Gun Culture

Monday, August 22, 2005

73% would trade liberty for a false premise of safety

A very wise fellow once remarked

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety

This is widely attributed to Dr Benjamin Franklin, although according to Wikiquote there is some thought that it may be down to a Richard Jackson who authored the book in which it first seems to have appeared.  No matter, the sentiment is as valid as it ever was.  Further I believe that those who would throw their liberty on the fire in the hope os some measure of safety will receive neither for those who promise the trade are either as deluded or just plain deceiptful.

So it comes as some shock to me that apparently some 73% of people are willing to jetison their freedoms in an attempt to improve security against terror attacks.  I always understood that there were people out there still foolish enough (or in denial) to believe that the State is able to protect them or that the State removal of freedoms will protect them.  History shows us that State’s which remove freedoms are more likely to be the very threat to safety that people are fearing than the threat perceived.  States are happy to talk up threats real and imagined in order to advance their agenda - whatever that may be.  For example the Home Office has wanted ID cards since they were jettisoned in the 50’s so any threat to safety (be it theft, violent crime, terrorism or ‘binge drinking) becomes a ‘justification’ for this building block of the oppressive state.

Just as shocking (to me) as the sheer majority is the split of parties.

Tories were readier to sacrifice civil liberties than Labour and Lib Dem supporters: 79% were willing to do so, compared with 72% of Labour voters and 70% of Lib Dems

I always knew that there was a strong authoritarian influence within the Tories, however I had always thought that there were as many Tories with libertarian sympathy, that the Tory party was naturally the party of small Government.  How wrong I was.

What to do?  The UK is clearly institutionalised, willing to accept less and less freedom and a bigger and bigger state.  Worse even, the populous appears to be asking for less freedom.
Leave?  Where to?  The obvoius destination of the US is not only difficult for law abiding Britons to enter legally but I suspect that a similar process is occuring over there.  Perhaps not to the same extent, but it may just be a matter of time or of another atrocity.

The article in The Guardian also includes a full PDF of the poll results.  Worryingly for the UKIP only 1 of the respondents would vote UKIP, I don’t think the party leadership fully appreciates how much the support has withered.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Foolish Words

“I’m the only one in this room professional enough, that I know of, to carry a Glock 40.”

Well you just know what is going to happen now don’t you?

Video

(apologies to the blogger who’s site I first found this on, but I forget who you were - too much red wine that night!)

Friday, August 19, 2005

StrongBad’s Email

Got a link to this funny little cartoon in my inbox today.  Particularly funny for me as my name is Mark and I do often sign off my emails with Cheers.
Strong Bad’s Lost Email

Thursday, August 18, 2005

ID Cards for crims first

Via the excellent An English Shooter’s Blog comes this news that criminals and those working with children are to get the lovely ID cards first.

TEACHERS, childcare workers and criminals may be compelled to have identity cards years before they become mandatory for everyone else

I guess there is some logic behind this, in the usual twisted way of Government thinking of course.  However unless the cards are to have a big notice on the front saying ‘Child safety screened’ or ‘Criminal’ then what’s the sense?  You interview someone for a childcare position then you ask for their ID card to show they have been screened?  Yeah, but criminals (presumably including kiddy fiddlers) have cards too.
Clearly just a means of introducing them bitesize then, after all who could object to criminals having ID cards?  Or who would object to child care professionals being able to show their identity and screened status?

So why does this particular story pique Ian’s interest at An English Shooter’s?

This would include teachers and childcare workers, who must be vetted before they can work with children, and criminals and people requesting firearms licences.

So there you go.  Anyone who requests a firearms licence is lumped in the same category as a criminal.  Or as Tony Banks would have it “perverts”

Article in
The Times

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Toy Gun Used in Blag

Well this is a good one.
When a blagger attempted to hold up a Hinckley convenience store with a toy imitation gun the savvy shop assistant saw through his subterfuge and realised the gun was fake.  Chummy fled empty handed, nevertheless the two assistants in the shop were said to be ‘shaken and shocked’.
Folks like me who think the proposed ban on toy imitation firearms is the most pointless load of old bollocks yet to emerge from the Home Office will say that it is clearly better this blagger had a toy gun and not a real one as the result may have been somewhat different.
Supporters of the Betamax VCR Bill proposals will say that this just proves the fear that can be caused by toy imitation firearms and chummy clearly would have been at home looking after his Gran if he hadn’t been able to obtain such an evil piece of inanimate material.

Alternatively you might think the store guys should have had their own real guns.....

Article appears in
This Is Leicester

De Menezes Shooting News

A very different picture is emerging, quite literally, of the incidents leading up to the shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes.  This includes a picture of the poor mans body after the shooting which I have included in the continued reading section so as not to offend the easily offended.  This picture quite clearly shows that De Menezes was wearing a denim jacket on that day, not the padded jacket or winter jacket or suspiciously warm jacket that early reports suggested.  I myself have worn such a beast on a warm day - could I now be a target?
Further it is now emerging that De Menezes did not vault the barriers (probably the vaulter was a police officer) nor did he run from the police but ran a few steps to catch his train - quite possibly unaware of the death which was following him.

CCTV footage showed that after Mr de Menezes entered Stockwell station he slowly descended the escalators before running for a train and sitting down.

The Brazilian was seen to board the Underground train through the middle doors before pausing, looking left and right, then sitting down in either the second or third seat facing the platform.

More shockingly still it seems that De Menezes was under restraint at the time of the shooting.

“He immediately stood up and advanced towards me and the CO19 officers ... I grabbed the male in the denim jacket by wrapping both my arms around his torso, pinning his arms to his side.

“I then pushed him back on to the seat where he had been previously sitting ... I then heard a gun shot very close to my left ear and was dragged away onto the floor of the carriage.”

Apparently this is testimony from a surveillance team member according to ITV.com

The bomber that De Menezes was mistaken for?  Hussain Osman.  A black man.

Image from The Age

If these allegations all prove to be true then there is only one conclusion to come to and that is that De Menezes was unlawfully executed by a sequence of unfortunate events, wrongful authority given to shoot and an excess of adrenaline in the officer who performed the shooting.

De Menezes is not the first innocent victim of gung ho armed policing in london and sadly I fear he will certainly not be the last.

Continue reading De Menezes Shooting News...

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Drink

Exactly when did ‘Binge Drinking’ become a buzz word?  I’m fairly certain that just a couple of years ago it was unheard off, or maybe I was too drunk to notice.  Lately every ill of society has been blamed on ‘Binge Drinking’ or as we used to call it ‘getting pissed’.  The rising crescendo seems to have coincided with the proposed liberalisation of licensing laws, or as the press would have it ‘24 hour drinking’.

Quite why the puritans amongst us seem to think that imbibing alcohol should be so tightly regulated is a mystery.  I guess their thinking is that alcohol is so evil that us mere mortals cannot possibly resist is siren call and need restricted licensing to prevent us from being pissed 24/7.  In a manner similar to the demonisation of firearms they believe that alcohol makes normally sensible people incapable of reasonable behaviour.  I suppose in the case of alcohol there is a little in that; however a great many people are capable of having a few (or even a lot) of drinks without having a fight, damaging property, beating our spouses.  Why should those of us who can ‘handle our drink’ be debarred from having a snifter at an hour of our chosing just because there are those who cannot control themselves after X pints?  In this are we not being presumed guilty?  We are being denied our freedoms because of the guilt of the irresponsible.

Action demonstrably needs taking to curb the out of control situation in many town centres of a Friday and Saturday night, but this action is not to punish the sensible.  We should be punishing the trouble makers.  How often do we hear of or see on our televisions people who are clearly beligerent through drink being moved on by the police?  Or spending a night in the cells.  This is no doubt in part due to manpower, but it creates a culture without fear of consequence.  Troublesome drunks need to be seriously inconvienienced by temporary loss of liberty.  Perhaps we could consider drunk tanks where trouble making drunks spend not just the night but the whole weekend in choky before seeing the beak on Monday at his lesuire.  Going to be late for work?  Should have thought of that chummy.  What of their encounter with the beak?  Is a fine or slapped legs sufficient?  Perhaps we should be looking at banning orders for 3 offences within 2 years?  3 strikes and you are banned from public houses up and down the land.

What we don’t need to be doing is preventing legitimate business from selling their product in the time of their choosing by default or telling people when they can and can’t buy a lawful product.

NRA News

No not that NRA News not even that NRA.
Some news from the Plastic NRA in the form of a letter from Glynn Alger to Tessa Jowel and the Shortarsed Ginger Witch.

Letter to Tessa Jowell and Hazel Blears

Dear Minister,

The Return of ISSF Pistols for International Competition

Firstly on behalf of the National Rifle Association I would like to congratulate the Government for helping to bring the 2012 Olympics to Britain against stiff competition.
The Association which runs Bisley, the National Shooting Centre, fully supported the bid with expertise and the promise of resources in the event of the bid being successful. This was despite the fact that the current proposal for the shooting events places them at Woolwich, in temporary buildings, rather than here at “the home of target shooting”, where the 2002 Commonwealth Games were held.

The Association
The National Rifle Association is the governing body for full-bore target shooting in the United Kingdom. As such, with our sister organisations the National Small-bore Rifle Association and Clay Pigeon Shooting Association we provide governance, assistance with training and selection of international teams for the Olympics, World, Commonwealth and European championships.
In consequence Great Britain has been one of the most successful nations in international target shooting.
The Association is a charity whose aim is to support the armed services by promoting marksmanship in the United Kingdom and the sport of target shooting internationally.

Politically, the National Rifle Association does not support calls for the general right to carry firearms for self-defence. We support the use and ownership or firearms where there is a need, for sporting purposes.

Why Glynn felt it necessary to mention RKBA in this context is beyond me.  We all know that the NRA does not support RKBA, I do not believe that the Home Office think they do and I don’t think most of the general public are even aware of a UK NRA.  What he has done is to plant the thought of a link between RKBA and sporting pistols in the head of the Shortarsed Ginger Witch.  Ordinarily I am a supporter of RKBA, but we need to box clever and bringing it up in this context, even to deny it, does not help.

Target Shooting
Target shooting is basically a sport where shooters fire at inanimate bull’s eye style paper targets or clay tiles (pigeons).
Due to governance and regulation shooting has proven to be a safe sport, quoted by insurers as less risky than ballroom dancing.
Infringement of safety or conduct rules can result in governing bodies or clubs punishing those concerned by way of reprimands, fines, suspensions or banning. Where the infringement is sufficiently serious the police are informed.

Target shooting does not discriminate on race, religion, age, sex or disability, allowing all to compete on equal terms. It is truly an inclusive sport. In the 2004 Bisley Meeting (national championships), 14 year old cadets shot next to 80+ year old veterans. Foreign shooters from Kenya, Canada, Malaysia, South Africa, Australia, Trinidad, France, Belgium and Germany competed with contestants from the Home Nations.

Shooting is a sport that allows individuals to be involved all their lives. As infirmities develop shooting disciplines have developed using scopes, supports and other equipment that allow them to continue in their chosen sport.
Young people in particular benefit from being involved in shooting more than any other group, in that they learn about the value of belonging, team, safety, rules, discipline and responsibility, more so than most other sports.

The Return of Sporting Pistols
Pistols used in international target sports are very technical in design, mostly single shot and highly undesirable as a fashion item in criminal circles.
The current pistol ban means that our highly successful international sportsmen and women are unable to train in the UK. This is already having an adverse effect on our success internationally.
I appreciate that in some circles the opportunity to compete for “a few medals” may not seem that important. In this case we are talking effectively about not allowing our athletes to compete in a competition we traditionally would have high expectations of winning, on the basis of a political position, rather than a threat to public safety.

If our athletes are going to be able to compete on equal terms with other countries they will need to train, experiencing international competition and reach qualification standard not just for 2012 but 2008.

The National Rifle Association proposes that we hold urgent talks with Government to examine the possibility of ISSF sports pistols being reintroduced.
The Association is willing to find facilities where pistols can be housed on specified ranges in Britain, allowing young shooters to train, be coached and compete in secure facilities, giving them the potential to qualify for European, Commonwealth, World and Olympic Championships.

The National Rifle Association looks forward to meeting with you to discuss our outline proposals and hopefully improve our potential medal tally in 2012.

Yours Sincerely,
Glynn Alger
Secretary General of the National Rifle Association

Broadly speaking I welcome Glynn’s approach with this, I can’t rememeber a time when the NRA was talking more about returning pistol shooting to the UK.  However I still can’t support the NRA due to Glynn’s (and one presumes the wider NRA council) insistence that compulsory testing be introduced.  If they were talking about a deal whereby some of the crazier restrictions were lifted in exchange (such as needing to beg for each different calibre or extra rifle in each calibre, ammunition limits etc) then I might be prepared to listen.  However they seem to be offering up Czechoslovakia to that nice Mr Hitler in the hope that he will not ask for more.

Counting Sheep

The Englishman talks about the auld dialect of sheep counting and gives an example of how it was down his way.
This reminds me of the lakeland dialect of sheep counting which occassionaly schoolkids would recite to show how local they were, these people were never actually farm stock of course and found the dialect in a book.
Despite being a farmboy myself and having counted many a sheep I never had cause to use a rather strange sounding dialect to count the buggers - it was hard enough counting a half dozen deep flock streaming past you at a full run as it was thank you.
Anyhow I found this link to a site which tells us what a number of different counting systems were like in days of Yore.
Iffin you take a look at some of the many strange words and look at the Borrowdale term for 15 you will find it is Bumfit.  Super.

Monday, August 15, 2005

True Believers

It takes a true believer (or blind faith perhaps?) to take something which tends to disprove a deeply held belief and use it to attempt to show your belief is true.
Richard Hollingham does just that

Greenland’s ice is melting rapidly. In some places, glacial levels have been falling by 10 metres a year and ultimately contributing to rising sea levels. Travelling to Greenland, Richard Hollingham sees the impact of climate change for himself.

So far no problems.  Melting ice at this glacier seems to be a verifiable fact.  Climate change? Maybe.

It is as if the ice has been drained away, like water in a bath, to leave a tide mark. Which is, in effect, what has happened.
The ice has melted and the glaciers have retreated hundreds of metres over the past 150 years.

Wait up.  150 years?  Wowsers.  Aren’t we all told that climate change is a man made event and the most evil agent of this event the privately owned motor vehicle?  I’m no great automotive historian but I’m pretty confident that 150 years ago private owned vehicles tended to be more equine than they are now.  Perhaps it was all the poo and methane?

The Earth’s climate has warmed before, albeit naturally.

There you go, any current change is un-natural or if you prefer caused by industrialization/modern living.

A ruined church on the banks of a fjord marks the remains of a Viking farming civilisation.
The sun casts shadows through the arched window to the site of the altar, last used in the 1400s before the area was abandoned when it became too cold to support habitation

So 1400 years ago it was a bit warmer than it is today and the world didn’t come to an end?  No biggy then?
Apparently not.

Greenland is turning green, something the rest of us should be very worried about indeed.

As before I remain to be convinced that climate change is man made or that any changes within our power could now change this by any meaningful margin without enourmous widespread economic devastation.  The now defunct Kyoto was rejected by the US because it would knacker the US economy without impacting any meaningful change, similarly us all changing to pedal powered public transport is not going to turn around any change.  It is either too late or we are not the impact that we think we are.  The world will keep turning and the world will keep changing with or without us.

Friday, August 05, 2005

A tale of two tossers

Pinched from Shooting Community

It’s quite a long story , but it’s worth it

For all of you who occasionally have a really bad day and you just need to take it out on someone!!!
Don’t take that bad day out on someone you know, take it out on someone you DON’T know!!!

I was sitting at my desk, when I remembered a phone call I had to make.
I found the number and dialed it. A man answered nicely saying, “Hello?
“ I politely said, “This is Patrick Hanifin and could I please speak to Robin Carter?”.

Suddenly the phone was slammed down on me!

I couldn’t believe that anyone could be that rude. I tracked down Robin’s correct number and called her. She had transposed the last two digits incorrectly. After I hung up with Robin, I spotted the wrong number still lying there on my desk. I decided to call it again. When the same person once more answered, I yelled “You’re a tosser!” and hung up. Next to his phone number I wrote the word “tosser,” and put it in my desk drawer.
Every couple of weeks, when I was paying bills, or had a really bad day,
I’d call him up. He’d answer, and I’d yell, “You’re a tosser!”
It would always cheer me up.
Later in the year the phone company introduced caller ID. This was a real disappointment for me, I would have to stop calling the tosser. Then one day I had an idea. I dialled his number, then heard his voice, “Hello.”
I made up a name. “Hi. This is the sales office of the telephone company and I’m just calling to see if you’re familiar with our caller ID program?”
He went, “No!” and slammed the phone down. I quickly called him back and said, “That’s because you’re a tosser!”
The reason I took the time to tell you this story, is to show you how if
there’s ever anything really bothering you, you can do something about it. Just dial 01123 456 789.

Keep reading, it gets better.!

Continue reading A tale of two tossers...

Thursday, August 04, 2005

50% would vote to leave the EU

UKIP are attempting to make some hay from the survey commisioned with YouGov which suggests that 50% of respondents would vote to leave the EU if given the opportunity.
In the press release Nigel Farage says

“These results are better than we could ever have dreamed. It now shows that there is a clear majority which wants free trade with the EU rather than membership.”

As an activist in UKIP I have been asked to circulate this news in the local media etc.  To be honest I’m a little reluctant.  In the unlikely event that any such referendum was called it is highly improbable that the question would be

Q2 If a referendum were held and these were the available options, which would you choose?
Britain remaining a member of the European Union
or
Britain leaving the European Union and replacing our membership with a free trade agreement

The question (and certainly the propaganda running up to any referendum) would be more in terms of would you like to turn your back on our European trading partners and risk 30 million jobs?
It is encouraging that over 60% polled would like to see a referendum, but of course all any politician has to say is that the British people had a chance to vote to withdraw in the last general election by voting for UKIP and it failed to do so massively.
I think there is still a huge PR job to be done before we can start talking about referendi, far too many Joe Average’s are EUsceptic but know too little about the true nature of the EU project to be determined enough to resist the huge propaganda machine of national and supranational government.  UKIP are naive if they think that we are anywhere close to the tipping point on the EU issue.

ID Card case sexed up admits minister

John has a rather amusing photoshop of Fungus The Snakeoil Salesman in his story about the surprising admission from Tony McNulty that ID cards are a fucking waste of time a monsterous infringement of civil liberties not the magic cure-all that we were told they were.  Not shocking because it is any kind of revelation, clearly anyone with an IQ above room temperature could see that they couldn’t possibly do the amazing things claimed, shocking because a Minister has actually acknowledged the fact.  I’d like to think that in time this will lead to the plan being quietly forgotten, however as Government is generally a stubborn beast that may be optimistic.
I think McNulty is trying to play the game by admitting that the scheme is not so magic, he is attempting to shoot the opposition fox by toning down easily refuted claims.  I think the plan is flawed because with out the bright light to draw the moths and blind our eyes from the horrors of the scheme he makes it all the easier to see the downsides in terms of cost, complexity, untried technology and of course the killer - the fundemental shift in the relationship twixt state and individual.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

What’s the Difference

Two people are killed in seperate attacks.  Both are apparently racially motivated.
One is barely reported and the other is all over the news.
Why is this then?  What is the difference between these two victims?

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

No Racial Profiling

Bound to happen sooner or later.
Short arsed ginger witch Hazel Blears says

Police should not use racial profiling in their efforts to prevent further terror attacks on London

and further

People should not be stopped and searched just because they are Muslim

Minor point perhaps but Muslim is not a race it is a religion.  Sure there may be a greater chance of an Arab being Muslim, but let’s not confuse the two eh?
Police absolutely should use profiling as part of their tool kit, I agree that it should not be the only factor but if it was not a factor then I think this would be a criminal error which could only increase the chances of further attacks being succesful.  Our security forces have limited resource and if by some misguided liberal toss they are required to search as many old white ladies as they do young arab men then we can only reduce their effectiveness.
Remind us ‘Ms’ Blears (just had to be ‘Ms’ didn’t it!), how many of the bombers were white females?  How many were chinese men?