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if you're going to do something...

1/23/2016

So, I'm wondering something. Calling out Palin for her insane troll logic-laden endorsement and insult to PTSD sufferers is all well and good. But when did slut-shaming her daughter wind up on the table?
Don't get me wrong, there's reason aplenty to rip into Bristol. But making five figures a pop as an abstinence advocate after having her second bastard doesn't make her worthy of a scarlet A, it just makes her a fucking hypocrite.
And yes, the distinction is important. If someone's sexual activities are their own affair, you don't get to call shame just because they're politically loathsome. If you're going to rip into someone, do so for the right reasons.

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About that CDC ban on firearms research...

1/7/2016

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So, the thing about the CDC ban on firearms research?
It's already, somewhat, been lifted.
After Sandy Hook, Obama gave an executive order and $10 million to the CDC to research gun violence. (Yet another fuck you to congress, but that's not news).
Why haven't you heard about it? Well... initial findings weren't quite the political slam-dunk he might have intended.
(Link to full text of the report at the bottom. These are just the fun bits.)
"Firearm safety education programs are widespread in public schools, but they are inadequately studied and the few evaluations that have been conducted provide little evidence of effectiveness."(pg7)
I'd love to know what these programs are.
"The number of public mass shootings of the type that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School accounted for a very small fraction of all firearm-related deaths. Specifically, since 1983 there have been 78 events in which 4 or more individuals were killed by a single perpetrator in 1 day in the United States, resulting in 547 victims and 476 injured persons" (pg13)
Fuck you and your 355 a year bullshit, MST.
"Defensive use of guns by crime victims is a common occurrence, although the exact number remains disputed (Cook and Ludwig, 1996; Kleck, 2001a). Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million (Kleck, 2001a), in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008 (BJS, 2010). On the other hand, some scholars point to a radically lower estimate of only 108,000 annual defensive uses based on the National Crime Victimization Survey (Cook et al., 1997). The variation in these numbers remains a controversy in the field. The estimate of 3 million defensive uses per year is based on an extrapolation from a small number of responses taken from more than 19 national surveys. The former estimate of 108,000 is difficult to interpret because respondents were not asked specifically about defensive gun use." (pg 15)
Even if you lowball it, that's someone defending themselves with a gun once for every three violent crimes in the country.
"Studies that directly assessed the effect of actual defensive uses of guns (i.e., incidents in which a gun was “used” by the crime victim in the sense of attacking or threatening an offender) have found consistently lower injury rates among gun-using crime victims compared with victims who used other self-protective strategies" (pg 16)
They're called equalizers for a reason, folks.
"There are approximately 1,000 patents on record for various designs to prevent access to a firearm by unauthorized users, but many are untested."
Problem with such things is, if you need to fire a gun, you need to fire a gun right godsdamn now. A mechanical or electronic inhibitor to that then becomes a safety liability. On the political level, this becomes a feature instead of a bug (looking right at you, Jersey, California).

https://www.nap.edu/read/18319/chapter/1?fbclid=IwAR21-4JRdL3EcUwXtclO5UAhrZbPByiRf_3bgyAPGvQ94yXO5x64sN58v_8

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New gun control EO's

1/5/2016

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Trying to get a coherent commentary on the new gun control executive orders. But I'm currently stuck at "A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
- Dealers have always had to be licensed and do background checks regardless of where they're based.
- Internet sales have always had to go through an FFL dealer.
- The "gun show loophole" does not exist. They're called "private sales." They are perfectly legal. Deal with it.
- I notice even with these EO's there's still no definition of what "being in the business of firearms" is.
- If he truly had bipartisan support and the backing of 90% of Americans, the President wouldn't have to do a runaround on congress.
- Hiring more FBI and ATF agents to clear the backlog ~might~ help. I'll grant that much.
- The stigma of mental health issues would be easier to alleviate if SOP wasn't threatening to yank people's rights at the slightest provocation, which is where we are now.
- DOJ, DOD, and DHS have all looked at "Smart gun" technology, and all of them have gone "fuck a whole bunch of that." I could write a book about how the concept is fantasy bullshit that fucking Skyfall made ignorant people think could actually work.
Here on planet reality, advocating such things means you are trying to make a world where it's possible for someone to hack a sidearm. There's not enough "hell fuck no!" in the English language for how bad an idea that is.
What's probably really going on:
President Obama is the best gun salesman in human history. I need to check the math, but I heard along the lines of 1/3rd of guns in private hands were sold during his reign. I don't think he's as blindly ignorant as these EO's look. Which means he's trying to do ~something~ gun control related for his own legacy without damaging his successor in the Democrats during an election year. He's doing this by reiterating what's already federal law in the hopes that his constituency won't know the difference.

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if you're going to do something...

About that CDC ban on firearms research...

New gun control EO's

Jay Peterson

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Certa Bonum Certamen

if you're going to do something...

About that CDC ban on firearms research...

New gun control EO's

﻿Jay Peterson﻿

Archives

Categories

Certa Bonum Certamen

Jay Peterson