Page Nine

On Utopian Pacifism

An Open Letter from Author Alan Korwin

On Utopian Pacifism

I’m a Utopian Pacifist. Although I’ve written ten successful books on American gun law*, I support no weapons of any kind on the surface of the Earth, in an era of enduring peace, prosperity, harmony and abundance.

It turns out this is impossible (utopian). The problem is The Four Horsemen of Human Havoc: angry hungry stupid and wicked.

So I support disarming everybody, bad guys first. This is also utopian.

Until then, I find it hard to justify disarming any innocent sane person.

•••

If I could wave a wand and make guns disappear, the brutal communist Chinese dictatorship would make new ones. And the Italians (Beretta), Brazilians (Taurus), Russians (AK-47), Austrians (Glock)—all armed nations would be in business making the iron river. Including basement tinkerers.

Wands are fiction but you can imagine a gun-free world—just think back to pre-gun times.

What you get is Genghis Kahn with rampaging hordes, Julius Caesar and Roman Legion crucifixions, Vlad the Impaler, universal serfdom and endless millions horribly murdered. A gun-filled world paradoxically turns out to be more civilized, with safer neighborhoods—even though evil people and government tyrants rampage constantly. Our guns help control them.

A gun-filled world is actually more

civilized than a gunless one, with sword- bearing

bad guys committing slaughter

against weaker people.

 

Many people—maybe you—are misled about all this for two reasons. One, you get no real education on the subject, and two, because if it’s in the news, and it’s about guns, it’s probably 100% wrong, leaving you misinformed. Let me support that.

For example, we saw saturation coverage recently about four people shot in Philly. They weren’t shot, they were murdered. Media’s subtle word choices affect everything. Murder is a crime. Murder puts the emphasis on the murderer. Media promotes and protects criminals, for complex reasons. Shooting on the other hand is a sport, an honorable long-running sport. Media plays this down. Shooting is the second most popular participant sport, ahead of the elitist game golf (#3). Media avoids this hard fact altogether.

Your entire perception shifts when you confront the criminal act, which media for many reasons disguises or avoids. Seven thousand inner-city black murders annually (FBI stats, 19 per day) aren’t solved, prosecuted—or covered. How would your perception shift if that got saturation coverage? When so-called “gun control” becomes crime control we’ll be closer to peace.

At least one million DGUs (Defensive Gun Uses) every year are censored. How would your perceptions change if you faced saturation coverage of lives saved and crimes prevented by the presence of a citizen’s gun, which more often than not isn’t even fired? You benefit from armed neighbors—a serious crime deterrent, the “free-rider” effect—hidden from view. Police call those vanquished criminals “the good-riddance factor.” You’ve never heard this before, right?

We also face hidden medical problems, hoplophobia—which is fear of weapons. The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Ed. 5) and legacy media obscures that. Inaccurate easy focus on guns should be on criminals, mental derangement and lack of impulse control. Criminal ideation, which isn’t just displayed but promoted in modern media, plays a role as well.

The Nation Is Clearly Divided About Guns

America basically has two camps: The “Just leave us alone,” camp, and the “We want to control you” camp. These are irreconcilable human and political characteristics. They divide (imperfectly) into two political parties. You know which is which.

If you ever entertained this utopian idea, “They should just take all the guns away”—ask yourself, “Who is they”? Who makes them give up their guns? Should we just leave “them” armed because police are so good? And how would mass disarmament get enforced against armed people? That delicate balance of power between armed “officials” and an armed public is what created the freest nation ever known. That was our Founders’ brilliance—evil exists, give the innocent a literal fighting chance.

Look deeper at crime prevention. That, and self-defense, are honorable things, recognized in the Bible and since the earlier Code of Hammurabi (c. 1755 B.C.). Innocent life and your homes are precious. These need protecting. Our strict American self-defense laws are clear, proper and deserve support, especially considering corruption in leadership, judicial systems and among authorities. Angry, hungry, stupid and wicked people pose a relentless threat.

The Bottom Line

You and I aren’t required to protect ourselves, which is good. Instead, you are free to do so, or non-violently “let lions eat you” and your family. I support this. It’s a matter of pacifism and free choice. We can also use anything at hand, or the best things available, to protect ourselves and survive—at your own option. Do nothing and perish if you choose, saving lions. But it is unjust and tyrannical to compel me or anyone to die for lack of good tools or arbitrary morality that puts lions ahead of me.

When thoughts turn to banning arms “for safety,” remember: In dictatorships the spoken word is recognized as more dangerous than arms. “We would not allow ourselves to be challenged with guns, why would we allow that with words, when that is far more dangerous.” –Josef Stalin. Guard with jealous attention against those who would infringe on your speech.

A closing thought about news reports:

Watch out for “we” and “I think” and “saturation coverage.” These are clues, “tells,” that you’re not getting news. “I think” means news has ended and opinion follows. Read that line again. And always figure out who “we” is and their agenda. When all so-called "news" reports are the same, they're coming from one source, that's not good, recognize that. Also, distinguish between conspiracies, which are constant and real (e.g., government agencies colluding with big tech to affect elections) and conspiracy theories (like a secret society eating babies in a pizza-parlor basement) that are lunacy.

I stand by my philosophy, and await the day when evil evaporates and guns are no longer needed. Until then, the Marines have it right: Peace through superior firepower. Do not submit to elitist demands to disarm you.

* The Arizona, California, Florida, Texas and Virginia Gun Owner’s Guides, Gun Laws of America, Supreme Court Gun Cases, The Heller Case—Gun Rights Affirmed, Your First Gun, and After You Shoot—Your Gun’s Hot, the Perp’s Not, Now What?

Unfortunate and Familiar—Kamala Harris Being Set Up for Failure, Again

“Gun Violence Prevention” plan ignores… criminals.

With few real details released, VP Harris is being called on for an impossible task—leading a new federal gun bureaucracy with no legislated authority. “This is classic federal overreach. What part of ‘Shall Not Be Infringed’ does Kamala not understand?” asked Arizona State Senator Wendy Rogers (LD7, Flagstaff). JPFO notes the invented term gun violence distracts people from the crying need for crime prevention and arrests.

“This new White House office, The Office of Gun Violence Prevention, can barely be considered constitutional, with no direct street-crime duty and no delegated power in the Constitution,” said Alan Korwin, author of 10 books on gun law and a consultant to JPFO.

While government insists on “gun control” instead of crime control, crime will continue to skyrocket. Laws already exist to control crime, but law enforcement, the edge of the blade, is dull or missing. Creating a new bureaucracy wastes time, money and resources. Education, which is a missing link, needs to get attention.

VP Harris cannot succeed without focusing on controlling criminal perpetrators. America’s 100 million decent innocent gun owners nervously anticipate this latest disguised attack on them, while criminals act with impunity in our inner cities. Though Harris and her team are blocked from gun-rights violations by the Constitution, this hasn’t stopped federal incursion recently. Critics hope her lack of results as border czar, where our borders continue to be overrun, will stave off illegal and undesirable infringements.

JPFO scolds the Biden Administration for putting a feckless federal underling in charge of reducing crime and especially murder, showing they really don’t want to solve or even seriously address the problem. Crime will persist, same as the border invasion.

Massive increases in crime, by increasingly brazen riotous criminals, have nothing to do with so-called “gun violence,” a gaslighting term used to hide murder and felony assault.

“Standing with Israel” Is Not Enough Mr. President!

MAKE IT EASIER TO ARM AMERICANS NOW Don’t repeat Israel’s error and wait for an attack. “Death to America” is still a thing. Joe Biden said, “We stand with Israel,” and JPFO says that’s insufficient. Under wartime duress Israel is now re-arming its citizens, following years of weakening their right to keep and bear arms. America must learn from this bloody lesson. “If there had been more armed women at that concert, there might be fewer dead,” said consultant Beth Terry, Certified Speaking Professional, a staunch friend of JPFO. “Death to America” is and has been on the lips of these treacherous villains for decades. Follow foreign news sources—you’ll hear people cheering the attack on Israel just like they did after the attack on 9-11. Brainwashed college students join in. “Gas the Jews” is chanted in Australia. We here at home face a serious risk. Promote marksmanship training nationwide now. Open all government ranges to full-fledged civilian marksmanship, required by law, 10 USC §4309. Don’t get caught with our pants down, Mr. Biden. Don’t just “stand” there, act.

Israel once encouraged citizens to own and carry. Gradual infringement cut this natural right to self-defense and property ownership (arms). Danger is what you get when government denies civil rights. Israel’s slightly relaxed gun laws are a good step, but a small one. America needs to remove any restrictions on peaceful possession of arms—infringements—banned by the Constitution. Officials who act to maintain infringements need to face charges for aggravated infringement—putting innocent lives in danger. Denial of civil rights is a crime, 18 USC §242. Aiding our enemies by disarming us must stop.

SIDEBAR: “Relaxed Israeli gun laws” means: Expedited permits, telephone permit applications, ammo purchases up from 50 to 100, quite modest, but retains waiting periods and no long guns.

Even Israeli Intelligence Didn’t Spot Them In Time— IS HAMAS HERE? Are we ready?

U.S. Border Patrol has identified and caught 150 foreign watchlist suspects trying to infiltrate the U.S. through the Mexico border last month alone. Now Hamas is calling on sympathizers worldwide to commit jihad this weekend. Our president is virtually complicit—by encouraging immigrants while insisting the wide-open border is closed.

Officials don’t know how many “gotaways” are terrorists, and more keep arriving, using Mr. Biden’s open-door border deception. Customs and Border Patrol (CPB) announced 530,000 gotaways in the past year alone. Border encounters last month hit a record 260,000. Captured known terrorists hit 659 in September. How many are Hamas?

JPFO encourages American citizens to be armed, ready to prevent Muslim jihadis from doing to us what they have done to our Israeli allies. All barriers to peaceful possession of personal arms must be suspended or repealed. We can’t trust Biden, a known ally of the border invaders, allowing them in, granting them papers and forgoing any serious screening or tracking. We must trust our own armed citizens needed to repel invaders if and when they act. We the people are “necessary to the security of a free state.”

Remember “sleeper cells”? It’s more than a catch phrase. It describes what these vicious murderers do—they hide until ready to strike. 1-Sneak into America. 2-Hide in plain sight. 3-Communicate internally. 4-Wait for the command from their leadership, our hardened enemies. The only question is how deep the Iran–China–Russia–North Korea axis runs. Three have nuclear weapons. Only Iran, backing  the Gaza attacks, lacks nukes. Arm yourselves, citizens, our first and possibly last line of defense.

If you’re untrained or rusty in the use of personal arms, now is the time to take a class or get in some range time. Remember, If innocent life doesn’t immediately depend on it—don’t shoot. And if it does, don’t miss. Join JPFO and stay deeply informed.

More on Aggravated Infringement

[This is a continuation of my post of a few days ago, A SHOT ACROSS GUN CONTROL’S BOW: “Aggravated Infringement."]

Our politicians, know, or should know, that deliberately violating the terms (“Aggravated Infringement”) of the Constitution to which they take an oath, is banned. What’s missing is specific punishment for doing so. Our Constitution lacks that, a fatal flaw that has turned so many politicians into scofflaws. They violate their oaths, and loyalty to our Grand Charter, because they know they can get away with it, and we die by a thousand cuts. This has led to all kinds of trouble the public sees every day. It must stop.

The states and federal government need to act to end the flagrant abuse. “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press...” Through the 14th Amendment, this applies equally to the States. Yet today we find a tax on newspapers—newspapers!—if that’s not a law affecting the press and free speech then nothing else is. Abolishing such (minor) abuses would help. But more than that, the people responsible for drafting, introducing and voting in favor of such limits need to be held accountable, with fines and prison terms.

When that’s in place, those sorts of infringements will be curtailed. Will politicians vote to limit their power? Don’t be a fool. They never will. If they’re willing to violate the oath they took to get into office, what are the chances they will now vote to restrict the power they usurped? It still needs to get done, and as Abraham Lincoln pointed out, “Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.”

The worst infringements—and there are so many—concerns your right to arms. Our immoral low-life bottom-feeding leadership vipers have had no compunction against infringing on the right of the average citizen to freely buy, possess, carry and use firearms for every legal purpose known. By falsely conflating guns with crime, they have stirred up a sleeping electorate to vrtually hate guns, instead of hating the perpetrators of crime who are the real villains.

So-called “news” media helps them in this odious task. How often you see “mass shooting” and “shooters” in so-called “news” reports? In reality they’re referring to “mass murder” and “murderers” and “psychotic rampage killers.” Those things are horrible, to be shunned, so reporters avoid them. Next time you see or hear a crime story (which journalists love to wildly promote for days) think murderer when they say shooter, and watch how the whole flavor changes. We Americans are gun owners and shooters. It’s a good thing. We practice. Mess media has stolen the word, use it instead of saying crime, this hurts us all.

A simple statute would put the blame, and the penalty, where it belongs:

“Any elected or appointed official who promotes a proposal designed or capable of infringing upon the right to keep and bear arms, has committed Infringement, a misdemeanor. This offense applies to all other enumerated rights. All efforts to implement a new or extant infringement, and repeat offenses, are Aggravated Infringement, a felony.”

Legislators can hang extra meat on these bones as they see fit. With this in place legislators will be on notice. Violating the guarantees of our Constitution puts you at risk for jail.

P.S. The classic remedies for constitutional offenses are weak and slow, and now severely limited by the existing power structure. If voting really worked, it would be outlawed, or modified to be ineffective (length of voting periods, secretive counting, no meaningful audits, exorbitant costs, barriers to running, cabals selecting candidates, hiding out before running, and while running... suppressing or outright censorship of relevant news... voting just isn't cutting it as it should. Enact and enforce Aggravated Infringement laws.

New talent at Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership

JPFO NAMES JAMES JONES, EDITOR, OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS SENTINEL

Alan Korwin stays on as Editor Emeritus

After 13 years—personnel changes at the top

Ever since JPFO Founder Aaron Zelman passed in 2010, an “inner circle” of dedicated individuals has kept his dream alive, running Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO), its internet and media presence and its publications. As Sentinel editor Korwin steps down after eight years in that role, Second Amendment Foundation Projects Director James Jones takes over the office of the highly regarded staunchly pro-gun-rights periodical. Subscriptions are free with membership.

Mr. Jones, as the Projects Director for The Second Amendment Foundation, has been involved in many facets of SAF, the most active gun-rights group in the nation, engaged in dozens of lawsuits to reverse gun-rights infringements at federal and local levels. His bio is at SAF.org.

Mr. Korwin, a consultant to JPFO since Aaron’s passing, has fulfilled many of the duties of an executive director. He manages publications for the organization, writes position papers and news releases, serves as a focal point for many of JPFO’s activities and runs the monthly political Salons.

With acute insight into the dangers of genocide learned during the Holocaust, JPFO seeks to expand citizen awareness of that threat. Governments kill and murder more people (“democide”) than any other factor, exceeding criminal activity by orders of magnitude. The deterrent value of guns and an armed citizenry, to resist encroaching efforts of government to render citizens docile and compliant, plus the balance of power that only public arms can provide, helps define JPFO’s role. “You can’t arm people and expect them to accept slavery.” And you don’t have to be Jewish to join JPFO, love of liberty is enough. To be on the ride side of history, support JPFO.

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Support JPFO, speaking truth to power:

 https://store.jpfo.org/11-donations. 

A SHOT ACROSS GUN CONTROL’S BOW: “Aggravated Infringement”

It’s time to read the riot act to gun-rights deniers.

by Alan Korwin

Appearing today (Sunday 6/11/23) in Townhall.com, the #1 news website on the right side, is my new article on Aggravated Infringement. These are proposed statutes to correct the great oversight in our great charter, The U.S. Constitution. The Constitution provides no direct punishment for people who violate its terms or the oath they take to obtain office. They’re not expelled, disenfranchised, fined, jailed, nothing. That omission fuels many of the problems we face as a nation.

Here then is a solution. It’s simple, direct and effective enough that you can expect outrage and shouting from the people whose stolen powers it will reclaim. If you violate your oath and the limits the Constitution puts on you, go to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect endless billions of dollars.

Read the whole thing here --  

https://townhall.com/columnists/alankorwin/2023/06/11/giving-the-constitution-teeth-the-truth-about-aggravated-infringementa-felony-n2624282

Giving the Constitution Teeth

by Alan Korwin
The Uninvited Ombudsman (GunLaws.com)

Our superb Constitution, for all its strengths, revered and imitated worldwide, has a fatal flaw. A weakness of Greek-tragedy proportions. The Constitution lacks punishment for those who would violate its terms. Yes, there are avenues of recourse, but these have been neutered and rendered feckless in so many ways. Voting…

CONTINUED

Murder is Bad, Shooting is Something Else

A zero-compromise gun-rights group I work for as a consultant, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO.org), recently released the piece below. It makes the classic mass-media error of calling murders shootings, and calling murderers shooters.

Doing that denigrates our fine sport and civil rights while hiding bloody murderers. Watch for this subtle anti-rights trick, make the swap in your mind like you see below in red, and watch how the world shines in a different light.

Mass media is now on the verge of a abandoning objectivity as a standard, under the now-familiar lie that everything is racist, insensitive and a tool of white supremacy oppression (WSJ 2/1/23, WaPo 1/30/23). Journalists, once respected and admired, are dangerous, and getting worse.

 

By J.D. Tuccille. Apr 21, 2023

(Edited by Alan Korwin, The Uninvited Ombudsman)

 

Headlines feature grim reports of senseless violence, including the aggravated assault wounding of Ralph Yarl in Kansas City, Missouri, the killing murder of Kaylin Gillis in Hebron, New York, and shootings murders of Payton Washington and Heather Roth in Elgin, Texas, and of 6-year-old Kinsley White and her parents in Gaston County, North Carolina. We'll learn more in days to come, but the incidents seem the results of irrational fear and rage.

These incidents feed the usual debates, with "reformers" promoting gun restrictions or criticizing "stand your ground" self-defense laws. But while the impulse to do something is understandable, these eruptions of violence come after decades of plummeting crime that coincided with increasing firearms ownership and eased laws. Something changed: us. Boosted by bad pandemic policies, already agitated Americans became nuttier and more prone to conflict. Politicians and laws can't fix that.

"In an era of frequent mass shootings murders, Americans know all too well that tragedy lurks nearly everywhere: schools, churches, offices, grocery stores, movie theaters. But these three incidents in the span of just six days have deepened a gnawing sense that no place is truly safe," NBC News's Daniel Arkin reported this week. "The incidents have renewed and intensified calls for stricter 'gun control' legislation" and "have also put scrutiny on 'stand your ground' self-defense laws."

Misunderstood America

 Arkin captures the horror of such incidents, but he also neatly distills misunderstandings behind our debates. Of the incidents he describes, none really invoke stand your ground laws, under which people have no duty to retreat before defending themselves in public places. Yarl and Gillis were at their shooters' murderers homes which, if the shootings were justified, involves the common-law castle doctrine right to defend yourself at your dwelling. Washington and Roth (and White and her parents, whose case came after Arkin's piece) were chased by their assailants, which isn't self-defense by any understanding. Whatever the principles, and no matter the legislation, states allowed self-defense and people purchased firearms over the course of decades during which crime declined.

"Both the FBI and [Bureau of Justice Statistics] data show dramatic declines in U.S. violent and property crime rates since the early 1990s, when crime spiked across much of the nation," Pew Research Center noted in November 2020, less than three years ago.

If we were well-armed and had wide freedom to defend ourselves while enjoying 30 years of plummeting crime what, if anything, changed?

"In the eyes of some observers, the shootings murders point to a more fundamental sickness in American life: the toxic brew of paranoia, distrust and suspicion that poisons so many of our day-to-day interactions," Arkin adds. Unfortunately, the data supports his point.

Dec. 15 is Bill of Rights Day

JPFO.org

12500 N.E. Tenth Place • Bellevue, WA 98005 • JPFO.org • 800-869-1884 • [email protected]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  • Nov. 23, 2022
Contact: Floyd Neeland

Celebrate America’s Heritage!

Dec. 15 is Bill of Rights Day

Among the greatest achievements of humanity

Ratified on 12/15/1791, read it out loud with friends, savor its messages

 

Phoenix Invitation posted previously

Thanks to the wisdom and foresight of JPFO Founder Aaron Zelman (1946-2010), JPFO annually reminds the nation of “All the Bill of Rights for all citizens.” How do you personally do that?

We have been scheduling and holding local meetings in public places, so a handful of Americans can gather (Right to Assemble) and read the Bill of Rights aloud (Freedom of Speech). A venue that does not discriminate against your Right to Keep and Bear Arms is often preferred and used, for obvious reasons. If you have a right but cannot exercise it, you do not have it.

Easy details for holding Bill of Rights commemorations near you are posted for your convenience. https://www.gunlaws.com/BOR-CommitteeReport1.htm There is so little to it, and so much to gain!

So-called “news” media rarely give this attention, for reasons that were unclear at press time. Here at JPFO we are of the opinion mass media should loudly encourage recognition of the day.

The Bill of Rights was originally one Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, with 12 separate articles, easy to see on facsimiles of the original document. Articles 3 through 12 were approved, making Article 3 what later editors renamed Amendment One.

#####

Support JPFO, speaking truth to power https://store.jpfo.org/11-donations

“Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, http://www.jpfo.org is America’s most aggressive civil-rights organization, dedicated to destroying the notion of ‘gun control’ as any kind of credible public-policy position. So-called ‘gun control’ does not control guns and doesn’t control criminal behavior. What it does is disarm the innocent, leaving them helpless in the face of criminals, tyrannical governments and genocide. History repeatedly proves this fact. Founded in 1989 by Aaron Zelman as a response to the Holocaust, JPFO speaks with the moral authority and tenacious commitment of survivors of persecution, and knows that surrendering your personal and family safety to government protection courts disaster. You don’t have to be Jewish to fight by our side, you just have to love liberty.”

RSVP NOW - Bill of Rights Day Invitation, 12/15

Friends and colleagues,

The 2022 Bill of Rights Day celebration is set for Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022, 5:30 p.m.

We have secured a banquet hall, SoulDustrial Corporate and Private Event Boutique (NE cor. Bell and 16 St.), 1614 East Bell Rd., Suite 109, Phoenix, Ariz., 85022

Seating is limited, don't delay, RSVP now: https://jpfo.ticketleap.com/bill-of-rights-day-2022/

 

Gather, mix, mingle, starting at 5:30 p.m.
Coffee, tea and water service provided.
Food is BYO, please don't make a mess.
This is not a liquor-licensed establishment.

In the early years, small groups met at restaurants. This evolved
into hundreds at major venues like the Wrigley Mansion. In 2022
we have a private banquet hall. You can stage an event near you.
Just reserve space, tell your fiends and colleagues, separate
checks works well, or sponsor a big deal. This image was taken
at the Omaha Steak House in Phoenix. How to do one at a place
near you,if you can't attend ours:

https://www.gunlaws.com/BOR%20Day%202006.htm#BillOfRightsEventPlanning

 

Call to order 6:15 p.m.

Program 6:30 p.m.

Solemn Reading of the Bill of Rights aloud,
led by 10 pillars of our community --

“Let the words and meaning wash over you.”

Keynote Speaker: Seth Leibsohn, J.D., author, senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, radio talk-show host on KKNT 960AM The Patriot

Speechifying: To be announced at the event

Town-hall style discussion of the Bill of Rights, and how it's doing so far.

JPFO’s David and Goliath Award will be presented at this event --

Read about prior David and Goliath awards:
https://jpfo.org/articles-2020/jpfo-david-and-goliath-award.htm

 

Citizens nationwide are encouraged to have a gathering wherever you are and read the Bill of Rights aloud. Let the words of freedom ring throughout the land.

Please use social media to pass the word around.

The more people and places participating, the better for our Republic.

You’re an American. You can do this.

Help in running an event near you, from dinner for two to a mob of the rabble:

https://www.gunlaws.com/BOR%20Day%202006.htm#BillOfRightsEventPlanning

 

Get a Phoenix seat:
https://jpfo.ticketleap.com/bill-of-rights-day-2022/