Sadly, I let this anniversary slip my mind. Happily, a friend reminded me of this, and that this was always popular with Aaron Zelman and his original crew.
Yes, people did exercise their Second Amendment rights to put down tyrannical government. In 1946, the Battle of Athens, Tennessee.
Is it any wonder that today’s wannabe tyrants want to dismiss the Second Amendment as “obsolete” and “archaic”?
This post appeared first in TZP’s weekly email alert.
You may know that The Zelman Partisans is holding a contest to award this beautiful Israeli Mauser 98 to one of you out there in the gun world. Entering is as simple as writing a statement on “Why I want to own this rifle” and paying an entry fee.
You’ll have to come up with your own reason (or reasons; we encourage multiple entries and offer discounts for them). But to inspire you, here are 10 things to consider:
You might really, really, really want to own this rifle because:
1. It’s rare. Sure, there are lots of Mauser 98s in the world. But not many of them were made by Nazis then later adopted and adapted to become Israeli liberation tools. You’ve got to admit, that’s amazing.
2. It’s historic. This very rifle helped create the nation of Israel. It may have served the Irgun or the Haganah; it certainly served one of the many liberation forces. From there, it went on to join the IDF and may later have served civilian guards, protecting Israeli citizens.
3. It’s in beautiful condition and comes with a frameable Certificate of History.
4. Where else are you going to get a treasure like this with an investment of only $10? Such a deal! Invest $25 for three entries and have an even better chance; it’s still a deal.
5. Where else are you going to get a treasure like this just for paying your entry fee and writing a simple statement about why you want this rifle? How long does it take to write a sentence or two? You’d regret it if you lost out because you didn’t take time to jot down your thoughts.
6. Okay, true. You might not win. But with only 300 total entries allowed, you have a darned good chance to stand out amid the competition.
7. There’s a reason there are so many Mauser 98s in the world. They’re rugged, durable, reliable shooters. Though we expect this one is likely to end up over a mantelpiece or in a display case next to its framed certificate, in time of need, it can be taken down and put to its historic work of fighting for freedom.
8. Think of this firearm’s symbolic value. Its spirit, if you will. This rifle, this very rifle, already helped bring freedom out of savagery. Look at the Middle East — a cauldron of tyranny, terrorism, perpetual war, and medieval intolerance. Then look at Israel — standing alone amid the chaos, a modern, civilized land. This rifle, and the people who wielded it, helped make that difference.
9. Consider the conversations this historic firearm will start. Think of the awe when your friends learn the meaning of the firearm you so proudly display. It came from savagery; it overcame savagery.
10. We hope you also want this rifle because your entry fee helps The Zelman Partisans stand tall for its mission: Jews. Guns. No compromise. No surrender.
We’d like one of you great-hearted supporters to own this rifle for all 10 of those reasons.
So please enter today. Make one entry or use the special form for multiple entries. Enter as many times as you like. Once we’ve received 300 statements on “Why I want to own this rifle,” we’ll close to contest, judge the entries, choose a winner (and second- and third-place winners, as well), and award this incredible piece of history.
YOU might soon hold this rare and significant rifle in your hands.
Yes.
Poor MSNBC. This isn’t going as they expected.
Go vote before they pull it down in embarrassment.
The anti-gun punditry was all aflutter last week with the news that Larry Pratt had stated that in some near-future time, we might have to resort to “the bullet box” to preserve “proper constitutional balance.”
Speaking of November’s election and its possibile consequences, Pratt noted:
The courts do not have the last word on what the Constitution is. They decide particular cases, they don’t make law. Their decisions, unlike the Roe v. Wade usurpation, don’t extend to the whole of society, they’re not supposed to. And we may have to reassert that proper constitutional balance, and it may not be pretty. So, I’d much rather have an election where we solve this matter at the ballot box than have to resort to the bullet box.
Now I differ with Pratt on a number of points, including any poorly supported assumption that the R. candidate will appoint better justices than the D. candidate. And the item he mentions is historic piece of military equipment more properly called a cartridge box, not a bullet box (and you can still buy replicas of it, NFI). But I don’t see anything unusually incendiary in what he said.
Unlike the Usual Suspects in the media.
The Huffington Post (presumably just before writer Ed Mazza swooned into a deep faint) cried that:
Pratt’s organization is considered even more extreme than the National Rifle Association. The Southern Poverty Law Center claims Pratt has “ties to the militia movement, white supremacist organizations and Christian theocrats.”
The SPLC, of course, makes millions by claiming that everybody to the right of Hillary Clinton has similar eeeeeevil “ties.” Specific claims against Pratt have been long debunked, as anyone with 10 fingers and a search engine could discover. And don’t you always laugh at those little squeaks of horror about organizations “more extreme than the National Rifle Association”? After all these years, it’s amazing that hopolphobic journos haven’t realized that, within the gun-rights realm, most organizations (including ours) are “more extreme than the National Rifle Association”?
Oh well.
Ed Kilgore of the New Yorker has a better understanding of Second Amendment supporters and even compliments us (though I suspect he doesn’t consider it a compliment) by calling those of us who are beyond the NRA “Second Amendment ultras” rather than the usual “extremist” cr*p. I’ve never been an “ultra” before and I think I’d rather like being one.
He also makes the absolutely correct point that if conservative politicians and activists like Larry Pratt, Joni Ernst, Mike Huckabee, or Ted Cruz (all of whom have made statements compatible with the “bullet box” remark) heard rhetoric similar to Pratt’s coming from, say, a black-nationalist group, they’d be crying alarm.
But Kilgore seems to have no grasp of the concept of a constitutional republic and seemingly no understanding at all of limited powers, the Bill of Rights, or for that matter the plain truth that individuals have rights that no government or interest group has authority to abolish.
Bottom line, although his language is restrained and high-toned, Kilgore, like Mazza, seems to hold the common hoplophobe view that taking to the bullet box simply means “shooting anybody you disagree with.” Especially if you don’t like particular election results or the views of judges.
Of course, anyone can see by Pratt’s statement that he’d rather do just about anything rather than resort to shooting. And I wonder how many of the fainting pundits understand that Pratt was referring to the famous “four boxes of freedom” — soap, jury, ballot, and cartridge — and that the final item is only the very last resort of people who’ve been so tyrannized that the first three fail utterly to preserve freedom. Not “democracy.” Freedom. Individual rights. The soap box, the jury box, and (at least in theory) the ballot box are all tools of the individual. It’s only when government or perhaps powerful agents working with government take them away that the cartridge box legitimately comes into play.
On the other hand, we know where we stand with the first three boxes now.
The soap box has long been under threat from uppity presidents, self-righteous campus thugs (not to mention campus speech codes), political intolerance on any part of the spectrum, state governments, federal officials, and even petty local tyrants.
Between the over-criminalization of everything, the pressure to force us to incriminate ourselves (pdf), and other forms of courtroom tyranny, the jury box isn’t as free as it was supposed to be, either.
And the ballot box? Oh, please. At a local level, and sometimes even at a state level, voting may occasionally nudge government a little ways in the direction of greater respect for individual rights. But at the federal level, overreach, mission creep, corruption, secrecy, uber-surveillance, funny money, militarization, paranoia, unaccountable bureaucracy, and “stroke of the pen, law of the land” arrogance have gone so far that the ballot box has become nothing but a kind of “opiate of the masses” — a quasi-religious ceremony that encourages us to believe we can influence the far-off “gods” who — no matter whether they’re the gods of the Ds or the gods of the Rs — increasingly rule without regard to any limits on their power.
No, I do not know a single gun owner who believes in “shooting anybody you disagree with.” But then again, maybe those ardent advocates of unlimited “democracy,” those believers in the “anything-goes” power of unelected judges, justices, and bureaucrats really do have something to fear.
Not gun owners. We’re not their enemy. We’re not the enemy of any peaceable people, no matter how much we may dislike their opinions. What they have to fear are the inevitable — and now rapidly growing — consequences of the very policies they so lovingly or stridently or self-servingly or ignorantly support.
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Ed. note: This commentary appeared first on TZP’s weekly email alert. If you would like to be among the first to see new commentary (as well as to get notice of new polls and recaps of recent posts), please sign up for our alert list. (See sidebar or, if you’re on a mobile device, scroll down). Be sure to respond when you receive your activation email!
Today is Yom Ha’Shoah, holocaust remembrance day. A few thoughts and some more information for you on Yom Ha’Shoah. This is quite a good little article.
I’m not a tech blogger, nor do I play one on TV. I would if anyone asked, I’m sure. But let’s be honest, no one is asking.
But sometimes, things in life just sort of can’t be ignored. I recently bought a little tablet hybrid. Meaning it’s a tablet with a detachable keyboard. I put much thought into my purchase. I chose one with decent reviews from a company that seemed to have good customer service. I chose one that can be charged from 100 -240 V AC, 50/60 Hz universal so it could be charged about anywhere, it has good hardware, good ports including a SD card slot that can give me 128 GB extra storage besides the 64 GB it comes with. It has a trackpad, I found out last year trying to blog off my PlayBook that inserting hyperlinks without a mouse or trackpad is a hyper-nightmare. It comes in Rouge Pink.
It also came with Windows 10.
Perhaps I should say the poor thing came infected with Windows 10. I haven’t read much good about Windows 10, and personally I left windoze behind when I bought a new computer infected with Windoze Vista. The word Vista still makes me a little nauseous.
After obsessively checking the FedEx website about 5 times a day the little thing finally arrived. I charged it for the requested 9 hours while I was at work. Hey, I couldn’t use it, but I could look at it’s shiny pink shell. And smile. Ahh yes, the plans I have for you little hybrid!
Finally, 9 hours into my shift and it’s the “q” word. In my business we don’t say the “q” word meaning lack of utter chaos. Saying the “q” word aloud brings down utter chaos upon us. I fire it up and am greeted with it’s cheerful start up logo, then it’s time to set it up. The first screen basically says we are going to set things up, like time, date and language. The “next” button is in it’s usual spot to the bottom right of the page. There is some small writing in the lower left. It says you can customize settings. Ok, let’s. I click on that. Had I done the express set up as I suspect many do this is what I would have missed.
Followed by
I’m sure you are not shocked to find all these settings were turned ON by default. All of them.
And once you shut those off? You also need to go into app permissions, because by default their apps (many of which can’t be uninstalled) have permission to access everything. To get a browser different than Microsoft’s Edge to work required using command line and doing a command line reset. You know, the usual stuff.
So, automatically connect to things shared by my contacts. MicroSnoop will know who all my contacts are. It tells you it is collecting your browsing habits and sending the data to MicroSnoop, it basically collects everything about you and sends it to MicroSnoop. In fact, it is basically turning my little rouge pink traveling buddy into one little tracking device. Sort of like having Bill Gates staring through the window at everything you do…the voyeur.
Pity the people that want to keep their Windoze 7 or 8. Windoze 10 is being pushed off on them if they have recommended updates turned on. In addition to badgering them frequently to upgrade, it’s now just downloading and installing it. Oh, and on Windoz10, you can NOT turn off installing updates, at least not like before.
I realize we are already being tracked like crazy. A friend of mine was telling me about recently doing a google search for HazMat gear. When she logged into Facebook the next time she was greeted with many ads for HazMat materials. You know, the usual stuff that pops up on most womens Facebook pages.
This article has a more humorous take on it, but it’s still true.
Many states are trying to implement the REAL ID act by hook or by crook, in my state it was by crook, but hey, we have a dem governor. There are a host of potential expensive problems created for citizens and their states. But you have to admit, sure will be handy having all that data on people in one giant storage bin. Biometric data, friends, surfing habits, web searches. Even obamacare helps out. The majority of the veterans denied their Second Amendment rights have been turned in by the Veterans Administration. Now even if you’re not a veterans you too can experience the fun since your medical records are now electronic and can be accessed by a whole lot of people other than your doctor. Gee, even your children help out with data collection on the family unit via common (rotten to the) core helpfully pushed along by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Shock, gasp, awe, astonishment? Not so much.
So with all that tracking going on, I really don’t need my little pink hybrid friend ratting me out to MicroSnoop and any other giant data bases with whom they chose to share information. It’s no one’s business if I surf Drudge, Israeli news sites, Second Amendment sites and listen to the Squirrel Nut Zippers, Matisyahu, Tom T. Hall, Glenn Campbell and Yossi Azulay on YouTube. It just isn’t.
I waffled on writing about this, but when I saw this line in Kit’s column
Understanding how to set up and maintain those networks and infrastructure is the difference between a stagnant movement and a liberty resistance.
I decided to go ahead. Crucial to networks is their ability to do their job, as it needs to be done. For a few hundred years tyrants have known to maintain control, data collection is invaluable.
By MamaLiberty
Everyone knows there is plenty in this world to worry about. Even those who avoid the world and national “news” as much as possible can’t help but note the downward spiral in their own financial situation, especially if they or those they love are unemployed. There is the constant push to destroy natural rights to life and liberty, and increasing efforts to criminalize and control everything. Then there is the cost of everyday necessities, increasing due to the sinking national economy and shrinking dollar. A great many people are seriously worried about their health, and the increasing Obummercare insanity replacing free market medicine and insurance. And so much more. Did you know that stress, worry and fear, are far more detrimental to good health than you might think?
It’s almost impossible to know the truth about the “news” or, often, even what’s really happening in our own area. Even people who are present during disturbances and crises seldom have a grasp on the whole problem, much less the whole solution. And, unfortunately, this creates a sort of vacuum that we too often fill with our imagination, our prejudices and the ghosts of our past. All of which can and will be used by the unscrupulous to direct, or even precipitate the next crisis. Trust, but verify. Don’t expect to know or understand everything. Do you need to know? What could you do about it if you did? Good questions to ask yourself, I think.
No hero on a white horse is going to come along and save the day. Not this election, or any other. And expecting the politicians to limit their evil and restore our “rights” is as empty of promise as intergalactic space. Maybe more so. And hoping to do that by threatening not to re-elect them would be a hysterical joke if it wasn’t so painful to watch good people continue to believe in that insanity after all these years, after watching endless rubber room elections.
What can you do? You may not agree at first, but I think there is something we can do, and it has to start with each of us as individuals.
1. How many times have you asked yourself, “by what authority” do people control my life and property. By what authority does anyone pretend to control my thoughts and feelings? Do you participate in trying to control others? Why would anyone do that if they love liberty and justice? This is an important place to start. Read “The Most Dangerous Superstition.”
2. As much as possible, ignore “the law.” Remember the jokes about the tags on the mattresses? There are hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of “laws” and regulations, petty rules and even actionable “suggestions” on the books. Take a really close look at that, and ask yourself how many are ever enforced. Take a second look and find out the circumstances in which they are ever enforced. Can you figure out a way to avoid those circumstances? Sure you can. Millions of people do avoid them every day. There aren’t enough cops or jails to go around, so all of those prosecuted are targets of opportunity. Only you know your situation, and how close you are willing to skate toward the edge… but millions of people who don’t even file income tax reports should be proof enough that it isn’t impossible.
3. Laugh at them. No, really! Truly look for and appreciate the politician’s contradictions, implausible ideas, idiot posturing and
stupid blunders. Look for them, and laugh out loud. Remember that they want you fearful, tearful, worried and willing to do anything to make that pain stop. Well, do something yourself to relieve the pain, rather than expecting your torturers to stop. Just say no to the hype, the lies, and the other hundred and one evils directed specifically to control your emotions, as well as your soul. The ultimate answer to kings is a belly laugh.
4. Don’t construct your entire life around the controllers or the “law.” Are you spending a great deal of time and effort working for political causes or candidates? Going to council meetings, writing letters to congresscritters? Reading the full text of proposed “laws” and ordinances? Even protest marches and demonstrations? Why? Your reasons may be very good, but I wonder how many people truly think about them in relation to the effect all of it has on their inner peace and joy.
Instead, I suggest folks center their thoughts and activities on what they need to do to be a person of integrity, non-aggressive, and a part of a cooperative voluntary society. Some may have to reach for this if their indoctrination into the socialist herd is extensive, but it seems it would be a far more valuable use of time and effort, mind and soul than useless worry about what the politicians are trying to cook up next. And then, a serious part of this is the necessity of teaching integrity, non-aggression and so forth to one’s children and other family – and by extension, the community. The very best way to do this is to demonstrate it all in your every word and deed, of course. Learning to be articulate and helpful in discussing it, without becoming didactic or overbearing, is a big plus.
5. Smile, laugh, enjoy life as much as you can. Is there some person, object, picture on the wall that makes you smile or laugh with joy each time you see them? I have orchids in my bathroom. Each time I go in there, I see the blooms and new growth, the shiny leaves and note the smell of flowers and clean soil, and I smile. I have a goofy Welsh Corgi dog that gives me a load of laughs and smiles many times during the day, and the cold nose on my hand first thing in the morning, of course. I’ve filled my house with as many of these smiles as I can manage, and you might be surprised at how many you already have… and have been neglecting. Take a good look, and resolve to smile at the kids, or even just the cat, instead of worry about the world.
6. Go shooting. I smile each time I see my rack of rifles, or strap on my carry gun. Now this doesn’t appeal to everyone, naturally, but it is astonishing how often someone newly introduced to guns and shooting tells me how much better this makes them feel about themselves and everything else, even their relationship to the rest of the world. It is empowering, to internalize the fact that one need not be a passive, helpless victim – even if they don’t actually ever expect to be attacked!
Many of us already understand much of this, but how many really think about it and work to increase that joy? It is also important to seek out and communicate with those of like mind, to share the joy rather than the worry. It is so easy to sit in the office and stare at the “news” of the world, and nibble at your ulcer meds… But why do that? I’ve heard a number of people who complain that there aren’t any “of like mind” near them, but when they are really challenged to explain that, it is usually obvious they never really looked. And some live in places inhabited mostly by those who would love to control everyone else’s lives and property. I always ask them why they stay there… And, of course, that’s completely up to them, but I wonder why people who insist on swimming in a swamp spend so much time complaining about the snakes and alligators.
I understand the urge some people have to remain in touch with government meetings and issues. I look at them from time to time myself, but I refuse to let any of that get in the way of my smiles, or the daily romp with the Corgi. Someone tell me why a city council meeting is better for my peace of mind and ultimate joy than a tug a war with a good dog.
Now go find some things to smile about, do something that makes you laugh and feel glad to be alive. Talk to your neighbors, and then go home to hug your family, or at least the dog.
Originally published at The Price of Liberty.
Ed. note: This commentary appeared first on TZP’s weekly email alert. If you would lik>e to be among the first to see new commentary (as well as to get notice of new polls and recaps of recent posts), please sign up for our alert list. (See sidebar or, if you’re on a mobile device, scroll down). Be sure to respond when you receive your activation email!
Celebrating Americans resisting gun grabbers at Lexington-Concord.
Oh.
Wait.
Town of Lexington Voting To Ban Commonly Owned Firearms & Magazines
For the record. The basic premise of Rotberg’s Article 34 is an insult to all law abiding gun owners. His logic is also flawed in that he insinuates that a gun is inherently “dangerous”. A firearm is an inanimate object incapable of doing anything on its own. The only thing that has the potential for being dangerous is the person and there is nothing in any of the versions of Article 34 which addresses this. It’s just more bigotry, harassment and blame of lawful gun owners.
Never mind.
-sigh-
I see so many stories coming out now about the ever increasing federal leviathans hopes of eliminating the Second Amendment. Crazy old Joe Biden even thinks the Second Amendment is about who can be prohibited from owning guns. And while Dimocrats and liberals say they don’t want to eliminate the Second Amendment, they just want to add background checks, and a few “common sense” restrictions, etc. etc., they are, well, lying.
Some do want to eliminate the Second Amendment, and I usually wonder “what it is that a Politician wants to do to me and my family that they can not do, unless we are disarmed and defenseless?” Of course many of those self same politicians will have armed body guards paid for out of our ever shrinking salary. Some will be do gooders, and really really really do believe in their hearts of hearts that if we just outlaw _____________________ A) scary black guns B) 30 round magazines C) rifles with pistol grips D) Guns with the shoulder thingy that goes up E) Fill in with whatever else they can come up with, that gun crime will cease and the world will now be a safe place, unicorns will roam freely and rainbow stew will be served fresh everyday with lightly buttered no calorie croissants. They also voted for obama because he was the best man for the job and believed him when he told them their health insurance would go down by $2,500 a year and they could keep their doctor and their insurance, but that’s another story.
You can see the legislative footprint if you will, of these types in things like the soviet style legislation like the turn in your family and neighbors you don’t like in California. Of course, California has a interesting history of showing up and confiscating guns (from safe people anyway, thugs not so much) already.
I, like they, have my idea of legislation that will keep us all safer too. Granted the direction of my legislative dreams is a bit different than their legislative dreams.
In my legislative dreams for some time, dwelt something called The Firearms Freedom Act. The first one was passed by Montana in 2009. It stated basically, that guns made in Montana, stamped on a large part of the central part of the gun “Made in Montana” would not be entered into the federal system of gun control. But, the gun could not leave the state. It couldn’t be sold over the internet or to someone out of the state. Therefore, they would not be interstate commerce. Wyoming came out with an even yummier version of this in 2010. Wyoming’s version had some pretty good sized teeth for federal agents that attempted to attack Wyoming citizens. Several states passed Firearms Freedom Acts, and several more tried to. This site hasn’t been updated since 2010, but you can see how many states were working on this. You can also see which ones weren’t, mostly the high crimes states.
I’m sure no one was shocked to know that a federal court ruled that the Firearms Freedom Acts didn’t matter.
“the Ninth Circuit panel unanimously ruled that Congress could regulate the internal manufacture of firearms within Montana because the creation and circulation of such firearms could reasonably be expected to impact the market for firearms nationally.”~~Wikipedia
I know, I know, I just said the firearms couldn’t leave Montana, that was part of the law. But it is the NINETH circuit court, and I always kind of wonder what they’ve been smoking. The guns weren’t going to cross state lines, but like the ATF, laws are what the courts make them to be, eh?
But it’s the toothy part that I’m heading for. The court says Firearms Freedom Acts aren’t legal? What to do as the government grows ever larger like the plant in Little Shop of Horrors, what to do?
Several states have responded by trying to pass a Second Amendment preservation act. In the last few days Arizona, Indiana and South Carolina have introduced bills in their state legislature. Missouri tried to pass one a couple years ago. The NRA helped squash that one, and gave Florida trouble trying to get theirs through as well. The Second Amendment preservation acts are really sort of anti-cooperation, anti-commandeering measure. For gun control to really succeed to it’s evil goal is going to require the use of each state’s law enforcement agencies. I still recall the ATF harassing the people at a Henrico Co. gunshow in 2006. It couldn’t have been done without the help of local law enforcement. Part of the BATFE’s “War on Women”, no doubt. And shoestrings.
Bob at Bearing Arms had some helpful suggestions along the lines of Firearms Freedoms Act type things that could be done to help the ATF as well. It involves removing some things from their jurisdiction so that perhaps with a narrower focus they won’t need to suffer the embarrassment of having their own weapons show up in Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s stash, cause I’m sure that’s just embarrassing. No word yet, from Erik Holder, El Chapo’s gun dealer.
This type of legislation says that the law enforcement agencies in that state will not co-operate with federal agencies. It dramatically weakens the bully power. Since I’ve seen quite a few stories lately where police chiefs and sheriffs are urging their citizens to obtain arms and concealed carry I suspect the law enforcement agencies in many states would be happy to see this pass.
For those that say Federal law trumps State law I found this great little Tom, Dick and Harry story. IF you are old enough to remember Tom, Dick and Harry, better yet, they’re grown up too.
So, while I may never get a firearm stamped with “Made in fill in your state name”,I continue to dream of Second Amendment protection acts being passed all across these United States. Because the soft fight is so much better than the hard fight. And despite what crazy old Joe Biden says, sometimes a girl just might NEED a tank, though this isn’t the model I hope for.
Just for a bit of levity.
Here’s a little booklet on the act if you want more information.
SHALL NOT: The State Level Plan to Protect the 2nd Amendment
As you go about your Monday (and your Tuesday through Sunday), please send your best thoughts toward Mike Vanderboegh, who got the worst possible word from his doctor last week.
And not only your thoughts, but whatever you can spare to make his last months and his wife Rosey’s future less dire. Mike has given his all — including his health and his financial well-being — for freedom. Without Mike (and David Codrea) the Fast & Furious scandal might have remained buried. Without Mike, the III Percent wouldn’t recognize themselves as such a powerful potential force.
I hope all freedomistas will give back to Mike in full measure.