Friday, March 05, 2010

“An Armed Society is a Polite Society”

Robert Heinlein must be credited for the title to this post.  The complete quote is as follows.

An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.

I thought of this quote after reading the following headline.  USA Gun Owners Buy 14 Million Plus Guns In 2009 – More Than 21 of the Worlds Standing Armies Combined

The article also includes this information.

14,033,824,000 billions rounds of Ammo
Assuming each gun buyer bought 1000 rounds of ammo for each purchase, and you and I know that it is way, way more than that, that would be easily 14,033,824,000+ billions rounds of ammo fired by USA gun owners.

I must say, that in my errand runs today, ninety-nine percent (99%) of the individuals I interacted with were very polite, but then of course so was I.

Linked via Jeffrey Quick, who titles his post on this subject Got gunz?, and then quips.

Why hasn’t any firearms trade association given Obama an award for “salesman of the year”?

I say, got manners?

Posted by John Venlet on 03/05 at 02:22 PM
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Laughable Census Data Privacy Assurance

Here’s a headline regarding census data privacy from sixteen (16) hours ago.

Gov’t offers new assurance census data is private

Here’s a headline from Scientific American from two (2) years ago, Confirmed: The U.S. Census Bureau Gave Up Names of Japanese-Americans in WW II.  Here is the opening to the Scientific American article.

Despite decades of denials, government records confirm that the U.S. Census Bureau provided the U.S. Secret Service with names and addresses of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

How are you feeling about the government assurance on census data privacy, now?

Posted by John Venlet on 03/05 at 08:00 AM
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Motiveless Shooter or Clueless Government Officials?

From an AP article on the Pentagon shooting, posted at Yahoo! News under the headline Official: Pentagon shooter was well armed.

Keevill said he did not know the shooter’s motive.

“I have no idea what his intentions were,” he said.

And this statement, which precedes the above quote from the article, seems to add weight to the clueless side of the equation.

Noting that Bedell was wearing a suit, Keevill said: “There was no indication based on the way he was dressed that he had hostile intent.”

Posted by John Venlet on 03/05 at 07:22 AM
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