The head of NATO’s Military Committee is urging the alliance to increase arms production, warning the “bottom of the barrel” of NATO’s stockpiles is now visible due to the massive amounts of weapons and ammunition that have been shipped to Ukraine.
NATO Official Says the ‘Bottom of the Barrel’ of Weapons Stockpiles Is Visible
Related:
Switzerland has a stunningly high rate of gun ownership — here’s why it doesn’t have mass shootings
Switzerland hasn’t taken part in any international armed conflict since 1815, but some Swiss soldiers help with peacekeeping missions around the world.
…
Swiss authorities decide on a local level whether to give people gun permits. They also keep a log of everyone who owns a gun in their region, known as a canton, though hunting rifles and some semiautomatic long arms are exempt from the permit requirement.
But cantonal police don’t take their duty dolling out gun licenses lightly. They might consult a psychiatrist or talk with authorities in other cantons where a prospective gun buyer has lived before to vet the person.
…
Gun owners who want to carry their weapon for “defensive purposes” also have to prove they can properly load, unload, and shoot their weapon and must pass a test to get a license.
Switzerland is also one of the richest, healthiest, and, by some measures, happiest countries in the world.
…
The Swiss have been consistently near the top of this list. In 2017, when Switzerland was ranked fourth overall among nations, the report authors noted that the country tends to do well on “all the main factors found to support happiness: caring, freedom, generosity, honesty, health, income and good governance.”
Meanwhile, according to the report, happiness has taken a dive over the past decade in the US.
The report authors cite “declining social support and increased corruption,” as well as addiction and depression for the fall.
Related:
The Nashville school shooting is leading conservatives to finally call for gun control. Their newfound enthusiasm for reforming gun laws is based on transphobia, but some of their suggestions are also supported by gun control advocates.
‘When it’s anyone but white Christian cis men, it’s not a right anymore’: Conservatives finally want gun control—for trans people
Related:
Ben Shapiro: Ban Trans People From Owning Guns
Not surprising, Shapiro didn’t mention Trump getting rid of a mental health regulations for owning firearms in 2018.
Did President Trump Revoke Gun Background Checks for Mentally Ill People?
While the law did not change who is required to be the subject of background checks, it is true that Trump signed the repeal of a measure that would have plausibly prevented certain classes of mentally ill people from purchasing firearms by allowing a new data source to be included the system that runs those background checks. As such we rank the claim mostly true.
Stolen Valor: The U.S. Volunteers in Ukraine Who Lie, Waste and Bicker
Related:
U.S. Veteran Who Shared His Ukraine Experience Accused of Being Fraud
H/T: Judge Napolitano (Jack Posobiec didn’t give Gonzo Lira any credit).
Sarah Ashton-Cirillo (Newsweek) says that James Vasquez is a fraud, but Malcom Nance (NYT) says that he isn’t (aren’t they all?!). Newsweek also says that Vasquez deleted his Twitter account but, as of now, it’s still active.
The violence in Ukraine is unimaginable. But before the violence, there was violence.
The military conflict in Ukraine has received an unprecedented amount of media coverage. The major US networks have given more coverage to Russia’s war in Ukraine than they did to America’s war in Iraq. But there were very important military dimensions prior to the war in Ukraine, many of them focussed around the coup of 2014, that have gone almost unreported. The lack of reporting is important because those events played a role in the lead up to the war.
Ukraine: The Violence Before the Violence
The U.S. military is considering sending Ukraine thousands of seized weapons and more than a million rounds of ammunition once bound for Iran-backed fighters in Yemen, an unprecedented step that would help Kyiv battle Russian forces, U.S. and European officials said.
…
The challenge for the Biden administration is finding a legal justification for taking weapons from one conflict and transferring them to another. The U.N. arms embargo requires the U.S. and its allies to destroy, store or get rid of the seized weapons. Biden administration lawyers have been looking at whether the resolution creates any wiggle room for them to transfer the weapons to Ukraine, according to U.S. officials.
Suspected Iranian Weapons Seized by U.S. Navy May Go to Ukraine
In her 1892 pamphlet Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases, the journalist Ida B. Wells argued that firearms were an essential tool in preventing the deadly white supremacist violence that she chronicled. “Of the many inhuman outrages of this present year, the only case where the proposed lynching did not occur, was where the men armed themselves in Jacksonville, Fla., and Paducah, Ky, and prevented it,” she wrote. “The only times an Afro-American who was assaulted got away has been when he had a gun and used it in self-defense.”
A New Study Suggests That Black Southerners’ Access to Firearms Reduced Lynchings
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
You must be logged in to post a comment.