Jacob notes that one of the Mayoral candidates for New York City is bragging about getting financial companies to divest from gun companies. I agree with Jacob that there could be other reasons. I would not be confident investing in firearms companies over the long term myself because there’s just so much I don’t know. While I agree that the market for shooting products is expanding, the big question in my mind is how much of it is permanent. Even though we all agree the number of new shooters is growing, is it growing fast enough to deal with the secondary market getting flooded once Obama is out of office, and hoarders start to divest inventory. Is it growing fast enough to deal baby boomers dying off and their collections hitting the market?
Author: Sebastian
The Science Settles It
From an article on guns and suicide:
But researchers who study mental illness, guns and suicide say curtailing access to guns won’t necessarily reduce firearm suicides. Education and prevention may be a much better answer than stricter gun laws, they say.
They are pushing for education rather than laws, saying new laws won’t make much of a difference. It also notes they are getting help from the gun community. Funny how that happens when your goal is actually to solve problems rather than just take away our rights and freedoms. The only person who seems to insist gun laws would matter is a Joyce stooge.
Inflation
Being a somewhat shameless member of the species packus ratus, I’m finding myself going through a lot of old files that I’m trying to avoid moving back downstairs to my office. I keep literally everything, and I’ve decided that’s a bit much. But it’s fun looking back at how much more I spend on gas and food now. Eating out used to be a lot cheaper. Guns too. I found a credit card statement that had my first firearm purchase back in 2000, during the hight of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban.
This was for a Romanian AK and 1000 rounds of ammo, showing here:
I was not even really into shooting at the time. I bought it as a symbolic and perhaps obscene gesture to those people who said I shouldn’t own one. Today the ammo damned near costs that much if you can even find it. I miss those days. I have to give Barack Obama credit — he’s done a lot more to keep guns and ammo off of store shelves than any president in history.
Neat Graphic on Pennsylvania History
We found this during genealogical research. It shows the evolution of Pennsylvania counties from the founding of Pennsylvania in 1682 until the present county divisions that has remained in place since 1930. It also shows the claims Virginia, Maryland and Connecticut made over Pennsylvania. The border for Maryland was eventually settled by the Mason-Dixon survey, and settlers often fought low-level wars with settlers from Virginia and Connecticut over their claims. Connecticut claims were strong enough that many Revolutionary War service records for soldiers from what is now Western Pennsylvania are to be found with the State of Connecticut.
Speaking of the Mason-Dixon survey, here’s an interesting fact:
It was not the demarcation line for the legality of slavery, however, since Delaware, a slave state, falls north and east of the boundary. Also lying north and east of the boundary was New Jersey where, in reality, slavery existed, in limited numbers, until 1865. It was not until 1846 that New Jersey abolished slavery, but it qualified it by redefining former slaves as apprentices who were “apprenticed for life” to their masters. Slavery did not truly end in the state until it was ended nationally in 1865 after the American Civil War and passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution.
There was technically some measure of slavery in Pennsylvania until 1847, when slavery was completely outlawed. Pennsylvania passed its Gradual Emancipation Act in 1780, which didn’t abolish slavery, but which prohibited further importation of slaves into the commonwealth, and made any children of slaves freeborn. This was actually the model used by most of the northern states, but New Jersey was one of the last states to begin gradual emancipation, only starting in 1804, 24 years after Pennsylvania started the trend. The only state to do immediate emancipation was Massachusetts in 1783, and that was through a court decision. So it’s probably not entirely fair to single out New Jersey in this example.
Don’t Take Advice from Joe Biden
A man is arrested for firing a shotgun in the air to chase off what he thought were car thieves. He actually invoked the Vice President’s advice as a defense.
Cook County Bans Long Guns for 18-20 Year Olds
And if that wasn’t enough, a whole heaping helping of taxpayer dollars to fund a Joyce initiative aimed at training new anti-gun activists. Sounds like we need a ban on taxpayer dollars being used to lobby government. Might be tough in Illinois, but maybe not in other states. Kansas is leading the way.
Who Benefits from Stand Your Ground?
Clayton Cramer highlights an article in The Daily Caller that would seem to show that Blacks benefit disproportionally from Stand Your Ground in Florida. This does not surprise me either. Blacks are statistically more likely to encounter situations where they may need to use deadly force in self-defense, less likely to get the benefit of doubt in the legal system, and less likely to be able to afford a good defense attorney, the last of which prosecutors are going to weigh when thinking about bringing charges. Prosecutors generally don’t want to bring cases where they aren’t sure they can get a conviction.
I’ve wondered how much of the negative reaction to the Zimmerman case was driven by the idea that Blacks would never get such easy treatment in similar circumstances. In that case, the fact that Zimmerman was walking the streets and not looking at a trial inflamed their sense of injustice. I think they have a point about that, to be honest. But I don’t see how stacking the deck back in favor of the prosecution is going to do anything except make it objectively worse for Black defendants who find themselves arguing self-defense in equally marginal situations.
Targeting Stand Your Ground
Anti-gun groups target stand your ground laws in the wake of Zimmerman acquittal. This narrative was practically tailor made for them. Of course, it’s complete hogwash that this case hinged on Stand Your Ground at all, such that they have to reach for minor changes in jury instructions to have any case at all. But really, the truth doesn’t matter. The narrative was perfect.
What the gun control groups have achieved is raising the perception of cost for passing these laws, and in politics, perception matters a lot more than reality. Previously, these had been passed fairly easily and with wide margins. Why?
- It was an easy way to please a constituency perceieved as important.
- It materially did not alter self-defense laws all that much. Most cases don’t rise or fall on a duty to retreat.
- The civil immunities are hard to argue against.
- States that traditionally were SYG states historically, didn’t seem to have too much trouble prosecuting actual or attempted cases of murder and manslaughter.
- There was little downside, short of opposition from Attorneys General, who don’t like the idea of limiting their discretion and making it harder for them to win marginal cases.
Now every lawmakers will be wondering if their names will be all over the papers as having voted for the next Zimmerman acquittal. The media is happy to drive false narratives that hurt us, and the Zimmerman case was also gift wrapped for the Obama Administration and his re-election. The case may have been the perfect storm for the left and their media allies, but every lawmaker will be wondering if it could happen again. Despite the fact that it takes dishonesty, the anti-gun folks played this one well, and it will hurt us going forward.
News Links for “Ugh! I hate the news cycle!”
All the news media is talking about the Zimmerman case, and all the old narratives are coming back. The ignorance burns. Everyone knows what happened in the Zimmerman case. Everyone’s an expert, and everyone has an opinion, even when they have no idea what they are talking about. Here’s the news:
The psychology of gun laws. She should have stopped at “I’m no legal expert”
USA Today has their viewpoint, and they think none of us are responsible enough to bear arms.
The Chicago Police Chief also thinks you’re stupid.
Mississippi gun laws are too confusing, apparently. OK… I’ll bite. Let’s get rid of them then, if they are too confusing.
Glenn Reynolds: A black man defends himself against a white attacker and is acquitted. Yeah, I didn’t hear about this either. Also, American own nearly half of the privately owned guns on earth. I think we can do better too.
The rush to gun control causes Connecticut to pass a bill so we could find out what’s in it.
Not gun related, but this makes perfect political sense to me. Those welfare recipients vote Republican.
Remember, they hate us. The best revenge is working through the system to ensure they remain very angry, very disappointed people.
Black lawmakers are readying a flurry of bills in response to the Zimmerman acquittal, none of which would have anything to do with the actual case. I’m sympathetic to racial profiling by police, but the best way to stop that is to end the drug war.
A gun buyback you can believe in.
News Media Loving the Alt-history
What if Zimmerman didn’t have a gun? You keep seeing this in the media, as if we can really know, and if this isn’t anything more than wild assed speculation. It’s utter nonsense.
Maybe he wouldn’t have gotten out of the car. Maybe he would have gotten beaten to death. Maybe he would have ended up in a coma for two months, and recovered. Wouldn’t that be a better outcome? Maybe he would have not gotten involved in his neighborhood and stayed home like a good scared little citizen. Maybe he would have had it out with Tray and they could have gone for ice cream afterwards.
Who knows and who cares? What if Hitler had gotten accepted into art school? We’ll never know.