Tag: #Lewiston

Vote Early, Vote Often… A Santa Cruz Story

It’s been five years since I escaped the People’s Republic of Kalifornistan, so imagine my joy at receiving yet another notice from the Santa Cruz County Elections Board to validate my address for my absentee ballot in the upcoming general elections. The notice had my residence address listed as my old Scotts Valley address, with the mailing address of my previous address in New Mexico. The new owners of the property were kind enough to forward it on to Maine for me. 

Now keep in mind, in the past five years, I moved to New Mexico, where I obtained a driver’s license, registered to vote and voted while I was there, then moved to Maine, where I obtained a driver’s license, registered to vote and voted since I’ve been here. According to this notice I received, either of these should have triggered them removing me from the voting rolls in California. But apparently not. 

An unscrupulous person might say, screw it… if they want to send me a ballot, I’ll vote there too. It wouldn’t be a vote they’ll like, but I could send it anyway. But that’s not only dishonest, but illegal. So, one more time, I returned the notice saying I was no longer at either address.

For a while I thought about sending back a notice saying I had died thinking that might give them the hint to clear me off their list, but then I really didn’t want to join the Democrat party. 

Not to be outdone, every year the City of Scotts Valley sends me a reminder that my business license has expired, and I need to renew it promptly to avoid a late renewal penalty. Being the persnickety person I am, I cancelled everything before I escaped the iron grip of Kalifornistan, but again, it doesn’t seem to have taken. Although at this point, I admit to getting a little nostalgic when I read these notices. It’s kind of like getting a Christmas card from an ex. You can appreciate the thought but really wish they’d stop.

Voting integrity is serious problem in this country, as witnessed by the last few general elections. The explosion of mail in ballots (thanks covid), lax to zero validation, purposely signing up unlawful residents or the dearly expired, and unaccountable counting has caused many, myself included, to lose faith in our electoral system. 

How can we consider ourselves a first world nation, a leader in technology, economics, trade, law, medical care, morality and living standards, but we can’t manage to accurately tally the votes for a general election on the same day as the election. Just about every other country on the plant can do it, from the biggest and most advanced countries down to the most rural, remote and destitute third world countries. 

You have to wonder, is it our highly advanced, saftest and securest voting systems ever that cause us to take days, weeks and months to count votes (but only in the battleground states) and can’t be fully audited or is it the people running them? 

While the left leaning of our nation pushes universal mail in voting, the same left leaning companies who support them demand in-person voting for things such as union organizing. Why? Because they don’t have faith the elections will be free from fraud otherwise. Go figure. 

Elections are arguably the biggest civic obligation we as United States citizens have, yet we have a dismal voting participation rate of 66% in the last elections – up from 59% in the previous general elections – placing us as 73rd out of 198 nations. 

As for the imaginary barriers to voting that discriminate against otherwise eligible voters, well, those just don’t exist. They make great campaign fodder and news stories, but they simply do not exist in real life. Anyone who wants it is fully capable of obtaining proper identification documents needed to legally cast a ballot anywhere in the country, but saying some can’t and will be disenfranchised is a great way to keep the voting rolls as open and malleable as possible. 

So, on Tuesday, November 5th, 2024, I encourage you to get out and vote early, but vote only once. 

Fun side note: I wanted to check the date for the general elections this year, so I typed “what date are the general elections in 2024” into a popular search engine. Along with a list or articles and the date, over on the right side of the results page was the picture and article on the candidacy for the current Vice President, and ONLY the current Vice President. Subtle…

Bob

#Oddstuffing, #Constitution, #BillOfRights, #SecondAmendment, #2A, #GunControlFails, #Lewiston, #NoNewGunLaws, #FactsMatter, #GunVote, #EditorOnHoliday, #medium, #mewe, #gab, #gettr, #truthsocial, #threads, #oddstuffing.com

Lost Rights (Maine Edition) 72 Hour Waiting Period Begins 

Useless gun control begins in Maine as the 72 hour waiting period to purchase a firearm goes into effect August 9th. This law is a knee jerk reaction by the gun control community who capitalized on the horrific tragedy in Lewiston. The legacy of those who lost their lives because of the absolute failure of the government agencies who swore to protect them and had all the legal means to do so is now a law which may itself cost more innocent lives. Well played Maine gun grabbers. 

A post purchase wait, a so-called ‘cooling off’ period, before taking delivery of a firearm is primarily designed as a suicide prevention measure, even though the waiting periods have never been proven to reduce suicide. Some studies have shown it ‘potentially’ reduces suicide by firearms, but none of the studies have ever looked at suicide as a whole. If denied the use of one means, a firearm, did the person simply commit suicide by another means, such as drugs, sharp objects, gravity from falling off a building or any of the myriad ways people have ended their own lives? The blanket claim of having a waiting period for firearm purchases prevent suicide is absolutely false, as is one of the left-wing sponsor’s statement of “It’s going to save lives”.

Advocates of this new gun control restriction admit that this particular bill has been around for years and was never able to get enough traction to be implemented. However, the tragic shooting in Lewiston allowed them to move it forward. While it would have done absolutely NOTHING to stop what happened, the gun control zealots were more than willing to celebrate the passage because of the outrage and sympathy the corpses of dead Mainers brought. 

This new law is an example of the sickening mantra of “Never let a good crisis go to waste”. 

Just as they have done in other previously free states, they needed to wait for a triggering event to get the gun control ball rolling. According to one sponsor, “There was a greater awareness of the prevalence of gun violence and a greater interest, perhaps, in addressing gun safety.”

Let’s not forget the legislative gamesmanship of the like rarely seen before in the State of Maine practiced to get this law passed. These included such tactics as having vulnerable Democrat members conveniently absent during key votes and an obscure “vote paring” scheme to create the illusion of opposition while passively allowing the measures to pass. The Governor herself allowed this bill to become law without her signature to create the optical illusion of not supporting gun control in a very pro Second Amendment state. 

The law summary: “This bill requires a 72-hour waiting period between an agreement for the purchase and sale of a firearm and the delivery of that firearm to the purchaser. Certain exemptions, such as the sale to a federally licensed firearm dealer or a law enforcement officer, are specified.”

The law is horribly written and leaves many questions unanswered. Up until just days before it went into effect, there was zero guidance from the State about how this law would be implemented or enforced. The little direction there is has come in the form of a three page unsigned, undated, FAQ style document titled “Advisory on 72 Hour Waiting Period” with the seals of the Maine Department of Public Safety and Maine Office of the Attorney General at the top. See the attached document below. 

What exactly constitutes an “agreement” is still open to interpretation, in other words an ideal law for discriminatory prosecutions. It could be a conversation, a phone call, a text or an actual exchange of money. The State will get to decide what is and isn’t an agreement on a case-by-case basis by making those they target prove they complied with the law, instead of the State proving they didn’t. 

The idea that a cooling off period increases public safety is a sick joke.  Suicide, while itself heartbreaking, is not so-called “gun violence”. A waiting period is however a hinderance to those who would need to purchase a firearm in an emergency for the protection of their lives or the lives of their family. While the new law gives exemptions for law enforcement, corrections and certain security officers, none is provided for victims or potential victims of violent acts. The State seems to feel they are better left unarmed and dependent on them for protection. 

While other gun controlled states around the country with much longer waiting periods, such as California’s 10-day and New Mexico’s recently enacted seven day waiting period might consider Maine’s 3-day wait a dream, all recognize this is only the start and now that Maine has allowed the first gun control laws to come in, the floodgates will open.

What will follow is more small incremental, but absolutely necessary “common sense” steps to close the loopholes written into this law and increase the illusion of public safety. Given the gaping holes built into this starter gun control law, we should expect bills for state and local licensing and inspections retailers/Federal Firearms Licensees (FFL’s) to be introduced in the next legislative session. 

Remember, gun control does absolutely nothing to increase public safety and the answer to fix that shortcoming is always to implement more gun control.

Lawsuits against the new law have been in the works by various Second Amendment supporting organizations since it was passed and will undoubtably be filed on or shortly after August 9th. Like similar efforts in other states, they will begin a long and expensive trip through the state and federal court systems. The gun control lobby and their paid contract legal resources will be doing everything in their power to draw this out until the makeup of the United States Supreme Court is changed and they are assured it will be adjudicated in their favor. 

I’ll say it again, fighting gun control laws after they are passed is a fool’s errand. It is long shot to even get the right appeal and we the citizens of the United States are not only funding the appeal but the defense of an unconstitutional law. In this game, only the lawyers win and we the people lose our rights. 

What does work? Electing representatives at the local, county, state and federal level who will NOT sell our constitutionally protected rights to the gun control zealots. EVERY seat on EVERY board matters. 

Bob

Advisory On Waiting Period Law.pdf

#Oddstuffing, #Constitution, #BillOfRights, #SecondAmendment, #2A, #GunControlFails, #Lewiston, #NoNewGunLaws, #FactsMatter, #GunVote, #EditorOnHoliday, #medium, #mewe, #gab, #gettr, #truthsocial, #oddstuffing.com

Government Failures = Lost Rights (Maine Edition)

Once again government failures have resulted in citizen’s lost rights. I am referring to recently enacted gun control laws in Maine. The federal, state and county agencies who had all the information AND the legal authority to take decisive action which could have prevented the horrific tragedy in Lewiston, all failed to do so. Now the citizens of the state will lose their rights as gleeful left wing gun control extremist legislators start Maine down the never ending path of useless gun control laws, because… Lewiston. 

Let’s go back to Maine before the horrific shootings in Lewiston on October 25th, 2023. Maine has always been ranked in the top three of the safest states in the country, usually residing at the #1 spot. Maine also ranks as one of the least gun controlled states in the country. This of course made Maine a target of the gun control groups. And just as they did with other previously ‘free’ states, they just needed to wait for a triggering event to get the gun control ball rolling following the sickening mantra of “Never let a good crisis go to waste”.

Low crime rates and low gun control is no coincidence. The gun control zealots will tell you this is in spite of the lack of gun control laws and point to their so-called “studies” showing how violent non-gun controlled states are. They bizarrely claim that while “Maine is also a permitless carry state, though it continues to have low gun violence relative to its firearm laws, likely in part because it is protected by the strong laws of other states in the region.”

In reality, the exact opposite is true. Fewer gun control laws allow the law-abiding citizens of the state to be responsible for their own safety and security. More gun control laws mean a constant spiral of more government failures, more violence, followed by more gun control. 

Remember, gun control does absolutely nothing to increase public safety and the answer to fix that shortcoming is always to implement more gun control.

The sad truth here is the number of federal, state and county agencies who had first-hand information about the danger the suspect posed in the months leading up to tragedy, yet failed to act on it, despite having full legal authority to do so. From the US Army/Army Reserve, the New York State Police to the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Department, who were all either witness to his violent behavior and stated intentions or received the information from witnesses. 

Despite the vehement denials by the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Department and the deputy involved saying they absolutely did not have legal authority to act, and simply did not want to make matters worse, the Independent Commission appointed by Maine’s Governor to investigate the incident made it clear they did in an interim report. Excerpts from that report include:*  

“The Commission unanimously concludes that the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office had more than sufficient information to begin the process of securing a Yellow Flag order against Robert Card Jr. on September 17th, 2023.”

“The Commission recognizes that, to take Mr. Card into protective custody, an officer would have had to make “face-to-face” contact with him. We also recognize that that process might not have been without difficulty and potential risk. Taking Mr. Card into protective custody, however, was warranted by the information known to Sgt. Skolfield as of September 17, 2023, and a plan to intervene and take Mr. Card into protective custody should have been undertaken.”

“As reported, the Yellow Flag process may sometimes be cumbersome. A review of other Yellow Flag orders in Maine, both before and after the October 25th shootings, demonstrates that the process can and has been successfully used. An officer needs to have knowledge of the process, use all the resources the officer has to gather the necessary information, and have the dedication and persistence to follow through with the investigation and the process.”

As I indicated above, gleeful left wing gun control extremist legislators in Maine were more than happy to capitalize on the deaths of innocent victims to pursue their agenda. MANY gun control bills were introduced, and legislative gamesmanship of the like rarely seen before in the State of Maine were practiced to move them forward. These included such tactics as having vulnerable Democrat members out for walks during key votes and an obscure “vote paring” scheme to create the illusion of opposition while passively allowing the measures to pass. 

In the end, a 72 hour waiting period was approved, as well as a mandating background checks for private advertised sales and “improvements” to the state’s Yellow Flag law. 

What impact will the new laws have? The 72 hour waiting period will result in significant lost business to the state’s hunting and sporting business (a major goal of the gun control lobby) and potentially the loss of the state’s largest firearms retailer who may move to New Hampshire (another major goal of the gun control lobby). With no exceptions for those who are seeking protection from abusers, victims of domestic violence will be left to fend for themselves.  

Changing the state’s Yellow Flag law by removing some of the due-process protections in favor of simplified actions for law enforcement has now turned the Yellow Flag law a dark shade of orange. While not a full-fledged red flag law with an expansive laundry list of people who can petition to remove your firearms and Second Amendment rights, the ‘streamlining’ allows law enforcement to take the action for them. As we’ve already seen around the country, streamlined simplicity leads to abuse. 

While other gun controlled states around the country with much longer waiting periods, such as California’s 10-day and New Mexico’s recently enacted seven day waiting period might consider Maine’s 3-day wait a dream, they all realize this is only the start and now that Maine has allowed the first gun control laws to come in, the floodgates will open. 

Maine’s new gun laws go into effect on August 8th, 2024.

By the way, if you’re wondering what the state’s law-abiding citizens response was to the tragedy in Lewiston, it was to purchase firearms and get training. People are understanding the government will never be able to protect them and they are responsible for their own and the protection of their families.


Yes, it does matter who you vote for. 

Bob

* Note: I normally do not include the names of the pathetic psychopaths who commit these horrific crimes, however I chose to quote the Independent Commission’s Interim Report directly. 

#Oddstuffing, #Constitution, #BillOfRights, #SecondAmendment, #2A, #GunControlFails, #Lewiston, #NoNewGunLaws, #FactsMatter, #GunVote, #medium, #mewe, #gab, #gettr, #truthsocial, #oddstuffing.com

Lewiston

Maine is often referred to as a one big, small town. It is also recognized as the safest state in the country. Yet we are still not immune from unspeakable acts of violence. Following the horrific events that unfolded last week in Lewiston, the people of Maine have many questions about what happened. As the ugly and uncomfortable facts slowly emerge, the Mainers want answers, not new useless, feelgood laws.  

The immediate reaction for most Mainers to the shooting and shelter in place warning while the manhunt continued was to be prepared. Those with firearms had them ready. Those without quickly sought them. Maine is a constitutional carry state, one of the contributing factors to our safest state in the nation rating. 

But this didn’t stop the gun control politicians, lobbyists, and ultra-left zealots from immediately stepping up to the cameras and announcing their traditional post-tragedy solution, the ONLY solution to the problem, MORE gun control. This began within HOURS of the shooting, while victims were still bleeding, fighting for their lives and the dead not even cold. The ONLY cause for this was declared to be so-called “assault weapons” and “large capacity” magazines. Although one local politician also stated this was a racist attack even though the shooter and all the victims were white. According to this politician, “The motive is he’s white”. 

Gun control politicians from the President and Vice President on down called for a ban on so-called “assault weapons” and “large capacity” magazines, an Australian-style mandatory “buy back” and door-to-door confiscations. 

While we wait for all the pieces to be put together, there are some disturbing things to contend with. 

Following threats to shoot up an Army Reserve base, the shooter, who clearly had mental health issues, was sent to a military hospital in New York for two-weeks of evaluation and treatment for schizophrenia and hearing voices. It is still unresolved if this would constitute an involuntary commitment, and thus render him prohibited to buy or possess firearms. Local law enforcement in Maine were made aware of his threats to commit mass murder and that he had guns by local colleagues and family members. Local law enforcement made ‘some’ attempts to contact him, but apparently did not follow through with it. Finger pointing about this incident has already begun. 

Maine has what is called a “yellow flag” law which allows police, and the police only, to petition a judge to force someone to temporarily give up their guns and blocks them from buying additional firearms if they are deemed to pose a threat to themselves or others. Unlike so-called “red flag” laws, Maine’s law requires a mental health evaluation before a judge decides to take away a person’s guns. In addition, Maine, like all 50 states and the federal government also have civil or involuntary commitment laws.  Yet despite the credible threats to the public, neither route was ever pursued. 

Then there is the question of the venues themselves. At least one of the two where the shootings occurred was posted as a “gun free” zone, and the second is believed to be also. 

Maine is a constitutional carry state where no government issued permit is required to carry a concealed firearm in public for self-defense. However, Maine law does allow establishments which sell alcohol to post their property as a gun free zone. Lewiston is also in the more left leaning area of the state, so the possibility of running into armed citizens is likely going to be less. 

It is well established that 98% of all mass shootings in the United States since 1950 have occurred in gun free zones. The reason is deadly simple. Shooters prefer places where nobody can shoot back at them so they can kill more people.

Keep in mind civilian owned firearms stop crime five times more frequently than to commit them. In just the last few years, armed civilians have stopped dozens of what otherwise would have been mass public shootings and dozens more active shooting attacks. 

Sadly, in response to this horrific tragedy, all three of Maine’s congressional members have crumbled, turned their backs on their oaths of office and prior pledges to defend the Second Amendment rights of the citizens of their state and the rest of the country. Each has now committed to passing more ineffective gun control laws. As always following the senseless loss of life, and without waiting to determine the facts of the case, they listened to the loudest voices in the room. Well, let’s just say the only voices they allowed in the room with them, the gun control lobbyists. 

Another federal or state “assault weapon” ban would produce the exact same results as the last federal “assault weapon” ban, and every state “assault weapon” ban in existence today. No measurable reduction in crime or homicides. What it would do is deprive the honest, law-abiding citizenry the ability to use the best suited and most effective tools to defend themselves and their families against criminals who for some odd reason choose to ignore gun control laws when they seek to rape, rob, assault, and kill. 

Banning firearms because of their cosmetic ‘features’ or so-called “large capacity” magazines is simply a bottomless legal trap to continue to add more and more firearms to it, such as all semi-automatics, pump actions, lever actions, “sniper (hunting) rifles”, etc. etc. until the people are effectively disarmed.

Remember, gun control does absolutely nothing to increase public safety and the answer to fix that shortcoming is always to implement more gun control.

Perhaps if our elected officials want to pass a new knee jerk reaction law, they can start by making one that says all the previously passed laws have to be used before new ones are considered. The government’s failure to use all the tools already at their disposal is NOT a valid reason to add more laws just to make depriving people of their rights easier. 

A recent quote from Dana Loesch sums it up nicely. “The rights of the innocent are not determined by the evil of criminals.”

Bob

#Oddstuffing, #Constitution, #BillOfRights, #SecondAmendment, #2A, #GunControlFails, #Lewiston, #NoNewGunLaws, #FactsMatter, #GunVote, #DanaLoesch, #medium, #mewe, #gab, #gettr, #truthsocial, #oddstuffing.com