MacGyver

Good to see you back on!

Boy do we need scouting...

AR sales will go down 99% the moment VISA decides not to process those transactions anymore.

Empire is hard. I’d love it if as families, communities, and as society we could turn out 17.5 year olds that we have full confidence will go on to be healthy, well adjusted, productive members of society.

Welcome back!

I know a student who made a shirt that expressed both her solidarity with the victims and her support for the second amendment. She's a brave kid. Even within the protest it would seem there are diverse opinions. I know a few kids who really had to think about why stuff like the second amendment matters. If you're putting them in a school, you're automatically putting them under the influence of multiple people with authority - and generally telling them to respect that authority. If you only want your kid to hear things you agree with, you really only have one choice - home school and quarantine. Even the private parochial schools are likely to upset you sooner or later. We made a choice to put our kids in public school for now - and we regularly get to have conversations about what they're learning/being exposed to/dealing with. For us, the pros outweigh the cons - but that's a personal choice.

welcome back!

You know, I guess I'm of the opinion that we're better as a society when more of us take the liberty to exercise our rights - whether the first or second - and hopefully not often requiring most of the rest. I'm all for states exercising the tenth as much as possible. Our system of government is an adversarial one - from the two party system basically enshrined in our founding documents - to our judicial system with opposing sides. As was put to me well by a former Solicitor General, "for democracy to prevail, both sides require vigorous, competent representation." We're better off in the long term when both sides have competent representation. Yes, we as gun owners will have to do a better job of making our case. And yes, we will likely need to work in good faith when it comes to finding solutions to mass violence. But, I'm convinced we're going to either find ourselves working in good faith, making a case for gun ownership and maybe actually bringing some underrepresented groups into the fold - or we're going to watch while our legislators give in.

In my youngest two's school (Elementary) - there were no walkouts - it was a normal class day. In my oldest's middle school - it was uncoordinated (and largely uncommunicated). From what I can tell, the admin had a conversation about how to allow for it while still keeping students safe. Teachers communicated that plan to students who were inclined to participate. For those that did (and didn't) - at least in my child's class they did a writing exercise on protest and their experience afterwards to turn the experience into a learning opportunity. To my knowledge, a school would be in legal gray areas at both ends of the spectrum - either requiring students to participate in political speech - or restricting them from such. I'm sure one can find examples of less informed administrations going both ways.

For those who are interested in this topic, I cannot recommend The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt enough: https://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Religion/dp/0307455777/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521639584&sr=8-1&keywords=the+righteous+mind It's a pretty heavy read, but worth it. My favorite comment on this book was by a friend who said that it was the best book they've ever read - and that they hope to never pick it up again. It's got a lot of data - and is pretty illustrative when looking at our political discourse today.

I know that this is a common refrain, but have you been in a school lately? Even say in the last 30 years? I'm in one every morning. I walk my kids into school everyday for two reasons. One, they're young and will only tolerate this for so long - so I'm going to take advantage of it while I can. But two, it's important to me to be able to put eyes on what's happening in that school each morning. My wife works at our neighborhood school - a public school in Nashville. Mind you, ours is a more affluent neighborhood, but the school is representative of others I've been in. As to the "left liberals teaching them all this crap", I just don't see it. At the ground level, these teachers don't get the most basic level of support from the district to get enough paper and pencils - they're not organized enough to push a larger agenda. But at a more personal level, these teachers approximate society at large in their political preferences - you've got some who are on the more conservative end of the spectrum - you've got some that lean more towards the progressive end of things. They don't have the time in their day to interject some nefarious agenda. They just want to get everyone reading at grade level - and that's a heavy ask when kids bring so much other junk into the classroom with them these days. Now, the older they get - sure, they're likely to be exposed to opposing ideas. There was a time when we encouraged or even celebrated this. It's that process that turned out adults who could think for themselves. I could argue that there are plenty of people who get nervous these days with their kids being introduced to differing ideas because they're afraid or unable to defend the systems they've built. I belong to a fairly conservative religious tradition, but I'm not afraid that my kids' faiths will be destroyed because they suddenly hear the word evolution. You shouldn't have to turn off half of your brain to go to church. But, for those that want to avoid these discussions at large, there's always homeschool or a variety of private options. Once you graduate high school and go to college - yes, the spectrum does trend more towards the left in some disciplines. While there are still a variety of voices on any college campus - the louder progressive voices today are overrepresented on college campuses. I think this is probably a feature that has worked to conservatives advantage at the polls, but for the sake of this argument - I hope that by the time my kids go to college, I've raised them to be able to listen to a variety of thoughts critically without offense and use the tools we've given them to make good decisions about their own beliefs. I'm certain some of those beliefs will diverge from mine - and that's okay.

I think history shows us that cases like this are as much about the response as they are the act. i would say it’s tricky. In acts of civil disobedience, it’s rarely the act itself that gets noticed. Rather, it’s the (often) disproportionate response that gets attention. Would we know about Selma to Montgomery March had it not been for the Edmund Pettis Bridge? Would the Birmingham Movement have led to the mass protests that finally ushered in the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act had they not arrested King resulting in a Letter from Birmingham Jail? What if the students at Fisk here in Nashville had just followed the rules and avoided the lunch counters that were closed to them? What if we had just let these students walk out in a pseudo-organized fashion and then moved on and gotten back to class? Would the issue still be in the news? It’s hard to say? But, a bunch of students locking arms in detention is only furthering the press coverage - especially when someone delivers a truck full of pizza.

We’re all entitled to our opinions, but in this case the Constitution disagrees with you. The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment extends civil rights to minors. The Supreme Court upheld this view in a landmark 1967 case In re Gault. A few years later(1969), the court ruled in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District supporting the same. This case may be of particular interest regarding current events. Link here if you’re so inclined: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinker_v._Des_Moines_Independent_Community_School_District

Like it or not, the right to gather and protest is in fact protected by our Constitution. You can’t support one without supporting the rest.

That's probably the best value factory AR on the market today. Enjoy it.

^^ it should be noted that the reality of our republic being able to realistically have a conversation like the above is uncertain at best. We may be too far gone.

I don't disagree with Colion at all. There are millions of us. We're voices that need to be heard. I'd just argue that we need to find better ways to get our message out there and show we're not crazy. Unfortunately, for every sane voice - the click-obsessed media seems to be able to find some fool walking into Chipotle with his AR. America wouldn't be America today without the 2nd Amendment. It won't be America in the future if they strip that right. And yes, we're going up against a group that wants nothing more than to take our guns - whether it be for power or control or just because they're scary. Whatever. And we've got kids dying because this mass-shooting thing seems to be a problem unto itself right now. Something is going to happen - we've got to find a way to be at the table with solutions that work outside of "taking all the guns." It's a heavy lift. But, we're either going to find a way to be a part of the conversation - or we're going to watch as we get overrun. The NRA is generally effective and they're powerful - but they're not enough. Look at Congress right now. We had a Congress built in opposition to Obama - and that worked okay for 8 years. But, in showing their inability/unwillingness to actually govern - they're about to get steamrolled. Sooner or later there are going to be people in power that want nothing more than to strip these rights. We've got some time now to shore things up - so that when that time comes - we've got more case law like Heller and MacDonald, structures that keep weapons out of people's hands who shouldn't have them, good due process - and maybe stuff that's not even in the conversation right now - restoration of rights for non-violent felons who've paid their debts, a more rigorous conversation around communities taking care of themselves, etc. It's not going to happen by just yelling about "shall not be infringed." There's a place for that. But, that by itself simply isn't enough. We're going to have to find ways to treat the underlying symptoms.

I don't think mine would have either until I asked. And then she had a lot more questions/comments than I would have expected. Truthfully, I didn't do too much talking - just a lot of listening and asking a few questions to help her as she shapes her thinking.

The right to protest is just as sacred in our founding documents as is our right to bear arms. You don't get one without the other. I get it that many here are concerned because of the subject getting protested today, but you don't really get to pick and choose. I had a good conversation with my 5th grader this morning about the protests - and learned a lot about her and her peers’ thinking in the process. She is a shooter - but she's also worried about violence at school. Protest by itself is rarely a solution - but it creates space to talk about solutions. I'm increasingly convinced that gun owners will either be a part of this conversation - including forming real solutions that protect peoples rights and their safety - or we'll watch as our rights are stripped.

There's truth in this. Regardless of whether you loved or hated your choices in the last general election - you had those choices because 9% of the population showed up during the primaries to put them there.

Here’s the link for anyone who might care: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.tennessean.com/amp/395945002 So, a rally in support of school walkouts at 7:00PM?

230gr. Federal HSTs. I've shot a metric ton of Speer Gold Dot's in the same weight. Reliability with both has been 100%, and I've never had a stoppage out of either in my 1911. I prefer the HST because the tech is a little newer - and I've hunted with the round and seen it's effectiveness. You'll need to shoot enough of whatever round you choose to ensure that you can say the same in your chosen platform.

Have no doubt, Rick Scott is a bellwether. He’s an A+ rated Republican who essentially just flipped the NRA the bird. Others are watching. If he doesn’t pay a political price, plenty more will line up to follow him. It’s interesting to watch an organization built in opposition - which it’s extremely effective at - show vulnerability from the inside. I wouldn’t write them off, yet. They’re undoubtedly reminding Republicans of the consequences of crossing them - and I’m sure they’ll primary a few to serve as warnings to others.

Good to see you around!

I’ve not seen the documents in the Forrest case, but if they read the same as Barry’s, upon payment of restitution and *unsupervised* probabtion, he can pay the $450 administrative fee to have his record formally expunged. Both will have clean records in the eyes of the law. Ironic that Barry is getting a different treatment than she advocated for concerning other felons who’ve paid their debts.