Quote: Amontillado wrote in post #42

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Quote: Isailedaway wrote in post #39

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House Democrats Push Biden to Create ‘National Gun Violence’ Director
https://www.theepochtimes.com/house-demo...ng-2021-02-26-4

If Dems want this so bad, why not vote it into law in Congress?

We all know the reason why on that one.

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Well, that could be the end of my adult, measured, mature, reluctance for secession. We don't need someone to direct gun violence.

We could use a revitalized Office of Civilian Marksmanship. Check out their web site at https://www.thecmp.org. Lots of happy kids safely competing with air guns and firearms.

Beyond the sanctity of American guarantees of preexisting rights, I'm very concerned about the philosophy of disarming citizens. If we set aside all the sharp objects, we will evolve a society incapable of responsibility. I can't be the responsible gun owner I strive to be if I'm prohibited from having a gun. All prohibition leads to is being protected from myself and dependent on others. I don't want that.

When I was in second grade, my Dad gave me a pocket knife after I demonstrated I could handle it safely. From age seven through the present day, I've been without a pocket knife maybe three times. Every day I went to school with my pocket knife, just like most boys and probably a fair number of the young ladies, too.

For me, a knife in my pocket isn't just a useful implement, it's a token of self-reliance. After I graduated from high school, knives in schools got pretty much universally banned. I don't think the emergence of horrific violence in schools is the result of the knife ban, but I do think that everything that takes away the obligation to be responsible endangers us all.

Besides, think about whether you would feel safer at a gun range in the company of fellow enthusiasts - heavily armed - or, say, at an Antifa rally with possibly fewer firearms. Me, I'll head to the gun range every time. There's that warm feeling of being among one's own kind, plus there's all the delightful conversation with friends you haven't yet met.

We need that referendum.

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Quote: Isailedaway wrote in post #46

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If it were a real study of gun violence taken, one would conclude:
Gun violence is lessened when the threat of being shot by someone defending themselves or their property is real. If criminals knew no guns would threaten them, there would be more violence.

Criminals know that, and so do we who carry.

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@Amontillado

Many years ago when concealed carry was being hotly debated here and it became apparent it was going to pass, the anti-gunners tried desperately to attach language to the bill that would have required permit holders to wear a special lapel pin. Luckily that was defeated. The entire purpose of having one is so that the criminals among us do not know who has one and who doesn't.

Many people now choose to openly carry here and I have no problem with their doing so but I choose to continue to conceal mine. Don't see any sense in making myself a target.

Hopefully, Texas will soon remove the need for any sort of permit.

@EdJames - I have your CSV file, but probably won't get to it until tomorrow.

Thursday night, Ms. Amontillado and I took one in the arm for Uncle Joe. We got the Moderna vaccine.

Make your own decisions, of course, but I highly recommend getting vaccinated. There have been side effects, though. We were both pretty flattened.

The effects kicked in about 18 hours after the jab. Ms. Amontillado had chills. I had a vague feeling of something going on. I've tried to hide it, but by injection plus 24 hours we were both as useless as informed voters are to liberals.

At this writing, about 40 hours post inoculation, I feel fine. I'm stuck in an intellectual traffic jam, but without frustration. I've turned into Alfred E. Neuman, a question for the ages on my lips.

What, me worry?

The mental soft-focus isn't enough to be happy about Biden in office, but if somebody started droning about the children, common-sense reform, and meaningful change, I'd probably just nod off without ever figuring out what they were talking about.

See what I mean? I just wrote about "somebody," but I wouldn't figure out what "they" were talking about. I try not to make those mistakes. I'm suffering vaccine-induced temporary millennialism.

Tomorrow, if somebody starts droning, I'll figure out the subject matter.

Seriously, the vaccine's effects were surprising. I think it's a good roll of the dice to avoid COVID-19. I'm not whining. This is a bargain I can accept. Each to his own.

Y'all be well. I'm going to turn on CNN for a lullaby and get back to my napping.

"Meaningful change..." "Common sense reform..." I feel sleepy already...

Quote: Amontillado wrote in post #47

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Quote: Isailedaway wrote in post #46

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If it were a real study of gun violence taken, one would conclude:
Gun violence is lessened when the threat of being shot by someone defending themselves or their property is real. If criminals knew no guns would threaten them, there would be more violence.

Criminals know that, and so do we who carry.

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Precisely. Some movie shows luckless robbers trying to hold up a Texas bank. As soon as the robbers shout their demands, the customers in the lobby draw pistols and chase the robbers out.

Safely out in the street, one of the robbers complains about Texas and its gun laws. Classic.

The real-life version of that is Liberty Bank near Brenham. It marches to a different drummer, and backs its depositors with gold holdings. When Roosevelt closed the banks in the Depression, Liberty Bank remained open and solvent.

Back in 2000 or so, they had a string of about a half dozen armed robberies over the course of a year. Their bank president tore down the "no guns" signs and had the front door painted with an open green circle over a Colt 1911. Under that was a poetic statement about the value of the Second Amendment and the bank's respect for civil rights.

No more robberies.

I figure if there is at least a sprinkling of guns in any public venue, criminals have to stop and think twice about it. That, of course, means that some folks have to actually carry guns.

I volunteer. It's a burden, but such are the nature of civic duties.

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The Idea Of Secession Isn't Going Away

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At this juncture, sober minds would stop pretending this country can remain united. Americans would be wise to not dismiss separatism just because their history textbooks said it's illegal, racist, or treasonous. Instead, they should recognize it as a tool that could save a lot of headaches and even lives. The hyperpolarized state of American politics is not going anywhere, and can only become more heated as America’s social fabric deteriorates and politics become more divisive. Whatever civic glue held Americans together in the twentieth century has been rapidly withering away in recent decades.

Regardless of the prudence of such mob action, the aftermath of the Capitol rush stood out as a masks-off moment of the highest order. Those who may share disagreements on a number of political issues are no longer treated as fellow Americans, but rather as enemies with malicious intentions whose behavior must be corrected through a combination of state and corporate power. For the haughtiest mouthpieces of the current therapeutic regime, Trump supporters are the perfect test subjects for the experiments to deprogram Middle Americans of their recalcitrant behavior, better known as rejecting the corporate media’s narrative.

The battle lines have been clearly drawn, and sober minds would recognize that any return to previous eras of normalcy in America is a fleeting fantasy. Talk of secession from the likes of Texas Republican Party chairman Allen West and longtime conservative shock jock Rush Limbaugh may come off as partisan chest pounding, but more fundamentally it personifies a vestigial desire for self-governance. As I wrote in 2019, even standard conservative commentators are entertaining the idea of a national divorce.

Ignoring this new paradigm of hyperpolarization could prove deadly for Americans who view their political rivals as existential threats and for the numerous bystanders who want nothing to do with this political squabble. How about we don’t take any chances by preserving this flawed political order and choose the road of radical decentralization instead?...

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-- excerpt, rest at link above --

Lots of good information preceding the part I quoted.

Quote: Amontillado wrote in post #47

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Quote: Isailedaway wrote in post #46

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If it were a real study of gun violence taken, one would conclude:
Gun violence is lessened when the threat of being shot by someone defending themselves or their property is real. If criminals knew no guns would threaten them, there would be more violence.

Criminals know that, and so do we who carry.

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Precisely. Some movie shows luckless robbers trying to hold up a Texas bank. As soon as the robbers shout their demands, the customers in the lobby draw pistols and chase the robbers out.

Safely out in the street, one of the robbers complains about Texas and its gun laws. Classic.

The real-life version of that is Liberty Bank near Brenham. It marches to a different drummer, and backs its depositors with gold holdings. When Roosevelt closed the banks in the Depression, Liberty Bank remained open and solvent.

Back in 2000 or so, they had a string of about a half dozen armed robberies over the course of a year. Their bank president tore down the "no guns" signs and had the front door painted with an open green circle over a Colt 1911. Under that was a poetic statement about the value of the Second Amendment and the bank's respect for civil rights.

No more robberies.

I figure if there is at least a sprinkling of guns in any public venue, criminals have to stop and think twice about it. That, of course, means that some folks have to actually carry guns.

I volunteer. It's a burden, but such are the nature of civic duties.

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I took one more crack at my state representative recently:

To:
Representative Matt Schaefer

I once again approach you to consider an affirmative vote to placing on November's ballot that Texas review the matter of secession.

Since we last communicated, we have seen the horrendous destruction in civil liberties that has taken place from Congress, the President and even the Supreme Court, from cramming CRT down our throats, mandates on an experimental vaccine drug, refusal to stop the flow of illegals over our southern border, permitting enemies like the Taliban to have Twitter accounts while a past President is not permitted one, and on and on. Now our state is being targeted to have federal funds reduced if we do not vaccinate school kids. All of this does not even include the absolute fiasco in Afghanistan where a President refuses to rescue Americans trapped within another country whose radical elements in power are bent on torturing and executing them, a situation which he caused and will do nothing to help.

And the current 'infrastructure' legislation before Congress is essentially payments to the lockdown blue states that chose to hurt their economies and will be paid by us red states who chose freedoms instead of lockdowns.

We need serious consideration in this state toward an independent Texas. Even if the decision is that we remain within the USA, a strong signal is sent to DC that this is an important matter to us. And we will not be alone as a plethora of other states would support us.

I find it alarming that you as my representative will not even support us citizens the opportunity to express one way or the other whether we should take up as a state deliberation of this matter. That is not what a representative should be doing.

With the current legislative session underway, we have been presented with an added opportunity and we should not be missing out. We need desperately to send a clear message to DC that Texas is deciding on its own its prerogative to separate from what is considered a broken contract we entered into when we entered the Union.

The takeover by the feds on our elections here in Texas might mean there will never be another chance for us Texas citizens to remain Texans.

So let us not wait for 2022 as there might not be a legitimate election taking place if these radicals takeover.