Illuminating the problem

A few days ago I posted about a high school student who was suspended for having a 1 1/2 inch knife in his glovebox, and that some Americans - and educators especially - can't seem to differentiate between a simple object that is harmless, and someone who would use a simple object to do harm.

The parents of the student, who is now a Soldier in the US Army, are appealing the school board's ridiculous decision to maintain the suspension; and now we are getting into the weeds on what kind of thought goes into making zero tolerance policies:

But the school's rule book brands possession of a knife to be "violent" conduct, and leaves it to the discretion of the superintendent to determine the proper punishment.

And there you have it folks. It's about the Thing, and not the person. The Thing, the Object, is the monster to loose the hounds of policy on; and you better not be the one in possession of The Thing, or you will be punished. Gun owners see this object focus mentality all the time. Clueless people assume that a firearm is in itself capable of evil, or is evil, and if you are in possession of one then you are a part of that evil. They see no distinction between the person and The Thing.

Humans are born with some inherent mental programming that may be partially to blame, but an adult should have a rational mind that can determine between one or another. When rational people see thuggish looking teens wearing colors, bandannas, chains, and throwing dice behind the mall, they don't go asking them for directions. While the teens may not be dangerous, there is no way to determine that at a glance. The rational person is actually focusing on the teens behaviour, or at least they should be, as they are the ones capable of evil. If those same teens have their dice, colors, bandannas, baggy clothes, and whatever visibly on the top of their car, would that be something to give a rational person alarm? Would a man walking into WaWa with a pistol visibly holstered on his belt cause a rational person to be alarmed? It shouldn't. He is in possession of a Thing. The Thing is not what the rational person should be looking at. If the man walks into the WaWa with the pistol in his hand, then a rational person should be sensing that he is evil; not because of The Thing, but by his actions.

Those examples are simple. What this student is going through is a no brainer; but the school superintendent is so far into hippy land that he can't tell The Thing from the man. The superintendent has discretion, but he has decided that mere possession of The Thing makes a man evil.

Oh noes! I need to register my SKS!!

Apparently they are machine guns:

The drama began unfolding about 3:30 p.m. on Powder Mill Road near Evans Trail. A Dunbar armored car guard called police after a man in a car first followed the armored vehicle, and then cut it off.

Armed with an SKS automatic rifle, the gunman began firing into the armored car. Just then, a lone police officer arrived, and there is a shootout.

Damn! He must not have bought the compliance kit.

This trash brought to you by FOX DC associate, Roz Plater.

Good on the responding officer for taking on the guy; although I would have credited him with saving the lives of Maryland citizens, and not so much the guards in the armored car. Unless the gunman had his fully automatic SKS death machine loaded to the max with hundreds of armor piercing anti-material rounds. Then they might have been in danger.

In the nick of time

What a close call!

Intolerance

SPRINGFIELD, Va. - A Springfield, Virginia man is facing an indecent exposure charge after a passerby spotted the man naked in his kitchen and reported it to police.

If I were the responding officer, I would have been putting the cuffs on the caller, and asking just what was she doing looking into the man's window.

Is this what things have come down to? Really? People looking into your window get to have you arrested because they take offense at the sight of your junk?

Had it been the cops at my door, I would have gone all Matthew McConaughey, and made them take me in stark strip naked. Then I would sue the department for making such an absurd arrest, as well as the peeping woman.

Airman march for their fallen

HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. (AFNS) -- After walking over 800 miles through five states, 12 special tactics Airmen arrived here Oct. 16, officially completing a memorial march for their fallen comrades.

The marchers, made up of several combat controllers and pararescuemen and one combat weatherman, split up into six two-man teams and walked day and night to honor 12 special tactics Airmen killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

****

"This walk shows that with Air Force special operations, you are never forgotten," said Master Sgt. Ken Huhman, one of the event's coordinators and a marcher from the 342nd Training Squadron at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

On the news this morning was the mother of a fallen Airman special operator who's son's name is on one of the batons. She was very thankful for these guys taking the time to honor him.

The Air Force special operations community is very small. Good on these warriors for completing such a march.

It's always the good ones

This one is too close to home.

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. - The Stafford County Sheriff's Office is investigating the murder of a shop keeper found dead Thursday morning. The victim is a well-known businessman and respected father and husband, 66-year-old Jimmy LeRose.

Murders around here are very rare, but they do happen from time to time.

YYYUUUUUUUUUUTTT!!!

A super bad-ass Marine Corps photo thread at MilitaryPhotos.net.

Range Report

Better late than never. I was able to snap a couple of pics this morning, and here is some evidence of my efforts to find some loads for my 308 AR:


Click to enlarge.

For a blow by blow recount of each shot on these targets, head on over to my thread on Practical Riflery Forums. For a recap, just keep reading.

I started out this spring to try and develop two loads for this rifle: one for slaying dog sized Virginia deer, and one for general purpose shooting on targets and small critters like groundhogs. For the deer load I chose 165 grain Sierra Game Kings; and for the target load I got duped into buying 155 grain Nosler Custom Competition bullets. Not that there's anything wrong with the Noslers, it's just that Gander Mountain had them marked at twice what they are worth. But hey, I bought them.

My load development quest ended up getting skewed because of the magazine issue I posted about earlier, which I have since solved. For the rest of this year, I have decided to abandon the 165 grain effort and will start again in the spring. They are putting out 5-shot groups just over an inch at 100 yards, which is nothing to scoff at, but I'm positive that I can squeeze out more. One reason for my decision is that factory 150 grain Remington Core-Lokt rounds are shooting into an inch through this gun:


The target on the left with the three 2" dots are the 165 grain loads that I made. The bottom dot with two shots in it are sighters; the dot on the left is a 5-shot group of 1.2"; and the dot on the right is a 5-shot group of .91". The target on the right that looks like it was hit with buckshot is actually an old target that I had left behind on the range, so it had shot holes already in it. They are the ones marked with an X. This target has groups of the factory Remingtons, which are the groups circled in pencil. Most of the groups on there were skewed from the rifle bouncing on the bi-pod legs on the sandbags. I have found out that bi-pods are great on the ground, but skew your groups when fired from the bench, even when you fold the legs down. As you shoot, the recoil rocks the gun back which allows the bi-pod attachment point to grab a little of the sandbag with every shot. By your 4th or 5th shot the end of the bi-pod legs are what the gun is resting on, and those are always the shots that open your groups up. Every stray round in a group on this target was the 4th or 5th shot. I took the bi-pods off the gun and shot the group on the 2nd dot from the left - the one marked as being 1.177". The 6th shot at 6 o'clock on that dot was fired a month or so before, and is not a part of that group.

A few days before, I fired one of these rounds at a different target to give myself something to aim at, and then shot six more of them into almost three quarters of and inch from sandbags:


In the end, the factory Remingtons shoot as well as my handloads, so I will stick with them and start my handloading effort next year.

My 155 grain loads are a different story.

Here I have three 5-shot groups: one - at the bottom - of the factory Remingtons fired by me prone off the bi-pods that groups around an inch and three quarters from a cold clean bore; one on the top right fired by me from a fouled lukewarm bore with a called flyer; and one on the top left fired by a friend from a warm fouled barrel with a called flyer. Without the flyers, the two top groups are a tad over a half an inch. I had noted that the Remingtons would probably have grouped better if I had fired two or three sighters to warm and foul the bore, instead of just clicking off five of them in a row. I was right:


I have yet to be able to stretch the gun out to a few hundred yards or more. Every time I try to arrange a day to shoot, something comes up. When I get the chance I'll post more. For right now, I am as happy as can be that I have a rifle capable of shooting anything I put into it into an inch or better. How cool is that?

For next year, I will not have one of the major problems that I had this year, which is availability of primers. I ended up using three different types of primers, and that is the reason why I think they did not turn out to be as good as when I started. I think I will also give the 175 grain Sierra Match Kings a try as well. The 155 grain Noslers are my baseline, and I will try to improve on them next year as well.

SWEET! I've got to get ready for BOA SEASON!!

State wildlife managers recently allowed hunters to kill invasive snakes. Legislation has been introduced in the U.S. Congress to ban the importation of some constrictors and the Humane Society of the United States recently said it supported laws to stop the importation of and trade in large reptiles.

I've read articles about this before, warning about large constricting snakes being released into the wild by pet owners. The snakes grow and breed as they find that the environment in the US is fully capable of supporting them.

And that's really cool!

Here all this time I thought I had to go to the zoo, or South America, just to see an anaconda in real life, and here they're saying that I can go to the everglades and actually hunt them!

Sounds like I will need to do another special purpose AR build. . . .

This zero tolerance stuff is fantasic!

Whalen was suspended from Lansingburgh High School last month after administrators found the 11/2-inch key-chain knife in his glove compartment, an infraction of the district's zero-tolerance policy for weapons on school grounds. It was a gift from his grandfather, Robert Whalen, chief of the Hoosick Falls Police Department.

Thank goodness the little blade from the survival kit in his car was turned over to the proper authorities! Someone could have been hurt!

You must understand that zero tolerance policies are designed to insulate staff from any sort of blame or backlash; like a sort of strawman to hold up when parents or whomever show up to complain. "Don't blame us, blame the policy. We just enforce the policy as it's written." In effect, zero tolerance policies are a machine that's built, activated, and then allowed to wander around doing its thing while officials/employees/management can sit back confident that some ingenious lawyer has to get through the machine before it can get to them.

The error in this is that zero tolerance policies are started in what's regarded as an effort to stop or prevent some sort of crime, but the policies cannot determine whether or not a crime was committed because they are not designed to establish the elements of a crime; they are only designed to punish based on an individual violating some sort of rule or regulation.

An extreme example would be for a mental hospital to make it a violation of internal policy to be out of bed between the hours of 10pm and 5am, with a punishment of a refusal to give treatment, and then enforce the policy against a patient who was out of bed because they were on the floor thrashing around in a seizure. The policy's intent would be to keep patients from wandering the halls or getting into trouble in their rooms, but the result could very well be to punish someone for something entirely different. Sure, the patient was out of bed which violated policy, and it's unfortunate that they are going to be punished for something out of their control, but hey, don't blame me. Blame the policy. That poor guy got hung up in the machine. It's not my fault.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the guy's authoritarian grandfather who gave him the knife condones zero tolerance policies - with a blatant but reasonable exception for his grandson, of course - because he used to apply them for DUIs. And DUI laws are well known as being a fantastic policy.

Ultimately, I place the blame on lawyers since I believe that just about all of America's problems can be traced back to them, but it's high time we start holding educators responsible again, instead of allowing them to craft regulations that can ultimately destroy a child's future.

I need to buy some time

No shooty pictures to show yet. One day I will get home at a reasonable time and take care of that.

For those who are thinking of supporting Bob McDonnell

There is a compelling reason to reconsider your vote for Virginia's governor.

I'm not advocating voting for Creigh Deeds, but I am spreading the word.

I'm not voting for either one.

(H/T War on Guns)

Moron safe schools

Catch that title? Good; I'm clever like that.

Anyways, yesterday I posted about the six year old who was suspended from school with a recommendation for 45 days in a reform school (Phenomenal. Maybe they planned on strapping him in a chair, then taping his eyes open while he watched a flicker show running old Trinity test footage and bounding kittens, or some shit. One can only imagine.) for bringing a Cub Scout tool to his school.

Fortunately, the school board reversed this asinine punishment and dropped the whole thing. Unfortunately, there are still clueless moonbat educators in his school that are still willing and able to destroy a child over something as trivial as this:

Jennifer Jankowski, who runs the special education programs at Jennie Smith Elementary in Newark, said schools need to be vigilant about protecting students. If Zachary or another student had been hurt by the knife, she said, the district would have taken the blame.

"If we can't punish him, then what about kids that did bring (a weapon) for bad things?" Jankowski said. "There's more to the school's side than just us being mean and not taking this child's interests into account."

Hey, stupid! How exactly do you "protect students" by punishing them over the possession of an object? If a child brings or improvises something as weapon, and has intent to use it as a weapon, or attacks another student with a weapon, then the kid will still get punished. I don't see that that's in question.

What is in question is your sanity. What you're saying is that in order to justly punish one kid for actually committing violence, you have to have a history of proactively punishing every kid who crosses an arbitrary line that they're not even aware of regardless of their intent.

It is astounding to me that people focus so intently on the object instead of the person; as if the there is something inherently evil about a thing and the thing alone, with nothing at all to do with the mentality of the person controlling the thing.

A sharpened pencil in and of itself is not a weapon. It can become a weapon if the student uses it as such. A knife is not in and of itself a weapon, but the intent of the person controlling it can make it one.

Are educators really so irresponsible and/or stupid that they can't wield some discretion? "Too bad that we have to throw little Johnny out of school over that plastic knife; but, ya' know, the law is the law. It's out of our hands, see. It's The Law. -- The. Law."

It's ignorant teachers like Jankowski that are the reason why I won't send my kids to public school. If teachers are so focused on destroying kids over something that they should have a better grasp of, instead of what they're supposed to be teaching, then count me out.

More on safe schools

Suspending six year olds for having a Cub Scout knife/fork/spoon tool is just a small price to pay for having outrageously awesome "Zero Tolerance" weapon laws in schools. Bureaucratic, bullshit weapon laws only catch the low hanging fruit.

Still feeling safe about having armed security at your school? Highly trained guardians of society are the Only Ones professional enough to be armed? Is this the guy you would want keeping you safe in school? Didn't think so.

A shiny thing on the shirt does not magically make someone competent to have a firearm.

Also, here is a blinding example of why the "guns in bars" argument is stupid. Scumbags are going to be armed regardless of signs or laws. They will be armed in bars, schools, or anywhere else they happen to be. Barring non-criminals who are not violent from carrying where alcohol is served is pointless, as there will still be criminals armed there.

(H/T The Agitator)

This mentality has to stop

I'm going to step into the line of fire regarding the healthcare debate by opining about this:

"There is just something absurd about denying an infant."

What's absurd is expecting someone else to pay for your child's care. That's what he is saying. The evil health insurance company denied taking his claim because they saw a risk. Even if they didn't see a risk, who the hell is this guy to expect a service from anyone? Does he have a right to demand coverage from a private company, or does a private company have the right to deny anyone for anything?

Don't get me wrong, I think all insurance companies are scumbags, but you can't fault them for not providing you a voluntary service when they don't think they will get something of equal or greater value. That's not them being greedy; that's pure and simple commerce.

You want something from them, but they don't think they have anything to gain by giving it to you.

When I was a teenager, I drove my car recklessly, racking up ticket after ticket, so insurance companies didn't think my $300 monthly contribution was worth the risk of insuring my reckless ass. Why would they?

I hold no allegiance to insurance companies, and as such I am always shopping for a better deal. Equal or greater value. To think that insurance companies are evil because they are doing the same thing is exactly what's absurd.

This give-me mentality has to stop.

You would think. . . .

"I'd like to think if I call 911 because I think there's an emergency that they're going to respond," Smondrowski continued.

If three burglars broke into your house, and you called 911 and nobody came, what would you do?

It happens folks.

Good question

Classmates of the victim say he's a member of the Coast Guard, and he's one of the biggest guys at school. They say he fought the attacker off, but some wonder what would have happened to someone smaller in stature and unable to fight back.

First off, the school needs to immediately plaster the campus with "Hammer Free Zone" signs to prevent this sort of thing from happening again. A solid policy discriminating against Middle Eastern men, as well as three-quarter length pants probably wouldn't hurt either.

But back to the question that most definitely needed to be asked: what would the outcome be in a similar attack where the victim was smaller, or unable to physically fight back? What could the victim possibly use to minimize the disparity of force that is presented by multiple attackers, or an attacker with a weapon? Damn, I can't think of one single thing that could be used effectively by a student.

I do note how irresponsible the school was to have buildings that don't require an ID card, or even a body cavity search for that matter; it's no wonder the Coast Guardsman "paid the price." Can't be too safe.

They did have video cameras, as the school indoctrinatees don't seem to mind being surveilled, but that seems to have had no impact whatsoever in stopping or preventing the attack; although we now know the man has poor fashion sense.

Now, before some troll comes on here bemoaning me implying that students should not be barred the use arms, do notice the youthful armed security guards manning the doors, as well as the students saying how wonderful and safe they feel having guys with guns around them.

Armed students? That's crazy talk! Someone could get hurt! Firearms are dangerous, and students are too young and stupid to use them. But put on a blue shirt with a shiny thingy on their breast, and magically everything is safe! Wow! Armed security is good-to-go!

So, the solution seems to be if you want to carry an effective tool for defense while attending college, you have to have one of these lest some emasculated schoolboy hyperventilates at the thought of you not being adequately qualified.

Technical difficulties

I have a range report to post, but this weekend the laptop died an agonizing death, which leaves me with the barely-hanging-on desktop that is duct taped together. Good times.

I will snap some pictures tonight and get them up ASAP; that is, if my ankle biters allow me the time.

DPMS Magazine remedy

Almost a month ago I wrote a post about how my 308 AR was having jammage problems, and this weekend I snapped some pics of my solution that has now been tested.

A commenter on that post, as well as others on the AR15.com forum noted to never ever ever take a Dremel to feed ramps, but it was suggested to try modifying the magazine feed lips. That's exactly what I did.

I thought about ordering a feed lips tool, but instead went with channel lock pliers because I had them right there next to me. The trick is to bring the forward edge of the feed lips up, and the rear edge of the feed lips down.



This can only be done on a level best measured in smidgens as they will contact the bottom of the bolt carrier if you raise them too much. Look on the underside of your bolt carrier and you will see the two channels that the ramps run through. Despite this, it can easily be done with channel locks, although I would recommend the feed lips tool from Brownells. To bring the rear edge of the feed lips down, I used a small brass hammer and tapped semi-gently.

To measure your progress, load a non-modified magazine with a couple of rounds to give yourself something to go off of by eye. Make a careful adjustment of one edge of a feed lip, and then load a round and give it a look:



The magazine on the left is unmodified; notice how low the round is presented in the magazine. The two on the right were modified and you can clearly see how much higher the tip of the rounds are pointing. Here's a side profile look:



Again, the magazine on the left is the unmodified one, and the round is pointing much lower. In this picture you can see where the rounds used to hit at the bottom of the feed ramps, and that gives you an idea of why tipping them up gives a smoother feed:



This picture shows where the back edge of the feed lips needs to be brought down. Both mags are modified, but the mag on the left only has the foward edges of the feed lips modified and you can see the very slight gap between the lip and rear of the case. The mag on the right does not have a gap because I tapped it down with the brass hammer ***Unload the magazine each time you decide to use the hammer.***



Now, these magazines load and unload rough from the factory, and AR15.com commenter sleepercaprice1 noted in this post to disassemble the mags and file the flashing lines off of the follower, so that is what I did. He was right.

The mags run much smoother with this simple modification. Just take a small file or some fine grit sandpaper and take down that rough edge that runs all the way around the follower. Once you assemble the magazine, you can feel the difference just by pushing down on the follower.

That's what I got folks. I have a range report that is not very promising, but I intend to shoot again today, so there will be a post about it sometime today or tommorow.

My morning laugh

I just came across this screen shot that I took from a couple of years ago when I was posting a resume on USAJobs. I did a spell check and found out that USAJobs was not very fond of the Marine Corps:


Click to make bigger.

That's funny stuff right there!

Why the long face?

Some are claiming that giving president Obama a Nobel Peace Prize cheapens it, but the formerly prestigious prize has already been tainted.

The Norwegians gave that shiny thing to such people as Yasser Arafat -- who pretty much got it because the only peaceful thing he ever accomplished in life was to stop bombing civilians long enough to fly to the US and talk to Jimmy Carter; and to Al Gore, who didn't get it for doing anything peaceful but for spreading the word on "settled science" -- instead of people who really did something great, like Irena Sendler, Winston Churchill, or, in the case of 2009, Greg Mortenson.

These awards are just political jelly beans to be handed out these days, and not at all about doing anything great for the world. A shiny golden blow-job for the political elite.

Morning roundup

Update: Via Snowflakes in Hell, in appears that there has been some well known violent friction in the Hain household for some time, and that friends of Melanie had tried to help her get out.

Update: So far it looks like Melanie's husband, who was a parole officer and prison guard, did the shooting.

First up, it's Pimp Your Galil day in Mexico! Check out some of the weapons the Mexican drug cartels acquired from US gunshows, like rifle grenades, short barreled rifles, RPGs, and 120mm terror. No, seriously, stop laughing. It's true. Really.

Next up, go over to Practical Riflery Forums to see my latest range work. I got my 308 to run perfectly, and I will be doing a write up with pics this weekend.

A tragic murder suicide in Ohio that will be making a buzz around the gun community. There's not alot of info yet, but I'll update if I find more.

Creepy NRA video promoting Bob McDonnell.

NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg blows $1.5 million taxpayer dollars 'proving' nothing during an attempt to smear gun shows. The Associated Press again asserts the incompetence of their writers by confusing "occasional sellers" (random citizen selling privately owned gun) with a gun dealer (Citizen licenced to sell guns as a business).

TSA almost, but not quite, catches a kid boarding a plane from Oregon to Illinois using his mothers ID and name. It was a good effort though; maybe next time fellas. Until then, you keep on keeping the skies safe from terrorists!

Health care politics

Time for me these days is short, as are my posts, and that is one reason why I don't usually dive into politics.

Fortunately, there are excellent minds out there that articulate political views in detail that I have to completely agree with; so go on over to The Smallest Minority for a rundown on the health care/insurance debacle.

The tide is turning

Found over at Instapundit, the latest Rasmussen polls show Americans are feeling all warm and fuzzy over gun rights; with 50% of Americans saying they oppose stricter gun controls, and 39% in favor. Also in the poll, 69% of Americans reject city handgun bans, vs 20% who favor them.

That last bit is of course because Chicago may get its ass handed to it over its handgun ban in the Supreme Court, although I could be wrong. Time will tell.

If firefighters didn't have firetrucks

Then they wouldn't be so gung-ho about running into fires, which would actually make them safer.

Jacob Sullum at Reason.com does a great job of tearing down the latest anti-gun study released on the American Journal of Public Heath.

It's quick and worth your time.

A case of handgun violence

LAKELAND, Fla. — A Tampa couple and an Irish tourist were shot at a Lakeland gun range after a handgun accidentally fired.

Dear heavens!! Has the handgun been formally charged?

I was not aware that handguns could do anything accidentally, but apparently they can indeed go berserk:

Polk County sheriff's deputies say it's not entirely clear how many times Michael and Sherri Thourot's 9mm accidentally went off Saturday, or what caused the handgun to fire.

Someone needs to alert the Associated Press that 9mm'ers are not accident prone; and that this erroneous garbage article is not only expected from AP journalists, it should be reworded thusly: it's not entirely clear how many times Michael and Sherri Thourot negligently fired their 9mm Saturday, injuring themselves and others.

My blog may be full of any number of grammatical or punctuation errors, but at least I have enough common sense to know that inanimate objects cannot do anything on their own.

But just so you know:

The pistol was a Jennings make.

There's part of the problem right there. What self respecting gun range allows idiots to fire a Jennings pistol?

Update: Another report says that the gun malfunctioned and emptied the magazine without anyone touching it. Sounds a bit far fetched to me, but if it turns out to be true, I'll eat my crow.

Something doesn't seem right with the article though. It says that the gun was brought home from Iraq, and implies that it could have been tampered with. While this could be in the realm of possibility, it's highly unlikely because it's very difficult to bring stuff home from a war these days. Customs confiscates a ton of stuff whether it poses a danger or not, and they perform several very thorough searches.

I had trouble bringing a MSR camping stove home from my second deployment. The base post office didn't bat an eye about the empty fuel bottle - just the stove. And the customs goons in Kuwait confiscated my unloaded Beretta M9 magazines. Ask anyone who's been on a deployment and they will tell you how strict those punks are, and about all the stuff on their banned list. Firearms are one of the top of that list.

They wouldn't let me fly home with empty mags in my checked baggage, so how did he bring a pistol home at all?

(H/T David Codrea at the Philly Gun Rights Examiner)

Holy Mackerel!!

Who knew that swords were so dangerous.

One day society will embrace the usage of small portable devices that would aid in stopping such attacks.

I see the camel's nose

The FTC's proposal made many bloggers anxious. They said the scrutiny would make them nervous about posting even innocent comments.

To placate such fears, Cleland said the FTC will more likely go after an advertiser instead of a blogger for violations. The exception would be a blogger who runs a "substantial" operation that violates FTC rules and already received a warning, he said.

And no doubt that will be the only exception. Because we all know how altruistic, fair and caring government regulators can be, so there's no chance that 4, 5, or 20 years down the road some random thirty something year old blogger will get his door smashed in by an over eager team of FTC SWAT officers for daring to allow an advertiser to grace his blog.

This is definitely getting filed under the "what could possibly go wrong" category. As it stands, our system of government is run by people who just can't stand to see something unregulated; and there is no shortage of Americans who are willing to give it up for some oversight.

What a shame.

Whoa, stop the press!!

Asked Sunday about criticism of the increased surveillance, Mr. Bloomberg said: “We live in a world where we have to have a balance. We can’t just say everybody can go everyplace and do anything they want.”

Really? But I thought this was the land of the free??

Apparently this man thinks that it's the home of the surveilled, and that it's totally cool to go about your day as long as there's an underpaid goon in a room somewhere suspiciously watching your every move; all while on your dime.

This form of thinking is a startling reality that has smitten one too many Americans. You can't be trusted to live in society without someone watching you suspiciously because it's just too dangerous now, as opposed to, say, anytime last century or the one before, or even five or six hundred years ago. Things are only now getting out of hand.

He added, “Do you really want to work in a building that doesn’t have security?”

Yes, douchebag, I do. I'm pretty sure that the majority of Americans feel that way too; although, admittedly, probably not as many on your end.

It's crazy to me that this guy has risen to such prominence. How do people like this get attention? Do Americans really feel like they need someone to take care of them at every step?

Morally righteous DC citizen thwarts carjackers with a firearm

I blame the NRA for this senseless violence:

In Sunday's incident, the D.C. officer, whose name was not released, had just parked his vehicle on Brooks Drive about 6:20 a.m. As he got out, he was approached by two people, county police said.

One showed a gun and demanded the officer's keys. The officer got his service weapon and fired, police said. As the two people ran, one fired back, police said.

What?? He stood his ground and used a portable hand held device created only for killing masses of innocents to ward off highly trained and armed criminals?!?! And they fled?!?

That defies all logic! Someone could have been hurt; or even worse, they could have taken his gun from him and stole his car!! Why the officer didn't wip out his rat tailed comb and vomit is anyone's guess.

Me personally, anytime someone gets a little too close to my automobile I poop my britches, vomit, and then scream "Get away!!! I'm pregnant!!" while pointing to my crotch indicating my rampant STDs. Sure, you may laugh, but nobody. . .and I mean NOBODY. . .approaches too close to my car. Can't be too safe.

Update: More police recklessness; this time in Texas! Why the officer didn't just let the robber have what he wanted. And what was he thinking using a gun against him when he was holding a hostage? YOUR COMB!!! USE YOUR RAT TAILED COMB!!!

Omaha beach today

Check out Omaha: 65 Years over at Blackfive for pictures of what the beach looks like today.

Enough of this "sniper" stuff!!

SNIPER!! It's a SNIPER!! OOOooooohh, look y'all, it's a SNIPER!!

SSSNNNNIIIPPPPEEEERR!!

I wish reporters like Stephanie Barish and Chris Glorioso weren't so childish. This business of calling any gunman or pellet gunman (remember who coined that term folks) a sniper makes me roll my eyes; even as I realize that all lowlife journalists use scare words to scare viewers into reading their trash.

Maybe it's because I respect the sniper profession and the few men and women who earn that title, or maybe it's because I admire accuracy and despise the disingenuous crap that is considered journalism these days, but man do I hate the SNIPER theme that emanates from the cesspool of big box news.

So do me a favor guys and grow the hell up. Stop insulting snipers with your silly fantasies of pellet gunman and broken glass.

With that said, shooting people with a BB gun is a serious crime that should land someone a healthy punishment. Even if they're teens, a slap on the wrist just won't cut it.

Why such urgency?

"This is one we wanted to solve with the utmost urgency!" Peskin exclaimed. According to police, the alleged thief is John Prentis.

So when crooks rob the citizens you're sworn to protect, it's not considered the "utmost urgency?" It's only when a crook steals from the king that things get serious?

That's not the best attitude.

I will hand it to the police chief though that he admits error on the police department, though not up to the point of taking personal responsibility.

And why wouldn't a scumbag want to steal from a police station? They're well known to have large amounts of cash (like here), drugs, guns, and other random stuff that has been confiscated. It's the perfect place to steal from.

What would be a better place to steal from? Target? Borders?

Second Amendment in the Supreme Court again

At issue is whether the constitutional "right of the people to keep and bear arms" applies to local gun control ordinances, or only to federal restrictions. The basic question has remained unanswered for decades, and gives the conservative majority on the high court another chance to allow individuals expanded weapon ownership rights.

Overall it's a pretty informative article on the issue, but curiously the writer notes the "larger issue" being whether gun ownership is an individual vs collective right; that of course was decided by the Supreme Court last year with the Heller case, which the article does go on to explain.

A hero's return

BOISE - After four decades, an Idaho soldier is finally home.

Chief Warrant Officer Jesse Phelps was flying a helicopter in December 1965, when it was shot down in the highlands of Vietnam.

DoD sent a team to track down the man who shot his helo down, and then confirm that it was indeed CWO Phelps remains. Now his wife and family finally find closure.

Welcome home sir!

Global warming is the source of all my problems

Apparently all I need to fight my kidney stone affliction is a Prius, some pot, and some hemp clothing. Good to know.

Using published data to determine the temperature-dependence of stone disease, researchers applied predictions of temperature increase to determine the impact of global warming on the incidence and cost of stone disease in the United States.

I don't wish kidney stones on anyone, but if these "predictions" are true (sarcasm folks) then two million Americans are screwed.

At this point, these damn things are no longer just causing me physical pain, or making my work days a living hell, but they're somehow causing me family grief as well. It's not like I can keep this shit secret, so everyone knows about it, and many people, now including family members, have approached me with home remedies because they care.

I sincerely appreciate it; and believe me, I will try them all, but I cannot abandon tried, tested, and experienced tactics from doctors and hospitals for untested stuff. They may help in the long haul, which I'm in for, but taking herbal stuff will not cause the immediate cessation of agonizing pain in which the human body was clearly not designed to cope with. High doses of opiates will.

Particular herbal stuff may dissolve particular types of stones in particular types of people with particular types of body chemistry, or they may not, but they definitely will not stop a large stone from lodging in my pipes causing my kidney to swell in crippling pain. Plastic tubes surgically placed in my pipes will.

On the other hand, there is a high likelihood that my stupid body is the kind that likes to collect and covet these stupid stones like some sort of retarded Gollum creature, and hospital meds will not stop that from happening.

So, I am very much open to home remedies. However, being the established realist that everyone knows that I am, I know for a bonafide fact that there is not one single "I'm telling you, this shit will definitely work!" strategy for defeating one of mankind's oldest medical problems when thousands of years of medical research and treatment still haven't pinned it down, and there are so many types and bodily factors that impact it. So don't be offended by that.

It's not completely known why rock doesn't beat paper, it's impossible to know how much wood a woodchuck chucks, and marshmallow root, more/less vitamin C, and/or sleeping with my feet facing North/Northeast while laying on a mat woven from the foreskin of a thousand virgin squirrels may or may not help cure kidney stones. There is no definitive way to tell. That's it; it's that simple.

But that doesn't mean that I won't try. . . .

Delusional paranoid barkeep terrified of patrons

AP News finds the most unsettled and irrational bar owners in the entire state to interview about Arizona's new "Guns in Bars bill." This guy takes the cake:

PHOENIX — Bartender Randy Shields was serving British brews and Arizona ambers as usual at Shady's bar in east Phoenix when he saw a customer walk in with a hunting knife strapped to his hip.

A disturbing image flashed through his mind — "that knife sliding between my ribs."

That's all it would take for me to never visit a place like that again. Even if I was blood related to this psychotic man I would steer clear of him. That sort of crazy ass talk is projection; if he's so overtaken by thoughts of blood at the mere sight of a knife (or stick??), to the point where he screens his very own silverware because he doesn't trust his fellow man to eat a steak with it, I would avoid him because he's really the dangerous one. Seriously. That man is about to snap.

Here's another irrational bar owner:

"Somebody can pull the trigger, then a bullet comes out, and people get hurt and killed," said Brad Henrich, owner of Shady's, a popular neighborhood bar that sees occasional minor scuffles.

That's the whole concept there, sport.

"The idea of anyone coming in with guns in a place that serves alcohol just seems ludicrous."

I disagree; but think about how ludicrous your idea is that people don't illegally carry guns into your bar because there hasn't been a law or a sign to stop them. Do you think that they haven't been doing that all along, you just didn't know? Do you think those same people are going to give a moments pause at your silly little sign telling them you don't want anyone in your establishment armed? You will succeed at keeping the non-criminal element out of your place as they are the folks who will honor your sign. In all actuality you're filtering the good element out, which is indirectly letting the bad element in. Think about that.

And another:

"I hate to have to put them up," Mark DeSimone, owner of the Hidden House Cocktail Lounge in central Phoenix, said of the signs. "It looks scary. It looks to somebody like, should I go in this place because they obviously have a problem with people bringing weapons in."

Perhaps it will stop somebody who has an extreme case of paranoia like Randy Shields, which is not at all a bad thing considering what we know about the guy. Or, you could consider my witty pencil change of your quote: "it looks to some degenerate scumbag like, I should go in this place because they obviously have a problem with people bringing weapons in."

Think that's ludicrous? Try Googling "Gun Free Zones." Now, try Googling "Lawfully Armed Citizen" (hey look, I'm number five!).

And finally, at the very bottom of the article, AP News has thoughtfully allowed a dissenting voice to break through the ludicrousness. How thoughtful:

Marc Peagler, owner of the Silver Spur Saloon Restaurant in Cave Creek outside Phoenix, said he will allow people with concealed weapons permits to carry in his business, and Silver Spur will be safer because of it.

"It's a deterrent," he said. "In the criminal element, there is some logic that says when people look at a place that they might want to rob, the ones that have big signs up that say 'We do not permit firearms' would be the first target.

Marc Peagler mentions logic, which is noticeably absent from mention of the last three guys in the article.

Logic is like fresh air. Don't be afraid of it guys.

What is it about Colorado?

PALISADE, Colo. — Mesa County prosecutors say an 18-year-old man was plotting a "profoundly disturbing" attack on his high school with weapons and explosives.

Man, y'all have some screwed up teens! I've known kids with bully problems and daddy issues in my day; but jeez guys, take your kids to a frickin' ball game sometime or something. They need some healthy stress relief!

Futility of the inbred mind

Umm, someone forgot to tell this jackass and his inbred accomplices that the Marine Corps is not afraid of a few dipshits with automatic weapons.

A bombing would certainly suck, but the Sergeant of the Guard and his trained killers at the gate are not at all intimidated by crazed jihadists ridin' dirty.

Considering that most of these Marines spent multiple seven month tours wandering a desert actively hunting the most dangerous jihadis the world has to offer, a daring but futile attack may actually break up the boredom.

"You might not believe it but under fire Animal Mother is one of the finest human beings in the world. All he needs is someone to throw hand grenades at him for the rest of his life." - Full Metal Jacket

Damn, this slope sure is slippery!

Councilman Phil Mendelson said the 25-foot ban option targets wild packs of smokers loitering outside office buildings -- human blight.

"Wild packs of smokers?" How mature.

Then again, this is Phil we're talking about.

Demonizing a group of citizens whom you happen to disagree with is all part of a days work for this douchebag.

How to not win a war

Ignoring generals will not win the day.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal says he's talked to President Obama only once since taking command of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan over the summer, a revelation that drew swift criticism from some who are concerned that the president is putting off McChrystal's request for more troops.

Hell, we've got more pressing things to do folks! The Olympics are right around the corner fer' peetsakes!!

Kinda reminds me of another general who was totally ignored by his leadership. I think the outcome may be the same.

How do you solve Chicago's murder problem?

"More government at every level."

Something tells me that more government won't do the job there. Here we have crowds of kids beating other kids to death with two-by-fours for nothing more than being at the wrong bus stop that day, all started by a teenage gang shooting. Really nice.

How long has Chicago had a functioning government? You're saying that maybe now they need to step up? What have they been up to this whole time?

I guess it's debatable whether or not you could consider Chicago to have a "functioning" government, and I freely admit that I don't have a solution to recommend, but at some point people are going to have to realize that the G-man isn't going to just step in and make all the pain go away. The citizens need to do their part, which is not happening right now.

Gun owning manliness, Abe Lincoln's arrest, violent protests. . .

Check it out at MilitaryPhotos.net.

Interesting how lefties can smash windows with hammers, throw rocks at cops, and make an overall nasty appearance at a protest over the weekend with pretty much no coverage from our broken news agencies.

Awesomeness of the highest magnitude

VALLEY FALLS -- The young man was given three choices: get turned over to the police, go one-on-one in a fight with a seasoned war veteran, or be duct-taped to a flagpole for six hours with a sign around his neck identifying his alleged crime: flag burning.

Damn, I love me some veterans!! That's Corporal punishment at its finest! Way to go guys!

(H/T Ace)

Upstanding California citizen shoots knife wielding madman

And by upstanding citizen, I actually mean a police officer:

The residents in the bedroom were told to move away from the bedroom door, but the man with the knife opened the door and raised the knife over his head. The officer, who perceived a threat, shot the man several times, police said.

Police Chief Louis Fetherolf said the shooting appears to be justified.

What powers of perception! I sure wish I had such powers; to be able to tell that the residents of a home were cowering in a corner from a lunatic with a big ass knife. Must be some sort of special training that mere California citizens can't possibly understand.

Powerful. Powerful.

Oh, and there's this:

It is currently unknown why the man had the large knife.

I'm sure it was for something especially nefarious. But what do I know; I don't possess the secret madman perception decoder ring.

And with that out of the way: I do appreciate the good guy defeating the bad guy. That's how it should be. It would just be nice for California citizens to be included in the good guy category every once in awhile, instead of being the cowering helpless victims who can't survive an attack unless someone saves them.

Testing. . . testing

Hi there!

A couple of weeks ago my son spilled my drink into the keyboard of the computer, which is why blogging has been light.

We're hell on computers here in the CTone household. I managed to take the thing apart and massage some rubbing alcohol into the sensitive bits until this baby works like it's supposed to.

Stuff should return to normal here soon.

There's a term that gets thrown around a lot

Weapon of Mass Destruction:

Rachelle Lynette Carlock admitted to using a pipe bomb — a weapon of mass destruction — to commit a crime, along with co-defendants Eric Reginald Robinson and Ella Louise Sanders, FOX 5 San Diego reported.

Destructive device is a far better term, noting that they are labeled that as well. As far as being capable of mass destruction, this is usually what comes to mind when one considers destruction on a massive scale.

A pipe bomb may be used to cause injury/death to several, but a "WMD" (stupid term) is used to cause injury/death to several thousand or more. There's no comparison.

However, since the California prosecutor is not hesitant to label them as such, and this woman freely admits to actually detonating several of such a devices in a public place, one has to wonder why she only gets 30 years. I mean, the U.S. attorney actually thinks this is a tough sentence:

"This prosecution serves as a reminder that the law imposes very stern penalties for the unlawful use of bombs, explosives or other destructive devices."

A wopping 30 years?!?! Really?! If you think I'm just a little too harsh, think about this: next time you're standing in line at DMV with your kids, look to the 57 year old lady standing behind you and imagine her as the gal recently paroled from prison for detonating three bombs in a public building, and plotting to detonate several more.

Would you still trust someone like that to walk about freely in society? She would be prohibited by federal law from legally purchasing a firearm - not that she wouldn't be able to get one, mind you - but there is nothing to stop someone from buying or making bomb making equipment.

It's not possible; although I wouldn't put it past California lawmakers to try.

Dangerous people like this shouldn't get a second chance. Piss poor sentences ensure that they get released back into the wild while politicians, prosecutors, and citizens bitch when they get ahold of a weapon and kill a bunch of people.

Stop letting them out!

National ammo shortage

Hey, now even the Associated Press is calling us "gun enthusiasts" instead of "gun extremists."

That's progress folks.

AR build slideshow

Fantastic sideshow of a NM AR build at Captain of a Crew of One.

NBC 4 writers are now gun policy experts

The VRE overturned their ban on the lawful carry of firearms on trains, and, not knowing how to deal with this news or even what it means, NBC 4 writer Mike Tunison writes this steaming pile of poo:

"VRE Operations Board members were less than thrilled with having to make the change, partially because many riders will run afoul of the differing rules across jurisdictions, but also because guns plus big crowds equals disaster."

And Mike would know this not because of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, or from knowledgeable experience, but from his expert opinion forged by years of writing for a liberal rag, as well as (I presume) an indoctrination in one of those totally unbiased higher learning institutions.

Think I'm full of it? Check out how he closes this piece:

"Meanwhile, the VRE has nixed discounts to children and the elderly. Probably just as well to get the frail folks who might not be able to take a bullet off the train with all the guns that might be coming aboard."

Pretty disgusting, I'd say. Then again, NBC 4 does have a way of hiring bigoted idiots.

A new tag for my hunting license?

And a new species for animal activists to get bent out of shape over:

The study, outlined in the latest issue of Royal Society Biology Letters, reveals that some of the largest specimens were indeed coyote and wolf hybrids.

Given where these animals came from and the degree of documented genetic diversity, the researchers can tell that a few coyote females mated with male wolves north of the Great Lakes.

Sweeeeet. I've been slowly gearing up for predator hunting, which is why I have modified my DPMS AP4 rifle to fit that need. A small handy carbine with an attached light is perfect for the job; now all I need is the time.

The coyote population seems to be growing here in Virginia, but they mostly eat small critters. At this point it probably wouldn't hurt to have a predator around that's big enough to eat the abundance of deer that are now displaced from all the freaking houses and Linens N Things that have sprouted up over the Old Dominion.

Seriously.

I don't know whether the deer population is any larger than it was ten years ago, but now instead of the "hey, look. . . a deer" on my way to work, I have to swerve around herds of them in the road.

A coywolf would also look fantastic mounted on my mantle. I'm not speaking for anybody else, but I'm all about some coywolves making their way down here!

Ummmm. . . creepy!

NORTH VERSAILLES, Pa. -- A 71-year-old woman was shot and killed Sunday night by a police officer in North Versailles where, police said, she may have been lying in wait outside an ex-boyfriend's home with a gun.

Whoa! This story is disturbing for a number of reasons, like that it went down on Shady Lane.

Armed grandmas are dangerous too!

And another city racked by gun wielding criminals

BALTIMORE -- Baltimore city police are responding to an outbreak of violence that saw 10 shootings and three deaths from Friday night to Sunday night.

Most major cities have a scumbag problem, but Baltimore is particularly loathsome considering they expect their citizens to be easy targets. I just like to point them out.

The counter argument is that cities like Baltimore would be even more violent if the citizens were not prohibited from being armed, but stuff like this kinda shoots down that logic.

A society of criminals

What's up with all the criminals wielding guns in LA these days? Damned NRA extremists and their gun clingy ideology.

The nerve of these people breaking perfectly good laws to take advantage of those who respect it.

You would think that with California pulling funding for police that the number of shootings by cops would go down.

Who would've ever seen this coming?

There's not a lot of interesting stuff in the news today, but I did find this story about an escaped violent criminal in Chicago that is something that will be made into a movie some day.

I mean it has everything; a violent bank robbing scumbag escaping from restraints, taking police hostages, taking weapons, carjacking, SWAT teams. . . . this one is chock full.

Here's the part that gets me though. This man has a long and violent history that includes a successful escape attempt. Why on earth is he still going through the court system? Why even have him outside of prison walls in the first place? Are you telling me his 20+ years of bank robbing sprees, kidnapping, and a whole host of other crazy activities really not enough to do it; not enough to put him away for life to the point where he has to be bounced around from state to federal courthouses and back again in order to rack up enough time to take him away from society for good? WTF?

Hell, why did anyone even bother to spend taxpayer dollars locking him up in the first place then; just let him have his way until he finally kills someone and gets his life sentence or death penalty. That very well may be the case here.

Hopefully the clown show quits screwing around and can catch him before he hurts another citizen. Bag his ass and lock him up for the rest of his life.

Update: The scumbag was caught (same link as above). But not until after he robbed another bank.

Another 308 problem

Soon I'll test and see if the gas block problem is solved, but this post is about the bullet setback that I had talked about. Last night I tried to chamber some factory ammo so that I could take some measurements of the before and after. The I've written a post on it at Practical Riflery Forums, but I'll post it here:

As far as the factory loads, I measured three of them before loading them in the magazine to see if the depth is affected by chambering the rounds. I dropped the bolt on the first one and here is what I got:

The factory 150 grain Remington Cor-Lokt is stuck on the feed ramp. I realize that I'm getting off topic, and I intend to shoot these rounds this weekend and post a range report, but for right now what in the world do I do about this? I've already polished the feedramps; should I wallow them out with a Dremel and bring them down to where they will feed from the magazine? This is not at all what I expected from a Fulton Armory barrel.

What do y'all think? Should I take a Dremel to my barrel extension?

Ax violence

In Germany.

Seems the ax man was throwing molotov cocktails as well. Fortunately nobody died.

This leads to the obvious question: should axes and flammables be illegal in schools? Why this hasn't been addressed with comprehensive legislation is anyone's guess.

Let's close the ax loophole.

Swordsman kills intruder

In Baltimore of all places.

Hmmm. Can one get a sword permit in Maryland? Seems like it worked out well as a self defense tool.

Calling all AR ninja

I have a problem with my 308.

Copied from my post on AR15.com last night:

I am having problems with the bolt in my DPMS LR-308 short stroking on occasion and catching the next round in the middle of the case. Details and pictures here.

I noticed that there was some carbon and soot on the barrel in front of my gas block (PRI low profile) so I took the hand guard and the gas block off to have a looksee. The carbon was about 1/8th inch from the forward edge of the gas block, and underneath there was a thin coating of carbon/soot everywhere the gas block covered. I cleaned off the surfaces and put it back on, taking care to torque the two set screws down to 30 inch lbs this time with a bit of loc-tight.

My question is: will that little bit of a leak cause the bolt to short stroke (about one in twenty rounds)?

Nobody has responded about the gas block question. I'm pretty sure that there's no possible way to stop all of the gas from leaking out. How much is too much?

When I first put the rifle together, I didn't have the fantastic Wheeler FAT Wrench, so I just kinda tightened the set screws a bit thinking that they seemed a little frail. This time I put the FAT Wrench on it and cranked them down to 30 inch pounds. I'll try to shoot it this weekend and see if that helps, but I won't start out shooting my handloads.

I bought some Remington 150 grain Cor-Lokt ammo last night that I'm going to send down range to see if they feed properly. I'm also going to chamber and eject them first to see if the bullet gets jammed down into the case neck like they have been doing with my handloads. This is also a problem with the Black Hills 185 grain hollow points that I shoot in my Kimber. I need reliable ammo for that gun too, but there is still a lack of .45 ACP on the shelves in my town.

Why I don't live in DC

In 1995 Stove lost her first son Clarence to murder. In 1999 she says her husband was beaten to death in a robbery and now this.

Her other son was gunned down in a drive by shooting yesterday. I could never imagine what this woman has gone through or what she is feeling right now. Watch the video and have your heartstrings pulled on.

I will never live in a major city; especially DC. My father worked there for years and has too many stories to tell. This type of violence is so common place that is it is almost expected.

As for this article, Writer Paul Wagner throws this in there:

The District’s homicide rate is still very low.

Uh huh. Compared to what? Afghanistan? That's not very helpful Paul.

DC needs some new leadership that doesn't promote violence and victimhood. I wonder when the citizens are going to wake up and make that happen.

Update: Another Gun Blog points out that DC's crime rate in 2007 was 1,414.3 per 100,000; not anywhere close to being low. I mean, holy smokes! To compare, Virginia's was 269.7 per 100k in 2007. Virginia has 13 times the population, is 629 times the size, and doesn't even have twice as many murders.

Support your pro-gun McDonalds!!

WCSC-TV reports that along with two bags containing food, the teen said he was given a third bag containing a handgun and bags of pot at a McDonald's on Savannah Highway on Aug. 29.

Now that's what I'm talking about! I'll make sure to get one with each Happy Meal from now on: "ahh, yes, I'd like to get two Chicken McNugget happy meals. . . .apple juice. . . . .yes please, a handgun for a boy and for a girl. Thank you!!

Back to the story, here's the best part:

Police said the bag with the gun and pot were meant for the car behind the teen at the drive-through. The people followed the teen to a gas station and demanded that the teen give them the bag.

Ooops! I bet he feels like a jackass.

A violent, black home intruder attacks man

In Colorado.

This is why you should never carry anything smaller than .44 Magnum around in your home. For the record, I'm going straight to the gunstore after work for a .454 Casull so that this doesn't happen to me.

Preparedness folks!

Well respected and lawfully armed DC citizen guns down potential car thief

Alright, I made up the well respected part. You should know better; DC residents can't carry their firearms, silly!

But wouldn't it be nice to hear about a really real DC citizen stopping a criminal sometime?

DC Police to crack down on illegal NRA members

DC Police want another "All Hands on Deck" this weekend to stop the blood from flowing in the streets due to the handguns registered in the wake of the Heller decision.

OK, I may be fibbing there a little bit.

Chief Lanier claims that they always work, but I have my doubts.

We must ban it all for the children

First up we have a story from beautiful Long Island, NY where a cab driver was attacked, stabbed, and carjacked by several men; one of whom wielded a deadly blade that is not over the allotted deadly length necessary for prosecution. Fortunately, the cabbie was unarmed because he followed the letter of the law, so no scumbags were hurt in the incident.

A simple common sense law changing the legal blade length to a much less deadly 2 - 15/16ths inches would prevent this type of "gangsterism" because the criminals, in order to avoid the hefty 60 day jail sentence for criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, would then be forced to rely on less deadly instruments for their trade. . . .like pipe bombs or something. Think about it: how would a criminal extort money from the innocent with a pipe bomb? Can't happen. Problem solved.

Next, we have a bank robber wielding a pistol while holding a girl hostage. What makes this otherwise insignificant story especially frightening is that the robber had specifically chosen a handgun "trimmed in pink accents," which leads me to point the blame for this crime squarely at the NRA and women. There is just no place in civil society for pink trimmings on deadly assault weapons.

By forcing criminals to use standard black trimmings on their firearms with comprehensive laws reinforced with long probation sentences, instances of this kind of abuse with pink trimmings will be a thing of the past.

I think I will run for some sort of high office in New York in the near future. Just think of all the problems I could solve!

Tom Clancy is a homo

No offense to homos, but how in the hell did a nobody like Tom Clancy get the chance to make military themed video games? Especially ones that suck as bad as Rainbow Six? How did they become so popular?

See, I haven't bought an X-Box 360 or a Playstation 3 because, quite frankly, anything that I pay $400+ dollars on is going to make a hell of a lot more noise than one of those things. Therefor, I have been using one of the dinosaur 'regular' X-Boxes, and thought that I would cruise through some of the first person shooters that I have around, like Rainbow Six: Black Arrow.

I have to admit it: I've been a Tom Clancy hater for at least a decade. I have written him much hate mail over the years. How someone with absolutely zero military experience could come to such prominence within the military arena is beyond me. When is someone going to recruit a real veteran to make video games? I think Larry Vickers would be on the top of that list.

First off, Ghost Recon is fucking retarded, and it got worse as the sequels kept coming. I mean, a bad ass speshool farces unit with stupid looking facepaint that gets killed as easily as those morons? Are you kidding me?

Next, we have a "multi-national elite counter terrorist unit" with pansy-ass, non-shooting idiots like the three stooges you've stuck us with. They're worthless! I guess with a name like "Rainbow" you can't expect too much. Funny how ol' Tommy boy conjured up that name for the fictional unit of his dreams. Makes me wonder. . .

And why call them "Rainbow Six" in the first place? There's four of them.

Hey Tom, let me put it down for you plain and simple. Special Operations units, as well as conventional forces, don't need to choose between taking grenades, a pistol, claymore mines, or extra ammo. They're not pussies like you, so they can carry more than 20 pounds of gear for a fifteen minute mission. They frequently carry all of the above with nary a whimper, and accomplish far more than you could ever imagine. And for Pete's sake Tom, as well as you pimply faced gaming programmers that have never seen the light of day outside your mother's basement, how about designing some competent Soldiers that can actually fucking shoot!! It would be nice for once to have three of your "elite" guys that can cover a room and not get wiped the fuck out by one third world terrorist twenty feet away with a rusted ass AK.

It's such an insult to those of us who have carried a rifle, and a pistol for that matter, into harms way.

A question for you Tom: were you aware that 7.62mm rounds in every imaginable cartridge have no chance of penetrating two foot thick concrete walls? Did you know that a M67 hand grenade won't sent fragmentation through said two foot thick walls and kill a hostage thirty feet away? It's an insult to those of us who have thrown hand grenades and fire 7.62mm rounds to suggest such things. Really.

One more thing. If a "Rainbow" or "Ghost" sniper is so super secret squirrel that he can make it into one of your imagined looser outfits, then riddle me how it is that the very moment one of these painted faced and guillied ninjas fires a shot they get fired on by every third world idiot and their brother from five hundred yards away? Aren't snipers in the wild supposed to be able to fire from concealment?

I'm not a sniper. I'm not Special Forces. But I do know that on top of carrying a primary weapon, a Soldier/Marine/Sailor/Airman often carries a sidearm, grenades, a pack full of shit, maybe a claymore or two, possibly an AT rocket launcher, and other stuff like extra ammo. Ask a Soldier sometime what they carry. I'm sure some 82nd Airborne trooper or RCT Marine will set you straight, and then you can make games that don't suck.

I want my two hours back Tom!! I've been robbed!!

Looks like it's Jaws Unleashed from now on. I can pretend that it's you on that frail sailboat, dreaming about Mu1t!C@m! and operators and H&K M9000H&K,H&K.

Sorry about the rant folks, but I'm hung up on a kidney stone, and my friend Gentleman Jack is helping me deal with the pain of it all while I play stupid assed games made by stupid ass people.

Life can be like that sometimes.

Atlantis found!!

Well, not quite; but there's an artist's idea of what it will look like.

"It will help us hold meetings," Secretary Janet Napolitano said. "It will help us build that culture of 'One DHS.'"

Wow. That's a hell of a city to build in order to hold meetings. Or an army of one.

With that 'green' roof, it aught to keep the hippies at bay.

Ever wanted to know how to assemble your grandpappy's M1 Garand?

Head on over to Captain of a Crew of One for an illustrated step-by-step guide. There's even a post on disassembly if you're interested. SailorCurt put in a ton of effort into making those posts, and they are quite detailed.

Unfortunately, I don't own an M1. . . yet.

A laughing matter

I might be struck by lightning for this, but read this article about a man getting set on fire.

Crazy, right? But nothing too unusual from a city like Detroit. I mean, it's what you'd expect from that place.

Now, scroll down and read the comments.

Really, I laughed myself to tears. I admit it. The content of the article is nowhere near funny, but somehow reading about what Detroit residents think of a fellow citizen getting set on fire during an argument, and also taking in their mastery of the English language, made me laugh to no end. Such compassion. That makes me wonder about the comments that were deleted. . . .

Thanks for that y'all!

Kids these days

They have no respect for the law:

Taylor says the party was full of 14-year-old kids. She says gun fire erupted after some kids became angry while getting pushed as they were dancing.

"They were angry because one of the kids got hit by another person, and he got knocked out. So, they got mad and started shooting, and one of them backfired on me," said Taylor.

Dammit!! Why doesn't someone make guns illegal for teenagers to carry in the city? It's common sense!! Jeez.

Getting backfired on sucks people! Guns is not the answer!

And I absolutely love how this comment, from "ihatevernonandtheentirehumanrace55," sums up everything I think about major cities like Chicago:

"crazy men from the north side come south and done this."

Read the name of the poster again, and then read what he/she said. Seriously, that made my morning right there.

Notice the "55" at the end of that handle? Raise your hand if you think it's hilarious knowing that out there somewhere there are 55 other morons who are stupid enough to use that jacked up name!

Update: Man, you've just gotta watch the video. There's a sign there on the street right next to the house that clearly says NO to things like "playing ball" and "dealing drugs." Take a wild guess what's not on the sign. . . .NO GUNS!! Well all this silliness can now be fixed with the quick change of the sign. Problem solved.

AAAAaaaaggghhh!!!! BB Gun SNIPER on the loose!!

Did I mention the SNIPER?!?! OMFG SNIPER, it's a fucking SNIPER y'all!! SNIPER!!!!

Writer Hemery Ferreira belittles snipers everywhere with this short piece of trash that is obviously only intended to scare people. I guess that's what writers do these days. Take a look in the lower right hand corner:


I was cruising the news this morning, reading a tragic article about a girl gunned down in "Gun Free" NY, when I saw the steaming poo festering down there in the corner. Too bad there's no place for comments.

Mouse gun accuracy

Went to a local indoor range for some handgun shooting yesterday. My wife has a Kahr PM9 that hasn't been fully broken in yet, and I thought I would put a hundred rounds or so through it to finish the job.

At one point I decided to see how it would group at ten yards. I was running Winchester White Box 115 grainers through it and and turned out this 3/4" five shot group offhand:


There are six holes there as my aiming point was the 9mm bullet hole second from the left. If you take out the far left flyer, which I called due to a rushed shot, the group is about 11mm in circumference. Not bad for a 3" barrel!!

I also put a few rounds out of my wife's post war Walther PPK that acts as my pocket carry gun. I found some Cor-Bon 60 grain rounds in 32 Auto that I wanted to give a try. At ten yards I put five rounds into the X-ring with ease despite the teeny tiny sights. Point of aim is point of impact. The accuracy of that little gun is exceptional as well.

I have no qualms carrying a .32 Auto if I can place rounds exactly where I want them to go. The little blaster is as reliable as a brick too, and I'll take it.

Also, the saga of my 308 tuning is almost complete. Go over to Practical Riflery Forums for my latest post on those efforts. I highly recommend the OCW method of finding the right load for your rifle. It has worked out well for me.

DC's youth to learn their place

Nothing like indoctrinating the youngins early on as to who owns the place.

Now, Gates said, young people will get written warnings for minor offenses as long as they comply with police and show identification proving they are under 18. If they don't, they can then be arrested, she said.

What could possibly go wrong? That city has a violence problem that stems from a social disorder; putting a boot in the necks of the next generation to take over is not the way to change that.

I'm all about citizens being safe in their day to day travels, and I do recognize that teenagers can be scumbags from time to time, but do you really think that putting up a snitch line for passengers to call is going to stop any sort of crime? What do you think is going to happen from all of this? The article already list one screwup from this sort of thing; who wants to hear about more?

Never let a crisis go to waste

A "pandemic response bill" currently making its way through the Massachusetts state legislature would allow authorities to forcefully quarantine citizens in the event of a health emergency, compel health providers to vaccinate citizens, authorize forceful entry into private dwellings and destruction of citizen property and impose fines on citizens for noncompliance.

This sort of stuff is not just coming from Massachusetts. And I don't care how well intentioned you think your political party is, they are experts at using fear or other human emotions to help pass laws they think may be beneficial to society.

The prospect of a Biological threat, whether natural or not, or any other Weapon of Mass Destruction/Man Made Disaster/OMFG Terrorist ATTACK!!! is a new found hobby horse for politicos to ride down their well intentioned road to hell. I don't plan on coming along for the ride.

I point this out as somewhat of an insider, and I ask you to pay a-freaking-attention to what your congresscritter is up to because many of them think that this sort of thing is warranted in such cases. They take it as common sense that you would want to surrender your rights as a sovereign citizen to "authorities" in a CBRN/WMD event because how the hell are you going to know what to do. If you think that everything is going to be A-OK, that your friendly Jack Bauer federal agent will lead you to the well orchestrated high tech decon site where yellow suited guys will make the bad thing stop, then I'm here to tell you you've lost your mind.

How convenient

"After reviewing and analyzing all of the evidence in the case, we do not believe the essential elements of the crime of carrying a pistol without a license can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt," said U.S. Attorney Jeff Taylor, top prosecutor in the District of Columbia.

Let's review. Thompson carried a loaded handgun into the security checkpoint at the Senate building in "Gun Free" DC. The gun did not belong to him, and he was arrested for his troubles. Now he is deemed innocent of the charges without having to fight a moment in court.

Color of law has favorable shades. The only difference between Thompson and us mere mortals is that he works for a Noble and is protected by that nobility. Nobles are often beyond reproach simply because of they have these shades, and apparently that extends down to aides to Nobles.

This wouldn't be the first time.

Methinks the outcome of this "investigation" would have been different if you or I got caught carrying in DC, not to mention taking the cursed pistol into the halls of the Senate. My question is do you think that the wheels of justice put a bit of delay on this to give Sir Webb enough time to get out of the spotlight lest it darken his favorable shade?

Personally, I think the silly law banning commoners from carrying any firearm anywhere are ghey. But there is no "reasonable doubt" that Webb's aide got the special treatment just because his boss is a Noble.