Here we go again, kids - both sides are calling for "negotiation" in upcoming firearms law, although....:
D) Looking to get as much out of us as they can get away with, and whittle away at our rights with the biggest tool they'll let us use (they'd prefer a chainsaw, but holding them down to just a hatchet is hard enough work...)
R) Mainly doing damage control against Democrat "whittling" and to see to the battle wounds after with beer & pretzels, or booze & sammiches."Victories" against democrats merely mean losing as little as possible and getting them to leave us alone for the next couple of years. (Nota Bebe: While I use the collective pronoun "we," this in't to align myself with the Republicans. I typically vote for them as the "least of the bad" in the field for the position. I don't even agree with the Libertarians - I think they've gone soft over the last decade or so. And the Libertarians are the closest party to my own beliefs and principles.
D) Looking to get as much out of us as they can get away with, and whittle away at our rights with the biggest tool they'll let us use (they'd prefer a chainsaw, but holding them down to just a hatchet is hard enough work...)
R) Mainly doing damage control against Democrat "whittling" and to see to the battle wounds after with beer & pretzels, or booze & sammiches."Victories" against democrats merely mean losing as little as possible and getting them to leave us alone for the next couple of years. (Nota Bebe: While I use the collective pronoun "we," this in't to align myself with the Republicans. I typically vote for them as the "least of the bad" in the field for the position. I don't even agree with the Libertarians - I think they've gone soft over the last decade or so. And the Libertarians are the closest party to my own beliefs and principles.
However, let's float this idea out:
1) Agree among ALL sides involved that the firearm bill will contain provisions and content that strictly happens to deal with firearms, ammunition, firearm rights, CCW reciprocity, and the like.
2) No side may move to take something without giving something in return. No side may not give something without expecting something to be given back in return. Maybe the first time it can be a gift - but after that, gifts become an exchange. When one side "takes" from another, the other side replies with what it wants to "take" in return.
3) BATF(E) - "F Troop", after the old television show - is to be eliminated forthwith. Their convictions are to be re-examined, especially where evidence was "found too easily" or "just perfect" or any other way that indicated it could have been planted; or that Technical Branch had to take some extraordinary effort to expose evidence (taking extraordinary effort to remove a barrel extension off of a semi-auto M4 clone, say, by throwing a six-foot long Stilson wrench on it and having a couple of guys hand off of the end of the thing and bounce, while another guy heads up the junction with a torch. Honestly - if it takes that much effort to undo, then it's really damned unlikely that anyone in his garage can do it alone without wrecking something, y'know?) Therefore, F Troop can and should be disbanded. I propose the following:
- Technical Branch personnel find civilian jobs.
- Alcohol Branch people go to the FDA, but with a few changes:
- Alcohol Branch people go to the FDA, but with a few changes:
-- No more going about armed. Tax men don't need firearms. Full Stop. (This also includes the IRS and, while we're about it, any Cabinet/department personnel.) If they want to carry off-duty, they can get a local CCW and go through the same process a local civilian does (including supplying a demonstrable need, if you're in a "may issue" state. "I am a government official" in any permutation or variation is not proof of a demonstrable need...
-- Taxes on booze to be halved, the FDA doesn't need to make as much money off of booze.
-- The primary function of the alcohol agent is to spot-check purity of product in the field, make sure that it is not contaminated, no unusual sediment concentration, entrained parasites, &c, &c. Since he's testing liquids, he can remove product from the shelves - he itemizes what he removes on a list, the store owner/manager gets a copy, the agent keeps a copy, and two copies go up the chain to where they can get signed off and a cheque issued (one stays with the signateur, one with the chequebook.)
-- As long as he's checking fluids for purity, don't forget to check things like bottled water (recall those "glass worms" found in Nestle's bottle water last month? Be nice to catch that before they get too far...)
-- Taxes on booze to be halved, the FDA doesn't need to make as much money off of booze.
-- The primary function of the alcohol agent is to spot-check purity of product in the field, make sure that it is not contaminated, no unusual sediment concentration, entrained parasites, &c, &c. Since he's testing liquids, he can remove product from the shelves - he itemizes what he removes on a list, the store owner/manager gets a copy, the agent keeps a copy, and two copies go up the chain to where they can get signed off and a cheque issued (one stays with the signateur, one with the chequebook.)
-- As long as he's checking fluids for purity, don't forget to check things like bottled water (recall those "glass worms" found in Nestle's bottle water last month? Be nice to catch that before they get too far...)
-- Tobacco agents can move over to FDA to monitor tobacco - similarly unarmed. Tobacco's purpose - assessment of purity and lack of harmful contamination - may be expanded to include cannabis when that finally gets decriminalized - at a Federal level (something like 2/3 or so of the states have already decriminalized it medically, and half or better either have already approved or are about (likely) to approve it for recreational use. However you personally fall on the issue, the next step is to have either officially-run dispensaries or privately-run dispensaries with a reasonable "Commissar's Share," which can be (pardon my phrasing) God-damned well PUT into a counter-addiction programme. I find it poetic that recreational use of a drug would quell hardcore dependence on a drug.
- Firearms guys? They get pulled off the streets - they've proven themselves incapable of working them in a fair & impartial manner. Give 'em all a transfer and a reduction in grade - to records, or admin, or something like that: and make sure a "Burn Notice" goes out to all police departments in the nation showing the faces of the men who want to take street jobs and do so as sworn officers, over the message "DO NOT HIRE THESE MEN - PSYCHOLOGICALLY UNSTABLE." (Which would not be slanderous or libelous in damned near all cases, from what I've seen of them. The rank-and-file and higher-higher are both nuts. Same direction; different paths.)
They can work in Records, they can work in
Environmental Services, they can work Building Services.
The Firearms Museum may be transferred to the Smithsonian
- Explosives guys? Gotta have your head screwed on a bit better to deal with live explosives. Let them take laterals into PDs that may have EOD/Bomb Squad openings, but there probably won't be enough to take all of them. Younger fellows can thinking about enlisting and going EOD - they're half-trained already, so banger school shouldn't be too difficult for them.
(If this isn't timely, my apologies - I just found this in a browser tab, I thought I'd already posted it, and found I didn't. Oops. Still, worth discussing, I think...)
(If this isn't timely, my apologies - I just found this in a browser tab, I thought I'd already posted it, and found I didn't. Oops. Still, worth discussing, I think...)
