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Horn of Gabriel

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Everything posted by Horn of Gabriel

  1. This is the crux of what drives the chasm. According to many on the left, those on the right should be "reasonable" and for "common sense gun laws." Let's play that out: The Right plays ball and bans bump stocks, fixes NCIS, and let's say we go nuts and close the "gun show loophole." Over the next year, the amount of shootings don't change Now the professional Left is back at the table, demanding more - so to appear "reasonable" the Right shrugs off the NRA and raises the age to buy a long gun to 21, and bans "hi-cap" mags , only allows for manufacture of 5 round or less mags. Guess what...nothing - there are still shootings, because there are crazy people and 300MM+ guns out there. So... Now the Left is back again. The Right responds to the calls for "no more!" "do something" "be reasonable!" "common sense!" and bans the manufacture and import of ALL semi-auto guns in the U.S., limits ammo sale to one box per month, puts in place an optional Federal buy-back program. Nope...still shootings! Leading to the outright repeal of the 2A, outlawing of all but shotguns and a turning the optional buyback program into mandatory - you have a 2 year window to give them up or we put you in jail. Now that the (law abiding, legal) population is effectively disarmed, guess what? Welp, now there is a massive black market for guns, and the shootings, they don't stop either. Yeah, it's a slippery slope thing. But when people are openly talking about Step 7 being the goal, it's not a hard leap to make. Gun violence is down over the past twenty years even as amount of guns owned have gone up. Mass shootings are up, and that is a Bad Thing, but I put that more on the polarization of our society, the "you're either with me or you're the devil" attitude that people have now than the guns. As a reminder, A Gun Free America in 5 Easy Steps:
  2. The 1st has had its share of controversy; e.g. what is "speech?" Seems to have broad support from Left ("don't suppress my voice!") and Right ("political money is speech!"). I don't necessarily agree about the "wall of separation" described by Jefferson, because I don't know that freedom of religion should have to mean freedom FROM religion... The 2nd has crazy strong support from the Right and moderate to low support on the Left. Lots of arguments over definitions, limitations, etc. Will continue to be a battleground and ultimately come down to who owns the SCOTUS when a case comes in front of it. 3rd is fairly antiquated now, considering we spend as much as the next 20 (friendly and allied!) militaries combined, they can afford to build their own accommodations, plus the civilian control of the military is well established so it's not like they are suppressing an unruly population on behalf of a regent. The 4th is basically a joke now. They will search you (without consent, see: NSA), or they'll get a rubber stamp warrant to do it (see: forced blood draws). The 5th is mixed; double-jepordy is pretty intact, but eminent domain was evicerated in Kelo. 6th - meh. "Speedy" trial? Not so much. You can get a jury trial but good luck with the impartiality part - you're already one step behind bars just being accused. Can't be soft on crime! I put this more on us being stupid as a population and less on the Gov't. 7th - ok 8th - the definition of cruel and unusual will continue to evolve. I predict next is that we mandate air conditioning. Or did that already happen>? 9th - the catch-all 10th - I think the Founding Fathers would be very disappointed by the strength of our Federal Gov't. Also the interpretation of the Commerce Clause killed the 10th in the crib.
  3. You nailed it, and as has been said "Never let a crisis go to waste..." Combine the above fear you describe with politicians (and their constituencies) demanding that they "DO SOMETHING!" And you get shit laws. There's a bias towards action versus inaction in people's minds; "doing something" e.g. passing a new law, banning a gun, banning brown people, etc is "meaningful" - even if it doesn't actually change anything. Here's the problem: nothing will change. It would require laws on the order of 100x the scale of what we're conceiving (probably unconstitutional) to move the needle. The raw truth that the population can't handle is this: People (including kids) dying in shootings is the price of the freedom embodied in the 2nd amendment. Terrorists blowing buildings up is the cost of our free and open society. These things will continue so long as we remain a free and open society - and even turning into a dictatorship can't stop it (see: terrorists still attack Russia ala the theater attack). It's called reality - many have trouble dealing with that.
  4. Without KL we would lose in 5...
  5. Got the bagger attachment for my ZTM so I could bag the first cut. Holy shit, between the leaves and cutting it lower I made about 40 of those Lowe’s bags. Is it common for oaks to shed their leaves in the Spring? Mine hung on all winter ...
  6. My main worry at this point is that we'll be too shitty to do anything in the playoffs, but too good to get anything decent via draft. KL is incredible, but is there any precedent for this type of injury having a year+ rehab?
  7. I'm really liking the new GMG Sierra Denali. They sent me this email accounting the "ATC" option package, which I guess is like their version of TRD or FX4? Pretty slick IMO:
  8. Avatar checks out
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