Quote of the Day — SCOTUS (June 23, 2022)

From the much-anticipated decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc., et al. v. Bruen, Superintendent of New York State Police, et al.:

Since Heller and McDonald, the Courts of Appeals have developed a “two-step” framework for an alyzing Second Amendment challenges that combines history with means-end scrutiny. The Court rejects that two-part approach as having one step too many.

Let's be clear, this decision is huge. Read literally (i.e., not by weasel-worded lawyer-types), it declares "may issue" licensing schemes unconstitutional; nobody should be required to show "proper cause" or a heightened need for self-defense above and beyond that of the general populace.

But today's QOTD also throws out the Courts of Appeals adoption of differing "tiers" of scrutiny. We've seen terrible laws struck by lower courts applying "strict scrutiny", only to be upheld when the Courts of Appeal apply so-called "intermediate scrutiny" — which first measures whether a law could be Constitutional, and then does an interest-balancing exercise that gives the defendents a chance to show an "important government interest".

That second step has always seemed designed to allow a blatantly unconstitutional law to stand if the government can articulate some kind of public or safety concern, no matter how far-fetched, implausible, or disproven. Nevermind that "intermediate scrutiny" itself is questionable; the Constitution has no allowance for "important government interests". An unconstitutional law is still unconstitutional even if the government really, really wants it. Sometimes especially so.

I'm still reading through this landmark 135-page decision. I expect there will be more quotable material in the coming days.

Stay safe out there.

Quote of the Day — LawDog (August 15, 2019)

From his blog:

[I]f you take nothing else from this, understand that there are no people on this world, there are no people in all of recorded history, as good at insurgency as the Americans.

[...]

You want to see an insurgency that would make the Hindu Kush jealous?

You want to hear the ghosts of empires whisper, "That was dumb"?

Listen to the idiots who think they'll just have the military take our guns.

The only thing missing is a mic drop.

Go give LawDog some comment-y love to welcome him back.

Stay safe.

Quote of the Day — Adam, RN [@aginorr] (August 14, 2019)

Posted on Twitter:

Why do we have the 2A.

I direct you to Hong Kong.

Right now.

Some additional background, from Legal Insurrection.

This could end very badly for the citizens of Hong Kong, and Americans should take note.

Stay safe out there.

[Hat tip to Joe, who comments, "I have nothing to add." Neither do I.]

Quote of the Day — Erin Palette (August 31, 2016)

On the Facebook page for "Operation Blazing Sword", referring to the kerfuffle regarding (licensed) concealed carry on Texas university campuses — specifically, how the "special snowflakes" no longer "feel safe":

This sort of thinking always astounds me. It essentially boils down to "I felt safe when only people willing to break the law were carrying concealed, but now that anyone who is willing to be photographed, fingerprinted, and background checked can legally carry, I suddenly feel like I'm in danger."

If they felt safe then, they ought to feel safe now. If they don't feel safe now, then maybe they ought to realize that their previous feelings of safety were just a comfortable illusion.

Yeah, I don't understand the mindset, either. This kind of cognitive dissonance can only happen when people let their feelings override their rational thought.

Stay safe.

Quote of the Day — Dom Raso (June 15, 2016)

In a new video on NRA News, in response to the shooting at the "Pulse" nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and the newly re-proposed* "gun control" laws:

Let's run through some of the latest attacks and see how banning so-called "assault weapons" would have turned out. California already bans "assault weapons". That didn't stop San Bernardino. No ban on ARs, or any guns, would have stopped the Boston Marathon bombing. ISIS's well-coordinated attack in France wasn't deterred by the country's strict "gun control" laws. Brussels' gun ban did nothing to stop terrorists from killing.

But every single one of those tragedies ended with police officers carrying AR-15s rushing to the scene as fast as possible.

Hillary's solution to stopping terror attacks is to ban the very gun that >stops terror attacks, and she calls that "common sense".**

I only have one nit-pick: The gun does not stop terror attacks, any more than it causes terror attacks. What stops terror attacks is prepared people — police or private citizens — showing up with the skills and/or tools required to make the bad guy(s) stop, using deadly force if necessary (which with terrorists, it often is).

Watch the whole thing:

[Hat tip: John Richardson.]
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* - Everything proposed is merely a reiteration of the same ages-old, tired themes. The proponents of "gun control" have no new ideas.
** - As this is a transcript, I'm taking some liberties with "scare quotes". However, the emphasis on certain words or phrases (shown in bold) is detectable in the original.

Quote of the Day — J. Kb (April 21, 2016)

Kicking the "I'm a gun owner but..." fallacy straight to the curb over at Gun Free Zone:

Let me make one thing clear. If you are anti gun, but you try to make yourself look like a moderate by talking about daddy’s trap gun or grandpa’s squirrel rifle and that you are not scared of guns because you shot a .22 at pop cans when you were a kid; that is the anti gun equivalent of saying you are not a racist because you have one black friend, and you’re not scared of black people because your black friend is a CPA from the suburbs. Guess what? You’re still anti gun… and a racist.

I can't rightly argue with that.

Stay safe.

Quote of the Day — Fred Reed (March 17, 2016)

From his article, Betting on Gray Sludge: What Fun:

If white Southerners genitally mutilated their daughters, practiced honor killing, and didn’t allow their girls to go to school, the Islamophiles would erupt in fury. They overlook these practices in Moslems because they are using Moslems as a means of punishing people they loathe , such as white Southerners.

That's about the state of things currently. The Social Justice Warriors unite under a pretended "cause", but in truth just use the "cause" as an excuse to dispense hate (and sometimes violence) on their neighbors whom they despise for no articulable reason.

There's a lot of truth in the article. I encourage you to RTWT.

Stay safe.

Quote of the Day — George S. Patton (WWII, date unknown)

The nigh-legendary general, speaking words that still have relevance today:

Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the b*stards who started it. The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we can go home. The shortest way home is through Berlin and Tokyo.

I don't know about all of you, but I'm ready for this "silly season" election to be over. I'm ready for the anti-freedom groups (or their benefactors) to realize it's a lost cause, cut their losses, and throw in the towel. I'm ready for our American values and way of life and our God-given rights to be safe from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

However, the quickest way do get it over with is to finish our business*. Then, and only then, we can go home.

Stay safe.

[Hat tip: John Hawkins at Townhall: The 25 Manliest Quotes by Americans. I may pull a few more quotes from this one!]
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* - Yes, I know for some of our opponents it will never be finished; some of them will never give up. I can dream, can't I?

Quote of the Day — Garry Kasparov (March 1, 2016)

Garry Kasparov, 2007
(source: Wikipedia)

As seen on the chess giant's Book of Face:

I'm enjoying the irony of American Sanders supporters lecturing me, a former Soviet citizen, on the glories of Socialism and what it really means! Socialism sounds great in speech soundbites and on Facebook, but please keep it there. In practice, it corrodes not only the economy but the human spirit itself, and the ambition and achievement that made modern capitalism possible and brought billions of people out of poverty. Talking about Socialism is a huge luxury, a luxury that was paid for by the successes of capitalism. Income inequality is a huge problem, absolutely. But the idea that the solution is more government, more regulation, more debt, and less risk is dangerously absurd.

I have nothing to add to that.

Fortunately, Mr. Kasparov has more, writing a follow-up in The Daily Beast. Here's a (very) small taste:

A society that relies too heavily on redistributing wealth eventually runs out of wealth to redistribute. The historical record is clear. It’s capitalism that brought billions of people out of poverty in the 20th century. It’s socialism that enslaved them and impoverished them. […] Once you give power to the government it is nearly impossible to get it back, and it will be used in ways you cannot expect.

Stay safe.

[Hat tip: Legal Insurrection]

Quote(s) of the Day — Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (January 20, 2016)

After the recent events near Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, something has been tickling the back of my mind about it, and I finally placed my finger on it.

On January 20, 2016, six days before the deadly "traffic stop", Oregon Governor Kate Brown held a press conference and wrote a couple letters. She had a few things to say.

Via OPR:

"Federal authorities must move quickly to end the occupation and hold all of the wrongdoers accountable," Brown said.

"This spectacle of lawlessness must end."

Also via OPR, in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey [PDF warning]:

[F]or the citizens of Harney County and indeed all Oregonians, I must insist on a swift resolution to this matter. Efforts to negotiate have not been successful, and now it is unclear what steps, if any, federal authorities might take to bring this untenable situation to an end and restore normalcy to this community.

I request on behalf of my fellow Oregonians that you instruct your agencies to end the unlawful occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as safely and quickly as possible. [emphasis added]

While I won't go so far as to claim that the shooting death of any of the protesters occurred at the behest of Our Honorable Governor, I will point out that the Feds certainly did end the "spectacle of lawlessness", and they certainly are "end[ing] the unlawful occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as safely [for some] and quickly as possible". The claim can be made that they took the request and ran with it.

I hope she's satisfied.

Stay safe.

Quote of the Day — J. Kb (Oct. 21, 2015)

"J. Kb", in case any of our readers don't know, is a blogger who fairly recently started contributing to Miguel's site, GunFreeZone.net.

After telling a personal DGU story, he knocked one out of the park with this:

When some pearl-clutcher tells you, you don’t need something, and you will just hurt yourself with it and just leave your self reliance to the professionals. Go out and buy what they tell you not to have. Go out and buy two of them.

Boom.

Never let anyone who doesn't have any skin in your personal business dictate how you run it or what you need (or don't need) to run it.

Stay safe.

Quote of the Day — Taylor Armerding (Oct. 11, 2015)

Taylor Armerding

From his article at EagleTribune.com, "'Safety' rhetoric a thin disguise for anti-gun agenda" [emphasis mine]:

[President Obama] regularly mocks as paranoid those who suggest he wants to take their guns away. He claims nothing he would do would remove guns from those who want them to “hunt and protect their families.” Yet, he cited Great Britain and Australia as examples of what the United States ought to do to curb gun violence.

What Great Britain and Australia did was conduct a mass confiscation of guns. It is not paranoia to think the president wants to do what he says he wants to do.

Never let them get away with telling you nobody wants to take your guns.

Stay safe.

Quote of the Day — Tam (Oct. 12, 2015)

Commentary on a CNN article about air-dropping small arms and supplies to Syrian rebels:

I have to ask, wouldn't it be quicker to just hand the weapons to ISIS rather than to the people who will surrender them to ISIS at the first sign of danger?

Zing! The Mistress of Snark strikes again!

Stay safe.

Quote of the Day — Derek Hunter (Oct. 8, 2015)

From his Townhall.com piece, "Words Matter, Or At Least They Used To (And Need To Again)":

Word choice may not seem like much, but it matters. Subtle manipulation is still manipulation. […] Marriage used to have an unambiguous meaning, as did racist. Not anymore.

He makes a lot of sense, and based on this, henceforth I will not be using the word "shooter" to reference any scumbag seeking postmortem fame with the deaths of others. These individuals will instead be referred to properly as "killers", "murderers", or other appropriate terms, and the modifier "mass" will be added as circumstances warrant.

This being a gun blog, it's likely that most of our readers can rightfully be described as "shooters", and I do not desire to conflate our good readers with the murderous scum of the earth. Let the "Progressives" fall over themselves doing that; I'll have no part in it.

Stay safe.

Teaching Our Kids What Sticks Are For

Found this article at Patheos.com. It's been making the rounds, so I don't remember who to credit for the hat tip.

"Boys with sticks", by Simcha Fisher.

My favorite exerpt:

Boys who are never allowed to be wild are boys who never learn how to control that wildness. Boys who are not allowed to whack and be whacked with sticks never learn what fighting is like. What’s so bad about that? Well, they may end up hitting someone weak, with no idea how much it hurts to be hit. Or they may end up standing by while the strong go after the weak – and have no idea that it’s their job to put a stop to it.

Either way, the weak suffer. The whole world suffers.

Read the whole thing, right down to the (also quotable) last paragraph.

Stay safe.

Quote of the Day — Kurt Schlicter (July, 2015)

From a short article at IJReview:

American gun owners are beginning to respond with a fresh, powerful argument when facing anti-gun liberals. Here it is, in its entirety. Ready?

“Screw you.” That’s it. Except the first word isn’t “Screw.”

That's just the first two lines. There's plenty more, and it's a short article. RTWT.

Bottom line: there's no reasoning with a person whose ideological position is based on lies and deception. We can still argue the merits, but at some point our "audience" becomes the fence-sitting bystanders and not the person we're arguing against. Think "presidential debates"; they're on stage trying to sway undecided voters, not each other.

To the anti-gun person directly, Kurt's response is perfectly appropriate.

Stay safe.

[Hat tip: David Codrea at The War on Guns]

Quote of the Day — David Codrea (July 20, 2015)

Taking on NRA's refusal to address the danger that granting amnesty and voting rights to millions of illegal immigrants (who will overwhelmingly vote Democrat) poses to gun rights, based on their false insistence on "single-issue" opinions:

Hey, Titanic's job is to steam. If you want to avoid icebergs, board another ship.

Ouch! That smarts!

Stay safe.

Quote of the Day — Tim Larkin (April 6, 2015)

Tim Larkin, of Target Focus Training (TFT), gave a TEDx Talk in Grand Forks, ND, in February of this year (video published in April). In it, among other things, he said:

Violence is rarely the answer, but when it is … it is the only answer. [emphasis added]

Watch the full talk here*. It's 17 minutes, and well worth the time. Pay attention to the no-context "self-defense" situation presented, and note when he says that when asked, most non-criminals will place themselves in the role perceived as a "victim", while criminals will place themselves in the role that looks like it will prevail.

This is just one more data point supporting the idea that the hardest parts about effective self-defense are developing the mindset and overcoming the deeply-ingrained aversion to violence. Seeing violence as a tool — one that could be equally used for good or evil — is a vital part of that development.

Stay safe.

[via e-mail]
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* - Also, if you're a fan of TED Talks, you know that audience interaction often comes into play, but due to reported technical difficulties on this production (i.e. the audience-facing microphones failing) you hear almost no audience reactions. Rest assured, they are reacting, and it's still a good video.

Quote of the Day — Lynne Russell (July 6, 2015)

Lynne Russell (right) and husband Chuck de Caro.
[source: Mediaite]

Former CNN anchor Lynne Russell, as quoted at Mediaite:

If you don't want to carry, please don't. Then, shut the f—k up about it. Make your own decisions.

Background at the link.

I have nothing else to add.

Stay safe.

[Hat tip: Ilana Mercer, writing at The Zelman Partisans, updating her original coverage of this story here.]

Quote of the Day — Frederick Douglass (April 1865)

Frederick Douglass
(source)

A lot of wisdom in this:

Everybody has asked the question, and they learned to ask it early of the abolitionists, “What shall we do with the Negro?” I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us!

I'd say this could apply equally to any group targeted by government legislation:

• What shall we do with the Jews?
• What shall we do with the Irish?
• What shall we do with the LGBTQQ crowd?
• What shall we do with the conservative Christians?
• What shall we do with the gun owners?

Sound familiar?

Stay safe.

[Hat tip: Thomas Sowell, writing at Townhall, who also notes that Frederick Douglas "saw the dangers from well-meaning whites" as far back as the 1860s. Little has changed since then.]