Dealing With The Devil

I have stated a couple of times within this blog that I will never collect any money from the federal government, for any reason, primarily for the fact that this failed government has no money to give me.  A secondary reason lies in avoiding a deal with the devil.  The government is funny.  They take our money by force and offer a little of it back to us with conditions.

How many people would you think, supported the idea of an instant background check system, with it's multi-million dollar price tag, for the purpose of keeping guns out of the hands of "criminals", thought for a second that they would end up on the prohibition list themselves.  We could estimate around 4.2 million Social Security recipients as part of that group now.  That is in addition to the several million military veterans who have been placed on the list by the Veteran's Administration.  These people were placed on the list, not for comitting crimes, but for their own safety...and ours, it's mostly about our safety.  They might do something stupid.

This current administration has been expanding that prohibited persons list at a fantastic rate.  And this is the main point I wish to make.  If we as the People, who formed this government, allow it to maintain such a list, then we ourselves eviscerate the 2nd Amendment and the right it cites.  That list, by definition, infringes on the right to keep and bear arms.  If we tell the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives to maintain and manage such a list then we specifically tell them that the right to keep and bear arms SHALL be infringed.

I am one of very few people who has said that the laws which prevent convicted felons from legally obtaining firearms are unfair and unconstitutional.  My first concern is for the felon.  If he has committed a crime, has been duly convicted and is now freely moving about on our streets, then our wise government must have determined that he is no longer a threat to us and has paid his dues.  If he cannot be trusted with firearm ownership, for self-protection, then why would they let him out?  I know, I know...they let dangerous criminals out all the time.  Well, that is even more of a reason for everyone to be armed.  Which brings me to the second part of why prohibiting felons is stupid.  To do so would require a LIST.  Now the non-felon must prove he is eligible, while the actual prohibited felon is out there grabbing guns anywhere and we are slogging through paperwork and bureaucracies.  And that is where we are, with people who are not felons being added to the list.  That is what it is like when you strike a deal with the devil, the outcome comes out short on your side while he keeps his end of the bargain.

Another Gun Free Zone Success

Gun Free Zones are always successful.  They always work as intended.  I am not being sarcastic.  Our latest example of a gun free zone shooting happened yesterday in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  A young, angry man with an agenda shot and killed four United States Marines and a United States Navy sailor as they were working in a naval training center.  The training center is federal property, thus it is legally defined as a Gun Free Zone and that zone served it's purpose.

Gun Free Zones are established specifically to prohibit the people who work in them and those who conduct lawful business in them from bringing in guns.  The managers and supervisors who establish those prohibitions only have authority over those two groups.  Those two groups are the only ones who will seriously consider the implications of a financial fine and/or a felony conviction.  This is an example of a negative trade.  The manager says, "You do not bring a gun to work and I will not cause you to be imprisoned for a year or more."  The employee and lawful visitor says, "I do not wish to be locked up, so I will not bring in a gun."  We have a trade.

This trade balance completely fails with a maniac, a psychopath or anyone who is hell bent to murder.  The manager says, "You do not bring a gun to work and I will not cause you to be imprisoned for a year or more."  The murderer says, "I am going to murder you all and I don't give a damn about you and your silly laws!"  There is no trade and innocent people die.

When the employees and honest visitors made the negative trade, notice what they did not get, absolute protection.  The managers never include that in the deal and they know that they have no agreement with the murderers; they are happy just prevailing over the law abiding.  After victims are buried, the managers and their organizations are never punished for preventing self-defense and failing to protect.

In yesterday's attack, battle tested, awarded, warriors were summarily killed by a crazy kid.  That is how out of balance a Gun Free Zone is.  This brings us back to my original statement.  The Gun Free Zone established at the Naval Training Center, in Chattanooga, Tennessee was completely successful because the men to whom it was directed and binding, Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Sullivan, Lance Corporal Skip Wells, Sergeant Carson Holmquist, Staff Sergeant David Wyatt and Petty Officer 2nd Class Randall Smith, shot no one.

Requiescat In Pace

07/20/2015

A new revelation may indicate that one of our Marines may have cheated the Gun Free Zone.  There is a Glock pistol, as it was described in this linked Fox News article, which the FBI does not believe was brought to the scene by the murderer.  If that handgun was smuggled in by a Marine and he did use it in self defense then we have lost a rare and valuable man.  He may have prevented a horrible situation from getting much worse.  Semper fidelis!

Changing Flags

A young deranged man walked into a Charleston, South Carolina church during a Wednesday evening service and murdered nine people in cold blood, for reasons that even he doesn't understand.  After the initial shock, our national discourse has settled on the "hateful" image of the Confederate flag.

I am squarely on the side of the Confederacy concerning the issues of the war.  Specifically, the main provocation of the North was using their higher populations, through the democratic process, to place a disproportionately high portion of the national tax burden on the agricultural products of the South.  For decades this issue fermented and was loudly contested in the congress to no relief.  After having their arguments for tax parity rebuffed, the South attempted to put into action the political theory of the "consent of the governed" and through their state legislatures, declared their separation from the Federation.  This too, was rejected.  In final frustration, the South started the shooting.  From this lack of political respect for the South, the most terrible war this nation has ever known erupted, taking the lives of 620,000 Americans and destroying the property, economy and culture of the South.

As right as the South was in their political grievances, it is nearly impossible to be taken seriously when you have a severe cultural flaw, which manifestly renders your arguments of "rights and liberty" moot and hypocritical, as does slavery.  Every man of conscious and good will abhors slavery.  It is ugly and glaringly wrong.  This is why, as noble as was their defense of the pure political ideals as enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the Southern cause will always always be tarnished.  This is why their proud flag will always be a hated symbol by many.  Let this be a lesson for all of us, regardless of how noble you are in your work, how grand your achievements, if you besmirch your character with a grave sin, it is all diminished.

Today, rather than talking about how we raise our children, how we have let slip the ideal of solid, conventional families, how we have neglected any kind of true teachings on right and wrong in our educational system, we are talking about purging the image of the Confederate flag.  Well...OK, if the Confederate flag is offensive, I'll take mine down.  The Confederate cause is dead anyway.  The good ideals, so dearly and honorably fought for, have slipped away from our entire country without notice or concern.

Racism is wrong.  That is a truth.  Everyone has the God given right of individual dignity, the right to life, to safety, to property, in short, the right to live.  The South further tarnished their flag and their noble legacy through their 100 year pity party in which they enacted and enforced racial discrimination laws.  To deny civil dignity to anyone based on their race, culture or gender, is simply wrong.  The civil disobedience of the black peoples of the south was right and it was a noble effort which proved effective, because it was right.

Homosexuality is a grave evil.  I am not being inconsistent here.  There is a huge difference between being of a race of people and committing a sinful act of an abominable nature.  Everyone born, of any time, was born for one reason, to know, love and obey God in this life and to be with Him in the next.  Any willful action, which destroys that raison d'etre, is by definition, a sin and cannot be excused or tolerated.  It is an act of charity to admonish the sinner and to not ratify his sins.  To look the other way, with indifference, is only to wave "bon voyage" as the poor soul travels the short route to hell.  Worse, agreement with a sin, is to partake of the sin.  Concealment of another's sin, is to partake of it as well.  This is why cake bakers are right in refusing to take part in sacrilegious marriage ceremonies.  To refuse to support those ceremonies is not evil discrimination, it is an act of love, love for God and love for the persons involved.

Our society is severely confused on what is truly right and wrong.  If symbols help, if the conversation could be pressed back on a proper path through images, then the flag I raise, as I lower the Confederate flag, will be the flag of the One - Holy - Apostolic - Catholic Church.  In Her, the confusion is erased and Truth reigns.  In Her, the good fight lives!