Words Matter

Americans, for the most part, don’t like to be controlled. It is part of our collective DNA and has been from the time the first English settlers arrived in Jamestown, continuing on through the westward expansion, and through to today. That is why the gun prohibitionists have begun to couch their aims behind innocuous buzzwords.

First it was “gun safety”. I attribute that to Mayor Bloomberg and his PR flacks including the Demanding Mom herself Shannon Watts. They understood that if they couched their desire for control behind the concept of “safety” then there would be less objection. The mainstream media has bought into the terminology wholeheartedly.

Of course, if Bloomberg, Watts, the Biden Administration, and the rest of the gun control industry were truly serious about “gun safety”, they would be insisting upon classes like hunter safety and the NRA’s Eddie Eagle program be taught in every school in America. As it is the Biden Administration through the US Department of Education is withholding funding to schools for archery and hunter safety programs. They are using the so-called Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 as their excuse. So in their pursuit of “gun safety” and “safer communities” they will defund the exact types of programs that actually work for safety.

Now it appears that the successor word to “gun safety” will be “gun responsibility”. This comes from Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey. He, of course, is using the tragedy in his hometown of Uvalde, Texas as the pretense to urge for “gun responsibility.”

White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

McConaughey says there is a difference between control and responsibility in his op-ed in the Austin American-Statesman.

There is a difference between control and responsibility. The first is a mandate that can infringe on our right; the second is a duty that will preserve it. There is no constitutional barrier to gun responsibility. Keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous people is not only the responsible thing to do, it is the best way to protect the Second Amendment. We can do both.

That all sounds nice but it is sophistry. As Bishop Robert Barron noted in his commencement address at Hillsdale College:

Their concern is not being truthful or just but rather speaking in such a way that they appear truthful or just and hence become convincing to others. Such sophists were, obviously enough, enormously useful to prospective lawyers and politicians in ancient Greece, and it should be equally obvious that their intellectual descendants are rather thick on the ground today.

McConaughey enumerates four key points for “gun responsibility” in his op-ed.

  • Universal background checks
  • Age 21 to buy an “assault rifle” (sic) unless one is in the military. “Assault rifle” is undefined.
  • “Red Flag Laws should be the law of the land.”
  • National waiting period for the purchase of “assault rifles” (sic).

So in the end, what McConaughey calls “gun responsibility” is just a rehash of many prior “gun control” proposals. They are all, as the gun control industry has said for decades, a “good first step.” A good first step to even more onerous control upon an enumerated right.

The gun control industry and their fellow travelers have to rely upon sophistry and buzzwords. Otherwise they have nothing.

Guns 101 – The Four Gun Safety Rules

Are you a new gun owner? Did you purchase a firearm to protect your family due to the pandemic? Are you looking for information about firearms safety?

The Self Defense Radio Network along with the Polite Society Podcast has created a series of short videos dealing with safety, safe storage, proper gun handling, and much, much more. These are intended to help the newbie get some training from highly respected instructors while everything is shut down.

The following video goes over the Four Rules. These were rules for gun safety created by Col. Jeff Cooper many years ago that, if followed religiously, will prevent accidents.

You can find the whole series of videos on YouTube. At last count, there are well over 60 of these short videos with more to come. I will be posting as many as possible over the next weeks and months.

Happy Hannukkah!

My friend and author Yehuda Remer posted this to Instagram. The Jewish festival of lights began at sunset on this past Tuesday. Hannukkah or Chanukah, depending on how you want to spell it, celebrates the victory of the Maccabees over a Syrian-Greek army and the rededication of the Holy Temple. When they went to relight the menorah in the Temple, they only found enough pure oil to light it for one night. However, this vile vial of oil lasted for eight days which is why Hannukkah goes for eight days.

As I mentioned, Yehuda is an author. His first book was Safety On! An Introduction to the World of Firearms for Children which brings firearm safety to kids in a way they can understand. He followed that up with his Safety On! coloring book.

Finally, just released in mid-November was his book 10 Little Liberals – A Tale of Hope. That book follows 10 little liberal snowflakes as they are exposed to conservative triggers. I received my copy this past Sunday and it is a hoot.

For those that don’t know Yehuda, he grew up in anti-gun California and only knew guns from TV and the movies. The only people in his world that had firearms were the police. This changed when he moved to the Dallas area because as an Orthodox Jew he didn’t want to raise his children in ultra-liberal California. He learned that many good people other than cops have firearms for self-protection and he became one of them which is why eventually led to his book Safety On!

Prinicipal Doesn’t Want Gun Safety Classes From The Real Experts

Despite the gun prohibitionists’ attempt to rebrand themselves as “gun safety” groups, we all know that the National Rifle Association through its training classes and its Eddie Eagle program have instructed more people on gun safety than anyone else. Thus, when I saw that two Houston elementary schools canceled gun safety presentations for their students because they didn’t want to be perceived as backing the NRA, I was dismayed.

An elementary school and a preschool in Houston ISD have canceled gun-safety presentations for their young students over concerns that the National Rifle Association crafted the lessons.

A spokesman for the Houston Independent School District said Tuesday that the principals of Peck Elementary and the Martin Luther King Early Childhood Center did not know the NRA was behind the program.

“The principals made a decision they didn’t want to participate in an event that folks could perceive as them taking a position one way or another on the gun control debate or any other debate the NRA is involved in,” HISD spokesman Jason Spencer said.

Supposedly, the principal of Peck Elementary didn’t realize that the safety programs had been developed by the NRA. It may have been because the presentation was to be made by officers from the Metropolitan Transit Authority police department. Until she found out that detail, she was all happy about it.

Before cancelling the presentation, the principal of Peck, Carlotta Brown, gave a radio interview on Tuesday morning saying she was “so elated to have a gun safety program at our school today.”

“We have to make sure that all of our children are safe, our adults are safe and it starts in the elementary school,” Brown told KTRH, according to a broadcast on its website.

Brown did not mention the NRA in her comments, but the radio host noted that the association was behind the program and an NRA representative also was interviewed.

Spencer said Brown “did not make the connection that it was an NRA-driven event” until later when a news reporter asked to attend the presentation.

Metro Police Chief Victor Rodriguez said in a statement that he was aware that the NRA’s gun-safety curriculum would be used in the schools but said his officers were going to be giving the presentations.

“I am supportive of gun safety and programs that make our community safer by educating our youth,” Rodriguez said.

It is really kind of sad that an “educator” would let political correctness get in the way of protecting the children under her charge.

“I Got Shot In The Buttock”

This is what Lakita Owens must be telling her friends now. That is because this is exactly where Mrs. Owens was shot when her husband, Harrisburg (PA) Bureau of Police Officer William Owens, “was showing his gun to family and friends during a get-together at his Harrisburg home…when his city-issued firearm discharged multiple times.”

>(Dauphin County District Attorney Edward) Marsico said investigators do not believe the shooting was intentional, but charges could be brought if they determine the act was reckless. He couldn’t say how many shots were fired, just that there were more than one.

Investigators are also looking into what role, if any, alcohol played in the incident, Marsico said.

William Owens’ family and friends were socializing when they began discussing firearms, Marsico said. That’s when William Owens’ brought out his gun to show the group, Marsico said.

William Owens, who is suspended without pay, declined comment on the incident, citing the ongoing investigation.

Fortunately, Mrs. Owens is recovering and in good condition. I’m not so sure about Officer Owens’ career in law enforcement.

This is not an accidental discharge; it is a negligent discharge. I don’t know the department issue firearm for Harrisburg but pistols don’t fire without a finger on the trigger. Officer Owens violated, at the very least, Rules 2 and 3. The reports do not indicate whether Officer Owens was actually carrying the pistol or not when he brought out his gun. They do say he had been out for the last 18 months on disability.

One of the great fallacies is the “Only Ones” are gun experts. While this may be the case with trainers such as Dave Spaulding, Massad Ayoob, or the late Jim Cirillo, the average cop shoots only enough to qualify. Moreover, given budget cutbacks, this is getting even worse unless the cop buys his own ammo with which to practice.

I’m not here to bash cops but being responsible is being responsible. You and I are held to that standard and so should police officers.

Rule No. 4 Violation By SFPD

In a story reported by KCBS in San Francisco yesterday, two innocent bystanders were wounded when police shot at a fleeing suspect. The suspect, later identified as 20-year-old San Pablo resident Jesus Paredes Rodriguez, was not hit.

The woman, who was hit in the thigh, was treated at San Francisco General Hospital and has been released, (SFPD Lt. Troy) Dangerfield said. The man, who was struck in the lower leg, was still in the hospital as of this afternoon. Both their injuries were described as non-lifethreatening.

Rule No. 4 – Be sure of your target and of what is beyond it. There is a reason for that rule and the two innocent bystanders who had an unexpected visit to SF General were the victims of this rule violation.

If a concealed carry holder had done this, he or she would be in jail charged with a felony. The officers in question, however, are on paid administrative leave and, let’s be frank, they probably will not only not be charged with a felony but will keep their jobs.

The whole incident brings to mind the proposed regulations by SF Sheriff Michael Hennessey for getting a carry permit. Those regulations are predicated on the gun prohibitionists’ favorite notion that police are “the only ones” to be trusted with a firearm since they are “trained” and thus they need to make it very hard for a “civilian” to obtain a permit. But why is it that CCW holders almost never shoot innocent bystanders but the same can’t be said for law enforcement?

Gun Safety The Gunsite Way

The National Shooting Sports Foundation just released a new video today on firearms safety. Mark Thomas of NSSF interviews Bob Whaley, an instructor at Gunsite, about safety.

In my opinion, the videos that NSSF has started to produce are really excellent teaching tools for both the experienced and beginner shooter.

Rule No. 1

Rule No. 1 states that all guns are loaded.

The Evyl Robot Soapbox blog has a very good story about a relative’s negligent discharge. Fortunately, no one was injured.

The pictures illustrate why it is vital to know what is behind your target. Some of the 00 buckshot traveled across the room, through a door, across the garage, through an exterior wall, and embedded themselves into an outbuilding.

Dry fire is excellent practice. But you have to make sure the firearm is unloaded and all live ammunition is out of the room. Brownells (among others) sells a full range of dummy ammo and snap caps.

H/T SayUncle

The Fifth Rule

Col. Jeff Cooper distilled gun safety down to four simple rules.

1. All guns are always loaded.

2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.

3. Keep your finger off the trigger till your sights are on the target.

4. Identify your target, and what is behind it.

Chance Ballew adds one more to that list:  Do not try to catch a dropped gun.

I think Col. Cooper would have approved the addition of Rule 5 if he were still with us.