Archive for guns

Flashback: Top Five Reasons to Protect America’s Gun Rights

Posted by: Jason | April 27th, 2008 · 10:48 AM

(image: americanrevolution)

Another tragedy… Another debate on the rights of Americans to keep and bear arms. It is inevitable that every time we experience traumatic events, such as the Virginia Tech massacre, that we begin to ignore the natural urges of sick human beings to kill, and jump to rash conclusions about guns in the hands of law abiding people.

Is it time to ban guns? This is a question which came up within hours of the shooting. We should accept the pain, suffering, and anger that Americans feel right now. We’re a good people. During a crisis which effects the heart of the entire nation such as this, as in the aftermath of 9/11, Americans unite behind each other in supporting those who need it. But then comes the politics.

It’s ironic, as we’ve heard many of our liberal friends often blame Republicans for using the events of 9/11 to advance a political agenda in the War On Terror, so too do we see the same example of political opportunism coming from their side, as they are already using the Virginia Tech campus shootings to advance a belief over guns that they held before 4/16.

In the spirit of this debate, I have compiled a list of my top 5 reasons for why Americans should want to protect their right to bear arms, and why we should feel proud of that right.

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Endorse Fred: An Open Letter to the National Rifle Assocation

Posted by: Jason | November 25th, 2007 · 4:50 PM

(image: yourperfectknife)

Attn: Wayne LaPierre, CEO, National Rifle Association.

Dear Mr. LaPierre,

I have been a proud member of the National Rifle Association since 1999. Since that year, which was the inception of my interest in politics, I have followed closely the issue of protecting the second amendment for our children and for this nation’s future.

I know your organization to be the gold standard with regard to political action. No other in my opinion, has protected the interests of all Americans so successfully, advanced its cause in the face of more opposition further, or influenced political figures harder with respect to their votes on upholding constitutional rights.

I believe that this election year alone, more than any other in recent history, the National Rifle Association can make a strong difference in the outcome of the Republican Party’s primary process.

In my opinion, there is one candidate alone who embodies the values of the NRA, who has tireously championed those values, and who stands the biggest chance at being THE conservative alternative to anti-gun candidate Rudy Giuliani in the long stretches of this upcoming race. That man is Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson.

Senator Thompson needs you, and I implore you to help his campaign by making your early endorsement of his candidacy for President of the United States.

By doing so, you will not only be endorsing the most electable pro-second amendment candidate in the race, but you will also help bring a stop to the ambitions of gun-controlling Rudy Giuliani who seeks the same nomination.

Mr. Giuliani has proven, through his record, in being a traditional enemy to your organization, certainly seen through his outright rejection of second amendment rights during his time as New York City mayor, as well as his personally suing gun manufacturers and endorsing the gun-control policies of President Bill Clinton during the 1990’s.

During a year where Republicans may be at a disadvantage, and multiple candidates are now splintering conservative votes within the primary process, I believe without your early endorsement of Fred Thompson, the former New York Mayor may succeed in his quest to not only winning the nomination, but bringing a permanent change to that time-honored coalition between Republicans and pro-second amendment advocacy groups such as the NRA.

I realize that such an early endorsement may not be typical of your organization, and by making it so soon, the prospects of a Giuliani candidacy may serve as a gamble to lobby against too early, but I ask that you consider the greater harm that could come out of this election, and that is the Republican Party abandoning its pro-second amendment platform because we didn’t rally behind a single conservative early enough.

I believe that Fred Thompson is such a conservative. I believe his consistent, long-held views, on issues of second amendment rights, as well as social, economic, and foreign policy, are the types of views our party could rally behind in November 2008. I believe also in the man, as someone who is truthful in his willingness to serve his country alone, not reveling in aspirations of personal power.

I hope that the National Rifle Association shares my view of Fred Thompson. I hope that this letter reaches you and that you will consider endorsing him for President of the United States. As we have finally struck a blow in this country to those who would take away our right to bear arms, we cannot allow our political enemies to turn the tide in this battle we’re beginning to win, and without Fred Thompson as our nominee, I believe that is indeed at stake.

I thank you for your consideration of this letter. God bless the National Rifle Association, freedom, and the United States of America.

Cordially,

Jason M. McBride

Co-Founder, PostPolitical.com

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Barrett Firearms Become Impossible to Acquire

Posted by: Ion | September 22nd, 2007 · 7:29 AM

(photo: AtlanticFirearms)

How popular are Barrett’s .50 BMG rifles these days? Ha. Try buying one new. It ain’t happening.

As military, police and plain old sport shooters have been gobbling them up, I’ve been watching the waiting list times creep up in handfuls of weeks. By the time it had surpassed the wait time for a Harley Davidson, you knew the demand was out-of-this-world.

My favorite online dealer for exotic semi-automatic firearms (AtlanticFirearms) just gave up recently. As the wait times slowly stretched to infinity, they put up this notice: “We are currently out of stock due to high demand and not sure when our next shipment will arrive.”

That goes for all models. Model 95M Bolt Action, M-82A1 and the Model 99 Single.

I think we can conclude that the consumer weapon of the Iraq war has been the Barrett 50. Almost every US war has a firearm or firearm accessory that captures the public’s imagination and turns into a bonanza for gun makers. The popularity of the Springfield 1903 in post-World War I civilian sales for deer rifles is probably the earliest and best example. But unusually, it’s a specialty weapon this time, instead of the service rifle

My own father bought into the old 1903 wave, buying a Smith Corona 1903 from a mail catalog for eight bucks (we still have it and it’s now worth over $1000). Too bad the Barretts –even were they available– sell for about eight thousand.

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Chavez’s 5000 Dragunovs

Posted by: Ion | August 27th, 2007 · 4:17 AM

(image: AtlanticFirearms)

We’re now safe to invade Venezuela if we ever want to. Chavez has announced his intention to equip his snipers with the notoriously inaccurate (but mean looking!) semi-automatic SVD Dragunov sniper rifle from Russia:

“I’m going to buy 5,000 Dragunov rifles from Russia … with telescopic sight, the best in the world, with infrared night-view,” Chavez said during his weekly Sunday broadcast held on a beach along Venezuela’s eastern coast.”We will knock out any imperialist that approaches.”
(Reuters via JustBarkingMad)

What’s that line Miss Feathers often says? “No one is afraid of Chavez’s little toy army” or something like that. With these equipment downgrades to Russian junk following the US arms embargo, he’s on the path to rivaling the modernity and firepower of the fearsome Tajik army.

The Evgeniy Dragunov design (as appearances should reveal), is essentially a lengthened AK47 chambered for the 7.62 x 54R rimmed cartridge. I gave one a go at a range one day, shooting targets at a little over 200 yards (very close for a rifle). My hits were wide and wild, whereas I was having a good day with my Winchester Model 70 at the same distance (best gun ever made, if you believe Field & Stream).

For Americans, you can order the Dragunov pictured above (built on a Romanian receiver) for $799 here. If you want to hit something however, may I recommend the Remington 700, which is the civilian model of our lethally accurate M24 Sniper Weapon System.

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Running Against New York (and Rudy) on Guns

Posted by: Ion | August 21st, 2007 · 7:48 PM

(image: Atlantic Firearms)

Fred Thompson took a fierce swipe at Rudy Giuliani today, by way of gun rights (or the lack thereof) in New York City:

[T]he same activist federal judge from Brooklyn who provided Mayor Giuliani’s administration with the legal ruling it sought to sue gun makers, has done it again. Last week, he created a bizarre justification to allow New York City to sue out-of-state gun stores that sold guns that somehow ended up in criminal hands in the Big Apple.
(Fred Thompson)

Thompson went on to state the obvious, that an armed public is better prepared to defend itself from criminal attack and thus tends to reduce crime by mere deterrence. A simple truth, but one that seems to require perpetual restatement, as there’s a substantial chunk of people out there, who by some contortion of the mind, believe you’re better protected from criminals by being disarmed and vulnerable.

Team Rudy’s response to FDT’s charges was inept, flailing and insulting:

“Those who live in New York in the real world — not on TV — know that Rudy Giuliani’s record of making the city safe for families speaks for itself,’’ said Katie Levinson, the Giuliani campaign’s communications director. “No amount of political theater will change that.”
(New York Times)

Republicans might be surprised to learn that New York City is a part of the “real world” at all, given its preposterously repressive and stupid gun laws. Laws which only encourage and facilitate crime, by leaving a public incapable of defending itself. Worse, gun laws which Thompson is perfectly correct in stating Rudy’s support for. Something that this response statement from his campaign, actually manages to defend you will note. It’s also hardly “theater,” that such policies are about as popular as a fried dead cat, in the legitimate real world which begins on the other side of New York’s city limits.

Perhaps no event demonstrated the efficacy of Thompson’s contention better, that an armed public serves as a material deterrent to crime, than the experience of Florida, after it passed its “shall issue” requirement in 1987. As Florida residents gobbled up concealed carry permits, car jackers became quite wary of attacking Florida motorists for fear of being shot. Surprising, I know.

Deterred, criminals focused their attacks on out-of-state and foreign tourists in rental cars, which at that time bore distinctive license plates. The problem became so lop-sided that Florida was forced to pass a law changing all rental car license plates to resemble their locally owned variety. Thus anti-gun Northeastern vacationers from New York –who visit South Florida by the truckload every year– passively benefited from the superior preparedness of local Floridians. An irony we can assume was rather typically lost on them.

All of this reawakens me to one of the gravest disadvantages of a Rudy candidacy: We have to run for New York, instead of against it. That’s a problem no Republican campaign for president has had to realistically face since the 1960s, with Nelson Rockefeller’s spectacularly unwelcome candidacy. I for one hope that come November, we’re not in a position to have to defend the draconian and unconstitutional policies of NYC, against someone like Bill Richardson, who carries a pistol everywhere he goes. That won’t be pretty in the real world or the theater.

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A Bitchy Little Sissy in New Jersey

Posted by: Ion | July 13th, 2007 · 8:19 AM

(image: NJVoterInfo)

The pansy photographed above, is New Jersey Democrat state senator Nicholas Scutari. He’s the mastermind behind the latest effort in the total sissification of young American boys: banning all toy guns.

While Mr. Scutari may have preferred playing with dolls instead of toy guns as a boy, somehow his parents failed in their duty to teach him this was abnormal and pathetic. Thus a generation of young boys may now have to suffer under his delusion that boy’s toys are evil. How I’d love to be 10 years old for a day in little Nicky’s junior high, just to kick him out of a tree house.

Parents, teach your kids well: Democrats are no fun.

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