Tag: 2ndAmendment

Who’s Going To Stop Them?

I don’t normally badmouth a community I am a proud member of, actively promote, advocate for, teach in and stand by with my very life and the lives of my family, but today I make an exception. To be fair, I’m not trashing the entire community, just 99 percent of it.

This past week it was announced Veto Gunmaggedon failed to get the required number of signatures to place any of the seven referendums on the 2018 ballot. Obviously, none made the 2017 ballot either. In order to make the ballots, each referendum would have had to obtain 365,000 validated signatures. The referendum with the most signatures got just 174,128 . Out of an estimated 12 million firearm owners in the State of California, that’s a bit over one percent. That is beyond pathetic.

Some warned against this effort saying it was too risky. Indeed it was risky, risky as hell. It was the Hail Mary of all Hail Mary passes, but it was also the only game in town and the right thing to do. Nobody else, not the NRA, CRPA, FPC or anyone else, had anything in the works that would have directly reversed these new anti-lawful firearm owner / pro-gun toting criminal laws. Yet, it still failed.

So why did this fail so miserably? It certainly was not due to the incredible efforts of a lot a dedicated, hard working men and women who gave their time, money and signatures to get this done. These folks, who it seems make up about one percent of California’s lawful firearm owners, are patriots who worked to salvage the rights of all legal firearm owners in the state. It failed because the other 99 percent either believe California’s increasingly oppressive gun control laws are going in the right direction OR, they just don’t give a damn.

While I strongly disagree with them, I understand some firearm owners are also gun control advocates just as the gun control elite are. They have their guns to protect themselves and believe keeping them out of the hands of other people will keep THEM safer. I can even understand the firearm owners who only have shotguns, revolvers or lever actions and think the black rifle crowd is just too dangerous. Nobody needs those military-style “assault weapons”. The laws don’t effect them and will keep THEM safer too. What I can not understand are those who just didn’t give a damn enough to be bothered with going out and signing these petitions.

Not only are these people wrong, they are sacrificing their own safety too. This effort was not about black rifles, standard capacity magazines or ammo background checks, it was about all firearms, all ammunition and the ability of all free men and women to own and use firearms for sport, hunting and to protect themselves & their families.

Here’s what the failure of these initiatives in California will do: The gun control elitists, including the Governor, State Legislature and Courts will all see that they have absolutely nothing to stop them in their quest to rid California of firearms in the hands of private citizens. Who’s going to stop them, the people? The ‘people’ just gave them a mandate to impose every draconian gun control measure they can dream up. And of course, local governments will need to get in on the action and impose their own even more restrictive local laws to show that they care MORE about “safety” than the State does. Who’s going to stop them, the people?

So for all the 99 percent of California firearm owners who don’t believe this will ever impact them, or were just too damn lazy to get off their asses and sign a few pieces of paper, know that at least 174,128 of us are going to be laughing our asses off when they come for YOUR guns and you scream for help. Nobody is going to help you because by then all of us will be laughing our asses off in prison. But hey, the good news is with California’s revolving door justice system, we’ll be out in time to see the trials for those who woke up too late for the party.

Will this be the last we hear from the valiant Veto Gunmageddon sponsors & volunteers? Absolutely not. A lot of lessons were learned from this experience and they have vowed to continue the fight. But with the lack of true support and backing of the state and national firearms groups, it’s anyone’s guess if future efforts will be able to break the apathy barrier in California. Meanwhile, all of this country’s worst gun control laws will begin going into effect on January 1st, 2017. And if you think this year’s legislative session was bad, 2018 is going to make it look like the good ol’ days.

So, I’ll leave you with a few questions: Do you really think it doesn’t matter who you vote for in November? Do you really think it won’t matter who picks the replacements for the next four or five Justices of the United States Supreme Court? Do you really think it doesn’t matter who runs for Governor or any of the State or Federal Representatives? Do you really think it doesn’t matter who runs for your local school board, water board, county board or city council?

Sadly, apathy in the firearm community is going to be the direct cause of everyone in California losing more of their Second Amendment rights and even worse, many innocent people losing their lives. It doesn’t have to be this way, but who’s going to stop them?

Bob

#oddstuffing, #Constitution, #2ndamendment, #vetogunmageddon, #voterapathy, #mewe, #oddstuffing.com

Gun Control vs. Suicide Prevention

The topic of suicide is always a dicey one between gun control and gun rights advocates. The gun control lobby point to the firearm and say the “gun” is the cause. Any mention of the topic by gun rights groups is labeled as being insensitive towards human life. As such, it tends to be the forbidden topic. I disagree. It’s time to grab hold of that highly charged third rail and do something about it.

The gun control lobby has forever included suicide numbers in their counts of “gun violence victims”. They’ve also infamously included mass shooting perpetrators who took their own life after killing others or were lawfully killed by law enforcement. Why wouldn’t they, it increases the numbers. However I don’t see an individual taking their own life and an act of violence towards another person – by any means – as being the same thing. One is done voluntarily to one’s self, the other is done involuntary to another.

First of course there is the argument that the easy availability of firearms in this country as why individuals kill themselves. One would think that the United States, with the highest percentage of firearms owners in the world, would have the highest suicide rate. In fact we are tied for 50th with Uruguay. Many of the countries with higher rates, such as Japan at 17th, highly restrict or outlaw civilian firearm ownership. Eliminating one mechanism, a firearm, is going to have no impact on the suicide rate. Other means will always be found.

Here’s my admittedly non-professional opinion. Suicide is a societal AND a mental health issue.

As a culture we too often look at life as being disposable. While suicide may not be accepted, it is tolerated, considered morally responsible or even honorable at times. Sadly, fighting this philosophy is the most difficult task we face.

There are many stimuli that can lead individuals down a path to take their own life. Depression, a primary cause from any number of sources, is generally treatable. However the way we view mental health and depression can be a roadblock in treatment and prevention. Just the shame of seeking help for a mental health “issue” can keep people from seeking the help they need. Just mentioning depression to a health care professional can initiate scrutiny from many levels and include heavy doses of medication and the potential to lose your job or rights and privileges that are a necessary part of our daily lives. By stigmatizing any form of assistance, we make the problem worse and lose lives we might otherwise be able to save.

As of 2014, nearly half of all suicides in the United States used firearms and about two thirds of firearm fatalities were suicide. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

This past week, September 5th – 8th was National Suicide Prevention Week. Together with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) announced a pilot program, involving community-based AFSP chapters in four states. This is the first time a national suicide organization has collaborated with firearm retailers, range owners and the firearm-owning community about suicide prevention. There are also other partnership programs in Washington, Vermont and other states bringing together mental health professionals and retailers to help identify those at risk and get them the help they need.

Will this effort eliminate all suicides? No, of course not. Not all suicides involve individuals purchasing firearms as a prelude to the act and in no way does removing one method eliminate all others. What it does do is get more training, more awareness and more resources available to those who may be able to intervene in their shops or elsewhere in the community.

One would think the gun control / gun elimination folks, who claim to be interested in saving lives, would have been all over National Suicide Prevention Week. Instead, they focus on one thing – more gun control. Eliminate the gun, eliminate the problem. They just want to remove the one item they don’t like and bury their head in the sand for every other means. Perhaps lives lost to other means are less important to them.

Eliminating firearms doesn’t remove the issue from our society or our minds. Instead we need to remove the stigma of mental health and change the way our society treats lives. All lives… yes, ALL lives matter.

Bob

#oddstuffing, #2ndAmendment, #suicidepreventionweek, #nssf, #afsp, #afsp.org, #alllivesmatter, #mewe, #oddstuffing.com

Why even bother to vote in California?

Does this sound like the little voice in your head? Your political views lean a little towards the right, you may be republican, libertarian, or just not quite as far left as others. You support constitutional rights and freedom. You’re looking at the upcoming elections and thinking; why even bother? It’s not like my one vote is going to matter in this far left, progressive-democrat stronghold. Truth be told, your vote does matter and in more ways than you think.

I agree this election season is a bit on the depressing side. Our presidential choices are not ideal. Should I vote third party? It’s an option, but for me I don’t see the leading third party candidates as strongly supporting the issues I’m the most concerned with. I’m also less comfortable with the third party candidate process. We’re just hearing about them now with a few months to go until the elections. Yea, I get that the media outlets don’t cover them as much, but it’s still not clear enough.

I look in my own county and I can’t find out who is running in opposition to the usual democratic candidates. My county’s GOP site doesn’t list any candidates for the state congressional districts and not even a mention of any of the various city councils, county boards, school boards – or any of the other elected seats in the county. Has nobody stepped up? Maybe this is our problem.

Even in some of the most conservative areas of the country, residents are waking up and finding laws have been passed which do not reflect the values of the community. Instead, externally dictated agendas are driven by extremist politicians who ran unopposed and have now cemented their power in local government. And we have nobody to blame but ourselves.

By not having solid candidates running for seats at every level, we’re ceding the decisions about rights and liberty to people who have no interest in protecting them. I get the fact that running for even a local political office is an expensive proposition. It takes a lot of time and a lot of money. Even at a local level, elections can turn into full scale pissing matches. The higher you go the more expensive it gets, the more time it consumes and the nastier it is. Let’s not forget, nobody likes to lose either. Going through an election and having your candidate lose can also be demoralizing to those who were energized during the campaign.

But guess what? The people WERE energized and they can be energized again. It may take a few elections to win the one or two seats, but they can be won. Left wing voters may always outnumber centrist or right leaning ones in this state, but it doesn’t mean we give up. If we want to have a voice in the decisions made in California, we need to have someone speaking for us.

Finally, and I believe most importantly, we must actually vote. As odd as it may sound, there are still a lot of folks out there who have not registered to vote. Registering to vote can be done online in just a couple of minutes. The link to do so in California is at the end of this post. The deadline to register for this year’s general election is October 24th.

Keep in mind your vote is more than just a choice between candidates and ballot questions; it’s a message to everyone else. With the news media covering the elections with up-to-the-minute tallies of every race in the nation, it’s easy to become compliant. Some will see their candidate or choice losing and not even bother going in. Others will see a clear victory ahead and decide it’s not worth the drive in to the polling station. Delicately put, that’s CRAP! Even a loss with a strong showing is going to demonstrate the support behind it and maybe, just maybe, be won the next time around.

Every seat at every level in every election is important. YOUR one single vote for the right choice is the way to protect the liberty, rights and values our nation was founded on. As important as it was to the patriots who created our country, it is as important today to preserve it going forward.

The elections are in 73 days.

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voter-registration

Bob

#oddstuffing, #vote, #gunvote, #elections2016, #2ndAmendment, #mewe, #oddstuffing.com

Veto Gunmageddon – Getting Your Rights Back

For those who are paying attention to California gun laws, it’s time to get your rights back.

A quick review: On July 1st, California’s Governor signed six draconian gun control laws, then quickly fled the country. After his return, he signed one more. ALL of these laws target law abiding firearm owners and their legally owned firearms. NONE target criminals or have anything to do with criminal behavior or making anyone except the criminals safer. The one bill presented to him that would have targeted criminal behavior, he vetoed. Welcome to Kalifornistan.

These news laws are:

  •  Expands the definition of “assault weapons” and ban their sale or transfer (AB-1135, SB-880)
  •  Requires an ID and background check to purchase ammunition (SB-1235)
  •  Keeps records of gun owner’s ammunition purchases (SB-1235)
  •  Requires a background check to loan a firearm to someone other than a close family member (AB-1511)
  •  Bans possession of ammunition magazines that accept more than 10 rounds. (SB-1446)
  •  Makes it a misdemeanor to knowingly make a false report that a firearm has been lost or stolen (AB-1695)
  •  Requires a serial number on all firearms (AB-857)

Enter Carlsbad CA businessman Barry Bahrami and Veto Gunmageddon. Bahrami started Veto Gunmageddon to bring back the firearms rights to the law-abiding citizens of California. Seven referendums were created, one for each oppressive new law.

This is a referendum process and will be an up or down vote for the gun control measures signed this year. Each of these referendums needs 365,880 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. If the signatures are received by August 29, 2016, the referendums will be placed on the November 8, 2016 general election ballot. If the signatures are received by September 29, 2016, the referendums will qualify for the November 2018 general election.

A couple of facts about Veto Gunmageddon: This is a 100% volunteer run program. Unlike other state sponsored ballot measures where pay-for-signature staff is used, volunteers are coordinating and distributing all the materials and collecting all of the signatures. Donations are being accepted to help cover the cost to print and distribute the materials. Firearms retailers, ranges, sporting goods stores, restaurants, private businesses of all types and sizes around the state are lending their time and space to collect signatures. This is the epitome of a grassroots effort in action.

Right now this is our best opportunity to get our constitutional rights restored. The California legislature used every backdoor, underhanded, unethical, immoral and yes, very likely illegal tactic they could to cram these misguided measures through the Democratic controlled legislature. Dissenting voices were not allowed and complaints about the lack of transparency and improper legislative procedure fell on deaf justice ears. This is our chance to let our voices be heard.

I know many of the estimated eight to 12 million firearms owners in California are leaning towards or registered Democrats. The good news about these referendums is you can vote to keep your rights without having to give up your party unity.

Can the Veto Gunmageddon initiatives qualify for this year’s election? I sure hope so. This year’s general election is going to set the foundation for the preservation or destruction of individual rights for generations to come. It would be a shame to waste the chance to tap into a potential record setting voter turnout.

Can Veto Gunmageddon win? I wish I knew. As with any issue thrown out to the voters, November 8th could be a huge victory or crushing defeat. All I know is we MUST try. We MUST fight to restore our rights before we have no rights to fight with or fight for.

I urge each and every one of you to go to the Veto Gunmageddon website at www.vetogunmageddon.org, locate a petition site and sign all seven BEFORE August 29th. If you have the time and ability to do it, please consider hosting the petitions or volunteering your time to help gather signatures, or donating to the cause.

You MUST be a registered voter to sign as well as help collect signatures. If you are not registered to vote in California yet, you can register to vote online at: http://registertovote.ca.gov

Bob

#oddstuffing, #2ndamendment, #gunvote, #gunvoteca, #vetogunmageddon, #mewe, #oddstuffing.com

21st Century Policing

Preface: Last week I (foolishly) accepted a challenge to write a 250 word essay on what the most important part of 21st Century Policing is and why. The incentive for this is two essay authors will be invited to have lunch with Santa Cruz County Sheriff Hart at the Shadowbrook Restaurant.

This is the verbose, Odd Stuffing version. A much slimmer, 248-word extract was submitted by this morning’s 8 am deadline.

The link to the Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing is at the bottom of the page.

—–

The title implies a couple of things, the adoption of high tech tools and techniques and a new way of policing. Integrating the latest & greatest technology is essential, however I reject the premise that there is a need to once again reinvent policing. The key to effective law enforcement is the community. It always has been and always will.

Police have come a long way from the original officers walking a beat. Talking to people on the street and in their shops was normal. Information was shared, issues averted and crimes solved. Growth and progress made communities larger and more difficult to effectively patrol. Automobiles gave us greater mobility and the ability to cover distance quickly, but separated the officer on the beat from the community. With it, the simple task of building one-on-one relationships with the community was gone.

With the loss of casual contact, the most common interaction with officers is through some kind of enforcement action. Getting out into the public, on the public’s terms instead of at department-sponsored events, allows communication on a more personal level. Only by stepping out of the primary enforcement role and into that of being a member of the community, can that one-on-one trust be established.

Law enforcement agencies should be a reflection of the communities they serve, each one a little unique as its constituents. At the core is the officers themselves. Many agencies prefer to hire younger, less experienced recruits so they can be molded into the proper culture. While this approach helps with a consistent mindset, it ignores the true diversity of knowledge and experience within the community. With limited non-law enforcement life experience, it may also promote an ‘us vs. them’ mindset. Agencies themselves can reinforce this by promoting policies, practices and perks that separate the officers from the communities and only serve to drive a wedge further between them.

The role of officers has also become more complex over the years. Officers are now expected to play the role of social worker, mental health, drug and marriage councilor, medic, educator, facilitator, consultant, guardian and warrior – all potentially within a single shift. The publics mandate for multidisciplined officers demands a far higher level of commitment to officer training and agency support than ever before.

The final report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing outlines six pillars for a modern, model law enforcement agency. These topic areas are: Building Trust and Legitimacy, Policy and Oversight, Technology & Social Media, Community Policing & Crime Reduction, Training & Education and Officer Wellness & Safety.

While a great piece of reference material with the full weight of the President of the United States behind it, it didn’t see any breakthrough ideas in it. The concepts of trust, transparency, technology, community policing, training, and so on have been around for a long time. The two main issues for agencies wanting to implement any of these recommendations are time and money.

Law enforcement is expensive and can range anywhere from 10 to 50% of a community’s budget. Every department is challenged by maintaining their current level of service with less funding, even as the community demands more services from them. Core functions such as patrol/enforcement and investigations are forever short staffed. Pulling personnel for other activities, even vital community relationship programs, which will have a positive impact on crime prevention, can have a ripple effect through the agency. Shifts and functions need to be covered with less people or left open. Grants can provide short-term program relief but not long-term operational support. Short of tax increases for larger budgets, the priority will always be for core enforcement functions.

This leaves agencies with difficult choices to make. To make gains in one area usually means cutting another. However, there is another possibility. When the walls between the agency and communities come down, additional options for cooperation and collaboration with the public and private enterprise emerge. Untapped resources for solving the community’s problems are available, when the agency is part of the community again.

Bob

#oddstuffing, #21centurypolicing, #whatsoldisnewagain, #bluelivesmatter, #mewe, #oddstuffing.com

http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/taskforce_finalreport.pdf

Criminology 101 – California Style

 

Understanding crime and criminals is the basic element in being able to promote public safety. But I’m going to say there’s an even more basic step that needs to be mastered, understanding who the criminal is.

Witness the State of California and the latest legislative session in Sacramento, California as evidence. Under the pretense of pubic safety, the administration passed sweeping, draconian gun control legislation against whom? Law-abiding citizens. The ONE firearm related bill that made it to the Governor’s desk that would have actually targeted criminals, the people who break the laws, was vetoed.

But then, California has a history of coddling its criminals at the expense of the law-abiding citizenry. The adverse effects of Proposition 47, which reclassified many crimes as misdemeanors, put more criminals back on the streets and increased the crime rate in every city and town in the state, is well documented. Nationwide we’re told it’s now discriminatory to call people criminals or convicts. The new politically correct term for them is “justice involved individuals”. Why hold people responsible for their own illegal actions when it’s possible to blame the law-abiding for discriminating against them.

Keep in mind the anti-gun zealots have bought into the theory of “everyone is a law abiding citizen, until they’re not”. Since the law-abiding own deadly weapons of war, death and destruction, it’s only a matter of time before each of them will go off on a killing spree of their own. Since we don’t have a Minority Report inspired PreCrime Department to arrest people before they commit their crimes, it’s far more efficient to just to go after all gun owners. Everyone should lose his or her rights because someday, somewhere, someone is going to break the law – maybe, or maybe not.

The problem with this logic is that everyone is being punished for something they did not and never will do. The vast, Vast, VAST majority of legal firearm owners will never commit a crime, to say nothing of committing a crime with their firearms. Add to this the estimated one to two million lawful defensive uses of firearms – outnumbering felonious uses by 30 to 80 to one, by law-abiding citizens in the United States each year. According to the gun banners, these incidents never occur and the Good Guy With A Gun is merely a piece of gun lobby fiction. To this I reply: Read the news for yourself.

To make the public “safe”, our politicians are pointing to law-abiding citizens and lawfully owned firearms and saying: This is the problem; this is why you can’t feel safe in your home, your office or on the street. Your friend, your neighbor, your store clerk, your doctor, your bus driver, your lawyer, your programmer and your family – the people who bought their firearms lawfully, own them lawfully and use them lawfully – these are the people to blame. So our politicians make laws that turn these otherwise law-abiding people into criminals and take away their firearms. Then and only then will you be safe.

Of course, banning firearms is only going to remove the firearms from the people who legally own them. The criminals, the ones who illegally own them, are not going to line up to drop off their newly banned guns, the guns they already are banned from owning in the first place.

It’s time for California to wake up and smell some reality. Instead of coming up with laws that target the law-abiding, target the people who are committing the crimes. If you commit a crime, you should be punished. Yes, it really is that simple.

Instead we coddle our “justice involved individuals”, we reduce and eliminate penalties for committing crimes and we tell the rest of the nation that we shouldn’t hold people who commit crimes responsible for their own actions, now or any time in the future. In a nation where there are no consequences for breaking the law, who is going to bother to follow it?

How exactly is this promoting public safety?

Bob

#oddstuffing, #2ndAmendment, #gunvote, #californiacriminology101, #mewe, #oddstuffing.com

Mirror Mirror

A comment on one of my posts stated that if we could point to one study that backs up our claim that people would be safer armed, he would never say a public word about guns again. This got me thinking about what research is out there. Yes, there are studies showing owning and carrying firearms do make individuals and communities safer. There are also studies showing owning and carrying firearms makes you less safe. So, how can it be both?

Research studies are very similar to expert testimony in court proceedings. Two highly educated and credentialed “experts” examine the very same piece of evidence and come to completely opposite conclusions. The only difference is one is being paid by the prosecution and the other by the defense. Since both sides cannot be correct, the jury must make up their mind on the arbitrary points surrounding the “experts” like personality, appearance and presentation as a measure of credibility as well as their own preconceived notions about the facts.

Somewhere along the line, scholarly research also turned into a paid for results enterprise. It may have been around the last time we believed a network news reporter was unbiased. Sadly there are no more Uncle Walter’s out there.

Governments, private companies and causes all commission their own research. In a perfect world, the researchers are unbiased professionals who take great care to ensure their results are impartial and have sound, verifiable results. Instead, what we usually see are results that are so highly skewed they can’t stand the light of day to say nothing of peer review. Yet, they are held up as ironclad, scientific proof of whatever points someone was trying to make.

Research results that go against a position are quickly attacked to minimize it. The methodology is said to be faulty, the data incomplete and the researchers biased. Anything and everything is done to discredit any study that doesn’t point to someone’s preconceived notion.

For the most part, no research is going to change your mind if you already have an opinion on the topic. It’s either going to confirm what you believe or conflict with it. “Research” is put out to try to influence the unconvinced, the people who’s opinion can be swayed by the all powerful myth of a scientific study.

Every so often you hear about a commissioned study pointing to results opposite of what they were supposed to find. Does this change the minds of the people who paid for this study? Hell no! They simply bury it and commission another one to come up with the ‘right’ results.

If you wonder why the Second Amendment community opposes radically anti-gun administrations in the White House and California funding “gun violence research”, this is why. Let’s just save the time and taxpayer money and publish the results first – guns are evil and their gun control plans are the only way to stop all violence. Just the results they are paying for – even if they do defy logic.

Of course this does not mean all research is biased garbage. True professionals do exist and their work is commendable. What I’m saying is that it is exceedingly difficult these days to sort out the paid for, pseudo-science opinion pieces from the real deal.

So my response to anyone looking for studies backing up my claims is this: Do a little research of your own. We all have access to news and information around the state, country and world at our fingertips. Look at the ‘studies’ from both sides of the argument. Look at the raw data from law enforcement at the local through the national level. Look at news yourself and don’t be lulled into thinking that just because one news outlet reports something it is fact. Be forewarned, the results may surprise you.

Or, you can simply start off your hypothesis with the phrase: Mirror Mirror on the wall….

Bob

#oddstuffing, #2ndAmendment, #2A, #guncontrol, #mirrormirror, #mewe, #oddstuffing.com

Executive Orders & Voter Apathy

Executive orders, the cure all solution when there is no mandate from the people, legislative body or even logic. Most commonly referenced as actions by the President of the United States, executive orders are not dribbling down to the State level.

Following the Governor of Oregon into the realm of non-mandated and abusive anti-gun regulations is this week’s Massachusetts Attorney General’s reinterpretation of the state’s “assault weapons” laws. She felt the sale of “copycat” rifles, semi-automatic rifles that strictly complied with the law, violated the spirit of the state’s 1998 “assault weapon” ban. Massachusetts’ newly defined test is if a firearm’s operating system is essentially the same as that of a banned weapon, or if the gun has components that are interchangeable with those of a banned weapon, it’s a “copy” or “duplicate,” and it is therefore illegal.

The Attorney General’s decision certainly isn’t backed up by facts from her own state, which shows only a tiny fraction of deaths from any kind of rifles in the past seven years. In reality it’s just about banning more legally owned firearms.

When the anti-gun elite started going after the so-called “weapons of war”, they focused on the features claiming they made the firearms “more lethal”. Cosmetic qualities like pistol grips, adjustable stocks, barrel shrouds and flash suppressors, all of which have nothing to do with making a firearm more or less treacherous. When the firearms industry responded by producing firearms without these “evil features”, the anti-gun crowd had to adjust. In Massachusetts’s case, it’s now the mechanical features that operate the firearms that are considered “more lethal”.

Of course this will never end. One of the bills that did not pass this year’s California legislature was to reclassify all semi-automatic, magazine fed firearms as “assault weapons”. Most certainly it and others like it around the country will return next year as the next incremental step in disarming the population.

So where does voter apathy play into this? Sadly, it’s very simple. Since the firearm community is so badly fractured, there is little chance of any of these abusive decisions being reversed. Non-black rifle owners don’t see a threat to their firearms so they haven’t fully engaged. Many who just own deer hunting rifles or duck hunting shotguns are sitting on the sidelines. The same holds true for cowboy action shooters, curio & relic collectors and muzzleloaders. But the truth is, the threat to all of us is real. The political references to Australian-style confiscations, which targeted semi-automatic as well as pump rifles, shotguns and of course handguns, is preview of what is to come for the United States.

There’s one more element of these anti-gun laws and orders to consider. As select anti-gun states around the country are coming up with new and unusual ways of stripping firearms away from law-abiding citizens, other states are strengthening their Second Amendment protections. As laws are challenged around the country and conflicts arise in the judicial Circuits, the inevitable appeals will reach the United States Supreme Court. With the passing of Constitutional Jurist Antonin Scalia, the best any appeal can currently hope for is a four-to-four tie, upholding the lower court ruling brought before it. With the audacity and blatant rights infringements being offered up around the country, you can be sure they are betting on a split court and an anti-Second Amendment majority coming in January 2017.

We also have to consider that the nature of the Court’s rulings can be so limiting in scope as to be little help for the masses. Think of it as betting on which one of the two pigeons sitting on the branch above your freshly washed car is going to poop first. Just because you win doesn’t mean you don’t get crapped on.

All of this brings us to one critical reality for firearms owners. We need to come together right here and right now. We can no longer afford to stay within our circle of like-minded friends and resist only when it impacts us personally. We need to fight each of these infringements on our rights as if the law had our name and our personally owned firearms written at the top of it. We need to fight every law, every ordinance and every executive order like it is our last chance because one day soon, it will be.

Bob

#oddstuffing, #2ndAmendment, #2A, #executiveorders, #gunvote

Baton Rouge Prayers / California’s Powdered Wig Governor

A note before this weeks post:

Once again there has been a cold-blooded, hate fueled attack resulting in the deaths of three law enforcement officers, with three more injured, one barely clinging to life as I write. Elsewhere in this country, other officers have been shot and assaulted in the past 24 hours. While we wait for the details to come out, I ask you please take a moment to keep these offices and their families in your thoughts and prayers.

I also say to not let the coward thugs; punk criminals; terrorist wannabes and idiots of the world dictate our lives to us. If anyone is going to live in fear, it should be them. It IS time for a change.

Bob

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California’s Powdered Wig Governor

Unless you were living under a rock over the 4th of July weekend, you heard California’s Governor signed a series of draconian gun control bills into law, then ran off to holiday in Europe. How positively colonial of him.

Less than 24 hours from when the bills were sent to him by the State legislature, the Governor signed six of them into law. Apparently he needed no further reflection, analysis or input on whether or not to strip the Second Amendment rights from the law-abiding firearm owners of his state. It’s almost as if they were predestined to be law and his signature was merely a formality.

The timing couldn’t be more of a slap in the face to citizens of our state and nation. Just days before Independence Day; the day thirteen former British colonies declared their independence from their oppressive British rulers. To top it off, California’s Governor then quickly scuttled off to Europe for a two-week vacation before the ink was even dry on these new authoritarian laws. His British Colonial Governor predecessors would have been proud and even a bit jealous. California’s Governor didn’t have to endure a slow sailing ship across the Atlantic to escape criticism from the commoners; he simply hopped on the private jet of a rich friend.

As is the norm for California’s government, all of the laws were in the name of “public safety” yet not a single one targeted criminals. Each and every one signed by the Governor targets law abiding firearms owners in the state.

So, what happens now?

Some are petitioning for a recall of the Governor along with calls for non-compliance and non-registration, plans to store firearms out of state with family and friends as well as plans to purchase of pallets of ammunition. Several manufacturers have already come up with new workarounds to the bullet button ban and even more hardware to eliminate “evil features”.

While all of these responses are laudable, there are some problems with them. The chances of successfully recalling the current Governor over this issue alone are exceedingly remote. Non-compliance may not be an option for some, as their professional licenses would be put in jeopardy if discovered. Taking firearms out of state does protect your ability to sell or hand down firearms to your descendants, but only if they move out of California. It also serves the State’s purpose of removing the “evil” firearm from its borders. Buying ammunition in bulk now to avoid the new in State-only purchase and background check system is a stopgap measure at best. How much ammo would you need to buy now to last the rest of your life? And finally, while I applaud the industry for coming up with the next great bullet button workarounds, these too are just temporary measures. Keep in mind one of the bills that did not pass this year would have made ALL magazine fed centerfire rifles a California “Assault Weapon”. Just as they successfully targeted bullet button firearms this year, you can be sure it will be proposed again and again and again until it does pass.

It’s important to remember the long-term goal of the anti-gun movement in California; the complete elimination of private firearm ownership. Each one of these laws moves them closer to that goal. Each firearm registered to become extinct with the current generation of owners and each firearm moved out of state gets them closer to that goal. Each firearm owner who gives up and moves out of the state removes another voice and another vote from California, gets them closer to that goal.

What needs to happen? California needs to stop blaming crime on the law abiding. California needs to stop blaming inanimate objects or irrelevant cosmetic features for the actions of criminals. California needs to punish those who commit crimes instead of those who have done everything by the book all their lives. What California needs is to take back our state in the name of sanity.

So while our Governor is in Europe being fitted for his new powdered wig to go along with his British Colonial way of thinking, it’s time for the citizens of California to start standing up to the government that no longer represents them. It’s time for real leaders who believe in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the ideals this nation was founded on to step forward. And right now may just be our last opportunity.

Bob

#oddstuffing, #2ndAmendment, #kalifornistan #gunvote, #gunrights, #prayforleos

Terror vs. No Fear

Terrorist attacks in America. In all likelihood, there will be more just as there always have been. How we respond to this is what makes the difference.

There is no one single accepted definition of terrorism, however the commonalities include the use of violence, in a surprise attack, to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature. The perpetrators count on soft targets, catching victims unaware, unprotected and unprepared. The shock, the horror, the extreme violence causes us to be in fear for our safety – the very intent of the terrorist act.

While the terrorist commits the act, the instilling of the fear in the population is the part we bring to the table ourselves. After any attack, the broadcast media follows the “if it bleeds it leads” programming plan and covers the gore from every possible angle. Social media spreads uninformed opinions around the world like wildfire. With all of this it’s very easy to be overwhelmed with the violence and be overcome with fear.

So why don’t we approach this in a different manner?

For comparison, every time there is an earthquake around the world those of us in California take it as a warning and an opportunity to better prepare. We check our bug-out bag, our bug-in supplies and our emergency plans. It’s almost second nature. An earthquake somewhere else gives us a chance to make sure we are prepared. Think of a terrorist attack no differently and use this opportunity to learn and to prepare.

Post-attack we will do what needs to be done. We will care for those who are injured. We will mourn those who did not survive. We will seek justice for those who were responsible. But we must, and I mean MUST learn and prepare. Please note the “we” I am referring to is not the government, military or law enforcement, although they too must learn as well. I’m referring to ALL of us – the people who are actually in harms way, the ones who are the targets.

What did you think about after the attacks in Orlando or San Bernardino? You probably asked yourself – what would I have done if I was in that club or office building? If you did, that’s actually a good thing. It may sound morbid to try to learn from the death of innocent people, but ignoring it isn’t going to help keep you alive. You need to be prepared. Being prepared means having the tools and knowledge on what to do.

If you’re counting on someone else to protect you while you’re out in public, you are wrong. First responders are going to get there after the worst has already occurred. If you’re at a restaurant, theater, store or just walking down the street, you need to know how to take care of yourself. How are you going to respond to an active shooter? Do you have the means to fight or escape? Do you know how to take care of yourself if you are injured?

If you haven’t had training in self-defense, now is the time. If you haven’t had training in first-aid, now is the time. If you haven’t included training in situational awareness and not becoming a victim that you can use in your every day life, now is the time.

Remember, YOU and ONLY YOU are responsible for ensuring the safety of you and your family. When something happens, YOU will be the one to take care of EVERYTHING until help arrives.

Let me add one more component to this. What if while you were getting the knowledge and tools to prevent or stop attacks and deal with the aftermath of the attacks that do occur, others were doing the same? What if you were in a restaurant, theater or store with others who were able and willing to defend themselves?

Maybe it’s time the terrorists feared us.

Bob

#oddstuffing, #2ndamendment, #training, #nofear