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RantOmatic #12:Eric Raymond types for me in “Gratitude for Beto”

Beto O’Rourke is a pretty risible character even among the clown show that is the 2020 cycle’s Democratic candidate-aspirants. A faux-populist with a history of burglary and DUI, he married the heiress of a billionaire and money-bombed his way to a seat in the House of Representatives, only to fail when he ran for the Senate six years later because Texas had had enough of his bullshit. Beneath the boyish good looks on which he trades so heavily, his track record reveals him to be a rather dimwitted and ineffectual manchild with a severe case of Dunning-Kruger effect.

Beto’s Presidential aspirations are doomed, though he and the uncontacted aborigines of the Andaman Islands are possibly the only inhabitants of planet Earth who do not yet grasp this. Before flaming out of the 2020 race to a life of well-deserved obscurity, however, Beto has done the American polity one great service for which I must express my most sincere and enduring gratitude.

In September 12th, 2019, at third televised debate among the Democratic aspirants, Beto O.Rourke said “Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15”. And nobody on stage demurred, then or afterwards. And the audience applauded thunderously.

At a stroke, Beto irrecoverably destroyed a critical part of the smokescreen gun-control advocates have been laying over their intentions since the 1960s. He put gun confiscation with the threat of door-to-door enforcement by violence on the table, and nobody in the Democratic Party auditorium backed away.

It’s that last clause that is really telling. Beto’s own intentions will soon cease to be of interest to anyone but specialist historians. What matters is how he has made “Nobody is coming to take your guns” a disclaimer that no Democrat – and, extension, any advocate of soi-disant “common-sense” firearms restrictions – can ever hide behind again. —- RTWT AT Gratitude for Beto | Armed and Dangerous

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Roger in Republic September 15, 2019, 10:28 PM

    And in that one fatal stroke he signed his own political career “Do not Resuscitate” order.

  • ghostsniper September 16, 2019, 4:38 AM

    Saw about 2 mins worth of that asshole recently talking his buy back stuff.
    What a detestable human being.
    No backbone at all.
    If not for the communist american politics it would be working the used car circuit until someone knifed the shit out of it.
    The big picture of this country becomes more irredeemable with each passing day, thank the stars for heavily wooded areas and the ability to stay small.

  • Snakepit Kansas September 16, 2019, 5:15 AM

    I think most law enforcement will not be willing to start knocking on doors to take folks’ guns, but after some do and a few get shot, they won’t come in the middle of the night but during the day when you are at work or when they know you are not home.
    Again, most LE isn’t going to want any part of this, but there will be plenty who do. Ran into a Customs Officer coming back from South Africa in 2002. Although I had called the airline to make sure I had proper paperwork to travel in/out of the country with a rifle, I got held up in Atlanta on the way back. I didn’t have some special paper this Customs guy wanted. He made a big and loud deal about it and confiscated my rifle. The guy in front of me got his taken too. I was polite as pudding but that didn’t help. Upon polite pressing I was advised that I did not have paperwork proving that I did not need to pay import tax on my AMERICAN MADE Ruger #1. I showed him the paperwork showing that I LEFT the US with the rifle therefore I would not have acquired it overseas and therefore would not need to pay import tax. No dice. He snatched it from me and announced to his captive audience watching “I just took your rifle”. Big badge, big Beretta on his hip and big attitude. I then got held up with more Customs goons and I believe they purposely made me miss my connecting flight. After 24 hours of flight and more waiting and flying to go I was not feeling so fresh. At the ticket counter I pulled off my shirt, reached in my B-40 bag and put on some fresh DO and new shirt. After I got home I called Customs and they no longer had my rifle and no answers as to where it went. I called my old divorce lawyer for help, who got on the horn and found that it had been given to an importer. I ended up paying an import fee and shipping and an hour of lawyer time to get back my rifle. It came back intact minus all the bluing worn off the crown. Someone had been active with it barrel down on the ground somehow.
    In short, there are some LE that are genuine POS and wouldn’t mind coming to get your gun. Most are good guys/gals but I’ve met a few on the other side.

  • Tom Hyland September 16, 2019, 6:23 AM

    Stumbling around the internet I found these words of wisdom posted by Justin Maloney @ JMaloneyLiberty…..

    “I considered selling my weapons “back” to the government, but after a background check and thorough investigation into the buyer, I determined the buyer has a history of violence and is mentally unstable. Big risk to everyone around it.”

  • Joe September 16, 2019, 8:13 AM

    Beto is a surname, and a nickname for the given names Alberto, Albertino, Berthony, Heriberto, Norberto, Roberto or Humberto. It occurs mostly in Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking countries and communities. When translated to English it means “Sum Sing Wong”.

  • Auntie Analogue September 16, 2019, 9:11 AM

    To paraphrase a famous movie line:

    Masks? We don’ need no steenking masks.”

  • Jack September 16, 2019, 9:20 AM

    After BeatOff made his famously idiotic comment some local politician from the conservative side invited that dimwit to come and take it. BeatOff immediately called that response a threat on his life but I don’t think that even the commies that support that fragrant POS bit and agreed with him.

    Like all cowardly faggots B.O. isn’t about to lead a march up to anyone’s door and demand anything on his own because, even as dim as he is, he’s well aware that who ever came to the door would probably and justifiably give it to him barrel first, if they didn’t use a baseball bat instead. To me, it makes no difference what they would use and that is a reason that we have freedom of choice. Nope, that pos, just like Barrack Obama, would want to use American citizen against American citizen….one armed with an official directive that completely usurps and trashes the Constitution and long established law, against another holding to his freedom.

    I hate these commie MFs

  • Casey Klahn September 16, 2019, 10:42 AM

    We can invect all day and all night about Wank O’Rourke, but in Seattle the cops are taking guns from citizens who’ve committed no gun crimes. The thing is creeping, like a fog under your door, towards you and your freedom. The thing is an idea: that the gubmint may take. The reason, in rhetorically plain language, is that the flagged weapon is..get this…dangerous! This rhetoric is enhanced with descriptive language like “military,” “assault” and “black”!

    I don’t own an AR-15, mainly because I’ve had so much experience with the M-16. Carbines have limited use to me – my dad carried one in combat and said it sucked (the M-1 Carbine of WW II fame). He much preferred his .50 BMG. Give me a bolt action long rifle any time, because I am a shooter. I enjoy hitting what I aim at. This goes even more for the AK-47. I would shit my pants if anyone started shooting at me, but in the back of my military mind, I’d give a small thank you if it was the AK being shot at me. Only luck and volume would cause a hit with that son of a bitch.

    Long arms, which in this case includes the AR, make up a fraction of the deaths by firearms in the US. Your state may’ve had 2 or 3 in the past year, while at the same time pistols will make up the rest of the weapons used to kill. Many, and I mean a whopping percentage, of those kills were in a situation where some hap had to defend himself against a criminal with a deadly weapon. However, those kills go into the rhetorical heap with mass shootings and other unlawful shootings, and become the boogey man the left wants to use to cow-tow you into submission.

  • ghostsniper September 16, 2019, 5:42 PM

    Don’t make the mistake of assuming a modern day hand built sporting AR15 has anything to do with the Army M16. I have extensive experience with both and the only thing they have in common is they look similar. I also have extensive experience with pumps, levers, and bolts and the AR15 is every bit as accurate and fast as anything out there. Compared to all my other long rifles except rimfires the AR is less expensive to use and maintain. I’m gathering up the parts presently for the next build, a modern day race gun based on the AR platform but will be chambered in .308 and resemble very closely my current AR15.

    The american socialists keep hammering the public about how the modern day AR15 is a war machine and is based on the engineering of the army M16 over and over, knowing the nitwits, liars and criminals will side with them. These people, the nitwits, liars, and criminals comprise about half of the american adult population and were manufactured specifically for the current time period and the near future. They are lazy as hell, not too intelligent, and eager to go along to get along as long as that belly stays filled and their infantile brain is entertained. These people are voters and they are the enemy of the freedomists, the patriots. It takes a special kind of idiocy to smack the hornet nest with a short stick.

  • ghostsniper September 16, 2019, 5:44 PM
  • HH September 16, 2019, 7:10 PM

    Bobo (Spanish for fool) has salted the ground. So be it.

  • Casey Klahn September 17, 2019, 7:35 AM

    Ghost, my hunting/climbing buddy may or may not have 3 or 4 ARs, so I’m aware of what you’ve said. I’m still skeptical on account of the way the action loves to jam. Maybe things are better. Then, there’s the shorter range and the smaller round; didn’t the Iraq war grunts bitch about the lack of killing power? I note whenever there’s a shootout in the news, such as the New Braun church shooting, that the target seems to stay in the fight after absorbing numerous rounds of .223. Fuhkthat! If that hero in Texas hadda used his 12 gauge, the perp. would’ve never gotten to his vehicle for the end chase.

    Your larger chamber will be nice but will it be honest to god nice at 500 yards??

  • pfsm September 17, 2019, 10:07 AM

    Hey Bay-Toe….
    Get your ass on down to Caracas…Maduro needs you….

  • ghostsniper September 17, 2019, 10:45 AM

    Casey, the AR platform is the most common gun out there these days and a lot of them are of the bare minimum variety. Having just jumped aboard the AR train a few years ago I too was skeptical of them. Then I met someone that had been involved with them for years and he convinced me to give em a try. All of his AR’s are off the shelf models that he heavily modified over the years. He never built one from scratch so he was only good for nominal reference. I did my own research over about a 4 month period and got familiar with everything AR, then I started buying parts.

    You can buy a $400 off the shelf model from many places, or you can spend $10k or more for a fully customized version you build yourself. I, of course, wanted the best I could get for the least amount of money. In my case, that ended up being just south of $2k not including glass. If you know which end of the hammer hurts the most you can build an AR. You already are familiar with the workings of the platform and that would help.

    A good gun will not make a good shooter, but a good shooter is only as good as his gun. I already had experience hitting water filled milk jugs at 1000 yds with my Rem 700/308 so I knew what had to be done. I have not yet shot my AR out to 1000 yds so I don’t know if it can do the same. I question the stability of the 5.56 bullet at that distance. My next AR will mimic the specs on my 700’s so I expect it will do 1000yds with no problem with the added benefit of faster follow up shots.

    Just last night I was thinking about the idea of a left handed Rem 700 for a right handed shooter, for faster follow up shots. The trigger hand would not have to move, keeping everything stationary except for the subordinate hand which would activate the bolt.

    If you are a gunner you should have at least 1 AR in your stable. It couldn’t hurt.
    Lastly, I am seriously considering creating an 80% lower for my new AR build. If it is successful then I will build another for my current AR and sell the current lower to someone else. burn that paper trail.

  • Casey Klahn September 17, 2019, 2:22 PM

    Ghost, all good stuff. BTW, my buddy holds a USMC shooting record, and his portfolio goes from there. It would knock anyone’s socks off (at long range). He builds them. Still and all he has, maybe jokingly, discouraged me from getting into the AR, which was an easy sell since I already dislike the platform. For me, really, it’s as basic as the carbine vs. the rifle. I (may or may not) have a lever action carbine, chambered in .357 magnum to match a (non-existant) handgun. With that, I find that when I mount the 2x scope on it, getting it into action is slower than the bead site riot gun. And, with the modifications that (may or may not) have been done to the 12 gauge, the range covered by it and the carbine are the same. When the wolf comes to the door (imaginary wolf; fictitious scenario) the one I’m grabbing is the riot gun and not the carbine.

    In a doomsday scenario, the rifle is what I want over a carbine. But, I live in open country, so there is that.

    Bolt action follow ups. I knew a guy (very, very close friend…so close I wear his shoes) who once put 3 rounds into the same deer, 2 of which were on a running deer, with a RH bolt action rifle. This was at close range. Personally, I abhor such actions, but that was some great shooting! The trick is familiarity and time with the weapon in hand. As my USMS buddy always says: “fear the man who only owns one rifle!”

  • Casey Klahn September 17, 2019, 2:23 PM

    Ghost, all good stuff. BTW, my buddy holds a USMC shooting record, and his portfolio goes from there. It would knock anyone’s socks off (at long range). He builds them. Still and all he has, maybe jokingly, discouraged me from getting into the AR, which was an easy sell since I already dislike the platform. For me, really, it’s as basic as the carbine vs. the rifle. I (may or may not) have a lever action carbine, chambered in .357 magnum to match a (non-existant) handgun. With that, I find that when I mount the 2x scope on it, getting it into action is slower than the bead site riot gun. And, with the modifications that (may or may not) have been done to the 12 gauge, the range covered by it and the carbine are the same. When the wolf comes to the door (imaginary wolf; fictitious scenario) the one I’m grabbing is the riot gun and not the carbine.

    In a doomsday scenario, the rifle is what I want over a carbine. But, I live in open country, so there is that.

    Bolt action follow ups. I knew a guy (very, very close friend…so close I wear his shoes) who once put 3 rounds into the same deer, 2 of which were on a running deer, with a RH bolt action rifle. This was at close range. Personally, I abhor such actions, but that was some great shooting! The trick is familiarity and time with the weapon in hand. As my USMS buddy always says: “fear the man who only owns one rifle!”

  • ghostsniper September 18, 2019, 4:46 AM

    Lately, my porch sitting fantasy has been to get a lever gun in .45 and a cowboy revolver in .45.

  • Casey Klahn September 18, 2019, 9:32 AM

    The rubber front ends that Hornady sells are superior for the lever-action; better velocity.