Washington Post: Why Don’t People Listen To Gun Owners Who Support Restrictions?

By William Teach October 11, 2015 – 8:15 am

Nothing will stop the gun haters from propagating their ideas which do not work, and will only effect the law abiding citizens

Most gun owners support restrictions. Why aren’t their voices heard?

Once again, their voices are missing from the debate.

Gun owners who favor tighter restrictions on firearms say they are in the same position after the mass shooting in Oregon as they have been following other rampages — shut out of the argument.

The pattern, they say, is frustrating and familiar: The what-should-be-done discussion pits anti-gun groups against the National Rifle Association and its allies, who are adamantly opposed to any new restrictions on weapons.

Gun owners who occupy the middle ground complain that they are rarely sought out or heard, yet polls show that the majority of gun owners support universal background checks and other controversial limits. President Obama is reportedly considering using his executive authority to impose new ­background-check requirements for high-volume dealers in private sales — and many gun owners may support that.

This is all about being a hit piece on the NRA and those who aren’t for increasing the background checks. Note: I’m not a member of the NRA. I’ve never felt the need. I don’t agree with everything they do. But, they do work hard to protect our Constitutional right from what the gun grabbers want to do

Surveys by Johns Hopkins and the Pew Research Center show that about 85 percent of gun owners favor universal background checks, an idea fiercely opposed by the gun lobby. Gun owners also strongly support a federal database of gun sales, prohibiting ownership for those convicted of domestic violence and barring people with mental illness from buying guns.

Most law abiding gun owners are fine with background checks. I certainly am. Those I know with guns are. We’re certainly for prohibiting ownership to domestic abusers and those with mental illness that makes them a danger. But, let’s consider why the NRA and other gun lobbies oppose the “universal background checks” idea

Gun control supporters initially opposed NICS. However, once they recognized that NICS was inevitable, they began advocating steps aimed at incrementally transforming it into a national registry of guns. At first, they wanted background checks required on all private (i.e., non-licensee) sales, trades and gifts of handguns. Then they wanted background checks on private transfers of all firearms at gun shows. Now, they demand background checks on all private transfers of all firearms, regardless of location, and they want the FBI to retain, for an indefinite period, records on people who pass NICS checks to acquire firearms.

NRA opposes expanding background check systems at the federal or state level. Studies by the federal government show that people sent to state prison because of gun crimes typically get guns through theft, on the black market, or from family members or friends, and nearly half of illegally trafficked firearms originate with straw purchasers—people who can pass background checks, who buy guns for criminals on the sly. No amount of background checks can stop these criminals.

NRA also opposes gun registration. Expanding background check systems and allowing records to be kept on people who pass background checks to acquire guns would be steps toward transforming NICS into the national gun registry that gun control supporters have wanted for more than a hundred years.

As we can see, the anti-gunnites have incrementally pushed for more and more, and want this registry, which is government keeping track of private ownership of guns. As the recent IRS issue shows, not too mention all the hackings of federal government agencies, we can’t trust our information in government hands.

Second, increasing this won’t actually do anything for those engaged in wrong-doing with guns. Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA, also stated that the system is not working, since the roughly 250,000 prohibited people have never been prosecuted for attempting to purchase a firearm. The NRA used to support universal background checks, meaning everyone who purchases, regardless of where, but, the system is broken. Illegal purchases/attempted purchases are not prosecuted. Mental health information is very often not entered in the system.

BTW, why no mention that 64% want more armed security in schools, a notion gun grabbers are very much against? Same survey.

Though there is less support for banning high-powered assault rifles — about 49 percent of gun owners would, vs. 64 percent of non-gun owners, according to Pew — gun control advocates are emboldened that a near majority is out of lockstep with the gun lobby.

Except, these “high-powered assault rifles” are anything but. One can purchase much more powerful rifles. The .223 isn’t exactly the most powerful bullet out there. And all they mean is “scary looking weapon”.

Really, though, the fallacy of the survey is shown in that 58% favor banning semi-automatic weapons. That just shows that most do not understand what different types of guns are. Semi-auto means pull the trigger, one bullet exits the barrel, and one bullet moves from the magazine into firing position. But, the gun will not fire again till the trigger is pulled. Heck, we could almost say a revolver is semi-automatic. Do the gun grabbers want only guns which fire the same as they did during the War for Independence?

This is all stale rhetoric, which won’t take guns out of the hands of bad actors. Chicago has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation, yet, they continue to see high levels of gun-play and murders. Same with D.C., Baltimore, Detroit, and other Democratic Party run cities. Lets look for ways to get the guns out of their hands, while significantly increasing penalties for those who use weapons for crime. How about re-instituting hard time? How about chain-gangs out working on roads? Let’s stop restricting those who want guns for self-defense and can pass a background check, and start going after the bad actors.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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UK Clean Energy Firms Go Belly Up

By William Teach October 10, 2015 – 1:19 pm

I wonder why (via Paul Homewood)

Two clean energy firms go bust within hours ‘because of Tory U-turn on energy policy’

Two of the UK’s leading clean energy companies have gone into administration on the same day, blaming the Government’s U-turn on energy policy.

Nearly 1,000 staff were laid off in Leicester yesterday as home insulation and solar panel provider, Mark Group, fell into administration.

Within hours Climate Energy, which describes itself as “the UK’s largest provider of energy efficiency solutions” had also closed down, announcing the news on their website.

Mark Group blamed the closure on the government’s recent turnaround on energy policy including the removal of subsidies to renewables.

Huh. So, as Paul Homewood points out “Take away the subsidies and see what happens.” We aren’t talking tax breaks, we’re talking direct government monetary input

Subsidy: a sum of money granted by the government or a public body to assist an industry or business so that the price of a commodity or service may remain low or competitive.

Air America, liberals version of talk radio, couldn’t survive without direct and massive input of rich liberals money. They couldn’t survive otherwise. Their advertising revenue was minuscule. The same applies to a goodly chunk of these “green energy” companies, which cannot survive without government, ie, taxpayer, money.

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If All You See…

By William Teach October 10, 2015 – 1:00 pm

…is a world turning to desert because Someone Else refused to go carbon neutral, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Protein Wisdom, with a post on tacos being culturally offensive.

Read: If All You See… »

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Bummer: USGS Blows Up SC 1000 Year Flood Meme, Denies ‘Climate Change’ Link

By William Teach October 10, 2015 – 7:40 am

Many, many hyperventilating news outlets yammered on about the “1000 year flood” after the days and days and days of rain in in the Carolinas, especially South Carolina (I was supposed to join my parents in Hilton Head next week. They cancelled the vacation due to the extreme detours necessary to get there). Super-Warmists Eric Holthaus even took it up a notch and called the floods “Biblical”

“Biblical” Flooding Devastates South Carolina

…..

Sadly, this is exactly the type of event we can expect to see more of as the planet warms. One of the most straightforward responses to climate change is a quickening of the hydrologic cycle: Warmer air speeds evaporation and can cause rain to fall with greater intensity. This supercharges the atmosphere, and boosts the likelihood of devastating floods. What’s less clear is how many of these events it will take—major floods also hit China, France, and Guatemala over the last week, with more than 100 dead—before we start bending the global emissions curve away from a worst-case climate scenario.

Biblical! And, of course, blamed on ‘climate change’, and he, like the rest, mean mostly/solely the fault of Mankind.

What does the United States Geological Survey say?

Is this flooding in South Carolina truly a 1000-year flood?

While this certainly was a catastrophic flood with lots of damage and tragic loss of life, USGS provisional data and preliminary analysis show NO indication that a 1000-year flood discharge occurred at any USGS streamgages. However, based on that analysis, it does appear that the USGS streamgage on the Black River at Kingstree, SC and the one on the Smith Branch at Columbia, SC both measured peak floods in the neighborhood of a 500-year flood. Currently, there appear to be a few more streamgages experiencing a 25-year to 50-year flood, but the majority of USGS streamgages had flood peaks that were less than 10-year floods. USGS will have more accurate estimates of the flood probabilities out in the coming months, as the engineers and scientists in South Carolina take time to do more careful analysis of the statistics.

Oops. Look, even if it was, it doesn’t mean that this is all your fault for driving a fossil fueled vehicle, purchasing Chilean Sea Bass, keeping your AC at 72, using a hair dryer and ice maker, etc and so on. Weather events happen. And the climate changes over time. That’s the nature of the Earth.

Is this flood due to climate change?

USGS research has shown no linkage between flooding (either increases or decreases) and the increase in greenhouse gases. Essentially, from USGS long-term streamgage data for sites across the country with no regulation or other changes to the watershed that could influence the streamflow, the data shows no systematic increases in flooding through time.

A much bigger impact on flooding, though, is land use change. Without proper mitigation, urbanization of watersheds increases flooding. Moreover, encroachment into the floodplain by homes and businesses leads to greater economic losses and potential loss of life, with more encroachment leading to greater losses.

Double oops. Now, this doesn’t mean that changes in the climate (remember, climate is simply the long term averages of weather) might not mean lots and lots of flooding in specific areas in the future. But, this doesn’t prove anthropogenic causation. And, that is what the debate is about: causation.

Notice the second paragraph: land use. I’ve noted time and time again that Mankind does, in fact, have an effect on the climate. A small effect, but an effect nonetheless. A tiny influence through greenhouse gases, including CO2 and Methane. But, CO2 is not the “temperature knob”, and is not the main cause of all changes. I’ve noted the Urban Heat Island Effect (UHI). And I’ve noted land use. Land use can cause what was normal to change. Cut down a forest and the winds and humidity change. Even Al Gore’s Climate Reality had to admit, in their own Cult of Climastrology manner

Some scientists believe the retreat of Mount Kilimanjaro’s glacier can be attributed in part to a reduction in snow caused by deforestation or land-use change. Cutting down forests allows winds to sweep up the mountain, which in turn can affect cloud formation, and therefore the amount of rainfall. But more research is required to assess the extent to which deforestation is affecting Mount Kilimanjaro’s glacier.

In fact, most scientists have said “it’s the deforestation“. And when the forests were replanted, the glaciers grew.

But it seems like the 100-year flood is getting larger through time at a site near me, so you are saying that this is not necessarily from climate or land-use change?

Climate variability (dry cycles to wet cycles) plays a large role. There is a large amount of uncertainty around the flood quantile estimates (the value of discharge corresponding to the 100-year flood), particularly if there isn’t a long record of observed data at a stream location. For example, if there is only 25 years of data and a statistical analysis was done on that data to estimate the 100-year flood, uncertainty around the estimate would be quite large. It can look like flooding at that particular location is getting worse if there are 2 or 3 floods in a short period that exceed that estimate of the 100-year flood. However, if there were 700 years of data, it might show that what had been called a 100-year flood when there was only 25 years of data was really only a 10-year flood.

In other words, the Cult of Climastrology needs to ease up on their apoplexy and doomsaying.

Read: Bummer: USGS Blows Up SC 1000 Year Flood Meme, Denies ‘Climate Change’ Link »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

Obama Considers Issuing Executive Order On Gun Purchases That Would Solve Nothing

By William Teach October 10, 2015 – 7:16 am

Liberals have never met a gun control idea that they don’t like, as long as it is one that only affects those who are law abiding citizens who do not use their guns in a criminal manner. Going after those who actually use guns criminally or may use them criminally? Please. Any sort of law enforcement methods will be trampled in the rush to protect the criminals. Obama, who said he wasn’t visiting Oregon to be political, decided to trot out another idea yesterday that would do absolutely nothing

(Washington Post) In response to the latest mass shooting during his presidency, President Obama is seriously considering circumventing Congress with his executive authority and imposing new background-check requirements for buyers who purchase weapons from high-volume gun dealers.

Under the proposed rule change, dealers who exceed a certain number of sales each year would be required to obtain a license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and perform background checks on potential buyers. (snip)

The proposed executive action aims to impose background checks on individuals who buy from dealers who sell a significant number of guns each year. The current federal statute dictates that those who are “engaged in the business” of dealing firearms need to obtain a federal license — and, therefore, conduct background checks — but exempts anyone “who makes occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal collection of firearms.”

The gist of this is that there are dealers who sell a small amount of guns each year and are not required to perform background checks. These are dealers, really, average citizens, who engage in buying and selling “as a hobby”. Many of them are selling antique guns and hunting rifles. The change being considered would consider that anyone selling more than so many guns yearly (they haven’t decided on a number yet, though 50 or 100 is being bandied) would need to be licensed.

What’s not stated or known is how many criminals actually purchase their guns in this manner. Can any crime be linked to these types of hobby dealers? This is simply an “I’m doing something!!!!!!!” or, better, “I’m thinking of doing something!!!!!” idea that won’t make a difference in the least. Think about how well gun control is working in Chicago

https://twitter.com/WilliamTeach/status/652590872312328192

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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Bummer: Thanksgiving Pumpkin Now Doomed

By William Teach October 9, 2015 – 3:55 pm

We had just learned that pumpkin for Christmas was doomed, but that Thanksgiving should be ok. Ruh ro

Pumpkin Lovers Face Slim Pickings, Thanks to Climate Change

Pumpkin lovers, it’s time to stock up.

Poor growing conditions and significantly lower-than-normal yields of processing pumpkins used for baking mean that the popular canned pumpkin brand, Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin, may be in short supply in the coming months—just in time for the holiday season.

Why? Because of heavy rainfall. Of course, if it was drought, it would be ‘climate change’, too. No matter the question, it’s always climate change.

By Monday they’ll be telling us Halloween. Is doomed

Read: Bummer: Thanksgiving Pumpkin Now Doomed »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach October 9, 2015 – 1:00 pm

…is a green-space that would be perfect for a DOE subsidized solar farm, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Astute Bloggers, with a post on Ocare coming up ($2.5 billion) short.

Read: If All You See… »

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Good News: EPA Causes Another Spill

By William Teach October 9, 2015 – 10:24 am

Because they care or something

An Environmental Protection Agency crew working at the Standard Mine above Crested Butte triggered a wastewater spill into a creek that flows into the town water supply — a small-scale repeat of the Gold King incident this year.

Only an estimated 2,000 gallons spilled Tuesday, amid efforts to open a collapsed portal. The impact on town water is expected to be minimal.

Critics pounced.

U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton said the spill — while not a disaster like the EPA-triggered 3 million-gallon Gold King deluge that turned the Animas River mustard-yellow — raises questions about EPA procedures.

“They told us things were going to be different. Now we have a spill. … We’ve apparently got a real challenge with the EPA, not only with notification but their accountability and their ability to adequately execute these types of cleanup projects,” Tipton said. “They’ve got resources. They’re the ones in charge of the program. And they’ve had two spills in my district alone. Is there a better way to approach this?”

Had the mining company done this, they’d be fined out the Ying yang.

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John Kerry Takes Long Fossil Fueled Flight To Say CO2 Causes Cancer

By William Teach October 9, 2015 – 7:16 am

Secretary of State John Kerry has long been a disciple of the Cult of Climastrology (just not enough to support the Cape Wind Project), and never seems to miss an opportunity to whine about it. And, yes, he was in Chile for other things

But, he had to yammer on about ‘climate change’

(Breitbart) Secretary of State John Kerry warns the world that more and more people will be fleeing the devastation caused by global warming. “It’s something new. We have climate refugees today,” he said during a town hall event about the oceans.

Kerry described climate refugees as people who had to leave their homes because of drought, rising sea levels, and thawing permafrost.

“[T]he day could come, if we don’t respond rapidly, you could have millions of climate refugees. You could have people moving from whole areas where today you can grow things and tomorrow you can’t,” he said.

Remember how all those climate refugees crossed the land bridge from Russia into Alaska and then migrated down through North and South America? It must have been boiling in Siberia! People have always picked up and moved due to climatic changes. Things tend to be much worse during cool periods and ice ages.

It’s actually rather sad that Kerry had to devolve to this kind of hysteria, because he had some great points about real environmental issues, namely, overfishing and illegal fishing, along with real pollution, such as plastics and fertilizers which cause “dead spots” in oceans.

Of course, he doesn’t actually know what will happen from Hotcoldwetdry

There are scientists now who are telling us that the warming of the ocean and the changes of the ice melting in the Antarctic and the Arctic can have a profound impact on the major ocean currents. And those major ocean currents have been critical to the kind of climate that we all have been able to live with. If that changes, I can’t stand here and tell you what the impact will be, but I know that when you disrupt such a critical component of the life cycle, you are taking enormous risks. And all of us, if we’re aware of those risks, we have a major moral responsibility as a matter of simple precaution not to put future generations at risk.

The last few Holocene warm periods, which were warmer than today, were periods of rapid, positive growth and enlightenment. But, it’s nice to see him admit that he really doesn’t know, and that this is all speculation wrapped in doomsaying.

Apparently, here’s the kicker, CO2 causes cancer

Let me give you an example. I’ve been working on the issue of climate change for years and we’ve always heard this argument, “Oh, we can’t – the United States can’t put restrictions on our automobiles so we have less CO2 because then we won’t be competitive with other countries.” But that’s not true because other countries also want their people to be able to breathe clean air and not get cancer from particulates in the atmosphere.

Let’s just end this silliness with what Kerry deserves

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Obama’s West Coast Trip Totally About Comfort Post UCC Shooting. And Fundraising

By William Teach October 9, 2015 – 6:49 am

The family of Kate Steinle, who was murdered by a 6 time deported illegal alien who had been convicted of multiple felonies and used a handgun stolen from a federal agent, is still waiting for their condolences from Mr. Obama, as are the families of those killed and injured by the guns Obama’s DOJ ran into Mexico during Operation Fast and Furious, not too mention all those killed and raped by illegal aliens

Obama focusing on condolences, not gun laws, in Oregon visit

President Barack Obama is bringing words of comfort and sympathy to grieving families of victims of the shooting rampage in Roseburg, Oregon, muting his message about the need for new laws to stem gun violence as he visits an area where firearms are popular.

Obama will talk with family members Friday at the start of a four-day West Coast trip. Eight community college students and a teacher were killed before the gunman fatally shot himself in front of his victims after he was wounded by police. (snip)

Obama was already scheduled to go to the West Coast trip when the shooting occurred, and the White House adjusted his schedule to include Roseburg.

In other words, this is just a convenient way for Obama to look like he cares, because

That’s right, he has a fundraiser set up in Seattle for Friday night.

Some will say “well, Obama can’t call, write, and/or visit everyone killed by a gun, much less all the illegal aliens crimes.” You’re right. But, he sure seems to make an exception for certain people. The Kate Steinle murder wasn’t exactly a local, non-national level murder. It was national news. It was big. Obama was able to pick up the phone and call Michael Sam and Jason Collins for coming out as gay. He called Doctors Without Borders after his military bombed and killed doctors at a hospital in Afghanistan. He seems to have plenty of time to make a few calls while taking a long fossil fueled trip across the country.

Did I mention that Obama is attending a second fundraiser in San Francisco Friday? Kate Steinle was killed in SF. Why not an invite to her family?

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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