Nick Leghorn has an excellent blow-by-blow on the numbers concerning the election. It notes that the margin of victory for President-Elect Donald Trump was extremely close in a lot of states. It’s solid, and is worth reading his analysis in its entirety. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
In short: gun owners just made the difference in the presidential election. In fact, our friends at the NRA had the foresight to back the guy early, put forth a huge effort, and delivered. Sensible political creatures will remember that.
I was also tickled pink today to see that the President-Elect will be calling on a team of Second Amendment advocates (including TTAG colleague John Boch,) to advise him on issues related to the right to keep and bear arms. If that’s not #gunsense, I don’t know what is.
By sticking together, we blocked an anti-Bill of Rights Supreme Court nominee appointed as a last-gasp of a fading presidency. The man we just put in the Oval Office will now appoint a replacement for the much-missed Antonin Scalia. That is huge.
As far as priorities, obviously, the Supreme Court is front-and-center at the moment. Going forward, might we have a chance to talk seriously about national concealed-carry license reciprocity? Perhaps taking hearing protection off the list of items that require an NFA stamp? These are opportunities that we, as gun rights advocates, haven’t had in generations.
Sure, there would likely be some legislative compromises. The devil will be in the details, of course, so we will need to watch the President and our Congresscritters like a hawk (but if you’re reading this, you probably already know that.)
I’d also like to take this moment to comment on something that (modesty aside,) I saw coming earlier this year: the post-World War II liberal political order is coming to an end, for good and ill. President-Elect Trump may be a lot of things, but “blind ideologue” isn’t one of them, and if he has a mandate for anything, it’s to clean house in Washington. There is ann opportunity here, but potential danger, too. All assumptions we’ve relied on in the past will now be challenged as they’ve never been before. We better be ready for that, because that’s what we just voted for. I want to share some thoughts on that subject.
For a generation we, as gun owners and civil rights activists, have predicated our legal and political defense of the right to keep and bear arms on the words in the Bill of Rights. We have a right to keep and bear arms because it’s there in the Constitution. The plain meaning of the text is clear. The original intent is obvious. The rights in the Constitution are natural rights that pre-dated the words in the Constitution.
That has been successful for us in the past. It certainly convinces a people who have been brought up to believe in concepts such as natural law and the goodness of a constitutional republic.
I am uncertain if that’s the people we still have. Certainly, a lot of our fellow citizens in California appear to have a slippery grasp on either concept.
Therefore, I believe the next push will be a slow culture war of attrition. The media are still dominated by hoplophobes and civilian disarmament advocates. They’re bankrolled by plutocrats Mike Bloomberg. Ultimately, Mr. Trump’s election means that their hopes of rolling back our civil rights through a friendly administration in Washington have been dashed.
But Mr. Bloomberg is anything but dumb. He knows that without the Supreme Court on his side, the destruction of a constitutional right in our republic is a slow, difficult process. He takes his victories where he can, and like Sun Tzu preached, will try to fight us on ground where we are weakest. The next push will therefore be to cast doubt on the need for the Second Amendment through the media and in adademia. It’s the best option he he’ll have at the national level.
I submit that going forward, our arguments need not just to appeal to the sanctity of the words in the Constitution, which ultimately are just words, but rather are grounded like the other rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights, in the very real and practical self-interest of all Americans, regardless of their position. If, God forbid, America is ever in a position where a President gains power who is, in the words of Scott Adams, “literally Hitler,” would you prefer the world where you confront his jack-booted thugs with only a bunch of words? Or would you rather live in the world where you can confront those thugs with a bunch of words and an AR 15?
Ultimately, we will have to have the argument on first principles. And God help me, I do so relish the upcoming fight because we are on the side of empowerment and freedom. There’s nothing that gets me up in the morning and puts a spring in my step like doing battle for those things.
There will be more to come as the rest of 2016 unfolds. But one thing is sure: the 20th century has finally ended. Two family political dynasties have petered out. The wolf at the door, who happily proclaimed herself our enemy, who wanted to kick us to the curb because she didn’t need or want our votes, has been turned back.
Thank you to everyone who helped make this happen.
Globalists don’t go away. They’re working very hard right now to protect what they’ve already stolen, and to keep moving forward.
See Angela Merkel’s ~ congratulatory message to Trump.https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/11/09/angela-merkel-congratulates-donald-trump-kind-of/
Merkel won’t make it past elections in 2017, but your point is valid – there are more players in the game than just the ones at seated at the table.
They do if you push them out of a Helicopter…
Bloomberg just ran ads for a penny an ounce tax on sugary drinks in Cook county,Il-and it just PASSED. What that old rich baztard has to do with a Cook co slush fund I got no idea. But he ain’t going away(unless he drops dead). We will never be out of the woods…and forgive me but Evangelical Christians gave Trump the win-and gun owners helped. Donnie’s got a lot of folks counting on him…
“Slush fund” is appropriate since you’re going to need more funding for your daily slushie.
Bloomberg is one of the people who thinks machine guns are legal. Pushing NFA repeal would embarrass him further.
“They’re trying to unban machine guns, I need to throw my money at thing to stop it” “But you said people hunt with them!”
http://www.businessinsider.com/half-of-the-united-states-lives-in-these-counties-2013-9
“Half of the U.S. Population lives in these counties. Now, imagine living in the gray zones and the blue zones voted opposite of you.”
“This is why we have an Electoral College. Civics 101. You’re Welcome.”
Sorry, but I’m not buying that explanation for why the EC is good. If the election was decided by popular vote everybody’s vote would count and it would bring out a lot more voters that usually stay home because they live in an always red or blue state so their contradictory vote doesn’t matter. Until I see some better explanations I will continue thinking the EC is BS.
Without the Electoral College you’d end up with a situation like the UK where London basically tells the rest of the country what they will do. Scotland, Whales, and the north of England don’t really have much of a say in their own national government.
The only reason why the UK voted to leave the EU was because London was asleep at the wheel. You had better believe that globalists like George Soros will do everything they can to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
It will be easy for him to do over there as people who live off of government handouts are easy to control. The people who live like that tend to live in large cities where handouts are easiest to access. As so long as the Electoral College exists, it will be impossible to elect a president without the consent of Middle America.
“Until I see some better explanations I will continue thinking the EC is BS.”
How’s this — I don’t want California choosing every President for the rest of this century.
Exactly. Why would Wyoming or other states in similar positions continue to buy into the US if there is zero chance the candidate they prefer would ever win? Without the Electoral College, urban areas on the coasts would run the country according to their priorities. This is the exact situation in many states and the country wouldn’t survive long under it.
This election showed the true value of the Electoral College. California voted, per the selfish, sectional interests of its people, 60% for Hillary Clinton. The rest of the country was a lot more mixed.
The EC gave a way for California’s opinion (and its large population) to be felt, but also a way for the rest of the country to express its own opinion.
If someone has a better way, I’m open ears, but the EC works to protect federalism, in the same way that it worked to protect the country in the late 19th century, when the South was voting almost unanimously for the Democrats (again, in its narrow, selfish, sectional interest.) One state or region, no matter how populous, shouldn’t get to dictate terms to the rest of the nation.
The Electoral College is there so that the states get a vote. Kind of like the Senate. Also: pure democracy is an abomination, that’s why we live in a republic.
I live in upstate New York. Our totalitarian Governor, Andrew Cuomo, just signed some type of bill offering support to the abolition of the electoral college and to move things onto the popular vote. All the other signatories of this bill were from ultra progressive states. What does that tell you. To reiterate what the others have said here – large, liberal cities will dictate forever who wins national elections without the electoral college. Liberal tyrants know exactly what they’re doing when they preach this “every vote needs to count the same” stuff.
Why should the population of California, north of 38 million, more than 10% of the population of the Untied States, be the deciding vote population for presidential elections? California’s population alone will outvote some ten states combined. Voters in Missouri, Wyoming, and North Dakota know their vote, supported by their EC vote, does have an impact on electing a president, and isn’t a waste due to regional ideas. We hear from the anti-California Californians in these forums, but they are a small group. The larger, like-minded mindset of these high-density population areas would have a domineering influence on elections, which the EC negates. California’s Electoral College votes still went to Hillary, but not the devastatingly-large number of votes that could have ended Trump’s run without the EC. I don’t buy that without the EC more people would turn out to vote. Voters should just vote. Look at AZ and NH. More voters should have turned out. Instead, they sat at home. If they show up and vote, the EC will recognize the majority.
Well, California needs to be chopped into five separate states, anyway — no state should have that much influence.
Same goes for New York, though I don’t see any way to get more than three states out of it, and Texas, which could easily be turned into four states.
Chopping California into five states will quintuple its influence, not decrease it.
Instead of having only two senators in the US Senate, they’ll have 10.
Reportedly, California is going to vote to secede from the Union. If a vote is taken, I suspect a significant portion of the Califa population will vote to return to Mexico. Watch this space.
Federalist Paper number 68.
I’d suggest that you read the Federalist Papers. Many of your questions will be answered therein.
When I went to public schools, we actually had to read the Federalist Papers.
They’d already cut that from the curriculum when I was in school. Had to read them on my own.
Funny story: I had a contractor in to do some work in my bathroom a few years ago. When he saw that I had a copy of the Fed Papers sitting on my toilet, he gave me an instant 15% discount. “You’re obviously a constitutionalist,” he said.
The EC provides a clear outcome to an election that is simply not possible with a direct vote.
Each State has different voting methods and different checks and balances to ensure the voter is done properly. With the EC, a State doesn’t have incentive to inflate its vote, though a party would have such reason, because winning by 1 vote of 1 million is the same with the EC.
Let’s use as an example, the race we have right now. There is about 200,000 votes out of 135 million separating the two candidates. There are literally millions of votes that are not counted, because on first pass they are under counts, or over counts.
Imaging the hanging chad, but in every single State, as everyone tries to find one more vote. It would literally be a nightmare, and each State would be counting under different rules even.
It would be fair to say that there was mostly a truce at the Federal level following the 1994 AWB and Clinton’s subsequent losses in Congress. The truce lasted through Obama’s first term – and it probably helped him get re-elected. That truce was scrapped by the Dems following Sandy Hook.
Since then we’ve been playing defense – trying to limit losses and mitigate the hits against our rights and us. We haven’t lost too much at the Federal level, but in some states, like mine, we’ve been whacked hard..
Well, we didn’t end the truce – but it is over and now we can go on offence.
http://controversialtimes.com/election-2016/report-says-inconsolable-clinton-cried-all-night-and-blames-obama-for-her-loss/
What does it matter? https://youtu.be/ny3bOmey-BE
Best comment from the first link: “He Came, He Won, She Cried.”
You know, she’s probably right. Obama could have done so much more to help her, but didn’t. In the end, there’s a beautiful little symmetry to this. For decades the Democratic party has done nothing for Black America, and when it counted, Black America didn’t do a damn thing for the Democrats either. They didn’t even show up.
What comes around, goes around.
One pundit kinda pissed me off. She said that Hillary Clinton did not go and ask black people to vote for her. It came off very ‘extortion’ sounding as if to say “Mrs. Clinton, if you want the Black vote, you are going to have to get down on your knees and say Please.” and then only smugly will we give it to you.
“You know, she’s probably right. Obama could have done so much more to help her, but didn’t.”
There is real hatred between the Obamas and the Clintons, going back to the 2008 election.
I have to admit, when he selected her for Sec.State, I didn’t really mind much. Obama knew literally nothing about being a President, zero practical experience. I justified her at the time as there being at least one adult in that administration, someone who had at least some experience with world leaders. Well, we saw how that didn’t work out. (Putin).
I believe Obama wasn’t particularly interested in her as President, he probably would rather have someone like Warren, but the ‘Democrat Clinton Machine’ was dead-set as to her running. Obama probably saw Comey’s investigation of her dumbshit server as a perfect way to get her out of the way, so that’s why he did nothing overt.. But, noooooooo! Bill Clinton decided to pressure Lynch on her jet. Comey was probably instructed by Lynch to drop the whole thing. That was a problem for Comey, so he dealt with it by indicting her without the dirty work of *actually* indicting her.
The election was probably on a razor edge before the Weiner laptop bomb exploded, but there was no way to squelch that. Revulsion of potential kiddy-porn charges sealed it in the public’s eyes.That tipped the election to Trump.
In the end, Wiener’s wiener was likely the reason we have Trump. We oughtta buy Anthony a proper full-disk encrypted laptop as an expression of our eternal gratitude.
It’s the least we can do for the guy, being ‘for the children’ and all… 🙂
Actually, I think Obama still doesn’t know anything about being president.
Obama’s enthusiasm was tempered by two things — Hillary calling him “Incompetent & Feckless” and George Soros claiming he should have supported Hillary in 2008. Obama gave Hillary lip service but no one can publicly diss him without getting some payback. He dosen’t seem a bit distraught by the outcome.
Take people for granted and a lot of them don’t stick around. Clinton took not just blacks but Bernie supporters for granted — and in both cases, a lot of them walked.
BS, Trump is nothing but a homophobic, nationalistic, racist scumbag that will kill America.
And you people are doing nothing but contributing to it by making us more unsafe.
The civilized world weeps that the “gun community” has selected it chosen dictator to turn our great nation into a 3rd world hellhole.
American weeps as it turns into a fascist dictatorship under the hand of the NRA, Gun Lobby and it’s puppet Herr Trump.
You people must be proud of yourselves for not only oppressing minorities and those of different sexual orientations and nationalities. But putting them in danger from racist supremacist groups, psychotic doomsday militia nuts and various crime organizations that proudly admitted to the MSM for voting trump.
You must be proud starting the genocide of innocent americans that have to suffer for your tyranny.
You must be proud undoing all the good americans have fought and striven for while misleading them with constant debunked retort, opinions and horseshit disguised as “fact”.
Trump will not be my president ever.
He is nothing but a madman that will harm us all.
Can I be the first to say:
BAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH
Your tears taste so good. Every time I see one of you liberals crying it makes me so very happy.
I love AmericanPatriotsAgainstProGunTyranny’s sad little comments.
But sincerely, I hope he can find a safe space somewhere. Perhaps, at the nearest mental institution for those who were toilet trained too soon and breast fed too long.
“Perhaps, at the nearest mental institution for those who were toilet trained too soon and breast fed too long.”
Nasty, but I admit I laughed long and hard! I have to remember that line, especially since I currently live in “Soviet Quebekistan”. Lots of people up here who were “toilet trained too soon and breast fed too long”!
🙂
https://azzysgeekygalaxy.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/image006.gif
But seriously… They are.
What about Obama’s 8 years of racial division, failed economic policy, decimating the United States standing in world view, proliferation of terrorism, etc., etc. Not to mention how many Americans did not view him as representing them or their beliefs and values? I guess conservatives have jobs and lives that prohibit them from protesting all the time and crying about their feelings.
I wanted to join Occupy and live in a park for a month, but then I realized that I have a home, pets, a business and an actual, working toilet.
So I stayed home and watched the idiots on TV instead.
What? You didn’t want to crap on a cop car?
Thnkas for taking the time to post. It’s lifted the level of debate
Logic – not really an effective response in this case.
This is honestly so laughable. Now I would like to request that the gun community never be labeled as fear mongrels. This is next level lol.
Seriously?????
And she is a model of stability.
America spoke and she lost.
Also…. with with nearly 100 million legal gun owners in America, if we were a problem you would know it.
We are coming out from under the leadership of what will go down in history as one of the worst presidents. He could have done so much for everyone. All he did was insult our allies, make us all look stupid and stood by and did nothing when police were being gunned down in protests. Sorry a change was needed.
Will trump do well? I hope so. Certainly can’t do any worse than the lame duck who is leaving.
One really cool thing about reading this nearly-incomprehensible stream of acidic invective is that I can savor the choices of either attempting to answer logically, or just smile the humble smile of the victor and summing up my comments with a simply, “F U, Commie.”
Never thought I’d say this to you:
Thank you
Thanks for winning the election for Donald bud. It’s jerkoffs like you that pushed people to the polls to vote for him. In the coming years when you and your whiny liberal friends lament and want to know who put him in the oval office, simply look in the mirror.
HI!
I am openly gay, married to my spouse of 4 years, Hispanic and a huge Trump supporter. I own quite a few evil black rifles, believe our border security and laws need to be strictly enforced, support the right to armed self defense and ultimately feel that the 2nd amendment is the most important amendment to protect, over my own personal rights. Especially now that we were given the right to marry.
I hope this upsets you.
emfourty gasmask, you rule!
Why do you ask permission of the Government to marry?
Gays were not “given the right to marry” — that right always existed; it just had to be pounded into the brains of enough of the right people. Civil marriage is just a form of association, and since freedom of association is a right, government has no business discriminating between different forms.
BTW, this reminds me of what I think Democrats in the Senate should do: tell Trump that so long as his SCOTUS nominees respect gay rights, and a few other issues, they’ll approve the strongest Second Amendment nominees he can find. Of course that makes sense to me because gay rights and gun rights are just individual human rights, but I don’t think many national politicians get that.
Tell Trump that so long as his SCOTUS nominees respect gay rights…
F that. “Gay rights” to the gay mafia means forcing churches to marry them, throwing bakers/florists/photographers in jail for not participating in their “weddings”, and allowing trannies to walk through my middle school daughters locker room.
Awwww, the poor little snowflake. Did precious bruise his little vagina stomping and screaming like a little spoiled brat that didn’t get the present he wanted for (insert politically correct religious holiday here)?
Grow a pair, Nancy. Deal with it.
It’s going to be so much fun for the next four (hopefully more) years watching the left implode on itself as they point fingers at each other for getting themselves to where they are now. Hildebeast has already started.
Granted, we have a long way to go, and the evil that is progressivism has a firm hold on many facets of society thanks to The Chosen One and his minions. It will be a battle, but I’m optimistic about the outcome.
You started this fight, and by the will of God we will finish it. America was never a proposition nation. It was meant to me a homogeneous entity. White and Christian. If you were permitted entry, the price of admission was intentionally set as a very high bar.
The genocide you speak of will occur, this is all but assured. Unfortunately for you and your ilk, the history books will only speak of how the Americans once again fought to keep their country free by purging the barbarians from inside the gates. We will not go the way of Rome.
Your side has made it clear, there will be no healing, no unity and no tolerance. America will know peace when every foreigner is repatriated, or their skulls are smashed in by the butt of a rifle. You wanted a fight, well you found it.
Safe spaces will not protect you snowflake. No mercy, no quarter, no forgiveness.
My grandad’s job in WWII was killing people like you. Get bent.
My Granddad’s job during WWII was making synthetic rubber out of soap flakes. How did yours get a job as a roving executioner?
“White and Christian”, in the sense you obviously meant it, is a contradiction in terms.
In college I had a tee-shirt I cherished: it had faint background images of people of all sorts of skin tones, against the earth, and it said:
ONE WORLD
ONE RACE
ONE REDEEMER.
Anyone who claims to be Christian but who doesn’t want to welcome all varieties of homo sapiens as citizens is a blasphemous liar.
Glad you are using a T-Shirt as your religious foundation.
Oh, but Trump is your President. You don’t have a choice. You should have cooled off a little more before posting this temper tantrum, all it’s doing is making me feel a sense of warmth and happiness. Your lies are little more intense, your embellishments a little more surly, your anger is so much more tasty.
Dear AmericanPatriotyadayadayada….
Thank you for taking the time to post your comment. It warms my heart to hear the expressions of your impotent anguish and to sense your self destructive rage!
I especially enjoy the wailings of those who have for so long promoted ever increasing federal power as they realize someone they don’t like – is to be in control of that power!
Thank you, thank you, thank you…,
Dude, if Trump (or any President) turns into “literally, Hitler” the gun community will be the first ones to take up arms against him.
Also…we actually HAVE the arms.
BS, Trump is nothing but a homophobic, nationalistic, racist scumbag that will kill America.
Same tired false accusations made by Leftists against EVERY Republican candidate since the 60’s
Leonard Bernstein and Coretta Scott King said that Ronald Reagen would have big KKK parties at the White House.
I mix your tears 50/50 with Ballistol and use it to clean my guns.
You need to get out of mama’s basement and find a job and do something worthwhile. The Second Amendment is here to stay — trying to destroy it would result in a civil war.
Your tears are delicious. The weak (that’s you) will always scream and cry as they are (culturally) devoured by the strong (that’s us).
America won. You lost.
” . . .American weeps as it turns into a fascist dictatorship . . .”
Actually it was already there as a direct result of Obama’s economic policies which were, in fact, fascist in practice. It was the left’s and Obama’s fascination with progressivism ushered in an era—just rather dramatically ended by Trump’s election—of neo-fascism. You’re dismissed.
Progressives can never explain why certain rights are allowed to be infringed, but not others.
Well, they lose the debate even before that — they have no rational definition of what a right is. Without a rational definition, nothing that follows can be logical.
A “right’ is whatever the progressives feel is right. It’s what makes them feel good. It’s subject to change, depends really on the mood of the progressive in question. Hope this clears things up.
The Trump candidacy is over, but the presidency is just beginning. Likewise, our fight just begins
We won a battle in a culture war that will only end when one side or the other is destroyed.
Satan loves everyone. God is more selective.
Its a war between good and evil.
What a terrible thing to say.
And it’s so much more terrible for all of us if it’s true.
I’m afraid he’s right.
HEAR HEAR!! Good article. Happy BDay and Semper Fi to the brothers in the biggest baddest gang Mankind ever saw. I toast all of you with a glass of Cazadores. Thank you to our now unhappy neighbors to the south for the tequila!
The Mexican peso is tanking hard and the Dow Jones average just closed at an all-time high.
Bye bye, Mexico. You’re just going to have to settle for owning California.
Give California to Mexico? Jesus man, what did Mexico ever do to you?
Montezuma’s Revenge. ‘Nuff said.
What is it with Democrats? Why do they always want to secede after losing a tough election? First 1860, now today.
Anyway…
Let them take their share of the nat’l debt.
And pay us a “reasonable” fee for supplying them water from the Colorado River.
Also: pay us for the fact that they will be free-riding off of our defense of the continent.
Compensate us for taking over some/all of the federal installations/property in California.
And to respect the rights of everyone, give every municipality, every township, every last hamlet the right to opt out by simple majority vote.
After all, any secession, to be constitutional, must be approved by Congress.
I’d be perfectly happy with a California succession as long as we extend the wall north and wall them off too.
“Going forward, might we have a chance to talk seriously about national concealed-carry license reciprocity?”
I favor it, but what’s the basis for Federal jurisdiction? The Commerce Clause? Man, that’s how we got into this mess, where the Federal government controls damn near everything.
If we are to get national reciprocity, there must be a sound legal basis for it that won’t come back to bite us in the nuts like Eugene did to Dwight.
“If we are to get national reciprocity, there must be a sound legal basis for it that won’t come back to bite us in the nuts like Eugene did to Dwight.”
Would treating nationwide reciprocity the same way SCOTUS did in the Otis McDonald case be a viable option?
Or is that what you’re worried about?
The basis is easy: Article IV, Sections 1 & 2, both the full faith and credit and the privileges and immunities clauses apply.
Ninja’d.
Due faith and credit clause.
“Going forward, might we have a chance to talk seriously about national concealed-carry license reciprocity?”
I favor it, but what’s the basis for Federal jurisdiction?
—————————
Article 1 Section 8.
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
The Federal Government has the explicit power to provide for arming the militia. The Federal Government could require every household to own an AR-15 and pass a law that says everyone can carry concealed or openly.
The Federal Government cannot infringe on the right of the people to keep and bear arms, but it can pass laws, that over rule State laws, and establish uniform concealed and open carry laws.
I take your point. However, I think it is a dangerous concept to adopt and allow to become established as a component of our scheme of “federalism”. If we say that our rights to keep and bear arms are prescribed by such a Federal militia statue then we concede that Congress can decide what these rights are; or, are not.
Conversely, if we hold that – to whatever extent keeping and bearing arms are subject to domestic “police power” – the several States are responsible for prescribing such constraints then we have to fight-it-out in 50 different legislatures. In some, such as NV or WA, we will lose the fight. We don’t like that. Boo hoo. The flip side of this coin is that Bloomberg has to fight-it-out with us in 50 different legislatures.
Bloomberg will not beat the last heartbeat of life out of the RtKBA until he reaches Alaska. He will run out of money before he gets that far.
Keeping the Feds at the level of international and interstate commerce in arms is a good idea. Keeping the Feds out of the States’ prerogative to decide what “infringe” might mean within their boarders establishes a 50-brick wall against completely killing off the 2A.
To the extent we seek relief at the Federal level we ought to be very careful. Full-faith-and-credit is a sound basis for National Reciprocity. Equal protection of the law is a sound basis for Shall-Issue.
Is this a reference to THE WALKING DEAD? Or THE OFFICE?
Gun owners made the difference but so did a lot of other groups… including hispanics. Despite all the identity politics played by the democratic party, hispanics went for donald trump more than they did for romney. Not a majority, certainly. But still… an interesting result.
God willing and the creek don’t rise Scalia’s legacy will be cemented and Obama’s largely erased. Big win for liberty.
Pretty much agree on all points … although I would argue that most of the old guard has already abandoned the concepts of natural law and the goodness of a constitutional republic.
We need a simple strategy going forward based heavily on stating our fundamental right to effective self-defense as well as our fundamental right to own gizmos (including firearms) of our choosing. Natural law arguments, Creator endowed arguments, constitutional arguments, legal arguments, and statistical arguments will continue to be less and less persuasive and relevant.
Example argument:
Gun grabber:
You don’t need an AK-15 high-powered assault weapon with a 100 round clip-azine to defend your yourself from a burglar.
Response:
Who do you think you are defining what society needs or doesn’t need and demanding that government imprison/kill anyone who refuses to comply?
Gun grabber:
I am the person who sees how much danger AK-15 high-powered assault weapons present to society and is smart enough to demand that government ban them.
Response:
My right to effective self-defense and my right to own contraptions is immutable … as well as my right to evaluate the pros and cons of any self-defense strategy or contraption. Your claim to “know better” and your demand that government enforce your conclusions is obscene, vile, and wrong … and far more dangerous to our nation than firearm ownership. I’ll comply with firearm restrictions “for the good of the nation” when you comply with a government ban of all meats and sugar “for the good of the nation”. After all, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, strokes, and countless other physical illnesses caused by sugar and meat kill far more people than firearms every year.
Self-ownership is a good foundation — liberals already love it; it’s embodied in the idea that a woman has the right to choose what to do with her own body. Abortion aside, the principle there is sound: I own my body, because I own myself, and self-ownership has implications. One of those implications is that only an individual has any business deciding how that individual may approach the matter of self-protection.
Writers need to learn English grammar. The Media is a singular entity, The Media is, not are. I see this misuse of the language constantly and it drives me crazy. Learn the when to use singular and plural verbs. Subjects like team, army, and media though made up of many parts are singular entities.
noun
1 (usually the media) [treated as singular or plural] the main means of mass communication (broadcasting, publishing, and the Internet), regarded collectively: their demands were publicized by the media | [as modifier] : the campaign won media attention.
2 plural form of medium.
The United States are…
Except for repealing the 1968 Gun Control Act (never going to happen), what can be done at the federal level is really only marginal. Yeah yeah yeah…..I’d like the NFA repealed, too, but that’s really more on principle than practicality. Short barrel rifles? Sawed off shotguns? Silencers? All for the buying without the B.S.? Meh, those are nice-to-haves, but hardly game changers.
Where real change is needed is at the state levels. That’s where major restrictions with day-to-day impact take place. That’s for the states to address, however, not the federal government.
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