Special electronic keys do not make you safe

A woman was attacked in her apartment fitness room by a masked scumbag who fled after she fought back. Who would have thought? I was under the impression that she was supposed to give him everything he wanted.

This is what I point out:

East Meadow neighbors say they're concerned because only residents with a special key can access the fitness center.

Obviously not. That stuff might help, but never think that you can be in condition white because you have the protection of electronic doo-dads.

The author notes that a creepy scumbag has been seen before:

One man said this incident comes on the heels of reports of a peeping tom lurking around the complex. He was eventually warded off by vigilant neighbors.

Notice it says 'vigilant', not 'vigilante.' The importance of the correct term cannot be overstated.

Kids do the damnedest things

They sure are getting younger, aren't they?

Technical difficulties

Due to Verizon's severe incompetance, blogging has been light. For some odd reason they cancelled our internet service when we cancelled our phone line, and my wife and I have spent more hours than we care to talking to those idiots to no avail. I will have a Movie Guns this week, probably before Thursday. we will see. Right now I am blogging from my phone, so there are no promises, but I will do my best.

Update: My laptop won't freeze frames from the movie, so I have to wait until this weekend. Sorry folks.

Define "accomplished"

The murderous scumbag that shot up the immigrant services center is being described as an "accomplished marksman."

Funny, I thought that to be accomplished at something, you had to have legitimate standing within a community of others that are also accomplished in the same subject. Applied to shooting, that would mean that the scumbag in question would had to have competed against shooters of known excellence and came out the winner.

Apparently these days, all it takes to become accomplished in something is to brag:

Wong was an "accomplished marksman" who frequented a shooting range in Binghamton, the chief said, and he bragged to others that he had fired more than 10,000 rounds.

No word on the amount of trophies or citations that he collected from beating the best shooters around. Also, it seems that New York needs to toughen its body armor laws:

Wong also was wearing body armor when he went on his spree, and since New York limits body armor purchases to law enforcement, "We're looking into that," Zikuski said.

Oh.

Cops steal teenager's belt buckle

In Miami.

The cops almost killed this guy over what turned out to be nothing. The "kidnapped girl" was the guy's girlfriend, and got into his car on her own will. Not only did the cops almost kill him, they tackled him to the ground and, I presume from what the article is saying, confiscated his belt buckle.

There is no excuse for the way the cops treated this guy. If he was an adult who was lawfully carrying a real firearm, would they have shot him then?

DC officials all pissed about guns

Not infringing on a citizens right to bear arms is too much for them to handle.

There are three articles in the Washington Post between yesterday and today on this matter, so here is a roundup:

Fear of new regs drives gun, ammo shortage: There is much yammering about the anti-gun Obama administration; you have to get to the very end of the article to get the rest of the reason why gun and ammo sales are brisk.

DC attorney general decries gun amendment: Just check out the opening sentence! Yes, DC AG Peter Nickles actually thinks that DC's infringing gun laws actually stop terrorists, and that because the terrorists used box cutters to hijack commercial airliners and crash them into buildings that DC needs to have a ban on semi-automatic rifles. That's some logic!!

D.C. Gun Exception Alarms Md. Officials: Disingenuous. Maryland lawmakers aren't "alarmed" over safety issues, they're concerned about who's going to pay the salary for the cops who have to do the background checks, and the costs of implementing a system. Hey guys, how about you just sell DC residents guns without a background check! That solves the problem! What, it's not like scumbags in DC have any problem getting their hands on a firearm anyways, so why bother with making it a giant pain in the ass for law abiding citizens?

The whole gnashing of teeth over gun laws is kind of hilarious. DC wants to be recognized just like any other state, but they don't want to honor the rights of their citizens. Sorry, you can't have it both ways. Really, they can't have it their way at all considering the Constitutional issues at stake, and the real problem is that they don't give a damn about their citizens in the first place.

Outsourcing strength

It seems to be the thing to do these days. People believe that they are somehow not qualified to protect themselves or their property because they are not "highly trained." Constantly being told that "experts agree" that they "will do more harm than good" if they resist, the _________(s) will just take away your ________(s) and kill you with it or hurt you more for resisting.

So the almost daily occurrence of piracy is not at all surprising considering that we have so many unarmed vessels floating around just waiting to be harvested by goons with rusty weapons.

But CTone, they're Highly Trained madmen!!! How do you expect anyone to repel such an onslaught of half starved men who barely know how to use their weapons?

I'm not against outsourcing violence on others behalf - military and police come to mind - as long as the people charging them with their protection are capable of providing their own protection as well. There should be no monopoly of force. Paying people to be vigilant while you sleep is a proven concept, but defending yourself on your own should never make you a vigilante.

With that said, why is it that the people insist on making ships defenseless? Really. Pirates are not invincible people who are trained to take down ships, and it doesn't take much effort to board the vessel with a half empty bolt action rifle when the handful of people on board are unarmed. And I'm sorry, but telling those on board that repelling boarders with rifles is futile, but repelling boarders with water hoses and beer bottles is a great idea.

Sure, some of the pirates have machine guns and RPGs, but it doesn't take a genius to see that a ship with a M2 Browning would make short work of a little boat full of armed crazies that was heading their way. And a couple of guys with Ruger Mini 14s would make the climb on board more treacherous than the ship would be worth.

What do we have to show for maintaining valuable ships full of defenseless people? An explosive increase in piracy, hostage taking, and murders.

When will we learn that being defenseless is stupid?

Update: The crew of Maersk Alabama has reported that they have taken back control of the ship, and that they have one pirate in custody; the rest have been cast back into the sea. No word on how this was accomplished, but good on em'.

Update: Well, FOX News reports that the crew was not armed:

"All the crew members are trained in security detail in how to deal with piracy," Maersk CEO John Reinhart told reporters. "As merchant vessels we do not carry arms. We have ways to push back, but we do not carry arms."

That's pretty silly, but in this case it did work. I'm sure we will have details soon.

Update: The pirates have the Alabama's Captain hostage, and are holding him on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean. Not good. It seems that the Captain surrendering was part of how the crew was able to re-take the ship.

On mass shootings

There was another one last night, in California of course, and one person is dead and four wounded.

I suppose if the shooter turns out to be Korean that the media will make hay out of it, but I think these shootings are just part of the breakdown of society that often accompany economic hardships. This breakdown is what I see and hear as the main reason for the uptick in firearm sales, and the reason that people are ordering ammunition to the point where the UPS man has gained twenty pounds of muscle from lifting cases of 7.62x39mm all day. Folks are scared.

My thoughts immediately shifted to this part of the article as it seems to be the reoccurring theme in any mass shooting:

"This is the last place this is supposed to happen,"

It doesn't matter how safe your neighborhood is, or how quiet your workplace; somebody somewhere is having more of a bad day than they can take, and when they finally let go there is only moments to stop them, not minutes.

You are the only one responsible for your own safety during those short moments, and your only hope for survival is to be prepared. Take that as you will.

Thugs shoot Marcus Lattrell's dog

Glenn Beck covers the story.

Those guys had no idea how close they came to being shot to death by a professional. With that I had to chuckle hearing Lattrell tell the story about spinning their car into the ditch, and then complain because he "couldn't get a shot on the driver" as he's chasing them at over one hundred miles an hour.

One of the scumbags is still at large.

Noise pollution

It takes a special type of person to build a home next to one of the largest military training facilities on the East coast, and then bitch about the noise.

These people think that Fort A.P. Hill owes them our tax money to fix their house because they were too stupid to think that the vibration from our warriors practicing their deadly craft on base would cause nail pops on their drywall.

This sums up everything:

"We came here expecting a quiet place. "

Yah, right next to a freaking military base. Geniuses, these two.

But then we have a man ironically named Boyd Wisdom who says:

"How could something so powerful and destructive be approved without an [environmental assessment] and public hearing? I would like to know what they are doing." He suggests that there is no location on base where that noise could be mitigated.

He's talking about a line charge, which is used to destroy mine fields.

Honestly, we have military bases for a reason, like for letting Soldiers and Marines use powerful and destructive things without having to get public permission to do so. Did he think that in building a house next to such an establishment that everything would just quiet down?

The more I keep reading the article, the more I shake my head:

"With 76,000 acres, you'd think they could figure out where to put this training" so as to not affect neighbors, said William Smith, a retired government worker, who moved to Portobago Bay 11 years ago with his wife, Sandra.

Well, with 3,794,066 square miles of United States, you would think that he would have figured out that putting up a house next to where bombs are dropped would be a stupid idea, but you would be wrong:

"We're all 100 percent behind the military. We understand. But this being the only place to do it? We know that's not true." They say they've contacted Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Rob Wittman about the noise.

Seriously? Excuse me mister G.I., but why do you have to drop your bombs so loud on that federal base made exclusively for dropping bombs? Why don't you drop them some where else?

The answer is because they built the base to drop bombs, and if the US Army decides to appease these folks and un-ass the base and move elsewhere, clueless citizens will build houses next to it and bitch about the noise.

Hypocrisy at it's finest

Tim Kaine must not be interested in re-election.

Vetoing a stack of pro gun bills, most of which passed with a two thirds majority in both the House and Senate, he shows how out of touch with reality he is with Virginians.

From his statements on his reasoning for the vetoes, it's obvious that he didn't bother to read the bills. Not only that, but he vetoed the bill that would allow Virginians with a CCW to carry concealed in a restaurant that serves alcohol:

"Allowing concealed weapons into restaurants and bars that serve alcohol puts the public, the employees, and our public safety officers at risk. I take seriously the objections of law enforcement to this measure."

First off, Virginia doesn't have "bars." All establishments in Virginia that serve alcohol that is consumed on premise also serve food, which makes them restaurants. You can carry openly in Applebees, and you can consume alcohol. Legally. This bill would make it illegal to drink while carrying your concealed firearm, so how does it put the public at risk? Now, say you're out shopping with your wife and decide to swing into Olive Garden for lunch, how does your wife open carry her firearm if she carries in her purse? Tuck it into her waistband? What if she's wearing a dress? Should she carry it in her hand? What do you do if you're carrying in an ankle holster?

That, my friends, is an infringement.

Second, Governor Kaine is a flat out hypocrite considering he signed Senate Bill 776 into law last year which allows Commonwealth Attorneys permitless carry of a firearm concealed or otherwise anywhere they damn well please, to include schools and restaurants which serve alcohol, and all that without any training whatsoever. So it's all fine and dandy for the people on his payroll, but it's unsafe for us mere citizens. Got that?

Next up is this statement on the veto of SB 1528:

"The state requires an applicant for a concealed weapons permit to take a written safety test to demonstrate that the individual understands how to use a weapon in a safe manner. Allowing the testing to be done online would weaken the ability of the Commonwealth to determine who is actually taking the test and open up opportunities for individuals to receive a permit under fraudulent circumstances with no guarantee that they can use a weapon safely."

That's the first I've ever heard of a written safety test to get your CCW training. It seems that he has his facts wrong, and again I don't think he bothered to read the bill.

Considering that Virginians love their firearms, and also considering that Kaine won the election on a small margin, he might want to reconsider shitting on the people who he wants votes from.

We must spend to save jobs!!!!

Unless those jobs are in the defense industry.

Dog parks and shopping malls, which are totally absent from the Constitution, need millions and billions of our hard earned money because it "creates jobs," yet spending money to provide for the common defense, which is specifically chartered to government in the Constitution, is wasteful spending that needs to be stopped.

What?!?

These are jobs that don't need to be "created" as they already exist. And when the hell did the F-22 Raptor become "outdated?"

DC scared of mass shootings?

Eleanor Holmes Norton, in a breathtaking display of ignorant foresightedness, actually believes that if DC stops shitting on citizen's right to bear arms that mass shootings will occur in the District!

No, really.

"In only the 25 days between March 10 and April 5, 53 people have been killed in mass murders by gunmen," Norton said in a release. "Yet, members of the House and Senate have not looked at the gun amendment, but have regarded it as just another routine attachment to a local D.C. bill. The bill would eliminate all local gun laws, making the city, including official Washington, more open to gun violence than any of the jurisdictions where the mass killings have occurred in March and April."

As if DC has not been open to mass killings all this time. It's only in the renowned strength of the imaginary powers of DC gun law that the violent masses have been restrained from getting firearms and killing so many people that they're piled six-by-six in the road.

Ass.

This is specifically why DC citizens don't deserve representation in Congress, aside from the Constitutional specifics. When citizens elect representatives of the caliber of Eleanor Holmes Norton, they are not far from destruction.

Varmint piercing bullets

So I'm all happy joy joy now that I have found reloading components for my rifles. I had almost run out of Sierra Matchkings in all sizes, and I had pretty much given up on finding large rifle primers.

This weekend I found all of that and then some. The large rifle primers were a particularly satisfying buy considering I only had about forty primers left. In reading various forums on reloading stuff it's no wonder why. I read stories from guys who complain about not being able to find primers because all the morons are "panic buying," but then in the same sentence they will say that Gander Mountain got a shipment in so they went and sold their wife's car and bought the whole damn pallet "just in case."

Thanks for that.

Fortunately, I'm way too busy in life to be able to shoot competitively, so by the time I'm ready I shouldn't have to buy any rounds for a season or two. For the time being, I will just have to spend time smoking groundhogs with my meticulously handmade cartridges that punch such neat little holes at distance.

Last night I got my spread set up to make 52 grain Sierra Matchkings, and after that I will kick out some 55 grain Hornady V-Max for the above mentioned groundhogs. Soon I will be turning out .308 Winchester as fast as possible, and hopefully do some load development if I can find some new cases. Time will tell.

Can gun control work?

ABC News, in a drastic change of direction on their anti-gun stand, interview Jim Jacobs, a New York University professor and criminologist who has studied gun control for most of his life, and has authored a book with the above title, who says that it's not possible to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals. Not with laws or otherwise.

The question of "if it saves at least one life, shouldn't we just try?" comes out, but he says the cost of countering that with gun control would be too high, and that there may be other consequences.

Of course the Brady Campaign was quoted in all of this, but Jacobs casts that aside by saying that the Brady Law may have "some very limited" impact in the attempted purchase of a firearm by felons, but that they would just get a gun from else ware.

Excellent work by ABC News. Go give it a look.

Infighting

Wow. Even badge carrying law enforcement officers can't be trusted by the Secret Service.

Strange.

High powered gun laws

Do not stop shootings or hostage takers.

BTW, is there such thing as a low powered rifle?

And the truth shall set you free

FOX News did some investigative journalism on the Mexican Gun Fiasco and managed to find some truth.

It's about time.

The "90% of guns seized from cartels" line that you keep hearing? It's more like 17%.

The article goes on to state that many of the automatic weapons come from over 100,000 Mexican soldiers that left their post and took their guns with them.

"The predominant source of guns in Mexico is Central and South America. You also have Russian, Chinese and Israeli guns. It's estimated that over 100,000 soldiers deserted the army to work for the drug cartels, and that ignores all the police. How many of them took their weapons with them?"

Ed Head, an instructor at Gunsight Academy in Arizona said:

Some guns, he said, "are legitimately shipped to the government of Mexico, by Colt, for example, in the United States. They are approved by the U.S. government for use by the Mexican military service. The guns end up in Mexico that way -- the fully auto versions -- they are not smuggled in across the river."

And there you have it.

Read the whole thing.

Update: Watch the video. Good stuff, huh? The reason most of the weapons such as select fire AK47s seized from the cartels are not traced back to the US is because they don't have serial numbers. How can they be traced without them? US firearms must have a serial number in order to be legally owned and transferred, with the exception of weapons made or imported before 1968. Good luck finding any of those in the US.

Update: AG Eric Holder is now saying that the US is not looking to change gun laws to stop over and under shotguns from being smuggled into Mexico:

Holder said the U.S. is not seeking to change any of its gun laws as part of the effort to curb weapons smuggling.

"I don't think our Second Amendment will stand in the way of what we have begun," he said.

Let's hope he means it.

Update: ABC News is still saying that guns are coming from the US, but tries to change the tone into something subtle that the casual reader will not pick up:

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reports that up to 95 percent of guns seized at scenes of drug violence in Mexico can be traced to U.S. commercial sources. These weapons are increasingly higher-powered, including .50 caliber rifles and armor-piercing ammunition.

So now it's 95%, huh? I would love to know where they got that number from, and why they didn't bother to tell the readers that the weapons were originally sold to the Mexican government.

Update: Damn!! ABC News put out a ton of articles on the Mexican Gun Farce yesterday. This one is the most interesting though:

Try to bring a refrigerator into Mexico in the back of your pickup, and you are almost certain to get stopped by Mexican customs officials.

Stick a couple of AK-47 rifles in your trunk, and chances are you'll whiz right through.

Chances are that if this article was printed on paper it wouldn't be worth letting your dog whiz on. This fantasy crap is somewhere in the vicinity of the "teddy bears are more regulated than guns" fiction that the media loves to spread. But there's more:

North of the border, however, the cartels simply pay straw buyers to pick up weapons at gun shops, gun shows or flea markets, then resell the arms to smugglers.

Perhaps in small amounts, and most of them are handguns. Now, we're getting into the good stuff here, and ABC News uses their single source of information, ATF Agent Tom Mangan, to disseminate the same lies that they have been spreading for at least a year:

"A year ago, we never saw those guns [Barrett .50 cal] going south into Mexico," said Tom Mangan, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "Now we refer to it as one of the weapons of choice."

Did you mention the hundreds, if not thousands of Barrett rifles that were sold to the Mexican army? Of course not. But Associated Press Writer ALEXANDRA OLSON did think it noteworthy to point out this garbage:

And while cartels get most of their high-caliber assault rifles from the U.S., they are turning to Central America for other military-grade weaponry like grenades and even the occasional rocket launcher.

"High caliber" weapons come from the US? Like M16s? The M16s that we sold to the Mexican government so they can outfit the army with them? Sorry, they fire the 5.56x45mm round which is a far cry from "high caliber."

"You're seeing truly military-type guns, like grenade launchers," Mangan said. "They're not coming from the U.S. The hand grenades that are being used, you're looking at that stuff migrating up from Central America."'

Wow! ATF Agent Tom Mangan says something true! Weird. But not so fast:

Experts also agree that the Mexican military, which is often outgunned by traffickers, has not been a significant source of weapons despite the potential for corrupt soldiers to sell out to the cartels.

Many of the cartels' grenades and other heavy weapons could be leftovers from Central America's civil wars, Mangan said.

Just who are these experts? I presume that you actually meant Agent Mangan, since he is the only person you retards seem to be able to get information from and he has no problem being your sock-puppet when you need him to be.

What your "expert" is saying is that the corrupt Mexican government has too big of a heart to sell US made M16s and M203s to the cartels, and that the Mexican soldiers don't bother to keep their issued M60s and M4s when they walk off the job. If I was "outgunned" by the cartels because I only had an M16 or an M60 I probably wouldn't keep it either. Who wants to fight with such inferior hardware anyways. We all know that real narco-terrorists outgun the army and their silly H&K G36s with those AKMSUs.

What do you get when you don't bother to investigate to find the truth, but instead rely on one idiot ATF agent? Junk.

(H/T to Seth)

Keeping inmates from getting machine guns

So let me get this straight. Inmates steal eleven handguns and five select fire Colt M16s from a Mississippi police department arms room four years ago because the ceiling was unsecured, and somehow it's the fault of Mississippi gun store owners for allowing straw purchases?

Someone please tell me that HOLBROOK MOHR of the Associated Press didn't get paid for this trash!

Anti-ship ballistic missile hysterics

And get a load of that title! Do you get it!!

KILL KILL Kill Kill kill kill. . . .

Awesome reporting there FOX!