Friday, January 14, 2005

Geek Links

For the last couple of days, I've made a conscious effort to maintain this effort by adding links to the website.

If you'll look over on the right-hand side, and scroll down a little, you'll see the GEEK LINKS section.

For your convenience, I've organized the links section by subject, area of interest, or some other criteria. Most important, of course, is the first: "Bloggers Who Link To Me". Well, this is a survival situation. I'm obviously going to be concerned about those who will activelyl promote traffic to this website.

Of second importance is "Websites That I Visit Every Day". These are the folks that I .... truly ... visit daily. (I didn't include SCRAPPLEFACE. That was an oversight which I'll correct immediately .. probably by the time you see this.) You'll notice that they usually have some RKBA content. "Places I visit 'frequently'" is also important. These websites are even more important to me than my own website. Sure, this is a vanity project, but these folks have information that I invariably consider important AND interesting. Besides, they're well-written.

Then, in only some general order I have "Other RKBA websites", "News and Commentary", "Reference Sources", "Forums and IPSC-related website" and "Gun Control".

These are all reference websites. Most of them are well-written, or contain information which I personally consider important, or both. Would I encourage you to visit a website which doesn't demonstrate these vital criteria?

The Forums and IPSC-related websites are those to which I have subscribed, or in which I otherwise have a personal interest.

The lone bastard (s0 to speak) is the "Gun Control" list. I found these by means of a Google search, and most of them I have encountered before.

However, a few of them intrigued me by the provocative nature of their main-page content, even though I may never have encountered them before. I assure you that, after I have taken the time to read them more thoroughly, if they prove to be generally uninteristing I will remove them from the GEEK LINKS. I've attempted to provide some balance between "Pro Gun Control" (eg: VPC) and "Anti-Gun Control (eg: NRA). Generally, they will be "PRO" websites, because I think it is important that those of us who think that gun control is not the best way to reduce "gun violence" in the world need to understand the thinking of those who think that making it illegal to own firearms will convince criminals that they shouldn't carry guns.

Okay, so I've given myself away here. It is probably obvious that I think making it illegal to own guns will dissuade violent criminals from having guns. You may say:
"Geek, why won't controlling the legal possession of firearms make the world a safer place to live?"
I would have to say:
"Because the people who use guns to commit crimes are already criminals, and generally tend to ignore gun-control laws. You Bozo!"
But that would be rude, so I won't say it.

BTW, speaking of the Violence Policy Center ... several years ago, when they were just getting started, they were desperate for content. Accordingly, considering their singular sense of honor, the surruptitiously subscribed to The Unofficial IPSC List (of which I was then, and remain, a subscriber) and spent a month downloading references to IPSC/USPSSA-related information, which they then anthologized into a piece the called "Gold Medal Gunslingers" (available here toward the bottom of the list.) They have since translated into a PDF still available on their website. (I warn you, this PDF file does NOT download efficiently, perhaps due to the file being 'broken' or to their low-budget server ... I don't know which.) I've archived that file, and if it seems necessary I'll see what I can do to make it available on a more efficient server.

This VPC piece is about 5 years old, and when I go back and review the content it still irks me that these people can start with a pure sporting activity and make it sound vicious. I'll be commenting on their interpretation soon, if only because I think it is reasonable to show how vituperitive these people are.


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