THE TOP 5 GUN CONTROL GRAPHS: The Gun-Grabbers' Failed Policies Are Exposed by Their Own Data!

The very statistics and reports that the gun control crowd selectively market prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that "gun control" increases violence.

5. Violent crime rates tracked by "Right-to-Carry" (RTC) States vs. non-RTC. RTC states are significantly safer:

HOBBY LOBBY COUPONS: Show Your Support for the First Amendment

Michelle Malkin, among others, is encouraging Americans to support Hobby Lobby in its fight against Obamacare's unconstitutional abrogation of the First Amendment (see "Hobby Lobby Won't Violate Faith over Abortion Drugs").

It's going to be a long, expensive fight against Obamacare, and the company can use your help.

If you'd like to show your support with your pocket book, visit Hobby Lobby's coupon page for online and in-store deals.


Hat tip: BB.

Arab Money and the Purchase of a President

Guest post by John A. Shaw

In the run-up to the 2012 election, a story surfaced about an Iraqi billionaire who managed to buy access to Washington policy makers while funding a Chicago Pay-to-Play scheme that helped produce a Governor, a U.S. Senator, and, ultimately, a President of the United States.

The story was eight years in the making, yet despite the extent of his political influence, this Iraqi’s name remains largely unknown. He wants it that way. In fact, he has spent a significant sum attempting to hinder the reporting of his activities by the news media. The lack of attention paid to him, however, is inversely proportional to his level of importance.

His name is Nadhmi Auchi.

Auchi is now a British citizen. He bought respectability in Britain and in Europe through both donations to charities and self-serving gifts to politicians.

He was once Saddam Hussein’s arms merchant. He morphed into Saddam’s main financial operative in Europe. Today, he is one of the richest men in the world, and has, over the last few decades, been a player in nearly every noteworthy, corrupt, international deal involving Europe and the Middle East.

He was convicted of fraud in a $504 million corruption scandal -- the Elf Aquitaine case – the largest corruption trial in French history.

He was a central figure in one of the largest corruption cases during the Iraqi reconstruction, involving $3 billion dollars.

His U.S. visa was revoked for his alleged facilitation of $30 million in bribes to American and British officials in Iraq.

Auchi was a primary beneficiary of the widely abused and notoriously corrupt U.N. "Oil for Food" program while he was the single, largest stockholder in the merged French megabank BNP Parisbas. The bank was a major conduit for the funds flowing through the U.N. program.

He also reportedly gained access to the White House over the course of four separate administrations, beginning with George H. W. Bush, through the Clinton era and that of Bush 43. And it goes without saying that he was intimately involved with the political career of one Barack H. Obama.

Auchi's Chicago proxy was a man named Tony Rezko, best known for his curious land deal with Obama. At the same time, Auchi staged his worldwide operations out of London. But Chicago was the Alpha and Omega of his empire.

Rezko reportedly used Auchi money to grease political skids and buy access into the shadowy world of the Chicago political machine.

Larwyn's Linx: Confirmed -- "We Can and Will Force Christians to Act Against Their Faith"

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

"We Can and Will Force Christians to Act Against Their Faith": CNS
The Dec. 16th shooting you didn't hear about: Nice Deb
Report: Obama will nominate Hagel for Secretary of Defense: Scoop

‘Gun Control Fails,’ Say Statistics from… Gun-Control Advocates: PJM
Molon Labe: AmmoLand
'Biggest crowd ever for biggest gun show on East Coast': Twitchy

Will Joe Biden Voluntarily Give Up His Shotguns?: RWN
The Fiscal Cliff is a Diversion from the Real Problem: CFP
Next Phase Of The Gun Control Fight....Gun Shows: Ace

Economy

Deal or No Deal?: Power Line
Take a Powder: You Voted for Him: Salamander
Is Obama About to Roll Over the GOP?: Dossier

Obamacare Dead on Arrival, Part I: CDN&V
Unemployment Benefits are Becoming a Dependence Problem: AT
Jihad-Free Holiday Gifts: BadEagle

Scandal Central

Obama 2008: “I Am Not Going To Take Your Guns Away”: GWP
Hillary Too Concussed to Testify About Benghazi, But OK to Fly to Dominican Republic for Vacation: JWF
Obama’s ‘welfare case’ space pioneer buys $17 million mansion: Hoocoodanode?

Climate & Energy

Teens Dump Higher Ed for Brown Jobs: Mead
AR5 Chapter 11; Hiding the Decline (Part II): Watts
EPA Sued Over Heinous Experiments on Humans: NLPC

Media

NY Paper Publishes Names, Addresses of Gun Permit Map-Publishing Journal News Employees: BizzyBlog
N.Y. Newspaper Announces it Will Publish More Names & Addresses of Gun Owners: Blaze
Shusher in chief: Obama gets testy at fiscal cliff presser: Twitchy

500 murders? Chicago sure could use a gun ban! Oh. Wait...: AWD
Aspiring Bolshevik Thom Hartmann Wants US to 'Outlaw Billionaires': NB
Recent shootings shine spotlight on assault rifle: USA Today

NBC DC Anchor: Grisly Crime Scene Photos from Newtown Should Be Public to Further Gun Control: NB
Apparently, laws don’t apply to David Gregory: DC
David Gregory defender Howard Kurtz schooled on DC gun law enforcement: Twitchy

World

First They Came For The Guns…: MagNote
Muslim Brotherhood reaches out to Hezbollah: RS
Comedy Gold: Muslim Brotherhood Leader Tells Jews To Leave Israel, Return to Egypt: JoshuaPundit

"It will make 9/11 look like peanuts": Atlas
Memo For File CLXXVI: RWN
Woman charged with murder as a hate crime in deadly New York subway push: Fox

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Facebook’s High-Stakes Poker Game: Crunch
Windows 8 wrestles with PC's legacy: CNet
Microsoft confirms zero-day bug in IE6, IE7 and IE8: CompWorld

Cornucopia

Fatso the Cat: American Digest
Uno, or not to Uno?: PRS
Obama’s Facebook Page Features ‘Favorite’ Photos of 2012 (Can You Guess How Many Feature Him?): Blaze

Image and sponsored by: Our Rhinestone in the Rough (Ruff?)

QOTD: "Decades hence, our offspring will listen in disbelief when we tell them we used to pay billions of dollars to warehouse children in “gun-free zones” overseen by morons; that 21st-century kids were groomed for 19th-century jobs and came out functionally illiterate but experts nonetheless on the subjects of Kwanzaa, “safe” sex, and something called global warming." --Kathy Shaidle

EXCLUSIVE PHOTO: David Gregory Mocks D.C. Police on Next Week's Meet the Press

Biff Spackle gives us a preview of this week's Meet The Press, where David Gregory plans on demonstrating a .50-cal. Desert Eagle.

Gregory claims that D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department is incompetent and would never prosecute a member of the media.

MARK LEVIN: I'm thinking that perhaps the Democrat Party should rename itself the Fascist Party

History and reason both tell us that the Democrat Party is so completely addicted to power that they are willing to toss our highest law -- the Constitution -- into the sewer at every opportunity.

I'm starting to think the Democrat Party should rename itself the Fascist Party. Its love of an all powerful, centralized government, and contempt for independent, successful individuals, are traits of a fascist mentality. Killing the long-standing Senate filibuster while in the majority, but using it unconstitutionally to block judicial nominations when in the minority, underscores an ends-justifies-the-means treachery.


Power is the obsession, not societal improvement through virtue, prudence, and justice.

In 2009, I created an illustrated definition of the word "fascism". Read it, and weep for our Republic.

PHOTOS: The $17M mansion the founder of an electric car maker bought after getting $465M in federal green energy loans

Let me guess: he's doing it for the children. His children, that is.

Taxpayers footed the bill for a $465 million loan to troubled electric carmaker Tesla as part of President Barack Obama’s “green energy” stimulus. But Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk is now riding high with the purchase of his new $17 million mansion.

Here's a photo of the exterior of Musk's home in Bel Air, a 20,000-square foot palace equipped with wine cellar, tennis court, and pool.

Mr. Musk’s 20,248-square-foot hilltop mansion boasts breathtaking views, a two-story library with rolling ladder, a home theater, and a five-car garage to house his taxpayer-subsidized, pricey Tesla vehicles.

In September, The New York Times reported that Tesla had burned through cash and missed production targets, raising “questions about the long-term viability of the company” and igniting “ criticism of the government’s energy loan program, which has been heavily promoted by the Obama administration..."

Reportedly you can see the ocean from the terrace.

Coincidentally I'm sure, Musk donated over $100,000 to the Obama 2012 campaign.

And Tesla produced a grand total of 359 cars last quarter.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: when the complete history of the Obama administration is written, it will make the Teapot Dome look like a case of shoplifting.

Never have so few stolen so much from so many.


Hat tips: Sad Hill News and Lee.

SHOULD THE U.S. DEFAULT NOW... OR LATER? The only question we should be asking about the debt ceiling

Here's something you probably didn't read in the funny papers: $2.1 trillion has been added to the national debt in the last 16 months alone.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has alerted Congress that the nation will once again hit the debt ceiling on Monday, but that his department can take “extraordinary measures” to keep paying the bills for another few months.

Incredibly, the debt ceiling was raised from $14.294 trillion in August 2011, to its current level of $16.394 trillion. Thus in the span of only sixteen months, the Obama administration has added a whopping $2.1 trillion to the national debt. [Source]

The entire hullabaloo about the "Fiscal Cliff" is a politico- and media-manufactured diversion.

The real discussion we need to have -- but won't -- concerns the "Fiscal Abyss" (in the words of former Comptroller General David Walker) facing our nation.

Raising taxes is like putting a Band-Aid on a severed femoral artery.

DON'T RAISE THE DEBT CEILING

I've thought long and hard about this issue -- and have arrived at what is probably a controversial opinion: Republicans should refuse to raise the debt ceiling without huge spending cuts and entitlement reforms.

Here's a news flash: President Obama wants the country to default. He has layered on so much debt, so fast, that the U.S. simply can't honor its obligations.

And the administration's cascade of regulations (like "Boiler MACT") are explicitly designed to prevent the economy from growing fast enough to help make up the difference.

DEFAULT NOW -- OR DEFAULT LATER?

The real question we should be asking is whether a default now is preferential to a default later.

I believe a default now is by far the best solution for the vast majority of Americans: when the default occurs, it will shock the financial system, rattle markets around the world, and -- in all likelihood -- herald the onset of another Great Depression.

A default several years down the road, however, will be far worse for America:

• The crash will be much larger, and much more catastrophic for the citizenry -- and it will hit seniors and the poor much harder;

• America's manufacturing sector will be less able to recover than it is today, having been downsized by this administration's regulatory onslaught;

• And America's citizens will be even less self-reliant, whether it comes to EBT cards, firearms, family-owned farms, and every other measure of independence;

• The military will be weaker, having been gutted by years of Obama's efforts to defund national defense;

The real question we must ask is this: do we want the economy to crash on Obama's timing -- or ours?

THE NEXT DEBT-CEILING DEBATE

I believe that the House of Representatives should refuse to raise the debt ceiling without immediate and immense cuts and entitlement reforms. Barring, say, a $900 billion reduction in annual spending (removing the Stimulus from the baseline budget, for example), the House should refuse to raise the debt ceiling.

Let the country default.

It is provably better to default now than later.

We know that President Obama wants the country to default. That much is clear with the accompanying chart, which comes to us directly from the White House. He just doesn't want the default to happen quite so soon, before he's had a chance to -- in his words -- "fundamentally transform" America.

So let's default now, before things get immeasurably worse.

Larwyn's Linx: Ban Schools, Not Guns

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Ban Schools, Not Guns: Taki's Magazine
Laws Are For the Little People: Steyn
The Day the War Began: TL in Exile

Feinstein: All Gun Owners Should Be Registered, Fingerprinted: Breitbart
An Open Letter to President Obama on Gun Control: Kuznicki
Feinstein's Gun Control Bill Will Trigger The Next American Revolution: ZH

Obama Flies From Hawaii To Offer Same Craptastic Cliff Deal: RWN
Here's Why Someone Would Need To Own An 'Assault' Rifle: IBD
Dick's Refuses to Honor "Military-Style" Rifle Orders: Blaze

Economy

$1 Trillion Obamacare Tax Hike Hitting on Jan. 1: ATR
The best and worst economic ideas of 2012: Peth
Nation running out of ammo: LI

Obama Orders Pay Raises for Federal Workers: WS
The Obama NLRB’s Christmas Gift To The Unions: LoneCon
‘Fiscal Cliff’ Distracts As ‘Fiscal Abyss’ In Japan, UK and U.S. Cometh: ZH

Scandal Central

Lisa Jackson forced out of EPA: Moe Lane
Remember When the Left Used to Freak Out About News Like This?: Powers
Lt. Col. Ralph Peters: Something is fundamentally wrong with the media in this country: Scoop

Climate & Energy

The 10 Worst Regulations of 2012: Foundry
New Hawaii Senator Who'll Take Many Fossil Fueled Air Trips Pledges To Tackle Hotcoldwetdry: Cove
An open letter challenging the EPA on CO2 regulation: Tucson

Media

The No Santa Clause: MOTUS
Gannett’s Journal News Produces New Maps: iOTW
Chelsea Clinton, Still NBC’s Pretend Journalist: Daily Download

Hard Lines: TL in Exile
Everybody Hates Piers Morgan: RSM
What will be the likely model of american insurrection, if "gun control" doesn't "go well?": Winter Soldier

Steyn: Laws are for little people: Ace
Experts: Trained Police Officers Better Than Armed Guards In Schools: RWN
Jesse Jackson Spews Nonsense Trying To Defend Chicago Gun Ban After 500th Homicide: Bruce

World

FLASHBACK: Kerry Voted Against Gulf War, Proposed Multilateral 'New World Order': Breitbart
Caribou Coffee, Church's Chicken owned by Muslim Brotherhood-linked bank: JihadWatch
Where will Assad go?: Fausta

Hagel Slammed on Sunday Shows: Beacon
Indian Muslim leader: "Remove police for 15 minutes, we will finish off one billion Hindus": JihadWatch
Chinese Hackers Suspected in Cyber Attack on Council on Foreign Relations: Beacon

Yasser Arafat’s widow admits Palestinian terror campaign in 2000 was premeditated: DC
Desert Storm Victor Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf R.I.P.: IBD
Special Report: Inside the West's economic war with Iran: Reuters

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

China Patches a Hole in the Great Firewall: Mead
Congress decides every aspect of your electronic life can be spied on without a warrant...: BoingBoing
CALEA Is Watching YOU!: 90 Miles

Cornucopia

Yellow Toes: iOTW
Can’t Even “Hang On By My Fingernails”: Zilla
There Were Two "Rocket Launchers" Turned in at LA's Gun Buyback Program: AtlWire

Image: iOwnTheWorld
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Shopper, Please Come Forward and Accept Your 2012 PUK Award Nomination

QOTD: "If we are foolish enough to embrace a ban on any weapon in the coming Congress, then we are unwittingly embracing a ban on every weapon.

Republicans in the House and Senate need to let Feinstein and company know this is a non-starter, and voters need to start weighing potential congressional candidates for 2014 on the basis of where they stand on the 2nd Amendment.

Gun-grabbers need not apply." --AWR Hawkins

CSI: Little Rock

Q: Why is it so difficult to solve a murder in Arkansas?

A: All the DNA matches and there are no dental records.


Note: For those Arkansanians offended, feel free to substitute AL, KY, LA, MS, or WV when forwarding.

Hat tip: PointsNFigures.

CAGE MATCH: 3rd Annual PUK Awards Underway

iOwnTheWorld is conducting its third annual PUK awards as a series of cage matches. Click here for the first one.


I don't care who you are, that there is funny.

CASH MONEY CAPTION CONTEST: Cthulhu Feinstein

Biff Spackle has $25 burning a hole in his pocket for the winner:

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION TO KEEP THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS SAFE: It's Logic, Dammit!

A perfect idea:

Since our wise rulers in the governmedia have determined that gun-free status makes schools safer, if you care about the safety of the president and his children, you might want to sign this White House petition:

Eliminate armed guards for the President, Vice-President, and their families, and establish Gun Free Zones around them.

The explanation makes perfect sense:

Gun Free Zones are supposed to protect our children, and some politicians wish to strip us of our right to keep and bear arms. Those same politicians and their families are currently under the protection of armed Secret Service agents. If Gun Free Zones are sufficient protection for our children, then Gun Free Zones should be good enough for politicians.

Our rulers care enough about us little folk to want us to be safe from evil guns. Shouldn’t we care just as much about them?

And since Sen. Dianne Feinstein seeks to ban firearms, she should be a big supporter of these new gun-free zones.

Paradox [Dan from New York]

Dan from New York:

It goes without saying, Americans are uneasy about criticizing Islam.

Saudi detains dozens for "plotting to celebrate Christmas"

It's Official: Muslim Population of Britain Doubles

Number of mosques in US grew 74% since 9/11

After all, we’ve grown up with a First Amendment that this particular religion political system (and certain government officials) appears to despise.

THAT "COMING COLLAPSE" HAS BEEN COMING FOR DECADES: What does this gold ad from 1973 really tell us?

Considering that the CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of gold since 1973 is roughly 17.2%, who's to say this ad wasn't right?

An ad from a 1973 issue of Barron's provides clear proof that feverish concerns about imminent economic collapse and a concomitant enthusiasm for precious metals has long been a theme amongst modern investors.

With the race to devalue currencies around the world -- led by Ben Bernanke's magical printer -- and unsustainable sovereign debt, it's pretty clear that a collapse will come.

The only question is whether it's two years away -- or 10. History and arithmetic both tell us it won't be longer than that.


Hat tip: BadBlue Money News.

Larwyn's Linx: Obama's GOP Tax Collectors

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Obama's GOP Tax Collectors: Jeffrey Lord
Laws, Little People, and the Public Interest: Malkin
You say you want a revolution?: AWD

Obama vs. America's Fiscal Health: DLim
At a Campus Near You: The End of Democracy In America: LI
Malkin hammers Cuomo on gun confiscation, Dem gun hypocrisy: Scoop

Hypocrisy Of Liberals Who Cling To Their Guns: IBD
Boy Uses AR15 To Stop A Home Invasion: Howling
GUN-FREE CHICAGO: Fatal Shooting Lifts Homicide Total to 500: Trib

Economy

Fiscal Cliff's Dirty Secret: It's Not About Taxes At All: Rand Paul
What I Learned in the Poverty War: City Journal
President Obama's Legacy: $20 Trillion in Debt for 2016 Victor: Forbes

Businesses Look for Ways Around Health Care Law: FreeEnt
The FHA: A home wrecker: AEI
Santelli goes off: rips Fed, Obama, Geithner, Congress: GWP

10 Facts on the Fiscal Cliff, Debt, and Spending: Foundry
Why DC’s Business As Usual Crowd Fears The Fiscal Cliff: ConHQ
A Word on Sector Selection for 2013: RefBroker

Scandal Central

"Richard Windsor," aka Lisa Jackson, Resigns From EPA, Using Her Own Name for a Change: Ace
Senate Republicans refuse to confirm Kerry until Hillary testifies about Benghazi: Hot Air
Attorney claims EPA chief resigned over alias email accounts: Fox

Climate & Energy

“EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson resigns”: ProWis
The Obama Green Energy Scam You May Have Missed: Townhall

Media

Public Safety Map: Where Are The Journal News Employees In Your Neighborhood?: WZ
Anonymous Narrative Arrives to Defend Gregory in Meet the Press Magazine Brandishment Episode: Blumer
Gun Debate Exposes Media’s Bias, David Gregory Exposed Their Hypocrisy: Mediaite

Dueling Headlines, TMZ/Obama Edition: Powers
Obama’s Family Vacation for Dudes: Dossier
Blogger publishes names, address of newspaper staff after gun-permit database disclosure: Fox

Allen West: ‘What the president is proposing is reflection of him living in some type of fantasy world’: Scoop
Gallup Poll: NRA Way More Popular Than the Media: JWF
CNN Feeds Anti-Gun Talking Point to Dem Congressman: NB

Desperate Screams of the Press Clowns: Erickson
Unexpected!: Cold Fury
MSNBC’s Toure: Gun Owners Should Be Treated Like Sex Offenders: WZ

World

FBI report from 1970 sheds light on PLO and Fatah penetration of the American political Left: Glick
Rep. Ros-Lehtinen invites Sen. Harry Reid to discover the real meaning of the term ‘dictatorhip’: Babalu
China wants Obama to ban all firearms: 90 Miles

Muslim Brotherhood Gets Top Security Clearance: Sentinel
Putin’s Adoption Ban Hits Senator Rubio Close to Home: Shark Tank
Saudi Arabia: 41 people arrested for "plotting to celebrate Christmas": JihadWatch

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

10 Raspberry Pi creations that show how amazing the tiny PC can be: Ars Technica
Windows 8's uptake falls behind Vista's pace: ComputerWorld
Putting Jay Glazer’s Perfect Punch And Other Infomercial Workout Systems To The Test: Consumerist

Cornucopia

2012 Wardrobe Malfunctions: Reaganite (NSFW)
Kill All Republicans: A Sign Of Times: Cube
Corvette stolen in 1989 sold to OC man on eBay: KABC

Image: David Gregory’s Legendary “Gun Magazine of Perpetual Legality”!!
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Petition: Eliminate DC Armed Guards, Establish Gun-Free Zones Instead

QOTD: "AP: We're Pretty Sure That Holiday Sales Were Bleak Due to Hurricane Sandy and the Newtown Massacre

Anything bad that happens under Obama's watch is beyond his control. He has no power over the economy -- its dire health is attributable to ATM machines, Japanese earthquakes, and the NRA's promotion of murdering children.

Of course, whenever there's a speck of positive economic news, that is due to Obama's mastery of the levers and gears of production...

...Much, much later the article mentions another possibility -- the coming financial cliff and people's fear of the next dip in the endless recession." --Ace

CHART: America's Disappearing Fathers

Truly tragic:

In every state, the portion of families where children have two parents, rather than one, has dropped significantly over the past decade. Even as the country added 160,000 families with children, the number of two-parent households decreased by 1.2 million. Fifteen million U.S. children, or 1 in 3, live without a father, and nearly 5 million live without a mother. In 1960, just 11 percent of American children lived in homes without fathers...

The spiral continues each year. Married couples with children have an average income of $80,000, compared with $24,000 for single mothers.
“We have one class that thinks marriage and fatherhood is important, and another which doesn’t, and it’s causing that gap, income inequality, to get wider,”

...Though income is the primary predictor, the lack of live-in fathers also is overwhelmingly a black problem, regardless of poverty status, census data show. Among blacks, nearly 5 million children, or 54 percent, live with only their mother...

[One black father] is quick to blame the absence of fathers to deaths or incarcerations, though women point out that many absent fathers live around the corner...

The inconvenient truth? The "War on Poverty" and the Left's failed welfare state policies have decimated the two-parent family and ruined the lives of millions.

Of that, there can be no debate.

Richard Windsor Resigns as Head of EPA

Or is the name Lisa Jackson? I'm so confused.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson has decided to resign her post as top environmental regulator, a move that comes as Congress applies pressure on her for complicating oversight of the EPA by using at least one secondary email address under an alias.

...Lawmakers and the EPA inspector general wonder if Jackson used a private email account created under an alias to develop those policies in a way that would be invisible to watchdogs and congressional oversight...

...Jackson used a private email under the alias “Richard Windsor” to correspond with EPA colleagues, a decision her staff defended by saying that her official email account received too many messages for her to use it efficiently.

Her official email received too many messages?

Gee, I'm no Bill Gates, but I figure with 17,000 employees and an $8 billion budget the EPA could marshal the necessary brainpower to add a lisa.jackson2@epa.gov to their Exchange server.

Investors Business Daily summarizes the story as a question: "Is The EPA's Lisa Jackson Trying To Dodge A Federal Probe?"

Answer: of course she is. Just add this scandal to the list.

TROLLING REDNECKS 101: Having Fun in the Woods

Hat tip: Papa B:

RED ALERT -- ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN 2.0: Feinstein Reveals Her Plans for Gun Registration

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has revealed the contours of her second-generation Assault Weapons Ban and it includes restrictions on handguns as well as the mandatory registration of firearms.

Summary of 2013 legislation

Following is a summary of the 2013 legislation:

• Bans the sale, transfer, importation, or manufacturing of:
• 120 specifically-named firearms;
• Certain other semiautomatic rifles, handguns, shotguns that can accept a detachable magazine and have one or more military characteristics; and
• Semiautomatic rifles and handguns with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds.
• Strengthens the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban and various state bans by:
• Moving from a 2-characteristic test to a 1-characteristic test;
• Eliminating the easy-to-remove bayonet mounts and flash suppressors from the characteristics test; and
• Banning firearms with “thumbhole stocks” and “bullet buttons” to address attempts to “work around” prior bans.
• Bans large-capacity ammunition feeding devices capable of accepting more than 10 rounds. 
• Protects legitimate hunters and the rights of existing gun owners by:
• Grandfathering weapons legally possessed on the date of enactment;
• Exempting over 900 specifically-named weapons used for hunting or sporting purposes; and
• Exempting antique, manually-operated, and permanently disabled weapons.
• Requires that grandfathered weapons be registered under the National Firearms Act, to include:
• Background check of owner and any transferee;
• Type and serial number of the firearm;
• Positive identification, including photograph and fingerprint;
• Certification from local law enforcement of identity and that possession would not violate State or local law; and
• Dedicated funding for ATF to implement registration.

A pdf of the bill summary is available here.

Did you catch that? The Assault Weapons Ban of 2013 will require registration of firearms, which is always -- always -- the precursor to confiscation by a tyrannical government.

REGISTRATION IS CONFISCATION

The Holy Grail of the gun control crowd is registration of firearms.

This is because once a gun is required to be registered, it is virtually confiscated. The government will know who possesses which firearms and where those arms are stored. And when they desire physical possession of those weapons (which history tells us is inevitable), they can then order the citizenry to voluntarily turn in their weapons.

This has happened over and over again throughout all of recorded history. In the 20th century alone, mandatory registration followed by confiscation occurred in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Red China, and Cambodia. More recently, registration and confiscation have occurred in Great Britain and Australia.

Once registration has been accepted by the citizenry, the rules for gun ownership are gradually tightened. This serves to further reduce the number of gun owners and to help facilitate the eventual confiscation step.

THE "GUN SHOW LOOPHOLE"

The gun control crowd likes bleating about a "Gun Show Loophole" that ostensibly allows an individual to visit a gun show and purchase weapons without a background check. This is utter nonsense. The vast majority of guns sold at shows are by licensed dealers, all of whom must pursue background checks for each firearm they sell.

The background check requirement is only waived for private gun sales, which helps prevent a registration list from being developed.

There is no "Gun Show Loophole"; there is only an exception for private sales. This protects Americans from a government run amok.

Because a government that pushes for gun registration distrusts its citizens, and have thereby earned the citizens' distrust.

IT WAS NEVER ABOUT GUNS

The clearest reason for the Second Amendment is to insure that the people retain a large measure of power, to balance that of the government.

The Second Amendment codified the God-given right of the individual to defend himself, his family, and his community. It is a right, granted by God, not a permission or license granted by government.

In the 20th century alone, the wisdom of the founders has been validated over and over again.

It could never happen here, you say? Perhaps. I wonder what the Japanese-Americans who were thrown into internment camps during World War II would tell us.

I suspect that this legislation will serve as a line in the sand for many.


Hat tips: Dean Weingarten and @HollyR_J.