It’s increasingly clear that the Boston bombing was a watershed event. While the media focuses on the bombers’ past and the possibility of further attacks, the police response to the terrorists is bound to have a more significant and long-lasting impact on the public psyche . . .
The local, state and federal authorities’ decision to order over a million Boston-area residents to “shelter in place” marked a new chapter in the People’s relationship with their government.
Putting an entire city into “lockdown”—shutting down public transportation, ordering businesses to close and cabs not to run; filling the streets with heavily armed police and National Guard troops—is the closest thing Americans have seen to martial law outside of a natural disaster.
Let’s face it: the “lockdown” was martial law in all but name. We can debate about “exigent circumstances” and discuss the legality, morality and practicality of the police strategy. But the plain truth is that the number of cops deployed and the tactics they used scared the shit out of a lot of people.
In much the same way that Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath turned gun confiscation from a tin hat-wearer’s paranoid fantasy into a real life possibility, the brute force of the police response to the Boston bomber has opened-up minds to the idea that government force presents a threat to freedom.
Did you see the dancing in the streets after the lockdown was lifted? Tell me Boston didn’t look like a liberated city. Liberated from the fear of the bombers. But also liberated from the government-ordered and enforced “lockdown.”
So, did the police response to the Boston Bombers open Americans’ eyes to the threat posed by their own government? If so, does that help the cause of gun rights?
Very good dissection Nick, you covered and countered every point with reason and reality. We need more of this, every day all the time.
All to catch a teenager, who by the way, was found when a regular Joe went for a smoke in the backyard.
I doubt it. The government didn’t flood the streets with troops after an election didn’t go their way. They did it in response to a direect threat to the community. We can monday morning quaterback as to how appropriate the response was but at the time there were still a lot of unknowns.
I doubt john doe on the street blames the government for Boston and they probably still support their local cop shop. At least as much as they did before.
Let’s not forget there were actually terrorists who had bombed the marathon and murdered a cop loose on the street. It wasn’t a drill and I think most of the public understands that.
Now, did it change peoples attitudes about having a gun to protect themselves? Maybe. I can see some going and buying their first gun as a result of this incident. Will they become hard core gun rights supporters? I don’t have a crystal ball.
So, by your logic, any gangland shooting should garner the same response? How about bank robberies? Prison Breaks? Where is it that YOU are willing to draw the line for an isolated incident? The US government KNOWS that there are terroristic/militant groups in the US… What’s to stop them from enacting martial law about what could happen much the same way they enacted it in Boston because what could happen
There two guys were transformed into props to bolster the narrative “Only the government has the ability to protect you”.
Yea, your restricting our right to self defense so, ah what choice is being left to us?
I use my mother as a gauge of “common America” since she’s very emotional, watches a lot of TV/reality TV/mass media, and not big on inconvenient truths or critical thinking. She’s a lovely woman, it’s just she’s easily led.
And if she’s any indication, the Boston bombing just solidified the sycophantic feeling “normal America” has for that fake, oppressive blanket of nanny state control. She marveled at how “quickly the police mobilized and responded and their persistence in catching the bomber.” (Despite watching lots of news, she didn’t know it was a homeowner who found the second guy). And she was all emotional about how Bostonians “opened their hearts” to others, blah blah.
Of course, I responded with the usual points here about the militarization of police, how Boston subjects cowered in their homes as helpless rabble while the police state rolled through their streets, etc. She didn’t want to hear any of it. She was fine with the fantasy the MSM propaganda machine created.
There are two problems. First, people are slowly forgetting what it was like to live in a truly free society, and today’s generation has no idea, so government responses like this don’t surprise them. How would they know to defend freedom when they’ve never known what it is? And second, most people simply are incapable of seeing government forces as “them,” a a potential enemy, the way they see us. They’re children who can’t recognize their parents’ flaws.
It’s nice to think that most Americans are intelligent, critical thinkers who can objectively see an event like this and ponder its implications. But they’re not.
Silver, good take. I liked Roberts question and my own thoughts paralleled jwm’s. But you’re right. To low information voters/citizens, they’ve already gotten all the information they’re ever going to get regarding this situation and they’ve already moved on. There’s not going to be anymore introspection from them. At 1st, I was hopeful that this would be a wake-up call to individuals to provide for their own security, but you’re right. They’ve already moved on to their “Housewives of…” and look, it’s the NFL Draft weekend!
Sean Michael Savage pretty much said the same thing.. I think you were listening lol
that being said he and Silver are right. Now one wants to see people being dragged from their homes, but even still, it was because it was for their safety, don’t you get it???
“How would they know to defend freedom when they’ve never known what it is?”
Exactly. Further you can’t defend what you no longer have.
That and more. As more people rely on the government for their livelihood, they are less willing or unwilling to see the government as dangerous whether it be fear of retaliation (you will lose that pension Mr. Resistor) or an ignorance of what is overkill, sloppy work, or both. Everywhere we look we see government inefficiency at best, ineptitude at worst (USPS, DMV, IRS, etc) ; and yet we crave more of it. Because we are losing a sense of what is efficient, normal and appropriate. We can’t see the waste and the danger because we live comfortably with it everyday and it seems normal now. When people see a small army of hyper-militarized cops and agents descending upon Watertown, they don’t see what they ought to see, which is the Post Office with guns, the DMV riding in on a tank, but that’s what we are indeed looking at.
It’ll take a monumental f**k up on the part of our militarized police/federal LE agencies for citizens to sour on the idea. That or national insolvency, which means we can’t pay for all this stuff. (Which is actually the better bet than the public demanding we de-militarize.)
Kind of goes hand in hand with incidents like this; https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2013/04/robert-farago/dorner-disaster-la-taxpayers-shell-out-4m-for-bad-shoot/
Question of the Day: Did Boston Bombers Open Americans’ Eyes to the Threat Posed by Their Own Government?
For liberals and democrats who want government to do everything / be everything for them; No.
For self reliant independent conservatives or liberals who see government as over reaching and intrusive, it only reaffirmed existing suspicions and concerns.
1
A 19 yo coward wannabee terrorist hiding in my boat out back scares me a whole lot less than hundreds of kitted up and camo’ed LEOs and multiple armored vehicles taking over my neighborhood.
Keep taking the blue pills you pu$$ified Northeasterners.
Unfortunately, it isn’t restricted to just one region.. It is rampant across the US, and it started with entitlements.. “If the government wants to give me free stuff, and looks out for me when I don’t want to, then I am ok with them protecting me from bad men. Even if it means I need to be told to what to do, and when…”
I’m convinced there is no convincing to be done.
The shouts of “USA!, USA!, USA!” while storm troopers systematically zip-tied bystanders and searched blocks building by building is evidence of that.
The folks who get it most likely always have and those who dont never will.
The people who truly “get it” have moved from the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts loooooooong ago.
This is not a Massachusetts problem, nor a California problem; it’s an AMERICAN problem. What you saw in the streets of Boston, cop show of force, APCs, and so on, CAN AND WILL HAPPEN ANYWHERE in this country. All the government need do is decide to do it and unleash a false-flag attack, and then the whole of America will see what the idiot, “USA! USA!! USA!!!”-chanting nitwits saw.
And we won’t stop it unless you wake up and smell the tyranny.
The answer is not yet. That being said, the video of one of the more infamous “home searches” is on YouTube. It has received almost 1 million views in the 5 days it’s been up. So while mom and dad may think that the government always acts in the best interest of the people, the younger generation is watching. What they glean from it is anyone’s guess.
That video was eye-opening. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen the MSM provide any coverage of those videos of police pulling unarmed citizens out of their homes.
I’ll make leftists a deal. A real compromise I think we can all get behind.
I’ll agree to universal background checks and training requirements for carry.
If they’ll agree that in order to be eligible to vote, one must have a background check to determine citizen status, and must take and pass a comprehensive course on the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and American history, taught by the SAF.
Same thing, right? Both are rights that demand personal responsibility. The difference is that the misuse of a vote results in a much more catastrophic outcome than misuse of a gun.
Perhaps forcing people to actually understand the founding principles of their nation would result in fewer morons like Ari and his ilk.
I think as time goes on, more and more people will actually become concerned by this. What I find interesting is that many people, mostly the media, are comparing the Boston bombings to 9/11. While Boston is a terrible tragedy, it cannot be compared to a 9/11 type attack. However, the media did this to soften the blow of what was basically marshal law being imposed on a major US metropolitan area. So when we see an MRAP rolling down the street and SWAT teams forcing people out of their houses, we associate that image with the twin towers burning and the hole in the Pentagon, the loss of ~3000 lives, rather than the loss of 3.
Even Grassley thinks it’s not necessarily over for gun control in this Congress:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/25/joe-biden-guns_n_3157611.html
No need for conspiracy theories, it’s just the politics of the situation.
I think it would have been far more enlightening (to the average Joe) if it had gone on much longer. What would be the end strategy for the police had he not been found in the first 24 hours. Do they keep the whole city on lock down for 3 days? A week? Month? No one will notice the fact that the loss in economic production and the subsequent loss in tax revenues probably dwarfed the actual police expenditures, but after a couple of weeks people will start to yearn for a paycheck. When the storm troopers come and point their (evil) assault rifles at you and search you property once is one thing, but what about when they show back up 2 days later? What happens when it becomes evident that the bad guy must have slipped through the net?
They lifted the “request” around 6pm that afternoon with #2 still at large because the trail went cold, IIRC.
But, yes, a longer lockdown would have become less popular.
This is precisely why we need to go on the offensive. Gun free zones must be eliminated, and some sort of armed resistance placed in schools. There is a lot of intensity for “don’t take my gun rights”, but when it comes to investing some of that intensity into getting this accomplished, the firearms community seemingly nods and then goes home.
You can’t WIN a war playing defense.
Anyone against us on this should be railed against as supporting mass murder. It should became a mantra to be repeated, over and over again, very publicly.
Two more very specific areas in that great efforts must be undertaken are:
1. Retake Colorado, and beat the piss out of those anti gun pols there, and restore the rights of those folks.
2. Seeing to it that Citizens of Illinois, and particularly the city of Chicago, have as easy a time as possible arming themselves under whatever new CCW statutes they end up with. This should include a good availability of training. Over the long term, we know that this will cause crime rates to drop, and will be a very potent weapon in the pro gun arsenal in the future.
The timetable is the next few months. The Bloomberg crowd is busy beating up on the Senators who voted against Manchin-Toomey as we speak, so some kind of response is needed right away.
“It should became a mantra to be repeated, over and over again, very publicly.”
I really love this. From this moment on, consider it DONE.
Watch the video. Any citizen interested in protecting themselves via firearm in their own homes would have been gunned down in a hail of hundreds of LEO bullets. Anybody who told LEO that bomber boy wasn’t in their house and to go away would have faced dire consequences. Truly scary stuff.
That, J&D, was the comment I was about to write. What happened to “home carry” types when SWAT came to the door? Has anyone heard of such a case?
Picked up three hundred round value packs of Winchester white box for $120 at Walmart yesterday
Where’s the media? Utah fella stops knife-stabbing crazy fella with his legal gun. Where is NBC? This story would be ridiculous ratings for them.
http://wr2a.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/utah-gun-carrying-citizen-stops-stabbing-spree-wheres-the-media/
I did see that one on the news. Last year, 2012, when it happened.
Amerikans (sic) love boot lickin. The people of Boston who cheered the costumed enforcers after a citizen had found the punk make me sick to my stomach.
There’s a wallyworld near my office that I’ve had tremendous luck with lately. I’ve found 100 round packs of Federal 9mm, Winchester .38 Special, 30-30, and .40, and Tula 9mm, .223, and .308. Even scored 6 50 round boxes of Subsonic .22LR. Turns out the guy isn’t putting everything out at once. He told me he puts a few boxes out in the morning and the evening, so the resellers don’t try to work 3 box only rule and wipe them out.
And yet no one has stated the unequivical “Fact” that america, under Godbama, is far safer than it was at any other time in it’s history. It’s a “Fact’ and there is no deneying it (ask anyone in the MSM).
We are discussing the irrevalant. Our masters have enacted 90% of the Communist Manifesto and are ready to use violence to push the final 10% using Islamo-facists as their willing partners. Currently there are an (admitted) 20,000 untracked islamists in the nation and an additional 15 million undocumented infiltrators at large, not to mention 10,000’s of Somalies and an additional 20,000 “Meat Packers” Lindsey. Grahm want’s brought in (just like in Londanistan, but there they were called textile workers, who instantly went on Govt support).
That’s the current and presant danger that is about to be unleashed. LEO’s will act as the Military did in The Bosnian War to ‘patrol as peace keepers’ creating No Go Areas that have been Pacified by Jihadies and to keep the media at bay while the jihadies are moved to the next area to be pacified.
Decent article and lots of good comments. One nit to pick for me is the claim that an untrained shooter can reload in less than one second. That is total BS.
3 seconds for untrained!
I think most Americans will remember how the FLIR camera caught the badguys and all the police on the street kept any more private citizens from being injured. If they’re not too scared they’ll treat the next lockdown like a snow-day and watch some DVDs or get some chores done.
Sounds like the DHS is giving its officers as much training as police and military *should* be getting. 350 rounds is an average day at the range, not a year’s worth of training.
Rob,
We live in a total police state. .. And it’s not just a “blue state problem”.
Republicans love to worship anyone in uniform. There are a lot of unstable people in uniform and I know many LEO’s that are disqualified from obtaining carry permits due to criminal history. I hate the fact that I have to work with them.
Ron Paul was and has usually been right….
Another possibility that lawmakers seem to be ignoring is the ironically named New York reload.* It seems like a bunch of these mass shootings seem to be operating off the same shitty hollywood trope that dictates it’s easier to carry six guns than 5 magazines. My prediction is even if “high capacity” magazines are banned, the next step will be to regulate the number of guns on your person.
*For the record, I’m not knocking BUG doctrine, just the extremes some parties are willing to take it
My guess is that Ari was kicked off the debate team and that is how he ended up on MSNBC. One requires logic the other does not.
Thanks for the feedback everyone, and thank you Robert and Dan for posting it. I have many more available if you’d like to post them as well…I was working on a book shooting down the myths about gun control and was about 70% complete, but unfortunately Glenn Beck is releasing his book on the exact same topic this week so mine would have gotten lost in the media buzz.
I do not, in fact, want an AR-15 to defend my home. I have an AK-47 and an AK-74 for that. Personal preference.
I’m glad my AR isn’t black. Eeeevil Flat Dark Earth Rifle doesn’t roll off the tongue the same way. If it were black, there is no doubt in my mind that many, many terrible things would have been perpetrated by it already. As it is in its FDE configuration, all it does is sit around and sing Kumbayah. Thank the heavens, crisis averted.
sorry Nick. I don’t believe a word you say. My tinfoil hat doesn’t tune into “gun nut”.
BWAHAHAHAHA I kill me.
p.s. We should be on a single purpose mission to put Microsoft and NBC out of business.
Y’all are preaching to the choir, y’know. You guys already know this stuff. Why not send him an email correcting his warped, factless, biased opinions? I did. Sent him right to this page. Hope he reads it.
I’ve shot IDPA for several years and in that game you are obviously limited to one weapon and its ammo. You do everything with that one gun on your hip or in your hand. When I started shooting 3 Gun, my natural inclination was to always have my handgun in its holster and ammo for it on my belt – even if the stage did not call for pistol. It wasn’t until I reached the last stage of my first match that I realized maybe having a pistol in its holster was bad idea as I was going to be running/gunning with the shotgun and then transitioning to prone rifle shots – no pistol shots required. What if my pistol worked its way loose?
So my big lesson was kit up with only what you need and nothing you don’t. This may seem obvious, but it took me 5 stages to get it and this practice can help you avoid dropping things you don’t need in the first place.
In the same place Liberty was born for this country it will die, how uncomfortably ironic.
The biggest point missed here is that these two terrorist made bombs from materials that were legally available. It’s not like they stole or bought grenades or components to build a bomb. They simply made a destructive device with the materials that were available to them. So in essence his jump from assault rifles to assault bombs has no merit whatsoever.
Maybe they are finally listening to the 91% of Americans? They had a march in the capital yesterday. Is this the 91% Obama keeps talking about? Maybe (haha when hasn’t he lied?) Obama lied and it wasn’t 91%, it was 91 people.
“and no responsible gun owner wants an AR-15 to repel intruders from their apartment” . . . no true scotsman. I wish someone somewhere in front of a camera will put these two words together: “question” and “begging”.
There are two types of shooters in matches… those that have been DQ’ed and those that will be. I have been DQ’ed in a IPSC type meet. It stings and you learn a lot when it happens. Mine was a stupid mental error. After showing clear and dropping the hammer down range, I bent over to pick up a magazine before I holstered. I swept my knee. It was entirely my fault and a reflection of how I had been practicing changing magazines that week. I had been working on mag changes all week and not holstering the gun when picking up magazines. DOH!
If you give up liberty and freedom for a little safety ,you will in the end have neither liberty or safety( Sam Adams i think said that). Boston was overkill, and they had military and bomb units, and dogs , and SWAT all ready before any bombs went off, I see rats coming out the cracks in the reports, and I feed this was a test run, someone knew about these bombers if Russia was sending intel. reports on these guys ,,, START THINKING ….folks
And it was a bit more bloody than that
The guy who came up with the image is the same guy who did the old “Andre the Giant has a posse” stickers from the 90s. I used to whiz on them in the urinal on a regular basis as a kid. He did Obama’s creepy poster and he is the owner and inspiration behind the popular hipster clothing label “Obey.”
American liberals are an increasingly scary bunch. They have taken Soviet Kitsch to the next level with this imagery being so directly associated with Obama and his celebrity supporters. It’s like pop culture Marxist collectivism, completely divorced from reality, but with infinite wealth and media power behind it.
Did he mess up the gun in the poster on purpose or does he not know what one looks like?
You’ve misjudged: he doesn’t CARE what one looks like. In fact, he sorta wishes he’d never seen one.
If Piers Morgan’s parents are alive they should apply for a rebate on the money they spent on his education.
Australia has had a mass shooting, Ival Mellich (spelling of name?) killed 10 = people not all at once but 10+ is a mass.
Australia is a lousy metaphor to the US, they have a mostly homogenous society and a near clone of the British criminal justice system and central govt. Idiotboy Piers must forget why we fought his fembag ancestors at Bunker Hill, to prevent the nanny state central rule of matriarchies like Britain. Unfortunately, these creepy statists are insidious and never take a break from pushing their intrusive Marxist agenda, unlike freedom lovers who just want to be left alone.
Well, if we go by the poster’s writing:
I am Satan.
I got no problem with that.
Here is another item to THINK on , In my military study , I learned the goal of the terrorist is what, kill people , destroy buildings , or do as much hurt as can,??? NO the only true GOAL of the terrorist is to make the government take so much controls , that in the end the people will hate and fear the government more than the bad guys, and this is who they get new members from… Study war, say WW2 , the Germans and later Russia because of being so hard handed turned most people to the other side… Same thing in Viet Nam, the Viet Cong got so many people on their side because the government became so hard handed in their actions.. Same in the middle east.. (BLOWBACK) will keep growing ,, Was it not our policy to try and win hearts and minds.. So the terrorist won this one again…
“I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to.”
That just about sums up my response to Morgan and others of his ilk.
Marvelous! Is that original with you sir?
That would be Colonel Nathan R. Jessup
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j2F4VcBmeo&t=1m10s
EDIT: at 1:10
Ladies and gentlemen, we want Piers Morgan, Michael Bloomberg, Lawrence O’Donnell and their like to keep this up as long as possible. Without their outrageous sanctimonious actions and speeches, our side would never have had all the ammunition we needed to defeat this crap. There is absolutely nothing moderate about Morgan, O’Donnell, or Bloomberg when it comes to the 2nd amendment.
It may be my own selection bias at work, but I’m pretty certain that they are pushing the fence sitters to our side of the equation, not theirs. My wife, after the Boston lockdown incident, turned to me and said “it’s time for me to learn how to shoot.” I’ve been trying to get her to do that for the better part of five years. And just like that, without much fanfare, she became one of us. She won’t be getting her CCW anytime soon, but we have a new ally.
Very few ordinary citizens (who do not engage with firearms) care about this issue in the way that Bloomberg or Morgan do. Like that recent poll showed, “gun-control” is only the most important issue to 4% of the population. As was shown time and time again, we outnumber these folks about 3 to 1, and we vote, en masse. The fact that the left would let a Briton push their pet cause of disarmament, without getting the historical irony involved, just shows how out of touch they are with most of the people who make up this country. They are giving us a treasure trove of materials to use in the run-up to next year’s election. Our next job is to make sure that we make it a priority to vote in ’14.
+10000
Would have loved to have been in your debate club, sounds like it would have been a blast.
Thank-you, I’ve noted the same thing, and it’s been a lonely fight. “Yes, yes, yes” I’ll say to the bereaved antis, “you’re for background checks, but was the end worth the means? How could you _not_ be appalled at this bill? You did read it, didn’t you?”
The point is not to do something positive, nor is it to do something wrong (major exceptions stand out here); the issue is to JUST DO SOMETHING.
Anything. It gets them off the hook for the hidden evil.
Nikola Tesla: Mr. Angier, have you considered the cost of such a machine?
Robert Angier: Price is not an object.
Nikola Tesla: Perhaps not, but have you considered the *cost*?
Robert Angier: I’m not sure I follow.
Nikola Tesla: Go home. Forget this thing. I can recognize an obsession, no good will come of it.
Robert Angier: Why, haven’t good come of your obsessions?
Nikola Tesla: Well at first. But I followed them too long. I’m their slave… and one day they’ll choose to destroy me.
Robert Angier: If you understand an obsession then you know you won’t change my mind.
government-ordered and enforced “lockdown.”
Really? Because it was requested. Yes the city shut down mass transit and closed roads, but you could still move around the city if you absolutely wanted to.
Hell, go watch youtube videos of the new, you’ll see people out for a jog.
You know, when I first started reading this website, everything was in perspective and there were gun and gear reviews every day. Hell, you guys took time to help me buy my first gun.
Things are changing here, and not for the good either. Just felt like I should point that out.
“If, as the anti-gun crowd claim, a few more bullets won’t increase my safety, then it’s only logical that a few more bullets won’t increase their danger either.”
Well said.
I came across people who couldn’t understand why I had a problem with the idea of internet sales BGC, even as I explained guns do not get shipped to the purchaser, but to an FFL who would do a BGC on the purchaser. I attempted to explain my discomfort with the wording promising no registry by the Justice Department, in that it should have stated no registry by ANY agency or office of the government, as registration is a forebear to confiscation. The response given me by all was “If they let you buy it, why on earth would they take it away”, not withstanding governments doing precisely this on a state level by enacting new legislation. It is amazing how most people, led by the talking heads in the press, never bother to look into the minutiae of a bill, then bitch when those of us who actually decide to read and understand the bill-have issues with it. As the old saying goes-the devil is in the details. For those who are advocates of gun control, the details do not matter, only the control.
The AR 15 never left the car… All these stories get it wrong on purpose to force politically stores like Dick’s and Walmart to stop selling guns. It is a terrible tragedy.
Loved the last part of the video where you say your wife is still mad at you. Rewind to the part of your video where you say “the kids will be fine.” Your wife will be fine too. She’ll get over it, eventually. Congrats to you for knowing your rights and choosing to exercise them.
Dude needs a little chickenwing control.
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