Schrödinger's Shooter

Dear firearm owner. Thank you for reading.

First off, we will assume that you have good intentions. You own a firearm or many firearms because:

1) you hunt animals to provide your family with animal protein,
2) you are skilled and proficient with the use of these weapons and you go to firing ranges in the same way that golfers go to driving ranges,
3) you inherited these firearms from family members and you treasure the memories associated with these objects,
4) you are steeped in an ethnic and historical tradition of owning firearms to protect yourself and your family,
5) you are a US citizen who believes in second amendment rights,
6) you have voluntarily registered your firearm with a regulatory organization. Should your weapon(s) be stolen, you would report the theft to the police, and
7) you consciously remove bullets from the weapon; you lock the weapon and its ammunition in separate, secure containers to ensure the safety of your loved ones.

So far, so good. You seem to be a responsible human being, acutely aware that your firearms have the potential to be used to kill people or to commit a crime.

Now here's the challenge.

While there are firearm owners who willingly observe any of the above, there are organizations - well funded by weapons manufacturers - who lobby the US government to prevent it from regulating the possession or use of firearms in any way.

This allows irresponsible, dangerous, murderous, mentally unstable people to acquire firearms without any provisions for tracking or monitoring the arsenals they may be gathering.

This means if somebody reports murderous threats that an ex-partner, ex-employee, ex-associate has uttered against them, police have few or no records to verify if this individual has the means to carry them out.

In an odd twist recently, it appears mothers against Open Carry and the powerful NRA are moving towards a showdown; will the Second amendment triumph over motherhood?

And when people start openly carrying firearms in some US states under the guise of wanting to defend themselves against imagined or possible threats, we have to ask themselves:

Will this individual shoot us? We have no way of knowing if an individual holding a firearm is a responsible owner or someone about to deliberately commit murder.

Schrödinger's shooter.

Are we overreacting?

In 2010, guns took the lives of 31,076 Americans in homicides, suicides and unintentional shootings. This is the equivalent of more than 85 deaths each day and more than three deaths each hour.

73,505 Americans were treated in hospital emergency departments for non-fatal gunshot wounds in 2010.

Firearms were the third-leading cause of injury-related deaths nationwide in 2010, following poisoning and motor vehicle accidents.

Between 1955 and 1975, the Vietnam War killed over 58,000 American soldiers – less than the number of civilians killed with guns in the US in an average two-year period.

In the first seven years of the US-Iraq War, over 4,400 American soldiers were killed. Almost as many civilians are killed with guns in the US, however, every seven weeks.

Source.

You, the responsible firearm owner may think you don’t know anyone who would actually shoot and kill somebody or allow their firearms exploited this way but consider the sheer number of deaths from shootings that occur every year.

Fortunately, you’re a responsible firearm owner. We’ve established that. Now that you’re aware that there’s a problem, you are going to go out of your way to fix it, correct?

This does NOTHING to fix the problem, nor to indicate any goodwill and collaboration in preventing future mass shootings.  Who exactly, funds the Canadian National Firearms Association?  And how much did the weapons manufacturing industry pay Harper's Reform-Conservative-Evangelical party to destroy the long-gun registry?

The current state of firearms control in Canada, here.

Much gratitude to Shrödinger's Rapist, a brilliant blogpost that first developed this analogy with regard to a reasonable reticence that women may have when trusting men.

Happiness Is. . .

I love words and yesterday I learned a new one from commenter liberal supporter.

Hoplophobia.

I'd never heard of it. Well.

Never heard of hoplophobia? Most people haven't. The made-up word to describe people who fear guns hasn't caught on. Not even longtime gun enthusiasts are familiar with the term.

Not for lack of trying on the Gun Lobby's part. I googled and got about 53,000 hits.

From Wikipedia:

Firearms authority and learned writer Colonel Jeff Cooper coined the word in 1962 to describe a "mental disturbance characterized by irrational aversion to weapons." Although not a mental health professional, Cooper employed the term as an alternative to slang terms, stating: "We read of 'gun grabbers' and 'anti-gun nuts' but these slang terms do not [explain this behavior]." Cooper attributed this behavior to an irrational fear of firearms and other forms of weaponry. He stated that "the most common manifestation of hoplophobia is the idea that instruments possess a will of their own, apart from that of their user." Writing in an opinion piece, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review columnist Dimitri Vassilaros asserted that the term was intended by Cooper as tongue-in-cheek to mock those who think guns have free will.

Funny, innit? Gun nuts calling the sane people nuts.

Here's somebody working that corner. Scroll down for an entry titled: 'The Last Refuge for Hate: Gun Hate', described as 'Author seeks to add “hoplophobia” to DSM, the official directory of mental ailments'.

Oh, look here. A supposedly real psychiatrist on 'Raging Against Self Defense: A Psychiatrist Examines The Anti-Gun Mentality', by Sarah Thompson, M.D.

I couldn't read all of it. But this bit jumped out at me:

The Common Thread: Rage

In my experience, the common thread in anti-gun people is rage. Either anti-gun people harbor more rage than others, or they're less able to cope with it appropriately. Because they can't handle their own feelings of rage, they are forced to use defense mechanisms in an unhealthy manner. Because they wrongly perceive others as seeking to harm them, they advocate the disarmament of ordinary people who have no desire to harm anyone. So why do anti-gun people have so much rage and why are they unable to deal with it in appropriate ways? Consider for a moment that the largest and most hysterical anti-gun groups include disproportionately large numbers of women, African-Americans and Jews. And virtually all of the organizations that claim to speak for these "oppressed people" are stridently anti-gun. Not coincidentally, among Jews, Blacks and women there are many "professional victims" who have little sense of identity outside of their victimhood.

Niiiice.

So, then I got to thinking, if there's a phobia, there should be a philia.

Bingo.

Too many people hold the mistaken impression the primary purpose of arms is for military or criminal pursuits. The purpose of this site is to provide an outlet for one person (that would be me) who sees firearms as more than the caricatures seen on the network news; I see them as tangible pieces of American history, physical artifacts of Clausewitz's "politics by other means", representative products of the industrial revolution, and an intrinsic component of the American identity. Arms, and particularly firearms, are usually high tech in terms of production, and can be high art in terms of design and execution.

Firearms appeal to our higher senses of aesthetics and justice, while simultaneously appealing to the more primitive, limbic part of our brains – the part that is attracted to bright shiny objects that rattle when shaken.

As John Amber, former editor of Gun Digest, famously put it, they are "a magnificent obsession".

Just as I was backing quietly out of there, an email announcement of this StatsCan report pinged into my inbox.

In 2009, the vast majority (93%) of Canadians aged 15 years and older living in the provinces said they felt satisfied with their personal safety from crime. This proportion was similar to 2004, the last time this survey was conducted.

Crime, I'm not terribly scared of. Gun nuts Hoplophiles? You betcha!

Image source, a site called 'Happiness Is a Warm Gun'.

Coming soon to your local Canadian Walmart ...

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Recent exchanges on Twitter with a number of gun nuts who support Bill C-19, which will abolish the gun registry and all the accumulated data - has been quite informative, and alarming.

Logical arguments and facts do not work with these folks.

Hence the prediction. The Guardian story that accompanies the photo above, here.

Con victims are *real* victims; others - not so much.

There's the Contempt Party Hard-On Crime Omnibus Bill. Then there's the destruction of the federal gun registry, including all its data.

Self-appointed advocate for victims' rights and Stevie-appointed reformaTory shill Pierre-Hughes Boisvenu, ersatz lobbyist for Bill C-10 - and against the gun registry claims the JUSTICE SYSTEM killed his daughter.

Then there's Nathalie Provost who survived the 1989 carnage at the Polytechnique, one of many women and men whose account of the massacre inspired the film. Shrieeeking Con Jobs have tried their best to discredit her, labelling her a " manipulative professional victim." Ironic, no?

It isn't happenstance that Boisvenu was sent out by PMSHithead's Politburo with talking points to defend Bill C-10.

With malice aforethought and willful malevolence, the Con's propaganda machine will destroy anything and anyone who challenges the substance of their claims and objects to their objectives.

A respected local expert on strategic communications was taken aback recently:

"The theme of my presentation was that as communicators we are being asked to do more with less and that there has never been a more compelling time to be strategic, contribute and measure value. And the place to start – and end – is a solid, sophisticated strategic plan.

A gutsy participant raised his hand in front of hundreds of peers and superiors to ask a question that had me gob smacked. “I hear what you’re saying that communications strategies are important and that we should be clear on the results we’re targeting, rather than just pumping out tactics.” He went on “What do you suggest I do when our political masters have categorically told us they do not want to see any communications strategies – all they want are the tactics?”

KAPOW. In ten years of running a consultancy specializing in strategic communications planning, this was a new one for me."

From here.

I'll bet that "gutsy participant" had his contract permanently terminated by his political masters, pronto-monto.

Also, a reminder that the Contempt Party doesn't believe the Criminal Code should be applied to their actions, nor enforced - via canadian cynic.

Kill the Wegistry!

This Montreal Gazette political cartoon is the perfect counterpart to the tortuous train of thought that left the cavernous terminus of MPty-suit Contempt Party flunky Maxime Bernier:

[...] the Quebec Conservative MP for Beauce riding, offered little hope his party would bend when he trotted out to plug the party line Thursday.

"I'm here to reiterate the position of our government that has always been very clear - that we will abolish the long-gun registry because we believe it unfairly targets hunters and farmers, rather than real criminals,"he said.

"When we said we would destroy the registry, the registry is comprised of data ... and that data is what we're going to destroy because it is the registry."

Your choo-choo train of *reasoning* is going around in circles, Maxime.

This is another order of Contempt: "prendre le monde pour une valise".

Inspired by gloatessa's tweet.

More Contempt from PMSHithead

According to Stevie Spiteful and his Cons, the Ruger Mini 14 is a *duck gun*.

That should be comforting to the 14 women shot dead on December 6 1989 and the victims of Breivik's murderous rampage.

Yet, according to this:

The majority of guns owned by Canadians are non-restricted long guns. Should new legislation be passed as the Conservative government has pledged, there will be no requirement to register this class of weapon.

Once a gun is bought, it can be modified to make it more agile and functional. Common tactical additions include pistol grips, folding or collapsible buttstocks, sophisticated sights, flash hiders, and lightweight synthetic bodies.

When purchased, a Ruger Mini 14 or "Ranch Rifle" is a fairly standard semi-automatic rifle, shooting the same 5.56-calibre ammunition used by NATO militaries. But when modified with specialized parts, it becomes considerably more combat-ready, accurate and intimidating.

A heavily modified Ruger Mini 14 was the weapon of choice for Anders Breivik in the recent Norway shootings, as well as the weapon favoured by [the killer] in the École Polytechnique shootings in 1989.

The Mini 14 - and its big brother, the Mini 30 - are widely available in Canada for around $1,000 and are classified non-restricted.

The day when ReformaTory Attack Parrots™© - with their constant prevarications and obfuscations - become political dead ducks can't arrive too soon.

Harper is absolutely right.

People in places like Welland will indeed desperately need their guns for hunting.

And with the rising levels of unemployment, as manufacturing company after branch plant close their doors, folks in rural ridings may well be forced to hunt game weekly to put food on the table for their families.

Yesterday Stephen *The Saviour* Harper played up voters' fears about the long-gun registry.

Were they so relieved about his championing their right to shoot squirrels, groundhogs and wild turkey that they barely noticed the Contempt Party leader driving his ATV, oblivious to the harsh reality of those 800 JD workers who lost their jobs last year when John Deere ran out of town and closed the farm-machinery plant?

More about job losses in Welland, here.

May those who vote for the Con candidate and Harper's Contempt Party think of them with every bite of their weasel pie.

And, what is it with Stevie Spiteful's overweening need to stamp his personal brand on everything? Is that an Albertan thing or more likely, a symptom of his unbridled egotism?

Did Con candidate heel to party line?

Blogger Cowboys for Social Responsibility was the first to flag the potential election campaign disaster with this guy.

But, no problemo - the ex-PMO politburo has achieved spin control and their Contempt Party candidate has been effectively muzzled.

From here:

As the president of Quebec’s largest police union, Jean-Guy Dagenais forcefully defended Canada’s controversial long-gun registry, calling it a “must.”

On Tuesday, as he was officially presented as a star candidate for the Conservatives in the riding of Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot, he was suddenly for its abolition.

“It gives police a false sense of security,” Dagenais told reporters as he stood next to Christian Paradis, Stephen Harper’s Quebec lieutenant currently on a tour of the province.

Dagenais called the registry’s administration “shameful,” adding, “It’s a program that cost $2 billion.”

While he led the Quebec Provincial Police Association, which counts 5,400 members, he was a strong advocate for the registry’s survival even as the Conservatives were working to kill it.

“Here, the registry is a must,” Dagenais told Le Journal de Quebec in March, 2010. [...]

Dagenais’ union was strongly in favour of the registry maintenance, describing it as a highly consulted tool that helps officers do their jobs.

More about the organization that's investing thousands of dollars towards the campaigns of candidates who do NOT support the gun registry.

Feral Cats v. Endangered Birds

I have a dear friend who is deeply involved in the feral cat capture-neuter- return campaign and, somewhat ironically, also an avid birder.

So I watched Cat Crazed on Doc Zone tonight on CBC. I can't find the program online but here's the trailer.

Simply put, it's cats versus birds. Even neutered, they hunt. The oft-repeated number of 50 million feral cats versus some very tenuous bird numbers makes this one a no-brainer.

Kill the cats.

But the obsessed cat people -- almost all women -- go bananas. Beeeg trouble at the civic level.

Calgary to the rescue! As the doc drily points out, in the land where licensing guns drives people batshitcrazy, licensing cats is no biggie.

And seems to work.

I'm looking forward to hearing what my catlady/birder has to say about the doc.