2015 – Page 5 – Shall Not Be Questioned

“Mass Shootings Don’t Happen in Other Countries” Says POTUS… in Paris

Obama once again with “This just doesn’t happen in other countries.” He said this in Paris, which of course has just had the most horrific mass shooting in history.

It’s like he thinks if he says it often enough, it’ll become true. I keep hearing from people on the left the shootings are different, because the mass shooting in France was terrorism. A friend notes the inconsistency on the Book of Face:

Person 1: The mass-shooting at Planned Parenthood is terrorism! No other country has this problem! We need more gun control
Person 2: But, it didn’t seem to stop people in Paris.
Person 1: Oh, but the mass-shooting in Paris attack doesn’t count because it was terrorism.
Person 2: What about Anders Breivik in Norway?
Person 1: ONLY AMERICA HAS MASS SHOOTINGS!

We’ve become a cartoon nation, with cartoon voters, electing cartoon politicians.

Magazine Capacity Doesn’t Matter

Criminologist Gary Kleck did some research on mass shootings involving so-called high-capacity magazines, and found their use doesn’t make a difference. Popular perception, fed by the media and the fear mongers on the other side, is that mass shooters spray bullets quickly. But the truth is mass shooters don’t expend ammunition very quickly at all, making reloading a non-factor in terms of people killed or injured.

Dave Kopel notes that better mental health treatment will do a lot more to stop mass shooters than more gun control.

Defense Authorization Bill Goodies

This is probably old news by now, but since I wasn’t following along, it’s new news to me. The short of it is that Obama signing the National Defense Authorization Act means:

Concealed carry options for our soldiers.
CMP Sales of surplus 1911s.
Prohibits EPA from regulating lead ammunition.

I’m pleased with this development, but to me the big prize would be to require the military and all other federal agencies to sell surplus ammunition to the public. The Clinton Administration ended surplus ammunition sales years ago, and we’ve never gotten it back.

Move Completed

I wired up the last few phone drops in our new building yesterday, so for now our office move is complete. I still have several tasks to do, but they can proceed with a normal priority, rather than having to get things working by the time everyone gets back from the holiday.

The good news is the new office is 10 minutes closer for me. Door-to-door time yesterday was 43 minutes traveling there and 46 minutes returning home. That’s almost enough to make me think I could do three days in the office and two at home, instead of the other way around.

The bad news is that our movers destroyed more than half of our furniture. We use Bush Furniture, which looks good, but it’s all cheap particleboard. To move it safely, it really needs to be disassembled. If you’re not going to do that, picking it up and carrying it is a must.Â The movers were dragging it over the floor instead of picking it up and carrying it. I lost my bookshelf to the move. It was really more a question of what didn’t they break.

Either way, I’m glad that’s over with.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all our readers out there. I hope you all have a great holiday.

Regularly scheduled blogging will continue on Monday, hopefully. I’ve been scarce posting this week because I’ve spent the last three days moving our company to our new building, knowing absolutely nothing about the wiring in it beforehand.

The good news is that it’s in decent shape, and mostly labeled correctly. The bad news is that the building formerly housed two tenants and one of the former tenants cut all their network drops and removed the panels. Fortunately, they left one small three gang box with six ports in it uncut, and I was lucky enough that those drops went into the remaining offices that were cut.

Yesterday, I did the phone system, and decided to bite the bullet and get a tone generator to trace wires. I wish I had done that Monday, because it makes finding out where shit goes a hell of a lot easier.

I still have a few phone drops to figure out Monday, as well as several network drops, but with the tone generator it should go smoothly. Just a matter of finding the right wire that goes where or near where I need it.

Banning Possession of Gun Knowledge

New South Wales has moved to ban the possession or sharing of information on 3D printed firearms.

Considering that plans have been available since 2013, this seems a bit like trying to put the genie back into a bottle. We know how well it works to tell people that they can’t have something anymore when it can be downloaded from the internet. It’s not like Australia doesn’t already have laws on the possession of actual guns, but I guess now they want to ban the knowledge of guns, too.

PA Police Promote PSH

I don’t see how this “case of mistaken identity” had a positive outcome, other than no-one was harmed by the police responding to a bogus “Man With Gun” call.Â And then the cops double down andÂ encourage people to make bogus calls.Â Topped off by the Lancaster Safety CoalitionÂ “review[ing] footage” and “see[ing] how the tripodÂ could be mistaken for a gun at first glance.” Mrs Grundy in the 21st Century?

Weekly Gun News – Edition 20

It’s not really tab cleaning time just yet, but I’d rather fire off the news post today rather than tomorrow. Tomorrow is our last day in our old offices. On Monday, the movers come, and I have to move a few switches and servers. Tuesday they switch our Internet pipe, so I will have a lot to do ahead of the Thanksgiving Holiday.

It’s almost like he wants Hillary to lose: “Obama says gun control to be top issue of final year.” Either that or he’s making a killing on gun stocks.

Apparently the European Commission is considering a rash of gun control laws. It’s what control freak technocrats are wont to do, and the European Union is the biggest infestation of technocrats out there. Of course, none of this will work, but control is what they do.

Analysis true: How not to be a jerk at a shooting match.

Clinton and O’Malley are still trying to out anti-gun each other.

Bernie hits back at O’Malley, noting Baltimore is not a very safe city.

Haters gonna hate.

Dog bites man:Â Bob Owens notes there’s more support for reinstating DC’s gun ban from wealthy whites than from residents outside of that demographic.

Every town put out a “study” that suggests states that ban private transfers of handguns have fewer mass shootings. Again, they are hoping you’re thinking one kind of mass shooting when the vast majority of these are really another.

Charles C.W. Cooke: “The NRA Is Absolutely Right to Fear the ‘Terrorism Watch List’” He takes on that ridiculous headline over at the New York Daily News. I don’t even think the “no-fly” list should be constitutional, let alone using this bullshit for removing 2nd Amendment rights.

Taurus pistols don’t seem to be drop safe?Â All modern pistols should be drop safe. That’s one safety feature I agree with.

Oregon admits to monitoring what Second Amendment supports were saying after the UCC killings.

There’s a Swedish rifle called the “School Shooting Rifle.” No really, there is.

Brazil seeks to copy US gun culture.

Dog bites man again: It’s possible for criminals to traffic contraband. This apparently comes as a shock to many.

Good to see Mayor Nutter putting the “Lame” in “Lame Duck.”

Jim Geraghty on Smaller Government

Jim Geraghty’s “Morning Jolt” is one of my my many sources of news, but I thought yesterday he made a good point in a rant about why GOP primary voters weren’t looking to give Bobby Jindal much of a chance (personally, I thought Jindal cozied up to the religious right too early and too hard):

See, a lot of us conservatives walk around in a reassuring trance believing that people like and want small government. Most people donâ€™t. At most, they like and want small governmentÂ for other people.Â Farmers like farm subsidies, defense-contractor employees like big spending by the Pentagon, most senior citizens explode at the slightest mention of cuts to Social Security or Medicare. Most self-identified conservatives not only donâ€™t fight for smaller government, they fight against it when it personally impacts them. And then they turn around and complain that lawmakers never manage to reduce the size of government.

That’s pretty much spot on, unfortunately.

On The Syrian Refugee Issue

I’m with Tam on the issue, I’m glad it’s not my call. But I’ve seen a lot of conservatives arguing that because no background check can be 100% effective, and there are sure to be some jihadists among them, we don’t let any of them in. It only takes one to do a lot of damage. Let me play a bit of devil’s advocate, but in a different context.

There’s no way for a background check to be 100% effective, and one wrong person with a gun can cause a lot of damage, so we ban guns, right? Careful what lines of reasoning you use, lest that logic be applied to other contexts on issues you care about.

I don’t join with the left to suggest that if you don’t want to let them in your a horrible, racist person, and I think there are reasonable and non-racist arguments to be made for not accepting Syrian refugees. I’d just be careful with a “we can never be too safe” argument when it comes to background checks, because that leads to a certain conclusion in another context that would make most readers of this blog deeply uncomfortable.