On Regulation and the Second Amendment

Yet another post inspired on social media. The original question is:

"The language is pretty specific. The way I read it says that citizens can have firearms for the purpose of a regulated militia. What does that actually mean? If you've a license, does that automatically mean you're in a militia or required to be in one in the event of tyranny, or is it just a license so you can have guns? "Regulated militia" seems to be a key phrase, but I haven't heard anyone talk about it."

One thing to note about "regulated" in the 1700's, is it means "equipped, trained". Every military aged male at the time was expected to own and maintain his own guns and ammo for the purposes of common and self defense. The Militia Act of 1792 spells it out quite clearly. Regulated didn't refer to rules, it meant a state of readiness.

As the rights of people in this country have evolved, I would surmise that the law of common defense is everyone's responsibility, not just military aged males.

The reading of the Amendment is: A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

The first part is a predicate: "a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state" is the REASON, not a limitation.

"The right of the people" is important here. Everywhere else in the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence, The People refers to the individual.

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms" keep is own, bear is carry/use.

"Shall not be infringed" I think this part is pretty clear, but I'll explain.
DC vs Heller contends that this applies to the individual and arms that are "in common use". While I disagree with the "in common use" clause to a point, it does specifically protect semi-automatic rifles due to that clause. I disagree, as in the days following the revolution, most military equipment (cannons, ships, guns) was privately owned. The founders wanted to keep it that way, and generally opposed the creating and maintaining of a standing army.

While we have that standing army now, it is not omnipresent, and in the event of an invasion (however unlikely) The People would be required to take up arms and defend themselves and their neighbors. The other use is revolution against the government, and while no one (including my gun loving self) wants to see that, it's always possible if the government forgets who's actually in charge (The People).

This is a very important point, and one that's been lost in all the political rhetoric following mass shootings and unrest.

On Open Carry, Businesses, and Prohibiting Weapons

There have been a lot of stores lately asking their customers to leave their guns at home. I really can’t blame them, especially when you get people carrying long guns at the low ready. Those of us who carry guns have gotten a lot of negative publicity lately with businesses, i.e. Starbucks, Target, Chipotle, etc.  Allow me to say that I do not condone what is being done in the picture. There is a right way to open carry a weapon and a wrong way.

Understand that in Texas, Open Carry of handguns is not allowed. In Texas, of all places.  I live in Washington, a blue state, yet open carry of handguns and long arms is allowed. Open Carry Texas is the organization trying to fix that particular problem. Up until the recent past, they've been getting hammered for completing their protest marches by eating lunch at Sonic, Chili’s, or going into Target. They've since backpedaled on this, as they realize it was doing more harm than good.
This negative attention has culminated in several businesses asking their customers to leave their guns at home.

Now, very few of these companies have outright banned guns. It’s mostly been paying lip service to the very vocal group “Moms Demand Action”, a Michael Bloomberg funded anti-gun organization famous for using emotional rather than factual arguments and banning anyone who disagrees with them from their page, refusing to actually debate and look into ways to reduce violence. For example, if you read Target’s statement, like most other businesses they stop short of banning weapons.

Those of us who carry guns are generally not violent people. We are fathers, husbands, wives and mothers. We all have family, and abhor crimes and the criminals who commit them.  I carry every day, either open or concealed depending on how I feel about it. Open Carry is far more comfortable, but sometimes being discreet has its place.

As a Concealed Pistol License holder, I have been vetted by the State of Washington and the FBI to have a clean background check, no history of mental health issues, no domestic violence, etc. What more can you, as a business owner, ask for in one of your customers? I go through a background check every time I purchase a new gun, even when I buy a gun online! Contrary to popular belief, you can’t just buy a gun anywhere.

The Bloomberg-bought-and-paid-for shills at Everytown and Moms Demand make their entire case on guns being scary and not wanting them around their children. Yet again, emotional argument, not factual. Even the guys at Open Carry Texas, while they were doing it wrong in MY opinion, never threatened anyone. I open carry a lot, and I have never *yet* had anyone call the police on me, or tell me to leave their store, or yell at me for “OMG HE’S CARRYING A GUN”.  We aren't scary. Guns are not scary. A gun is a tool, and only its user can determine what it does.

Here’s a question for you. Outside of movies, when have you EVER seen a criminal carrying a gun? Only when they are actively committing a crime with it? So then, why is there a problem when a regular joe open carries a properly slung rifle (even an EVIL BLACK RIFLE) or a properly holstered handgun? I do make the distinction of properly carried simply because carrying your rifle at the low ready IS threatening.  This is not Iraq. The ONLY time your weapon should be at any ready position is at the range. Now, I also believe carrying a rifle should be limited to certain occasions (say, a protest on the steps of the capital) but that’s just me. And that should be an option.

The other concern of businesses disallowing carry in their stores is the liability. What is going to happen in the off chance that someone DOES decide to commit a crime in those stores? If I get shot because I had to leave my gun in my car, what recourse do I have, now being defenseless when I could have at least had the chance to save myself or my family? You can bet there is a lawsuit waiting to happen. By telling me not to bring in my gun, you are opening yourself to guarantee my safety. (Stop laughing, I’m trying to make a point here.)

There’s an adage among concealed carriers, “Concealed is Concealed”. If you don’t know I have a gun, neither does the criminal attacking me. In WA and many other states, a “No Guns” sign does not carry the force of law. (note, this map is outdated) I can safely and legally ignore a “No Guns” sign. Hell, criminals do all the time. Your “No guns” sign does not protect anyone.

The odds of actually having to use my gun in anger are slim to none. That’s a good thing. I don’t want to shoot anyone. I don’t ever want to be in a situation where I might have to shoot someone.  But in that slim chance that I might ever be put into that situation, I carry one… for the same reason that I wear a seatbelt in a car, or a helmet on my bike. The odds are against legitimately needing my gun, but I don’t carry for the odds. I carry for the stakes… and if you don’t want me to carry in your store, I simply won’t go there, because I’d rather not be caught in a time where I need my gun and don’t have it.

Violence: A necessary evil for a safe society.

For those of you who say "Violence is not the answer", I say bullshit. I wrote something earlier, in response to a friends post that "Violence against women should not be tolerated". I agree wholeheartedly, and that it should be extended to all innocents.

The issue is that many are intent on violence, whether we like it, or there's a law against it, they will do it anyway. The only way to combat this violence is with violence. A righteous violence. The following is my comment:

 "Violence is a part of our lives, from friendly competition to mortal danger. If you have the capacity for violence, you must choose how you will use it: Senseless, or righteous.

I would protect even my worst enemy from injustice. I live for the moment I might be able to protect someone... and I am prepared to do so with lethality if necessary.

The violence that I abhor is the very reason that I am capable of the exact same violence... and I guaran-damn-tee that my shot will be more accurate than any robber or rapists."

You must choose, whether to bury your head in the sand, pretending that bad things cannot happen, or to live with your eyes open, realizing that THERE ARE people out to cause harm, for whatever reason, and they choose to do it to innocent people, who want nothing more than to live their lives, go home to their families every night, and do right by everyone. It's not fair. The strong prey upon the weak, cowardly as it is.

So who stands in the balance? Who protects the innocent?

Those of you who know me know about my fascination with a particular essay, On Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs, by LTC(r) Dave Grossman. If you haven't read it yet, please do so.

The Sheep, according to Grossman, are the innocents. This is not a slight, as we've seen used as an insult before. It is simply a description of peaceful people, simply living their lives. Most of them do not have the heart or stomach to harm another human being. This is a good thing. 

Then, you have the Wolves. Obvious members of this category would include Ted Bundy, Timothy McVeigh and others, who could give a shit about hurting innocent people, and many do for fun. Some that are not so obvious petty criminals, politicians who oppose self defense law, rapists and robbers. All of these fit the description of the wolf.

The Sheepdogs, then, are those who stand in the balance. Again, the obvious ones: Police, Military and Firefighters who will, without hesitation, go into harms way to save someone else. Not so obvious here are law-abiding gun owners, specifically those of us, myself included, who carry a concealed weapon on a daily basis. There are millions of us, at the grocery store, the movie theater, the zoo and theme parks. Every day, I guarantee you, in the USA, someone near you has a gun... be it police or Concealed Carry.

We take this responsibility very seriously, and train constantly. We use the very best equipment, in most cases. I'm not fond of Glocks, or recently in the press, the Kel-Tec PF9. I carry a full frame 1911, shown here. It is more difficult to conceal, but I am far more accurate with it than with the other two I mentioned, and mine's prettier. We are ready, at a moments notice, to drop everything and draw our guns if necessary, and in one swift, fluid motion, my pistol is ready to fire. We are far more commonly around than police, and usually the first and best line of defense before things get out of hand.

I don't carry because I am scared. I carry because if I have to defend my family, my home, any other innocent life or even my own, I want to do so effectively.

Violence is not only a tool of the evil, it is a tool of the good. In order for there to be balance, both must exist. If there ever comes a day where violence is completely eradicated from our society, I will lay down my arms with gladness, and set aside my violent nature. Until then, I remain prepared, and willing to pay the ultimate price to protect those who cannot defend themselves.

TEST Alliance Please Ignore's last stand: The Battle for 6VDT-H

This battle has been touted as the largest in Eve Online history, and I get to say that I was there... through soul-crushing lag to eventual victory. I will not bore you with a write-up of the battle when there are several accounts that you can read, this will be my account, and why it was lots of fun and shitty at the same time.

Formup

I was unable to show up when the fleet started, so I was in the first reinforcement fleet. I was flying a Megathron-class Battleship, ready to go kill some Testies (say that with a straight face) I showed up to fleet, sat on a Titan, which is a ship that allows you, among other things, to bridge an entire fleet from one system to another in an instant, allowing for massive force projection and quick reinforcement. As we are sitting on the Titan, we are doing final preparations to jump in.

Then the Fleet Commander (FC) gives the order to jump.

Lag from Hell

Many Call of Duty players will tell you about lag of a few milliseconds making the huge difference in a fight. They can only hope to grasp what happens in Eve Online.

For those of you who don't know, Eve has only one server. If you've played any MMO, you can understand the infrastructure it takes to have 50,000+ players on a server at the same time, spread across 5k+ solar systems. Several systems have their own server node, most notably Jita, Eve's main trade hub. At any given time, Jita has 1500+ pilots in system, managing buy/sell orders, contracts, and local scams.

For large fleet fights, the organizers of the fight can request that the system's server node be reinforced, basically the system is moved to a dedicated server. Only two systems have that at all times, and those are Jita and Amarr. For this fight, in which more than 4000 pilots were in system at the same time, CCP set the system up on Jita's dedicated supercomputer.

It didn't help much.

Historically in Eve, lag in fleets battles has been famous. It was not uncommon for pilots to be unable to click modules to fire or repair their comrades. This caused CCP to develop Time Dilation to slow down time to ensure that every command given to a ship is carried out. This fight, with CCP's most powerful supercomputer, still managed to cap TiDi out, slowing the entire system to 10% of normal speed, is lag.

It took me one hour to get into the system after jumping in. After several client restarts, the grid finally loaded, and I began to experience the lag from hell. I don't want to hear from CoD players that their ping is over 100ms, because it took MINUTES for my modules to activate, after taking 5 minutes to lock my cruiser sized target. It got to the point, after 3 hours, that my Eve client's clock was no longer running, and I got this error, stating the the server was not even receiving commands from my computer any more. Many laughs were had on coalition comms about the errors, and the FC just saying "fuck it, if you can target it, shoot it" made it for one of the most fun gaming experiences I have ever had.

As TEST retreated, it was not only a feeling of accomplishment removing them from their ancestral system,but a feeling of relief getting to the Titan, and jumping back into the CFC staging system, where there is no lag, and no one trying to shoot at me after 6 hours of sitting on that battlefield taking one shot every five minutes, killing a few ships, when I could lock them and get a shot off.

And I would do it again... but for now, I'm glad the war is all but over.

If you are interested in checking out this awesome game, please click here for a trial, and contact me here or in-game.

Beginnings of an Experiment

I've never been much of a writer. I've never considered myself incredibly creative, either. So in an effort to expand my horizons, I'm starting this blog. Here goes.

First, an introduction may be necessary. My name is Jon Stripes. I'm a US Army veteran. I joined the Army while I was still in high school and went to Basic Training between my junior and senior year. In retrospect, I kinda feel bad for that... my father was deployed to Iraq when I joined and while I was gone, and my mom didn't have either one of us around to help with my younger brother and sister. What I did gain from it was the experience of a lifetime that forever changed my outlook on the world. I was always fond of soldiering movies... The Patriot, We Were Soldiers, what have you (and if you can't tell I like Mel Gibson's movies.....) but I never understood what it was to truly be dedicated to your country, and lay your life on the line. Basic gave me a taste of that. From there, I made my life goal to be an honorable and loyal man to my family, my God, and my country.

I recently (Dec 2012) graduated from ITT Tech, with an Associates Degree in Computer Network Systems. It's safe to say I'm a geek... Video games are my chief form of entertainment. My main games currently are Eve Online and Kerbal Space Program. As far as Eve is concerned, I've been playing for nearly four years at this point, under the name Cecil Arongo. I started out as a carebear, dabbled in hi-sec wardec shenanigans for a while, and then went full lowsec pirate. I now live out in nullsec with Gentlemen's Agreement, an alliance within the ClusterFuck Coalition, or CFC. Among my other gaming is a space program simulator called Kerbal Space Program. In fitting with my love of sandbox-type games, this is a build-your-own-NASA game. It has a great community, both on Google+ and on Reddit, and it's truly fun seeing the often horrified look as they plummet to their death explore the Kerbin (earth) and Kerbol (sun) systems. If you thought Eve's learning cliff curve was difficult, try landing on the Mun or building a base on another planet from scratch!

The other thing I may do here, in addition to the occasional RL post, is dive into controversial firearms and self-defense law. You may not like what I have to say, but I enjoy a good debate and I look forward to chatting with you regardless.

Welcome.