We gun people are awfully sick and tired of being blamed for mad dog killers shooting people. The Parkland atrocity on Valentine’s Day 2017 was a catalyst for “we have to blame someone” syndrome, and gun people were made the lightning rod. Among the accusers on CNN’s notorious pre-planned media lynch mob “town meeting” was Sheriff Israel, pointing the finger of blame at the NRA, gun owners in general, and any elected representative who stood up for the Bill of Rights.
Read the linked article. Please. It’s not pro-gun propaganda. It’s well-researched truth from a major newspaper well known for anti-gun editorial leanings. And it puts the blame where it belongs: failures in the school system, the mental health system, and a law enforcement agency with dysfunctional leadership.
“Parkland was why we need universal background checks!” Bullshit. The killer passed the background
“Parkland was why we need to limit magazine capacity to ten rounds!” More bullshit. In case anyone didn’t notice, it has been reported the Parkland murderer intentionally chose ten round magazines because they hid better in the case he used to hide the rifle he used as his murder weapon.
Kudos to the Sun-Sentinel for the article above. I urge you to send the link to everyone you know. The real truth needs to come out.
I am convinced we are seeing an attack on firearms that follows no logic or rational; and the insanity spreads to the very core of our nation, our liberties, and our freedom.
The term “mad dog” seems to apply to a larger group than just anti-gunners. I have never felt a greater need to be armed on a number of fronts, both external and domestic.
I considered the 9mm last year but chose to stay with my Colt Defender. Why a 45? Like a Texas Ranger is reputed to have said, “Cause they don’t make a 46.”
Happy New Year to All, and God Bless.
“attack on firearms that follows no logic or rational”
Not True, Bg D! The logic of the attack is crystal clear to anyone who understands leftist ideology. Left-wing ideology is based upon the idealization of man, and man-kind, as innately GOOD. Mankind as righteous in his pure, native form. This leads to the rejection of any concept of an external God or objective morality. Instead, leftists literally worship themselves. Humanity is their God-Head and Big Government (the personification of ultimate human power) is their Church.
Leftist ideology ultimately leads to the subornation of the Rights of the individual to the collective Rights of humanity as expressed by the all-powerful State.
In other words, Leftists believe that the Utopian level of existence for mankind is to live in a society where the all-powerful Central Government (acting as a benevolent version of Orwell’s ‘Big Brother’) brings peace and prosperity to the downtrodden masses. The wise Shepherd to the lost and incompetent herds of sheep. You can see that this was, ultimately, the idea behind Communism which seeks to control every aspect of life from the economy (via 5-Year Plans), to education, food-production, housing, security, etc.
Such a belief system cannot tolerate people living as individuals free of Big Government Control. It cannot tolerate any level of power that is independent of the Leftist-controlled Central Government. As free and independent Americans who own guns and take responsibility for our own security, we are ‘out-of-control’. We are, so to speak, off the reservation. No leftist can tolerate this state of affairs for an instant.
From the Leftist point-of-view, the best way to bring these “rogue independent Gun-Owners” back under control and force them “onto the Reservation” is to disarm them. The true purpose of Gun Control is disarmament of the population so as to institute total control over the population. As they say, “It is not about the ‘Guns’, it is about ‘Control’.”
So, all the fake statistics and bogus arguments about using ‘Commonsense Gun Safety Measures’ to control crime and mass murder is just propaganda. The leftists don’t give a flying flip about crime or who gets murdered. They view people as ‘sheep’ and they think that, by means of such propaganda, they will be able to persuade a majority of the “weak-minded” sheep to disarm and walk, voluntarily, onto their “Reservation” and under their Government Control.
Then it will be the “Tyranny of the Majority”. The minority of us, who still resist and who hold onto our guns, will be declared “Criminals” and “outlaws” and we will be pacified and disarmed by force.
So, I say it again. The logic is crystal clear. To disarm the American People so that a Leftist ideological and All-Powerful Central Government can seize total control of America without armed opposition. In their minds, this blessed outcome will then allow them to usher in the Leftist Utopia. The orderly world where all things are arranged, by their Big Brother Government, in strict harmony with leftist ideology.
Personally I don’t think that gun owners are the “Minority.” Dis arming us seems simple enough until one confronts the fact that we aren’t going to be disarmed quietly. Of course there will be that faction who will willingly give up their guns. Then the “government” will have to start killing those of us who stand firm on the “Inalienable Right to Bear Arms” and fight back.
Then the “government” will have to face the public outcry by an enraged multitude who will not stand for their murdering otherwise law abiding citizens. The only way for the “government” to succeed in this effort would be for them to criminalize every person who resists. It will be impossible for them to accomplish that objective given that the Constitution of the United States enshrines the Right to Bear Arms.
Thank you for the analysis of left-wing ideology, TN_MAN.
I just want to add that this is why “going along to get along” (like the current GOP is wont to do) will never advance Constitutional principles or result in lasting protection of our rights. “Compromise” only delays the inevitable.
The reality is, the Left and Right are starting from vastly different — and mutually opposed — First Principles. The Right believes our rights are granted by our Creator (the DoI specifically references “Nature and Nature’s God” and “Creator”), and the Constitution only enshrines and protects them; the Left believes our rights consist only of what the almighty State should allow, and the Constitution is an anachronistic roadblock to State control.
Someone (I believe it was the late Antonin Scalia) pointed out that in modern terms, “compromise” is a point half-way between what the what the Left wants the Constitution to say and what it actually says.
The Left’s “logic” makes perfect sense once you realize that their First Principles are diametrically opposed to the Right’s, start from their core beliefs, and work up to the natural conclusion from there.
That same conclusion should indicate that no lasting compromise is possible with the Left; operating from incompatible First Principles as they are, there is no common ground consistent with the Constitution or individual freedom.
The trouble is, nobody in the current GOP leadership is willing or able to wrap their heads around that, and so we get “compromise”.
Bill and Archer – Thank you for your comments. After reading them, I would like to respond as follows:
Bill – Don’t put absolute faith in the Constitution of the United States to save us. Unless the people are willing to fight for it, the Constitution is just a piece of paper. Leftists loudly proclaim that the Constitution is a “Living Document”. This is a leftist code term which means that, if they get enough power, they will twist the Constitution to say whatever they want it to say. With enough support, they can get the SCOTUS to repudiate the Heller Decision (which they all declare to be “wrongly decided”) and then gut the 2nd Amendment. With enough support and enough “Blue States”, they might repeal the 2nd Amendment altogether. Loads of leftists would love to repeat it although only a handful will admit it outright.
Archer – You are 100% correct. You make a great point. The leftist view of Utopia is, ultimately, a totalitarian State. It is incompatible with the founding view of America as a Representative Republic. The two worldviews are completely at variance. America will not continue to exist as a Representative Republic if the leftists succeed in their effort to, in Obama’s words, “Transform America”. The views do differ on First Principles.
You are also correct that there is no compromise with the Left. Anything you give them will be taken and then followed by demands for more. When Republicans “reach across the aisle”, they are providing “aid and comfort to the enemy”. Trying to compromise with the American Left is as futile as trying to compromise with Stalin or Chairman Mao would have been. Sadly, too many Republicans still wish for the old days when the Democrats were just the “opposition party”, when the Democrats still believed in America as a Representative Republic, and when people of good faith (on both sides) could still “do a deal”. Those days are dead and buried. One wonders how long it will take before the Republicans come to realize that the funeral, for the death of bipartisanship, is already over.
TN_MAN: Thank you!
Your point about “good faith” is also a good one (and one that I almost mentioned myself, but the comment was getting too long as it was).
Once, both the Left and the Right operated in good faith. If a law was passed and didn’t produce the desired result — or worse, proved to be a maelstrom of Unintended Consequences — it would sunset or be repealed [see: Prohibition, AWB’94]. No fault on the authors, because it was assumed they operated in good faith.
That’s all over. The Left now wants to pass laws knowing full well they won’t have the stated result, and nothing will ever be repealed even if it’s a raging dumpster fire of a disaster [see: Affordable Care Act], because the desired result is not the stated result; the desire is invariably to leverage the failure of previous laws to pass more laws, subvert the Constitution, and gain more control. By giving false statements of intentions, the Left is operating in bad faith to achieve this goal.
The GOP (as opposed to the Right), on the other hand, still assumes the Left is operating in good faith and strives for bipartisanship to try to get the stated results. Just like the Left, when a law fails to produce the stated results, the GOP no longer considers repealing it [see: Affordable Care Act again, “Gun-Free Schools” Act]. They also never rebuke the authors because of the “good faith” assumption.
Meanwhile, the Left accuses the GOP (and the Right) of operating in bad faith if they offer any opposition to the Left’s agenda. They may or may not believe their own accusations — another indicator of bad faith — but the accusation is usually enough to silence opposition [see: the last several “government shutdowns”]. Thus the Left uses it as a weapon when they are the minority party; when the Left is the majority party, they have no qualms about steamrolling the Right [see: Affordable Care Act yet again].
So we have one side operating in good faith and one operating in bad faith, and each assumes the same of the other. Under those conditions, it’s no wonder the political vitriol has become so loud and violent. The only question is, how loud and violent does it have to get for the GOP to wake up?
Archer – The ‘Good Faith’ of the Left is a relative term. After all, how can one truly have good faith if one rejects objective morality?
I don’t believe that the Left has ever (entirely) acted in good faith. Let me illustrate this using one of your examples. Alcohol Prohibition fits right in with Leftist thinking. There was a lot of Leftist support (including many Woman’s groups) for Prohibition. You seem to suggest that the Left, realizing that it was a failure, acted sensibility and went along with its repeal. I don’t think so. I think that the Left yielded only when they saw that it had lost too much support. It became a lost cause. However, the Left has always had a policy of never letting a crisis go to waste. The repeal of Alcohol Prohibition may have been a setback but they still exploited it.
Notice these dates. Prohibition was repealed on December 5, 1933. Less then 7 months later, the Left managed to get the National Firearms Act (an early step toward firearms prohibition) passed on June 26, 1934. What was their justification? Just this. Organized crime greatly increased during the period of Alcohol Prohibition. The Left was afraid that crime might drop again once Prohibition was repealed. So, they had to act fast. They shifted gears to firearms prohibition and justified it as a “Crime Control” measure. So, they created a crime problem with one of their leftist ideas (Alcohol Prohibition) and then used the resulting problem to justify a further advancement of the leftist agenda.
Sound familiar? The Left still makes this play all the time – even one hundred years later. Witness how they created the border problems with their immigration policies and sanctuary cities and then use the resulting problems to fight President Trump and advance their leftist agenda. Frankly, the Left has always been deceitful and manipulative. It has simply gotten worse over the years.
It is true that, long years ago, the Left was not so ideologically unified as it is today. There were still Democrats who displayed some sense of morality (occasionally) and some devotion to the Constitution. However, over the course of my lifetime (I am pushing 60 years old), the Democrats have become increasingly more radicalized. Any moderates have been driven out. All that remains is a party that is highly Marxist-Socialist. They are now as bad as Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” radicals. Indeed, we are in just such a “Cultural Revolution” struggle.
There is no longer any shred of “Good Faith” on the side of the Leftist Democrats. The Kavanaugh Hearings demonstrated that beyond any doubt.
Meanwhile, the GOP is full of RINOS and fools. Just look at the recent actions of Mitt Romney. Most of them have no courage to confront the radical Leftists. I recently watched the movie “Darkest Hour” which is about the assumption of power by Winston Churchill during the early days of WW II. Many of our current GOP members remind me of the portrayals of Chamberlain and Halifax. Proper gentlemen who had no idea as to how to fight Hitler’s onslaught. Their only thought was on how to surrender as quickly and with as little pain as possible. They were not fighters. Rather, they acted like whipped dogs. Eager to lick Hitler’s hand so that he would not whip them anymore.
Churchill, like President Trump, was a fighter. However, I swear that, even in his ‘Darkest Hour’, Churchill had more support from his party then Trump is getting from the GOP.
I don’t know how it will all end. All I know is that America has long had a two-party system. Unfortunately, in our current dire state, one of those parties is acting like ‘Rabid Dogs’ while the other is acting like ‘Whipped Dogs’. Who knows, maybe the solution is a third party that will act like a fox rather than a bunch of dogs!
As usual, spot on! Happy New Year Buddy!!!
Best
Al
Thanks, Mas. I’ll be posting the link on my facebook page later tonight, and my sister, who has about 1,200 followers, will do the same.
Painful reading.
One question, there was a rumour that Cruz had engraved (or scratched) swastikas on to his magazines. Do we know if this rumour has been confirmed or denied?
If you read the actual Parkland Commission report it includes pictures of the mags with swastikas on them. You’ll also find from that report that the 10 round mag claim is false.
Thank you for the tip. Swastikas scratched on magazines. And the report states eight 30 & 40 round magazines were recovered from the scene. 🙁
so WHOM do we believe? IS there a definitive unbiased source?
We KNOW they’retrying to make standard capacity mags illegal to posess everywhere, not just a few outlier states. Perfect supporting meme wouild be to claim 30 and 4 round mags were in fact used by this insane deadbeat. Who can we trust these days to accuratley report the truth no matter HOW painful it is.
Rumours & speculation are one thing. (And are sadly inevitable in the wake of any major incident.) The official report is based on evidence & testimony collected after the fact. I think it’s probably as definitive as we’re ever going to get.
Listen people Mr. Ayoob knows what he is saying, We tell everyone we know take a class with this man. We did and hopefully take several more
Wow. Tax payers should have all these shills fired! And they call us ‘ gun nuts’ for recognizing if you need deadly force, you need it NOW! Carry every day. Train every day, at least dry fire practice for 10 minutes.
Happy New Year.
Great link and analysis on the tragedy. I won’t be holding my breath for the same analysis on the Las Vegas shooting as suspect something much greater was in play with that–think bumpstock ban. “…never let a tragedy go to waste…”, the ill-famed words of a true despot.
Stay safe.
Mr Mas i have been following you for years.Your insight right on the mark.I think we are in for a whole new chapter of firearms bullshit now that the left has the house.
Democrats who loathe both guns and gun owners with an illogical, visceral contempt that they no longer conceal are about to take power later this week in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Unconcerned with due process, facts, rules of law and truths, they will have absolutely zero interest in studying the findings outlined in this riveting, shocking exposé of harsh realities surrounding the Parkland High School murder spree.
Still, forwarding this exposé to all Americans who will read it is a civic responsibility that each of us must embrace as a year sure to be chock full of federal and state anti-gun legislative movement awaits us.
Finally, I have a gnawing feeling deep inside me that we have morphed gradually from a society full of resolute men fighting on foot who used to run reflexively and deliberately to the sound of guns into a society populated by far too many timid men riding in golf carts who now drive away reflexively and deliberately from the very same sound.
May we as stalwart advocates of the Second Amendment have the individual and collective strength to counteract this nauseating trend, if my observation is a valid one.
Besides being a preventable tragedy, this is an embarrassment to all L.E. Shame!
Mas,
Can we get an article on all the warning signs and reports that had been made to the police and school officials prior to the shooting? I understand there was considerable information out there. It is alluded at the beginning of the analysis where the coach who first saw him recognized his as the crazy kid.
Here’s a link (PDF) to the actual 400+ page Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission report if you want to read the details for yourself. There are many interesting things that have not been reported by the normal media channels. One such detail is that a campus monitor observed the killer entering school grounds carrying a rifle bag and despite having a radio did not call a ‘code red’ for a lockdown. Another detail is that the killer did not activate the fire alarm to force an evacuation, but rather the alarm triggered due to dust from ceiling tiles after the killer fired the first shots. Students on the 2nd floor heard the initial gunshots and went into lockdown mode, while students on the 3rd floor heard only the fire alarm and began to evacuate. The 2nd floor hall was empty when the shooter arrived, but the 3rd floor still had students gathered in the hall.
http://www.trbas.com/media/media/acrobat/2018-12/70135058816260-12074125.pdf
I’m sitting here on New Years morning reading the newspaper report about this shooting and realize my mouth is open and I’m shaking my head in utter amazement and disbelief at the incompetence of the law enforcement and local school system. Maybe coming from a lifetime in West Texas I just can’t grasp the attitude of an area of the country where common sense has nothing to do with judgement.
Thanks for the article……..Bob
Ken, thanks for sending that.
The document Ken linked here a short time ago contradicts news reports of the Parkland murderer using ten round magazines. It reports that eight 30- and 40-round magazines were recovered at the scene. (Page 247)
Thanks to Mas for this blog and thank you to all who replied to it, especially TN_MAN who I believe to be spot on with his assessment of the Left Wing Ideology. I have noticed that the Main Stream Media lately in reporting things about our Police and especially President Trump in particular seem to be in a state of hysteria with their voices reaching levels in the stratosphere unheard of before now. This is to no doubt incite rage from anyone who will listen to their lies and propoganda about anyone who values the Second Amendment and our Constitution in general. May the Lord help us on this one.
Hi Mas,
Thank you for providing the link to that well-written Sun-Sentinel article. In the interest of fairness and accuracy, the rumor that Cruz only used 10-Roung Magazines because they could be hidden easier is a false one and that needs to be reported. The following appears on page 247 of the Margory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission report:
9.7 Cruz’s Gun Purchases
On September 30, 2016, Nikolas Cruz was issued a Florida identification card that he needed to purchase firearms. Cruz used a single firearm during the shooting and it was the only firearm he had in his possession on February 14, 2018. The firearm was a Smith and Wesson, model MP-15 semi-automatic firearm. A sling and bi-pod were attached to the rifle. The firearm was lawfully purchased on February 11, 2017 at Sunrise Tactical Supply in Coral Springs, Florida. Eight thirty and forty round capacity magazines were recovered from the scene.
Here is a link to the 407 page report that I found on the Sun-Sentinel webpage:
http://www.trbas.com/media/media/acrobat/2018-12/70135058816260-12074125.pdf
Best wishes to you and all for a happy and safe new year,
John Mohan
@ John Mohan – Thank you for the link to the report. I note that it is still in draft format and is still incomplete (no executive summary, for example). I did not read it, in detail, but I skimmed a number of interesting sections.
Even in its incomplete form, I doubt that I have ever before read such a litany of bungles, cowardice, lying, dropped balls, missed opportunities, and fuzzy-headed wishful thinking. So much was mishandled that it is actually hard to find a single item, in the entire 407 page report, where something was handled correctly and well.
It seems that no one was willing to step up to the plate and tell this Cruz kid NO – STOP or to try to impede him in any way. In this shooting, everyone (the FBI, local Law-Enforcement, the school system, mental health-care, his friends and family, EVERYONE) dropped the ball. FUBAR!
There is NO JUSTIFICATION to blame gun laws or to call for more gun control to be found in this document! This was human error rather than a failure in the law. The fact that the leftist politicians and the legacy media did their best to turn this mass-murder incident into a call for more gun control reinforces my earlier comment on leftist ideology. Only someone, who is unconcerned about the truth or the facts and who only wishes to push an ideological agenda, would exploit this incident to attack gun ownership. Truly, the leftists don’t give a flying flip about crime or who is murdered. They only saw this incident as an opportunity to push their left-wing disarmament agenda. They did not even wait until the bodies were buried before they began “dancing in the blood” of the victims!
Don’t expect any apology from the legacy media or any other leftist. They will likely “hush up” this report. I bet that most casual consumers of the news will never even hear of this report. This report does not support the leftist agenda so you can count on the news media to suppress it.
@ TN_MAN
I completely agree with your assessment.
At last, the facts! I’ll make sure my local school superintendents get it. Also my state legislators, and a few others. Unbelievable! Thanks Mas.
Socialism isn`t about a fair reallocation of wealth. It`s about reallocation of power. Gun control isn`t about saving lives, it`s about control. Pawns of the left are just part of the theater. That is all.
Well, I should have known better. I said, in one of my comments above, that the leftist news-media would suppress this report because it does not support their left-wing narrative.
I underestimated them. They are slicker than that! 🙂
What they have done is go through the report in detail. They are, indeed, playing down the parts that don’t fit their firearm-prohibition narrative. However, they (Joyfully!) spotted one recommendation in the report that they can use! They are focusing on the recommendation to “Arm Teachers”. They know that this idea will “raise the hackles” of all their mindless, leftist zombies. They know that it may be a controversial idea even among Non-Leftist folks. So, they are milking this single recommendation for all it is worth in the hopes of downplaying and casting doubt on the value of the entire report.
Why just suppress the report when you can spin it and discredit it instead? Smart! You have to hand it to the Left. They have the best propagandists in the world and, since they almost totally control the legacy media, they always have an outlet for the work of their “Spin Doctors”.
Here is an example of the latest from the Left’s “Spinning-Wheel”. Check out the weave of this cloth:
https://www.newsmax.com/us/schoolshooting-armingteachers-security/2019/01/02/id/896642/
This is not the only such story, by the way. The internet and leftist propaganda newspapers are all using the same spin. Play up the “Arming” of the teachers. Play down the entire catalog of mistakes and human error detailed in the report. Don’t admit any wrongdoing in going after gun-owners and the NRA with false accusations of fault. Instead, let the “Gun Control” narrative continue to quietly play out. All of the above seems to be the approach that the Left has decided to use to “manage” this report.
TN_MAN: I’ve said before, elsewhere, that the phrase “Arm Teachers” is a straw-man designed by the Left and the media (but I repeat myself) to ridicule and discredit the value of armed immediate response to threats.
The spin goes thusly: when they say “Arm Teachers,” it implies that even teachers who have no desire to carry will be trained and issued a firearm they don’t want. It makes it sound involuntary. A violation of the right to NOT carry if one doesn’t want to.
The reality is, we — and the MSD report’s authors — recommend merely relaxing the prohibition on legal firearms on campuses and ALLOWING teachers who VOLUNTEER to undergo training and licensing, to carry on campus. In most cases, there’s not even a cost to the State; many would fund their own training and licensing and provide their own personal firearms, if only they were allowed!
But that reality requires an explanation too long for a two-second sound bite, so “Arm Teachers” is what gets repeated.
Again, by design, because it sounds worse than the actual recommendation.
Just my $0.02.
Did then-Governor Rick Scott and the Florida legislature NOT have this information available to them prior to passing the state’s new gun control law? If not, shame on them for coming up with a solution prior to having the facts in hand (though not surprising- these are politicians). If so, look out Florida- and look out United States as we now have one more GOP senator who might well be weak on gun rights.
I’m growing tired of having to vote for or support RINOS only to avoid having another socialist in a seat of power.
I was an Admin. Staff Lt. in SE Texas near Houston when Columbine occurred. Even before the dept. staff started post-event evaluation meetings (what are WE gonna’ do fellas?), I met with my DARE officers, School Resource Officers and Firearms Instructors and we decided that if an active shooter shows up at any of our schools, we drop everything and head that way…find the suspect(s) and take them out. In fact, one Sergeant said “I don’t give a rat’s ass what the Chiefs say…I’m gonna’ go get that S.O.B. (shooter). They can suspend me later.”
The Fire Dept. can work traffic, EMS can hang back until safe, but the first job is take out the shooter(s). PERIOD.
Mas
There is more ” smarts” here in your post and subsequent well articulated reader comments than be found in the entire New York Tomes, cover to cover.
The Progressives cannot stand an armed populace; they reject the very concept of the Founding Fathers of “Natural Rights” and Limited Government”. Every other polity in the world has an unlimited government; any supposed “rights” that are the peoples are simply ” grants of license’. The British Parliament repealed the English Bill of Rights of 1689 because it had become “inconvenient”. What Parliaments gives, Parliament can take away.
Unlimited Government Power. Its what the American Left/Progressives want to bring to the US, to hell with the Founders vision of Limited Government. And since Government can be Limited only by an armed People, they will make whatever argument they can to take away our arms.
I believe we will win in the end, but every American needs to be willing to contest the issue.
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