Althouse: "When large numbers of citizens begin arming against their own government and are ready to believe even the silliest rumors about that government's willingness to evade the Constitution..."

May 1, 2015

"When large numbers of citizens begin arming against their own government and are ready to believe even the silliest rumors about that government's willingness to evade the Constitution..."

"... there is a problem that goes beyond gullibility. This country's political establishment should think about what it has done to inspire such distrust — and what it can do to regain the trust and loyalty of many Americans who no longer grant it either."

Wrote Instapundit in a 1995 op-ed titled "Up In Arms About A Revolting Movement," which he linked to today in a blog post about that Ta-Nehisi Coates piece "Nonviolence As Compliance," which we talked about here.

62 comments:

madAsHell said...: Obama's greatest success is selling firearms.; 5/1/15, 10:05 AM
Scott M said...: I've seen similar sentiments bandied about, most of them in response to the NBP's race war rhetoric. I don't think they grasp the demographics around gun ownership.; 5/1/15, 10:12 AM
Michael K said...: There is some nonsense on the left about Greg Abbott's discussion of large military exercises in Texas. He has asked the Texas National Guard o "monitor" the exercises.

The possibility of a confrontation between Texas and the Obama Administration is not just paranoia. There are a number of areas where Texas may find itself a target. The appalling PC statements of people like General Casey after the Fort Hood shootings makes a confrontation more than a fantasy.

I doubt it but Abbott is being practical.; 5/1/15, 10:13 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: The interesting thing to me is that the trend has, if anything, accelerated over the last 20 years since Reynolds penned that article. Not so much the militia training. But, the arming side of it. Firearms are now much more mainstream than they were for much of my life. And, after their usage seemed to dwindle as people moved away from hunting through much of that time, since the article, firearm ownership has boomed. In much of Red America, guns are a good topic of conversation (thinking of another one or two of Ann's current blog entries). Even Reynolds, despite what he said in the article, seems decently pro-gun these days.

Sure, some of it is fear of needing firearms for self-defense. But, realistically, most of the people who are buying those guns and getting good at using them, live in parts of the country where two legged creatures are not all that much of a worry. Which leaves the government to worry about, and esp. when said government is run by fascist progressives like Obama, et al., who seem to want to disarm the public in order to minimize resistance (or something like that). And, it isn't just the wacked out red necks who worry - I know successful attorneys with firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition buried, just in case the government comes for their guns.; 5/1/15, 10:14 AM
FWBuff said...: I think this is a similar mentality behind the current paranoia here in Texas about the Army's proposed "Jade Helm 15" exercises to be held in small communities around the state. The exercise is to train soldiers to discover covert operations in civilian settings. But the rumor has spread that this is the federal government's attempt to confiscate guns from private citizens in Texas and impose martial law. It's absurd, but the rumor has tapped into an undercurrent of distrust to the point that Governor Abbott and various Texas congressional representatives have had to make official statements of reassurance about protecting civil liberties and constitutional rights. When the federal government is so aggressively partisan and divisive, it creates an atmosphere of paranoia on both the left and the right. Ta-Nehisi Coates and the Texas governor have more in common than either of them may imagine.; 5/1/15, 10:21 AM
YoungHegelian said...: I've always found it peculiar that it's the respectable Left (in which I put Coats) that thinks that the "Days of Rage" concept is politically useful, as if, once on the table, the concept can just be retracted at will.

By their own mythology, the Left thinks of the right as gun-totin', violent, racist, troglodytes. Before I'd go poking that particular bear, I'd make sure that my gun-totin' violence capabilities were up to theirs, otherwise, my team would just end up dead (e.g. Greensboro massacre). Yet, the Left doesn't really have a gun culture now, like the old Black Panthers did way back when.

But, the Left still delights in poking the bear. Ya know, it's almost like they really don't believe that "clinging to their guns & religion" crap they keep on spouting.; 5/1/15, 10:23 AM
buwaya said...: I was at an energy industry facility a couple of months ago, and as usual got to chatting with the shift crews (all men). The talk got to hobbies, and I was amazed that every man there said he had a 5.56 rifle (an "assault rifle").
I've run into plenty of these even in California, but I was struck by that unanimity.
Making " assault rifles" has turned into a very widespread cottage industry BTW, there are hundreds if not thousands of small businesses making parts or assembling them. Plenty of hobbyists assemble and customize their own. People are also selling tremendous numbers of sophisticated electronic sights.
It all reminds me a bit of the PC clone businesses of the 1980s.
There must be many millions of these out there by now, and I doubt the BATF has a handle on the scale of this phenomenon.; 5/1/15, 10:31 AM
TosaGuy said...: Michael K.

Abbott is not detailing the Texas National Guard, he is using the Texas State Guard. They are two different organizations.; 5/1/15, 10:31 AM
traditionalguy said...: The Shame, Shame, Shame Chant needs its own national contest, like a Cheerleader's Competition. Coates should get an award...maybe the lifetime achievement. Oh, he has that as a College tenure lifetime income.; 5/1/15, 10:34 AM
rcocean said...: "...respectable Left (in which I put Coats)"

Coats isn't "respectable" - he just writes for the Atlantic magazine.

He's a moron whose whole shtick is crying "racism" at every opportunity. He gives the SJW editors of Atlantic magazine what they want - a token black who parrots the left-wing party line. He bans anyone who disagrees with him because like Olbermann he's not smart enough to defend his positions.; 5/1/15, 10:35 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: I was amazed that every man there said he had a 5.56 rifle (an "assault rifle").

Not really "assault rifles", but rather "assault weapons". Assault rifles are defined by statute and treaty to be medium powered select fire rifles, which is what are used by militaries around the world. The important qualifier there is "select fire", meaning that they can selectively be fired as machine guns (even if only for 3 round bursts, which is what many of the recent M16 variants can shoot). What those guys owned personally were, almost assuredly, the semiautomatic versions of our military's M16 rifles and M4 carbines, traditionally designated as AR-15s (or generically as ARs). And, yes, they are popular.; 5/1/15, 10:38 AM
Dan Hossley said...: The problem isn't that citizens are arming themselves because they distrust government. I mean, who does trust government?

The problem is government arming itself because it distrusts the citizens.; 5/1/15, 10:42 AM
buwaya said...: I am using the term semi-ironically.
In my day I trained with M-16's; 5/1/15, 10:57 AM
Hagar said...: And it is essentially a varmint round.; 5/1/15, 11:05 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: "I was at an energy industry facility a couple of months ago, and as usual got to chatting with the shift crews (all men). The talk got to hobbies, and I was amazed that every man there said he had a 5.56 rifle (an "assault rifle").
I've run into plenty of these even in California, but I was struck by that unanimity.
Making " assault rifles" has turned into a very widespread cottage industry BTW, there are hundreds if not thousands of small businesses making parts or assembling them. Plenty of hobbyists assemble and customize their own. People are also selling tremendous numbers of sophisticated electronic sights."

Just so. There's at least half a dozen households on my upper middle-class block that own
Evil Black Bullet Hoses. I think the Left, in their ignorance, believes these guns to be the province of the Dale Gribbles of the world.
Don't even get me started on the .22 phenomenon.; 5/1/15, 11:26 AM
rhhardin said...: One axiom is that you have to build a system that runs in line with human inclinations.

Systems designed to run uphill require huge amounts of tyranny and fail anyway.

One uphill example would be same sex marriage.; 5/1/15, 11:35 AM
Scott M said...: Good lord...trying to find a couple bricks of .22 these days is like (insert something very unlikely here).; 5/1/15, 11:36 AM
Unknown said...: "the silliest rumors about the government's willingness to evade the Constitution..."

Silly. Like refusing to prosecutes violations of immigration law? Like refusing to follow court orders? Like declaring common ammunition not eligible for purchase by ordinary citizens?

I don't think people are arming themselves against the government, but the premise that the gov. will always honor the Constitution IS silly.; 5/1/15, 11:40 AM
Howard said...: Coates makes a valid moral argument in support of a strategy that will fail. It is natural that inner-city blacks want to get some, however, that's not what they are doing. Looting is violence against their neighbors. If they did start picking off cops, it would get shut down and may lead to more oppression and gun restrictions because no one (including the most librul social justice types) wants to see armed black men shooting white cops.

I'll second Buwaya Puti's observation about the arming of industrial shift-working males. It started right after the 2008 election and continues to this day. Now the focus, as Bruce mentions, is on customization and tweaking the hardware. For what it's worth, making the AR15 fully auto decreases it's effectiveness because it negates sight alignment, sight picture, easy squeezy.; 5/1/15, 11:41 AM
Rusty said...: I'll second Buwaya Puti's observation about the arming of industrial shift-working males. It started right after the 2008 election and continues to this day.

Try 1998. The good solid middle class types are what is driving the gun sales since 2008. The blue collar "types" have been at it since before Y2K.; 5/1/15, 11:50 AM
Gahrie said...: Our country was founded on the idea that the citizenry would be armed to protect themselves, from the government and everybody else. It is why the Founding Fathers didn't create a standing army and wrote the Second Amendment.; 5/1/15, 11:51 AM
Howard said...: Good point, Rusty... however, you can't really put a start date on gun-nuttery. When I broke into the oil fields in the early 80's everyone was buying drugs, guns and ammo by the bucket and smoking, snorting and shooting all the time.

However, after Obozo was anointed and before his coronation, there was a huge surge in gun and ammo sales due to fears of bans and restrictions.; 5/1/15, 12:08 PM
James Pawlak said...: The problem is not "evading" the Constitution, but such outright attacks on it as by Milwaukee's DA, Storm Trooper level, attack on supporters of the GOP and Obama's attacks on the same citizens by gross abuse of the too-great power.

A. "No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms"; "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government"; “What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. LET THEM TAKE ARMS.” (President Thomas Jefferson)
B. "A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." (George Washington); 5/1/15, 12:17 PM
machine said...: "I am horrified that I have to choose between the possibility that my Governor actually believes this stuff and the possibility that my Governor doesn’t have the backbone to stand up to those who do,"

"I am appalled that you would give credence to the nonsense mouthed by those who instead make decisions based on internet or radio shock jock driven hysteria,"; 5/1/15, 12:40 PM
n.n said...: Actually, Obamacare was established as rape, but not rape-rape, based on a progressive standard of implicit consent. Something that the Europeans rejected in order to avoid discussing "gross" interspecies transsexualism.

As for Coates, he is arguing that "going along to get along" with institutional policies that denigrate individual dignity and debase human life are an act of implicit consent a la "good Germans". Shades of national socialism.

Oh, well. The policy in generational liberal (i.e. progressive) societies, human and civil rights organizations, seems to favor recycling human and civil rights violations. The justification is class diversity, exclusive rights discovered on the fringe of society, and a degenerate religious (i.e moral philosophy -- amoral, really) cult.; 5/1/15, 12:45 PM
holdfast said...: And don't forget about 80% lowers. These are unfinished aluminum or polymer components which are still unfinished enough to not legally be a firearm for ATF purposes but which can be turned into a perfectly good firearms with about 10 hours and $300 of tools by any relatively handy person. They won't always look perfectly nice, but they will work.

Happily, it is now functionally impossible to disarm the American people.; 5/1/15, 12:49 PM
Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...: '...even the silliest rumors about that government's willingness to evade the Constitution..."

..Asset forfeiture;
..No-knock raids;
..Politicization of prosecutors;
..Private email server;
..Unavailability of .22lr;
..Scarcity of primers;
....; 5/1/15, 1:20 PM
exhelodrvr1 said...: IRS used to punish political opponents; 5/1/15, 1:28 PM
Fen said...: Lets check... the last time the Federal Government ran an operation in Texas they murdered 82 people. The children suffocated to death.

So yah, trust but verify seems prudent at this point.; 5/1/15, 1:46 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: If Vanilla Ice hadn't shot and killed Tupac we would now have healing music to salve society's wounds. Bitches.

I am Laslo.; 5/1/15, 1:46 PM
The BubFather said...: And as to an AR - 15...the "AR" stands for ArmaLite Rifle made by ArmaLite, Inc. not "assault rifle"; 5/1/15, 2:26 PM
buwaya said...: Going back to Spanish Civil War analogies, this business of citizens arming themselves and training with firearms (US ammunition consumption is also way up) seems very similar to what various militias in Spain were doing, the Carlist Requetes in particular. The US version is far more decentralized, but functionally similar.

And the creation of new paramilitary organizations across many government agencies also. The Spanish Guardias de Asalto for instance (Assault Guards, that was not a well chosen name, certainly not calculated to calm the situation) was created as a liberal/leftist alternative to the rightist Guardia Civil.

I have lost count of US government agencies with independent armed security departments.; 5/1/15, 2:28 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: And don't forget about 80% lowers. These are unfinished aluminum or polymer components which are still unfinished enough to not legally be a firearm for ATF purposes but which can be turned into a perfectly good firearms with about 10 hours and $300 of tools by any relatively handy person. They won't always look perfectly nice, but they will work.

Happily, it is now functionally impossible to disarm the American people.

What some may miss here, if they haven't been following this, is that those 80% lower receivers are considered to have been finished by the individual adding the last 20%. AND, if he retains ownership, it does not need to have a serial number. The BATFE does not legally need to know about the existence of this part. And, the lower receiver is the AR-15 part that has the serial number.

Adding to that - one of the really attractive features of AR-15 type firearms is that they are so highly modular. You can change barrels, calibers, stocks, sights, muzzle brakes, etc. very easily. You buy (or make your own - see above) a lower receiver, then buy the rest of parts over the Internet, in guns stores, etc. (As for calibers - standard AR-15 lower receivers have been used with calibers from .17 all the way up to .50 BMP).

To some extent, the AR-15 modularity reminds me of the personal computer market some 20-25 years ago, when you would build your computers from almost scratch. You would combine a box, motherboard, processor, memory, hard drives, floppy drives, etc. And, then pull them out, and replace. You are seeing the same sort of thing these day with the AR-15 platform.; 5/1/15, 2:44 PM
Big Mike said...: People who think that Greg Abbott is being paranoid monitoring the Obama administration's military activities in Texas must be unaware that that same Obama administration has been taking actions, primarily through the EPA, to negatively impact the Texas economy. Many rational Americans have reasons to distrust the Obama administration, Texans more than most.; 5/1/15, 2:48 PM
buwaya said...: "Happily, it is now functionally impossible to disarm the American people."

Difficult, but not impossible. Ammunition is the weakness.
Unlike guns, ammunition manufacture is much more difficult to decentralize. The equipment is very specialized and the production volume needs to be considerable to achieve minimum economies of scale. And upstream sources also have these problems - metals, propellant, primers, all of which are very specialized processes themselves. All this specialization also makes it difficult to scale production quickly.
So there are only a few large domestic ammunition manufacturers, and the rest of the supply comes from foreign imports, which are easy to interdict.; 5/1/15, 3:30 PM
madAsHell said...: Why is it so hard to find .22LR?

The far more effective .223, and 5.56 seem to be available.....judging by the cabalas.com website. The 9mm and .45 ammunition is available as well.

What we need is a good conspiracy theory to explain the shortage of .22LR!!; 5/1/15, 3:32 PM
buwaya said...: My non-conspiracy manufacturing engineers theory re .22 ammo is that the manufacturing machinery for .22 is specific only to that caliber - it is rimfire, etc., unlike all others.

Most of this equipment, given the very few suppliers, is basically custom.
And its designed for extremely high volumes. No smaller scale makers of .22
All this means production cant expand quickly, or cant really expand at all.
So, given inflexibility of supply, all the new shooters these days are competing for limited production capacity.

Imports help only a little as .22 isn't all that common outside the US, there being relatively few casual .22 shooters, and limited production capacity as it isn't a military caliber (as most volume imports are).

A supposition on my part of course.; 5/1/15, 3:41 PM
DanTheMan said...: >>Unlike guns, ammunition manufacture is much more difficult to decentralize

Hornady and I beg to differ. :)

I've got enough primers, powder, and lead to refill my brass many times over.
Uncle Sam can't interdict the flow of giant bales of dope, so I have doubts about his ability to interdict supplies of pinhead sized primers.; 5/1/15, 3:48 PM
Todd said...: I think part of the issue is that there are a lot of reloaders out there. That allows for a significant adjustment in the volume of "new" ammo that is consumed. As you note, rim can't be reloaded. It has to come from a manufacturer. .22 is still about the cheapest caliber to shoot and so a lot of people do, a lot. The influx of net new gun owners over the last 6 years as well as the existing base that has "picked up a little something extra" results in a large draw on that supply chain. As noted, you can only add so many shifts to produce more before you have to make a large capital investment in new equipment. I can imagine that the manufacturers are reluctant to do large capital outlays on a stream that could go dry in just a couple more years. With the new administration, the demand may fall back to historic levels (depending on which way the electorate goes).; 5/1/15, 3:49 PM
buwaya said...: The problem with reloading is that it is effectively a craft scale recycling process.

You can get SOME ammunition that way, under all circumstances of repression, but the supply will be relatively small compared to the immense volumes currently being consumed, and trivially small vs the needs of a revolution or civil war.

The vast majority of ammo used today isn't reloaded, it is recycled in an industrial scale.; 5/1/15, 3:56 PM
buwaya said...: Also, though one can grow dope (all sorts of dope) pretty much anywhere, one simply cant make primers, in significant volumes, just anywhere. Its much easier to choke off at the sources. The machinery is specialized. The quality control problems would also be tremendous.
And that also goes for propellants. yes, I guess one can go the Meth Lab-style route for propellants, but quality, consistency, and etc. would be difficult, and critical to the user.
Quality and consistency is not much of a user issue for illegal drugs.; 5/1/15, 4:04 PM
MAJMike said...: " Gahrie said...
Our country was founded on the idea that the citizenry would be armed to protect themselves, from the government and everybody else. It is why the Founding Fathers didn't create a standing army and wrote the Second Amendment."

Exactly. I spent 15 years teaching that in my U.S. History classes. The 2nd Amendment has never been about hunting. It has always been about resistance to an abusive Government.

Politicians prefer to deal with unarmed peasants.

5/1/15, 11:51 AM; 5/1/15, 4:07 PM
madAsHell said...: Uncle Sam can't interdict the flow of giant bales of dope

I think THAT failure is intentional.; 5/1/15, 4:13 PM
clint said...: "madAsHell said...
Uncle Sam can't interdict the flow of giant bales of dope

I think THAT failure is intentional."

Why?

I mean, you might be right that there are interests that don't *want* to interdict everything, but do you really think the government actually *could* interdict everything if they wanted to? It's a really big border -- with lots and lots of marinas up and down every coast. Lots and lots of cargo ships and private boats, airlines and charters and private crop-dusters, trucks, cars, trains, and people on foot crossing in and out of this country.

A government that could actually effectively monitor all of that is a government that could actually manage an economy centrally -- it's an invisible purple unicorn.; 5/1/15, 5:09 PM
retired said...: Coates has less credibility than the national enquirer. Why are we giving him all this pub?; 5/1/15, 5:10 PM
retired said...: Coates has less credibility than the national enquirer. Why are we giving him all this pub?; 5/1/15, 5:11 PM
madAsHell said...: Why?

It provides jobs for inner city youth.; 5/1/15, 5:23 PM
Seeing Red said...: I thought the exercise was also going on in FLA?; 5/1/15, 5:28 PM
RecChief said...: I didn't read Mr. Coates piece, so I am only going by the headline. It looks to me that he could be excusing the riots in Baltimore, although admittedly I could be wrong.

But if I'm right about the gist of that article, why do I feel under attack by the government for owning firearms? Why am I called crazy because I understand the reason behind the 2nd Amendment?; 5/1/15, 5:38 PM
Christopher B said...: YoungHegelian said...

But, the Left still delights in poking the bear.

I suspect that's because they think they'll remain in control of the people officially authorized to use violence, as well as a misunderstanding of just how many armed citizens there are relative to the police/military.; 5/1/15, 5:52 PM
Fabi said...: The hunting canard, re: the 2nd Amendment, would be laughable if it weren't so sad. Read the contemporaneous writings about guns by Richard Henry Lee, for example. They had no use for coercive government and were smart enough to accept the fact that the US experiment might not turn out as planned.; 5/1/15, 7:02 PM
etbass said...: Is .22 LR really all that scarce? See
http://www.luckygunner.com/rimfire/22-lr-ammo; 5/1/15, 8:54 PM
Gahrie said...: Exactly. I spent 15 years teaching that in my U.S. History classes.

It is what I teach in mine now. Along with constant reminders of the national debt, a discussion of Margaret Sanger and abortion statistics and asking the students to explain why Blacks went from voting 90% Republican to voting 90% Democratic. The best answer anyone has ever come up with is "free stuff".; 5/1/15, 9:42 PM
B.S. philosopher said...: s .22 LR really all that scarce? See
http://www.luckygunner.com/rimfire/22-lr-ammo

That is Philippines produced .22 and it's at least 5 times the cost of domestic ammo before the .22 hoarding began. The last 500 rd. brick of Federal .22 that I bought in 2009 was $12.

The .22 shortage is simple. People are hoarding it or reselling it.; 5/1/15, 11:47 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: "The .22 shortage is simple. People are hoarding it or reselling it."

Yes and no. The old guys at the gun shows couldn't resell enough .22 to account for this remarkable shortage. Nor do I think it's some government conspiracy. As for the millions of new gun owners, guns bought in panic are seldom, if ever, fired. The ranges aren't exactly crowded.
People are buying and holding .22 in such quantity that for two years now it appears virtually unavailable to the casual retail shopper. Something is shifting in the American psyche and it amazes me that this phenomenon has gone virtually unexamined in the wider commentariat.; 5/2/15, 12:18 AM
30yearProf said...: Glenn Reynolds, a friend of mine, tells 1/2 of the story in the referenced article.

The American Colonies DID, in part, revolt and go to war because the Crown was attempting to confiscate the arms American colonists. They were very clear about this. Read the words of the Continental Congress for yourself.

On July 6, 1775, a mere 2 days after the Delcaration of Independence, the Congress passed the following statememt:

DECLARATION OF THE CAUSES AND NECESSITY OF TAKING UP ARMS.

[quote] Soon after ... , general Gage, who in the course of the last year had taken possession of the town of Boston, in the province of Massachusetts-Bay, and still occupied it a garrison, on the 19th day of April, sent out from that place a large detachment of his army, who made an unprovoked assault on the inhabitants of the said province, at the town of Lexington [to seize guns and powder], ... , murdered eight of the inhabitants, and wounded many others. From thence the troops proceeded in warlike array to the town of Concord [again to seize guns and powder], where they set upon another party of the inhabitants of the same province, killing several and wounding more, until compelled to retreat by the country people [citizen militia] suddenly assembled to repel this cruel aggression. Hostilities, thus commenced by the British troops, have been since prosecuted by them without regard to faith or reputation. -- The inhabitants of Boston being confined within that town by the general their governor, and having, in order to procure their dismission, entered into a treaty with him, it was stipulated that the said inhabitants having deposited their arms with their own magistrate, should have liberty to depart, taking with them their other effects. They accordingly delivered up their arms, but in open violation of honour, in defiance of the obligation of treaties, which even savage nations esteemed sacred, the governor ordered the arms deposited as aforesaid, that they might be preserved for their owners, to be seized by a body of soldiers; detained the greatest part of the inhabitants in the town, and compelled the few who were permitted to retire, to leave their most valuable effects behind. [/quote]

If you read the entire July 6, 1775 Declaration you will notice a coincidence between what the British Crown did to cause the revolution and what the people demanded written assurance that he "new" Crown (the federal government) could NOT do by virtue of the Bill of Rights (1791).

America has a Bill of Rights because the people in 1789 did NOT TRUST government or politician's promises. Why should Texans or any other American trust the US Army's intentions in 2015? Does NSA mean anything to you?

In Military Intelligence the rule is the predict action not on what the "opponent" says its plans are but on what they are capable of doing. Any exercise yields valuable intelligence about the location whether it be in Texas or Minneapolis.

The people of Texas are just continuing the watchful distrust of government that served their fore-bearers so well.; 5/2/15, 1:20 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: But why.22LR? Not the most useful caliber of ammunition. Much too light for personal defense. Too light for game big enough to comfortably feed you.

It isn't something that I track that much, but even last summer, cases would come into the local WalMart at 6, and be sold out by 7, even when everyone was limited to how much they could buy. But, it did seem to ease up late in the summer. A guy in town got in a large shipment, and I called around to friends who had been looking hard for it, and they were all of a sudden satiated.; 5/2/15, 3:32 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Why should anyone trust the Army's intentions? Short run, you may have a point. But, long run, maybe not.

What has become ever more apparent is that the big hole in the left's logic to disarm the American public by using government employees, in the form of military and/or law enforcement, is that most of those the left would entrust with disarming the public have more sympathy with the armed citizenry, than with the leftist who would be demanding the disarmament. And, even without that, the numbers against disarmament are staggering. There are roughly as many firearms in this country as people, and maybe 1/3 of the people in the country have firearms. Or, something like that. Figure 100 million plus armed Americans, and a million or so law enforcement, of all types, including the feds, who would be the most trustworthy. And a million or two military, spread around the world, and prevented from this sort of thing by posse commitatus. Except that law enforcement is pretty decentralized in this country, and a lot of them are sympathetic with an armed populace. Notably, here in Colorado, most of the county sheriffs have told the Dem governor that they won't bother enforcing the new laws on magazine size, etc. on the grounds of manpower. If he wants to enforce those laws, he can use his manpower to do so.

buwaya puti above talked about the security personnel he dealt with all having .223 rifles, presumably AR class. That isn't that surprising. But, it should also not be surprising that a lot of the military, and a lot of law enforcement, esp. outside of the big cities, are as engaged with firearms as almost anyone else, if not more so. If called upon to disarm the American public, they would be disarming the people they shoot with, their family members, etc. Ain't gonna happen. At least at any level of completeness.; 5/2/15, 3:52 AM
Rusty said...: madAsHell said...
Why is it so hard to find .22LR?

Hoarding. Preppers have been buying that shit up like crazy.; 5/2/15, 7:14 AM
Rusty said...: machine said...
"I am horrified that I have to choose between the possibility that my Governor actually believes this stuff and the possibility that my Governor doesn’t have the backbone to stand up to those who do,"

"I am appalled that you would give credence to the nonsense mouthed by those who instead make decisions based on internet or radio shock jock driven hysteria,"

Well. To be fair we've been doing it since 1775. We didn't take the word of our British masters either.
It's like the spare tire in your car. You might not ever need it, but damn, it's comforting to know it's there.; 5/2/15, 7:20 AM
Rusty said...: Bruce Haden @ 3:52

Or as I like to put it.

300 million firearms in the hands of 100 million citizens.
Now tell me. Just what the fuck do you think you can do?; 5/2/15, 11:18 AM
Bilwick said...: Trust Big Brother, serfs! He only wants what's best for you!; 5/2/15, 2:47 PM