Concealed carry is serious business

Anti-gun progressives just don't get it, and they won't be happy until the state has disarmed everyone

According to bed-wetter William Saletan, we’re lucky. He tells the story of armed citizen Joe Zamudio, who heard the shots coming from the Safeway that fateful Saturday when a congresswoman, a judge, a nine-year old girl, and other innocent victims were gunned down in cold blood...




 

This is a much more dangerous picture than has generally been reported. Zamudio had released his safety and was poised to fire when he saw what he thought was the killer still holding his weapon. Zamudio had a split second to decide whether to shoot. He was sufficiently convinced of the killer's identity to shove the man into a wall. But Zamudio didn't use his gun. That's how close he came to killing an innocent man. He was, as he acknowledges, "very lucky."

That's what happens when you run with a firearm to a scene of bloody havoc. In the chaos and pressure of the moment, you can shoot the wrong person. Or, by drawing your weapon, you can become the wrong person—a hero mistaken for a second gunman by another would-be hero with a gun. Bang, you're dead. Or worse, bang bang bang bang bang: a firefight among several armed, confused, and innocent people in a crowd. It happens even among trained soldiers. Among civilians, the risk is that much greater.

We're enormously lucky that Zamudio, without formal training, made the right split-second decisions. We can't count on that the next time some nut job starts shooting.

BULLSPIT!

Only a gun-fearing, thumb-sucking big-government sheeple could draw such a conclusion. In fact, a reasonable person draws the exact opposite conclusion from the story. Two armed citizens acting not like the trigger-happy cowboys that populate the cringing imaginations of gun-grabbers, but two men taking measure of the situation and acting on the side of prudence and caution.  The total absence of such fanciful stories Saletin conjures is a glaring refutation of his conclusion.

We do not have concealed carry citizens shooting up crime scenes, killing innocent bystanders and other would-be rescuers. I just hasn’t happened. I can say that with confidence without doing my characteristic research. Had even one such event ever occurred in the last 30 years, the liberal media would still be shouting through bullhorns about it.

Mr. Zamudio’s story, combined with the absence of Saletin’s fearful fantasies, proves that Americans are adults and can be trusted with their rights, including the right to arm themselves.

If gun restrictions are so effective, why do “gun free zones” like New Jersey and California experience more gun violence than free-carry states like Arizona, Montana and Colorado?

http://www.slate.com/id/2280794/

It Was a Very Good Week

"Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else." -- Frederic Bastiat

The Wisdom of George Will...

It takes a worried man to sing a worried song, and in a recent speech that seemed like Larry Summers's swan song, the president's now-departed economic adviser warned that America is "at risk of a profound demoralization with respect to government."

The idea that America's problem of governance is one of inadequate resources misses this lesson of the last half-century: No amount of resources can prevent government from performing poorly when it tries to perform too many tasks, or particular tasks for which it is inherently unsuited.

Actually, government is not sufficiently demoralized. (George Will)

Representative Giffords' recovery proceeds at a miraculous pace, and the big lefty smear has failed. The House voted to repeal health care, and I'm still employed.  It's been a good week.

Have a great weekend!

Grab their Guns and Shut them Up!

Why should it be more of a crime to threaten a politician than it is to threaten an ordinary citizen?

A threat is a threat, and all credible threats should be treated equally under the law regardless of who issues the threat or who is threatened.

"The president is a federal official," Brady told CNN in a telephone interview. "You can't do it to him; you should not be able to do it to a congressman, senator or federal judge." (The Hill)

You shouldn't be able to do it to anyone, congressman! A threat to my wife or a threat to Harry Reid; it doesn't matter. Both are criminal and should be punished.  This concept is a cornerstone of The Rule of Law. 

David Weigel at Slate explains better than I can why this is a bad idea.

Brady's proposed legislation is half unenforceable and half redundant. Threats against public officials are already illegal. A year ago, a Pennsylvania man was arrested because his interminable YouTube rants veered into threats against Eric Cantor, who's now the House majority leader.

Loughner didn't make any YouTube threats. (Slate)

Such proposed laws are really about controlling speech, but like gun control, the nuts and the criminals the law is directed at won't obey it anyway...

If someone like Jared Loughner wants to develop bizarre ideas about government based on obscure online theories—or based on nothing at all—no amount of civil dialogue will prevent it.  (Slate)

Here's the real agenda.

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) suggested the Federal Communications Commission was "not working anymore," adding she would look at ways to better police language on the airwaves.  (The Hill-New Curbs)

Yes. All that criticism of failed, tired statist policies foisted upon us by a power-mad democratic party is getting out of hand. "Irresponsible speech" and free-thinking caused a turnover in the house of representatives and almost upturned the senate. We can't have that!

"What I'd like to see is if we could all get together on both sides of the aisle, Democrats and Republicans, and really talk about what we can do to cool down the country," Slaughter said.(The Hill-New Curbs)

Liberals want to cool down the criticism, take the heat off of themselves, their horrible agenda, and the multi-trillion dollar failures they have burdened us all with. "Cool down the country" means shut up criticism of liberalism and put off limits all this wild talk about shrinking our bloated, inefficient politburo-style government and the big fat Greek-style debt it has incurred. That's the kind of talk these failed statists in the Democratic party want to squelch.

To equate criticism of government with killing people is repulsive, but that's the stinking sewer liberals now find themselves mired in. They are completely repudiated and their policies discredited, so all they have left is to tell the country to shut up, and enforce their imperial mandate with the force of law.

Liberals Exploiting Death for Partisan Gain

Democratic Party 2011: Never let a bloody tragedy go to waste

Not one scintilla of evidence has yet been uncovered linking righwing rhetoric to the Arizona murders, but that hasn't stopped the rabid left from shamelessly exploiting death and tragedy for partisan political advantage. But the American people ain't buyin' it.  The Demagogic party is playing with fire, and they're going to get burned.

Of course, if fact and reason were their foundation, the Democratic party would have collapsed decades ago.

"They need to deftly pin this on the tea partiers," said the Democrat. "Just like the Clinton White House deftly pinned the Oklahoma City bombing on the militia and anti-government people." (Politico)

Leftwing America: A Nutball in every Pot, a Moonbat in every Belfry

The leftwing wackadoos won't let it go and never will, but these are the nutty nutballs that tune into red-faced ranter Ed Schultz and pompous gas bag Keith Olberman. Garbage in, garbage out. They call this killing spree "The Tea Party Massacre" and say stupid things like this:

"Sorry, Klanbaggers. You drew the crosshairs, and then you drew blood."

How pithy. People who take comfort in such low and shallow sentiments must really suffer poor self-esteem and a sense of uselessness, probably for good reason...

Even the sane ones can't give it up...
What I find more insidious and disheartening is what is going on in the saner corners of the left. Using their heads and being intellectually honest, there are good liberals who admit there is no connection between anyone on the right (or left for that matter) and the shooter. The nexus is just not there. The typical thinking liberal will concede that Palin and the tea parties are not to blame, then in the same breath go right back to subtly casting blame by condemning their rhetoric as "dangerous" and "irresponsible." I don't think most who do this are even conscious of the illogic of it. Here's a typical example:

I'm not sure which response has been worse: the 'Hey, we had nothing to do with it' hand washing of the right, or the irrational lynchmob attitude of the left (are they really comfortable blaming Palin for this, when there's not a shred of evidence that this guy was even slightly inspired by her?).

Even the more fair-minded liberals just can't let the right off the hook. They can't help wagging their fingers at us, attempting to hold us in some kind of suspended probation. They scold us even as they admit there is no evidence: "We know you weren't behind this, but we've got our eye on you!"

Lefties are Nostalgic for a more obedient America
Their purpose is to cast a dim light upon a conservatism that now attracts twice the voting populace that the tired, flaccid liberalism does. The left's only hope is to cast aspersions and stand us in ill-repute with our fellow citizens. They want to put us on notice, to hector and shame us, to stuff us back in a box we broke out of back in the 80's. Liberals sigh with nostalgia as they recall the day when an Eric Severeid or Walter Kronkite told America what to think. It's all so messy now, with all those noisy opinions flying around!

So they retreat to tired old talking points about handguns, civility, the fairness doctrine, speech codes... The only common denominator to these splintered and incoherent ramblings is a desire to snuff more liberties.

Shameless Exploitation is all the Left has left
Never letting a good tragedy go to waste, the left has hijacked this horrible incident to score cheap points. They follow up a senseless tragedy with a senseless spasm of stupidity and demagoguery. It is sickening and craven, and we need to press them on it. A full 57% of normal Americans disagree with the unhinged left, and reject the notion that rightwing tea party rhetoric had anything to do with this.

The left has lost, folks
They lost their sense of good governance years ago, they lost power last November, and now they are losing their minds. This is not a time for tea partiers to retreat or sit back and take it. Now is the time to press the attack on those deranged collectivist morons who so warp and twist the national debate. They've come unhinged, and they need to be held accountable for their irresponsible behavior. The truth is on our side, and so are the American people.

Here are some antidotes to the unhinged liberal rhetoric. Read them and use the information to throw it back in the faces of the hooting baboons on the left.  The true beauty of these links?  Half of them are from liberal publications, and they side with the conservatives.

http://www.salon.com/news/gabrielle_giffords/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/01/09/loughner_not_though
http://www.salon.com/news/gabrielle_giffords/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/01/11/culture_violence_giffords_poll
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/81168/the-arizona-shooting-not-product-right-wing-rage
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/256765/hypocrisy-unending-jay-nordlinger
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=41087
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/10/AR2011011003685.html

Hillary to the Muslim World: "We Have Extremists, Too!"

Obama may have wrapped up his Apology Tour, but Hillary continues reassuring the world's dysfunctional cesspools that the US is no better than they are.

It really pisses me off when Americans go overseas and commiserate with the locals, voluntarily dragging down this country in a vain attempt to ingratiate themselves with people from a dysfunctional society.  It's bad enough when Ditzy Chix do it, but when a government official engages in such behavior it is particularly detestable.

Democrats in general, and Clintons in particular are especially adept.  Here’s a quote from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton while visiting the Arabian peninsula, that world-renowned seat of religious tolerance and cultural understanding …

"We have extremists in my country. A wonderful, incredibly brave young woman Congress member, Congresswoman Giffords, was just shot by an extremist in our country," she added.

"We have the same kinds of problems. So rather than standing off from each other, we should work to try to prevent the extremists anywhere from being able to commit violence." (Reuters)  

Bull Excrement! 

We do not punish women accused of adultery by burying them from the torso down and throwing rocks at their heads until they die.  We do not kill daughters for looking at a boy.  We do not collapse walls on homosexuals.  We do not blow up each others’ houses of worship and slaughter people leaving them. 

Clinton's statement is a prime example of the mushy moral equivalency and intellectual flabbiness that now grips this nation.   

Western civilization has advanced mankind to the 21^st century and enjoys a level of equality for all that is unprecedented in the history of the world.  Much of the muslim world remains mired in 7^th century religious bigotry, misogyny and obscurantism, witnessed by the paucity of scholarly output and the copious amount of violence spilling out of that cauldron of hatred and ignorance. 

More stupidity from our Secretary of State...

"The extremists and their voices, the crazy voices that sometimes get on the TV, that's not who we are, that's not who you are, and what we have to do is get through that and make it clear that that doesn't represent either American or Arab ideas or opinions,"

Again, BS!  There is no equivalency.

It is a gross insult to equate tea parties with the inflamed, sweaty middle eastern hordes with blood in their eyes, burning, bombing and slashing.  We don’t kill cartoonists here.  Christians do not murder blasphemers who sculpt our religious figures in elephant dung and dunk them in jars of urine.  Political assassinations are thankfully rare.  We don’t throw acid in womens’ faces, and we raise our daughters to believe they are in every way equal to boys and that there are no barriers to their success. 

I was starting to develop a grudging respect for Hillary, but I now see she is just another liberal with a visceral disdain for our culture and for the ordinary people that make this nation great.  

Dangerous Rhetoric

“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.”
-- Barack Obama

"Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is dead to me now."
-- Daily Kos Kook "BoyBlue"

“Those aren’t the kinds of folks who represent our core American values.”
-- Barack Obama

‘We’re going to punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us’
-- Barack Obama

The left is so predictable... 
An unstable man whom former friends describe as a leftist, goes on a shooting rampage, and the liberal commentariat calls him a tea partier.  The news media-Democratic establishment-nutroots Axis of Weasels crank up the predictable blather about guns, rightwing hate, talk radio and the "dangers" of free speech.

Can lefty logic really be this flawed?
Some town hall meetings got heated last year, fueled by irate tea partiers...  The shooting happened at a town hall meeting... Ergo tanto cum sum ipso factoid, reducto ad Palin.

Following this same logic, we can completely repudiate environmentalism and global climate change by merely citing Ted Kaczinski's enviro-rantings and bloody attacks.

Millions motivated to vote--None to commit violence
The tea parties moved the middle this last election.  Independents who elected Obama two years ago recoiled in horror at the Democrat agenda and brought a resounding victory to Republicans at the state, local and national level.   If the tea parties really are the font of rightwing violence, why haven't we seen many such attacks?  If they moved so many to go vote Republican, why have they been such a failure at inciting racial and politically-motivated violence? 

You don't attract America's broad middle by preaching hatred and violence.  You open a dialog and you talk about ideas and fundamental principles, which is what the tea partiers did.  People are fed up with all the spending and mandating, and non-ideological people turned out and voted to trust the GOP one more time.

Let's Talk Consequences...
We have children condemned to third-world life in inner city slums and failed schools because of the Democratic party's war on poverty and pandering to teachers unions.  We have multi-generational poverty because the democratic party treats the poor like children, giving them housing, food stamps, rewards for unmarried pregnancies.  They give the poor everything but the wherewithal to take care of themselves.  Why?  Because liberals do not trust these people to take care of their own lives; they'd just screw it up, so the democrats destroy their lives for them.

This was not a Palin-directed tea party hit.  
It was a crime.  Murder.  Speaking of which, why is it that liberal gun ban bastions like California, Chicago and New York experience so much more violent gun crime than open carry states and cities?  President Obama rightly called the Tucson incident an unspeakable tragedy.  Now, can we also focus our attention on the unspeakable tragedies that happen every day in our crime-riddled inner cities, where good people are prisoners in their own homes? 

No.  It's more fun to engage in free-wheeling speculation and unfounded charges.  The rhetoric of the left has come untethered from fact and reason and now floats aloft on an updraft of of hot air and imperious high dudgeon.  They have no problem with that kind of free speech.

Worse, such back and forth obscures the real issue:  We have violent and crazy people walking among us.  This murderer had several run-ins with the law and those who interacted with him thought he was crazy.  Why was he not locked up or at least evaluated?  

I pray for the souls that perished in that attack and I pray for the swift and full recovery of Rep Giffords and the other victims.