Posts Tagged ‘Government’
Thomas Sowell on Gun Control
The Fact-Free Gun-Control Crusade
Stricter gun-control laws don’t reduce murder rates, but who’s counting?
Amid all the heated, emotional advocacy of gun control, have you ever heard even one person present convincing hard evidence that tighter gun-control laws have in fact reduced murders?
Think about all the states and communities within states, as well as foreign countries, that either have tight gun-control laws or loose or nonexistent ones. With so many variations and so many sources of evidence available, surely there would be some compelling evidence somewhere if tighter gun-control laws actually reduced the murder rate. And if tighter gun-control laws don’t actually reduce the murder rate, then why are we being stampeded toward such laws after every shooting that gets media attention? Have the media outlets that you follow ever even mentioned that some studies have produced evidence that murder rates tend to be higher in places with tight gun-control laws?
What almost no one talks about is that guns are used to defend lives as well as to take lives. In fact, many of the horrific killings that we see in the media were brought to an end when someone else with a gun showed up and put a stop to the slaughter. The Cato Institute estimates that there are upwards of 100,000 defensive uses of guns per year. Preventing law-abiding citizens from defending themselves can cost far more lives than are lost in the shooting episodes that the media publicize. The lives saved by guns are no less precious just because the media pay no attention to them.
Many people who have never fired a gun in their lives and never faced life-threatening dangers nevertheless feel qualified to impose legal restrictions that can be fatal to others. And politicians eager to “do something” that gets them publicity know that the votes of the ignorant and the gullible are still votes.
Virtually nothing that is being proposed in current gun-control legislation is likely to reduce murder rates. Restricting the magazine capacity available to law-abiding citizens will not restrict the magazine capacity of people who are not law-abiding citizens. Such restrictions just mean that the law-abiding citizen is likely to run out of ammunition first. Someone would have to be an incredible sharpshooter to fend off three home invaders with just seven shots at moving targets. But seven is the magic number of bullets allowed in a magazine under New York State’s new gun-control laws.
People who support such laws seem to blithely assume that they are limiting the damage that can be done by criminals or the mentally ill — as if criminals or madmen care about such laws.
Banning so-called assault weapons is a farce, as well as a fraud, because there is no concrete definition of an assault weapon. That is why so many guns have to be specified by name in such bans — and the ones specified to be banned are typically no more dangerous than others that are not specified. Some people think that “assault weapons” means automatic weapons. But automatic weapons were banned decades ago. Banning ugly-looking assault weapons may have aesthetic benefits, but it does not reduce the dangers to human life in the slightest. You are just as dead when killed by a very plain-looking gun.
One of the dangerous inconsistencies of many, if not most, gun-control crusaders is that those who are most zealous to get guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens are often not nearly as concerned about keeping violent criminals behind bars. Leniency toward criminals has long been part of the pattern of gun-control zealots on both sides of the Atlantic. When the insatiable desire to crack down on law-abiding citizens with guns is combined with an attitude of leniency toward criminals, it can hardly be surprising when tighter gun-control laws are accompanied by rising rates of crime, including murders.
— Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. © 2013 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Threats of Gun Violence on the Rise in Government Schools
No parents, animals or other children were harmed in any way during the taking of this picture. This picture was taken by a licensed concealed weapon permit holder. Please, for God’s sake, do not try this at home without proper training and mature adult supervision. * Only filtered water was used in these dangerous weapons.
April 9, 2013 – The threats of gun violence are steadily increasing in our government schools. Here is a list of some of the latest gun related incidents involving some of society’s most dangerous threats to our children. These incidents are since the December Sandy Hook elementary school massacre.
Our only chance for our innocent little children is for America to embrace the idea of a disarmed society. No guns means no more dead children in our class rooms.
- March, police rushed to Malden High School in Massachusetts after reports of a gun only to discover a neon-colored water pistol.
- March a third grader in Michigan was reprimanded by school officials when he brought a cupcake to school adorned with a plastic toy soldier holding a gun.
- A ten year old Virginia boy who was arrested for taking a plastic toy gun to school is now facing a potentially permanent criminal record over the incident.
- A student in Florence, Arizona was recently suspended because he had a picture of a gun on his computer.
- A six-year-old kindergartner in South Carolina was suspended for taking a small transparent plastic toy gun to school for a show and tell.
- A five-year-old in Massachusetts who faced suspension for building a small toy gun out of lego bricks and play-shooting his classmates.
- An incident erupted when a discussion between two children about a toy nerf gun caused a lock down and a massive armed police response at two elementary schools in the Bronx.
- A Long Island high school was also placed on lock down for 6 hours in response to a student carrying a toy nerf gun.
- A five-year-old girl was suspended after a three hour grilling, and described as a “terroristic threat” when she brought a pink bubble gun to school.
- A South Philadelphia elementary student was searched in front of classmates and threatened with arrest after she mistakenly brought a “paper gun” to school.
- A 6-year-old boy was suspended from his elementary school, also in Maryland, for making a gun gesture with his hand and saying “pow”.
- Two 6-year-olds in Maryland were suspended for pointing their fingers into gun shapes while playing “cops and robbers” with each other.
- In Oklahoma, a five-year-old boy was also recently suspended for making a gun gesture with his hand.
- A 13-year-old Middle School seventh grade student in Pennsylvania was also suspended for the same hand gesture.
Each and every day we hear reports of delinquent children committing these horrific acts of gun violence against their classmates. These are our children, the children who belong to all of us. We are all in this village together and we must fight against all that is bad in our village.
Please, for society and our village, we must put an end to all the gun related violence by supporting stiffer gun control and the ultimate banning of all guns in our society. -JRoycroft
April Fools Day Has a New Meaning
April 1, 2013 – I cannot think of a better way to honor those among us that helped make it possible to elect the worst, most destructive, most dangerous jerk to sit in our White House in the history of our Republic than to give them this day, April 1st, as their day of remembrance.
This is for all of you moochers, leeches, deadbeats, welfare broodmares, and parasites. -JRoycroft
Republican Party Wimps
March 17, 2013 – (Updated 2:01pm) So it’s St Patrick’s day, big woop. Couldn’t care less. The Irish in me would rather fight than get drunk and make a fool of myself today. Especially after getting that letter from the Republican National Committee yesterday. What a bunch of spineless wimps.
Sarah Palin all cute and funny at CPAC does nothing for America’s chances at recovering the White House. The Republican’s are no better than the other side of the isle today. Gutless and unwilling to fight dirty. This voter will not be voting Republican next time. I’m done with that crowd of wimps. Too bad states don’t have the balls to put controls on who actually gets to vote in a presidential election. Of course most people are ignorant and still believe there is a right to vote in a presidential election. There is not. Start by not allowing those on welfare to vote until they are off our backs. Nobody on extended unemployment gets to vote. Lets just make it real simple…Only income taxpaying citizens get to vote in a presidential election.
Tell me, who would you rather see running this country, a gun-toting Barbie doll or a woman who bigger balls than her husband? I’m not in support of another Clinton in the White House but if it should come down to those two, well, bend over again folks.
There will be others like, Rubio to look for in the battle, but unless something dramatic changes in the mindset of the Republican party, and I’m not holding my breath for it, my voter card will say Libertarian Party.
The Republican party no longer represents me. I will not be represented by a bunch of ass kissing, spineless wimps. That bunch has done nothing to help themselves. Hell, they couldn’t even get their fellow supporters to vote for a decent candidate. Of course that says a lot about Republican voters in general. America got what it wanted not because Obama was the better man, but because Republicans are scared to fight dirty and Americans didn’t get off their lazy asses and vote.
I’m done with that bunch of prudes. I’m done sticking up for people who worry more about gays and abortion than about our Constitution and the welfare of American citizens.
I will not be renewing my Republican membership. It’s time to return to those who actually give a damn about me and my country – the Libertarian Party. I don’t agree with everything they stand for, but for right now they are the only ones willing to fight for the America that I want to live in. -JRoycroft
Rusty Humphries: It’s No Longer About Democrats vs. Republicans, it’s About the Power of the Government vs. the Power of the People
I want to share with you an excellent article written by our Patriot friend Rusty Humphries. I fully support Rusty, and will stand beside him in his fight for the power of the people. We the people need to stand up to Washington, DC and do everything we can to protect each other from those with the unlimited power to kill Americans on American soil without due process. -JRoycroft
Posted 03.08.13 by Rusty Humphries, TRN Nationally Syndicated Radio Host & TPNN Contributor
I am constantly hearing from people, “Rusty, what are we going to do about the Democrats?” I’ll be the first to admit that many of the problems we face as a country stem from Democratic leaders like Harry Reid, Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi and yes, Barack Obama.
But folks, I’ve got bad news- I don’t mean to cause alarm, but I think we need to start dealing with an even greater threat that extends beyond party lines; we need to start addressing the issue of political leaders who, regardless of identified political party, are governing based on the interests of those in government- not the people they have sworn to represent.
We can no longer trace the problems directly back to one Party or another. We now have two factions of legislators- we have those that stand on principle and look to lead to the best of their ability and we have those that are merely concerned with maintaining the political power they have accumulated.
Nothing, in my estimation, illustrated this divide better than the other night. While Rand Paul spoke of liberty and sought to squash the government’s stance that they can murder us without the due process of law, some Senators joined him. But just blocks away, others dined with the President and thus, Congressional leaders showed on what side of the dividing line they were going to stand.
Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Saxby Chambliss and nine other Senators dined with Obama. Others like Sens. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden joined Rand Paul in his defense of, well, the Constitution. These men joined together because they had a common cause; they wanted to work to make the power of the government to kill American citizens smaller. That’s it.
Oh my goodness! Those nasty Tea Partiers are back at it, spreading their oh-so-radical agenda: free markets, limited government and freedom from being annihilated by drone attacks at the behest of the government. It’s madness!
To be fair, it should be noted that two of the Republican Senators from the dinner, Ron Johnson and Pat Toomey, joined Paul for his filibuster after the dinner. They don’t quite get an “A” for solidarity and adherence to principle, but it’s certainly better late than never.
However, Lindsey Graham had the nerve to call Paul’s criticism of the drone program “ridiculous.” He actually uttered, “The drone program [the President] has utilized overseas, I think, has made us safer. This idea that we’re going to use a drone to attack an American citizen in a café in America is ridiculous and I think the American people need to understand the threat we face.”
It turns out that Lindsey Graham is the most traitorous and unprincipled legislator since Brutus stabbed Caesar.
What is so hard to understand about this position? It’s not that Rand Paul or anybody thought that the drones would be used starting tomorrow; it’s that we need to reject a stance by government that says, “We hold the right to take citizens out with drones if we feel it’s warranted; but don’t worry, we haven’t done it yet.” Call me a cynic if you would like, but I am not entirely comforted by that stance!
But hey, according to Lindsey Graham, my contempt for this position is “ridiculous.”
What’s dangerous about the state of politics in America is that we are seeing a fundamental shift in politics in America that extends beyond Party lines. What we have is the Obama-McCain-Graham group that is invested not in core American principles, but the maintaining of their entrenched political power. These are people who rather than stand up for principle, mock those who do.
In the Paul-Cruz-Wyden group, we see people who are devoted to upholding the Constitution and the rights of American citizens. What’s crazy is that I disagree with Wyden on nearly every issue! But in his stance against tyranny, he is absolutely correct and must be praised for doing so.
Both of these groups are bi-partisan, both groups consist of groups of people who might often disagree with one another, but as the Democrat and the Republican Parties decline, we can see the beginnings of two new political forces in America. We have a faction that believes in the power of the state and we have a faction that believes in the power of the people and that is the newest, most dangerous problem in America. It’s not only Democrats or Republicans; it’s statists versus the people.
That is why I’m getting involved. That’s why I write, that’s why I have been playing a more active role in the Tea Party leadership and when I’m in Washington next week, I will not just be kicking my heels up at CPAC; I will be meeting on the Hill with Washington leaders and reminding those in the Beltway of the duty of government to the people.
The new battle in Washington is not along Party lines but can be boiled down to a battle between those who believe in the power of government and those who believe in the power of the people.
I stand unequivocally for the power of the people.
Rusty Humphries is a nationally syndicated radio host heard across the USA on over 300 radio stations and is listed as the 6thlargest radio audience by Talkers Magazine. He is also a regular contributor to TPNN.com
Rusty Humphries is a nationally syndicated radio host heard across the USA on over 300 radio stations and is listed as the 6th largest radio audience by Talkers Magazine. He is also a regular contributor to TPNN.com View all posts by Rusty Humphries →
Drones Flying Overhead: Should We Be Afraid of The Obama Mafia?
March 7, 2013 – With Drones flying overhead should we be afraid of being accidentally targeted and killed? How can we protect ourselves from the incompetence of our government? These are serious questions that need to be addressed today.
Here we are again, living under nuclear threat, only this time it’s from a dictator in North Korea. The bigger issue is the fact that we are also living under a more serious threat I’m calling the Obama Mafia. Every day that goes by another piece of our freedom is taken away from us. The Boss uses his scare tactics on the American people by releasing thousands of illegal aliens into our society in the name of sequestration. We could spend hours writing about all ways that Obama is punishing the productive members in our society and how he has managed to get re-elected because of the ignorant low information voters. God only knows what other surprises that jerk has in store during his next four years.
Right now we need to be concerned about protecting ourselves as we begin to hear the truth about those Drones flying overhead. About how they can detect if an honest law abiding citizen is carrying a licensed concealed weapon on their person. The argument today is whether or not our federal government has the power to use a Drone to strike an American citizen without due process here on American soil. Why are we even having these arguments? At what point during our freedom and liberty did we find it remotely necessary to even entertain such a far fetched idea as being attacked by our government with a Drone? I cannot imagine the terror one would feel should they discover one of those things buzzing over their home.
It took Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) 13 hours to get our government to tell him that American citizens will not be killed by Drone attacks on American soil. Somehow I find it really hard to believe anything the liars in the Obama regime will tell us. They cannot be trusted. Obama wants to take our guns and leave us all defenseless. Why should we be an armed society when when Obama says he will be our protector? Read the second amendment and spend some time learning about why it was put in place. The government is not our friend. They are to be feared just like the mafia was to be feared. Take each and everything they say with a grain of salt. -JRoycroft
Related articles
- Eric Holder clarifies policy on drone attacks on U.S. soil (reuters.com)
- Obama Addresses Drone Filibuster (huffingtonpost.com)
- Warning!! Obama to Use Drones to Murder Americans (dprogram.net)
- Brennan confirmed for CIA after drone delay (news.blogs.cnn.com)
- Drones: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know But Were Always Afraid to Ask | Mother Jones (aboriginalpress.wordpress.com)
- Obama can execute American’s in the USA (ivarfjeld.com)
Warrantless Police Searches of Your iPhone or Android
March 3, 2013 – In this age of the smartphone, more and more people are using it in place of their laptop as their number one information/communications resource. Here is something you should be aware of.
Apple and Google are not your friends when it comes to your privacy. The law is very vague when it comes to the legality of warrant-less police searches of your smartphone. It is not uncommon for a police officer to ask for your smartphone during a traffic stop. Some police agencies have the ability to attach a device to your phone and extract limited information from it. That information can be used to determine if you were texting while driving or even how fast you were driving at the time of the traffic stop via your GPS system.
In other cases where an investigation is underway, law enforcement will use your smartphone as evidence against you or to further their investigation. The ACLU published a report it obtained from a drug investigation by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, documenting the seizure and search of a suspect’s iPhone from her bedroom.
This from a story in Forbes magazine:
In this case, ICE was able to extract the iPhone’s details with the help of the forensics firm Cellebrite. The suspect doesn’t seem to have enabled a PIN or passcode. But even when those login safeguards are set up in other cases, law enforcement have still often been able to use tools to bypass or brute-force a phone’s security measures. Google in some cases helps law enforcement to get past Android phones’ lockscreens, and if law enforcement can’t crack a seized iPhone, officers will in some cases mail the phone to Apple, who extract the data and return it stored on a DVD along with the locked phone.
There is no such thing as a safe smartphone when it comes to law enforcement. Regardless of whether or not you are using it for legal reasons, just know that once that phone is out of your hands and into a friends hands, you are responsible for its content. In other words, don’t let your friend call his drug dealer if you are trying to make a score for personal consumption marijuana for the weekend. So before you call your friend in Colorado or Washington where pot is legal, you better be living in one of those states if your calling to make a score. Know what I mean?
Treat your smartphone as you would a home computer. Be aware that big brother is not your friend…They are friends with your smartphone company and together they can make your life miserable. Most of us don’t have to worry about these things but it’s always good to know what powers our government have over our everyday lives. Just like a Predator Drone has the technology to distinguish which person in a crowd is carrying a firearm. I bet you didn’t know that either. -JRoycroft
Related articles
- iPhone Search Warrant Reveals Trove of Possibly Incriminating Evidence (gottabemobile.com)
- What the Government Can Get From Your iPhone (truthdig.com)
- ICE iPhone seizure shows extent of government’s data retrieval abilities – Apple Insider (appleinsider.com)
- New Document Sheds Light on Government’s Ability to Search iPhones (leaksource.wordpress.com)
