Wednesday, December 19, 2012

What To Do

     Sebastian -- who has been active in pro-gun activities from the git-go -- has posted excellent advice on coping with the current emotional wave of anti-gunnery.  By way of a "+1," here's my list:

     Contact your politicians -- local, State and Federal.  If they're anti, identify yourself as a law-abiding gun-owner and tell them you're opposed to restricting the rights of decent citizens over the actions of a few murderous lunatics.  If they're pro-2A, express your support.  Go sign the petition at Whitehouse.gov.  Yeah, you'll probably get put on a list but you know what?  You already are.

     Don't let our side give away the store.  We didn't cause the outrage at Newtown, CT, we didn't shoot up a theater full of people in Aurora, CO and we didn't try to harm innocents at a mall in the Pacific Northwest.  I'm a little concerned about what NRA might decide to offer -- because offering any concession (other than tightening up state reporting of mental health data to the NICS system) will be taken as an admission of culpability. 

     A specific model of gun didn't, either.  An idiot commenting at NRA's Facebook page (it's back, BTW) asserted "if all she'd [the killer's mother] had was a six-shooter and a hunting rifle, he'd've done a lot less damage."  Unlikely.  Bolt-action hunting rifles (to chose a restrictive example), even single-shot ones, can be loaded and shot nearly as quickly as you can work the bolt; a lever-action hunting rifle would be slightly faster.  Most hunting cartridges are more powerful than the "intermediate" sized .223.  -- It is an unfortunate, stomach-churning truth that it doesn't take much power and cycle speed for even a skinny adult to shoot children at close range.  On the six-gun side, it appears that the only person the killer at Newton shot with a handgun was himself -- for which even a single-shot gun would have been sufficient.  The original "Assault Weapons" Ban proved that banning rifles based on cosmetic features does nothing; the Columbine massacre took place during the AWB.

     Realize that these terrible crimes are copycat suicides.  That means the longer the media coverage goes on, the more likelihood we may see another successful mass-killing attempt by a deranged young madman.   (And I think they know it.)  If we are very, very lucky, the attempts will get the same reaction from ordinary people that attempted airliner hijackings do since 11 September 2001, as their intended victims grasp that they have nothing more to lose than is already at risk. More and more schools are teaching students, especially older ones, ways to oppose a killer; the first time one of these attention-seekers goes down under a hail to thrown textbooks (etc.) will be the beginning of the end of the trend.

     Know the facts.  Know the "official facts" even if you choose to doubt them -- and get expert advice.  The "rifle found in a car" was contentious issue here at Roseholme Cottage, until Tam found video of it being removed: it's a scary, black...pump-action shotgun! She was pretty suure of make and model from the low-rez image, thanks to her years shooting and working at gun stores. (Remember, the media talking heads reporting this stuff know a lot less about guns than you do -- and they're being briefed by police who are used to dumbing things down for them.)

     Don't overreact.  Too much too soon -- I fret over some of the more-tripwired Threepers, despite valuing them as "canaries" -- only plays into the hands of our opponents.  (Is this a subjective, tricky, nuanced game?  Yes; and that sucks.  Remember the stakes!)

     Know your audience.  In my blog, I can talk about the deterrent effect of removing legal barriers to teachers and school employees being armed if they chose to be (and qualify for whatever carry permit their state offers!).  In the lunchroom at work, not so much.  Don't be That Guy; we can't afford it just now.

     Do what you can, as you can, when you can.  Remember, self-defense is a basic human right; surrendering it makes society less safe.  And keep after those politicians!
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* I'm number 42,398. There were a hundred more signers in the few minutes it took to write about it.

12 comments:

  1. "The "rifle found in a car" was contentious issue here at Roseholme Cottage, until Tam found video of it being removed: it's a scary, black...pump-action shotgun!"

    Self-loading shotgun (the officer clearing it was running a charging handle on the right side of the receiver) but it was a shotgun.

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  2. #47,508 ... for all the good it will do. Sorry to be the fecal matter in the punch bowl, but weren't the citizens polling about 9-1 against the first Troubled Asset Relief Program? I remember how wasted my phone calls on that one felt. With my Official Representatives the likes of Dick Durbin, Bobby Rush, et al, my opinion, as a peon of the first order hold little sway. Yet ... I'll do what I can, no matter how frustratingly insignificant it feels.

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  3. Give facts to the uninformed and counter liberal BS. Especially those musket memes and Founding Fathers memes. I countered, in part, with this: "The 5.56x45 round of the AR type rifle produces 1379 ft/lbs of energy at the muzzle. The 7.62x39 cartridge of the AK and SKS families produces 1507 ft/lbs of energy at the muzzle. By comparison, the 30-06 Springfield, in production since 1906, a former military cartridge and the most common hunting cartridge in the US produces about 3100 ft/lbs at the muzzle. The previous two cartridges are hardly high powered, they are intermediates. Indeed, the energy levels produced by those scary “assault weapons” are on par with the muzzle loading muskets of the 1800's, which produced 1200-2100 ft/lbs of energy at the muzzle. The argument that our Founding Fathers could not have imagined arms with the lethality of modern weapons is also false. By the time of the composition of the Bill of Rights, Grape Shot had been in use for 100 years. Grape Shot turned a cannon into a giant shotgun, projecting a lethal cone out to one quarter mile."

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  4. Good points all, and worth remembering not just now, but going forward...

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  5. As I have said before, I do not, necer have, and do not intend to be a firearm owner. But that most certainly does not mean I want to take away other people's.

    I've signed. Albeit I would like to drop the video-game sentence - no, I do not play them, but are they really so much worse than the fairy tales recorded by the brothers Grimm? Or much "Rap" genre? I am old enough to remember attempts to outlaw Rock-and Roll, or Playboy magazine...

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  6. +1 to everything in this post.

    One addendum: If you are not a member of the NRA, SAF, JPFO, GOA, etc... Now's the time to join. I chose to join / renew memberships to 2 organizations today, with some of the cash I'd been saving for a new Glock.

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  7. The fight is on; but be clear, this is only an exercise by Dems to freshen up a reliable wedge issue. Every pol needs a few in the bandolier.
    "How can you possibly re-elect Congressman Douchecanoe with his statements about rape and his unconscionable support of the NRA over children"
    Their cynicism has no bounds, and unfortunately facts never matter.

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  8. I didn't record the exact number, but I'm 48,000 and change.

    Jim Renacci, Rob Portman, and Sherrod Brown (the latter as a mere academic exercise) will be hearing from me directly.

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