Just the other day the druggies in my neighborhood were readying themselves to do up a home invasion on me, but my fearless neighbor, risking life and limb, chased them away. This happens quite a bit. Andrews, NC is the drug capital for WNC, for East TN, for North Georgia. The crime has transformed and increased to crazy levels. But we don’t have stats because, you know, why should they be sent in to state level anyway? We’re a nice town! But the State is on to us now, so I imagine something might be sent in, maybe for parking tickets or the like. So, speaking of the Second Amendment…
We hear much about HR127 which in effect is tantamount to removing the Second Amendment from the Constitution of these USA. I doubt that will proceed very far. But more recently, an interview with Wuhan Joe was published (now post-inauguration), which presents something even more far reaching in its simplicity. Wuhan Joe wants to confiscate all guns, though providing his personal permission[!] for having a sidearm if there are biometrics involved, so that, for instance, a self-defense tool will not operate unless any involved fingerprints are those of the registered owner of the self-defense tool. This, of course, requires a new purchase on the part of citizens in good standing. Surely there’s no kickbacks to be involved there… Um… Also, technology for framing individuals for crimes by way of fingerprint transfers has been around for decades.
Fingerprints… I’ve submitted to that process by way of black inkings and by way of all sort and manner of glass-plate scanners right through the years right around the world and right across these USA. The fingerprinting events of whatever method have always been frustrating, with whatever law enforcement techs becoming visibly annoyed and even somewhat aggressive with my lack of viable fingerprints. Hunted criminals try to “erase” their fingerprints. No fingerprints = suspicion. The meme question to me is then: “Who are you, anyway?” This blog has sported many accounts of this occurrence which, being so frequent, is humorous.
The last fingerprinting event came about as part of the process of getting permission for second amendment Constitutional rights here in what the Sheriff has declared to be a 2A sanctuary: Cherokee County of North Carolina. The nice officer worked it seemed for an exaggerated amount of time in an attempt to acquire something, anything of recordable data for any would-be fingerprint so as to send these off to the State Bureau of Investigation. “Maybe two or three partials, maybe,” she said after many repeated attempts, exasperated that she had reached the limit of attempts possible in the law. “I’ll send what I have to the SBI, but they will reject this immediately and we will have to go through this multiple times, setting up more appointments on this end and waiting possibly for weeks each time, and then sending it all to them and waiting. This may add months to your request for getting permission. But after many attempts they also will have to accept what is there and send whatever it is off to the FBI. And then we’ll wait again.”
“Permission.”
“No worries,” thought I. “There are other ways of ascertaining who I am, and there will be no problem at all,” thought I, smiling with sardonic contentedness. Indeed, the SBI instantaneously approved me first try – instantaneously – but not because of any viable fingerprints. The nice fingerprinting officer was shocked about this, once again giving me the “Who are you anyway?” look, and offering comments of amazement. It is to laugh.
UPSHOT: I could never fire a gun that wouldn’t fire without immediately viable fingerprints, which wouldn’t work anyway except in perfect laboratory conditions regarding temperature (cold and hot not working), no gloves (which are common when working, and/or when in cold areas, like from Texas to Canada), no sweat (that you otherwise would have even in cold weather when there is an adrenaline pumping situation), no mud, no dirt, no new scrapes and no new cuts and no Bandaids since the last fingerprint scan, no blood, and no switching of hands when your own fingers of your strong hand have been shot off (a not super-infrequent occurrence as you draw up with your self-defense tool right in front of you), a bad grip for reason of broken fingers and you shove a trigger finger into the trigger guard all the way to the palm of your hand to get some viable muscle to pull the trigger (no fingerprints there), and so on.
But I don’t have fingerprints to begin with. So, how is this Constitutional? I’m a citizen in good standing, and I’m being infringed. And, yes, I have a many reasons for carrying my now permitted concealed carry tool, also openly carried here in North Carolina and in this 2A sanctuary of Cherokee County.
The joke in these days about any gun confiscation is to say: “Oh! I’m so sorry dearest confiscation officers! I would hand over all my guns but I lost them in a boating accident!” But let’s update that for my situation:
“I lost my fingerprints in a boating accident.”
Go ahead and laugh at my stupidity, as I got what I deserved: While I’ve always had trouble fingerprinting, this intensified when building the hermitage now many years ago. I needed to fill in gaps under the rafters and I used expanding foam. I didn’t read the directions and so didn’t wear gloves. This was like a gorilla glue in the hair experience. My hands had glops of foam all over them. I’ll just wash that off before it dries, thought I. Nope. Rubbing alcohol? Nope. Gasoline? Nope. I finally read the warnings on the spray-can. Uh-oh. I then tried an abrasive pot scrubber. Nope. My heart fell. I entrenched. Steel wool? Yep. After many sessions, many hours each, my hands were entirely raw, bleeding, deeply scarred. It worked, but…
“You see these marks?” asked the nice law enforcement fingerprinting officer, showing me printouts of my non-fingerprints. “The story is embarrassing,” said I, but then I recounted the story above. There was deserved rolling of eyes. I laugh at myself as well.
But should I lose my second amendment under Wuhan Joe just because I didn’t read directions on a spray foam can while going a zillion miles an hour in just getting things done in my construction tasks, even triple tasking? Even someone who makes a mistake with a spray foam can still has second amendment rights, right? Believe me, that mistake will never be made again. We can learn from mistakes. And this wasn’t criminal and there was no criminal intent.
Having said all this, I still have two requests for Diplomatic Security in North Rosslyn.
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 