David Bottomley's Blog

The first gun control law in what would later become the United States was passed in the Virginia territory in 1640 that explicitly banned blacks from owning firearms, even if they weren't slaves.  In 1751 the French Black Code in Louisiana required any colonists to beat, and kill if necessary, "any black carrying any potential weapon, such as a cane."  Tennessee made it clear that blacks were not to be included under their Constitutional rights: "That the free  white  men of this State have a right to keep and to bear arms for their common defence."   New Spain in the sixteenth century prohibited all blacks, free or slave, from carrying arms, as well.  Gun control in America was clearly born of overtly racist origins. After the Civil War, the south had to make adjustments to their laws to appear to be race-neutral, but still effective in preventing blacks from owning firearms.  The former states of the Confederacy, that had previously recog...

Sadly, most Americans today are ignorant of the Constitution.  Most have never even read the four-page document.  This is not necessarily their fault, since the Constitution has not been taught in public schools for a very long time.  There are summaries and interpretations presented briefly to students, but that has little if anything to do with the Constitution.  Neither do law schools across this country teach the Constitution.  They teach Constitutional Law instead, which according to Professor Lino Graglia of the University of Texas School of Law "has virtually nothing to do with the Constitution."  Constitutional law is focused on case law, or individual court cases that were decided in individual situations.  None of those court cases, even cases at the US Supreme Court, affect or alter the Constitution in any way.  The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and means what it says.  No court decision, no legislative bill, an...

This article is intended for those who are pro-gun, so that we might better understand the thoughts and motivations of gun control proponents. It is not intended to explain why the anti-gun position is wrong- I have other articles that do that. In studying anti-gun individuals, I have determined that they all fit into at least one of three groups, and sometimes multiple groups. They are as follows: 1. Ignorant - The first group is simply ignorant of the facts, which is not surprising given the misinformation peddled by the mainstream media. These people can often be educated and turned to our side through the use of facts, statistics, and the application of logic. I would estimate that probably 50% of those who promote gun control fall into this category. They truly believe that more laws can control the behavior of evil people, and they have fallen for media-peddled myth that guns are not used defensively, and that they do not reduce violent crime. This category is where peo...

After a mass shooting, predictably, the mainstream media and many leftists came after anyone who dared to defend gun rights and the Constitution and stand in their way of a plethora of gun control proposals - none of which, even gun control proponents like Dianne Feinstein admit, would have prevented the shootings.  None of which, most gun owners agree, would pass Constitutional muster.  Europe, with extraordinarily strict gun control regulations in place, has more mass shooting deaths per-capita than the United States.  The US has a homicide rate less than over a hundred other nations- nearly all of which have strict gun control laws in place.  Nevertheless, many on the left scream for the government to 'do something' to solve the problem.  To many on the right, asking the government to solve any problem is akin to asking a dog to solve an algebra equation - it's simply not possible, nor in this case is it legal.  If homicides or suicides were a crim...

Let me start out by saying that I was born a white male, with primarily European ancestry, and I'm a protestant Christian.  In the eyes of some on the left, that means that I must be a bigoted racist, bathing in white privilege.  But I'm not, I'm a Conservative Republican.  But wait, those on the left say, that just confirms it!  No, it most certainly does not and those with even a passing understanding of Republican Party values and American history know better.  The Republican Party was founded on the bedrock principle of freedom that continues to hold true today.  Frederick Douglass summed up his belief in the Republican Party: "I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress.".  As with many things, there is important historic context to explore here.  Let's review these historic facts: The Republican party was founded in 1854 to stop the ...

What do you think of when you think of #fakenews?  CNN?  MSNBC?  The whole gaggle of mainstream media?  If you do, regardless of what else you might think of Donald Trump, you must admit that he's a PR mastermind.  Because - you may recall if you think hard about it - the origin of the #fakenews stories was actually the mainstream media.  They were in the first stage of the 5 stages of grief, right after the election: denial.  They were so upset that Trump had been elected that they sought to de-legitimize the election in any way possible and one of the refrains they came up with was "#fakenews" - they claimed that people had been hoodwinked by "fake news" articles on Facebook and elsewhere (pot, meet kettle?) and somehow that threw the election to Trump.  The left, in their coastal elite bubbles, simply could not (and still cannot) fathom that there are still people out there who would vote for Trump.  But today, when most people think of fa...

Like it or not, in the very near future we'll be sharing the road with self-driving cars, and in some states they are already on the road.  I for one welcome this revolution.  The primary reason is safety, but there are other benefits as well.  Initially, most self driving car systems including systems designed by Tesla, GM, and Google (Waymo) all require a human driver to be available for 'standby' ready to take over driving if the automated systems detect an obstacle of situation that they can't negotiate, but in the not too distant future, you'll be able to sit back and relax as any other passenger.  As unsettling as it might sound for some people, self driving cars (as currently tested) are approximately 10 times safer than even the safest human drivers, and 40 times safer than new or inexperienced drivers, in terms of at-fault accidents.  Where automated vehicles really shine though is their amazing ability to drive defensively.  That is, their ab...