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In the land of Oz

In the land of Oz

down under, these tweets were posted.

From a blog you should check out, Cattalaxy Files (“Australia’s leading libertarian and centre-right blog”), which one of our commenters frequents.

Be sure to click on embedded links.

On guns:

On “you didn’t build that”:

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Comments

More people die from medical mistakes than from gun violence. More people die from drunk drivers than from gun violence. Almost all gun violence in urban areas [with strict gun laws like Chicago, New York, LA] is between drug dealers protecting their “sidewalk stores”. The media never tell of or show stories from the millions of people each year who have protected themselves and their families from burglars, home invaders, street robbers, car jackers and other criminal activity because they were armed and either used their weapon or threatened to use it.
Those who beat their swords into plowshares, will plow for those who didn’t.

Just a little note from history…

When England faced the very real threat of a Nazi invasion, the English sort of “reconsidered” that whole “disarmed citizenry” thingy.

After looking at the arms they had to provide disarmed proles, they sent out urgent appeals to nations like the U.S. for donations of civilian firearms.

We responded. Lavishly. Many of the handguns sent to England by Americans were SAA Colts and other revolvers from the frontier days, still in perfectly serviceable condition.

Following the emergency, those weapons were destroyed rather than returned.

This is one BIG reason that a pre-WWII SAA Colt is a rarity now.

As an aside, there were several armed police officers at the theater in Aurora the other night. Like virtually all situations where people are put in immediate danger by an armed criminal, those police officers got to the scene in time to tidy up.

    BannedbytheGuardian in reply to Ragspierre. | July 21, 2012 at 11:10 pm

    They would have preferred some actual help that was not forthcoming from your President Congress or dare I say military assistance.

    A few small arms had to do I guess.

The issue is most of us who have CCPs do not take guns to the movies (some do but most do not). If more did and knew how to use them, there could be less of these events. Of course, mass shooting events are very rare (out of a country of 330 million people, they happen once or twice a year? Think about those statistics.

Most shooting deaths are due to drug related crime, accidents or suicides.

    johnnycab23513 in reply to EBL. | July 21, 2012 at 12:27 pm

    I agree with everything you said. However, in this case, I fear the average armed citizen would have had no effect on the outcome. This jerk was wearing more armor than most SWAT cops possess.

      TrooperJohnSmith in reply to johnnycab23513. | July 21, 2012 at 12:44 pm

      Me and other legal handgun owners/carriers have asked ourselves this question a hundred times. Could a person with a concealed handgun have done anything in Aurora?

      Body armor would’ve made it more difficult, but remember that he was mobile and methodically shooting people and not really taking cover, which is supposed to augment body armor. His legs weren’t covered, nor was his whole face or his hands and arms.

      Distracting him or disabling him may’ve jeopardized the safety of the armed citizen, but again, that’s a risk you should be willing to take in exchange for the right to carry concealed. Having a fallen gunman or one who is possibly experiencing a vasovagal response due to the shot of being shot (especially by my Hydro-Shocks!) would be better than someone mobile and on a rampage.

      I think we’ve all played that scenario out in our minds a dozen times since yesterday. These events are the reason many of us compete in combat arms exercises and constantly practice both marksmanship and reaction to events.

        exsanguine in reply to TrooperJohnSmith. | July 22, 2012 at 10:34 am

        Trooper: This is why I carry my trusty CZ 52. If you don’t have class 3 or better armor it will go through it. I can get some juiced rounds for it that will bring it to around 2100 fps also.

      It depends on what you are shooting. A .45 ACP would at the least knock him down. If you hit an unprotected area, that would disable him. If you are firing and no one is returning fire, you have a distinct advantage. It is one thing to fire at targets; it is another when the “target” is firing back. If a CCW saved just one life, that would be a good thing.

    TrooperJohnSmith in reply to EBL. | July 21, 2012 at 12:32 pm

    Most theaters have that little, “No Firearms Allowed” and the stupid ‘No Gun’ logo that prevents lawful citizens from protecting their lives and announces to the criminals, “Undefended Target Rich Environment”.

    Thanks, trial lawyers!

LukeHandCool | July 21, 2012 at 12:04 pm

If only I could draw. I see a political cartoon of Obama as the grinch on Christmas Day, standing over a little boy who has just built some amazing, imaginative contraption with the erector set he just unwrapped, and, the man who never built anything in his life saying, “You didn’t build that …”

LukeHandCool (who will do his gambling at Sheldon Adelson’s Venetian today. If Luke happens to see Mr. Adelson, Luke will be sure to jokingly yell out, “Mr. Adelson, you didn’t build all this …” and who, whether he wins or loses, considers it a win-win situation. If Luke loses, the money goes to Mr. Adelson, who will use it to help the GOP and build his business, and, if Luke wins, he’ll donate part of his winnings to the cause … and who hasn’t built much in his life, but who is thankful to those who have, for they make the economic world go round and we all benefit … more power to them … and who is left wondering again, why doesn’t LI have a summer convention here? And who visited nearby Zion National Park yesterday … just three hours from Vegas … mother nature at her most stunning … and who wonders if the One would have the audacity to say to God about Zion, “You didn’t build this …”)

The Cat is a great way to appreciate just how many of what appear to us in the US to be Obama’s policies or preferences actually have comparable versions being pushed by Leftist politicians all over the world.

Which is usually a good time to see if it is actually originating in the UN.

Their Carbon Tax that went into effect July 1 was where Obama wants to take us. He simply lacks the votes, not the will.

The education reforms the Clintons were pushing and that Gore would have finished and Obama now is can be seen 10 years after implementation by looking to Australia and New Zealand. Their version of our Common Core is called Core Skills. Proposed in 2008 and revised again this year. Oh and the global 21st century skills movement that includes the US, ATC21S, is managed out of the University of Melbourne. It is co-managed by Microsoft, Intel, and Cisco making all these ed initiative pushing for digital literacy and greater integration of technology look like a colossal case of Corporatism. Harder to see when it’s Down Under day to day.

Australia is practically like having a crystal ball sometimes.

LukeHandCool | July 21, 2012 at 12:53 pm

Regarding the Oz tweet, “We’re laughing at you.”

No worries, mate!! We’re laughing at ourselves, too.

LukeHandCool (who will just throw another shrimp on the barbie)

BannedbytheGuardian | July 21, 2012 at 10:21 pm

I have never been to that blog. Australia just is not a libertarian country . How can a Constitutional Monarchy be?

However on the Heritage ‘Foundation’s Economic Freedoms ranking

Australia is number 3 & NZ number 4 only behind Hong Kong & Singapore.

Currently it is the best performing OECD country & has been for 10 years on real data not fudged .

So you may not like the gun laws but I bet you would like the economics.