Well, that stinks

A university police chief leaves his issued sidearm on the pooper for his students to find, photograph, and report to the local media.  Good times!

ETA:  Here's the article.

Tactical litter receptacles

LINTHICUM, Md. — A BWI airport official say a canister of pepper spray left in a trash can near a checkpoint was to blame for the evacuation of two concourses.

Incidences like these don't surprise me at all.  I've had to ditch all kinds of tactical doodads in airports over the years just because I forgot I had them on me, only noticing while standing in line at security.  I don't recall tossing any pepper spray, which isn't to say that I haven't, but I've ditched lots of pocket knives and several pistol mags in the past; a SOG Trident in one unnamed country and about five Beretta M9 mags in another immediately comes to mind.  If one were to rifle through those trash cans without drawing suspicion they would find some cool tactical gear, no doubt.  Think of all the Service men and women who realized that they still had their Gerber multi-tool on their belt and threw them away at the last minute.

It's really shameful if you think about it.  That's why I don't travel anymore.

Rules #1 and #2!!!!!

There's a firestorm going on over the pictures of a police sniper at Super Bowl XLVI. If you did not know, there are snipers at most major sporting events; but the brouhaha is not over the snipers so much, but that the guy in the picture is using a rifle as a pair of binoculars, which violates two of the four firearm safety rules.

I have to side with the folks who have their panties in a bunch: being tasked with protecting a stadium from an active shooter -- a rare occurrence -- does not make you so high speed that you can arbitrarily point a rifle at people. Being highly trained does not make one infallible, so the idea that one sudden sneeze can cause a marksman to sympathetically squeeze the trigger and lobotomize a wasted fan is just as plausible in a sniper's hide as it is on a police training range. That is why we have the four rules, which is why we don't point weapons at people.

The people who are defending this violation are under the impression that operators operating operationally in an operational environment are so Tier 1 that they can use their rifle as a spotting scope up in a skybox where nobody can see them. I say that a rifle is a rifle is a rifle. Treat it as if it were loaded and don't point it at anything you do not intend to destroy, including drunk fans and blue painted bewbies.

The game of Commerce

DALLAS (Reuters) - A 65-year-old woman made it past a checkpoint and onto a flight at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on Wednesday with a revolver tucked away in her handbag, and was only stopped after the plane was called back to the gate, the airport said.

This post is probably going to be controversial.

Contrary to what news article commenters say ("Oh, if it makes us safe, it's okay!"), all of this TSA nonsense has nothing at all to do with real safety and everything to do with taxing citizens via fines and charges for accidentally breaking the law. It's the same as with New York City's gun laws; these laws are designed to generate revenue in the courts, not to stop badguys, and are only changed when enough of the non-criminal element get caught as to draw attention to the scheme. And despite what angry Americans may say about all of this and how evil it is, it was done with the consent of the populace.

There is no conspiracy, nor is there evil, when the very citizens who bitch about it let it come about in the first place. Just like in the game of Monopoly, if you want to sit at the table and play, you have to obey the rules; and that means that if your thimble lands on an arbitrary square that says "Go to Jail," than you send your piece to jail. It may be nonsensical, and no true crime was committed, but it's the rules. You land on the block, you have to pay a fare.

Back to the article, notice that the 65 year old woman was not only allowed through the checkpoint, but had already boarded the plane which was on its way to the runway. The planes were only turned around when somebody realized that a mistake was made. This very well could have added up to a Jack Bauer moment in the mind of some "security officer," but in the end it was a simple accounting error: the fare for carrying a handgun on a plane was not rendered. Disagree with me if you want, but the takeaway from this is that the goons in the blue shirts are not enforcing anti-constitutional gun laws as much as they are merely facilitating the collection of a tax -- the re-venuing of currency -- on compliant, consenting persons who asked for this very thing in the name of feeling secure.

"Did you see all the knives they caught that guy with? I'm glad they got him! I'll sleep soundly on my flight to El Paso knowing that that dangerous dude is behind bars!" Feeling safe is important to many people, and I don't blame them one bit. Feeling secure is a natural human desire, and getting it at someone else's expense can make it feel even more sweet. That's not the way I live by, but I've come to accept that that's the way it is, that the vast majority of the country feel that way, and the rules are made to suit them. When somebody's thimble ends up in the fictitious slammer, the other players say "HA!" and they play right past them, because that's how the game is played. Arguing against it is like trying to stop the sun.

Now, change the rules if it bothers you, sure. Good. Great. I'm all about it. But know that when you deny one funding stream, the government with find another, and will construct an organization tasked with taking up the collection. You say that marijuana should be legal? Cool beans, but there will need to be something given in kind because there are no free lunches. I'm on a hunch that pot will be legal in the next 5 or 10 years just as citizens want, and in return for this there will be an ever larger network of sex offender laws with an agency created to enforce it. Either that or, considering the sharply divided mindset of Americans, there will be crimes against the homeland used for government commerce. If you haven't noticed yet, the struggling economy is effecting the government as well, and the predictable reaction from it is to draw funds from areas both large and small, like SOPA for a large scale revenue generating function, and nitpicking citizens for random stuff like lightbulb disposal as an example of the small stuff.

Again, there are no free lunches, and there's nothing new under the sun. If you get what you want, you have to give something in kind. Choose wisely.

Stressed to kill

Chicago has lost its marbles. The gun ban there doesn't seem to have kept guns out of the hands of scumbags, but maybe it can be said that it's prevented them from good marksmanship.

They say advertising helps

An appropriate cartoon at War on Guns shows how a store can quickly lose business.

When I was on the hunt for a dive watch, I got the idea to go to Jared because they carry a much larger selection of watches than the local mall. I had never been to one, and as my hand touched the door handle I spotted their "No Guns" sign, making me about-face on the balls of my feet and get back into my car.

The logic of such signs may make sense to some people at first glance, with the desire to not have armed maniacs visiting places that sell expensive jewelry, but they have never considered that said maniacs don't care about the signs during the course of armed robbery, if they are even literate enough to read them to begin with. Like it makes sense to prevent a scumbag from using a firearm to violently steal from a store by posting a sign telling them not to.

But why would someone neeeeeeeed to carry a gun to shop for jewelry? CTone, it just seems so silly! Well, consider that a shopper going into a jewelry store, where merchandise has heavier price tags than say, the dollar store, is very likely to have large amounts of currency on their person; and people leaving the store are likely to have small and highly valuable property in their possession. If you try to think like a criminal, if you were looking for the maximum payout for the holiday season, would you be looking to select a victim from Jiffy Lube, or Jared? Making sense now, huh?

Same thing with banks. Only a criminal would carry a gun to a bank, I've heard it said. Well, that's thinking like a criminal too, as people that harbor that mindset don't see a gun as a defensive weapon for preservation of life, but as an offensive tool to hurt somebody. Shame on you. Sit in a bank parking lot for a couple of minutes and watch who goes in and out. There is a high likelihood that those individuals are flush with cash. A Piggly Wiggly, not so much.

Strike while the irony is hot

This is too good:

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The president of New Hampshire’s Plymouth State University told students Thursday they don’t have to come to class Friday because activists may appear on campus with loaded guns to protest the school’s ban on weapons on campus.

Whaaaaaaat?!? Those rebels! Anyone who would willingly break the law must have ill intent!

Later, the two said the weapons would not be loaded and would have trigger locks and other safety devices on them, the university said.

You mean these hooligans gave advanced notice to the university that the firearms they intend to bring to their claimed peaceful protest will have locks on them and be in plain view? Ms. Steen, you did the right thing. Who knows if these outrageous people will suddenly change their mind, unlock those weapons, load them, and then take out as many innocents as possible, their cause for safety be damned.

Safety first, I always say. And nothing is more useful towards safety than ensuring that non-violent folks who pass out literature regarding unsafe university policies don't have an audience. That's safer than safe. I would go so far as to personally write each student and staffer a day-pass from class on bubble wrap, so their finger tips don't get bruised when I handed it to them. Of course, I would announce this privilege softly so as to not panic the herd.

There is no need for bravery in this new world, as plans are in the works to start a society where fear has been forbiden, and it will be enforced.

Look, the only people who should be authorized to carry a weapon on campus are cops. Since these boys haven't been highly trained to handle the icky things, they have no business with weapons of death -- locked or not. Wait, what?

Jardis resigned from the Epping Police Department last year after he apparently was suspended, the Union Leader reported in 2010.

Oh. Well. . . .maybe he forgot all that training. It's well known that once you leave the force, you revert back to being a drooling moron like the rest of us. Come. . . join our ranks, good sir!

I only wish I lived in a country where I have to make stuff like this up.

They mostly come during the full moon. . .mostly

Well well well. The weirdos sure came out of the woodwork yesterday. The Virginia Tech shooting still leaves many unanswered questions, but there are people out there who will gladly answer them:

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - The Virginia Tech shooting on Thursday brings up an interesting topic back in the Hoosier State. An Indiana lawmaker wants to allow guns on college campuses.

Sounds like a plan. I like it. Then along comes some yayhoo to poo-poo the idea without really thinking about what they're saying:

"Police of all types are trained for situations like the one that occurred at Virginia Tech. Students with gun permits are usually not."

Trained for what situation? The one yesterday? I don't think anyone has said that carrying a weapon for personal defense guarantees your survival, as can be seen with the slaying of the officer. Police officers are trained in policing, not getting ambushed. As for the 2007 VA Tech massacre, what is he suggesting? That police officers are trained to be shot in a classroom? Sure, cops have been trained to pool their resources together and hunt down an active shooter, but nobody is saying that students need a personal arm for that because finding and stopping a crazed gunman is not their job. It's has nothing to do with it. The concept of a student keeping a firearm for an active shooter scenario is that they won't be standing there with their dick in their hand if a shooter busts into the room shooting.

We see this time after time after time from ignorant cops, lawmakers and the media: blurring the lines between what a SWAT team uses firearms for -- offensive tactics -- and what everyone else (the general public) uses them for -- defensive tactics. The difference between the two is that cops on a SWAT team are generally not attacked without warning while peacefully receiving instruction in a classroom. If a student or teacher need their weapon, they won't need to go looking for the bad guy; the bad guy will be trying to systematically murder people several feet away. They won't be hard to spot.

"[For police] To come and find several people with guns drawn and to try and decide in a split second whether or not that person is acting appropriately or not would be almost impossible for a responding officer," Bill Mercier of the ISU Police Department said.

If an armed student gets in a shootout with a gunman, how long does Officer Mercier expect this to go on for before his merry men with guns get there? It's known to take a long time for the cops to respond, which is why law enforcement went from "wait for the SWAT team" like at Columbine, to "four man fire team of responding officers" like before the VA Tech massacre, to "first officer on scene goes after the shooter" -- time. The longer it takes for guys with guns to put holes in the psycho, the more lives the psycho will take. That highly trained law enforcement element that is equipped to handle an armed, murderous gunman arrive well after the shooter has had his way with his victims, which doesn't do much good for the poor folks trapped in the room with him. That goes for non-active shooter scenarios like forcible rape, aggrevated assault, robbery, savage mob beatings, and the like, too.

Take note that in yesterday's shooting at VA Tech, 15 minutes went by before anyone even called in that the cop had been shot in broad daylight in a parking lot. And whoopidee-doo that the responding law enforcement team had automatic weapons, body armor, radios, and wanted to find the bad guy and kick his ass; the gunman had finished the job and killed himself. The cavalry aren't there when the shooting starts -- the students are, hiding under a desk hoping to not get shot in the back of the head, because that's their only option. Of all the mass shootings in recent history that I recall, the Fort Hood shooting is the only one I know of where responding officers were there in time to exchange fire with the workplace violence guy crazed muslim extremist, and that attack was ironically in a place full of Soldiers who are trained to go after scumbags with firearms but were unarmed by shitty base policy.

Then we have the qualified experts weigh in:

Student Government President Nick Utterback says this isn't a law the SGA hopes to pass. "Just allowing more students to carry guns on campus with a permit that is easily obtained is just a dangerous situation for everyone," Utterback said.

And you qualify your claim with. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .cricket. . . . . . cricket. . . . . . cricket.

That's right, nothing. If you make the personal choice to not have the means to prevent your untimely death via spree shooter, then good on you. You're right. Seriously. There's no wrong answer there, because it's your life; and to be quite honest there's a super small chance you will ever need that weapon and it's a huge pain in the ass to carry it. It's also a major responsibility, which is why very few students would likely chose to carry a firearm anyways, which is why this whole fiasco of allowing them amounts to nothing. Conversely, the few students that find it's worth the inconvenience to carry a weapon to protect their gift of life, and embrace the responsibility that comes with it. . . .well, those are the very people you would want sitting next to you when Jijadi Jim Jr. decides he's had enough of the infidel's poisonous teaching and starts shooting up the joint, and to be brutally honest, you don't possess the right to tell them that they can't.

What this boils down to is cops like officer Mercier can only see things from their own point of view, and haven't taken the time to consider what it's like for those who's job is not law enforcement. Or playing music:

"I can't stand up and dictate to the world: 'it's over -- no more guns'.

Yeah, because that would turn the world back to the peace and love that it used to be:

Look at all those joyfull people who blessedly haven't been exposed to firearms. What a wonderful time it was for all.

Gesturing to the statue, he said: "It was a bad day. But it was a bad day because someone took one of these and shot John."

Yes, Ringo, before those evil guns were created the world was a swell place because mankind hadn't figured yet how to hand out bad days.

For Ringo so loved the world that he gave his only begotten opinion. I'm not impressed.

Seven years. . . .

It doesn't seem like it's been seven years since the murder of one of the world's most talented guitarists. I realize that he played in a musical niche that most people don't care for, or even appreciate, but I didn't take it too well when he was killed.

"Dimebag" Darrel Abbott was killed on stage this day in 2004 in Columbus, Ohio by a scumbag with a handgun. Here is a video that offers a view of a mass shooting that may change your perspective a bit on what happens.


First thing I noticed was that the audience didn't go anywhere, or seem to panic at all; they kind of just stood there for several minutes like a bunch of goons and watched a gunman murder five people. Next, one of the band's technicians repeatedly attacked the gunman, and was shot multiple times all over his body, including his chest, and yet he still persisted in trying to stop the gunman from killing his friends. The whole time he was getting shot fighting the gunman, he was pleading for somebody to help him. Nobody did. Hundreds of men stood there quite calmly and watched him fight a madman alone.

A cop finally walks in with a shotgun and, when the gunman took a hostage and pointed his pistol at his head, the cop shot the gunman and killed him. The most profound part was the look on the officer's face when he walked away after killing the psycho; to me it looks like a man that did the hard thing that day, even though he didn't want to. The last thing was I noticed was what another band tech said while he was watching his friends get murdered: "I kept screaming NO! Ya' know, but. . . there was nothing I could do."

"There was nothing I could do" is not an excuse that I ever want the option of being able to make. I willingly inconvenience my life by a substantial margin just so I don't ever have to face that regret; so there's something I can do in a moment where someone may need me. I'm not knocking the guy; shit happens in life and we chose day to day how we will be postured to prepare for it.

To end on a better note, here's Dimebag at his finest (embeds are disabled, probably because of today).

***ETA: Here's one:

About those gun free zones. . . .

It's nearing the end of October, and police in Alexandria, Virginia are investigating a death that just may be the city's first murder this year. Alexandria isn't as gun friendly as, say, Floyd county, but it isn't a Gun Free Zone. If you want one of those, you can drive just a couple of miles North across the Potomac river and live in a city with 93 murders so far this year.

If you think making it illegal to own and/or carry a firearm will make anyone safe, you should consider this.

How did he do it?!?!?

How in the world was a heavily armored gunman able to gain access to a secure facility that clearly had signs preventing said gunman from the premises?

The apparent ease with which James Ray Palmer entered the building -- straight through the front door -- has raised questions about safety even in small county courthouses and prompted a reexamination of security measures there.

Oh. I'm thinking that the Gun Free Zone signs should now be made large enough to completely block access to the front door of courthouses, and should be made out of 1/2" steel plate so that armed madmen cannot wander in and shoot up people in the hallway unchallenged for eight full minutes. That would work in the interim.

A full time solution to prevent armed attacks like this in the future it would probably be to pass laws making it illegal to shoot up courthouses, or to even carry guns in there, and to have armed cops screen and disarm all those who enter the building. . . . . .hmmmmm. Maybe that's not such a good idea after all.

I did note to that he had a CCW and no prior history of violence. It happens.

This is why I don't fly anymore

His ordeal began last Friday when airport security in Freeport, Bahamas found a .32-caliber bullet inside his fanny pack. He was charged with possessing ammunition and sent to a jail in Nassau. Lapp says he thinks he left the bullet in his pack after a hunting trip.

How would you take it if this happened to you while traveling with family on vacation? I'm certainly capable of overlooking a shell casing or bullet in a travel bag. How about you?

All of these so called security measures that have been enacted around the world rely on policy and not thought. One security yahoo with the capability to produce conscious thought would have kept an innocent man out of jail if he or she were only able to act on what they know, and not on what a zero-tolerance policy tells them to.

Saving the world from warriors and knife collectors

TSA spokesman Kawika Riley says an officer operating an X-ray machine at Thurgood Marshall Baltimore-Washington International Airport last week noticed something suspicious in the man’s luggage, and a fellow officer’s search turned up the knives. Riley says they included switchblade knives and a butterfly knife.

This wouldn't be the first time some dude lost all of his knives to the meat-gazing, kiddie -fondling, TSA pecker-checkers at the security checkpoint at BWI; I have had almost the exact same thing happen to me once while on my way to the beautiful beach-like resort of Ramadi in the exciting province of Al-Anbar, and I guess it would be alright if I told another whopper of a story this week about that experience:

About five years ago I had a task to go to Iraq as a contractor on a program for a year, and I had a lot of training to get done in a short amount of time which meant that I had little time to pack. I was offered the services of a company that ordered a large portion of the equipment that I needed, and my time to pack it came the night before I was to leave from BWI to El-Paso for processing into South West Asia.

I packed all through the night waiving all of my time to sleep, and the finished product was two very packed seabags, a lock box to transport my M9, ammo, and magazines, and my ruck that was almost ripping at the seams from my gear. My wife took me to the airport that morning to see me off and, having very recently married to compensate for the timing of this trip, and the fact that she was saying good bye to her husband for a year while he went to a dangerous place to do dangerous things, she was not in high spirits. Neither was I.

I checked the two seabags and my M9, at which point the ticket lady said that I could not check any more baggage, but my ruck was small enough that it would pass as a carry on item. Tears were already flowing at this point and my mind was elsewhere, so I shrugged my shoulders and grabbed the ruck and headed over to the security station. I was the only one being checked at that moment, as there was nobody in line, so I kissed my wife goodbye and watched her walk around the corner before picking my ruck up and putting it onto the conveyor for an x-ray.

By that time a few other travelers had shown up for the violation of their rights, body and property, and I was cursing under my breath at whichever one of those morons was holding up the x-ray machine; I needed to get going to catch my flight. There was a dogpile of TSA goons at the x-ray machine, all in one great big confused ball, and then two police officers showed up and postured themselves like something was wrong.

Then it hit me. . . .

"Oh. OH! Yeah, about that bag. . . .hey guys, uhhhmmm. . . . I know what y'all are looking at, and I can explain" I said to the TSA people, because I had just realized the mistake that I had made at the ticket counter. All of my knives were in my ruck, along with an MSR stove and empty aluminum fuel bottle, several large sharpening stones (a TSA goon asked me if they were "rune stones." Amazing), and also my desert boots and cammies and stuff. I had intended to check that bag, but in the moment of everything I had forgot that I had packed my 8" tanto Ka-Bar, CRKT M21-04 folder, Cold Steel Arc-Angel balisong, Klein folding electrician's knife, and Gerber and Leatherman multi-tools, and had just carried them right into a security checkpoint.

This was all a misunderstanding because I wasn't trying to sneak them through security, and I had no intentions of harming anyone in this country with those knives, so I hoped that cooler heads would prevail and I would be escorted back to the ticket counter. That turned out to be a stupid idea.

I was promptly arrested and charged with the same charges the man in the above article was charged with. The arresting officer and his Sergeant were realists about it, telling me that this happens all the time and that Soldiers, Marines and such go to jail left and right for forgetting that they have a knife in their pocket or a multitool in their bag. The Sergeant even told me that he had to arrest a Marine Brigadier General the week before who forgot his loaded M9 was in his briefcase when he flew back from Iraq.

One older officer there though --officer Diddlydooright -- was a complete and total fucking moron, and was a constant douchebag about every little thing even though I was as calm and cooperative as I could be and had shown everyone my government orders, ID, cammies, and the ticket stub from my M9 that I checked at the ticket counter. Why would I try to smuggle a bunch of knives on a plane to do harm when I had a pistol and ammo? That didn't matter to Diddlydooright.

He flipped out that I even had a gun; flipped out when he found holsters in my ruck, yelling at me about "why do you need a holster!?!?" I told him I was on my way to Iraq; you know, that hot place where Americans are being shot at? I held up my government orders that stated where I was going, and that I was to be armed while I was there, signed by a Major General, so that Diddlydooright could see it, and his eyes glazed over like I had just told him I was heading to Ohio. "You don't need a gun! You don't need a holster! This is a SWAT TACTICAL KNIFE! What are you doing with a SWAT knife?!?"

IIIIIRRRRRAAAAAQQQQQ. He didn't get it.

That fucktard cop tormented me for hours and hours while I was booked. When he measured and photographed my knives, he recorded the blade size as being the entire length of the knife. About every fifteen minutes he would come by, pick up my CRKT, and then shout at me for having a SWAT TACTICAL KNIFE! "What err yeeew dooooooin' with a SWAT TACTICAL KNIFE?!?" Then he would stick me in a cell. Ten minutes later when the arresting officer or the Sergeant would come by and see me in there, they would shake their head and pull me out of there and uncuff me, letting me sit quietly in a chair next to them. Whenever officer Fuckface would walk by or try to talk to the other officers, they would roll their eyes or respond to him with a snarky comment. Whenever they would leave, officer Fuckface Von-diddlydooright would come by, sigh out loud, put cuffs on me and stick me back in the cell. I had the impression that everyone was waiting for his ass to retire.

The arresting officer eventually took me before the Magistrate, who let me go on my own recognizance. She also said flatly that this happens all the time, and that the officers are not allowed any discretion to solve the matter without arrest. There's the door - good luck.

By the time that I got to El-Paso about eighteen hours had passed. I still hadn't slept and was a very bitter person to say the least, and my anger was about to go full into the red. When I got to the unclaimed luggage office, the lights were off and no one was there. A stack of luggage four foot high completely filled the office and spilled ten feet out into the lobby; and there at the very end of the stack was the shitty plastic lockbox that held my M9, six magazines, and two fifty round boxes of 124 grain NATO ball ammo - a shitty plastic lockbox that could be opened with a paper clip.

Way to make the world a safer place with that zero tolerance policy. You guys really saved the day.

I ended up having to spend $2,000 on a lawyer to settle the charges. I tried to handle it on my own by calling the Clerk of the Court from an Iridium sat phone while sitting in the sand next to a dumpster, explaining to her my situation, but was told that if I missed my court date they would issue a warrant for my arrest and I would come home a fugitive. Tough shit.

I never did get the $600 in knives back. I picked up another Ka-Bar in Texas, and also a Benchmade Rukus to put in my pocket, and they served and still serve me well. I wonder about how many Servicemen and Servicewomen get jammed up in the gears of "justice" while trying their best to do their duty under adverse conditions. I have no doubts that the poor guy in the article above really is a knife collector, and just made a mistake. At least he doesn't have to go to war after being processed through jail.

Is firefighting not dangerous enough?

I have to hand it to them, DC politicritters have a super active imagination! Their latest bright idea is to post firefighters in high crime areas and have them just stand there, unarmed, with the belief that thugs will stop robbing and assaulting people because of the flashing red lights.

What happens when the thugs decide that taking lunch money isn't exciting enough, and that the chance to drive a firetruck is as easy as taking out unarmed firemen? Funny how it's "everyone's job to make sure that our city is safe," as long as "everyone" is on the government payroll.

The police officer interviewed in the video is spot on, and I can appreciate his angst. I'd be pissed, too!

***Here's a short article on it, naming DC Police Union spokesman Kris Baumann as the vocal person grilling the idea.

DCs defacto gun ban

Since the only licensed gun dealer in DC has moved on, there's no way for a DC resident to buy a firearm because of federal law. A Bill written to have the DC government stand in as a gun dealer until the day someone can open up a shop has been withdrawn.

It does sound like the DC Mayor is trying to get one store open in the area, and hopefully this will be followed by several more. Choices are good.

Letting my imagination run wild, can you imagine the gun store commandos that would be in a government run gun shop? Or how about the speed and efficiency that you could expect in doing the paperwork? A government gun dealer probably wouldn't have stock on hand though; they would just do transfers. Oh, but how awesome would it be if DC was forced to sell handguns to its citizens!!! Talk about a watershed moment!

Why not hire Batman instead?

It would be a better idea than the one proposed:

On the heels of an uptick in violence that claimed the life of an off-duty cop, Newark's city council voted Thursday to require all late-night restaurants that serve less than 20 people at a time to have an armed security guard posted from 9 p.m. to closing.

Mmmmm hmmmm. I see. So you want the restaurants that presumably bring in the least amount of profit to shoulder the major financial burden of hiring an armed dude to just stand there, all because a cop was gunned down by scumbags who sped by suddenly in a car and open fire? What exactly is an armed guard supposed to do to prevent a drive-by shooting? Would an armed guard fare better at stopping a drive-by than a cop? Will the city pay to have ballistic glass installed on the restaurants, and buy body armor for the guards?

Here's a novel idea: why don't you allow the store owners and patrons to be their own armed guards? How hard is that? It's doubtful that it would prevent drive-by shootings, but it would certainly make the stores a harder target for thieves and thugs.

If it seems like I have a lot of questions, it's because the idea of making small businesses hire armed security is a stupid fucking idea. It's the sort of non-solution that can be expected from a city council of Newark; although it does seem that Newarkians don't really give a damn about protecting themselves, so maybe it's warranted.

To catch a predator

Two and four legged predators have become a serious threat to the people of DC. No doubt the black bear was innocently looking for a quick snack, like a jogger or unattended stroller or something, while the scumbag is looking for self gratification at the expense of his victims. Both nuisances could be remedied swiftly by a responsible individual using a modern self defense tool, but such things are not permitted to the citizens. Until they are, it looks like personal safety of DCians is in the super capable hands of the uniformed division.

I wouldn't get my hopes up.

Where was the security?

Prosecutors say Alkebular attacked the 14-year-old boy twice on April 25 inside and outside the zoo. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the victim recognized the group Alkebular was with and tried to avoid it. Several people attacked the victim inside the zoo led by Akebular, who stabbed him twice in the arm before his group fled.

He then went on to catch up with the victim later and stab him in the guts repeatedly.

Uuuummmmm, the Smithsonian Zoo is a Gun Free Zone that is protected by a full time staff of security personnel. A quick check confirms the stipulation right there on their webpage that they "ensure your safety," and that carrying knives there is against the rules. I'm thinking the victim's parents have grounds for a claim against the Smithsonian, as getting stabbed multiple times by a group of youths runs counter to the idea of ensured safety. Notice the specific mention of knives and weapons:

Do not bring any sharp items into the museums such as knives (including pocket or "Swiss Army"-style knives), screwdrivers, scissors, nail files, corkscrews, etc. Firearms, pepper spray, and Mace are also prohibited.

Officer friendly at the top of the page, who appears to be gleefully handing out a parking ticket, looks to have a firearm on his duty belt. Lots of good it did the victim. If kids can wander into an allegedly secure area and stab people with impunity, than it's not really secure, and all you're doing with a policy like that is disarming everyone else. This sort of attack can happen to anyone at that zoo, and is the reason why I have/will never take my family there. I have actual knowledge that the Virginia Beach Zoo and the Virginia Beach Aquarium does not disarm its visitors, so I'll stick with going there.

Robbery/Murder in a NYC pharmacy

I'm not trying to dance in the blood of the dead, but I thought I would again point out that you can never place your faith in the hands of a scumbag. The mantra of "just give them what they want" and the "don't resist or you'll only get hurt" policies wore through here, and a great tragedy happened:

The man was armed with a handgun, stole prescription drugs and killed everyone in the shop before fleeing with a black backpack.

The shootings happened at about 10:20 a.m. inside a family-owned pharmacy in a small cluster of medical offices in Medford, a middle-class hamlet on Long Island about 60 miles east of New York City.

Sometimes it's just not about the robbery. Why on earth did that man decide to kill those four people? Maybe to get rid of the witnesses? Who knows. I hope they catch the scumbag soon.

The murder happened in a decent part of town according to the statements from those who live there. My guess is that's why the scumbag sought out that particular store.

Details on the Chicago robbery spree

I did a quick post a few days ago that mentioned the mob robberies in Chicago. Details emerge now on several of the attacks, and I thought one of them warrented some commentary:

In another incident last Saturday evening, Krzysztof Wilkowski, after shopping on Michigan Avenue, was sitting on his scooter a couple of blocks away checking his phone for a restaurant when he got whacked in the face with a baseball.

The very onset of the robbery was initiated with violence, so there was no decision making needed on what the aggressors intentions were. I think hitting someone in the face with a baseball constitutes "serious bodily harm or death," so there can be a solid presumption that things are only going to escalate from there. Then there's this:

At first, he said, he thought it was a prank, but then he looked up and saw 15 to 20 young men approaching. "My first reaction was, 'I'm about to get robbed, what do I do?' " Mr. Wilkowski recalled in an interview.

That would be a hell of a prank. Whenever I've been hit in the face, there's an instinctual reaction in that I'm immediately pissed, even when the hit is from a can of beans falling from a shelf or whatnot. I think it's a natural human reaction, and my primitive ass can't be any different than the next guy. Now, 15 to 20 guys is a major disparity of force, and they are approaching after they have already initiated violence that can cause serious bodily harm -- I think that if I had been the victim here, I would have been able to immediately identify this as a deadly threat. No question. He doesn't mention whether the attackers had weapons, but in this case I don't think it matters:

The 34-year-old insurance company employee from a Chicago suburb grabbed the keys from his ignition and held tight to his phone. A few of the attackers dragged him off his scooter and pulled him onto Chicago Avenue where they punched him, hit him with his helmet and tried to grab his phone.

A group of people taking you to the ground where one stomp on your head or neck can end your life -- that is without question a deadly threat. Add in there that they beat him with a motorcycle helmet. Soldiers and Marines are trained to use their helmet as a deadly weapon, whether it's on their head and being used to head-butt, or if one is picked up off the battlefield and used as a bludgeoning tool, so this is clearly an attack that the victim is fortunate to have survived.

I can't answer the victim's question of "I'm about to get robbed, what do I do?" in this particular attack. I don't ever want to be in a situation where that is the thought that I am having, and I'm sure he feels the same way. Being in Chicago, the victim was no doubt unarmed, which having a firearm would have given him a more advantageous course of action than holding tight to the very object the violent group of men were trying to take when they beat the snot out of him. It also doesn't mean that the victim would have chosen carrying a firearm as an option even if it were legal, but at least it would have been his choice. Lawful armed defense is an option in Virginia, and still there have been attacks on unarmed victims. I'm sure at the time they would have found a handgun to be handy item.

You would be hard pressed to catch me in a Gun Free Zone, as I make it a habit to avoid such places as best as I can. Attacks like this are still relatively rare, but as you can see they still happen. I think avoidance and deterrence are the standard which we should all live by, but if pressed with an attack that can be easily counted as serious harm or death, I won't be the one trying to hold off the crowd with car keys instead of a full-up Glock if I can help it.