“A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks.” –Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, 1785
Category: firearms
Huh?
John Farnam, “Huh?“
Who are these people?
The VCA who murdered four police officers in Oakland, CA last Saturday had been incarcerated since 2002, but had been recently released on parole.
The sentencing report in the 2002 case that put him in prison described this VCA as a “…cold-hearted individual, who has no regard for human life,” and went on to insist that his permanently residing in prison was the “only way to rein-in this man’s proclivity for violence.”
Now there’s a real recommendation for parole!
That report was surely available to the Parole Board who let him out.
Perhaps, between shrieking for the end to the private ownership of guns in America and the need for higher taxes, the media might find the time to ask why such remorseless, violent, unstable sociopaths are paroled in CA!
[“VCA” = Violent Criminal Actor/Attacker. –R]
If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns
“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms … disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes… Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”
–Cesare Beccaria, On Crimes and Punishment, quoted by Thomas Jefferson in Commonplace Book, 1774-1776
It has never been, and is not, about hunting
“The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of the republic; since it offers a strong moral check against usurpation and arbitrary power of the rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them.” –Justice Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, 1833
SIG History
Here’s a bit of trivia I didn’t know: my favorite firearms company began life in the 19th century as a wagon factory.
In 1853, Friedrich Peyer im Hof, Heinrich Moser and Conrad Neher began what they thought would become a successful wagon factory above the Rhine Falls in Switzerland. Little did they know then, that their company would become one of the world’s most renowned manufacturers of small arms. Just seven years after constructing an industrial plant for building the most sophisticated wagons and railway cars, the three ambitious owners undertook a more serious venture. In part to a challenge from Switzerland’s Federal Ministry of Defense, the Swiss Wagon Factory entered the competition to develop a state-of-the-art rifle with the hopes the Swiss Army would adopt it. Four years later, the award went to the Swiss Wagon Factory for its Prelaz-Burnand rifle. At this point, the Swiss Wagon Factory, with an order for 30,000 muzzle loading Prelaz-Burnand rifles in hand, changed the name of the company to the Swiss Industrial Company – Schweizerische Industrie-Gesellschaft, known worldwide as SIG.
We have met the enemy, and he is us
So the Toad directed my attention to a rant by Kim du Toit on how the ATF views law-abiding gun owners, in light of quotes from Gerald Nunziato, the former head of ATF’s National Tracing Center. I think it’s pretty clear how this government bureaucracy views gun owners, simply from the name of the agency. After all, we’re just a bunch of beer-swilling, tobacco-chewing or cigarette-smoking rednecks who like to go blow holes in highway signs, aren’t we?
New long distance record in Iraq
A U.S. Marine, Staff Sgt. Steve Reichert, has scored a kill shot while engaging the enemy in Iraq, and the shot was over a mile away. For his actions, Staff Sgt. Reichert has been awarded the Bronze Star for Valor.
In the after-action report, the platoon leader made a remarkable account: that Reichert made the shot from 1,614 meters – about a mile away. His accuracy was the deciding factor in the outcome of the firefight.
For the math-impaired, 1,614 meters translates in to 1765.0918662 yards. There are three feet in a yard, so that number times three yields 5,295.2755986 feet. Staff Sgt. Reichert scored a kill shot at fifteen feet beyond a mile. Boys and girls, that’s a long, long way for a rifle shot.
“But the police will protect you, you don’t need a gun…”
Tell that to Barbara Gesell and her daughter Theresa, who used her .45-caliber handgun to subdue the purse snatcher who attacked the elder Gesell, 83, in her garage as she arrived home.
“A man has attacked us in our house, and we are fighting him in the yard,” Theresa Gesell said to the 911 dispatcher.
As the struggle moved down the street, a neighbor — whom Theresa Gesell identified as “Hershall” — stopped to help. Theresa then grabbed her .45-caliber pistol and continued running after Campbell — despite the dispatcher’s plea for her to drop the handgun.
“I am going to go get my .45 … you all are too slow,” she said.
As the call continues, the dispatcher asks Theresa to get rid of the weapon. However, after the suspect tried to escape along a creek bed, Theresa and Hershall used the pistol to make sure he didn’t leave.
“You can go put that gun up now,” the dispatcher said.
“No sir,” Theresa replied. “We have the gun pointed at him … he must have been a city fellow because he didn’t know anything about the woods.”
Seconds later, police arrived and arrested Campbell. With Hershall’s help, the Gesells retrieved Barbara’s purse.
So let’s do the math: 1 purse snatcher attacking an 83 year-old woman + 1 daughter with firearm = subdued criminal who would have escaped before police could arrive on scene. Now imagine that the criminal in question was after more than a purse, and you can see why firearms save more lives each year than they take. You just don’t hear about all of those live-saving events on the nightly news.
[Emphasis added. –R]