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Don’t Think It Can’t Happen Here
Confessions of an English gun enthusiast …
Hogg House Swatted
Hogg House Swatted?
There’s a lot of bloggers on the right noting that Hogg’s reaction is odd. I wouldn’t go so far as saying it was staged, but I’ll agree that it smells fishy, much like everything else in Broward County.
The Hoggs weren’t home, but in DC. I don’t support doing something like this to anyone, even though I strongly disagree with Hogg about gun control, and find him distasteful as a person. SWATing is just short of attempted murder, if you ask me.
In other news, isn’t his dad a retired FBI agent? Didn’t his mom work for the school district? That’s a pretty swank house for government workers.
Falling Plates
My apologies for the lack of posting. I have a whole lot going on right now. It’s dues processing time at the club. In addition to fielding angry e-mails about dues increases, there’s a lot of set-up with the bank. I don’t really like being dues chair, but each year I’m trying to automate more and more of the process. Next year it will be stupid easy. We’re taking credit card payment this year for the first time. Because I’m apparently enjoying the lack of sleep, I’ve also taken on running a falling plates match.
We’re pretty much a Gun Culture 1.0 club. Previously we shot Bullseye, CMP, Trap, Silhouette, more Silhouette, and even more Silhouette. But I’m noticing those sports are getting really sparse turnout these days compared to when I joined. Matches are what suck people into club life, and a club that doesn’t have healthy matches won’t stay healthy overall for too long. So I decided a Falling Plate match started from the low ready was a good way to bring a somewhat more Gun Culture 2.0-like sport into the club. I’ve never run a falling plate match before, so my fellow match director and I are kind of making it up as we go. What does this take? I don’t know:
???
Profit!
That’s about how it goes, right? I’m thinking we can mix it up a bit to keep it interesting. Maybe one match you load 6, so if you miss one you have to do a magazine change. I tried to keep classifications simple, and this is just a “for fun” club match. But my co-director and I want to bring Steel Challenge to the club eventually.
If anyone has run a Falling Plate match and has advice, I’m all ears. I’ll also listen to stories about anyone who has helped move a club from GC 1.0 to 2.0 matches. We’re probably a long way from anything like USPSA, IDPA, or anything else that requires drawing from a holster, or running with a gun. But Steel Challenge is pretty tame.
This is Why Registering Your Guns is a Bad Idea
California man ends up charged with multiple felonies after trying to register his guns. He failed to understand that this is not about putting criminals in jail. This is about putting _you_ in jail. He played their game and they screwed him. Don’t play their game.
California man tries to comply with California’s new and improved assault weapons ban, and ends up with a rash of felony charges when authorities start looking at the pictures. It’s going to be better to fly under the radar in California. I would not register anything without talking to an attorney first. I’d note that this is not one of California’s densely populated counties: if it can happen to a guy in Kern County for trying to do what they tell you is the right thing, it can happen to anyone.
Remember, they want you in prison. That’s the goal. This has nothing to do with putting criminals in jail. This has to do with putting you in jail. You’re far better off not playing this game. I know people get tired of gun owners getting told to move, but it’s really the thing to do. Go somewhere your vote matters and continue the fight. Nevada needs you. I’d say the same thing to New Jersey gun owners: Pennsylvania needs you. We need people to offset the tax refugees who will come here and keep voting for the same kinds of assholes that ruined New Jersey and California in the first place.
Dick’s Will Probably Exit the Gun Business
Dick’s Earnings are interesting, but it shows our boycott is having an effect.
Dick’s earnings weren’t as bad as expected, even thought their gun and hunting business is hurting. My guess is that Dick’s will leave that line of business as sales in that area continues to flounder. I’d note that earnings beat expectations, which were low. Their earnings are the same as they were in Q1 of 2016 on about the same revenue. I’m wondering how much of their surprise has to do with online sales, which grew quickly, and may have prevented a loss. Same store sales being down means our boycott is having an effect, and Dick’s admits that’s a result of a decline in sales of our items.
I’m not sure this is the story their CEO and the media are making it out to be. Certainly I’m not going to spin this as good for us: Dick’s doesn’t have a history of beating Q1 expectations. It’s interesting that analysts lowballed them by 9 cents a share over the previous year. Q1 estimates for Dick’s have, generally speaking, been pretty spot on. Anyone have any idea how these earnings estimates get decided? How many people are involved? How much influence would someone like Bloomberg and his associates have on the process? I’m not ready to put my tin foil hat on yet, but I’m curious. Because setting up low expectations for Dick’s on purpose to achieve a PR coup would be something I’d do if I were Bloomberg and could pull it off. Just sayin’.
If same store sales keeps dropping, that will hurt Dick’s in the long run. So get the word out.
More Radical Proposals from Democrats
Eric Swalwell on Tucker Carlson says he doesn’t want to confiscate your guns, just force you to surrender them in a mandatory buyback, or keep them at your gun club, which no doubt you all belong to, and which no doubt has plenty of secure space to store thousands of guns …
Eric Swalwell on Tucker Carlson:
I’m not calling for a confiscation. What I’m saying is we should invest in buyback, that we should restrict any weapons that aren’t bought back to gun clubs, hunting clubs, shooting ranges. Keep them there, where it’s safe. Not on our streets. And if you were caught, just like you were caught, you know, with drugs, or anything else, or they have probable cause to go in your home and you have one of these weapons, yeah. You’d be prosecuted. I’ve never suggested sending troops out and collecting and confiscating–
If we just call it a buy back, and make it mandatory, it’s not confiscation! Sure, we’ll “criminally prosecute all — criminally prosecute any who refuse — choose to defy it by keeping their weapons,” but you gun nuts are crazy to think anyone here is talking about taking your guns.
And where are all these gun and hunting club that clearly all shooters and hunters must belong to? And clearly they are all set up to store thousands of firearms? He doesn’t have a clue. My club is starting to get inundated with requests from New Jersey members who would like the club to provide storage so that they can keep all their soon to be illegal stuff in Pennsylvania. But we don’t have the resources or security level to provide for on-site storage of firearms. Neither do most other clubs. I’ve heard this from people before who assume it’s practical. They don’t know anything about the culture and even less about guns.
And I trust the American people are law-abiding, that their weapons can be bought back or keep them at a gun club. You don’t have to give them up. Just keep them at a gun club.
No. That won’t work. Even if we were willing, which we are not. Absolutely 100% non-negotiable. This is basically saying you can have guns, but only if you never use them for self-defense.
Good Guy With a Gun
Our opponents have argued and would argue that this guy didn’t stop a mass killing, because it was stopped before it reached the definition of mass killing …
Our opponents have argued and would argue that this guy didn’t stop a mass killing, because it was stopped before it reached the definition of mass killing. But that hardly matters, since the headline is going around, and people know better. The quickest way to stop a mass shooting in progress is well-placed return fire.
Thursday News Dump
All the news that’s fit to link…
I’ve been very busy, so please forgive the light posting. On top of being busy with a project at work, it’s dues time for my club, and I’ve been dealing with banks to get ready for online invoicing and payment by credit cards for the first time. It’s not as bad as closing on a house, but it’s easier to buy a new car. Banks want you to sign over your first born for all this stuff. In fact, if they put that in some of the fine print, I might not notice.
I need to clean my tabs out though, so here goes:
Jimmy Kimmel called out for “White Privilege” on gun control. Make them live up to their own rules. And yes, gun control disadvantages poor minorities more than it disadvantages middle class white people. In the past, and arguably still today, that’s been its primary purpose.
Canada doesn’t have enough gun control, according to the people who advocate for gun control.
Tam: “Misunderstanding Self-Defense: Practical”
Clayton Cramer has some video of Bloomberg Bloomberging. Smartest strategic move Everytown has made is pushing him into the background and using him as a wallet rather than a face. What we need to do, conversely, is make sure everyone knows Everytown is Mike Bloomberg. I won’t mention them without his name if I can help it.
Minneapolis Star Tribune: “Liberal Maplewood millennial isn’t your typical gun rights advocate: ‘We’re normal people’” Note: “She left the NRA when it created ads she felt were polarizing, alienating and ‘extreme right wing.'” I’m not convinced that NRA is going to rethink the Angry Dana strategy, as long as their membership keeps growing. I think that has more to do with the shrillness of our opponents, but it’s hard to convince a civic organization to change course when they aren’t hurting for members.
Well, this will certainly harsh some narratives. The FBI: “Armed and unarmed citizens engaged the shooter in 10 incidents. They safely and successfully ended the shootings in eight of those incidents … Their selfless actions likely saved many lives.”
Boulder passed an assault weapons ban, and are now being sued in federal court. Colorado seems to have preemption, but my understanding is that the courts there have weakened it severely.
Reason has a pretty good article on “Assault Weapons,” most of it old hat to most of us, but some interesting bits I hadn’t heard, but are hardly surprising: “According to a Reason-Rupe survey conducted around the time that Feinstein introduced her 2013 bill, about two-thirds of Americans mistakenly thought ‘assault weapons’ fire faster than other guns, hold more rounds, or use higher-caliber ammunition. The respondents who harbored these misconceptions were especially likely to say such guns should be banned.”
It was disappointing to see a lot of assholes on our side of the issue giving this reporter shit in the comments: “Shooting an ‘assault weapon’ helped me understand the gun debate”
The Detroit News: “Dick’s walks risky line on guns.” I’m not big on boycotting as a tactic, but I’ll never set foot in another Dick’s again. I’ll cheer when they finally finish circling the bowl.
The Federalist: “Our rights aren’t contingent on a cost-benefit analysis. Whether guns are risky isn’t the point, but whether guns are a reasonable means of self-defense.”
The Swedes are preparing for war, with Ivan getting frisky again: “[W]e will never give up. All information to the effect that resistance is to cease is false.†There’s an old story, maybe it’s true, that during WWII the German Ambassador said to the Swiss Ambassador: “You have half a million men under arms. We could send a million men over the pass into your country, and what would you do then?” The Swiss Ambassador responded: “We’d tell our men to shoot two Germans before going home.”
Professor Pleads Guilty to Vandalism of Chris Cox’s House
I remember reading about the Cox residence getting vandalized, and reading this professor saying “People need to stop treating these predatory, sick people like they’re just a neighbor.†while also state she never did anything illegal. Well, I guess not …
I remember reading about the Cox residence getting vandalized, and reading this professor saying “People need to stop treating these predatory, sick people like they’re just a neighbor.†while also state she never did anything illegal. Well, I guess not. From the Cox’s attorney:
“We are pleased that today Ms. Hill was criminally convicted of vandalism for her January attack on the Cox’s home, that she was charged with a second count of vandalism for an attack on the Cox family home in October 2017, and that a restraining order was entered against her. The Cox family is grateful to the Commonwealth Attorney’s office and the Alexandria Police Department for their role in holding Ms. Hill accountable for her criminal conduct. We look forward a second conviction for Ms. Hill at her next criminal trial.â€
What a loon. I think that “red gel-like substance” has gone to her brain.
Taking Back Vermont
Can gun owners take back Vermont? If the answer is yes, the first step is to sink Phil Scott’s political career …
Can Gun Owners Take Back Vermont? Vermonters really really need to make sure Phil Scott is punished:
Dick Wobby, one of Scott’s closest friends and political advisers, recognizes the similarities and concedes that if conservatives revolt and moderates stay home, the governor could lose a primary challenge. But he’s skeptical that gun-rights activists, whom he characterizes as “a bunch of radical, gun-toting individuals,” are as potent a political force as they appear.
“They’ve got a base of what? One hundred people? One hundred fifty people?” Wobby said. “When you really look at it, their rallies and groups are not growing. They’re diminishing rapidly.”
This is utter betrayal. Bloomberg talking points, through and through. This is what Everytown has been trying to convince politicians. And you know what? If we sit on our asses and do nothing; just sit back and lament how awful they all are, Bloomberg will be proven right. It’s vitally important to vote against Scott every chance you get. Help out his opponents. This is one of those situations:Â “I don’t care how you do it, you must sink the Bismarck.” Phil Scott’s political career is the Bismarck. He can’t win re-election. If Vermonters want to save their state, you need to start here.