Post Scripts

by Jack

President Obama announced today, ”This time, the words need to lead to action, (unlike his previous promises).” President Obama set a January deadline for the recommendations.” VP Joe Biden to head the new committee.

At the emotional height just days after the shootings, fully 57% of America said they wanted assault weapons to be banned and this was the polling the president needed to take action on more gun control laws. As a result, before the committee has even been formed President Obama is pressing forward with his own plan and that involves pressuring Congress to reinstate an assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004. This is despite the fact that Connecticut already had a strict assault weapons ban. But, facts and logic at this point seems to make little difference, when actions is demanded.

He also called for stricter background checks for people who seek to purchase weapons and limited high capacity clips, both of which Connecticut already had in place prior to the school shooting in Newtown. The purchaser of the weapons in the Sandy Hook School shooting was 100% legal and could have passed a background check in any state, but the owner of the guns was murdered and her guns were used illegally.

Obviously politics being what they are, the president was under pressure to do something! He’s obliged to give the appearance that he has a handle on the problem and that he is now acting quickly in the best interest of the country! This tough talk about banning certain guns will no doubt help placate many of the uninformed, the over-emotional, the non-gun owners and the stupid voters. Obama’s actions on behalf of this majority of Americans will go a long way to give them that false sense of security at a time when they needed it the most. It’s a exactly the kind of political move you could expect from his brand of politics.

Let’s hope this goes better than the war on drugs, but I have no reason to believe it will.
I think we headed for more disarming of the good guys, just like always. When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns…will we never learn from history?

by Megan McArdle

It would certainly be more comfortable for me to endorse doing something symbolic–bring back the “assault weapons ban”–in order to signal that I care. But I would rather do nothing than do something stupid because it makes us feel better. We shouldn’t have laws on the books unless we think there’s a good chance they’ll work: they add regulatory complexity and sap law-enforcement resources from more needed tasks. This is not because I don’t care about dead children; my heart, like yours, broke about a thousand times this weekend. But they will not breathe again because we pass a law. A law would make us feel better, because it would make us feel as if we’d “done something”, as if we’d made it less likely that more children would die. But I think that would be false security. And false security is more dangerous than none.

by Jack

Today I learned by listening to various talk shows that violent video games are a direct link to gun crimes. Then I learned that violent video games are NOT a direct link to gun crimes… huh? I also learned the violence in today’s movies is contributing to violence on the streets – then I learned that movies have no impact on murder rates. (Actually murder rates have been on the decline, as well as crime in general).

Sure is a lot of disinformation out here, but that’s to be expected when the media goes into a marketing frenzy. This scramble to bring us the latest in gory details makes the media look like a bunch of heartless fools, all blindly in pursuit of ratings…what a shame, we deserve better. I can remember when the news was credible, but not so much today.

Speaking of news, here’s a little tidbit that you probably won’t be hearing in the MSM, “A troubling revelation has surfaced regarding a mental health bill recently defeated in Connecticut during this calendar year. Had it passed, that bill could have possibly taken Adam Lanza off the streets so he would not have been free to commit his heinous act on December 14.

In February 2012, Connecticut Senate Bill 452 (SB452) was put forward to remedy the fact that Connecticut was one of less than ten states in the U.S. to lack an “assisted outpatient treatment” (AOT) law. As David Stein has pointed out, there are just six states that lack such a law.

But the bill was passed to Connecticut’s Joint Committee on Judiciary in March, where it quietly faded away because of opposition by those who viewed it as “egregious” and “outrageously discriminatory.”

Had this law passed, it may have forced Adam Lanza to be treated for his alleged mental illness instead of allowing him to roam free, and ultimately to kill 26 persons and himself in a vindictive rage on Friday.” Click here for the full story.

Ever since the ACLU forced Gov. Reagan to release mentally ill from indeterminate stays in mental hospitals, we’ve had too many ugly incidents of violence by criminally deranged people. Something needs fixing here.

We need to sort this out as quickly as possible. We need facts, we need sensible dialog using logic and reason, not emotions and hysteria. And some day soon, we need to be able to profile for these potential shooters, so we can stop them. This likely means we will need better laws to backup our mental health professionals, not impede them like our current liberal laws.

Too often our mental health program lags far behind most European countries. We can do better.

By Jack Lee (retired law enforcement)

In the most general terms our state’s have defined an assault weapon as a semi-automatic rifle, meaning it fires one shot with each trigger pull and it automatically chambers another round (bullet). Further, its equipped with a collapsible butt stock, a high capacity magazine, a quick release magazine button, a bayonet lug, a pistol grip, a grenade launcher and a flash hider to obscure the flame caused by gun powder when fired. Some states that have assault weapon bans will allow one of two of these features on a rifle, but not all of them.

A reasoned mind might therefore conclude these features make an assault extra lethal right? Okay, let’s take a look at each one and see how lethal they are:

A bayonet is a knife attached to a gun barrel to form a sort of spear. Fixing a bayonet to a rifle is usually a last resort. Typically this is done when the ammo runs out. If you have ammo, using a bayonet is not that desirable. A bayonet is mostly psychological, and it’s a carry over from the days when we also had cavalry charges and fired black powder cannons.

As of this date there’s no record of any mass bayoneting, bayonet charges or rifles with bayonets used to hold up your neighborhood 7-11. Your odds of being bayoneted are slim to none. A bayonet lug is therefore a moot point.

What about that collapsible butt stock? A collapsible butt stock typically has 3-5 positions and it is used to compensate for different arm lengths, other than that it serves no practical purpose. No soldier I know would prefer to completely close down the butt stock and fire from hip the ala Rambo style! This tactic works great in movies, but it’s not so good in real life. Accuracy drops by at least 70% or more when firing from the hip. It does make a rifle more concealable, but consider that the rifle (carbine) is still well over two feet long and at least 12 inches wide when that big magazine is inserted. Try hiding that hunk of metal in your pants! She’s gonna think you’re extra, extra, glad to see her!

In lethality terms there’s nothing gained by a collapsible stock. Overall for accuracy there as many pluses as there are minuses, but it looks mean and to a non-gun person this makes it [appear] more dangerous, even though it’s really not.

Next, a semi-auto and full auto are two vastly different concepts in rifles. A full auto hand carried carbine (short rifle), better known as a sub-machine gun, fires automatically as long as the trigger is held down and you have ammunition. Many people confuse semi-automatic and full automatic as one in the same. This confusion seems especially true in the mainstream news media when they lecture us about assault weapons.

In terms of cycle rate (rate of fire) between as so-called assault weapon and a semi-automatic rifle or shotgun, there is no difference. Both operate on the same principal and have the same cycle rate.

I heard a questionable expert on TV say that a semi-auto Bushmaster rifle (used at Sandy Hook) can fire 6 rounds per second. Let’s stop and think about this. Try to move your index finger like your squeezing a trigger, see how many times can you move it in one second? Even if you could, your accuracy drops dramatically – not the way to go if you want to hit what you are aiming at. But, it sounds scarey and it inflames passions to hear that baloney.

We have very strict laws about the sales and ownership of full automatic weapons and unless one was obtained illegally or created illegally, their contribution to crime is virtually nil. Another moot point, but one raised all the time to scare people and confuse the issue on gun control.

A flash hider is next on our list of banned items. The flash hider really doesn’t hide the flash, it diffuses it. And only modestly. In the dark you can still see the muzzle flash from a long distance. I’m not sure what great advantage there is by banning the flash hider. This is not a silencer, it merely reduces the flash, and just a little. however, in combat with gunfire everywhere, we want every advantage we can get, no matter how slight. So modern military weapons have flash hiders. Once again a military look means more than reality. So the humble flash hider was restricted by non-gun legislators who lacked the basic information in this article.

This brings us to high capacity magazines. When we think of an assault weapon or military weapon we tend to think of a long magazine that holds 30 or 40 round (bullets). Large capacity magazines for an AR-15 rifle (black rifle) tend to jam, so most AR owners prefer a 20 shot or less magazine. In California, and many other States like Connecticut, the capacity of a legal magazine is 10 rounds. Connecticut and California law limits 10 rounds to even pistols. California also bans the standard release button to drop the magazine.

The Bushmaster carbine used in Sandy Hook was not on the list of banned weapons in Connecticut because it was not an assault weapon, but that doesn’t stop the mainstream media from telling your an assault weapon was used. In fact, assault weapons are just about all you hear talked about! This is because of it’s military style appearance more than anything else. A black rifle looks mean and it scares some people. As a result of the bad press I can virtually promise you that the assault weapon ban will be put back into effect, regardless of the facts.

BONUS SECTION: The problem from my perspective is, drawing the line between an assault weapon and regular semi-auto rifle. This is a very fine line; it’s a mere baby step between finding an assault rifle too dangerous to be owned by the public and a semi-auto rifle also too dangerous. There is almost no rational difference, in terms of lethality, between these two classifications of weapons. This is a legitimate concern and foremost among the other concerns why we should resist anti-gun legislation.

Law abiding people are the only people harmed by gun bans. Gun free zones, bans on high capacity mags, so-called assault weapons, have no meaning to law breakers, we’ve simply made their mission easier.

Police react to shooting crimes after the fact almost all the time. Rarely are they lucky enough to prevent a shooting. When seconds count the police are minutes away. When your life or a loved one’s life is at risk, you can bet you’re on your own, Sandy Hook is a good example of that and look what happened.

The reality is we have over 200 million hand guns alone in America, not counting long guns. We should focus on ways to assist mental health professionals to reduce the threat from people with mental illness. That would do more than a ban on assault weapons. We should reverse the ban on certain qualified teachers being trained and licensed to carry a weapon. There’s a reasonable and safe solution waiting for us if we would only pursue it and work it out, just like we did for airline pilots.

No matter what we do there will be risk, we can’t legislate that away. No solution will ever be perfect…that’s a given. But, we should engage in talking about ideas using the facts and reason to reach a responsible plan. What I’m hearing from legislators and the media is hysteria and knee-jerk ideas…ban this, ban that, chip away at our 2nd amendment right … I think we can do better, if we want too.

Liberals want us as disarmed as Sweden, home of the world’s worst mass murder spree by a man armed with an illegal sub-machine gun. The want all states to have laws as tough as Washington D.C., murder capitol of the world. How rational is that?

Posted by Jack

Libertarian Party: Halt the Massacre of Innocent Children by Ending Prohibition on Self-Defense in Schools

Families throughout the nation mourn the horrific deaths of 26 people, including 20 young children, killed Friday during a Newtown, Conn., mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

“It’s impossible to imagine the depths of despair and grief that the victims’ families are experiencing right now,” said Geoffrey J. Neale, Chair of the Libertarian National Committee. “Our hearts go out to every one of them.”

In the immediate aftermath of news surrounding the shootings, pundits and politicians called for new restrictions on firearm ownership, exactly the opposite of the approach needed to combat tragic gun violence in schools.

“We’ve created a ‘gun-free zone,’ a killing zone, for the sickest criminals on the face of the Earth,” said R. Lee Wrights, vice-chair of the Libertarian Party. “We’ve given them an open killing field, and we’ve made the children of this country the victims.”

Wrights pointed out that merely the knowledge that armed people will be present acts as a deterrent for would-be shooters.

“They’re not going to walk into a police station, and why not? Because that’s where the guns are,” he said.

The Federal Gun Free Schools Zone Act prohibits carrying firearms on school grounds in most cases, effectively criminalizing the right to self-defense in places filled with the most vulnerable citizens. Without that federal prohibition, adults working at the school would have been free to defend themselves, very possibly saving the lives of many of the young children and adults who were slain in this horrific tragedy.

“We must stop blinding ourselves to the obvious: Most of these mass killings are happening at schools where self-defense is prohibited,” said Carla Howell, executive director of the Libertarian Party. “Gun prohibition sets the stage for the slaughter of innocent children. We must repeal these anti-self-defense laws now to minimize the likelihood they will occur in the future and to the limit the damage done when they do.”

Responsible gun owners can and do prevent mass shootings from occurring and escalating.

A 1997 high school shooting in Pearl, Miss., was halted by the school’s vice principal after he retrieved the Colt .45 he kept in his truck.
A 1998 middle school shooting ended when a man living next door heard gunfire and apprehended the shooter with his shotgun.
A 2002 terrorist attack at an Israeli school was quickly stopped by an armed teacher and a school guard.
A 2002 law school shooting in Grundy, Va., came to an abrupt conclusion when students carrying firearms confronted the shooter.
A 2007 mall shooting in Ogden, Utah, ended when an armed off-duty police officer intervened.
A 2009 workplace shooting in Houston, Texas, was halted by two coworkers who carried concealed handguns.
A 2012 church shooting in Aurora, Colo., was stopped by a member of the congregation carrying a gun.
At the recent mall shooting in Portland, Ore., the gunman took his own life minutes after being confronted by a shopper carrying a concealed weapon.

For several years after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, gun prohibitionists blocked pilots from carrying firearms. But after it became undeniable that guns are an essential line of defense against hijackers and other terrorists when the lives of innocent passengers are at stake, Congress finally passed legislation allowing it.

It’s time to take the same approach with teachers, school administrators, and security guards, who should be allowed to carry the tools necessary to protect the students in their care. It’s time to put an end to gun-free zones and make it much easier for responsible adults to arm, train, and protect themselves and the people they love from the violent criminals who seek to harm them.

“You can’t depend on somebody else to take care of your own life for you,” Wrights said. “It’s too precious to put it into the hands of somebody else, particularly when the seconds count.”

The Libertarian Party Platform on Self-Defense states: “The only legitimate use of force is in defense of individual rights — life, liberty, and justly acquired property — against aggression. This right inheres in the individual, who may agree to be aided by any other individual or group. We affirm the individual right recognized by the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms, and oppose the prosecution of individuals for exercising their rights of self-defense. We oppose all laws at any level of government requiring registration of, or restricting, the ownership, manufacture, or transfer or sale of firearms or ammunition.”

by Jack Lee

In the wake of the Newtown School shooting many distraught parents, elected officials, and political pundits are expressing their opinions and concerns about what happened at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. It’s right to do so we can try to find the answers we need to prevent another such tragedy, but the disinformation coming from the mainstream media is threatening to derail all meaningful and helpful dialog.

How could a madman, armed with 3 high powered weapons, some capable of firing 6 shots a second, walk onto the grounds of a grammar school and slaughter 26 people, 20 under the age of 9?

Many are now saying it’s time for a ban on assault weapons, high powered rifles that should only be used by the military. We need laws to prevent mentally ill persons from purchasing these weapons of mass destruction! This is the prevailing talk expressed by so many after this tragic and preventable disaster.

The question heard today is, maybe it’s time for Connecticut (and the rest of the nation) to pass tough gun control laws, like banning the ownership of deadly assault weapons? That sounds strange to an informed person, because you would then know we already have those laws. And besides that important point, no assault weapons were used to commit this horrific crime! NONE! Guns were used, but not high powered assault weapons. But, that doesn’t stop the media from saying they were does it?

FACT: Possession of an assault weapon in Connecticut is prohibited and possession of one is a Class D felony. I found this law in 1 minute, why couldn’t our media?

The next talked about question is about the ownership of high capacity magazines. Shouldn’t they be made illegal too? Well, guess what? They already have such a law, it was on the books long before Adam Lanza went on his shooting spree. Don’t hear the media pointing that out either…strange?

FACT: Connecticut law says possession of magazines or clips holding more than ten rounds of ammunition are a Class D felony.

Well, maybe Connecticut should pass a law banning high powered weapons, right?
You might raise that issue, but since no high powered weapons were used by Lanza it’s a moot point.

FACT: Two 9mm pistols were used and these are not considered high powered. 90% of pistol cartridges out here are more powerful than a 9mm. Regarding the Bushmaster, .223 caliber, rifle that was used, again it’s not a high powered rifle at all. In fact the .223 round is one of the smallest center fire rifle rounds on the market. Yet, the media constantly refers to the Bushmaster rifle as this uber-weapon, a deadly assault weapon and how it’s so powerful! This sounds so ludicrous to informed people, because it’s just more disinformation coming out of the mouths of some very dangerously ignorant people. These are people commenting on a subject that they obviously no nothing about and that is the second half of this tragedy.

You would think that a responsible news program or commentator or their guest experts on gun control might get their facts straight, right? But they never do. At the very least that is irresponsible journalism, but I think it goes deeper. I think there is another agenda here that leads to deception done deliberately. They’ve long been part of the far left gun-grabber crowd. A crisis like Sandy Hook should not be wasted, it should be exploited for all it’s worth… to seize guns.

Referring to the Bushmaster rifle, “These weapons are capable of firing 6 rounds a second”, said a Congressman from Connecticut. These are semi-automatic firearms and the trigger must be pulled each time a round is fired. A machine gun is the only weapon that is designed to fire full automatic. Military weapons, commonly called assault weapons, can often fire either single rounds or multiple rounds with a trigger pull, but these are not sold to general public and generally speaking they are illegal to possess. To own a machine gun or full automatic weapon requires a special background and license. I know of no incident where the licensed owner of a machine gun ever used it in a crime.

“We need tougher gun laws to stop these killings!” said Lisa Hoops in her 2011 story about gun violence in America. Sweden has some of the most strict gun control laws anywhere, yet 69 people, mostly young adults and teenagers, were cut down by a neo-Nazi using a full automatic weapon… obtained illegally.

People with a mental disorder should not be allowed to buy firearms, we can all agree on that one! And Connecticut’s shooter, Adam Lanza, didn’t own a gun. The guns he had in his possession were purchased legally by his mother. She possessed no illegal weapons at all, not even the alleged assault weapon and she followed all the strict gun control laws. She was a law abiding gun owner, but arguably, she may have been an irresponsible gun owner, as much as she was an irresponsible parent, because she let her mentally ill son have access to her weapons and he killed her. Bad judgement often has bad consequences, but you can’t legislate against that.

She knew her son was mentally ill and she frequently expressed her anger at the school system for failing to provide assistance for his condition. So why would she have these weapons at his disposal? Was it denial, stupidity, or something else? At this time we don’t know, all we know is her son suffered from a personality disorder, a mild form of autism and the only concern people seemed to have about Adam was that he could become the object of bullying.

Good thing the school had a security consultant who helped them erect video cameras and a security fence with an electric lock. Bad thing they didn’t use it to keep Lanza out. The school authorities let the gunman enter and he had no business being there. Nobody questioned why he wanted in. And contrary to the news media, his mother had never even been employed there. Before people go pointing fingers at gun owners, they better examine this one.

Imagine if you can, you’re a teacher and you are at the Sandy Creek School administrators’ meeting and included in the meeting is the school’s psychiatrist and the principal. There’s a few minutes left before the meeting starts and you’re licensed to carry a concealed handgun. You want to upgrade and so you offer to sell your pistol to your fellow teachers. You might say, “Here, take a look at this, I’m asking just $200” and you pull it out of your concealed holster to display. Your peer group looks at you horror! They recoil at the sight of the gun in their midst. The school principal snaps at you, “Mr. Smith! You can’t bring a loaded gun on these premises, that’s illegal. This is a gun free zone! And NO, NOBODY WANTS TO BUY YOUR STUPID GUN…REMOVE IT immediately, take it home…right NOW!” You leave as ordered. You are humiliated and drive back to your home to offload your pistol. On your way Adam Lanza, in his mother’s car, passes you on his way to the Sandy Hook school. In a few minutes the value of your gun will become apparent…it will be too late of course. ( I bet you could name your price once the shooting starts.)

By Jack

Here’s a tip from my dentist (Chico Creek Dental Arts). This simple formula has been proven effective at treating gum disease and bad breath. Mix a tsp of bleach in 4 oz of water and swish for 10-15 seconds and rinse with plain water or mouthwash. Do this every 3 days and it will kill harmful bacteria as it helps promote gum health. Don’t mix ahead of time, best to mix it fresh and use.

by Jack Lee

You probably read the story in today’s ER about the billboards with the words “Don’t believe in God? Join the club?” They went up around Chico on Dec. 5 to mark the formal launch of the Butte County Coalition of Reason, but by Wednesday morning, someone had defaced the Skyway billboard, ripping off “Don’t” and the group’s website so it only states “believe in God? Join the club.”

I don’t know who did this or their motive, but its a good bet someone was so upset by the message they felt they had to destroy it.

What does that say about the perpetrator/s? That they’re so insecure in their faith they can’t handle an opposing view? That they think the ends justifies the means? That they don’t respect free speech or other people’s personal property? Well, whatever it is, it’s something reprehensible, un-American and it’s certainly not Christian.

We don’t need that sort of thing in Chico and I hope whoever is responsible is caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law because we respect free speech here.

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” ― George Orwell

“I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”
— Voltaire or Evelyn Beatrice Hall

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” — Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Posted by Tina

That Snoopy’s a trip!

by Jack

I know you folks are not the highly educated politician President Obama is, so if you get the answer to my next question wrong, don’t feel bad.

Okay, imagine you’re the President and Egypt wants 20 of our F-16 jets. Why, you ask? I suppose in case they get into a shooting war with Israel, but that’s really not your main concern, this is more about diplomacy and politics at home. So, you size up Egypt’s recent regime change, you take special note their new President wants Sharia Law and he has some very dangerous friends who don’t like us. The cost of the jets are over $200 million. General Dynamics is all for it, they need the business and it’s good for the union workers too and the local economy.

As our President, deal or no deal, what’s your answer, yes or no?

Well, here’s what Barack Husein Obama did: He’s giving the jets to Morsi….I mean literally giving, no charge! The democrats representing the district where General Dynamics builds those jets need this deal. It’s great pork, and it will help them get re-elected. President Obama needs this deal because he wants to win new friends.

Didn’t get the right answer did you? Well, that’s why we need our Dear Leader to oversee these difficult diplomatic and economic decisions for you.

(and the revolution draws ever nearer)