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

 

The War Against Conservatism Begins

 

The war against Conservatism and all things right of center, and possibly even left of center, has begun but where will it end? Recently the August 16, 2017 “MTP Daily” show and the August 20, 2017 “Meet the Press” program, author Mark Bray, who wrote a book about Antifa was featured. Bray argues that, “Nazism and fascism was not stopped by polite dialogue and reasonable debate. It had to be stopped by force.” This led to the conclusion of the discussions to plead that violence is necessary. Apparently, if there exist people whose views do not correlate within the prescribed norms as defined by our masters in the media, academia, entertainment and the rest of the left leaning establishment to the extreme leftists, then they may be dismissed and are of little concern according to many of our political leaders. In all honesty, this struggle has been ongoing for much longer than many of us realize. Believe it or not, this did not begin with the election of President Trump, nor with President Obama, nor George W. Bush, nor William Jefferson Clinton, nor on an on for elected leadership back before even President John F. Kennedy, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and on and on back before President George Washington. This fight between the right and left goes back to Aristotle and possibly to King David and possibly even earlier than that. This struggle between the liberal left and the conservative right has been one of the basic contentions of humankind.

 

This argument was fought when the Israelites threw off slavery in Mitzraim (Egypt). The argument was seriously debated by the Greeks and in Rome it took the life of Caesar and led to numerous wars throughout the ages. The modern history of this struggle became to a pinnacle point on June 15, 1215, when King John of England signed the Magna Carta Libertatum (Medieval Latin for “Great Charter of the Liberties”), at Runnymede, granting limited shared power between the King and the major land owners of Britain. The struggle continued on through the American Revolution followed by the French Revolution, the second having less than stellar results. The next point of armed struggle in the United States was the Civil War and the resulting freeing of the slaves. There was some backsliding with the laws which resulted in returning many slaves to second-class status and this continued until the next great struggle of the Civil Rights movement. This was incorporated into the entire sixties peace movement and its related alternative lifestyles. Things appeared to come to a boil in the sixties as there were violent protests with the media, academia, entertainment and the right leaning establishment to the radical right conservatives who desired to take things back to the “good old days,” a term which was very loosely defined if defined at all. Over the next forty to fifty years, there has been a changing of the guard and a shift in positions on many subjects. In the sixties, the left were the Libertarian leaning side who supported limited government and individuality while the right believed that society needed regulations and laws in order to prevent chaos, crime and immorality. That was then, but what about now?

 

Today the sides have changed in many ways. Instead of the establishment being right leaning, today the establishment leans left. The media, academia, entertainment today are all left leaning or even reaching into the far left. The right is in favor of less government and individualism while the left believes that government must take charge and clear all of the societal ills. Simply put, the sides and power have shifted and as the power used to be with the right, it now lies with the left. Things were nice and quiet and running smoothly whenever the left, the Democrats, were in the White House and thus holding ultimate power over the government as the President can prevent anything the left considers backsliding from their agenda. While President Clinton was in office, the fight was fairly civil. While George W. Bush was in the White House, things were less civil but still could be considered civilized though there was much consternation over the initial results against Al Gore and the debacle in Florida. Then came President Obama and things were reported as being the most unbelievably wonderful of all administrations. The economy was reported to be in constant and steady, if slow, recovery. Problems were minimal and the problems with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) would be worked out and it would be the most successful healthcare innovation since the invention of penicillin.

 

Then came the election for the successor to President Obama and the campaign was running smoothly and with precise and perfect precision according to all mainstream media reports. Hillary Clinton was the presupposed and inevitable winner and was to be coronated President after the election. As the election came closer, the numbers began to close together, something which always happens, so nobody took any real note, as Hillary could not lose to the ignorant and offensive Donald Trump. Every newspaper from the large cities touted their polls of their readership and they showed Hillary with double-digit leads. Every major city around the nation, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Boston and Washington D.C. all ran headlines right up to a day or two before Election Day giving Hillary Clinton a comfortable lead. The night before the election the lead narrowed to a point where some began to doubt the polling and some even claimed that Donald Trump could actually win. Well, they were correct and we now have President Trump and the left who believed with every fiber of their being that Hillary Clinton could not lose went completely off the deep end. Since the election of President Trump there has been a concerted effort to destroy him and open warfare has been declared by the leftists. We see it regularly and where it will lead cannot be predicted, but we know what they demand, the return of power to the left and its protectors as they feel the left are the only people who have the right to lead.

 

Blame Game Starring
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

 

The open conflict between the left and the right was coming to a boil long before Charlottesville and making it appear as that was the start was simply another deception. The left uses the media to define everything to their means and way of thinking. They insist that only the left has any answers to the challenges which the nation faces. They claim that the right is full of racists and people angry and filled with hatred and thus are unfit for leadership. The left claim to be all about compassion but apparently they feel that only those who agree with their programs and principles are worthy of receiving that compassion. There are many on the left who are wonderful people and they are willing to compromise and work with those on the right who also will compromise. Then there are those on the far left which are most often labeled as leftists who take a position that should their compatriots on the left not be in power then violence is the answer. They would riot and take offense at any and every perceived offence and were the ones who came ready to fight with the alt-right in Charlottesville. Since Election Night, there have been continuous streams of points which have been called pivotal focal points which they have blamed the right, or the alt-right, for taking things to a new level and; in each of these, the levels of the conflict have been escalated. Friendships have been destroyed, marriages have broken up, families torn asunder and business partners broken apart as the escalations have grown to the point that civil society is now close to being threatened. Where this will lead is becoming painfully apparent, as there will be no peace for as long as the Republicans hold the White House. Actually, that is not entirely honest as there are rumors of a plan being put in motion which would permit a Republican in the White House with certain concessions being made.

 

Everyone has seen that the Republican core old guard all are pretty much against President Trump almost as much as are the Democrats. Their leader has been Senator John McCain. But there are rumors this core of Republicans has decided to join with the Democrats and rid the United States of this upstart and irresponsible person sitting in the White House. There are rumors that some have been promised leadership in the new government while others have been promised campaign funding or other monetary enticements. The one rumor which is the most disheartening has been the one which places Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan siding with the Democrats to form a new union. This has all the beautiful aroma of the coming of some Republicans switching parties or forming a dual party coalition to rule as a new consensus party of left-leaning and leftist Democrats and Republicans who will run claiming to be mainstream members of their respective parties but would legislate and control the Congress and White House all while attempting to keep their agreement from the people. They would act out their arguments while voting as to their agreed mission. The worst of the rumors claim that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has joined an effort which will result in his becoming President. The idea is preposterous, but according to the rumors, the intent is to impeach President Trump. One may inquire as to under what pretense and charges. Well, the charges do not matter, any pretense which results in a majority of the Representatives on the House bringing a charge and two thirds of the Senate finding for guilt and the President is impeached. The charge could be mentally unsuited for office, the current thread being pursued replacing the Russian conspiracy and alt-right ties. Anybody with any knowledge of American governance will point out the small inconvenience, that once President Trump would be impeached, then Vice President Pence would take office, not the Speaker of the House. This is where many call this rumored concept of convincing Speaker of the House Ryan that he would be placed in the Presidency would fall apart, but wait, the conspiracy theorists have this covered as well. They agree that Vice President Pence would take over and be President, temporarily. They have already come up with an idea for the next step, impeachment of President Pence. They claim that they can get him on his inability to separate religion from his office and as we “all know,” there is this “wall separating Church and State.” Well, actually, there is only a wall separating State from Church but none separating the Church from State as religious beliefs are perfectly permitted in politics. But as we pointed out previously, the charges do not matter, it is the votes which count. But would not Pence on becoming President get to appoint a new Vice President? Then that person would become President next even if Pence were impeached. Hold on there cowpoke, the new President gets to nominate a new Vice President upon taking office and they are not granted the office until the Senate approves their nomination. If the Congress can refuse to approve any nominee for Vice President and impeach President Pence before such nominee has been approved, then the third in succession becomes President, Speaker of the House Ryan.

 

As long as we are going down the rabbit hole, we see another outcome where these Republicans would be left out completely and it is really simple. All the Democrats need do is take their time on the impeachment of President Trump, continue once that has been accomplished to prevent any new Vice President being approved and have charges be leveled against President Pence and then wait for the 2018 elections. Then if they take the House of Representatives they can appoint their own Speaker of the House, and if Hillary Clinton would run for a House Seat in a solidly bluer than blue district and thus become a member of the House of Representatives, they could make Hillary Speaker and then convict Pence thus impeaching him and placing Hillary Clinton into the chair they claim was stolen from her. As long as we are talking craziness, why not go completely down the rabbit hole.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Countdown to Impeachment

 

President Trump just made another major misstep; he failed to fight for his health care legislation empowering his enemies. Sure the media have been playing up each and every Tweet as if it were the crime of the century, but that has been hype, all hype. That is the job the media has in this attempt to overthrow democratically elected governance in the United States. The media are the shock troops playing the game as those infected with the screaming heebie jeebies. Their job is to foment the atmosphere of mistrust, suspicion and general mayhem so that anything which follows appears to have validity. When President Trump pulled the healthcare legislation admitting defeat, he opened the door to his downfall. His blaming the Democrats will only serve to instill in them more hate and spite leading them to become even more entrenched seeking his downfall. They were going to head in this direction anyways and this was inevitable, but now they will feel empowered and capable of blocking any and all attempts by the President to govern effectively. That always was the first step, take out President Trump’s ability to govern effectively.

 

The next step is already in motion and is being headed by the leading man of the disloyal progressive opposition, Senator McCain. McCain still believes he should be the leading figure in the Republican Party and has always felt they let him down and were the reason he lost in 2008. It has never occurred to him that the reason he lost in 2008 was that John McCain was completely outclassed and defeated by the media and his complete inability to excite the Republican base. John McCain actually believes he is a staunch and true conservative just because he opposes three or four extreme leftist ideas and otherwise is just as left wing as Hillary Clinton once those few ideas are removed from the equation. John McCain sees the election of Donald Trump not as a sign that he actually earned the election by getting the Republican base excited but because he got exactly who the media claim elected him, rabble and uneducated morons easily led off by Donald the Pied Piper Trump. McCain sees his position of fighting Trump as the Republican knight in shining armor saving the party from oblivion. McCain just cannot accept that his wing of Republicans are the lost sheep with nowhere to go and unable to ever win any national election and that the Republican Party has become truly conservative and originalist in their holding and understanding of the Constitution. The mainstream Republicans are now almost literally Tea Party Republicans who enforce the Constitution and its Amendments precisely as written to save the United States because anything less will allow the Progressives their eventual victory and the end of America. It matters not if that view is valid, it is where the base and the votes lie and McCain will never excite these people and they would rather stay home than vote for a phony conservative, a right leaning progressive.

 

So, now that the Democrats have been placed in the position of defending Obamacare which they see as the logical step to destroy heath care insurance and force single payer government healthcare as the saving grace along with the rest of their progressive pro-government programs which will lead to only one conclusion, they will rally and draw even tighter and any Democrat who was even considering not standing with the most radical of their party will be put on notice, stand with us or you will face defeat in the next primary election. The Democrats see the election of Donald Trump as their now or never position as they know that their cover has been blown and the “silent majority” has seen them for who they truly are. What is so sad is that many of their supporters still have their blinders in place and do not realize these monsters for who they really are. They still view the likes of Elizabeth Warren, Chuck Schumer, Maxine Waters and the rest for loyal liberals fighting the good fight for the cause. If only this were true, there would be hope; but a full third to forty percent of the voting public are firmly supporting the people who wish to place government as the board of directors over every major employer and while leaving private ownership and the belief that freedom exists, their reality would have government dictating almost everything even to production demands and buying habits to government through over-regulation to simple direct control. The Democrats who have taken control of the Democrat Party are full behind this central control and have the voters fully behind their ideas and reasoning which include such fronts as Global Climate Change, Corporate Greed is Evil, the Police are Fascist Shock Troops and the like. The Police are Fascist Shock Troops actually is one of the most ridiculous of these claims as it was under President Obama that enormous amounts of military vehicles and hardware were transferred to police forces across the United States at prices that I could have afforded one of those heavy armored vehicles that the police have at their disposal had I been permitted to purchase one and likely you could have as well. These were priced just slightly more expensive than two squad cars and were heavily financed by the Federal Government making even Mayberry Police able to buy one for officer Fife (there’s a joke there if you are old enough to remember Barney Fife and his bullet in his pocket so he wouldn’t shoot his foot again).

 

The plan is to continue to play hardball and allow John McCain to run interference on the right and when sufficient Republicans are convinced that Trump is simply incompetent and unable to accomplish anything, then they will strike. The claim will be he is and always was a phony businessman and never built anything in his life, accomplishing everything with his Daddy’s money and name. They will play up the incompetency of his presidency and that the nation deserves better. There will be moves to paint Pence and Ryan as well as people unable to rule effectively as they are just as bad as Trump. The entire idea is to get sufficient numbers of the population, 15% to 20% is all it takes with all centered in the major cities, believing that the only path to good and steady leadership is the Democrat Party, the moderate Democrats who even John McCain claims can be reasoned with and worked with. The entire Republican Party leadership and most of its truly conservative base Representatives and Senators will all be painted as subversive elements who are trying to destroy the nation supporting this losing child-President Trump. Then there will be the placing of the impeachment charges which will be all formal and will find an actual plausible reason, one the rabble can latch onto as a cause celeb. Once the votes are secured, the charge is irrelevant as in order to impeach a President you only need the votes in the House of Representatives and then to remove the President you need the votes in the Senate. The Constitution lays out the reasons of which one is malfeasance or the ill-defined “high crimes and misdemeanors” which could include anything from impropriety to murder to tax evasion to jaywalking, it all depends on what the media can sell and sufficient numbers of people accept. Understand that once charges of impeachment have been leveled against President Trump we can expect that the opposition will have the votes necessary with a comfortable extra few in numbers in case some get cold feet and shrink from the idea. The idea will be to have governance handed to those adults in the room who know how to govern and in order to prevent such a disaster as another President Trump from ever occurring again, the Electoral College will be thrown out along with all the other parts of an obsolete and useless piece of parchment that the Constitution has become, after all it was written by angry, old, slave owning, anti-woman, white men who did not understand what the world has become, after all they probably thought man should not fly because they do not have wings and such things. They had muzzle loading rifles, what could they have understood about machineguns? They are as outdated as powdered wigs and their Constitution; it’s the Twenty-First Century already, time to modernize America. The new rallying cry will be something just like that, Time to Modernize America for the Modern Times. With this they will restructure governance in the United States and America will be born and the entire concept of the United States as individual states in a federal government will die and Europe will welcome the new America to their failing ways which are failing as we were watching and will then be joining. You will know the fix is in should the new form of government be parliamentary.

 

 

The push is coming to make America a nation run by its major cities under Democrat Party control with the rest of the nation dragged along for the ride. The name bandied around and used against President Trump will never be applied to the new America as they could never be fascist, even if fascism is defined as the government taking control of the steering wheel and dictating to industry and big businesses how they can and will run their companies while permitting private ownership. The new government will rule absolutely not permitting even a scintilla of opposition to their ideas and demands on the people. Forget freedom as that is such an antiquated and quaint idea which does not permit the government to do what is right and correct for the people. The people are not as wise and worldly as are their betters in the government who all went to the correct schools and majored in how to rule over a nation. What could the peasants possibly know about how to run a successful country with the responsibility for directing all the industrial and managerial giants and be so astute to every nuanced concept; after all it was exactly this which brought every advancement since the bicycle. There will be posters and they will be Yuge and Wondrous and everybody will feel like saluting the posters, after all that is what the man on the corner with the big gun expects and we would not want him reporting our lack of enthusiasm. The poster, if it were honest, would look a lot like the one above, admit it, you wanted to straighten up in your seat and look good as if the poster was looking back through your monitor, didn’t you. Don’t let little slogans bother you because as long as you’re a good citizen, do your assigned job, oh yes, that’s right, the job your chose or were chosen for from first grade, and as long as you are happy, then you have nothing to fear. And just to make this Brave New World be a little happier, you did take your allotment of Soma today, we would not want to skip our Soma after work, after all it is for the nation to keep and stay happy. There you go, be a happy citizen.

 

Beyond the Cusp