Previous Post
Next Post

-A-man-with-empty-pockets-002

Happy tax day, if that’s even possible. As Daniel Webster once opined, the power to tax it the power to destroy. And that’s why, as happy clappy as the idea of replacing the IRS with a one-postcard-and-you’re-done flat tax may be, it will never happen. That kind of radical reform and simplification would deprive the .gov of too much of its power. Power over things like firearms, which many in positions of power would dearly love to tax out of existence . . .


‘The Gunning of America’ takes aim at the role of guns in our history – “Against the popularized notion that guns were central to the making of America, Haag offers a powerful counter-narrative. … The ‘Gunning of America’ abounds with ironies. The gun as an essential component of the image of the rugged individualists who settling this country turns out to be mostly fantasy, concocted in corporate boardrooms.” Is Pamela Haag’s opus better sourced than Michael Bellesile’s? Let’s hope so.

bs-md-ci-guns-20160412-001

Focus on ‘trigger pullers’ results in sustained spike in Baltimore gun seizures – “‘Any other time, a 53 percent increase in gun arrests would coincide with a reduction in violence,’ (Police Commissioner Kevin) Davis said. ‘It’s not corresponding with a reduction in violence, and we’re trying to figure out why.'”

Cincinnati community leaders offer gift cards for guns – $50 for long guns and $100 for handguns. Time to get those beaters out and cash in?

Screen Shot 2016-04-15 at 11.16.49 AM

EPD: Woman False Reports Stolen Guns – “…police got a tip (Kara) McDaniels gave the guns to a friend as she was divorcing her husband and was afraid of him having weapons.”

 

Previous Post
Next Post

25 COMMENTS

    • Tomorrow is Emancipation Day.
      Today is the day the District of Columbia chooses to observe Emancipation Day this year, in order to not lose a paid day off work just because a minor holiday falls on a weekend.

  1. Yeah. People head into a wilderness already occupied by tribes that have been there for generations. Tribes that will be hostile to encroachment. And those people don’t go armed?

    Every man, woman and child from the Northern European Honky tribe that invaded the pre United States that was capable of packing was armed.

  2. Yeah that’s how it happened. America was settled with hugs and freed from the British by softly spoken words, erotically whispered into King George’s ear.

  3. They way to stop illegal gun trafficking? 10 year minimum sentence for possessing or selling a stolen hand gun. No parole. But where will we house these poor, unfortunate, underprivileged men who were just about to turn their life around? Simple. Instead of letting murders and gang bangers get a free college education inside, have them build the prison. Masonry, carpentry, electrical, plumbing, roofing, etc. Real skills they can use when they get out. Let’s face it. There aren’t many of these guys coming out of prison with their pretend degrees becoming physicists or doctors.

    • That should work, because the 10-year minimum sentence for drug trafficking that’s been on the books since the mid-1980s has completely eradicated the illegal drug trade.

  4. The abolish the IRS thing is just Ted Cruz campaign BS. Even with a simplified tax system there is going to be an agency charged with collecting taxes. Renaming the IRS is like changing the name of the NVD to the NKVD. Why are you falling for this?

    • Why are you not falling for this? Think of all those accountants who can no longer rely on government nonsensical BS, paid, bribed, and corrupted by corporations to modify the tax code into the monstrosity that it is today. Imagine multiplying your income by a single percentage to obtain your tax. Imagine all those IRS employees that can go get a real job instead of adding to the tax burden. How many IRS guys do you need to check a single number multiplied by a percentage. Sounds great to me.

    • Still, if they fired everyone who worked for the IRS and replaced them with 2000 random people out of the Boston phone directory it would be a huge improvement.

    • Correct the IRS will still exist. However, if can be simplified. It costs $14billion to run the IRS. It will never be zero but it can be much less.

  5. As for Baltimore…

    “Davis said police developed a list of 600 “trigger-pullers” — people they believe are most likely to shoot someone or be shot. He said 47 people on the list have been killed since September, and 155 have been arrested”

    Make a list…25% get arrested and 7.8% get dead. Wonder if that ratio holds when 2A is punted of the parchment.

  6. From the article on Baltimore gun arrests:

    Any other time, a 53 percent increase in gun arrests would coincide with a reduction in violence,” Davis said. “It’s not corresponding with a reduction in violence, and we’re trying to figure out why.

    Why might that be, I wonder?

    <if those arrested with illegal guns aren't kept behind bars, the impact of seizures will be smaller — an argument Davis made, to no avail, in pressing state lawmakers this year for steeper penalties for illegal gun possession

    Oh, that’s right, because it’s the criminals, not the guns. You seize the guns, but release the criminals.

  7. The power to tax is not unlimited. The Supreme Court has ruled that a poll tax may not be imposed on voters, nor can the right to vote be denied on the basis of non-payment of any tax.
    In finding the poll tax unconstitutional, SCOTUS was re-applying the principle “The power to tax is the power to destroy”. No government has been given the power to destroy, by taxation, any right of the people.
    If the poll tax is an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote, any tax on the right to keep and bear arms is likewise unconstitutional.
    Taking that a step further — if poll taxes are adjudged to be an unconstitutional violation of voting rights, then any fee for the exercise of 2nd Amendment rights, such as a CCW, including any required training courses, must be paid from general tax revenue, NOT paid by the individual who wishes to exercise his RKBA.
    I did not pay any fee to register to vote, nor have I ever paid to vote or exercise my right to free speech, worship as I pleased (or choose not to worship), or exercise any other right guaranteed to me by the Constitution. To do so would serve to make my rights subject to the power of the state to tax them out of existence for all but the rich.
    If the voters wish to require any sort of “regulation” of 2nd Amendment rights, then they must pay for the expense engendered by such “regulation”, if they consider the benefit worth the expense.

  8. I believe “The Power to tax is the power to destroy” was written by Chief Justice Marshall in the McCullough v. Maryland decision.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here