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.

New Jersey is at it Again

Hiz 'oner
dougernst.files.wordpress.com

 

Chris Christie’s New Jersey is at it again: bringing the full weight of the state against an innocent CCW carrier.  This case is far too similar to the travesty endured by Shaneen Allen.

The Fletcher Family
Range365.com

          Brian Fletcher mobilized his crew to repair storm related cell phone tower damage in Trenton, New Jersey. He left his North Carolina home less than an hour after an emergency plea from New Jersey. Once in Jersey, he was approached by a police officer. Fletcher handed over his ID and as any good North Carolina citizen would, he informed the officer that he had his CCW in his vehicle.

         Ignoring Fletcher’s critical disaster relief role, his NC CCW permit and his absolute lack of any criminal intent, the cop arrested and charged Fletcher with carrying a firearm - a Class 2 Felony in the Garbage State. It seems if a New Jersey cop approaches, you should only give him your name, rank and serial number, as you are deep in enemy territory.

         Fletcher is now home in North Carolina, free on a $25,000 dollar bond. A law-abiding man, he faces five years in prison and the ruin of his life for a "crime" without intent nor victim. His lawyer is trying for the pre-trial intervention program and hoping for a pardon. 

         We wish NJ governor Christie would shake off his usual food coma and do the right thing. We hope he immediately frees an innocent man, rather than waiting for the right time in his presidential campaign.  

phalsephillysports.files.wordpress.com

        And big guy, start to fix your damn state’s insane gun laws NOW, or you can choke on your overfed political ambitions.  

More Thoughts on National Reciprocity

This time, nothing at all to do with the SCOTUS decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.

We took the family on an interstate road trip over the weekend. There were long drives, some sightseeing, spending time with extended family we hadn't seen in several years, and — of course — fireworks. Good times.

And yes, there is some truth to this:

(source)

During the drive back, though, I noticed something, and had a bit of an epiphany.

What I noticed was that, while hurtling along an interstate highway in California, we were surrounded by other vehicles feet or yards away, traveling at similar velocities (~70 mph) negotiating curves in the road, changing lanes, passing, allowing others to pass, and so forth. Being a holiday weekend, there were a healthy number of license plates from states other than California. I saw other Oregon plates, Washington plates, Colorado plates, a couple from Georgia, Florida, and New Jersey (long drives, those), and a few from the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta.

Yeah, kinda like that.
(source)

Yet, we all took the curves and traffic in stride — with very nearly the precision of a school of fish or a flock of birds moving in sync, and with no communication amongst each other besides the occasional flashing lights known colloquially as "turn signals" — and managed to not hit each other.

The phrase "poetry in motion" came to mind. That might be an exaggeration, but it was still somewhat amazing to observe once I noticed it.

We take it for granted, but it happens every day with shockingly few mishaps given the number of drivers and vehicles on the road at any given time. We don't suddenly become unsafe drivers when we cross an arbitrary line on a map.

That was the observation. Here's the epiphany:

The driving laws among the 50 states (and D.C.) are mostly the same. There are some minor variances — the speed limits on highways, emission requirements on vehicles, the fines and penalties for specific violations, etc. — but for the most part, the act of driving doesn't change when you cross state lines.

Additionally, although we all come from different states, and each state has different training and testing requirements for those who wish to earn their license to operate a motor vehicle on public roads, that license is good in all 50 states (and D.C.) in the Union.

So why is national reciprocity for carrying a concealed firearm such an issue?

Same reciprocity map from last week.
(source: USA Carry)

We hear from the anti-rights crowd how national reciprocity can't work because the laws and training requirements for CCW licenses are different in all 50 states, so there's no consistency, and that lack of consistency could cause problems.

Horse$#!+, I say.

I mean, sure, the gun laws vary a bit — some are "shall issue" while others are "may issue", New Jersey bans hollow point ammunition, several states require magazines that carry 10 or fewer rounds (and New York demands you only put seven rounds in those magazines), and some states require that a concealed firearm remain concealed — but then again, the driving laws of each state/province vary, too. Some states require emissions checks and some set their highway speed limits differently (Oregon's 65 vs. California's 70 vs. Idaho's 75). Some prohibit drivers from using cell phones without hands-free devices, some only prohibit sending text messages while behind the wheel, and others have no rules on the use of cell phones. Yet most days we (as a nation) manage to travel from point A to point B without getting speeding tickets or causing 50-car pile-ups on interstate highways.

And statistically, we have just as many cars in the country as guns, but guns cause far fewer fatalities — accidental or not — than cars. Repeat after me: The tool is not the problem. Misuse of the tool is.

[UPDATED TO ADD:] U.S. Concealed Carry Association published this article addressing events world-wide wherein people used motor vehicles as weapons, with the specific intent to harm or kill as many people as possible. Yet, nobody is questioning whether we should be allowed to own or operate cars, and nobody is protesting Ford or General Motors for manufacturing such "dangerous weapons". [/UPDATE]

The bottom line is this: If we can be trusted to responsibly operate a two-ton, 300-horsepower, mechanically-complex (have you looked under the hood of a modern car lately!?), seven-passenger moving death machine across state lines, it's safe to assume that carrying an operable defensive concealed firearm across state lines will be no big deal.

Write your Congressional representatives. Tell them to support and/or co-sponsor the various concealed carry reciprocity bills currently introduced in Congress. Remind them that the "sky is falling", "road-rage-turned-deadly", "blood in the streets" predictions of the anti-rights crowd over expanding gun rights have never come true, and that if we can be trusted to responsibly drive a motor vehicle safely nationwide with all the varying driving laws, then surely we can be trusted to safely carry a concealed, holstered firearm in any state in the Union.

Stay safe.

A Monster Fisking

You keep using the term, but last time I checked “wishful thinking” and “emotionally laden nonsense” weren’t synonyms with “common sense”.
        Larry Correia, Fascist Cisgender Normative Male and Author

 

Larry Correia
International Lord of Hate
and Combat Accountant

Larry Correia writes some of the most violent, blood-soaked, bullet and explosive laden, misogynistic, unapologeticly cisnormative, non-vegan, best selling and downright fun fantasies around. You'll find his Grimnoir, Monster Hunter International and Dead Six series perennially perched in the best seller lists. They're diverting, oft bloody romps, with encompassing world builds, surprising characters, and fast paced plots. The author is known for his creativity, wicked sense of humor, weapons-grade sarcasm, sheer inability to suffer fools gladly, and what is assumed to be an epochal case of the 'roids.

Some paper's Social Justice Warriors got all butthurt when a feminist cancelled her appearance because the Utah State University couldn't cancel the audience's 2nd Amendment Rights. The Deseret News editorial staff saw fit to publish an emotional, cliche riddled, bitterly anti-CCW editorial. Unfortunately for them, they happened to be Larry Correia's local paper. This caused Larry to put down his side of beef, gird up his keyboard, and carpet bomb some logic and facts all over their sloping foreheads. In a deliberate, brutal, line by line Fisking, Correia knifes through the feldercarb to cut away the misrepresentations and unicorn-based assumptions of the unsigned editorial.

Fisk me, baby!

The Deseret News' own summary of the editorial: "It’s time Utah law stood up for safety, not the empowerment of bullies" gives just a hint at the over-emotional fear and fuzzy thinking it contained. Larry not only makes short work of the editorial's overheated verbiage, but he provides a damn good basis for the necessity of concealed carry. He also provides a link to his seminal work supporting gun rights that he wrote shortly after the Sandy Hook tragedy. Both of his posts are HIGHLY recommended.

It should be noted that Correia writes fantasies that some see as excessively violent. In reality, they're simply entertainment. The blood splattered across his books is ephemeral, existing only in the imagination. On the gripping hand, the editorialists advocate for laws that disarm the law-abiding populace, leaving them helpless before the true threat.

The blood that can flow then is very, very real.

HT: Miggy of GunFreeZone.com