Interesting. To read the headline, you might think New Zealanders were eagerly swapping their guns for cash. Lessee…
This article guesstimates the number of firearms at 1-1.5 million. I’ll roll with that even though 1.5 million is the low end of other estimates I’ve seen.
Let’s say there are a mere one million guns to be turned in. There will be “more than 250” turn-in events; call it 259.
To get all the guns, they need to average 3861 per event. Oddly enough, while this story gives the number of people turning in guns (169), it doesn’t say how many guns were turned in. But they shelled out around NZ$430,000 ($288,000) to those 169.
NZ$2544/US$1705 per head. The payment is based on firearm age, and never goes more than 95% of market value as I understand it. So let’s say that was two guns per sucker.
338. That is: 8.75% of the average 3861 they need to get all of them.
That’s some compliance rate. And that’s the “best case.” “Worst case” is a mere 4.4%, based on another high end estimate I’ve seen.
Hmm. That could be a million torqued off gun owning voters. Given that 2017 election turn-out was 2.6 million, 2020 elections in New Zealand could be as interesting as in the US.
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Any law proposed must be consistent with PRINTZ, MILLER, LAMONT, HELLER, MCDONALD, and CAETANO.
Define objective metrics by which success or failure of any proposal can be measured.
All proposals must be technologically feasible.
Define the enforcement mechanism of any proposal, including specifics on dealing with noncompliance.
Specify if the suggester will or will not participate personally in active enforcement operations (i.e.- be a member of a raid team or other action in which s/he directly interacts with the target of the enforcement action).
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So adding to the list of who hates Israelis, I guess we can add…..Israel? For those that don’t know, the Falestinian Authority headed by Abu Mazen, one of the planners and financiers of the Munich Massacre is getting armored vehicles. And how is this happening? Well, they were donated by the European Union. And the Falestinian Authority (FA) has been demanding them. In the past Israel had refused to allow them into Judea and Samaria. But now in an effort to offset the arab hissy fit at Israel’s cutting the amount of money they give the FA every month Israel is giving in and allowing the FA their armored vehicles. This is a phenomenally bad idea.
The last time PA armored vehicles aroused controversy was in 2000 when a paper published by the Ariel Center for Policy Research identified the PA armored threat to Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, saying “Because the IDF limits yishuv self defense to small arms, the growing armor vehicle capability of the PA would render the assault troops it carries invulnerable to yishuv defenders. The IDF gate guards do not have anything to stop these vehicles. The standard sliding gates for all yishuvim would buckle under the impact of such armored vehicles, and many yishuvim lack even this ‘obstacle’ – such that the only thing separating between the attacker and the yishuv is a moving aluminum arm painted red and white.”
The report went on to say that “The PA armored vehicle force is not capable of challenging the IDF, but would be unstoppable in a first strike on yishuvim. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that that is their purpose.
“Although it is possible to gain sudden entry into yishuvim by using commandos or even less prepared troops – as the examples of Ariel and Ofra show – armored vehicles provide a rapid capability to do so that ground troops cannot match.” The report can be seen in the original Hebrew here.
At that time, the IDF justified PA armored vehicles according to Oslo saying Arafat needed them to protect his government from Arab extremist elements, while at the same time trying to deny their existence.
The tax money was cut to the FA because the FA uses it to pay terrorists to kill Jews. So Israel was paying the murderers, the FA is just the middle man. So the FA is throwing a hissy fit by refusing to take any of the tax money. Ok. I can’t believe Israel gives them money anyway. It’s like installing metal detectors for the arabs on The Temple Mount. Everyone else already had to go through metal detectors. But after arabs killed Israeli policemen on the Temple Mount and Israel installed metal detectors the arabs pitched a hissy fit, refused to return to the Temple Mount and PM Netanyahu took them down. What a shame, I hear it was great for a few days on The Temple Mount, no screaming harridans.
But this latest decision will leave Israeli citizens at a decided disadvantage in terms of defending themselves. Small arms against armored vehicles while they wait for the IDF to arrive? Nonsense! Stupidity!
I have a solution. Going back in Israel’s history there was another time when Jews were denied the most effective self defense tools. This isn’t the first time a government has deprived Jews of effective tools to defend themselves while arming the enemy. It’s just the last time it wasn’t their own government. It was Britain with the “White Paper” of 1939. It remained if effect until 1948. The white paper limited Jewish immigration into Israel at a time when Jews most needed to flee Europe, before it became Europistan. Why? Because it would upset the delicate arab sensibilities. Perhaps tlaib’s kindly grandmother hadn’t explained things to the other arabs yet, this was before 1964 when the arabs suddenly and auto-magically became Falestians. And the British most definitely limited weapons access to only the arabs. Jews were suppose to rely on the British government to keep them self. Which worked out horribly.
And thus began the Jewish effort to protect the new Jewish residents in Israel. There were three different groups, Haganah, Irgun and Lechi.
Here is some basic info on the genesis of the three groups. I’m not crazy about how some of them are described, but it does tell how the came into being.
So when I found out that Israel is arming their enemy arabs against their own Israeli citizens I thought back to pre-state Israel and immediately after statehood was declared. I’m wondering what the towns and villages have to fight back with until the IDF gets there. If all you have is small arms against armored vehicles, well, there must be something better. They need guerrilla tactics.
So I wondered if there were any of the old Davidka mortars hanging around.
Yes, a real Davidka
Availability of weapons and ammunition is critical.
And then I thought about the ship, the Altalena, if you didn’t know it, Altalena was a pseudonym for Zev Jabotinsky. Understand that this ship was bringing weapons and fighters for the impeding fight for Independence, weapons and fighters desperately needed. It also was carrying new immigrants to Israel. Ben-Gurion should be ashamed.
According to the book Altalena by journalist and political analyst Shlomo Nakdimon, Ben-Gurion instructed the Israeli Air Force to sink the ship on the high seas, long before it approached the shore. This would have resulted in much greater loss of life aboard. Gordon Levett, a Mahal volunteer pilot, wrote in his book Flying Under Two Flags that Heiman Shamir Deputy Commander of the Air Force, tried to convince non-Jewish pilot volunteers to attack the ship. However, three pilots refused to participate in the mission, one of them saying, “You can kiss my foot. I did not lose four friends and fly 10,000 miles in order to bomb Jews.”
Why am I telling this old story now? Because I am concerned about the way some Americans, and painfully some Jews, misunderstand the situation in Israel and what occurred there for the last hundred years, and now. Some still blame Israel for the agony there. Some withhold their support because they find lack of perfection in this Jewish State, which is fighting continuously for its survival. Some sit here in judgement on a state and people of which they have little understanding.
When Israel was celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, my picture was on the front page of the Sacramento Bee and my family’s participation in the liberation of Israel was told inside, written by a “liberal” Jew. The writer emphasized the suffering of the Palestinians, with little understanding of the suffering of the Israelis. After all, the Israelis are the “strong” ones, therefore the “bad” ones. (Most of the media approach the Arab-Israel problem that way.) The article in the Bee was nicely done, sanitized, the way most Americans want to see this story. Most of us like to have things nicely packaged, refraining from seeing the pictures of true agony in order to continue our lives without too much involvement. Much of this shield was broken on September 11. We started to see the world in truer colors. I hope we can now see the Israeli story also as it really is, and not through the utopian eyes of unrealistic people.
So thinking back to those days of fighting for Independence, and every weapon counting as you faced overwhelming odds and lack of tools I got to wondering, could perhaps the inhabitants of the towns in jeopardy because of the decision, go together and raise the Altalena? Are there enough weapons in functional order?
And this is yet another case of how things can go sideways when only the government has the weapons, or the big guns. They will decide who gets to have them.
In America we have “Duke Nukem” Swalwell, Bear has well documented his stance on using nuclear weapons of American citizens that he later walked back as a “joke”.
So we know that any Demoncratic presidential candidate at this point probably hates Israel, hates or close to hates Jews, at least in comparison to the embrace of the religion of pieces, hates Christians. Is Ilan Omar still on the foreign relations committee today? Hates babies, hates guns, and hates strong confident self-reliant women. And men, they seem to hate ya’ll a lot. Unless of course, you think how they tell you to think. I think they hate G-d, apple pie, America and I bet they even hate George Strait. Sick bunch, not a one of the 4,325 of them running for President don’t have some scheme to confiscate, ban, restrict or in some form or fashion control guns and/or citizens, up to and including the aforementioned nukes.
So Israel is arming the enemy, Duke Nukem and his crew consider us, U.S. the enemy and while I don’t foresee a President Trump allowing a foreign country to come in here and attack citizens in an effort to render us defenseless the same can most certainly not be said of a Clintoon, Fauxcahontas, Bozo, Swalwell, Bernie, Occasional-Cortex or any of the others of that lack of caliber. I could see them happily calling in the UN.
Which makes me very happy that President Trump withdrew the United States from the Arms Trade Treaty.
Then there’s the matter of the Second Amendment. Oh, the treaty’s supporters assure us that the ATT won’t affect our right to own guns. But as Mr. Bromund points out, they also refuse to make that clear in the treaty text. So sure, the treaty (at least as now written) is no gun grab. But gun-control activists could still use it to advance their goals.
And let’s not forget a major flaw in the Arms Trade Treaty, at least if we’re to take it seriously. China and Russia, both of which are major arms exporters, aren’t party of the treaty.
So looking at all this, I’m thinking the Lehi was correct in no compromise, I’m thinking “Oh Herman Wouk, what would you have written about this sorry state of affairs?” A few more days, and he’d have been 104. May his memory be for a blessing. And I’m wondering if we need to finance some orchards and vineyards in Israel, specifically Judea and Samaria.
The first Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel took place on December 28, 1949, following a decision of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel that an annual memorial should take place on the Tenth of Tevet, a traditional day of mourning and fasting in the Hebrew calendar. The day was marked by the burial in a Jerusalem cemetery of ashes and bones of thousands of Jews brought from the Flossenbürg concentration camp and religious ceremonies held in honor of the victims. A radio program on the Holocaust was broadcast that evening. The following year, in December 1950, the Rabbinate, organizations of former European Jewish communities and the Israel Defense Forces held memorial ceremonies around the country; they mostly involved funerals, in which objects such as desecrated Torah scrolls and the bones and ashes of the dead brought from Europe were interred.
In 1951, the Knesset began deliberations to choose a date for Holocaust Remembrance Day. On April 12, 1951, after also considering as possibilities the Tenth of Tevet, the 14th of Nisan, which is the day before Passover and the day on which the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (April 19, 1943) had begun, and September 1, the date on which the Second World War had begun, the Knesset passed a resolution establishing the 27 Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, a week after Passover, and eight days before Israel Independence Day as the annual Holocaust and Ghetto Uprising Remembrance Day
As it is not that long past Pesach, Shimshon my puppy and I recently watched the movie The Ten Commandments starring Charlton Heston. For a few reasons I wanted to see this movie again. It really is still an amazing movie. In an age of Star Wars effects, the Ten Commandments special effects still awe me. But in the substance department, well, there is no comparison. What I do not remember ever seeing though was the opening.
And I think that is a question well worth considering in this day and age. Will we be ruled by G-d’s laws or the whims of a dictator? There are many in this divided country that very much want to see a President elected by the people deposed through any means, but all of them foul. They want power, and they planned to rule over us and his election upset their apple cart. Those forces have much help from the media, the useful idiots like #MoneyHogg and they will push their agenda of socialism and communism at all costs.
“According to reports that have come from the entire breadth of the Soviet Union … central Russia, White Russia, Ukraine, Volhynia, the Caucasus, Bukhara, Georgia, Dagestan, the Donetsk Basin—flour for matzah cannot be found,” he wrote. “ … This year marks a new era in the lives of the Jews of Russia, a bitter era, one that has not occurred since the beginning of this deluge of suffering and troubles—G‑d should have mercy—and at this time the question of kimcha dePischa [“flour for Passover”] is a burning question.”
The Soviet grain shortage was not unintended. In a process that began slowly in 1925 and now, at the end of 1928, was picking up steam, Joseph Stalin was forcing through his national collectivization campaign and introducing his first Five-Year Plan for the economy. Farmers and peasants who had worked the land and fed Russia for generations were being forced into state-run collectives, with countless arrested, exiled or executed for resisting or to make an example for others. Productivity inevitably plummeted, bringing about food shortages, but it was not an accident.
“Coercion was the only way to attain wholesale collectivization,” writes historian Stephen Kotkin about Stalin’s position, which he took as a believing Marxist-Leninist. “The extreme violence and dislocation would appall many Communists. But Stalin and his loyalists replied that critics wanted to make an omelet without breaking eggs.”
You can hear #LipstickLenin (Alexandra Occasional-Cortez) or “Feel the Bern” millionaire Sanders saying that way all in the past, it just wasn’t perfected yet. It was in infancy.
Let’s take a look at what a reporter from MSNBC let slip. I have no idea if he still has a job or not.
While covering Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro’s efforts to hold power, MSNBC reporter Kerry Sanders noted Maduro has the advantage of guns against an unarmed populace.
The MSBNC segment, published by The Washington Free Beacon, begins with anchor Andrea Mitchell expressing surprise that Maduro is still holding on.
Sanders responds, “Not only hanging on, but he appears to still control the military. You have to understand in Venezuela, gun ownership is not something that is open to everybody. So if the military have the guns, they have the power.”
Sanders adds, “So as long as Nicolás Maduro controls the military, he controls the country.
The average citizen of Venezuela lost around 19 lbs in 2017 and 24 lbs in 2018 I believe is what I heard.
Food, it’s such a great way to control a populace. Cow farts must be eliminated or the earth will self destruct in 10 or 12 years. Depending on if it’s Lipstick Lenin or Bozo O’Rear. Demonize food, demonize those that produce it, and how they do so, and then regulate them into starvation production.
Ruled by the whims of a dictator the citizens are reduced to attacking by hand and Molotov cocktails if the supplies can be procured. They are attacked and literally run over by the dictators troops and tanks.
Ari Fuld HY”D pointed out in a 2016 radio broadcast that “Never Again” doesn’t mean anything. Because “diplomacy” triumphs over “decency and morality”. How many countries signed peace treaties with hitler? How many dead Jews since Oslo was signed? More than in all the years before it. Not even the US would bomb the train tracks into Auschwitz. People place diplomacy above morality and doing the right thing. But you can hear the whole podcast. Fools who want peace but get war.
In these days of anti-semitic cartoons and condemnation of Israel by left-wingers of all strips, countries and religions I found Moshe Feiglin of Zehut’s Yom HaShoah post very very powerful and moving. Ari pointed out how many Jews tried to reach the safety of Israel in those horrible days before and during the holocaust only to be turned away by the British. They were sent back to be murdered by the nazis. Israel, their home, the home that had lived in their hearts and the desire of their souls to return there always burned through every generation. It’s part of our identity. Here is his post translated into English.
The Holocaust is threatening us with our Jewish identity.
In the wagons to Auschwitz, the complete assimilationists from the west were crowded together with the ultra-Orthodox from the east.
When the doors opened to the smoke rising from the chimney, they realized that the decorations of heroism from the First World War would no longer benefit the civilian identity they had adopted –
And these – because here prayers and mitzvot will no longer benefit, will not be religious identity.
They took their names from them and turned them into numbers, took the family, the honor, the clothes, the hair, the human image.
In the gas chambers, devoid of any other identity, there was only one, final, absolute and unifying – like death alone, Jewish identity.
Germany, where we lived in that “gun-free” (except for the special friends) utopia where we died at the dictator’s whims.
Much of the reporting on the shooting at the Chabad of Poway synagogue has been odd. Even stories which mention that anyone stood up to the asshole play it down and bring it up late in the story. Some reports fail to mention defense at all, and imply only that the shooting stopped because the weapon jammed. A Breitbart report told more: that an armed congregant passed a weapon to another, who went after chumbucket. Today, we learn that another person helped.
Lori’s husband had a wheel gun hidden safely in a cabinet. Only a few congregants knew about it. The Rabbi is also armed.
The perp parked out front, walked in the open front door. Shots were fired immediately, I’m not sure exactly who was hit first. The Rabbi had a few fingers shot off. Lori took one shot to the abdomen and died instantly.
When husband heard the commotion, he retrieved the wheel gun and tossed it to the BP guy who was praying. There was another ex-military congregant accosted the perp, screaming at folks to get down. The perp panicked and ran to his car. The BP fired several shots into the car, blowing out the back window and possibly hitting a tire. The perp surrendered to local LA a mile down the road.
The perp had multiple mags. A huge massacre was prevented by the presence of that wheel gun.
Armed Rabbi. An emergency house gun. Three more people ready, willing, able to defend their friends. A fourth who got shot deliberately putting himself between the murderer and children.
Heroes. Who clearly understood “Never Again” means stopping the atrocity in its tracks, and being prepared to do just that.
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Years ago in a galaxy far far away, I served on the board of a couple of Second Amendment groups. One of them very much a grassroots group and it was very active in the legislative process and citizen lobbying. Contrary to what people are sometimes lead to think, “lobbyist” is not a dirty word, or a bad thing. Many people have jobs, employers seem to expect that their employees will be at those jobs. So, when there is legislation that matters to gun owners be it a bill to expand gun rights or a bill proposing further infringement of a law-abiding citizens rights with yet another gun control scam disguised as “gun safety” it would seem fair that the law-abiding citizen should also have their voice heard. Ahh, the conundrum. What is the law-abiding citizen to do? They have a job, but they also have rights that need to be defended. Well, the Second Amendment groups in the state went together and hired a lobbyist to be present at the hearings and speak on behalf of the voters that held opinions most firm about further infringement of their G-d given rights, namely self-defense. From time to time the lobbyist would be accompanied to these hearings by the leadership of the Second Amendment rights groups, and I was privileged to be one of those. A citizen lobbyist, who also happened to represent a passel of voters. I had the high heels and a sparkly barrette. I considered these vital, but not as vital as a couple of other things I possessed. A mission, and resolve. I enjoyed this mission, legislators can be quite tasty if bar-b-qued with BBQ sauce. /snark, remember, I’m a vegetarian.
It’s been a while since I’ve attended a rally day. In my state there has been a Second Amendment day at the Capitol for years. Usually towards the end of the season, and usually there is a major bill or two we are wanting big time bad, or a big time bad bill we want to see die an inglorious death. I started going back before my state had concealed carry, the lobby was packed full that day, it was standing room only. For years I went every year, even spoke at a couple of them. The last few years I haven’t made it, for various and sundry reasons. But I’ve made it the last couple of years, and this year was just grand.
I did the hike from the parking lot to the capitol and entered the door to the meeting area. The police were there with the airport style scanning machine. I was met by a young police officer when I placed my purse on the table. He regarded my purse dubiously.
Sir: “Ma’am, are you lawfully carrying concealed?”
Me: Yup
Sir: “I’m going to need a driver’s license and a concealed carry card”.
Me: You are an officer of the law, you should already have these credentials.
After a second for my brain to catch up with my mouth, I grinned at him and said, I’ve got to get them out of my purse, ok?
Sir: “Yep, I have a concealed carry. My friends ask me why I bother and I tell them because it’s the right thing to do.”
Me: I like you, I like the way you think.
He regards the depths of my purse skeptically after he studys my cards.
Sir: “Do you carry in your purse?”
Me: Nope.
Sir: “Good, I worry that if a purse was stolen you’ve now lost your defensive tools.”
Me: Oh I do like you, nope, no purse carry.
Sir: “Which side are you carrying on?”
I answer him, and he tells me after I set off the machine the officer at the other end will wand me. I go through, set off the machine get wanded and I’m good to go. I thank them both for what they do.
I went in, said hi to a lobbyist I’ve worked with, sat with some dear people that I haven’t seen for awhile and listened to some great speakers. The MC is well known in the Second Amendment arena as the guy that wrote the book on gun laws. Which is fair enough, he did write the book on gun laws.
It was interesting, the speakers were great, acoustics are always challenging in that room, but still it was good. Two floors up there was some sort of school event going on. A bunch of school children, I’m guessing pre-teen, or early teens must have disapproved of us being allowed to speak in public. When one of the speakers would start to speak, they would start yelling trying to drown out the speaker. Think there is much indoctrination going on in the tax payer funded schools? I’m telling you, Zehut has the right idea, school vouchers for everyone.
After rally we all split up to go speak with our legislators about the bills we want passed, and I also wanted to mention my extreme aversion to “Guilty until proven innocent” Red Flag gun confiscation. I had mentioned my aversion to my former lobbyist mentor and he said while of course the misogynistic mad mommies are pushing for it, it hasn’t gained traction. Good to hear. I don’t know why mad mommies hate women so much that they want to deprive them of a tool that even elderly women can use to equalize the situation, but they do.
Our MC ended the rally with his trademark line, “It’s a good day for liberty”. He always opened his monthly column with that line. And it was a good day for liberty, every day is a good day for liberty. But we must fight for it, there are forces that will not be happy until they have all the power they want, and as long as there are armed citizens, they know that won’t happen. They use whatever tactics they think will work, whether it is going after politicians sympathetic to us with blatant lies and accusations that their allies in the mainstream media help them spread or lies about “ghost guns” or citizens that defended themselves. Be it vote fraud or illegal immigrants voting, they will use it.
We must remain strong in our convictions and our determination. Where the room was packed a few years ago when we wanted, demanded, concealed carry it was now not as full. Attendance was good, but it needs to be bigger. I saw one old friend, he and his young son were there. This man and his wife want their children to learn about freedom and the legislative process and how the two go together. Those kids have been citizen lobbyists since they were probably 4 or 5 years old. Maybe even younger. The legislators sit up and take notice when large groups of people have taken the day off work and showed up to demand their rights be honored. G-d gives rights, legislators recognize or infringe on them.
My lobbying mission finished, I headed for the exit for the drive home. As I walked by the door to the exit I passed the door you enter, Sir and his partner were still there checking people, I smiled and waved at them and said thank you, they both smiled and waved back. It never hurts for the Second Amendment people to be the nice polite friendly ones.
So if you have a chance, and your state has a rally day yearly, go. See friends, network, make friends, talk to your legislative critters. Don’t let bloombergs paid harpies be the only voice being heard at your capitol.
Tonight starts Pesach, Passover. We each leave our own slavery in Egypt behind. I believe it is a constant process, sometimes easier, sometimes harder. But I don’t want to be one of the Jews that chose to stay behind in Egypt rather than face the unknown. I believe that G-d does want freedom for us. This year is a very meaningful Pesach for me, and I hope that you all will have a very blessed holiday as well. Thank you for being with us, The Zelman Partisans as we travel this path together.
Leaving Egypt and slavery
My friend used the line “It’s a good day for liberty” to open his columns, I wrote him and told him I was poaching it for a column. He wrote back fried, poached or boiled, if it’s for the cause it should be used.
I always ride for the brand and I always ended my columns with my own sign off.
“…99.997% who are well aware of the blatant abuse this nonsense is and will continue to be, not to mention its wholesale uncontsitutionality, and putting their nickel on “the ban can’t stand”,”
Judging by reactions I get, I doubt the number of sensible people is anywhere near 99%. Take this recent comment regarding my compliance rate column:
“I would say this, if I owned a bumpstock. you can have it.. And no, I wan’t no reason to waste ammo. I do not own one. I have belt loops on my pants. Bump stocks be damned. IT WAS JUST A GIMMICK. Let it fade. I like people, the nut job in Vegas, not so much. Think about that, Las Vegas, and there might be a nut job in the mix. Where will I vacation next?”
.
After a year and a half of discussion that person still doesn’t get it. “Let it fade,” and you let all law fade, and we live by royal whim, imperial fiat. “Stroke of the pen” and all that entails.
Nor should anyone who has been paying attention to the courts assume “the ban can’t stand.” Not just the courts hearing the bump-fire cases, which have uniformly stated that the plaintiffs (our side) are unlikely to succeed (with one lone dissent), but other cases: courts finding it unlawful to follow the law as written because a previous president chose to ignore the law, Portland protestors shutting down interstate (and international) coal traffic as the authorities refuse to do anything about it. A judge who found pipeline protestors innocent: “not responsible by reason of necessity”.
The ban well may stand.
“Anyone determined enough to protect his investment AND his rights will have had six months to think and plan slowluy acquire the necessities to ferret their hunk of plastic away somewhere safe and impossible to find.”
“Soom enough BATF will have at least as much egg on their mugs”
Egg in their beer is looking more likely, considering that the DC Appeals court made arguments for the ATF, claims even the feds declined to make, to rationalize upholding the ban.
“HOW can the government of one state order private entities in another state and tell them what they may/mayn’t DO…” the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution prohibits that.
How can the courts rule that “function of the trigger” means volitional movement of a finger? And yet, they have. But I’ll give you a hint how that can happen, although I don’t know if this has been raised in the bizarre NJ case: constructive possession; a California prosecutor could argue that a standard capacity magazine shipped to California remains in the constructive possession of the shipper until it is delivered to the purchaser. Thus, the shipper “possessed” the arbitrarily-unlawful magazine in California, and is subject to their law. Take one look at the Ninth Circus and tell — with a straight face — that they would not buy that legal contortion.
Or the Supreme Court. Remember, these are the judicial gymnasts who, for eighty years, have upheld the National Firearms Act on the grounds that such items can be regulated because they are not militarily useful, but that machineguns can be regulated because they are.
“In the absence of any evidence tending to show that possession or use of a “shotgun having a barrel of less than eighteen inches in length” at this time has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia, we cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument.”
Overturning the bump-fire ban is not a slam dunk in an age where the laws is whatever the government says it is today. And remember that the ATF and Courts are both parts of that government.
We are fighting lunatics and liars — DOJ attorneys like Eric Soskin and judges alike — who matter-of-factly state that fingers are triggers, and the only difference between a machinegun and a semi-auto is whether the finger is moved volitionally. (Which, coupled with the concept that a select-fire trigger group is a machinegun itself, makes your finger one such if you are moving it.)
That fight will be long and hard. And expensive. Two of the major groups leading the challenges to the ban are the Firearms Policy Coalition and Gun Owners of America. They can use your support in this.
(Other groups and individuals raising money to fight the ban can drop a link in comments, and I’ll update this list to include you.)
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If you can’t read that (the rubber bands interfered with scanner focus):
To whom it may concern,
Please find enclosed 1 “baker’s dozen” (representing the 13 colonies which rose up in armed rebellion in response to an attempted confiscation) potential bump-stock-type devices (BSTD).
While I realize that you have argued that rubber bands are not BSTDs, I choose not to take the chance, since rubber bands can provide the same spring effect of an Akins Accelerator-type device, and the ATF has a history of pseudo-random changes of mind (shoelaces coming to mind).
Please be assured that I am not in possession of any device you do consider to be a BSTD “machinegun,” unless you change your mind about belt loops which can operate in the same fashion as a springless BSTD.
Carl is an unpaid TZP volunteer. If you found this post useful, please consider dropping something in his tip jar. He could really use the money, what with truck repairs (too late; I’m selling the truck) and recurring bills. And the rabbits need feed. Truck insurance, lest I be forced to sell it. Click here to donate via PayPal.
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Ed. note: This commentary appeared first in 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 the 14th day of Adar, a month of joy. I would add a month of triumph as well. The story of Esther is interesting for many reasons, one of them is there are no open miracles, in fact the name of G-d doesn’t appear in the story at all. The miracles of the story are evident only in hindsight. It can be that way in our everyday lives as well. Things that are absolute miracles are only seen clearly when we look backwards.
The Shabbat before Purim is known as Shabbat Zachor, and after we heard our regular lesson on Parashat Vayikra, we then read how the Amalekites attacked us as we left Egypt. Devarim/Deuteronomy 25:17-19
17You shall remember what Amalek did to you on the way, when you went out of Egypt,
18how he happened upon you on the way and cut off all the stragglers at your rear, when you were faint and weary, and he did not fear God.
19[Therefore,] it will be, when the Lord your God grants you respite from all your enemies around [you] in the land which the Lord, your God, gives to you as an inheritance to possess, that you shall obliterate the remembrance of Amalek from beneath the heavens. You shall not forget!
The morning of Purim service also includes a special reading from Shemot/Exodus 17:8-16
8 Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim.
9 So Moses said to Joshua, Pick men for us, and go out and fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand
10 Joshua did as Moses had told him, to fight against Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur ascended to the top of the hill.
11 It came to pass that when Moses would raise his hand, Israel would prevail, and when he would lay down his hand, Amalek would prevail.
12 Now Moses hands were heavy; so they took a stone and placed it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one from this [side], and one from that [side]; so he was with his hands in faith until sunset.
13 Joshua weakened Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
14 The Lord said to Moses, Inscribe this [as] a memorial in the book, and recite it into Joshua’s ears, that I will surely obliterate the remembrance of Amalek from beneath the heavens
15 Then Moses built an altar, and he named it The Lord is my miracle.
16And he said, For there is a hand on the throne of the Eternal, [that there shall be] a war for the Lord against Amalek from generation to generation.
So what’s the deal with Amalek? They hated the Jews, a senseless, baseless hatred. And, Haman the minister who wanted the Jews annihilated was descended from Amalek. Shocker that eh?
I would maintain the spirit of Amalek is alive and well these days. The picture are the right are from a parade in Belgium a week or so ago. The ones on the left?
Belgium 2019
And despite the outcry, the mayor of the town of Aalst (that’s not how I spell asshat, must be a Belgium spelling) defended the display of Jews atop bags of money, one holding a white rat, one with a white rat on his shoulder.
The mayor of the town defended the display. Of course. It was followed by a couple of floats with dancers dressed the same. One thing that I noticed is many of the “dancers” appeared young, grade school or junior high perhaps. So, they thought this up? The hitler youth is alive and well? The kids were raised by Ilan Omar? What?
The annual carnival where the display appeared was added in 2010 to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO. The organization has not replied to numerous critical questions about the Aalst event on social media and on Tuesday had not issued any statement on the subject.
At this parade in 2013 a different group made a float entry of a nazi railway car, with nazis and Ultra-Orthodox Jews.
Nope, no UN condemnation, although back then UNESCO did harumph about the poster of the Belgium politicians holding cans of Zyklon B.
Perhaps Belgium, and the mayor of asshat Aalst should remember the magnificent ending of the Purim story. Purim means lots, and that’s how the wicked Haman chose the day to exterminate the Jews, he threw lots. The 13th of Adar was the day that all the Jews were to be exterminated. Didn’t go as Haman planned.
“How can I endure to see the evil that will come unto my people? How can I endure to witness the destruction of my kindred?” Esther cried in anguish.
The King was deeply moved, and he wanted to allay her grief. Unfortunately, it was not so easy to rescind the decree, for it was sent out by order of the King, in his name, bearing the King’s own seal. Such a decree was irrevocable.
Finally, a plan was hit upon. A new decree was to be issued in the name of the King, declaring that Haman had abused the King’s confidence by issuing falsified decrees. Instead of issuing decrees to do away with the persecution of the Jews throughout the vast Persian empire, as was the King’s intention and desire, the treacherous Haman had ordered the extermination of the loyal Jewish subjects! A further proof of the King’s displeasure with Haman was the fact that Haman had been executed by the King’s express command.
Once again the King’s scribes were called, and the new decrees were prepared, this time dictated by Mordechai himself. The documents were immediately dispatched by royal couriers riding on swift steeds to all the governors and princes of the 127 provinces of the Persian Empire, from India to Ethiopia. By these royal decrees, permission was granted to the Jews to gather on the thirteenth day of Adar and defend themselves against their enemies, and to attack and slay all those who would assault them.
The news of the great salvation of the Jews spread like lightning to the remotest comers of the Persian Empire, and the Jews were now treated with respect.
When the thirteenth day of Adar arrived, the day on which the Jews were to be slain and exterminated by Haman and his evil forces, the Jews gathered in the public places of each town and hamlet. By order of the King, they sentenced to death all those who had revealed themselves as enemies. Throughout the kingdom of Persia, seventy five thousand would-be murderers were executed, and five hundred more in Shushan. All ten sons of Haman were likewise executed.
The King brought the news to Esther. “I have but one more request to make,” she said. “There are still many dangerous enemies at large in Shushan. They must be executed or there can be no peace in the land. Let tomorrow also be set aside for a day of judgment in Shushan over the enemies of our people who are also the enemies of all mankind. And may the bodies of Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.”
Esther’s request was immediately granted.
And so while the Jews outside Shushan celebrated their victory on the fourteenth of Adar, the Jews of Shushan were still grimly engaged that day in the task of ridding the city of the villains and murderers. Only on the following day did they celebrate the great and miraculous salvation.
Mordechai, now dressed in magnificent royal robes, became the King’s viceroy and closest advisor. He served the King and his own people with humility and devotion.
From that time, the fourteenth day of Adar was consecrated as the festival of Purim, to commemorate the great miracle of our people’s salvation, and the downfall of the wicked Haman.
Today we do not need a King’s permission to defend our lives. We have the King of the Universe who gave us life, and he says we are to defend it. Perhaps Belgium should remember what happened to Haman and his sons.
As with many holidays, They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat.
Would someone please pass me that plate of Oznai Hamen? Haman’s ears? Yeah, the chocolate ones with the peanut butter.
“The governments of Europe are afraid to trust the people with arms. If they did, the people would certainly shake off the yoke of tyranny, as America did.”
—James Madison, The Federalist #46
You want to see tyranny? We got your tyranny.
The Green Raw Deal.
Ocasio-Cortez may be backtracking and trying to disavow her too-truthful “FAQ,” but it was published on her own site and the metadata lists Saikat Chakrabarti, Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, as the author. The FAQ is consistent with the House Resolution she also published. The FAQ is simply a little blunter in stating their end goals.
If implemented, the GRD would fund the enslavement of the nation through hyperinflation. You would work for the government, or in whatever remaining government-approved jobs might survive her purge. You would live in approved government housing, subsisting on a vegetarian diet for as long as the food held out. Not long, since the nation’s power infrastructure would be gutted. But you might freeze to death in the winter first, as the wind gennie-powered electric heaters sit idle.
What land isn’t needed for “renewable energy” factories spewing out corrosive, toxic sludge that would horrify even the Chinese would be “afforested.”
Ocasio-Cortez and her merry band of psychopathic slavers have a plan for us that makes Ayn Rand’s Anthem look bright and cheery.
Of course the left-wing greenweenies want to disarm us. They learned that much of a lesson from Venezuela. And Stalin.
Compliance rates with their little registration and turn-in programs are already laughable. Do they expect better compliance now that they’ve explicity told what they mean to do to us?
I think not.
Carl is an unpaid TZP volunteer. If you found this post useful, please consider dropping something in his tip jar. He could really use the money, what with truck repairs and recurring bills. And the rabbits need feed. Truck insurance, lest I be forced to sell it. Click here to donate via PayPal.
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Ed. note: This commentary appeared first in 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!
Jews. Guns. No compromise. No surrender.
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