Riffing off a UK Telegraph piece and its counterpart at Townhall, “Banning guns,” TPOL-Nathan at the Price of Liberty writes:
[…] the last 500+ years, [the US / colonies] have accepted and assimilated the malcontents of the other six continents: the mixing of cultures is expected to be often violent and with a good deal of rancor and resentment – the same reason that the UK’s four (or more) nations have been so violent as well. But it seems that I was wrong, at least according to the Daily Telegraph (admittedly a conservative paper but somewhat reliable when it comes to data). The UK is FOUR times more violent than the US? Okay, that I can see some reason for, especially in recent years when guns have been “banned” and so the criminal element has less reason to restrain themselves. But Austria: dear, monocultural, civilized, landlocked, peaceful AUSTRIA is still THREE times more violent than the US?
Well, there IS always Canada. There is ALWAYS Canada: the kinder, gentler, weaker, younger kid sister of the US: the one who didn’t go prodigal son, and who has since had a sex change operation. And low and behold, the folks at Townhall had ANOTHER story, from an excellent blog: Political Calculations Canada, it seems, is MORE violent than the US: they don’t kill as many folks, but not for lack of trying: violent crimes: 770 per 100,000 population in Canada versus 535 per 100,000 in the US. Canadian intentional homicides are 1.6 per 100,000 against the US 4.2 per 100,000. (Mexico is 22.7, and Nordic Greenland is 19.2 – even that wonderful peaceful land of Costa Rico is 10.) Apparently, Canadians just aren’t very good at killing each other, but they try a lot more than we do.
Indeed, when we look at overall homicides, the US is WAY down the list. In fact, its 4.2 is way below the world average of 6.9. So much for that garbage spewed by the hoploclasts about the US being so murderous – at least at home.
Same thing when we look at crime in general: at a website, World’s Highest Crime Rates, it seems that the US is the worst, but it turns out they have the title wrong: the numbers are total crimes reported, not “crime rates” (usually, as above, done as X per 100,000) – in other words, they are using the statistics to LIE to show the US as bad. Yes, we had nearly 12 million crimes reported, but we have a population of over 300 million (World’s Most Populous Nations) , but the UK and Germany each had about 6.5 million crimes, with only 63 and 81 million people respectively: in other words, the US has a crime rate about half that of Germany and only 40% that of the UK. (And yes, Canada’s crime rate is about 75% higher than that of the US. I don’t know how many of those crimes are printing Bible verses that condemn homosexuality or making sexist jokes, of course.)
Gee, you don’t suppose – if our society is not as crime-ridden and violent and murderous as people want us to believe – what is the cause of that?
And why do you suppose the hoplophobes and hoploclasts and politicians (of both old political parties) are lying about it?
That last is of course meant to be a rhetorical question, but let me spell it out just in case: where concealed carry is legal and encouraged, the US sees very little arbitrary violent crime. Gun crime that includes suicide or gang-related shooting is used by the anti-gun contingent to massage statistics about gun violence — just as adding in accidental shooting to statistics about gun violence, which is rhetorically presented as the equivalent of gun crime, is another way the statistics are finessed.
In Australia, gun crime is down since their gun ban. But violent crime — home invasions and beatings, assault, rape — these are all up significantly. And it follows that the reason for such a spike is that criminals can either obtain guns and use them to coerce, or else they don’t fear breaking in on weaker vulnerable targets and having their way with them — knowing that law-abiding citizens have already surrendered their best means of self-defense.
The reason the politicians want guns out of the hands of law-abiding US citizens is that such a calculus would necessitate that law-abiding US citizens, like law-abiding UK citizens and law-abiding Australian citizens, would have to rely on the government for immediate protection from criminal predators — while at the same time, any threat to a tyrannical government acting as benevolent despot is slowly removed.
And a certain percentage of the population actually agitates for their own potential enslavement and the surrendering of a natural right. All because they believe guns are icky and have a kind of self-will beyond that of the person using it.
We’re down the rabbit hole, people. Our country has surrendered truth for manufactured consensus — that is, the post-modern turn has become more and more institutionalized, and its linguistic assumptions inform our contemporary epistemology in a way that prevents us from defeating it as the incoherent model for thought it is — and the result is a deconstruction of our protective documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, by way of disingenuous and politically motivated politicians and judicial philosopher kings/queens. Far from “fetishizing” the founding documents, as the left wants us all to believe is some grotesque and even perverse act to be ashamed of, we who cherish our liberty and autonomy and equality to those who are elected to serve us, and who recognize from history the inexorable move by governments to empower themselves and take away or delegitimate individual rights under the guise of the Greater Good, act as a bulwark against a populism driven by institutionalized propaganda — be it from the leftism infused in school and university curricula, the progressive activist slant to mainstream journalism, or the “benign” shaming culture that begins with Hollywood and extends into other arenas of “art” and even “science.”
We are seeing an organized left hostile to our founding principles cynically dipping their legislative quills in the blood of slaughtered children in order to take advantage of a nation shocked by a grotesque act. But even if before people didn’t realize that this is precisely what Feinstein, et al., were up to, the summary of her new “assault weapon ban” legislation — which includes semi-auto handguns, certain shotguns, and the size of containers for carrying cartridges — gives the game away.
There was never to be a real “conversation on gun violence” — as I knew from day one (and was awarded the honor “stupidest man on the interwebs” by a site remembered largely for exposing Jessica Cutler’s hungry asshole to wide public scrutiny) –because the conversation doesn’t include any measure to prevent such violence: all it does is hope to turn law-abiding gun owners into felons, give the government more power and control, creates a criminal class that is significantly empowered by way of the removal of deterrents, and creates a populace that will be ever more dependent on the government for its safety.
No matter how many times it’s pointed out that all these mass shootings occur in gun-free zones, any effort to pushback against the failure of gun-free zone federal regulation is met with hostility and scorn by the left. And that’s because they don’t care about any of that — this never being about preventing gun violence so much as taking away individual natural rights and creating yet more dependency while solidifying yet more centralized power.
In fact, the studied ability to ignore all the evidence — and to merely keep repeating the lies — is part and parcel of the leftist political strategy. Repetition creates “truths,” because “truths” themselves are merely a function of how many people one can get to believe them.
Being a leftist anti-foundationalist literally means never having to say you’re sorry. Because by definition, you can’t be: your commitment to contingency is the absolute that perversely commits you to nothing. And as such, you are unencumbered by Enlightenment rules for logic, rationality, and consistency — and are able to skirt the “tyranny of facts.”
Unless and until we address what some on the right have referred to as the “fundamentally unserious” question of how we’ve allowed an incoherent idea of language essentially deconstruct and re-imagine our founding documents and principles, we will find ourselves living out our time as a dwindling set of existentialists, content to win the battles knowing that the war is already lost.
Me? I find no solace in being Sisyphus. Nor Cassandra, for that matter — though I hold out hope for a better ending in the latter case.
(thanks to John R)
Another piece on crime rates here.
They’re like SUVs that way.
Thanks for linking to my blog, Jeff! I’ve added yours to my blogroll and will visit often.
Violent crime and property crime have been declining for a number of years in Australia.
http://www.aic.gov.au/documents/0/B/6/%7B0B619F44-B18B-47B4-9B59-F87BA643CBAA%7Dfacts11.pdf
Slippy believes what the government tells him. He’s such a gullible drone.
An exective summary, preferably from the article itself would be good. I’m not downloading 5+MB to read it.
Skippy, assault is higher in Oz than it is here, as reported. Assault is a violent crime so I’m thinking your reading comprehension still isn’t up to speed.
Ann Coulter, in one of her books, recounts how leftists, no matter how many examples given, always cry “No evidence.”
Same thing holds with gun free zones. It doesn’t matter how many times one points out there just might be a correlation between gun free zones and mass shootings, leftists holler “no evidence.”
Of course, there is also the evidence that mass shootings have yet to happen on a rifle range or at an indoor pistol range..though weapons most certainly are readily available.
Again, there’s “no evidence.”
Then there is a certain dumbass who, when the forest is discussed, points out the trees and when the tree is discussed, then decides to look at the forest.
Blake, I read the other day that Morgan Freeman had said (when asked about the ‘epidemic’ of gun violence), “I grew up in the South. Everybody had guns and no one got shot.” Which I must say has certainly been my experience.
The only time I ever got shot at was up North, in a heavy on the gun regulations city.
“Then there is a certain dumbass who, when the forest is discussed, points out the trees and when the tree is discussed, then decides to look at the forest.”
Yep. The leprechaun argues from no position. Tis a magical beastie stupid mortals! He argues from this side o’ the fence, and then that side o’ the fence, and then he straddles the fence, and digs under the fence. Then via leprechaun magic he is inside the fence too! But he has no position. Merely a goal. And he will argue towards that goal from any and every direction at once. Sadly fey magic doesn’t win arguments so long as good solid western logic is applied which demands such things as integrity and consistency. Merely wanting something bad enough to argue ANYTHING to get it is the same as having no argument at all.
“Violent crime and property crime have been declining for a number of years in Australia.”
Move there. Enjoy the good life. You deserve it.
Shorter Slippery: When you’re lying in the kitchen, listening to your wife being raped in the living roo mwhile you slowly bleed out from multiple stab wounds, you’re not really dying dying.
Because people don’t kill people, GUNS do.
Hey, that’s easy!
(certainly easier than proof-reading, at any rate)
You can bury them in statistics, reason, logic, law, anecdotes, data, pie, and even shouting, and it will have no effect, because the reasons for their positions have nothing to do with the world outside their head.
Ultimately, the answer can only be a no, emphasized.
Leprechauns have goals not philosophies or positions. Arguments are all just special FX to them.
Leprechauns have goals? I thought they just had gold. And lucky charms.
grumblegrumblegrumble..I hate creating custom deployment images that require balky software to be installed before the image is captured..grumblegrumblegrumble
Check into the trend for U.S. violent and property crime stats for the same time period.
And while you’re at it, discuss the possible factors in the aforementioned decline. Factors you conveniently neglected to mention at all.
It isn’t interested in discussion or facts. None of them are.
emotions > facts for libs.
emotions > reason for libs.
leigh, interesting quote from Morgan Freeman.
I thought Morgan was kind of a leftist.
Oh man now I want pie.
http://www.jammiewf.com/2012/gallup-poll-nra-way-more-popular-than-the-media/
IIRC (and as far as the perfectly accurate internet is concerned), the Freeman quote was a hoax. He didn’t say / post it.
Slipshod sure adds to the conversation, doesn’t he?
It wasn’t Freeman, it was Samuel Jackson.
Incidentally, I decided this is the shotgun for my wife, but there seem to be none available around here. Still looking…
Which is why they will have to be declared TWANLOC* and removed from any society that wants to exist.
* Those Who Are No Longer Our Countrymen, as defined by the great Samuel Adams.
Thanks, Lee. I knew it was one of the two. I guess I couldn’t remember which it was because I’m a raaaaacist.
More likely, I’m just forgetful.
Only if you cherry-pick the data and carefully exclude certain categories…
Yeah leigh, I only know it ‘cuz he’s in that Jango movie, and it was a quote having to do with that. Jamie Fox bragged he gets to kill all the white people in that movie, so it makes sense Jackson wants to keep his guns. Brothers in arms, and all of that.
Last I heard about Morgan Freeman is he made a ad promoting SSM, but that was like a month or more ago.
That Mossberg is great for shooting anything in the air, and probably final defensive fire before the zombies overrun you, but the barrel’s too long for anything other than static defense.
Or so I read on the internet.
Which makes me just as much an expert as if I’d stayed at the Holiday Inn Express!
Morgan Freeman approves of SSM? That’s weird since I heard he was kind of a man-whore. I guess he figures it’ll free up more wimmins for him. The straight ones who like old movies stars with bad skin, anyway.
but the barrel’s too long for anything other than static defense.
Can it be switched out with a shorter one? Or will it be too dangerous for Mrs. B if it’s shorter?
Yeah Ernst, I want something that will deter trespassing and put food on the table.
Makes perfect sense. But as a primary homestead defender, it’s more or less limited to controlling a choke point. i.e. it doesn’t deter trespassing so much as it deters trespassing beyond the fatal funnel. So I guess it all depends on what your protocol for dealing with tresspassers happens to be, and what what role the shotgun plays in various contingencies.
That was an oblique way of saying that if the shottie’s job is to keep anyone who get’s past you from getting past the missus, you’re good to go. But if she’s going to have to maneuver down a hall or between rooms with that Mossberg at the ready, she’s going to have to practice.
The barrel on a Mossberg shotgun is very easy to change and replacement ones are available all over, or were as who knows what is left anywhere after the great Obama gun sale.
Feinstein’s Gun Control Bill Will Trigger The Next American Revolution
The gun he linked had a 24″ barrel, I think 18″ is as short as allowed.
Looks like a pretty effective home defense piece to me.
24 inches isn’t that long, the tactical version is 20″.
I see the shot gun as yard defense. Like if she needs to investigate someone snooping around the property.
Indoors is already covered…
18″ is about what I was thinking. Anything longer is going to be awfully hard to swing around indoors without knocking stuff over. If the barrel is easy to change out, then I would do that or look into one that is slightly smaller. They (Mossberg’s) are all around the same price point, give or take $100. Maybe you can try a couple of them out and see which one works better for her.
Average hunting gun is probably 28″. That looks like a good all rounder to me.
Can you shoot people who are in your yard in California? I thought they had to be in your house.
Well, I’m thinking she wouldn’t just start blasting away for no good reason. Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six I always say.
I’m with you on that one.
Also, when it comes to zombies, they’re already dead, so, technically…
Zombies are for practice. And an distraction for the other zombies while you pour gasoline around them and light ’em up.
Also also, I’ve had problems finding tactical shotguns in anything other than 12 gauge, and 20 gauge would be much better for my 102 lb bride.
I did see a nifty .410 someone linked here before, but I think that’s a pretty limited piece, practical wise.
Mossberg barrels.
Why do we always hear only the first sentence of the quote?
Anyways an interesting piece at Zerohedge uses all of it.
“Also also, I’ve had problems finding tactical shotguns in anything other than 12 gauge, and 20 gauge would be much better for my 102 lb bride.”
You might look into the Mossburg SA-20. It is a semi-auto that holds five rounds.
http://www.mossberg.com/product/shotguns-autoloading-sa-20-pistol-grip/75781
Choate sells a tube magazine extender to get it up to 7+1 if you use 2/34″ shells.
http://www.riflestock.com/store/do/product/MXT/02-04-43
Shit, even zerohedge thinks we’re headed for civil war.
Yeah, what about my duck dinner though? I didn’t cut all that wood to roast wetback ya know…
I think lots of people hunt ducks with a 20 gauge…buy a longer barrel for it?
Since they banned lead shot 12 is a minimum for waterfowl and many have gone to 10 gauge as steel shot has to be larger in diameter for the same effect. 20 is nice for upland game but unless you are shooting ducks at close range it won’t reach out far enough.
Longer barrels, past 24 in. don’t make them hit any harder, unlike the black power era, just make sighting nicer and swing nicer too.
Some seemingly reasonable folk here in this discussion thread recommend going with a 12 gauge loaded with reduced recoil home defense loads over the twenty gauge. Greater weight of the 12 gauge combines with the lighter load to produce less felt recoil than a standard 10 gauge.
Of course, if the plan is for Mrs. Bascom to kill what she cooks for you to eat, I suppose they make reduced recoil defense loads for twenty gauge shotguns as well.
Longer barrel is what the clay pigeon people use to get better range. Whether that’s about sight parallax or better shot grouping or whatever I dunno. I did not know that lead shot was banned. I have some old shells that need a’ disposin’ of then.
geoff raises a point that’s of interest to me when he mentions sighting. By my way of thinking, the problem with a dual use shotgun is the standard bead sight and lack of a rear sight. Beads are fine for wing shooting, but I think I’d rather line up on center of mass looking through a ghost ring and front post. I really don’t know if that’s a reasonable qualm or not, however.
Also is less kick than a standard 10 gauge a typo? Because that still sounds uncomfortably kicky to me.
10 gauge should have been 20 gauge.
Lead shot is banned just for waterfowl hunting.
At the moment.
BTW for home defense I’d be looking at those expanding polymer tipped slugs in a 20 gauge more than I would buckshot.
Ernst, is lead still cool with doves and quail though? Or rabbits? Not that I plan to go fowl or vermin hunting anytime soon. Just curious.
Honestly, I think I’d take any .223 carbine over any shotgun.
But since it’s too late, a good ol’ fashioned .30-30 lever gun is starting to appeal.
any 5.56/.223
to keep Pablo happy.
I believe so, yes.
But I wouldn’t take my word for it.
Some parts of California ban even lead bullets for hunting IIRC. It’s why you see copper bullets out now. But most other places lead shot is ok.
As for Rifle vs Shotgun vs Handgun this is very good.
I think so.
So is this essay from the Box of Truth.
If you want a 12 gauge with low recoil you might want to look at a Saiga 12
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saiga_20
But it’s certain to be classified as an assault weapon.
Yeah, about that,
He did say you might want to look at it, as in, on your way to where te Mossbergs are displayed. He didn’t say anything about wanting to pay good money for one.
[S]]omething along the lines of 3/4 of the Saiga shotguns he bought needed major work to get them to run reliably.
(S’okay tho, I already had you pegged as a tacticool guy)
That should have read 2 & 3/4 ” shells above. Though a 2/34 ” shell would be pretty spiffy if the chemistry tech was there. Hmmm…1/17″ thick ‘Death discs’…
And if you dude you are shooting at is shooting back, you have just illuminated his target even better.
[…] Tsk, tsk. You violent, knuckledragging Europeans need to get your shit together and join us in the civilized world at last. Jeff says: […]
The Saiga is only good if you are a gunsmith and know enough about what the moving parts are supposed to do (and have a quantity of spare parts, and all the tools) to keep it functional. Having some knowledge, the tools and common spare parts is a good thing one should have for any weapons, but to actually *need* them to keep a high-maintenance gun happy is contraindicated.
I had a combat Remington 870 that
iswas not high maintenance (before it was lost in an unfortunate fall) and some spare parts (springs, small receiver parts that might get lost or break) that would’ve been an ideal post-whatever tool. Damned shame it’s in the bottom of a canyon.Yes, upon further redefinition of that term.
Did someone say something about language?
If you’re doing it right, you’ve also blinded him.
These new Democrats, the farthest-Left control group ever empowered on this Republic’s soil, are the real ‘magical thinkers’. But they point at those of us who have acquired virtue and morality via religion as being ‘magical thinkers’. At least our ‘magical thinking’ leads one to life choices that are rooted and strong, and sustainable. Their magic ‘gods’ sit in Washington DC (and, later, in the United Nations in New York City) and dole out happy thoughts and survival crumbs, just enough to get the mindless voting more of these ‘gods’ into offices.
Democrats are the farthest-Left Party, and are ushering in the end of this Republic as we knew it. Republicans assisted by not digging in and slowing this decline decades ago. It’s simply not reversible, at this junc-ture.
beemoe, that’s why weapon lights are mounted so that your hand on the foregrip turns them on / off. Has the additional effect (if you’ve localized your target by sound) of subjecting them to sudden light and the accompanying disorientation. Which you should have been expecting and therefore have the jump on it. YMMV.
IOW, zerohedge has gotten to where I was at 10 years ago right here on this blog. They haven’t gotten to the “Stay on sufferance, Leave, or Die” which is going to be required as a finisher, but …. baby steps.
If my dogs could talk, they’d tell you that a sudden 300 lumens strobe and a green laser on you is not at all helpful to them.
Better hold your fire then, because muzzle flash can show him where you are too. If you’re in a tight spot and can’t move easily after taking your shot, you need to make it a one-shot stop.
Which won’t happen without a light.
Wait a durned minute. I can hold a flashlight and a pistol on the target, po-lice style.
I’ll bet a flashlight mount for a carbine is easy to fabricate, for them as knows how. Of which I’m not.
I’m just a dumb white girl from Tulare. I don’t know nothin’.
My version would depend on duct tape and rubber bands. Maybe even a cable tie.
Gorilla glue. There’s just about nothing it can’t do.
That makes it permanent attachment though, doesn’t it? After the gunfight, how would I remove the offending ASSAULT flashlight before police arrive?
You swap it with your throw away piece that you fire once before they get there.
But you didn’t hear it from me.
1%er.
Okay. I will reconsider the light idea. I hadn’t thought about the increase in small light capabilities. Back in the old days of d cell flashlights it wasn’t considered wise to carry one, I guess things have changed a bit.
Have any of you guys any experience with Dan Wesson revolvers? I am considering a 357 as my next purchase and have seen a few of these around at what seem like good prices.
you can buy 700 lumen lights that are smaller than your fist. Add a strobe and it literally makes a person duck and cringe.
I think the X-Files may have popularized the lithium-powered flashlight.
There is a piece on Dan Wesson revolvers in the Feb. 2013 issue of Shooting Times which should still be on the newsstands.
And here’s one from two years ago.
Some of the new LED lights will kick your retinas out the back of your skull.
Speaking of, I was pleased to learn that there are now aftermarket LED retrofits for the classic Maglites. I’d thought about buying a new one, but found a drop-in replacement for my old reliable unit. It’s WAY brighter and the batteries last a lot longer, too.
SBP, does that include the big police skull-crackers like mine? Are they sold by MagLite?
Yep, McGehee. That’s what I have. Mag-Lite does sell them, but they’re expensive. I bought a third-party model.
There are scads of 1 inch diameter lights and standard rail mounts for them. I’ve got one that will throw a 460 lumen strobe. You catch that in the face, you ain’t seeing shit for a while.
Searching for Maglite LED conversion on Amazon will bring them up.
Make sure you get one that says it works with the existing focusing mechanism, if that’s important to you (it was to me). Some don’t, apparently.
Thank you SBP.
Order placed with Amazon. Had to get two to qualify for free shipping, but I don’t mind.
I shot a hundred ducks with a single shot 20 gauge before I was even in high school. They were delicious.
And even if I don’t have a Howitzer, and a pistol grip belt fed 10 gauge with a search light on top, I’d advise not sneaking into my house at night.
I see everyone has already covered the concept of lighting up a bad guy up before lighting a bad guy up.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was a surprisingly good movie. I wasn’t sure how they were going to get three movies out of that little book. Silly me.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey did have some sections in the beginning where the CGI software had way too many things moving at one time. But other than that blurry distraction, the rest was very entertaining. Agreed that the short story was masterfully STRETCHED by Jackson et al . Only the surprise of the mordal blade.
Morgul. It means ‘black sorcery’ in Tolkien’s fictional Sindarin language.
Minas Morgul was the tower of black sorcery was originally built by refugees from the fall of Numenor under the name Minas Ithil (Moon Tower). It was captured by Sauron and traded back and forth between the fledgeling kingdom of Gondor and the forces of Mordor over the centuries. It was finally captured by the Ring Wraiths and corrupted utterly gaining its new name. The area around the fortress came to be known as the morgul vale. Presumbly the morgul blades were forged or otherwise created there by the ring wraiths and their allies. The ring wraiths themselves, including the Witch King of Angmar, were nine former numenorian lords who were corrupted into undead things by the power of Sauron’s rings.
[…] Violence in America … mee’ts Mark Twain and his “lies, damned lies and statistics” quote. […]
[…] Violence in America … meet’s Mark Twain and his “lies, damned lies and statistics” quote. […]