Three things Trump can do to strengthen the 2nd amendment
Link here. The three things are, first appoint Supreme Court judges who support the individual’s right to bear arms; second pass a law forcing states to recognize the gun permits issued by other states, as they do with driver’s licenses; three eliminate the absurd gun-free regulations imposed on the military at military bases.
It is very likely that all three of these things will happen, which at a minimum will make a Trump administration a success, at least in terms of the second amendment.
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Link here. The three things are, first appoint Supreme Court judges who support the individual’s right to bear arms; second pass a law forcing states to recognize the gun permits issued by other states, as they do with driver’s licenses; three eliminate the absurd gun-free regulations imposed on the military at military bases.
It is very likely that all three of these things will happen, which at a minimum will make a Trump administration a success, at least in terms of the second amendment.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
When Sheriff Joe in Arizona tried to enforce Federal immigration law, the Justice Dept. took legal action against him for it. I hope to see Trump’s Justice Dept. take legal action against the states that have blatantly violated their citizen’s 2nd amendment rights. ie. Maryland, California, New York, etc. The unconstitutional state laws that turn citizens into felons for possessing commonly used semi-auto firearms and accessories have to be overturned by the Supreme Court. Let’s all hope a Constitutional Conservative Justice will be appointed and confirmed to the bench.
Letting military members carry their issue firearms will result in more accidental discharges and deaths, than would possibly be saved during any terrorist attack on said members.
They have more than enough trouble keeping them from shooting themselves or others with the very limited access they have now. Just because they joined, does NOT make them any sort of an expert in handling firearms!
I’ve seen it with my own eyes, so don’t try to tell me differently. Being able to wear camo, doesn’t make you Rambo…
Not to mention how many full auto M16s will go missing on a regular basis. I’ve spent too many times on a base wide lock down because some dimwit let there M16 fall off the back of a Duce and a half. (Somewhere downrange)
argh “their M16”.
Where do they find the anti-gun types?? Is it something in the water? More accidental discharges and death ? Is this for real, or just a joke?? In any case, I was an Officer and kept myself armed in spite of the PC insanity…..No one ever even tried to stop me…many of my fellow Officers were armed as well..
18 year old unwilling conscripts all over the world can use firearms without killing anyone (in peace). But the US military today is unable to let their professional recruits handle firearms? What a pathetic thought! I mean, what a mentally pathological thought.
Firearms should also be allowed in all schools, in order to stop the school shootings. You see, political law is not the law of nature. A paper in parliament saying that guns are forbidden, does not have the consequence that all guns magically disappear. Only the non-criminals (try to) obey the law and disarm themselves, giving monopoly of firearms to the criminals who don’t care about those ridiculous political papers.
I don’t think they are talking about letting raw recruits walk around the base with their weapons. Instead it is a response to Military Bases using armed civilian security guards while at the same time forbidding any military from carrying on base (unless it is at the range).
It would allow the Military to go back to guarding their own bases and allowing armed servicemen that have proven proficiency with a weapon to carry it, at the very least when they pull guard duty.
My understanding of the Fort Hood shooting is that the only people allowed to be armed on that base at that time were minimum-wage civilian security guards hired by an outside contractor. That’s Nuts.
There is no such thing as an accidental discharge; my preferred term is “negligent discharge,” and every case should be treated as such.
Boot camp, at least in the Marines, does make one an expert in handling firearms, or one doesn’t graduate.
Combat (so I’ve heard, never been there) involves many new, shocking experiences, and one of the goals of training is to get servicemen familiar with as many potentially shocking experiences as possible, to maximize functionality under extreme stress. Handling weapons is low-hanging fruit in that regard.
Q:
What has been the historical practice with our Military & access to weapons on base, before we went on this gun-free zone, kick?
Forgive my ignorance– is everyone in the military assigned a weapon? I imagine in varies depending on where you are, what you are, & what you are doing. (?)
Is there always Military Police on-duty at a base?
Repeal the 1986 gun ban. Over 100 years of US civilian ownership of fully automatic weapons and in all that time less than 10 deaths by them.
National CCW reciprocity. Yes I know all about the idea of not needing a permit for a constitutional right, but………
Remove all the state and local gun restrictions and bans only defined by gun configuration and accessories and make the restriction by caliber alone.
Serious;y. I can not have a 30 round .22lr magazine but I can have a 50BMG caliber rifle that can put 1 inch holes in armored cars and bring down light aircraft?
I can not put a bayonet on my rifle but I can own a cannon?
I can not bring my CCW pistol into a football stadium but I can shoot off a cannon after the team scores?
The first gun restrictions were placed by racist democrats in order to keep guns out of the hands of black people after the civil war. Is this a tradition we need to keep up?
Most of the Officers I knew were barely capable of hitting a full size silhouette target at 15 feet! I had to show them how to disassemble their own M9s and 1911s on multiple occasions! I wouldn’t trust them with sharp scissors, much less with a firearm. Don’t even get me started in the “quality” of the soldiers I served with in the National Guard…
Just a sample: A little old, but you can see the trend.
https://mmj.vcu.edu/2010/12/06/non-hostile-deaths-common-in-iraq-afghanistan/
And this is in Combat zones. It would be much worse Stateside. It’s hard enough to get them to stop writing bad checks and or driving drunk. Or even getting the to clean their nasty ass rooms! And you would want me to be constantly on guard to see that they weren’t practicing unsafe weapons handling on top of that? Give me a break!
The myth that every soldier is a trained ‘Operator’ is just that. They’re the same people you work/interact with every day. They just happened to sign an enlistment contract at one time or another.
That’s what happens when the enlistment pitch is “join the Army, go to college.” I’m not limiting this to the Army; all branches have been guilty of this.
My service ended in the early 90’s, so I can’t speak of what goes on now, but my first thought is that perhaps the all-volunteer force has led to distortions; perhaps we have to in effect bribe people to join, and don’t want to inconvenience them too much during their service, to ensure that they re-enlist.
I was lucky to enter the Marines with a new Commandant who really emphasized “every Marine a rifleman.” Even before his re-emphasis, every Marine spent a week dry-firing his weapon before using live ammo, which is a huge key to developing marksmanship, and safety was emphasized from well before any live ammo was involved. Rifle training was an additional week, and was repeated every year.
Any Marine not qualifying as a basic marksman was made to repeat rifle training in basic training until he qualified. The same applied to officers, not only for the rifle, but for the pistol as well. In the units I served in, one’s level of qualification was a matter of pride.
Like all subordinates in any arena (young children, students, employees, etc.), servicemen respond well to clear expectations, which must be established in boot camp and then reinforced afterward.
If we can’t trust our servicemen with loaded weapons, we are in big trouble.
Just one criticism with your choice of words: unsafe weapons handling should not be emphasized “on top of” keeping one’s room clean, etc.; it is much more important than anything else and should be emphasized much more intensely.
On the rifle range, I have seen coaches give harsh words and even mild violence to violators, regardless of their relative rank. As an officer, I had to be extra careful not only because of safety, but because there were always at least a few enlisted men who relished the opportunity to get away with striking an officer (it was understood that anyone was free game for safety violations)
Wayne, I can only give a partial answer to your question on servicemen handling weapons on base. I only served at a large base stateside and a small base overseas, so I have a limited view.
Each battalion (500-1500 men) had an armory where weapons were kept. During the day, the armorers were armed with loaded pistols. After they left, there was an armed guard around the clock, within the small perimeter fence. Each battalion had an officer of the day who was also armed and patrolled the area, including the armory.
The base gates were guarded by armed MPs.
When we went into the field, we always brought our weapons, but rarely had an ammunition for them (I don’t count blanks). When we did bring ammunition, it was under very controlled conditions, with lots of safety measures in place.
When in the field we had our weapons 24 hours a day. When in garrison, we had to keep our weapons in the armory overnight, and check them out when we needed them (besides the field, mostly for cleaning or inspections).
During Marine officer basic training, we kept our weapons all week, securing them to our beds with locks. Old timers told me that this was also the usual practice almost everywhere, until things got crazy in the 60s and 70s and people started stealing weapons. I think they went the wrong way on this; instead of centralizing storage of weapons and dealing with the administrative burden that causes (you’d be surprised how long it takes to issue and collect weapons), they should have armed the duty NCO in each barracks to ensure security.
I’m sure it’s been some time (I’m guessing at least since WW II) since servicemen walked around with weapons and ammo on their bases with any kind of regularity.
Being able to safely handle and operate a firearm doesn’t involve turning someone into Rambo.
And it also does not involve allowing or forcing every solder to carry their rifle or side arm when they don’t need to. Most solders will NEVER want to touch them after duty, thats just more cleaning and responsibility. It gets in the way of drinking.
But I bet many would like the opportunity to get a CCW and carry it on and off base with little trouble. Solders are far more vulnerable to problems off base than on.
I was in the Air Force and quite frankly I wouldn’t have trusted 90% of them with a rifle let alone a side arm.
I actually had one guy tell me he joined the AF because he didn’t want to kill anyone, as we drove past a building filled with bombs.
I was one of two people in my 100 man unit qualified, and sometimes required, to carry a side arm during my duty day. I had to go through the same pistol course as the security police.
Now as an Ohio CCW holder I went through the very same pistol course as our local police do. And scored way higher than they needed too to qualify.
Garry–
Thanks for the input. I was hoping you would comment on this topic.
(Everyone has brought up valid points.)
Personally, I’m totally under-informed on historical practice.
– I do know & understand there are entirely valid reasons for securing weapons and controlling access. If the system functioned well before they fiddled with it, we need to go back to what we did before.
responding to vonmazur
stupidity is contagious.
Wayne, I should have added that I was in an artillery unit, and the ammo techs who brought us our ammo in the field were always armed, but nobody else was.
I thought it was a little surreal to be in the middle of the woods, popping off sometimes hundreds of artillery rounds each consisting of 95 pounds of steel and explosives, but once the ammo techs left nobody had any small arms ammunition (although each of us had a rifle or pistol).
Then again, even someone with automatic weapons would be idiotic to try to steal artillery rounds from 80 or so Marines, even if they were effectively unarmed.
Here’s a good example of how a few armed men (police in this case) can keep things civil. Basically, a bunch of Trump protesters happened by a bar where about 100 Marines were celebrating the Marine Corps birthday.
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/articles/marines-and-trump-protest-face-off