Gun Rights are Human Rights

Vincent J. Curtis

3 Apr 2019

[Answer Daud is a medical student who is interested in human rights.  He argued that gun ownership represented a health issue, among other complaints and assertions.  The piece was published today in the Hamilton Spectator.]

Let’s call Anser Daud’s diagnosis and prescription what they are: ideological crap and medical malpractice.

Daud is too young and too uneducated to offer an expert opinion on anything medical.  That, however, seems no bar to his offering a fake expert opinion on psycho-social-political issues like gun control.

Daud claims to be concerned about human rights.  Good, read the Second Amendment in the American Bill of Rights.  Read the English Bill of Rights of 1689.  Read the Heller decision written by Antonin Scalia to see the relationship between the two.  It is customary English law that people have the right to arm themselves for personal protection and to keep arms as a defence against tyrannical government.  Before a tyranny takes away any other right like free speech, they take away privately owned firearms.  That was the lesson of 1688 and of 1773.

Canada had its mass shooting of defenseless women thirty years ago.  For all the gun legislation and regulation since, the type of firearm used in the École Polytechnique shooting was never even made restricted.  Oh, the AR-15 type was, but not the Mini-14.  Such is the politics around gun control.  Medical training is not directed to the solution of complex political questions.

Daud offers a fake expertise to advance an ideological solution to a non-problem.

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Replacing the Inglis HiPower

Vincent J. Curtis

1 Feb 2019


A lot and not much has changed in military handguns since I last wrote about it in 2006.  The mechanisms are the same.  Most today use the short-recoil system developed by John Browning for the M1911 and used in the FN Hi-Power.  The high capacity double-stack, single feed magazine developed by FN for the Hi-Power is practically universal.  Striker-fired has become more common than hammer-fired.  But a brand new Hi-Power would still be a competitive handgun.

Where things have changed start with the presence of a Picatinny rail on the grip frame.  The rail enables either a flashlight or a laser pointer to be mounted on the gun in alignment with the barrel; and the weight of tone reduces muzzle flip.

Finishes have changed.  Instead of traditional blueing bluing, new coatings such as duracoat, cerakote, and melonite are the fashion. They not only prevent rust but some also camouflage the gun.  Typical colours are flat dark earth, desert tan, and basic black.

Sights are now much better.  High profile, three dot sights are the new standard, and provision for red-dot optics that co-witness with the irons is common.  Polymer grip frames now come with replaceable backstraps.  Modularity, ergonomics, target acquisition, and accuracy are the new buzzwords.

Let’s review the contenders to replace the WWII era Inglis.  Two years ago, the U.S. military completed its selection process for a replacement handgun, and Canada has no need to re-engineer the wheel.  The principal contenders for the XM-17 contract were: Beretta, CZ, FN Herstal, Glock, Sig Sauer, Smith and Wesson.  I’ll add a couple of Turkish companies to this list.
  
The U.S. Army opted for the Sig P320.  The serialized part of this “gun” is just a chassis, holding a trigger assembly, slide rails, and magazine mount.  This chassis fits into a grip frame, and then you add a barrel, slide, recoil spring, and magazine to complete the gun.  Such modularity enables grip frames of different sizes to be made to fit hands of different sizes; and you can choose both the both length of the gun – full size or compact - and the calibre: 9 mm, .40 S&W, or .357 Sig.  All work in one P320 system.

The Glock 17 is extremely popular with police forces and militaries around the world. Glock hoped to win the competition with a Glock 19 upper on a 17 lower.  Glock didn’t win because the Sig proposal was half the cost of Glock.

The Beretta M9 was the standard Army pistol, but Beretta offered their APX design instead of the M9A3.  The single pull trigger requirement disqualified an M9 variant.

Colt supplies the USMC with its M45A1 offering.  The M45A1 is your granddaddy’s M1911 but with Novak sights, dual recoil spring, desert tan finish, and accessory rail.  The M45A1 is all-steel and in .45 ACP (naturally.)

The Smith and Wesson offering was its M&P 2.0 with a C.O.R.E. slide option.  It comes with the rail, changeable backstrap, tall iron sights, and is optic ready.

The FN 509 is FN’s take on the M&P 9, which is S&W’s take on the Glock 17, which, is an improved, striker-fired Browning Hi-Power.  The 509 is FN’s striker-fired replacement for the Hi-Power Mk III.  The CZ P-07 is like a hammer-fired 509.

My Turkish contenders are the Tisas BR9 and the Canik TP9.  Why Turkey?  High quality – surprisingly - and low price.  The BR9 is a clone of the Hi-Power Mk III, while the Canik TP9 is clone of the Walther P99.

The Turkish guns can be had retail for about $500 to $700.  On the high end, the Colt retails for about $2,000, while the Sig P320 can be had retail for about $1,200.  It would take a lot of magazines to fill a $50 million contract for 20,000 guns.

The half-life of a collection of plastic “wonder 9s” is about 15,000 to 25,000 rounds, or fifteen years of daily service.  Most contenders have polymer lowers which reduces their cost, lightens their weight, and lessens their long-term durability.
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Climate change nut gets bashed

Vincent J. Curtis

30 Mar 2019

This is in response to an article written by Eric Smith entitled, "Climate change a danger, not an opinion.  He describes himself as an "aspiring" writer.

As an aspiring writer, Eric Smith should stick to poetry.  As a science writer, he’s just another progressive hack.

His opponents are the “deniers.”  His opinion is not an opinion but statements of scientific facts.  And we’re all going to burn in hell if we don’t do as he says.  He tries to settle a scientific question by means of dialectics.

Anthropogenic global warming is a term no longer in fashion, and has been replaced by the anodyne “climate change.”  When you say “man-caused global warming,” the theory starts to become a little shaky because global warming stopped inexplicably in 1998 and has not resumed.  All the forecasts of doom made since 1988, when man-caused global warming was first proposed, have turned out to be completely wrong.

If you google the term “atmospheric absorption spectra” you will discover the reason why more CO2 in the atmosphere is not the immediate threat that some say it is.  The CO2 already in the atmosphere already absorbs all the infrared radiation that CO2 can absorb.  Adding more CO2 won’t absorb more radiation.

You will also notice that water vapor is a far more powerful absorber of infrared radiation, which is why concerns over bovine flatulence is another fool’s errand.

Climate change is a con and a fraud.  The solution to climate change is always massive increases in government power and intervention into private lives  It is an excuse for progressivism to engage in more economic vandalism.
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Should City Government Mediate Race Relations?

Vincent J. Curtis

31 Mar 2019

You couldn’t be more blatant about asking for a handout from the city council of Hamilton than by alleging the existence of a race-relations problem in the city and then presenting yourself as the person to deal with it.

The whole idea of the city mediating race relations is absurd.  Race relations in the city is a neo-Marxist collectivist idea.  It carries tons of undeclared philosophical assumptions, all of which are antithetical to western ideas of individual liberty.  Treating people as categories and not at individuals with individual rights is a Marxist idea.

A role of civic government is not to mediate relations between the races.  Insofar as it mediates relations between private individuals, it does so by means of a police department and by-law enforcement.  That’s it.

It would require a massive expansion of government power and reach to claim and enforce the power of mediating relations between the races.  But that’s the whole idea, isn’t it?  The issue isn’t the issue, the issue is power.  And the government will pay to advance a neo-Marxist agenda.

Seen it all before.
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Will Feminst Trudeau fall to Mean Girls?

Vincent J. Curtis

1 Apr 2019

The SNC-Lavalin affair has had from the beginning the aspect of a spat among high-school girls.  And I don’t mean that in a good way.

If Prime Minister Trudeau had called his Attorney-General into his office and told her how he wanted the SNC-Lavalin affair settled, Wilson-Raybould could either have agreed or resigned then and there.  But no.  The direct approach was too masculine for the feminist Trudeau. Instead, he hounded Wilson-Raybould with subordinate intermediaries in the hopes that she would get the message without an uncomfortable face-to-face confrontation.

Wilson-Raybould now admits that she – probably illegally - secretly recorded a conversation she had with the clerk of the Privy Council, and –again, probably illegally – released this recording publically.  The feminist term “inappropriate” is bandied about.  She thought her job was being threatened!

Wilson-Raybould and her BFF Jane Philpott think they can burn down the Trudeau government and still remain Liberals in good standing.

It would be ironic if the feminist Trudeau government fell because of an adolescent girl spat.

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Trade with China

 Vincent J. Curtis

1 Apr 2019

The closure by the communist government of the Chinese market to Canadian exports of canola teaches a lesson that ought to have been obvious twenty years ago.  You cannot trust a totalitarian regime that thinks it has leverage over you.

Last year, the Chinese tried the same trick against Trump when they closed agricultural exports from the American heartland after Trump imposed tariffs on imports from China.

There should be no thought of trying to have a free trade deal with China.  They can’t be trusted, and we can’t put ourselves in their hands.  The basis of our trade policy with China should be “cash and carry.”  You have the cash, and you can buy our exports.  You can’t buy Canadian capital assets, and you can’t appropriate our technology.  Growing crops on your promise to pay later will be strongly discouraged by the Canadian government, by not offering insurance.

China’s game of tampering with foodstuffs is dangerous also to itself.  In the short term, China can throw its considerable weight around, but if Canadian farmers grow wheat instead of canola, the Chinese diet is going to have to change – without the agreement of the Chinese people.

Canadian producers cannot look to China as a trustworthy export market because the communist government can’t be trusted.  The government of Canada needs to impose strict rules and policy about trade with China for the protection of Canada’s economy.
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Quebec banning religious symbols

Vincent J. Curtis

1 Apr 2018

The Quebec government is advancing legislation intended to ban religious symbols in the workplace.  There are many who claim that the banning the hijab, which is the intended target, is racist, Islamophobic, and unnecessary.  The hijab is nothing more than a piece of cloth signifying religious piety, they say.

In truth, the move by Quebec is to ban the symbols of a fascist ideology from the workplace.  It is particularly obnoxious that the descendants of Charles Martel should have to listen to the daughters of Islam speak to them from positions of authority.

If the symbols at issue were swastikas worn on a chain around the neck, the critics would be all-in on the ban.

The proposed ban is receiving wide-spread popular – that is to say, democratic – support in Quebec.  A similar bill was proposed by the previous Liberal government.  And Quebec is following the lead of France in the banning of these symbols in the workplace.  Quebec's distinct society was recognized by Canada's federal government under Stephen Harper, and the legislation is simply an exercise of that distinctness.  Quebec is not ashamed of what it is, and intends to remain what it is.

Having left one hell to emigrate to Canada, and landing in another hell in Quebec, perhaps those affected can move again to a more congenial place, like the west end of Hamilton.
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P.S. Some critics of the Quebec move to ban the hijab in the workplace claim it is a sign of the belief in a conspiracy that Islam plans to conquer the west by immigration and reproduction.  The conquest by Isalm of European civilization is not some bizarre conspiracy theory but was publically endorsed, in one of his saner moments, by the deceased leader of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi.