NRA Nonsense

Another popular bullshit line asks why should we bother passing laws – since the “bad guys” don’t bother with laws anyway. This sounds really savvy until you start to dig in. By that logic we shouldn’t outlaw murder either, because murderers don’t follow the law, right? But if it weren’t illegal, then we wouldn’t be able to put someone in jail for murdering someone. Right? And if we make owning automatic weapons illegal, we don’t have to wait until we catch you killing 49 people in a night club on a Saturday night. We can arrest you as soon as we see that you have in your possession a gun whose only use is to mow down dozens of people. This would of course prevent some number of murders by automatic weapon. NRA nonsense ☀

The Second Amendment was Ratified to Preserve Slavery 

The real reason the Second Amendment was ratified, and why it says “State” instead of “Country” (the Framers knew the difference - see the 10th Amendment), was to preserve the slave patrol militias in the southern states, which was necessary to get Virginia’s vote. Founders Patrick Henry, George Mason, and James Madison were totally clear on that … and we all should be too.

What makes the AR-15 an assault weapon ☀

After another mass shooting in which an AR-15 most certainly posed a problem to many people trapped inside a nightclub, such a blasé approach to powerful civilian weapons may be harder to maintain. Ludwig Wittgenstein, a great 20th-century philosopher and a veteran of the first world war, wrote in his “Philosophical Investigations” that when “we employ the word ‘meaning’,’’ we are most often referring to the everyday purpose of some phrase. “The meaning of a word”, he wrote, “is its use in the language”. By that sensible if trivial standard: if an AR-15 can be used to assault large crowds of people, killing and maiming scores of them, on multiple occasions, it qualifies as an assault weapon.

Kicked off of Shipwreck Island on Facebook

Well I'm pretty sure I've been kicked off of one of my liberal groups. Shipwreck Island on Facebook. A family member had made some bullshit right wing comments while visiting me. On a private group which SI is. They had done this before. I asked them not to while using my Android but forgot to change my passwords. Their comments represent their ignorance and do not reflect my own views which are liberal.


In any case so long Etty Block, Morgan Miller, William Govern and the many others on Shipwreck Island I've come to known over the years.


2010-2016 ❤

President Obama on Gun Control

I applaud and support President Obama's stance and objectives and speech on gun control. No machine should ever be put above Human life nor give anybody a superior feeling of power. I say this as an FOID card holder and gun owner in IL.


I like Obama's quote on what former and late President Reagan said about gun control.


There are apx 88 guns for every 100 Americans in this country, we are well armed as it is. Too many needless deaths though, our gun culture is inferior compared to Japans, Canada's, Sweden, Israel and Switzerland.


An exception is that citizens in major city's that have gang activity and are not affiliated with any gangs and are in good standing, etc should be required to concealed carry guns at all times.

Japan Gun Laws

Japan Gun Laws:


Those disqualified from possessing a gun according to Article 5 of the Law include
(1) a person less than 18 years of age (a talented athlete of age 14 years or over may be excepted);
(2) a person who has declared bankruptcy and the restrictions have not been removed;
(3) a person who has lost or may lose full mental ability through mental illness or specified health problems, or who has dementia;
(4) a person addicted to alcohol, narcotics, cannabis, opium, or stimulant drugs;
(5) a feebleminded person;
(6) a person without a fixed abode;
(7–11) a person whose license was revoked and a specified period has not elapsed;
(12) any person who has been sentenced to imprisonment and five years have not elapsed since his or her sentence was completed or remitted;
(13–14) a person who violated this Law or a related law and a specified period has not elapsed;
(15) a person who stalked another person and received a warning or restraining order;
(16) a person who behaved violently and received a restraining order under the Domestic Violence Prevention Law;
(17) a person who is recognized by the [Public Safety] Commission as one who has committed violent acts as a member of a group or repeatedly; and
(18) a person who can be reasonably expected to harm another’s life, body, or property, [be a threat to] public safety, or commit suicide.[39]
In addition, if a relative, including a de facto spouse, living with an applicant can be reasonably expected to pose a threat to the life or property of other persons or to public safety by using a gun or sword, the prefecture’s Public Safety Commission may not permit the possession of a gun or sword.[40] There are exceptions and additional restrictions.
In order to possess a hunting gun or air gun, one must attend classes, held by the prefecture’s Public Safety Commission, concerning the laws and regulations on possession of hunting or air guns and the methods of their use and safe storage.[41] In addition, in order to prevent a person without the skills to handle a gun from obtaining one,[42] the law requires an applicant for a gun-possession permit to take a skills test or complete shooting classes.[43] In the case of a rifle, permission for possession is not granted unless the person is a professional hunter; will use it to exterminate harmful animals and birds for the protection of his business; or has had a permit to possess a hunting gun for more than ten years.[44

President Obama on Gun.Control

“We collectively are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of our inaction. When Americans are killed in mine disasters, we work to make mines safer. When Americans are killed in floods and hurricanes, we make communities safer. When roads are unsafe, we fix them to reduce auto fatalities. We have seat belt laws because we know it saves lives. The notion that gun violence is somehow different, that our freedom, our Constitution prohibits any modest regulation of how we use a deadly weapon, when there are law-abiding gun owners all across the country who could hunt and protect their families and do everything they do under such regulations. Doesn’t make sense." President Obama ☀

Guns Are Like Pee in a Pool

 guns in the U.S. are like pee in the pool. They’re not going away.  And the more people lose their jobs to automation, and the more the rich and smart and lucky get the best educations, and the best jobs, and the best opportunities, the wider the difference will be between “most” people, and those at the top. Meanwhile, the media will be showing everyone how the top 20% live. The nice houses, the nice cars, the pretty wives, etc. That’s what they’re selling to everyone, but 80% will never get it. So, expect more public shootings." Government and Mental Health

Guns In America

“Friends, the conversation is indeed about guns. It’s about guns and America’s gun lust culture. It’s about guns because automatic and semi automatic guns/rifles offer individuals the opportunity to kill large groups of people at the same time. If it’s not about guns, then why aren’t we allowed to own bombs, tanks, and other mass killing devices? Because bombs offer individuals the opportunity to kill lots of people. You don’t hear anybody barking, “Bombs don’t kill people…” Why? Because it’s idiotic. And like bombs, guns/rifles with semi automatic to automatic capabilities that feature 30+ round magazines offer individuals the same chance, to kill lots of people. Yes, murder is something that people have always done, but your “Cain killed Abel” examples are irrelevant to this debate. Most scholars believe that Cain likely used a rock, stick, or bone to kill Abel. Had Dylann Roof walked into that South Carolina church with a rock or a stick or a bone or a knife or even a double barrel shotgun, the outcome would have been very different. Sure, some people will always want to kill other people, but our culture’s gun lust has aided in giving that individual the power to easily kill people, lots of people if he wants to. So, the conversation is indeed about guns, people’s access to guns, the places where people can carry guns, the kinds of guns that can be legally purchased and legally manufactured, the size and round capacity of magazines, and the culture of violence and gun-love here in America that is mostly unfounded in the rest of the world. And honestly, go ahead; call us progressive idiots or liberal minded morons or whatever you want, but the more you try to distract from what the conversation is really about–guns!–the more impassioned we become" Matthew Paul Turner ☀

2nd Amendment and Gun Control

“The grassroots adherents of Second Amendment fundamentalism may not work in law enforcement, but they do forcefully shape the political culture that indirectly keeps this country’s uniquely harsh criminal justice policies in place. The same politics of fear that has incubated our punitive hyperincarceration state also directly feeds these citizen-protectors’ positive, if delusional, self-image as brave and useful men. This passionate, self-interested attachment to a vision of the United States as violent and chaotic—even in the face of historically low crime rates—continually blocks the drastic reform that our criminal justice system badly needs. Our robust, everyday gun culture is part of the reason why punishment and protection are not just simply the goals of law-enforcement agencies but have come to be the guiding paradigms for government policy in general. (Sociologist Jonathan Simon calls this “governing through crime”; Carlson refers to the “seepage” of the state’s policing duties into a generalized civic duty.)" Have Guns, Will Liberate via azspot.net

Guns and God

“Guns lack efficacy and are nothing more than idols set up to the bloodthirsty gods of the past. And because we believe Jesus is in control of his world, Christians can be the first—individually and collectively—to destroy all weapons designed to kill other human beings. Such weapons have no place in God’s future (There will be no AK-47 in the New Creation), and as such they have no value in the lives of Christians now." Race, Guns and the Church (by Jeff Cook) ☀

Regarding gun control: in the 1960's

Regarding gun control:


 "A great many men seemed to regard all proposals for righter controls as a challenge to their virility. The powerful National Rifle Association urged it's half million members to write Washington, and it's lobbyists went to work on Congressman with the spacious reasoning that "it's the man that kills, not the rifle".


 They demanded the passage of another (Hicken looper) bill, which would merely prevent the importing of guns bot made by American firms.


 Katzenbach pointed out in vain that the association was not protecting sportsmen's rights, but the profit's of commercial gun dealers.


 "Anti Gun Extremists are at It Again" Field and Stream warned it's readers and Outdoor Life declared that "Gun owners should switch to the offense".


 They did: In Texas they were esp militant.
 Elsewhere in the country courts took a benign view of some 20,000 gun control laws enacted on municipal and state levels.


 In Dallas an ordinance restricting the possession of weapons had been struck down by a local judge in 1962 on the ground that it would have been "an unauthorized invasion of a natural right the citizens of this state have never relinquished to their rulers".
 Presumably, "their rulers" meant the government of the United States and the assassination didn't change the feeling.
 Once his arm had healed, Governor Connolly called upon Texas Congressional delegation to oppose the Dodd bill, and Texas Republicans, meeting in Dallas, passed a resolution opposing any limitation on the right of private individuals to to buy and use guns".


 Death of a President November 1963, author and Historian William Manchester, Epilogue Legend, page 632

Regarding President Kennedy's assassination and gun control

Regarding President Kennedy's assassination and gun control:




 "In the wake of the assassination the pressure for such legislation (small arms control) seemed irresistible: A Gallup poll revealed that 8 out of 10 Americans favored new laws requiring police permits of weapon buyers. Robert Kennedy asked Congress to outlaw the mail order traffic, supportive mail engulfed the Hill, and in the weeks after the funeral Senator Thomas Dodd of Connecticut introduced a sensible bill to ban mail order sales, bar weapons from.abroad unsuitable for sporting use, forbid sales to people under twenty one, and require all purchasers to identity themselves so police could later trace them.
 The American Bar Association endorsed it and was ignored. The Director of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons pointed out "After all, cars have to be registered and drivers licensed" and was unheard.




 Indeed, though 18 such measures were introduced on the Hill , none of the gun laws went off.




 The United States remained the only modern nation in the world without firm regulation of the sale and use of firearms -- Oswald couldn't have assassinated Kennedy in Russia -- and in 1964 some 600,000 cheap firearms were brought into the country."




 Death of a President November 1963, Epilogue Legend, pages 631-632, author William Manchester (1st edition, 1967)

Gun Control - Guns Need Licensure, Registration

"What can I assume from this text? One, that man is up to no good, since he is breaking the law. Two, that the law obiding citizens in that library are not packing, the librarian isn't either. If the man goes on a rampage, nothing short of a ninja can stop him. He can approach each person, and shoot their cranium at point blank range.


 This isn't learned helplessness. This is enforced helplessness.


 Carrying guns, with proper licensure and strict guidelines for such license (both shooting and legal aptitude) should be the norm. Gun control has NEVER stopped a criminal from obtaining a weapon and using it. Enforced helplessness is a violation of our right to protect ourselves. 911 emergency police are too far away, and we cannot rely on every public venue to have an armed guard.
 Strawman argument: More guns = more shootings. Reality: In every police station in the country, almost everyone is armed. Or with a gun in their desk. Heard about that police station where a mad shooter went from desk to desk shooting everyone? Me neither. And the US police aren't known to be nonviolent or with very good restraint, statistically.


 Open carry with proper and strict licensure with frequent renewal Requirements is the only solution." Mu friend Sam via Facebook on gun control


Guns need licensure, registration, more smartgun technology, limits on buying ammo and legal exams and universal background checks for all gun buyers, etc.