DNC Aftermath

Heading into this past week I was curious as to how the “celebration of leftist ideals” was going to progress in the wake of the WikiLeaks hack and the transition of the disgraced DNC chair from her position with the party to an integral part of the Clinton campaign. It was interesting to say the least watching the Democratic National Convention unfold this past week as speaker after speaker leveled their attacks on Donald Trump and the Republican Party. From behind the wall requiring Photo ID to get in the speakers took the stage in rapid succession: Vice President Joe “Double Barrel” Biden, President Barak “You Didn’t Build This” Obama, First Lady Michelle “I Live In A Slave House” Obama, President Bill “I Hope To Open A First Gentleman’s Club” Clinton, Bernie “Burning and Itching” Sanders, Tim “I Have No Business Here” Kaine, and many other questionable speakers.

One of those brought to the stage was the father, with his repressed wife standing beside him, of a soldier who gave the ultimate sacrifice for his country, Khizr Khan. Given the treatment that the military and law enforcement has received during the event, the level of hypocrisy accentuated by those six minutes is rather astounding. While I respect and humbly appreciate his son’s sacrifice I cannot say the same about his punditry. Add to this questionable selection of a presenter with the fact that the stage at one point was filled with the mothers of those “killed by the police” and it truly demonstrates the fact that this was more of a circus rather than a convention.

However, there were a few things that truly disturbed me about this past week. The first was the undenounced burning of the Israeli flag outside of the convention. The second was the simple fact that there was not an American flag to be found during the DNC until this exact fact was pointed out publicly in the media. But, the most distressing aspect of this whole charade was the blind sheep like accolades that kept filling social media. Seems as though there are too many blinded by gender and the eerily robotic call to “Join Us!”

And this brings me to the marquee speech of the event which really had me questioning the mentality of the American people who have proclaimed their rabid devotion to Hillary Clinton. Following her outline of countless programs for which there is no clear plan to pay for the government overreach, she insisted on promoting the idea of group think. Included in her “I alone can fix it” diatribe, she emphasized over and over the Utopian ideal that no one can do basically anything alone. Specifically, she said:

“20 years ago I wrote a book called “It Takes a Village.” A lot of people looked at the title and asked, what the heck do you mean by that?

“This is what I mean.

“None of us can raise a family, build a business, heal a community or lift a country totally alone.

“America needs every one of us to lend our energy, our talents, our ambition to making our nation better and stronger.”

And that is one of the biggest problems, if not the biggest problem, that we face in this country. We have forgotten how to be self-reliant. Too often people are turning to others to do the heavy lifting and, in some cases, take the blame. This mentality can be seen in the increased reliance that many have on government funds and also on the other side in assigning blame to a group of people rather than an individual. We must remember that individual rights still mean something in this country and we can’t simply follow the Pied Piper as she screeches from the stage “Join Us!”

Firearms Friday: Here We Go Again

Another tragedy, another barbarous act, another opportunity for politicians to further their agenda. As has been the case many times over in recent years, in the wake of a murderous rampage by a deranged individual, the President took advantage of the situation and promoted his gun control agenda. And it was not a side note buried in a mountain of words, it was front and center, prominently on display… opinion inserted into the limited facts known by officials at the time.

“I’ve had to make statements like this too many times. Communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times. We don’t have all the facts, but we do know that, once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun. But let’s be clear: At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency. And it is in our power to do something about it.”

While heinous events such as the one in Charleston are leveraged for the sake of naïve political ideology, the facts at the end of the day are quite simple. This was a mass killing by a disturbed individual who, given his previous indictment, was illegally in the possession of a firearm. While there are various theories as to how he obtained it, if he was aided in acquiring that weapon in any way, those individuals should be held responsible for their actions in assisting in the perpetration of the crime.

Criminals will always find a way to carry out their evil acts. No amount of regulation or control will ever stop this from happening. As President Reagan wrote in 1983 (after the attempted assassination by Hinkley two years prior), “It’s a nasty truth, but those who seek to inflict harm are not fazed by gun controllers. I happen to know this from personal experience.” If you believe otherwise you are delusional in your utopian thoughts.

Of course, this is coming from a former President who was also an NRA member. Furthermore, he was known to have carried a revolver on at least several instances while in office as was recently noted by Brad Meltzer and previously reported by Ron Kessler in his book “In the President`s Secret Service”, However, lets look more closely at the beliefs held by those who appose the Second Amendment. While this article is nearly 40 years old now, it still holds true today. Here is an excerpt from an article published by then Governor Reagan in the September 1975 issue of Guns & Ammo:

“There are those in America today who have come to depend absolutely on government for their security. And when government fails they seek to rectify that failure in the form of granting government more power. So, as government has failed to control crime and violence with the means given it by the Constitution, they seek to give it more power at the expense of the Constitution. But in doing so, in their willingness to give up their arms in the name of safety, they are really giving up their protection from what has always been the chief source of despotism--government.”

The issues in this country are not in the rights that have been granted to the citizenry, the problems are in the individuals. This includes those who refuse to accept others as equals, those who don’t respect that sanctity of human life, and those who fail to fear the overindulgence of power. These issue are not the burden of law abiding citizens who believe in self-sufficiency and personal responsibility. This is not a time to strip people of their rights (especially while there are attempts to expand the rights of others). One person committed this act (potentially with the assistance of others) and that person / those people are the ones who should burn for this!

Firearms Friday: PEW Research Shows Increased Support Of Gun Rights

While it may not occur every week, I am starting a series of posts called “Firearms Friday”. This is where I will do my best to keep all of the firearms related posts (unless there is a more pressing topic that week). This is when I will discuss different topics in the industry, review products, and share any other information that may be of interest. I will also be seeking guest posts for this series so if you are interested in writing on a topic or contributing a review please email me at timetokeepitsimple@gmail.com!

It has been an interesting week in firearms news especially with regard to public perception and support of the right to own firearms. While there have been many instances when I have be, let us say, displeased with the results of PEW Research surveys, it looks as though they are finally tracking a trend that many of us have seen progressing over the past few years. Overall, the survey concluded that “52% say it is more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns, while 46% say it is more important to control gun ownership.” Again, many of us have seen and experienced this over the last few years despite the reports that keep flooding the news.

However, the results become much more interesting when you really delve into the numbers. Let us first look at the concept of guns as a means of protection:

“The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted Dec. 3-7 among 1,507 adults, also finds a shift in attitudes about whether gun ownership in this country does more to protect people or put people’s safety at risk. Nearly six-in-ten Americans (57%) say gun ownership does more to protect people from becoming victims of crime, while 38% say it does more to endanger personal safety. In the days after Newtown, 48% said guns do more to protect people and 37% said they placed people at risk.”

Looking even deeper into the figures there is nearly an across the board rise in support for gun rights over the past two years with the only outliers being those who consider themselves to be liberal democrats.

Even more recently, the support has increased over the past year regardless of age, gender, political affiliation, and level of education with only a couple of exceptions where we see a minor decrease.

The important aspect that one must look at in this poll is that this is increased support for the individual right to own firearms. People, regardless of the background of the individual, seem to be coming around the realization that there is a limit to what you want the government to control. It is a constant struggle, especially with regard to the topic of firearms ownership, to maintain that right. However, people are beginning to see how misguided and downright combative the antigun groups really are and the nanny state mentality that they all promote. Many people may not be gun owners, but they understand that the right isn’t reliant upon them personally exercising it. Who knows, maybe they will become a responsible gun owner in the future… if they support the right now they will still have that freedom in the future.

Politics Coloring Perception

In case you are wondering, this little 'rainbow gun' is the Sig Sauer P238.

This past weekend my wife and I were able to spend some time with her sister and her wife. It was actually the first time that I had ever spent time with the two of them and, not surprisingly, we had a few moments of sharing thoughts. While many will see the two completely different lifestyles and the polar party affiliations there weren’t any times of severe disagreement. While this may be surprising to some it really shouldn’t be if you take into consideration the fact that we are all human with different perspectives but the same desires.

In fact, there was one moment in particular which seemed to make the two of them step back for a second. My sister-in-law made a comment which was something to the effect of ‘we would more back but we would have to worry about being accepted as a married couple.’ Of course, I am paraphrasing but the general sentiment is pretty clear.

What had the two of them a bit speechless was when I told them that, frankly, I could care less. I am not going to tell you what you can or can’t do, who you can marry, etc. At the same time, don’t tell me what I can and can’t do. As has been a common phrase that I have read and heard over and over (I am certain that many of you are reading this for the first time)… you don’t want me in your bedroom and I don’t want you in my gun room. It is that simple. My political beliefs are anchored in personal freedom, responsibility, self-reliance, and independence. Who am I to tell you who you can be with, who you can love?

It shouldn’t be a surprise that the vast majority of people I know with the same affiliation with the Republican Party feel the same way. In fact, I personally know more Democrats opposed to such unions. With that said, we are not going to lobby for your ability to marry but we will not stand in your way either. It is this fact that may have made them think the most (of course, I am basing this on observation as they did not disclose their thought process to me).

However, this whole situation just goes to show that too many of us fail to communicate. We make assumptions of each other based on politics without ever discussing the issues. Because of this, we lose sight of the things that we have in common and interests that we share (firearms in this particular instance). Of course, there will be differences but when you think about it as individuals we have differences with everyone it is just a matter of degrees. Most things that really get people going, that are the basis of personal passion, don’t fall along political lines. Those differences lie within the individual.