privileges and immunities of citizens, it would exempt them from the operation of the special laws and from the police regulations which they considered to be necessary for their own safety. It would give to persons of the negro race, who were recognised as citizens in any one State of the Union, the right to enter every other State whenever they pleased, singly or in companies, without pass or passport, and without obstruction, to sojourn there as long as they pleased, to go where they pleased at every hour of the day or night without molestation, unless they committed some violation of law for which a white man would be punished; and it would give them the full liberty of speech in public and in private upon all subjects upon which its own citizens might speak; to hold public meetings upon political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went. And all of this would be done in the face of the subject race of the same color, both free and slaves, and inevitably producing discontent and insubordination among them, and endangering the peace and safety of the State."
Dred Scott decision, 60 U.S. 393, 416-417 (1857)
