Posted on 01/03/2013 7:07:37 AM PST by SeekAndFind
There is a New Year stampede developing that we have not seen for a long time.
Gun stores are swamped with panicking customers. They are looking for handguns, semiautomatic rifles, and as much ammunition as they can afford. But buyers are not just camouflaged hunters, conspiracy theorists, and gun hoarders. Instead, many of those purchasing firearms and ammo are so-called ordinary people, convinced that this administration will soon begin to centrally register — and then ban — far more than assault rifles.
There were probably lots of reasons why Adam Lanza shot 26 innocent children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. But so far the government and media are not focusing much on his prior obsessions with violent video games, on society’s seeming inability to hospitalize the unstable, or on the crude violence peddled in Hollywood and through popular music that portrays shooting people as a sort of cheap fantasy without consequences.
Instead, the administration is zeroing in on the ability of Lanza’s mother to legally buy semiautomatic weapons that her son then stole to murder her and the schoolchildren and employees. The result is a pandemic of fear that the Second Amendment will be reinterpreted and redefined as never before.
With the resolution of the fiscal cliff, taxes on those who make more than $400,000 are going to rise considerably as they will revert to the Clinton-era rates. But this time the landscape is radically different.
There will not be much deficit reduction and certainly no balanced budgets, adding insult to injury for those who must pay the government far more.
The new, higher rates come on top of state-income-tax hikes in much of the country — all in addition to further increases in capital-gains taxes, new Obamacare taxes, and much steeper inheritance taxes. The result is not just a 3 percent to 5 percent increase on the well-off, but for some payers aggregate hikes of 7 percent to 8 percent or even more.
No wonder many companies are rushing to pay dividends now to beat rising capital-gains-tax rates. Likewise, many individuals are considering expensive new life-insurance policies to protect their heirs from losing small farms and businesses to steep new federal estate taxes. Red states will attract even more refugees fleeing high-tax and near-insolvent blue states.
Most Americans are already seeing their health-insurance premiums shoot up in anticipation of the 2014 federal takeover of health care. To pay for the vast Obamacare programs — whose details still remain a mystery for most — money will be raised in all sorts of bizarre ways, from reducing Medicare coverage to taxing new medical devices and some drug makers.
A sense of foreboding hangs over the currently insured. Almost everyone is unsure whether the new federal statutes will still cover currently covered procedures — or whether they will be rationed or curtailed altogether. Expect many people to schedule check-ups and major medical procedures in 2013 before Obamacare kicks in.
There is a common denominator that underlies all this multifaceted uncertainty. Fairly or not, there is a sense that those who played by the rules and did well have instead done something wrong, or at least are under suspicion — and it is now time for their government to seek atonement from them. Worse still is the dread that the government’s new policies and taxes will not solve problems but may make them worse and prompt even more government engineering.
For the law-abiding gun owner, the federal government may make it more difficult to buy legal arms — even though there is little evidence that gun restrictions per se have stopped shootings, and some evidence that states with lots of armed citizens have lower crime rates. If the semiautomatic-rifle ban does not work, what gun will be banned next to stop violence?
Most well-off taxpayers add up their local, state, federal, payroll, and capital-gains taxes and feel they really have paid their “fair share.” They all know that handing over more won’t solve the fiscal crisis, but instead will only empower more government deficit spending. If new taxes won’t stop deficits, what’s next?
Finally, those who budgeted and provided their own health insurance feel that the new restrictions and higher taxes on their coverage are the costs of subsidizing many who could have bought, but chose not to buy, their own health insurance.
The ability of citizens to protect their households, to keep at least half their earnings safe from various government taxes, and to use their own judgment in making health-care decisions is central to a free people. No wonder the fear that a radically growing government will infringe on such traditional freedoms is stampeding millions of panicky Americans in all directions.
— Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author, most recently, of The End of Sparta.
“...to buy something so ugly. ...”
It’s in the eye of the beholder.
I see it as “something that makes liberals pee themselves and infuriates socialists” and that has a beauty all it’s own...
As a matter of fact, it makes it downright “Helen Of Troy” beautiful...
RINO File.
If you don’t mind a bolt-action rifle, Savage makes a very accurate .308 that goes for about $300.
We need a congressional investigation into Sandy Hook.
Yes you are. The Federal Reserve is a private bank owned by private bankers (like Citi) who own shares in it. It acts in the interest of these member banks
My “plan”, since I am new to this, was handgun first (did that in August), then, Ruger 10/22 for Christmas (done), then shotgun (used 1100 at auction last week), ARs and bolt actions to follow the next 2-3 years. I am looking at bolt actions now and am leaning towards Thompson Center Dimension that I can swap between .223 and .308. I got to hold one at a gun auction last week and it felt good. That way I can be working with only 4 calibers plus 12 gauge, .40, .22LR, .223/5.56, and .308/7.62, across 7 “guns” ( XDm, 10/22, AR and bolt actions in 5.56 and .308, and 12 gauge).
That would be my next handgun purchase also.
The upside is that since I worked in LE for a while I can say with confidence that most of them couldn’t hit an elephant at 50 yards. Most armed officers never practice except at the once a year re-qualification.
At the range it was laughable how many fumbled with their mags during a reload and then recharging the weapon. As a matter of convenience most don’t know where their extra mags are. Uniformed officers would pull a mag from their belt and it would have food crumbs and funk all over them.
I am not too worried.
Being shamefully ignorant of firearms, I don’t recognize this one but that is a beauty.
Even up here in rural Alaska some 35 miles north of Wasilla we have a trained SWAT team, I know because I was accidentally involved in a situation some years ago.
I was making a concrete delivery to a house in Big Lake, about 6 houses away a silent alarm was tripped, somehow they ascertained the intruder was armed and may have a hostage, I could not leave my concrete mixer and watched the whole scenario of how the team was delivered, how they deployed, how air support stayed overhead, they were fully armored with helmets and vests plus the usual black gun rollout.
Many police departments all across America have formed their own SWAT team because the Feds were hosing cash out of tankers to them. And now they are getting even more cash, weapons far beyond what you could have bought in a store.
They will never out number armed Americans but they will have superior firepower.
I suggest scouring the video database of movies made about guerrilla warfare, behind enemy lines insurrection, freedom fighters etc, but skip the latest Hollywood crap like Red Dawn 2. They make films like that hoping to falsely educate insurrectionist Constitution Freedom Fighters.
Same gun Jim was complaining about being ugly. Thing about that model is that it is modular and has a huge choice of accessories - including that stock, which is easily swapped in.
No videos needed. Just find a vet who has been in the sand box. They can wise you up to all the tricks the Bedouin boys are using against them.
Our vets will be the most targeted effort by the opposers of the constitution as they too are very aware of their training being passed down to civilians, we have already seen efforts to corral them through mental health issues the most used construct of the socialistic agenda against dissidents.
So far, I’m happy with it, and I hope I never have to find out if it’s effective.
Armalite is reporting July lead times on compete rifles.
Spooks are on all sides granted....but so are people who supposedly see them.
Why?
“..but did not Sandy Hook come along at the most convenient time for this administration?...right on the heels of F&F?....it has to be a coincidence since there is NOBODY who would engineer such a tragedy just to further an agenda......”
Of course there is, the same entity that orchestrated hurricane sandy right before the election. The devil .....you certainly don’t think Obama has any power without him do you?
And people waited till now why ?
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