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You are here: Home / Gun Issues / Gun nuts / Corporations Are Armed People, My Friend

Corporations Are Armed People, My Friend

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But maybe not for much longer. Bypassing Wayne LaPierre’s do-nothing flunkies in congress, President Obama has proposed executive measures to disarm corporation-people, plus a ban on the reimportation of military-grade weapons by private companies. The move will no doubt be seen as both a “slap in the face” to the fat cat-fellators and a thing that is “rammed down the throat” of the gun-fondlers. In other words, win-win.

Reader Interactions

82Comments

  3. 3.

    Larime the Gimp

    OT: Hey! An update on the laptop for my wife:

    We hit the goal within 12 hours! I’d like to say a HUGE thank you to all who supported it – whether with donations or good wishes, I know lots of people are as broke as we are. I’ll be getting her the new unit soon, and really appreciate the kindness.

    Someone asked about my comic. It’s called A VOICE IN THE DARK, and it comes out in November. It’s currently available for pre-order in the September issue of Previews.

    Thanks again!

  5. 5.

    cleek

    what’s the point of that re-importation ban ?

    from the net, it looks like what people want to import are WWII-era single-shot, bolt-action, military rifles: M1s, etc.. and those haven’t been “military-grade” weapons for at least 60 years.

    i’m no fan of guns, but banning the reimportation of those seems pointless… unless you want to ease competition on gun makers.

  7. 7.

    catclub

    Once you throw out any use for the first phrase of the Second Amendment ‘Well-regulated militia’
    you might as well throw out any plain meaning of the word “people” in
    ‘the right of the people to keep and bear arms.’

  8. 8.

    celticdragonchick

    @cleek:

    Yeah, the re-importation ban is meaningless symbolism here. I don’t see a lot of stories about M1 Garands and bolt action Lee-Enfields and Springfields getting used in street crime.

    It is probably counter productive since it does nothing to get the guns that criminals use off of the street while serving as prima facie evidence to the right wing that Obama hates antique firearms collectors.

    We don’t need a ban on 60 year old Garands from South Korea and 80 year old WW I bolt action rifles from God knows where. We need comprehensive background checks…and we need that from Congress. unfortunately.

  9. 9.

    Belafon

    @cleek: From the article:

    One new policy will end a government practice that lets military weapons, sold or donated by the U.S. to allies, be reimported into the U.S. by private entities, where some may end up on the streets. The White House said the U.S. has approved 250,000 of those guns to be reimported since 2005; under the new policy, only museums and a few other entities like the government will be eligible to reimport military-grade firearms.

    I seriously doubt there have been 250,000 ww2 weapons reimported.

  12. 12.

    cleek

    @Belafon:
    well, there are already laws in place that keep actual “military-grade” weapons out of the public’s hands. so whatever those 250K are, they aren’t .50 cal machine guns or full-auto AR-16s, or whatever. they really can’t be any more dangerous than what anyone can buy down at their local WalMart.

  14. 14.

    raven

    @Belafon: I took my single-shot Japanese Arisaka to the gunsmith and the dude said about a million of them were brought to the states after the war.

  17. 17.

    Belafon

    @cleek: And if this drives up the price of the gun at Wal-Mart, then maybe someone will have to think about buying it.

  19. 19.

    raven

    @Belafon: nah, they stacked em up after the war ended and let anyone that wanted take them. When I was a kid in California the gun shops would have barrels of them on the floor for cheap. If you find one without the chrysanthemum filed off it was taken in battle and is worth something. The chrysanthemum was the emperor’s symbol and, when they knew they were gonna lose, they filed them off of as many as they could.

  20. 20.

    scav

    Horrors! some of our corporate betters have been harmed by cost-cutting at the Federal level and it is eating into profits! Luckily “more than 100 of the same members of Congress who voted in January to impose the cut are now trying to push the Obama administration to reverse it or water it down.” In Congress, a Bid to Undo Dialysis Cuts.

    Insert complxities here but

    Industry lobbyists and company executives acknowledged in interviews this month that the federal government might be paying them more than is necessary to cover the cost of the drugs they use on dialysis patients.

    In their presentations on Capitol Hill and to the Obama administration, the companies have argued that the cutbacks would hit clinics in rural areas and in poor sections of major cities hardest — as those facilities typically already have lower profit margins.

    Guaranteed Profit Margins for Corporate Persons but no Minimum Wages for the meat-based entities.

  21. 21.

    askew

    @cleek:

    @askew:
    impressively progressive, for someone who (as we’re repeatedly told) is just a moderate Republican.

    Definitely. Too bad it is being ignored by those who have been complaining about Obama being a Republican (see: Dailykos).

  22. 22.

    Betty Cracker

    @askew: Wow, that’s awesome. I wonder if this will prompt my sister and SIL to go out of state to tie the knot? FL will probably be one of the last states to recognize marriage equality, but this is a great incentive to get married out of state. They’ve been together almost as long as my husband and I have.

  24. 24.

    kindness

    Well if this doesn’t send the Impeachment Dial to 11 (on a scale of 10) I don’t know what will.

  25. 25.

    Belafon

    @raven: The only reason I bring that point up is, yeah, there’s not much we can do about the past, but this does affect future imports.

  26. 26.

    raven

    @Belafon: My only point was about the numbers that might be out there. Frankly I don’t give a shit if it is super effective as long as it fuck with them!

  29. 29.

    Chyron HR

    @askew:

    Yes, but those announcements were communicated using a known language, therefore we can dismiss them as JUST WORDS.

  31. 31.

    ruemara

    @cleek: Lies! Obot! Bully Pulpit! um, what else am I missing? I’m prepping to go into work while doubled over with ab pain, so I’m not at my best snark.

  32. 32.

    celticdragonchick

    @raven: Oh, I’ve shot one. I have a bolt action Lee-Enfield in .30-06 (same round as the M1) and you know you have shot a high powered round when you pull the trigger on that. I can take only about 20 shots before my shoulder has had enough for the day.

    A sergeant I knew in the army was into reloading ammo (he did lot of my reloads) and he had an M1 Garand that he let me shoot.

    I have been much more into Revolutionary War weapons for the past few years, though.

  34. 34.

    fuckwit

    That was quite a collection of sexual-assault-related metaphors you used in that post. That’s very apt, because for some reason, the “gun-fondlers” keep using that kind of language themselves. There’s definitely a pee-pee issue with those guys.

  38. 38.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @cleek:

    from the net, it looks like what people want to import are WWII-era single-shot, bolt-action, military rifles: M1s, etc.. and those haven’t been “military-grade” weapons for at least 60 years.

    We haven’t been exporting M-16s for the last 50 years?

  39. 39.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    This is a big day of progressive announcements from the Obama administration:

    1.Colorado, Washington get OK from feds on marijuana

    2. Federal Tax System Will Recognize Married Gay Couples Even If Their States Do Not

    3. HHS Extends Medicare Benefits To Married Gay Couples

    There is some change we can believe in.

    @askew: Toss aside my cynicism for a moment. That is some unalloyed good news – FINALLY – out of this administration.

  41. 41.

    ericblair

    @scav:

    Luckily “more than 100 of the same members of Congress who voted in January to impose the cut are now trying to push the Obama administration to reverse it or water it down.” In Congress, a Bid to Undo Dialysis Cuts.

    There are whole Medicare dialysis and scooter scam lobbies out there. Remember that one man’s fraud, waste, and abuse is another man’s boat payment.

  43. 43.

    Jeremy

    @askew: Also I’m surprised liberals are not talking about FATCA which was passed and signed into law by the President in 2010 which will crackdown on offshore tax evasion by the wealthy. Another Progressive action pushed by the President which is rarely talked about just like new greenhouse gas regulations, increased gas mileage standards, and the large approval of clean energy developments on federal lands.

  44. 44.

    Ted & Hellen

    Wait a minute.

    So PBO CAN go around Congress with these exotic things called “executive orders…?”

    Really?

    Huh.

  45. 45.

    Belafon

    @LAC: The FP article about the tax announcement completely left out the Obama administration. It was all the work of the IRS. So my comment was titled “I forget, who do they work for?”

  47. 47.

    Roger Moore

    @Betty Cracker:

    FL will probably be one of the last states to recognize marriage equality, but this is a great incentive to get married out of state.

    I don’t know about that. It will probably be in the latter half of the country to do so, but you’re still a lot bluer than Mississippi or Utah.

  49. 49.

    Roger Moore

    @celticdragonchick:

    I have been much more into Revolutionary War weapons for the past few years, though.

    I would expect a Brown Bess to make a Garand seem nice and easy on the shoulder. Or does the sheer mass of the musket help to tame the recoil from the ridiculously heavy ball it’s firing?

  50. 50.

    kindness

    @Roger Moore: One of my friends was trying to tell me how liberal Salt Lake City was. I wasn’t buying it. maybe compared to the rest of the state but that isn’t a high bar to clear.

  51. 51.

    Yatsuno

    @Betty Cracker: This could be fun. Not only can I now put the NYD on my federal bennies if he puts a ring on it, he’d be Medicare eligible as a secondary insurer. That could be entertaining.

  55. 55.

    askew

    @Betty Cracker:

    @askew: Wow, that’s awesome. I wonder if this will prompt my sister and SIL to go out of state to tie the knot? FL will probably be one of the last states to recognize marriage equality, but this is a great incentive to get married out of state. They’ve been together almost as long as my husband and I have.

    That would be great. I know some of the Minnesota’s bridal businesses are gearing up to push to make Minnesota a place for destination gay marriages. But, I’d imagine NY and CA will get more of that business.

  56. 56.

    celticdragonchick

    @CONGRATULATIONS!:

    There’s a lot out there ranging from sporterized military Springfields to a nice Savage Arms bolt action with scope for 299.00

    Any of them should make a decent deer rifle. I have seen some nice sporterized German WW I Mausers in 7.92 mm as well.

    Of note, I have been seeing some chatter about back to nature liberals who have taken to deer, rabbit and squirrel hunting as a sustainable alternative to high intensity animal farm operations.

  57. 57.

    catclub

    @Roger Moore: ” Or does the sheer mass of the musket help to tame the recoil from the ridiculously heavy ball it’s firing? ”

    Interesting question! In the limit that the rifle has no mass, the recoil will be very sharp, but the total impulse should be the same. The high mass of the rifle will not be accelerated as much as a small mass, to hit your shoulder. So I vote for a less delta-function like recoil.

  58. 58.

    celticdragonchick

    @Roger Moore: My Bess weighs about ten pounds, and I use about 120 grains of Goex FF powder, which has a far slower burn rate then modern smokeless powder. You get more of a push then a kick. (Goex is actual black powder, and is not the stuff you use in modern in-line “black powder” rifles. Period correct flintlock weapons have to use the same kind of powder that was used at the time. The modern stuff does not catch in the pan.)

  59. 59.

    Roger Moore

    @kindness:

    One of my friends was trying to tell me how liberal Salt Lake City was.

    Oddly enough, it’s about the only part of the state that isn’t majority Mormon, and the result is that anyone who is liberally inclined in the area tends to congregate there. They aren’t San Francisco, but they have managed to elect a Democrat to Congress for quite a while now.

  60. 60.

    celticdragonchick

    @raven:

    Idiots like that give all other gun owners a bad name. Lotsa folks here at BJ tend to compare the rest of us with the fools who should have known better (and if he was prior SF…he knew better!)

  61. 61.

    askew

    @Jeremy:

    @askew: Also I’m surprised liberals are not talking about FATCA which was passed and signed into law by the President in 2010 which will crackdown on offshore tax evasion by the wealthy. Another Progressive action pushed by the President which is rarely talked about just like new greenhouse gas regulations, increased gas mileage standards, and the large approval of clean energy developments on federal lands.

    Yep, they are ignoring a lot of positive progressive accomplishments and spending all of their time bitching. It gets old.

    Also, the DoJ is finalizing a settlement with the Swiss banks for approx. $1bn over not disclosing bank accounts held by Americans.

  62. 62.

    Chris

    President Obama has proposed executive measures to disarm corporation-people

    Well, if nothing else, “no private armies” would seem like a basic foundational principle of any working society.

  63. 63.

    Roger Moore

    @celticdragonchick:

    Period correct flintlock weapons have to use the same kind of powder that was used at the time. The modern stuff does not catch in the pan.

    You can’t use a separate priming powder, or would that only be appropriate for flintlock rifles?

  65. 65.

    Gene108

    @cleek:

    Heard a story (NPR?) that S.Korea has a bunch of M1’s they no longer need and wanted to reimport to the U.S.

    Other militaries probably have a bunch of older firearms we sold them that could be resold in the U.S. market.

    250k in eight years could be possible.

    Banning resale of these guns sounds good, but does little in any practical terms. Though gun-nuts – and I include any “responsible” gun owner, who sits on their hands while the NRA, GOA and other gun-nut lobbying groups keep pushing their agenda of more guns in the gun-nut group – have been such dicks, I cannot feel sorry for them that they cannot buy old military fire arms,

    @ericblair:

    Since dialysis treatment is basically single payer, this sort of distorted payments could be a pitfall of single payer.

    There are so many, who think single payer will be the land of milk and honey WRT health care, they do not realize how big a change bit will be and pitfalls of groups trying to get the payouts from the government.

  67. 67.

    Roger Moore

    @Chris:

    Well, if nothing else, “no private armies” would seem like a basic foundational principle of any working society.

    Yes, but there are legitimate reasons for some businesses to have their own armed security people rather than relying on the police for absolutely everything. I think a more appropriate approach to eliminating private armies is to limit the types of weapons that are available, rather than eliminating corporate weapon ownership altogether.

  69. 69.

    Gene108

    @askew:

    $1 billion is not punishment!

    They should all be in jail forever!

    I would say swinging from the gallows, but I oppose the death penalty even for bankers.

  70. 70.

    celticdragonchick

    @Roger Moore:

    You really only see that in rifles. Muskets were smoothbore military weapons that were usually loaded from paper cartridges that had been prepared before the battle. When the order to Prime and load! is given, you snap open the frizzen, and then you get a cartridge out of your cartridge box, tear it open with your teeth. You then use some of the powder to prime the pan, shut the frizzen and pour the rest of the powder, the projectile(s) down the barrel and then the cartridge paper becomes the wadding. You ram everything down tight with the ramrod, stow the ramrod back in place and come to left shoulder arms (if you are Continental Line) or port arms (if militia).

  71. 71.

    LAC

    @Belafon: And what was their response? Something like “OBOT!!!! DRONEZ!!! KNASHING MY TEETH! THE NSA IS IN MY TOOTH, I CAN’T KNASH IN PRIVATE!!”

    Something rational like that?

  73. 73.

    Yatsuno

    @Belafon:GGeithner used to be my boss. Oi.

    And the IRS does shit like pass their.own tax laws all the time. Duh. Where do you think our jackboot thugs come from?

  78. 78.

    mclaren

    President Obama has proposed executive measures to disarm corporation-people, plus a ban on the reimportation of military-grade weapons by private companies.

    But as the ignorant incompetent shit-for-brains tax avoidance lawyer burnspbesq assured us, Obama can’t do this because he lacks the “super-secret decoder ring with magic powers.”

    Obama somehow has the power to order the IRS not to enforce the law for a year in the ACA and to issue executive orders like this, but mysteriously Obama remains helpless and impotent when it comes to shutting down Gitmo or ordering an end to hostilities in Sytira or ordering the DOJ to place marijuana prosecutions on the lowest priority.

    It’s just one of the existential mysteries…

  80. 80.

    Glocksman

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Sure we have, but as fully automatic weapons they already are illegal to import for civilian sale, just like a brand new H&K MP5 is illegal to import for civilian sale.
    The only guns the import ban will affect will be WW2 era semi-autos such as the M1 Garand and the M1 Carbine, and bolt actions such as the 1903 Springfield.

    As others have stated, what we really need are enhanced background checks, not an import ban on firearms that barely (if at all) register in the crime stats.

    All this does is make NRA propaganda about gun grabbers believeable.

  82. 82.

    JAFD

    @Roger Moore:

    Michael Musmanno (justice, PA Supreme Court) mentions, in his memoirs, the fight to end the Coal and Iron Police that were the main ‘law enforcement’ in much of Pennsylvania through the 1920’s.

    Apologies for lacking details – Gave the book away to a lawyer friend, will come up with more facts next time I browse her library.

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