We have previously discussed the repeated false statements made by President Joe Biden about the history of the Second Amendment and capabilities of different weapons. Now, Democratic Presidential candidate and writer Marianne Williamson has added her own false “facts” in what appears a race to the bottom. For a party that has made fighting disinformation a rallying cry (and rationale for censorship), the continued misrepresentation of the facts related to the Second Amendment is jarring.
Williamson told her followers that “when the Founders wrote the Second Amendment, the largest guns they had were muskets.” She added “The Second Amendment is NOT a legitimate reason not to ban assault weapons. Ban them now.”
Williamson then added a historical point that suggested that the Framers would have recoiled by the almost magical power of a rifle: “Today’s assault weapon would be like the power of a cannon to them.”
Williamson is impressive to the degree that she got both the history and capacity of revolutionary weapons wrong.
Rifles did exist in the Revolution. That included most famously the Pennsylvania long rifle that was the bane of the existence of the British. The weapons could hit targets at 300 yards and were used by snipers against the British. One of the most famous examples was the killing of General Simon Fraser at the Battle of Saratoga.
The muskets, by the way, had a sizable projectile. Model 1763 Charleville muskets fired a .69 caliber ball while the common Brown Bess musket fired a .75 ball. The problem with muskets was not their stopping power, but their short range and accuracy.
Of course, a wide array of actual cannons were used during the Revolution. The majority were 3, 4 or 6-pound guns. The larger 12-pound guns were also seen on battlefields but more often used by ships.
The damage of these cannons was horrific to behold. They would not be confused or analogous to modern civilian weapons. Revolutionary War cannons could be loaded with solid cannon balls or shells (composed of hallow balls filled with black powder and lit before firing from the cannon). Shot could also include musket balls, buckshot, and grape shot. At close range, they could cut down an entire company in a flash.
There is no question that weapons have become more powerful with greater velocity and range. However, it is not true that there were no rifles or that the Framers were unfamiliar with weapons with high lethality.
The biggest problem with the claims of both Biden and Williamson is the continued failure to acknowledge the constitutional limitations on any gun control legislation.
There is now a strong majority for gun control reforms. However, politicians are once again ignoring what is constitutionally possible by focusing on what is politically popular with their voting base.
In the past, politicians in cities like New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., have proven to be the gun lobby’s greatest asset. They have pushed ill-considered legislation and litigation that only served to create precedent against gun control. Courts likely would press the Biden administration on why it is seeking to ban this model when other higher-caliber weapons are sold.
AR-15s can handle a variety of calibers. However, they are no more powerful than other semi-automatic rifles of the same caliber and actually have a lower caliber than some commonly sold weapons which use .30-06, .308 and .300 ammunition; many of these guns fire at the same — or near the same rate — as the AR-15. None of these weapons are classified as actual military “assault weapons,” and most civilians cannot own an automatic weapon. (AR in AR-15 stands for “ArmaLite rifle,” not assault rifle or automatic rifle).
Likewise, President Biden showed the same disconnect in suggesting bans on “high-caliber weapons” like 9mm handguns and said “a .22-caliber bullet will lodge in the lung, and we can probably get it out — may be able to get it and save the life. A 9mm bullet blows the lung out of the body.”
While gun experts mocked the notion that 9mm rounds blow organs out of bodies, the president’s singling out of these handguns led many to cry foul about using the Uvalde massacre to impose a Canadian-like ban or moratorium. The 9mm round is the most popular handgun caliber in the U.S., with more than half of all handguns produced in 2019 using that round, according to Shooting Industry magazine. If Biden pushed a ban, he would target more than 40 percent of all pistols produced in the U.S.
There is little support for saying that the earlier ban on assault weapons had any appreciable impact on mass murders; there is no support for asserting it caused a reduction in gun violence overall. Thankfully, mass shootings are statistically rare. Even studies that noted a drop in mass shootings during this earlier period noted that such a cause-and-effect claim is “inconclusive.”
Moreover, the earlier ban was imposed in 1994 — before the Supreme Court ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller that the right to bear arms is an individual right. Any such ban today would face a far greater court challenge and would require a far more compelling factual foundation to pass constitutional muster.
Even with the spreading of such disinformation, I would not want Williamson or Biden to be censored on social media or banned by platforms. The solution to bad speech is better speech. The problem is that figures like Biden have sought to silence others with opposing views on various subjects. As with high lethality weapons, the Framers were quite familiar with censorship. They sought to ban it in the First Amendment, but that is one point of historical clarity that seems to escape many of our leaders.
If one thinks about the original intent, the musket and rifle were the assault weapons of the day. These were needed by ordinary citizens on the frontier for protection as well as hunting for food and animal skins. So I would conclude that the framers considered the hand gun and rifle to be covered by the 2nd amendment.
If any of these politicians were serious about changing the Second Amendment, they would hold a Constitutional Convention. But we know how bad that would go for them. Certainly, they cannot get 2/3 of the House and Senate to pass an amendment. So like immigration, a lot of talk and no action.
Really, people who know nothing about firearms should not speak to them.
The founders knew there would to technological advancements. Benjamin Franklin was most aware of this fact. The Boston shipyards were responsible for degree of sailing advancements be it in hull design, or construction techniques.
The musket was a smooth bore.
The rifle, as in its name, had rifling in the barrel. That was a technological advancement, that gained military advantage on the battle field.
Could the founders imagine the AR15? Why stop there? Smart bombs? Submarines? Aircraft carriers? Smart phones? The internet? Social media? Ultra-processed food stuff? Congresspersons making life long careers with multi terms in office?
I would argue the last 5 have killed more people directly or indirectly than the AR15 in civilian hands.
The reason that the Heller case exists is because the biggest sophist in the history of US sophistry- Antonin Scalia- came up with a real doozy. “A well-regulated militia, being necessary for the security of a free state,..,” is how the Second Amendment begins. Fat Tony said it had no bearing on the issue in front of the Supremes because it is a ‘dependent clause’. He would have had his sorry ass flunked out of any 7th grade English class in any school with which I was familiar. I can almost see the grotesque monster laughing at his little prank taking off his robe in his well-appointed office. Quite the originalist was he unless it didn’t suit the desired outcome. All that said, there is no point to even talking about ‘gun control’ any more. There are 400 million of them (judging from the round number, a pretty rough estimate) in our benighted country now. There is a Supreme Court ruling that says it is an individual right, regardless of how ludicrous the decision was. The country is full of people who will never, ever give them up. It is over. If you want to live in a place that is not, culturally, batshit crazy, you need to get the hell out of this place. And this is only one of many reasons.
CIVICS 101
The first ten Amendments to the constitution, the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and deliberately written to limit the power of the government over “We the People” and deliberately enumerate individual rights of “We the People”.
The 2nd Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights, period!
A firearm is a tool. A lawless anarchist murderer is a morally bankrupt person abusing their constitutional right and a tool, and only the most severely uneducated rube or overly blind partisan hack would ever claim that the tool is the source of the problem when it’s 100% clear that the moral bankruptcy of the person wielding the tool is the root cause of the violent behavior. We have a behavior problem, not a tool problem.
Here’s an undeniable statistical fact for all the irrational anti-firearm hacks out there…
Irrational anti-firearm people are trying to b-a-s-t-a-r-d-i-z-e the 2nd Amendment and employ pure emotional hysteria to place undue restrictions on the entirety of “We the People” because a miniscule percentage of the population choose to abuse their 2nd Amendment rights and use a statistically indistinguishable from zero percentage of firearms for something that is immoral, violent and illegal. This is intentionally undermining the Bill of Rights and the United States Constitution as a whole, it’s pure anti-American behavior perpetrated by irrational anti-American fools.
Yes if you’re against even a portion of the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, then you’re anti-Constitution and therefore you’re anti-American and an enemy of “We the People”, it’s just that simple.
By the way; Democratic Presidential candidate and writer Marianne Williamson is a hive-minded moron trying to appeal to the anti-American moronic ideals of other hive-minded morons. These delusional utopia fools will destroy the Constitution and replace it with Orwellian totalitarianism if we let them.
Those “delusional utopia fools” were Abraham Lincoln and Karl Marx. Abraham Lincoln studied the anti-freedom and anti-free enterprise hallucinations of Marx. Karl Marx commended and congratulated Lincoln for the being “the earnest of the epoch” leading America toward the “RECONSTRUCTION of a social world.” Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto and Abraham Lincoln tore down America, shredded the Constitution and Bill of Rights and commenced the incremental implementation of the principles of communism.
The entire communistic American welfare state is unconstitutional including, but not limited to, matriculation affirmative action, grade-inflation affirmative action, employment affirmative action, quotas, welfare, food stamps, minimum wage, rent control, social services, forced busing, public housing, utility subsidies, WIC, SNAP, TANF, HAMP, HARP, TARP, HHS, HUD, EPA, Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Labor, Energy, Obamacare, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Supplemental Income, Medicare, Medicaid, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non-Discrimination” laws, etc.
Article 1, Section 8, provides Congress the power to tax ONLY for “…general Welfare…,” omitting and, thereby, excluding any power to tax for individual welfare, specific welfare, particular welfare, favor or charity. The same article enumerates and provides Congress the power to regulate ONLY money, the “flow” of commerce, and land and naval Forces. Additionally, the 5th Amendment right to private property is not qualified by the Constitution and is, therefore, absolute, allowing Congress no power to claim or exercise dominion over private property, the sole exception being the power to “take” private property for public use. If the right to private property is not absolute, there is no private property, and all property is public.
Government exists, under the Constitution and Bill of Rights, to provide maximal freedom to individuals while government is severely limited and restricted to merely facilitating that maximal freedom of individuals through the provision of security and infrastructure only.
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https://www.aier.org/article/was-lincoln-really-into-marx/
“Was Lincoln Really Into Marx?”
Did Abraham Lincoln share a common economic vision with Karl Marx?
That’s the thesis of a recent article in the Washington Post, which claims that the 16th president and the socialist philosopher “were friendly and influenced each other.” According to an essay by Gillian Brockell, “Lincoln was regularly reading Karl Marx” and appears to have adapted a Marxist conceptualization of the labor-capital relationship to the discussion of slavery in his first annual message to Congress.
While Brockell stops short of ascribing socialist beliefs to Lincoln himself, she uses this purported historical kinship with Marx to secure a place for socialism within the mainstream of American politics. Modern “democratic socialists” such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, it follows, are merely successors to Lincoln’s own accommodating assessment of Marxist thought.
– American Institute for Economic Research
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“These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.”
– Abraham Lincoln, from his first speech as an Illinois state legislator, 1837
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“Everyone now is more or less a Socialist.”
– Charles Dana, managing editor of the New York Tribune, and Lincoln’s assistant secretary of war, 1848
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“The goal of Socialism is Communism.”
– Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
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“Historian Adam Tuchinsky, in his study of the newspaper, says that the Tribune spurred one of the first public discussions of socialist ideas in the U.S. Greeley and his managing editor, Charles Dana, identified with the utopian socialism of Charles Fourier.”
“The Tribune covered the failed 1848 democratic uprisings in Germany, France, Hungary, Denmark and other European nations. In Paris, Dana reported, “Everyone now is more or less a Socialist.” Dana met Karl Marx who would end up writing over 500 articles for the Tribune on a wide variety of topics. Later Dana was hired by Lincoln to be the Assistant Secretary of War.”
– Dave Anderson
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“The workingmen of Europe feel sure that, as the American War of Independence initiated a new era of ascendancy for the middle class, so the American Antislavery War will do for the working classes. They consider it an earnest of the epoch to come that it fell to the lot of Abraham Lincoln, the single-minded son of the working class, to lead his country through the matchless struggle for the rescue of an enchained race and the reconstruction of a social world.”
– Karl Marx and the First International Workingmen’s Association to Lincoln, 1864
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“ON DECEMBER 3, 1861, a former one-term congressman, who had spent most of the past dozen years studying dissident economic theories, mounting challenges to the existing political order and proposing ever more radical responses to the American crisis, delivered his first State of the Union address as the sixteenth president of the United States.
“Long before 1848, German radicals had begun to arrive in Illinois, where they quickly entered into the legal and political circles in which Lincoln traveled. One of them, Gustav Korner, was a student revolutionary at the University of Munich who had been imprisoned by German authorities in the early 1830s for organizing illegal demonstrations. After his release, Korner returned to his hometown of Frankfurt am Main where, according to historian Raymond Lohne, “he was one of about fifty conspirators involved in an attack upon the two main city guardhouses and the arsenal at the police facility and jail. This admixture of students and soldiers had planned to seize cannon, muskets, and ammunition; free political prisoners accused of breaking press-censorship laws, and begin ringing the great Sturmglocke (storm bell) of the Dom, the signal for the people to come in from the countryside. At that point, the democratic revolution would be announced…. Unfortunately, they were walking into a trap…. Betrayed by both a spy in their midst, and the reluctance of the common people to rise, nine students were killed, twenty-four were seriously wounded, and by August 3, 1833, Gustav Körner found himself riding into downtown Belleville, Illinois.”
“Within a decade, Korner would pass the Illinois bar, win election to the legislature and be appointed to the state Supreme Court. Korner and Lincoln formed an alliance that would become so close that the student revolutionary from Frankfurt would eventually be one of seven personal delegates-at-large named by Lincoln to serve at the critical Republican State Convention in May 1860, which propelled the Springfield lawyer into that year’s presidential race. Through Korner, Lincoln met and befriended many of the German radicals who, after the failure of the 1848 revolution, fled to Illinois and neighboring Wisconsin. Along with Korner on Lincoln’s list of personal delegates-at-large to the 1860 convention was Friedrich Karl Franz Hecker, a lawyer from Mannheim who had served as a liberal legislator in the lower chamber of the Baden State Assembly before leading an April 1848 uprising in the region—an uprising cheered on by the newspaper Marx briefly edited during that turbulent period, Neue Rheinische Zeitung—Organ der Demokratie.
“Even as they agreed on homesteading, Greeley and Lincoln wrangled over the timing and scope of an emancipation proclamation. The editor joined Frederick Douglass in demanding that the president take steps to make the Civil War not merely a struggle to preserve the Union, but “an Abolition war.” Even as Greeley and Lincoln exchanged sometimes pointed letters, the Tribune’s longtime managing editor Charles Dana was now working for Lincoln. Officially assigned to the War Department — where he would eventually serve as assistant secretary — Dana’s real role was as an aide and adviser to the president on questions of what the former newspaperman described as the “judicious, humane, and wise uses of executive authority.” That Lincoln spent much of his presidency reading dispatches from and welcoming the counsel of Marx’s longtime editor—like the fact that he awarded military commissions to the numerous comrades of the author of The Communist Manifesto who had come to the United States as political refugees following the failed European revolutions of 1848—is a shard of history rarely seen in the hagiographic accounts that produce a sanitized version of the sixteenth president’s story. In the years following Lincoln’s death, his law partner and political comrade, William Herndon, complained that Lincoln’s official biographers were already attempting “to make the story with the classes as against the masses,” an approach that he suggested “will result in delineating the real Lincoln about as well as does a wax figure in the museum.”
– ISR International Socialist Review
Lawyers (and judges) do not exist to determine right from wrong. They exist to determine legal from illegal. Their positions– and decisions– are supposed to be consistent with the law as it exists. Politicians have become addicted to the habit of hoping the courts will do the heavy lifting for them, and condemning them when they do not. In the days that the Constitution was written, Americans had just suffered through a decade of war to free themselves, and were highly suspicious of the government being devised in place of the Articles of Confederation. The framers may truly have been of the opinion that inalienable rights were irrefutable, and would never be threatened. The people however, demanded that they be enumerated for their own protection. They have been proven right.
“…courts…must…declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void.”
“…men…do…what their powers do not authorize, [and] what they forbid.”
“[A] limited Constitution … can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges would amount to nothing … To deny this would be to affirm … that men acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid.”
– Alexander Hamilton
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The singular American failure has been and remains the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court. Secession is not prohibited in the Constitution and Lincoln must have been immediately struck down by the Supreme Court under the doctrine of Judicial Review (Marbury v. Madison, 1803) – Lincoln’s entire “Reign of Terror” must have been nipped in the bud in 1860 by the application of fundamental law. Reprehensible and deleterious slavery must have been ended, abolished and abrogated through legal means. Extant immigration law, the Naturalization Act of 1802, in full force and effect, must have been strictly and fully enforced when the status of slaves changed from that of “property” to “illegal alien,” upon their release.
Judges and Justices must strictly adhere to the “manifest tenor” of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. They have no power to legislate, modify legislation or modify legislation through “interpretation.” They have no power to amend the Constitution or Bill of Rights or to amend through “interpretation.”
A Congress that refuses to impeach judges and Justices who fail to support the clear meaning and intent of the Constitution and Bill of Rights must be dissolved.
go look at the crowd who attacked the White Woman in Chicago this weekend…bet she wishes she had a gun
We have previously discussed the repeated false statements made by President Joe Biden about the history of the Second Amendment
They are forced to lie.
Facts do not support their agenda.
Plain and simple, prog/left democrats ONLY lie, why the outrage here? If they are talking, they are misrepresenting the facts – or creating their own data out of thin air. And parasites will vote for them as long as there is a little some-some in the package for them. We live in a purchased theocracy where the religion is progressivism.
What most Democrats and some Republicans ignore is the true reason for the Second Amendment. Yes, in part, it was for we, as individuals, to protect ourselves and our property but in a larger sense, it was to protect all of us against a despotic and tyrannous government. Hamilton, in The Federalist, No, 28, Dec. 26, 1787 said, “In a single state, if the persons intrusted with supreme power become usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions, or districts of which it consists, having no distinct government in each, can take no regular measures for defence. The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource, except in their courage and despair….” The corrupt behavior of the current administration – “intrusted (sic) with supreme power” – has usurped our Constitutional rights and taught us all why the founders like Hamilton believed it necessary for people to have and bear arms. The people must be allowed to protect and defend what is theirs and what is theirs first and foremost is the government. It does not belong to politicians – good, evil, or otherwise. They are just the ones to whom power is “intrusted” and when that trust is broken, the people must by all means retake and defend what is theirs to begin with.
Bravo!
Not a bad description of rifles, muskets and 18th century fighting. The muskets and rifles of the revolution were of much lower velocity but, as stated, the size of the projectile caused massive wounds to the chest, abdomen and extremities. A hit in the extremities usually required amputation due to bone fracturing and massive tissue loss.. The main difference now is muzzle velocity and the transfer of energy from the smaller, high velocity projectile to the surrounding tissue, hydrostatic shock, or basically small entry wound with severe cavity damage and larger exit wounds. The damage is different but the result is the same. Lost limbs and death. The main difference for survival now is advanced shock-trauma care compared to the more primitive care of the civil war where rapid evacuation, and triaged care and quick surgery with control of bleeding first started. Jonathan Letterman (Letterman Army Hosp) initiated the aid stations right behind the front lines and then rapid evacuation from the aid stations to the surgical stations where initial surgery occurred and then further evacuations to more advanced facilities. A revolution in battlefield care. Further amplified and developed by Michael Debakey in World War 2.
Semiautomatic weapons, both rifles and handguns, predated the First World War. Correctly called autoloaders.
Actually the 5.56 round (AR15) has problems with decreased stopping power and range compared to the 30.06 used in the M1 Garand of WW 2 and Springfield 1903 bolt action rifle. The US is now moving to a variant of the 6.8 round for more stopping power and ability to pierce armor since the 5.56 no longer is as effective.
More people are stabbed to death each year than are killed with rifles, and more are beaten to death (yearly) than are killed with rifles.
The 9 millimeter is deadly with a high muzzle velocity but the slower and bigger 45 will stop you in your tracks much quicker than a 9 millimeter. Thats why the army switched from .38 to .45. The .38 (similar to the 9 mm) simply would not stop charging Moro Insurrectionists on Mindanao in the Philippines. The 1911 .45 was great in trench warfare in WW1, even the British liked them. Still the preferred hand weapon for many in the military.
I doubt Mr Biden has ever even picked up or fired a weapon. Yes they are deadly but the Federalist Papers clearly established that the 2nd Amendment was there for “the people” if the government went off the rails. They were not there to just bushwhack varmits
GEB,
Well said.
I cast my own.
A 45-70govt, 405grn at 1350fps is still 1600ftlbs of energy.
May not be as great as some more modern cartridges, but it will still do some damage with a might big hole.
Lot of people still take deer with a cartridge that is over a hundred years old and was originally a black powder cartridge.
A good portion of the mis information centers on the lies spread about the Constitution.
The Bill of Rights, are the 1st 10 amendments to the Constitution.
They were added to the Constitution, as each State ratified the Constutution. Because it is the STATES and the PEOPLE that control the laws under which they are governed. The BoR was added, to address the objections being raised by the people,
The Bill of Rights did not create rights. The Bill of Rights PROTECTED inalienable rights of man, from this new federal govt. The Bill of Rights protects the People, from the government. The Bill of Rights were fassioned to protect the people from past historical abuses of the people by their own government. Almost all the principles in the constitution are designed to limit the federal govt to a short list of enumerated powers. The vast majority of power was still to rest with the States, and the People. Not not the Federal govt
If you want to believe this Nation started in 1619, then you understand the People were functioning just fine for well over 160 years. More than 5 generations. 5 generations without a central govt. But they also recognized they needed a centralized govt to function in the world. So they set about to fashion a govt, with limited power to do those things individual States could not.
So it just exposes the ignorance of politicians that push unconstitutional laws. Or more probable, the politicians are counting on the ignorance of their constituents.
“Thankfully, mass shootings are statistically rare.”
Actually that’s not true, they are a common occurrence. There are mass shootings nearly every day.
There are mass shootings nearly every day.
Subtract the shootings perpetrated by young men and boys against other young men and boys, in inner cities, governed by Democrats, you are back to rare.
Iowan2,
Facts.
Ouch!
Additionally, most of those shootings happen with hand guns.
NOT AR15 or rifles.
And, they are done by criminals, gang related violence.
Those are the kind of people who do not obey the law in the first place.
Interesting thought, let say by some weird circumstance Biden was to outlaw all firearms.
That creates a new market for the black market. If we see a sudden influx of arms coming in from the Mexican cartels across the southern border, would Biden finally do something to secure it?
Or just allow the flow of firearms?
Upstate, what happened to our earlier comments? They disappeared?
Diogenes,
Our resident troll and useless eater, bug, made a bunch of comments.
As he has violated the Civility Rule, Darren cleans up the blog by deleting the useless one’s comments.
When Darren does so, all comments under the initial comments also gets deleted.
While we did have some good posts, better to keep the blog clean from people who violate the Civility Rules.
Thanks, Upstate.
Yes, this time, as Upstate says, it was Bug. I might have posted under the same and got deleted as well. I think Bug is permanently banned, so his postings, when discovered, will be deleted. When ATS causes the same problem, it is generally with spite. He has become more civil in recent times.
You were right about the fudged statistics. When one goes to localities such as cities, one can see the Democrat influence. You and Upstate are spot on.
@Iowan,
Lets keep this real for a second.
A mass shooting as defined by the FBI is when there is a single incident w 4 or more victims. (wounded or killed)
In Chicago alone there were more than 23 last year.
Most committed by a black male w a pistol. (That’s a fact)
The left has tried to play with statistics by only counting those that occurred in a ‘public building’. This reduces the number of mass shootings along w who and how. (Most occur in stores, homes… and on the streets. ) So the left are playing a numbers game.
One could say hey, lets count only the mass shootings involving a rifle. Then most would be committed using an AR-15 thus its a deadly and dangerous weapon. (Ignore the realities of the true statistics)
With respect to the law… IL AWB is in front of a federal judge and is hearing arguments for a TRO. Most likely it will be granted as the case continues and of course the state will try. The judge could rule the ban unconstitutional and if appealed to SCOTUS, they could refuse to hear it. While I like it… the down side is that there are several similar bans. (almost verbatim) And we would best be served if SCOTUS struct them all down once and for all.
-G
As currently defined, a “mass shooting” is one in which four or more people are shot and/or killed. So far, through March 28, 2023, there have been 131 reported incidents.
Anonymous, in 2017, more people were killed by hands and feet (692) than by rifles (403).
Guess how many Democrats were killed by Democrats with handguns.
That is true, mass shootings occur more frequently than we imagine in democrat controlled cities.
“when the Founders wrote the Second Amendment, the largest guns they had were muskets.”
Funny, I don’t recall the word “muskets” in 2A. Though the Founders did have the conceptual capacity and foresight to use the word “Arms.”
By her and the Left’s “reasoning,” and rewriting of the Bill of Rights: When the Founders wrote 1A, the only form of expression they had was pen to paper. So ban all electronic forms of expression, including blogs.
The founders used the word “Arms” primarily because they were referring to the use of Arms as in large quantities that are related to militias and armies at the time.
Muskets were used by infantrymen, rifles were used by hunters, pistols and swords were used by high ranking officers.
“they were referring to the use of Arms as in large quantities” Source?
Muskets were used by the British infantrymen.
The colonists generally used the at the time more modern, advanced rifles. It is an advanced technology that many German immigrates brought with them. Due to the advanced nature of the rifle over the musket, the colonists were willing to pay for them for both self-defense, and hunting.
At the time, the British government could not afford to replace and re-arm their military with rifles.
Sam, the know nothings, have never heard of letters of maque and reprisal. (I blame the Dept of Education) Their total lack of knowledge on any given subject, allows them to utter all manner of idiocy.
@Sam…
You wrote: “when the Founders wrote the Second Amendment, the largest guns they had were muskets.”
While you are quoting someone else… I think the irony of the statement is lost on you and others.
As Turley and I think others have pointed out…
Musket balls are larger than .50cal some were .67cal (2/3 of an inch in diameter).
Outside of the Ma Duce .50BMG, our guns are much smaller than the musket round.
The rounds are smaller and the rifles are smaller. Yet another reason why their arguments are funny.
Just saying… 😉
-g
Well, we can’t expect a Democrat to get their facts straight or tell the truth. Disinformation and lies are the bedrock of the Democratic party. We also can’t expect them to stop the smoke and mirrors: watch the gun control birdie while we allow real crime to infest our cities because we’re too afraid of calling out a problem caused by our major voting base.
“Williamson’s style has been described as a ‘trendy amalgam of Christianity, Buddhism, pop psychology and 12-step recovery wisdom'” — and a peacenik, Sanders supporter.
In other words: An ideological train wreck.
Actual gun and 2nd Amendment facts never get in the way of great campaign optics for Democrats. Never will. Thank you, Jonathan, for a great article.
Does Joe Biden (and his trolls on this blog) ever get anything right? His comment about 22 caliber guns is laughable. Anyone with a passing familiarity with the history of organized crime knows that frequently a 22 caliber pistol was the preferred weapon of choice for mob hits. It was quieter and when fired close-up into a person’s head the velocity of the bullet was insufficient to break through the other side of the skull and so the bullet would spin around inside destroying any hope of survival. The best part of being a Democrat high office holder or celebrity is that you don’t actually have to know anything. Just talk and about half of the country (including the media) will believe.
You and Cindy are shining lights on this blog so it’s good to see you both comment today. Happy Easter to both of you. I trust it was fruitful and nourishing. Our Lent and Holy Week were terrific.
The best part of being a Democrat high office holder or celebrity is that you don’t actually have to know anything. Just talk and about half of the country (including the media) will believe.
They do it all of the time with their self-referential, moral relativistic, post-modernist talking points. Worse is their sneering “enlightened” condescension. Witness their empty arguments on abortion as not involving life, devoid of any facts related to biochemistry, molecular biology, respiration/ gas exchanges, and energy production/consumption by all cells from post-fertilization till death. Here is another good one. A farmer, a Member of Congress from California, Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA), asked a very basic question to climate change “experts” who appeared at a recent House Transportation committee meeting. The farmer/Congressman asked these “experts” an easy, readily measurable, fact based question:
What percentage of our atmosphere is carbon dioxide?
It was brilliant. All of them answered with disgraceful answers, laughing as they shared their “expertise”.
Atmospheric dry air is comprised of the following molecular gases roughly 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 0.004% Carbon Dioxide and trace gases of other elements like Argon. Our lungs receive the air, pick up the Oxygen, deliver it to the red blood cells, which are delivered via gas exchange to our tissues and organs, and the metabolic waste is returned to the lungs and exhaled as Nitrogen, Oxygen, Water vapor and Carbon Dioxide or that which was transferred to the blood is eliminated via the kidneys (Urea). Nitrogen, at the atomic level, bonds very strongly to another Nitrogen atom via a triple bond. We can not break these bonds in our tissues under every day living. Bacteria in our gut break apart the Nitrogen.
It never occurred to anyone to challenge the “climate change experts” on this very basic scientific fact. If Carbon Dioxide were wildly escalating in its percent concentration in our atmosphere, we would be able to register it with modern instruments. Once again, the Left push ideological narratives while the medical sciences provide a factual, measurable and observable answer like in abortion wrt life beginning at conception. The “experts” prefer to use the term “parts per million” (ppm) when describing increase of carbon dioxide. However, juxtapose those ppm data against the equivalent percentage value. Do the math considering our atmosphere has 760 mg Hg pressure, with Nitrogen and Oxygen having the highest partial pressure. Again, Carbon Dioxide percentage is exceedingly small.
When those who push political ideologies are challenged like the farmer/Congressman from California did, the “experts” show themselves to be frauds. As you noted, they don’t actually have to know anything. Just talk and about half of the country (including the media) will believe.
Estovir, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is measured and posted as the Keeling Curve. t iis now up to about 420 ppm.
Please, forgive me since I only went to public school…but is 420ppm no longer equal to 0.00042% as Estovir said?
That wasn’t what Estovir wrote. You added an extra zero.
Um, two different calculators show 420 divided by 1,000,000 = 0.00042. Which extra zero did I add?
JAFO, convert 0.01 to percentage results in 1%.
Here is what David doesn’t want to do: the simple math that contradicts his ppm talking points.
The Oregon State University link I provided earlier provides the following data:
Percentages and Partial Pressures of Atmospheric Gases
Gas | Percent of total composition | Partial pressure mm Hg
Nitrogen | 78.6 | 597.4 mm Hg
Oxygen | 20.9 | 158.8 mm Hg
Water | 0.04 | 3.0 mm Hg
Carbon dioxide | 0.004 | 0.3 mm Hg
Others | 0.0006 | 0.5 mm Hg
Total composition/total atmospheric pressure 100% | 760.0 mm Hg
NASA provides the following atmospheric gas percentage composition data:
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/YOSS_Act_4.pdf
Earth CO2. 0.038% = 0.00038 then 0.00038 x 1,000,000 = 380 ppm
so using David’s number 420 ppm, going backwards to percentage equals 0.04% since the last 2 digits are insignificant when using ppm, dividing by 1,000,000. Lets assume CO2 % increases from 0.004 to 0.4, which is a hundredfold. That still leaves the atmosphere with 78.6% Nitrogen and ~ 21% Oxygen. As for global warming, if they cant be honest about using a well established scientific unit when it comes to atmospheric gases, i.e. % composition of air or at the very least, mm Hg of gas vs 760 mm Hg atmosheric air, it is safe to conclude they choose ppm because it is more dramatic, which has no place in the sciences
It should be noted that it is a myth that the Earth’s oxygen comes from trees. That is not true. The majority of our planet’s oxygen comes from organisms in the earth, e.g. diatoms, an algae. Observe the following article from National Geographic, a left of center publication, debunking the popular climate change talking points regarding the deforestation of the Amazon and the harm it would do to oxygen availability for us earthlings
TL,DR: look for hard, established data. Estimates, models, projections are not hard established data. Remember Leonard Nimoy
Why the Amazon doesn’t really produce 20% of the world’s oxygen
https://archive.is/K5kn8
National Geographic
AUGUST 28, 2019
As the news of fires raging in the Amazon spread across the world last week, so did a misleading yet oft-repeated claim about the rainforest’s importance: that it produces 20 percent of the world’s oxygen.
That claim appears in news coverage from CNN, ABC News, Sky News, and others, and in social media posts by politicians and celebrities, such as French president Emmanuel Macron, U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Kamala Harris, and actor and environmentalist Leonardo di Caprio.
The best way to save the planet is for human beings to become extinct. Given humans penchant for defying reason and medical scientific principles with abortion, euthanasia, obesity, hypertension, sedentary lifestyles, wars, and more, humans are on their way from eliminating themselves as a species sooner more than later
Estovir, the Keeling Curve is measured in ppm because those are the most useful unit for keeping track of carbon dioxide as it is a trace gas. Now 400 ppm is about 5% less than 420 ppm, significant in the amount of global warming produced by this heat-trapping gas.
760 mmHg is the nominal air pressure at sea-level, already modified by the passage of high-pressure and low-pressure fronts; elementary meteorology. But it doesn’t apply to higher altitudes; more elementary meteorology.
“Here is what David doesn’t want to do: the simple math that contradicts his ppm talking points.” Yes, that didn’t go unnoticed here either, Estovir. Gotta make the numbers LOOK BIGGER than they really are otherwise no one would give money to Klimate Kultists and their dreams of mandating everyone live like the Ingalls, circa 1888 – except themselves, of course. It doesn’t matter their credibility dies exponentially after each previous Klimate Scare failed to materialize, they just make the doomsday prediction over and over again by changing the name; Acid Rain, Ice Age, Global Warming, etc., knowing their Masters will keep funding them for their ever growing, bad news, prognostications.
David does not know basic science and how the Earth came to be. Earth has existed ~4.5 Billion years, where Oxygen did not exist at all. Nitrogen was the dominant gas in the atmosphere. Somehow water came to be, which led to oceans, then organisms (algae, diatoms/plankton) which synthesized oxygen ~ 2.5 billion years ago. Lastly, Homo sapiens / modern humans are thought to have appeared 200,000 yrs ago. Talk about PPM! What are 200,000 years in a 4.5 Billion yrs time frame? Yet man “knows” what will happen next even if he has no idea how the Earth came to be.
It is typical of post-modernist thinking to promulgate indefensible theories, lacking any credible, established scientific standards, arguing that we are the center of the universe. Such arrogance. Everything is cyclical in life. Oxygen never existed, nor did oceans, humans, etc, here today, gone tomorrow, all of these will be phenomena will be gone in millions to billions of years. Basic biblical teaching exhort man to care for God’s creation.
David’s post-modernism blinds him to the basic sciences: Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Math. All other sciences derive from these. Climate science is nothing less than politically infused jargon within “science” much like the hysteria that fossil fuels will be depleted by man (1960s), acid rain and the coming ice age will kill us all (1970s), the China Syndrome nuclear power menacing shtick and imminent destruction of the planet (1980s), ozone layer disappearing resulting in UV light killing us all (1990s), Amazon deforestation will result in catastrophic depletion of global oxygen (2000s) and now PPM carbon dioxide shifting from 0.04% of the atmosphere to 0.04% of the atmosphere. It is now being suggested to return to nuclear power, but of course.
They threw God out of the public square so that they could be our saviors. With any luck they will throw themselves (PPM) into volcanoes to save us and the planet from them.
Estovir, please stop Just Making Stuff Up. My undergraduate courses @ CalTech began with 3 years of Math and the same of Physics, 1 year of Chemistry, and a quarter of Geology from Bob Sharp. He has a mountain on Mars named after him and inspire my lifelong avocational interest in the subject. I later had a year long course on Psychobiology from Roger Sperry, later Nobel Laureate in Medicine or Physiology.
You ought to read a textbook on atmospheric physics before condemning climatology. Incidentally, the ozone layer problem was real and fortunately resolved. But do read Ray Pierrehumbert’s
https://www.cambridge.org/highereducation/books/principles-of-planetary-climate/5B5EEF0534CB6F69FB2E395DD21D3476#overview
through Chapter 6 to see that climatology is in fact a science.
JAFO, the NOAA web site which provides you with a record of the Keeling Curve uses ppm. It is well-known that carbon dioxide is a trace gas n the atmosphere.
“It is well-known that carbon dioxide is a trace gas n the atmosphere.”
You’re right, yes, that is well-known. In fact, I know of no one who disagrees that CO2 is a TRACE gas in the atmosphere. So let’s see now…multiply a trace amount by another smaller percentage…(thinking…carry the 1…and)… the product equals…another TRACE amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Oh my? Is that what we’re mandated to exclaim to ourselves over a trace amount of atmospheric gas that’s beneficial to all life on earth? Seems to me we need more CO2 for plants, not less.
But you may have perhaps overlooked THE critical data point missing in your calculations – the one many, many people cite – Climatologists have been predicting ‘the end is near’ for decades. There’s been no explanation from any of them on why their own previous predictions have failed to come to fruition; it’s simply memory-holed as if the repetitively wrong predictions never happened.
Yet we’re continuously expected to accept and believe as Gospel Truth, without any debate or question, even by your own peers: “This time for sure!”, as Bullwinkle would say, every time you speak.
Well…in a word, “No.” To extrapolate on that response: The collective ‘we’ will not accept “WOLF!” based on another ‘because we say so’, or again the next time, “This time for sure!”, is predicted again after that. Seriously, consider that and good luck.
JAFO, you could learn how as trace amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere keeps Terra from freezing over, as has happened in geologic deep time. And how more carbon dioxide has promoted the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.
Estovir, thank you for your kind words and for your analysis. From a layman’s point of view, even if what these experts say about damage to the atmosphere is true, I am very troubled by any experts– and quite frankly suspicious of their motives– who, among other things, would have us change our society and culture so radically while ignoring the elephant in the room. Specifically, what if the Washington Examiner’s editorial is correct in which it observed that “[e]ven if the U.S. were to take itself off electricity completely — ignoring the catastrophic consequences of that for Americans and for the whole world — China and India would make up for all the pollution savings within less than six [or seven] years.” Besides, why waste time or money on these “experts” when Marianne Williamson seems perfectly capable of divining the solution to atmospheric pollution. Just ask her.
I believe climate change is real.
We have had a few ice ages over the past millennia to prove it. All pre-established human civilization.
The experts back in the 70s also claimed we were at the beginning of the next ice age.
And now we are on track for global warming.
Which is it?
What are we going to do about it?
That nitwit AOC wants us all to go Green!
But what she and the greenies do not take into account or cost is the total over all cost of going green. The total carbon foot print of solar panels and wind turbines.
Only 10% of solar panels get recycled. The rest, landfill bound. That is NOT green. Those panels have some toxic metals in them that will break and leak into the ground and even ground water.
But you do not hear AOC or the greenies talk about that.
Wind turbine blades. Fiberglass. No recycling there. Land fill bound.
But you do not hear AOC or the greenies talk about that.
EVs? What is the total carbon foot print of EVs? From the extraction of the rare earth metals (done by fossil fuels), the processing of those metals, the amount of other metals that go into a EV more so than a ICE e.g. copper, and then to the disposal of all those metals. What is the cost of recycling a Lithium-ion battery? I have yet to see someone come up with the math for that. BTW, some of those metals (e.g. cobalt), come from poor African countries who use child slave labor. That is right! Feel all morally superior to us ICE drivers? Hey, at least I am not supporting child slave labor!
But you do not hear AOC or the greenies talk about that.
If they were serious about climate change, they would be talking about reducing our carbon footprint to that of a family of four, living in the mid-1800s. No cars at all. No smartphone (again, what is the total carbon foot print of that smartphone?). No internet (the internet consumes as much carbon as the entire global airline industry). No air conditioning. No flying cross country. No out of season fruits and veggies. For that matter, all your food comes from what you grow, or what is available within a horse and buggy half days ride.
But you do not hear AOC or the greenies talk about that.
Leonard Nimoy could have said anything with that voice and Americans would have believed him …. because we did back in the late 1970s.
. Note the “Context” balloon inserted under the description of the video inserted by Google LLC; they are shameless in their agitprop. If the Roman Catholic Church had run their Inquisition as aggressively as the Left today pushes their ideologies, we would all be chanting in Latin and be very educated monks!
According to some climatologists, within a lifetime we might be living in the next ice age
But instead the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased due to the burning of fossil fuels. As a result the global temperature has increased enough to begin melting the great ice sheet of Greenland. And many other changes.
Pay attention to Brave New Climate Discussion Forum
https://bravenewclimate.proboards.com/
You fail to mention the Ice Age warnings just 30-40 years ago.
You fail to mention using standard, scientific units when discussing gases in the atmosphere, percentages and mm Hg
No, David, we arent going to follow your talking points. Convert your ppm to standard units, % and mm Hg for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, show us the difference, then come back to us.
Estovir, ppm, i.e., parts per million is the standard in climatology, %, percentages, are never used. The pressure, mmHg, varies with altitude, irrelevant for well-mixed gases.
Just the briefest check of Brave New Climate Discussion Forum demonstrates that it doesn’t consist of so-ccalled talking points, but links to articles. Tch, tch.
The pressure, mmHg, varies with altitude, irrelevant for well-mixed gases.
I really have no idea what your atmospheric pressure is (sub-atmospheric, < 760 mm Hg?) given that you have your head up your ass, not accounting for water vapor, methane gas/flatulence and so forth. back at ya old fella
Estovir, do remember the Civility Code here. Now this is an area that I have studied well in my retirement; I know whereof I speak. As I live well above sea level the average pressure here is below 760 mmHg.
Oh, and mmHg is not the SI unit for pressure.
Upstate Farmer: Thanks for an excellent, thought-provoking post, and teaching me some things I did not know. And I like the way you composed it.
Lin,
You are most welcome!
When I am out in the fields or tending livestock, I think about articles I have read and think on those things.
As a farmer, I do think we have a responsibility for land stewardship, using best practice means and ways to interact with the environment with the minimal amount of pollution or degradation.
However, we also need to be practical.
And I dont care what those Davos/WEF yahoos flying around in their private jets with their private security say, I am not eating bugs while they dine on steak.
And Biden’s new ultra restrictive EPA emissions standards to force people to buy EVs (note, the average cost of a EV is more than most people make in a year), I think I see a F-250 diesel in my very near future. Be the last truck I ever buy.
Estovir! You are so sweet! Thank you for the kind words. So happy that your Eastertide was wonderful.
Last Easter, I was in the hospital with serious problems. Gratefully, this Easter was a happy, healthy one! And we hosted an Easter Dinner for friends.
Thank you, again……All the best.
Oh no! I’m so sorry you were in the hospital with serious problems. I bet you sang to the hospital staff. We will keep you and your husband in our prayers. We’d appreciate yours as well as one can never have enough prayer warriors
Blessings!
Estovir–Thank you for your words, and wishes! I was in hospital twice last AprilL with HTN, AFib and HFpEF.
You’ll certainly be part of our prayers.
Cindy, it seems you have a lot on your plate. I hope you do well. You are a bright star and we need to hear you singing.
S, Meyer…….You are precious! Thank you so much.
I hope you and your wife are well, too…….and get to always visit up the Hudson when leaves turn! I have a bad case of “leaf envy”!! LOL
It’s been a number of years since I travelled up the Hudson so I have “leaf envy” too. I thought of selling my Manhattan co-op but finally got there and decided to keep it a bit longer even though the left has made NYC into a more scary place than it was.
S. Meyer, hope your Co-op (and you when visiting) stay safe!
Thanks, but because of leftist politics I do not walk at night and stay on streets which are safer. I didn’t have to do that since the city was cleaned up, but leftists like to watch good people get beaten, robbed and killed.
Cindy: Yikes! I come and go on this blog, but just happened to come across the interesting discussion on climate change today and saw your posts. I, too have appreciated your comments (and enjoyed humor) and consider you a valuable contributor here. I likewise forward my best wishes and thoughts for your full recovery a/o healthy management. (Just scroll past some of us on the blog who might elevate your B/P or send you into tachy!)
(Do you remember the old Carol Burnett show with Harvey Korman and Tim Conway as a fireman who comes to save Harvey but finds himself in a position where he needs to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation?) Of course, neither you nor I would remember or probably watched when it originally aired, but the reruns are funny!
Ah, Humor, the best medicine!
lin…I replied but ti disappeared! I’ll try this…Thank you so mcu!! You’re so kind!! Yes I saw that Carol Burnett episode….Hilrious! And yes, laughter cures all!
I was in hospital twice last AprilL with HTN, AFib and HFpEF.
I do hope you are under the medical care of the best Cardiologists in Texas. Please heed their treatment plan. The world needs you
Thank you Estovir! You are too kind……I am in good hands now., much better than a year ago..I have the best AFib specialist in Central Texas…And an extraordinary, attentive cardiologist, originally from Israel,,and a very thorough young GP.
Plus, for many years, hubby represented (in litigation) the state medical association.
Thank you and please don’t worry! I’m from Louisiana—-diseases should be afraid of ME! LOL!
Ummmm, the Puckle Machine Gun was invented in 1718, 73 years before the Second Amendment
(AR in AR-15 stands for “ArmaLite rifle,” but assault rifle or automatic rifle), I believe but is this sentance should be not.
Marianne was married to a dear friend of ours, about 45 years ago.
She’s a nut. Period.
That makes her a perfect democrat candidate.