How John Lott Got His Start Too!

Lee Dorin is an economist. He has a lot of libertarian tendencies, but isn’t really a gun guy.

Still as an economist, it means he has an above average tolerance for numerical data and number crunching. You can quickly see what happens when he makes a rebuttal to an anti-gun video by Cenk Uygur. (BTW interesting that a Turkish Immigrant would be anti-gun, given that his people orchestrated the Armenian Genocide)

Its a shame that Lee didn’t directly address the fallacy of the metric of “Gun Death”.

Oh well, a pretty brutal frisking, even when he spots Cenk both “Gun Death” and the whole “Good Faith” bit.

Still, those of you who know his story, pro-gun activist Dr. John Lott was originally an anti-gun guy, until he did some research on guns and public safety…this research was the lead-up to his book More Guns Less Crime, I hope that Lee keeps exploring this issue because we need him as much as we need Lott!

Posted in Guns, Safety, Self Defense | 2 Comments

WE NEED TO PUSH HARDER AGAINST “GUN DEATH”!

Sean links this video:

Look at the bullshit use of the metric of “Gun Death” and the smug superiority of those Aussies! Yeah, their “Gun Death” went down…but their violent crime WENT UP!

WE NEED TO BEAT ON THIS DRUM PEOPLE! The folks in the video are calling Australia’s gun control movement a “Huge Success” because their “Gun Death” went down WHILE MORE PEOPLE WHERE HURT, MAIMED, AND MURDERED! THIS IS NOT A VICTORY!!! THIS IS NOT PUBLIC SAFETY! Yet here in America more people are carrying, more people are buying guns, the most popular gun is the AR-15 pattern rifle and our murder and violent crime rate HAS BEEN DROPPING!!!

But hey, we have more GUN DEATH! So we should be ashamed of ourselves!

Seriously, we need to shake the trees on this bullshit metric! People are NOT talking about the Connecticut tragedy because children were SHOT, we’re talking about it because CHILDREN were MURDERED! And while they again double-down on the smugness about the stabbing in China on the same day. Indeed those kids will live, and I’m glad for that…but they ignore the same stories where people died in China, the Philippines, and Japan. I’m sure there are countless more, but those are just the few I can remember off the top of my head.

We cannot keep accepting this junk-term from people. WE CANNOT! America does have a fairly high “Gun Death” rate compared to many countries because we have GUNS. This doesn’t mean we are more dangerous than other countries, just because you’re more likely to be stabbed or beaten to death there. Hell we have more fatal vehicle accidents because we have more CARS, doesn’t mean we’re more dangerous than countries where automobile ownership is much lower.

Seriously, we need to get AGGRESSIVE on this, I’ve compiled the “Gun Death?” Files for just this reason. People are talking about gun control right now because this bogus stat-cooking is being used to make America look more dangerous than places that have less guns AND MORE CRIME!

People don’t care about “Gun Death”, they care about their safety, and the safety of their loved ones. This is the fundamental truth. Every time you hear somebody say “Gun Death” or cite “Gun Death” in statistic we need to POUNCE on that.

We should not be giving sanctuary to such horrible dishonesty!

Will you help me?

Posted in Gun Death?, Guns, Politics, Safety, Self Defense | 6 Comments

“Common Sense”

The Joan Peterson Kind:

They lie, and they wring their hands. Penn speaks the truth and injects reality, and they look SHOCKED!

These people are so up in the ivory tower, they think they know everything about reality they’ve never seen?

h/t Sean

Posted in Freedom, Guns, Politics, Safety, Self Defense | 9 Comments

Common Sense

The real kind!

Bet this makes the antis spitting mad!

h/t McThag

Posted in Cars, Freedom, Guns, Safety, Self Defense | 1 Comment

“We Aren’t Comming For Your Guns”

Found this article…from who else, Joan Peterson, who links it on her twitter feed!

A conservative case for an assault weapons ban

I lamented the expiration of the federal assault weapons ban in 2004, which prohibited the manufacture and importation of certain particularly deadly guns, as well as magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

The ban wasn’t all that stringent — if you already owned a banned gun or high-capacity magazine you could keep it, and you could sell it to someone else — but at least it was something….I am not a social scientist, and I know that very smart ones are divided on what to do about gun violence. But reasonable, good-faith debates have boundaries, and in the debate about guns, a high-capacity magazine has always seemed to me beyond them….I get it. Someone bent on mass murder who has only a 10-round magazine or revolvers at his disposal probably is not going to abandon his plan and instead try to talk his problems out. But we might be able to take the “mass” out of “mass shooting,” or at least make the perpetrator’s job a bit harder.

To guarantee that there would never be another Tucson or Sandy Hook, we would probably have to make it a capital offense to so much as look at a gun. And that would create serious 2nd Amendment, 8th Amendment and logistical problems.

So what’s the alternative? Bring back the assault weapons ban, and bring it back with some teeth this time. Ban the manufacture, importation, sale, transfer and possession of both assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Don’t let people who already have them keep them. Don’t let ones that have already been manufactured stay on the market. I don’t care whether it’s called gun control or a gun ban. I’m for it.

I say all of this as a gun owner. I say it as a conservative who was appointed to the federal bench by a Republican president. I say it as someone who prefers Fox News to MSNBC, and National Review Online to the Daily Kos. I say it as someone who thinks the Supreme Court got it right in District of Columbia vs. Heller, when it held that the 2nd Amendment gives us the right to possess guns for self-defense. (That’s why I have mine.) I say it as someone who, generally speaking, is not a big fan of the regulatory state.

There you have it. “I’m a judge, so respect my authority! We don’t need a debate! Just round up all those guns!”

Of course Joan loves this…you see she isn’t out to take our guns away either! Except when she is.

This is why nothing will come from this. Its obvious that the President doesn’t care a wit. He let his lackluster toady “take charge”! And mostly he’s talking about the “Fiscal Cliff”, so chatter about gun bans is EXACTLY what he wants as cover for his incompetence as a leader.

Also another thing to think about. Since the majority of people in America own guns, and the vast majority of them own at least one item this jackboot is thinking about confiscating, we have a good situation for a civil war here.

If gun owners fight back against door-to-door confiscation, who will actually fight for the other side? Police? Military? ATF? These are all American gun owners too, are they going to happily turn in their personal gear, then pick up the same government issued gear to go attack lawful citizens who simply want to hold onto their property?

Posted in Freedom, Guns, Politics, Safety, Self Defense | 9 Comments

Video Games and “Assault Weapons”

It seems that many of the people talking about gun control are also getting into violent video games, and movies.

Honestly when some D-bag starts prattling about “Assault Weapons”, or other gun-bans, bring up the video game thing.

Video games in America are one of the biggest cash cows. A best-selling video game makes more than a blockbuster movie, and video games do it at a fraction of the budget. Also compare this with images like this. Not everybody plays violent video games, and not everybody owns a centerfire semi-auto rifle and/or a gun with a big magazine….but statistically those numbers are within the margin of error for “Everybody”.

If violent video games, or movies, of D&D, or self-loading rifles, or magazines that held more than 5/10/15/20, were such a problem, I wouldn’t be typing this, nor would you be reading it, because we’d be bunkered down fearing for our lives, or watching the last of our blood pool on the floor.

Correlation does not mean causation, but we DO need correlation to show causation. That’s a tough hurdle for the antis.

Posted in Freedom, Games, Guns, Safety | 1 Comment

Quote of the Day: Larry Correia

His post is excellent, but I want to drop this little snippet:

Mental Health Issues

And right here I’m going to show why I’m different than the people I’ve been arguing with the last few days. I am not an expert on mental health issues or psychiatry or psychology. My knowledge of criminal psychology is limited to understanding the methods of killers enough to know how to fight them better.

So since I don’t have enough first-hand knowledge about this topic to comment intelligently, then I’m not going to comment… Oh please, if only some of the people I’ve been arguing with who barely understand that the bullets come out the pointy end of the gun would just do the same.

I certainly agree that we need to have a discussion on how to better serve those of us who are having some serious mental troubles. But like Larry, I’m not an expert in mental illness, or its treatment. I have some severely mentally ill family members, who I feel perfectly safe around. I’ve been around a mentally ill coworker who had a serious psychotic episode, and I was really glad I had a gun during this event, and I’m very glad he got the help he needed VERY soon after things took the turn for the worst.

I don’t know what can be done better, I do know I can sniff at proposals for abuse, and maybe get a good rebuttal from the expert.

as I said on The Squirrel Report, that people on BOTH sides of the gun-control issue want the same end-goal.

We were ALL HORRIFIED and saddened by the event at this shooting. We ALL want the world to be as safe a place that we can possibly make it. The huge difference is people who talk about “Assault Weapons”, “Illegal Sales”, “Gun Availability”, and “High capacity bullet clips”, don’t really know much about these items, or why we have them, and the dangers of taking them away.

Yeah, I’m a gun-nut, I’m a collector, and I enjoy target shooting. I’d like to get into hunting a little more. Still if it is shown to me that my guns are causing more harm to society than the good they’re doing, I’ll have them melted down this weekend, and I’ll use this blog, and my influence to make sure everybody else does too.

Only I’m not hearing that, I’m hearing to opposite, when I look at the facts of the issue.

They, on the other side are going from a position of emotions and ignorance. We want the same thing, but we’re arguing for 100% different solutions. Who are you going to listen to?

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Guns Save Lives

Wow! Linoge links this great video!

Which there was sound so we could see what first tipped the guard off that these guys were trouble.

Also look at his footwork. He immediately got off the X, and never stopped but for a few movements to deliver well-aimed shots. After the attackers retreat he observers from cover.

I’d be interested to see if the security guards “High Level Training” covered any of these techniques that certainly made sure he, and the people he was guarding went home that day.

Also have a look here:

The camera angles make it hard to see if he’s using cover or not, but this private citizen is also not making the mistake of engaging as a stationary target.

We’re watching these tapes…so are the criminals. What do you think their plan will be?

Now what was this crap about us not NEEDING guns? Seemed a pretty important commodity right there!

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“Gun Death” Insulin

Those who use the metric of “Gun Death” always include suicide, because they claim banning or restricting guns would stop suicides.

Thursday night, Brandon’s mother Julie told Channel Six News the 16-year-old took his own life by injecting too much insulin.

A very sad story, but you’d think the lack of hand-wringing from the “Gun Death” Cult implies that somehow this is LESS tragic because no guns were used.

h/t Ryan

Posted in Gun Death? | 1 Comment

Forign Policy Stuck with a Lurch

We could have predicted this:

Sen. John Kerry, the former presidential candidate who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is Barack Obama’s choice to be the next secretary of state, the president announced Friday.

The senior senator from Massachusetts is noted for having the experience, gravitas and relationship-building skills that could help him succeed Hillary Clinton, the outgoing top U.S. diplomat.

Obama, making the announcement as Kerry and his wife looked on, praised the senator’s “extraordinarily distinguished Senate career” and military service “with valor” in the Vietnam War.

Just what we need!

And remember the medals!

I must say, overall I’m glad Mitt Romney lost…still even my poor feelings on Romney, he could have easily done better than this. I’d actually bet it would be Allen West.

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment