Guns – Page 461 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Be Thankful We’re Not a Parliamentary Democracy

See this article from Canada, detailing why their gun rights community faces an uphill battle:

Then there’s the fact that Canada’s got a parliamentary form of government. In the U.S. the NRA can focus its attention on individual legislators, winning them over one by one.

In Canada, representatives have to vote with their party, or else they get kicked out of the party and can’t run in the next election. For Bernardo, that means instead of exerting all his power on one legislator at a time, he has to convince a whole party that his policies make sense.

Our systems has many flaws, but it’s easier for the determined to make a difference, even if they are determined minority. That’s not true in other systems, where political parties tend to dominate the political environment. We tend to think that’s the case here, but it’s not compared to other systems.

It’s also interesting the role campaign finance laws play, but I note Canada’s also apply to how much candidates can spend on elections. I would note that NRA’s model could work even under these limits, since NRA’s political power is more derived from electoral muscle than it’s ability to donate money to favored candidates, and communicate through independent expenditures.

Full Auto Explained

Thanks to John Richardson for this video, showing why the hysteria about full-auto fire is mostly just that:

Of course, the only thing this convinces our opponents of, is that semi-automatic firearms ought to be equally banned. Keep in mind this guy knows what he’s doing with a full-auto as well. An amateur is going to spray more wildly, and waste a lot more ammunition.

If I had to go against a gun wielding madman, I’d almost want him to waste all his ammunition firing on full-auto. Unless the guy brought a belt-fed machine gun and a while lot of ammo, he’s going to be empty with not much to show for it pretty quickly, and there’s only so much you can carry. Worst fear? Shotgun wielding madman. You’re probably not getting up from that, if hit.

Down the Memory Hole

Looks like American Defensive Enterprises are taking their embarrassing videos offline. I guess some attention from the big guns was more than they wanted to deal with. Sorry if you didn’t have a chance to see them first.

UPDATE: Thanks to reader David, and Bitter, we have a few more links:

Here’s one of their instructors. Here’s another. You can see yet another one here.

ADE’s Qualifications: Turkish Oil Wrestling, Biochemistry, and Alluring Moustaches

After posting the last bit about this American Defense Enterprises video appearing over at Tam’s, I decided to do a little digging through ADE’s videos on their YouTube channel. I have become enlightened to some of the qualifications of their staff:

Did you catch the Turkish Oil Wrestling bit? I would certainly never want to train with anyone who didn’t have experience with cage match, or who did not draw me in with the allure of his mustache. Also check out their promotional DVD, where we are introduced to yet another instructor, who notes, “My other day job is as a research scientist. I have a PhD in biochemistry.” It’s vitally important than when you find yourself stalked by a gang of angry ninjas, you be capable of knowing just what the bullets are going to do to his telomeres.

There are many people who are NRA certified instructors who have day jobs. I don’t want to disparage those many folks who do a great job of providing basic pistol instruction, but who don’t do it full time professionally. But when you’re claiming to offer advanced tactical training, up to the level received by special forces, most of which, by the way, is completely inapplicable to civilian self-defense, you better be able to back it up. This is more evidence ADE are selling snake oil.

UPDATE: Problem with scheduling posts… John Richardson beat me to it. Go check out what he found as well.

A Whole Lot of Stupid

Tam has a promotional video up from ADE training academy that has to be seen to be believed. Go watch, and be horrified. I’m wondering who these outfits are marketing to. Is the market for training of counterstrike kiddies turned gun owner growing faster than the common wisdom of the shooting community can reach them? Tam notes:

It is only a matter of time until some chiropodist at a weekend SWAT fantasy camp gets his kidneys blown out his navel by the Bushhamster of the stranger behind him in the stack preparing to practice breaching and clearing, and somebody likeÂ 20/20Â orÂ 60 MinutesÂ is going to have a frickin’ field day with it.

Scary thought. Papa Delta Brave has more.

Will This Shut The Gun Control Crowd Up?

Crimes in Virginia bars drops in the wake of liberalizing concealed carry in restaurants, says the Richmond Times-Dispatch. How many times does this have to happen before our opponents concede their ridiculous hysteria over this, and other concealed carry related topics is completely overblown? But they won’t. It would destroy their fragile world view, where law-abiding people with guns is a great danger. No, they will take the single case mentioned here:

One of the few unambiguous cases of a concealed-gun permit holder breaking the law occurred on July 28, 2010 â€” 27 days after the law became active â€” at a deli inÂ York County. In that case, a patron who had been drinking heavily with a gun concealed in his pocket allegedly sexually harassed a femaleÂ waitressÂ and, at one point, placed his hand over his hidden gun soÂ the waitressÂ could see its outline.

After making a commentÂ the waitressÂ construed as a threat, the man left but was stopped a short time later by police. They recovered a .380-caliber pistol from his pants pocket and chargedÂ himÂ with driving under the influence, brandishing a firearm and carrying a concealed weapon.

To which they’ll respond: “See, we told you!”Â They’ve turned into hucksters; people peddling random news stories as proof there’s an aggregate problem, no matter what the actual statistics seem to bear out. The truth is, if the media is covering it, that suggests it’s not a common occurrence to begin with. They will keep up the chicken little routine, and keep being proven wrong again, again, and again. They will keep trying to make those of us who are responsible people responsible for the actions of the irresponsible. This is who they are.

Self-Defense in the UK

Kevin Baker helps clear up a number of misconceptions, and it gets to something I’ve been talking about with Bitter as the riots raged on. Britons do not have access to handguns and semi-automatic firearms, but they do have access, and not terribly difficult access, to shotguns. I would not feel badly armed with a traditional English side-by-side and plenty of buckshot, even in a riot. The problem isn’t that British society has been disarmed by some evil, malevolent force; it chose to disarm itself, and that is the greater problem. You could bring the very same self-defense laws for England and Wales here to the Untied States, and not much would change; juries are still going to acquit people who defend themselves, no matter what the law says.

I’ve been interested to see whether this causes any kind of sea change in British attitudes toward self-defense and weapons generally. I don’t expect the British to ever have the same type of outlook toward this subject as Americans, but a key thing to watch is whether the police are inundated with applications for shotgun certificates and Â firearms certificates. If that’s the case, that will be good evidence that these riots were a wake-up call to the British people, and attitudes may be changing.

Response to “The Secret History of Guns”

The Battle Swarm Blog recently asked Clayton Cramer to respond to Prof. Adam Winkler’s article “The Secret History of Guns,” and got a response. I recommend reading both. Professor Winkler is not a person I’d classify as part of our movement, but he’s made some useful contributions to the debate. I’d classify him as a moderate. Clayton Cramer has been citied in a number of Second Amendment cases, including Heller, McDonald, and Ezell.

The Truth Must Sting

Dave Hardy points out this Washington Post article, defending their record on Fast and Furious, and notes the true record here doesn’t reflect the Posts’ defense of themselves. From the Post:

David S. Fallis, Cheryl W. Thompson, James Grimaldi and Horwitz. Leen said that he and the reporters who wrote the Southwest border part of that series, Grimaldi and Horwitz, never heard of, or had even an inkling of, the top-secret Fast and Furious effort until indictments in the case were announced in late January in Phoenix by U.S. attorneys and the ATF.

It’s funny, I had heard about it by then, and had been hearing about it for several weeks when that expose came out. Here’s a handy timeline of how this story came about. The fact is, the Posts’ reporting on Fast and Furious has been abysmal, they should be ashamed, and it’s never been more obvious to me they are in the tank for the Administration. The fact that they feel they need to respond to critics is probably the best indication of all that we have a point.

Astroturfing, Part MMCDLXXXI

Days of Our Trailer uncovers another attempt by a Joyce funded group to look like they are the real McCoy. You can usually tell the fake ones quickly, by the fact that they don’t take comments, and never did. Most real bloggers like getting comments.