Aurora Sentinal Endorses Victim Disarmament

The Sentinel published an editorial endorsing whatever new gun laws the Dems want to propose. I'm sure they will, and ram them down our throats just like 2013. The reaction of the electorate remains to be seen. Here's an annotated version of the editorial. My comments in green:

Colorado Dems must go with the political flow and enact gun safety bills now

By

 THE SENTINEL EDITORIAL BOARD

January 3, 2019

1128

The tide has turned at the state Capitol, and it’s time to seize the opportunity to make Colorado safer.

Appeal to personal safety even though nothing proposed here is likely to contribute to it. Persons made safer consist of mostly violent criminals and corrupt politicians.

Democratic legislators and Colorado’s new governor, who effectively now control state government, would make a grievous mistake by finally enacting long overdue gun-safety legislation.

I'm pretty sure this is a typo although it may well be the only true statement here.

The once-honorable National Rifle Association has evolved to become a ruthless political arm of the nation’s $43-billion-a-year gun industry. Its clear focus is to ensure the easy and prolific procurement, use and sale of firearms and ammunition.

The NRA is not now nor has it ever been a representative of the firearms industry. It is the advocate of the firearms owner. The memberships biggest complaint is that they are too willing to compromise.

Over the past few decades, the NRA and groups such as Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and the Independence Institute have deviously woven a gun-rights mythology with fierce patriotism.

It’s not in any way patriotic to turn firearms on fellow citizens upwards of 100,000 times a year.

Upwards of 60,000 of which are citizens turning them on themselves for whatever reason. Most of the remainder is citizens turning them on (for the most part) fellow citizens in disputes over who owns what corner to sell drugs on or to redistribute other peoples wealth.

Colorado residents are the unwitting subjects of a vastly expensive and relentless marketing scheme coupled with an ocean of money spent annually on ensuring compliance from obedient and fearful members of Congress and the Colorado Legislature.

Don't see what you have to complain about. Michael Bloomberg, Tom Styer and George Soros can spend their money however they wish. Buying the legislature isn't illegal if you do it right.

The NRA mythology is pegged on equating the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, guaranteeing free speech, with the Second Amendment, preserving the ability of citizen militias to help defend the nation against foreign invaders. They have worked tirelessly to persuade Congress and Colorado voters that there should be no regulation of firearms in the same way there is virtually no regulation of speech.

The second amendment is there to preserve the citizens right to speak freely and all the rest of the stuff covered in the bill of rights. The first amendment is currently heavily regulated against anyone complaining about politically imposed tyranny by way of forbidding among other things “hate speech”, which BTW is anything anyone disagrees with.

The result is a chaotic free-for-all where about 100,000 Americans are killed or maimed each year by firearms. We are killed and wounded by guns at a rate that is 25 times higher than any other developed democratic nation. It is our nation’s biggest embarrassment and preventable tragedy.

First leave out the suicides. Tragic as they might be, if guns are not available, people come up with alternatives. The rate does not change. Second, if you leave out 2 or 3 precincts in 3 or 4 large (Democrat run) cities, our gun death rate drops to 3^rd or 4^th lowest in the world.

For those who insist gun-safety measures won’t reduce gun violence and mass murders, the dozens of free, Democratic nations across the globe that protect the rights of hunters and sportsmen and reasonably regulate firearms are proof that it can be done.

Can't win the argument on facts, change the argument. The 2^nd amendment isn't about ducks. It's about politicians. Also remember to never call it gun control. It's to be called gun safety. There are only 4 rules for gun safety. Ever hear an anti-gun pol speak them? Me neither.

Colorado Democrat Party leaders should set aside talk of the last time Democrats had this kind of control in 2013 and pushed through measures to ensure background checks and magazine size. The two bills were born of the Aurora theater shooting massacre and were only the start of a long list of work needing to be done to rein in rampant gun violence.

Abridging the constitutional rights of ones political enemies is a long established pastime of the Democratic party. Disarming ones political enemies is as old as political enemies. Hitler disarmed the Jews, and the Dems passed Jim Crow laws and Black Codes. With only minor changes, they're still pushing these.

Shortly after, Republican extremists surprisingly and successfully recalled two lawmakers over their support of the gun bills. The recall was pulled off in a special election that few voters took notice of. Even if the same extremists pulled the same stunt again, voters and Democrats are wise to the scam.

I knew a lot of those who worked on the recalls. The elections were widely reported, and no one I met could reasonably be labeled an extremist. The 3^rd legislator who was up for recall, Evie Hudak, recognized her impending defeat and resigned before her loss could flip the Colorado Senate.

Some Democrats are fearful of certain backlash from gun-rights and right-wing extremists if they act now on pushing through a red-flag bill and other gun-safety measures that can provably save lives. They should step down now. Every lawmaker was sent by voters to the state Capitol to do a job, not to work to preserve their power.

Finally something I can agree with! The only job any legislator has that might be considered Job #1 is self preservation. If some anti gun billionaire from out of state or even out of country wants a law passed, all he has to do is send a copy of his pet legislation to the head of the local DNC politely suggesting that anyone not supporting this law WILL be facing a well-funded opponent in the next primary race.

The political tide, however, has strategically turned across the state. A majority of voters here have made it clear they no longer believe the outrageous lies generated by the NRA and other gun lobbyists. Voters see through the empty rhetoric of the far-right and have overwhelmingly pushed back against the government of President Donald Trump.

In a typical election year, about 30% of the electorate does not return the ballots they were mailed. The alignment of these “non voters” is about 50/50. The Evil party has figured out how to find the otherwise non-voted ballots on their side of the fence and get a significant percentage of them into the box. The Stupid party hasn't yet figured this out. If they do (30% chance), before the 2020 elections, AND if the Evil party over reaches in the meantime (80% chance) the balance of power can swing back toward the center.

History, voters, common sense and righteousness are on the side of Democrats and Republicans who know that realistic gun-safety legislation can and will reduce gun violence and deaths.

History and God are with us! Wait, I think I've heard that line before.

Start now in Colorado.

Drop on down to Venezuela first. They already have all of your agenda in place. Ask them how it's working out. When all is said and done, I've never seen an anti-gun law that didn't benefit primarily the criminal class. For the lawmakers who propose such things, this is a plus as the resultant increase in crime rates provides justification for more anti-gun laws until the law-abiding population is completely disarmed. Malcontents can then be safely picked up and jailed. See Tony Robinson for an example.

Stoneman Shooting

This needs wider circulation. An annotated timeline of what happened, when it happened, and what, if anything, was done.

From Gun Free Zone.

Holiday Wishes

Shamelessly stolen from the Grouchy Old Cripple:

Peak Wind? Who Knew

It is said that if you put the government in charge of the Sahara Desert, and in 6 months there will be a shortage of sand. It seems this works for resources as common as wind as well.

Of course if we locate the wind farms closer to D.C. the problem may be quickly solved. Could it be that Washington is sucking all the air out of...... Nah!

Admitting That Gun Control Still Isn't Popular

I got a fund-raising email this morning from Giffords.org asking me to donate to their cause. I have no idea why they thought I might respond, maybe they bought a customer list from Lee Precision thinking it was Lee jeans, but here's the "money quote":

But at the start of the month, we set a goal of 15,000 individual donations for December. We thought that would put us in good shape when the new Congress is sworn in. And as of this morning, we were at 4,983. Not great.

Great, like most adjectives, is a relative term. For Giffords, in the face of a Dem controlled House, getting a 30% response might be described as "not great". For me, considering the same circumstances, coupled with excited media coverage for the more rabid true believers, this is not bad news. I would have to say that the probability of another run on ammo or guns is much reduced.

Don't get cocky. Write your Senators and tell them to NOT support any gun control legislation in the face of falling crime rates. Keep reminding them which side of the toast has the butter.

I'm sure Bloomberg will chip in to help them out.

If you have some spare cash, donate to NRA/ILA or GOA or CCRKBA, or SAF.

Toy/Project - Making It Move

Got the original cylinder off, tore it apart, reassembled it carefully, and it refuses to work in any configuration. Screw it, I have a 2" cylinder to temporarily replace it with.

Turned the table over and soaked the working parts in gas over night, and voila! it turns, however reluctantly. I'm thinking it should free up with some use.

Put in the new air cylinder, after finding out that the Bellows company seems to have used some thread pitches not listed in the charts of standard SAE threads. They also installed a set screw in a spot that requires a good deal of disassembly before it can be either seen or reached and in a spot where attempted disassembly will cause damage to some fairly important threaded parts.


The new cylinder moves the table fairly easily with only 25-30 psi air which means only 75-90 lb force. a smaller cylinder will do the job, say 1-1/5" dia running at a modest 50 psi.

That brass pipe sticking out the center is the air supply to the little cylinders on the top. Unfortunately it hangs down a couple of inches below the bottom of the table and over the years it has been bent and banged up. I will need a banjo fitting for that at some point.

Still have no idea how the top is supposed to be removed from the bottom, and there is no indexing mechanism to set the table after each rotation. Oh well, some assembly is required.

Evening News - Update

I was originally going to post this on Hot Air here, but they seem to be fully vested members of the Vast Left-wing conspiracy to let Big Tech censor everything by requiring a Facebook membership to be allowed to speak there. Shame on you guys!

They do have a piece up noting that it is now possible for computers to generate exceptionally realistic human faces. This opens up a lot of possibilities for TV News stations, politicians, and blackmailers of all sorts.

This is a technological jump over the proposal I fronted 2 or 3 years ago. Then, I suggested that animatronic robots could be used to to replace the high priced talking heads on the nightly news with only a wig change required to get from news to sports, and with lipstick, to weather. Now even that is no longer required. The CG heads can recite whatever a committee of wonks has decided is news, and if there's bias, it's distributed across the committee and no one gets fired. Cost of software and regular upgrades would be far less than the annual salaries of the actors currently staring back from the screens.

The Economy - Didja Notice?

On election day, the Dow stood at 26,180 and change. Today, as of 10:03 EST, it's at 23,900, a loss of 2880 points.

The Dems don't get to start warming their chairs in the House for another month yet, and the Dow is down 11%. You'd think the Dems had taken the whole banana and Hillary was about to name BHO as her chief economic adviser. Still, the DJIA is a forward-looking indicator so maybe the market mavens see something coming that we don't, and the MSM won't.

Remember, if the market crashes, the only thing to change is the makeup of the House so that would be the place to lay the blame.

Since taxation and spending bills originate in the House, and the House seems to be preparing for 2 years of all out effort to overturn the results of the '16 election and nothing else, maybe there is some cause to worry.

Toy/Project

No, I did not find an old Ferrari in a barn. Much more mundane than that. I helped a friend move his machine shop, and as his new digs are much cozier than the old ones, He generously gifted me with a doorstop.

 This is a 24 stage rotary feed table, with 7 "stations" and one empty. Not shown is the big brass air cylinder which normally attaches to the right hand side of the thing and causes the upper part to rotate when activated. So far I have been unable to get the cylinder to move at all except by pushing it in and out manually. The valve attached to it is a marvel to behold, and possibly an even bigger marvel to make work. I've removed the cylinder and disassembled the valve. I may sent it to the Smithsonian with my blessing as long as they promise not to send it back.

The Table is a product of the Bellows Company, which seems to have vanished from the face of the earth unless the Schraeder/Bellows/Parker company is the corporate descendant of it. Anyone in Akron know anything? That's where the thing was reputedly made. There's even a Bellows St in Akron so there's a possibility there are drawings for this thing there.

Having removed the recalcitrant air cylinder and soaked the underpinnings in gasoline, I'm seeing some movement of the upper part, however reluctant.

I'm thinking of trying to make a fully functional reloading press out of this at some point, but having something this steampunk ker-chunking about might serve even as a piece of art. No one has any idea what this thing was used for originally.

Arguing With Liberals

Found at Power Line Blogs week in photos which is always worth the clickover:

To my observation, asking questions back is the quickest way to silence a liberal.

Next year I plan to attend the hearings for the anti-gun bills and ask a lot of questions.

Internet Speeds Increase

In most places, but not so much around here:

This is no better than its ever been. Of course my provider is employing an old retired telegraph operator to relay my page requests on to whomever it is that actually provides them, so when I ask for a page I can almost hear the clacking of the brass telegraph key.

Boulder CO - Gun Games

The Oh-So-P.C. city council of Boulder passed an ordinance forbidding the ownership of "assault weapons" but in a gesture of good will, they allowed the ownership of weapons acquired prior to the passage of the law. If you live in Boulder and want an evil black rifle, or whatever it is they define as an assault weapon, you'll have to drive a few miles to Erie or Longmont to get one. Of course if you get caught coming home with it, you could get a ticket:

The city council promised that there would be no records kept, and no registration as a precursor to future confiscation. Compliance, for all practical purposes, would be left up to the gun-owning citizens themselves.

Boulder City Attorney Tom Carr said that anyone found with a “non-certified” firearm in his possession after December 27 would be subject to a fine of up to $1,000 and (not or) 90 days in jail. The now-illegal firearm would be confiscated and destroyed.

 Emphasis mine. No mention of what might happen if you claim to have owned the weapon for the last 5 years and forgot to get it registered certified.

The paper process involves paying a fee, for which the city would give you a receipt, of which they would keep a copy along with a note explaining what the money was collected for, getting another background check, of which they would keep a copy along with a note explaining why they had it done, and give you 2 copies of your certification papers, one of which must be kept with the gun.

The story is here along with some math (show your work!) suggesting that there might be as many as 150,000 "assault weapons" in need of "non-registration" up there. So far, and with 17 days left to go before they all become criminals, some 85 guns have been registered certified for a compliance rate of .056%.

I love it when a plan like that comes together.

Christmas Music Update

Found at IOTW, here's a ragtime/Jazz version of the Nutcracker Suite

Ragtime Nutcracker

https://iotwreport.com/rag-of-the-reed-flutes/

https://iotwreport.com/cakewalk-of-the-sugar-plum-fairies/

https://iotwreport.com/arabic-tango/

https://iotwreport.com/rag-of-the-reed-flutes/

https://iotwreport.com/chinese-blues/

Pretty cool.

Gun Sales Show No Signs Of Panic

Here's the latest NICS count, with the usual caveat that a NICS check has only about a 71% chance of actually representing a gun sale:

I will interpret this as a position of confidence that although the House will likely pass lots of gun bills, a Republican Senate will likely vote them down in committee. Of course this sets up the Donks to propose every half-baked anti gun idea ever heard of in the expectation that they will all get tossed so they can tell their constituents that they tried, and that their next opponent will forget that they did this and won't use it against them.

There are ways around this but it remains to be seen if the Dems will try them or push very hard if they do. A Dem can, under the upcoming regime, attach a draconian anti gun bit to one of the "must pass" bills that will come up, and dig in to the point of threatening a government shutdown and blame Republicans for valuing the lack of "common sense gun control" for failing to say, fund the military.

Of course this could work both ways with the Reps loudly proclaiming that the Dems would render the country defenseless in order to let them revert to type, abridging the civil rights of the citizens.

Interpreting The Headlines: Bush - Trump

From that great bastion of journalistic integrity, the Washington Pest Post:

‘Honorable, gracious and decent’: In death, Bush becomes a yardstick for President Trump

I interpret this to mean that the WaPo thinks that now that H W Bush is dead, and has advanced from Chimpy McBushitler to honorable great statesman, the only way Trump will be able to live up to that standard would be for him to drop dead.