The NRA Conundrum

The NRA has been on my mind a good deal lately and for good reason. It seems that everywhere I look I see someone being inconvenienced or thrown to the wolves by the NRA, when they should be being courted by the NRA. Recent commentary by a well known poster over at The Boondocks, brought the NRA to mind, once again. Mama Liberty, a staunch advocate of open carry and the arming of women, was lamenting the necessity of having to acquire an NRA membership and training in order to teach women the basics of firearm safety and shooting.

I agree that the training is extremely important and that much of it just wouldn't happen without the NRA, but I'm not happy about being a part of an organization that is so clearly working against our basic right to self defense in the long run.

I know just how she feels. I've avoided the NRA for decades because of an early realisation that they would, and had, happily leapt right into bed with the government. I never had the feeling that they would protect their members in an way from a gun grabbing government. That's a feeling that has never gone away for me. Their reputation has never increased in my eyes and, in fact it has sunk farther and farther as the years have gone by.

The NRA has taken the wrong side on a number of issues, they've cooperated with the government to impose new regulations and oppose repeal of anti-2nd Amendment laws and regulations. They have been more than willing to compromise away our rights and have done so, time and again. I have a problem with that.

Lately we've even seen that one of their board members, Joaquin Jackson, has espoused gun control measures that would affect the many people who own scary looking AK's or AR's. Of course he lied, he waffled, after there was a hue and cry over his back stabbing remarks. It's just a never ending story with these guys.

And that brings me to my conundrum. I have a couple of shooting ranges in my area. One is quite literally around the corner from my home. Both have one requirement that I either cannot fulfill. They require their members to have...you guessed it....NRA memberships, to join. So, as it stands, I have to travel about 25-30 minutes to the west side of Indianapolis and pay a $10 range fee every time I wish to go shooting. I'd love to be able to drive 2 minutes and shoot a stones throw from my home and do so more often, but I choose to do otherwise. I sure wish these clubs would accept memberships in Gun Owners of America or the JPFO, instead. It sure would make things easier to be a member of an organisation that refuses to compromise our rights away.

The continuing fascination with the NRA is beyond me. It's like those people who keep voting for Republicans hoping for smaller government and never getting it. It's delusional. So, what's a guy to do? *sigh*

Technorati Tags:
NRA, Guns, Gun Control, Libertarian, Joaquin Jackson

We're Number One!

Outstanding! The US is number one, (in the whole wide world), for firearms ownership, according to a report from the "United Nations".

The United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world, a report released on Tuesday said.

U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.

About 4.5 million of the 8 million new guns manufactured worldwide each year are purchased in the United States, it said.

Americans must do better than this, tho. Having a handgun is OK, but that's just what you use until you can get to your rifle or shotgun. We currently buy more than half of the small arms produced in the world, and we should be buying lots more, too. Especially the ones which look so mean and nasty that they keep the Chuckie Schumers and Hillary Clinton's of the world awake at night! We can do a lot better than 90 guns per 100 people. It should be a lot higher than that! At least 2-300 per 100!

This is seriously good news and politicians should take notice of these statistics every time it crosses their little Marxist minds to pass another of their gun control measures. For all our firearms we have a much lower crime rate than, oh, say...Great Britain? Facts speak much louder than anti-gun rhetoric.

So, the next time a gun show rolls through town, or a National "Buy A Gun Day" (April 15th) comes due get yourself out and buy a new one. This country needs to be number one at something and firearms ownership is a good thing to be number one at!

Technorati Tags:
Libertarian, Guns, Liberty

Goodbye, Aaron.

Aaron Russo, a tireless warrior in the battle for freedom and liberty has died. Many of us knew Mr. Russo through his works and his activism. I was never privileged to have met him in person and I am sorry that I didn't. While I didn't agree with some of his views, I certainly agreed with his overall premise. Government is too big, too corrupt and commanding and we are paying the price for that in our liberty.

In a movement that has all too few people who garner national and international attention for the cause, Aaron stood out as few others do. Speaking with great passion and insight to the cause of liberty he stood as a figure of strength, even as his body was ravaged by illness. Mr. Russo has left us, but his legacy remains in his works, such as From Freedom To Fascism and Mad As Hell.

We'll miss you, Aaron and we are lessened by your loss.

Other sites mentioning Mr. Russo's passing.
Homeland Stupidity
Bill St. Claire

Technorati Tags:
Aaron Russo, Libertarian, Liberty

They Steal Babies, Don't They?

As if placing people under constant surveillance via CCTV wasn't enough of an outrage we have this latest story out of England. It seems that the British have taken to stealing babies from their parents before they're even born, so they can place them in state sponsored foster care and then have them adopted by others, (a common practice it seems) . And, to make matters even more interesting they're targeting people who haven't even done anything.

She recorded a social worker telling her and her husband Martin, 41, that even though there was "no immediate risk to your child from yourselves", the council would seek a court order to place the child in foster care.

Mother and baby would be allowed "two or three days" in hospital together, but should not leave the premises until social workers came to remove the infant. In a desperate attempt to keep their baby, the couple have published the recorded conversation on the internet.

The bureaucrats in their social services admit there is nothing wrong and yet, they still wish to steal this couples child from them. The bureaucrats,tho aren't overly concerned with their own outrageous behaviour. Nope. They are much more concerned with the fact that Mrs. Brookes secretly tapes their conversation and posted it on YouTube.

What can you expect, tho? This is what happens when you allow yourselves to be disarmed and are subjects and not free men. This is what happens when bureaucracies are allowed to do as they wish without fear of dire consequences and retribution. Some reading this will salve their consciouses with the oft repeated mantra that it won't or cannot happen here, but fail to realise that we are only one step away from just this sort of event at any given moment. Social workers in American often seize children for all the wrong reasons and have done so for decades.

The British are now reaping the fruits of their decades long labour. They have built up and allowed the current system to become their master and now it even endangers their unborn children, turning them into a commodity to be taken from the breeding stock and placed with "suitable" families. The petty bureaucrats are even paid bonuses for meeting certain quotas of adoptions.

I, for one have no hope that the people of Britain will do the necessary and right thing. They, like their American cousins are enamoured of the state and will allow it to continue its cancerous growth. Even if it costs them their children. What a sad and frightening state of affairs. A state of affairs which will likely come to our shores all too soon. Hopefully the minions of the state will be met with the appropriate response when that time comes.

Technorati Tags:
Great Britain, Forced Adoptions, Politics, Libertarian