Former Secret Service Agent on the 2nd Amendment

Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others

Combat Vets with PTSD Losing Gun Rights

This is disgusting and discriminatory. Not every person with PTSD, TBI, or any other condition should be presumed dangerous or incompetent on the basis of a diagnosis alone. This is an utter failure of due process, and I can't believe they are proposing stripping our vets of their rights without any judicial finding that particular individuals are in fact dangerous or too compromised to conduct their own affairs. They have also turned the presumption of innocence (or, in this case, competence) on its head, placing the burden on veterans to prove that they are not incompetent and dangerous, rather than on the government to prove that they are. Failure to vigorously contest the VA letter notification will lead to a finding, without a hearing. Have a look here and here, at the letter vets are getting.

It amazes me that people who style themselves as progressive and liberal can support such tactics. If someone introduced legislation penalizing an entire marginalized group on the basis of the actions of one deranged member of the group, or even a handful of members, we would see these very people marching in protest and crying discrimination. So long as the group was one they like and approve of. Racial, religious, gender and orientation based discrimination remain taboo and reprehensible, but penalizing people who have fought and bled for their country and abusing an entire category of law abiding citizens for exercising their fundamental and constitutional rights is A-OK in today's America. I guess we are at the point where veterans, legal gun owners generally, and people with mental health diagnoses have joined fat people in the category of those that it is OK to mock, hate, abuse and discriminate against with impunity.

They say they want to prevent violence by looking at mass shootings from every angle, including mental health care, but they just threw a major monkey wrench into having people seek treatment. How utterly sad and counterproductive. I don't see any effort being made at improving mental health services for vets and/or civilians who need them, just a lot of the usual hot air about mental health parity that neither the VA nor Medicare actually practice (nor private insurance companies), which seems like nothing but a distraction while the people with an agenda carry out their gun grab. What a sad state of affairs our country has fallen into.

Equally reprehensible is the proposal before the New York Legislature to require a million dollars in liability insurance for a person to exercise his or her Second Amendment rights or else have his/her guns confiscated. If poll taxes are unconstitutional, how can this not be? It is clearly the erection of a financial barrier to the exercise of a constitutional right. Why do people who claim to be progressive support the right of only the richest among us to protect themselves, whether by armed guards or infringing on gun rights to the point that only the wealthy can afford to defend themselves? Why am I constantly reminded of George Orwell's prescient book, Animal Farm, in which some animals are more equal than others? But if artificial barriers to the exercise of rights are going to become the order of the day in the New America, may I suggest that we impose intelligence tests for voters and political candidates, which would include demonstrating a working knowledge of our Constitution. I think that's far fairer than a class-based distinction. Perhaps we would not be where we are today if people had to actually have a clue in order to vote, rather than just ticking off the boxes on the party line or voting for the people the media favor.

There is another pro-Second Amendment Rally at the New York State Capitol on February 28th. If you support the Constitution, please attend.

Senator Greg Ball at the Albany Pro-Second Amendment Rally-2-12-2013

An *excellent* article on gun control from a legal perspective: In the National Law Review. I am a retired lawyer and the Constitution means a lot to me. My family attended a rally in Albany last week protesting the NY SAFE act, which we believe violates both the New York and US Constitutions. Whichever side you are on, this is an article worth reading and considering. There is an old saying in legal circles: "Hard cases make bad law." That is what I see happening today. Emotion and outrage are running roughshod over what should be a logical and reasoned process that aims to do the most good while restricting individual rights as little as possible. Instead, we have hysteria and paranoia from both sides. Please give this very well thought out article a read.

Suzanna Hupp Testimony in Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing on Second Amend...

Sen Ted Cruz Opening Comments in Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing on Secon...

Hey You. With the Guns: A Graphic Reply

You may have seen the red half of this graphic plastered all over facebook. The blue half is my original work in reply.

Feel free to use it, with credit to this blog.

A Conversation on Guns Means Both Sides Are Heard

So far, I am only hearing one side, motivated by fear and antipathy, calling anything the other side has to say "madness." No attempt at understanding or communication is being made. Just shout loud enough and long enough, and you won't hear the other guy.

Maybe, but that isn't a conversation. It's a monologue.

Here is a pro-gun ownership piece that is sane and incisive, and deserves to be read by everyone, regardless of your position on the issue.

A willingness to engage in a meaningful dialog, rather than harranguing, posturing and trying to shout down those whose ideas are different, would be a refreshing thing to see. As would people admitting that someone else has more knowledge on a given subject, and then actually taking the time to be educated on it (and I do not mean by sloppy sensationalist journalism, but by actual research, including research into how the Second Amendment has been interpreted by the United States Supreme Court, which is the final arbiter of constitutional questions), before spouting an opinion. Otherwise, it is just hot air and ignorance. (And to the pro-gun people who are making SSRIs out to be poison from the devil, I say the same. Any meaningful change will not result from demonizing a tool, whether it be a firearm or a medication.)

You can still dislike guns after you do the research. That I will respect. But fearful knee-jerking that infringes on the Constitutional rights of others? Not so much.

Larry Correia on Gun Control.

It's About Our Culture, Not the Guns...

What has changed about American society over the past 40 or so years so that mass killings, which were once a rarity, are growing commonplace, especially among young people?

Is it the gun laws? Realistically, they have only gotten stricter over that time frame.

Is it the technology? No, we had semiautomatic pistols and rifles back then, too.

So what is different? If you are as old as I am, think back…

Things were very different when I was growing up back in the 60s and 70s. My mom was a stay at home mom, as were most of my friends’ moms. We lived in a neighborhood where, if a kid did something out of line, a neighbor was sure to let his parents know, and consequences followed. By the same token, if you were scared or hurt, or needed a hand, you knew there were any number of grandmas and moms that you could turn to for help. Communities looked out for the children and old people in their midst.

It sounds idyllic, but NYC in those days wasn’t any picnic. There was a lot of violent crime. And yet, although I grew up in a bad neighborhood where I could easily have obtained an illegal gun, it would never have occurred to me or my schoolmates to do so, much less to go out and hurt innocent people. Kids today are growing up feeling isolated and unloved and hopeless, and in that headspace, it does occur to them.

What is different?

The crux, I think, is that far too many young people today seem to be lacking a sense of self worth sufficient to value their own life as sacred. Without that, I doubt it is possible to value others' lives. How hopeless and worthless does someone have to feel to be capable of this sort of heinous act? These killers go into the situation fully intending to die in the process of taking as many others with them as possible.

Gun laws will not fix the fundamental social disconnect that is infecting too many people today. Where is the sense of community, of family, of belonging, that makes something like this unimaginable? There is so much about our society that needs fixed, not just gun laws (and CT and NY have some pretty strict ones!)

How about we fix the system so that we actually value families, so that surviving as a one income household isn't something beyond most people's imaginings, so that kids see their parents for more than a couple hours a day, for more than a hurried dinner and nagging about homework, and actually feel valued?

How about we address the gulf between quality of life and support for average families that exists between our country and many European nations? Decent parental leave, affordable healthcare, a living wage, a realistic chance to succeed, fair taxation at all socioeconomic levels, an education that is more than high stakes test prep that is stressing young kids in ways that can't be good for mental health?

How about we make mental health parity more than just hollow words a bunch of politicians sling to pretend that there isn't a crisis in services for sick and vulnerable people who may be capable of such horrors (as well as the rest of us with less dramatic difficulties).

How about we do more than just knee jerk the obvious least common denominator solution and look at the root causes of violence in our society--poverty, addiction, mental instability, hopelessness--- rather than simply condemning a tool that is as good or bad as the person wielding it. Taking away guns (if such a thing were actually feasible) will not eliminate violence. Addressing the underlying causes has a much better chance of producing meaningful change.

Irresponsible Journalism Endangers All New Yorkers

The imbeciles at the Journal News who published an interactive map listing the names and addresses of law abiding gun permit holders in several New York Counties have endangered the public with their astounding lack of judgment. Even the Brady Campaign is condemning this poor excuse for journalism:

The Journal News' fear mongering invites neighbors to substitute their judgment for the pistol permit licensing authorities of these counties, who have subjected the permit holders to fingerprinting, background checks at the state and federal level, and have required them to provide references as to their character from fellow county residents, all to add fuel to the fire of polarizing us versus them insanity that they have fed us in the wake of the tragic murder of 20 innocent children and their teachers and school personnel at the hands of a madman. They have just placed the children of over 32,000 law abiding citizens at risk from the threat of gun thieves, who now have a road map to their doors, as well as identified all of the other households in those counties as potentially softer targets for home invasion crimes (though perpetrators might still be surprised to find a long arm pointed at them in some of those homes.)

This could have been reported in a responsible way, by listing the number of permits in each neighborhood, without giving identifying information to criminals. Oh, but people want to know, so that their little darlings are not sent on playdates to the homes of these presumptively (by the Journal News, anyway) evil and dangerous individuals who the state has vetted and who have committed no crime, they say.

Well, if you are allowing your children to visit someone's home, why not simply ask the question: "Do you have any firearms?" But don't stop there. Ask how they are stored. Your neighbor may not want to give you the GPS coordinates of his gun safe, but most people will be more than happy to tell you that they store their weapons in accordance with state law and that they are locked away from casual visitors. If you haven't had that much communication and contact with these people, why are you entrusting them with your children?

Lazy and irresponsible parents who assume everyone shares their antipathy for or fear of firearms and who therefor neglect to teach their children gun safety are more dangerous to their young than the law abiding gun owner next door. Every child should be taught that if they ever see a gun, they should LEAVE and tell an adult immediately, and never to touch a firearm!