Welcome back to another installment of the Watercooler, RedState’s daily Open Thread! Today, we’ve got…

A Modest Proposal

Elaborating on something I barfed up in a post yesterday, I’d like to offer a modest Five Point Plan to “do something” about the so-called “gun violence epidemic”.

1. Bumpfire stocks and binary triggers (being defined specifically as trigger devices that fire on both press and release, NOT lighter or multi-stage triggers) are reclassed as NFA machine guns. Existing BFS’s and BT’s will be granted a one-year Amnesty to be registered on a Form 4. Manufacturers will have six months to wind down production from date of passage.
2. Suppressors are removed from NFA and reclassed as Title I firearms, and all State/local prohibitions on their use other than in the commission of a crime or by Prohibited Persons are Federally preempted.
3. The Education Department shall develop a protocol based on the Federal Flight Deck Officer armed-pilot program to provide supplemental training for school staff, parents or volunteers who desire to participate in the program and hold Concealed Weapons Permits. Any program participant shall be authorized to carry on the job such weapons as they see fit, so long as they chamber and fire one of several approved calibers. These volunteers shall be provided a modest but appropriate stipend to cover costs of qualification, ammunition and body armor sufficient to stop a 5.56x45mm NATO round.
4. Nationwide Carry, and no more Victim Disarmament Zones other than courthouses, airport sterile areas, and similar Enhanced Security zones.
5. No more Sporting Purposes Clause. This is the most subjective and easily abused language in all our gun control laws, allowing the Attorney General to ban any 12-gauge shotgun as a “Large Bore Destructive Device” at will or to prohibit any firearm from import simply by deeming it “non-sporting.”

For you non-chess players out there in TV Land, this is a strategy called a Pawn Sacrifice, something the Left has been doing to us for a very long time. We let them have a single step forward, but then make them pay for it with two or preferably more backward.

This Week In History

• Sunday, 2/18: Lincoln County War begins, 1878; Huckleberry Finn published, 1885; Tombaugh discovers Pluto, 1930
• Monday, 2/19: Burr arrested for treason, 1807; Donner Party rescued, 1847; Marines invade Iwo Jima, 1945
• Tuesday, 2/20: Postal Service Act signed, 1792; Battle of Olustee, 1864; Butch O’Hare first US ace in WWII, 1942; John Glenn first American in orbit, 1962
• Wednesday, 2/21: Washington Monument dedicated, 1885; NASCAR founded, 1948; Malcolm X assassinated, 1965
• Thursday, 2/22: US buys Florida, 1819; Battle of Buena Vista, 1847; first Woolworth’s store opens, 1879; MacArthur ordered to leave Philippines, 1942
• Friday, 2/23: Gutenberg Bible published, 1455; Von Steuben begins training Continental Army, 1778; Alamo siege begins, 1836; first mass inoculation with Salk polio vaccine, 1954
• Saturday, 2/24: Marbury v. Madison decision establishes Judicial Review, 1803; Zimmermann Telegram revealed, 1917; Desert Storm ground war begins, 1991

Today’s Birthdays: Double-amputee WWII ace Douglas Bader, 1910; filmmaker SAm Peckinpah, 1925; journalist Erma Bombeck, 1927; actors Alan Rickman, 1946 and Kelsey Grammer, 1955

Holidays Around the World: South Africa observes Armed Forces Day, Norway celebrates the birthday of their King Harald V, Vanuatu has Father Lini Day and in the Philippines the Musikahan Festival starts today.

This Week In History is compiled with assistance from History.com and Wikipedia. Something interesting not listed here? Please share in the Comments section–this is an Audience Participation Encouraged featurette.

Gratuitous Gun Giveaways

• *American Handgunner magazine, for a Les Baer Premier II longslide 1911 pistol package: http://americanhandgunner.com/giveaway/
• *Guns Magazine, for a Ruger Mk IV scoped .22 target pistol or KRISS .22LR AR-pattern rifle: http://gunsmagazine.com/giveaway/
• Davidson’s Gallery of Guns, for an FN 509 or FNS-9 DA 9mm pistol: https://ggg.galleryofguns.com/
• Aero Precision, for a custom AR15: http://gvwy.io/wiqmzha
• GrabAGun, for a Remington 870 TAC-14 12-gauge firearm: http://grabagun.com/giveaway
• Springfield Armory, for a 911 .380 pocket-pistol package: http://www.springfield-armory.com/resources/giveaways/

*Note: FMG Publishing giveaways require you to provide an FFL dealer’s info at entry. Aero Precision giveaways give me one entry each per person who uses my referral link.

Public Service Announcement for “Sanctuary State” Residents
If you would like to report illegal aliens, please call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at 1-866-DHS-2ICE (347-2423). They will need to know names, locations (either work place or residence) and any other specific information you can provide. Visit http://www.ice.gov for more information.

Quote of the Day

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.–Soren Kierkegaard

As always, the Watercooler is an Open Thread. And as so eloquently coined by ntrepid, “Thanks for the click! Your effort helps fund future posts of this nature.”

“It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.”–Voltaire

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