Wednesday, June 11, 2014

10 Irrefutable Facts about Gun Control

Saw a spot on the news this morning where the Buffoon In Chief made the statement that "America doesn't have a monopoly on crazy people." Yeah, since we got one sitting in the White House, I'd say that statement is correct. Anyhow, The Great Pretender then went on to praise Australia on the outlawing and confiscation of all firearms in that nation, lauding their actions to "keep people safe."

Of course, what NObama didn't say - and won't ever say, not in public anyway - is that violent crime in both Australia and England, the two latest democratic countries to outlaw private possession of firearms, has risen drastically across the board since the firearms ban took effect. The reason for this is obvious, to those of us with any amount of common sense and reasoning, that is, but the liberals and Democrats will never admit it because it would be admitting that they're wrong.

The reason that violent crimes in those nations have dramatically increased are because now, in those two nations, with the exception of the police and the military, only the bad guys have guns.

So that's Fact #1: When only the bad guys have guns, violent crime goes up. The statistics from England and Australia prove it.

Fact #2: When the good guys have guns, violent crime goes down. The nationwide statistics from the FBI's annual report on crime in America prove it, and it all started with Florida. As soon as that state passed a "must issue" law concerning the licensing of citizens to carry concealed weapons, violent crime started to drop. And when they adopted one of the very first "Castle Doctrine" laws in the nation, the drop in violent crime increased. These are facts that cannot be disputed, no matter how hard you try.

Fact #3: It's a "people problem," not a "gun problem." The tired old phrase from the liberal left is, "Guns kill people," and the equally tired but still effective reply from the conservative right is, "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." Once again, this is an irrefutable fact which history proves and cannot be ignored. I own a dozen firearms, both rifles and pistols, and my firearms haven't killed anyone. And they never will. The reason? A firearm is a tool, and like all tools it will do whatever the person holding it uses it to do. Lay a fully loaded, cocked and ready to fire pistol on a table, and that pistol will stay there without moving until the end of time. The pistol itself will not ever - EVER - jump up off of that table and kill someone. It takes a PERSON to pick it up and use it. That person can use it for one of two things: lawful self-defense, or unlawful murder. The pistol has no choice in the matter because it's a tool. It's the PERSON who has the choice.

Fact #4: The murder rate in America involving firearms has been dropping for the past 12 years. Well, now, you never read about that one in the liberal newspapers or heard about it on CNN, did you? Well, friends and neighbors, that's the truth - the murder rate in which a firearm was used has been steadily dropping in the past 12 years. Oh, and by coincidence, that's just about the same time that Florida passed those laws and the rest of the nation started following suit. It doesn't take a genius to see the correlation between actions and results - unless you're a liberal or a Democrat.

Fact #5: The cities and states with the most stringent gun control laws have the highest murder rates. Chicago is notorious for having two things, those things being the most stringent gun control laws in the nation and the highest murder rate in the nation to go along with those laws. ANYONE who thinks that more gun control laws will solve the gun violence problem in America needs only to look at Rahm Emmanuel and the city of Chicago for irrefutable proof that gun control doesn't work. Next in line for the Murder Capital of the Nation Award: Washington, DC, a city with the second most stringent gun laws and the second highest murder rate in the nation.

Fact #6: Background checks don't work. This is true for a couple of reasons. First, statistics prove more than 80% of the shootings in our nation take place with a stolen or illegally obtained firearm. No way a background check is going to stop that. Second, no background check in the world is going to detect crazy, and it sure won't detect someone who went crazy after they legally purchased their firearm. Take the recent shootings in Nevada and California, for example. The two crazies - and that's what everyone, including the liberal media, is calling them - who kllled the two police officers in Las Vegas did so with weapons they obtained through private sales. (And before you tell me that this is the reason private sales should fall under the requirement for background checks, let me re-direct you to the description of the shooters as 'crazy.' Now shut up.) And the shootings at UCLA were committed by a crazy man who had submitted to a background check, passed the check, and then purchased his weapons legally - IN CALIFORNIA, where the magazine capacity is limited by state law to ten rounds. Yet this crazy man still killed seven people using three pistols with "limited capacity" magazines, and the background check failed to stop it.

Fact #7: "Gun Free Zones" don't work. And they won't work - ever. Want proof? Okay, here it is: Columbine - gun free zone. Norfolk Navy Yard - gun free zone. Aurora movie theater - gun free zone. Fort Hood - gun free zone. UCLA - gun free zone. Virginia Tech - gun free zone. Newtown - gun free zone. Jewish Community Center - gun free zone. Sandy Hook - gun free zone. I could go on, but I think you get the point. "Gun Free Zones" don't work for one simple reason: criminals and crazy people don't obey the law.

Fact #8: Disarming law abiding citizens won't keep them safe. Just ask the people in Chicago, Washington, England, or Australia.

Fact #9: Less guns equals more violent crime; more guns equals less violent crime. Says who, you ask? Harvard and the American Civil Rights Union, that's who. I'd quote the article and the study here but that'd take up too much time and space. I suggest you do a search for "Harvard Study on Gun Control" and read it for yourself. Be prepared to be surprised.

Fact #10: More people are saved by the lawful use of guns in America each year than are killed by the unlawful use of guns. Criminologist Gary Kleck estimates that guns are used by Americans in self-defense 2.5 million times each year, or about 6,850 times per day. This means that each year, firearms are used 80 times more often to protect human life than they are to take it. Out of these 2.5 million instances, Kleck estimates that 400,000 people would absolutely be dead if they had not been legally armed.

Simply put, the facts don't lie. Gun control doesn't work. It never has, it never will, and there's nothing that any liberal or Democrat can ever do to change that fact.

Now it's time for me to go get showered and dressed, and a part of that is deciding which pistol I'm going to carry today.

Lawfully, of course.

IHC

Monday, June 9, 2014

Random Thoughts on a Monday Afternoon

No, I'm not dead or out of town or anything like that. I realize that it's been a while since my last post, and in my defense let me just say that the last month or so has been very interesting, very challenging, and very frustrating at times. Yeah, I realize this is no excuse for not having made any entries, but it is what it is. Sorry about the delay, friends and neighbors, that's about all I can say on that.

I've got so much stuff bouncing around in my head that I find it impossible to sort it all out into separate cognizant pieces, so I'll just do one of my "Randon Thoughts" posts and get rid of them all at the same time. This one may be kinda lengthy, so if you need to pee or go get a drink or something like that, now's the time.

Ready? Ok, heeeeeeeere we go!

Absolutely first and foremost, let's talk about the Buffoon In Chief, shall we? Man, there's so much fodder to fling at this clown that I hardly know where to start. I could start with his total lack of class, refinement, and respect by showing up at the D-Day Memorial Service in France while chewing gum, but I won't. I could also start with his flunky token white boy mouthpiece quitting his job as Press Secretary, but I won't. (Jay Carney, I don't know how you can sleep at night, you asshat.) What I will start with - and this should have been obvious - is The Great Pretender's decision to trade five high-ranking Taliban terrorist leaders for one American deserter/traitor. There's SO MUCH wrong with this decision that it almost defies description, and one cannot help but wonder what strain of "logic" the Buffoon In Chief used when he made this decision. You can't tell me that he didn't know about Bergdahl's activities with the Taliban once he was "captured," and you also can't tell me that he didn't know that Bergdahl had walked away from his unit. After all, even his parents knew that the traitor had mailed all of his personal belongings home before he was "captured." And if you do try and tell me that, then my next statement will be that either the intelligence-gathering capabilities of the United States have been too focused on gathering information on American citizens instead of the bad guys, or that the Buffoon In Chief simply chose to ignore it. I choose the latter. In any event, the trade was done without the approval of Congress and against the advice of every major military commander in the JCOS. NObama decided he wanted to do it, so he did it - and now he's reaping the rewards (sarcasm, folks). In the process he is also putting every American overseas at risk (regardless of what that asshat and clown John Kerry says) because the word is out among our enemies: if you want to get something from America, all you have to do is kidnap or capture an American and then make your demands. The US will give you whatever you want, because the Buffoon In Chief has broken the long-standing policy that America doesn't negotiate with terrorists - EVER. Hell, even Jimmy Carter was smart enough to know that the US never negotiates with terrorists because once you do you'll always have to do it, but apparently Barack NObama isn't.

And can you believe that NObama was actually gullible (or stupid) enough to believe that the five Taliban leaders would actually stay in Qatar and not rejoin the fight? (As for the choice between gullible and stupid, I vote for stupid.) I give it about a hot 60 days before those five Taliban leaders are back in Afghanistan leading the fight against our forces and killing more Americans, regardless of what John Kerry may say. Having served some time in the Middle East, I can tell you first-hand that the people of the Arab nations will put other Arabs first and foremost, and they absolutely will not honor their agreement with the Buffoon In Chief. And why should they? He's broken just about every promise he's ever made, and he's given so many ultimatums with no action on his part following said ultimatums that there's no reason that any nation in the world should either fear or take seriously anything he says. He's a buffoon, a blowhard, all talk and no action, a gutless wonder with no balls, and they all know it. They have no respect for him as a leader and as a result, they have no respect for us or our country. And we have no one to thank for that except NObama.

So while the Buffoon In Chief makes this disastrous deal with our enemies, one of our true American heroes and patriots sits in a Mexican jail cell on a bunch of bullshit, trumped-up charges with absolutely nothing being said or done by the NObama administration to secure his release. All it would take is one phone call from NObama to the Mexican president, and our Marine would be on his way back across the border in no time.

Then again, maybe not...the fact that the Mexicans are holding him at all in spite of the outcry in the press pretty much shows that they hold NObama in just as much disdain as the rest of the world does. Still, it speaks volumes for the priorities and the leadership abilities of NObama that he's sitting on his hands doing nothing and totally ignoring what's going on in Mexico. Maybe NObama should offer to trade John Kerry for the Marine? That would work for me!

And out in the Midwest and California, unfortunately there have been more shootings. I say unfortunately because obviously, it's unfortunate to say the least when innocent people get killed by madmen, and it's unfortunate for the rest of us law-abiding citizens because we now have to listen to the idiocy of the liberals and Democrats as they scream for still more useless gun control. And if you want proof that ALL gun control is useless, look at the shootings at UCLA - the shooter passed a background check, ALL of the weapons were purchased legally, all of the magazines were "low capacity" as required by California law, and yet the shootings still took place. Why is that, I wonder?

Simple: because you can't legislate insanity out of existence. The shooter was nuts, and his YouTube videos prove it. No amount of gun laws will prevent a madman from carrying out his plans, and this latest shooting is yet more proof that GUN CONTROL LAWS DON'T WORK. After all, MURDER is already illegal, isn't it? So along the line of "thinking" that more gun control laws will prevent more shootings, the shootings never should have happened in the first place because murder is already illegal. And we see how good THAT works, don't we?

But as soon as you or I utter those words, the liberals and Democrats will respond with, "Then we'll just have to outlaw guns altogether!"

Yeah, let's do that. Let's outlaw guns altogether...after all, it worked for LSD, meth, and cocaine, right?

And we won't even talk about the 2nd Amendment and why it's there.

Out in Colorado and Washington, the people there are enjoying the fruits of the new laws they passed to decriminalize the recreational use of marijuana, with Colorado particularly enjoying it. "Rocky Mountain High" has taken on a whole new meaning, and I, for one, am glad to see it. I have never understood why marijuana was illegal and why the Federal government doesn't take advantage of the HUGE monetary gain that is just sitting there waiting for them - provided they legalize weed nation-wide first, that is. The Feds make billions of dollars in taxes off of the alcohol producing industry, and if they were to legalize grass and tax it just like cigarettes they'd make more money from that than they ever would from alcohol. But the Feds continue to be caught up in the Draconian line of thinking that marijuana is such a bad thing that they refuse to take the obvious step and legalize it. Sooner or later they're gonna have to, because now that two states have done it the rest will surely follow suit - and my bet is on California being the next one to do it.

What, you can't believe a retired military cop would advocate the legalization of marijuana? Sorry to bust your bubble, but that's the way it is. The only reason I ever locked people up for it was because it's illegal, and that's also the only reason I never used it. (Well, okay, I used it once, but that was after I retired from the Air Force.) Once the stuff becomes legal, though, I'm gonna toke right up - just as I imagine a great many of us law-abiding citizens will. Time will tell.

And that's it for now. Gonna go down and fix myself a fresh glass of iced tea, sit on my ass, and do nothing but enjoy the first day of my vacation. Believe me, I've earned it.

IHC