Weer'd World

Here’s an amusing article from Jason “Baldr” Kilgore:

Russia hasn’t been behaving itself lately, what with annexing Crimea, building up troops on the eastern border with Ukraine, arming and aiding Ukrainian rebels, playing a role in the downing of Malaysian Flight M17, and, today, is even firing artillary into the Ukraine from inside the Russian border to help the rebellion. Putin is returning to the glory days of headlong Communist expansionism. As the most recent release of Time Magazine put it in their article “In Russia, Crime Without Punishment:”

… I feel that any thinking individual with a shred of love of democracy would approve of at least that much of a response. At this very moment, Russia is invading a sovereign, democratic nation in an act of unprovoked warfare. If we are lovers of democracy and patriotic to the needs of our country and our allies, wouldn’t it make sense to support the U.S. sanctions?

What are those sanctions from the U.S., exactly? From an article:

“The Obama administration last week announced a new round of sanctions against Russia that it says are intended to discourage Russia from continuing to support rebel groups in eastern Ukraine. Companies blacklisted by the U.S. include Russian banks, energy firms and eight weapons manufacturers — including Kalashnikov Concern, a maker of what is arguably the most popular weapon in the world, the AK-47.”

It makes sense, doesn’t it? If Russia wishes to act against our allies and our democratic ideals, we as a nation shouldn’t support Russia economically, and we should do what we can to stop them from arming rebels, including small arms like AK rifles.

Of course we can’t expect Jason to get the nuances of foreign policy. Indeed the Ukraine is our ally by the simple binary definition of the term, but so is Russia, as well as a bunch of other backwards and horrible states. I must quote this article first before moving on:

Baldr Odinson approaches the University of Oregon library dressed entirely in white-sweatshirt, sweatpants, and tennis shoes. A tiny red button on his chest contrasts the white ensemble. The button reads, “Stop Gun Violence.” When asked why he wears all white clothing, he proudly proclaims, “…white is the color of peace.”

OK so his creepy cult-attire is because he’s in favor of peace. Well we’re allies with Russia, does that mean we should declare war on them? Does economic sanctions mean we are no longer at peace with Russia?

So what does the supposedly “patriotic” gun crowd do — the same men who quote (selected) portions of the Constitution and (selectively) pore over the history of the Revolution and Founding Fathers? They whole-heartedly support sanctions against Russia and Russian gun companies, right? Right???

Wrong.

Their love of guns supersedes any actual patriotic feelings. Take, for instance, when the inventor of the AK-47, Mikhail Kalashnikov, died. Kalashnikov confessed that he felt “spiritual pain” for having invented the AK-47 — the gun that has killed untold millions of people, including Americans in every war and conflict we have fought since Korea, and ushered in with a rain of bullets every Communist, jihadist, and anti-American insurgency since. The AK-47 symbolizes everything that is the antithesis of American democracy. Did the pro-gun crowd cheer that this villain had died? No, they mourned instead.

Got that? Owning an AK is not UNPATRIOTIC! I’m not a fan of the AK-pattern. They’re fine guns, just not the gun for me. I do prefer American-Made guns for my personal needs, and for non-political reasons I really dig on MASSACHUSETTS guns made by Kahr and Smith and Wesson. I also love my Ruger LCR, but I also really like the FAL and the SCAR rifles made in Belgium (tho most FALs are made in other places, including Illinois), still I’m a collector of Soviet and Warsaw Pact guns. I have a deep hatred of the evils on Communism/Socialism, and the irony that the arms used to uphold these evil regimes have been sold off to capitalist nations for profit does not escape me.

Kinky Friedman was once asked why he smoked Cuban cigars despite the embargo on the communist nation. He responded:

[I] Don’t see it as supporting their economy, but as burning their crops.

Very tongue-in-cheek, but really there is something about a communist nation like Cuba or China being major capitalist superpowers while they force their citizens to live under the boot of communism.

He also uses this image:

Now first I must comment on the bizarre fact that all men are dressed like they’re going out duck hunting, and the fact that the AKs are all of different sizes likely due to artist laziness/ignorance.

Still as much of an evil Commie Mikhail Kalashnikov was, he was a brilliant weapons designer, and I think that does somewhat eclipse his other flaws. So yeah, I was too saddened to hear he had passed. What’s the big deal?

This, despite the fact that it isn’t uncommon for the AK-47 and other AK variants to be used in crimes here in America. At the Kid Shootings blog, for instance, you can find 15 examples where an AK-47 was used in a crime involving children, including their deaths, and those are by no means inclusive.

“isn’t uncommon”? What about the fact that rifles of ANY TYPE are a minority of murders? Hell even the references from his own blog don’t account for many killings, and a few were people using OTHER weapons, but had an AK back at home.

Fake concern! He’s intentionally inflating his number to push a political agenda.

So, flash forward to today. Despite the sanctions levied against Russia for their warlike and anti-democratic behavior, and despite the wicked history of the AK-47 on the battlefield as well as American streets, the gun is now selling out on American gun store shelves. And it’s not just AK-47s, but other Russian guns as well.

This isn’t going against the executive order, it’s buying guns already in the country! Jason of course doubles down:

And there you have it. It’s not about having a gun for home defense, and it’s not about hunting (assault rifles are a poor choice for either home defense or hunting, compared to other options). It’s about panic-buying an item that the gub’ment has told them not to buy. It’s the result of a deeply anti-authoritarian view, fostered in large part by the perpetuation of the false refrain that the government is going to take away everyone’s guns. And it’s about the very-male fascination by low-brows of making things go “boom” for “fun.” You’ve got to have the highest-quality gun for that, right?

Yeah, so-called “Assault weapons” are HORRIBLE for hunting. Yeah pull the other one. We certainly should take firearms advice from somebody who knows NOTHING about them, including misusing the term “Assault Rifle” for guns that are simply rifles.

Yeah, and AKs are fun, what’s wrong with that? Jason enjoys playing with swords for fun, even better the swords he prefers are Chinese designs. So can we say Mr. Peaceful is in favor of that horrible hole of oppression?

Of course not! It closes on hilarity:

Patriotism goes out the window when you have a need to fuel a gun fetish for “fun.” Panic buying doesn’t bring in new gun owners, generally, but merely appeals to those who are already amassing arsenals of these deadly weapons. These aren’t the run-of-the-mill gun owners who have one or two guns for home defense or hunting. These are the extremist, insurrectionist types, and we should all be fearful. Remember, too, that modern guns are made with high enough quality that they will likely outlive those who buy them. Where, then, will they wind up?

Mikhail Kalashnikov said on his deathbed, “My spiritual pain is unbearable” because of the gun he invented to “protect the Motherland.” I wonder if any of the gun nuts who are buying up Mikhail’s weapons will one day feel the same guilt for bringing such dangerous weapons into their homes and for betraying the needs of our country, just so they can feel part of some anti-government “fun” trend?

Yep, legal people following US laws are “insurrectionists”, and we should be hanging onto the words of an anti-American Communist for our patriotic barometer.

Thinking isn’t one of his strong points….

So I’ve found a TON of anti-gun images recently, I’ve been really busy to write a post about each and every one, so I decided to combine a bunch of them in one.

All of these images have the same thing in common. They are straw men. They are factually incorrect and intellectually dishonest, but through those underhanded means the antis can ATTEMPT to make an argument.

First up is a classic:

Yep, the old “The 2nd Amendment is only about muskets” lie. First up, while the Brown Bess Musket was the primary infantry gun for both the British Empire and the American Colonists, it wasn’t the ONLY gun in existence at the time. There were large-capacity military weapons at the time, and rapid-fire weapons as well. They didn’t work as well in battlefield conditions and weren’t as cheap as the old Bess, but it’s hard to imagine that NONE of the framers (especially people like Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson who were both world travelers, futurists, and technology g33ks) were aware of guns like this, nor that any of them thought that the old front-stuffers were the apex of technology for the end of time.

Of course the irony extends that people will post this cartoon on the INTERNET and fail to see the irony. The Bill of Rights is not some interesting time capsule that freezes our rights in the 18th Century. There is no anti-freedom outrage that police need a warrant to search your car or cellphone, tho the carriages in the 18th Century were pretty wide open, and phones, let alone SMART phones didn’t exist at all.

No they just hate guns, and if they can get rid of all the MODERN ones, that’s at least a START for them.

Now this:

Now at the surface I kinda get this one. The Open Carry movement has been handing us some interesting setbacks. It’s fairly easy to imagine that we may have created a monster of unintended consequences. Still the idea that Open Carry people are somehow violent menacing golems is just ridiculous. Of course the antis NEED for them to be violent and dangerous for their arguments to work, because in the end the downside of open carry activists is they makes some people FEEL uncomfortable. That sucks, but it makes me FEEL uncomfortable with all these anti-freedom activists claiming I’m some sort of murderer on the edge of sanity because I own guns.

That doesn’t give me warrant to strip them of THEIR rights….but they don’t agree with the converse of that.

Now the last few are all on the NRA and anybody reasonable’s position that the school “Gun Free Zone” policy doesn’t do much to PREVENT crimes, and I would say is ENCOURAGES it!

Yep, we WANT kids carrying AR-15s to school! That gets said all the time! This is just as big a strawman argument as you can make.

This one at least has a grain of truth in it. I mean hiring private security, or police officers to guard schools is EXPENSIVE! Even if you have a big school that gets a lot of tax dollars, it doesn’t make the situation more affordable than rural schools. They have more money, but they have more students and areas to guard.

So the solution has been two major ideas. #1. Volunteers, and #2 Allowing Teachers and staff to carry.

Now none of these proposals have been as simple as lifting the ban from the books and turning the school into EVERY OTHER PLACE IN THE COMMUNITY. I’d be all for that, given that there isn’t “blood in the streets” outside the school, and sadly school shooters behave themselves UNTIL they get to school.

Still even THAT rather liberal proposal doesn’t HAND guns to unwilling and untrained parties.

Reality is that people carrying on school grounds have been asked to take additional and extensive training in order to make sure they are safe. I’m willing to accept this, still now we’re DAMN far from the image in the cartoon.

So yeah, reality isn’t friendly to anti-gun people, and much like them cooking up bogus studies to suit their needs, they cook up a bogus reality so that banning guns isn’t the worst idea ever!

This is a good one:

First let’s see the video

Ok step one, look at that disclaimer at the front-and-center. Now look at the image. Billy Johnson works for the NRA but speaks for himself. Now we can reflect that NRA is not horribly offended by his statements, as he has not be fired from his position. Still this is the FURTHEST thing from “NRA Policy”.

Still I don’t see what the big deal is. We’re one of the most heavily armed countries in the world. Guns are out there. We also have a ton of roads and cars, so we teach kids how to safely cross the street. We teach kids about the dangers of illegal drugs. We teach kids the ins-and-outs of sex, and the dangers of it.

That last one can be oped out of in most schools, but there are some schools where the sex ed class is mandatory. I’m fine with that, sex can indeed be dangerous, emotionally, and physically. My parents taught me about sex long before the teachers were talking about it. It was a smart move, it meant THEY were teaching those lessons, and anything my teachers had to add were simply supplemental, and given that I had a good understanding of the issue, I could easily ask questions.

But for folks not as proactive as mine, sex is still out there, and the desires are still there. Ignoring them won’t make them go away, and very well might make them worse. The same goes for guns. Guns exist, and even if you don’t like guns or have them, they are out there. I fail to see how basic firearms safety can in any way be a DETRIMENT to people.

Hell that’s why I shot my first gun. I was 19, I didn’t understand or like guns, but to burn an afternoon and learn how to use guns seemed like a no-brainer.

Turned out to have changed my life, but it doesn’t have that effect on everybody.

Of course the real reason why anti-rights people (who constantly crow about “safety”) wouldn’t want something like this taught to age-appropriate children is it puts guns in a light that shows them as ANYTHING but bad.

They can’t have that. They can’t show how FUN it is to shoot guns. They can’t show people saving lives with guns. They can’t show history with guns. They can’t show family connection with guns.

They can only show them as horrible lumps of pure evil, because ONLY THEN do their ravings look sane.

Also check out Sean touching on the same subject.