Shall Not Be Questioned – Page 15 – The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …

That Some Condescending Click Bait Right There

I’m reluctant to help the troll troll, but it’s one of those things where I don’t like the tone at all, but I’m not really sure he’s all that wrong in some of his points. I do think gun owners need to get serious.

But when it comes to reconnecting disconnected young men to their communities, getting them off the online fever swamps, and out of their parents basements, the gun culture isn’t part of the problem, it’s part of the solution.

The Left: “These disconnected young men living in the fever swamp of the chans are murdering our citizens where they live, work and shop!”

Also the Left: “Let’s enact policies that will further alienate young men and remove their sense of citizenship and community.”

Perceived Weakness

He’s right, you know. I should just note that my beef is with Wayne, not the NRA, it’s mission, or it’s position against banning private transfers. If Trump wants to be a one termer, cross us. Absent guns, I have no reason to show up to the polls to vote for Republicans. None.

Need More Coffee…

Today’s starting out with a bang. A little too much bang before coffee was made, in my opinion.

Google has shut down John Richardson’s blog for the time being, claiming that he sells a regulated product. He doesn’t. He simply offers commentary on political issues that Google doesn’t support. Here’s his Twitter account for those interested in keeping up while he’s down.

More drama comes out of the NRA & AckMac lawsuits with accusations about Wayne supposedly wanting a $6 million mansion in the Dallas area funded by AckMac who would then bill NRA, according to WaPo. NRA says it was all AckMac’s idea. Honestly, I don’t trust either one and can easily see either party (or both!) being responsible for proposing for this kind of crap when the organization was already struggling financially.

I’m seriously considering offering some very sarcastic commentary on the house they were considering for Wayne & Susan. I really can’t stand fake old houses – those done in the style of older homes, but that are brand new and ridiculously furnished so far removed from what they were supposed to be inspired by. (There’s seating for 6-8 people surrounding the master bathtub. Questions, I have them.) Between my efforts to focus on positive things and lack of time, I’m going to resist for now. For now; I have screenshots in case I change my mind.

And then there’s the news that NRA and its Foundation are being sued by one of their big donors today. And that gets more interesting coming not long after the rumor that the board and other leaders lost their insurance to cover such situations. They are still indemnified, so NRA is picking up the tab no matter what the insurance situation is today. But since the Board has decided to fight indemnification for Oliver North, it’s pretty easy to understand why the best move for some was to resign since chances are good with that the board would make the same moves against anyone outside of the inner circle.

So, yeah, I think it’s time for more coffee. Or just maybe move straight to whiskey today. Either way, it’s a better way to get through the afternoon.

Clayton on Mass Murders

Clayton is doing an extensive study of mass murder in the United States, going back to 1657.

You probably canâ€™t name the mass murders that killed 87 people in 1990 ;or 97 people in 1986; or the 1973 New Orleans gay bar with 33 dead.Â All were arson, and are nearly unknown because there were no guns.Â The 1990 murders were with $1 of gasoline bought a nearby gas station; the 1986 murders with a can of camp stove fuel; the 1973 murders were with a can of cigarette lighter fluid bought down the street.

RTWT.

Uncomfortable Truth for Our People

Tam is also right, and much like NDT, I’m not sure a lot of people will want to hear it:

Most people don’t get carry permits, and even those who do mostly don’t carry their guns. The odds of a mass shooting are already like a lightning bolt or meteor strike. The odds of a mass shooting happening within 25 yards of a truly skilled shooter with a USPSA GM ticket or FAST coin* are “meteor strike in your back yard that goes through the hoop of the basketball goal in your driveway and gets nothing but net” rare.

I’m not a USPSA GM and I don’t have a FAST coin. But I’m better than your average shooter. And to be honest, if I’m near a mass shooting in progress, and I can find an exit from the situation that doesn’t involve return fire, I’m taking it. If I a shot presented itself, I’d take it. But I’m not going to go looking for it. I’ll let the guys with body armor handle that.

If you ask me, politicians don’t have the answer for this phenomena, and anything they try will just do more damage. A mass public shooting is lightning strike in terms of probability. It’s a symptom of an increasingly disconnected society and marginalizes and isolates a lot of young boys. I think the causes are multiple. But ultimately, I think it boils down to a destruction of community, family, and connectedness, and social media is only making the problem worse.

Who Was Managing Trump?

Oh yeah, Chris Cox was. Good thing Wayne ran him off! Remember, Trump is a manhattanite that doesn’t understand the issue well and has a set of quirks and biases that are going to be tough to deal with even for an experienced lobbyist.

I’ll grant you that Trump is probably aware the Dems will never accept that deal. But I’m very worried about Trump with ILA transitioning to new leadership.

He’s Not Wrong

Party of Science! At least until the science doesn’t fit with your emotionally driven narrative:

Twitter exploded in rage as all the usual pearl clutchers rushed to condemn him. I am not NGT’s biggest fan since he stopped doing what he was good at (being a science educator) and started doing what he ain’t so good at (being a political pundit). But he’s right here. And no amount of hand wringing and condemnation is going to erase this very fact.

Bombshell

John Richardson finds some very interesting material. Granted, I’ve known in my life people who were decent folks, but who had horrible judgement in the kind of people they surrounded themselves with. That’s the best case scenario here.

Also, this is a huge deal if it turns out to be true:

I am away from internet and unable to verify but this is important if it pans out. A credible Source says a highly placed NRA exec has been offered immunity by the New York AG. @aarmark
— dcodrea (@dcodrea) July 31, 2019

This is a good time to start developing local networks in the issue, because none of this is good for RKBA. In fact, it might be disastrous. We might have to do a lot of that self-organizing while NRA is going through all this.

What Money Can Buy

The Democratic Debates last night were basically who could out gun control the other candidate. Before Bloomberg came along, the gun control movement had virtually no organization or money. He changed all that. We can pat ourselves on the back that gun people will self-organize in the absence of leadership, but if you have the money to buy a top down organization, it doesn’t make it any less effective.

When super wealthy elites decide they want something, they will usually get their way. They might not with this issue because we have so many people who care. But it’s going to be an all-hands-on-deck fight.

Overarching, and across the world, is the fight over globalism. I’ve said in the end globalism will win, because it’s being driven by technological change at its root. The struggle isn’t whether we have transnational systems where the nation state plays a less important role: that will happen. The struggle is whether globalism will be a democratic movement that is controlled by the people for the people’s benefit, or whether it will be a aristocratic movement that benefits the transnational aristocrats. It’s been set up as the latter, and the people are, across the globe, calling foul.

The struggle over the RKBA is downstream of that fight, but what we’re seeing I think fits in the overall struggle. It’s a theme repeated throughout history that aristocrats do not like their subjects being armed. So it was practically inevitable that when the people started asserting themselves against this cultivated global order, the counter-reaction was the aristocracy returning to their traditional fears and anxieties about armed peasants. That anxiety is acting itself out among the pool of Democratic candidates.

Joel Friedman Comes out in Favor of Wayne

Article here at The Gun Writer. Much of it I don’t take issue with. Read the whole thing. I’ll quote the relevant parts and comment:

After 38 years of working hand-in-hand with the NRA, it is MY BELIEF that one of our vendors attempted to take over NRA leadership in order to preserve its own lucrative contracts. It is also MY BELIEF that this vendor had, for some time, believed that the NRAâ€™s entire success was due to its efforts alone.

OK, I get that. I’ll take that as a given for the sake of argument. There are some who have argued the coup narrative is a smokescreen, even many here in these comments. I don’t really have an opinion on that, because I can believe either. But for the sake of argument, we’ll agree Ollie’s failed revolt was an Ack-Mac planned operation.

Show me that the people who are being retaliated against were also Ack-Mac stooges, were part of the conspiracy, and were not just Directors exercising their prerogative to have an opinion on the EVP who they hire. I don’t just mean they joined Ollie. I mean they joined Ollie at the behest of Ackerman McQueen.

For those who have had negative things to say about the law firm representing us, I ask one simple question: Name one thing the firm has done that has hurt the NRA? Thus far, no one has been able to answer that question.

Some people have legit concerns over the amount of money being spent and Brewer’s background as a Dem donor. For me the jury is still out on Brewer. I haven’t railed against his firm or his fees because he is involved in a good deal of complex litigation on NRA’s behalf at the federal level and that isn’t going to come cheap. But I would not dismiss the concerns of others so readily.

The rest of Joel Friedman’s article is defending the revelations about the clothes, travel, etc, that came out. I agree with him here. I think given the long time period, the proximity to Sandy Hook to some of the travel expenses, these issues amount to a big nothing burger. What is a bigger issue, if you ask me, is that the dissolution of the Ack-Mac relationship, and house keeping that is now needing to be done, happened on Wayne’s watch while he was actively supportive of the parasitic arrangement with the PR firm.

I’m with Michael Bane on this one: I won’t deny Wayne credit for his accomplishments over the years. I don’t begrudge him his parachute. I would hope he has an enjoyable retirement. But no one is giving me a good reason he shouldn’t be falling on his own sword like I would expect of any other Chief Executive in this kind of position.

I ask you to consider this for a moment â€“ do you think that thereâ€™s anyone better equipped to guide the NRA during these challenging times? The neophytes who are agitating would get their clocks cleaned in about 2 hours!

There was, but you guys drove him the hell off. And I think anyone who can manage Trump the way Chris has can’t also manage the NYAG? I don’t take serious issue with this letter when it sticks to facts, but this one bit is the same kind of over-the-top nonsense I’ve seen from other Board Members, and smacks of a cult of personality I can’t really abide by.

I’m not a Wayne hater, and I’ve spent a lot of time here defending NRA and it’s leadership when I think they are right. I don’t think Wayne is right here. The removal of insufficiently loyal board members from key committees has to stop. If you want unity from the membership, you ought to be driving unity within.

I accept my outside status, and given the plethora of lawsuits afoot, I accept I can’t have all the information. But insiders should have a lot more, and I’m still seeing division from within. It’s not just the usual Wayne haters. The punishments that are now happening are not the actions of an EVP with strong arguments and who is in an unassailable position.

The fact that I see little internal unity tells me the EVP needs to go and be replaced by someone most everyone has confidence in. It doesn’t really matter if Wayne is a good guy and doing the right thing now. Taking one for the team, even when it’s not really your fault, is part of being a CEO. That’s why they have golden parachutes.

I’m open to the possibility that I might be wrong, but if I am wrong, I want to see better arguments being presented than mindless cheerleading.