Spree shooting in Finland

Update: Now the AP is reporting five people dead. Also, the AP doesn't even have the fundamental knowledge needed to report accurately on the type of weapon used. Way to go guys.

What a horrible thing for Finnish families to have to endure. Four deaths reported so far, and the gunman is still on the loose.

There are not too many details on the shooter yet. It hasn't been confirmed that the suspect is even the right guy, not to mention the circumstances leading to the shooting, but the press is already all over the gun control angle.

Who would have thought that big box reporters and journalists were such gamblers. How about waiting for some facts guys, and then get your blood dance on.

Yes, Finland has a strong gun culture; so it wouldn't be at all surprising for this ordeal to come to a swift end by some Finnish citizen closing the gunman's eyes with some well aimed fire from a Sako. Time will tell. Let's just hope that no more innocent lives are lost.

The MAC 10 Machine gun menace strikes again

This time in New Jersey where DEA agents find a MAC 10 Machine gun Kel-Tec SUB 2000 semi auto carbine. From the Spike TV show DEA:





Aaahh, fellas. . . .you should probably know that the gun is definitely not a machine gun.

Most law enforcement is not at all familiar with weapons other than the ones that they are issued, and even then they sometimes have problems. I realize that these guys probably don't know or care about the exact details of the gun that they just confiscated, but they do make it a point to throw around the words "MAC 10" and "Machine gun" quite a bit, and the difference is no small potatoes. This guy was probably charged as being in possession of such, and if so than he would have to defend himself against those charges. I don't know NJ firearm law, but federal firearm law is what the DEA is accusing this guy of breaking with that weapon, even going as to tell him that the sentence will be 10 years.

There is also the fact that they caught him with like 40 pounds of pot, and that having a gun in conjunction with pot ups his sentence. I got that. It just makes one wonder what other kind of simple stuff they get wrong, and what the impact of that could be.

I also note that in this episode, these agents pull up next to a guy who had gone into and come out of a store that they were watching, and basically jumped out at him while in plain clothes and took him down. One of the agents didn't have even his badge visible. I shudder to think of something like that happening to me in a case of mistaken identity. What would your reaction be if you were walking down the sidewalk when two cars come to a quick stop next to you and several guys dressed like scumbags come jumping out at you? Scary huh?

Armed churchgoing citizen thwarts armed robbery in Maryland!!

Actually, the churchgoing citizen is a cop. Mere citizens are too incompetent to be trusted to carry a gun to church.

"They saw the officer, he saw them, pulled out their weapon...fired, he fired back...as he tried to find cover, they ran off,” said Cpl. Clinton Copeland, Prince George’s Co. Police Dept.

Oh, by the way, the reason the Alexandria Police Department is supporting this shooting without an investigation is because the cop is one of theirs. Understandable that they would stand up for their brother officer, but the difference is that they give no such consideration for other people. We're not one of them.

If some regular Joe like me were on my way to church and shot it out with scumbags, do you think I would be given the same support? Me neither.

If you're a terrorist and you know it, stomp your feet!

Every time airline security comes up in the news, I'm reminded of the movie Idiocracy. I didn't like that movie, but it sure does hit the nail on the head when you compare our current security situation with Luke Wilson's character, Joe Bauer, getting released from prison by clueless guards. This morning I'm hearing that they're frisking babies, doing "body searches," telling passengers to "keep their hands visible," and all sorts of other measures that don't make any sense, but are being enforced anyways because the confusion displayed by TSA employees is somehow beneficial because it also confuses terrorists.

I'm waiting with bated breath for TSA to announce their new initiative to make every passenger stomp their feet while rubbing their stomach and patting their head, and then swear an oath on the Koran to not be a terrorist before letting them board.

This is the movie Idiocracy played out in real life. Raise your hand if you're OK with that.

And I can't help but to look on in wonder over how degraded my fellow man's spirit is to not only endure such measures, but to actually embrace them. The public is being told to bring snacks and books to read while standing in long lines in order to "keep calm," and that they need to "be ready for anything."

Does this sound like a free country to you?

Stop criminals from offending guns!

It's rude and offensive! Guns have rights!

Enough of my satire. What we have here this morning is the announcement that 2009 will be DC's year of having the lowest number of murders in 45 years. I often cast a lot of negative light on DC, but I'm glad to see some real progress here. That city can often be a battlefield, and that less people are getting killed there is something to commend.

DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier told FOX DC why there was a reduction in murders, and I was interested in her response:

The first is focusing on those repeat violent gun offenders,” said Chief Cathy Lanier in an interview in her office Monday. "It's a small number of people who consistently carry guns and engage in repeat violent gun offenses. If you can focus on those people and get them off the street that is the number one key ingredient."

To me, the term "repeat violent gun offenders" is a misnomer. I know what she is implying, that they are focused on catching violent criminals who use guns to their advantage, but that's not what the words add up to, and is the reason for my mocking title to this post. Either way, it makes sense to go after the violent offenders, and I can see how that helped. To further this idea, why not focus on keeping the violent criminals in prison to start with; you know, not let them become "repeat" violent offenders? Why is it that criminals get a second, third, or fourth chance at showing how little they care about human life?

I opine that instead of paroling a thug who robbed a bank at gunpoint, or some crackhead who beat his girlfriends face in with a brick, that DC would instead. . . . oh I don't know. . . .keep them behind bars for another forty or fifty years. That's a nuance, right? Instead of a ten year sentence that is never fully served, just keep them for a little extra just to be sure that if they do get to rejoin society, that they will be using a walker instead of a Jennings.

What do you think?

Getting Frisky

Americans do indeed love them some "extra security." Love it. Sure, you can pat me down Mr. TSA man. Make me feel safe sir!

I'm sorry, but anyone who thinks that these new safety precautions for air travel will make them safe is a fucking moron. Really.

At this point I absolutely could not disagree more with the status of airport security. And the question begs to be asked: just how stupid and incompetent does a government employee have to be to get fired for saying something absolutely retarded?

Another question is what exactly is the point of having all these government lists if they do nothing to stop an attack? These are the lists that congress wants to use to ban people from having guns? Lists that are there only because they tie the word "terror" to a name? Perfect! What could possibly go wrong?

This whole system is ass backwards, ineffective, and against all known common sense, to say nothing of the constitutional issues. Unfortunately, there is no turning this ship around. You know it, and I know it. Captain Beautiful is going to do an immediate but somehow thorough eight to twenty month review on transportation security and, absent any fault whatsoever with the creation of the most complicated and asinine security infrastructure known to man, come up with the ingenious idea to throw a boatload of taxpayer money at the problem.

Coolest Christmas video ever!

A history of violence

More details emerge from the post office standoff in VA.

No doubt there are some people jumping up and down about Warren Taylor's alleged service in the Marines - which may or may not be true - and correlating it to the Homeland Security memo warning about violent, anti-government, right wing veterans who pose a threat on the country.

What has been confirmed is that Taylor is a bona fide violent psycho that served time for shooting his ex-girlfriend three times while she was on her way to work, while he was wanted for having sex with a child. That he was a free man that had the time to plan and execute an attack on a post office instead of being behind bars for the rest of his life is the direction to be focusing the blame.

Someone who is unstable enough to try their damnedest to kill another human being should not be allowed free. How many times does this lesson have to be demonstrated.

It does not matter whether he is a veteran, right winger, left winger, environmental activist, or a transvestite rodeo clown, he had previously demonstrated that he could not be trusted to be among us in society.

My bet is that we will continue to see proven violent people prey on innocent people for years to come, and that all that was needed to stop such an attack was to simply not let them walk out through the prison gates.

Merry Christmas!!

I hope everyone is enjoying themselves!

Stay safe out there.

One tough Marine

To think that at his age, this man is still serving his country.

A Korean war veteran, you have to read his story to believe it.

Sanford, thankful to be wearing a protective shrapnel jacket on his upper half, flipped over into a trench at the bottom of Hill 104 and waited. He figured the grenade would explode before it reached him, but it didn’t. It exploded on top of him.

On top of that, virtually his entire unit was killed. Truly horrible. For him to still be as driven as he is is a testament to the Marine Corps.

Semper Fi sir!

Hostage standoff in VA

"It proves it can happen anywhere at anytime."

Indeed. I'm glad things ended well.

I see what you did there

To follow up on the off-duty DC cop who pulled a gun on a crowd of snowball throwing people, DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier has released a statement.

Statement from Chief Cathy L. Lanier, (MPD) DC Police

As Chief of Police, I wanted to respond to the many messages received to our police listserv groups last night in reference to the off-duty police officer’s actions on last Saturday.

I have reviewed the video clips and heard from the public. It is very obvious to me that the officer pulled his service weapon in response to the snowballs hitting his vehicle.
I have no doubt about this, nor has the officer denied the accusations.

Let me be very clear in stating that I believe the actions of the officer were totally inappropriate!
In no way, should he have handled the situation in this manner.

We have taken swift action by placing him on non-contact status until all the facts are gathered and discipline is handed down.

This officer’s conduct, in no way, reflects the training and the standards we hold each officer to at the Metropolitan Police Department.

During the course of this horrendous snow storm, our officers worked hard and made many significant arrests for drug and burglary crimes, as well as gun recoveries.

What is so disturbing is that, up until this incident, I had received several messages of thanks from the many people our officers assisted when their cars became disabled in the blizzard conditions.

So it does not sit well with me that the negative actions of one officer has become “viral” during a time when so many officers have done so much good.

I can assure you that we do take this matter very seriously and will handle it appropriately.

The video clips and the number of witnesses willing to come forward have proven a point I have reiterated, you are the additional eyes and ears in the community and your feedback in solving criminal complaints is crucial. My office is receptive to this kind of information.

I encourage all residents to remain active in our fight against crime and to know that at MPD, we believe no one is above the law.

Cathy Lanier Chief of Police
Metropolitan Police Department Washington, DC

She seems to be taking things seriously, and she didn't make any excuses for the officer's actions. Good to go.

Now check out the festering garbage statement from "DC Police" - sounds like the Police Union - which may or may not represent the feelings of the majority of the department:

STATEMENT FROM DC POLICE

December 20, 2009

INCIDENT INVOLVING SNOWBALL THROWING CROWD IN THE 1400 BLOCK OF U STREET, NW

(Washington, DC)- The Metropolitan Police Department is looking into the circumstances involving the report of officers pulling their guns on a crowd that had been throwing snowballs in the area of 14th and U Streets, NW.

On Saturday, December 19, 2009, an off-duty MPD member was reportedly operating his personal vehicle in the 1400 block of U Street, NW, when the vehicle was suddenly pelted with a barrage of snowballs. The member who was in plainclothes, stopped his vehicle to inspect for any damage that may have occurred. He then reportedly identified himself and went to investigate a crowd that had gathered as being the possible origins of the projectiles. Due to the number of individuals in the crowd and developing traffic conditions, the member called for assistance.

Arriving officers from the Third District responded to the scene for the report of a possible man with a gun incident unfolding at that location. Responding officers cautiously approached the scene as is protocol with a potentially dangerous assignment such as an armed individual, but at this time there is no evidence that they pointed any weapons in the direction of the crowd or at any individuals. Those officers were quickly able to ascertain that the individual in question was indeed a fellow sworn member and were able to deescalate the situation quickly without incident or injury.

The original videotape footage shown yesterday by a local media outlet did not appear to visibly show the off-duty member drawing his weapon during the course of his actions. However, the department has subsequently received additional images and statements that would seem to support the allegation that the off-duty member did pull a gun. The Metropolitan Police Department is intent on conducting a full investigation in determining all of the exact circumstances surrounding this incident.

The Metropolitan Police Department has truly appreciated the cooperation from the community as we all team together to tackle the many challenges encountered during these severe weather conditions.

Let's start with the title to this thing. They (whoever that is) call it the "Incident Involving Snowball Throwing Crowd," but that is not what this is about. Sure, it involved them, about as much as it involved people driving through the intersection in Hummers; but the Chief Lanier didn't assign snowball throwers to desk duty, nor did she take away their badge and gun. Well, maybe she's taken away their guns, but you know what I mean. This is all about the inappropriate actions of a cop, and not about the actions of people throwing snow.

Next, we have the all to known scare tactic of making the perpetrator out to be the victim: the officer in question, the one who pulled his gun, had his vehicle "suddenly pelted with a barrage of snowballs." Well holy shit! A barrage of deadly assault snowballs? Were these malicious individuals throwing them in rapid-fire? Was his vehicle OK? The report from this probably calls them "foreign missiles," or some other silly name. If the crowd was throwing ice chunks, then a driver could have a legitimate claim for personal damages. But they weren't throwing ice, they were throwing snowballs; the same kind that your kids throw at each other's faces for fun. Regardless, if I stopped my car because some people damaged my fender with a chunk of ice, and I pulled my gun out, I would be in jail within minutes. Period.

Next, he reportedly identified himself, which I'm getting the feeling is in question, before pulling his gun and looking for the little terrorist who threw the deadly "projectiles" (told you so). I guess "wadded up spheres of snowflakes" doesn't emphasize the obvious danger to society. Way to go. So in the citizens complaint against the officer, instead of saying that he pulled his gun, they should call it something more "official" like - "the officer pulled out an object intended to fire single or multiple projectiles by means of an explosion of a combustible material from one or more barrels when held in one hand."

Sounds pretty stupid, huh? That's because it is. This phenomenon is more commonly referred to as making a mountain out of a molehill, which is something expected of very young children, and not of a police union.

Lastly, I'm going to point out to that convoluted paragraph second from last regarding the video footage "not appear[ing] to visibly show the off-duty member drawing his weapon during the course of his actions." Umm, in all of the video it was completely clear that the cop had drawn his gun, and he in fact confirmed it on sight, as well as to Chief Lanier. Exactly why these morons think it is not apparent is what's unclear. At this point, there is no allegation here folks. There is only what the repercussions are to this guy.

I wouldn't trust him as a sworn law enforcement agent in my area. Are you kidding me? If one of my county's Sheriff's deputies pulled his weapon on me and whomever while we're throwing snowballs, I surely wouldn't be trusting him or her to keep the peace anymore. Those are the types of people you call the Sheriff's department to come and take away.

I commend Chief Lanier for taking action, and I condemn the police union for using childish games to make the cop in question out to be some sort of victim. Shame on y'all.

Hatchet job

ROCKVILLE, Md. - Maryland State police have arrested a man they say struck a vehicle with a hatchet in what they called a road rage incident.

Tis' the season. Be careful out there.

Keeping the peace

It seems some DC cops don't have enough criminals to catch, people to serve, or violence to prevent.

During a historic blizzard, a day that comes around about once every decade or more, a brave DC detective decides to pull his pistol on a group of DC residents having a snowball fight.

What a warrior.

Is is too much to ask that that man be fired?

Some more perspective

I was skimming through pictures on MilitaryPhotos.net this morning and when I came across the thread about Weapons Seized from Drug Cartels by Mexico's Military and LE, I saw something that I'd like to point out.

Notice the first picture on post #187: those shiny gold thingies that were confiscated from some cartel members are 40mm grenades, the same exact type of grenades that can be seen here on post #8889, third and fifth picture down, in the hands of the Mexican military on their MK19 grenade launchers.

Weird huh? I wonder where the cartels got those grenades from? US gun shows?

If you cruise on through those pictures of the cartels, you'll notice that those grenades appear in lots of photos. There are also hand grenades galore.

I just wanted to keep discrediting the "Mexican drug cartels outgun the Mexican government with guns bought from US gunshows" meme.

A tragedy with a happy ending

(The New York Post) - A career criminal who slaughtered three members of a family in their apartment in New York's trendy Upper West Side Thursday plunged to his death after tripping over his baggy pants.

That's the gist of it. The killer shot and stabbed his victims but ultimately spared New Yorkers the expense of housing his sorry ass in prison for the rest of his life. So let it be known what an oozing, pustulant piece of dogshit Hector Quinones was, and let's ridicule him for tripping over his stupid pants and falling three stories to his death.

The victims didn't deserve death despite having drugs in their house. There are many reasons I don't have drugs in my house, one of them being that I don't want scumbags with guns and knives paying me a visit. This is alleged to be common sense. Regardless, people living in their homes peacefully deserve to live their lives to the fullest.

Now we have to focus on Hector Quinones, and why he is running around with a gun and killing people. Rational folk know that scumbags use a variety of weapons to accomplish their deeds -- they're modus operendi necessitate it, and they will end up with a gun if they want one. Scumbags know how to get guns, and nothing will change that. What I want to show is that this particular scumbag, like 99.9% of violent, murderous scumbags in the US, was a career violent felon. Here's his record:

The suspect, who has 14 prior arrests for offenses that include manslaughter, assault, drugs and robbery, knew Rodriguez Sr. from when they were in prison together, sources said.

So, why was this guy out of prison? What the hell does a psychopath have to do to get an all expenses paid ticket to Sing Sing for the rest of his or her life? Would he have finally gotten a life without parole sentence for killing three people if he had lived?

Time after time after time these douchebags kill someone, and, being violent felons with prior arrests because they have amply demonstrated that they cannot be trusted, should have never seen the light of day. Who the fuck are releasing these people from prison? This is negligence on an unforgivable level from the elements of law enforcement that decide to let these animals loose on society, be it the cops, judges, jury, prosecutor, prison warden, whatever. Why are the NYC residents not screaming for the head of whomever signed off on this guy's release?

I'll tell you what, if my county releases some piece of shit back into my community, and I find out about it I'm going to be one of the many other steely eyed citizens with pickets, pitchforks and torches screaming at the public servant outside his or her building. Tar and feathers may be included.

The people who we as a society entrust with public offices that are supposed to protect society by arresting violent scumbags and ensuring that they stay out of sight are expected to perform as we pay them to. I can see giving someone a second chance for drugs, or robbery under certain circumstances, but racking up charge after charge of offenses that hurt innocent people is grounds for putting them away forever. A jury doesn't have the stomach to kill him? Cool beans; stick him in an 8' x 8' cell for 23 hours a day for the rest of his life. Let him go so he can go out and hurt someone? Someone like my family? Better knock that shit off. Even the morons that run the court in cities other than mine endanger every American with senseless decisions like this one. They should be held accountable.

Climate Change

So it looks like the blizzard in my AO may just break the record of 21". That's some climate change! I went out this morning to shovel the 12" of snow off the deck so that by tomorrow afternoon, when we get the 12 more inches, the deck won't collapse.




Two hours after I cleared the snow off we already have another 3" sitting on it. Keep that in mind as we have another 24+ hours of this.

I've been on travel all this week, and I got in yesterday afternoon after a ride through the Blue Ridge Mountains; luckily I just made it ahead of the storm.

On another note, I was cleaning the 308 before heading to Kentucky on travel earlier this week, and I noticed the roll mark on the barrel that indicated a 1:10" twist instead of the 1:12" that Fulton Armory advertises for their current barrels, so I was wrong. That may explain why the gun loves some 175 grain bullets. I'm pretty happy about it.

I have made up some new handloads to try out, but I haven't really had the time to shoot them. I shot some loads a couple of weeks ago that are 168 grain Hornady match sitting on top of 44 grains of Reloader 15 in a Winchester case, but the shooting conditions were less than ideal and I ended up shooting off one of the marker stakes on my chronograph. That explains why my group sucked. That's actually the second time I hit one of those stakes, and I won't even go into what happened to my last chronograph. That's a story for another time.

I also loaded some 175 grain rounds with 45 grains of Varget in a Winchester case, as well as some with 42.5 grains of RL 15 to see if I could duplicate the factory 175 grain Federal Gold Medal Match rounds that grouped so well this past fall. Time will tell how those do. The weird thing about those rounds are that I had previously pulled some of those bullets to find out what powder they used, and I had a couple of those bullets sitting around. Federal advertises them as the Sierra Match King bullet, which is what I am loading, but the rounds pulled are longer than the ones I bought. Interesting huh? There is a post over at Sniper's Hide where I show pictures of the powder from the pulled rounds, - the post is about how to copy Federal's GMM cartridge. It seems Federal has resorted to some trickery with powder selection to throw the masses of reloaders off, and it would seem that they do the same with bullets.

When this global warming subsides, I will shoot some groups and brag about them here for all to see. Stay warm!

Machine pistol terror

My FOX DC is still parroting the "machine pistol" meme from the story earlier last week about the rapper pulling a semi-auto MAC-10 and shooting at a cop. Read on down to get your fill on the dreaded "gun show loophole," which is odd considering the scumbag didn't get the gun from a gunshow: the gun was purchased legally from a VA gunshop by an unidentified woman who passed the background check.

It's weird that the Tiahrt Amendment didn't stop the identification of the origin of the semi-automatic automatic pistol. No mention of that.

Can't imagine why that is either.

Tragic hunting accident

Near my AO, in King George county VA.

Prayers for this woman's family. I could not imagine that pain.

There are some real idiots in the comments section, but the sister of the girl killed sets things straight. This incident is under investigation, but it seems as though it was an unfortunate freak accident.

Light bloggage

Yesterday I was forced into ceding the right-of-way to a teenager on a back road, and the outcome was hitting a large ditch and several trees at speed in my XTerra. This morning I am waiting for the action of my insurance company to see if my axle is bent, as well as find out if the two front tires facing opposite directions will cause premature tire wear.

For now, you're not going to hear much from me.

One thing I would like to point out this morning is how much cooler TV was way back in the day. My kids are watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and I have to find Yukon Cornelius as the best character of the show, with his big knife and revolver on his belt. Unheard of by today's standards. Funny thing is that none of the reindeer notice the grips in his revolver are made of stag: