There are millions of videos on YouTube. You could keep your eyeballs glued to your screen 24/7 and you'd never see them all. In fact, every hour you watched, you'd get farther behind. So you'll excuse me for being a bit late to see and repost this interesting video from the "new" South Africa, originally uploaded in May of 2015. The subtitles added by Mr Coetzee tell you all you need to know about what went down.
In the USA, Canada or western Europe, the Coetzees would likely be facing charges for shooting at these poor disadvantaged yoofs. But not in South Africa. That country's new post-apartheid constitution has no Second Amendment, nor anything resembling it. Yet no-one questions the necessity of keeping... and sometimes using... firearms to protect their homes and themselves. They have to do so, for incidents such as this are all too common. Thank goodness it hasn't come to that in our countries. Right? Errr...
Footnote: Every now and then you'll see, somewhere in the liberal media, an argument that "white flees" from South Africa should not be allowed to immigrate to the countries of the West. They might infect us with their racism, you know...
Further viewing: A different turn of events in King County WA can be heard in "Actual 911 call of home invasion shows why everyone must be prepared to defend themselves", posted to YouTube just three months ago. You don't need me to explain the moral of this story, do you? Keep it in mind next time someone disses the NRA.
Showing posts with label NRA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NRA. Show all posts
Friday, August 23, 2019
Sunday, March 25, 2018
Whiteman's Immutable Laws of Firearm Interaction
The marches for increased gun control -- and against Trump and other scary things -- took place as scheduled yesterday. The usual suspects turned out in their 1000s, putting the innocent children up front to hide the antifa and BLM placards. Now that the demonstrators have gone home, it's time to clean up the trash -- wish there were tougher litter control laws -- and reflect on America's gun culture.Here are my Immutable Law of Firearm Interaction.
For the purposes of this discussion, let us divide Americans into three groups: (A) ordinary citizens -- folks like you and me (or at least me; I'm not so sure about you). (B) criminals -- the kind of people who disregard gun control laws, the people who will still have firearms even after the police state has taken them away from the rest of us. (C) the gestapo ["police", shurely! Ed.]... OK, police, including customs officers, park rangers, security guards and all the others who wear badges and are allowed to carry guns.
The laws are these.
In any intereaction between A and A, where one or both As are armed, anyone who survives will be charged. If a gunshot victim is a "person of colour" and the shooter is white, the shooter will be branded a racist Nazi. (Cf. Trayvon Martin case.) If there are three or more victims, the shooter will be called an insane monster and a product of our sick society.
In any interaction between A and B, where A is armed and B is not, A will be charged. (I speak from personal experience.) If B is armed, and especially if B is so a "person of colour" (see above), both will be charged and A will be told that instead of defending himself he should have called C.
In any interaction between A and C, if A is armed he will be deemed a B. If A is unarmed and is shot by C, and somehow survives, he will be charged. If A does not survive, C will be placed on administrative leave (Cf. Stephon Clark case, a few days ago), then possibly tried and acquitted of any wrongdoing, especially if A is a "person of colour" and C is white.
In any interaction between B and B, it doesn't matter who's armed and who's not. C will conduct a cursory investigation of any gunplay but will be unable to get anyone to talk, so no charges will be laid. Civil authorities will tut-tut about guns and gangs and build another basketball court in the project.
In any interaction between B and C, it will be assumed that B was armed, even if he wasn't, or if B's "suspected firearm" turns out to be a cellphone or a pocket knife, especially if B is (as is often the case) a "person of colour". If B survives, he will be charged. If B doesn't survive, no-one will be charged, and C will get a citation for heroism. If C doesn't survive, B will be charged and C will get a police funeral attended by 1000s of Cs from all over North America, at taxpayers' expense.
In any interaction between C and C, the parties will be excused on the grounds that they were just horsing around in the station house. The police will investigate themselves and punish any wrongdoing by docking the offender a few hours' pay.
Corollary: Tighter gun control laws will have no effect except to make life harder for A.
Walt's action recommendation: When they come for your guns and ammunition, give `em the ammo first!
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
VIDEO: Thinking about gun control
This weekend's unexplained... and unexplainable... massacre in Las Vegas has been politicized to the Nth degree by the Democrats, lamestream media and others whose agenda is to overturn the Second Amendment and take our guns away, leaving weapons only in the hands of criminals, terrorists and "the Authorities". I've been thinking about that. Being a libertarian, I'm inclined to resist the calls for disarmament of ordinary people, but tragedies like Mandalay Bay and Sandy Hook give me pause.
I have some experience with guns. In my misspent youth [a century ago. Ed.] I was into Dr Hunter S. Thompson's fun trio of drugs, firearms and loud music. Get ripped on reds 'n' white and go out on a dark night and blast the shit out of some inanimate object -- good times, good times. The key word there is "inanimate". I was never a hunter. I did shoot skeet, but Mrs Walt found it hard to clean and cook. But there was something mighty satisfying about firing a good shotgun, like this Ithaca 51.
I used to keep mine, safely stored, in my cabin in the pines, a good half-hour by car from the nearest town of any size. I have always subscribed to the theory that a man's home is his castle, and was secretly hoping for an opportunity to defend my little castle with the Ithaca or either of a couple of pistols I kept for just such an occasion. The shotgun would have been best. Cut the intruder in half with a deer slug. Yeah. Just as Bill Burr says at the 2-minute mark of this video.
Eventually I discovered that the Authorities and Forces For Good in the community don't want us to defend ourselves and our property. If someone breaks into your home or place of business, they say, don't challenge them, especially with a weapon. They could use it against you! Just call 9-1-1 and the police will take care of you. I call BS on that! I tried it when a young punk walked into my office after hours, looking for trouble. I gave him what he was looking for -- a warning shot across the bow, so to speak -- and then called the police. Guess who wound up in the dock (not the kind where you park your boat)? That's right. It was me! [Should be "It was I!" Ed.]
Right, Ed. We must watch our grammar. But we have no time for that now. To get my train of thought back on the rails, imagine what would have happened if I had actually shot that kid! I would likely be writing this blog with a pencil on prison stationery. [But that's what you... oh... never mind. Ed.] Law-abiding citizens who exercise whatever right to self defence is left to them by the nanny state get the shitty end of the stick every time, while criminals and terrorists get the other end. It ain't right!
I will grant you... I have to grant you, given the terrible reality of events like this weekend's massacre, that every now and then some deranged individual will go right off the deep end and take out some innocent people who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mandalay Bay was the worst, but it wasn't the first. On the other hand, perfectly sane but perfectly evil people do the same thing. Look at Orlando. Look at San Bernadino.
Several people said that if some of the people shot in those terrorist attacks had had guns of their own, the death toll would have been considerably lower. IMHO that's right. We can't depend on our police to protect us, either because they are afraid of being called "racists"and "Nazis" or because they themselves are the thugs and bullies who like to shoot people just for the fun of it. Our best defence against terrorists or other marauders is a peaceful but vigilant and well-armed citizenry.
Please don't tell me that's a ridiculous notion, a classic example of American exceptionalism. Swiss laws on the possession and use of firearms are based on a longstanding tradition of shooting as a part of the national identity. The practice of the Swiss militia is to have the citizen soldiers keep their rifles in their homes. And we're talking about military-style guns, not just hunting rifles or shotguns.
What is needed, to avoid repeats of Mandalay Bay or Pulse or Sandy Hook, is not a ban on firearms, but more careful screening and enforcement to make sure that guns are kept out of the hands of terrorists and idiots. In Switzerland, in order to buy most weapons, the purchaser must obtain a weapon acquisition permit. Any adult citizen who is not psychiatrically disqualified nor identified as posing security problems, and who has a clean criminal record can request such a permit. The same rules apply to the purchase of ammunition.
In the result, although the percentage of Swiss who own firearms is probably higher than that of the USA, the murder rate in Switzerland is much, much lower. And so far there has not been a single terrorist attack. Think about it. Banning guns is not the answer to ails the Paranoid States of America today. It's not the guns. It's the people who have them.
Further reading: "The Culture of Death—and of Disdain", by Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal, 5/10/17. "Why do Americans own so many guns? Because they don’t trust the protected elites to protect them."
I have some experience with guns. In my misspent youth [a century ago. Ed.] I was into Dr Hunter S. Thompson's fun trio of drugs, firearms and loud music. Get ripped on reds 'n' white and go out on a dark night and blast the shit out of some inanimate object -- good times, good times. The key word there is "inanimate". I was never a hunter. I did shoot skeet, but Mrs Walt found it hard to clean and cook. But there was something mighty satisfying about firing a good shotgun, like this Ithaca 51.
I used to keep mine, safely stored, in my cabin in the pines, a good half-hour by car from the nearest town of any size. I have always subscribed to the theory that a man's home is his castle, and was secretly hoping for an opportunity to defend my little castle with the Ithaca or either of a couple of pistols I kept for just such an occasion. The shotgun would have been best. Cut the intruder in half with a deer slug. Yeah. Just as Bill Burr says at the 2-minute mark of this video.
Eventually I discovered that the Authorities and Forces For Good in the community don't want us to defend ourselves and our property. If someone breaks into your home or place of business, they say, don't challenge them, especially with a weapon. They could use it against you! Just call 9-1-1 and the police will take care of you. I call BS on that! I tried it when a young punk walked into my office after hours, looking for trouble. I gave him what he was looking for -- a warning shot across the bow, so to speak -- and then called the police. Guess who wound up in the dock (not the kind where you park your boat)? That's right. It was me! [Should be "It was I!" Ed.]
Right, Ed. We must watch our grammar. But we have no time for that now. To get my train of thought back on the rails, imagine what would have happened if I had actually shot that kid! I would likely be writing this blog with a pencil on prison stationery. [But that's what you... oh... never mind. Ed.] Law-abiding citizens who exercise whatever right to self defence is left to them by the nanny state get the shitty end of the stick every time, while criminals and terrorists get the other end. It ain't right!
I will grant you... I have to grant you, given the terrible reality of events like this weekend's massacre, that every now and then some deranged individual will go right off the deep end and take out some innocent people who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mandalay Bay was the worst, but it wasn't the first. On the other hand, perfectly sane but perfectly evil people do the same thing. Look at Orlando. Look at San Bernadino.
Several people said that if some of the people shot in those terrorist attacks had had guns of their own, the death toll would have been considerably lower. IMHO that's right. We can't depend on our police to protect us, either because they are afraid of being called "racists"and "Nazis" or because they themselves are the thugs and bullies who like to shoot people just for the fun of it. Our best defence against terrorists or other marauders is a peaceful but vigilant and well-armed citizenry.
Please don't tell me that's a ridiculous notion, a classic example of American exceptionalism. Swiss laws on the possession and use of firearms are based on a longstanding tradition of shooting as a part of the national identity. The practice of the Swiss militia is to have the citizen soldiers keep their rifles in their homes. And we're talking about military-style guns, not just hunting rifles or shotguns.
What is needed, to avoid repeats of Mandalay Bay or Pulse or Sandy Hook, is not a ban on firearms, but more careful screening and enforcement to make sure that guns are kept out of the hands of terrorists and idiots. In Switzerland, in order to buy most weapons, the purchaser must obtain a weapon acquisition permit. Any adult citizen who is not psychiatrically disqualified nor identified as posing security problems, and who has a clean criminal record can request such a permit. The same rules apply to the purchase of ammunition.
In the result, although the percentage of Swiss who own firearms is probably higher than that of the USA, the murder rate in Switzerland is much, much lower. And so far there has not been a single terrorist attack. Think about it. Banning guns is not the answer to ails the Paranoid States of America today. It's not the guns. It's the people who have them.
Further reading: "The Culture of Death—and of Disdain", by Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal, 5/10/17. "Why do Americans own so many guns? Because they don’t trust the protected elites to protect them."
Friday, April 15, 2016
"I may be some time..."
Ed. here. Walt said those words to me a moment ago as headed out the door of his cabin in the pines. He is on his way to the nether regions of New York where he has a speaking engagement. While there, he will attempt to gauge the mood of voters in the Rust Belt, ahead of Tuesday's primaries. He anticipates being able to make a prediction on Wednesday. But, he cautions, he may be so charmed by the beauties of Buffalo in the spring that he may linger awhile.
Walt is available to address your chapter of the BPOE, NRA or SOCV in return for first-class airfare, hotel etc plus a modest honorarium. Send your enquiries to the usual address.
Walt is available to address your chapter of the BPOE, NRA or SOCV in return for first-class airfare, hotel etc plus a modest honorarium. Send your enquiries to the usual address.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
An arsehole with an arsenal... more or less?
Walt is no bleeding-heart, let's-all-make-nice gun control advocate. I confess to a certain youthful fascination with firearms, often in combination with white-and-reds cocktails and loud music. Playing Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture on a stereo cranked up to "Mother" and supplying your own cannon-fire -- shotgun blasts will do nicely -- to augment the finale is an experience exhilirating to the point of being aphrodisiacal.Such things should be done, though, out in the back 40... not in crowded cinemas. A Jamaican salute to the New Year or other holiday isn't cool if innocent bystanders get hurt or killed.
Which brings me to the Aurora Massacre, the reason why Walt has been MIA the last couple of days. I have been trying to think of something cogent and witty to say. I have failed.
What kind of mind, what kind of personality says to itself: I think today I'll go take in a flick, maybe blow away a dozen or so of those damn ordinary people, just to see what it feels like.
That's if there is a mind, a sentient human being applying some kind of thinking process to the concept. Which is doubtful. Did James Holmes really think this through? The facts revealed so far would seem to suggest he did.
He spent weeks ordering and receiving an arsenal of weapons. Somehow, somewhere he acquired the suit of body armor and other colour-coordinated accessories. Not to mention all the D-I-Y work required to booby-trap his apartment so as to take out a few law enforcement officers and perhaps himself in one final Götterdammerung. The last part is speculation, which brings us back to pondering what he had in mind.
If anything. The argument will surely be advanced that the man is sick, sick, sick. Out-to-lunch insane. Totally gonzo and not in the amusing way. That's what "progressive thinkers" always say. There are no bad people, just people who are "depraved on account of they're deprived" as Stephen Sondheim wrote.
Maybe James Holmes was attacked by a bat in his childhood. Maybe he was so under the influence of mind-altering substances that he saw it as his duty to blow away all the creatures in the bat-cave of a cinema. Who knows?
Nobody knows except James Holmes. And you can bet he's been advised by every attorney he's talked to to keep his mouth shut. Let us guess... yeah. This is a case where silence is going to be the best possible defence. Let the shrinks pick his orange wig all they like. What conclusion could they reach other than that his cheese done slipped off his cracker, just like that Percy Wetmore in The Green Mile.
End result? Holmes spends a few years in the laughing academy until another set of shrinks decide he's not a threat any more, and then they turn him loose. I hope they let us know where and when that happens.
As for making it a little harder for the average deranged American to get his hands on anything more powerful than a cap gun, don't count on anything happening anytime soon. The NRA is way too powerful. Besides, as Toronto police chief Bill Bliar would say, this is just another "isolated incident".
Sunday, January 16, 2011
The wild southeast
Florida agents please take note. Yesterday's St. Petersburg Times reports that, in the aftermath of Tucson's shooting rampage, lawmakers in Florida are ready to make their stand on guns clearer.
The solons of the Sunshine State want more people to have the right to carry firearms in the open and fewer government restrictions on gun ownership. Lawmakers have filed three separate bills that seek to restrict local governments from regulating firearms, stop doctors from even asking patients about them and grant licensed gun owners the right to wear firearms outside their clothing - including on college campuses.
Now get this. The bills were all drafted before last week's shooting in Arizona, and before a drunken Florida State University student in Tallahassee accidentally killed his girlfriend's twin sister with an AK-47 on campus.
Both tragedies loom over the legislation, but if history is a guide, that won't impede any of the bills. Almost every year, a gun rights measure passes Florida's Legislature.
Walt has visions of "raisins" -- little old people with permatans and wrinkles so deep that seeds are sprouting down there -- strolling along Worth Avenue sporting the latest in Gucci pearl-handled revolvers. In Miami Beach they'll have Uzis, of course. Better watch your mouth...and your back...in Florida, boychik.
Thanks to Agent 6 for sending this along.
See also: "Five reasons why gun control has been disarmed", by Sonia Verma, from the Globe and Mail.
The solons of the Sunshine State want more people to have the right to carry firearms in the open and fewer government restrictions on gun ownership. Lawmakers have filed three separate bills that seek to restrict local governments from regulating firearms, stop doctors from even asking patients about them and grant licensed gun owners the right to wear firearms outside their clothing - including on college campuses.
Now get this. The bills were all drafted before last week's shooting in Arizona, and before a drunken Florida State University student in Tallahassee accidentally killed his girlfriend's twin sister with an AK-47 on campus.
Both tragedies loom over the legislation, but if history is a guide, that won't impede any of the bills. Almost every year, a gun rights measure passes Florida's Legislature.
Walt has visions of "raisins" -- little old people with permatans and wrinkles so deep that seeds are sprouting down there -- strolling along Worth Avenue sporting the latest in Gucci pearl-handled revolvers. In Miami Beach they'll have Uzis, of course. Better watch your mouth...and your back...in Florida, boychik.
Thanks to Agent 6 for sending this along.
See also: "Five reasons why gun control has been disarmed", by Sonia Verma, from the Globe and Mail.
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