Category Archives: nannystate

Act of Defiance

nannystate

Via Unc, this is the kind of thing that makes one feel like a fool for putting up with low 120 degrees for hot water heaters, toilets that don’t flush, showers that don’t spray, and detergents that don’t clean. I’ve already started adding TSP to my dish detergent with only marginal improvement. I’ll be following Unc to see what recipes he’s used and how they worked.

But one thing I will definitely be doing as soon as I get the chance is turning up the temperature of my water heater. Heck, I may go to 135 or 140, but I’ll start at 130 to see how that goes.

Sticking my finger in the eye of Leviathan is satisfying. Especially since it annoys the busybodies.

h/t Knitebane for the heads up on Unc’s post.

Political Action – A “Necessary Fail”

activism, nannystate, statists, teaparty, threepercent

After sending the text of my previous post to all seven Johnston County Commissioners, I got a response back from three of them. The first one just said “Thanks for the email” and that was that. Nice discourse.

The third one was actually from a clerk who simply sent me Allen Mims’ (the Chairman) memo explaining the delay of the hearing and formation of the working group, which I had already read.

But the second one was from Vice Chairman Commissioner Jeff Carver who said simply, “Thanks for the email, please call me to discuss.”

Well. That was more than I expected. So I took him up on the offer, got his cell phone number from him and called him later that night. We spoke for 20 minutes or so about a number of things I mentioned in my email (which he said he thought was the longest he’d ever received, even outside his role as Commissioner) as well as some other points. I’ll include some details from that conversation in another follow-up post.

But, at the end of the conversation he suggested I take a few days to digest what we talked about and that if I wanted to speak with him again, or even meet with him person, that he’d be happy to oblige. I’m happy to report that I took him up on the offer and Mr. Carver didn’t renege on the agreement to meet with me. Knitebane, another friend from Johnston County and I met with the Commissioner today for lunch and discussed several issues surrounding this proposed ordinance for about 45 minutes. I would like to publicly thank Vice Chairman Jeff Carver for meeting with three Johnston County citizens in person to discuss our concerns. I’ll include details of today’s conversation in my follow-up to be posted later tonight or sometime this weekend.

I don’t know whether or not, even with reinforcements, we’ve swayed the Commissioner much or at all. But what this post is mostly about is something I think Arctic Patriot said first not long ago. It’s the concept of a necessary fail. I can’t begin to describe my frustration with both family members and friends and acquaintances who assert that “it doesn’t matter what you do or say or who you vote for…the whole process is corrupt and there is no point in participating.” And yet those same people will complain to no end about one government action or another. Or even, if you can believe it, scream for the government to do something about some disaster or another (bank collapse, mass shooting). These same people who moan on and on about their government being corrupt, incompetent, or about them not having a voice, demand that that very government come to the rescue.

The necessary fail here is making your voice heard. Stand up and declare that your rights are not up for majority vote. They are not negotiable. Like I said once, Three Percenters (or the three percent credo) are consistently misrepresented. None of them I know are hoping for the shooting to start. But as Mike Vanderboegh keeps saying, there is little hope that this government will be able to restrain itself. They will overreach to the point of violence. Some say they already have, but I mean there will be a violent action by this government that even those who seriously believe that it can’t happen here will be calling for resistance.

Should that happen, and you find yourself needing to make the choice to defend yourself and your family against a government out of control with rage and making up trumped up charges to boot-stomp your face because of what you believe, in my opinion, you will be obliged to ask yourself a simple question or two: “Do I have the moral authority to pull that trigger? Have I done everything in my power to prevent it from getting to this point?”

If the answer is No to either of those questions, then what makes you think fighting for your freedom at the point of a gun is going to bring about a restored republic if you haven’t trained yourself through repetition and taught your offspring to keep on reminding those in political office who really is in charge?

Yes, I know it feels pointless. Yes, I know both major parties more and more seem to be two wings of the same party. Yes, I know that some of the tea partiers seem to have been compromised already. That’s no excuse. You must do your part.

This is the first time I have ever met face to face with a politician in my life. And my life flashed before my eyes. šŸ˜‰ Seriously, though, it was probably the most important political action I’ve ever taken in my life. No armed rally, no campaign contribution, no letter writing, no voting could accomplish what I did today. We made our voices heard directly, three feet or less in front of his face. He knows we mean business. He knows we will be at the hearing when it is rescheduled. If he doesn’t listen…well, we’ve done our part. And I will feel justified in violating the ordinance every chance I get. And taken to a larger political scale with more egregious infringements, more serious acts of disobedience.

Stay tuned and later tonight or this weekend I’ll have some information on what we talked about with Commissioner Carver.

Johnston County, NC, Attempts to Ban Spit-balls

nannystate, statists

Okay, maybe not, but I’m told that the proposed ban on shooting any projectiles within 600 feet of any dwelling may be broad enough to include arrows, BBs, and pellets.

Looking here it’s apparent the Board of Commissioners has gotten significant feedback. Significant enough to postpone the hearing. Well, let’s just say that based on the wording of Chairman Allen L. Mims, Jr.’s memo (pdf), I don’t have a lot of warm fuzzies. This whole idea needs to be scrapped.

Here’s what I will be sending to the Johnston County Board of Commissioners, possibly via postal mail due to it’s length. Please feel free to continue to give them feedback telling them what you think of this nanny state proposal.

UPDATE: I see from the December 20, 2010 memo by the Chairman that this hearing has been postponed pending the outcome of a working group study. I believe all of my statement below is still relevant. Even more so given this wording from the aforementioned memo:

…the Board and I have decided to develop a workgroup, consisting of Commissioner, staff and citizen representatives, who will review the proposed firearm ordinance, address the citizen concerns and develop a revised ordinance that is mutually acceptable among us all.

The concern this raises is that I believe NO ordinance will be acceptable. Existing laws against reckless endangerment already cover the necessary concerns. This is not about safety. This is about control.

Originally planned statement for January 3rd hearing follows:

Not to focus on the distance, but has anyone done the math on the 600ft number? That would essentially require a minimum of about 32 acres in order to comply. That’s assuming a square lot and a dwelling on one corner and shooting in the center to guarantee that no neighbors’ dwellings are closer than that same 600ft away. And this doesn’t even take into account the travel distance of the bullets from the shooting position to the target.

At a family member’s house in NH, a racoon had to be eliminated due to its insistence on preying on their chickens. This was carried out with a 12 gauge shotgun maybe 50 yards from house.

Will this be prohibited?

At the same family member’s house, a squirrel had to be eliminated due the damage it was doing to their deck. This was carried out with a 20 gauge shotgun directly under the deck, a few feet from the house.

Will this be prohibited?

We also shot clay targets off the deck of that house.

Will this be prohibited?

At a friend’s house outside of Angier in Johnston County, we shoot at a target 100 yards away from a position mere feet from his own house.

Will this be prohibited?

No neighbor has ever complained. No one was ever injured or killed. All necessary safety precautions were taken. All four of Colonel Cooper’s rules were followed.

According to the North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics, of the 84 accidental deaths (page 32) in Johnston County in 2009

  • 31 were transport accidents (pedestrian, passenger, driver)
  • 24 were falls
  • 16 were poisonings and other accidental exposures
  • 6 were drownings or other threats to breathing
  • 4 were fire related
  • 1 was contact with a venomous animal
  • 1 was heat exposure
  • and 1 was firearm related.

I have no details on what this one Johnston County accidental firearm death was, but I would think an investigation was done and the responsible party was held accountable according to existing law. Given that 7 of those 31 accidental transport deaths were pedestrians, why are we not proposing a ban on driving within 600ft of any dwelling or within 600ft of any pedestrian walkway? If a law against a relatively safe, but not 100% risk free activity could prevent accidents, surely we should be focusing on the 7 pedestrians our county lost last year to transport accidents before even embarking on consideration of a target shooting, hunting, and pest control ban, should we not?

In all seriousness, I believe every member of this board knows that neither regulation makes sense. We already have laws against reckless endangerment.

I’m sure many private ranges exist across North Carolina which are very near dwellings. I have not heard of any confirmed reports of poor safety records that cannot be addressed by current laws. I’ve shot at one of these with the shooting position only a few feet away from the house.

Ask anyone with a barn how often they have to eliminate rats, possums, or other pests.

This is not about public safety. If it were, we would be hearing about these supposed investigated and confirmed unsafe ranges at this hearing. And even if we do, there are already legal avenues to address those problems.

We don’t need this ordinance. This is not about public safety. This is about control.

Many of us here understand that there may be some on this board who will choose to ignore the facts presented here tonight about the foolishness of this proposal. So let me take a few more moments to explain what will happen should this pass, or frankly, even if it doesn’t, but there are any affirmative votes for it.

Is it possible that this Board did not get the message of the last election? It’s not just about the economy. It’s certainly not just about messaging. Make. Government. Stop. Out of the seven board members here, three ran for re-election in 2010, each of them unopposed. In 2012, the other four will be up for re-election. I will make a promise to you here and now that if this ordinance passes due to your vote, I will make every effort to rally the citizens of Johnston County to ensure you do not run unopposed in 2012. And that goes for the three who ran in 2010 if you should run for re-election in 2014. And we will make it a central issue of the election.

In the current political climate, many more like me have awakened from our slumber and decided that voting is not enough and even contributing to campaigns is not enough. We will not stop until those who vote for this ordinance are removed from office.

We will be contacting Sheriff Steve Bizzell and requesting that he instruct his deputies to ignore this ordinance and refuse to enforce it.

We will also be contacting Susan Doyle and asking her to do what one brave Wisconsin District Attorney did recently. He has refused to enforce Wisconsin’s unconstitutional restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms. We will be asking District Attorney Doyle to refuse to prosecute any charges of violations of this ordinance.

Both of them will also be put on notice that they will not run unopposed in their respective primaries next time they are up for re-election should they not agree to refuse to file charges or prosecute cases, respectively.

If this ordinance passes, in addition to a future, concerted campaign to unseat you, we will host a ‘Disobey Ordinance 16-3’ shoot. We will shoot on my friend’s property outside of Angier, but inside Johnston County, a mere few feet from his house at a target 100yds away. We may limit it to .22LR or .22 Short ammo at a closer range, but it will be our symbolic way of saying, NO MORE. Everyone attending will be required to take at least one shot, a .22 Short from a single action revolver if they want. All seven members of this Board will be invited as well as anyone on our side with this issue. There will be food, there will be talk that some government officials, possibly some of you, would disapprove of, and there will be some good, fun noise.

We will even consider making it a monthly event until the ordinance is repealed.

Something else will likely happen. As I’ve indicated, you’ve awakened a sleeping giant. And frankly, I expect to lobby for what I’m about to propose regardless of what is done here with this ordinance. It’s just that if this passes, I will pursue it with much more vigor. You see, North Carolina has a toothless firearms pre-emption law. Places like Chapel Hill, Cary, and Durham have been testing its limits. Both Pennsylvania and Florida have much stronger pre-emption laws, but County Boards and City Councils in both states have been ignoring those laws with impunity.

So at least in Florida, a new approach is being taken. If the proposal passes, County Commissioners, City Councilors, Law Enforcement Officers, and Prosecutors will be held criminally responsible, personally, for ignoring the statewide pre-emption of firearms laws. This will be on top of 18 USC 241, Conspiracy to Violate Civil Rights, or 242, Violation of Civil Rights Under Color of Law.

Grass Roots North Carolina indicates that with the recent elections, there is a much stronger pro-gun contingent in the NC state legislature. We will push for a firearms pre-emption law in North Carolina that has these kind of teeth, along with a revamp (elimination in most cases) of most gun laws at the state level.

And just so you understand where we stand in this negotiation, let me say this. We have come here because, metaphorically speaking, someone has threatened to cut off our right leg. We have to wonder if the hope was that we would settle for, oh, say, just giving up our left foot. Let me straighten out this potential misperception. We were threatened, metaphorically speaking, with amputation. Our position is that we are changing the starting point of this negotiation. We’ve come, metaphorically speaking, for both legs of those who are proposing this ordinance. And our hope is that everyone leaves with all of their limbs in tact. Metaphorically.

In short, back off.

For 75 plus years, gun owners have backed up upon every new gun regulation. We are here to say…NO MORE! NOT ONE MORE INCH!