I regularly hear from viewers who like to watch the videos, but don’t like to hear me pontificate on political issues. This is because they don’t agree with them, but worse, my take on it generally makes them extremely uncomfortable with their own dearly held views on the topic at hand.
Now as I don’t find it particularly important that they agree with me or not, and I’m not running for any particular office, and that the primary concern regarding my popularity is sort of limited to me my wife (not doing well there these days I’m afraid), my dog (deceased now for some 30 years) and my kids (all grown and finding all this hilarious), what an I supposed to do with that?
All my children are extremely bright people. They particularly find it hilarious watching me try to interact with the real world and even more hilarious when the real world tries to interact with me. It’s kind of worth throwing these missives out there once in awhile just to keep them entertained.
This morning, the young socialist club on MSNBC, who have now actually converted Joe Scarborough, who first named them, are in full throated howling rage over a National Rifle Association Advertisement. They are incessantly chanting that the polls show America is with them in their view that all our ills are caused by gun owners, entirely oblivious to the role they play in forming those views so polled. And somehow, if enough cattle want to go over the cliff together, it must be a cliff to go over.
The child mind senselessness of this is depressing. A classic don’t know, and don’t know they don’t know circular spiral.
I suppose the reason I am moved by all this is the spectre of some 27 families, home grieving at the moment for the loss of a six year old child they had sent to school trusting that our government and schools would make them safe. And instead they have made them dead. And everyone agrees SOMETHING should be done.
I cannot imagine anything more painful. I don’t think I ever would recover or even have an ABnormal life had this happened to any of my own six children. I just don’t think it would work for me. No possible recovery.
And to watch men cynically grasp for political advantage and their own agenda, using this incident as an advantage, raises the sour taste of vomit in the back of my throat.
The NRA ad rather succinctly noted that the President of the United States knows FULL WELL how to fix the problem. In the case of his own daughters, who he did mention he wanted to “hug a little closer” that night, are escorted to school by three Secret Service bodyguards, at our expense of course, to protect them, with guns.
That pretty much wraps up the debate. End of discussion. We all know the answer. And have for 300 years. The only “protection” from bad guys with guns, the evil and the deranged, is good guys with guns. It might be worth driving the point, that prior to that, the only way to protect against bad guys with swords, was with good guys with swords. And that prior to that, the only way to protect from bad guys with sticks, was good guys with sticks. And this goes back to the beginning of the history of man.
At the national level no one really questions that the only protection we have from other countries with guns, is guns of our own. We like them to be bigger guns, faster guns, that fly higher, land vertically, orbit the earth, or by deploying any technology that we can, are just better guns. It is no different at the local level.
This is the heart of the entire question of whether or not you want to be “safe” if that is the mission. We already know the answer. It is not really arguable.
We live in a democracy where we purportedly rule by ballot. And as a nation of law, we send the best and the brightest (I know, but in theory) to carefully consider and pass those laws.
But ultimately, if we don’t obey the laws, chaos ensues.
Many of us believe in the rule of law. Those who advocate the MOST laws are always the elitists who do not feel those laws actually apply to THEM. They are there to regulate THOSE people. But there is a core of America that believes in the rule of law and that it should apply equally to all and that they should be observed and obeyed, even when inconvenient, as part of the price of cooperatively forming a nation and deriving the benefits of such, instead of remaining a squabbling bunch of individual clans spread across the land in a constant state of war (Iraq, Iran, Afghanastan).
And then there are those who do not feel bound to observe the laws. They are in it for themselves and will break any law that at all keeps them from doing what they want to do. We have always had such. In every country, and in every society.
The laws our leaders pass are ONLY effective with those who voluntarily obey them, and in proportion to our ability to ENFORCE them.
Sadly, the much lauded “first responders” portrayed as heros, are not heros. They are hired guns cynically employed by the state to collect revenues. They enforce child support and other court decrees, and prosecute reveunue producing “crimes” like “failure to register a motor vehicle.” The vehicle is of course in all cases “registered.” This is a euphanism for “haven’t paid the tax on the car this year.” DUI stops take up a lot of time, and have led to an entirely new revenue stream for states, counties, and cities across the land.
They have NO time for any investigations of rape, murder, assault, burglary, theft, fraud, embezzlement, or any of that UNLESS it it somehow a media event. They simply don’t have the manpower or resource for it.
The utter, stark, and central truth to the events at Sandy Hook is it was, and always was, against the law to murder 26 children. The law was not obeyed, and by definition the pathetic figure of the young man that did this is an outlaw.
Now if the laws against murder, and the deterrence of capital punishment, had no effect on this young man to dissuade him from this heinous crime, what note will he take of gun control laws?
And so we are not talking about passing a law to prevent the crime. We are talking about passing a law that maybe the LAW ABIDING will follow, to somehow prevent this kid from getting a gun to conveniently commit the crime.
This kind of one off backup and try again with a law that maybe someone WILL follow is precisely what got us here in the first place.
You see, if it’s a gun free zone, I would be very reluctant to carry a gun there. It’s against the law. The young man was not persuaded. But I am.
Indeed, it kind of “against the law” for me to walk down the street with a pistol strapped to my hip in plain view. And so as a habitual and unrepentant law abider, I just don’t.
And while its true that that makes YOU safe from ME, it rather fails to make you safe from HIM. Because he neither knows or cares about the law.
And I can’t help you. I’m disarmed.
In truth, I DID join the NRA last week. And hundreds of thousands of OTHER Americans are joining them every day now. But I don’t have a gun. You see, I don’t particularly like guns. Like I don’t like them at all.
I was in a war briefly and a long time ago. It wasn’t a good war or a popular one like WWII or the recent ones. We were a long way from home. And most people didn’t think we should be there. And people got killed a lot. And I found it mostly unpleasant when not in a bar chasing women and drinking beer.
In watching video games and movies today, there is something satisfying and exhilarating about blowing people away, and of course in some detail. While I’m aware of this, I don’t personally share it. If you have ever watched and felt, and you can both watch and feel, the spirit remove from a living human being, it is a rather distinctly different event than what you see on video games or movies. I suppose different individuals react somewhat differently to this. My personal reaction is not very good. It has great sadness at the utter finality of it, leaving whatever the purpose was that lead to the event flapping in the breeze in a kind of ridiculous counterpoise of irrelevant almost silliness. Our silly notions of everything embarasingly exposed in the light of the face of God.
And a kind of resounding, almost ear shattering silence of the finality of all that will never be in the future of the dead. You do NOT find comfort that they are now in a better place. The air shimmers from the pronounced sense that they are GONE from THIS place, with their remains starkly before you, a totally empty and discarded shell. When it comes suddenly and violently, it is a doubly impressive moment.
So I don’t carry a gun. Don’t even own one. And if they want to shoot me, I’m ok with that. I probably wouldnt’ actually shoot them if I could to prevent it. But I might, if it was to prevent them shooting YOU.
But I am now a member of the NRA.
In my father’s generation, this sort of thing didn’t go on in quite this way. He, and many Humphrey Bogart types like him, just wouldn’t allow it. Picture John Wayne in Sandy Hook. He just doesn’t put up with that kind of shit. And so it mostly doesn’t happen.
My grandfather is an interesting story. In the 1920’s he took a crew to New Madrid Missouri to build a sidewalk system for the then burgeoning town. He had several black laborers and New Madrid was kind of a southern culture cracker town. He sent one of his laborers down the street to get somethign fom the hardware store. Apparently he offended some of the locals, eight of which beat him half to death and retired to celebrate at the local tavern. The laborer was brought back down to the job site. My grandfather went to his truck and pulled out a horse pistol, walked up the street and entered the tavern. He asked who was the main guy there and the first to speak got a 45 caliber bullet through the bridge of his nose. He then turned his back on the rest and walked out of the tavern, back down to the job site, and returned to work.
Ironically, my great grandfather on the OTHER side of the family was the sherriff. He went down to the job site and asked my grandfather what had happened. He told him in about 10 words. Some of your boys roughed up one of my laborers Sir. If it happens again, I will take it poorly.
My great grandfather eyed my grandfather, still wearing his pistol, and noted that he would pass it on. No arrest was made. And nothing further was said. There was no inquiry, nor grand jury indictment.
But 30 years later, my father proposed marriage to my mother. Her grandfather, the same Jesse Bledsoe who served as sherriff, was by then the local judge in New Madrid. He informed her in no uncertain terms that she was not to marry anyone named Rickard, but she wasn’t even to be seen around one. He noted that they were all crazy as a sack of cats and they would shoot a man over the least little thing…
They married anyway. And here I am.
New Town was not POSSIBLE in 1920. It was not possible in 1950. It is now COMMON today. What’s different. Tom Rickard would have spent years in prison today. Never mind that everyone knew the crackers who had beat up the black were known troublemakers in the community anyway, and that Tom Rickard was 57 years old and a respected owner of a long traditioned construction company. Today we have laws. Yesterday we had John Wayne.
And today we have New Town. And that is why.
Gun control laws cannot prevent New Town in the future. Gun control laws are what CAUSED New Town. And Aurora. And Columbine.
So the solution is MORE of them?
IF your mission is to protect children in school from crazy demented people with guns, then LaPierre’s solution is the only one that works. You recruit and train and arm grandfathers to each volunteer a day a month at the local school to play John Wayne.
If you have a different solution, then you have a different mission. Because our President knows best. And that’s what he does for HIS daughters – send armed men to protect them.
The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States does NOT say we have a right to keep and bear arms. It says rather specifically that the government has NO RIGHTS to even INFRINGE on our right to keep and bear arms. And it was passed overwhelmingly NOT so we could go hunting or target shooting. No one would have thought of restricting hunting in 1776. It would be like trying to pass a law regulating bowel movements today. Target shooting was unheard of. Why would you shoot a gun at something that wasn’t an animal to eat or another person. They just werent’ that angry at cans and paper targets in those days.
The Second Amendment had ONLY one purpose. That was to remind our government that there was a limit to tyranny, and they were NOT safe from the anger of the governed. It was specifically a right to keep and bear arms as a check on GOVERNMENT, not personal safety.
In the context of the day, it made perfect sense.
If you believe that this absolute guarantee, an intrinsic part of the agreement to govern ourselves, is no long relevant to a modern society, that should be pretty universally evident. No problem. Pass its repeal through the House and Senate, and get 35 states to ratify. Simple enough that we’ve done a dozen amendments SINCE the Second.
But it would still be a poor strategy. We have 280 million guns in the United States. Worse, I can make one in my shop in a long weekend, without knowing much about them. In two weeks, I’m pretty sure I can gen up a passable semiautomatic assault weapon. It’s a 19th century technology. In a world of 3D printers.
SO how are you going to assure me that once you take my gun away, that the criminals lose their’s as well?. You can’t. Not without making steel illegal. Or brass. Or gunpowder. Or sulphur. The one=off requirements never end. And even if you have ALL the law abiding totally controlled and having dutifully reported to prison camp, you will still be LEFT with the criminal element, with guns.
And if ALL of you believe otherwise, in concert and together, it won’t change one atom of any of that at all. It doesn’t MATTER what you believe. It just is what it is. You have the mental acuity to grasp it, or you do not. But nothing changes in the face of it.
What would John Wayne think….
Jack Rickard
Gayle DeLeeuw Fisher liked this on Facebook.
James Wilson liked this on Facebook.
Hi Jack,
I applaud your conviction of stating an opinion. If conversations are to take place about the matters of the day they are usless unless the participants are willing to take each others views into consideration.
Here’s mine:
The news media has the most promising means of stopping future Sandy Hook type tragidies. I believe most of these damaged individuals that plan and carry out these horrors have no concern for laws but are motivated by fame and infamy. The news media should ban together and stop stating the names of these killers and let their viewers know that they will no longer acknowledge them. Thus the killers access to fame is denied. This will only work if we the public call up our local tv and newspapers and yell at them any time they give value to these killers by naming them. This does nothing to deny the right to bear arms or restrict our methods of protecting our loved ones.
Don Zacher
Edwin Pezant liked this on Facebook.
I’m not qualified to lecture the US on what it should do. FWIW here is my UK perspective.
Apart from the occasional armed police at airports I haven’t seen a gun in years. I doubt that any of my acquaintances own one. They are just not in our culture, regardless of political persuasion.
I’m told that guns are available on the black market for modest prices (a few hundred £s), so the real baddies have them (the illegal-weapon-de-jour is said to be the hand grenade). Baddies with guns are few and far between though. We lost two policewomen a few months back but it isn’t a major risk for the average member of the force. One issue may be the price of ammunition – I heard about £5 a round which prices the ineffectual youth out of the killing spree business.
I think you left-of-pond guys have an interesting problem – there are clearly deeply-held views on both sides, your country is awash with guns and in some parts of the US you could meet a grizzly in your back garden (not an issue in Surbiton). All the best with it.
Anyway, back to EVs……
Hey Jack, I agree with most everything you said – here in Canada we have much of the same problem, just less of these horrid crimes. If I get on my own soap box for a moment the problem starts at birth, and runs all the way to death. . . scratch that, the problem starts at conception and runs all the way to death. We as “North America” do not value life, nor respect anyone. The lack of respect comes from a lack of fear, and I don’t mean, I put a gun to your head and raped you kind of fear, I mean a reverent fear, the fear of the Lord kind of fear. The respectful fear of the elderly, the ones who will smack you up side the head for being an ass. (the catch being, they live above reproach) And the fear that God knows what you have done.*** We legalize the murder of children, and a lot more then 26 a year!
My personal take on it is MEN are too damn busy with their smart phones, computers, cars, guns, game systems, tvs, and anything that starts with a lower case I (iPhone, iPod, iPad, etc) that they forget to love their kids, wives, and parents. Men need to stand up and BE MEN, not just males.
Chad Meyers
(at home making LESS then 20K a year, so I can be with my family)
——————-
*** “Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” – The answer to that is YES, you are your brothers keeper. We are all called to love one another, and look out for each other. How many people didn’t do this and allowed New Town. . . a lot. Step into The Light and care, I dare you!
moderation of what?
And yet another hornet has arrived 🙂
Interesting, usually it’s the “typing-themself-smart guys” who get dissected by your sharp intellect Jack, but I think this once it’s vice versa: the majority of the comments are setting things straight.
Don’t get me wrong. I do love your show, I admire what you’ve achieved, I like your rasp charm and your almost satirical comments on decisions of congresmen, stupid laws, taxes, etc. even if I don’t always agree with them. (Believe me, I know what I’m talking about, I’m still on a “3-years-of-evtv-in-6-months” trip 🙂 . But when you started talking about guns and donations to the NRA I thought I was watching the wrong movie.
I know Europeans and US Americans (especially those in the southern area) tend to differ on the point of view regarding the right to defend yourself with a gun. But stating something like “Gun control laws are what CAUSED New Town. And Aurora. And Columbine.” is more than nonsense. Making access to a gun more difficult is making it less likely to grab one in the heat of the moment or when one just snaps. This does not _eliminate_ the chance of someone going amoc but it _reduces_ the chances significantly. Why? Because there are two sorts of killers: those who plan to kill over a long time and those who kill in the heat of the moment. At least one group you take out of the equation. This is pure logic, nothing to debate about, sorry.
What do you think would be the solution for the school shooting problem? Two guys with guns at every entrance of every school and kindergarden? Forget it! It would make it just even more tempting for someone who wants to get media attention (“look I overwhelmed 2 f*ing guards and they couldn’t stop me. ain’t I cool?”). Instead of fighting the symptoms, one must fight the root cause.
From Dr_Righteous:
“When said leaders sat down to form the United States of America, they solidified the basic rights to gun ownership (and carrying) in the constitution of the country. We are a proud, gun-toting nation. We were born that way.”
That’s like applying the bible word by word to a modern world. Time’s have changed. And believe me, we in Switzerland also have a past in liberating ourselfes from tyrans (which are our very friendly neighbours by now btw). But it was our ancestors. Except from benefiting from the outcome, I have nothing to do with it, as do most of our neighbours.
And if you really mean the two last sentences, then you will have to live with the killing and the shooting and not lose one word of remorse if it happens again. You accepted it like the fact that people get killed in car accidents.
And who was that again dreaming about living in a democracy? If in a democracy one only has the choice between “very bad” and “pretty bad” then the only thing left to do is quote The Matrix: “Ignorance is bliss”. You focus so much on the official leaders of your country that you oversee who really controls it/them: the big companies, the money.
AndyJ:
“Switzerland is 100% gun culture”. I though it was cheese. Well, but sorry, you’re wrong. While we’re in active military service we have to keep a machine gun at home but no bullets. Makes sense nowadays, eh? Sometimes bullets disappear during training and yes, we also have our share of tragic shootings – usually only with these machine guns. Why? Because it’s harder to get a normal gun. Our “commies” try to change that law but 20% of the male population who define their persona via their right to posess a gun try to prevent it – the rest of the population is female which usually tends to have a closer relation with the real essence of life than we men do.
The thing with the good and bad guys is that they exist only in your mind. The world’s not black and white. What if the guy who was shot by your grandfather was not involved and innocent? What if the guy you killed in the grocery store because he robbed the store was actually carrying a dummy? Then the picture changes and you become the bad guy. There’s only one way to get out of the spiral of violence:
1) leave the guns to trained professionals (the police and only the police – no privateers, because the police is less suspectible to be bought by companies)
2) stop drugging our kids with real drugs and 3h TV per day (their emotions do have to explode one day) , meaning: not making them quiet but really taking care of them, listen to them, correct them, play with them, invest in them emotionally (which means also resist their wishes and demands)
3) invest in education mercilessly (a state that cuts on education shoots itself in the knee)
4) dramatically reduce the social imbalance by putting on some reins on the horse of uncuntrolled capitalism
Let’s stop talking about things we believe to be experts in but all are most definitely not and let’s get back to really make this world a better place!
And btw: I was in a shooting situation once as a child. A man was shot down in front of my eyes and then the shooter started to shoot around wildly at our group of children. We ran like hell.. all we wanted is to get over that hill to get out of the shooting line. It was pure horror – although it was a fake as we later found out, it was very real for us in that moment. So please stop talking about cows and wolves. This gets so cynical, it makes me sick. Do you really in your wildest dreams think you stand any chance hiding in your barn with you puny pump-action or Magnum .42 against an apache helicopter that was sent by the “evil” government who marked you as a terrorist? Get alive, it’s the 21st century! The helicopter won’t even be manned anymore…
darn.. and all I wanted was just to ask if the motor in the spider nippon really makes such a bass-heavy sound as it appears in the video.. how naive of little me.
There’s a purr there. But it’s a nice purr. I think mostly the transmission which is still so new we can hardly shift it.
Jack Rickard
Michael:
This is such confused and random nonsense no cogent reply suggests itself. It is people like you that make it necessary for their to be people like me.
Jack Rickard
Jack:
Thanks for the feedback on the motor / transmission.
I was about to write something supposedly smart and cynical, when I saw a short section of a movie which got the better of me. Let’s agree to disagree on the gun topic. We can argue as much as we want, our opinions in that matter will never become congruent. It’s a topic other people have been fighting about for a long time already. Probably writing and fighting about it has a psycho-hygienic effect for something we are outraged and feel powerless about. If I may, I’ll humbly finish with the words from a man in that movie. I never thought he would influence me. But he appears to be a clever and sensible guy:
Question: “If you were to talk directly to the kids / community of Columbine, What would you say to them if they were here now?”
M.M. : “I wouldn’t say a word to them. I would listen to what _they_ have to say. And that’s what no one did….”
Michael:
You sure have a way with words, feet, and mouth. I suppose you didn’t know that I have a house about 1.5 miles from Columbine and two kids in the school at the time of the event. I could write you a book….
BTW, I think there was a shotgun and a couple of handguns involved, but their main plan at Columbine was pipe bombs.
The heroic “first responders” cowered outside under sheilds behind a van for about an hour, and prevented anyone from going IN to the school to check on their kids…
The one thing all of these incidents have in common is cowardice Michael. No, the concept of someone in the school with a gun is NOT a target or attractant. In all of our “shooting” events that make the national news, they make certain they are somewhere where there ARE no guns except theirs. They want to blow people away, and they may even BE suicidal, but they don’t want anyone else in a position to shoot THEM. Something they learn from video games I suppose.
As I said in the blog. I have no personal fascination with guns, and no great love of the sound of gunfire. But as a practical approach to solving the problem, your “agreeing to disagree” doesn’t change the fact that your “disagreement” is the product of a child mind. Wishful thinking and good intentions really just don’t count with 20 kids lying dead on the ground. And I’m quite serious when I take the el hefe Presidente to task for protecting HIS kids with armed guards, while letting ours bleed to death while he’s trying to pass totally ineffective legislation to do squat but make everybody on capital hill feel like they DID something.
They did and do nothing. It will have ZERO impact on not only bringing those kids back, but preventing fhe death of kids in the future.
We already KNOW to protect our money with armed guards. Incidents of attacks on armed guards guarding money are almost UNHEARD OF in recent years in this country. Ronald Reagan WAS shot despite armed protection. But he wasn’t killed. The gunman was immediately apprehended and disamred, Reagan was whisked immediately to a hospital, and he did survive it.
I believe a lone grandfather with a double barrel and precisely two cartridges would essentially bring it to a HALT in any school he was deployed in. And passing nonsense laws won’t stop anything at all. It will put hundreds of thousands of law abiding people through yet another Washington mill race, but ti won’t have ANY effect on the problem.
And I have no idea what pray tell you have to disagree with. It was the same with swords, the same with bow and arrow, and the same with sticks. Violence has been with us for tens of thousands of years. Man against man and clan against clan and city against city and nation against nation. By now, what part of this is a mystery? Or at all confusing? Wishing it would go away by passing well intended Kumbaya campfire songs by popular acclaim isn’t going to have a perceptible effect.
I subscribe to Churchill’s belief in these matters. “A young man who is not a liberal has no heart. And an old man who is not a conservative has no brain.” Passing laws with no cognizance of the underlying human behaviour is simply the work of the minds of children. At 57, I’ve lost all patience with that. And yes, I trace those deaths DIRECTLY to the general disarmament of the people in the area who might have prevented it or stopped it at the door. Had they been packing, all of it would be otherwise. YOUR “point of view” you are so anxious for me to acknowledge is murdering school children. Not mine. Ok. I acknowledge it. You are a moron. And 27 families get to ponder the meaning of it all every evening for the remainder of their lives. If they live long enough, they’ll see it my way before they pass..
Jack Rickard
Amen Jack, I concur! I just signed the wife and myself up this last week with the NRA, more symbolic than true action but I am a gun owner, I enjoy shooting. It is our right and privlledge, let us be a nation that can or could stop such sick people if that moment in time comes to us, and not have to go forward unarmed!!
Jack: How could I know? Columbine is almost 1000mi from where you live now. If I knew about your direct involvement and I responded to you like I did, you would be right to call me a moron. But I didn’t, so why are you insulting me a second time? I toll you respect and I expect the same in return – even if our POV’s differ.
If I had my children at school during such a gruesome event, I’m sure I’d argue differently. In fact very much like you. But still from my current standpoint and experience I believe it to be wrong. If I had to go to a courtroom with someone who I knew harmed my children, I’d try to kill him, I’m sure of that, and I’d find all the arguments to justify this action. But again, from my current standpoint it still would be wrong – as I believe to avenge death with death is leading to escalation not to the so much needed de-escalation, hence it’s wrong. But I’m sure such a traumatic experience changes one’s perspective entirely.
I just believe it is more effective to fight the real cause (which is not guns, they are the instrument) than it is to fight the effect. And I also think it helps if the physical instrument is less abundantly available. This has nothing to do with childish thoughts nor with kumbaya chants, this is logic. If people get into an argument and no guns are liberally at hand, chances are higher they will resolve their conflict verbally. If both have guns, why bother to talk if one can just shoot the “opponent”? Now, I know it might not be applied 1:1 to a school shooting but it might have helped in at least two cases here in Switzerland. In each case a man was mobbed until he snapped. He went home, grabbed a gun and started killing – all within one hour. If in that very moment he did not have easy access to a gun, things might have evolved very differently and less dramatic.
Michael:
You just DON’T get it guy. We’re not talking about anger. We’re not talking about AVENGING anything. And we’re not talking about emotions of the moment. We are discussing HOW YOU would intervene to STOP the death of 26 people by a horribly disturbed and pathetic young man who had mental problems all of his life. I’m actually sympathetic to his situation and that of HIS family. But the RESULT cannot be ALLOWED.
HOW would you stop it? “By making guns less available”. These guns were all QUITE legally acquired. We have 280 MILLION guns here. Can you count to 280 million? I think it would be of signficant service to have EVERYONE with a gun march on Washington to go LAY DOWN THEIR GUNS. Mostly because it would illustrate the absurdity of what you are talking about. I GUARANTEE that by the time this hundred million man march arrived with their guns, Washington would be entirely evacuated of all politicals who would in no case be caught in the city with 100 million people with guns headed their way. The scope of all this is just beyond absurd.
And at that point you would have an entirely disarmed population. Criminal heaven. Because it takes about 3 days to make a pretty servicable hand gun in an old style machine shop. WIth today’s CAD/CAM stuff, more like six hours if you want an EXACT replica. There is no magic to making bullets either. Everyone has made gunpowder at age 8 as an experiment. And about 8% of the hobbyists IN the gun thing already load their own.
Guns are a 19th century technology haunting the 21st century. They are chlds play to make. We are very nearly to the point where you could PRINT a working model on a 3D printer.
If you wanted to attack and take over the United States of America today, we could loan you OUR army and you still couldn’t do it. Our citizens have 1000 times the number of firearms that our military does.
And by passing all these laws WHOM do you REALLY effect. Probably half those guns are in DISPLAY CASES. Collectors. Pheasant hunters. Skeet shooters. etc. THEY will obey your idiotic laws but it is quite inconvenient for MILLIONS of people, all to control a handful of people in a handful of incidents with of course the ultimate irony – the law DOESN’T EVEN TOUCH THEM. They don’t even know it was PASSED. It doesn’t reach them at all. They buy them from each other on the street and steal them out of homes they burglurize.
And so your position really IS the work of a child mind wanting to hold hands and sing kumbaya. I’m not “affected” by Columbine into some crazed maniac bent on revenge. But I saw up front and close how totally ridiculous our “first responder heroes” are in such a situation. Their main effect was to prevent anyone ELSE from doing anything about it.
Don’t get me started on the video games and our kids today. We’ve come along way from donkey-kong and pac-man and Mario Brothers friend. They are online MURDERING each other all day every day NOW. We’re not talking about blasting alien symbols from out space. We’re talking about an online war mano a mano with high powered stuff, blood and gore and sound effects. They are PRACTICING these assaults for days and years.
The Aurora shooting at the movie theater. They HAD the hearing. They HAVE the guy. He’s so pathetically deranged he’s been shuffled quietly off to the koookooo bin hoping you all don’t notice. There’s no revenge there. He’s a fruitcake. If he wasn’t crazy before he did it, the reality of it has made him so now. He’s not a criminal. He’s a pathetic severely mentally ill person.
Regulate gun sales. We can’t even collect state sales taxes. We have the Internet. I can buy a gun from any of a hundred million gun owners who are NOT licensed firearms dealers NOW. By e-mail. Using PayPal. It is 2012.
EVCCON. Guy grabs a JLD404 box HEY JACK I WANT TO BUY ONE OF THESE. Great, I’ll invoice you. I walk over to the computer, taptap. He holds up his phone – GOT IT. I PAID IT PAYPAL. Great. Good to go. We’re STANDING 12 feet apart and did it all in 30 seconds ONLINE ANYWAY. It was easier than writing a check or counting out the money.
In the current debate, I don’t even feel greatly defensive of the second amendment and all the very good reasons for a right to keep and bear arms. I’m mostly commenting on the assinine absurdity of a leadership that might think it would be at all effective in safeguarding children. Of course they don’t. As depicted by the Presidential ploy of protecting THEIR children with men with guns. What they are doing is seeking to use this as a political flag hoping to rally IDIOTS around it purporting to DO something. Vomit. Gag. Puke.
Unfortunately, no shortage of them to rally.
Jack Rickard
Why is irony totally lost on the left?
A man in the UK recently attempted to hold up and rob a betting shop with a gun. He was jumped on and held down by the men there. That act killed the presumptive thief. The men in the shop were not armed and the robber possessed what turned out to be a non-functioning toy gun.
Here’s the irony, if the robber turned up and found himself surrounded by armed men, there would of been a better chance of his survival instead of someones knee dislocating his spine into his throat….. Or whatever happened in detail.
seems antidepressants are to brains as
BMS systems are to batteries. Chaos ensues!
Michael. Your statement.. “Gun control laws are what CAUSED New Town. And Aurora. And Columbine.” is more than nonsense.”
The fact IS no law abiding person had a gun to shoot back because it was a gun control zone. The person who did not obey the law had the only weapon(s). How simple is that to understand?
How the hell in all your wordage can you weasel out of that???
.
As goes bullets. Childs play to make them when you know how.
The simple fact that nations with few or nobody on SSRI’s by far and away suffer fewer random murders and (usually) the consequent suicides……….. There is no such thing as evil. Only twisted.
I’m a Brit and completely back your views. This has nothing to do with deaths nor guns. The tossers in power have released another law which will have absolutely no effect on the lawless and deranged. All it takes is another unlicensed kid to blag a weapon from mummies anti-rape draw because he is bullied at school and become psycho because he has not took his SSRI that morning.
The US army loses more soldiers to SSRI drugs than killed in Afghanistan. Not to forget their murder rampages. That is the reality anti-gun robots cannot answer.
My niece is in 24/7 watch, held a mental hospital because she has to go cold turkey off these drugs. She has tried to kill and maim herself several times since and attacked another patient twice her weight. God hates her. She has been put on Earth so people suffer. She is the dark angel of pain and suffering… Drugs do provide a temporary respite but the body gets used to them. Go off these drugs and the effect is multiplied many, many times in to murderous levels.
Over 90% of the mass shootings are due to the after effects of prescription drugs. This is a fact simpler minds cannot and will not take into account. YOU PEOPLE ARE INTO ELECTRIC VEHICLES You above all should know the media and the Government lies to you.
I can only suggest Googling “SSRI mass shootings” to see the huge numbers of blogs and psychiatric write-ups about it. They all have the answers but the media won’t report it.. Or straight to sites like, http://ssristories.com/ Which has over 4,800 cases on file on that site including over 66 school shootings, stabbings and blunt weapons in the US to the use of psycho drugs alone.
I always say; Follow The Money. Vested interests living off those who have the money. And those who seek power over you want complete power over you. They want you to be soft-in-the-head obescient slaves who will accept any rubbish spoken to them as fact without the grey matter to find the truth nor the soul or bravery to speak out and be heard.
Sorry about the rant Jack. I only hope my story and knowledge of this horrendous condition of “care” puts the real killers into perspective.
Well said,
I have been telling people exactly what you have said. That the SSRI drugs are to blame. Guess who sponsors the nightly news? thats right drug companies! You do not bite the hand that feeds you. so no mention of drugs.
HI Jack,
I don’t know exactly what it does represent for Americans to bears guns and, frankly, I think I will never understand. I live in Canada, many people have guns but unlikely handguns. We use them for hunting, not to shoot people. When I hear or read about people that are against more laws about guns I always do a comparison with cars, because it is pretty much what we have in Canada : you need to fllow a little course to know how to use them safely, pass an exam. Then you have the right to use grandpa’s gun when you go hunt with him. If you want to buy one, you need to fill a demand for an authorisation of acquiring a firearm. This mean that you have to provide the proof that you followed your course, three people need to witness that you are not dangerous minded, your wife and even ex-wife if you have one have to agree to the fact that you will own a gun. Even with all that,we do have guns, and plenty! But having to fill all those step let someone understand that having a gun is a responsability. Back to my comparison with cars : I guess you have a driving license, and a while ago you had to pass an exam to show you were able to drive correctly and then you have to license your car etc… Does a driving license prevent somebody to get an accident? I don’t think so. But it does teach to a whole society that you have to be responsible with a vehicle. So what about New Town? Well same day in china a crazy guy went to a public school to harm children with a knife. He wounded 22 of them. Drama there too…. The difference???? on the 22 wounded, 22 are still alive. No easy access to firearms in China…. Anyways, I’ll be honest with you Jack, I don’t watch EVTV since 2009 to ear or read about the NRA, this is just non-sense. If there is people who get paid by oil company or car maker to discredit electric cars, then what about people getting paid by gun maker to promote carrying more and more guns of any kind…
Guns don’t kill. Psychotic people do.
http://ssristories.com/show.php?item=4191
You will hear stories like this more and more often from China. Never used to be like this. Go figure.
Why Americans can bear arms:-
Quote: Thomas Jefferson
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
And in context that the people must at any cost have final sway over who governs them; it is here:
http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/tree-liberty-quotation
I live in Mexico and have relatives, friends and a business in the U.S. In my country there is a NO gun making and NO gun bearing prohibition for long time. This makes things worse since the good guys have no means to defend themselves.
I think the problem is not just the guns or the laws, it goes deeper in the soul and spirit of a Nation or society, nowadays a GLOBAL community. When individuals and families loose grip of the real important issues and get lost in nonsense, things go crazy.
As a human race we must return to traditional tried and true values. For me it is to live according to Christian values, however I respect other beliefs that are also based in love and not hate. We must have the courage to fight for the truth and to work for a better society in all our planet.
Jack, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Best wishes to all EVTV bloggers.
Matthew Miller liked this on Facebook.
Take away guns and we still have sticks and rocks. NRA all the way. I don’t hunt. Don’t like to kill. Don’t need to. Go to the grocery store. I will kill to protect me, mine and yours.
Nicely written Jack. Favorite line “The laws our leaders pass are ONLY effective with those who voluntarily obey them, and in proportion to our ability to ENFORCE them.”
I kinda like the license idea Xavier, but it all falls under my quoted line above. Short and sweet bumper sticker my dad has is “If we outlaw guns, only outlaws have guns”.
Why we have to go after long guns I just dont know. Hand guns kill more people every year vs long guns.
Guns don’t load themselves. They don’t aim themselves. They don’t pull their own triggers. People do. It’s the people, its always been the people. Take the guns away and they still have sticks and rocks. Police, when seconds count they are only minutes away.
I agree, with a twist…
More guns = more violence (imagine everyone in Los Angeles armed and drunk)…
Less guns = more for the bad guys.
From a POV from within these States, I believe the only solution is to try to make this world a better place (and don’t mess with the 2nd Amendment).
It’s frustration that causes problems. For example, when I get to learn, I feel better than when I can’t find what I’m searching for. It is also the stifling nature of governments that cause frustration. It’s the inability to find a decent job that causes stress, too.
Jack, I enjoy the fact that you’re helping to make this place a better place.
People die from gun violence regularly, so we do have a problem.
I do agree that good guys with guns are needed. The sticking point seems to be that there is very little process involved in deciding who the good guys are. Seems to me there should be a little more.
Now when I got my pilot’s license and instrument rating, I didn’t feel that the government was infringing on my right to fly by requiring considerable study of principles and application necessary for the safe operation of an aircraft. I didn’t feel infringed by the supervision of a certified flight instructor or by having to demonstrate my knowledge and abilities to safely fly in the company of properly-certified check pilots, and the requisite number of hours, and medical examination before I could be licensed. I don’t feel infringed by requirements of currency of experience or medical status. Aircraft have the potential to cause great harm. Society needs to be sure than I am competent and capable to handle that responsibility, and I owe it to them to comply.
I see no reason why gun ownership should be any different, with considerable study of principles and application, considerable oversight of qualified instructors and evaluators, and wash-out rates that reflect the stark truth that a some people do not have what it takes to responsibly own deadly weapons.
Will criminals ignore the law? They always do. It doesn’t mean that we give up and strike all laws from the books. It means we need to enforce the important ones with vigor. And of course you simply can’t detect and stop any and all crazy people who decide to cause harm.
Jack, while I think your point of view on these issues is despicable, I’m not going to debate you here. I will say, though, Kindly Shut The Fuck Up About Anything Other Than Electric Car Technology on the show. If I want to subject myself to this kind of punishment, I’ll watch Fox News. None of this is relevant here, “publish” to your core message and target audience.
Interesting projectionism on your part Mike… You don’t like others having freedom of speech, freedom of opinion and freedom of expression? Well, you certainly won’t be able to as its being eroded this very day. Are you going to “Take back our streets” hooey? That’s before those in power smash your brains in, once again. Then take money off you for the pleasure.
I suggest you go live in any country that denies you your personal rights. No guns there.
Far less unstable psychosis in people too; due to not taking psych drugs.
Jack knows what I mean Andyj, sadly your views on psychiatric drugs clouds your comprehension and takes you around the bend…
Mike, you speak with forked tongue. Facts are undeniable facts.
The only driver for mass shootings, random attacks and suicides. Not admitted on the mainstream media. Answers every facet that is wrong with Government, media and society today. If you have money, you can sue anyone for anything even if you are the criminal. Which you unwittingly support.
.
If you can prove me wrong do so. Otherwise shut up and put up.
First off, let me say that I that I in no way support limiting or modifying in any way any of the amendments of the US bill of rights but if we are going to modify/restrict the second amendment, why stop there. If we want to be serious about this we have to do much more.
How about limiting free speech. A good case can be made that allowing the press to cover these events encourages other nut cases and copy cat events so the free press has to stop. Just the event happened and no names or details so that the nut case doesn’t get his name in the paper or any fame. No glory in it.
Lets not forget the right against unreasonable searches and seizures. If we want to eliminate the guns we have to be able to go into your house and take them. Additionally, your medical records will not be safe. There is no question that these people have mental problems so government review of all medical records needs to be allowed.
Let’s not just limit it to the Bill of Rights but expand it to the Constitution and the Commerce Clause. In my opinion there is no question that violent movies and video games contribute to violent crimes we are seeing today so let’s expands the government’s ability to regulate and approve the kind of moves we see and video games we play.
I agree 100% that it is not the guns that kill, it is the people behind the guns. If we eliminate the guns, the nut cases will find something else like homemade explosives, aka a suicide vest, a car driven into a crowd, poison gas… to fulfill their dream of mass killing. Limiting guns does not fix the problem. All it does is make us feel good now and when the next event happens say well we limited the second amendment and it didn’t work so let’s limit something else and see if that works. Any limits to the Bill of Rights is a very bad idea!
Mike Brown, if you do not like Jack’s political commentary you don’t have to watch or better yet why don’t you start your own show to compete. If enough people like your show better and stop watching Jack’s you will have stopped the world from hearing Jack’s view and be helping to make the world a better place by promoting your views and eclectic vehicles.
Kindly is not what I see in those words. Tis Jacks show not yours. Don’t like it don’t watch or read. The Show Lost is still being played. Enjoy. Im sure its much less violent than Jacks show or blog.
Mike:
What a very curious comment. At no place in this commentary did I ever say or imply what anyone reading it should or should not do. I was critical of nonsense that was being said by child mind commentators in our media as bizarrely “dont know and don’t know they don’t know” and went on to offer some REALITIES of weapons and men and the difficulties they have posed over the centuries, and what has been proven effective in dealing with those.
Now here you appear with a message DIRECTING me to shut to fuck up, and describing what I WILL and WILL NOT say on a video production that only one of the two of us has ANYTHING to do with at all. You can subject yourself to any kind of punishment you like, and I not only would fail to comment, but would fail to notice, what you watch or do not watch. And in the odd extremity I DID notice, why would I care?
That you would iimagine in some sort sort of infantile fantasy world that you can direct what I publish should be heroically offensive to me. Oddly it isn’t. It is so bizarre sounding to hear you so consumed with your own sense of self that you would imagine it, that it is kind of disconnected. I feel like I am observing the deranged young man that perpetrated this incident. The raving of someone medically injured. Like from an electrical shock or something.
Finally, it doesn’t even make sense. I didn’t put it on the show. I put it in the blog.
If you DID sound both lucid and sentient, I would tell you it is my publication and I’ll publish EXACTLY what I like, and seek neither concurrence nor approval from anyone at all. But it’s just not appropriate in this case. I’m getting a sense of pain and injury here. Sure, its rude and stupid, but it goes beyond that. Like epileptic or something. Grand mal seizure.
Are you on some kind of medication?
Jack Rickard
John:
Your analogy doesn’t work for me. And I have ALL the licenses. I went through all of that in aviation, with studied and focused fascination at one of the most innovative and inventive industries we’ve ever created, totally frozen solid in place by government regulation and bureacracy – while noting that “people die from airplane violence regularly, so we do have a problem.”
Not only do they fall from the sky in ALL directions accidentally, but they crashed THREE of them on purpose during the 911 attack – lest I need remind you AS WEAPONS..
You see you have offered a GREAT example about just how far they can take loss of freedom and overregulation – essentially mothballing an entire industry in place, and STILL totally ineffective at making anyone safe from either accident on intentional harm. And like the deranged, the solution offered repetitively is always the same and MORE of the same. After regulating it essentially out of existence, the solution is of course, more oversight and MORE regulation.
Yes, people do die of gun violence. i would cite I believe the July 1987 issue of Time Magazine on gun control. Three marvelous pro control articles (there’s balance for you) purportedly backstopped by the stories of 287 people or so that had died during one week in May from handguns.
There was just one problem with the story. THey wrote the three stories prior, and rushed to compile the bios of the 287 people right upt to publication. And so embarassingly, they were stuck with the results. Page after page after page – typically male, median age 76, all with terminal diagnosis, killed by their own handgun and of course hand.
Couple of stop and shop robberies. One drug related. And a disturbing number of suicides at the OTHER end among teens.
It was a starkly gruesome non-sequitur, and one of the most embarassing moments in the history of Time Magazine as a publication. NONE of the nonsense in the articles was at all supported by the list of those “killed” during the one week in May. But a disturbing “other” story of the desperate state of geriatrics in the face of pain and the medical system and how we end life as the elderly.
You can wait all you want for the flying car. It can’t happen because the FAA will not allow it. Technologically it should have arrived about 1966.
Jack Rickard
Jack: At least one did. The early Moller Skycar, from Moller engineering.
I rate that as one of the greatest gun rights quotes in history…
“The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States does NOT say we have a right to keep and bear arms. It says rather specifically that the government has NO RIGHTS to even INFRINGE on our right to keep and bear arms.” – Jack Rickard
“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.’‘ – James Madison
“The Constitution shall never be construed . . . to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.” – Samuel Adams
”No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” – Thomas Jefferson
For those of you who don’t seem to understand “America’s fascination with guns,” a few points. This country was founded when the citizens living here decided they had enough of their overseas rulers. Ordinary citizens using their own arms rose up and defeated the army of said rulers. The leaders of this rebellion appreciated the need for the citizens to be armed in order to protect themselves from a tyrannical government… both then and into the future. When said leaders sat down to form the United States of America, they solidified the basic rights to gun ownership (and carrying) in the constitution of the country. We are a proud, gun-toting nation. We were born that way.
If you think the U.S. government is corrupt now… think what would happen if they succeed in disarming its citizens. There would be no stopping them from taking over everything and everyone. A tyrannical “new world order” would take over. We’d all be enslaved by a handful of evil people, with no means of uprising.
Oh, and I too just joined the NRA. Tho as an actual gun owner. My way of flipping the bird to these tyrants.
Well said!
Back in the early post Soviet era I rode my motorbike through Poland. Every policeman carried a side arm and there was a double action mounted over the steering wheel in the car. Men in black employed by the local Mafia with handguns guarded our bikes overnight at the big biker (Skorpion) rally North of Warsaw to deter marauding thieves. The Mafia liked being weekend bikers. Riding down to the far South Eastern corner of the Tatra Mountains There was a young man with an AK-47 over his back down a road in the middle of no-where, I got the collywobbles thinking if he was a nutter who needed a motorbike…..
We stayed at a hotel and it had a few Germans who threw their hunting rifles in the boot, crossed the border to go bag a wild bear. Switzerland is 100% gun culture and these madnesses do not happen. Ask yourself why are these people apparently sane.
.
Next year on the other side of the channel.
“On 13 March 1996, Thomas Hamilton, a former Boy Scout leader walked into Dunblane Primary School armed with two 9 mm pistols and two .357 Magnum revolvers. He killed sixteen small children and a teacher. The subsequent police investigation revealed that Hamilton had loaded the magazines for his Browning with an alternating combination of fully metal-jacketed and hollow point ammunition. This horrific event led to the banning of handguns in the UK.”
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/oldsite/article.asp?ID=12246
.
Hamilton, a peado being treated for depression*** and about to be outed by his well connected friends went psycho. So the Government of the UK decided guns were a problem.
***Dunblane, Scotland—March 13, 1996: 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton entered the Dunblane Primary School armed with four handguns, shooting and killing 15 children, one adult and then himself. According to a local inquest, Hamilton had been prescribed Prozac.
http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/01/frau-komas-second-coming-mass-murder-autism-and-the-cult-of-weaponized-genetics.html
Ooops!
“Double action mounted over the” gearstick/handbrake “in the car”.
“If you think the U.S. government is corrupt now… think what would happen if they succeed in disarming its citizens. There would be no stopping them from taking over everything and everyone. A tyrannical “new world order” would take over. We’d all be enslaved by a handful of evil people, with no means of uprising.”
I second that, same goes for Canada. . . the way things are going, I will become a chinese citizen without moving by force in about 5 years
An interesting blog entry from a Guru of Electric Car Conversion….http://blog.evtv.me/2013/01/have-gun-will-travel/
As a young boy me and my sister were send alone to live in a farming community, it was 1952 post WWII Germany, and times were hard for my mother, the reason for our departure to this area. One of my chores on the farm was herding the cows to designated pastures. We had a herd of 12 cows and a newborn. The oldest (mother) cow always led, and the others would fall in line, with me and my persuader following. I never had to use my persuader, but was given one, for one of the cows was a bit rebellious and was told if she was to come at me, to just smack here in the forehead.
Once in the enclose grazing area, there was not much to do, the cows were grazing and doing what cows do, and they looked happy and contented doing it. I used to wander around the area, and being from the city, an all new adventure for me. I marveled at all the wild creatures I discovered, I even once spotted some wolves at the edge of the Forrest watching me, and every so often looking at the cows grazing down at the pasture, I was imagining that they were licking their chops at all that good meat, couldn’t really tell, but being young your imagination plays tricks. I lifted my persuader stick up like a rifle and made a shooting sound, and they all took off back in to the Forrest.
I was an avid reader, and reading books about America and the wild west, was my favorite reading pastime, it kind if fueled my imagination, and I always wanted to be a Cowboy, after all I did have my cows now, it was an easy role to fall into. Two years later my mother got here life back in order, she even found us a father, ours was a casualty of the war, and finally having a new father was a good thing.
My mother used to tell me what happened in the war, about when the sirens came, and the terror of running with two children to a bunker, and at times not getting there in time and trying to outrun the bombs, with me in the buggy and my sister hanging on to dear life by the buggy handle. I asked my mother how they could have let all this horror happen, she replied that once they came to confiscate all the guns, there was not much they could do about it, and those who protested a bit to much were made an example of, after that none protested, at least not openly, its a lesson I never forgot.
My sister married an American soldier, that’s how I came here in 1959, it was a dream come true. And in 1965 I became a real American, it was the proudest moment in my life. Having studied this country long before I came here, I fully understood the document that makes this country so exceptional, like no other in this world. Some of you born here don’t seem to understand or are not educated well enough to understand our exceptional-ism, I say to you, there are plenty of places in this world were they welcome grazer’s that don’t mind being milked every so often, and after all that if you still want to stay it’s ok, we’ll protect you from the wolves, it’s a humane thing to do, after all were exceptional.
But me, I will always carry my persuader, its the only thing that will keep the hungry wolfs at bay, for doing so, reminds them who is the real master.
Roy
“The perfect Totalitarian State is one where the political bosses, and their army of managers, control a population of slaves, who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude”
Wow Roy.
Niemöllers work; bettered by your life lessons.
First they came for the guns, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a gun owner.
Then they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me–and there was no one left to let those guns speak for me.
“The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation.”
Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler
Because these were young children society desperately wants justice for this terrible crime. (I know I do). Of course everyone feels we must do *something* to prevent this from happening again. The government is using this knee-jerk reaction to get support they wouldn’t normally have to remove our rights. This is why they are in such a hurry to force it through.
Problem is, the dude offed himself and now we can’t get that justice by any means. Instead they are directing our blood lust in another direction. “Hey there is some guy with a gun totally unrelated to this incident. Everbody GET HIM!”
I’d like to see their opinion on individual gun ownership if they didn’t have professional armed security guarding them 24/7 like the rest of us have to live.
I share those feelings. We shoudl DO something. Now forget seven layers of abstraction. If YOU know that YOUR grandson was in the first grade at a specific school 1 mile down the road, and you BELIEVED some freak was going to do this
this morning, what would you DO to prevent it.
The police are very nearly totally useless for anything but tax collection. So what you might do that was EFFECTIVE would be to take a gun and go down there and wait for the little bastard to arrive with his little assualt rifle. He wouldn’t need to off himself. I’d do it for him.
The problem is, on arrival at the school with a gun, the principle would call the police and I would be charged with entering a gun free zone with a gun. You see, the only people these laws work on are those predisposed to abide by them.
You are absolutely PREVENTED BY LAW from defending your grandson at that school. It is not JUST and SIMPLY that the solutions they propose are cynically ineffective and KNOWN to be so, but any solution that MIGHT be effective is PRECLUDED BY LAW.
This starts to look almost Satanic. YOU would be aprhended and hauled away to the Police headquarters, with the police all busy “booking you” which is easy as you are law abiding, WHILE THE SHOOTING IS GOING ON DOWN THE STREET MURDERING YOUR GRANDSON.
As far as I’m concerned, that makes the police, and the United States Congress, and the President, complicit in murder of children.
That they do so while THEIR children have 24/7 armed guards, is just preposterous. That they would bend the situation for political gain is the very heart of evil.
Given that view, what preposterous purpose does “agreeing to disagree” precisely serve. If you can’t convince me of nonsense, then maybe just cancelling me out with a ONE FOR vs ONE AGAINST vote tally suits?
I refuse to pander to such moronic child mind “opinions”. No one has any RIGHT to them. They are just nonsense publicly spewn. And they should be called out as such.
Jack Rickard
A fascinating tale Roy. And thanks for sharing it.
My first wife was a Pilipina and it was a thoroughly educational experience watching OUR country and land through her eyes as she discovered it. Up to the point where she discovered CASINOS unfortunately.
This is actually a key component of what makes America great – new blood. Every other generation we have a huge wave of immigrants from SOMEWHERE who come in. The next thing we know our daughters and sons want to marry them. And generally against our wishes, they do. It’s our greatest strength. New hot blood transfusions, not from the smug and satsified but from the hungry and dissatisfied of the world. It has led to an enormously powerful genetic mix with just enough upward mobiity from “too poor to pay attention” up to “too rich to figure out what it all means” to keep everyone excited and optimistic. A preternatural inability to even be AWARE of this afflicts our leadership.
The Social Security/Medicare issue is right in front of them as a problem. Right next to it is the solution – immigration reform. We need 30 million MORE Mexicans, all under age 30 as soon as we can get them across the border. It would probably be worth the investment to pay their airfare. Hell if it was me, I still think the 40 acres and a mule was a good idea.
Jack Rickard
30 million MORE Mexicans Jack? I wonder: among them how many EVers? 😉 I’m mexican and I consider myself one of those 100,000 army EV guys world wide you mentioned in your very first video in your invitation to change -not a BULB as Obama said but the WORLD.. After being in your AMAZING 2012 EVCCON, I just started with 5 motors, 3 conversions going on here despite my -now- ex-wife.
Back to the “Guns & Roses” main off-topic of the week, I think part of the problem is violent Video Games everywhere: XBOXes, PlayStations, Tablets, smartphones and violent TV content even in TV channels for kids, most kids are being polluted world wide with so many fun they find in a gun… killing people. There is no immediate solution for that problem. Sadly bad seeds are already planted! I’m afraid we will witness more bad news on the media, in the mean time parents with small kids -like me- have a GREAT responsibility reading books with them, finding good TV programs for them (like the old “Beakman’s world” being broadcasted again in Mexico!), in doing sports in a funny way, like the great Michael Jordan said: do not over-stress your kids, they have to ENJOY sports ALWAYS. Being 6 years old Hector Jr. has won 4 golden medals in swimming, 1 silver and he rides his bicycles like no other kid since he was 3 years old. He eagerly wants to be in our “EV Herbie”!!
Best regards Jack!
Yes Hector. You read that right. In my unqualified, but nonetheless strongly held, opinion, we are suffering a severe SHORTAGE of young able bodies Mexicans.
Jack Rickard
I live in Kennesaw Ga, a city where every head of the House hold is required by law to own a gun…. (Not kidding) Needless to say crime is pretty low here….
The one thing that Americans are great at is over reacting. We can over react better than any country in the world. The good news is that we have the attention span of a nat and will forget about the gun control crap in about two more weeks….
Also if you have never seen a bubba without his Gun I can assure you that it is a sad site you never want to see….
http://blog.evtv.me/2013/01/have-gun-will-travel/
AMEN, Jack!
John Wayne? The tough-guy ACTOR? Unless he’s been through some serious training I’d bet if he came across a “situation” in real life his brain would suddenly shrink to the size of a pea as the adrenalin and flight instinct kick in. Just as it would for most of the rest of the population, including myself. (http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/16/your-brain-in-a-shootout-guns-fear-and-flawed-instincts/2/) I find the ban all guns argument every bit as flawed or not as the more guns argument. Abraham Lincoln hit the nail on the head when he said in the Gettysburg Address “…and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” The arguing is GOOD, the disagreement is GOOD. Worry if when it stops because that’s when it’s no longer government of the people, by the people, for the people. And I mean ALL of the people, not just those that think like you. It’s as paramount for good government.
I bet he wouldn’t.
Between your bet and my bet, nothing changes pard. It’s just a bunch of betting.
Jack Rickard
John Wayne’s real first name is Marion, same as Jack’s. I believe that when people invoke John Wayne, they don’t mean the actor or the man. They mean the LEGEND. The persona that John Wayne is onscreen and the VALUES “he” stands for.
“John Wayne” don’t take shit off nobody and no one would misbehave around him or there would be consequences and no blaming someone else.
Of course. The John Wayne iconic figure. My father and both grandfathers were quite recognizable specimens of such qualities. And this sort of thing did not arise in the time of their prime of life. Just didn’t happen.
We have catered and pandered to this nonsense to such a degree it has become a way of life. And to large degree, a culture of death.
Jack Rickard
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7cvDjbxIKY
It’s a choice to play the games. It’s a choice to pick up a gun. It’s a choice to pull the trigger.
You are not a puppet and you have free will to do as you please but remember there are consequences for your actions, Good or Bad.
It almost sounds like you’re a prisoner of your own weapons.
And it’s too late to try to control it, due to the many Weapons at the black market and likewise in stores.
I guess that it’s more the lack of the upbringing of our children, some children have never learned what’s right and wrong. Typically, it’s a lack of NO from the parents or lack of love for their own children.
You must have a license for a weapon, but children you can get as you want. I blame the parents!
In most cases all goes well but at regular intervals some neglected children emerge from a broken up home and sometimes things go badly wrong.
My heart goes out to all the parents and relatives for their unimaginable loss.
Jack you have taken hold of something which is extremely sensitive to all. I do not envy your weapons law and all your guns, but I envy you for not having so many rules to be observed at EV´s, in relation to Denmark. Too many rules also destroys creativity, this is where we are in Denmark at present.
I do hope you’ll find a solution to the problem, however I believe that it’s going to be difficult.
Best of luck.
Allan
Alan if you done a little research you will find these shooters and suicides are rarely, if ever, subjects of bad parenting or unlawfully obtained weapons. In fact its too much parental care which in every case had these people taking the very drugs I keep on banging on about. One day people will have the wit to listen. Then the problem will get sorted.
.
Creativity… I recommend watching a film called “Atlas Shrugs”. You hit the nail on the head on this issue. Nowadays when the EU remove state laws the same state tells us what great freedoms being in the EU gives us…. DUH!!!
Jack:
If your intent was to stir up a hornet’s nest, boy,you sure did that. I haven’t read so many nasty comments on your blog in a long time and frankly, I hated to see that happen.
But, I haven’t forgotten, as you have said before, it’s your blog and your views on the current politics of guns. So, I will say that I disagree with many of your points on the subject and leave it at that because this is one of those issues that defies a nice clean problem solution. It is a multi-header hydra.
God bless the families who lost their little children, God love the little ones who are now with him and God damn the Voters of this society who have allowed the Gun Industy and our corrupt politicians to, as John said, “awash the country with guns.”
Everyone I know owns guns. No one has ever been shot not even by accident. It’s a stupid argument since it is our constitutional right.
I should start by letting you know I am from Canada, and I am neither for Guns or against them. I myself do not hold enough information from either side to take a stand Pro or Con.
It is funny to me that I can not find the information I seek with Google and the ability to type a question.
A simple bit of information is all I need to at long last take a side. Here in Canada we have Guns, 99.9% for the use of sport hunters. 12 Gauge Shot Guns, and so on. We do not have Semi auto or hand guns that the public can buy and use.
Very tight restriction and a full set of tasks to follow if you wish to own a hand gun. Sturdy Gun Cases with trigger locks, and a person must keep ammo apart form the storage of the guns also under lock and key.
Now also correct me if I am wrong, unless you are on the Police Force, you may not keep your hand gun in your house, it must be kept at a Gun Club in a safe/vault.
So we have what I think are very very tight Gun Control Laws. I grew up and was taught to respect a gun as it can be a tool to gain a meal, but it can also cause a great deal of harm.
I should also state I do not now, nor have I ever owned a gun of any kind…..not even a staple gun. I am not for or against guns.
So of all gun related crime in Canada that does happen….what % is by Guns of Legal Status and what % is of Not Legal Status ????
Why when the RCMP/ OPP/ Metro Police make drug busts of gangs do they also find AK-47’s, 9mm Glock’s and so on…… When a store owner is robbed and pistol whipped….was the Gun fully registered?????
So no matter what law you pass or rule you set forward….I can say with no doubt in my mind…..the person who commits a crime with a gun, did not follow the law in the first place and Title the Gun, or Register it, or pass the F.A.C. requirements.
I think less effort is needed to take Guns away from the Good Guys, and more effort is needed to keep Guns out of the hands of the bad guys !!!!!!!!!!!
Good Guys follow rules………..Bad Guys not so much.
This is kind of precisely the point.
IF the mission is to control availability of these assault weapons to prevent such crimes, passing yet another weeny law isn’t going to do it. It will remove these guns from the use of those people I don’t mind having them, and indeed will put 99% of the gun owning population through further inconvenience, but it won’t even TOUCH the criminal class they are seeking protection from. This is why I call them “child minds.” They pass laws in a paroxism of wishful thinking, naively assuming it will have at least SOME effect, and then they wring their hands in mock horror at the “unintended consequences” of what actually happens from their juvenile machinations.
There is little underlying philisophical division. It is a matter of what is effective and what price would we pay. Putting 99% of the population through the hoop to get at 1%, and then NEVER touching the 1%, and doing this OVER AND OVER AGAIN, is the mark of children playing government. If you cannot enforce one law, passing another on top of it isn’t the solution. It was already against the law to kill children with guns. ANOTHER law, for no apparent reason, was passed to make a school a GUN FREE ZONE. This effectively prevents any law abiding person from having one there. So what kind of moron would then conclude that passing ANOTHER law would be of ANY benefit?
None. We don’t actually have anyone that stupid even in Washington. And so what you are left with is politicians cynically using children to accomplish political aims.
I believe the idea of several million good men with guns loose in our land is a bit uncomfortable for a handful of evil men in Washington seeking to help themselves to the national treasury. It has nothing to do with crime. It has nothing to do with safety – other than THEIR safety and THEIR crimes.
Jack Rickard
Canada is far from immune to school shootings. You have a litany of dead kids too. And a Canadian Judge has decreed as fact that kids taking SSRI’s are a murderous combination. So now in the Northern territories, those who prescribe these things and the industry can be directly sued for any bad outcome.
.
But why is everyone confusing this issue with thieves and the unlawful ownership of weapons? It’s like blaming the Saturn five rocket for being an ICBM.
I agree with you Jack. The crazy part is that we had an “Assault” weapons ban from 1994 to 2004. It did nothing to solve crime, reduce gun violence, or anything. Also, anyone with any gun experience can change the magazine on a gun FAST. A restriction on magazine capacity is just plain stupid. Yet, the current crop of fools want to try the same thing again. Of course, it’s not really about trying to make people safer. There are plenty of other, much better ways to do that, it’s just a power grab and a feel good measure to keep everyone feeling safe (security theater at its finest!) Truly, the only protection from bad guys with guns is to have one yourself.
These guys just don’t get it….http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/21/travel/boeing-dreamliner/index.html
they concluded that the battery was not overcharged because the voltage never exceeded the design voltage parameters. Who’s running this investigation?
the BBC reported that JAL had said it was an overcharge problem. short of physical trauma or an accidental short it would struggle to be anything else
Michael,
Why, the BMS people, of course. No doubt this willl be used as another fake reason to use BMS, when it was again the BMS that set the battery on fire.
You can see the complicated BMS they were using in these pictures.
http://www.komonews.com/news/boeing/187739301.html
They appear to have more BMS than battery, and of course right on top of it. Looking at the char, how do you make anything of THAT mess. And starting with LiCo chemistry in an aircraft?
I’ll go in my DC-3.
Jack Rickard
Here is a link to the New York times giving proportions of gun deaths against age groups. Note the suicides against killed and the numbers killed “legally”.
Remember, “legal” has no relation to Lawful!
What is the difference between an innocent being shot dead by a person on prescription drugs or an innocent shooting themselves dead if the drugs disguised as a remedy would not have taken them there in the first place?
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2007/04/21/weekinreview/20070422_MARSH_GRAPHIC.html
The Times Magazine article basically reflected the same data 10 years earlier. But it was really kind of grabbing to read through six or eight pages of thumbnail photos and bios of the 247 or however many killed in that one week. There were not NEARLY as many homicides as the New York Times story, and I think if we had more specific data on the New York Times sampling, you would find they are a bit loose in calling them “homicides”. There is a lot of manipulation that goes on with this kind of data. Everyone has an ax to grind and as we know, no compunctions about grinding it dishonestly. It is now “ok” in America to lie outright as long as it makes the point.
The Times feature had three totally left wing antigun pro gun control articles, and then this data set of actual deaths by handgun – and a TOTAL disconnect between what they were saying ABOUT handgun death and the reality presented. As a magazine publisher, I know exactly how it happened. No dry run. The article writers didn’t get to see the data, and in fact the pages with the deaths probably went to press with a final assembly a couple of days prior to onsale. Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can DO at that point. You’ve been holding space for these pages with a whole team working on assembling it
and once you have em, you gotta run em. But they virtually disavowed the editorial matter.
Jack RIckard
I agree.
The guardian in the UK also contains many of the same washed mindset. But I do like to use the anti’s data so when the lefties argue the point I up the ante with solid data. It leaves them with too short a paddle to get any traction.
.
Somewhat off topic but in the same vein I’ve got a “thing on” against North America’s arch Fascist, Lincoln. He did not give a monkeys cuss for slavery but his vow to end it served him well. Resulting in gaining the reserves and incomes of the South because the North was deeply in debt to the king of England. It paid the debts to the English crown, the Rothschilds and the war. To hell with the results and what it done to those who possessed no property afterwards.
Plato said, “Those who tell the stories rule society.”
Jack,
I have had a question for a while and this show has re-ignited my interest.
You mentioned that you do not like Anderson type connectors, and you have not met many connectors that you did like. Could you be specific about your reasons for dislike?
Brian
A guy walks into a bar with a 10 inch deer knife in his hand . . . wait, this is not a joke ! ~ luckily the guy was about 6′-0″ and there was a guy already in the bar standing at 6′-8″ who walked over and asked guy #1 with the knife if he had a ‘light’. Of course the bigger guy will get the courtesy of lighting a cigarette before anyone gets knifed. Guy #1 reaches into his pocket for a lighter, and guy #2 puts his hand on the knife and removes it from guy #1’s hand. What’s the moral of the story ? Well, the person with a weapon, who perceived himself smaller or weaker, obliged to the seemingly stronger, larger person; weapon or not.
What about reganativ braking when it is as cold as it is now (- 3 ° C / – 14 ° C)
What happens to the batteries?
Does the power consumption wile driving placed the heat in the same location as when you are using reganativ braking?
Allan
The second amendment is about more than just gun ownership. It’s about responsible gun ownership: “…and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes…”. The NRA, who has fought tooth and nail against gun control, telling us that we need to hire armed guards to protect our schools is a cop-out, an unwillingness embrace the entire second amendment and to make that unwillingness everyone else’s problem. Debating, finding and enforcing a solution should be placed in the hands of gun owners / the NRA. Then, if they fail, the citizens have every right to step in, which is probably what we are seeing now.
No it’s not. It is a right to bear arms …period. I don’t want anyone deciding I shouldn’t have a gun even though I have never bought one. Some day the rulers may decide I can’t have it because I’m a Jew, a Catholic, A hindu or whatever other reason they come up with as we have seen over and over throughout history.
Hey Jack, I agree with most everything you said – here in Canada we have much of the same problem, just less of these horrid crimes. If I get on my own soap box for a moment the problem starts at birth, and runs all the way to death. . . scratch that, the problem starts at conception and runs all the way to death. We as “North America” do not value life, nor respect anyone. The lack of respect comes from a lack of fear, and I don’t mean, I put a gun to your head and raped you kind of fear, I mean a reverent fear, the fear of the Lord kind of fear. The respectful fear of the elderly, the ones who will smack you up side the head for being a moron. (the catch being, they live above reproach) And the fear that God knows what you have done.*** We legalize the murder of children, and a lot more then 26 a year!
My personal take on it is MEN are too darn busy with their smart phones, computers, cars, guns, game systems, tvs, and anything that starts with a lower case I (iPhone, iPod, iPad, etc) that they forget to love their kids, wives, and parents. Men need to stand up and BE MEN, not just males.
Chad Meyers
——————-
*** “Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” – The answer to that is YES, you are your brothers keeper. We are all called to love one another, and look out for each other. How many people didn’t do this and allowed New Town. . . a lot. Step into The Light and care, I dare you!
I sleep with a large caliber semi-automatic pistol just out of arm’s reach, but I can’t agree with “…Gun control laws are what CAUSED New Town. And Aurora. And Columbine.” We need to work on criminal impulse control through individual evolution, cultural amelioration, and, perhaps someday, (epi-)genetic manipulation.
http://transcendentalism.tamu.edu/authors/emerson/essays/culture.html
“Let us make our education brave and preventive. Politics is an after-work, a poor patching. We are always a little late. The evil is done, the law is passed, and we begin the up-hill agitation for repeal of that of which we ought to have prevented the enacting. We shall one day learn to supersede politics by education. What we call our root-and-branch reforms of slavery, war, gambling, intemperance, is only medicating the symptoms. We must begin higher up, namely, in Education.”
Starting off saying I am a liberal Democrat; I agree that we are very unlikely to eliminate future mass shooting tragedies by passing restrictive laws, or for that matter any kind of law that respects any of our core values as a society. Yet it is beyond question that we have a serious problem with violence in our country, and i don’t think it is a problem with too many mentally ill people. ( I am a general practice doctor, and I definitely think we could and should do a better job treating the mentally ill, but we don’t have a monopoly on mental illness here in the US) Jack’s comments about personal experience with death and about video games are to the point. Unfortunately the causes of violence run deeper than anything we can legislate against. Our society has lost the sense of community (the “Commonwealth” of the Founders, for one example) and connected-ness. Young people are alienated, feel powerless and become angry. Boys are raised amidst a constant stream of media which portray men as stupid and violent, and guns as symbols of power. Add to that the constant practice of exciting and sanitized killing portrayed in video games: the problems run very deep, and the results are seen both in the news reports like Sandy Hook and in the drone-assassin’s control station. If we are going to have a chance of bettering this mess we had better start by getting real about death!
Oh, and by the way, guys, let’s keep the discussion civilized!
I’m not a liberal democrat. I’m not a conservative Replublican. In fact, my personal experience is that these labels are woefully insufficient at describing various pollitical positions. They are handy in the surreal child mind reality distortion zone porttrayed on television, but most of the people I know have various positions on different topics that are not consistent with the cafeteria selections available under liberal democrat, conservative republican et al.
I’m very conservative with regards to government and coudl best be described as a radical libertarian. A lot of my “liberal democrat” friends when questioned are more in that camp as well. I’m very conservative when it comes to fiscal issues, the Constitution, etc. But I’m married to a black woman, I build electric vehicles, and truly believe we are suffering from a severe shortage of able bodied Mexicans.
And I find most people an equally complex mixture of views on various topics and for various reasons. The labels work mostly for a subset of our society that is very vocal, but intellectually in the sub-moron class with child mind takes on surreality. They have basically grabbed control of both our government and our media and actually BELIEVE they are the intellectual elite. I’m wondering who gets the dressed each morning and out to the school bus.
So yes, I support the NRA and don’t actually HAVE any guns. My properties are rather famously protected by video cameras.
My anger at the current babble mania is that they are talking about solutions that could not possibly solve ANYTHING but they imply they truly believe they will, all the while their actions despise their apparent sincerety. And that they would play that out over the bodies of 20 six year olds is just profane. Deeply evil. In fact I view it with MUCH less sympathy than I hold for the disturbed young man who actually did the killing.
Civilized? No. I have no intention of being “civilized”. I view these people as traitors to our nation and our people and could EASILY see them hung by the neck until dead – at dawn. Wouldn’t wipe a tear.
But yes ACTUALLY attacking the problem does require a revision to our increasing “culture of death” fascination. In the interim, I cannot imagine any excuse for not providing armed protection to children in schools.
Ultimately, I see schools as moving “off grid” and online and I’m not sure that will be a good thing. BUt the public school system is failing systemically and now it appears not even to be safe for children. I think you’ll see a LOT of people looking for alternatives.
I myself provided early funding for a project here in Cape Girardeau called Prodigy Learning Academy. Young, very talented teaching couple starting with a few of the wandering black kids in our immediate area. They are up to 7 teachers and 65 kids now in their third year and are getting great results. If I have to get a gun and go down and sit in the lobby a day or two each month, I would probably do it. They are getting incredible turnarounds from very disadvantaged kids who show up. And the kids quickly convert from school hating to loving school.
Jack Rickard
Pingback: Google
OK, what about facts? And less opinion?
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/pro-gun-myths-fact-check
Jack, I’ve been watching you and EVTV for a year or two. You are so right on this matter. People think that taking guns away from people who actually respect gun laws is the answer, are just plain stupid to the world around them. I can buy a gun for 50 dollars illegally, which is cheaper than any gun you can buy at a store, might even have a body count on it, and could possibly be the one they stole from you. So stopping someone that wants to do harm to others is impossible, even if you take every gun from all the legal owners. This wouldn’t have happened 50 years ago, why might you ask. From the fear of being drug down the street getting beat to death or a public execution. People think the Law will protect them, ask the families of New Town how the Law protected them. Laws are only good if you follow them, if you don’t, they don’t matter. Now if there had been officers at the school(armed), he wouldn’t have made it thru the door, and anyone who disagrees with me, ask any police officer. They are trained very well, and that training makes them deadly. I guess in your imaginary world, that deranged person with a few minutes at a gun range and hours playing a stupid video game could even compare to the training of our officers with years of experience, not to mention that our officers wear bullet proof vest also. In my opinion, every school needs to have metal detectors and armed police, not just the bad schools. They force us to send our children to school, so they should be force to protect them. Locking the doors, didn’t stop this person, and won’t stop the next one. The sad facts are that they will take you rights to bare arms if your convicted of a felony( which is a violation of the second amendment) , but how many felons have actually went on a killing spree? You say its because they’re not allowed to own a gun, but truth be know 6 out of 10 felons have a gun in their house under a spouse’s name or one of their children’s name. So how do you think you kids are safe at school, malls, and any where but in your home with you. The police needs to quit writing tickets and start doing their jobs, by being at these public places where tragedies could happen. Now with that said, I’m sure I’ll get some flames, but just don’t care. Because unlike Jack, I will defend myself and my family, and wouldn’t lose a second of sleep about it.