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By Stephen, on October 11th, 2011
I realize that some pro-gun and conservative types have a problem registering to vote on the White House’s Petition Site, not wanting to give the administration their email address and zip-code even though they already have our IRS history. But we’ve got to get over it, my friends! While I realize that winning a petition on this site will have no real effect, losing on an issue will bolster our opposition to claim they they actually have a grassroots following. Which they really don’t, so let’s prove it.
VOTE on these petitions, or see this anti-gun/anti-carry petition succeed where we’ve failed. It still has less votes than the pro-gun/pro-carry petition, but it’s gaining votes much faster. And again … I realize it’s not a big deal if it does succeed, but I really don’t want to see anti-gunners gloating about how they got a few more thousand people out of 300 million to choose their side than we got to choose our side. They never get to win these contests because they don’t have millions of supporters — or virtually any — so why are they getting more numbers in this case?
So here are petitions to vote on, and vote on TODAY. Several of these have a good chance of reaching the threshold that require an “official” administration response, so let’s force this administration to take a stance before the election, eh?
Petition to allow ownership of post 1987 automatic weapons.
(the above is mine, and at least it’s got a response from all 50 states and nearly 1,000 individuals)
Petition to end the stupid Federal laws banning silencers
(does being quieter make a gun more dangerous? Does being louder make it safer? To whom?)
This is our most popular petition, to support the bill for national CCW.
(Another common sense gun law that supports the positions of 40 shall-issue states)
This petition supports ownership of short barreled rifles and shotguns.
Thanks! Pass these links around to your friends and promote everywhere.
Off Road
The best book ever written!
By me, anyway.
Set against the background of the American civil war of “progressives” vs. patriotic American traditionalists and a family caught in the middle, Off Road is a journey into the uniquely American world of God, guns, big trucks … and family.
More information here. Buy it at amazon.com in paperback or Kindle (only .99 for Kindle, which can also be read on a PC with a free reader). Or at Barnes and Noble in paperback or Nook (only .99 in Nook format). Or from the iBooks book store for Apple products. Or in any Ebook format, even .html or .pdf, for .99 from smashwords.com.
By Stephen, on October 4th, 2011
Future petitions at the White House petitions site must get 25,000 votes in 30 days to mandate an “official review” from the white house, but it looks like existing petitions still only have the original 5,000 vote threshold. So please … take a minute and vote on these petitions now as they aren’t yet garnering votes fast enough to force a response (though they are doing many, many times better than the anti-gun petitions I’ve seen). Let’s see if we can get the Obama administration to take a position on these common sense changes to gun law — because this is the kind of change I’ve been hoping for!
Petition to allow ownership of post 1987 automatic weapons.
(the above is mine, and at least it’s past the 150 vote threshold to be searchable)
Petition to end the stupid Federal laws banning silencers
(does being quieter make a gun more dangerous? Does being louder make it safer? To whom?)
This is our most popular petition, to support the bill for national CCW.
(Another common sense gun law that supports the positions of 40 shall-issue states)
This petition supports ownership of short barreled rifles and shotguns.
Thanks! Pass these links around to your friends and promote everywhere.
Off Road
The best book ever written!
By me, anyway.
Set against the background of the American civil war of “progressives” vs. patriotic American traditionalists and a family caught in the middle, Off Road is a journey into the uniquely American world of God, guns, big trucks … and family.
More information here. Buy it at amazon.com in paperback or Kindle (only .99 for Kindle, which can also be read on a PC with a free reader). Or at Barnes and Noble in paperback or Nook (only .99 in Nook format). Or from the iBooks book store for Apple products. Or in any Ebook format, even .html or .pdf, for .99 from smashwords.com.
By Stephen, on September 29th, 2011
One truly common sense fact about guns is that being loud doesn’t make a gun safer any more than being silenced makes it more dangerous. The law forcing us to pay a punitive tax to own a simple device to make a gun less loud is ridiculous, and it’s time to petition the government to remove it. Which is exactly what Sean at A NC Gun Blog has done by putting a petition on the Obama White House website (he beat me to it — I was going to post such a petition today).
The petition is here if you want to go directly to it. And while you’re there …
Sign this petition to allow ownership of post 1987 automatic weapons.
And this one to support the bill for national CCW.
And this one to support ownership of short barreled rifles and shotguns.
Any of these issues that get over 5,000 votes have to get an official response from the administration. And I hope we can do it, because I’d love to see the current administrations views on these items.
Off Road
The best book ever written!
By me, anyway.
Set against the background of the American civil war of “progressives” vs. patriotic American traditionalists and a family caught in the middle, Off Road is a journey into the uniquely American world of God, guns, big trucks … and family.
More information here. Buy it at amazon.com in paperback or Kindle (only .99 for Kindle, which can also be read on a PC with a free reader). Or at Barnes and Noble in paperback or Nook (only .99 in Nook format). Or from the iBooks book store for Apple products. Or in any Ebook format, even .html or .pdf, for .99 from smashwords.com.
By Stephen, on September 28th, 2011
So the Obama administration has put up a website for citizens to post petitions. And they have a policy that any item that receives more than 150 votes will be made public, and any item that receives more than 5,000 votes will get a response from the administration. So please join me in bringing this subject to the attention of other firearms owners and pushing the Obama administration to remove the prohibition from the 1986 Firearms Owners’ Protection Act (FOPA) against registering automatic weapons produced after 1986 (or at least to take a position on it). It’s just common sense that if something is legal, it should be legal for everyone.
This petition doesn’t go as far as some would like by removing even the 1934 restriction that all automatic weapons be registered, but what say we take this one step at a time?
Here is the petition. And here is what I wrote:
American ownership of firearms is a constitutional right and cherished tradition. This includes thousands of automatic weapons. But though virtually none of them have been used in a crime, and for political reasons rather than public safety, ownership of this type of weapon has been limited by production date. But is a 2011 firearm more dangerous than an identical firearm from 1986?
This law has not reduced violent crime. It has simply made such weapons too expensive for middle class hobbyists – which is not fair or democratic. Should we limit ownership of any legal item to only the well heeled?
President Obama claims he is a class warrior for the middle class. Will he fight for us on this issue and allow registration of newer weapons? Or continue to restrict ownership to the wealthy?
Please take a minute to sign up and vote for this and pass it around to everyone you know. Wouldn’t you love to see the administration have to take a stand on this issue?
You do have to create a login to vote, but it only requires your email address and zip code. If you don’t think the government already knows that much about you … well, don’t know what to say about that. Not everyone wants to get themselves noticed on 2nd amendment issues, of course, but as a wise man once said: We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.!
Off Road
The best book ever written!
By me, anyway.
Set against the background of the American civil war of “progressives” vs. patriotic American traditionalists and a family caught in the middle, Off Road is a journey into the uniquely American world of God, guns, big trucks … and family.
More information here. Buy it at amazon.com in paperback or Kindle (only .99 for Kindle, which can also be read on a PC with a free reader). Or at Barnes and Noble in paperback or Nook (only .99 in Nook format). Or from the iBooks book store for Apple products. Or in any Ebook format, even .html or .pdf, for .99 from smashwords.com.
By Stephen, on July 28th, 2011
So the Wisconsin Anti-GunViolence Effort group thinks it can talk businesses into banning CCW. Hmmm. They can only get 3,164 followers on their FB page — and considering an occasional gun-friendly comment pops up before it is immediately deleted (can’t have anyone debating, dontcha know) some of those are on our side rather than theirs. To put that number into perspective, I have over 3,000 followers on FB myself, and the national NRA group has 1.1 million (with the latter constantly rising). Yeah — I’m guessing their grass roots chi is all about bark and not bite.
But most interesting in their article, which assumes Wisconsinites are all bumpkins who have never been out of state:
Bonavia says they are calling on businesses to ban guns from being carried inside. She says similar steps have been taken by about 80-percent of the businesses in other states that allow concealed carry.
As a statistic, that one is laughable. 80% would be 8 out of 10 businesses, and I haven’t seen anything close to even 8% of business posted, much less 80%, anywhere I’ve traveled. Probably more like 4%.
If you include all states that allow CCW (49 now) it becomes even more ridiculous; I’ve traveled all over California and NY and never seen any posted “no gun” signs. CCW is so rare it’s below the radar.
But even if you limit your statistics to the 41 “shall issue” or no permit required states, the number is still miniscule. Though I don’t usually carry when I go out of state, I watch for “no gun” signs, and rarely see them.
The only thing I can figure is that WAVE is playing with the numbers (SOP for anti-gun groups) and instead of reporting on businesses that post signs for the general public, they are reporting on businesses that have a restriction buried in their employee manual against carry — which affects the public not at all. I don’t doubt, for instance, that both Starbucks and Walmart have some policy in a manual that employees are not to carry firearms on the job. But that doesn’t affect any of us as customers.
When the legislation was being passed the WAVE FB site was busy and full of fearful posts and guarantees the legislation would be overturned and was the product of Republican boogeyman and governor Scott Walker — even though it passed with a wide bi-partisan majority with many Dem votes. But as someone who’s been through this transition in Colorado and watched it in other states, I can tell you how this will turn out:
A number of businesses will post. Then they will realize that many of the customers they are pissing off are generally conservative and gun friendly small business owners, whom they really need. And that, ironically, anti-gun people feel nervous seeing ANY sign mentioning guns, even a gun ban sign, while pro-gun people will find somewhere else to spend their money. And so there are more negatives to being anti-gun than neutral. And thus the signs will quickly come down.
The few places that keep signs up will post small, difficult to find signs so that they can point them out to anti-gunners but pro-gun people won’t notice them. So they will become defacto carry spots.
Off Road
The best book ever written!
By me, anyway.
Set against the background of the American civil war of “progressives” vs. patriotic American traditionalists and a family caught in the middle, Off Road is a journey into the uniquely American world of God, guns, big trucks … and family.
More information here. Buy it at amazon.com in paperback or Kindle (only .99 for Kindle, which can also be read on a PC with a free reader). Or at Barnes and Noble in paperback or Nook (only .99 in Nook format). Or from the iBooks book store for Apple products. Or in any Ebook format, even .html or .pdf, for .99 from smashwords.com.
By Stephen, on July 14th, 2011
Taking a break from my posting break for this delightful bit of paranoid crazy from the WAVE FB page (an organization for Anti-Gun Wisconsinites that has only managed to get 3,160 followers — slightly less FB friends than I had at my peak (I’m little below that now)).
 Common Sense Takes a Holiday in Wisconsin In case you can’t read the above:
the law will not only put cops at risk but store owners and women on dates and people wearing rolex watches or large diamond rings or fur coats…………yes we all new this—–really there are but 2 types of people nowadays in the USA “religious zealot knee jerk liberals of which I am one and then our opponents neo nazi gun death power and sex obsessed psychopaths.
To be honest I am thinking this may be sarcasm, as few people refer to themselves as “religious zealot knee jerk liberals,” … but given the quality and mental state of the anti-gun groups/liberal Wisconsin groups it’s really hard to say.
But regardless whether it’s parody or serious, well incorporated in this post is that bizarre fear that having a gun available turns otherwise law abiding people into criminals or murderers. i.e. That I, a suburban homeowner and father of 2, will see someone wearing a fur coat or a little bling and just lose control and whip out my .357 and take it from them — thus acquiring the Rolex watch I couldn’t otherwise afford and putting myself in a position where I will never own a gun again and spend many years in prison. While my children are changed from college bound daughters of a fairly successful IT guy to the daughters of an excon living in a trailer.
But in any case … I’ve been carrying on a fairly regular basis for 7 years now, and this has yet to happen. And it won’t … because I’m sane. Which is a claim this poster would have a hard time supporting — unless it actually is sarcasm.
Now … a reminder why we don’t want every cop on a traffic stop to be able to search by our driver’s license for a CCW or, worse yet, identify it on our license plate. The logic is simple, made more so because WI included in their CCW law a provision for unlicensed people to carry firearms in their vehicle as well as licensed, which we also have in Colorado.
- Anybody may have a gun in their car, licensed or not. A police officer who doesn’t assume there’s a gun in a pulled over car is an idiot.
- A criminal prepared to murder a police officer will almost certainly NOT have a CCW but will have a gun. Duh!
- In terms of non-car contact, having a CCW has nothing to do with a gun in the house. Many, many more household’s will have guns than a CCW holder. A police officer who goes into a domestic violence situation assuming there are no weapons because there is no CCW is an idiot.
- It puts an unfair and worthless burden on CCW holders. i.e. in Colorado where the cops do look up CCW on traffic stops (though they’re not supposed to) they’ll always ask me about my gun because I have the CCW. If I didn’t have the CCW I could still carry a gun legally in my car and they’d have no way of knowing ahead of time.
- If anything, a police officer should be relieved if s/he sees a driver has a CCW, because it means they have gone through a thorough background check and are HIGHLY unlikely to be a danger to them.
Hold the line against these crazies, my northern friends. And again … ON WISCONSIN!!
Off Road
The best book ever written!
By me, anyway.
Set against the background of the American civil war of “progressives” vs. patriotic American traditionalists and a family caught in the middle, Off Road is a journey into the uniquely American world of God, guns, big trucks … and family.
More information here. Buy it at amazon.com in paperback or Kindle (only .99 for Kindle, which can also be read on a PC with a free reader). Or at Barnes and Noble in paperback or Nook (only .99 in Nook format). Or from the iBooks book store for Apple products. Or in any Ebook format, even .html or .pdf, for .99 from smashwords.com.
By Stephen, on July 9th, 2011
First off, I’d like to apologize to the people that follow this blog in some manner that I haven’t been posting. I’ve just been too involved in family vacation, trying to keep a job that is in jeopardy (story of my freakin’ life these days) and finishing my 2nd novel, which I had hoped to have published by now or at least have contracted. It’s the novel that keeps me away from here — I’m trying to stay in full blown writing mode and lay down 1500 fresh words an evening (a goal I’ve been regularly failing at, though I’m doing better) and I just never feel like laying down another 800 or so words for the kind of lengthy blog posts I do.
There’s certainly been plenty to post on, but just no time. Sorry. As soon as I get the first draft of my novel down I hope to jump back on in a normal fashion, so hopefully those few followers are all on RSS feeds or following me on facebook or twitter will still be doing so.
If not, I’ll just go back to posting for my own stress relief. Like when I started  .
In the meantime … congrats again to Wisconsin. I’m really proud of you Badgers for becoming the 41st “Shall Issue” state, and I’m having a blast checking out the hysteria on the FB WAVE site. I just love reading comments like this:
Without a metal detector or actual pat down & unless there is trouble no one will know if the guy standing next to you is packing or not. I for one don’t know if I can trust the general WI gun-toting public. Afterall, statistics show WI has a higher percentage of alcoholism/abuse than most other states in the union….which doesn’t make for sound judgement from this part of the general gun-toting/alcohol laden public.
And I thought we gun guys were the paranoid ones!?
There’s no metal detector or actual pat down now most places you go, so people could be carrying guns next to you right now. And the crazy, dangerous ones are. This new law ONLY allows the non-crazy/non-dangerous ones to carry. You know … the ones that actually might protect you. Think of it as a free way to get tens of thousands of concerned citizens/auxiliary policemen/women on the street to make you safer.
And perhaps one of these brilliant anti-gunners who put in comments like this:
oOK,THIS SERIOUS.PEOPLE START SHOTTING ANYONE IN SIGHT
or this;
And who will be the first victim of an “In home” gun accident? Anybody want to take bets on the victims age? Under 5 yrs, Under 10 yrs, Under 18 yrs. At least we can all rest safe knowing how much violent crime will be going down now.
could tell me why this new law will have such a profound effect in Wisconsin when it hasn’t elsewhere (especially in the home, where nothing has changed).
The bottom line is … except for the truly insanely anti-gun this controversy will all be quickly forgotten. No shootouts, no big change in any crime stats, etc. An idiot WILL make a mistake with a CCW every other year or so (as even happens with real police officers), hopefully harming only himself, but there will be many, many people who will defend themselves or others because of the new law. It will be a net good.
And with 50,000 or so licensees within a year, every one of them voters … whatever happens to Walker and the Republican agenda in the recall election process the chances of this law being repealed are very, very slim.
Off Road
The best book ever written!
By me, anyway.
Set against the background of the American civil war of “progressives” vs. patriotic American traditionalists and a family caught in the middle, Off Road is a journey into the uniquely American world of God, guns, big trucks … and family.
More information here. Buy it at amazon.com in paperback or Kindle (only .99 for Kindle, which can also be read on a PC with a free reader). Or at Barnes and Noble in paperback or Nook (only .99 in Nook format). Or from the iBooks book store for Apple products. Or in any Ebook format, even .html or .pdf, for .99 from smashwords.com.
By Stephen, on June 21st, 2011
So with the Wisconsin assembly having sent their shall-issue Concealed Carry (CCW) bill on to the governor (who’s promised to sign it) another 5.7 million American’s are empowered with the ability to legally arm themselves for defense of themselves and their communities. Good Job!
I’m not a Wisconsinian/Wisconsinite (whatever) so I haven’t been following this closely, from what I read it’s a fairly clean bill with good reciprocity rules and NO exclusion for colleges. Only school grounds. If the legality of carrying on a college campus is true, this makes them the 3rd state to allow that, after Utah and Colorado. Hopefully we’ll be getting a lot more in years to come.
On Wisconsin!
Off Road
The best book ever written!
By me, anyway.
Set against the background of the American civil war of “progressives” vs. patriotic American traditionalists and a family caught in the middle, Off Road is a journey into the uniquely American world of God, guns, big trucks … and family.
More information here. Buy it at amazon.com in paperback or Kindle (only .99 for Kindle, which can also be read on a PC with a free reader). Or at Barnes and Noble in paperback or Nook (only .99 in Nook format). Or from the iBooks book store for Apple products. Or in any Ebook format, even .html or .pdf, for .99 from smashwords.com.
By Stephen, on June 16th, 2011
I don’t know if anyone’s still reading after my rather extended (and unapproved) leave of absence, but after almost a year Off Road is finally available on iBooks. Only 99 cents — heck, that’s not even a dollar.
I’m actually working fast and furious on my new novel, and it’s definitely going well. I still don’t have a publishing date, though, because this one I’m going to market more aggressively to traditional publishers before I self publish.
Self publishing has worked out surprisingly well for me, but not being in all the big bookstore chains has hurt sales by a lot, of course.
As always, plenty of info about the book is available on the left, and below is my normal self promoting plug:
Off Road
The best book ever written!
By me, anyway.
Set against the background of the American civil war of “progressives” vs. patriotic American traditionalists and a family caught in the middle, Off Road is a journey into the uniquely American world of God, guns, big trucks … and family.
More information here. Buy it at amazon.com in paperback or Kindle (only .99 for Kindle, which can also be read on a PC with a free reader). Or at Barnes and Noble in paperback or Nook (only .99 in Nook format). Or in any Ebook format, even .html or .pdf, for .99 from smashwords.com.
By Stephen, on May 20th, 2011
The liberal panic over the Federal government reaching its debt limit, with the Democrats and Obama claiming it’s a catastrophe of epic proportions that will throw us into a second recession (like we ever really got out of the first one), just shows how lousy our leadership has been for the last two years. Because it’s not like tax revenues aren’t still pouring in — they are, with every paycheck we receive. And from every business. What this is is about is not cutting off all government money, it’s about cutting up the Government’s credit cards.
My family, like many others, tends to maintain a small credit card debt — sometimes higher, sometimes lower — though after over-borrowing early in our marriage and sacrificing to pay it back we keep it under control (something Democrats have yet to learn). The credit cards are a way to handle the unexpected car repair one month, or pay for the vacation we didn’t saved up enough for, and then we can pay it back as quickly as possible.
But if you yanked all our credit cards away but we still had our jobs, we would be OK. We’d have to be careful and cut back and build up a bit of a short term savings to handle unexpected expenses, but we could do that. My parents grew up in the great depression and I never knew them to take on a penny’s worth of debt in their lives except to buy their house — and then they bought a relatively small house and paid it off early.
But the government is so badly overspending under Democratic party guidance that they can’t imagine living without a credit card. There’s no way they can even think about cutting back to what they actually make. And they have no plan to pay it back, just images of throwing Grandma off a cliff if they don’t get more credit.
And man … that’s sad. Let’s just hope the next election brings some sanity back to Washington. And that we elected enough sane people into the House of Representatives in the last election they hold the line and make something worthwhile happen.
Though it’s also a fact that no party holds an absolute majority, and concessions are going to have to be made by both sides, and concessions to the current Democratic majority will be very, very expensive for all of us.
Off Road
The best book ever written!
By me, anyway.
Set against the background of the American civil war of “progressives” vs. patriotic American traditionalists and a family caught in the middle, Off Road is a journey into the uniquely American world of God, guns, big trucks … and family.
More information here. Buy it at amazon.com in paperback or Kindle (only .99 for Kindle, which can also be read on a PC with a free reader). Or at Barnes and Noble in paperback or Nook (only .99 in Nook format). Or in any Ebook format, even .html or .pdf, for .99 from smashwords.com.
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Off Road
The best book ever written!
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