Author Archives: lubimur
CATO Institute Report – Cost and Consequences of Gun Control
I’ve excerpted some of the highlights of the paper.
“This paper will scrutinize the three most common gun-control ideas that have been put forward in recent years: universal background checks, a ban on high-capacity magazines, and a ban on assault weapons. These proposals are misguided and will not prevent the crimes that typically prompt officials to make pleas for more gun control.
More Background Checks
In 2013, the FBI conducted more than 21 million background checks for firearm purchases. Dylann Roof, the racist who attacked the churchgoers in Charleston, had previously been arrested, and he had admitted to law enforcement officers that he was a user of methamphetamine. That was sufficient, under the federal Gun Control Act of 1968, to prohibit him from owning guns, because the statute bans gun ownership by illegal drug users. However, as the FBI later admitted, the bureau failed to properly enter into its database the prohibiting information that had been provided by local law enforcement.
Professor James Alan Fox of Northeastern University, who studies mass shootings, explains that “mass killers are determined, deliberate and dead-set on murder. They plan methodically to execute their victims, finding the means no matter what laws or other impediments the state attempts to place in their way. To them, the will to kill cannot be denied.”
Gun-control advocates often claim that 40 percent of annual firearms sales take place today without background checks. The Washington Post “fact-checker” has debunked that claim, giving it “Three Pinocchios.” The Post noted that the survey data used for the study on which the 40 percent claim is based are more than two decades old, which means they were collected prior to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System becoming operational in 1998, and the survey only polled 251 people
High Capacity Magazines
Why might someone need a factory-standard 17-round magazine for a common 9mm handgun? As noted, standard-capacity magazines can be very useful for self-defense. This is especially true if a defender faces multiple attackers, an attacker is wearing heavy clothing or body armor, an attacker who is turbo-charged by methamphetamine or cocaine, or an attacker who poses an active threat from behind cover. In stressful circumstances, police as well as civilians often miss when firing a handgun even at close range, so having the extra rounds can be crucial.
Although one can quickly change magazines, persons being attacked by criminals will typically prefer not to spend even a few seconds for a magazine change. The stress of being attacked usually impedes fine motor skills, making it much more difficult to insert the magazine. The criminal has the element of surprise, and can bring several guns, or lots of magazines, whereas the victim will usually have on hand, at most, a single defensive gun with only as much ammunition as is in that gun. This gives the advantage to the criminal.
Advocates of a ban on standard-capacity magazines assert that while the attacker is changing the magazine, an intended victim might be able to subdue him — yet they cannot point to a single instance where this actually happened. At Newtown, the criminal changed magazines seven times and no one escaped, but when his rifle jammed, people did escape. Similarly, in the Luby’s cafeteria murders (24 dead), the perpetrator replaced magazines multiple times. In the Virginia Tech murders (32 dead), the perpetrator changed magazines 17 times.
Assault Weapons
(What the heck even is that?)
– The UK homicide rate tends to fluctuate between one and two per 100,000 population. The U.S. homicide rate is 4.7 (as of 2011). The difference is not entirely due to guns, since the non-gun U.S. homicide rate is consistently higher than the UK total homicide rate.
– In other categories of major violent crime, the UK is generally worse than the United States. In 2010, the assault rate per 100,000 population was 250.9 in the United States; 664.4 in England and Wales; 1449.7 in Scotland; and 80.6 in Northern Ireland.
– Burglary rates were: United States 695.9; England and Wales, 946.1; Northern Ireland, 658.7; and Scotland, 479.1. So the overall UK burglary rate is significantly worse
– In the United States, only a fairly small percentage of home burglaries take place when the occupants are home, but in Great Britain, about 59 percent do.94 In surveys, American burglars say that they avoid occupied homes because of the risk of getting shot.
http://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/costs-consequences-gun-control#full
Have a Great Day!
Lubimur
Iron skillet, How do I love thee?
Let me count the ways…
I made an observation, the pan should be warm when scraping. If there is left over grease from this morning’s sausage in the skillet and you want to scrape out the sausage crispies before cooking dinner in it, don’t just start scraping. If it is warm it will be more piable and will fill in the pores, but if it is crusted on and you start scraping you may pull out some of the seasoning and create more pits that need to be smoothed (filled).
On the flip side, if you heat it too hot before scraping, it will get gummy. This is ok if you’ve already scraped and are into the cooking phase (unless you’re cooking something without much fat and no added oil or anything) because it’ll just flavor the dish. It may still be gummy when you’re done, but it will be much less so, and you can just “clean” it as you normally would at this point (add a bit of oil, warm it and scrape it into the gummy parts, then wipe out with paper towel).
Don’t Buy Tomorrow What You Can Buy Today
I want to go ahead and say it one more time, not only so I am unquestionably on record as saying it, but also because it is imminent. There is no avoiding or escaping it.. The greatest threat to our lifestyle, freedom, and resilience that we face is the rising cost of things. I don’t even know if I should keep calling it inflation. That term has been saddled with so much baggage that I don’t think it makes sense to most people. Couple that with the current accepted definition – which most people accept or buy into – and saying it almost doesn’t convey what it is you are actually trying to say/identify; it almost doesn’t make your point.
You know my trip into minimalism and my recent post about why I’ve begun washing clothes less; you know I believe keeping costs low, rational and to a minimum is a necessary part of the Opt Out strategy because spending less means getting out of debt slavery sooner, and it also means more money to either save or apply toward some sort of asset or physical property. Buying the things now that are going to serve us and last as we move forward into the future is an investment in that future. The fewer expenses we are saddled with going forward, the more flexibility we have in the decisions we make regarding our own lives.
All that to say I bought some Fruit of the Loom t-shirts about a month ago from amazon, I had to buy a 4 pack which was $12.46. That’s $3.12/shirt. I received them, I’ve worn each one at least twice, and they are typical Fruit of the Loom t-shirts. I buy these to wear under my work shirts so I don’t have to wash the work shirts so often (see recent Laundry post). These t-shirts are colored rather than white. There is a charcoal grey, a greenish blue, a blueish green, and a black. The colored t-shirts provide more resiliency than the all white ones for a couple of reasons: the white ones absorb body oil, sweat, and environmental stains that start to be noticeable on white t-shirts very quickly – even though they are freshly washed, so they won’t look dirty when they are in fact clean.
Also, they are more versatile. One morning when getting ready for work my oldest asked with her attitude, “why would you wear a light grey t-shirt with black pants and a blue sweater? Couldn’t you have worn one that either matched your pants or your shirt?
The answer was actually “no”. All I had were white t-shirts – 9 of them, 6 large which were too big and 3 medium which fit but got worn the most so therefore were beginning to show discoloration– and one new, light grey Levi’s t-shirt, the one to which she was referring. That got me to thinking. Why do I have all these white t-shirts? They get dingy so fast and there is nothing short of bleaching them to get them to look truly clean, Which means they need to be replaced before the have actually outlived their usefulness. They are also boring and so freaking conservative, exactly the kind of thing a cubicle clone would wear. I decided to try and find some alternative, even if it meant more grey t-shirts. That’s when I saw that Haynes and Fruit of the Loom had t-shirts in colors.
This turned out to be one of the quality purchases I keep going on and on about.
Keep in mind that it was literally one month ago-4 weeks, because the point of this cute little story is that the price went up today to just over $14.99. Still a good price, I’m going to order another 4 pack on payday. But it validates my point about buying quality now rather than later because going from 3.12 per shirt to 3.75 per shirt may only be 63 cents, 2.53 per pack, chump change in real dollars, but it represents a 17% increase. You’re not going to hear about those kinds of price percentage increases when the talking heads are talking about inflation. I can go a long time without a new xbox or flat screen tv, but clothes are most definitely a necessity by my definition of necessity, along with eggs and ground beef. These are the items that are skyrocketing percentage wise.
If you look at it from a strictly Real Dollar vantage point, heck yeah I can swing $2.53 per pack more. But next year it could be another $2.50, and so on. Every little $5 and $10 increase in price may seem insignificant, but if it represents an increase in price of 17% each time it goes up, you have to weigh that against your annual raise of 2%-3% per year, assuming it only increases in cost once per year. The cost of that item outstrips you’re your buying power increase by 15%. Do some math and stretch that out over 10 years. In terms of buying power you are essentially paying the corporation that employees you for the joy of working for them.
A Lot of Preps are Like Fire Insurance
You may never need them – you hope you’ll never need them – but you buy them anyway just in case; because the outcome if you should need them and don’t have them is just so bleak.
I just finished watching “end Day” on Netflix. It made me think not so much about teotwawki, but the preps I have in place “just in case”. Now that I have been working toward resilience for quite some time now, the initial overreaction has passed. Point in case, I am more prepared for a pandemic than I am for an extended job loss. Which do you suppose is more likely?
Having said that, I do realize that, even though the former is far less likely, it is easier to prepare for because there are so many “one and done” things you can do to prepare for them; and unlike the latter, once the former strikes it may be too late to do anything more than what you have already done to mitigate the risk.
Back to my point, I did realize there are some things which may be necessary that I have not yet added to my preps. Two come to mind immediately: two wind up time keeping devices (don’t think it really matters whether they are watches or clocks), and goggles to accompany my air filter masks. The first we need so that we can coordinate with our peeps (family members, tribe, band, whatever) and know that someone either is where they are supposed to be when they are supposed to be there, or they’re not. The second is because some bugs could get in if someone sneezes and we catch it in the face. In the movie, one of the scenarios was a pandemic, and the rescue workers were wearing the hazmat suits and had eye protection. That’s when I asked myself “shouldn’t I have some eye protection as well as my filter masks”?
I wear glasses so I am going to get some prescription sports goggles to fit that bill. I suppose my eye protection that I use with the table saw over my glasses would work, but that is so cumbersome and inefficient, and since I can get a pair of sports goggles for $30…
In another scenario a husband and wife are not together when news of a catastrophe hits, one is at home and she starts loading up the minivan with water, food, etc, and the husband is out and about with their kid. I thought, “How will she know whether know whether to keep waiting or cut and run? Do they have a rendezvous point?” What if you do link up – or start out together – and then have to split up, how would we know when to worry, or bug out alone?
The wind up watches won’t really be necessary as long as there is electricity, since we can charge and use our phones. Even if we can no longer sync to a network so our time of day is accurate, we can still use the timer or stopwatch function (app) on our phones. The only two times I can think of where this would be undoable is an EMF or we are away from any way to recharge for a few days. Still, something to consider.
SuburbanResilience 