Ms Raccoon lives in the Monbazillac area of South West France, renowned for its fine wines and gourmet food, so she frequently finds better things to do than sit in front of a computer all morning. She is liable to take off traveling at a moment's notice. Consequently this blog only gets updated these days when it is raining - and it doesn't rain very often round here...
{ 104 comments }
If that was on main stream TV Anna, Alex didn’t do himself any favours….
…There is nothing wrong with being quietly resolute is there?
You are right, he did shoot Morgan down in flames, but he also gave the impression that he was unbalanced. I am a regular visitor to Infowars, indeed I was watching a fascinating interview between him and Aaron Russo just last night…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68EHXNMR7QA&feature=player_embedded
…Everyone should have a look at that and listen to the balanced discussion based on the evidence. Russo knew that he was dying at the time of the interview, he had nothing to sell.
right_writes, I think Alex is beyond being quietly resolute; he was animated but informed and showed passion and probably with good reason: I think he knows that there is real danger of a flashpoint which he obviously doesn’t want: the Supreme Court has twice come within one vote of ruling that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Bill of Rights isn’t an individual right. Obama has already put two people on the Supreme Court (9 members) who would vote away what Alex and millions of Americans feel is their basic human freedom. Obama, now re-elected, will probably have a few more Supreme Court picks…this is what is probably what is mostly behind the record gun sales etc: people motivated to buy firearms now.
I agree with you Span Ows… Watch the video interview that I posted, and you will see how the point can be made without making the sort of spectacle that the odious Morgan laps up.
I just have, excellent stuff and thanks for the link; maybe the 911 conspiracy is a bit far for some but the rest is very interesting, especially the Constitutional Republic not democracy thing and the Mafia /IRS at the beginning.
Gun control in Britain is a farce.
Gun control in Britain means removing the guns from the general population, not those classed as a freeman and above.
When I was classed as in, I had invites for shoots every week, not only that, the gangsters in this country are armed to to the teeth, why, because they are Masons.
Jones though I know him to be a shill, is correct, our ancestors did not enshrine in constitution the right to bear arms to be flippant, they did it so we can protect ourselves from external threats and most important, to protect us from a Tyrannical crown.
Today we suffer perhaps the most tyrannical crown ever witnessed in this country as it shifts the entire country on war mode, with the Academies nothing more than military prep schools.
I have outed two cadet officers recruiting broken children while working in the special schools, recruiting them into the armed forces, one was sacked because of it.
Have you noted only Alex Jones is allowed to speak in the same angst level as that at street level, no PC and rage…. the greatest way to start that violent revolution, and his government knows it…
The government loves Alex Jones because he moves the population closes to confrontation with the police, better with the Green card I believe, no need for violence.
XX belinus January 8, 2013 at 10:13
When I was classed as in, I had invites for shoots every week, not only that, the gangsters in this country are armed to to the teeth, why, because they are Masons. XX
Oh go and boil your tin foil hat, you pathetic piece of shit.
I think that Big Billy Goat Gruff might need two bites to devour a troll of your ample proportions
1. The second amendment talks about a ‘well-regulated militia’ so shouldn’t the rule be ‘Have a gun? Join the militia!’?
2. There has been a lot of talk about banning assault rifles. Isn’t that exactly the sort of gun that a ‘well-regulated militia’ should have, not those nasty hand guns that kill kids at home?
3. Ban Obama! Four school killings on his watch! More regulation leads to more killing. Gun ownership goes up because many Americans see him as a Marxist Muslim determined to destroy America.
4. Jones will lose ultimately as America will go down the pan, becoming another Hispanic, spanish-speaking basket-case, especially once China stops treating the dollar as a reserve currency.
5. Don’t tell America/Americans how to run their own affairs!
What’s needed in every office is a military-trained handgun instructor with easy access to pwerful weapons and ample ammunition. There would be no shooting incidents – unless his supervisors disciplined him for poor performance …. Going Postal.
A New Bill of Rights should include a Right of mental health to protect everyone.
I must say that I do have some difficulty with the right to own even one Automatic Weapon within the home. Is this really necessary?
Okay, nothing much to be done about illegally owned guns of any kind, but will legally owning an Automatic Weapon help to protect anyone’s rights?
Me? I quite like ordinary guns because I enjoy shooting various species of Wild Life that you can eat, but I can’t see an Automatic Gun doing much for Pigeon Pie or Rabbit Stew. And one shot from a Hunting Gun would be enough to scare anyone witless around here. If my reelly, reelly vicious dog didn’t put them off first.
Who are you, who is anyone, to ask whether any particular gun I want is “necessary”? You like “ordinary guns” but you like to think that these (whatever they are…) represent normality, while the sorts of gun you don’t use, or don’t want, are just for weirdos, extremists, vigilantes, “gun nuts” and the like. Extraordinarily presumptuous! I’d like an “assault weapon” myself – great fun, and interesting. I was planning to get one (legally) just before the 1988 Act stopped me from doing so. Clearly, this move improved public safety beyond all recognition and advanced the cause of civilisation.
The 2nd Amendment was written so that Citizens could; a) protect the nation against a foreign invader and b) resist their own governments tyrannical impulses. It has nothing at all to do with hunting, the Founders envisaged Citizens owning weapons just a powerful as those of any Army – otherwise how could they resist a foreign invasion?
Alex Jones is a grade A nut though.
Having watched The Video I have to say that Alex Jones is exactly the sort of person who shouldn’t have a gun. In My Opinion. To which I am entitled, according to The First Amendment. Although I am learning more about The American Constitution than I ever wanted to know.
Sorry if I’m a bit off message here.
…surely the only message is that you make up your own mind, which you have done.
There is a fine line between Opinion and what is acceptable, as in the difference between Free Speech and Libel. I remain doubtful that The Founding Fathers meant that everyone should have the right to own sufficient weapons to commit a massacre. The original Amendment came from The British Constitution of the time, giving people the right to bear arms to defend against invaders, but America left off the crucial bit that would easily allow America to change The Amendment to suit modern day.
Sorry. This is a very complicated legal issue. And I would be the first to defend my right to own a gun. But it isn’t that simple.
Elena, that so called crucial bit was left off on purpose. It appears that the US founding fathers were showing a little foresight in having an armed population to keep the government in check. In fact it is needed more today than when it was drafted.
All the shootings that everyone is up in arms about have been in what are known as ‘gun free’ areas. Now why would a deranged person go there to kill rather than somewhere there might be people that will shoot back, after all a notice saying it is a gun free area only keeps the law abiding from taking guns there.
In the UK with its stringent gun laws we are seeing the first steps to a police state with the disarming of the law abiding population. That just leaves the criminals and the police with guns. There are also attempts to get the police fully armed so they become a paramilitary force working at the behest of the government and woe betide anyone that objects.
But this deranged boy came from there. And he appears to have had access to a large number of guns. So hardly a gun free area.
But if you are advocating shooting The Government, sign me up.
Elena, it was only the school area that was designated as a no guns area.not the whole neighborhood.
Who gives a 5hit what the Founding Fathers meant, or didn’t mean? The right to own weapons is ancient, the right to defend oneself fundamental, and historically those regimes/rulers who enacted the most restrictive laws against owning weapons were the most tyrannical, arbitrary and unpleasant. All one needs to consider. Other people don’t think i should have guns? Tough.
Couldn’t agree more Elena, the guy is a conspiricist knobhead of a high degree – just looking at his face makes me want to vomit, having Morgan in there too makes it pretty much unwatchable.
But we both managed to watch it, painful though it was. However, I don’t remember Piers Morgan having very much at all to say. So what’s the beef?
It’s not about “automatic weapons”. The weapons under discussion are semi-automatic. There is a major difference.
Really? How many shots can they fire in one burst?
Elena, one per squeeze of the trigger: one doesn’t have to manually eject the spent cartridge, re-cock and reload a fresh cartridge. Automatics fire as long as the trigger is squeezed and there is ammunition available, and the gun hasn’t jammed.
Elena, most hand guns today are semi automatic. All that means is that they reload themselves after a shot has been fired – even a revolver is a semi automatic.
Each shot requires you to pull the trigger on a semi automatic weapon – just like a pump action shotgun. A fully automatic weapon, on the other hand, will continue to fire as long as the trigger is held back and there are bullets in the magazine.
@Brian and Ivan.
So quite quick then. None of this Fair Play and half a chance.
Sorry, being facetious. But some of those guns displayed in the last School Shooting looked frightfully dangerous to me. Were any of those privately owned guns fully automatic? Can ordinary people buy fully automatic guns?
Yup, thats the problem in a nutshell. Too many rounds, too quickly.
None of the guns at the Sandy shooting where automatic.
Automatic guns are strictly controlled and require an uber version of a UK fire arm certificate. Its rare for someone to have an automatic in the US. Semi-automatic guns (see video below) are fairly easy to legally obtain in most US states. If I remember correctly it only requires the equivalent of a UK CRB check & registration of ownership to obtain a semi-automatic.
This is the class of weapon under discussion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq8Xuj33u1w The problem is made worse with extended magazines http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fal7adN5Zpw
Elena, Despite the National Firearms Act 1934, the Gun Control Act 1968 and the Hughes Amendment 1986 it is still possible to buy and own a pre-1986, unimported automatic gun so long as the correct licence is obtained and duty paid. You need to be a licensed gun dealer to buy and sell new automatic weapons to the police, armed forces etc.
XX Elena ‘andcart January 8, 2013 at 12:38
Really? How many shots can they fire in one burst? XX
ONE!
Semi autos are NOT “burst weapons”, and you lack of knowledge on the subject just proves why the likes of YOU should have NO input WHATSOEVER, on something you clearly know NOTHING about!
I mean that, of course, politically. NOT on this web site!!!
Dear Furor Teutonicus,
How would I know anything about Automatic Weapons if I don’t ask? Have you forgotten The First Amendment which entitles me to an opinion, no matter how stupid? And from what I have seen there are an awful lot of very stupid opinions abounding in America at the moment. Or do you pick your Amendments to suit yourself?
And your loss of temper to a basically innocuous question might suggest that you aren’t one of the best people to own guns. But then your User Name suggests that anyway.
Mein Dear Furor,
Chronic constipation may explain that bloated feeling and your permanent foul mood. Permit me to suggest an effective lifestyle change, such as placing the commode on your head and sitting on the Pickelhaube.
XX Elena ‘andcart January 8, 2013 at 14:54
Dear Furor Teutonicus,
How would I know anything about Automatic Weapons if I don’t ask? Have you forgotten The First Amendment which entitles me to an opinion, no matter how stupid? XX
And since when di´d thew…what???? Never heard of it…”First amendment”…. Any way, since WHEN did it aooly outside of….I am presuming, the U.S.A?
So. It garuntees your right to be stupid? THAT explains EVERYTHING about the bloody yanks, THAT does!
Personally, I find Piers Morgan to be one of the most repulsive people in the media and that actually takes some doing. At a fundamental level I agree with what Alex is saying, but there is a point between impassioned belief and angry rhetoric and Alex quite clearly stepped way over the border. I’ve enjoyed his InfoWars programme on occasion though as he is pretty much on the mark as far as most of my hot-button freedom and liberty issues are concerned. Alex does however subscribe to certain views which way out their even for a ultra-libertarian.
Gun control in the UK has reached the point now where the legally licensed public holders of gun licenses is very small in comparison to the general population at around about 150,000 gun licenses and 600,000 shotgun licenses. The prevailing attitude of the police when dealing with situations where legally held guns are used by the owner against burglars (Andy Ferrie et al) and end up being dealt with as if they were the greater criminals than the burglars will continue to push levels even further. I foresee a time when only farmers will be able to hold shotgun licenses and all other legal firearms use restricted to specialist police officers and the military. I also foresee further arrests and imprisonment of farmers, soldiers and police for using their legally held guns in defence.
The political establishment have implemented such stupid and draconian measures (specifically strict liability offences) that even picking up a firearm found in the street and handing it to the police is to risk arrest and imprisonment (e.g. former soldier Paul Clarke et al).
Governments across the world have reacted to every act of gun related violence with ever more draconian anti-gun legislation. The fact that the United States gun laws are enshrined in the US constitution is the only measure which has protected the complete outlawing of guns there and despite the strength of the US gun lobby and people like Alex Jones, suspect that it is only a matter of time before this is overturned.
The politicians in all three branches of the US government have no love of the gun lobby and have a vested interest in disarming the population as it makes controlling them in ‘times of difficulty’ much easier. The fact that this opens the door to totalitarian repression is not a coincidence. I suspect that the US government will wait for a useful opportunity (e.g. Sandy Hook or similar shootings) to pass the necessary legislation to disarm the people. It will not be pretty, but given the hatred of politicians for an armed electorate, it is only a matter of time.
When US citizens are unarmed and naked before the state, then we will see the real face of fascism in the US.
I agree entirely.
Like Span Ows I agree with you said and would add one more snippet of information. Obama is stacking the supreme court in an attempt to get the right of the people to have arms removed from the constitution.
To be honest I think the looming enemy so to speak, of the people, as the corporate state establishes itself globally, will be mechanised.
Drones are an obvious choice for the playstation generation, drones with a devastating capacity to inflict precision murder.
Under such auspices then even fully automatic weapons are useless.
In a country of over 200 million people, armed…then any annual figures for gun crime are going to be high, it is through these seriously in my opinion, set up black operations as seen in the recent China stabbing of 22 children and the school incident in the US, which move to disarming the Americans.
They want it and are murdering children to get it…on that basis I would not want it, better to face the street than a well organised covert machine that the corporate empire is.
If America falls to fascism….crickey, have you seen the size of the Navy?
Please, please don’t misunderstand me. I have absolutely nothing against individuals owning guns. I would buy one myself if I could be bothered. But as it is so far, I have only borrowed them for a day’s shooting.
All of my children had Air Rifles in their early teens, and learned to shoot with some accuracy with a Target in the back garden. And I do not discriminate between boys and girls. I just prefer to see animals shot dead with one shot, and not left to suffer.
But The Gun Lobby has gone mad. One gun is never enough. They want more and more, and bigger and better. Just the sort of people who shouldn’t own guns. And a lot of them don’t hunt anyway. Unless it’s Humans.
@ Brian. Can ordinary people buy fully automatic weapons legally?
Elena, Yes, in most of America: see my reply at #19. But is someone who wants to buy a fully automatic weapon ordinary? For some odd reason I can’t put my finger on they’ve been illegal in Britain since 1919.
Did they even have Automatic Weapons in 1919? Short of a cumbersome thing on a tripod, that is?
But there is more to it than just buying a gun. They need to be kept securely locked up these days, if not always.
And then we need to look at mental health issues. The Mother of the last crazed boy did know that things weren’t right. But then she appears to have been a bit crazed herself. And how many guns did she own?
It certainly won’t be solved by banning guns. Look where Prohibition got America.
Me? I think that America was amazing, back in the days of yor, when they finally decided that they had had enough of Britain. But then I have long been a fan of Mel Gibson. Yer, Yer, I am a natural born cretin.
Elena, For example, the fully automatic Bergmann MP18 was introduced in 1918 and its design was copied by the British Lanchester and Sten smgs. I’m sure you still might be able to find a Sten and some Mills bombs hidden in the roof of a farm building unrenovated by English settlers. If you’re very lucky a Bren in its green felt bag might still be there as well. I agree about America, for a country that professes itself to be so devout they balance that piety with the full range of sins: drink, drugs (the Mexican civil war is being fought to control drug-smuggling into America) and murder. If only they could temper with a smigeon of doubt their admirable can-do spirit and acknowledge that the American Way might not travel well everywhere. However, I can’t abide any film with that shortarse Gibson except for the Mad Max films. I reckon his part in “Tim” was casting to type, except that Tim was a nice bloke.
Look now. I fancy him. Okay. He just needs a good woman like me. I don’t care if he’s a short arse. I’m not very tall myself.
And actually, I did find a few odd things in the roof. I just didn’t know what they were, so I handed them over to the family that previously owned the house. The fact that they are all raging alcoholics is neither here nor there. They had a terrible time with the Communists down the road. The Nazis were the least of their problems. Gentlemen, one and all, according to local gossip when they have all had a few.
America isn’t my problem. I will never go there. My time would have been two hundred years ago when it was vast and unspoiled and there were adventures to be had. My only real regret is that there aren’t any adventures anymore.
Oh Gawd not again…. Every time the subject of “gun control” arises, discussion is stymied by exactly the same sort of massive ignorance on which most of our firearms legislation is based. Automatic weapons have NOT been “illegal in Britain since 1919″ – if you’re going to post on this topic, get your bloody facts right! The first Firearms Act was in 1920, prior to which (and excluding WW1 emergency regulations) Britons were hardly restricted at all if they wanted to purchase any sort of gun you care to name – including automatics. Gun crime then was at far lower levels than it is today. Automatic weapons (that’s “machine guns” in baby language) were banned from private ownership only in the 1930s – not of course because of their criminal misuse, since to the best of my knowledge there was no recorded instance at that time of Brit criminals having used a machine gun in the commission of crime, but sort of on the nod – the powers that be just thought it appropriate, rather like some of the less thoughtful posters here, above. Naturally, this did not prevent in the slightest the ability of drug dealers to have little turf wars with sub-machine guns in recent decades….
What? You live in England and you don’t know whether a machine gun had ever been used in the commission of a crime. Tsk, tsk…..
Ho ho. Rather than try to save space/time I should have said that to the best of the authorities’ knowledge, an automatic weapon had never been used in the commission of crime prior to the legal ban on these; that is to say, the records are uncommunicative on the subject. OK?
BTW French gun crime stats are fairly close to our own; one can still legally own a handgun in France; same applies to semiautomatic centrefire rifles (banned in UK 1988) though there are quirks about “non military” calibres. You might find this handy in applying for your French gun licence – you are planning to do that, aren’t you, if you don’t possess one already….
“Can ordinary people buy fully automatic weapons legally?”
The process is detailed in this video…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu0RwxaMU5k
Thanks for the video, Jabber.
Wow, nearly 56,000 views.
The “Care Homes” saga – phase ??? – BBC News 08-01-13 – “Wales child abuse: Judge appeal to Waterhouse witnesses”
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The judge leading a review of an inquiry into sexual abuse at care homes in north Wales has appealed for witnesses to come forward.
Mrs Justice Macur is reviewing the Waterhouse Inquiry, which focused on allegations at homes from 1974 onwards.
\\
Running alongside her review is a separate investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) into the original police handling of the case and any other allegations made more recently. Last month, the NCA said Operation Pallial had received information from 105 victims since November.
Senior officers said the operation had heard from new and previously-known victims, and offenders must be “investigated and brought to justice”.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-20946138
@ Alan and Brian. Thank you for your reasoned and well mannered replies.
I live in a different world where guns are just for Hunting. But I have to tell you that I was shocked rigid when I saw a bunch of Hunters out after Wild Bore just recently. These were BIG GUNS. I might have thought they were hunting Elephants if I hadn’t known that we don’t have Elephants in France. So what sort of guns would these have been?
PS. Where can I buy an Automatic AK 47? These bloody Pigeons are driving me mad with their billing and cooing at 6 o’clock in the morning. This can only lead to more bloody pigeons. This has got to stop.
Elena, I always buy my AK47s from Mr Khan’s Gunsmiths in Peshawar: nice hand-carved stocks and engraving. Alternatively, you can swap a couple sacks of grain (USAid is a very popular brand) for an AK47 in most parts of Africa when there’s a famine on.
Wild Boar need a big gun because you want to stop them dead and not annoy them. http://www.wild-boar.org.uk/pdf/WildBoar_shooting.pdf
You live in France and know nothing about appropriate weaponry for hunting sangliers? Very sad. They are tough beasts and require a respectable calibre, which is why you have probably seen your local chasseurs carrying rifles chambered in e.g. 300 Win Mag and similar. BTW the AK-47 is by definition “automatic” – it’s a selective fire assault rifle.
Alex Jones comes across as exactly the kind of crackpot who should not be allowed a gun.
Oh Dear, that made me laugh. Are we talking Dum Dum Bullets here? I’ve heard of them. Although from what I saw they had only injured the poor beast because they looked decidedly worried, as they insisted I get my arse out of there tout de bloody suite. And my French Van isn’t all that robust.
PS. Does Mr. Khan have a Branch in Paris? Hopefully somewhere near The Apple Store. And then I can kill two birds with one bullet. And, believe it or not, you do occasionally see the odd dead Bore on the route. You just need to get it in the back of the van before someone charges you with killing Les Animaux Sauvage. This is an offence in France, so forget claiming on the insurance. But The Local Butcher is only too happy to keep his mouth shut in exchange for the Bile Duct, which has mystical qualities, according to The Chinese.
Elena,
Yup http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expanding_bullet I’ve heard Apple might sell the iPoweredassaultrifle if they can integrate the custard and jelly.
I thought odd dead Bores in France wear red cord trousers and tweed jackets and moan about how Britain has gone to the dogs since the end of steam locomotives, Jim Laker and the Great Reform Act and that “The Wife” can’t get Frank Cooper’s Oxford marmalade in the village (“Amazingly, they’ve never heard of the stuff!”) and half-past eight in the morning is time for the first G&T of the day and how the English are ruining this part of France….. harummph.
In England one may not legally take pheasant that one has clipped with ones car, but the car behind can
Half past eight? Sheesh, I’ve cleaned my teeth with Vodka by then, and onto the second G&T. But then Vodka is as cheap as water, and I suffer from Migraines, of which quinine is a know cure. It’s in The Tonic, but no one drinks plain Tonic. Do they?
I only eat Jelly and Custard in Trifle, appropriately laced with Sherry. Or Eau de Vie if I have run out of Sherry, which I frequently do. Can’t think why.
I won’t hear a word against Apples or Steam Trains. Many is the apple I ate on a steam train journey to Scotland, when I wasn’t getting pissed. It’s a long way.
And I never run over Pheasants or Rabbits. I just collect the dead bodies, and eat them.
I concede that the steam locomotive is a Good Thing but only because it is the only means of transport ever designed to cook a proper Ulster Fry, so it is.
This is true, though the use of boiler water for the making of tea to accompany it should be avoided, since boiler water treatment chemicals are not totally compatable with the human digestive tract.
By the way, it’s only the ‘Romance of Steam’ when you’re sat with a drink of something agreeable watching it go past. If you ever have anything to do with the operation or maintenance of same, romance fades quite quickly.
@Engineer, surely lighting the boiler at 4 am, raking the firebox out late at night and oiling and greasing every nipple and polishing the brasswork with all that coal dust was all part of the fun.
@Brian – Oh, absolutely! As is standing in two inches of oily water in an inspection pit, wrestling a three-hundredweight driving axle spring with two broken leaves out from the oil-and-flyash encrusted innards of one, whilst regularly banging your head on the handily-positioned inside big end crank-webs.
Elena, the fun begins when you are taking the dog for a walk through the vines and the hunters are out looking for boar and you look round and find there are now three animals following you, the two dogs you started with and a rather large – slightly larger than my Newfoundland male – boar that is walking between them. I just kept on walking and some time later the boar left.
That close encounter allowed me to see why the local hunters have the guns they do and why I do as well – the boar come down off the mountain along the path by my house.
Please stop! “Dum Dum” bullets forsooth! This is the sort of crass archaism our tabloids indulge in whenever the subject of guns arises. They know nothing about guns or ammunition – this doesn’t stop them pontificating and propagandising of course.
the odd dead Bore on the route
… you can find a few here, too!
Les Animaux Sauvage
Your adjective needs to agree with the noun, dear, thus: sauvages
Smart Arse. When did I ever say that my French was perfect? Just be thankful that I remembered the U. Actually, I should have written, L’Animal Sauvage since I was talking in the singular. But then I know a few of those as well.
What sort of gun do you need to shoot a Bison?
Ha ha! No need for a special permit: a wooden spoon should do.
Inserted where?
Ah – bestiality in a china shop!
Did I miss something? But not to worry. I am blessed by my ignorance of arseholes.
Sorry to have been unclear – simply you don’t need a gun to shoot a Meissen bison.
I have got a Shunting Engine Number Plate. It has travelled the length and breadth of Britain with me, for the last fifty years. And now to France. It isn’t particularly special. But such fun I had on Steam Trains when I was young. They were real journeys. And in America as well, I have no doubt. This was the beginning.
Try reading “When Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand. Nothing much to do with Steam Trains, but oh so much to do with the mind set. And John Galt. Who is John Galt?
You called? Actually, I’m not real. Just a figment of Ayn Rand’s imagination. You reading this is just a figment of your imagination. I read somewhere that I am a representation of what would happen if Prometheus had changed his mind and decided that rather than having his liver eaten by an eagle everyday for all eternity, instead he just says “sod that for a game of soldiers” and buggers off.
Well that’s who I am apparently, the anthropomorphic personification of an idea of “sod that for a game of soldiers”.
These English Literature folks really should go out and get a life…
Meissen Bison. Ah, I see. So long as it rhymes. So not much to do with porcelain or wild animals. Or anything much else.
Did we fall out, or even disagree? I really can’t remember. But I am more than happy to accept that I said something crass. I make an art form of it, albeit by accident. But then that was always the best way, don’t you think? Ignorance is always bliss.
Like a bull in a china shop, really, but maybe less flagrant on a good day.
Well, I am a Traurean. What else do you expect? But you probably knew that.
Brian. Do you mind. We have got more than enough Nipples on another Blog. We don’t need them on a Gun Blog. And I had more than enough of that when I was mending aeroplane engines.
”When US citizens are unarmed and naked before the state, then we will see the real face of fascism in the US.”
It’s sentiments like that which fuel the acquisition of ever larger numbers of ever more powerful guns. Where does it come from? Where does the idea that ‘they’ are just waiting to impose a fascist dictatorship have its genesis, and where is the proof?
And in any case, what good would they be against tanks? Hush my mouth, lest you all run off and buy one….
What you say is fair comment.
From my own perspective as a libertarian minarchist, I see the state itself as being the main threat to its own people as time and again from the state imposed suicide of Socrates in 399 BC, through the state imposed price controls of Emperor Diocletian in 301 AD to the monetary madness of the present day. As soon as a state becomes large enough, it becomes a target of capture by powerful groups who use it to extort ‘economic rents’ from the population. The larger and stronger the state becomes the more of the economy it controls until eventually it becomes a leech consuming all human social and economic output.
The soviet union was a perfect example of the model which both Europe and the United States are following, the only difference is that total control is still at some point in the future. By definition this is totalitarianism and you are quite correct even an armed populace cannot fight against tanks, but they can resist as the Maquis did in rural France during World War II.
It should also be remembered that even the military has a breaking point, beyond which its soldiers will no longer support the state. This happened on the streets of St. Petersburg in 1917 and at the Berlin Wall in 1989. Even tanks are useless if the soldiers in them refused to attack the people as happened in Moscow 1991.
People must not be afraid of their government, the government must always fear its people.
People must not be afraid of their government, the government must always fear its people.
How true and when the government is not afraid of the people we get the police state.
The US government shipped over 100,000 US citizens to concentration camps during WW2: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/internment1.html
The men who wrote the US constitution knew from bitter experience that rulers always try to grab more power for themselves.
I thought Ayn Rand was an American. Sorry about that. Okay. Try Morris West, The Clowns of God. Same idea, different format. Morris West is an Australian, by the way. Perhaps just read a book.
Ayn Rand was born in Russia in 1905 and escaped to the US in 1925 becoming an American Citizen in 1931.
Thank you, John Galt. I have read, “When Atlas Shrugged”, twice now, but with entirely different reactions. On the first occasion I thought that it was really exciting. And on the second occasion I found it to be really depressing. I am going to give it another go before much longer, when hopefully I might discover what it is actually all about.
Don’t you just love seeing a bully brought to his knees. Unfortunately this never quite justifies the end result. So there must be more to it. I hope.
I’m not sure you should read it a third time. You’ll end up being unable to distinguish fantasy from reality.
I’m positive the US congress passed the ‘anti-dog-eat-dog’ act years ago.
I think I will go to bed now, before I find myself enmeshed in an intellectual conversation that I can’t handle.
But thanks for all the fish.
Molon Labe!
I agree entirely with Alex Jones. A man can defend his family with a gun.
Where guns are permitted, especially ‘concealed carry’ the crime rate drops.
Look at Chicago with its draconian gun laws. It’s the murder capital of the US. Over 500 hundred gun murders in 2012.
That is a lovely story. But what a laugh I had when I realised that I have been incorrectly spelling Boar. I shall put that down to the fact that I normally only speak of them in French. Snark.
Ah well no wonder my little bit of a joke bombed at #50 then.
But, Elena, as you know the Hunting of the Snark doesn’t happen in France.
L’animal sauvage en question? It’s yer sanglier you’re referring to, as hunted and devoured by Obélix
The genuine mistakes are always the funniest, don’t you think. I am particularly good at this.
Great post Anna. Light blue touch paper and retreat! More please.
Back on topic. Alex Jones did not shoot Piers Morgan down, he shouted him down. Any validity, coherence, or sense, lost in the raving.
I can see and appreciate the argument, but the libertarians are as guilty of scaremongering as all the other ‘groups’.
A sane spokesman might be a good starting point, because this excitable fool makes his supporters appear insane. He has valid points lost in the madness.
As a banned, mad person, I say that no individual should have a weapon that can kill many innocents.
Alex Jones isn’t a Libertarian, he’s a conspiracy nut.
Is this a good time mention The First Amendment?
Alex Jones is barking mad ’1776′ – ye gods! Unfortunately the context in which the consitution was written has been completely forgotten, as has been the fact that it has been amended several times. It is spoken of, as it suits the argument being presented, as written in stone – a gospel, a holy writ. Something the iconoclasticc figures who wrote the thing in the first place would have been appalled by.
The result is an entire country completely hung up on guns incapable of common sense legislation along the same lines as planes, trains and automobiles are.
Where to begin with Alex Jones’ ‘passionate’ arguments? Factoids???? Well they are quite handy when it comes to taking a rational look at a situation, or is that just me? Guns don’t kill people – I refer you to the Eddie Izzard theory: they help. If someone has a nervous breakdown and access to a semi-automaic and thousands of rounds of ammo they can kill a lot more people that if they had access to a vase or even a knife. If guns don’t kill people then why does Mr Jones wish to own them?
If someone with a gun had been there, they would have stopped it. Has there EVER been an incident of mass shooting stopped by a civilian with a gun? Would the people in the dark cinema with one man shooting and everyone screaming really have been safer if someone else started shooting? really? That’s macho fantasy I’m afraid. More likely that the citizen with a gun would shoot a bystander in their fright and adrenaline rush.
And finally – the batshit nuts argument that more guns should be in schools and then this wouldn’t happen. Arm the Teachers! Lets just consider some practicalities. In a High School this would mean hundreds of emotional, hormonal/emos/goths/jocks/bullies/bullied/rejected/cheated on teenagers would have ready access to a firearm. To prevent that you’d have to lock the gun away – rather taking away the quick response aspect of the gun. Then you’d have to make sure the Teachers could still shoot the gun, that the gun was kept clean and in good working order, that the ammo was still safe and operating, that Teachers themselves where not on the verge of a nervous breakdown and running amok…… wow, weve got a whole regulatory body being invented before our very eyes…. And don’t even get me started on what kind of a fucked up society needs guns everywhere in the first place.
America is a lovely place with lovely people, but they really are screwed up about guns.
Mr Jones might want to own guns for all sorts of reasons. I own guns, for reasons that ultimately are none of your (or anyone else’s) business but which are similarly varied. I understand that the great majority of instances in which US citizens use a legally owned firearm to resist criminals do not entail the gun’s being fired – the presence and threat of the gun proves sufficient. Makes sense to me. Maybe you don’t like guns – lots of people don’t, especially in this country with its 90% urban population and 90+ years of successive governments making guns harder to own, and demonising them in the process. America has always been a more violent society than ours – though this needs to be qualified, with many parts of America being less violent, or at least no more violent, than many parts of the UK. Where criminal violence exists, not unnaturally people wish to be armed, and in America they are mostly at liberty to do so; though interestingly, the parts with the most violence tend also to be places where the authorities make it tougher for ordinary law-abiding citizens to own a gun. Go figure.
Like I say, you don’t seem to like guns, which is fine. But I don’t think you or anyone else with a similar distaste for guns should be permitted to keep other people from wanting to be free to protect themselves and their families and their property with a firearm if they feel the need so to do. Or indeed from owning firearms just because they like the look or feel of them. I like guns, own a few, and I use them: I also like them in themselves, as interesting and attractive pieces of art, history and engineering.
Our society is pretty “fucked up” in various ways, though not so much on my patch as in the crappier parts of certain cities; if any of our more “fucked up” fellow citizens wanted to have a go at me or mine, I’d like to think I’d be able to dissuade them. Makes sense to me.
I don’t dislike guns as it happens. I’ve even shot a few clay pigeons – I seem to have a natural talent for it. And guns have not been historically demonised in this country – Dunblane was a turning point on that front. I think the general view of guns in the UK is pretty utilitarian; some people have them for work , some for sport. We don’t have any national mythology attached to guns nor do we have a written constitution. Our national mythology is attached to longbows (Agincourt and Robin Hood) and maybe swords (lots of Ivanhoe type stories).but not guns for whatever reason. I see no issue with people owning guns for hunting or sport if that is what they wish to do.
I don’t get the hysterical reaction to any mention of regulation in America. I really don’t get screaming references to 1776 and this spectre of a suddenly dictatorial and malign government that would need to be resisted by civilians. I suspect we are back in mythological territory with that – driven by the beginnings of the post-pilgrim America and maybe a lingering memory of the civil war. It seems pretty sensible to regulate who owns guns and who has access to them and under what circumstances they would be required to store guns and ammo at their gun club. If I owned a load of guns and there was a person in my household with a mental illness it would be obvious to me that the guns and ammo should be put out of their reach. Why is this an issue? Why do people need to own a semi-automatic? Why the loophole on sales at gun fairs? Why would anyone in a downtown area in a modern, well policed city need to carry a concealed weapon? And ranters like Alex Jones do not help. The Gun Lobby in the USA presents apocalyptic either/or arguments on the absolute extremes: either we all own guns and are all safe OR they take all our guns and we loose our lives and freedoms and we’ll all be slaughtered by criminals. Life the Universe and Everything doesn’t operate at the extremes – there are many shades in between. And yet the Gun Lobby is entirely inflexible – No Surrender! No Change! And they don’t even have the backbone to state that they regard all those children as collatoral damage to their freedoms. Actually they didn’t even have the spine to comment until they thought the worst of the reaction had died down.
There is a blunt truth here. I come from a compelely different cultural tradition when it comes to guns. I know that. And to be honest, much as I love America (working there and visiting it), I simply do not feel safer when I am surrounded by guns, I feel in more danger. Two countries divided by a common language as somone famous once said.
If one considers that The Second Amendment was originally in support of The Government against hostile forces, does it not now seem a trifle odd that the likes of Alex Jones demands the right to own guns against the hostile forces of The Government itself. At what point did the honour change? When did The Government become the enemy? At what price The Second Amendment? But then one might ask at what price The First Amendment.
Incidentally, Amendment means that any Amendment can be amended.
You neglected the bit about people having the ability to defend themselves against tyrannical government. Would you seriously assert that the government is your friend, in 2013? Really?
Couple of comments. You probably haven’t observed the guns scene in UK for as long as I have or with as much interest. Believe me, guns have been demonised – by the State, with the reflex, greedy, gormless co-operation of the MSM, and facilitated by our largely urban culture and a sedentary, complacent, entitlement-obsessed public.
I doubt seriously that more people are interested in or knowledgeable about longbows than guns! A somewhat esoteric, whimsical claim on your part. I recall a childhood in which guns were tremendously attractive – cap guns, followed by air rifles, plus we all read war stories involving lots of shooting; and when I was at school in the ’60s lots of my chums had shotguns or at least access to them – before 1968 and the Jenkins shotgun registration measure, following the shooting of three London cops by criminals armed with (unlicenced, natch) handguns – go figure. (Best theory I’ve seen is that Jenkins controlled shotguns as a distraction, to show he was “doing something” and to deflect calls for the reintroduction of capital punishment, to which he was very opposed.)
You omit to mention the US “hysteria” indulged in by the anti-gun crowd – you say you have some experience of America so this surprises me. The groups and forces calling for massive gun control measures, very often joined with anti-hunting movements, PETA etc, are very powerful: their propaganda is often extreme, more so than that of the NRA, or GOOA, the latter organisations having to respond constantly to fresh threats..
Your view of the efficacy of policing is optimistic, going on extremely naive! People don’t “need” to carry guns in a “well policed city”? Tell that to the next victim of a violent mugging or random attack…
Actually you don’t come from a “completely different cultural tradition” – you come from a country that has seen significant gun controls only in the past 93 years, prior to which there was practically no control at all – and England experienced very little gun crime. Gun ownership was widespread; the King’s brother could call for every home in England to have a rifle, extolling the virtues of rifle practice as a national defensive measure; our own NRA had at least as many members (some say more) as the US NRA…
We’ve just been emasculated in terms of the freedom to arm ourselves – most of one’s fellow citizens don’t even know this, behaving much like gelded lambs.
I remember wistfully the Pistol Anno Domini meetings at Bisley, wandering around the crowded trade stalls and ranges with lots and lots of guys carrying holstered handguns. never gave it a thought – but it was probably one of the most crime-free spots to be found in our country.
Your questions about others’ “need” to own this or that gun are egregiously intrusive and prescriptive. It is not for you, or the State, or Old Father Time, to dictate to someone what gun he or she needs for the defence of self, family, home and country.
Spot on! Well said!
@ Anthony Harrison. No, My Dear, I would not assert that The Government was or is my friend. But then I have no desire to shoot any of them, albeit quite a good idea on occasions. Perhaps.
But then my conception of the use of guns appears to be entirely different from yours. I enjoy killing animals that I will eat, and hopefully stone cold dead with one shot. I have seen it done, although I am not that good. I only hope to get better at it. Watching a Gypsy Boy killing a Hare on the run with just one shot was pretty amazing. I still marvel. Oh to be that good. That is guns for me.
But should I ever be called upon to defend myself, then no doubt I would be better able than most.
But at least you have felt the right to comment on this Blog, and to do so several times. This is good. One day in the not so distant future you might even agree with what is being said about something or another.
Just don’t quote The Second Amendment while ignoring The First Amendment. I have every bit as much right to my half arsed opinions as you have to yours.
Where did I attempt to deny your right to self expression? Please point this out. My opinions might seem half-arsed to you, but at least they’re based on fact: I’ve observed the grim process of UK “gun control” for a few decades, and take a keen interest in the history of the legislation attaching to it. I concluded some time ago that guns, and a given government’s attitude toward their ownership, are an interesting index of the state of liberty under that government. When I read or hear things that I know to be factually incorrect about guns and gun laws, I try to correct these; when people persist in retailing falsehoods about guns I get very impatient – disagreement is a logical response to claptrap… Your own opinions on guns, gun legislation and the like, are – shall we say – somewhat less than well informed. Everyone has a right to an opinion. Some opinions have more value than others.
Dear Mr.Harrison, You just don’t need to be quite so aggressive about your dissent. And you have been a trifle rude in expressing your opinions. In fact you made me feel like a real idiot for half a minute. But then I am rarely totally decimated for very long.
Whether or not my opinions are less well informed than yours are only your opinion since I don’t have the time or the patience to discuss what I actually know or think. And in fact it would make no difference anyway.
But do watch out for a sense of humour. Dum Dum. You didn’t actually take that seriously. Did you?
Just keep on posting. We like you. Well, I do.
Did someone forget to tell that deranged boy about the school being a Gun Free Area, Ivan?
But you see, it isn’t so much the guns that worry me, it’s the quantity that are owned by so many.
Yes I hadn’t thought of that…
…so many guns in the wrong hands.
Trouble is, how do we take them off of the government?
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