Category: Current Events & Politics

The Illogical “In Common Use” Legal Standard

The Supreme Court’s District of Columbia v. Heller decision in 2008 was a landmark case. While it did confirm our right to keep and bear arms, it stopped short of overturning the plethora of bad laws that it should have. In this essay, I will demonstrate that the logic that the court applied in Heller was significantly flawed. In Heller, while addressing the 1939 Miller v. United States decision, the Supreme Court applied the standard of “the sorts of weapons protected were those ‘in common use at the time.’” Some background: Jack Miller and Frank Layton were small-time crooks that had been …


Open or Concealed: Our Freedom to Choose

I often hear comments from SurvivalBlog readers with conflicting views on concealed carry versus open carry of firearms.  Some claim that concealed carry is “the only way to carry” and that carrying openly makes you a target. But others say that open carry acts as a visible deterrent to crime.  My position is that both are apropos at different places and at different times.  So I believe that you should both train and acquire the right holsters and slings, to be ready for either, as the situation arises. In recent weeks, open carry whilst wearing a Hawaiian shirt has become …


Starting an Old Engine, Part 2, by John Leyzorek

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Now we come to the oldest parts of our marvelous rediscovered machine, already centuries old in our English Common Law heritage when they were written into our Constitution. Who will indict powerful members of government itself, when they break the law they are sworn to uphold? Everyone knows how the System protects itself, and the law be damned. The Grand Jury, that is who, an institution first described in the year 997 and wholly independent of judges and prosecutors, with lawful power to investigate any suspicion of crime in its jurisdiction and …


Propaganda and My Prepping – Part 3, by St. Funogas

(Continued from  Part 2. This concludes the article.) The other big problem I soon discovered with the Thank a Vet program is that it propagates the myth that our military keeps us free. Think back to our childhoods: riding our bikes down to the gravel pit with our Stevens Crackshot .22’s across our backs with a sling, then walking into the little grocery store afterwards to buy some penny candy and nobody calling the police or thinking anything of it. We rode on the floor in the back of the station wagon, or in the front passenger seat of the …


Propaganda and My Prepping – Part 2, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 2.) Propaganda can also be very damaging to us as individuals, and especially to us as a nation. Advertising = propaganda is ultimately about controlling us. Controlling us so we’ll quit littering, or controlling us so we’ll hand over our money and buy their products instead of the competition’s, or controlling us so we won’t object when they take away more of our freedoms either in the form of raising our taxes again or by passing more laws pushing us towards a more Orwellian future that awaits us. The term Military Industrial Complex (MIC) was popularized by …


Propaganda and My Prepping – Part 1, by St. Funogas

(Part 1, of three parts.) Author’s Introductory Note: I normally enjoy interacting with commenters after JWR posts one of my articles but I will state in advance that I will not be debating any of the topics discussed herein. My apologies for that. My sincere desire is that you will read this, avoid knee-jerk reactions, and ponder what I’ve said before you respond. I’m sure some of it has never crossed your mind before. So I hope that instead of forming an immediate opinion, you’d instead ruminate on this for a while and let it simmer over a cinnamon roll …


Wu Flu Versus Spanish Flu, by Steve Coffman

I’ve long been unhappy with the way COVID-19 and the Spanish Flu of 1918 have been compared. Obviously it is a short hand way to compare quarantine and stay at home measures of today with 1918, as opposed to the lethal nature of the sickness. For the record, the Spanish Flu was a far more terrifying and deadly disease than the Coronavirus. On the subject of quarantine though, there are reasonable comparisons but only to an extent. While the Spanish Flu shut down many places, it did not cause the same crippling economic impact that we are seeing from Coronavirus. …


The Simplicity that Prepared Us – Part 2, by John S.

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) COLD-HEARTED US DIPLOMATS and FRIENDLY FOREIGN ENVOYS It was a shock to me that our own diplomats (some, not all) hate missionaries and Christian humanitarians. I found this out, directly. My sister is a diplomat at the defunct Department of State (DOS). I was aghast that she joined such a liberal, hate filled left wing organization! The lengthy, dangerous lines at US Embassies in Africa was a big reason we returned back to America. People were stabbed in line there in Nairobi, in 2016. There’s no priority for US citizens, because your …


The Simplicity that Prepared Us – Part 1, by John S.

We grew up in the woods of northwestern Montana. Life was tough. We were five kids and shared each others clothes, while growing up. Mom and dad worked a hard, simple routine. We didn’t have ski passes, adornments, and excesses. We had the bare minimum. We got mocked a lot, by the social climbers in school, church and work. Wealthy people stood out in our small Montana village. I didn’t understand the value of hardship growing up, until decades later. As a child, I complained at times, not comprehending the valuable life skills our struggling parents displayed to us, daily. …


JWR’s Firearms Market Trend Predictions for 2020 to 2025

I was recently asked by a consulting client about my predictions for the U.S. retail gun market for the remainder of 2020 and next few years. In this article I’ll summarize my responses: Panic buying will continue through August, or possibly longer. News of a large scale “camping” exodus from big cities, home invasions, campsite robberies, garden thievery, livestock rustling, and roadblock confrontations will raise gun buying to a fever pitch, even in small towns. Once the urban gun shops have sold out, then buyers will travel further out into the suburbs and even small towns, and wipe out those …


Working From Home: A Forced Sabbatical, by D. Glen

I work for a Fortune 100 company in the Midwest and work in the area of Research and Development (R&D). Late during the week of March 8th, we began to hear rumors that our facility and other staff locations throughout North America would be closing soon due to the CV-19 outbreak that was beginning to spread across the country. During the afternoon of Friday, March 13, the rumor was confirmed in that my supervisor stopped by to inform us that our facility was closing immediately and would remain so for three weeks until April 6th. Per the rumor, the closure …


Consider Horde Mentality in Your Planning – Part 2, by Ani

(Contined from Part 1. This concludes the article.) If it were spring or summer, I would also expect many refugees to head to what they perceive of as a good place to pitch a tent and set up “camp” such as farm fields, your “back forty”, the woods behind your house, any stretch of land that appears “unoccupied” etc. I know for sure that many urban/suburban people don’t view rural land as being “owned” in the same way they do their apartments or front lawn/back yard. They also see this as being way more than anyone needs. So why not …


The Gun-Buying Frenzy: Holding The Line

A special note from SurvivalBlog Editor JWR: As most of you know, my web-based antique gun business is called Elk Creek Company. Despite the current frantic “run on guns” at gun stores, nationwide And despite galloping prices at both gun shops and on-line auctions And despite NICS system interruptions And despite unconstitutional gun store closures in many cities… I’m still very much in business and I’m defying any unconstitutional gun restrictions by local petty tyrants. I am stating bluntly: Your non-legislated fiat decrees create no jurisdiction over what I sell here.  And as far as I’m concerned, when I make …


Consider Horde Mentality in Your Planning – Part 1, by Ani

As a prepper for many years, I’ve put some consideration into trying to understand the mentality of the “hordes” who might be forced to leave their cities and heavily populated suburbs, in the event of a major disaster. I think that while we may not know how things are going to unfold or what sort of disaster might provoke people into leaving and essentially becoming refugees, we can consider some of the more likely to occur scenarios. Doing this will let us examine how well-situated we are in our own homes, the risks that we might be most susceptible to, …


Safety Versus Security, by Michael Z. Williamson

I have a few brief observations: Your typical citizen is a pushover who’s all-in on living in a police state to be “safe.” Example 1: A while back, I had an Australian woman perusing the wares in my booth. She looked at a reproduction rapier. “Very nice. But we wouldn’t be allowed to own something like that. Keeps us safe, though.”* “Oh, are random rapier duels in the street something you worried about in Sydney?” You could almost see her neurons engage. *Swords are not, in fact, banned in Aus. But that she assumed they were proves my point again. …