Vai the Atlantic: The Rifle That Ruined America

Written by Ryan Busse who is a senior policy adviser to the gun-control advocacy group Giffards.

Amazingly enough that’s what they tell you about the author. They correctly describe Giffards.

According to Ryan, 20 years ago nobody bought AR-15 style weapons. (I should check mine, I’m sure it was made after 1986 and prior to 1999) And only a few companies were making AR-15 platforms. (Maybe because the government was standing on the scales of economics)

And he was out there working hard to keep evil AR-15s out of the gun culture.

Up until about 2006, only a handful of companies were making AR-15s. They were outliers, producing rifles mainly for law enforcement and the military, and in the domestic commercial market AR-15s accounted for just a fraction of total gun sales, which averaged from 6 million to 8 million guns a year. The social norms that governed gun ownership and the firearms industry were clear: Assault rifles and tactical gear were a creepy, fringe interest that had no place in a complex democratic society.

Got that, tactical gear was creepy. If you had to dress like a FUDD to be able to fit in with gun culture.

And even though the intent was to ban all AR-15s, it never really happened, so you can ignore the AWB of 1994. Which implies you can ignore the fact that there was no change in crime statistics that can be directly tied to the 1994 AWB.

Ryan is proud that he fought to keep tactical equipment out of the marketplace, because tactical equipment is dangerous.

I was looking at a Winchester ’94 with saddle ring. That saddle ring was “tactical” for its time. The sling points on my hundred year old (plus) rifles were tactical. The reproduction ammo pouches were tactical. But for Ryan having a vest that holds spare magazines and an IFAK is just to dangerous.

The thing to note is that this article is well written. Articulate. It sounds calm and reasoned. But it includes biased statements that make it easy to make assumptions. “NRA leadership held closed-door business meetings” The implication is that they were secret meetings. The NRA convention wasn’t canceled after Columbine. Never mind that the convention is also the annual meeting that is required. The NRA decided to be aggressive instead of conciliatory in their messaging and stance.

Remember, when some criminal does criminal things over there, you should surrender over here.

And then we get to the kicker, Firearm manufacturers use irresponsible marketing.

Via The Atlantic: Leave Joe Biden Alone

You need to realize that the author isn’t a Hard Core Democrat. He started as a Republican and worked for moderates and centralist, just like Joe is a Centralist.

The Joe Biden who ran in 2020 appeared wiser, sadder, somewhat deflated, and seemed to be taking on the presidency as a public service and a burden. Time and tragedy had tempered Biden, and I liked him even more than I did in his flashier, Jason Sudeikis–like youth. These days, I think he’s done a pretty good job, especially given the fact that he’s dealing with a pandemic, revelations about an attempted American coup d’état, and an economic slowdown over which he had no control.

See, nothing that Joe has had to deal with is his fault. It was all thrust upon him as he took on the Presidency to serve the public. Joe can’t control gas prices souring up over $5.50/gal (but Trump is responsible for gas being over $2.00/gal). Joe has no control over a pandemic for which there are multiple vaccines, medications and treatments (but trump was responsible for every WuFlu death, even now). Joe’s just there to serve the public, like a kindly grandfather.

You should also know that Joe has single handled managed to keep us out of WWIII. Trump only managed to keep us out of all new conflicts. And the gas prices we are complaining about are all because of the Putin Price Hike.

And those evil republicans plan on impeaching poor old Joe. But it isn’t for cause, it is because Republicans don’t have “a plan to govern the country.”

Don’t give them the link. My BP has spiked enough for the lot of you.

Via ABC News WJLA: Fairfax Co. parents rally before school board meeting over ‘malicious misgendering’ policy

Ok, twisted headline from their site. The Fairfax County School Board is voting on a policy that will label “misgendering” “malicious” which will allow a child to be suspended for bullying.

Thus if Jimmy puts on a skirt, walks into the girls bathroom to take a dump and somebody says “Dude! What do you think you are doing?”

The person doing the questioning is a bully and can be suspended.

If Jimmy, in his dress in class, over hears Jill say to Sally, “He’s a freak” She can get suspended as a bully for the “He’s” but not “a freak”

In this case a number of Fairfax County Parents organized a rally to fight for first amendment rights for their kids and to stop this stupidity.

“This is a violation of our children’s first amendment rights,” said one protesting parent. “We should not be for compelled speech, no one should.”

After a late night debate over the adoption of the district’s latest Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook which largely focused on the future of cellphones in FCPS classrooms, the board decided to pass the amendments with a number of follow-on options.

Via Fox News: Elon Musk promotes free speech at Twitter all-hands meeting, says the media ‘almost never’ gets it right

“I think it’s essential to have free speech and … be able to communicate freely,” Musk said in an edited video of his remarks released by Project Veritas. “If there are multiple opinions … just make sure that we’re not sort of driving a narrative.”

Side note, notice how Project Veritas videos are always described as “edited”, as if they didn’t edit this article and everything else they present. That’s what they are suppose to do, in order to reduce it to the point where people will actually read, watch or listen. The difference is that Project Veritas will always release the rest of the uncut footage.

Elon Musk is rapidly becoming a hero to me, in his fight for absolute free speech. I do know that my heroes have warts and that just because somebody is doing good in one field it doesn’t mean they aren’t my opponent in another area.

“How many times had the media gotten it right? I would say almost never,” Musk said. “Not never, but almost never.”

And here is the wart:

The billionaire then stressed the difference between “freedom of speech” and “freedom of reach,” suggesting that he is open to allowing “outrageous things” to be said on the platform that “doesn’t get amplified” and get “a ton of reach.”

If they are allowed to put a cone of silence around speech they dislike then it is still a form of silencing offending voices.

And note that Fox News has “edited” Elon’s statement to pull out two and three word quotes and strung them together with their own words. What did Elon actually say?

Via WLBT Jackson, MS via WLOX.com: Lawsuit filed alleges two bills would send public money to fund private school, violating state constitution

“This is the most brazen attempt to give money to private schools that I have ever seen,” said Will Bardwell, senior counsel at Democracy Forward. “Once public money starts going out the door, the injury is going to occur, so we’re going go to be asking the chancery court to put the program on hold until we can establish that it’s unconstitutional.”

So everybody that is hurt by the pandemic lockdowns and panics were able to apply for grants and loans. Public schools were able to get money. But those darn private schools can’t get any relief from government inflicted damages.

From 90 Miles From Tyranny

Via Fox News:Liberal Virginia DA hit with bar complaint following judge booting her office from criminal case

It was reported a few days ago that the Loudoun Country, VA prosecutor was kicked of a case by the Judge. The Judge said that she had lied to the court in under reporting the criminal history of the defendant in attempting to “sell a plee deal”.

It is now being reported that there is a formal complaint against Buta Biberaj asking for her to be disbarred.

“Ms. Biberaj’s conduct is completely unbecoming of both a prosecutor and an officer of the Court. Judge Plowman’s order is a damning indictment of the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s ethics and her low regard for the integrity of the justice system. We hope that the Virginia Bar recognizes the severity of this misconduct and Buta Biberaj is disbarred and removed from office immediately,” Sean Kennedy, the president of Virginians for Safe Communities, said in the nonprofit’s press release Thursday.

With luck this story will have a very happy ending with Biberaj disbarred and trying to learn to code. I don’t think she’ll do well in any hard science or engineering profession.

Via The Tampa Bay Times: Longtime NRA Florida lobbyist Marion Hammer retiring

“I have fought for Second Amendment rights and the rights of gun owners for many many years, and that’s my legacy,” Hammer said in an interview Thursday. “I stood tall against a wall of people who wanted to destroy the Constitution and punish law-abiding people for the acts of criminals.”

Different people have different views of Marion. I think Miguel summed it up best with this picture of her being the only guns right person in a meeting with representatives while a half dozen Mom’s Demanding sat in their red t-shirts across the aisle from Marion.

She has been in the fight for a very very long time. She has been there when nobody else took the time to speak on our behalf.

There are others that look at her huge salary from the NRA and wonder if it is worth it. They wonder if she is part of the group keeping Wayne in power.

Regardless of what she is getting paid, regardless of how much she took from the NRA, the place where Florida is today regarding Stand Your Ground, Shall Issue and many other issues are because of her efforts, her lobbying.

Because of Florida, many other states moved to shall issue. When I got to my home state it went from a multi-month task with a low probability of success with hundreds of dollars involved to $10 and 10 days. My state went to Shall Issue because Florida went there first and proved that blood would not fill the streets.

So thank you Marion Hammer.

Via CNBC: Lego to invest over $1 billion in first U.S. brick plant

Lego is going to open a brick plant in Chesterfield County, Virginia. It is the first Lego plant in the US.

Toymaker Lego said on Wednesday it will invest more than $1 billion in its first factory in the United States, which will be carbon-neutral, to shorten supply chains and keep up with growing demand for its colored plastic bricks in one of its biggest markets.

The factory in Chesterfield County, Virginia, will be the Danish company’s second in North America and seventh worldwide, after it announced a new factory in Vietnam last year.

Don’t any of you tell me this isn’t gun related… Those Legos make the best caltrops ever. Just ask any parent that’s found one with a bare foot at oh dark thirty

Via AP News: Tentative Senate gun deal has surprises, and loose ends

The outline of a bipartisan Senate agreement to rein in gun violence has no game-changing steps banning the deadliest firearms. It does propose measured provisions making it harder for some young gun buyers, or people considered threatening, to have weapons.

The deadliest weapon is a man with nothing left to lose. The tool he uses does not matter.

They are proposing allowing juvenile records to be part of a NICS check. This seems to be a reasonable path, if we have NICS make sure it includes the records of the animals that have juvenile records. “Well known to law enforcement until they turned 18” seems a poor tactic.

They are talking about extending the time till a NICS check defaults. Currently a NICS check either gives a “proceed”, a “deny” or “wait.” After three days an FFL can proceed after a “wait.” The proposal changes that from 3 days to 7 with the ability to proceed after 10 days. So instead of half a week, two weeks if the government does a slow down.

When I first moved here I found that every time I did a NICS check I got a wait. Turns out that Maryland just never responded to NICS check requests that would result in a “proceed” thereby adding a 3 day waiting period for anybody that moved out of state.

This went on for nearly 5 years. I can easily see them doing an intentional slow down. All you have to do is look at how long it takes to get permission to by ear protection devices that attach to your firearm. (Suppressors)

There are proposals to increase the removal of firearms without due process. Unlikely to have any punishment for those that abuse the system. The biggest push is to allow casual relations to result in the ability to get an EPO. So you might want to not stick it in crazy.

They claim that they aren’t going to ban semi-automatic rifles, but keep an eye out. There is no reason to trust these people.