Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.
This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.
So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.
This is the new Samizdat. We must use it while we can.
For those interested, please check out https://vladtepesblog.substack.com/ as an another avenue of expression. The Substack is a different project in a sense. It is older videos that in the light of subsequent events, look different or of increased importance, Check it out now and again if you like.
Deep State Plot Against Trump Takes Troubling Twist (Ep. 2311)
https://rumble.com/v5bj76d-another-troubling-turn-in-the-deep-state-plot-against-trump-ep.-2311-081920.html
Read more: https://www.ammoland.com/?p=588061#ixzz8jNx4rvJY
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
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‘Common Dreams’ Opinion Piece is Both Deceptive and Wrong
Ammoland Inc. Posted on August 19, 2024 by Dave Workman
A weekend Op-Ed reads like a sales pitch for Democrat gun control.
When an opinion piece at Common Dreams.org offering solutions to so-called “gun violence” cites how other countries regulate firearms, it reveals the author(s) must have skipped high school Civics because the United States isn’t like those other countries for one important reason: The Second Amendment.
The article in question headlined “What the US Can Learn From Other Nations About Tackling Our Gun Violence Crisis,” refers, via a link, to the Democrat party platform and to data from the Gun Violence Archive, making everything else in the article suspect.
That it appeared right before the Democratic Party convenes in Chicago might essentially dismiss the whole thing as camo-speak, except for one very important point: This is how Democrats still think about guns and the right to keep and bear arms. Throughout the 843-word piece, one increasingly is impressed that the tenor leans left.
Authors Frances Moore Lappé and Hannah Stokes-Ramos point to Canada as one example to follow. It seems a great idea to them that there is a “ban on civilian ownership of automatic weapons.” They like how Canada regulates handguns by requiring a permit, limiting ownership to gun club members and gun collectors and “anyone demonstrating a need or self-defense purposes.”
Evidently, the authors overlooked the Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen ruling, which nullified the “needs” requirement as a violation of the Second Amendment. Likewise, the right to keep and bear arms is hardly restricted to gun club members.
Next, the authors take us to Finland, where gun ownership requires a license and registration, an aptitude test for the license and a minimum age of 20. And, guns “can only be carried for a specific purpose.”
Well, let’s see now. An aptitude test. Isn’t that the equivalent of a literacy test, which was ruled unconstitutional years ago by the Supreme Court?
Because the right to bear arms doesn’t require citizens to provide any reason, much less a “specific purpose,” this suggestion once again runs smack into the Second Amendment.
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Then we jump to Norway, where semiautomatic weapons are banned, one needs a license from police “s well as a ‘valid’ reason for obtaining it,” and “self-defense isn’t considered a valid reason.” Oops, again. Bruen, McDonald and Heller—all rulings by the Supreme Court in this century—sort of put the kibosh on the Norwegian approach.
Finally, the authors come to what amounts to a sales pitch for Democrats.
“Since the solution to gun violence goes well beyond addressing mental health,” they write, “let’s begin with the most basic gun reforms advocated by the Democratic Party: strengthening background checks and keeping guns out of the hands of those with a history of violent crime or posing a danger to themselves or others, such as domestic abusers.
“Our upcoming national election offers a great opportunity to highlight these crucial steps for public safety,” they observe, “as the Democratic candidate for vice-president°—Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz—became a gun-control advocate in response to the 2018 Parkland high-school shooting.”
And then they offer a plea for “commonsense gun reforms.” Gun rights activists counter this alarm-bell phrase by noting these are gun controls, not ‘reforms,” and when it comes to “commonsense,” they don’t make any sense at all because they target law-abiding citizens, while criminals continue to ignore the law.
Common Dreams describes itself as a group “powered by optimists who believe in the power of informed and engaged citizens to ignite and enact change to make the world a better place.”
For citizens to be informed and engaged should require a full perspective, which includes being advised about the constitutional problems related to any policy suggestions.
But according to Fox News, Democrats can’t even get their own platform text straight.
“The official platform of the Democrat Party was released Saturday and makes several references to a ‘second Biden term’ despite President Biden dropping out of the race a month ago,” the network reported. “On Monday night, the party will vote on the platform that makes 19 references to a second Biden term.”
In one paragraph quoted by Fox, the platform asserts, “In President Biden’s second term, he will continue selecting judges who will protect fundamental rights and who represent the diversity of the American experience.”
Except that the judges selected by Joe Biden haven’t seemed all that keen on protecting the fundamental rights secured by the Second Amendment. If Kamala Harris follows him into the Oval Office, and Democrats retain control of the Senate, many pundits suggest America can expect more of the same.
https://www.ammoland.com/2024/08/common-dreams-opinion-piece-is-both-deceptive-and-wrong/#axzz8jNwj8Z1t
SHOCKER! The Guardian Makes Valid Point on Guns
By Tom Knighton | 4:29 PM | August 19, 2024
David McFadden
When I want a reasoned take on guns, The Guardian from the UK isn’t who comes to mind.
Over the years, they’ve run numerous anti-gun stories and opinion pieces and their take on the right to keep and bear arms is well understood. They’re pretty OK with the fact that the UK doesn’t have it.
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So I don’t expect a reasonable take from them on guns. Ever.
Yet, it seems it happened.
The piece has the headline, “‘Wherever you have drugs, you have guns’: why is there an epidemic of violence in the Caribbean?”
As governments and organisations work to identify and address the root causes of escalating crime levels, academics in the region have examined the legacy of colonisation and the culture of violence embedded by transatlantic slavery.
Dr Wendell Wallace, a professor at the University of the West Indies, said there was a “conflation of many factors” behind the alarming crime statistics in a region beset by climate and other vulnerabilities. Economic challenges, weak border control, the drug trade, an influx of guns from the US and the breakdown of family values were top of his list.
“Our economies are small and, in some instances, smaller than the budgets held by transnational organised [crime] groups. That in itself makes it very easy to corrupt state officials as well as infiltrate the region.
“Then, most of the Caribbean islands are situated in the middle of the north-south drug trade, so we are on the transshipment points for drugs and, wherever you have drugs, you have guns. And with that, you have that constant fight for turf,” he said.
He added that gangs and organised crime groups take advantage of socioeconomic gaps, providing jobs, fraternity and their own brand of communal justice. He warned that more and more legislation and hardline approaches, such as states of emergency, are not effective as long-term solutions. The best approach, he said, was a “judicious mix of the hard side of policing and the softer side of policing”. Wallace also proposed the creation of national youth services.
“Data shows that people involved in criminality, as well as most of the victims, are between the ages of 15 and 35. So, if they are not employed in a productive capacity, let us get them into a national youth service that provides a higher level of skills training. We should involve the banking sector to make access to loans easier for startup businesses.”
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So, let’s get this straight for a moment.
We’ve got The Guardian including a quote from someone who says that so long as there’s a pipeline to get drugs int Caribbean countries, there’s a way to get guns in there as well, and that the solutions might be to address the root causes of people engaging in violent crime, mixed with tough enforcement of existing laws?
I swear, this sounds like something Cam or I would have said, to say nothing of legions of other gun rights advocates.
Obviously, I agree with Wallace on this, though I’m not sure how a national youth service would work in practice or any of that, but the underlying motivation is sound.
The truth is that if there’s a demand, someone will try to find a way to meet that demand. The more difficult that demand is to meet, whether it’s legal barriers or something else that limits the availability of that good, then the more lucrative it is for those that are able to meet the demand.
That applies to fruit, cars, natural resources, drugs, or guns.
So yeah, applying more laws doesn’t seem to help–the Caribbean doesn’t have a single pro-gun nation in it, after all. Each has significant gun control–so it’s time to recognize reality and look toward doing something else. If it’s a national youth service that trains them up to be productive members of society, well, so be it.
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Either way, it’s got to be better than what’s currently been tried.
I’m just shocked at The Guardian acknowledging that by repeating the quote in the headline.
https://bearingarms.com/tomknighton/2024/08/19/shocker-the-guardian-makes-valid-point-on-guns-n1225971
U-Haul Moving Truck Parked Outside White House Hours Before Joe Biden’s “Farewell” Address to the DNC
by Lou Dobbs Staff – August 19, 2024
https://loudobbs.com/news/u-haul-moving-truck-parked-outside-white-house-hours-before-joe-bidens-farewell-address-to-the-dnc/
“Biden Is Pissed” : Ex-CNN Analyst Says It’s “Super Telling” How the President Is Leaving the DNC After His Speech
by Jason Cohen, Daily Caller News Foundation – August 19, 2024
https://thelibertydaily.com/biden-is-pissed-ex-cnn-analyst-says-its/
BREAKING: U-Haul moving trucks are parked outside the White House right now ahead of Biden’s goodbye address at the DNC as the nominee
Who’s moving out? Is it Joe Biden himself? And where to?
I’m asking on behalf of the entire nation.
George – August 19, 2024
https://x.com/BehizyTweets/status/1825584045452918928