June 2007 – Page 6 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Prohibited?

David Codrea asks whether we’re seeing a newly minted prohibited person.

Hospital? So he’s been involuntarily committed for having his picture taken holding a shotgun because the paranoid campus officials and authorities go bonkers even thinking of such things due to recent “threats”–none of which Meepegama apparently had anything to do with? And they think he’s nuts?

Unfortunately we don’t have details about whether this was a lawful commitment order, or SUNY merely told him to seek counseling if he wanted to stay in school. If it’s the latter, he would not be a prohibited person according to ATF regulations:

Committed to a mental institution. A formal commitment of a person to a mental institution by a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority. The term includes a commitment to a mental institution involuntarily. The term includes commitment for mental defectiveness or mental illness. It also includes commitments for other reasons, such as for drug use. The term does not include a person in a mental institution for observation or a voluntary admission to a mental institution.

He would fall under the “observation” exception in the regulation, and wouldn’t be prohibited, and that’s assuming that he was ordered in for observation by someone with lawful authority under New York’s mental health laws. I’m not familiar with New York Law on the matter, but I suspect that a university official has no lawful authority in this regard.

UPDATE: I just realized this was originally posted in May. Â Bloglines republished it, so I thought it was new.

Breeding More Terrorists

I’m not sure I agree, from a counterinsurgency perspective, that breeding more terrorists than we’re killing is really an important issue. I’m not sure how you really assess such a thing anyway. No one likes having their country invaded and occupied, this much we know, but how many examples in history can we find of exactly this happening? Any military operation against a foe is quite likely to breed more of that foe than you’re currently killing.

Britain’s colonization of any number of places, from South Africa, to India, certainly bred it’s fair share of resentment, but the British Empire was certainly able to bring these people’s under its sphere of control. It was only after the British Empire was weakened through new challenges from Europe, that it would give up these possessions. India would ultimately guilt the British into surrendering it, through a non violent independence movement.

In our own history we can find examples of this. Lincoln’s decision to raise an army to invade the territories that had decided to actively challenge federal authority certainly created more soldiers for the Southern cause than were actively being killed for quite some time, but in the end, the Army or Northern Virginia was to surrender.

In Vietnam, as is the goal of any counterinsurgency, the Viet Cong eventually built up its number to the point where they felt the time for the hit and run operations was at and end, and so executed a general offensive, known as The Tet Offensive. The VC decided to come out of the jungles, and acts as an army does, to seize and control of territory and men. Unfortunately for the Viet Cong, they were effectively destroyed by the US military. From Tet onward, we were fighting the North Vietnamese Army, and the counterinsurgency known as Victor Charlie would cease to be relevant, even though up until that time they were building their power.

Sure, there are plenty of examples of insurgencies rising up and defeating great powers; we owe our own independence to this. The British lost three armies trying to keep North America, and for them, given they faced a real, existential threat from France at the time, was just too much for them to handle, and here we are.

War is more than just a contest of people. It’s more than just a numbers game. It’s a contest of wills. All the military advantages in the world amount to a hill of beans if you lack will. Whether we have the will to see this conflict through to a just conclusion isn’t clear yet. But it’s not a matter of whether we’re breeding more terrorists than we’re currently killing.

More on Iraq

I’ve gotten some more comments on my earlier post about Iraq. I saw my friend Jason commented, and started to craft my own, but decided it would work best as a separate post, rather than as a comment.

I think it’s a grave mistake to believe this is a problem that originated with the United States, and that by retreating, we can solve it. When I say that Al-Qaeda felt they could attack us with impunity, I do not mean that they felt that we would just sit back and shrug it off. What I mean is that Al-Qaeda felt that they could attack and defeat America. Whether that involved drawing us into a war in Afghanistan, or Iraq, that would turn into a quagmire, is of little matter. They felt it was time to take us on, and their narrative centers around western weakness and softness, and up until post 9/11, we hadn’t done much in the way to dispel that narrative.

That’s why I think leaving would be dangerous. Radical Islam aims to re-establish the caliphate, and to instigate a world wide Islamic movement. It’s absurd only in the sense that the west has the capability to largely destroy Islam as an ideology of any serious consequence. But we don’t want it to come to that. Iraq is an experiment to determine whether an Arab and Islamic society can be brought into a globalized world, and able to live among us, without having to resort to terrible measures.

I don’t think we really have a choice here. We either fight now, where we have the luxury of a measured response, or we fight later, when we might have to do it with nuclear weapons. Right now the choice is ours, it deosn’t make much sense to wait until we have no choice, except pushing the button.

Whether we like or not, at the end of World War II, Europe basically handed us the keys to their former empire, and said “Well, we’re quite tired of working on the place. We’ve decided to retire to greener pastures. Here are the keys. Hope you don’t mind the mess too much.” We didn’t ask for it, and I wish we didn’t have to do it, but we’re stuck with it. I’d rather do everything we can to win now, when we can keep the body count to a relative minimum, than to fight later, when that could end up meaning total war. I don’t really see any in between ground on this issue.

The Battle of Baquba

I’m a little busy today with some other things, but everyone ought to read this article by Michael Yon about the major offensive against Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

It’s always puzzled me that, given we are fighting Al-Qaeda in Iraq, that some people think walking away sounds like a great idea.Â Walking away when things got tough is what got us a reputation for cowardice that made Al-Qaeda think they could attack us with impunity. Â Â There is no walking away from Iraq. Â We must finish what we have started.

Mental Disorders and Firearms Disability

Lynn Stuter is worried that we’re all going to be diagnosed with mental disorders, and it makes the H.R.2640 dangerous.Â Â It may be true that we’ll all be diagnosed with some kind of mental disorder, but the fact is that’s not sufficient for a person to have a firearms disability.Â Remember that you actually have to be committed to a mental institution against your will, which isn’t going to happen unless you’re as nutty as a fruitcake (and even then, it’s hard).Â Â The only other conditions that suffice for a firearms disability are outlined in 27 CFR 478.11, which we covered on Monday:

Adjudicated as a mental defective. (a) A determination by a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority that a person, as a result of marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease:
(1) Is a danger to himself or to others; or
(2) Lacks the mental capacity to contract or manage his own affairs.
(b) The term shall includeâ€“
(1) A finding of insanity by a court in a criminal case; and
(2) Those persons found incompetent to stand trial or found not guilty by reason of lack of mental responsibility pursuant to articles 50a and 72b of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. 850a, 876b.

This is far less encompassing than just being diagnosed with something from DSM IV. Â I am quite open to arguments against H.R.2640, but I’m seeing quite a lot of opposition out there that’s based on poor information and bad facts.Â When I see them, I’m going to keep pointing them out.

Via SayUncle

When Guns are Outlawed …

… only Hamas will have guns.

New Daily Update?

I can’t be too sure, but I’m wondering if this guy is trying to fill the niche left by Gun Law News retiring from the daily update. If that’s the case, we wish him well. It’s a lot of work, but a great service to the community.

Shrimp Fiend

I’ve always enjoyed seafood.Â Â If I had been born a Jew, I wouldn’t be a very good one, because my favorites are shellfish.Â Â I love scallops, crab, lobster, mussels, clams, and oysters.Â Â All good stuff.Â One of my big food weaknesses is shrimp.Â Â There’s nothing that makes me happier than sticking a dozen or so shrimp in the broiler and sprinkling some old bay seasoning on them.

Bitter planned to make a shrimp recipe for a party we threw up here, but she decided to cut out that particular recipe. Â That means I have a whole lot of shrimp in my freezer, which delights me to no end.Â Â I have a dozen or so in the toaster oven now, and soon I will peel and dunk into some cocktail sauce, and I will be in seventh heaven.

Back From the Range

I spent maybe half an hour at the range tonight.Â I meant to spend more, but my stack of targets wasn’t quite large enough for an extended stay.Â I’m also down to 100 rounds of 9mm, which is a most disconcerting situation.Â Anyway, I was practicing double tap reload drills for the upcoming e-postal match deadline, which is rapidly approaching.

These types of exercises are good because they expose flaws in my shooting.Â Â One thing I’ve discovered is that I tend not to hold my arm out straight when I’m rushing to aim.Â This was detrimental to my accuracy. Â I also noticed the swing up was a bitch.Â I need to practice drawing up and close, then moving out, rather than drawing out and swinging up.

Another Bunch of Corporate Cowards

The company that fired this guy is called Village Green Companies, and no, they don’t care, despite what their web site says.Â Â They sure don’t seem to care about their employees.Â Â This is true of most corporations, to be honest.Â Â There are two things that companies fear most.Â Â The first is being sued, and the second is bad publicity.

All laws aimed at employees are designed to address the former. Â They don’t really care if you die, as long as they don’t get sued for it.Â One of the primary functions of the HR department is to prevent the corporation from being sued.Â Â It isn’t to look out for you and your well being as an individual.Â Laws disarming employees have nothing to do with workplace safety, and everything to do with keeping the company from being sued.

I’m glad thatÂ Village Green Companies is taking a black eye over this.Â Remember the second thing that corporations fear is bad publicity, and that’s the only thing that’s going to make them reconsider these types of policies.