White Men, Guns…And That Masculinity Thing

About 50% of the guns in the US are owned by only 3% of the gun owners.

Think about that. What if 50% of the cars were owned by 3% of the drivers? Houses with attached parking lots instead of lawns would not be totally uncommon.

When I used to shoot at local ranges as common site was of a white man who had been frightened into buying a gun to defend his home ( a statistical probability of a inner city gangbanger wandering out into the ‘burbs or rural areas to “rob de whidte folks” being on the order of winning the Powerball lottery) – acquiring his first, and probably only pistol. Fumbling with the damn thing during the Free  Hour” of range time, trying to hit a man sized target at 15 feet. Discovering it just doesn’t work like in the movies, where everyone but the “bad guys” is a crack shot. Few, if any of these guys ever realized that by the simple act of gun ownership, they had increased the chance that  someone in their house would be shot by something on the order of 2,000% Ten or twenty thousand times more likely someone would be shot in the house by a family member, than of said mythical black gangbanger out to rob only moderately better off poor white folks.

I know it is popular with the racist buffoons and their associated black conservative Lawn Jockeys to talk about the city “murder rate”.

Fact is –

In 2016, there were more than 38,000 gun-related deaths in the U.S. — 4,000 more than 2015, the new CDC report on preliminary mortality data shows. Most gun-related deaths — about two-thirds —in America are suicides, but an Associated Press analysis of FBI data shows there were about 11,000 gun-related homicides in 2016, up from 9,600 in 2015. The increase in gun-related deaths follows a nearly 15-year period of relative stasis.

Meaning 2/3rd of all gun deaths every year in the US are either accidental or suicide. If you break that down, nearly 27,000 folks – mostly white, died by suicide or accident vs 5,000 homicides committed by black folks, whose victims were over 90% fellow black folks, and 90% of the homicides were committed within 10 miles of an urban center.

So what is the real problem?

Manhood.

And specifically the manhood of the low educated white male Trump supporter.

The AR-15…Mas Murder Weapon of Choice

Why Are White Men Stockpiling Guns?

Research suggests it’s largely because they’re anxious about their ability to protect their families, insecure about their place in the job market and beset by racial fears.

Since the 2008 election of President Obama, the number of firearmsmanufactured in the U.S. has tripled, while imports have doubled. This doesn’t mean more households have guns than ever before—that percentage has stayed fairly steady for decades. Rather, more guns are being stockpiled by a small number of individuals. Three percent of the population now owns half of the country’s firearms, says a recent, definitive study from the Injury Control Research Center at Harvard University.

So, who is buying all these guns—and why?

The short, broad-brush answer to the first part of that question is this: men, who on average possess almost twice the number of guns female owners do. But not all men. Some groups of men are much more avid gun consumers than others. The American citizen most likely to own a gun is a white male—but not just any white guy. According to a growing number of scientific studies, the kind of man who stockpiles weapons or applies for a concealed-carry license meets a very specific profile.

These are men who are anxious about their ability to protect their families, insecure about their place in the job market, and beset by racial fears. They tend to be less educated. For the most part, they don’t appear to be religious—and, suggests one study, faith seems to reduce their attachment to guns. In fact, stockpiling guns seems to be a symptom of a much deeper crisis in meaning and purpose in their lives. Taken together, these studies describe a population that is struggling to find a new story—one in which they are once again the heroes.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO HARD WORK?

When Northland College sociologist Angela Stroud studied applications for licenses to carry concealed firearms in Texas, which exploded after President Obama was elected, she found applicants were overwhelmingly dominated by white men. In interviews, they told her that they wanted to protect themselves and the people they love.

“When men became fathers or got married, they started to feel very vulnerable, like they couldn’t protect families,” she says. “For them, owning a weapon is part of what it means to be a good husband a good father.” That meaning is “rooted in fear and vulnerability—very motivating emotions.”

But Stroud also discovered another motivation: racial anxiety. “A lot of people talked about how important Obama was to get a concealed-carry license: ‘He’s for free health care, he’s for welfare.’ They were asking, ‘Whatever happened to hard work?’” Obama’s presidency, they feared, would empower minorities to threaten their property and families.

The insight Stroud gained from her interviews is backed up by many, many studies. A 2013 paper by a team of United Kingdom researchers found that a one-point jump in the scale they used to measure racism increased the odds of owning a gun by 50 percent. A 2016 study from the University of Illinois at Chicago found that racial resentment among whites fueled opposition to gun control. This drives political affiliations: A 2017 study in the Social Studies Quarterly found that gun owners had become 50 percent more likely to vote Republican since 1972—and that gun culture had become strongly associated with explicit racism.

or many conservative men, the gun feels like a force for order is a chaotic world, suggests a study published in December of last year. In a series of three experiments, Steven Shepherd and Aaron C. Kay asked hundreds of liberals and conservatives to imagine holding a handgun—and found that conservatives felt less risk and greater personal control than liberal counterparts.

This wasn’t about familiarity with real-world guns—gun ownership and experience did not affect results. Instead, conservative attachment to guns was based entirely on ideology and emotions.

WHO WANTS TO BE A HERO?

That’s an insight echoed by another study published last year. Baylor University sociologists Paul Froese and F. Carson Mencken created a “gun empowerment scale” designed to measure how a nationally representative sample of almost 600 owners felt about their weapons. Their study found that people at the highest level of their scale—the ones who felt most emotionally and morally attached to their guns—were 78 percent white and 65 percent male.

“We found that white men who have experienced economic setbacks or worry about their economic futures are the group of owners most attached to their guns,” says Froese. “Those with high attachment felt that having a gun made them a better and more respected member of their communities.”

That wasn’t true for women and non-whites. In other words, they may have suffered setbacks—but women and people of color weren’t turning to guns to make themselves feel better. “This suggests that that these owners have other sources of meaning and coping when facing hard times,” notes Froese—often, religion. Indeed, Froese and Mencken found that religious faith seemed to put the brakes on white men’s attachment to guns.

For these economically insecure, irreligious white men, “the gun is a ubiquitous symbol of power and independence, two things white males are worried about,” says Froese. “Guns, therefore, provide a way to regain their masculinity, which they perceive has been eroded by increasing economic impotency.”

Both Froese and Stroud found pervasive anti-government sentiments among their study participants. “This is interesting because these men tend to see themselves as devoted patriots, but make a distinction between the federal government and the ‘nation,’ says Froese. “On that point, I expect that many in this group see the ‘nation’ as being white.”

Investing guns with this kind of moral and emotional meaning has many consequences, the researchers say. “Put simply, owners who are more attached to their guns are most likely to believe that guns are a solution to our social ills,” says Froese. “For them, more ‘good’ people with guns would drastically reduce violence and increase civility. Again, it reflects a hero narrative, which many white man long to feel a part of.”

Stroud’s work echoes this conclusion. “They tell themselves all kinds of stories about criminals and criminal victimization,” she says. “But the story isn’t just about criminals. It’s about the good guy—and that’s how they see themselves: ‘I work hard, I take care of my family, and there are people who aren’t like that.’ When we tell stories about the Other, we’re really telling stories about ourselves.”

HOW TO SAVE A WHITE MAN’S LIFE

Unfortunately, the people most likely to be killed by the guns of white men aren’t the “bad guys,” presumably criminals or terrorists. It’s themselves—and their families.

White men aren’t just the Americans most likely to own guns; according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they’re also the people most likely to put them in their own mouths and pull the trigger, especially when they’re in some kind of economic distress. A white man is three times more likely to shoot himself than a black man—while the chances that a white man will be killed by a black man are extremely slight. Most murders and shoot-outs don’t happen between strangers. They unfold within social networks, among people of the same race.

A gun in the home is far more likely to kill or wound the people who live there than is a burglar or serial killer. Most of the time, according to every single study that’s ever been done about interpersonal gun violence, the dead and wounded know the people who shot them. A gun in the home makes it five times more likely that a woman will be killed by her husband. Every week in America, 136 children and teenagers are shot—and more often than not, it’s a sibling, friend, parent, or relative who holds the gun. For every homicide deemed justified by the police, guns are used in 78 suicides. As a new study published this month in JAMA Internal Medicine once again shows us, restrictive gun laws don’t prevent white men from defending themselves and their families. Instead, those laws stop them from shooting themselves and each other…(More)

 

Florida School Killer Was a Trump White Supremacist

More murders by the white-wing whack jobs. The white supremacist group even gave him the gun.

White Supremacists Claim Nikolas Cruz Trained With Them; Students Say He Wore Trump Hat in School

Hate group says the accused Florida school shooter did paramilitary exercises and got a rifle from members. Ex-students say he wore a ‘Make America Great Again’ hat in school.

Nikolas Cruz, the man accused of killing 17 people in a Florida high school, was a member of a “white separatist paramilitary proto-fascist organization,” the group told The Daily Beast.

Cruz, 19, is accused of opening fire inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Prior to the shooting, he trained with the Republic of Florida, the group’s captain Jordan Jereb said (as first reported by the Anti-Defamation League). The RoF seeks to create a “white ethnostate” in Florida, according to its website, a view that Cruz supposedly shared.

Local law enforcement told the Tallahassee Democrat it has not corroborated Jereb’s claim. After previous mass shootings, the alt-right has spread disinformation online about alleged perpetrators.

“I know he knew full well he was joining a white separatist paramilitary proto-fascist organization,” Jereb said.

Last year, an alleged school shooter in New Mexico also expressed alt-right ideology online, as The Daily Beast previously reported.

Cruz “seemed like just a normal, disenfranchised, young white man,” Jereb said.

While no motive has been described by police, Jereb speculated that Cruz may have allegedly committed the massacre out of hatred for Jews or women.

 

Paying Big Bucks to be Racist

If I was this business owner, think I’d be considering a blanket baseball bat party at these clowns homes…$800,000 in lost business because of some racist assholes!

Company loses two Milwaukee contracts after its employees displayed guns, KKK sticker

A company where several employees displayed gunsand another brought a Ku Klux Klan sticker to a worksite will effectively lose two contracts worth $800,000 with the City of Milwaukee under a deal approved Wednesday by the Milwaukee Common Council.

Under the resolution, which passed unanimously, the city will terminate one American Sewer Services contract and reject another bid on an un-awarded contract where the company was the lowest bidder. The agreement also prohibits American Sewer Services from rebidding on either of the contracts, and says the company won’t contest any part of the deal.

The Milwaukee Common Council may also push for harsher penalties for American Sewer Services. Those punishments could include compelling its owner, Dennis Biondich, to testify before aldermen.

Debate over the issue grew heated during a previous Public Works Committee meeting at City Hall — especially after two south side aldermen voiced concern that city officials were punishing the company too severely for the actions of a few employees — but the resolution passed without discussion Wednesday.

Alds. Mark Borkowski and Bob Donovan previously insisted Biondich felt terribly that his employees had brought weapons and a cooler with a KKK sticker to worksites.

Donovan added that Biondich had apologized and fired the worker who brought the KKK sticker as well as another who displayed his weapon. He also said American Sewer Services had an otherwise stellar record from its 30 years.

 

The American-American Arms Race

Up until the Chumph, walking around with guns at protest marches was almost exclusively the purview of white wingers. Unable to win an argument based either or the truth of their claims, or their ability to converse intelligently,, the right-white fell back into the KKK history and decided to tout guns at rallies to threaten “evil liberals” who always seemed to win an “argument”.

Portions of the white-right have always been synonymous with violence. Whether the KKK, white nationalist, neo-Nazi, or even some Militia groups – they have left a bloody path wherever they go across America.

Now that they have the full support of the Chumph and his racist lackey Jefferson Davis Sessions, they are emboldened, and the number of hate crimes, and level of domestic terrorism has risen exponentially. By trying to drive a wedge between legitimate Law Enforcement and brutal goons who murder and assault at will, the Chump has created a situation where the citizenry is les sure that the Police will actually be on the side of Law and Order. I think in all but a few areas of the country, that fear is a bit overblown.

However, the white right is spoiling for a fight -as seen with both the murder in Charlottesville, and the attempted murders in Gainesville a few days ago,

This does not bode well.

Left Wing Militia set to defend their communities…Because the Chumph and KKK Sessions won’t

Left-wing groups taking up guns in ‘arms race’ against Trump-backing right-wingers

Left-wing activists are taking up arms in response to increasingly bold actions by white supremacists and other right-wing extremists.

Membership in left-leaning gun groups has jumped under President Donald Trump, just as militia membership dramatically rose during his predecessor’s presidency, reported the New York Daily News.

The National African-American Gun Association added 500 new members within two days after a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville left a counter-protester dead, and the group went from four chapters to 45 in the past year.

The national Liberal Gun Club has roughly doubled its paid membership since the election, to about 5,500, and the LGBTQ-oriented Pink Pistols groups also added members.

“It’s a way to assert our strength,” said Jake Allen, 27, who helped form the Pink Pistols. “Often, queer people are thought of as being weak, as being defenseless, and I think in many ways this pushes back against that, and I want white supremacists and neo-Nazis to know that queer people are taking steps necessary to protect themselves.”

Mark Bray, author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook” and a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College, said leftists had gained a new perspective since Occupy Wall Street, and he said Trump’s election had emboldened right-wing hate groups.

“Back (during Occupy demonstrations) we were sitting in parks, twinkling our fingers and talking about economic inequality,” Bray said. “Now we’re talking about firearms and self-defense.”

Anti-fascist radicals, including the armed Redneck Revolt group, have clashed with right-wing extremists at public demonstrations around the country, but the trend away from nonviolent protest has worried some veteran activists.

“Is an arms race what we really want?” asked Scott Fearing, executive director of Rochester’s Out Alliance. “What we know in any arms race is that it’s never good for anybody, and death and destruction and harm and hurt can come when so many people have arms and weapons.”

 

Faux News Lies About Mass Shooter in Vegas

The Police are collecting information on the murderer in Las Vegas. A lot of things are unknown at this point. . At least one of the weapons found with the shooter inn the Hotel room was converted to full automatic. The likely culprit is an AK-47 variant Police found on a tripod mount. Automatic weapons are only legal in the US for a civilian to own with a special license from the ATF. At this point, and until they get the guns studied in their lab, they don’t know if the 10 guns found in the hotel room were modified. There has been no statement on the shooter having a special license to own automatic weapons. Ownership without a license is illegal.

Faux New’s assertion that all of the guns owned by the killer were “legal”…

Is a lie.

Nice to see Deppidy Lawn Jockey has found part-time work though.

 

 

The War Next Time – Armed antifa and White Wing Demonstrators

Loose gun laws are enabling escalating violence – the NRA is getting what it wants to sell more guns.

White wing provocateurs started showing up to campaign events and rallies back in the 2012 election cycle to threaten left wing protesters and demonstrators… The left armed up in response.

Geez…I wonder why?

 

Pro-Trump sign during election

Antifa, white supremacists exploit loose gun laws

Authorities gird for explosive clashes between heavily armed extremists in American cities.

Domestic extremist groups ranging from white supremacists to their rival “antifa” anarchists are increasingly exploiting loose gun control laws to show up at emotionally charged rallies with assault rifles and other high-powered weapons, increasing the likelihood of an explosive clash in an American city, according to law enforcement officials.

What makes the current threat environment especially combustible are open carry laws in many states that allow civilians to display virtually any gun in public that they want, often with no permit, training or background check required, according to federal and state law enforcement officials who are closely monitoring extremist groups.

“Why would you let someone bring an AR-15 to a hate rally?” former FBI supervisory special agent James Gagliano asked. “It’s absolute insanity.”

Except in Charlottesville, Virginia, and other recent protest events, it wasn’t just one person. It was dozens or even hundreds of people who showed up heavily armed and primed for a fight. More than 1,500 people attended the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, with one Baltimore man suspected of membership in the Ku Klux Klan later arrested for firing his gun at a crowd of protesters. In Texas, swarms of gun-toting antifa members and white nationalists assaulted each other at several events near the Austin statehouse over the past year. And in Pikeville, Kentucky, more than 150 heavily armed neo-Nazis and white supremacists engaged in a tense standoff with about 100 anti-fascists in April, but the sides were separated by police and dozens of militia members before violence ensued.

Often, they came dressed in camouflage fatigues, tactical armor and Kevlar vests looking like Navy SEAL commandos, so much so that even the local police have mistaken them for U.S. law enforcement or military officers.

Now, authorities are bracing for what they fear could be lethal confrontations at rallies and other public events being planned in cities and towns across the country in the coming months. They say clashes over any number of hotly contested “flashpoint” issues could spark it, including Confederate monuments, immigration, the Trump administration’s so-called Muslim ban and gun control measures.

“The next incident is right around the corner,” said Captain Michael Rinaldi, counterterrorism chief for the New Jersey State Police. “Someone will run someone over, or someone will get shot and there will be a melee and it will gain momentum. There is definitely concern for what you saw in Charlottesville, that you’ll get a group and then counterprotesters and then you’ll have casualties.”

Gagliano, a former senior FBI SWAT team leader and crisis management coordinator in New York, said many of the protesters at recent public events appeared to be better equipped than he was as an FBI tactical agent deployed to Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks.

“Allowing openly carried weapons at an assembly, where tensions oft run high and counterprotesters now proliferate, is a recipe for disaster,” Gagliano said.

But when the people assembling are from warring factions of domestic extremist groups, he said, “We are simply passing time until the proverbial ‘Hatfield and McCoy’ incident occurs.”

Gagliano was one of several current and former law enforcement officials who said most of their colleagues “support the Second Amendment, but feel that common-sense regulations and restrictions are necessary and sensible,” especially when it comes to laws allowing for open carry and the purchase of guns once limited to police and military officers.

At least 45 states currently now allow some form of open carry, often for long guns that can include assault weapons. A smaller number of states also allow open carry of handguns and concealed carry of guns of various kinds and sizes.

The National Rifle Association, which has aggressively lobbied for open carry laws and against restrictions on gun purchases, did not return numerous phone calls and emails seeking comment.

 

Not Buying “Get Tough on Crime”

“Getting tough on crime” has been synonymous with mass incarceration of minorities in America.

Baltimore’s Mayor just stepped on a land mine.

 

 

 

“Redneck Revolt” – Pro Gun…Anti-Racism

The NRA extremist gun nuts have led the gun owner world into extreme-right ideology and its travelling companion – Racism.

This group is beginning to fight back.

Being armed, and being a bigot …are two different things. These folks are tired of the white-wing convincing fellow rural folks to vote against their best interests by using the levers of racism and fear. And they are out to shift the dynamic.

‘Guns are fine — racism is not’: Armed redneck lefties are waging a different kind of war on Fascism

A well-armed organization of anti-racists are using gun culture to organize rural white voters against the administration of President Donald Trump.

“Redneck Revolt is a national network of community defense projects from a broad spread of political, religious, and cultural backgrounds. It is a pro-worker, anti-racist organization that focuses on working class liberation from the oppressive systems which dominate our lives,” the organization’s website states. “In states where it is legal to practice armed community defense, many branches choose to become John Brown Gun Clubs, training ourselves and our communities in defense and mutual aid.”

The name harkens back to the 1921 “Battle of Blair Mountain” when some 10,000 United Mine Workers of America staged the largest labor uprising in US history, with many miners wearing red bandanas around their necks. Over one million rounds of ammunition were fired before President Warren Harding sent in federal troops. Over sixty people died in the battle and almost 1,000 miners were arrested.

Such radical history is now being used to reach out to white working class voters.

“We use gun culture as a way to relate to people,” Redneck Revolt organizer Max Neely told Alternet. “Our basic message is: guns are fine, but racism is not.”

Guns culture provides the group with an organizing avenue.

“Redneck Revolt inserts themselves into overwhelmingly white spaces—NASCAR races, gun shows, flea markets in rural communities, and country music concerts—to offer a meaningful alternative to the white supremacist groups who often also recruit in those spaces,” Jared Ware of Shadowproof explained. “Redneck Revolt’s anti-racist, anti-capitalist message seems to be taking hold in communities across the United States. The organization had just 13 chapters in January but has nearly tripled its chapters nationally in the last 6 months. The group now has 34 different branches, 26 of which are in states that voted for Trump.”

“People need to be able to defend themselves. [We] live in a country in the world where people of color and LGBTQ people are routinely victimized and systematically victimized by the people who claim to be there for their defense,” a Pittsburgh, PA Redneck Revolt organizer named Shaun told Shadowproof. We provide free basic firearms training to pretty much everyone who needs it. We focus on trying to provide [self-defense training] when asked for [by] communities of color and LGBTQ folks.”

“White supremacy is essentially a fight to be the best treated dog in the kennel,” Shaun tells potential recruits. “It’s that way because a vastly small percentage of the population hordes access to resources and they’re able to do this because they’ve managed to get one half of the working class to turn against the other half in exchange for basically preferential treatment.”

Redneck Revolt seeks to change the calculation.

“I grew up playing in the woods, floating coolers of beer down a river, shooting off fireworks, just generally raising hell, all that kind of stuff,” Neely told Alternet. “Things most people would consider a part of redneck culture. We’re trying to acknowledge the ways we’ve made mistakes and bought into white supremacy and capitalism, but also give ourselves an environment in which it’s OK to celebrate redneck culture.”

 

BLM LA Responds to Hate Filled NRA Ad

Hat tip to “The Advise Show” a Youtube Channel out of Houston…

 

Antifa/Alt-right – The Cyberwar

The alt-right’s latest attempt a cyber war with the left didn’t go well.

They did get a bunch of gun-toting white racists to show up at a park in Houston through, thoroughly duped into believing the statue of Sam Houston was about to be removed.

Somehow the white racists got confused by the fact that Sam Houston is honored in Texas for his pivotal role in establishing the State…And never had any part in supporting, or founding the confederacy of treason.Indeed, he was removed from office for refusing to support the traitors.

So as usual, the ill-educated, racist, confederate flag waving moronic assholes, got hoisted on their own Petard – defending a man, believing him to be a fellow confederate – when he opposed the confederacy in the first place. Not only did the antifas hoodwink the white supremacists to gathering in a park to oppose no one…But to protect a ststue that is at no risk of ever being removed in Texas.

“By any means necessary.”

Guffaws!

Texas Conservatives Fall for Anti-Antifa Hoax

The rally began, as so many armed conflicts do, with Facebook posts.

Older members of the crowd carried Confederate flags, while the younger, internet-driven masses wore patches with 4chan’s Kekistan banner. Rally-goers in homemade armor and semi-automatic rifles paced Houston’s Hermann Park, waiting for an enemy to appear.

The crowd, several hundred strong, gathered in the park on Saturday to defend a statue of Sam Houston, a slaveholder. They had gathered in response to reports that leftist protesters had planned a rally to remove the statue, despite Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner publicly stating that removing the statue wasn’t “even on my agenda.” But as sniper rifles and Infowars-branded jackets crowded the park, it became evident that the left protesters were not coming. They had never planned to come. The rumors of an antifa protest were actually a hoax, orchestrated by an anti-left group defending Confederate monuments.

The rally began, as so many armed conflicts do, with Facebook posts.

“We’re about to have a huge event in Houston June 10 with the combined forces of several large groups, perhaps our biggest ever,” the page Texas Antifa (short for anti-fascists) posted on May 18. “The Fascists better not show up with violence or they will be limping home bruised, broken, hurt, and crying with their tails tucked between their legs.”

The “Texas Antifa” is not a real group. The page is the latest in a growing genre of anti-antifa hoaxes, perpetrated by anonymous internet users on the right. Texas conservatives still fell for it.

Antifa have emerged as a perfect bogeyman for the alt-right, who have spent years online stoking fear about violence from imaginary enemies (usually people of color), or the perceived loss of their rights (usually at the hands of liberals, feminists, or family court). In antifa, the nebulous alt-right found an equally amorphous foe, one whose members openly boasted of punching the alt-right in the face. Alt-righters who go outside began planning armed counterprotests against antifa. And alt-righters on the internet began creating fake antifa accounts to discredit the largely anonymous movement.

One such parody account, @OfficialAntifa on Twitter, stirred outrage from the general public after it tweeted pictures of vandalized cemeteries on Memorial Day, purporting to have destroyed soldiers’ graves in an act of protest. The images, which actually contained images of years-old graffiti, were quickly picked up by alt-right conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, and disseminated to thousands of enraged followers. (@OfficialAntifa currently tweets anti-trans and anti-Muslim jokes.) A page purporting to be “Boston Antifa” drew the ire of actual New England antifa after it was revealed to be run by trolls.

In Houston, where Saturday’s protests took place, multiple antifa pages claim legitimacy. The Houston Antifa appears to be the longest-running account, active since January 2016 with photos of its demonstrations dating back to that month. But there’s also Antifa Texas-Oklahoma, as well as Texas Antifa (a “public figure” profile run by an alt-right user), Texas Antifa (a community page created last month that first advertised the June 10 protest against the Sam Houston statue), and Houston Antifa (a community page created last month that also advertised the protest and attempted to delegitimize the old Houston Antifa page).

In a Facebook messenger conversation, the older Houston Antifa page described the confusing state of affairs.

“Ah the beauty and the horror of anonymous decentralized organizing,” Houston Antifa told The Daily Beast.

Shortly after the Texas Antifa posted their plans to rally in Houston’s Hermann Park, the Houston Antifa took to Facebook urging readers to “unlike and unfollow this fake ass Texas Antifa page. Do NOT attend the June 10th Rally! This account was started a month ago and is in NO way, shape, or form affiliated with any actual Antifa Organization, PERIOD. Nice try, #MAGA chuds, go fuck yourselves.”

The Houston Antifa told The Daily Beast that “we are 100% positive that this group are outside actors/provocateurs and not just liberal centrists who are mistakenly proclaiming themselves ‘Antifa.’”

But just three days after the brand-new Texas Antifa page advertised its rally, the much-larger conservative group This Is Texas announced a counterprotest in response.

“Antifa has come out saying they will be bringing several large (communist) groups together to host a rally around the Museum District in Houston, Texas on June 10, 2017,” This Is Texas organizers wrote in a post to their nearly 4,000 members. “This list includes Black Panther Party, Antifa & more. Their goal is to remove the Sam Houston statue.” (This Is Texas did not return The Daily Beast’s request for comment.)

But the so-called Texas Antifa’s goal was actually the opposite. The page was secretly run by a group claiming to be affiliated with the hacktivist collective Anonymous. In a Facebook conversation with The Daily Beast, the group claimed to have 11 members, although it refused to offer proof that it was affiliated with a larger Anonymous group.

In a video uploaded to the Texas Antifa YouTube channel (not to an Anonymous account) on June 7, the group declared that they had actually created the page as a hoax to drive gun-toting conservatives to defend the Sam Houston statue, which Houston’s mayor has stated is not being considered for removal.

“It was always an Anonymous event to drive support and attention to an expired Texas law that protected its historical monuments,” the group said in its video. “It never made it to the floor because the Democrats used a filibuster to run out the time so it could not be voted on.”

“The right rarely has but 5-30 people at any given event,” the Texas Antifa page told The Daily Beast. “We gave them a well known enemy, a righteous cause, and an immediate threat.”

Some local media saw through the hoax. The Houston Press’ Craig Malisow debunked the Texas Antifa page as an alt-right prank on June 1, although the page’s moderators, still proclaiming their authenticity, took to Facebook to attack Malisow by name.

The other group only partially duped were alt-righters who were better acquainted with internet hoaxes.

“This is from a shitty satire page,” a 4chan user posted last week about the alleged antifa rally, “ignore it.”

“The normies are gethering [sic] in Houston,” another 4chan poster wrote the day of the event. “Proof that America can be trolled into being great again.”

The statue defenders stormed the park, ready to defend themselves against the antifa and Black Panthers they had been told would be rallying. One young attendee, who was wearing an undersized Roman-style chestplate over makeshift military fatigues with a 4chan arm patch told the Houston Chronicle’s Evan Mintz that he’d donned the armor out of fear that antifa would stab him.

But no leftists appeared. Outside the amplification chamber of the internet, the rally goers were just a crowd of people wearing ill-fitting armor to the park on a sweltering Texas day.

After the crowd ambled home, This Is Texas leaders returned to Facebook to address allegations that the whole event had been driven by a hoax.

“For those who didn’t know Antifa showed up and was putting on their mask in the bathroom by the amphitheater, once they turned the corner & saw the crowd they thought twice about it,” the group posted. “The [sic] did tag downtown up with posters on street signs & the metro rail area. So to those that said this is a hoax, maybe think twice before you speak next time.”

The Houston Antifa said it was possible that the rally goers had spotted some antifa on their way to counterprotest at a nearby anti-Islam event, though its members had agreed to skip the hoax-driven in the park.

At least one This Is Texas organizer realized the makeshift army had been tricked.

In a now-deleted post, a This Is Texas administrator named Dave confessed his disillusion to the page’s followers.

“People – you were duped,” he wrote. “The charges you have heard about this being based on a hoax are all true. Did you see ONE Antifa, Black Panther, Black Lives Matter, or street gang member there??? At all?? ANYWHERE???

“We were told Black Panthers were mobilized from Atlanta and we were told ‘buses and buses’ of anti’s were on their way – never saw them,” Dave wrote. “Oh yeah – I saw a black guy with an AR-15, dressed in black, near the restrooms and thought YES! I found them! Then he stood up and I saw a Texas flag sweat towel in his pocket.”

 

Republican Vote For Another Virginia Tech Massacre

Twenty-three year old Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people on the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, before taking his own life. Cho had been ordered by a court to seek mental health help, and had a history of bizarre behavior and violent threats. Cho picks up a Walther P-22 pistol he purchased online on February 2 from an out-of-state dealer at JND Pawn shop in Blacksburg, across the street from Virginia Tech. Cho purchases a 9mm Glock pistol and 50 rounds of ammunition from Roanoke Firearms for $571. On April 16, 2007 hco murdered 32 people at Virginia Tech.

Now Republicans want to open the “Crazy Peple” loophole up again at the behest of the NRA.

Senate Does NRA’s Bidding, Lets 75,000 Mentally Ill People Buy Guns

Republicans voted to end a policy that sends the names of people unable to work because of ‘severe’ impairments to have their backgrounds checked.

Wednesday morning, the Senate decided to join their brethren and sistren in the House of Representatives and vote to place guns in the hands of people too mentally unstable to manage their own bank accounts. Really.

With every Republican and a few mindless Democrats joining them because “please don’t hurt me, voters, already supporting my opponent” seems like sound strategy, the Senate gave its imprimatur to H.J. Res. 40. This will rollback the Social Security Administration (SSA) policy begun under President Obama to share with our NICS background check system the 75,000 individuals who are unable to work because of “severe mental impairment” and an inability to manage their own Social Security benefits.

No worries—here’s your AR-15!

You might think to yourself, given that we’ve just learned that the Trump Campaign had regular get togethers with Russian intelligence to share secrets and play Twister last year, that the Senate might have something better to do with its time. You might also think that Republican legislators who pretend to support better mental health after each mass shooting would gag at the irony piled upon hypocrisy of passing legislation such as this. But then you’d have to have never observed the people running the majority in both our House and Senate.

When folks out there—usually those who have busy lives and understandably just want Washington to solve our major problems—ask “why can’t both sides just work together and get common sense, moderate legislation passed?”, this is your answer. This is why.

For there’s a legitimate debate to be had about many gun laws proposed by those, like me, who think we need much stricter regulation. It can honestly be contested whether someone who has passed a background check should have the right to an assault weapon, or whether that’s too much military firepower for citizens to possess in a democratic society (my position). There can be legitimate arguments also about how loose or stringent we should make concealed carry laws for legal gun owners. I’d argue that without proven need, a written test and serious time on the range, it’s a no go, but others can make legitimate cases for other positions.

There, however, is no legitimate argument for not requiring that people purchasing firearms do what private babysitting services ask of their employees: a comprehensive background check. Why would any sane society not do every single thing in its power to prevent those who have proven criminally violent or incapable of taking care of themselves from getting their hands on weapons that kill?

 

Black Guns Matter

A friend and fellow shooter turned me on to some stats coming out of the National Rifle Association the other day. It seems that the majority of gun buyers in the last month since the Chumph’s “election” have been minorities. Inspired in no small part by the thousands of Hate Crimes being committed by racist Republicans and Trump supporters, who feel they have free reign to murder, maim, and terrorize black and minority populations in a redux of the Second KKK of the 1920’s.

Spurred on by the fact that the Chump’s followers massively armed up, that the Chump’s cabinet selections of white supremacists suggests the Law enforcement will turn a blind eye to hate crimes, the open advocacy of white supremacy by Fox News media such as Bill O’Reilly, and the thousands of Hate aggressions and hate crimes since the election…Minorities need to arm themselves to protect themselve, significant others, and their children from hate crazed Trumpazoids.

It seems that black folks aren’t left with much alternative other than to protect themselves in this country. The last time the KKK rose in 1918’s “Bloody Summer”, they got stopped cold by the fact black folks got their guns and fought back. The Washington, DC “Race riot” being an example. Black Tulsa didn’t go down easily, as armed WWI Veterans fought back actively. This happened again in Knoxville where the State Guard joined the white rioters.

Black Guns Matter is one of several new organizations  in startup mode to assist minority peoples to protect themselves (Their website as of this writing is not fully live, but is bookmarked). The NATIONAL AFRICAN AMERICAN GUN ASSOCIATION, founded in 2015 is an organization promoting training, and is making waves.

I will continue my series on my recommendations of the best weapons to defend yourself during the Trumpocalypse and likely Civil War. My first post in that area had to do with what I feel are the best pistols for concealed carry (I’ve got a new one to add to that list I personally got to try out a couple of weeks ago the Canik TPS9, which won’t break the bank, and has some of the best safety features and accuracy I have seen in this class.) I will expand on that first article to Full Frame or Large Frame Pistols, Best Home Defense Weapons, Shotguns, Rifles, and my feelings on the best “Meet and greet” weapons allowing someone to reach out an touch over 1/2 mile away.

 

Now it’s the liberals who are arming up

When it looked all but certain that Hillary Clinton was going to win the presidency, nervous gun rights advocates reported stockpiling guns and ammunition they feared would no longer be available if the Democrat won the White House.

The threat of Clinton presidency, along with several recent mass shootings, had led to 18 straight months of records in the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check system for people seeking a permit to buy a firearm. Many were concerned the government would enact regulations restricting their access to guns.

But since Republican Donald Trump, who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association and supports gun rights, won the White House in November, gun shops anticipated sales would taper off. Shares in major gun companies fell, anticipating a slowdown.

Yet that doesn’t seem to be the case: On Black Friday this year, NICB processed a record 185,713 background checks — the most ever on a single day in the 20 years the system has existed.

And some of those gun buyers are what the industry calls “non-traditional.” Namely, minorities, gay people and self-described liberals.

“In the more conservative gun world, there is definitely a feeling that liberals hate guns,” Liberal Gun Club spokesperson Lara Smith told the BBC. She said there as been a spike in inquiries to her organization after Trump’s election and that paid membership has increased 10 percent. People have expressed concern that an increase in hate crimes since Trump’s election could escalate into something more violent, Smith said, and they want to be prepared.

“Yes, there are liberals who dislike guns, but the vast majority of them have never been around guns and don’t know much about them other than what they are told,” Smith wrote on her organization’s website.

Smith said she has been working with other non-traditional gun groups like Black Guns Matter and Pink Pistols. Pink Pistols promotes “legal, safe, and responsible use of firearms for self-defense of the sexual-minority community.” The group, which has 45 chapters nationwide, calls itself a shooting group that “honors diversity” and “teaches queers to shoot.” Although it has worked in conjunction with the NRA, the Pink Pistols considers itself non-partisan.

Gun shop owner Michael Cargill told NBC News gun classes at his Austin, Texas store are selling out. He’s noticed an increase in LGBTQ, African-American, Hispanic and Muslim customers. Store owners told NBC they’ve seen up to four times as many minority customers than is typical.

The National African American Gun Association, which has 14,000 members, has seen an increase in interest following the election.

“Most folks are pretty nervous about what kind of America we’re going to see over the next 5-10 years,” the organization’s founder Philip Smith told NBC. “I tell everyone don’t panic, use your head. If you see something not normal, get out. You’re probably right. And if you’re not able to get out, you’re prepared to do what you need to do.”

 

Self Protection Under the Trump Reich

With the thousands of hate crimes committed by racist Trump followers since the election, it has become increasingly obvious it is up to minorities to protect themselves.

Here are a few good choices for concealed carry weapons.

SCCY CPX-II

This is the SCCY CPX-II. It is relatively new to the market. It carries 11 rounds in a 10+1 configuration of 9mm ammo. It is also one of the more inexpensive guns in his class. What I like about it is there are no exterior bumps or controls to snag on a holster or in your pocket in an emergency, and the 11 round capacity. In general, “carry” pistols are not very accurate. They are designed for close range, no more than 10-15′. The large capacity makes up for that. This gun does not have a safety, and to compensate for that it has a heavy trigger pull (9 lbs). The recoil of a 9mm in this small frame may be a bit much for smaller women.  This is an American made quality pistol perfect for self defense. (And ladies, it comes in 3 colors – black, pink, and purple). Price – around $350.

 

Beretta Nano

The Beretta Nano is one of the best designed pistols on the market for concealed carry.No protrusions on the gun to snag, and a reliable frame make this a contender as best in class. It comes with two magazines, one a 6 round, one an 8 round. Meaning it can be carried in a 6+1 or 8+1 configuration. The frame and rail system make this one of the few compacts which will survive extended range use. It has an internal safety. Cost is about $500. The gun itself is less than 1″ wide, making it 1) easy to handle for people with small hands, and 2) easily concealable in a waistband.

Bersa Thunder 380

The Bersa uses a 380 round, which is slightly smaller than a 9mm. The recoil is easily managed by most women. The 380 round is not as devastating as the 9mm but packs plenty of power. The gun is operable in singe or double action mode, and includes an external safety. It includes an internal lock down system, completely disabling the gun for storage at home (and to keep the kiddies from firing it accidentally). It also has a trigger guard designed to allow the shooter to use the gun even if wearing gloves. At slightly less than 23 ounces, it is lightweight, and not going to wear you out carrying it around. It is a reliable weapon for about $350. The gun is made in Argentina, and is a loose copy of the famous Walther PPK. Suggest carrying it in a 6+1 configuration instead of the full magazine capacity of 7 rounds.

For “Wheel Gun” fans, I recommend the Smith and Wesson 642. This design has been around 75 years, and has stood the test of time. Have no fear in buying one of these used. My personal favorite is a “44 Bulldog” using the 44 Caliber Round. The new guns frames are aluminum, with a steel barrel and cylinder making them substantially lighter then the old all steel guns. The hammerless design means no snags when you draw it, and along with the low profile sight makes this an excellent choice. I have one of these which used to be called “Airline” models which after 911 were converted to the “Airweight” Model. The 38 round is actually a more powerful round than the 9mm, which isn’t necessarily a good thing as the 38 is high velocity meaning it likely will go though a target. As to hitting anything beyond about 15′ – forget it. These are designed as close in defense weapons. There are a number of models, and these can be bought new from about $320 and up based on caliber and extras.

To stay away from?

The small Glocks. Now the Model 47 Version 3. The reason there are multiple versions of this gun is the safety, which had a habit of disengaging on draw…Resulting in a number of users ending their family plans with what we euphemistically call a “Hillbilly Vasectomy”. I generally don’t like Glocks due to less then stellar accuracy, first round jamming, and handling. When I go to the range, I outshoot even supposedly “expert” shooters with those with my relatively antique (designed in 1930), slightly modified Browning Hi-Power all day long. When I upgrade I plan to buy a Sig Sauer P229 in 9mm, which flat out is the best off-the-shelf gun in that caliber out there (Stay away from the 40 Cal and Sig 357 in this gun!). Not cheap at over $1000, but worth it.

I will do another on large frame guns at another time.

Lastly – Why 9mm?

9mm is one of four calibers, including 22, 38, and 45 which are extremely popular and thus are made in mass quantities. You can almost always find any of the four in your local Walmart as well as your local country hardware store. The 9 mm is used by the Military – meaning the are billions of those floating around, So, in the event of a “Zombie” or Trump apocalypse, unlike the less popular rounds (10 mm, 357, 40 Cal, etc), these will be available for a long time.

 

 

Stuck on Stupid – Gun Nuts and Clinton

The NRA has trolled gun nuts into believing if Clinton wins she will take away their metal manhood. After all, it’s the only scintilla of manhood many of them have left.

A situation which makes things a win-win for the gun sellers.

If Clinton wins, all the old white guys buy guns to form Militias to protect their god given right to mass murder, and supposedly protect themselves against the big bad Gub’ment..

If Trump wins, Minorities buy guns to protect themselves from domestic terrorist and KKK white guys with guns – and the Trump dictatorship.

In my area, the NRA is flooding the airwaves with pro-Trump ads. This is a rural area, and gun ownership is normal. The majority of the households here own a hunting rifle or shotgun. Your small caliber AR-15 is pretty useless for hunting game, although there are nutcases out there who will try it with some limited success.

Apocalypse now: Gun buyers stockpiling firearms ahead of Election Day

The nation’s largest gun manufacturer prepares for a post-election surge in demand in the event of a Clinton win

With just days left before American voters decide who will replace President Barack Obama, many in the nation’s gun-owning public seem to be preparing for a dystopian future of jack-booted liberal government thugs prying guns — as thepopular slogan goes — from their cold dead hands.

On Wednesday, executives at the country’s top firearms manufacturer said they’re adequately prepared to meet demand from a post-election gun-buying surge if Democrats make significant gains in Congress and Hillary Clinton wins the White House.

“If you look back at what happened eight years ago [Obama’s first election victory] there was, in my opinion, a surprising number of people who were actually surprised by the outcome [of the election] at the last minute and then scrambled, you know, through November to try to get any product,” Michael Fifer, CEO of Sturm, Ruger & Co., said in a conference call about his company’s strong third-quarter earnings. “We have done extensive contingency planning for any combination of who wins the White House, who wins the Senate, who wins the House.”

The Connecticut-based company reported a 66 percent increase in profit, to $20 million, on a 33 percent jump in sales, to $161 million, in the three months ending Oct. 1, compared to the same period last year. Sturm Ruger firearms production rose 20 percent in the first nine months of the year while the company has upped internal and wholesale distributor inventories of its weapons by about 74,000 units in the third quarter in anticipation of a post-election surge.

“Inventory growth of certain products at distributors may have been amplified in anticipation of a possible post-election surge in demand,” Sturm Ruger’s Chief Operating Officer Christopher Killoy said in the call. These “certain products” include the company’s Ruger AR-556, a “modern sporting rifle” (AKA an assault-style semiautomatic rifle), and its Ruger LC9s compact pistol, popular among gun owners with concealed-carry permits. What isn’t in heavy demand right now, according to Killoy: Ruger’s basic bolt-action rifle commonly used by hunters and sport shooters.

Regardless of who wins on Tuesday, America is well on its way to a record year in gun sales.

According to the latest report released Monday by the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, October background checks leaped 18 percent to 2.33 million compared to October 2015. These checks have jumped 26 percent this year, to 22.21 million.

With two months left and a lot of seasonal holiday gun buying yet to go, this year will shoot past last year’s all-time high. The number of federal criminal background checks act as a reliable proxy measure of the pace of gun sales, but they do not reflect the actual number of guns sold.

“It’s really unprecedented what we’ve seen,” Andrew Patrick, spokesman for the D.C.-based Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, told Salon. “Usually NICS checks dip in the summer months and then pick up again starting in October and rise to the holidays and then come back down.”

Part of this growth came in the wake of the June 12 Orlando nightclub massacre and the July 7 sniper-style murders of Dallas police officers. Some Americans typically rush buy guns in the wake of multiple-homicide shootings out of fear of the government’s response to these tragedies. But the NICS data show the jump in demand this year began well before the shootings, a strong signal that gun owners are buying out of concern over the results of the election.

The National Rifle Association has been on the defensive, too. Even as Trump has struggled to raise campaign funds, the NRA has broken its record on political campaign spending to try to get Trump elected. The pro-gun group also has spent on state races, including nearly $2 million to keep incumbent Republican Sen. Senator Richard Burr in office in a tight North Carolina race. Burr plunged himself into hot water this week by joking that a photo of Hillary Clinton should have a bullseye on it, an echo to a similar remark made by Trump in August that allude to acts of violence against a presidential candidate.

While guns sales are skyrocketing, a small number of Americans are likely playing an outsize role in gun sales. A Harvard-Northeastern University survey released last month suggests that almost half of the country’s civilian gun stockpile is brandished by only 3 percent of the population. So what’s going on with these collectors?

“It’s stockpiling,” Patrick said. “Some people probably think they’re going to have to rise up against the government. I don’t know, but that language and that rhetoric are out there.”

 

 

How the Police Became the Military – “Do Not Resist” Documentary

How the Police became a military force within the US…The US Army cannot operate within American borders unless Martial Law is declared. The National Guard, which reports to the State Governors can be called out in major emergencies by the Governors. Starting in  the mid 90’s the US Army began giving surplus equipment to Police Forces. This included automatic weapons, armored cars and vehicles, Military body armor, electronic surveillance systems , and even grenades and grenade launchers.

The Police in some areas have effectively become the Military, using all  this new weaponry against citizens. The Military’s job isn’t to arrest people. They will tell you quite frankly their job is to “kill people and break things”. Which is why there is so much Police violence.