courtesy chron.com
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McConaughey fears March for Our Lives will get ‘hijacked’

Alright, alright, alright . . .

A month after speaking at the March for Our Lives in his hometown of Austin, Texas, Matthew McConaughey says he supports some gun control but fears the youth-led movement could be “hijacked” by those hoping to eliminate all guns in the United States.

McConaughey spoke about his support for the marchers on Monday in Las Vegas, where he was promoting his upcoming film, “White Boy Rick,” at the CinemaCon theater-owners convention.

He called gun violence “an epidemic in our country.”

courtesy theverge.com

Google and Facebook adopt water gun emoji, leaving Microsoft holding the pistol

A pressing issue for the tech giants . . .

Google is the latest company to ditch the pistol with a new emoji update for Android users. The switch to a bright orange and yellow water gun, rolling out now, mimics changes made by Apple, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Samsung over the last few years. That leaves Microsoft as the only major platform with the realistic handgun emoji. True, Facebook still uses it, but a spokesperson for the company confirmed to Emojipedia that it would also be replacing its gun emoji with a toy water gun. The Verge has reached out to Microsoft for comment.

The move makes Google’s gun emoji correspond with other platforms. So, if a friend sends the playful water pistol from an iPhone, it will now look similar on an Android device or in a tweet without any unintended miscommunication.

courtesy nypost.com

Suspected Waffle House shooter’s ex-boss urged feds to keep him locked up

Oh look…even more red flags . . .

The co-owner of a Colorado crane company where the suspect in a deadly weekend shooting at a Nashville restaurant once worked said she had urged federal officials to keep him in custody after he was arrested at the White House last year.

Travis Reinking, 29, is accused of opening fire Sunday outside a Waffle House with an AR-15 rifle and then storming the restaurant, wearing only a green jacket. Four people were killed and four others were wounded in the shooting.

But Reinking had exhibited erratic behavior for years before the shooting. Crane company co-owner Darlene Sustrich said they got a call from the FBI after he allegedly tried to jump the White House fence last July.

“We told them, ‘Hang onto him if you can. Help him if you can,’” Sustrich said.

courtesy chicagotribune.com and AP

His daughter took two bullets in a school shooting, but he says guns aren’t the problem

Jeff Dysinger’s daughter survived two bullets from a classmate at her Kentucky high school this year, but he hasn’t joined in the national outcry over guns that escalated after 17 people died in a Florida school shooting three weeks later.

Dysinger owns an AR-15 military-style rifle — the same weapon used in the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting on Feb. 14. He believes deeply in the right to bear arms. And he says the eruptions of school violence in Florida, Kentucky and elsewhere aren’t about guns. …

“I think everybody in rural Kentucky, we’re all brought up with guns, I mean we’ve all been around guns our entire life,” said Dysinger, a former soldier who has used his AR-15 for sport shooting and hunting. “Kids in cities like (Parkland, Florida) don’t get that.”

courtesy thedailybeast.com

Want to Change Our Gun Culture and Stop Mass Shootings? Think About Bringing Back the Draft.

No, this is not from The Onion . . .

The evidence is all around us, in plain view. Since 9/11, fueled by fear over terrorism and the blurred line between civilians at home and soldiers at war, we have seen an explosion of martial worship. Hipsters today wear beards that look a lot like those that seen on special force members returning from Afghanistan in the 2000’s.

Tactical backpacks with Molle gear have become the norm for a simple hike on a Saturday afternoon. Tactical firearms are hot sellers, not because veterans are buying them after returning home from the battlefield, though some do, but because a generation of men who, instead of enlisting after 9/11, stayed home and allowed others to fight in their stead wants them. They want them to go to the range and shoot steel, and feel a sense of manliness they associate with the imagery and the weapons of war.

The top selling video game in 2017, Call of Duty, allows young men to fantasize about glorious deeds in battle, with no exposure to actual danger. Even coffee companies and baby carriers have become tacticool. It’s not an accident.

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110 COMMENTS

  1. I’d say go a step further and do compulsory military service in exchange for paid tuition to trade school or college. And no student deferments, buying your way out, or getting out for “bone spurs” either.

    • As a Vet that served in OIF/OEF with most of my pay over my career being tax free, I cannot stress the importance of keeping people who are compelled to serve or people who are looking for welfare out of the military. It is dangerous and detrimental to the function of a cohesive unit to have soldiers who are just there for the “bennys”.

      • What does $ have to do with the article and what was your MOS(break it down barney, no one wants to search .mil codes + years and DIV)?

        • I think compulsory civil service is a great idea. Give people two years of doing a menial job for a inefficient government agency that doesn’t give a rats behind about them and maybe the entitled, “I WANT IT NOW”, protected from all types of offence in my safe space mentality will wither on the vine for the majority of these millennials. Military service should be an option but not a compulsion. I don’t want someone who doesn’t want to be there doing any military job, and lord knows we have enough of them that become disaffected with it, we don’t need add more. 6 years in AFSOC for those scoring at home…

        • that is why part of my sugestion is using the military to build major works projects with the example i gave being projects like the snowy river hydro electric scheme. it would also entail some basic military training such as the initial boot camp and that while it may irk a good many if combined with old fashioned discipline not the modern PC BS then it may well pull a good many of them far enough out of their “safe space” that they have to adjust to the real world. if they insist on wanting a safe space maybe we should give them a 2’x2’x6′ padded cell for the rest of their life. theres your safe space

        • I’m anti-slavery across the board. Slavery masquerading as patriotism, as being in the national interest, or “for your own good” doesn’t make it right.

      • Agree. I only want volunteers in the military. No draft.

        Dont want anyone around who doesn’t want to be there.

        24 years in uniform, 14 as a 11C if anyone is asking.

        IMO.

        • 17 years in uniform (Big Army & then National Guard) medically retired Combat Engineer, 1 year OIF & an earlier one in Korea. Proud father of two military-age sons. IMHO, a two year mandatory draft in the National Guard would introduce young men to the rigors & rewards of military service like nothing else. Some would love it & stay. Most would gladly return to their civilian pursuits. ALL would be better men (& citizens) for their relatively brief service, as would our nation.

      • Came here to say something to this effect, but also to add…

        We have enough problems these days with recruits meeting minimum standards for physical fitness and education. We don’t need the US military to become (more of) a remedial school.

        • NO on both the Military Draft and/or Mandatory National service!

          In 2018 America, Both would be a communist re-education and indoctrination center and would be staffed to a great degree, by Antifa and Somali “Instructors” ( In actuality concentration camp guards ) who would be set upon disarmed and helpless American Citizens that did not conform!

          Also, the NWO wants to use Mandatory National service after Martial Law/Curfew is declared following a False Flag attack, to Try and microchip/vaccinate the American population at mandatory military/national service training centers ( FEMA camps )!

          Our Military has to be brought home and slashed, so it can not be used as an endless supply of slave labor, for Wars of Profit/Slaughter for the Globalist!

          Our Military also has to be slashed so it can not be turned against the American Citizenry!

      • I have mixed feelings about the draft. I enlisted at 17 and volunteered for Vietnam. I spent 7 years and was a 13E, Cannon Fire Direction. I got in some trouble with the law growing up without a father. Plenty of other kids being drafted were jammed up with the law. The Army straightened us up. We also had Vets coming back in who got jammed up with the law and were given the choice of prison or back to the Military. The Army was one of the best things I ever did in life. 1971 I served with a lot of conscripts, some good some bad. I liked the Draft Army better than the All Volunteer Army. With the contract came entitlement for some.

        I see the Draft coming back. With current events count on it. We can’t afford to pay for the Volunteer Army. I think I got something like $350 in country as a Pfc. When I served the Army was one and three quarters million strong and that was just the size of the Army. If we are going to put boots on the ground, and we will, the All Volunteer Army will never be big enough. You pay conscripts less than a minimum wage. Manpower shortages will guarantee conscription male and female and without deferments. My son was a Marine grunt and made it home. I’m deeply concerned for my Grandkids.

        • The draft would be the best thing right after high school, all draftees would go only to the grunts 2 yrs & all enlistees could pick their MOS providing their test scores were compatible for the job.
          That would definitely change some of this Anti American-Anti White, Antifa BS going around.

      • As a vet who served during the Viet Nam era, I can say that you’re wrong.
        Draftees served honorably and well. They actually learned (or already knew) the basics of being a part of humanity.
        The draft also provided a lot of honorable men during the 20th century.
        Yet, somehow, you think draftees would only be there for the “bennies”?
        Maybe you’re right. Maybe the majority of today’s young people are that selfish. Maybe they really are just flower children with no purpose in life. But I remember the same claims back when I enlisted. They were wrong then, and I think they are wrong now. Today’s young people want to do the right thing, but they aren’t taught how to do it any more. And that’s the problem, not a lack on their part.
        The people haven’t changed, their upbringing has.

        • You are dead on right. Where the hell did the notion come from that just because you are drafted you will likely not be a decent soldier? Way too many of the finest that ever served were drafted. Way too many that volunteered couldn’t do jack elsewhere. And vice-versa.

        • I’ve thought about that just now. I’m not sure what point you were looking to make, but if your number (32 draftees received the MoH) is correct, it is actually a point against and army of volunteers vs an army of draftees – the total number of MoH given during the Vietnam war was 260, with 174 of those going to soldiers in the US Army. I’m not sure of where the draftees were sent (some people claim up to 90% of the Infantry at one point was draftees, because volunteers chose specialist or less dangerous roles; while others claim it was much lower, with the Pentagon saying it was about 40% draftees), but regardless, if it’s true that 32 draftees received the MoH, then it means that only 12.3% (32 of 260) of all MoH recipients were draftees – or if all draftees were assumed to be in the Army (the best case scenario for making your point), then only 18.4% (32 of 174) of Army MoH recipients were draftees. This is far less than the percentage of either the entire military or the Army that was draftees.
          Either way, it’s clear that draftees earned far less MoH per capita than volunteers. This should in no way be taken to imply that draftees are bad/lesser/whatever, nor should it diminish the undoubted valor of many draftees. The point I’m trying to make is that if you want to use the number of MoH received, you are actually making the point that volunteers (overall, not every single individual) perform better than draftees.

      • HOOAH to ORCON comments! Soldiers who want to be there vs those who have been conscripted does make a difference in unit cohesion, attitude and combat effectiveness.

    • There are the small problems of kidnapping being unethical and that the unwilling are more problematic soldiers, but other than that….

      • Conscription seemed to work pretty well until the government stopped being interested in “winning” wars instead of this crap of maintaining borders and long-term “police action” occupations that we’ve done since Korea. WW1 and 2 were fought by conscripted armies against conscripted armies.

        • Slavery always works well for the masters. In your cited examples, our slaves just happened to be better than their slaves.

        • Let’s not forget here that World War Two was an immensely popular war with a catalyzing event for the public. Honestly a draft wasn’t probably wasn’t even necessary, but surely aided numbers. I remember my grandfather telling me about guys who killed themselves because they were rejected by the draft board for various medical reasons. You’re looking at an entirely different kind of American populace and mindset

      • Agree, but it will always have manpower shortages. You need lots of Infantry, Armor and Field Artillery to take and hold ground.

        • True, there will be shortages because governments rarely if ever are willing to pay market wages for soldiers when they can conscript slaves instead. From a societal point of view, who the hell are you to demand others to be forced to do work that you are unwilling to do for wages far below what the free market would dictate.

          In Iraq a sergeant’s combat pay was around $80,000/yr. Contractors were making double that for support roles. Patriotism and a pension that kicks in with just 20 years of service is enough to entice a sufficient number of recruits for such relatively low pay. However, in a conscripted army there’s no incentive to pay even that market value and the slave/soldier works for a fraction of that.

        • It depends Gov.

          What was the average wage in 1942? About $2400/year.

          If we scale average enlisted (conscript) pay properly for taxes and the fact that they didn’t have to pay for basic amenities we find that the average enlisted solder, based on average TIS (assuming they had survived that long) in 1944 was basically making $3600 (keeping in mind that this includes the fact that they had certain expenses “removed” from their needs).

          That’s 150% of what your average American was making on the homefront and really it’s more because civilians had to pay taxes on that $2400 too. So we can’t really say that conscripted soldiers were always getting short shrift compared to civilians.

          In modern times it’s true that contractors did, for a time, make a ton of money. They also filled rolls that the US military couldn’t which is exactly why the government was forced to pay them high wages (er, well sign contracts with the companies that paid them those wages). However, the guys who were contractors were also almost always retired military who already had significant service. Go back to circa 2005 and even with the military throwing waivers at people like candy they couldn’t recruit enough people and on top of that neither could contractors. At the time companies like Blackwater were offering $200K+ jobs, that’s true, but they were also dangerous jobs that required a lot of experience (often 6+ years military experience in specific MOS’s) before Blackwater and the like would consider hiring people for those jobs. Those companies were not interesting in training people very much because they really didn’t have the time and unless you had the background you were a liability. They basically wanted turn-key employees (mostly they still do). The concept that they were hiring “cops” wasn’t strictly speaking true since most of the LEO’s picked up were picked up for LEO type duties AND had prior military experience to boot.

          So those contractors had, by and large, already done their time as a soldier and in so doing had picked up a set of specific skills that got them the lucrative contracting jobs. Joe Blow off the street need not apply because contractors were not going to hire them so it wasn’t exactly (and still isn’t) a truly free market position.

          It’s not like some rando person could just sign up, get “trained” handed a rifle and body armor and sent out to contract. That’s how it was for basically any position other than admin and that’s how it still is for those companies. As with many things in life it wasn’t, and still isn’t a simple situation.

        • Gov, “In Iraq a sergeant’s combat pay was around $80,000/yr.”
          That is twice what my E6 pay was in Afghanistan. 42k and that included my combat pay and special hazard pay. My reenlistment bonus was a whopping $2,500.

        • jwt, I believe the guy who told me that was E9 (in fact I think it might have been more like $78,000). Not guaranteeing the accuracy of my statement, but ‘sergeant’ was probably too broad of a term. He kicked in a lot of doors and had to pick up the pieces of another soldier up off the street, so he deserved every penny IMHO. I had heard the contractors were bringing in around $160,000/yr.

          strych, you’re right about Blackwater, in fact I think a lot of them were retired, pensioned military in their late 30s and early 40s.

          That said, I’m not walking up Mt. Suribachi with a flame thrower and 50 pounds of LP on my back for 50% above the national average working man’s wage. Without the patriotism discount I think I’d want at least something in the vicinity of Michael Jordan pay.

        • I may be misreading what you’re saying, guv, but a draftee gets paid the same as a volunteer of the same rank.

        • Quite the opposite GFZ, when the government conscripts soldiers it obliterates any concept of free market labor rates for soldiering. Sure the volunteers get paid the same as the conscripts but they both take pay that’s well below whatever the market rate would be if there was a free market.

        • Guv. In my day an E4 was a corporal. The perfect rank. Held by the perfect soldiers.

    • Nah. From what I’ve read, 5 out of the last 6 mass shooters came from broken homes.
      It is very well documented the much higher incidence of drug use, criminality, mental illness, suicide and becoming a mass murderer if one comes from a single parent family or from a broken home due to divorce.

      To really solve the problem of random mass murder would be to re-institute the support and expectation that a family consists of a husband and wife committed (till death do they part) to raising mature and responsible adults. That would solve alot of our current cultural problems.

      Of course, for that to happen, we would probably either need to have a national voluntary Christian revival or the alternative would be to go through a societal collapse, followed by a dark age, with all the usual atrocities, mass murder, starvation and death, then followed by a Christian revival, rebuilding a Christian nation from the ashes. This last scenario is the more likely one.

        • Get rid of AFDC and similar welfare programs that have fostered/facilitated/become symbiotic with single parenthood. AFDC and the like are failures to anyone that can open their eyes. Getting rid of it would also reduce the likelihood of quickie divorces because there would be much more financial consequence to both the male and female. In situations of a real need for divorce, the party most at fault pays the child support, not the government. And both parties get jobs.

        • Both you guys and your suggestions would be great, but to pass those kind of laws, we probably would have to have a Christian Revival on a nationwide level for that to happen.

      • It has to start with our government by financially rewarding intact families and children born in wedlock instead of rewarding single parent homes and children born out of wedlock. Right now, at least 67% of black children are born out-of-wedlock. In 1960, nonmarital births were quite rare. Today, about two-fifths of all births are to unmarried women. This resulted from a complicated combination of moral and behavioral changes, and a new report from Senator Mike Lee’s Social Capital Project disentangles them:

        https://ifstudies.org/blog/how-we-ended-up-with-40-percent-of-children-born-out-of-wedlock

        This graphic from the study is extremely telling: https://ifstudies.org/ifs-admin/resources/figure8-1-w640.png

    • Robert Heinlein proposed essentially the same thing in Starship Troopers but with two differences.

      The first was that it was some sort of designated public service not necessarily in the armed forces. A volunteer might be assigned to fight forest fires or, if he had medical training, might be assigned to a short staffed rural hospital.

      The second was that a term of public service was a requirement for full citizenship. Completing your term earned you the right to vote and hold public office. Otherwise, your status was similar to that of a resident alien.

      • pretty much the sort of thing i would propose. military service and you get lower taxes for life but i would also use the military’s expertise and facilities to be able to help build infrastructure and in doing so also train people in valuable skills that they can use outside the military…. a good example would be the snowy mountains hydro scheme that we in australia built years ago though with mostly new immigrant labour. they worked on projects like this to pay their way and help get them started in the country. there was no free lunch, you worked for it unlike today and today if you were born here unless you are aboriginal then it is getting much harder to get any benefits but if you are an illegal alien or aboriginal they virtually hand you the keys to the bank vault with all the workings peoples taxes in it. GRAND THEFT of the highest order

      • Heinlein also said “I also think there are prices too high to pay to save the United States. Conscription is one of them. Conscription is slavery, and I don’t think that any people or nation has a right to save itself at the price of slavery for anyone, no matter what name it is called. We have had the draft for twenty years now; I think this is shameful. If a country can’t save itself through the volunteer service of its own free people, then I say: Let the damned thing go down the drain!”

        • And when it goes down the drain you wind up with universal slavery for all when the next superpower takes over from abroad.

          It’s fair though. Instead of a small percentage of the population being ‘draft slaves’ the entire nation is in chains.

        • And if things are that bad and you can’t get enough volunteers, then maybe, just maybe, things really aren’t that bad, or the people you would enslave really don’t think the alternative is as much worse as you think, and it’s still none of your business to decide for them that they need to fight and die for your cause.

    • Conscription is slavery.

      “In exchange for …” — you must be joking. You make it sound voluntary.

      You supporting conscription is you saying you know what’s best for your proposed slaves better than they know what’s best for themselves.

      Then there’s the practical matter. Roughly 4-5 million people born every year. Active personal somewhere around 1.2 million. I don’t know what proportion are lifers, but probably about half. Shoving 4 million people through 600,000 jobs every year means the average job length is 7 weeks. Baby boot camp and you’re out. What a waste. Everyone would slack off because what useless punishment are you going to throw at all those kids who refuse to take 7 weeks of drilling seriously?

      Conscription is slavery.

      I spent four years in the navy at the tail end of the Vietnam War. Lots of sailors who couldn’t wait to get out; slackers the lot. They had only joined the Navy to avoid the draft. Went to Karachi and sent 40 sailors home for bring drugs on board, discharge for the good of the service, or whatever they called it. Get rid of the deadwood. Same reason Bush Jr got away with deserting the National Guard; why waste effort prosecuting dead wood, just get rid of it.

      That’s what you’d have. 7 weeks of deadwood, no effective discipline.

      Conscription is slavery.

      • “Same reason Bush Jr got away with deserting the National Guard”

        Narrator: And this was where he completely failed to present a valid argument.

    • If we are doing “compulsory” military service, start it in high school junior year. You can train the kids and you end up with better healthier young adults with more self esteem. If you want to then volunteer of “mainline” service when you turn 18, great, but we also now have a reserve for selective service that is actually worth something.

      Also think what it would do for gun rights if every graduating high school kid knew the manual of arms for a AR-15

      • Perhaps start earlier with compulsory baseball. Maybe that way they’ll be able to you know, throw a grenade, when they get older.

    • Is the draft Constitutional? Serious question. I’m not asking if it’s a good idea or effective, etc. I’m asking what empowers the Feds to compel Military service?

    • If I had been old enough to enlist, I would have the done so on 9/12/2001. By the time I was old enough to enlist, the US was at war with Iraq for some reason and Afghanistan was a quagmire. I decided against joining an immoral war effort. If I had been drafted, I would have had very low morale and probably would have affected the morale of those around me.

  2. The single best thing that can be done to get respect back into our society is to mandate a 4 year military service requirement for all individuals beginning at age 18. No excuses No deferments. Those with mental or physical defects can still perform duties for the service. Children of service members can be left with family members to care for them. For those with no family a program can be set up to provide care. The purpose of the program is to instill a sense of honor and respect for yourself and the rest of your troop. Teaching the skills needed to work as a team and survive regardless of the task at hand. All the while learning that regardless of how you fell about someone or something different. With a team and a goal you can achieve anything. That has been lost on these new generations of Millennials and Offendials. It’s time they were made to put some skin in the game and have something truly important to strive for. Keep Your Powder Dry.

      • “See my post about Robert Heinlein.”
        Heinlein is entitled to his opinion, just like he’s entitled to his own anus.
        Having an opinion you agree with doesn’t make him a god.

        I understand the “slavery” concept concerning the draft.
        I also understand a commitment to honor and justice,which means I understand that when someone acts on a desire to take over the world for his own gain (see Germany in the 30s and Japan in the same era; see also radical Islamists now), anyone who just sits back and says, “I don’t want to fight for right, and I don’t want anyone else like me to, either,” is asking to be a slave. Because if your apathy and lack of backbone to fight for what you know is right were followed to it’s logical conclusion, you would end up serving those you refuse to fight.
        Sometimes people need to be forced to do what’s right. If you can’t figure out why, then that’s a problem you’ll have to deal with at some time in your life.

    • If I was 18 again I would have signed up for the Air Force right away instead of blowing money on college, or done ROTC. I had a 99 on the AFQT when I tried to join later on, and I was all ready to go for Linguistics, but they barred me for 3 years because I had seen a psychiatrist (simply to get a mental health assessment saying I was okay because I had been on antidepressants before). By then I had gotten chubby and disinterested.

    • yes the Israeli army do exactly that those with physical or mental impairments may be behind a desk doing admin or they may be packing rat packs or kit bags. for those that refuse a combat role when there is no medical grounds (conscientious objector) there is the medics, supply chain, maintenance of equipment such as mechanics, fitters, machinists (even sewing machinists). in peace time they could also be out building or repairing roads or building dams and learning engineering skills through all that. for those conscientious objectors that refuse all forms of service there would be absolutely no govt services of any kind for them for the rest of their lives, no voting, no chance of any job anywhere in govt (including postal service or local council worker) and i would propose 50% tax rate as well

    • i would also add that any overseas service i would make strictly voluntary on the part of all service members but any politicians and family members thereof of serving age if they voted to send troops overseas to some foreign conflict would be REQUIRED to serve IN THE FRONT LINE, not somewhere to the rear. this to deter them from sending troops to conflicts not of immediate national interest…. eg not just in the interest of their corporate mates. personally i dont know of many politicians who would vote for sending troops overseas if it meant they and their kids were first in line to be shot at

  3. Nope. No draft. Raise the age to adulthood back to 21. No voting without some form of service even after 21. No cars or other adult tools or responsibilities until 21.

    Attach hoggs name and address to the new laws.

    • Why not raise the age to 26? The feds consider people as eligible dependents up to that age and most humans don’t have a fully developed neocortex until the mid 20s and thefore, are not truly adults.

      Put it back on them, not on the rest of us.

      • The whole “fully developed” argument is a red herring. The question is not whether a person’s brain is “fully developed” but whether they have the capacity to understand and be accountable for their actions. Remember that age-related cognitive decline can begin as early as the late 20s, and we certainly don’t use that as a reason to strip adults over 30 of their independence. Instead, we wait until it has progressed to the point they can no longer manage their own affairs.

    • So, no guns, no cars, no taxes, etc until after 21? I’m assuming you don’t like the prolonged adolescence we seem to have adopted (I, at 22 years of age, would strongly agree with you), and yet here you are advocating for it. Do you think that adulthood shouldn’t even be allowed to start for anyone (and remember, “adulthood” has two sides) until they reach 21? Sounds to me like a great way to even further prolong adolescence

      • If they can’t be trusted with a rifle til they are 21 they can’t be trusted with any adult responsibility.

        • Certainly not voting, anyway.
          I remember being told during both Bush II’s candidacy and that of Trump that if they were elected, it would be the end of the country (we were told this, BTW, by the same people who pushed a person who said up front that he wanted to fundamentally change America: Obama).
          If that were true, then voting is extremely dangerous, and can end the country.
          So, it follows (as night the day) that if those under 21 aren’t responsible enough to own guns, they aren’t responsible enough to vote, because those people who say the first, say the second.
          Maybe we should listen to what they say.

      • John Locke ( who greatly influenced our founding fathers) said that a child becomes an adult when he has learned reason and law from his parents. There are many in their elderly years who may not currently meet this standard. However, I would not trust any government bureaucracy to determine who is acceptable, and I would not approve of denying the natural rights of free Americans.

        • quite agree. in his time the laws were a hell of a lot simpler. this is possibly also part of the reason for the increasing crime rates today as it has been shown that keeping the laws simple yet harsh deters crime while an overly complex legal system that has so many laws that no one person, not even a lawyer can know every law breeds massive disrespect and even total contempt of the law. the latter is now the case in most western nations.

    • Conscription is a massive waste of time & resources, much like any other form of obligated servitude. You end up squandering energy on people who aren’t worth it or don’t want it, and dilute the contributions of those who are actually useful. At the same time you get the populace comfortable with the idea of being forced into roles by the state.

      Sounds like a great way to ensure civil liberties continue to erode at an accelerated pace. Israel is hardly a bastion of liberty, when compared to anything but its savage neighbors; they don’t have the luxury of not being a police state. While ‘military guys’ tend to be conservative, we all know darn well the military is anathema to individual liberty, and is effectively a system we’d call tyrannical if levied universally. It’s also a fixture of socialism, with all the subsidized benefits lavished on servicemen upon their exit (while serving, daily life is basically indistinguishable from communism). Historically America benefitted from the mixing of soldiers and businessmen in public office with emphasis on the latter (Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Franklin). Today, with such a small fraction in the military, they are relatively absent by comparison.

      Frankly, I’d argue the military needs to change itself and better train & market its officers for civilian political leadership roles. Not just the high-ranking colonels & such that ladder-climb after senate seats & governorships, but promoting city council and school board seats. Part of that is not just training the soldier to lead civilians, but re-introducing the fact that mil-trained folks are generally superior public servants in the public eye.

  4. Extra! Extra! This just in: major metropolitan newspaper writes AR-15 used for hunting.

    We’re getting a lot of gems from this flare up. AR’s for hunting, teachers arming themselves albeit with sticks and stones but the spirit works in our favor, bringing banners and prohibitionists to the fore front killing the “not coming for your guns” lie and of course the spectacular failure of any law enforcement agency to enforce current laws. Their own nonsense is eating them alive.

  5. Y’know the AR-15, “the same weapon used in [mass shooting]” is also the same pattern of weapon that saved Bosnians, Syrians, Kuwaitis, and numerous others, including Americans. They could try that.

    • Okay, so we’ll keep HK roller rifles banned because they were used to take the lives of many Bosnians and Syrians. 🙂

      Just as many AR15-platform assault rifles are being used by ISIS to murder random innocents after they were dropped all over the Middle East and North Africa along with other fancy NATO guns.

      And lets not forget about all the Bosnians and Syrians and their fellow travelers “migrating” into the Western World and raping, pillaging, and collecting NATO government bennies as they go.

      • I see your smiley emoji, so I know you’re being arch. 😉 If an American uses an AK or SKS to defend life, I’m good with that, too. I’m just pointing out the idiocy in trying to paint the AR15 as solely a weapon of mass murder.

        • I’ll say this again:
          If cars did what they are designed to do as seldom as ARs do what they are (supposedly) designed to do, there would be a hell of a lot of car owners who’d be seriously pissed.

  6. Why stop at the military draft? Why not conscript African-Americans to pick cotton for slave wages while we’re at it?

    • Voting for federal largesse is far, far more profitable. Heck, the politicians don’t even have to waste energy with whipping, since the gangs are able enforcers.

      • According to Bernie, we don’t really need to enslave anyone, we can just offer $15/hr (plus benefits), and they will flock to the jobs.

  7. If you want a real violent revolution reinstate the draft. You youngin’s have no clue what was going on in the 60’s and 70’s. I was there. The problem is all the BS Asian Adventures© From Korea to Kandahar with no point or objective but we’re “safe”. Beating Germany and Japan made us “safe”. Oh and Mr. Alright is retarded…all that ganja shrank his brain.

    • Just you wait til people catch on to what’s coming in Africa and again in Asia/the Pacific areas.

      Hajis be getting ready for a serious war, yo.

      The military already is preparing for it.

      • The military prepares for a lot of things, no doubt. But there’s a big difference between geopolitical awareness and going on mindless crusades where they can’t even define what victory looks like.

  8. Today’s kids of the computer educated generation are not as naive as the kids were that got suckered into fighting in the Vietnam War. The Government knows damn well that the Vietnam protests would pale in comparison to what would happen if the Military tried to draft any of the the suburbanite kids today and of course the crooked hypocrite politicians would have to figure out a new way to keep their kids out of the draft as well. Its actually the main reason there is no draft, its to protect the politicians kids from having to serve in the Military.

    Out of the 532 ruling U.S. Political families during the Vietnam war only one family sent their son to Vietnam. McNamara who was in the beginning a pro-war hawk and gave his son strict orders not to even think about serving in the military. When his Son said he was desperate to defend him to his fellow college students and wanted guidance about the war from his Father, McNamara did not respond to his sons request.

    In all fairness the ruling North Vietnamese families sent their kids away to Europe for schooling to keep them out of the war as well.

    Yes the ruling families of both the U.S. and North Vietnam did not achieve their positions of power because they were ignorant people and they both made damn sure their kids were not involved in the war but had no problem sending the sons of the proletariat to be used as cannon fodder to achieve their political aims. The U.S. Congressmen prolonged the war as long as they could to make every bloody red cent possible off of the Military Industrial Complex and only de-funded the war when the economy was on the verge of complete economic chaos and collapse.

    There is only two reasons wars are fought. Its is over blind greed for rape, pillage and conquest and the desire for complete power over other countries. The ignorant proletariat are easily brainwashed into believing that other cultures and religions are out to get them and political leaders play them for the suckers they are every time. Its as old as time itself. And in the end it is peaceful negotiations that bring lasting peace not who wins or looses a war. The greed monger leaders of countries profit from war and the proletariat are left to bury their children who were dumb enough to engage in it.

    Its almost beyond belief that the leaders of the U.S. during the period of the Vietnam war knew so little about Asia and were dumb enough to give money and weapons to the French so they could re-invade Vietnam after WWII. The French had raped Vietnam for over 85 years and you have to hand it too them because they kept a lid on any unrest of the enslaved population. Yes they made a ton of money doing it and the U.S. Businessmen and Military were so damn stupid they actually ended up having to feed the Vietnamese to keep them from starving to death after they completely wrecked the Vietnamese economy and turned what little support they had for their government into hatred and loathing. Vietnam went from one of the worlds leading rice exporters to importing rice to keep the population from starving to death.

    Yes the U.S. failed to realize the French/Indochina war was not about the Domino theory rather it was the result of an explosion of Asian Nationalism after the end of WWII. U.S. Historians were unaware of how effective Japanese propaganda during WWII was on the people of Asia when they said “Asia is now for Asians” not the colonial en-slaver’s from the West and considering the mass rape and murder of Asians by the U.S. and European powers in China in 1896 and the U.S. mass murder in the Philippine Islands in 1899 one can hardly blame Asian people for their hatred of the White Man of the West.

    Yes the rats in the U.S. government stabbed Ho Chi Minh right in the back after he fought for the U.S. during WWII, Agreed to adopt the U.S. Constitution and actually ended up giving free and fair elections, all rejected by the U.S. who chose to support the French out of fear they would be drawn into the Soviet Orbit. Ho Chi Minh and his country had fought the Chinese in the past but because of Nationalism took money and weapons from the Chinese who were fearful of another Korean style take over by the U.S. in their back yard.

    It was fear of another Korea that guaranteed the defeat of U.S. forces before the first U.S. soldier ever set foot in South Vietnam and its government never wanted even one U.S. soldier on its soil but had no choice. Diem said he was never even asked if he wanted U.S. Troops , rather he was told they were coming.

    The U.S. had at its peak only 1/2 million troops in South Vietnam while North Vietnam had 3 million soldiers fighting in the South along with another 1 million Vietcong, many who were born in the South not the North. There were an additional 1 million Chinese troops occupying North Vietnam to free up the Vietnamese troops to fight in the South with millions more Chinese Troops ready to cross from China into Vietnam if there was a U.S. land invasion of the North.

    None of this was unknown to the U.S. Government who simply refused to “lose face” and withdraw from the country and admit they had fucked up big time for supporting the French

    The one Military Man who possibly could have won the war just as he won the war against the Philippine Communist Guerrillas was Major General Edward Landsdale who was shunned by jealous Military men who would not share power with him or listen to his plans to win over the people to support their own government. But that is another story well worth reading in the book that was written about the life of Landsdale called “A Road Not Taken” by Max Book. And of course the monumental book “Ho Chi Minh A life” is another must read book to understand how a dirt poor rice farmer through the use of education became one of the most outstanding leaders of the 20th Century and beat and humiliated two world class powers.

    I will conclude by saying simply the Vietnam War and who won it proved that “Yes there is a God”.

    • Boil away all the fat of your screed and it basically says you really don’t have anything against a war so long as you don’t have to risk anything in it and the ‘one world .gov’ side wins.

      Still loves you some ‘communist freedom fighting soldiers’ and hate America.

      Same old deluded song and dance. Does soros pay you by the word?

        • cisco. You’re a case study for Dunning Kruger. And insisting the guy that’s right is a moron is just priceless.

  9. You know what’s an epidemic in our country? Overpaid actors who don’t have the good sense to know when to shut up.

    No one really cares what you think Matthew. Now run along and act, and continue to leave the matter of critical thinking to those who don’t play make believe for a living.

    • I’ve always wondered why we take seriously the ideas of those who lie for a living.
      Because that’s what acting is: saying things that aren’t real, for entertainment.
      Sure, entertainers can have ideas that aren’t connected to their jobs; we all do. But the job doesn’t make those ideas any better than anyone else’s ideas.
      I wish more people understood that.

  10. NO NO NO. A draft would be the wrong direction. Our military should remain voluntary. Conscription brings nothing to the table except rotten personalities who have no place in the military. The military already HAS a few malingering individuals, it does not need more.

    • “Conscription brings nothing to the table except rotten personalities who have no place in the military.”
      The draftees who have served honorably and even heroically thank you for your appreciation.

  11. “Matthew McConaughey . . . fears the youth-led movement could be ‘hijacked’ by those hoping to eliminate all guns in the United States.”

    He doesn’t get it. The whole movement is about eliminating all guns in the United States. That’s not a hijack, that’s the entire raison d’être for this stupid “Children’s Crusade.”

    And it will end just as badly as the Children’s Crusade of 1212.

    • It’s not a ‘youth movement’. It’s funded and directed by the same old clowns. soros, bloomberg etc.

    • Exactly so.
      I interpreted Matt’s concern to mean he’s worried the Lil’Brownshirts won’t stop flapping their gums about total repeal of the Second Amendment… “Shhhhhh!!! We’re not supposed to actually SAY that! You’ll blow our cover!”

  12. Would someone please tell the Left that there is no gun violence epidemic? In fact there in no violence epidemic here in the US either, while there is a problem with gang violence that is limited to Democrat run cities and they need to fix their justice problem to fix it.

    The only place there is a true violence epidemic is in Europe and in Britain. Those people are too cowardly to fix the problems with Muslim violence. Britain has gotten so bad that they are pushing knife control and pretending that the Muslim rape culture doesn’t exist.

  13. Anyone here remember the 13th Amendment? No involuntary servitude?

    Bringing back the draft is absolutely the wrong answer.

    We should instead start instituting mandatory firearms training in public schools, for children as young as 10 years of age. Kinda like sex education – part of their health/gym curriculum.

    Kurt

    • And the right of the people to keep and bare arms shall not be infringed, but Emperor Roosevelt put enough KKK members on the supreme court to ensure the Constitution was treated as “marvelously elastic” enough he could ban gun ownership and drag crimeless American citizens to slave camps and steal their property.

  14. I can think of few ideas more antithecal to freedom than forcing people to spend their lives as currency. In my opinion there is no difference between a draft and slavery, but that being a slave doesn’t require you to kill other people.

  15. How exactly can someone be pro second amendment and want a massive military of career soldiers that can squash us like bugs?Pretty sure the founding fathers screamed about a large standing army being a very bad idea. Also, we were founded on the idea that everyone was part of a compulsory militia, which a state governor could call forth to muster. We have lots of historic documents supporting this. The people were supposed to be the army and the police. Doesn’t anyone think it is a very bad idea that we have pop guns while government forces have tanks, bombs, nukes, etc, etc.. Yes, the military may be on our side ( for now) but how sure can we be about future soldiers who support their families with government paychecks?

    • exactly why unless it was a foriegn invader actually invading america all actual military actions on the part of the average rank and file would be voluntary unless it was during the 4 years national service in peace time where a good part of it would be working on national infrastructure and developing skills to help in the workforce. the only ones it would be compulsory for in other times are for the politicians and serving age family thereof who had voted for “peacekeeping operations” overseas or otherwise…. or even to put down a rebellion within the US (in my case australia)

  16. On one hand, the draft is nothing but forced servitude of American citizens. Slavery with benefits that will not only grow the size of the government but also increase our debt even further.

    On the other hand, creating a draft would be the fastest way to get us out of Syria and other places where we have no business being cause it turns out rich white folks vote and don’t like their kids dying for nothing.

    Really torn as I would love to see us cut our military funding by 50% and the draft is one of the best ways to do that long term.

  17. With all the commotion going on…Did anyone noticed the Facebook photo of teacher in personal attack on that kid Kyle….Does anyone notice he’s like holding up a sign like he’s at a teachers union rally?!? Like I said before, all supported by the Teachers union to use kids as political puppets to get teacher’s better union contracts through gun control…

    • I thought attacking a kid about his opinion on guns was ‘verboten’ and to be ridiculed in the press ad ifinitum (sp?)?

  18. I am surprised that no one mentioned the largest benefit of universal service. Everyone would have a shared experience. If everyone put in two or four years of service then everyone would have something akin to what everyone else went through.

    To fight the jerk offs, your two years would only start being counted when you get with the program. F*ck off and you could spend many years putting in your two year commitment.

    But everyone would have to go. No deferments, no exceptions. I knew a blind guy in college who fought for and received a 1Y draft classification. He argued he could do things like work in a darkroom better than a sighted person.. There were many things he could do that would free up a sighted person for other things.

  19. I tend to agree with Heinlein, although I would require passing the INS citizenship exam to graduate HS, and an additional voluntary 2 years of public service at sub-minimum wages (including, but not necessarily, military service), before being eligible to vote, teach in public schools, or hold public office. This would act to ensure a population of “true citizens” and public officials with a shared experience, and a demonstrated personal commitment to the country’s welfare above personal benefit. I think the right to vote, hold public office, or teach in public schools should be EARNED, not an automatic benefit of lucky birth in the USA.

  20. I served with drafties when I joined and stayed . The VOLAR transition sucked and it took a decade or more. Once we got people in charge that weren’t brought up in Vietnam things became very professional and effective. Don’t bring back the draft!

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