You cannot tell if the President’s wife is dressed for an opera or an operation.
Morrow’s Meditations, The Flophouse News, February 1940
First Recall Effort Against Colorado Democrat Fails
Thanks to a link at The Gun Wire, I see the anti-gun Denver Post was cackling loudly tonight as it announced the strictly amateur effort to gather enough signatures to force Durango’s anti-gun activist Rep. Mike McLachlan to face the voters he betrayed in a recall election.
Briefly quoting the anti-gun Denver Post item linked above:
Those spearheading the recall effort against McLachlan collected “8,500 plus” signatures, but needed at least 10,586 valid signatures, organizer Dave Saleh said.
The number of signatures required is based on 25 percent of the votes cast in the last election in that district.
“We obtained signatures from about 20 percent of the voters … and we did it with no money, entirely grassroots, no pros, an amateur organization, ” Saleh said Tuesday.
That is an excellent result for a first attempt from an organization with a zero budget. If I were in McLachlan’s district I would be back on the street corners and shopping centers tomorrow morning. Because now I would know the places we would waste our time going back – and the places you can mine for hundreds, perhaps thousands, more signatures.
Stranger
Posted in Gun Control Nuts, PROGRESSIVES
Leave a comment
“Kos” Says The NRA Is Losing It’s Clout
Thanks to a link at The Gun Wire, I see Markos Moulitsas, the ultra leftist behind the “Daily Kos,” says the National Rifle Association is “losing its sway.”
Of course, Moulitsas is, like his fellow traveler Ezra Klein, about twenty.
The beardless stripling will not remember the days when the NRA numbered a quarter of a million National Guard and Ready Reserve members. The days when the NRA’s “leadership” wanted to stay entirely out of politics. The days when Lyndon Johnson attacked the NRA, even though the Association had not so much as issued a position statement on Johnson’s attempt to destroy the Second Amendment.
So “Kos” feels that things are moving in his political affinity groups favor. He forgets that just twenty years ago, the NRA’s membership was only 2.5 million members, half of today’s numbers. Briefly quoting Moulitsas mewlings:
But opposing a bill supported by about 90 percent of the American public in poll after poll has proven costly to the gun lobby’s most loyal lackeys.
Senators like New Hampshire’s Kelly Ayotte, Arkansas’s Mark Pryor and Arizona’s Jeff Flake have seen their poll numbers plummet.
Yes, about 90 percent of Demokratik Partei loyalists in some Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and California zip codes strongly support gun bans and “universal background checks.” The other 96 percent of the United States, not so much. In fact, overall, only four percent of Americans consider gun control at all important.
So far, the left has put up about 18 cents for each family in the United States that has one or more guns at home. Do the math – 80 million homes with guns, 31 million that do not have guns, 12 million heads of household who intend to buy a gun – when they can find one to buy. At a buck a home, that is a total of $92 million. At a buck a gun, that is $700,000,000. And gun owners are used to digging deep to protect their rights.
Kos says Bloomers Bloomberg is putting up millions to force a gun ban. Yes, Bloomberg can match the NRA buck for buck today. But he cannot match the dollars and the votes of 92 million gun owners and potential gun owners. And their wives and children.
As each day passes, enthusiasm for the Democratic Partei’s gun owner registration and licensing scheme, along with its plan to outlaw and to confiscate more than 80 percent of all sporting firearms in the United States, loses steam. And those like Markos Moulitsas should either get used to living in an armed, and safe, society, or emigrate to whatever high crime rate society that better suits them.
Venezuela comes to mind, with Fascist rule and a total gun ban. As well as a current homicide rate of more than 225 per 100,000 population.
Stranger
Posted in POLITICIANS
Leave a comment
Germany’s Homicide And Violent Crime Rates vs US
Someone came by searching for “germany homicide and violent crime vs US.”
The Bundeskrimialamt or BKA reports on crimes reported to police. Unfortunately, the latest year for which data has been released is 2011, which is understandable considering we are only four months into 2013.(pdf)
Media reports lead me to believe the murder and violent crime rates are, like most of Europe, up slightly. However, going with the data we have; I must begin by pointing out that Germany’s 2011 population was estimated at 82,400,000 while the U.S. population was estimated at 311,500,000. Since the United States has a 3.78 times larger population, I will present crime totals as well as comparative crime rates.
For 2011, As nearly as I can add items that would be included in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report with the page on the linked BKA report:
The first category to be considered should be homicide, defined as “an act of man killing regardless of circumstances.” Since the United States dumps murder, manslaughter, justifiable homicide, law enforcement deaths, and other deaths in the total, that will require the myriad German categories to be summed in order to provide a truly comparable picture.
For 2011, the FBI reported 14,612 homicides, for a rate of 4.7 per 100,00 population.
Page 22: For 2011 Germany reported total of 3,734 homicides, murders and other “offenses against life,” excluding abortion related deaths. That is equivalent to 14,115 homicides if the two nations populations were the same; and an official rate of 4.4 per 100,000 population. (This does not include murders of Roma and certain other minority groups.)
The next category of violent crime that would be included in the FBI 2011 Uniform Crime Report is forcible rape, which the FBI total was 83,425 offenses for a rate of 26.8 per 100,000 population.
Page 22: For 2011 Germany reported a total of 47,078 “Offenses Against Sexual Self Determination.” That would be a rate of 57.1 per 100,000.
The next category of violent crime on the FBI Uniform Crime Report is Robbery, of which the United States had 354,396 robberies for a rate of 113.7 per 100,000 population.
Page 23: For 2011 Germany reported a total of 51,071 robberies for a rate of 62 per 100,000 population.
The final category of violent crime on the FBI Uniform Crime Report is “Aggravated Assault,” a category that is often an additional charge in order to insure a conviction on some charge. For 2011 the FBI reported 354,396 assaults, for a rate of 241.1.
Page 24: For 2011 Germany reported a total of 541,254 assaults with bodily injury for a rate of 644.4 per 100,000 population.
And to be as complete as possible, consistent with a brief post, Germany reported a total of 5,990,679 crimes of all sorts, for an overall crime rate of 7,131.8 crimes per 100,000 population.
The FBI reported a total of 10,266,737 crimes of all sorts, for an overall crime rate of 3,295.0 per 100,000 population.
And the bottom line is simple enough. Except for robbery, Germany’s crime rates are as high as or higher than the United States.
Our overall crime rate is 45% that of Germany. Our official homicide rates are a virtual tie, not counting a substantial number of murders among the Rom and other minorities in Germany. While our official robbery rate is almost twice that of Germany, robberies of minorities are seldom reported to the police, and even less frequently counted in a national database. Germany’s sexual assault and assault rates are both more than double the United States.
And while the U.S. violent crime rate is 386.3 per 100,000 the German violent crime rate is at least 767.9.
Finally, as anyone should be able to see, another “crime free paradise with rigid gun controls” is a very long way from crime free.
Stranger
Posted in CRIME AND GUN CONTROL, CRIME STATISTICS
Leave a comment
” CBS News’ Sharyl Attkisson: My Computer Has Been Compromised”
Thanks to a a link at Instapundit, I see CBS News Sharyl Attkisson reports her computer has been ‘compromised.’
Illegal breakins, both of property and of computers, has been a hallmark of totalitarian states. Given Ms. Attkisson’s bulldog pursuit of Eric Holder’s various gunrunning “operations,” it would be no surprise to find the lady’s computer has been bugged. Without the knowledge or permission of any court or judge. Briefly quoting the Breitbart report linked above:
Attkisson tells Politico “I can confirm that an intrusion of my computers has been under some investigation on my end for some months but I’m not prepared to make an allegation against a specific entity today as I’ve been patient and methodical about this matter.” Attkisson believes the possible infiltration of her computer began in Feb. 2011 during her reporting on Fast and Furious.
That is quite possible, given the Chicago Combine background of the current regime. And those responsible for Fast and Furious should properly be turned over to Mexico’s Attorney General for prosecution, since the death toll from those “operations” rises by the day.
Stranger
Posted in PROGRESSIVES
Leave a comment
Three Anti-Gun Bills Pass In New Jersey
Sebastian at Shall Not Be Questioned notes that the Demos “confiscate,confiscate,confiscate” bills did not make it through the legislature, but three less restrictive bills are headed for Christie’s desk.
Sebastian has the details at the link – but if Christie signs them he can pretty much kiss his presidential hopes goodbye.
Stranger
Posted in GUN CONTROL LAWS, Gun Control Nuts
Leave a comment
“The History Of Gun Control?”
Someone came by searching for “the history of gun control.”
That is a large subject. At one page for each gun control law, so large that it would take the equivalent of two Encyclopedia Britannica’s printed on the same thin paper in the same small type, to adequately cover.
Briefly, guns were still uncommon when Duke Eberhard I of Wurttemberg passed the very first gun control law in late 1495, reportedly as a result of either a murder or a “not intentional discharge.” Eberhard died in February of 1496, and if that law was ever enforced, I have not heard of it.
However, in the 518 intervening years, there have been well over 65,000 restrictive gun laws put in place. At the present time, more than 22,500 restrictive gun laws are currently in force, with more seemingly popping up every day. They range from Japan’s 1695 (?) total ban on firearms to requiring a permit to carry a concealed gun.
Of those restrictive gun laws, not even one has ever been followed by any reduction in murder rates, violent crime rates, or firearms accident rates. On the contrary, the only gun related laws that have actually cut crime are those laws that require, encourage, allow, or however grudgingly permit citizens of good repute to keep and carry firearms.
And the obvious question is “what about persons of bad repute?” While I have quite a bit of data on that, I will only observe that the homicide and violent crime rates were, and are, far lower in venues that have no limits on who can own or possess a gun than those that do.
Stranger
Posted in GUN LAWS
Leave a comment
Illinois: Move To Ban Sale Of Standard Capacity Magazines Afoot
A former gun control lobbyist, Chicago area (Park Ridge) State Senator and presumptive Combine associate Dan Kotowski is moving ahead with his plot to halt sales of standard capacity magazines following an appearance by Newtown parents.
Briefly quoting the Daily Herald report linked above:
“All of these lives were taken in less than four minutes by a single gunman,” said Mark Barden, whose son was among 19 children killed at Sandy Hook.
Kotowski, a Park Ridge Democrat and former gun control lobbyist, has championed the issue for years, but state lawmakers this year so far have focused their firearms efforts elsewhere.
Kotowski’s plan now could become part of that mix, or it could get lost in the shadow of the debate over whether people should carry concealed firearms.
Four minutes is 240 seconds. If in fact the murders at the Sandy Hook School were carried out in that time; instead of the “seventeen to twenty two minutes” contemporary reports suggest; Adam Lanza had ten seconds to select a target and fire. He could have done his heinous deed with a single shot almost as well as he could using the AR-15 pattern semi-automatic he reportedly used.
Of course, no reason and no logic will console a bereaved parent. But everyone but a bereaved parent should apply reason and logic to every proposition presented to them.
In a world where a mass murderer has plenty of time to load and fire, load and fire, until 20 children and four adults are dead,* magazine capacity should be a non-issue.
What should be an issue for the Newtown parents is the fact that Nancy Lanza could not find adequate health care for her son in Connecticut. And paid for that with her life.
As much as I hate to say it, it is again time for the good people of Illinois, that is, everyone except members and hangers on of the Chicago Combine, to call their Senators and oppose this senseless gun control scheme.
Stranger
*Shooting a bolt action Savage in the same caliber offhand at my sighting in range, 50 rounds went downrange in 225 seconds. All shots went into the 8 ring or better at 75 yards. And that rifle tends to “walk” bullets up the target after the first dozen rounds.
S
Posted in Gun Control Nuts
Leave a comment
More Than One Can Play That Game
The Hill reports “Green Groups” are using “sue and settle” tactics to coerce the EPA into acceding to demands from the group.
That street runs two ways. Given the many egregious violations of law in the thousands of regime fiats that have been issued since January 20, 2009, it would appear “sue and settle” would be a good way to get some of the most blatant abuses of the sovereign’s power set aside.
Stranger
Posted in FEDERAL FOLLIES
Leave a comment
69 Of 100 News Feed Items On Obama’s Scandals; 17 On Moore Tornado
There is not a great deal of gun related news in the headlines at 5:00 AM, today. The Obama scandals have pretty much driven everything else out of the news, with the exception of the Moore, Oklahoma tornado. 69 of the last 100 items on the news feed are of such things as “Holder walking fine line prosecuting journalists;” “Rosen called criminal co-conspiritor,” “Labor Unions Breaking With Obama,” and “How hope and change gave way to spying on the press.”
Of course, I understand why the talking heads and the scribbling classes are upset. They have been motoring along, blackening the names and reputations of those who disagree with Obama, or more likely Obama’s patron, and one failure to conform puts them on the “criminal co-conspirator” list.
But I also understand that using fear and intimidation to control the media is SOP for totalitarian regimes. Where the Obama regime is putting the screws to the scribbling class, Venezuela’s Marxian regime is locking them up. Several countries reporters are taking “extended vacations in unknown locations.” Many of those are very likely on the root side of the grass.
Historically, one of the first things Germany’s NSDAP (NAZI) thugs did was take control of what newspapers could print. And severely punish any publisher unwise enough to report as much as an obituary without Partei permission.
Italy’s Mussolini had been a newspaper editor. A small “Socialist” newspaper, to be sure, but Il Duce understood the power of the press. So as soon as he took power, he and his henchmen took control of the newspapers and of the primitive radio newscasts. Somewhat more subtly, but no less effectively than the Germans.
So the present revelations are no more or less than the expected result of instituting Partei Control of all the myriad government bureaucracies. We are fortunate in that the Partei hacks, bundlers, and ideologues who have been charged with turning our Republic into their “Workers Paradise” have been remarkably incompetent.
The tough minded WWI vets and Freikorps fighters who staffed the “Thousand Year Reich” were far more competent, and the Marxists who engineered Russia’s “Glorious Revolution were far more patient. Hopefully, the bungling class will continue to show its true colors.
Stranger
Posted in FEDERAL FOLLIES
Leave a comment