Gun Culture

Friday, July 30, 2004

Guns don’t kill people - rappers do

Safe clarts!

Iffin you aren’t familiar with Goldie Lookin’ Chain, then I recommend you toddle over to You Knows It their website.
The site includes downloads of the video of “Guns don’t kill people, rappers do” and some of their ‘back catalogue’.
Worth a look even if just for the train wreck value.

Goldie Lookin’ Chain are a hybrid of The Beastie Boys and Blazin’ Squad.  From Newport.

Thursday, July 29, 2004

Office Door

As seen on my office door

‘tisn’t very effective though  

Stalking Horses after Blair

From The New Statesman:

At least 59 Labour MPs are prepared to push for a leadership election, and two “stalking horses” are being canvassed. It may be enough to get those tectonic plates moving, writres Mark Seddon

Ah, if only it were true.  There really isn’t a credible replacement for Blair who can manage to dupe so many of the voters in Blight quite like Trust Me Tony.  Brown is a dour Scot who is only acceptable to the public because he is a kind of counterweight to TMT, with TMT off the scene we would get too much of a good look at the unpleasant bastard.  A Labour party in the middle of a leadership crisis would be looking to delay the election until it were over - ruling out the possibility of a November election and giving time for whatever communist they drag out to show their true (red) colouring to the country.

Knife Ban Now?

Mad Dog Blunkett has decided that, following the stunning success of his gun crime initiatives criminals are turning to knives.  Even if it were true it is telling that Mad Dog does not conclude that some people are just scum and need locking up, instead it is knives which need banning.
Now you may well be thinking that it is already illegal to carry knives.  And you’d be right.  It is illegal to carry a knife without “good reason” or “lawful authority” - you might be an electrician or summat and need such a creature for your job.  With the exception of a blade of less than three inches and capable of folding, i.e. a ‘pen knife’.
So to recap then:
Knife carrying is already illegal - with caveats, we all know how Trust Me Tony likes those!
We need new laws to make knife carrying illegal.

Impeccable logic as ever.
You’d think that someone in the Home Office would tell Blunkett of pre-existing laws that already cover today’s Big Story.  Too much to ask apparently.

My latest knife purchase.  It’s a Gerber Summat-or-t’other.  Very purty.  I carry a knife all the time and I have never felt the need to stab anyone, nor do I expect to.  I carry it because a knife is a damned handy thing to have.
Oh, some people are under the impression (and some of these people are coppers) that knife exempt from the legislation covering knives must be a non-locker.  This is bullshit.  The knife must be capable of folding, which a locker is.  A non-lock knife is a dangerous beast - just say no!

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Kim Speaks the Truth

In the comments section of Samizdata post From English Danger to Texan Safety Kim Du Toit has this to say regarding sporting shooters and gun rights.

It’s been my sad experience that the pure “sport shooters” are the ones you may count on least, when it comes to talking about guns for self-defense.

As long as their precious shotguns and smallbore target rifles aren’t targeted for confiscation or banning, they’re quite content to see handguns, military rifles and such go the way of the dodo.

Ignore them

How right you are Kim.  Sports shooters are incapable of seeing that Joe Public doesn’t care how safe you are, how you contribute to the economy or that you are good for the enviroment.  All Joe Public sees is that you have firearms and that there is no benefit to them for you to have them and that criminals use firearms.  Ergo you are selfish and your firearms must go.  Think of the children etc Stack that up against Mick Gault not being able to practise his sport in Blighty and you lose my friend.
However offer a tangible benefit - self defence and suddenly the scales can tip.  Suddenly you are offering a way for Mr Public to protect Mrs Public and little Master and Miss Public..  Sure there are plenty who have a Pavlovian reaction to the word gun, but they are minority.
Pushing self-defence wins moral arguments and yet current “gun lobby” organisations run screaming from the very idea.

In Moderation

I have just had a T8 Reflex sound moderator fitted to my Tikka T3 Lite.
Strictly speaking I could have used a T4, but hey sometimes just enough is not enough!  I also had the barrel shortened to about 18.5” while I was at it.
What a difference!  Previously range practice was an self-concious business with the boom of the rifle really rattling around the valley where I do most of my shooting.  Now apart from the metallic tang that the moderator makes when firing, noise is limited to the crack of the supersonic bullet and thump of the bullet hitting home.
The return of my rifle from the workshop also meant a first try for my home loaded rounds.  A month or so ago I splashed out on a Lee Anniversary kit in .223 remington, but it is only now I have had a chance to have a play.
Reloading is attractive in part because of the cost, the brass is the most expensive part of a cartridge, when reloading the brass gets reused - savings!  However I like reloading as it is both satisfying (you start with a bag of fired brass and end up with a box of cartridges!) and a way of extending the time spent shooting.

Friday, July 23, 2004

Car Jackers

Not for the first time, I find myself nodding with righteous anger in agreement with Mr FreeMarket

Two men who killed a holidaymaker in a car-jacking attempt have been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years each. But the victim’s wife has slammed the sentence as being too lenient.Dean Taylor, 17, and Craig Abbott, 21, were jailed after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of a father-of-three.”
I’m mad, really fighting mad about this. These two little scumbags deserve to be tortured & then executed. ‘Big Brother’ Blunkett ... oh so tough on crime....utter rubbish. I really wish I was Home Secretary because the Oxford Dictionary would have to redefine the term ‘hanger & flogger’.

No no cry the snot nosed liberals criminals have rights too bleeding hearts - well I have some news for you. Until we remove pondlife like this from our society, dear old bightly will contine slip even further into the cesspool. People that behave in this manner have NO rights, none, nothing, zilch.

GO ON! GET MAD!
We should all get good’n’mad.
And it isn’t about which particular stuffed shirt has his feet under the table at the Home Office either.  The whole Home Office bullshit about nationalisation of protection needs ripped up.
Individuals should be taking on scumbags like these two tossers without fear of prosecution.  If mouthy little shites outside the local Spar or whatever were given a good digging by normal people they wouldn’t turn out to be law breakers.

And if this guy had been allowed to carry then he could have shot the fcukers.

You know what really pisses me off though, it’s the apologists.
We’ve all heard them

They’ve had a tough life

and?

Anyone could make mistakes

sure, but most of us don’t mug old ladies and kill people whilst trying to take their property

If they hadn’t been led astray

we all have choices

It’s society’s fault

My personal peeve - no it fucking isn’t!

Why should we be at the mercy of these wrongdoers just because for some reason the liberal Guardianistas feel a kind of collective guilt that these people turn out this way?
And why is it that we are letting these Guardianistas set the rules for the nation?

Update
Whilst writing this, Mr FreeMarket’s post disappeared!
Not to worry, all here for prosperity.

Thursday, July 22, 2004

Mandy: EU Commissioner

Peter Mandelson, forced to quit ministerial jobs twice in corruption scandals is to become an EU Commissioner.

He’ll fit right in.

More on the cuts

An excellent article in The Scotsman regarding the “restructuring”.

We blundered into a land war with Germany in 1914, having spent the previous 20 years enlarging our navy but reducing the British army to a modest colonial militia. Fortunately, on the Western Front, that tiny band of professional soldiers held the line long enough to let us reverse our policy errors and prepare in depth for eventual victory.

Then, in the 1920s and 1930s, we were content with a tiny air force and an army devoid of tanks, because we thought if we wished for peace then others would also wish for peace. But they did not. Again, we were saved by the professionalism of Fighter Command and the boffins who gave us radar. The politicians were bent on appeasement, frightened that if they told the public the need for strong defence, they would lose votes. After the Second World War - a close-run thing in its early years - once again Britain disarmed. But then came the Korean War, which Britain fought with weapons a decade out of date.

In the 1950s, the then Secretary of State for Defence, Duncan Sandys, summarily cancelled every major manned aerospace-defence programme. He thought hi-tech rockets would do everything. But the technology was a failure, leaving Britain in the 1960s practically defenceless. The Labour government of Harold Wilson compounded Sandys’s error by scrapping much of what was left of Britain’s defence projects, including the magnificent TSR-2 bomber.

Those who fail to learn the lessons of history?

What is happening here is a smokescreen for Treasury cuts per se. And this has always been the case, from the time the Treasury dismissed tanks as too expensive - so we should stick with cavalry - to the time in the 1960s when we dismantled much of the British aircraft industry on the altar of “international co-operation”.

And from The Telegraph

it is the Prime Minister who has let the Forces down most. At his command, they go to the ends of the earth to fight for Queen and country. He invokes their patriotism, but he is not prepared to pay for it. Under the guise of a strategic defence review, the Blair Government is conducting a policy of unilateral disarmament.

Utter, utter bastards the lot of them; but probably the most annoying thing is that there is absolutely zero chance of stopping them.  For The Liar will wring his hands and talk of choices and his cronies will ask us which hospitals we would rather close than rape our armed forces.  Even if by some miracle the Conservatives transform themselves into an election winning force in the next 12 months or so before the next election, can you really see them reversing this?  I bloody well can’t, they’re too busy “me too"ing everything that Trust Me Tony does and daren’t leave themselves open to the heart string pulling “think of the children” bollocks heard each time the possibility of limiting spending on health and education is even alluded to.

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

The Sheep, Sheepdog and the Wolf

I came to this piece via The Smallest Minority who shares my viewpoint regarding self-defence and taking responsibility for your own safety, although the article actually appears on Jennifer Martinez’ A Collection of Thoughts - such is the nature of the web and this world we call blog.

We know that the sheep live in denial, that is what makes them sheep. They do not want to believe that there is evil in the world. They can accept the fact that fires can happen, which is why they want fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers, fire alarms and fire exits throughout their kids’ schools. But many of them are outraged at the idea of putting an armed police officer in their kid’s school. Our children are thousands of times more likely to be killed or seriously injured by school violence than fire, but the sheep’s only response to the possibility of violence is denial. The idea of someone coming to kill or harm their child is just too hard, and so they chose the path of denial.

The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence. The difference, though, is that the sheepdog must not, can not and will not ever harm the sheep. Any sheep dog who intentionally harms the lowliest little lamb will be punished and removed. The world cannot work any other way, at least not in a representative democracy or a republic such as ours.

Still, the sheepdog disturbs the sheep. He is a constant reminder that there are wolves in the land. They would prefer that he didn’t tell them where to go, or give them traffic tickets, or stand at the ready in our airports in camouflage fatigues holding an M-16. The sheep would much rather have the sheepdog cash in his fangs, spray paint himself white, and go, “Baa.” Until the wolf shows up. Then the entire flock tries desperately to hide behind one lonely sheepdog.

The sheep of course are ordinary people, the sheepdog the security forces or anyone who takes responsibilty for defence of the nation/society/themselves.  Wolves are those who would do us harm be they petty criminals, terrorists, foreign states or worse - domestic states.
The sheep analogy is hardly rare in the libertarian world, but this is a particularly good example I think.

Major-General Julian Thompson on the cuts

“This government, and Blair in particular, has spent a lot of time using the armed forces to hone up their image, and the rewards for it seems to be to cut it to the bone.

“The world is still very much a dangerous place and it is not the right time to have cuts. One day I have a feeling that there will be overstretch and there will be some kind of disaster and we won’t be able to deal with it, and that will be bad for everyone.”

Couldn’t agree more.

Defence Cut Backs

Expect more on this in the coming days, but for now a couple of quotes:

Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq

Areas where UK forces have had to fight since Trust Me Tony came to power.
Labour chairman of the defence committee, Bruce George:

Please explain who the idiot was who thinks you can cut the infantry at a time when the pressure on them is enormous?

Has he (Mr Hoon) consulted Gerry Adams or maybe the Fire Brigades Union whether they are going to behave themselves over the next few years?”

Compare this with Nicholas Soames:

It’s a very important thing to keep a balance between the manpower and the application of new technology.

Pathetic.  It is a piss poor do when Labour men put up a better opposition than Her Majesty’s Loyal.

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Five Year Plan

10, 000 tractors per year for the next five years!

Britain becomes steadily more like Stalin’s Russia, but this five year plan isn’t about tractors - it is about crime.
The Liar and Mad Dog Blunkett have come up with yet another “initiative” to cut crime, must be Tuesday again.
Some of the rhetoric sounds fine

Mr Blair argued people now want a society with respect and responsibility.

Some just bizarre

Tagging and satellite tracking will double so 18,000 are tracked at any one time.

and

Mr Blunkett said the move could target the 5,000 most prolific repeat offenders, who committed one in 10 crimes.
He said they could also act as “prison without bars” for lower level offenders.
He also promised electronic border controls to work alongside his plans for a national ID card scheme.

I was wondering when his blasted ID cards would come into it!
If these 5000 persistent offenders are known, here’s a thought:
Put the bastards in jail!  Is that old fashioned enough for you Tony?

News also of oodles of “Street Wardens”.  Or Hitler Youth or something.
If the people were trusted and empowered then many of these ideas would be completely unnecessary, gangs of youths could have their abuse greeted with pepper spray (or a good smacking), street robbers, rapists and burglars would need to worry about a hot lead injection whilst plying their trade.

In short Messers Blair & Blunkett, the 1960’s was not the start of the rot, it was the Labour movement which resulted in privitisation of self-defence, public order and personal resposibilities.  Look to your own, for you have ruined Britain.

Scumbag Terrorists in Two Faced Shocker

Whilst busy thumping his tub on international terrorism, The Liar has covieniently forgotten about the scum rather closer to our own shores.  Despite endless toadying and appeasement in the name of “peace”, the terrorists on both side of the fence are no closer to giving up on the bomb in favour of the ballot box.  Of course for Sinn Fein/IRA there is no incentive, the bomb has served them very nicely indeed thank you.

So it is no great suprise that levels of armed forces in the region need to remain high:

The Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), set up last year to check paramilitary activity and British troop cuts, said 14,600 soldiers are deployed in the province compared to a peak of 22,000 in 1972.
The London and Irish governments said last year troop levels should fall to 5,000 during peacetime, and that they hoped that could be achieved by April 2005.

Troop levels have not fallen to 5000, because it is not peacetime and yet politician continue to ignore the elephant in the room.

The IMC said the number of army spy towers had dropped to nine from 19 five years ago, while military bases had fallen to 24 from 32.

Despite the reduction in armed forces and dismantling of bases, this still isn’t good enough for Sinn Fein/IRA

Sinn Fein said the London government had not gone far enough and should begin “dismantling its war machine”.

You first - bastards.

Britain is Perfect!

Stop Press!
Waiting lists are no more,
Crime is non-existant,
Pensioners have a decent state pension,
The roads are un-congested and smooth as billiard tables,
Inner cities are clean and pleasant,
National debt has been repaid,
Our armed forces are fully equiped and ready for anything,
Britain is truly a Utopia!

What’s that you say?
None of the above is true?

Shurely shome mishtake?
It must be, or else why are Tone and Gordo busy pissing money away overseas to sort out health problems that exist in areas where governments are busy lining their own pockets and building up armed forces to keep themselves in power?
From
The Guardian

The prime minister, Tony Blair, today promised that £150m of the money Britain has earmarked for tackling the global Aids crisis will be spent on children orphaned by the disease and those at most risk from the HIV virus.
Mr Blair’s announcement came after the chancellor, Gordon Brown, last week pledged £1.5bn of UK money for combating the disease around the world in his spending review.

But surely a worthy cause, think of the children etc?
No arguments it is A Bad Job, but these grandiose gestures are simply not the business of domestic government.  Government My fucking money is freely given stolen to provide essential services, and worthy though it may be combating AIDS in far off climes is not essential to your average Brit.
If an individual wishes to give money to charities working in these fields then more power to them.  If the same individual sees fit that my money should be stolen from me to fund their pet causes then they are quite welcome to go fuck themselves!

International terrorist freedom-fighter statesman communist Nelson Mandela has this to say on the matter:

“I welcome wholeheartedly the strong focus on human rights in this new UK strategy.

What?  Did I miss something?  What human right is being infringed by screwing around , getting a disease from same, possibly passing same on to your family and then looking to people from the West to bail you out?
Answers to the usual place!