The True Purpose of Gun Control Laws

 We have two articles to highlight today on the subject of the failed Minnesota gun ban. The first comes from Mike McDaniel at the American Thinker entitled Minnesota fails to ban (assault weapons (sic)). McDaniel points out that:

...Suffice it to say, no government that disarmed its people ever did so for altruistic and benevolent reasons. Just ask the Iranians or Cubans.

McDaniel starts off his post with:

There are several blue states that have extinguished themselves by going full Communist/Islamist. Never go full Communist/Islamist. The big three are California, Illinois and New York, but Minnesota, under soon to be ex-governor Tampon Tim Walz, is vying for the number one spot in that pantheon of lunatic anti-Americanism.

The Minnesota Senate is barely in the hands of Democrats while the House is evenly split, with the Speaker of the House a Republican largely due to Democrats getting caught cheating in the 2024 election. As with the big three and every other blue state, there are certain articles of faith. Arguably the most important among them is that Normal Americans—largely but not exclusively Republicans—must be disarmed, not only within their Communist/Islamist states, but everywhere. They understand that unless and until they can disarm Normal Americans, their utopian state, a tyranny of the majority, can never be realized.

That is what all the fuss is about. The so-called "Democrats" don't care about criminals with guns, or they wouldn't routinely let them out to rob and murder again. No, what they care about is YOU, the law-abiding gun owner. You scare them because they want, indeed they can almost taste it, complete power over you and how you live. It has been tried and failed before, most notably in the old Soviet Union. There the "citizens" were told where to work, where to live, what they could buy right down to what foods they could buy. Anyone who understands human nature knows this kind of control will fail.

A similar article, though more passionate, is After Failing to Pass a Radical Gun Control Bill, a Minnesota Democrat Responded With Violence at Townhall.com by Amy Curtis. Curtis points out that no matter how many gun control bills are already on the books, Democrats believe that one more will magically make us safer. But the fact that Democrat prosecutors and judges seem not to throw the book at felons in possession, even they don't believe it. This makes you wonder what these Democrats really want.

Democrats will never cease in their efforts to strip us of our Second Amendment rights. Any time there is a mass shooting, they trip over themselves to get in front of a microphone to demand more gun control laws. It doesn't matter that there are countless gun control laws on the books already — laws Democrats refuse to enforce — they insist more gun laws will magically make us 'safer.'

The reality is they won't. Last month, former Virginia Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax killed his estranged wife and himself in a murder-suicide. Fairfax was a proponent of gun control, including red flag laws that weren't followed as Fairfax's marriage fell apart and reports of increased drinking were apparently known. In Massachusetts, Judge Janet Sanders gave Boston career criminal Tyler Brown only five years after Brown — a man with a 20-year history of crimes, including firearms charges — tried to shoot two Boston police officers. Sanders admitted she was 'taking a risk' on Brown because law enforcement told her he was dangerous. Last week, Brown used a rifle to open fire on a Massachusetts road, critically wounding two commuters. And in Fairfax County, VA, Prosecutor Steve Descano released illegal alien Marvin Morales Ortez, dropping gun charges against him.

This reality doesn't matter to Democrats, because their goal is to take guns away not from criminals, but from law-abiding citizens. And when they don't get their way, they get nasty and violent, as Minnesota State Rep. Aisha Gomez did after a radical gun control bill failed to pass.

...snip...

Democrats accuse gun owners and Republicans of fomenting gun violence, but the reality is far different. At the drop of a hat, Democrats are willing to engage in violence when they do not get their way politically. Their accusations are really confessions, as Gomez once again demonstrated here. They know their Republican opponents are not violent; they wouldn't say such abhorrent things if we were.

Please go and read both articles. Understand that they could care less about the criminal element. The real target of these gun control laws is the law-abiding citizen.

Worshipping the Creation Instead of the Creator

 J.B. Shurk, over at the American Thinker yesterday had an article that gentled readers should read entitled Leftism: A Religious Cult for Psychopaths and Crazies. In it, Shurk describes the many ways the Left seeks to indoctrinate you, including finally murdering you if you still don't believe. In that, it is not unlike Islam, so it makes sense that the two "religions" have temporarily sought common cause against Christianity.

The efforts in Wales to indoctrinate toddlers to become little racists is despicable enough. But the proposal in Denmark to deny old folks in state run nursing homes meat should be thought of as genocide. The "crime" the elderly did? Why they destroyed the climate, of course. No wonder St. Greta Thunberg thinks the world will end in 12 years.

In its essence, leftist-globalism is a psychopathic religion. It cannot countenance argument or dissent. Everyone must be forced to believe in the exact same things. In Wales, leftist-globalists indoctrinate toddlers to fear “white supremacy” and to love Islam, “multiculturalism,” and “diversity.” In Denmark, leftist-globalists indoctrinate citizens to fear “climate change” and to hate older citizens for their “climate crimes.”

These are cult-like conditioning programs meant to trap human minds in a permanent state of suicidal self-delusion. Instead of “drinking the Kool-Aid,” toddlers are given daily diets of everything is racist! Instead of cutting out the hearts of human sacrifices to appease certain Aztec gods, today’s leftist-globalists sacrifice people over a certain age by denying them meat. It’s crazy, irrational dogma used to indoctrinate people from cradle to grave. Neither Jim Jones nor Aztec priests, however, are leading this lunacy. Instead, leftist-globalist governments are spreading this madness.

Now, the God of the Bible unlike Islam's god, or these crazy people's god, calls everyone to Him. But he leaves the choice to you. You can accept Him or reject Him. Those who actively reject the invitation, He lets them go their own way, now and in the afterlife. Hell, you see is not a prison designed to torture people. It is being as far from God as that person wants to be. The gates of heaven are always open, the gates of hell are locked from the inside.

Go read Shurk's article highlighted above and see if it makes sense to you as well.

Count Me Among Those Who are Fed Up

Mike McDaniel had a post yesterday at the American Thinker entitled When it comes to leftists and law-abiding gun owners, they really hate us. McDaniel starts out with a typical leftist approach:

After any notorious shooting, anti-liberty/gun cracktivists inevitably—after demanding: “what will it take before we do something about gun violence?”—call for a “national conversation about gun violence.” When Normal Americans reply, “OK, let’s talk,” they scream, “shut up, you racist, red neck, domestic terrorists!” Every. Single. Time.

I have encountered these "let's have a national conversation" types. My response, because I have around so long has been: "We have already had that conversation. You lost." They are not going to change my mind now, after all I have seen and heard, and I am certainly not going to change theirs. Second of all, as McDaniel points out, there is no such thing as "gun violence." Guns are tools, relatively simple inanimate objects. People are the once who commit violence, and that violence depends on whether they are assaulting innocent people, or they are defending themselves from such an assault. Guns may be used in both cases, but one of them is justified, the other is not.

It’s like Lucy pulling the football away from poor Charlie Brown. Normal, honest Americans are willing to talk with just about anybody about just about anything, even though they know there’s no such thing as “gun violence.” People commit violence, not inanimate objects. Guns are nothing more than tools that propel projectiles. They have no consciousness, no emotions, no malice. They are neither good nor evil, and they’re only one of many tools capable of being used by human beings to harm other human beings, tools like motor vehicles, which in the warped sense that guns are responsible for violence, are responsible for far more deaths and injuries than guns.

Normal Americans are the people who built, build, and maintain America. They’re not the people who are protesting law enforcement in particular and our representative, constitutional republic in general. Recognizing “our democracy” is a tyranny of the majority, they support the rule of law by voting and politely telling their representatives when they’re displeased.

Yes, I think our Constitutional, representative republic was inspired. But knowing that men are not angels I keep an eye on it. The right to keep and bear arms keeps the government from taking all of my other rights. I certainly believe that those who have rigged our elections need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And we need to go back to watermarked paper ballots and holding elections on one day. But I depend on the corrective power of the Constitutional representative republic to fix it.

True, many Normal Americans, knowing all that, are fed up. Many won’t bother to have a “conversation” that will produce little more than angry, spittle-slinging rage, obscenities and insults. Still, some will try in the hope that logic, reason, objective facts and the lessons of history might somehow prevail, that those foundations of western civilization might somehow reach those likely too far gone on the path to a communist utopia might pause, think and embrace sanity.

So sure, they’ll have that conversation, because they’re decent people and they’re willing to be pleasantly surprised. But they’re not willing to bargain away the Constitution or the rule of law to people who want them dead.

Count me among those who are fed up. I have had the conversation with many people, and at my age don't need to have another "angry, spittle-slinging" conversation filled with "rage, obscentities and insults." But if McDaniel is willing to put up with it, more power to him.

Beware Those Escaping from Socialist Hell Holes

 A reminder from David Codrea at Ammoland that Democrats Fleeing 'Socialism' Bringing Anti-gun Politics With Them. I had experience of this years ago when we first moved from Virginia to North Carolina. We had a house warming party and invited all the neighbors. One neighbor, who owned a working farm used a shot gun to kill a fox who was harassing his cattle. Note that the farm was more than 5 acres, and shot guns have limited range. One woman thought the police should stop him. I personally thought if the woman didn't like our neighbor shooting at foxes, she should have not moved there.

The same phenomenon happened when people started moving out along the route between Washington, DC and Dulles Airport. The airport was there first, by many years. Still, the newcomers demanded that the airport change its routes and times so they could sleep at night. It is the same thing that happens when enough Muslims come into an area. They demand the laws change to Sharia.

Codrea writes:

Who thinks an influx of hypocritical Democrats into these states, voters who don’t want to personally “pay their fair share” (their terminology, not mine) for the type of government they demand, will work out well for gun owners?

We’ve seen what happened in Colorado. We can see what’s happening all over the country in an analysis by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, which blindly opines:

“Texas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee were the biggest net winners from interstate migration, while California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, and Massachusetts were the biggest net losers.”

Codrea concludes with a passage from the Bible about the two sons of Isaac, Jacob and Esau:

It’s all reminiscent of the story of Esau, who traded his birthright for a mess of pottage. And what’s not being factored in by these migrating Democrats is when their new nests become as fouled as the ones they abandoned, there will be no safe haven to fly to.

If your only value is short-term financial gains, they may have a point. But long-term losses from increasingly strident collectivist demands – not just on incomes but on essential freedoms like the right of the people to keep and bear arms – are predictable.

I frankly do not know what is to be done about it. Living in NC, I have encountered New Yorkers who both are conservative and love guns, and those who are here to escape taxes, but want to impose those same taxes on us, and oh by the way, want to get rid of guns. Perhaps they should take classes on what it means to be a citizen before they can vote?

Bill Wilson and Ken Hackathorn Talk About the 9mm Luger

 Today I wanted to highlight a Youtube video on the Wilson Combat channel in which Bill Wilson and Ken Hackathorn discuss why they now shoot mostly 9mm instead of .45 Auto. You can find the video at .45 ACP vs 9mm - Gun Guys Ep. 08. Wilson is the founder and owner of Wilson Combat, a maker of high end M1911 style pistols. The Wilson CQB (for Close Quarters Battle) features in Kurt Schlicter's People's Republic series. Ken Hackathorn is known as "Mr. 45" in the gun community.

I have been following both men for many years as they competed in matches and especially as Wilson built his business. Both are getting up there in years. Both now mostly shoot M1911 style pistols in 9mm and the reasons are old age. Hackathorn in particular has arthritis in his hands and can take only so much abuse. Wilson doesn't have arthritis but likes the gentler recoil of the 9mm in a steel framed weapon. And, honestly, the higher round count of the 9mm, and the advent of hollow point bullets means there isn't a lot of difference between the two rounds most of the time. You would not feel under gunned with 9mm.

I too am getting old, and while I can still shoot a .45 Auto M1911 pistol, I now prefer the .38 Super Auto in an M1911 pistol. .38 Super loads a 9mm bullet into a somewhat larger casing but propels the bullet at similar velocity. When the .38 Super was developed, the 9mm Luger was a rather anemic round, so that at that time .38 Super was the most powerful handgun cartridge and remained so until the .357 Magnum came along. Also, the .38 Super is historically correct for the M1911 pistol, having been developed with that pistol in mind.

Gentle readers can rest their eyes, and listen as two old shooters talk about their now favorite round.

A sad story indeed

I may have mentioned that music is evidence for the existence of God. There is no evolutionary purpose behind music. It is simply for our pleasure and enjoyment. Does this prove that God created the universe and us? No, but it is an intriguing idea. Furthermore, if music is evidence of God the Creator, then it makes sense that Muslims would hate music. And sure enough... I have also stated that Muslims worship the Devil. So, it makes sense that they also try to destroy everything that God builds.

So, it is interesting that reports indicate that in Germany, music classes are being cancelled in schools, supposedly because for Muslim students it is forbidden. You can read about it at the American Thinker entitled Is the music finally over in Germany? by Eric Utter.

It is especially grievious to me because so many great great composers were German. I realize that the modern state of Germany is a recent invention, but the whole area from Prussia to Austria spoke a common language.

Germany produced far more than its share of great composers: Bach, Handel, Telemann, Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Strauss, Wagner, and the list goes on. (Not to mention Engelbert Humperdinck or Nena!) To see its rapid cultural degradation and loss of identity is honestly heartbreaking, even from the perspective of a nation that twice defeated it in war.

Martin Luther was also German and a composer of "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," a truly rousing hymn.

Sunday Reflections

 I graduated with a degree in civil engineering, and minors in mathematics and (believe it or not) English and American literature.  Note that having studied English and American literature does not make me a better writer. (sigh!)  In any case, philosophy was not on the menu, as courses in math and science, and how to apply them to a civil engineer's work took up all my time.  It is something I regretted until, talking with my pastor, who graduated from Yale with a philosophy degree.  He noted that philosophy was pretty much hogwash.  He didn't use that term but indicated that the study of philosophy was without value for God does not operate as man would expect, but out of His gracious love.

Now, in studying Marx's Communist Manifesto, I had to study a bit of Hegel.  His explanations of things did not particularly impress me, and he was...how do I put this...loquacious.  I had also read short passages from Nietzsche, but again I had to wonder what he was on about.  In other words, I no longer regret my lack of a philosophic background, for philosophy just puts others ideas into your head. The world would be a better place without a Neitzche or a Hegel.

Today, at the American Thinker Arthur Schaper has an article entitled Leaving Keirkegaard in which he points out that while many people read and were influensed by Keirkegaard's writings, the author discovered that the true light of the world is not philosophy, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Keirkegaard its seems is another philosophy the world could do without.

I am writing about the wily Dane, Soren Kierkegaard.

My senior year in high school, I came across his writings in the local library. His last name alone was hard to ignore. From there, I read his signature treatise on faith and the sacrificial account of Abraham and Isaac, Fear and Trembling. The poetic depth of his passages on the role of the poet and the beautiful courage of Father Abraham brought tears to my eyes. I admired The Knight of Faith, desiring to live a life filled with peace and purpose, in which everything has meaning and encounters nothing but wonder in an otherwise plain world.

Kierkegaard’s other work, The Sickness Unto Death, captivated me, as well. His first paragraph (“Man is spirit. But what is spirit? Spirit is the self? But what is the self? … “) made me laugh out loud. His cryptic syntax served as a necessary jab and tonic to the prolix Hegelian universalism swamping European colleges and discussion halls at the time. The titles of his books were quite gruesome, and his voluminous readings on the topics were profound in every sense. Kierkegaard intended for his writings to be difficult because he was engaging in parody but also stripping away the self-righteousness of a smug world determined to prove its own smarts.

Schaper writes that at the time he encountered Kirkegaard's writings, he too was taken in by the clever prose and the turns of phrase, the humor and the pathos. But eventually he discovered that:

The hardships we face cannot be overcome by philosophical texts. Who can overcome the sorrows and struggles of life with lots of thinking? There are bills to pay, people to see, challenges to deal with, hardships to overcome, and victories to enjoy. All of the abuses and traumas that I had suffered as a child could not be resolved by reading philosophy.

Furthermore, faith in falsehood cannot save, no matter how earnest the faith. Truth matters, and truth is not something that we come up with or is something merely grounded in our personal experience. In one of his most massive texts, The Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Kierkegaard writes: “Truth is subjectivity."

No, it isn’t. If you jump into a pool, thinking it’s ten feet deep but actually only three feet deep, you will crack your head on the concrete. If you are dying of thirst in the desert, and you spy an oasis, only to find more sand, you will die. Kierkegaard’s determination to turn inwardness into certainty is not only wrong but dangerous. He minimized biblical revelation in other ways. In The Book on Adler, Kierkegaard argued that God doesn’t speak anymore. Yet the New Testament is replete with accounts of the Holy Spirit directing man to do God’s will.

In my youth what philosopy I read often seemed obscure, and deliberately so. The writer wanted us to think he was smarter than the reader. My feelings here have only hardened. It was obscure because the author wanted to cover over the basic falsehoods in his thinking. Here is where Schaper turns to the Truth, which can only be found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ:

Kierkegaard’s miserly misunderstandings of Christianity ignored the fullness of the sacrifice that Christ Jesus accomplished on the Cross, and one can see the serious problems people will run into when they take someone like Kierkegaard seriously. If Nietzsche’s philosophy was consolation for those who were no good at living, then Kierkegaard’s philosophy is a comfort measure for Christians who don’t understand the Gospel.

Christian faith is not subjective. It’s not about our feelings, but it’s based on the accomplished fact and the eternal efficacy of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Where Kierkegaard talked about Jesus as an example, the Gospel proclaims Him as the Savior whom we receive. Only then do we follow him, only then do we learn to love others, and only because we learn that He first loved us.

As I matured, I found Kierkegaard unappealing and unrewarding. Kierkegaard believed in a law-centered, man-centered Christianity, one where man has to try harder in his own efforts, where there is never a sense of peace and rest. Very little time did he spend expounding on the wonders and grace of God, the Finished Work of Jesus Christ, and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

There is nothing more to say