Gun Controls Are On the Political Horizon

 

The Republican Speaker of the House, who was once upon a time the darling of the leading edge conservatives in the party and was a name to run for President, came out and claimed that Republicans are open and considering possible limitations on limiting accessories and possibly types of firearms. We have included the video below for your viewing displeasure or pleasure, depending on your views. Before you run to the video, allow us a few comments. Paul Ryan was accurate to some extent when he pointed out that fully automatic weapons have been banned for a long time, well, almost correct. Fully automatic weapons, like explosives and rocket launchers, require a Federal Firearms License (FFL) weapons permit which requires a series of steps depending on what types of weapons one will be dealing. So, they are not illegal, just very difficult to own and there are special fees and taxes involved in ownership or dealing in such weapons which can become onerous. But then Speaker Ryan states something interesting, namely that he was not aware of such things as bump stocks until this week. Well, allow us to admit that we too were ignorant about such accessories for rifles and other weapons. Speaker Ryan then expresses the idea that a bump stock can take a normal weapon and make it fully automatic fire rate. We did something that the Speaker of the House has apparently not done, actually bothered to read into bump stocks and what they actually do in aiding in the use of a firearm. Wikipedia defines “Bump Fire” as the resultant effect of using a bump stock thus allowing, quote, “The act of using the recoil of a semi-automatic firearm to fire shots in rapid succession, which simulates the ability of a fully automatic weapon.” That is they allow one to simulate, not actually become a fully automatic weapon fire. Now, before delving deeper, here is Speaker Ryan and MSNBC News.

 

 

Now, we looked a little further into bump stocks ourselves and what is about to be stated are our reactions and interpretations of what the use of a bump stock does and does not permit. First, if you are an amateur gun enthusiast whose main firearms use is plinking at targets once every month or so with some friends, then a bump stock will allow you to look ‘kewl’ shooting at the range. With some practice, it, along with the practice, allow you to be more accurate. With a whole lot of practice, it will also aid your rate of fire significantly. So, what exactly is a bump stock and how does it work. It is a recoil-absorbing tool which allows for better accuracy allowing the entire rifle to slide directly backwards when fired. The theory is if one can keep their finger exactly where the trigger-pull fires a bullet, then upon return another round will fire thus mimicking full automatic. This mimicking is exactly that, as you still must have trigger pull for each individual shot fired. Yes, you can, with practice, increase your rate of fire but will suffer a lower accuracy. With some patience, the bump stock can aid accuracy by absorbing recoil allowing one to remain on target between shots requiring less adjustment as recoil is absorbed by the stock as well as the normal recoil mechanisms of the weapon. The Las Vegas shooter was not as concerned with accuracy as he was firing at a mass target, the crowd at an outdoor concert. This means he was able to use the bump stock to fire more rapidly sacrificing any actual target acquisition. He was simply spraying rounds into a large mass of people and hoping for the worst. Firing from the thirty-second floor of Mandalay Hotel into the concert crowd spread out over an acre or more area. The people below were little more than dots running in every direction and he was likely not actually choosing targets with the majority of his shots fired. Military personnel have a name for such firing; they call it ‘spray and pray’ when one simply puts rounds out hoping to hit something, anything of the enemy or of his targets. But now let us talk about the CNN screenshot below used to announce Speaker Ryan’s startling readiness to consider some form of firearm control and especially the banning of bump stocks as they, he falsely claimed, can make a firearm fully automatic fire, remember, falsely stated.

 

CNN Gun Control and Paul Ryan

 

The weapon they used in the graphic was deliberately chosen to frighten anybody who is completely devoid of any actual firearm knowledge. Let us count the ways the weapon depicted is illegal for the average firearm owner. There is one very nice sound suppressor, often referred to as a silencer, on the end of the barrel. It would be next to useless which we will explain in a little while. That stock is an adjustable stock which can be made longer or shorter in order to fit a person of any size. The scope is a military styled scope. But here is the clincher, the tube under the barrel would be a grenade launcher which would make the firearm a military weapon and definitely not legal to own without an FFL license (described above). The weapon pictured above is a wonderful weapon which if society ever fails I would love to have with me. It is also probably select fire rate including single shot, three round burst and full automatic. The M203 grenade launcher fires 40mm grenades including White Phosphorous, High Explosive, High Explosive Anti-Tank and Flechette amongst others (see image below).

 

40mm Grenade Rounds

 

The problem with a sound suppressor on that particular weapon is that, without special sub-sonic ammunition, the round leaving the weapon will exceed the speed of sound, thus making a distinctive and very loud ‘crack’ upon hitting the air and breaking the sound barrier. There is no means of preventing the crack made from breaking the sound barrier. Still, the weapon chosen resembles very closely the weapons shown on the pages linked to above which are all military weapons. The weapon shown in the CNN clip and probably in most broadcasts will largely be military weapons which are not purchasable at your neighborhood firearms dealership. They are the Lotus racecar of weapons. The one item which many of the reports are counting on is the ignorance of the average viewer. They are aware that the average person who resides within a metropolitan area, especially along the two coasts, probably has not fired a gun in a long time if ever. They are using this ignorance, the lack of in depth knowledge of firearms to show a firearm which they are fully aware is nothing at all similar to any firearm that one can purchase under the law without special licensing. But here is something nobody is likely to tell you about firearms. The scary-looking weapons may not be the more dangerous weapons. The first thing one needs to know is the military style weapon and the hunting rifle both fire one bullet for every trigger pull. Either weapon can be adjusted to take a bump stock but a well-trained weapons expert can use techniques to perform the exact same firing style which the bump stock is presumed to provide with a normal stock. The bump stock may make the rapid-fire rate easier for the lesser skilled marksman, it can be equaled through additional training. Now there are some differences which are due directly to the length of the barrel. The military styled weapons have shorter barrels than their hunting rifle variants. Both use identical bullets for the same caliber. The additional length of the barrel for the regular rifle allows for greater accuracy and a faster exit velocity for the projectile, the bullet. These two points are that the hunting rifle which in most instances has similar, if not identical bullet capacities, are actually more dangerous even in the average person’s hands who has a modicum of weapons training.

 

Finally, let us talk about what laws, which can make shootings like those which have plagued the United States, a thing of the past. We are talking about school shootings, church shootings, the Las Vegas mass shooting and the carnage such as experienced in the city of Chicago and other major metropolitan areas. The one item which would work if enforceable would be making bullets and firearms illegal. The problem is unless the energy entities from the Star Trek episode, “Errand of Mercy,” where the Organians disable all offensive weaponry by making them radiate extreme heat making them incapable of being touched, let alone used, we are stuck with what humans can do. Unfortunately, we doubt the Organians are real, but unless such beings do exist and the governments have kept contact a secret, then this attempt to end gun violence will be ineffective. The idea that if weapons such as firearms are made illegal, then only outlaws will have guns is valid if for no other reason than owning a firearm would make one a criminal. The meaning behind it is that criminals really have this habit of disregarding laws and thus would continue to use implements of crime such as firearms in their commission of crimes when helpful. Finally, the only means by which weapons controls could have any hope of working would be if they were universal and that would include disarming nations and their militaries. For reasons which we hope are obvious, this also could never work as there would be at the least a dozen or so nations which would make weaponry illegally and in as clandestine a manner so as to try and catch those nations silly enough to obey such a United Nations decree disarmed and conquer them. Oddly enough, the best means to prevent these mass murders and the straight criminal use of firearms would be counter-intuitive. The solution is to require everybody to take weapons training with refresher courses every year and qualifying and everybody who qualifies will be required to carry a firearm concealed everywhere they go, criminal, stock broker, salesman, parking attendant, stock clerk, accountant, lawyer, car salesman, rocket scientist, physician, physicist and anyone else. In this way there is likely to be an armed person capable of using their weapon close to any criminal use to end the shooting plus criminals would be suspecting that their potential targets would be armed thus crime would drop to the lowest levels in history. That is correct; arm everybody capable of controlling a firearm. Yes, it sounds crazy, but this is the only method which would work and this has been proven, guess where, Israel where the IDF infantry and other trained personnel carry their weapons in public. Shootings are often brought to an end very rapidly as a trained person with a firearm is often close at hand to bring the shooter to justice with great swiftness. But many would quickly claim that some things which work in Israel might not work as well outside Israel and we agree.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Horror in Las Vegas

 

Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old man with gambling debts, shot from the thirty-second floor into a crowded outdoor country-western concert arena using fully-automatic assault weapons including, according to sketchy initial reports, AK-47 type rifle, which is of the .30 caliber, as well as ,223 caliber, which would likely be M-16 style weapons. The death toll is fifty-nine victims as well as over five-hundred injured as they continue to seek further victims. Reports have told of the heroic responses from the people who braved the gunfire to rescue injured plus hospital reports that the victims arrived with makeshift pressure bandages and other very impressive triage treatments which likely saved many lives. There were reports of people inserting their fingers into wounds to mitigate bleeding of people with arterial wounds in addition to the pressure bandaging on other wounds. These reports show the knowledge and ability to act in an emergency and stressful situation of the many American public acting with great knowledge and ability to treat horrific wounds under unbelievably threatening situation and under great personal threat of becoming another victim. The real story from Las Vegas goes far beyond the casualties, though that is of vital recognition, of people who went what the military calls above and beyond the normal expectations in such a situation to assist and rescue fellow Americans who were simply other people attending the same event with no other relationship whatsoever. This was something which one sees in the United States which is seldom seen elsewhere with one exception, Israel. Yes, we will get some angry feedback with examples of such behavior from Australia, Britain, Austria and wherever, but those examples are likely an exception, and unfortunately that is also becoming the way in America as well. Perhaps it is a symptom of socialized society.

 

Back to the shooter, Stephen Paddock, who was the mentally indifferent to the rights and lives of his fellow people. His problem was something beyond his gambling debts to something which made him desire to take as many victims as possible with him as he departed this earth. Whatever his story ends up being, assuming we ever hear anything resembling the truth, it really does not matter. He is gone and has left carnage in his wake and it is the carnage we are left to deal with. There are going to be numerous people who are going to be living with problems and inabilities because of this horrendous act of one selfish piece of presumable humanity who decided to murder and maim as many people and ruin as many lives as possible making others as miserable as he, as he departed this life, the survivors and the people who lost loved ones or close friends and associates because of one person deciding to share their misery with the world. Maybe he desired to make his name a footnote in history as the shooter in one of the largest murder scenes in modern America. Whatever his motivation, even if it were pure spitefulness because he had lost faith in humanity and decided to be judge, jury and executioner of people attending an outdoor concert because it was the largest crowd he could find. He left carnage and disappointment in his wake and the best which can be said about the shooter is that he has departed this earth and is gone. The people who remain in the wake of this terrible event are the people who need the grace of tender mercies.

 

The second morning after the main argument appears to be that the driving item of the investigation is what was Stephen Paddock’s reasoning which drove him for the shooting. We can give you our profile and we will see together if it shakes out as insightful or garbage. This unhappy, stressed human wreck was on a bad streak where things were not going well. He was not winning in the casinos and his friends were dying leaving little or no notice and he looked back on his life where he was simply another cog in the machine. He had seen how these nobody terrorists who would never have even been talked about ever in the Western media, and the western media is the place you become a somebody. There it was, you can shoot your way to notoriety and everybody will hear your name for a week, two weeks or even a full month or more! Finally, notoriety was just a shooting away. Now, where to make your mark and have a really large target area filled with plenty of people. A Country-Western Music festival where those evil conservatives would gather was coming to Las Vegas and a room overlooking the open-air concert. He had his target and the means and now just had to plan and execute. He had the room for over a week giving him plenty of time to bring in weapons of his choice, and he had sufficient he had bought over his last fifty years as an adult. Weapons in place, shooting positions chosen, ammunition loaded into useable clips and weapons altered to full automatic following steps from manuals or the Internet. Now it was just choosing when to shoot and he chose the closing time believing he would have the most targets at that point which the results prove was a valid theory. He was going to grab some fame even if it was infamy. He wanted his name in the public eye and he has succeeded in that. He chose to grab the same temporary fame equal to that which the terrorists had grabbed. If anything, we should be glad he did not decide to add to his carnage by building a huge bomb wired to take out five floors and one-third of the hotel in a ball of flame when the police broke through the door. He had those supplies at his home, so there is one thing we should be glad he did not decide to do to take more innocent people by destroying a large area of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino killing the guests in their rooms in as many as thirty or more rooms.

 

What will be the shakeout of this event will end up in the halls of State Houses and the Congress with attempts at curbing the Second Amendment. The first salvo already was fired by a former CBS executive Hayley Geftman-Gold who Tweeted, “If they wouldn’t do anything when children were murdered I have no hope that the Repugs (Republicans) will ever do the right thing. I’m actually not even sympathetic bc country music fans often are republican gun toters.” (see below) She quickly lost her position with CBS, at least for the time being while attention is being given. Then there was the immediate response to the situation by Hillary Clinton who Tweeted, “The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots. Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer, which the NRA wants to make easier to get.” There are so many problems with her response logically. A “silencer” is actually a sound suppressor which reduces the sound a firearm makes from the explosive sound of the powder. The weapons used in this instance were high velocity rounds which all exceed the speed of sound which means that once they left the end of the barrel, even including the sound suppressor, if there should be one, still would break the speed of sound which means they would still make a sizeable sound, a loud crack when they break the sound barrier. This particular sound is audible at a great distance and no sound suppressor can muffle this sound once the bullet leaves the barrel and whatever technology you add to the end and jumping on this as the main rally cry is nothing beyond cheap politicking. That a two time former candidate for President would stoop this low at such a time is a sad commentary on the state of politics in the United States.

 

Hayley Geftman-Gold Tweet

 

Prepare for the coming storm from the political class with demands that gun control would have prevented this crime. If only there were laws preventing people from gathering so many weapons then such crimes could not happen. When pressed as to how such a limitation could be instituted, the answer will eventually be a gun registry which would need to be checked by all gun stores to assure that nobody accumulates such a weapons cache. When asked if this could not be used to collect all privately owned firearms in the future, the claim will be that it is not that kind of list. The Weimar Republic made such a list and the very identical claim when they made it the law that all firearms had to be registered. The Weimar Republic never did use the lists collected in order to collect privately owned weapons. However, the Nazis found those lists extremely convenient when they decided to disarm the people of Germany of their weapons. This proved especially critical to German Jews, Roma and other minorities who the Nazis decided to force into labor camps and execution camps. But such lists are never intended initially, by legal restriction, to be used to deny the citizens of their legally owned weapons. The people whose idea it is to make these lists do intend to use them in the future for exactly that reason. But even the coming political storms and the accompanying media extravaganza is meaningless and will simply be background noise which will not avail the victims of any consolation.

 

What is needed is healing of the grievous wounds suffered by the numerous families and friends affected by the events in Las Vegas. Why do we refer to these murderous attacks such as terror attacks and other mass shootings as these events? We do so because if we called them mass murders then the people would have a reason to demand answers. The problem is because our societies have lost its moral soul. We have discussed this repeatedly, but let us go around one more time, if you please. In the schools, they are no longer permitted to say the Pledge of Allegiance because that might offend the foreign students and immigrants. Prayers are being forced from the public square and we are told that we must limit our religious acts to church and the privacy of our own homes. Should a student even mention Hashem in their commencement address they are yanked off the podium and severely rebuked for showing such audacity. A school football player scores his first touchdown and kneels making some form of religious signature and the coach warns him that doing such again and he will be warming the bench. Any sign of religious observance has been all but erased from society. Hashem has become unwanted in the public sphere and almost a dirty word in many circles. Even many of our houses of religion have become more political clubs which meet two or three times each week and give congratulations all around for believing in the greatness that government has become through their activism. How society replaced religion with government and took all patriotism and religion from our schools and are well on our way to replacing parenting with government as the schools educate the children often telling them to report parental punishment or grounding to the teachers and then the school will look into whether they actually deserve discipline. The next thing the parents know there is a social worker at their door demanding to come in and “talk” and too many parents make the error of allowing them in. Once they have been permitted to enter, they will take charge and the parent no longer is raising their child. Should the parent try and end this intrusion, then the courts get involved and after that it is over and if the parent is fortunate, they are not facing a trial for child abuse or negligence and are only fighting in the court to get their child back and having to go to counselling and who knows what else. Some states are worse than others and many parents just give up and allow the child almost total freedom rather than face such risks. If you are as paranoid as one might find advisable, then you never allow any government person to tread anywhere on your property and fully enforce your Fourth Amendment rights before you have to invoke your Fifth Amendment rights in a court room.

 

When did the society take such a wrong turn and decide government was their friend? Many claim the Founding Fathers were a group of old men in powdered wigs who were out of touch and owned slaves. What is not understood is that in much of history if you worked for another person, then you were a slave. There were no such things as employees until the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution did not change farming or small business. There was the idea of apprenticeships where the person learning the trade often slept on the workplace floor in a small area set aside for them learning from the master of the trade. The parent gave their child to the master so he would learn the trade and have a better life. Of course while learning the trade life was not so good, not even as nice as many slaves lived. The idea of working for a paycheck and living on your own is a relatively new idea. The Founding Fathers were actually revolutionary thinkers and extreme liberals for their time and would still be today. They would look at the Federal Government as it now exists as oppressive and intolerable and would likely begin to plan their revolution. Once they realized what an Apache Gunship could do they would try to find some other way of changing the system, they were not idiots and would realize that revolution would never work now. They would work towards a Constitutional Convention and would probably end up before some court attempting to explain how their rights according to the Constitution were being taken from them, and would hopefully win such a case. They were highly intelligent legal minds and probably know the Constitution and how it was meant to function far better than even much of the Supreme Court. But the reality is that over the years, especially since World War I, We the People have given away our rights to the government and the biggest mistake was the making Senators directly elected. The argument was that State governments were too corrupt to be allowed to appoint Senators. Nobody thought to question why the Congress, which was made up of the most successful of the State legislators should not be even more suspect of corruption, but the Congress pushed through the Seventeenth Amendment and ended the rights of the States and gave the Federal Government the kick start it needed to take over much of what used to be the purview of the States. Now the end is in sight, as Congress will take power beyond anything envisioned in the worst nightmare the Founding Fathers foresaw.

 

Beyond the Cusp