Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Armed criminals on "Gun Free" utopian campus?

That's, like, a double bad thing to do; maybe even triple. Someone should have told these scumbags that there are clearly marked signs saying that guns are illegal on campus, and then showed them D.C. Official Code 7–2501.01, and then, perhaps, told them that robbery was illegal as well. Then maybe they would have gone home peacefully.

Common sense folks.

And as you can clearly see, it is totally reasonable to make adults defenseless because you never know when an armed DHS officer will stumble upon your accosters and save the day. There's nothing to fear!

Update: It's another one!

Update on the Philly Police Officer shooting

My previous story here.

It seems that the scumbag was let out of prison after shooting a victim during a carjacking, and had a very violent disposition:

According to police, Giddings was arrested back in August of 1998 for a carjacking, in which he shot the victim twice in the legs and stole $100. Giddings was sentenced to 6-12 years behind bars.

While in prison, police say Giddings was accused of 27 infractions, and found guilty on 18 of those. In addition, police say Giddings was kicked out of two prisons during his sentence.

Giddings was paroled on August 18, 2008. He spent a week at a halfway house at 12th and Bainbridge before disappearing.

Shortly after, police attempted to pull him over for a traffic violation, and he ran off. Officers caught up to Giddings and a fight ensued. Giddings escaped, and four officers were hurt. An arrest warrant was issued after that incident.

During that incident, according to police, Giddings told friends he "would not be taken alive." "Our understanding was, after he assaulted the officers, he made a statement that he would not go back to prison, and he would take down any officer that tried to take him to prison," said Capt. James Clark.

"He was a dangerous individual, and he demonstrated that over and over and over again," said Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey.

Thanks for the hindsight Chuck. It would seem that the Philly gov't dropped the ball on this one, but we know what will get the blame.

Seriously! Is it that hard to keep violent people behind bars? Who cares about the scumbags childhood, or how his quality of life is. If you commit a violent crime against a person then you deserve no quality of life.

Concrete. Bars. Concertina wire. Locked in a box with other violent people that don't like you; that is what is deserved. Stop letting these folks back out into the world to maim and kill.

Of note is that the gun that scumbag Daniel Giddings used was quickly traced, proving for the 1,285th time that the Tiahrt Amendment does not inhibit firearms traces by state or local law enforcement.

Police recovered the weapon at the scene and say Giddings had fired all rounds from the weapon.

Authorities say they've determined that the weapon, and several others, were purchased by a man named Jason Mack of South Carolina back in 2006. The ATF is now questioning
Mack.

How could they kill without guns?

Too bad this woman died a needless death. No doubt she would have had a chance if she had been armed, or at least had the option, but California doesn't allow it because she's not professional enough to know when her life is at stake, nor does she have the ninja skills needed to wield such a small portable device. If only she were a well connected anti-gun celebrity, then all of that wouldn't matter.

My main question is how is it that two scumbags could rob and kill with such little effort when all they're armed with is knives? Such instruments are so 19th century; everyone knows that guns are the only tools these days that give an individual power over another. Then again, if Roshni Singh had had a gun then her attackers would have just taken it away, right? Don't criminals study disarming techniques and pistol skills at the same secret gun training facilities that cops do?

How is it, again, that those gun laws are helping? Disarming your citizens should be a crime.

Letting scumbags wander the earth

What in the world was Indiana thinking letting this guy out after serving only half his sentence, much less letting him out at all.

The dad did what he had to do and strangled the goblin to death in the hallway, although there are easier ways to stop a naked, knife wielding masked man without breaking a sweat.

What a creepy story.

What? School staff can't take your kids home?

I have a hard time judging this woman, but at that point she should have been taking a legal approach vice a physical one. I would be irate too if my children were taken to some stranger's home by school staff. What were they thinking?

Maria's father, James Malloy Jr., said the family was upset because the girls were brought home without permission.

"We're trying to figure out 'who are they?' How'd they just walk out the school with our kids?"

A school nurse practitioner told officials that 14-year-old Maria was acting "visibly upset and exhibiting odd behavior." School spokesperson Ebony Pugh said the nurse also noted Maria was "pulling her hair and scratching her face and didn't know what was happening."

"She's like, oh well, the way you acting, like you have a mental problem. I'm like, no, my stomach just hurting," Maria Malloy said.

Too bad we know which side the state is going to take.
"So my wife, she was mad. She's just mad because they've been doing this for years…playing our daughter, our kids. Talking about we don't take them to the hospital, we don't care about their health. And we do. We got 10 of them," James Malloy said.
Sir, didn't you hear? The state knows best, so it's OK to hand over your kids. Really. What could go wrong?

The difference in this story is that my breaking point wouldn't have been the "mental illness" comment, but when I found out they took my kids home with them. That's where I would press charges. The only point where I would get physical is if they were in the process of taking my kids outside or putting them in the car. No way would I let that happen. Molon Labe.

Schools suck these days, and I don't trust anyone employed within that corrupt system. I know that I'm going to have to watch my kids school closely because I'm sure that we're going to disagree about a lot. My main concern is that many schools want to parent you kids instead of teaching them.

Homeschooling sounds more appealing every day.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Movie Guns XXV

I'm back in my own home for this post, but the format is the same as the last couple of posts because I took the frames from the film last week. The pictures do not, however, have the silly black bars at the top. I remember when TV went from the 4:3 aspect ratio to the 16:9 ratio. I resisted the change at first, and had to deal with the dreaded black bar "letter box" while watching movies for awhile, but then when I made the change to the 16:9 ratio, nothing changed. Movies still have those stupid bars. Did they change the ratio again? I wish they would get with the program and put everything back the way it was.

Anyways, today I bring you the film Smokin' Aces. There is a lot to love about this movie, and it does leave a little to be desired. I got the feeling that only a few of the actors received any sort of advice about how to handle a weapon, and there is some realism issues throughout, but the gunfights are great, and the film is a showcase for Smith and Wesson revolvers.

The first shot is from the title page, and it shows a STI Executive 1911 that isn't seen throughout the rest of the film:
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Next we have some old school FBI agents firing 4" Colt Official Police revolvers:
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The storyline starts to cover the various assassins that are to kill Buddy Israel (Jeremy Piven), who is a wanna be mobster and magician. Here is a picture of one of Israel's crew (played by the film's director, Joe Carnahan) holding a M4 type carbine during a robbery:
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One of the assassins is Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan), who uses a pair of Skorpion Vz61s to gun down five men:
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Three of the assassins are the Tremor brothers, Darwin, Jeeves, and Lester (Chris Pine, Kevin Durand, and Maurey Sterling, respectively); two of which are seen here wielding a Glock and an unknown revolver:
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The Tremor brothers gun down three more assassins - Dupree, Deeks, and Elmore (Ben Affleck, Peter Berg, and Martin Henderson, respectively) via drive by in a parking lot, the latter of which survives. Jeeves is using a M3 Grease gun, and Darwin is using a Sten Mk II:
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Two more assassins are Sykes (Alicia Keys) and Watters (Taraji Henderson). Sykes loads up a Glock 19, a Magnum Research Baby Eagle, and a S&W Model 642 (seen further down):
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Watters is using a Barrett M82A1 with a US Optics SN3 3.2X17 scope, which is all set up in a very poor hide:
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Watters some how talked US Optics into cutting this ridiculous reticule into the scopes glass, which she uses to oogle Sykes:
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There is lots of movie between this point and where the shooting starts; but I'm not here to explain the whole movie to you, so we're gonna skip ahead to where Soot takes out one of Israel's guys, Hugo, who is armed with a 1911, with a suppressed EAA Witness:
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Agents Messner (Ryan Reynolds) and Carruthers (Ray Liotta) are on their way to the hotel where the shooting is about to go down, and Messner does a chamber check on his H&K USP:
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Carruthers gets into a scrap with Acosta (Nestor Carbonell) inside the close confines of an elevator, and he draws his H&K USP from a strong side belt holster before Acosta stabs him in the knuckles with a spike:
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Carruthers switches hands and starts shooting Acosta, who has a Beretta Tomcat hidden in his sleeve. Acosta fires 16 rounds from his Tomcat without reloading, which makes sense when you look at the third picture below to see that it stovepiped:
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Sykes arives, sees the two dying guys in the elevator, and draws her Glock 19:
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Messner and a bunch of cops and other agents walk onto the floor outside of the elevator, and Sykes is trapped inside. She signals Watters with a pen lazer, and Watters lights them up with the M82A1. You can see the blank casing in the air:
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This is where realism starts to fall off. The .50 BMG round that the Barrett is firing is very powerful, for sure, but it will not blow people thirty feet. Physics people, physics. The round is capable of removing limbs, and generally making a mess of the human body, but if the round did have the power to physically knock a 200 lb. man back thirty feet, then it [the recoil] would knock Watters 100 lb. ass back sixty feet. See Newtons third law of motion.

Anyways, Messner and the other agents start to blindly return fire at Watters, who is sitting in a hotel about 500 meters out; I'm not really sure why. If a cop starts to fire a handgun or shotgun indiscriminately at a building then they would definitely be put in prison. Here is Messner firing his USP, and during this he executes a perfect reload before firing out the window at a target that he can't see:
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Here is a cop firing a pistol gripped shotgun of unknown make out the window at a target that is about 450 yards outside of his range:
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Two cops, who are obviously untrained actors, come around the corner with guns raised:
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Acosta regains conciousness and pulls an unfluted S&W Model 640 on Sykes, who is still in the elevator:
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Carruthers regains conciousness and kills Acosta with a S&W 340PD:
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Meanwhile, Soot has infiltrated Israel's hotel room disguised as Hugo and killed one of his body guards with the suppressed EAA Witness. In the bathroom, Sir Ivy (Common) - a close associate of Israel's - is trying to kill Israel with a 4" S&W 500 because of Israel's betrayal, and he fires at least 10 rounds out of it before reloading:
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What is surprising is that Israel hit Sir Ivy in the head with a playing card instead of shooting him with the Sig P232 that he had on the bathroom sink next to all his drugs:
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The security guards outside of Israel's room come bursting in with their Beretta 92Fs in a close body hold. They seem to know how to handle themselves in a realistic manner. I don't know a whole lot about executive protection, but they handle their weapons well:
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They take Sir Ivy in custody with flexcuffs and take him outside. While they are waiting for the elevator, the Tremor brothers are inside of it preparing for their assault of Israel's room. The security team know something is up, and some have Sig P226s in a close body hold:
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. . . while Jeeves Tremor comes bailing out of the elevator with a Striker shotgun, a chainsaw, a splitting maul, and what looks like a Desert Eagle in a vertical shoulder holster, but I can't tell for sure:
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Lester has a double barreled shotgun:
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Darwin takes down one of the guards with a Glock 18, then he pulls two machetes out of his waistband and kills one security guard right as his vest takes two rounds from the guards Beretta 92F. Notice that he's wearing a shotgun shell bandolier with no shells in it:
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Several agents are firing back with Glocks, and one of them has a Remington 870 Express:
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Sir Ivy, still in flexcuffs, kills Jeeves and Lester with a Beretta 92F that one of the guards dropped:
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At this point, Darwin is the last of the three brothers standing, and Sykes darts out of the elevator and puts a S&W 642 to his neck:
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Her 642 is seen later when there is a standoff between Messner and Sykes, with Sir Ivy in the background:
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In a real situation like this, a really real FBI agent would have shot her in the head without a moments hesitation, but Hollywood likes to believe that the Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) concept also works outside of the realm of strategic nuclear warfare. -3 points for lack of realism.

Back in the hotel room, Soot is about to kill Isreal with a syringe, and Israel is about to kill himself with the S&W Performance Center Model 629 Weighted Barrel that he took from the bodyguard that was killed by Soot:
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Before either one of them succeeds, a FBI tactical team busts with H&K MP5 that I originally thought was the PDW model for some reason, but is not, and one of them looks like he has a Sig P220 in a thigh holster, but I could be wrong:
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Last, but not least, we have Elmore - the assassin who survived the drive by earlier - aquiring a blued 1911, probably a Colt, which he uses to shoot Darwin in the back without needing to aim, or even look in the direction he was shooting:
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At first, he didn't even have the hammer back, but he did thumb it back to emphasize his point, because that scares people who know nothing about guns. It's telling that Hollywood doesn't have the slightest clue on how to operate the single action 1911; a century old weapon that's popularity has made it the most beloved sidearm of the US. Idiots.

It's a great movie anyhow. The gunfights are over the top, but somehow are still awesome. Combine that with the many types of weaponry, as well as a gratuitous amount of S&W revolvers, and you have a kick ass shoot em' up flick that deserves a watch.