The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
Brought to you by Heather in Alaska, who was having a conversation with some friends about the Colorado shooting, and discussed carry in movie theaters. This prompted the question: “Why would you need to bring a gun to a theater anyway?”
I think that particular question has rather answered itself.
Looks like the anti-gun groups are planning themselves a little (and I do mean little) protest of NRA. Of course, they are not going to protest NRA’s high-profile headquarters in Fairfax, but instead will protest NRA’s non-descript Federal Affairs office, which sits atop the popular Capitol Hill bar Bullfeathers. I guess the anti gun groups can’t really cover the cost of bus or cab fare out to Fairfax these days, so I suppose I should be understanding here.
It’s a shame I’m in a rush to get back, because Bitter and I could pass through DC and counter protest. Actually, the idea we came up with would be to stop off at a gun shop and pick up one of those jam-o-matic 100 round drum magazines, and offer to destroy it on camera under one condition: that the protesters all sing “I’m A Little Teapot,” of course also acting out the song as they sing it. I figure their dedication to stopping gun violence and ridding our streets of these killing machines is very strong, so of course they would be willing to suffer some minor embarrassment among gun bloggers to accomplish it.
I found one of them peddling this bit around, so like a grade school teacher, I have marked it up in red and corrected the ignorance, inaccuracies, and distortions:
The conspiracy crowd already has one about the Aurora shootings that I have seen several places on the Internets. Namely that this guy was unemployed, so how could he have afforded all this exotic equipment (because no one, ever, has gone on a spending binge with their Visa), or found much of it. Given that the United Nations is about to pass an Arms Trade Treaty, it’s pretty obvious that the Obama Administration staged this whole thing to create a pretext for signing the United States onto the ATT.
I’m finding it difficult to believe that this Administration would go so far as to hire a spree killer, in Denver of all places, to create a pretext to put a legally meaningless signature on a treaty whose draft doesn’t even exist yet. It’s one of the more wild-eyed conspiracies I’ve seen. Sometimes, albeit rarely, someone descends into the madness of schizophrenia in a way that they become wildly dangerous to those around them. If you look at this guy’s life before the madness consumed him, what you’re struck by is what a tragic waste of human potential this disease represents. I suspect the lure of these conspiracy theories is that they give something random and senseless some understandable and acceptable narrative. But I think it fits in the realm of what Professor Reynolds said a few days ago, “Others may blame Hollywood. In both cases, it’s a mix of opportunism and a desire not to confront the existence of evil,” and I wish our folks wouldn’t engage in it.
Given the amount of time I’ve spent in a car between Friday evening and this morning, I’ve been following along with Twitter discussion about the Aurora mass killing. The truth is that both sides like to present simplistic rhetoric. On our side, you still see plenty of “If only one of the theater goers was armed, this would have been prevented!”
I’ve been reading about how elaborately his guy planned, and I have to say, this looks an awful lot like a Kobayashi Maru scenario to me. How often to you practice shooting in a dark theater filled with tear gas? This isn’t to say that I want some pant wetter from the Brady crowd telling me I can’t carry a gun, because I’ll take my odds with a gun as opposed to without, but I’m afraid I rank this scenario up there with hearing your door break down, grabbing your defensive firearm, only to find yourself pointing a gun at a SWAT team that got the wrong address. I support your right to be armed, but I wouldn’t bet on your coming out of that scenario unscathed.
A gun only improves the odds. It doesn’t guarantee victory. Society is always going to be vulnerable to paranoid schizophrenics who are high functioning enough to plan, and intelligent enough to plan well. As Joe Huffman points out, it could have been much much worse. You could double or triple the number of people carrying firearms, and that’s not going to change.
Dave Kopel: “Don’t turn Aurora killer into a celebrity.“
“I’ll need more dick kicking shoes” We’re somewhere there is cable this weekend. The media has been covering this wall to wall, speaking of all kinds of things about the killer, and about the bombs, the guns, etc. Tragedy as entertainment. I’m now really glad I cut the cable. Starve the media beast!
So it seems the Republicans won control of the Tennessee legislature for the first time in a long time, and then proceeded to do what Republicans do best when gun owners help them get elected: tell us they don’t owe us anything, and proceed to do little to move gun rights forward. While the particular topic of parking lot bills is not one I’m fond of, I agree with Packetman that I’m happy to see NRA holding Republican feet to the fire, and trying to push for the GOP to be better. As I said, I’m not fond of the parking lot bills, but Republicans have to get the message that just being less-bad than the other guy isn’t enough, especially in areas where the Democrats can be convinced to play along and compete for our vote. It also looks like strategic targeting in primaries is now becoming part of the NRA playbook, which is smart. If you can get enough heads on pikes*, eventually you just need to threaten, without having to throw down and follow through on election day.
* For our metaphorically and intellectually challenged friends in the gun control movement, I am not suggesting Chris Cox behead and pike any of our political opponents. I am not suggesting anyone do that. It is just a metaphor, like “heads on a platter” does not mean literal heads a platter, nor does saying a newly hired CEO is a wild hatchet man when it comes to culling the head count, means that the new CEO is an axe murderer. I would normally not feel the need to point this out, but many of our opponents have shown an inability to converse like rational adults.
Clayton notes that GAO says the number of concealed carry license holders is 8 million. His estimate was 7.6 million. Either way, that’s a large enough constituency that politicians won’t want to risk pissing off.
I have never heard of this apparent erstwhile arms bazar, which makes me highly skeptical of this whole thing. Especially when you ask something like this on any Internet gun forum:
I started asking around via private message—”Do you have what it would take to arm a small paramilitary group? Say, 20 people?” I made it clear that I needed something “more powerful” than what was displayed on the site.
Now that’s immediately going to set off anyone’s gullible 13 year old kid who’s played too much counterstrike (or whatever it is the kids play these days) alarm, and of course prompt the appropriately mocking response:
I can provide: tec9, scorpion, ak47 and one single vietnam war “thumper”, but its ammo costs. Smgs are much less expensive, and satisfy your self protection or combat needs very well: the sound of a easy-to-conceal soviet scorpion can scary the most badass motherfucker will stand in front of you…I’m telling this for you: one single grenade of a thumper costs 50 btcs to me: the GL itself will be around 100, to me. Take your time to choose, there’s no rush: but be sure your purchase is worth :)
Sorry dude, I’d bet a fairly large chunk of change that’s either someone making fun of you, and trying to string you along for entertainment, or hoping to use your own idiocy and naivety to scam you out of some cash. Either that or it’s a fed. Odds are pretty good on either, and the fed probably still thinks you’re stupid and naive enough to make your own case against yourself, without him having to push the boundaries of entrapment. I think what’s even more precious is that the author called the ATF and expected to meet anything other than incompetence and indifference. I guess our Gizmodo writer didn’t know they were too busy helping smuggle guns to Mexico to give a shit about a bunch of nerds playing arms dealer online.