The legacy news media loves to focus its spotlights on instances of violence that tickle their socio-mythic Gräfenberg spot. When what they term a "mass murder" has occurred, the bass beat booms out, the disco lights start to flash, and the spotlights converge, and the blood dancing begins. That's sick, really. Probably mentally ill.
Immediate conjecture about the Motive of the perpetrator ensues. My bet is that Motive is something the media types learned from cop shows on TV, and that most of them could not define Motive, nor come up with a story about what Motive has to do with the etiology of a crime event. As I understand it, Motive is irrelevant as to the fact of guilt in a court of law. If the facts are substantiated, you will be found guilty of vandalizing your neighbor's car with no regard to why you did it. Yet Motive continues to be a sparkly bauble to the media magpies.
Then, eventually, we hear those magpies accuse the perpetrator of insanity. He's crazy. Mentally ill. Those who seek Safety Above All call for gun control, knife control, insanity control.
"We need better ways to screen out those who pose a danger to society."
Oh, really? Listen to what you're saying. Do you really want to go there?
Calling a spoiled liberal-gone-wrong "mentally ill" is an affront to our millions of mentally ill who suffer and function, more or less, every day all around us, and who even in their darkest moments of depression or self-harm, would never cross the line into homicide.
Look at the history of the 20th Century. Who were the greatest mass murderers? Governments -- far and away, more than all the wars, hugely and in a wholesale manner that would be unimaginable and unbelievable were it not for the gut-wrenching fact of the number of those culled by socialist regimes during that bloody century -- the seekers of the perfect society, destroyed their own.
You're more likely to go on vacation somewhere and get killed by a falling coconut than walk around America and get killed by a kid with a grudge. But you're far more likely to be killed by a powerful socialist state. So I for one do not want to give my progressively more socialist government any more information about myself than necessary. And my health records are not necessary, except in specific cases of competency at law, and similar situations. And mental health records are health records. No one's visit to a psychologist should be subject to a review by some Safety Bureau.
If we value the life part of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," then access to the means of defending life is a necessary condition of a free society. A free society entails some risk. Sorry, no promise that All is Safe Here. Regardless of FDR's rhetoric, you don't have a right to feel safe. You have a right to pursue your own happiness by making yourself safe as you care to -- without running over my right to pursuit of happiness.
When the Safety Bureau, by whatever name it comes to be called, begins to screen out the rights of the mentally ill, it's only a tiny baby step to screening out the lives of the odd, the weak, the undesirable. The perfect (and perfectly safe) society always ends with people being thrown into the ovens and the killing fields.
Don't go there.
Showing posts with label guns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guns. Show all posts
3/19/2013
People who know nothing about statistics can also lie
Newtown school shooter Adam Lanza played video games. (Well doesn't everybody?)
But now it's a big deal. Conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt on 19 March 2013 maintained at length that it is now known that "violent video games" produce violent school shooters, and that in fact the makers of the video games could / should be sued for damages by survivors of Sandy Hook Elementary victims -- because a reasonable person would conclude that playing a game leads to sociopathic behavior and homicide.
"He didn’t snap that day, he wasn’t one of those guys who was mad as hell and wasn’t going to take it anymore,” the man said. “He had been planning this thing forever. In the end, it was just a perfect storm: These guns, one of them an AR-15, in the hands of a violent, insane gamer. It was like porn to a rapist. They feed on it until they go out and say, enough of the video screen. Now I’m actually going to be a hunter." The person who said this is identified as "[t]he man to whom I spoke, a tough career cop who did not wish to see his name in the newspaper" by writer Mike Lupica in the New York Daily News.
Well there you go.
See, reporters and anonymous cops know how the mind works. Little boys who stare at curvy pictures become rapists; players of video games become mass murderers. Except they don't. What's the p-value on that "porn to rapist" factotum? Probably nearly null. But I bet it's greater than the p-value for gamer to murderer.
The idea that artists -- authors (even blog authors), movie makers, and video game producers included -- are to be held liable for the insane acts of art consumers, is itself insane. When legislators or regulators get an idea like that, it is dangerously insane. Think of the chilling of creative activity. Think of the Taliban-style enforcement. Thought Police. They know better. Like that anonymous cop quoted in the New York Daily News. He knows better, just ask him.
I don't for a moment believe the gamer-to-murderer hypothesis. I'll tell you one thing I do believe. History. There is a strong p-value for the transformation of Big Government to Genocidal Regime.
But now it's a big deal. Conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt on 19 March 2013 maintained at length that it is now known that "violent video games" produce violent school shooters, and that in fact the makers of the video games could / should be sued for damages by survivors of Sandy Hook Elementary victims -- because a reasonable person would conclude that playing a game leads to sociopathic behavior and homicide.
"He didn’t snap that day, he wasn’t one of those guys who was mad as hell and wasn’t going to take it anymore,” the man said. “He had been planning this thing forever. In the end, it was just a perfect storm: These guns, one of them an AR-15, in the hands of a violent, insane gamer. It was like porn to a rapist. They feed on it until they go out and say, enough of the video screen. Now I’m actually going to be a hunter." The person who said this is identified as "[t]he man to whom I spoke, a tough career cop who did not wish to see his name in the newspaper" by writer Mike Lupica in the New York Daily News.
Well there you go.
See, reporters and anonymous cops know how the mind works. Little boys who stare at curvy pictures become rapists; players of video games become mass murderers. Except they don't. What's the p-value on that "porn to rapist" factotum? Probably nearly null. But I bet it's greater than the p-value for gamer to murderer.
The idea that artists -- authors (even blog authors), movie makers, and video game producers included -- are to be held liable for the insane acts of art consumers, is itself insane. When legislators or regulators get an idea like that, it is dangerously insane. Think of the chilling of creative activity. Think of the Taliban-style enforcement. Thought Police. They know better. Like that anonymous cop quoted in the New York Daily News. He knows better, just ask him.
I don't for a moment believe the gamer-to-murderer hypothesis. I'll tell you one thing I do believe. History. There is a strong p-value for the transformation of Big Government to Genocidal Regime.
2/25/2013
Platelet Theory
About 40 years ago I had an accident with a power tool. An immortal and infallible teenager working for a general contractor who did home remodels, I got into a shoving match with a bottom-of-the-line Skil brand 6" circular saw. The dull blade bound up, kicked back, bounced off my torso, and back into my left hand. This was going to require stitches.
As it turned out, no tendons or bones had been terribly damaged. Many stitches and many years later, it's good as new, plus the added features of having a Wizard Grade lightning-shaped scar on the second knuckle of my left thumb, plus the ability to predict rain 36 hours in advance. (Don't ask me how it works, but I can feel it.)
But here's what I want to focus on today: on the way to the Emergency Clinic, the bleeding stopped.
In a battle between skin and steel, skin always loses. Blood will flow. But the instant the bleeding starts, it also starts to stop. At least the body attempts to stop the loss of blood. Clotting agents being present in sufficient number, and absent high pressure arterial bleeding, the bleeding will stop.
Here's the point. One platelet cannot stop the bleeding. But a whole bunch can. At least they can do their microscopic damnedest to stop it.
What I'm really talking about is Gun Control.
What good can one armed citizen do against the might of a tyrannical government? That question is used to pooh-pooh the idea that Joe Citizen's right to keep and bear arms was spelled out in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States because Joe just might have to do something to stop a Government Gone Wrong. One armed citizen -- what good can that do? Might as well turn all those guns in and trust to the benignity of the controlling power. What good can one armed citizen do when the bloodletting starts?
What good can one platelet do when the bleeding starts?
We The People act in unison to defend as well as originally to create these United States. And yes the fact that the people are free to keep and bear firearms is important every day, whether called into action or not. Only by being extremely numerous and widely spread can the body politic be adequately protected by these platelets of freedom.
As it turned out, no tendons or bones had been terribly damaged. Many stitches and many years later, it's good as new, plus the added features of having a Wizard Grade lightning-shaped scar on the second knuckle of my left thumb, plus the ability to predict rain 36 hours in advance. (Don't ask me how it works, but I can feel it.)
But here's what I want to focus on today: on the way to the Emergency Clinic, the bleeding stopped.
In a battle between skin and steel, skin always loses. Blood will flow. But the instant the bleeding starts, it also starts to stop. At least the body attempts to stop the loss of blood. Clotting agents being present in sufficient number, and absent high pressure arterial bleeding, the bleeding will stop.
Here's the point. One platelet cannot stop the bleeding. But a whole bunch can. At least they can do their microscopic damnedest to stop it.
What I'm really talking about is Gun Control.
What good can one armed citizen do against the might of a tyrannical government? That question is used to pooh-pooh the idea that Joe Citizen's right to keep and bear arms was spelled out in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States because Joe just might have to do something to stop a Government Gone Wrong. One armed citizen -- what good can that do? Might as well turn all those guns in and trust to the benignity of the controlling power. What good can one armed citizen do when the bloodletting starts?
What good can one platelet do when the bleeding starts?
We The People act in unison to defend as well as originally to create these United States. And yes the fact that the people are free to keep and bear firearms is important every day, whether called into action or not. Only by being extremely numerous and widely spread can the body politic be adequately protected by these platelets of freedom.
12/17/2012
Restoring the Springfield 1903 Rifle
It's a freedom thing.
Earlier this year I finished turning a "sporterized" Springfield '03 rifle back into something like its original military configuration. The hardware pieces were accumulated over the course of many years. Numrich had in their inventory a "new, unissued" stock and handguard, I finally worked up the courage to begin.
The "new, unissued" M1903A1 stock looked like it had spent the last 60 years or so in a damp basement. It had what looked like marks of roots on it, but the wood was sound. With many hours of fitting and sanding, the action fit and functioned. Half a dozen coats of boiled linseed oil (per military specification!) actually produced a better looking product than I had feared.
One of the peculiarities of the '03 and '03A1, of course, is the rear sight, shown here with the folding elevator down in the "battle sight" mode.
Designed by someone's feuding in-laws, this item's staggering complexity is surpassed only by its truly inhuman range of adjustment.
It is not your imagination -- the sight really does parallelogram toward the left -- to allow for the drift due to bullet spin. There may be a Coreolus Effect adjustment, or one for the precession of the equinoxes, for all I know.
Another item that strikes the modern user as quaint is the magazine cut-off, shown here to the left of the rear receiver ring in the center position which allows removal of the bolt.
With the magazine cut-off in the "magazine off" position (lever swivels down toward the stock), the bolt cannot be drawn back far enough to clear the back of the top round in the magazine. In this mode, the rifle functions as a single-shot rifle. The rounds in the magazine, according to period manuals, are thus "held in reserve". All five of them!
With the magazine cut-off in the "magazine on" position (lever swivels all the way up), the bolt comes back far enough to allow the top round to be pushed forward and into battery. When the last round is expended, the rear of the magazine follower prevents the bolt from moving forward. The magazine may then be charged with single rounds or a five-round stripper clip.
Here's the muzzle end. The thin front sight blade makes a fine target sight. The picture includes the front sling swivel and bayonet lug band. You may be able to see the "flaming bomb" ordnance proofmark behind the front sight.
The Springfield in military configuration has a forward barrel band that retains the front handguard retaining band, holds the "stacking swivel", and mounts the bayonet lugs.
The latch in the slot at the rear of the bayonet handle slot fits between the two sections of bayonet lug. When attached, the hilt loop slips over the muzzle and the handle slot slips onto the lugs.
Here's the end that sends forth the hurt to the enemies of freedom:
Earlier this year I finished turning a "sporterized" Springfield '03 rifle back into something like its original military configuration. The hardware pieces were accumulated over the course of many years. Numrich had in their inventory a "new, unissued" stock and handguard, I finally worked up the courage to begin.
The "new, unissued" M1903A1 stock looked like it had spent the last 60 years or so in a damp basement. It had what looked like marks of roots on it, but the wood was sound. With many hours of fitting and sanding, the action fit and functioned. Half a dozen coats of boiled linseed oil (per military specification!) actually produced a better looking product than I had feared.
One of the peculiarities of the '03 and '03A1, of course, is the rear sight, shown here with the folding elevator down in the "battle sight" mode.
Designed by someone's feuding in-laws, this item's staggering complexity is surpassed only by its truly inhuman range of adjustment.
It is not your imagination -- the sight really does parallelogram toward the left -- to allow for the drift due to bullet spin. There may be a Coreolus Effect adjustment, or one for the precession of the equinoxes, for all I know.
Another item that strikes the modern user as quaint is the magazine cut-off, shown here to the left of the rear receiver ring in the center position which allows removal of the bolt.
With the magazine cut-off in the "magazine off" position (lever swivels down toward the stock), the bolt cannot be drawn back far enough to clear the back of the top round in the magazine. In this mode, the rifle functions as a single-shot rifle. The rounds in the magazine, according to period manuals, are thus "held in reserve". All five of them!
With the magazine cut-off in the "magazine on" position (lever swivels all the way up), the bolt comes back far enough to allow the top round to be pushed forward and into battery. When the last round is expended, the rear of the magazine follower prevents the bolt from moving forward. The magazine may then be charged with single rounds or a five-round stripper clip.
Here's the muzzle end. The thin front sight blade makes a fine target sight. The picture includes the front sling swivel and bayonet lug band. You may be able to see the "flaming bomb" ordnance proofmark behind the front sight.
The Springfield in military configuration has a forward barrel band that retains the front handguard retaining band, holds the "stacking swivel", and mounts the bayonet lugs.
The latch in the slot at the rear of the bayonet handle slot fits between the two sections of bayonet lug. When attached, the hilt loop slips over the muzzle and the handle slot slips onto the lugs.
Here's the end that sends forth the hurt to the enemies of freedom:
11/10/2012
Pre-WWI Rifle Round
At first glance I thought this antique rifle round was a 6.5mm Carcano, because of the long round-nose cupronickel jacketed bullet. Head stamp reads DWM / 1913. Measurement (and Cartridges of the World) confirmed what Google would also confirm: the relic is a 7mm Mauser, date of 1913, made by Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken in Baden, Germany. Nearly a century old!
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