Bloomberg Wants To Take Away Your Guns

Former Mayor of New York and media mogul Michael Bloomberg has been pouring millions of his own funds into a bid for the Presidency on the Democrat ticket.  When he ran for Mayor, it was as a Republican.  Now he has switch parties again, so I think the only "principle" he upholds is that Michael Bloomberg should be King.

Bloomberg is also the funder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense and Everytown For Gun Safety. As such, he has made taking away America's guns the centerpiece of his candidacy. At the New American, Joe Wolverton II, J.D. has written a piece entitled Candidate Bloomberg Says He Wants To Take Away Americans' Guns:

In response to a question about Jack Wilson, the man in the congregation of the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas, who shot and killed an armed assailant who threatened the lives of over 200 congregants, Bloomberg said: “It’s the job of law enforcement to have guns and decide when to shoot. We just do not want the average citizen carrying a gun in a crowded place.”

I have seen no one address this issue yet, so I will take the opportunity to do so. It is not the job of law enforcement to have guns and decide when to shoot. The Supreme Court, no less, has reiterated that it is not the job of law enforcement to protect you, or me, individually. In a piece at the Washington Pest...er...I mean Post here, the post makes the point that:

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police did not have a constitutional duty to protect a person from harm. That ruling overturned a federal appeals court in Colorado that allowed a lawsuit to stand against a town when its police refused to protect a woman from her husband. He had violated a restraining order and kidnapped their children, whom he killed, the New York Times reported.

Despite what Bloomberg and many other gun grabbers say, you and I are still responsible for our own defense against criminals and, well, against politicians. That some places, like New York City deny people the opportunity to use the most effect means to defend themselves means that the governments of such places are literally committing crimes against their people.

The fact that Bloomberg goes about with armed security, while denying to people who can not afford such armed security the chance to defend themselves makes him a hypocrite and a control freak.  Just the sort we want for a president.

"Blackface" Northam's Name Will Live In Infamy

Kurt Schlichter has some tough love for the rascals who voted for Democrats in state and local elections this last year.  He tells it like it is in a piece at Townhall.com entitled Newly-Elected Democrats Let Their Mask Slip, Revealing The Fascists Beneath:

Since the 2018 elections, we have seen a lot of stupid people electing Democrats in state and local elections, and since the garbage Democrats have the garbage Midas touch – everything they come in contact with turns to a Scat Francisco sidewalk – these dumb voters are now suffering the consequences of their misguided trust in these aspiring authoritarians. Democrats win when rich donors pump money into races behind candidates who pretend not to be the gimps of the hard-left cabal that actually runs the party. And the radicals who got elected pretending to be not-insane are getting into office and doing all the insane stuff we warned the voters they would do.

There are no “moderate” Democrats. All Democrats are dangerous to your life, prosperity and freedom. They prefer churchgoers die rather than be able to defend themselves. They want newly-prosperous frackers to learn to code. They want you jailed for denying the climate cult or the fact that there are men and there are women and there is nothing else.

What he has to say about Virginia's new Democratic regime is excellent as well:

In Virginia, the state is about to declare war on normal people for the crime of exercising their Second Amendment rights. Remember, this is the state where the Democrat governor (the old one, not the one who put on blackface) restored the voting rights of thousands of convicted criminals. Now Governor Jolson wants to make hundreds of thousands of Virginians, none of whom were committing a crime – and who, in most other states would not be committing a crime – into felons.

Tell me again how Democrats don’t hate you.

Now, most people did not vote to start a war on Virginia’s own citizens. And war it is – a Democrat suggested unleashing the National Guard on citizens who refuse to submit to serfdom. But the people will not comply – almost a hundred counties and cities have declared themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries. But the radical Democrats will not stop. They will push this to the wall. Honest citizens will get arrested. People may get killed. But that’s OK with the Democrats. They have to crush this outpouring of dissent. And they don’t care about the cost.

Schlichter is not wrong in his assessment of Governor "Blackface" Northam. To get his Democrat majority in the House and Senate, he made a deal with Bloomberg, he who funds Every Town for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action, and he means to carry it out. Today the Virginia Citizens Defense League put out a call to action for people to attend state budget hearings at their nearest locations. The hearings are to put in place funds designed to enforce planned future gun confiscation laws. Northam has clearly looked to New York and Connecticut and has seen that citizens for the most part did not comply. After all, such a law is unconstitutional, therefore null and void. One should not comply with it. But Northam figures to have none of that.

If Virginia lives up to its motto, Sic Semper Tyrannis, Thus Always To Tyrants, "Blackface" Northam's name will live in infamy. He will become a cautionary tale.  Let us pray that he does.

As always, please read the linked articles.  If you are in Virginia, please take action today.  The life you save may be your own.

The Lying Left

Happy New Year to all my readers!  May you all have a happy and prosperous New Year.  May you all have fair winds and following seas in the New Year.

I am amazed sometimes when looking at Google Analytics data, at how far flung readers are.  There are usually readers in Russia, the UK, Canada, and the occasional readers from France, Belgium, and even China.  This proves to me that the yearning for the freedoms we have in the United States, if not universal, is at least wide spread.

Today, I want to highlight a piece by Chrissy Clark at The Federalist entitled Gun Control Activist Promotes False Data To Uphold Anti - Gun Propaganda. Clark is talking about Shannon Watts of the Bloomberg funded group Moms Demand Action. Watts claims that " 3,500+ Texans are killed by guns every year: a life lost every 3 hours." As Clark points out, there are many problems with that statement. The first, not mentioned by Clark, is that guns don't kill people, they are rather tools used by people to sometimes kill others. But Clark also points to statistics by the CDC, a Federal agency, that support the notion that Texas ranks 27th in terms of homicide using a gun.  That puts Texas right in the middle of the 50 states.

Clark also writes:

This narrative and messaging is completely on brand with Democrats and the mainstream media. They ignore the big picture and put a laser focus on the issues they wish to highlight, no matter how out of context these issues may be.

So, to put “firearm-related injuries” into context, let’s compare Watts’s alleged mass killings statistic to the amount of unborn babies murdered in the womb in Texas in 2017.

According to Abort73, the Guttmacher Institute, and the CDC, in 2017 there were 53,277 abortions performed in the state of Texas. If Watts’s data was not aggregated and 3,513 Texans were actually killed by gunmen alone in 2017, that would still be nearly 50,000 less deaths by guns than abortion.

This perfectly encapsulates how Democrats and the mainstream media work overtime to ignore the actual causes of deaths and point their focus on an issue they want to discuss, such as gun control. The truth is, Watts’s data is only being used to promote an agenda, not the truth about how people are dying in the United States.

The last paragraph perfectly encapsulates the issue of the Democrats. They want power. Just look at Elizabeth Warren and the details of the number of ways she intends, if elected, to intrude on the lives of everyday Americans. She is I suspect, quite insane, but do you think she could impose these things if the citizenry were properly armed? Our Founders would already be shooting, and would be using fully automatic M16s, not puny AR-15s.

I do not doubt that Shannon Watts is a tool, used by politicians as a beard while they whittle away our Second Amendment rights. But make no mistake that it is a deliberate attempt to ensure their own safety when they finally are able to grab power and hold it.  Democrats, (and some Republicans too) have no love for our Republic, our Constitution, and frankly, they do not care about you either.

"Si vis pacem, para bellum." If you want peace, prepare for war. —Roman proverb

Paul Dowling has some news for Jews who believe that they should not own guns.  First, their own history should tell them that they need guns for self defense.  If you don't believe it, just go visit the website of the Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership. As a Christian, I view the Jewish people fondly, because if they had not been there, Christ would not have come into the World, and God's plan for salvation would not be possible. But I do not agree with the pacifist strain that runs through both Judaism and Christianity because it goes against God's word:

"You shall not murder." —Exodus 20:13

The above commandment does not prohibit the righteous taking of a human life, only the immoral taking of a human life. Properly translated, this negative commandment reads, "You shall not murder." The positive corollary of this commandment would go something like this: "You shall use deadly force, if necessary, to protect innocent life." Thus, all righteous citizens in a republic, to the greatest extent possible and appropriate, should possess the proper means by which to fulfill their shared obligation to defend the lives of their loved ones and fellow citizens.

"If a burglar be found breaking in, and be struck dead, it is not murder." —Exodus 22:2

Jewish law has always required the active defense of every innocent life. According to God's commandment, in Exodus 22:2, a thief should be proactively attacked, to defend against the deadly threat he poses. If the thief were to die of his wounds, the defender's blood is not to be shed as a penalty for having justifiably taken the life of a criminal. A person who is capable of defending the innocent but chooses not to do so is guilty of a tremendous wrongdoing. Also, he who actively enables the deaths of others, by supporting government-sponsored victim-disarmament (AKA "gun control"), has blood on his hands — the blood of those wrongly murdered, with no chance of rightfully defending themselves against their criminal aggressors, be those assailants lone outlaws or state actors.

Of course, Dowling is here writing about the Hanukah attack in Monesy, NY, in which 5 people were stabbed during a Hanukah party at a Rabbi's home. Why was there no armed security, as there was at the Christian church in Texas?  The Bible contains truth for all people at all times.  Human nature has not changed since man first walked the Earth, and hence, the 10 Commandments remain as operative today as they were when first written down.  That you shall not murder also means that you shall do all in your power to protect and defend your neighbor.  These laws were given to the people of Israel first, but too many ignore it.  They do so at their own peril.

I have noted before that I consider the Constitution to have been divinely inspired, though not itself Holy Scripture, but rather deriving from Scripture by men who had studied and believed the teachings of the Bible.  The Second Amendment was placed there for multiple reasons.  The first was as a way to avoid a standing army, allowing the central government to call up the militia in time of invasion.  The second purpose was to place power in the people to avoid tyranny.  The third was to allow everyone to act in time of personal attack.

Also, please note that the presence of police does not guarantee your individual security.  The police are agents of the government, and are there to carry out the will of those in charge of the government.  Not to put too fine a point on it here, but the police are there to draw chalk outlines, investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice...if those in charge so choose.  Justice in this world is an iffy thing.

Our rights were granted by God to all people.  But there are those desirous of power over others who would deny our rights.  As our rights defend us, so we must defend our rights.  Si vis pacem, para bellum.

After thought:  Jesus said that those who live by the sword would die by it.  It is, of course, true.  But owning a gun is not "living by the gun."  Living by the gun would be holding up others at gun point for their goods.  Islam, notoriously, allows jihadis to profit in such fashion from its religious warfare.  That is living by the sword. Owning a gun, and having it ready to use in defense of your life does not .. 

Our Cause Is Noble And Just

Perhaps you have not heard yet that, with its new Leftist takeover of the Commonwealth legislature, as well as its Leftist Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General, Virginia plans to outlaw an untold number of guns, magazines, and who knows what else. So far, 95% of Virginia counties, and many cities as well have passed resolutions vowing to resist the proposed laws. Attorney General Herring has declared these "Second Amendment Sanctuaries" to not be legal. On the other hand, the Leftists themselves seem to think that illegal immigrant sanctuaries are just the bomb. So, consistency is not their strong suit.

David Lanza at the American Thinker has advise for gun owners in Virginia. He says to Document The Virginia Crackdown using the 1968 Soviet crackdown of Czechoslovakia.

If you want the real story to reach America and the world, you must film it and spread the story yourself. Do not rely on social media, smartphones, or other internet-based communication — just in case the stories about internet censorship turn out to be true.

For an example of the best response, we should look to Prague, 1968. The Soviet crackdown at that time involved tanks rumbling through the streets of many Czechoslovakian cities. The Czech citizen response is a model for at least a short-term response among the people of Virginia now. When the Soviet tanks made their first appearance on August 21, 1968, the head of a Prague film school immediately gathered his students and distributed cameras and film. He told the students that he did not know why there were tanks on the streets and that they might even be witnessing the beginning of World War III. But he instructed them to take as many pictures and movies as they could and see to it that the film got out of the country to the rest of the world.

While your at it though, you don't need merely to get the images out of Virginia, but you also need to arrange for having access to secure internet services and have relations with organizations that will show the public your film. As Lanza points out, the MSM will attempt to bury the evidence.

Meanwhile,  Scott Morefield points out that the Leftists will ban a number of weapons that are at the moment legal to own and that it is clearly unconstitutional to ban.  But, since the Supreme Court has not pronounced on these types of weapons, Leftists have a fig leaf of cover for their clearly unconstitutional actions.

Which brings up the murky part, because if the history of such laws in Connecticut, New Zealand and elsewhere are any indication, the likelihood of a majority of Virginia gun owners complying with these new laws is next to nil. So, when the peasants inevitably refuse to prostrate themselves before their new masters, will the state government push some kind of confrontation with local authorities who refuse to help? Will they ask the Trump administration for assistance? Or will they simply ride things out, using state agents to prosecute cases as they arise, knowing full well there are thousands of “outlaws” out there just waiting to be caught.

I suspect, for all their bluster, Democrats will settle for the long game. Get the laws on the books. Get people used to them. Then, pick off the dissenters one by one. It’s the path of least resistance, and having the laws on the books is half the battle for these jackals. After all, selective “justice” has always been part of the Bolshevik playbook.

In response, Second Amendment proponents in Virginia should play the long game too. They may not be able to stop the laws from getting on the books, but they should most certainly challenge each new law as unconstitutional by any state or federal constitutional measure. They should also use this issue as a springboard to continue to organize and defeat leftists in every remotely swing district. And yes, local authorities should absolutely refuse to help them enforce their ridiculous laws.

We here at Standing By will be watching Virginia closely, while continuing to take actions to try to keep Leftists out of power here in NC. Wherever Democrats (read Communist/Socialist/Fascists/Progressives) gain power, they go after guns. They always claim, of course, that this is for safety, to combat crime, and reduce what is called "gun violence." But this is an excuse ginned up to explain their hatred of you and your guns. The REAL reason is that the Left wants total control over you and how you live your life. You will note that it is not merely guns. They want to dictate your religion, your food choices, your mode of transportation and everything else.  Then there are the promises of free stuff paid for by others: promises that never seem to come true, but which always seem to attract some envious and greedy voters. 

Our cause is not, as some may say, a "hobby."  Our cause is freedom and liberty.  Our cause is the cause of the Founders, of Constitutional government, of keeping our Rights and expressed in the Bill of Rights, and of equal treatment under the law.  Our cause is noble and just.

School Resource Officer Pawns Firearm, Brings Pellet Gun To Work

This is why we all need understand that we can not depend on others to defend either ourselves or our loved ones. Hat tip to Dave Hardy at the blog Of Arms And The Law

Lift Up Your Voices Unto The Lord

As is usual, there are about a hundred things that need discussing, but I have limited time. For example, it is estimated that when the census is over that a number of states that voted for Trump in 2016 will have one of more fewer seats in Congress. California on the other hand, alone is expected to gain 11 seats. North Carolina will lose one. Thanks to Eric Holder, George Soros, and the "sue them till their blue" strategy, we in NC can count on that one seat being a Republican seat. All this is because of the courts (?) making the decision to count illegals in the census. Then there are the new gun confiscation bills being proposed in Virginia. But that too has much to do with Holder, Soros, and illegal immigrants. Yes, I pay attention, but can only comment on a limited stream of the many that cross my desk.

This week, being Christmas week, let us instead turn our attention to faith. Many things that people generally think we know with absolute certainty, we actually do not know. For example, the so called "law" of gravity is really a theory that has not been disproven...yet. But the fact that some theory may come along to disprove what we think we know about gravity means that it can not be known absolutely. So what does that mean? It means that we all live by faith in something. Such then is the article by Jack Kerwich today at Townhall.com entitled Absolute Certainty and Faith: The Proof for God's Existence - And His Nature.

(1)Terms like “absolute certainty” and “faith” possess some measure of elasticity. There’s a sense in which, arguably, there is nothing of which we can be absolutely certain. The world that we take for granted, or what philosophers have called “waking reality,” could be a dream, a video game, or a matrix.

...snip...

(2) “Faith” is not, as many seem to think, tantamount to irrationality. It does not require a “blind leap.” Neither the Bible nor the Church for much of its history viewed faith as anything other than a source of knowledge by which reason is at once supplemented and perfected. For that matter, Judaism and Islam as well largely shared this vantage.

Faith encompasses trust and hope. As such, faith is and can only be a virtue peculiar to a personal, or an inter-personal, relationship. Faith is always faith in a person.

To repeat, however fashionable it may be, all contemporary talk of placing faith in, say, the universe isn’t universally recognized as the patent nonsense that it is only because it has the effect of imbuing the universe with the qualities of a person.

I come across people all the time who do not themselves have any training in technology, or science. Yet they insist on telling me that my faith means that I can not possibly someone who understands science. Of course, these people do not even understand the fundamental principles of science. But if you believe that a rational God created the universe for us, then you must also believe that He gave us the powers of reason so that we could discover His great creation. Faith is what propellers Christians to confidently use what science tells us is true to apply scientific knowledge to practical problems-the very definition of engineering, by the way.

But faith also tells us that we Christians will be persecuted and hated in this world for our faith. At The Federalist today, Nathaniel Blake has an article entitled Liberal Order That Seeks To Shut Down Christian Charities Does't Deserve To Survive. In that article he notes that the LGBTQxyz mob is increasingly using government to persecute Christian charities and churches in the U. S.:

This should not surprise us. Jesus promised that the powers of this world would hate his followers, not that they would love us if we were virtuous. While we Christians should always strive to be more like Christ, we should not succumb to a quasi-Pelagianism that presumes our winsomeness determines how others receive the gospel. Christ himself was crucified, and the grace and charity many martyrs exemplified did not save them from persecution unto death.

But that we should expect trouble in this world does not mean we should be disinterested regarding politics, nor does it excuse governments that oppose the church and oppress its people.  That our nation seems to be starting down this path has intensified Christian reconsiderations of liberal political theory. Although our government ostensibly protects the freedoms of religion, association, and speech, procedural liberalism increasingly appears insufficient to protect our rights or to ensure a culture of tolerance and pluralism that includes Christians who maintain the traditional teachings of our faith.

As Christians, we need to recognize that we are fighting against the evil one, and things will only get worse. We can not succumb to hardening our hearts, but at the same time, we must be "be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves." And while we still can, we need to lift up our voices.