True story! Retired Air Force Colonel Dean L. Winslow was the aspiring Assistant Secretary of Defense for eadsealth Affairs. Testifying in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee at his confirmation hearing, Col. Wilson felt compelled — compelled I tell you! — to express his support for gun control. Writing for the unrelentingly anti-gun rights washingtonpost.com Col. Wilson explained his motivation:
I arrived in Washington for my hearing the day after the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs, Tex. I heard about it when I got off the plane from England, a country with effective gun control and minimal gun violence. As a devout Christian, a parent, a doctor and an American, I was deeply troubled by yet another loss of innocent lives, this time in the sanctity of a house of worship.
I was jet-lagged! Sad! I’m a devout Christian! I wasn’t in my right mind! WHY CAN’T THEY JUST LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!
I gotta say that’s not the best defense for a man who wants — make that wanted to be principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense for health issues; the guy in charge of administering the Military Health System’s $4.3 billion dollar annual budget. A defense for the following outburst:
Then, I blurted out what was in my heart: “I’d also like to . . . just say how insane it is that in the United States of America a civilian can go out and buy a semiautomatic weapon like an AR-15.” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) interrupted, warning this was not in my “area of responsibility or expertise.” Soon after, my confirmation was put on hold.
Hang on. If the Colonel “blurted out” what was “in his heart” when he pissed on the Second Amendment to the Constitution — a document he’d sworn to protect and defend during his military career — then he said what he meant, right? And how!
I am a marksman, rated expert in both the M-9 pistol and the M-16 rifle (the fully automatic military version of the AR-15). During one of my tours in Iraq, I spent hours with my Special Operations forces colleagues who were training Iraqi teams on our base, firing an array of military weapons. Using a powerful gun at a firing range is a real blast, and I support civilians experiencing that thrill at licensed ranges.
What a punny guy! And isn’t that nice of him to support our right to fire a “powerful gun,” at a gun range, under licensed supervision?
However, as commander of an Air Force hospital in Baghdad during the surge, I have seen what these weapons do to human beings. The injuries are devastating. In addition, because of their high muzzle velocities, assault weapons are challenging for untrained civilians to control and are not optimal for home defense. A pump-action 12-gauge shotgun, with its excellent stopping power, would be far better.
Are these “devastating injuries” caused by “assault weapons” more devastating than the injuries created by larger caliber handguns? ‘Cause ARs sure are a lot less common when it comes to criminal activity; rifles account for three percent of all firearms-related homicides.
But I guess we can safely say that AR-15s are FAR more dangerous than 12-gauge shotguns . . .
Even with imperfect aim, a shotgun will hit its target, while the pellets won’t go through a wall to endanger someone in the next room. Assault rifles are also poor hunting weapons due to low accuracy beyond 100 yards.
Fake news! Or, if you prefer, an idiot’s ignorance revealed. By his own hand, no less. In The Washington Post, of all places.
Heads up, WaPo after-the-fact fact checkers! Depending on the load, 12-gauge shotgun pellets DO go through walls (quite easily in fact). And AR-15s make excellent hunting weapons, some well beyond 100 yards.
But with a standard 30-round magazine, assault rifles are perfect for mass murder. From 1995 to 2004, assault weapons were severely restricted in the United States. During that time, mass shootings were far less frequent — 1.6 compared with 4.2 per year after the ban lapsed in 2005.
The experience in Australia is even more dramatic: No mass shootings have occurred there since assault weapons were outlawed in 1996. Assault weapons in the United States are not being used to kill “bad guys” in self-defense or to provide for a “well-regulated militia” but for entertainment, mass murder and domestic terrorism. Is this really the intent of the Second Amendment?
What drugs is this man taking, and is my tax money paying for them? Or did the Colonel simply drink some anti-gun Kool-Aid back when he was attending Delaware’s Dover High School, “where students respect and accept diversity in a multicultural setting”?
Colonel Winslow finishes his diatribe by channeling his inner Edith Piaf:
I have no regrets. Having semiautomatic weapons makes no sense. It is a public-health issue that, as a doctor, I felt compelled to bring to the Senate’s attention. As a citizen, I am saddened that our government has become so dominated by pro-gun lobbyists that an appointment such as mine — which has no responsibility for gun control — can be sidelined by a single sentence of informed, personal opinion. And that really is insane.
Or is it a sign that our system of government works, at least occasionally?
He is just another dick-head f******g wannabe politician. However, he seeks the APPOINTED position, not elected. Answers to NO ONE!
He was born female, you know. Trump’s fault. There’s a lawsuit in there somewhere.
He used to be a Doctor. Now he’s just another lying, self serving politician. And nowhere near as smart as he thinks he is.
Methinks freedom in America just dodged a bullet. This guy is an authoritarian, if not an outright fascist, at heart. That’s something even McCain picked up on. Good for him.
Fuck that oath breaking POS, and good riddance to bad rubbish.
What’s he complaining about? THIS is the very PURPOSE of holding a Senate confirmation hearing in the first place!
^That right there^
The whole point (supposedly)is to get into the prospect’s head and see if they know how to read the Constitution.
He failed.
🤠
F him
He doesn’t get it and never will This is what working for the gov. For most of you life can do to your brain.
I see he’s gone back to the old gun-control circular logic of “It’s so hard to operate that you have to be highly trained but it makes murder easy in even untrained hands!”.
This guy is what George Carlin would have called “stunningly and embarrassingly full of shit”.
Agreed. I have never understood this leap of logic. “It isn’t that effective a weapon,” “it is too dangerous for civilians.”
Which is it? It can’t be both.
I left the AF at the time PC was becoming de rigueur. The politicization of the senior officer corps was no longer a guess. Have horror stories for anyone interested, but I digress.
The non-combat elements were being overlooked for promotion in favor of those officers with multiple degrees, and zero combat experience. The “planners” (program office types) were receiving the bulk of promotions “in the zone” and “below the zone”. The “operators” (combat missions) were considered the blessed recipients of the enlightened academic types (i.e. doesn’t take much brain power to pull the trigger).
In the years since my (I’m sure) most welcomed departure, the horror stories continued. There are officers walking around who would have been drummed out of service in the days before my commissioning. The theory seemed to be, wars only come around now and then, careers are to be made “playing” the promotion game.
(Note: there was a high level AF general in charge of combat forces in Desert Storm (a former combat pilot himself) who did not know the difference between “strategic” and “tactical” targets (the general thought “strategic” was associated solely with nuclear weapons, and said so in public).
Do not take senior military officers seriouly on any subject outside their education.
Ever.
I hear ya Sam I Am! I retired from the USAF in ’98 after 21 years of service. I had previously wanted to do a full 30, but the intrusive PC BS that was rapidly growing changed my mind. Since my retirement, I’ve heard many, many stories that made it absolutely apparent that I made the correct decision.
Sometimes I wonder “what if?” Then I wonder “what if? I had stayed. The balance is that leaving was the best decision. I have had three “careers” since. Heck of a ride.
Sam, while I agree with your overall analysis (I retired in ’91), it does not apply to this jackwad. He is a doctor, not a line officer, was never a 2lt, for example, did not compete for promotions at all, very possibly was never promoted, started and completed career as a Col. The fact that he has drunk the Kool-Aide of assuming that a medical degree allows him to declare that firearms are somehow his business, exposes him as completely unqualified for a job which requires him to know his business. Still, I am shocked (and pleased) that a Senate committee did its job so promptly and efficiently. Maybe he could take over the Demanding mofos organization.
But he’s spent time on the range. He’s shot a M-16. He knows that the maximum effective range is just 100 yards.
Yah, he impresses me just so much. Say, tell me again what kind of gun that was killing dozens of people at 600 yards in Vegas? What a loser. Thank you, John McCain.
Wow – McCain got one right for a change? Kudos to the guy.
Maybe half a kudo…
He did, after all, lay his own neck on the chopping block and handed John an axe… so…
🤠
Must have been the tumor talking.
That one sentence made it clear that Winslow is emotionally impulsive and that he either doesn’t take his military commissioned officer’s oath seriously or is too dim-witted to understand that his position on gun owner control is inconsistent with the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution he swore to support and defend.
Critique:
– Winslow demonstrated poor judgement by not limiting his answers, and posing his personal philosophy where an academic discussion was not at hand
– Winslow was not prepared to engage in heavy intellectual exercise (jet lagged), and could have made provisions to improve his alertness upon arrival in the US
– Winslow was more concerned that he virtue signal his PC credentials, than in supporting the Trump agenda; it was all about Winslow, not the appointed subordinate position (often a character flaw in senior officers who are accustomed to “commanding”)
– Winslow did not understand he was being interviewed as a potential staff officer to the Commander In Chief
Trump is getting very poor (if not dangerous) advice on his appointments: re his really bad recent nominees for federal court positions, where the nominees has zero trial experience, and could not hold forth on basic judicial/legal concepts.
He said he was going to “drain the swamp”, but too many of his appointments make it look like he’s dredging up toxic sludge from it instead.
I cannot say you are wrong in several cases.
A rare occasion where the Senate did something commendable…
Has his nomination been revoked? If not, why not?
I’m calling BS on this F$&@ stick oath breaking POS who wraps himself in his uniform in order to try and give legitimacy to his anti gun bullsh%t.
First off idk what the hell M16’s he’s used but the M16 hasn’t been fully automatic since 1985 when the M16A2 was introduced. Second if they’re so inaccurate at over 100 meters then why the hell am I able to hit pop up targets at 300? Third they’re easier to handle than a shotgun and the 5.56 is far more controllable than a 12-gauge shotgun.
And in closing to the good colonel, I qualified Expert on the M16 myself last time I went to the range, and you obviously don’t any sort of military doctrine. You sold your soul to the gun grabbers to try and weasel your way into a position of power to further their agenda, so f&@$ you, a£%*+•#! And no, you’re not in the military anymore so I’m not calling you sir.
And the only thing I apologize for is how all over the place my reply is.
And if anyone wants to accuse me of being a valor thief, I’m not a badass, I’m just a reservist who’s been in since 2008, and I’m an 88M (previously a 91D).
Note at the time of this comment I am qualified as Expert. Hopefully the next time I go to the range I’ll shoot Expert again.
And hopefully I won’t get in trouble for this post. I just hate it that this guy wants to try and establish credibility right before he tries to grab veterans’ guns.
I really had to laugh at the “inaccurate over 100 metres” remark. I recall being able to keep 8 of 10 shots into a 6″ v-bull zone at 300m using yellow box Norinco .223 with a stock AR15 SP1, slick side upper and slab side lower. The other two would have been in a 10″ circle. Iron sights and off the elbows using only a sling for support.
Obviously the “Colonel” thinks us mere civilians are just raw recruits who need some applied discipline and brutality.
The M16A3 is automatic. That’s what we had in the Navy when I was active duty. It’s basicly an A2 upper slapped on an A1 lower. One of the rifles in my sub’s small arms locker was actually marked XM-16E1 indicating it was manufactured in 1964. This was in the late 2000s-early 2010s.
The M16A3 is also only used by the Navy IIRC and even then it’s a unicorn, and I doubt an Air Force medical officer was issued one in Iraq.
But I did forget about that one, thanks for reminding me.
Good.
If you like the UK so much, emigrate.
I was just wondering if “banishment” was something we could utilize here, but then the receiving country has to agree to take the banished…
I like how he was sure to include the loaded statement about lower “gun crime” in England, sure it’s lower… so what? What’s the current rate on aggravated assault? Robbery? Rape? Burglary?
Yeah, we figured that, right?
Set him out to sea on a life raft with a weeks provisions. If God wants him to live it’s in his hands.
In the America I’d want to live in, this filthy cuck would be summarily executed. And yes, I’m serious. But I’ll settle for being settisoned from all forms of public service.
And here I thought that all the douchebags were Navy.
Yeah, but they’re all inter-service transfers.
Hung by his tongue…seriously braindead. Using jet-lag as an excuse. Oh well doofus gets a cushy pension and benefits 😖
I was politely messaging this sack of crap using Facebook’s message feature pointing out where he was “wrong” on firearm ownership by citizens, he’s a friggin’ coward, not once did he reply but what else are we to expect from an “academic”, since leaving the service he’s been working at California’s Stanford University certainly not a hot bed of Constitution and Bill of Rights supporters by any means.
F-’em he’s gone, hopefully the next nominee will be more in line with OUR thinking if not we will torpedo his appointment too.
It’s amazing they wouldn’t want to hire someone detached from facts and reality or is a flat out liar to run their organization. If only other appointees were so lucky.
This shit of equivocating US gun crime and stats to the UK and Australia really grinds my gears. It’s a false equivalence. From a cultural standpoint, much of Europe’s bizarre gun-laws and traditions are entrenched in fascist/socialist and earlier oligarchic police-state controls. Secondly, both the UK and Australia while at a glance are culturally similar to the US, they are not nearly the “cultural melting pot” the US was and remains, and both are island nations. Bluntly, neither share a border with what is essentially a Third World country, usually ranked near the top of the list for global danger and political corruption.
“Bluntly, neither share a border with what is essentially a Third World country, usually ranked near the top of the list for global danger and political corruption.”
This may be true in the literal sense, but Indonesia & Papua New Guinea are so close to Australia they may as well be sharing a border.
Nope. 50+ miles of open ocean isn’t anywhere close to sharing a land border. Ask the French and British about WWII.
I wonder if such treason was met with mandatory summary execution and the forfeiture of life, if these filthy, subhuman Liberal Terrorists™️ Would be so nonchalant with other people’s inalienable,Constitutional Rights? It’s time we start torturing these cucks until they breathe their last breaths. Perhaps we need to reintroduce drawing and quartering again.
I think you are being a little hard on Canada
@Evan
I think you are being a little hard on Canada
Ha! I think we all know I was referring to the Mexican border, although with the way a lot of Canadians are voting, it may not be long until they are a Third World country…
Seriously though, most Canadians in my experience are alright; but their gun laws are a little strange and they totally lack any introspection on the fact that their PC wannabe-European culture can and only does exist because they sit North of the USA; and as such they throw much of the costs of being an independent nation onto the US (ie virtually insignificant border control costs, Defense spending (usually around 15th or so worldwide, below Italy and Australia), their healthcare system… I could go on…
“Soon after, my confirmation was put on hold.”
Good.
Another moron who tries to hide behind military credentials as if they mean anything in the context of guns. Dumbass was in the Air Force, for starters. And while there are some high-speed guys, he wasn’t close to one of them.
The fact that he thinks a shotgun is easier to handle than an AR-15 (NOT AN M16) means he obviously doesn’t know how to stay in his lane and should have any career in public service spiked.
For all of us who served our oath has no experation date. To bad we can not charge him with conduct unbecome of a officer.
He’s a devout Christian AND a doctor?? I better watch what I say here, but as far as the doctor BS, why the hell didn’t someone HAMMER HIS ASS HARD about the 400,000 + deaths in the US that are caused by preventable medical mistakes?
While clearly not appropriate, I would have an undying urge to inform to him of that statistic and further to STFU with obvious disdain in my voice directed towards him.
I tell you, there’s really something to be said for looking at someone right square in the eyes and with ice cold sincerity and telling them to SHUT THE F*CK UP.
Personally, anyone who can be a devout Christian is damn weak anyway. All religions are total BS
God: a Santa Claus for grown ups!
Though many Christians in fact treat God as “Santa Claus for grownups”, anyone who’s actually read and paid attention to the Bible knows that approach is a con game by “preachers” looking to get money from people. In reality the obligations in following Christ are such that society is still a couple of thousand years behind.
“I, Dean Winslow, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
Breaking that oath should be good enough reason to kick him out entirely. He should be grateful his career was merely held back.
I’m pretty sure you guys meant to say that rifles account for 2% of homicides, not 20%.
Yeah, I thought 20% sounded high.
All long guns including shotguns.
Go back to the UK and don’t come back.
“England, a country with effective gun control and minimal gun violence”
That is amusing and a flat out lie.
Don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya!
So, how does a Colonel suddenly get on the short list for a government appointment? When I was in the USAF (Secuirty Police), retiring at Colonel usually meant that the officer pissed somebody off or failed to meet some standard that would allow him to progress to General. Judging by his attitude, he was probably a “Major Burns” type officer too.
And he was a doctor. Other than a war zone, I doubt he handled a firearm more than once a year for qualification. He is probably the least qualified person from any military career field to claim any expertise about firearms. I know 10 year old children who know more about guns than military doctors.
Expert? That means squat. He managed to get above a certain score at his once-a-year qualification. So what. Getting an expert marksmanship score does not make a person an expert on guns.
But he once spent a few hours on the range with some AFSOC types! That alone makes him a SME on the subject. I bet they were pretty pissed they had to host a few REMF’s for some trigger time at a range on their day off.
At the CATM range at basic (yes, Air Force but I went AFSOC so there’s that) one guy qualified Expert because the guy next to him lost his sight picture and reacquired his neighbors target and fired the rest of his string at it. Guy shot a 43/40. CATM guys were under a time crunch and refused to allow the two guys to re-qualify.
There are very, very few general officer slots in the Medical Corps (regardless of branch of service). Towards the last of my service, the AF was recruiting specialist doctors with entry rank of Colonel, regardless of age. One of my bases boasted a Colonel as a Flight Surgeon, even though he was not the senior medical Colonel. Medical Corps rank and line officer ranks do not reflect any equivalency of capability or experience.
Decries what 5.56×45 does to a human body, praises the stopping power of a 12-gauge shotgun. How did you think it stopped people, genius? Inspiring oratory? Well-lit signage?
Still waiting on the TTAG comment like or upvote button for moments like this.
Perhaps he confused Trump for just shoot ’em through the front door Biden.
I find the “a 12 gauge will work just fine for home defense” argument hilarious. Anyone who tells you that has obviously never touched off some 00 buck indoors.
“ … assault weapons are challenging for untrained civilians to control and are not optimal for home defense … “
Liar. The M-16 was designed specifically to enable kids (seventeen-year-olds) to easily master basic marksmanship skills along and its manual of arms. No wonder you were passed over.
Sounds like a M.A.S.H. whiner. Take a bunch of whiney diuchebag anti-war / anti-gun / anti-American pontificators who [privately] don’t like/enjoy the company of women and try to make them sound cool, and relevant, by theowing in glib humor and feigned womanizing.
Ruined a big bunch of future generations, just like communist Hollywood meant for it to.
Haha! Good old Shotgun Joe strikes again!
Rifles are not responsible for 20 percent of homicides — according to most recent FBI numbers, it is barely over 3 percent. https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/expanded-homicide-data/expanded_homicide_data_table_8_murder_victims_by_weapon_2010-2014.xls
Can’t believe TTAG would botch this one.
Late night. Text amended. Thanks for the link!
Let me help the Colonel out:
Australia: Firearms ownership is a privilege that has to be requested from the state in the form of a license.
America: Firearms ownership is a right that the state is restricted from infringing upon.
Actually it’s a right in Australia, too, it’s just that the government won’t let people exercise it freely.
The moment we say it’s not a right in one place we have conceded that it isn’t really a right.
☞The experience in Australia is even more dramatic: No mass shootings have occurred there since assault weapons were outlawed in 1996 ☜
that’s a DAMN lie!
he’s just broken one of the Ten Commandments… bearing false witness
so much for his “Christianity” !
there have been several shootings in AUstralia since the illegal 1996/1997 gun-grab with fatalities in excess of four……that qualifies as a mass shooting….
further-more, most of the mass shootings that supposedly occurred in AUstralia over a ¼-of-a-century from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s have been identified as blatant hoaxes….in particular, the infamous “Port Arthur massacre”;
of the dozen-or-so “mass shootings” during that period, only two (the Milpeara bikie ‘shoot-out’ in the early 1980s and the Hoddle street shootings in the late 1980s), have any real credibility as actual occurrences…..
mean-while, most AUssies live in abject fear of armed, violent home invaders, out-of-control hoons, terrorist thugs running amok and ultra-violent, African ‘gangs’ (cf: the Apex Gang) robbing businesses, assaulting people in the streets, in parks and @ beaches ….. where families go to relax in the warmer weather..
violent crime has exploded in AUstralia in the last 15-odd yrs b’cs of Howard’s bogus gun-grab laws….
AUstralia is, now, little better than a control-freak/terror state with the av. AUssie not knowing from one-day-to-the-next if they will be maimed or killed by out-of-control, heavily armed thugs…..with most AUssie cops being corrupt and totally useless ….
and with the main AUssie pro-gun orgs being overwhelmed and infiltrated by under-cover cops and intelligence agencies who either sabotage any move to repeal the draconian gun laws or take over the top echelons of those pro-gun orgs…..
mean-while: the politicians are corrupt scum…..illegally and un-constitutionally changing electoral laws and using blatant gerry-mandering and voting fraud to stay in office when the majority of the population want them out!
AUstralia is, now, a nightmare state……
You gave us a Flakebook link? Seriously??
limited accuracy beyond 100 meters? Dafuq they teaching these recruits nowadays? When I was in we still qualified out to 300 meters and we still zeroed for 300 meters. Oh by the way fly boy the m16 is not full auto ever since the A2 they’ve been 3 round burst also those rounds aren’t devastating I’ve seen charging jihadis take well over 10 rounds and keep charging.
I see that no on has commented on the most outrageous statement in his testimony.
“I’d also like to . . . just say how insane it is that in the United States of America a civilian can go out and buy a semiautomatic weapon like an AR-15.”
He reaffirms this in the op-ed:
“Having semiautomatic weapons makes no sense. It is a public-health issue that, as a doctor, I felt compelled to bring to the Senate’s attention.”
So, it’s not “assault weapons” and its not .223 caliber weapons, it’s all semiautomatic weapons. In other words he wants to send us all back to the nineteenth century. Now, I’m a revolver guy, myself, but I do understand that not everyone agrees with me on choice of handgun. I was also a big Chuck Connors fan when I was a kid, but as cool as that Winchester was, I don’t really see why that should define the limits of firearms technology available to the citizenry.
“Even with imperfect aim, a shotgun will hit its target, while the pellets won’t go through a wall to endanger someone in the next room. Assault rifles are also poor hunting weapons due to low accuracy beyond 100 yards.”
Absolutely everything you have said here is wrong.
“But with a standard 30-round magazine, assault rifles are perfect for mass murder. From 1995 to 2004, assault weapons were severely restricted in the United States. During that time, mass shootings were far less frequent — 1.6 compared with 4.2 per year after the ban lapsed in 2005.”
How many per year before they were banned?
Oh wait that would disrupt the narrative.
Fuck off and die, Winslow.
If She was president he’d be in a top position somewhere.
Under her desk is not a “top position.”
Mccain did something right?
That might be a first…
This Ass Hat takes an oath and wipes his backside with the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Now living fat and happy off his taxpayer funded retirement, while giving law abiding LEGAL American citizens the finger. No Ship this rat off to N Korea, forever.
Just send him back to Bongland if he likes it there so much.
I’ve watched videos on YouTube where even the el cheapo PSA AR15 can hit targets at 600 to 1000 yards repeatedly.
Feels compelled to decry the ability of US Citizens to own AR-15s, yet completely ignores the fact that his service (the Air Farce) facilitated the Sutherland Springs shooter obtaining his weapons by their systematic failure to report service members convicted of violent felonies to the FBI for inclusion into the NICS. Dumb enough to continue his rant even when warned by a US Senator that he was way out of line.
Target Practice.
“A pump-action 12-gauge shotgun, with its excellent stopping power, would be far better.”
“The experience in Australia is even more dramatic: No mass shootings have occurred there since assault weapons were outlawed in 1996.”
OOPS!
Australia also BANNED and CONFISCATED all pump action shotguns as “assault weapons” in 1996.
So he’s upset that his career was “spiked” after he violated his oath and called for policies further violating his oath and violating both The Constitution and the natural rights of its citizens. I can see where he’d be miffed.
FTA: “True story! Retired Air Force Colonel Dean L. Winslow was the aspiring Assistant Secretary of Defense for eadsealth Affairs.”
For what?
I think “eadsealth” is ancient Gaelic. 😉
Comments are closed.