A comment posted by reader Gyufygy:
Back when I was in the gun-control camp, putting the “genie back in the bottle” seemed like a great idea. A year or two ago, it finally hit me: you can’t put it back. The country was founded with firearms usage and ownership being common. It’s been that way for centuries now. What is the current estimate for number of guns in the US? 200 million? Putting aside all Constituional arguments (for a moment, pipe down), I realized . . .
. . . that there is no practical way to make them all go bye bye in a country this large. None. Too many, too big a country, too “ornery” a populace (:p), too much history, too much 4th Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure (again, ignoring the 2nd Amendment protections for a moment), too many metal working machine capable of producing functional (if not accurate, reliable, or pretty) firearms. Too. Damn. Much.
So I could either wave magic wands around or learn to defend myself and my loved ones. The genie has always been out of the bottle, and there never was a bottle, anyway.
Also, they’re fun.
“And there never was a bottle, anyway.”
Exactly! Whenever I see yet another call for gun control, I wonder how it’s even possible for those people to not understand anything about guns outside of their “safe” little bubble.
No because at the rate we are going there won’t be an America to have a “Gun Culture” soon.
+1
Do you believe that the President’s policies are tenable fiscally or socially? Do you believe we can continue on our current course, that the rest of the world will have a bottomless appetite for our debt, or that the Federal Reserve can indefinitely print money for the Treasury with no repercussions? Do you believe the private sector can support the current level of government direction and demands?
I don’t. I doubt you do either. In the end the country has to come back to conservative principles because they are the only sustainable way to run a country. Yes, enough people have bought into the fiction that things will keep spinning happily the way they have for the last four years to keep the President in office, but entropy always wins and the current policies are just increasing the entropy.
Be of good cheer. And be ready to explain to people when the current system falls apart that they can be responsible for themselves, that the government rarely solves problems but frequently creates new ones, that the Way Things Are is not the way they have to be. This government will disillusion people all by itself. And if you get too down, read Kipling’s “Gods Of The Copybook Headings”. It’s all true.
It’s not enough to be a warrior. You have to be a happy warrior to win.
lol.
Since when have our progressive intellectual ‘betters’ ever been dissuaded by logic or reason?
The leftwing(Dems,libs & progs) in America has been trying to put guns back in “the bottle”for decades. If you can’t see that you’re a damned fool who can’t be reasoned with.
Lot’s of guns out there that aren’t on the records. Lot’s of machine shops out there with people that can make a perfectly functional gun. As with drugs, if you create a underground market for it people will find a way.
This is a point I have brought up many times. If drug dealers are sophisticated enough to manufacture Cocaine. It would not be too hard to make guns and ammo. The technology is at least 100 years old already.
Not to mention what 3-D printing can accomplish now. You can’t build barrels that way…yet. But it will happen eventually, and firearms plans in 3D printing form are just data.
You can’t stop the signal.
I recommend research about the “shadetree gunsmiths” in Afghanistan.
They can make guns with a charcoal forge and hand tools. Imagine what a trained machinist with a lathe and modern power tools could do.
Not only would you have to make all of the current guns vanish, you would also need to eliminate all references to them in libraries, on the internet and in homes. And then you would need to remove memories of knowing about and having them from peoples minds as far to many people have small machine shops at home and would just make what they needed. Yup, no way to make it happen and I, for one, am glad of it.
This!!! I like the reference of libraries in this comment.
There would be plenty of people in this country who may not lose sleep over a total gun ban. But start baning or even burning books and see how far that gets the government. Of course all of the artists that protest guns would then have nothing to fight back with.
Glad to see someone came to their senses .Now, if only you can knock some logical sense into mikeynumbers, that would be something.
Glad to see it too!! Although gyufugy has been here for a while I am glad he admitted to the error of his precious ways!! 😉
Although many of us have tried to have intelligent conversations with MikeyBnumbers he will never change his mind about who does and doesn’t deserve to own a gun of any kind!!
His ideas, if you read his postings here and read his blog, is that only military and LEO will ultimately own firearm of any kind.
If they stop ammo sales…. the guns are useless.
I reload… the primers and gun powder will eventually run out too.
The only think I can count on is my flintlocks, cause I can make my own blackpowder… but how many people will do that.
I would not count out the possibility of a civil war if the try to trash the Bill of Rights. So we might get some states willing to produce ammo for the “rebels” contrary to the wishes of the Federal Govt.
The ‘gun culture’ is not defined by the number of weapons are in circulation.There’s plenty of guns floating around Britian,yet none of us can claim they have a ‘gun culture’ like we have.
The gun culture is a spirit of individualism.Its not defined by how many guns you own,how much ammo you burn in a week or which HK you like.The gun culture is a collective regime of people who decided they are the best arbiter of their destinies.
We thus come to why the gun culture is perishable:without an education on the value of individualism ,the masses will default to serfdom.
Oh regardless of education, there is plenty of indavidualism to go around. Plenty of people only care about their indavidual wants but request the hard work of true indaviduals to obtain them.
ST, exactly correct on the England thing. They do however, have a “gun culture”. It is the exclusive domain of the rich and powerful.
Same thing is practiced here. How many stories have we heard in the last 10 years about a gun grabber who owns a gun, or gets a permit, in NYC, when others cannot.
Or better yet, has anyone paid any attention to the armed security detail that escorts Bloomberg?
Exactly, JPD. And I can testify that handguns are much more common in Europe (at least in Sweden and Spain) than the media would convey, though people are extremely discrete. In Britain guns are distinctly part of ‘upper’ culture (Sloanies, Lords, Lairds), but they fear the vast poor underclass as much as Bloomberg does. I wonder why….
Technology & skills for gunsmiths + ammo (reloads) + 3D printers + internet + Bill of Rights make it highly difficult to ever confiscate firearms, let alone stop private buying & selling.
However, I would never put it past the ludicrous-left to pass a law (or a series or laws) or executive decisions that make firearms & ammo illegal. Even if “they” can only arrest and convict a tiny percentage of citizens, I think they would take that as a start to total confiscation.
These are people that think long term about shaping the USA to fit their kookie vision.
Also, at some point I can see the Feds holding back on federal funds for states that do not comply with any anti-firearm/ammo laws in the coming years.
I presume to make your last statement possible the Feds would first have to revoke a states control over The National Guard. Otherwise thoes states would have control of the manpower that could even enforce a gun grab on a nationwide scale if indavidual states did not comply.
Imagine a world where there were no guns. Really, just for a moment. No guns. They were never invented.
Then someone like Dean Kamen or Steve Jobs develops a device that you hold in your hand or put to your shoulder. You load it with these little cartridges, you pull a lever and it propels a cylinder of metal faster than the speed of sound at something hundreds of yards away and punches a hole in it. No batteries to go dead and it can sit for years until it’s ready to be used.
Everybody would say, “Oh man, that is so damn cool, I gotta get me one of those.” They’d be camping out for weeks. It would make iPhone lines look weak.
Guns are cool. Guns are fun. Anybody who doesn’t have one wants one. Even people who hate them want one.
Its true and I like your imagination. Anyone who OCs at Starbucks would get a 10% discount
If that were the case though I would probably be anti ummm iGun.
Im sick of these stupid iPhone and gadget trends.
“Those who hammer their guns into plowshares, will plow for those who do not” – Thomas Jefferson
“The problem with the quotes on the internet is you can never tell if they’re genuine.” -Abraham Lincoln 😉
Exactly. Ever since humans discovered that they can transfer their energy into a remote target and kill it by hurling an object at it, they’ve been throwing rocks, then making spears, then making a bow to launch the spear faster, then gunpowder, high explosives, atomic bombs, fusion bombs and [whatever comes next].
It’s in the nature of every animal (humans included) to be competitive, protective of their young and to dominate any animal weaker than themselves.
But, having “gun laws” and requiring “licenses” and “permission” to own firearms is as absurd as asking a mother bear if she has her “COID card” (claw owners identification card). The mother bear needs no license or permission to use deadly force in the defense of her cubs or herself.
By the same token, humans don’t need a license or permission to defend THEIR families, neighbors, state or Country.
And, NO LAW will stop the tiny handful of mentally defective people who will MISUSE a weapon for whatever reason they do it. Infringing on 99.9% of the responsible gun owners for the misdeeds of the 0.1% is absurd.
Why not ban Ford cars as soon as some deranged person drives one through a crowd of people, using it as a deadly weapon? Never mind the 99.999999% of drivers who don’t even get parking tickets… infringe on all of them because of one idiot. Nobody would stand for that, so WHY do we gun owners stand for the crap heaped on our heads every day?
Millions upon millions of gun owners hurt NO ONE today (or yesterday or the day before, nor will they tomorrow). Why try to punish US for the misdeeds of a few psychos?
Could have at least corrected my phone-induced spelling mistakes. Yes, phone-induced. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
“What is the current estimate for number of guns in the US? 200 million?”
— I think it’s closer to 300 million give or take 30 million.
I have complete confidence in Yankee Ingenuity that famous American trait to creatively build something new based on the challenges and resources of the times. If ‘they’ take away guns, ban them, use high-tech devices to listen for gun blasts, ban the materials to make ammo, etc then American men will find a way to replace guns creating something new and spectacular to initially get around the police state controls and in time that new technology will become the dominant superior tool.
You’re probably right… but I think the real reason why America will always have a gun culture is the same reason why America will always have a truck culture. Because both of them are tools that seem like a luxury or some sort of lifestyle statement in urban settings, but are part of everyday life in the country.
I myself didn’t realize that trucks and 4×4’s were actually used by a whole lot of farmers to do things like driving across their ranches… until I moved to Texas. That a Ford F150 doesn’t have to have a company’s logo on the side to be a “working truck”.
Same thing with guns. I didn’t quite understand what people meant by “ranch gun” or “truck rifle” until I spoke to a guy here who routinely kills hogs, coyotes, and snakes on his cotton farm if he runs across one while on an errand.
I don’t know anyone, and I can’t imagine anyone, living in the country — or the exurbs that are far enough away from cities — where the local sheriff might be 20 minutes away who’s all for gun control. Because for them, the gun isn’t just a political statement but a tool of everyday reality — reality which gives rise to the natural right to bear arms.
well said.
+1.
+10
It is often said the reason Japan WWII did not atack the Mainland of the US is,
So many Americans own Guns….
As Archie Bunker said “You want to stop Airline Hi-Jacking, issue everyone a gun when they get on board…
John Arizona, a right to cary/conceal State
John, I heard the thing about Japan and WWII. Then I looked it up. Darn, good story, but never happened.
All the historians then and now on WWII have debunked that myth. For a quick synopsis, with sources, check out snopes.
To paraphrase and turn back the gun grabber’s own logic; just because historians have debunked the tale does not mean it isn’t still true.
True but take what Snooes says with a grain of salt too! They are notoriously Anti Gun people!!!
Stupid auto correct!! LOL! I meant snopes.
They are anti gun to a big extent!!
Gun Culture!?……..no OUR culture. Right or left, black, white, brown, yellow,red, gay, straight, happy, unhappy……..we are unified by the notion of freedom. The 2a is part of that America! Anyone that tries to push their agenda using the constitution should be mindful of this. I am a descendant of a freed slave…….free speech, right to bear arms…….and after 1863, all are equal. That is all called Civil Rights and little kids, men and women of every color died for the cause. Hopefully we will never forget that.
Be safe.
Great post Gyufyguy! Great comments from everyone. True, all so true. Now, if we could just figure-out how to transmit whatever infected Gyufyguy with enlightenment and common sense to the rest of the Gun Control crowd, we could get on with solving the more serious real issues facing this country, rather than having to waste time and energy fighting over a fabricated issue that should not even exist.
So, when GCA ’68 came down there was roughly one firearm for every two US citizens. Today, there is roughly one firearm for every US citizen. Each and every day, that ratio is changing such that there are more firearms per capita than ever before. Vanderboegh has a good piece today pointing out some DOJ studies attesting to that fact.
Per capita firearm ownership is up, crime in general and firearm related accidents are down to historically low levels. Correlation does not equal causation, but….
Genies are a fictional construct, often used to address a metaphorical situation that we have little control over. As long as there is a sufficient critical mass of virtuous, rational, broadly educated and self-reliant individuals tending to their own self-interest and altruistically keeping an keen eye on the greater good, we, collectively, have little need to worry. I suspect that the preceding condition is, regrettably, not the general case in the current land of the free and the home of the brave. I wish that it were different.
The good news is that there is an ever increasing group of citizens that recognize the fact that they, alone, are their most reliable resource and protector. Where the problem lies is in the unknown number of people who view their destiny in terms of there place in the would as a mere cog in some collectivist pipe dream and are wholly content to resign their fate to that condition; acquiescing forthrightness and self determination to some kind of easy to swallow tonic of being part of the larger helpless herd (safety in numbers).
I grew up in Brooklyn. In my youth, except for our local LEO, only the BG had guns. After going to school, living life ,and living in both suburban and rural towns, I now understand : the most importantly armed community is the urban community.
If I knew then, what I know, now perhaps some family, and perhaps some friends would still be with us. I am a liberal, I am black and middle aged,. We need to support 2A. It takes care of us all!
It is amazing what we can do today with manual mills, and lathes. Much less a CNC station used is less than 10k. You can pump out AR lowers and 1911 or Beretta frames in mass quantities. While it takes skill, it can be learned quickly. There are jigs available for AR lowers so you don’t even need a cnc. A $500 standard mill will do the trick. Simply put they could try. My guess would be it would start in urban areas, then move towards rural, but I would think they would hit “bumps in the road” before then..
For a Kalashnikov (AK-47, AKM, etc…) you don’t even need a Bridgeport. Just a metal bending brake and a rivet press (or a sledge hammer or screws and nuts).
“Disarm America” Impossible! … ROFLMAO!!!!!!!
Any “gun law” exists because of the absurd assumption that the people who cause the problems (the criminals) will obey those laws and thereby reduce gun violence.
Naw… not even politicians can be that stupid. So what then? Maybe those politicians with tyrannical desires (yes you know who I mean) are tired of having their plans of a dictatorial government and compliant citizens constantly foiled by those citizens who are armed and have the ability to say “Hell NO!”.
Yeah, that makes more sense. Gun laws are designed to disarm the American public.
Well, politicians I’ve got a hint for you: Don’t waste your time. We will never surrender. We are not “subjects of the Crown” like the UK and Aussies who handed in their firearms when told to. No self respecting American would ever claim to be a “subject” of anything or anyone.
We are free citizens, loyal to our Country and incredibly arrogant. You want our guns? No problem… try and take them. BYOBB (bring your own body bags).