Congress Lays Down a Marker

At Ammoland the National Shooting Sports Foundation has an opinion piece entitled Gun Lobby Welcomes Sen. Hagarty's Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act Introduction. Needless to say, by sorting through the private sales records of individuals to find out who bought guns and ammo, the government has committed a gross violation of the 4th Amendment that everyone involved should have recognized. And I believe they did. They just ignored it for ideological reasons.

The Firearm Industry Trade Association, hails the introduction of S. 4075, the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act, by U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), which would ban the use of a firearm retailer-specific Merchant Category Code (MCC). The legislation would protect the Second Amendment privacy of firearm and ammunition purchasers from financial service and payment card providers compiling purchase history that has already proven to be exploited by the federal government for political purposes.

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“The Biden administration has already admitted that it unlawfully used the private firearm purchase data of law-abiding citizens to label them as potential domestic terrorists in a politically-driven gun control scheme,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President & General Counsel.

I certainly applaud the Senator as well as the companion bill in the House. But I have to wonder, it the Biden administration is willing to knowingly violate the 4th Amendment, why are they going to pay attention to a mere statute? After all, since the DOJ is part of the Biden administration, so the law will not likely be enforced. But, Perhaps it is good that Congress lays down a marker.

Do you need an AR-15?

 Mike McDaniel asks the question Should I buy an AR-15? He then answers with an absolute "Yes." You can read his reasons, many of which are the same as why everyone in the old days needed to have a 22LR. But, McDaniel's first, and major reason is:

But why? There are many good reasons, including the Mummified Meat Puppet Administration doesn’t want you to have one and they’re willing to lie about it and threaten to bomb, even nuke, you to get them. Also, it has been scientifically proved there is no such thing as too many guns or too much ammunition. Trust the science.

So, sure, if the so-called "elites" don't want the unwashed masses to have them, it seems to me very important to have one. On the other hand, most of us live in urban and suburban settings where finding a range to practice is difficult. My own range doesn''t allow anything other than pistol caliber weapons. So, if I had a rifle chambered in...say...357 Magnum, that would be acceptable. But that means it would probably be a lever action, not an AR-15.

You can probably think of other reasons why you might want something other than an AR-15. But please read McDaniel's post and think about it for yourself.

Never Give Up Your Guns. Never!

 Andrea Widburg has a post today at the American Thinker that is simply precious. In it, Lily Tang Williams, an immigrant from China and a survivor of Mao's Cultural Revolution takes down David Hogg. You can find Widburg's post at Video: She escaped Communist China and destroys David Hogg on gun control. Please also check out the two pieces form the Bookworm Room. She makes excellent cases for the Second Amendment in both.

Lily asks if Hogg can promise her that the United States government will never turn totalitarian. Hogg answers, surprisingly honestly, that no, no one can promise such a thing. Of course, that is exactly why the Founders put the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights. They all knew that the Constitution is just a piece of paper; that what gives the Constitution power is the people's belief in its principles. And when the Constitution is ignored, as is now happening with alarming regularity, when the President defies the Supreme Court regularly, when all this fails, We the People have the right, and duty to change our government. This is exactly what the Second Amendment was written for. And no, I am no advocating for staring a revolution, but at the same time, if our so-called "elites" do not back down, there remains that one last resort.

So, the lesson here is never give up your guns, your ammunition, or your rights. Never. Stand with Lily.

Don't Be Like the Movie Guys Who Rack the Slide Before Engaging the Bad Guy

Mike McDaniel has a post telling us that Yes, chambered semi autos are safe. Col. Jeff Cooper advocated the "cocked and locked" carry method for the 1911 pistol. I have carried in that manner for close to 20 years. I do dry fire practice often to keep the need to draw and push down the thumb safety in muscle memory. But I don't put my finger in the trigger guard until I make a decision to shoot.

But most new gun buyers don't buy 1911s, do they? It is an old style weapon, an elegant weapon for another age, as they say in the Star Wars movies. Most buyers buy the plastic fantastic pistols, which are usually striker fired and have no safety. Are these also safe to carry with a live round in the chamber?

Full disclosure: I learned to shoot handguns with revolvers, attaining expert status, but as semiautos evolved, becoming not only as reliable as revolvers, and with the advent of Glocks, which took over the police and civilian markets, became expert with those as well. I’ve fired and owned every trigger mechanism, single action as in the 1911 and P-35 Hi-Power, double action, double action only and striker fired as in Glocks.

Other than the 1911 and Hi-Power, I’ve never used the safety on any other semiautomatic I’ve owned, and have been entirely safe in so doing. Why not the 1911 and Hi-Power? They’re early 1900s single action designs with cocked hammers and light triggers with short travel. I had the grip safeties on my 1911s pinned in the “off” position. John Moses Browning, America’s greatest firearm inventor, did not include a grip safety on the Hi-Power, which he invented after the 1911.

Here's the ultimate consideration: any gun is safe if the trigger finger is kept in register—straight and in contact with the frame, outside the trigger guard—until fractions of a second before it’s necessary to pull the trigger. After the trigger is pulled, so long as immediate follow-up shots aren’t required, the trigger finger immediately returns to register.

A secondary concern is always using holsters that completely cover the trigger guard and trigger so it’s difficult to accidently pull the trigger when drawing. It’s equally important to always keep the trigger finger in register when reholstering, and to look to ensure neither clothing nor anything else can get in the way and pull the trigger.

McDaniel makes a good point that if you are afraid to carry a live round in the chamber, you need to get more training. You should respect your weapon, but not be afraid of it. I once dropped a Kahr PM9 on the floor due to fumble fingers. It did not go off even though it had 7 rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber. It is a small, plastic fantastic gun, and I let my brother try shooting it. He also dropped it, and again, nothing. If a modern gun is functioning properly, they are safe to carry a round in the chamber. Don't be like the movie guys who rack the slide before engaging the bad guy. You want to draw and be immediately ready to engage. Half seconds count.

Nazis Strike Again

 D. Parker, at the American Thinker has an excellent series of articles showing how the Democrat party is aping the Nazi party of the 1930s and 40s. Now Monica Showalter gets into the act with Yellow star? Biden plans to lable goods produced by Jewish settlements in the West Bank. First of all, the "West Bank" is historically part of Israel. Jesus walked these roads from Galillee to Jerusalem. But second, this shows, once again, that the Democrats are on the side of Hamas, of Iran, in general of the Muslims. If you want to know how evil this implies, just not that Islam is the direct opposite of Christianity in everything.

Republicans and all people of goodwill need to shut this creeping Naziism down now.

I don't know that there is much I need that Israel supplies, but if I do, I will make it a priority to buy it. Meanwhile, go read Showalter's post.

Elites Will Resort to Violence If You Don't Comply

 In the last week, John Daniel Davidson has opened my eyes to the fact that no matter what variety of Marxism globalist "elites" are intending to herd us into, they are all a return to paganism.  Whether communism, or fascism, or any other collectivist materialism, these globalists believe that there is no truth, and anything is permitted.  The laws protect only the rich and powerful.  Logic, of course is nonexistent because there is no truth, no correct answer.  And, as J. B. Shurk tells us Marxist Globalists Will Resort to Terror and Violence.

It is important to understand that censorship does not occur in a vacuum. It is a symptom of a worsening disease. It is an early indicator of the political repression to come. Like a canary in a coal mine, the criminalization of speech forewarns that State-sponsored terror and murder are not far away. First, certain words and thoughts are banned. Next, certain people are rounded up and imprisoned. Finally, certain “enemies of the State” are executed quite publicly. The imposition of fear supersedes the rule of law. Terrorism undergirds social order. Oppression replaces popular support.

What is happening in the West today is a concentrated push for global communism. We could bicker about precise definitions — whether we are under attack from Marxists, socialists, Leninists, Trotskyites, Maoists, or other “revolutionaries” — but the end goal is clear. A small group of global “elites” seek to use ideological and economic leverage to centralize political power and direct all human activity. They seek the abolition of private property. They seek absolute control over individual lives and local communities. They are rebuilding twentieth-century totalitarianism with the privacy-destroying surveillance technologies of the twenty-first century.

Most Western nations are working together to promote a public vision that achieves their private totalitarian goals. Governments do not care about “hate speech”; they are dedicated to seizing control of the press, punishing dissent, censoring political opposition, and regulating public debate. Governments do not care about “climate change”; they are dedicated to seizing control over all economic activity by first establishing a monopoly on available energy. Governments do not care about “systemic racism,” “social justice,” or “income inequality”; they are dedicated to maximizing social divisions and distorting the meaning of fundamental rights, so that they may undermine long-cherished personal liberties. Governments do not care about “gun violence”; they are dedicated to disarming their populations and making it impossible for them to fight back against tyranny. Governments do not care about minimizing vicious and costly wars; they are dedicated to distracting their citizens with false threats to their personal security. Governments do not care about maintaining the integrity and value of their monetary currencies; they are dedicated to printing and spending money that inflates household costs, taxes middle class savings, maximizes Wall Street profits, and increases welfare dependency. Governments do not need to create central bank digital currencies to stave off economic disaster; they are dedicated to creating economic disasters, so that they can justify a future communist system that runs on privacy-destroying CBDCs.

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What is important to understand is that the various Western projects active today all reflect this long conflict among Marxists about the best way to achieve their “revolution.” Sure, there still remain a few residual peaceniks in the faculty lounge who believe — as Kautsky did — that human societies will naturally evolve into Marxist Utopias and “equitable” communes from the sheer deterministic forces of historical materialism. There are far more, however, who believe political repression, terror, and violence are essential for success. Standing somewhere in the middle — for the time being, at least — are the great majority of governmental and non-governmental forces pushing demonstrable forms of Marxist socialism under the guise of public policies ostensibly meant to advance environmentalism, mass migration, pandemic preparedness, minority rights, or “sustainable” economic development in impoverished communities.

We are familiar with their many names: the World Economic Forum’s “Great Reset,” the United Nations’ “2030 Agenda,” the “Green New Deal,” the “Build Back Better” initiatives, George Soros’s “Open Society Foundations,” and the World Health Organization’s “Pandemic Treaty.” There are many others, of course. Every perceived global problem provides Marxist socialists with an opportunity to “solve” that problem by constructing financial and governmental institutions that advance their “revolution.” They believe that they can “speed up” the “progression” of human history by creating painful conditions that justify communism’s architecture. The vast majority of globalists who run central banks, newsrooms, intelligence agencies, administrative departments, legislative assemblies, religious nonprofits, and too many corporate boardrooms are all “true believers.”

Make no mistake, when these Marxist globalists conclude that an increasingly popular resistance force within Western society threatens their “long march” toward domination, they will not throw up their hands in defeat, shrug, and concede, “Well, that’s democracy.” In their twisted totalitarian minds, only ideological allies merit “democratic” respect or civil rights protections; ideological foes deserve dictatorial force and bloody despotism.

Please read the whole article. If these guys get what they want, we are all serfs to these few so-called "elites." We have rights only because we are a Christian nation. For those who don't believe in God do not also believe in rights. They believe in power.

The New Paganism

 I just got to this book by John Daniel Davidson of The Federalist entitled Pagan America: The Decline of Christianity and the Dark Age to Come. Unfortunately, authors keep coming out with great books and I have something of a backlog of reading.  The book is makes clear that reason, fairness, rule of law and such concepts will in the future not hold sway.  Instead, it will be raw power.  I had thought to write a book report when, as chance would have it, Casey Chalk has already written a very good one. You can find his book report at As Christianity Declines, We Must Confront the Threat of Pagan America.

The historical narrative grade-school and collegiate students learn today portrays pre-modern societies across the world living in peaceful symbiosis with nature… until they were brutally defeated, if not destroyed by an intolerant Christian civilization. Davidson relates a number of historical anecdotes proving how blinkered this story is. Whether we are talking about the ancient societies of the Mediterranean, pagan northern Europe, or indigenous America, all demonstrated a profound disregard for (or exploitation of) the weak and vulnerable. Davidson cites the Vikings, Aztecs, and 19th-century kingdom of Benin as civilizations engaging in ritual human sacrifice to appease angry, bloodthirsty gods, but there are plenty of others.

Judaism and then Christianity repudiated such societies, built as they were on power, fear, and the fulfillment of base sensual desires. It was the church that rejected the common Roman practice of abandoning (if not murdering) unwanted children, stopped human sacrifice in northern Europe, and discouraged polygamy in the Americas and Africa.

Citing Tom Holland’s popular book Dominion, Davidson writes: “Human rights, equality, care for the poor, mercy for the condemned, refuge for the persecuted, charity for the marginalized and downtrodden: these were never self-evident truths.” Rather, “they are unmistakably Christian ideas that rely on specifically Christian doctrines, without which they are unintelligible.” Obviously, Christian societies were by no means perfect and were often hypocritical, but it’s undeniable that they ushered in a paradigmatic shift via their understanding of the dignity of the human person.

Davidson notes, and I agree with this, that this paradigmatic shift profoundly influenced the Founders such that the founding documents of our Constitutional republic create a very Christian identity for our nation. The secular nature of our government was meant not to discriminate against any of the many denominations of Christianity to avoid the bloodshed that had plagued Europe. At the same time, this neutrality was not meant to count Islam, or wiccan, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses or any other pagan religion as "religion."  Indeed, some of these did not exist at the time.  I doubt the founders even considered cults outside of Christianity.

Davidson's thesis is that:

...an increasingly secular America is not ushering in a rational, neutral, and indifferent regime, but rather a revitalized form of paganism. Indeed, that irrationalism is on full display in the growing popularity of superstitious beliefs such as horoscopes, crystals, tarot, occultism, wiccanism, and an unwavering faith in “the science” even when what “the science” declares is reversed only a short time after it was considered dogma. But Davidson is just getting started here.

He argues that neo-paganism is visible across our polis. Abortion and euthanasia, for example, are new forms of human sacrifice; transhumanism and transgenderism reflect man’s attempt to usurp God’s authority over nature. Moreover, warns Davidson, if minors have the autonomy to decide their own “gender,” what’s stopping our paganizing establishment from also claiming that minors have the autonomy to pursue sexual relations with whomever they choose? Artificial intelligence, in turn, serves as a “godlike” artifice, a “Promethean power” to be worshiped.

I would argue that the Climate Change scam is also a pagan religion. The notion that we puny humans have the power and ability to control the weather is the height of hubris, and again seeks to grant to humans "godlike" powers. But we can't even predict with accuracy two days out, let alone 100 years.

I am only a little way into Davidson's book, but Chalk's report pretty well hits on the high points of his work. It will be again, as it was in the Roman era when God entered the world and died on a cross for our sins, because we couldn't do it ourselves. Gird your loins, Christian warriors. Prepare to do battle not with earthly authorities by with principalities and powers in the spiritual realm. Oh, and go read Chalk's report.