Despite what Curran might perceive, there has not been a "radical transformation" in attitude concerning many of the "critical public health" issues he mentions. I, and many others that I know, resent the hell out of being forced to wear a seat belt 'for my own good.' I might choose to do it voluntarily, but no one has the right to force me to do it - and much less under the color of law! And I'm eternally pissed at the asinine child car seat laws that want to keep my 11 year old in a freaking car seat even though she's almost the same size as her mother already. I still get pissed for smokers (even though I no longer smoke - I chose to quit because it got to damned expensive) when I see the way they get treated as second class citizens by the secondhandsmokeophobes. No, there has been no "radical transformation," merely a government sanctioned attack on certain personal choices and official criminalization of those who make the officially wrong choice.
What people like Curran have managed to do, however, is to make people afraid. Afraid of what could happen if __(fill in the blank with your pet cause)__. Afraid of, as he puts it "...dangerous and aberrant behaviour." And afraid of themselves. Behavior modification through fear - with the predictable result on the herd.
The common thread is the fear of that which is beyond control - and the increasingly quixotic and flailing attempts to eliminate the 'danger' from life. According to Curran, those who refuse to be afraid but instead choose to prepare to face danger, are themselves dangerous and to be feared. The same old "sheepdogs are still wolves" bleating coming from the herd, being whispered in their ears by the more well-dressed among the wolves themselves. One has only to look at what has become of (formerly) Great Britain to see where that vicious circle leads. And far to many people follow this siren song of 'feeling safe'. I can't really be concerned about what you fear or how safe you feel. Your phobias are your personal business. Nothing I can do (or not do) can make you 'feel' safe because the fear is yours and yours alone. Nobody has a right to feel safe - despite what the feel-goody power mongers say in their attempts seize more control. Everybody, on the other hand, has the right to defend their own safety and that implies individual responsibility and freedom - which is Curran's "dangerous and aberrant behavior."
Sorry about rambling on, apparently this is just my day to rant. Its just this type of fear/hate mongering and the accompanying misdirection and false solutions that really sets me off. Anyway, I'm preaching to the choir I know, but it makes me feel a little better.
These aren't the symptoms of a healthy republic. Bad for the country, bad for law enforcement, bad for civic life. Probably get much worse before it gets better, if it ever does.
I know that it was very late, and the guy was caught out of a dead sleep, but I think that he mishandled it a bit. I would have very politely stated to the JBTs that I had done nothing illegal, and just as politely asked them to leave my home unless they had a warrant or intended to arrest me. If they continued to ask me questions, I'd have politely declined, citing my desire to speak with an attorney first. They'd have had to leave, because there was no evidence of a crime having been committed - thankfully, since at least it isn't yet a crime in the PDRM to own ammo in a caliber that doesn't fit any of your guns.
Sick - even my former state, the PRNJ, doesn't record ammo sales or send out ninjas like the MD bastages.
"Attorney General Gansler’s Firearms Trafficking Unit, in cooperation with the Firearms Licensing and Registration Division and the Firearms Enforcement Section of the Maryland State Police, participates in the seizure of hundreds of firearms every year, and performs hundreds of traces of recovered firearms. In its effort to eliminate illegal purchases, sales, transfers and possessions of firearms, the Firearms Trafficking Unit investigates a substantial number of applications to purchase regulated firearms–resulting in the Unit bringing charges against a number of individuals who do not have the right to possess regulated firearms."
"With the cooperation of several gun dealers across the state, the Firearms Trafficking Unit has also initiated a program that maintains ammunition logs that include identification information of purchasers of ammunition. Review of these logs results in the investigation of individuals who are prohibited from possessing regulated firearms and who are believed to have purchased ammunition which could be used in such firearms. The Firearm Trafficking Unit’s continuing investigations have led to charges and arrests of individuals and the seizure of handguns from those that violate the law."
http://www.oag.state.md.us/lawenforcement.htm
There's no law in effect that says you have to produce ID, but the Maryland State Police have convinced or coerced a significant number of dealers into requiring ID when purchasing ammo, and they then collect, analyze and use the data.
So why didnt the cops just send someone over or call at a decient hour instead of sending the Ersatz Gestapo at o'dark o'clock in the morning about a AMMO PURCHASE?
It's crap like this that makes us honest citizens dislike and distrust cops as much as any crook does because they treat us all like crooks.
"what do we pay to indulge the minority among us who accumulate firearms?"
So, if I own firearms, I'm now part of a government approved persecutable minority? I think I now know the Jews of nazi Germany felt. I do believe that when I'm marked for "special handling, I can make that task more difficult than most other groups who have been marked as such in the past.
I'll admit...I found the report so sickening, I had to stop reading it around page 10.
Any wonder that the former AG Curran only resigned because his son in law, the former boy wonder mayor of "Murder City" Baltimore, Martin O'Malley, is now governor of the People's Republic of MD?, and he loves guns as much as his "dad". :(
Joe Curran wrote, Mealy O'Malley has Gansler to enforce it, and the MD Geheime Staats Politzei will raid your home at any time to help Herr Gansler in his enforcement efforts.
However, I happen to know enough law to tell said LEO, politely but firmly, "Sir, do you have a warrant? And for what is said warrant issued? No warrant? Then sir, you may return when a warrant has been duly sworn and issued by a competent court - but ONE officer is welcome to come in, sit down, and have a cup of coffee or a soft drink, if you so desire. Otherwise, have a nice day."
And close the door.
And RUN upstairs and get the 1911 and the cell phone, call 911, and get another cop there Code Three after reporting person or persons impersonating police officers breaking and entering, and I am about to open fire if they enter my home.
If I shout loud enough, they may just back off until everyone ELSE gets there - especially since my next call will be the TV News room!
I'm EVIL sometimes, I am. But it's in self-defense. AFter all, look at what happened to the Mayor of Berwyn Heights, MD.
I used the Governor's comment form to send him this message:
Is this an accurate description of what a Maryland resident can expect from law enforcement? http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/2008/08/from-dept-of-make-em-mad.html
This is really scary, and I doubt that I could, in good conscience. plan on traveling in your state.
Entering a residents home to query something that is not illegal? Surely, you have heard of the Constitution of the United States?
Frankie Cee,
I live in MD and I have not heard this story. I note that the person lives in PG Co and they have been doing all sorts of stuff like ticketing cars parked on residential streets if on the wrong side or ticketing boats parked on the street. Some police tried that in AA Co and then were informed they were out of jurisdiction.
I would like some verification. I have provided id to Walmart buying ammo but this is strange behavior.
There have been attempts for years to regulate ammo in MD State but the state reps would never pass it. This is a going around the state laws. Just like in order to buy a gun have to sign away any medical info for psych reasons.That was not a state law but the poice instigated this.
I will not buy any ammo and give id. Will just go to guns shows if need.
Note:
All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost;
references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
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JS-Kit/Echo comments for article at http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/2008/08/from-dept-of-make-em-mad.html (17 comments)
Tentative mapping of comments to original article, corrections solicited.
I don't like the feel of Maryland, are they falling apart because they are too close to Washington DC?
Bicycle helmets enforced as a public health issue?
shit, at university almost none of the bike riders I see wear helmets...and they get along just fine in plain view of the officers...
Despite what Curran might perceive, there has not been a "radical transformation" in attitude concerning many of the "critical public health" issues he mentions. I, and many others that I know, resent the hell out of being forced to wear a seat belt 'for my own good.' I might choose to do it voluntarily, but no one has the right to force me to do it - and much less under the color of law! And I'm eternally pissed at the asinine child car seat laws that want to keep my 11 year old in a freaking car seat even though she's almost the same size as her mother already. I still get pissed for smokers (even though I no longer smoke - I chose to quit because it got to damned expensive) when I see the way they get treated as second class citizens by the secondhandsmokeophobes. No, there has been no "radical transformation," merely a government sanctioned attack on certain personal choices and official criminalization of those who make the officially wrong choice.
What people like Curran have managed to do, however, is to make people afraid. Afraid of what could happen if __(fill in the blank with your pet cause)__. Afraid of, as he puts it "...dangerous and aberrant behaviour." And afraid of themselves. Behavior modification through fear - with the predictable result on the herd.
The common thread is the fear of that which is beyond control - and the increasingly quixotic and flailing attempts to eliminate the 'danger' from life. According to Curran, those who refuse to be afraid but instead choose to prepare to face danger, are themselves dangerous and to be feared. The same old "sheepdogs are still wolves" bleating coming from the herd, being whispered in their ears by the more well-dressed among the wolves themselves. One has only to look at what has become of (formerly) Great Britain to see where that vicious circle leads. And far to many people follow this siren song of 'feeling safe'. I can't really be concerned about what you fear or how safe you feel. Your phobias are your personal business. Nothing I can do (or not do) can make you 'feel' safe because the fear is yours and yours alone. Nobody has a right to feel safe - despite what the feel-goody power mongers say in their attempts seize more control. Everybody, on the other hand, has the right to defend their own safety and that implies individual responsibility and freedom - which is Curran's "dangerous and aberrant behavior."
Sorry about rambling on, apparently this is just my day to rant. Its just this type of fear/hate mongering and the accompanying misdirection and false solutions that really sets me off. Anyway, I'm preaching to the choir I know, but it makes me feel a little better.
These aren't the symptoms of a healthy republic. Bad for the country, bad for law enforcement, bad for civic life. Probably get much worse before it gets better, if it ever does.
These folks are destroying the country.
I know that it was very late, and the guy was caught out of a dead sleep, but I think that he mishandled it a bit. I would have very politely stated to the JBTs that I had done nothing illegal, and just as politely asked them to leave my home unless they had a warrant or intended to arrest me. If they continued to ask me questions, I'd have politely declined, citing my desire to speak with an attorney first. They'd have had to leave, because there was no evidence of a crime having been committed - thankfully, since at least it isn't yet a crime in the PDRM to own ammo in a caliber that doesn't fit any of your guns.
Sick - even my former state, the PRNJ, doesn't record ammo sales or send out ninjas like the MD bastages.
Um... May be calling BS on this.
Unless things have changed recently in the good old "People's Republic of Maryland" you do not have to show ID to purchase Ammo...
Kirk, did you read the thread?
"Attorney General Gansler’s Firearms Trafficking Unit, in cooperation with the Firearms Licensing and Registration Division and the Firearms Enforcement Section of the Maryland State Police, participates in the seizure of hundreds of firearms every year, and performs hundreds of traces of recovered firearms. In its effort to eliminate illegal purchases, sales, transfers and possessions of firearms, the Firearms Trafficking Unit investigates a substantial number of applications to purchase regulated firearms–resulting in the Unit bringing charges against a number of individuals who do not have the right to possess regulated firearms."
"With the cooperation of several gun dealers across the state, the Firearms Trafficking Unit has also initiated a program that maintains ammunition logs that include identification information of purchasers of ammunition. Review of these logs results in the investigation of individuals who are prohibited from possessing regulated firearms and who are believed to have purchased ammunition which could be used in such firearms. The Firearm Trafficking Unit’s continuing investigations have led to charges and arrests of individuals and the seizure of handguns from those that violate the law."
http://www.oag.state.md.us/lawenforcement.htm
There's no law in effect that says you have to produce ID, but the Maryland State Police have convinced or coerced a significant number of dealers into requiring ID when purchasing ammo, and they then collect, analyze and use the data.
There's no BS - it's really happening.
So why didnt the cops just send someone over or call at a decient hour instead of sending the Ersatz Gestapo at o'dark o'clock in the morning about a AMMO PURCHASE?
It's crap like this that makes us honest citizens dislike and distrust cops as much as any crook does because they treat us all like crooks.
The cooperating FFLs should be named, as a start. I have no sympathy for abettors of tyranny, shortage of FFLs or no.
III
This is the statement I find truly disconcerting:
"what do we pay to indulge the minority among us who accumulate firearms?"
So, if I own firearms, I'm now part of a government approved persecutable minority? I think I now know the Jews of nazi Germany felt. I do believe that when I'm marked for "special handling, I can make that task more difficult than most other groups who have been marked as such in the past.
I'll admit...I found the report so sickening, I had to stop reading it around page 10.
EAF
Any wonder that the former AG Curran only resigned because his son in law, the former boy wonder mayor of "Murder City" Baltimore, Martin O'Malley, is now governor of the People's Republic of MD?, and he loves guns as much as his "dad". :(
Shit. Without a warrant, they wouldn't have gotten past my threshold. F-ing nazis.
Joe Curran wrote, Mealy O'Malley has Gansler to enforce it, and the MD Geheime Staats Politzei will raid your home at any time to help Herr Gansler in his enforcement efforts.
However, I happen to know enough law to tell said LEO, politely but firmly, "Sir, do you have a warrant? And for what is said warrant issued? No warrant? Then sir, you may return when a warrant has been duly sworn and issued by a competent court - but ONE officer is welcome to come in, sit down, and have a cup of coffee or a soft drink, if you so desire. Otherwise, have a nice day."
And close the door.
And RUN upstairs and get the 1911 and the cell phone, call 911, and get another cop there Code Three after reporting person or persons impersonating police officers breaking and entering, and I am about to open fire if they enter my home.
If I shout loud enough, they may just back off until everyone ELSE gets there - especially since my next call will be the TV News room!
I'm EVIL sometimes, I am. But it's in self-defense. AFter all, look at what happened to the Mayor of Berwyn Heights, MD.
Somebody should tell him that "12:30 pm" is half past noon.
I used the Governor's comment form to send him this message:
Is this an accurate description of what a Maryland resident can expect from law enforcement? http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/2008/08/from-dept-of-make-em-mad.html
This is really scary, and I doubt that I could, in good conscience. plan on traveling in your state.
Entering a residents home to query something that is not illegal? Surely, you have heard of the Constitution of the United States?
Frankie Cee,
I live in MD and I have not heard this story. I note that the person lives in PG Co and they have been doing all sorts of stuff like ticketing cars parked on residential streets if on the wrong side or ticketing boats parked on the street. Some police tried that in AA Co and then were informed they were out of jurisdiction.
I would like some verification. I have provided id to Walmart buying ammo but this is strange behavior.
There have been attempts for years to regulate ammo in MD State but the state reps would never pass it. This is a going around the state laws. Just like in order to buy a gun have to sign away any medical info for psych reasons.That was not a state law but the poice instigated this.
I will not buy any ammo and give id. Will just go to guns shows if need.
Note: All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost; references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
If you notice any problems with this page or wish to have your home page link updated, please contact John Hardin <jhardin@impsec.org>