The Murders of Colorado and Sandy Hook

Every time one of these mass killings take place, I shudder.  I shudder at the carnage.  I shudder at the media and political hysteria that will ensue with specific intent to assault the Bill of Rights.

The fundamental problem with the progressive movement over the last century  is the fundamental distrust of elites for the ‘common’ man.  One its founding principles is the notion that in the coming new age of the then dawn of the twentieth century was that the pace and complexity of life would render individuals unable to render rational decisions. Nor, would the institutions enshrined by our Constitution be able to do the same.

And, so, the necessity of establishing an oligarchy of philosopher kings would be necessary.  Bureaucracies and their highly trained, dispassionate ‘experts’ would set rules and standards to regulate economic, how you will spend your money, what you will but and, yes, even personal life.  We, the people, know our place would defer to the ‘authorities.’  I’m sure you feel better know that your money is safely invested in Solyndra and one of our ‘premiere’ law enforcement agencies, the BATFE, spend millions shipping thousands of guns to the Mexican drug cartels.  And, really, how well has the Federal Reserve worked out over the last century?  With Bernanke now having the distinction of being the largest currency manipulator in history.  Wise philosopher kings indeed.

Citizen legislatures that would meet for brief times each year would be replaced by full-time, ‘professional’ legislators that would work full time, well, legislating.  Texas didn’t heed that siren call, perhaps bolstered by a joke told in Austin that one kept one’s daughters indoors and the doors locked during the two months the legislature was in session. California, went with the full time concept.  Worked really well.

So, it is with guns.  Using single, sensational incidents, a whole narrative was built on the fact here again are the benighted masses simple unable to behave themselves.  Bitter clingers unable to control themselves.  That the same-said dispassionate bureaucrat would control lethal force and, we again, should defer to the authorities who would know how to handle guns that we the people simply can’t do.

Never mind, that the worst threat your survival a governmental monopoly on lethal force.  It is in these situations that the murder rate has skyrocketed in to the tens of millions–the Soviet Union, China, particularly under Mao.  Even in Germany the ‘civilized’ homeland of Mozart, Beethoven and Goethe.

Never mind, that there is now solid statistical evidence, thanks to the experience of concealed carry laws, that guns in the hands of private citizens does deter crime.  Indeed, crime rates continue to fall.

Never mind, that the progressive legacy of federal, state and local law has left huge swaths, sometimes entire states, as gun-free zones.  This, leaving, gun owners in the position of proving the negative because the lack of crime does not leave the mark of the school shooting such as the one in Connecticut.  Even in situations were a gun owner intervened, we can’t really know how effective the armed civilian was simple because there was no further body count.

But, maybe the criminal knows the effectiveness, since he targets those very gun-free zones.  So, it is perhaps time to close the ‘gun-free’ loophole.  We know that citizens who have concealed carry permits are indeed very responsible with the use of their firearms.  Moreover, despite the hysterical predictions of gun opponents, the concealed carry permitting has not put of whole new class of homicidal ‘bitter clingers’ on the streets just waiting to turn every traffic accident into gun-related bloodshed.

For all we invest in law enforcement, they just never seem to be around when you need them.  Law enforcement does work since, somehow, even irrational criminals seem to plan their escapades when the police aren’t around.  Whether in Bengazi or in Connecticut you are on your own.  To be a citizen, rather than a subject, is ultimately being personally responsible to safeguard your own life and liberty; and that of your family.

I just shake my head at these incidents and the simplistic beliefs of feeling secure in our own little gun-free bubbles of safety.  I feel secure, here in Wyoming, that I like my fellow citizens are well armed.  Secure that I live in a society that is equipped, both materially and with a corresponding mind-set, that will not tolerate such murderous outrages.   Such outrages don’t happen here because the perpetrator would be dead at the hands of responsible, well-armed citizens long before the police arrived.

Quoting William Buckley, Jr.: “I would rather be governed by the first two thousand people in the Boston telephone directory than by the two thousand people on the faculty of Harvard University.”  Ditto guns.

The Fiscal Cliff; Taking the Battle to BAM

I’ll start with Glenn Reynolds suggestions about awkward and embarrassing tax increases.  And, add the following.  What is needed is a series of tax cuts and spending cut directly targeted and tailored for the Democrat Senators who’s states have been hit by Obama’s ideology and stupidity.

What the House needs to do is create a tax bill that is economically beneficial with special Christmas presents for these Senators.

For Chuck Schumer, the threshold for taxing the ‘rich’ is set at $1,000,000; just as he asked.  Schumer’s campaign war chest would also be greatly expanded by abolishing the Obamacare tax on capital gains.  Ditto Senator Durbin from Illinois; he’s got a cozy relationship with the commodity traders from the Chicago Board of Trade and The Chicago Mercantile Exchange.  Added benefit, Democratic support of ‘fat cats’  with little to no class warfare from the New York and Illinois delegations.

For the Senators from Massachusetts and Minnesota, a repeal of the Obamacare medical device tax.  A tax that’s already causing layoffs in both of these states.

More Christmas gifts.  How about forbidding federal money being spent to enforce greenhouse gasses regulation and the new ridiculously low sulfur and mercury standards that is shutting down power plants and laying off miners in droves.  I think the senatoral delegations from West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois might like that.

Even more Christmas gifts.  How about forbidding the spending of federal dollars to enforce the endangered species act threatening to shut down new oil exploration projects.  The senators from Louisiana and Colorado might like that.

You could also slip in clauses to specifically allow off shore drilling and approval of the Keystone pipeline.  Admittedly this is not a fiscal matter and could be filibustered.  But, who cares, Senator Reid hates the filibuster and wants to ‘reform’ it.

And, by the way, these proposals are all heavily weighted towards the states with Democratic senators.

Heck, it Christmas, give every state a tax break or a regulatory break.  2014 isn’t that far away.  How about further expansion of Second Amendment civil rights–all those Western State Democratic senators would love to burnish their NRA credentials.

If Obama so badly want to veto, let him.  Just make sure he vetoes a bill that will throughly screw his own party.