I
am a fan of Stephen Colbert's late night show...I
don't watch it every night, especially during election years, since
things tend to get a little too bleeding-heart liberal for me, but
tonight's show caught me by surprise.
I
had the TV on in the background while I was messing around on my
computer and I heard them say "On tonights show, such and such guy from
The Brady Campaign" ... my blood pressure spiked.
My
first thought was to turn it off. If Colbert can have a certifiable
psychopath on his show, then I don't want him to have my ratings. My
own little way of "speaking my opinion"...but I decided to stick around
to see what he had to say. Let's just say - I was not surprised, and
Brady Campaign pundit, Dan Gross, did not let me down.
And
it is from here, that we begin this evenings rant. A better definition
of the Brady Campaign is a bunch of self absorbed snake oil salesmen
who have little better to do with their time than travel around the
country spouting off one-liners about
and they try to pass off their rendition of reality as proof that gun control works. Here's a few examples of what I mean:
On
tonight's Colbert Report, Dan Gross made the claim that the Brady
Campaign is interested in passing gun laws that save lives. That's
really about it. Gun Laws That Save Lives. Sounds catchy doesn't it?
After all, who in their right mind can argue with
Nobody
can argue with it, there is no argument to be had in a moral society
about whether or not we should "save lives". And this is the number one
weapon in their arsenal...they prey on the gullibility and ignorance of
anyone they can get their scales wrapped around.
half of the people in this country are gullible morons who will believe
anything that they're told by someone wearing a suit pretending to be a
professional. This isn't just my opinion, there have been studies done
to prove it. For your viewing pleasure, I'd like to insert into
evidence, Exhibit A:
Great study, wasn't it? Too bad science can't be that raw any more...too many idealists today call it
So how did I arrive at saying "At least half of the people in this
country are gullible morons who will believe anything they're told"?
Quite simple:
Think about how you view the average
American, and now realize that by pure laws of nature, that HALF of the
people...are dumber than that. It's a pretty simple concept, yes? Well,
it is, and the Brady Campaign knows this and exploits it to the max.
But don't just take my word for it, I urge you to do your own research.
There are many sources of raw information online. Don't just listen to
what the Television tells you...take what you hear from TV and use it
as a launching point for your investigation, after you do this enough,
you'll begin to arrive at the same conclusion I have: TV is 100%
completely full of shit...especially *any* program claiming to be
But
enough of those ramblings, let's take a look at some of the things that
the Brady Campaign points to and says "See? Gun Control works!"
If you pay attention to any time these
people speak, they keep bringing up a statistic that has many people
raising their eyebrows, and it goes like this:
And,
to some people, the initial reaction is "holy shit, really?" Because,
of course, this sounds bad. The Brady Campaign takes this a step
further by suggesting that this leads to criminals getting their hands
on guns. Which...is true! If there's no background checks required,
then anyone with a rap sheet can buy a firearm.
However,
we're back to the ol' "say one thing that means another" tactic,
because what the Brady Campaign is not telling you is not only is their
40% number completely made up and has absolutely no evidence to back it
up, but it literally has no basis in reality, what so ever...it's
completely made up!
They don't offer any information to
back up this number. No studies have been done. For all I can tell
from my research on their research...they made the whole damn thing up.
sales. Well, if it's a sale done in private, and there's no paper
trail, then how do they arrive at 40%? How can you count something that
is impossible (literally impossible) to count? A "gut feeling"? An
"educated guess"? Well, if there's one thing you're about to learn
about the Brady Campaign ... it's that they're both Gutless and
Uneducated, so you can safely rule out either possibility for arriving
at that magic 40% number.
As a side note - this is one
of those things that's difficult to prove. How do you prove a
negative? In order to have a % of something, you must first know the
whole number, in this case, the number of transactions made every year,
then you must know how many of those transactions were done in private
on the street or in someone's home. This is like asking someone "How
many bags of pot were sold in the US last year?" ... it's just not
possible to know.
At the 3:30 mark of that video, Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke, is quoted as saying
Well, this is
total bull shit in several ways. First off, this type of argument is
directly akin to a little kid. When we are all little, we view the
world different ways. We see things in a magical way, ways that, as
adults, we know simply aren't real. We may conjure up stories to tell
our parents of the magical adventures we had in our back yard with our
friends.
Maybe we were tracking Dinosaurs? Who
knows...regardless, we'll swear up and down to our parents that we saw
one. We'd stick to the story because, in our heads, our parents can't
prove that we didn't see a dinosaur...the concept of extinction doesn't
make sense to us yet. The concept of impossibility isn't in our
understanding.
Whatever
the case may be, this quote from Helmke is absolutely preposterous, and
once I tell you why, you'll be left with the same decision to make:
"Does he know what he's talking about and is just banking on the hope that
YOU won't know, and maybe believe him"
or
"Does
he really not know what's going on and is just repeating disinformation
he's heard from someone else that was banking on the hope that Mr.
Helmke would be too stupid to figure out the truth for himself?"
You're
about to discover the #2 Battle Tactic used by the Brady Campaign in
order to make them feel like they matter in this country:
Disinformation.
Let's break down his quote again, which is ground zero of the Brady Campaigns crusade to ban those
evil "assault weapons"
"I've gotten reports back from the police that they were being
outgunned" Really? The police report to Mr. Helmke? I'd love
to see those reports. Many have asked, and so far, Helmke has refused
to produce any sort of document. Perhaps Mr. Helmkes parents never told
him that just because you say something, it doesn't make it true.
Maybe he still believes he really was hunting dinosaurs in his back yard
as a kid?
"responding to robberies, where the assault weapons were
firing bullets through their police cars"
This is very interesting to me. First off, the term
assault weapon is a pejorative when talking about civilian weaponry. People like the Brady Campaign use this term
assault weapon
to paint the image of a big scary gun the minds of someone who may
never have held a gun, let alone fired one or know anything about them.
So here we go again, another clip vs magazine misrepresentation of the
facts, only now it's got the element of intentional deception involved
in order to trick you into think some guns are worse or scarier than
others.
But the most glaringly and disgustingly inaccurate part of this whole line is simply this:
 |
| ASSAULT WEAPONS BAD |
"where the assault weapons were
firing bullets through their police cars"
This is exploitation of the idiot masses 101. It's scary language - "
Oh my god, those guns were firing through POLICE CARS???"
But now, what would one say if they learned that the average squad car
is no different, in terms of bullet protection, than your car, or mine?
What
would they say when they learned that no matter which gun you hand me, I
could put holes through those cars. The type of gun used makes no
difference. At all. None. What so ever. "Assault Weapons" and
"Military Style Weaponry" are misleading language. John Q. Public does
not have unrestricted access to "Military Style Weaponry" or anything
resembling an "Assault Weapon"
(The M4 - commonly mistaken for the M16 - see
M16 vs M4 )
True
Military Style Weaponry, or weapons commonly themed "assault weapons",
like the M4 or M16, are only available to be purchased, legally, by an
American Citizen that passes rigorous background checks...basically,
here's a check list if you want to buy a fully automatic firearm in the
United States:
1.) Find what you want to purchase. Lets say its a M16. You're most
likely looking at between $11000 to $15000 (Yes, that's dollars)
2.) Arrange a payment with the
seller (most are 100% up front but some may agree 50% now and 50% when
item is picked up).
3.) If firearm is out of state, you need to have it shipped to a
suitable dealer (who works with MG's and such) inside state of of which you reside.
4.) Fill out TWO (duplicate) Form 4 from the ATF
5.) Get official fingerprint cards
6.) Get passport-type photo for each Form 4
7.) Get Chief Law Enforcement Officer (CLEO) signoff on rear of each
Form 4 (this is your chief of police in your area - if you live in small
towns usually your county sheriff)
8.) Make out a $200 check to ATF
9.) Mail all of above to ATF. After a 30 to 90 day waiting period, ne of the Form 4's with a special
treasury stamp and signature on the form will be sent to your local
dealer who is holding the firearm for you.
10.) Go pick up your firearm and enjoy.
So
there you have it - a TEN STEP process with 30 to 90 days waiting
period, many forms of verification and several checks in our government
along with a price tag that is out of reach of most citizens in this
country. This is why
full auto are not used in crimes. They're
simply too expensive. In other country's, sure, you have Drug Cartels
in Columbia that have more money than most Governments...or if you're a
Drug Lord in Mexico, you actually have Barack Hussein Obama (Mmm, Mmm,
Mmmm) The President of the United States of America
sending you these types of weapons for free.
And
remember, this is Federal Law. You cannot (legally) purchase a weapon
like this in any other way. So if the Brady Campaign wants to make it
tougher to "Get an Assault Weapon" ...what are they suggesting we add to
this 10 step process to make it any more difficult for a criminal to
get one?
This background check applies to any legal
purchase made at any Firearms Dealer. You cannot walk into your local
pawn shop, Dicks Sporting Goods, or Joe Bobs Gun Store and buy *any*
firearm without going through a Background Check. Period.
Well,
when you ask them this, they bring up that magic number of 40% again.
They'll tell you that 40% of all firearms sold in this country are
legally sold without a single background check. They'll tell you that we must ban assault weapons because of this
fact.
They'll tell you we need stricter background checks, and many of them
will tell you we need a national firearm registry, because of these
facts....but wait a second...why are they calling them...."Facts"?
Fact [fakt]
Noun
1.) something that actually exists; reality; truth: Your fears have no basis in fact.
2.) something known to exist or to have happened: Space travel is now a fact.
HUH????
But we've just learned that it's 100% impossible to
legally purchase an "
assault weapon"
without going through rigorous background checks. So is the Brady
Campaign suggesting that 40% of the gun sales in this country are being
done illegally? For the record, no, they always say "Legal gun sales"
But for the sake of argument, lets pretend they mean illegal
sales...which is really worst case scenario...how is further gun
law, going to stop people already breaking them?
So...what is going on here, Brady Campaign? Why the double talk? The
Brady Campaign is a two headed serpent that slithers its way into the
minds of unsuspecting every day citizens...the only problem from the
Brady Campaign is that each head has a mind of its own, and neither head
can remember what the other said the day before.
What
does that leave for their "Scary Guns"? Semi-Automatic. What they're
talking about, and inaccurately describing once again as an assault
rifle, is a gun like this one:
 |
| AR15 Semi Automatic Rifle. |
The Brady campaign will straight up tell you that they're not going after "Hunting Rifles" or "Shotguns" ... guns like these:
But
lets look at these for a moment. The Remington 750 is typically what
an average person pictures in their mind when they hear "Hunting Rifle"
It's tradition is, after all, hunting. It fires a
30-06 (That's
thirty-aught-six) It's a powerful round of rifle ammunition. Not used
in an AR15. Not used in an AK47. But used in a rifle like the
Remington 750. A hunting rifle.
For comparison, the AR15 fires a .223. If you go to buy a .223, lets say at
Wal-Mart,
you'll find that it comes in at 55 grains. (The M16/M4 both fire a
5.56 NATO which is essentially a .223 but with a higher charge of
powder... The U.S. Military uses the 5.56 NATO with a standard 77 grain
load)
The
.30/06, from the same source, comes in at 180 grains...quick side note for those of you going "What the hell is a grain??"
"Grains"
is what measures the size of ammunition. The larger the projectile
(The bullet) the more grains of powder needed to send it down range. 1
grain equals 64.8 milligrams. "Grains" is a measure of weight. So is
"Grams" but they are not the same. 1 gram = 15.4324 grains. 1Lb. equals
7,000 grains...or to put it simply...more grains = more power.
So if a hunting rifle packs more of a punch (much more!) than those
scary assault weapons"
like the AR15...then why isn't the Brady Campaign going after the
Hunting Rifle? Well, because it goes back to the fact that most
American's will buy into anything they see on TV in the form of
News.
It's easy to make you afraid of something called an "Assault
Rifle"...those two words conjure up mental images of war, death, and
destruction...a Hunting Rifle, to the uneducated listener, seems much
less powerful, much less capable...yet...as we see here, hunting rifles
can be
MUCH more powerful than something like an AR15 or an M16/M4.
The
answer to "why" is easy - because it's a starting point. They know
that most Americans feel as though hunting rifles are fine. Shotguns
are fine. These two weapons go way back in our history...They know that
most Americans are not for the abolishment of the 2nd Amendment, and so
the Brady Campaign has learned to pick their battles.
 |
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
|
If they get you to buy into the idea that an AR15 is
evil and should be banned because it can "shoot fast" (which we'll get
to in just a second) then they've won. If they get those banned, then
next they're going to tell you that this hunting rifle can also shoot
fast. And this handgun can actually shoot FASTER than the AR15. Well,
now you're stuck with a decision to make - if you hated the AR15 because
it shoots fast, shouldn't you also hate this handgun because it shoots
faster? Shouldn't you also hate this hunting rifle because it shoots
faster and has a larger punch? That's what they're banking on getting
you to believe... When it comes to "speed" of a firearm, the Brady
Campaign loves to give you, the listener, some very
BAD information,
and they rely on you to not look into what they're saying. They're
relying on you being too busy with your children, or your job, to take
the time to do all of the research necessary to have an educated &
responsible opinion on the topic. They rely on you to take them at
their word, which is why they provide no evidence to substantiate their
claims... If they did... The Brady Campaign wouldn't exist.
Here's what I mean about "Fire Power". Automatic weapons have their
fire rate measured in a three different ways (From
this Wikipedia
article. If you're a person who says Wikipedia isn't a good source, do
yourself a favor and stop looking like a moron - check out the
reference links within a Wikipedia article to find the relevant
information. Wikipedia isn't the source. It's the hub to take you to
all the sources you need!)
Cyclic rate
This is the mechanical rate of fire, or how fast the weapon "cycles"
(loads, locks, fires, unlocks, ejects). Measurement of the cyclic rate
assumes that the weapon is being operated as fast as possible and does
not consider operator tasks (magazine changes, aiming, etc.). When the
trigger is squeezed, the rate at which rounds are fired is the cyclic
rate. Typical cyclic rates of fire are 450–900 RPM for assault rifles, 900-1,100 RPM in some cases, 900-1,200 RPM for submachine guns and machine pistols, and 600-1,200 RPM for machine guns. M134 Miniguns mounted on helicopters can achieve rates of fire of over 50 rounds per second (3,000 RPM).
Sustained or Effective rate
This is the rate at which the weapon could reasonably be fired
indefinitely without failing. In contrast to the cyclic rate, the
sustained rate is the actual rate at which the weapon would typically be
fired in combat. Sustained rate considers several factors, time spent
reloading, aiming, changing barrels if necessary, and allowing for some
cooling. Knowing the sustained rate of fire is useful to know for
logistics and supply purposes. Machine guns are typically fired in short
bursts rather than in long continuous streams of fire, although there
are times when they must be fired in very long bursts (see rapid rate
below). Sustained rate also applies to box magazine fed assault rifles and semi-automatic rifles.
In these weapons it refers to the rate at which the typical rifleman
can effectively engage targets in a combat situation. The rate is
usually 12-15 rpm, except for barrel changes it considers most of the
same factors as for the belt fed MGs.
Rapid rate
Rapid rate is a rate of fire between Cyclic and Sustained. It is
usually much faster, although less accurate, than the sustained rate and
is only used in emergency/final defensive line situations. The Rapid
rate is not sustainable for long periods because it eats up a
significant amount of ammunition (more than the gunner or assistant
gunner are likely to carry on a patrol), the heat generated requires
barrel change times to be reduced, and because machine guns are only
issued with one spare barrel prolonged rapid fire will result in
shortened weapon/barrel life.
So, when
you're listening to the news, or some idiot from The Brady Campaign,
speak about these "Assault Weapons" something you'll hear a lot goes a
little bit like this:
"This weapon can fire up to 800 rounds per minute"
What this number represents is the
Cyclic Rate.
It's basically a theoretical number says if you had a gun that had an
infinite supply of ammunition, never had to be reloaded or aimed, and
all you did was hold the trigger down without the barrel ever over
heating and the weapon failing, then your gun could fire "800" rounds of
ammunition in 60 seconds.
Think of Cyclic Rate like this:
The worlds fastest runner is
Maurice Greene who reached a sprinting speed of 26.7 miles per hour.
Now,
this is just a measurement, it's not an accurate depiction of how fast
Maurice Green can actually run in an entire hour. His body simply could
not sustain the pressures and would shut down and he could die.
In
other words, if you put Maurice on a 30 mile long stretch of road, and
told him to run as fast as he could for 60 minutes, without stopping or
slowing down for anything, he could most certainly not achieve 26.7.
26.7 is Maurices CYCLIC RATE.
It is the theoretical
speed at which he could travel if he didn't have to worry about
something called reality (Fatigue, endurance, death, etc)
Well,
a firearm is no different, regardless of what kind. It can suffer from
fatigue. It can suffer from human error as well. When measuring a
real world rate of fire for any automatic firearm, you use what is
called the
Sustained Rate of Fire (sometimes
referred to as the practical rate of fire). This rate of fire takes
into account all of the obstacles one must confront in order to fire a
weapon. Aiming, reloading, barrel temperature, endurance, etc. To
illustrate my point, let's look at one of the Brady Campaigns favorite
weapon to misrepresent, the M16
M16 has a cyclic rate
of 700-950 rounds per minute, according to the US Government. But
remember, this is like Maurice Sprinting at a speed of 26.7mph. The
Sustained Rate of Fire, for the M16 is actually much lower...according
to The United States Government, the M16 Sustained Rate of fire is just
12 to 15 rounds per minute....starting to get the picture?
And
these rates only apply to a full-auto weapon, because when dealing with
a semi-auto, the rate of fire is only as fast as you are psychically
able to pull the trigger...so speed will vary from person to person,
however keep in mind, if you're only concentrating on speed, and pulling
the trigger as fast as possible, then you don't have time to recapture
your point of aim for an accurate shot...thus missing the majority of
your shots as your firearm begins to point towards the sky (
recoil!)
Another
talking point from the Brady Campaign, that will take much less time to
dispel, is the Brady Campaigns hatred of "High Capacity
Magazines" (note, they call them
clips ... there's a huge difference between a magazine and
a clip. This is a pretty easy way to identify the people who don't
know what they're talking about v.s. the ones who do.)
As
I said - this will take much less time. The whole concept here is that
"High Capacity Magazines allow for more death & destruction". It's
as if their logic is saying "A higher capacity magazine allows a person
to shoot more rounds" but that is simply not true. 100 rounds of ammo
is 100 rounds of ammo, whether that's in 10 magazines or 5. It simply
makes no difference...and if you watched the video of "Brady Campaign
Lies" above...you'll even heard the President of the Brady Campaign
agree that High Capacity Magazine bans
DO NOTHING.
Reloading is not a cumbersome process, you push a button, the magazine
falls, and you slam another into place. With lots of practice...you can
get REALLY fast at reloading any weapon
And
please note - the world record is set not with a semi-automatic. Not
with a fully automatic. Nope. It's set with a Revolver. A simple
Revolver that shot 12 well aimed shots in 3 seconds. 4 shots a second.
So the concept that full-auto or semi-auto are more dangerous than
something like a "Hunting Rifle" or "Revolver" is simply asinine. No
gun is bad. No gun is good. Only people are bad and good. Guns are
tools. Guns are tradition. Guns are a way of life, and more
importantly, responsible gun ownership is the 2nd Amendment of The
United States of America. Without the 2nd, you simply cannot have the
first.
So in the end, as a nation, we are left with one decision to make. We either get rid of all guns or we get rid of no guns. We've already went over the lead oppositions most central talking points:
They've tried to tell you that Assault Rifles are more dangerous and more powerful...but that was easily dismissed.
They've
tried to tell you that high capacity magazines equal more death and
destruction, but even the President of The Brady Campaign conceded that
it was not true.
And
they've tried to make up a whole bunch of numbers to pass off to you as
information to make you believe that nearly half of all the guns sales
in this country are done legally but with no background checks...and
we've proven that to be 100% false as well.
So
if their approach is honest, and their goal is true & genuine, then
why do they have to continue to lie to you in order to get you to
believe them? Why can't they give you anything factual to back up a
single thing that they say? It's because what they're telling you is NOT
true. They have to lie, and you have to willingly believe them, having
done no research of your own, to buy into it. You have to be an
irresponsible American citizen in order to give them any clout.
But
no cause is greater, no fact more genuine, than in our founding
documents, a little paragraph written a long time ago with as much
wisdom and foresight as any human could ever image, the Second Amendment
was written with one very specific, very guarded, and very simple
purpose: To keep our Government at bay. James Madison knew full well,
at the hands of the British, what a government too big for its britches
was capable of when its citizens have no way of defending
themselves...and so they including something in our founding documents,
something that doesn't just rise above interpretation of moral
authority, it actually defines it.
 |
| A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free
state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms SHALL NOT BE
INFRINGED |
But if you still
need more reasons to demonstrate the importance of the American Second
Amendment, if you feel as though people like me are too biased because
I'm an American and because I own firearms, then please, look no further
than this:
"Among
the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon
the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest." – Mahatma Gandhi, in Gandhi, An Autobiography, p. 446
