Month: September 2016

Uncategorized

GRNC-PVF TweaksThe Blue Noses (Updated)

September 30, 2016 by
blue·nose
ˈblo͞onōz/
noun

informal
plural noun: blue-noses
  1. 1.
    US
    a priggish or puritanical person.
    “the most restrictive, bluenose standards”
  2. 2.
    a person from Nova Scotia.

 Grass Roots North Carolina – Political Victory Fund is holding a fund-raising raffle to support its efforts to defeat anti-gun candidates in the November election. The winner gets a Palmetto State Armory M-4 configured AR-15, 1,000 rounds of high quality ammunition, AND a free portrait of Hillary Clinton. Tickets are $10 each, 3/$25, 7/$50 or 15/$100.

GRNC-PVF says of the Clinton portrait, “Of course, we won’t tell you what to do with the photo, but when we ran a picture of Hillary on the front of our newsletter, we heard it was very popular at the range.” They note that if Hillary is elected on November 8th, panic buying will go into full swing on November 9th.

As you can imagine, the blue noses in the media are wailing and gnashing their teeth over this raffle.

CBS News ran a short feature on the raffle.

As to NC Policy Watch, which bills itself as the “the progressive pulse” and who suggests North Carolina legislators should emulate the recent California “gunpocalypse”, they said:

In the name of all that is decent in our country, the terribly troubled souls behind this need to take it down immediately and apologize as well. What’s more, Donald Trump, Gov. Pat McCrory, Senator Richard Burr, Sen. Buck Newton and all other conservative politicians who have attempted to make gun ownership an issue in their campaigns should disavow the group ASAP.

In an update, WRAL-TV Raleigh ran GRNC President Paul Valone’s response as well as the response from the executive director of Americans for Responsible Solutions PAC.

Paul Valone, president of Grass Roots NC, tells WRAL News that ticket sales are coming in “briskly.” He said attention the group has received over the past 24 hours from writers for national media outlets who perceive the fundraiser as an implicit threat against Clinton is unwarranted.

“No reasonable person with a basic understanding of the English language could possible construe any sort of threat or encouragement from that basic message,” Valone said Thursday.

Meanwhile, Peter Ambler, executive director of Americans for Responsible Solutions PAC, which was formed by former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, said the raffle is ill-conceived.

“This dangerous stunt just further degrades the debate on gun safety that our country needs,” Ambler said in an email. “North Carolina voters and law-abiding gun owners everywhere deserve a lot better.”

If I didn’t know better I’d say Paul Valone has been reading Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. This raffle is right out of Rule No. 6 – “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” The hyperbole from the other side is right up there with the suggestion that Donald Trump wants Hillary Clinton assassinated because he suggested she go without armed protection like the average citizen.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some raffle tickets to buy.

UPDATE: It looks like this story is starting to go viral…as are ticket sales. According to Sean Sorrentino on Facebook, the GRNC server is in meltdown status from all the ticket orders.

The Demanding Mommies


Puffington Host

New York Post

(London) Daily Mail

Daily Beast

Talking Points Memo

Daily Kos (which calls GRNC a “Republican gun club” which they are not)


Sacramento Bee

News 1 Korea


International Business Times UK

NY Daily News


The Independent (UK)

Policy.MIC

Cue the outrage machine so GRNC-PVF can keep selling raffle tickets to defeat Deborah Ross, Roy Cooper, and Josh Stein.

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My Presentation At GRPC 2016

September 29, 2016 by 1 Comment

I was invited to be a speaker at the 2016 Gun Rights Policy Conference that was held this past weekend in Tampa, Florida. Like last year, the panel topic was using New Media to Advance Gun Rights.

Below is the draft that I planned to present before I had to start cutting for time.

Hi. I’m John Richardson.


I blog at the gun blog No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money and have done so since 2010.


Last year when I spoke on using new media to advance gun rights, I told about how my blog got started and then gave examples of how bloggers and citizen journalists had used new media to advance gun rights. This year I want to speak to you about how you can use new media to advance our civil rights and freedoms.


By a show of hands, how many people here have a Facebook account? Or a Twitter account? Or both?


(That’s great! We’re getting there!)


We are in a political and cultural war to save our civil rights and freedoms from the gun control industry. This used to be merely the Brady Campaign and a few under-funded splinter groups.


That was then, this is now.


The gun control industry has morphed into an unholy alliance of academia, left-wing politicians, big media including Hollywood, pro bono lawyers from mega firms, progressive foundations and think-tanks, and so-called gun safety groups. The gun control industry has gotten smarter, savvier, and definitely better funded thanks to anti-freedom billionaires like Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates among others.


Add into this mix the Democrat’s nominee for president who considers us a “basket of deplorable” and irredeemable. Hillary has declared war on us and on the gun culture – both versions 1.0 and 2.0.


This unholy alliance seeks to marginalize us. To say that we are on the fringe and that the numbers of gunowners are declining. To portray us as toothless, uneducated white rednecks. That we are not Mainstream America.
So how do we fight these well-funded forces that want to strip us of our freedoms?


We take the battle to them! We can’t afford full-page ads in major newspapers or on television but we can wage an effective guerrilla war using the tools of the Internet and New Media. We must become like the Mujahideen against the Soviets or the French Maquis against the Nazis. We hit them hard and we hit them fast. Like in judo, we use the weight of their money and their Establishment ties against them.
This past Sunday, Tom Gresham on Gun Talk Radio said everyone should have four tools – Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and email. The Missouri Firearms Coalition told how they used Facebook Live to keep pressure on politicians to override Jay Nixon’s veto of constitutional carry. It worked and Missouri now is the 11th state with constitutional carry.


I agree with Tom on the use of those tools but I wouldn’t limit myself to just those four. I’d add in Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, Reddit, and Google Plus. Pick one or two of these tools and teach yourself how to use them. If you have trouble learning them, ask your kids or grandkids for help!


When you take a new shooter to the range, post pictures of the trip on Facebook and Instagram. If you happen across a funny meme that skewers anti-gunners, post it on Tumblr or Pinterest. When you view an interesting gun related video on YouTube, post it to Facebook, to Tumblr, to Pinterest, to Twitter. If you feel like you can share your expertise, then become active on Reddit or one of the many Facebook or Internet gun forums. You don’t have to be an author – you just need to like, share, and repost what others have written. Take is a step further and follow Shannon Watts on Twitter and then contest her lies.


What we are doing as individuals when we do all of this is normalizing the ownership and use of firearms for recreation and self-defense. When a non-gunny coworker who is a Facebook friend sees us having fun shooting, they may ask you to take them to the range. That more than anything will inoculate them against the lies of the gun control industry.


I want to recognize my friend Erin Palette and her Operation Blazing Sword. After the murders at the Pulse nightclub, she went on Facebook and offered to take any LGBTQ person who wanted to learn to shoot safely to the range. For free. Trainers, ranges, and mere gun owners deluged her with offers to take people to the range on their own dime. They didn’t ask about sexual orientation. They only saw good people being attacked. Using Google Maps, she posted their contact info and how a LGBTQ person could get training. As of this week, Operation Blazing Sword has 1270 trainers across the country on that map.


One final thought on using New Media to advance and protect our gun rights. Learn the left’s playbook aka Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals and use those guerrilla tactics against them. Especially Rule No. 4 – Make the enemy live up to its own rules.


Thank you for your time today.

Now here is what I actually said. Like I said, I had to edit it down for time. I also tried to add some things that I had heard on Saturday of the conference.

Hi. I’m John Richardson.

I have the gun blog No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money.

Last year when I spoke on using new media to advance gun rights, I told about how my blog got started and then gave examples of how bloggers and citizen journalists had used new media to advance gun rights. This year I want to speak to you about how you can use new media to advance our civil rights and freedoms.

We are in a political and cultural war to save our civil rights and freedoms from the gun control industry. This used to be merely the Brady Campaign and a few under-funded splinter groups.

That was then, this is now.

The gun control industry has morphed into an unholy alliance of academia, left-wing politicians, big media including Hollywood, pro bono lawyers from mega firms, progressive foundations, and so-called gun safety groups. The gun control industry has gotten smarter, savvier, and definitely better funded.

This unholy alliance seeks to marginalize us. To say that we are on the fringe and that the numbers of gunowners are declining. To portray us as toothless, uneducated white rednecks. That we are not Mainstream America.

So how do we fight these well-funded forces that want to strip us of our freedoms?

We take the battle to them! We can’t afford full-page ads in major newspapers or on television but we can wage an effective guerrilla war using the tools of the Internet and New Media. We hit them hard; we hit them fast. Like in judo, we use the weight of their money and their Establishment ties against them.

This past Sunday, Tom Gresham on Gun Talk Radio said everyone should have four tools – Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and email.

I agree with Tom on the use of those tools but I wouldn’t limit myself to just those four. I’d add in Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, Reddit, Google Plus, and whatever else is out there. Pick one or two of these tools and teach yourself how to use them. If you have trouble learning them, ask your kids or grandkids for help!

When you take a new shooter to the range, post pictures of the trip on Facebook and Instagram. If you happen across a funny meme that skewers anti-gunners, post it on Tumblr or Pinterest. When you view an interesting gun related video on YouTube, post it to Facebook, to Tumblr, to Pinterest, to Twitter. You don’t have to be an author – you just need to like, share, and repost what others have written. As Tom Gresham told me yesterday, you need to become an amplifier.

What we are doing as individuals when we do all of this is normalizing the ownership and use of firearms for recreation and self-defense. When a non-gunny coworker who is a Facebook friend sees us having fun shooting, they may ask you to take them to the range. That more than anything will inoculate them against the lies of the gun control industry.

You heard from Rick Ector yesterday on the power of social media to reach out to women. My friend Erin Palette used it after the Pulse nightclub shooting to reach out to the LGBTQ community. Her Operation Blazing Sword now has 1,270 trainers on an interactive Google Maps doc who have offered to take a gay person to the range for firearm familiarization. For free!

One final thought on using New Media to advance and protect our gun rights. Learn the left’s playbook aka Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals and use those guerrilla tactics against them. Especially Rule No. 4 – Make the enemy live up to its own rules.

Thank you for your time today.

Charles Heller of Liberty Watch Radio recorded the whole conference and has posted them here.

The link to the MP3 of the New Media panel is here. It is self starting.

If anyone would like to make suggestions on things I should have considered, please (please!!!) leave comments.

Additional research and editing on for this provided by Barb Richardson.

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Why We Fight To Get Rid Of Pistol Purchase Permits

September 28, 2016 by 1 Comment

It looks like things are starting to settle down in Charlotte after the recent violence. You may have noticed some of the stories that referenced local citizens rushing out to buy firearms. Of course my readeers know that you should have the means to armed self-defence before the SHTF.

According to a spokesperson for Hyatt Gun Shop most of the purchases were for 12-gauge shotguns and buckshot. What was never mentioned in these stories is the purchase of a handgun in North Carolina requires either a pistol purchase permit or a NC Concealed Handgun Permit. Absent one of those two documents, you were legally restricted to purchasing a long gun. This is true even if it was a private sale.

While the Alan Gura’s win in Bateman overturned the previous restrictions on possession of a firearm outside the home during a state of emergency as well as the restriction on firearm sales, we are still stuck with the Jim Crow-era pistol purchase permit.

Grass Roots North Carolina has been fighting the battle to get the permit system repealed for a number of years. They sent out the following alert yesterday afternoon requesting people contact both Gov. Pat McCrory (R-NC) and his Democratic opponent Attorney Gen. Roy Cooper (D-NC) urging them to support repeal of this system.

DELAYS IMPERIL CITIZENS
As Charlotte burned, the Jim Crow-era bureaucracy denied gun
purchases to the terrorized . . .

Aficionados of Natural rights know that free citizens should not be
forced to obtain permission slips from the bureaucracy before exercising
their
protected rights. In fact, it has always been GRNC’s position that
archaic and shameful laws designed to deny citizens their rights, like
the
Jim Crow-era Pistol Purchase Permit (PPP), must be eradicated. With all
of GRNC’s moral arguments and its unceasing effort to eliminate the PPP
system, never before has the need to discard this old-fashioned and
embarrassing legality been so obvious—and so critical.

A Right
Delayed is a Life put in Peril

As you may be aware, several
counties around the state, including Mecklenburg County, have been using
bureaucratic loopholes and high-demand for guns as an excuse to
severely
delay the issuance of PPPs and Concealed Handgun Permits (CHP).  Indeed,
it is true that, “a right delayed is a right denied.” However,
in the context of a city ravaged by violent rioters, it should also be said that, a right delayed is a life put in peril. As a small
but deviant portion of Charlotte’s populace, reinforced by out-of-state agitators,
attempted to raze Charlotte,
law-abiding and rightfully terrified citizens lined up to purchase
much-needed handguns to protect their families, only to be told, “no.”

These citizens were told that they would be barred from purchasing
defensive handguns until the weeks-long, and now often delayed, PPP
and/or CHP
process could be completed. The Sheriff and other law enforcement
officials are paid to protect and serve the citizens, and thank goodness
for the
officers on the street. However, it is ironic that the law enforcement
bureaucracy has been weighted to keep these same citizens from
protecting
themselves, particularly when the need is so immediate, and the
situation so dire.

In the context of riots, where citizens are at more risk than
ever
and law-enforcement is overwhelmed, laws delaying the citizen’s access
to defensive weapons serve only to empower the thugs, thugs who seek to
hurt these citizens and their livelihoods. This must end!

Below, see how
you can easily contact NC’s two contenders for governor. Remind them
that you have not forgotten about this critical issue. Let them know
that, even outside of the legislative season, this is an issue that is
worthy of
great attention, and gun owners will continue to monitor their actions
on this; and actions after November will speak louder than words spoken
before
November. Remind them that, ultimately, the requirement for PPPs and
CHPs (government “permission slips”) must be eliminated as a step
toward genuine rights-recognition for law-abiding citizens in North
Carolina.

IMMEDIATE ACTION
REQUIRED!

  • PHONE GOVERNOR
    McCRORY AND ATTORNEY GENERAL COOPER    : Use the phone numbers provided below, and tell them:

    I am calling to inform [The Governor / Mr.
    Cooper]
    that, at the same time deadly riots raged in Charlotte, frightened
    citizens were denied their right to obtain defensive handguns. This
    happened due to
    our state’s outdated Jim Crow-era Pistol Purchase Permit system and the
    weeks-long process to obtain a concealed handgun permit (CHP). This
    denial of civil rights has the potential to cost innocent lives, and it
    is entirely unacceptable. We must end these archaic and dangerous PPP
    and CHP
    systems, which only serve to put citizen’s lives in peril. I insist that
    this be addressed in the upcoming legislative session, and that [The
    Governor / Mr. Cooper] prioritize the repeal of these shameful and
    dangerous systems.

    Governor Pat
    McCrory:                  (919) 814-2000

    Attorney General Roy Cooper: (919) 716-6400

    (Candidate for Governor)

  • EMAIL GOVERNOR McCRORY AND ATTORNEY GENERAL
    COOPER    : Use the links to
    their web forms provided below, and the text provided under ‘Deliver this Message’ to send a message.

    Governor
    McRory’s Contact Web Form:
    https://governor.nc.gov/contact/email-governor

    Attorney General Cooper’s Contact Web Form:

    http://www.ncdoj.gov/getdoc/d1ba7632-eced-41be-945f-8c2015756efe/ContactNCDOJ.aspx

DELIVER THIS
MESSAGE

Suggested Subject: “Riots: PPP/CHP Permit Delays
Imperil Innocents”  

Dear [Governor McCrory]   /   [Attorney General Cooper]:

I am writing to
inform you that as deadly riots raged in Charlotte, frightened citizens
were denied their right to obtain defensive handguns. This denial of
rights,
which clearly put untold numbers of law-abiding citizens in peril, was
due to our state’s outdated Jim Crow-era Pistol Purchase Permit (PPP)
system, and the weeks-long process required to obtain a concealed
handgun permit (CHP).

In this context of civil unrest, it seems fitting to remind
our
state’s gubernatorial candidates that voters have not forgotten about
this critical issue. Even outside of the legislative season, this is an
issue that is worthy of great attention. The peaceful and law-abiding,
who clearly have reason to fear for their safety, will continue to
monitor your
actions on this issue. You must work to put an end to these archaic and
dangerous PPP and CHP systems, as it is your duty to protect the rights
of
North Carolina citizens, and not least among these is their right to
protect themselves.

As we saw last week, these PPP and CHP systems only serve
to
empower the unlawful and put innocent lives in peril. I insist that the
repeal of these embarrassing throw-backs be a priority of yours in the
upcoming legislative session. And please be aware: actions after
November will speak much louder than words spoken before November.

I will be watching
your actions on this topic through alerts from Grass Roots North Carolina.

Respectfully, 
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If You Get The Outdoor Channel…

September 28, 2016 by 2 Comments

If you subscribe to the Outdoor Channel (or have a friend who does), you will want to see the Best Defense tonight. It will feature their mass casualty event reenactment modeled on the Paris music hall terrorist attack. The goal was to find ways for you to survive such an event.

I don’t have the Outdoor Channel but I understand that the show will eventually be rebroadcast on their new My Outdoor TV (Shooting Gallery Online) digital network.

From Michael Bane:

THE BEST DEFENSE: MASS CASUALTY EVENT TO PREMIER THIS WEDNESDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER, ON OUTDOOR CHANNEL, 8:00 PM Eastern
Masonville,
CO — The two scariest words in the English language are “what it?”
There have been a dozen terror attacks in the United States in 2016;
“what if” you or your family are trapped in the worst case you can
imagine?
Award-winning
producers of THE BEST DEFENSE, Michael Bane and Jeff Murray, decided to
tackle that question head on in a compelling, and terrifying, special
premiering on OUTDOOR CHANNEL at 8:00 PM ET Wednesday, September 28,
encoring November 2 (Time to be announced).
“‘What
if’ is a simple question with a hellish answer,” said Bane. “Literally
days before the San Bernardino attacks, Jeff and I began discussing an
idea to create the most realistic terrorist attack simulation possible,
then use the tools we’ve developed in THE BEST DEFENSE over multiple
seasons to help people survive.”   
The
producers’ number one goal was to create a scenario so realistic that
it was hard to turn away. Working from the basics of the Paris concert
hall attacks, Bane and Murray reached out to both law enforcement and
military counterterrorism experts and trainers who studied mass casualty
events, THE BEST DEFENSE training team of Mike Seeklander and Michael
Janich, paramedics specializing in first response and even renowned
mental health experts to build the scenario and capture as much as
possible the reality of being trapped in a mass casualty attack.
“We
made the decision to use FX to make the scenario more realistic,” Bane
said. “We were lucky enough to have the help of the Larimer County (CO)
SWAT team and local paramedics. The Mass Casualty Event is certainly the
most complex sim I’ve ever been involved with.”
A
film team headed by award-winning documentarian Brandon Green shot the
whole event in ultra-high resolution 4K. Green worked with the FX team
to make every shot fired as realistic as possible.
“Essentially,
this is the most ‘vetted’ scenario we could build. Every move, every
action taken is based in reality and run through some of the most
knowledgeable experts in the world,” Bane said. “Even the crowd reaction
is based on cutting edge research from Dr. William Aprill…as each
‘extra’ arrived, that person was given a card explaining how he or she
should react when the attack started. We were lucky enough to have
Michael Janich’s highly trained cadre of martial arts experts to create
an even more realistic sim. In fact, our main ‘terrorist’ served in the
Israeli Defense Force as a sniper and Master Breacher, and is an expert
in counterterrorism techniques.” 
On-screen
experts, in addition to the TBD Team of Seeklander and Janich, include
Ken Hackathorn, considered one of the top firearms trainers in the
world; Gabe Suarez, probably the most experienced trainer in studying
and dissecting mass casualty events and teaching civilian response; Dr.
Dan Olesnicky, SWAT team physician, a first responder in terrorist
events and one of the leading trainers of tactical medicine; Dr. William
Aprill of Aprill Risk Consulting, considered the national expert on
criminal and terrorist mindset; former SEAL Jimmy Graham, who also
served as Lead Instructor for elite Federal Government Protective
details in high risk environments and presently heads up the Active
Shooter Response Training Center in the Denver area.
“Our
team is tremendously proud of this effort, and we thank OUTDOOR CHANNEL
for putting this information in front of so many people,” Bane said.
“Since we began planning for this special, there have been 12 terrorism
events in the United States and literally one a day around the world. We
believe this information is critical, and we hope our viewers never
have to use it.”
Uncategorized

We Need Hand Registration!

September 27, 2016 by 7 Comments

If you were a kid growing up in the Sixties (or maybe any era), there were always playground myths. One of the ones I remember was that if you had a Black Belt in Karate you were required to register your hands with the police. I think earlier generations may have had something similar about champion boxers.

Of course this was just a myth based partly on the unknown. Karate was considered strange and foreign and imbued with super-human effectiveness. You didn’t have karate as an Olympic sport then and you certainly didn’t have dojos on every corner training little kids in the martial arts so as to teach them self-discipline.

I bring this up because I saw an article by AWR Hawkins on the just released 2015 FBI Uniform Crime Reports.

According to the FBI, approximately 252 people were killed with rifles in 2015. Nearly twice that figure–approximately 595–were killed with “hands, fists, or feet, etc.”


These numbers are not unprecedented. Breitbart News reported that the FBI’s 2014 Uniform Crime Report showed the number of people killed with a rifle that year was approximately 251. Over twice that figure–approximately 670–were killed by being beaten to death with “hands, fists, or feet, etc.”

Looking at the individual states, you see places like New York, California, Massachusetts, and Maryland which highly regulate “assault weapons” with ratios as high as 20:1 of deaths by hands or feet when compared to deaths where a rifle was used. I suppose the gun prohibitionists would make the argument that you see such high ratios because of how these states regulate these “killing machines”.

This argument fails when  you see that virtually unregulated shotguns are used just as often as the murder weapon of choice as a rifle in those states. It has similarly high ratios when compared to deaths by hands and feet.

A quick glace at the state by state murder statistics tells me two things. First, the total number murdered in a state is highly dependent on the population of the state. Second, there are going to be states like Louisiana which are just outliers. They have a murder rate that is much greater proportionately than many other states. I don’t know Louisiana law but I’m thinking that great Southern rationale of  “he needed killing” might be a valid defense to the charge of murder there.

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Forget 1984 – I Feel Like It’s 1964 Again

September 26, 2016 by 1 Comment
I was seven years old and in 2nd Grade when Barry Goldwater and Lyndon Johnson faced off against one another. As historians and political junkies will remember, the campaign featured the famous (or infamous) “Daisy” ad which implied a vote for Barry Goldwater might result in nuclear war.
Fast forward 52 years to now. I watched an ad attacking Donald Trump that was eerily like that Daisy ad. It was produced and paid for by the pro-Clinton Super-PAC Priorities USA.

As much as things have changed over the last 52 years, there are some things that haven’t changed. Democratic presidential nominees and their surrogates just can’t help themselves when it comes to accusing Republicans of being warmongers. As things turned out, we can thank God that we didn’t have nuclear war despite the wide escalation of the war in South Vietnam under LBJ.

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“Don’t NYC My Maine Gun Rights”

September 24, 2016 by 1 Comment

My late father lived in Maine for many years after he retired from the Army. Even though he was a born and bred Tar Heel he was accepted by the locals. He lived in Medomak which is on Muscongus Bay.

I spent my (first) honeymoon in the Rangeley Region at a camp on Mooselookmeguntic Lake. Rosanne and I gave serious consideration to moving to Maine. We joined the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and took a local paper. We never did make the move but I still love the State of Maine. I guess that is why I am so afraid for them with Bloomberg’s money trying to buy gun control there.

Ginny Simone does a good job of showing how Bloomberg and his money is trying to buy the election. I’m glad that there are organizations like the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine. politicians like Gov. Paul LePage, and others like my friend Genie Jennings who will be speaking at GRPC fighting this tooth and nail.

Uncategorized

Livestream Of 2016 Gun Rights Policy Conference

September 23, 2016 by 1 Comment

The Polite Society Podcast will once again be Livestreaming the content of the Gun Rights Policy Conference. Not only will each session be featured but there will be interviews with many of the speakers. The conference begins tomorrow in Tampa at 8:30am. Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) will be giving a welcome around 9am according to the preliminary agenda.

We will be using YouTube for the streaming video of the event. The links for Day 1 and Day 2 are below. Paul Lathrop, Rob Morse, Rachel Malone, Gary Daugherty, and myself will be handling the hosting duties.

Sponsors of the livestream include the Firearms Policy Coalition, Ammoland.com, LFD Research, and Geeks Gadgets and Guns.

I will be again presenting at the Gun Rights Policy Conference on using new media to advance gun rights. That session begins at 10:20am on Sunday. I’ve written my presentation and will be practicing and editing it a few more times before Sunday.

Uncategorized

An Example Of How Universities Waste Money

September 22, 2016 by 10 Comments

I decided this spring to enroll in a graduate certificate program at Kansas State University related to financial planning. I thought the four classes in the certificate program would allow me to provide my clients with better planning advice.

After I started the first class, I got the following note that said I had to take a 45-minute, online “course” dealing with sexual violence and healthy relationship.

Hello John,
Course Due Date
Think About It: Graduate Students 7/22/2016
We know you’re excited about being at Kansas State University. To help create a safer global, online and on campus environment for you and other students, you must complete an online alcohol and sexual assault course referred as Think About It: Graduate Studentsfrom CampusClarity. YOU HAVE 20 DAYS FROM TODAY’S DATE TO COMPLETE THIS TRAINING.

Think About It: Graduate Students is an innovative, engaging, and informative online course, created with students for students. In the course, you will examine the interconnected issues of sexual violence and healthy relationships through a variety of interactive, realistic scenarios and guided self-reflection. The course promotes a healthier and safer university environment for all global, online and on campus students.

Think About It: Graduate Students takes about 45 minutes to complete. You can work at your own pace from any computer. You can leave and return to the course at any time, and when you return, it will open to the page where you left off. You may visit www.ksu.edu/asap for more information about ASAP or call the KSU Health Promotion Department at (785)532-6595.

The content of the sexual violence education portion ofThink About It: Graduate Students may be triggering for some individuals. Please direct triggering concerns and requests for alternative student training options to the KSU Center for Advocacy, Response and Education (CARE) at (785)532-6444 or email KSUCARE@ksu.edu prior to the first day of classes in the upcoming semester.

Please bear in mind while reading this that I live literally 1,000 miles from campus and am doing all the coursework online. I am also 59 years old, happily married, don’t binge drink, act respectfully towards both men and women (politicians excepted), and have a wonderful 19-month old granddaughter along with two equally wonderful stepdaughters. My Fortune 50 company requires me to take annual sexual harassment training which I believe trumps anything dealing with binge drinking and hook-up sex.

The KSU Center for Advocacy, Response and Education (CARE) had a prior name. It was the KSU Women’s Center. I would love to know how much it cost to develop this “course”, how much it costs to administer, and how much it costs the university to nag me about it.
I respectfully declined to take this “course”. I was referred to the Associate Dean and Director of Non-Violence Programs. This dean is the person who can make an exception to this federal mandate and works with “these students” as I was referred to in the e-mail chain.
I have made my request and am waiting to hear from the Associate Dean. In the meantime I received another missive stating that a “no enrollment hold” has been placed on me until I complete this “course” which has utterly no relevance to me or how I lead my life. To make sure I got the message, they included this all-caps line.

THIS HOLD WILL PREVENT YOU FROM REGISTERING FOR FUTURE CLASSES UNTIL YOU COMPLETE THE REQUIRED TRAINING.

I have already registered and paid for the fall course so this would only impact the final two courses for the certificate.
Frankly, I do not plan to cave or kow-tow to these social justice warriors in bureaucratic garb. Since this is a “federal mandate”, I figure a letter or call from the offices of my senators and congressman might make them back off. It doesn’t hurt that Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) is on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee or that Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10) is the Chief Majority Deputy Whip. I would hate to have to resort to that but you have to do what you have to do.

UPDATE: I discussed an exemption this morning by phone with the dean in question. My request for an exemption was summarily dismissed. I have made the decision to withdraw from the program, get my money back, and raise all holy hell over this nonsense. I entered the program as I wanted additional training with which to help my clients. It looks like any additional training will be on my own.