Financial preparation for SHTF

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The blog is going to take a turn from gun news to more of a prepping resource. I've been a prepper for many years, ten years on purpose and twenty years more or less because that was just the lifestyle I lived. I was a prepper before I knew there was a term for it. Disaster preparedness, not waiting on the end of the world, the Chinese are invading, survivalist (not that there's anything wrong with that).

I have a list of topics that I want to write about, I even have a couple of posts started and just haven't put the final touches on them, but this one is probably the most important post of disaster preparedness.

If you are financially prepared, you are ready to survive 99% of disasters that will come your way. I am by no means advocating to forego food and water storage, damage mitigation, or disaster planning. In fact, I'm a YUGE fan of planning and having a written plan in place for errorything.

If you have the money and there's a hurricane on the horizon, jet out, vacay in Colorado. Tornado, no prob, hunker down in the storm shelter until the threat is gone. Zombie apocalypse, you better start building that fort right now. Not everyone can afford to flee a storm and vacation in the mountains for a month, in fact, many Americans live pay check to pay check or even struggle to pay monthly expenses on time.

Initiative to Amend California's Constitution to Include the Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Guest post by Sam Bocetta
A small contingent of Second Amendment advocates is marching forward with their initiative to
put the right to bear and keep arms into the California Constitution.

The group seeks to engage with and gather support from the nearly 13 million gun owners that
reside in California. Since early May the group, 2AforCA has started taking millions of online
commitments on their website in the form of signatures and online signups. They hope that with
enough numbers they can add a constitutional amendment that would protect existing gun rights
in California.

The 2AforCA summarizes their petition with, “THE INITIATIVE FOR A STATE
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT RECOGNIZING AND GUARANTEEING ALL LAW-
ABIDING CALIFORNIANS THEIR RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS.”

The goal of the movement is to stop legislation from passing that would adversely affect
gun ownership throughout California and help return gun rights to all law-abiding people
throughout the Golden State.

The online petition, which kicked in early June, the campaign picked up 80,000 commitments.
There is also an online donation area that has raised money for the campaign as well.

Bahrami said front-loading the campaign with pledged signers will help speed the petition
process along when it goes active. Once the petition process is filed and given the go-ahead to
collect signatures, which will start as soon as they reach 800,000 commitments. 2AforCA will
have six months to generate 585,000 to put the constitutional amendment on the next general
election ballot. Also, the effort will have the benefit of petitions that can be printed at home and
mailed in, similar to the successful drive to recall Gov. Grey Davis in 2002.

The effort originally started from the Veto Gunmageddon referendum effort late last fall which
aimed to gather 365,000 signatures on seven different petitions to stop a series of pending gun
control laws. Suffering from narrow six-week window and no budget, the effort came up pretty
short, collecting just over half the number of signatures needed, despite hundreds of volunteers
and signing locations.

I believe that while Californians’ right to keep and bear arms, as in the rest of the country, is
nominally covered under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a “Yes” vote would
help give state lawmakers a mandate to protect gun rights from future perceived
encroachments. It would also help build an additional legal bulwark to challenge current
restrictive laws.

For anyone who is a gun right supporter in California or any state for that matter, the time to
stand up for our rights is here and now. Kudos to 2AforCA for spearheading this initiative and
spread the message to your friends and family.

Author bio: Sam Bocetta is a writer at Gun News Daily, where he covers US gun news and gear reviews.

MDA hates gun owners, still.

A Florida woman, who was 36 weeks pregnant and upset with her husband, took his pistol from a closet, pulled the slide  back to eject the chambered round, and thinking the gun was unloaded, pointed it at her abdomen. The husband walked into the bedroom, saw what she was doing, and attempted to take the handgun from her. The firearm discharged, striking him in the hand and her in the abdomen, resulting in the death of the unborn child.

The woman was previously convicted of possession of a controlled substance in 2010, escaping from law enforcement in 2012 and at the time of the homicide of the baby, was on probation. She was arrested for a probation violation. There is no indication that the husband has ever been arrested or accused of a crime.

The following is what Moms Demand Action thinks of gun owners and the women that marry them.

It's not reported if there was an argument or what led to her becoming angry, but clearly the anger from Moms Demand Action toward him is his gun ownership.

The baby was delivered by Caesarean section, but did not survive. The MDA members are arguing amongst themselves of whether or not the baby that was delivered via Caesarean section was a fetus or a child.

These people hate you, because you're a gun owner. And, most of them appear to be very evil.

NICS Facts and how it works

The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) was established in 1998 as a result of the Brady Act of 1993. Initially, local police departments were required to run criminal background checks on gun buyers, but that portion of the Brady Act was struck down as unconstitutional cos cops aren't slaves.

Once a potential firearms purchased completes a form 4473, the FFL dealer contacts a NICS call center to request a background check. The call taker searches four databases, the Interstate Identification Index, National Crime Information Center, NICS Index, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement databases. The Interstate Identification Index will be replaced with the Next Generation Identification Increment 4.

The III contains individual criminal history records, The NCIC contains records of persons who are the subject of protection orders or active criminal arrest warrants, NICS Index contains information on persons prohibited by federal or state law from possessing a firearm, and ICE databases contain information on non-US citizens.

If the call taker finds no matching records, a proceed is given to the FFL to complete the transfer. 66 percent of transactions are given a proceed by the NICS call center. No information is provided to the call taker regarding the type of firearm transferred and records of this background check are purged within 24 hours.

If the call taker finds matching a record, the FFL is transferred to an FBI examiner to determine the potential buyer's firearms eligibility status. If a complete and matching record is found, a deny is issued. If the record is incomplete, the FFL is given a delay. The FBI has three business days to complete its investigation and contact the FFL to issue a proceed or deny. If the FBI doesn't complete the investigation within three days, the FFL can (but isn't required to) transfer the firearm. The FBI has 88 days to complete its investigation before the records of the background check are purged from the system. If it's found that the transferee is a prohibited person and the FFL transferred the firearm, the FBI forwards a firearm retrieval referral to the ATF. There were 2,511 such referrals in 2014.

Quick Facts:

There are 12,881,223 active records in the NICS Index. Half of those records are for illegal aliens, half of the remaining are for persons adjudicated mentally ill.

Sara Brady once bought a gun and transferred it to her son without a background check

As of December 31, 2014, 1,166,676 persons were denied the purchase of a firearm through NICS. 90,895 were denied in 2014, 4 of those were for renouncing their U.S. citizenship. Dumbasses.

Shannon Watts of Moms Demand Action, a gun control group, has armed security. 

91% of NICS transactions are immediately determined as proceed or deny

Since some denials are erroneous, there is an appeals process and a Voluntary Appeal File can be created and entered into NICS. With the VAF, persons who were routinely denied or delayed can have an immediate determination. There are 31,100 persons who have a VAF. 

In 2014, of the 90,895 denials, 31,125 were appealed. The deny transaction was overturned for 4,411 of those appeals.

You can go to www.fbi.gov/nics-appeals to start the appeals process.

Micheal Bloomberg, who finances gun control groups Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action, also has armed security.

The 200 millionth background check resulted in a denial. It was on Friday, November 28, 2014 at 12:53 p.m.

In 2010, nearly 80,000 people received a denial on the NICS background check, 62 were arrested, charges were dismissed on 18. 

In 2014 1,887,169 firearms transactions were delayed.

Everything you wanted to know about lost and stolen firearms

and maybe a little bit more.

1. 19,229 firearms were lost or stolen from FFLs in 2014, 13,510 of those were lost.

2. Pistols account for 30% of lost or stolen firearms, just over half were stolen.

3. Rifles account for 25% of lost or stolen firearms, 80% were lost.

4. 35 suppressors were stolen, another 94 were lost.

5. 35 machine guns went missing in 2014, 13 through burglary, 10 through larceny and 12 were lost.
   5a. Larceny is a non-violent theft akin to embezzlement and used to carry the death penalty.

6. 94 unknown types of firearms were lost. DAFUQ, how you don't know what type of firearm was lost?

7. Wyoming FFLs lost the most firearms with 848, New Jersey FFLs lost the least firearms with 0.

8. North Carolina FFLs lost the most firearms through burglary with 347, Rhode Island had the least with 0.

9. There were a total of 2,157 reports to the ATF regarding lost or stolen firearms.

10. Florida FFLs filed the most lost or stolen reports with 173, New Jersey filed the least with 1.

11. Ohio FFLs lost the most firearms through larceny with 99, New Jersey had the least with 0.

12. Of the 22 robbery reports, Texas filed 11.

13. "Lost firearms" doesn't necessarily mean that a firearm is not in the FFL's inventory. Some things can lead to a firearm being "lost" such as serial numbers being incorrectly recorded when receiving or transferring a firearm, lawfully sold firearms that are not recorded properly in the FFL's Acquisition and Disposition record, and manufacturing engraving errors.

* Due to audits, Texas and New York were largely omitted from these facts.

Rep Donna Edwards wants to confiscate your guns

Rep. Donna F. Edwards (donna@donnaedwardsforsenate.com) penned a piece in the Baltimore Sun demanding that Dealing with guns demands more than another moment of silence.

Dealing with guns. Not dealing with the haters that would take advantage of a gun free church to kill innocent people. Not dealing with thugs that would take advantage of a gun free school to murder as many children as he could before the cops showed up. Not dealing with the criminals that run rampant in the city of Chicago that rarely face murder charges for murdering both innocent people and other criminals. She wants to deal with the guns, cos it's the guns' causing mayhem.

President Obama is right: We need more than talk. We need more than another moment of silence. We need a real, sustained commitment to getting handguns and assault weapons off of our streets. Here's how we do it.

She's got a plan, y'all!

We know which guns are the criminals' weapons of choice, so let's ban them from sale and possession.

Oh, she want's to ban the sale and possession of the guns that criminals use. Hmm. I wonder what guns those are.

According to MSNBC that would be the 9mm, .22, .40, 12 gauge and .38. Most certainly S&W, HiPoint and the Jennings type handguns make into a lot of evidence lockers. As well as .22 rifles of all varieties.

So, what's the Rep's solution?

Let's ban the high-capacity magazines that were used to kill 20 children in Newtown. Let's ban the AR-15 and the military style semi-automatic weapons like the one that killed 12 moviegoers in Aurora, Colo.

Oh, yes of course, always have to ban "military style" scary black guns and magazines. I suppose those people killed with a shotgun at the Navy Yard don't matter too much to her.

She has more solutions, too.

For starters, no domestic abuser should be able to get their hands on a gun. No one with a serious mental illness should be able to arm themselves.

Gee, when LaPiere said something about mental illness, all the gun grabbers wanted him to die a firery painful death. But, when we talk gun control, the mentally ill come up.

And make background checks and registration meaningful from one state to the next.

She wants to ban all the guns, and magazines, and have registration. Why would she want registration? Because it would make it easier to ban the sale AND POSSESSION of the next few guns she takes aim at.

I see on social media a lot, and hear it when the mad mommies start flapping their jaws, "we're not talking about banning you all guns". The fact is, if the only gun I own is the one they want to ban, then yes, they're talking about banning all my guns.

What Rep. Edwards fails to state as part of her solution, is how does she plan on confiscating the hundreds of millions of guns she wants to ban. I can only assume it will be at the point of a gun. In which case I wonder, will she be leading the charge?

More Guns Do Not Lead To More Gun Crime

HEADLINE: Guns Don't Deter Crime, Study Finds

"A new study, however, throws cold water on the idea that a well-armed populace deters criminals or prevents murders. Instead, higher ownership of guns in a state is linked to more firearm robberies, more firearm assaults and more homicide in general."

Oh, my! Let's look at the new study...

Two-year-old 'new' study

Mkay, a nearly two-year-old study is 'new'.

Here's a screen cap of a spreadsheet where I list the states with the lowest gun ownership rates and the states with the highest gun ownership rates along with Brady scores, suicide rates, gun homicide rates and overall murder rates. Gun ownership stats came from the gun control study on how to infiltrate the 'social gun culture' in order to change the culture to support "prudent gun policies that aim to reduce gun ownership..."
Other information is directly from Brady Center, CDC and FBI

Click to enbiggen

Clearly, higher gun ownership rates do not lead to higher gun homicide rates. As a matter of fact, the ten states with lower gun ownership rates have a higher gun homicide rate than the ten states with the highest gun ownership rates.

They found no evidence that states with more households with guns led to timid criminals. In fact, firearm assaults were 6.8 times more common in states with the most guns versus states with the least.

Absolutely this is wrong. Looking at the last column in the spreadsheet we see that the firearm assault rate is 1.19 times higher for the ten states with the highest firearm ownership rates than the ten states with the lowest firearm ownership rates.

Firearm robbery increased with every increase in gun ownership...

No, no, no... As a matter of fact, the ten states with the lowest firearm ownership rates have nearly twice the rate of firearm robbery rates than the ten states with the highest gun ownership rates.

The researchers were able to test whether criminals were simply trading out other weapons for guns, at least in the case of homicide. They weren't. Overall homicide rates were just over 2 times higher in the most gun-owning states...

Again, this is false. Looking at the overall homicide rates, we see that between the two groups, the homicide rate is nearly the same, but more importantly, the overall murder rates are exactly the same. Furthermore, the ten states with the lowest firearm ownership rates have a higher rate of firearm homicide than do the states with the highest gun ownership rates.

It should be noted that there is a distinction between the CDC homicide rates and the FBI murder rates. The CDC includes all homicides, including negligence and lawful self defense. The FBI only includes murder and non-negligent homicides. The CDC rates are estimated based on medical records and the FBI estimates are based on criminal complaints.

Moving on...

"What's known? One, the presence of a gun in the home increases the risk of suicide in that home. "That relationship we really know, no doubt about it," Hemenway said.

Based on the spreadsheet, this seems to be true, it appears that states with more guns have a 2.7 times higher rate of firearm suicide than states with fewer guns. But... Who the hell is anyone to tell anyone how they decide to check out. Whether it be by self harm, participating in risky behavior, or by natural selection?

Also unclear are what policies work best to lower the number of firearms available, Siegel said. He and his colleagues are tackling that question now.

There you have if folks. These 'studies' aren't about reducing the number or rate of gun crime or accidents. They do it to find out how to reduce gun ownership. This explains why all the anti-gun research never correlates to real life statistics.