Shooty

I fired of a baker's dozen from the LR308 this afternoon, and things weren't up to par. I'm convinced that the barrel nut is not as tight as it needs to be. There is just no other explaination for the inconsistent performance.

Updates if it does the trick.

My bad

The EPA dropped its proposal to regulate/ban lead bullets because it realized it had no authority to do so. I bet there was way more to it than that, and there were probably some congress critters making phonecalls and such. Elections are right around the corner and all.

The circus is in town

It seems like the more people that cram their way into town, the more the violent weirdos show up. Why can't married folk lead normal lives and love their spouse without having to resort to kidnapping and raping homeless hookers, beating them with sticks, and then stabbing them with kitchen utensils?

Enough already! Go somewhere else!

That's not a gun. . . . .

. . . . THIS is a GUN!!!

The A-10 is saahweeeeet!! You have to watch the whole video to see the finale.

Your ammunition rights are under attack!

When a political critter can't take away the guns, they go for the next best thing - ammo.

It doesn't seem likely at all that this EPA petition will get enacted, but still. . . .whoa!

Baltimore cop is fired

I vaguely recall seeing these videos sometime back whereas a Baltimore cop goes ballistic on a young skateboarder. I almost passed by this article this morning, as I don't find much interest in YouTube justice unless it is over something extreme, but watching this guy get his rocks off by yelling at a teenager piqued my interest.

When my kids become youthful teenagers, who may not be all that appreciative towards police officers or the day to day tribulations they face, I would still expect that they are treated better than the lad in the video. Think about if you had to drive over to some incident between your kid and some cop, and the cop is calm as a cucumber but your kid is mouthy and disrespectful, or even just really wound up. My default reaction would be to deal with the less childlike person, which nine times out of ten is probably the cop. Not so much in the video here.

Anyways, the cop was fired, which means nothing, really, as he will surely be picked up by another department. The act though was appropriate, and may send a message to that ten percent that might take their job a little too serious.

New cutting edge holster material sighted!

Duct tape! - http://whitetrashrepairs.com/white-trash/gun-holder/

H/T to my wife

Premeditated spree shooting

Sponaugle's sister, Kitty Cooper, was among the wounded. Cooper says Sponaugle indicated months ago that he planned to kill his son and two others relatives.

And Cooper's husband, Mark A. Cooper Sr., who also was wounded Sunday, said Sponaugle told a relative two days before the shootings that "he was going to kill a bunch of people."

What more do you need? If someone indicates that they're going to kill a bunch of people, what do you do with that information? Why did these folks sit on this, and not act?

This is the same story that I posted about yesterday. Who knows why they didn't do anything about it; maybe they didn't believe him. These folks that live out in the middle of a nowhere county are known for following through with what they say.

Dog's worst friend

This is one bizarre story. It's starts with a drunken man shooting his dogs indiscriminately and ends with a police standoff. All human beings involved are alive and well, but several canines lost their lives.

I'm a dog lover and all, but just can't see sending a man to prison for six years over killing his own property. I mean, Virginia seems to think six months is reasonable for stabbing someone multiple times in the chest, so a dog shouldn't seem like that big of a deal. The lone commenter to the article sounds like he would be cool with stringing the man up. Compassion for animals is higher than for people it would seem these days.

Also, who knew that there was such a charge as maliciously shooting a companion animal? Who thinks of that and turns it into a law?

The earth opened its mouth and swallowed. . . .

. . a Sonic Drive-In Restaurant! Ooooooooohh!

Theater safety

So, typically, you feel safer when you know security guards will detect weapons on people entering a building they’re assigned to protect, right?

Aaaah, no, jackass. It usually pisses me off to no end because it typically means a trip back to the glove box. One case in point is the Marine Corps museum, but that's another story.

It’s hard to have that kind of peace of mind with District schools and offices.

Peace of mind? Isn't that what an ostrich does when it sticks its head in the sand? I do agree with him to a point though; I don't have any peace of mind with any area in the District as long as it continues to prevent the community at large from using modern means of scumbag prevention. The community is mostly responsible for that, which is a shame, and it appears that things are not going to get any better:

Last year, the District fired security contractor Hawk One, which had a four-year record of poor supervision, inadequate training, ineffectiveness, and “fraternizing with students.” To replace Hawk One’s 200 guards, D.C. hired two firms on one-year contracts totaling $22.1 million.

So they hired a company to put uniformed human beings with guns in buildings for the sole purpose of disarming everybody, and the end result was that determined people were still able to gain entry with weapons while the guards were aggressively tutoring the youth? Who could have seen that coming, and why do they think hiring armed human beings in different uniforms will have a different outcome? And holy smokes - $22 Mil? Seems like it would be more effective and less costly to have the parents of students holster up and provide security in shifts; if there's a liability question, there are ways around that. Human beings are human beings, and the security folks would be much more inclined to do a good job if their interest in the matter consisted of their flesh-and-blood, and not Federal Reserve Notes.

With security contractors like these, who needs criminals?

Thinking that you'll have a better outcome if the human factor is clad in new duds is going to lead to more disappointment. You'll probably have more failed "penetration tests" too, in more ways than one.

Bad guys are afraid of the light

Well, it's not the kind of light that I would choose to deter a scumbag who would gun down someone in a "hail of bullets." I'm quite fond of this deterrent light source; I hear it frightens the boogey man somethin fierce!

Too bad folks in that area, like the victim in this tragic tale, could carry only the light, and not the device that it clips to.

Repetitive vicious maliciousness

A Stafford county Virginia woman was arrested last Friday night for aggravated malicious wounding. She had stabbed a woman multiple times in the "upper body" which I construe as being in the chest.

So big deal right? Some trashy scumbag in some no-name county in the Old Dominion got her stabby on, what's that got to do with anything? Who cares?

With that question I point you to the Virginia Court Case Information System where you can look up this woman's name in the same county and see where she was convicted last year for the same damn thing - stabbing a woman repetitively with a knife. And what severe sentence did she receive for this reckless act? Five freakin' years, which seems pretty appropriate for a first time offense of that nature where the victim lived. The problem is that four years and four months of that sentence was suspended, and she got out after six months in state prison and promptly and repeatedly rammed a pair of scissors in a girl's chest.

What is it about arresting and locking up crazy people, and then cutting them loose way before you said you would so that they can go out and paint the town red? If you say that the state demands five years for stabbing someone, then make it five years! If this woman had been caught with a pound of pot you know she would still be in prison. Keep the loony toons behind bars where they belong!

Oooh, check out the second comment for some humor!

Multiple shooting with ,22 caliber pistol

In Louisa county Virginia.

The story says it was a target pistol, which shows that it doesn't take a machine gun to take many lives. Two Sheriff's deputies killed the gunman, so at least the surviving family members don't have to live through a trial.

What a tragedy.

Thy righteousness and thy cellphone, they comfort me

Update: To the below post, in comments Boomhauer notes that DC police are in official uniform when working security, so that indicates that the hoodlum would be the one who flew off the handle. Perhaps he had been sniffing the Gorilla Glue for too long, and thought he could take on the world!

Today's dose of stupid and quote of the day, all rolled into one:

kj85756
Guns are dangerous. The civilian should have called the police and let them take care of it. Guns are not needed when you have a cell phone.

This is a comment in response to this article which lays out very little detail about an upstanding armed citizen in DC who saw a crime being committed and intervened. As you can guess, the citizen was an off duty cop, and as usual, his firearm un-assed from his holster and discharged, all on its own.

Some facts here:

1. The off duty cop works part time at the Home Despot where this all went down.
2. The cop was carrying his "service revolver", as the news person in the video knows firearms very well, and has made that determination with all the accuracy and oversight that we have come to expect from the media.
3. The Service Revolver has full control of itself, and can discharge at will.
4. Bite wounds and a grazing gun shot wound warrant a high speed ambulance ride to the hospital, complete with two police cruisers in tow, for everybody, not just cops. Honest.
5. Guns are baaaa-ah-ah-ah-ah-d.
6. Cellphones stop violence.

Now, the article says our off duty hero witnessed a crime being committed, confronted the dangerous threat, and a fight ensued whereas the violent hoodlum showed how completely reckless he was by grabbing the issued Service Revolver which then in protest decided to discharge without any such human interaction. The video has some cop-like official stating matter of factly that the Home Despot employees, who we presume were unarmed considering that they work in DC, saw the alleged hoodlum committing NoGood and confronted him at the front of the store, wherein the off duty cop comes strolling by and the employees ask him to intervene in a more authoritative capacity. Either way the off duty cop assumed his role as a cop and took action, which means that the above quoted moronic commenter has failed to notice that the "civilian" did in fact summon the police; he just happened to summon himself.

The question that remains unasked is whether the off duty hero cop identified himself as a police officer, or whether he tried to use armed color of law while clad only in an orange apron. If he chose the latter, and displayed a Revolver that we all know the DC police still issue to cops for Service, than the hoodlum may have assumed he was an armed antagonizer. If he chose the former, than did he display the required amount of credentials to show without a doubt that he was a cop, and not just some random un-blessed guy with a gun who works at Home Despot?

The article does say that the off duty cop had just arrived at Home Despot to "work security," which leads to more questions such as: was he wearing the beautiful blue uniform that security guards wear to identify them as being there for the purpose of making something secure? Was he openly wearing the big ol' honkin' Revolver issued by DC for Service, making it easily identifiable as a Service Revolver for the purposes of making the store secure? Who initiated the physical altercation which led to a Revolver having to discharge? Was the hoodlum acting as a patron who was scared of a big scary armed man, or was he acting as a violent scumbag who hates the coppers and won't be taken alive? Why the hell does Home Despot need an armed security guard?

The hoodlum may indeed be a violent scumbag for all I know, but I have to question whether he would risk fighting with multiple people in the front of the store, one of them who probably stated that he was a cop and who is at least potentially armed, all to make off with a booty of gas cans and Gorilla Glue. But then again, this is a Home Despot that though it prudent to hire a cop to be an armed security guard, so there is potential for the area to be saturated with people who would gladly kill for some brushed aluminum door knobs.

Also, if cellphones are all that's needed to stop criminals in their tracks, than why don't cops carry them in their holsters instead of dangerous Service Revolvers? You know, the more news articles I read, the more questions I have. You would think that journalists would be trained to provide facts, and not make a big mess of things.

A botched rescue attempt

In the Philippines. Fortunately the scumbag was taken out, but many hostages died in the process.

It's strange that the gunman, who was fired a couple of years ago for robbery and extortion, thought that he could force the government to give him back his badge by taking hostages at gunpoint, like anyone would ever trust his psycho ass with a gun ever again.

Some people are apparently that naive.

Also, check out some of the video footage here. The second on is titled "Snipers end the Philippines Hostage Taking," but watching the video casts doubt on the use of snipers. Who knows; maybe the Manila police snipers are trained to dump a full magazine into the windshield of a bus in order to take out a gunman, or maybe all those gunshots were outgoing rounds (not likely). I'm under the impression that cops with iron sighted M16s are the ones who killed the guy, and it's likely that some of the hostages were hit with those rounds. I'm not knocking anyone here; stopping a well armed gunman in a bus full of hostages doesn't sound like an easy task.

Ask and thou shalt receive

Americans by-and-large have asked for more police protection, and these days the bar is set at this level instead of here where it was in my youth.

The officers are counseled to be more aggressive in confronting a threat when victims are in imminent danger, rather than sitting back and establishing a perimeter.

I can see this going both ways. The comments to this article are brisk to say the least, though there are not many. I don't have any experience around Fairfax county police, so I can't speak for their professionalism, but something about training them to be cool around machine gun fire while being confrontational and aggressive just doesn't sit right with me.

Going by the articles in law enforcement magazines, the transition to the patrol rifle is close to complete. AR15s make an exceptional defensive weapon, and truth be told I am more comfortable with the idea of a cop firing single 55 grain rounds at a scumbag in a crowded mall than a magazine tube full of buckshot; what gets me though is the militarization of it all, and how the American people are great with the idea of every county and every police department having a crack team of nylon clad agents with automatic weapons.

Yes, the ultimate goal is to have cops stop the bad people before they do anyone harm, but don't forget about the human factor. Sometimes SWAT shows up at the wrong house, tries to arrest the wrong guy, or lets a round go from their pistol in an act of negligence and the outcome is not good. Police want to do the right thing and protect the public, but how about thinking this through so that things don't go to far. It's logical that training follows the issue of a shiny new rifle, but the training should be clearly defined, and so should the lines of authority. There are good folks who receive rifles and training, with clearly defined authority, and Fairfax county police are starting to look just like them. That's not exactly something to celebrate.

Cops wanted carbines, the public consents, and now they have them. Perhaps now is a good time to start reviewing the training and the mission involved.

Greed and commerce

Two women are charged with luring their landlord into a compromising position and then trying to blackmail him.

Compromising position indeed. This one's chock full of stupid.

On its face, there wouldn't be any controversy if the women had kept up their side of the bargain; it's simple give-give. The landlord is a scumbag for accepting adultery as payment, as he already has an obligation to his wife. The two women twice dishonored the agreement, which makes them scumbags too. For one, they couldn't handle their obligation to the rent as agreed, so they made a bargain, and then dishonored that too. Then to top it off, they tried to make a third contract by blackmailing the landlord for $11,000.

That's some goat rope those people have there. I guess there is no honor amongst thieves after all.

Highly trained

TAZEWELL, Va. - A retired Virginia state trooper faces charges after shots he fired at a coyote hit a school in Tazewell.

Rule number 4!! Just because someone is trained to handle a firearm does not mean that they are always safe.

Burning Bush

Why is it that the press is still casting stones at former president Bush? That guy gets no quarter from me, but that doesn't mean that I sit around all day pondering up ways to blame him for stuff.

The latest example is from NBC News contributor Sasha Perl-raver with her short piece on the film "The Tillman Story," which is just a bunch of nonsense about how "war is hell", but was actually much worse because of Bush. One person can make bad worse, you see.

So admittedly "war is hell", and Corporal Tillman was a Ranger in Afghanistan shooting a machine gun at some bad guys, was killed by his own buddies in the fog of war, and then everybody and their brother had a hand in botching the details and somehow this means that Bush sucks? I'm confused.

Bush sucked for a variety of reasons, the least of which is like eight dozen human beings getting the details of an elite Soldier's death wrong for whatever excuse. The events proceeding the death of Corporal Tillman sound an awfully lot like the game of telephone in grade school, where a teacher demonstrates how the human factor can completely skew a message when it's passed down through so many people. The point of that demonstration is that the less human involved in transmission of a message, the less skewed it will usually be; in the case of Corporal Tillman, the message had to pass through a ton of human. This is the Army we're talking about.

Media types are fascinated with conspiracy theories stemming from some Republican tool. I like conspiracy theories too, I just don't make it my mission in life to continuously smear someone over them because I have nothing better to do than hate on the opposite party. Daggone, grow up would you!

Patrol Devices

What else do you call a Glock chambered in .50 Caliber Terror in the hands of a Montgomery County's finest?

Garland stole several items from the car that had been parked overnight in front of an officer's house in Brookeville in June, including a police baton, two loaded .50 caliber Glock magazines and two sets of handcuffs, police said. Police found the M-4 rifle and a glove stolen from the car, but many stolen items remain missing.

Oversight and all. Can you imagine the madness that would follow if .50 caliber Glock magazines were discovered missing by one of the non-badged folk? And why does any cop neeeeeeed a handgun that's capable of shooting down an airliner flying at 30,000 feet at 550 mph with one shot?

Those cops must be serious about enforcing the law.

Celebrity trigger control

Or lack thereof.

I enthusiastically note that Stalone looks like a goon holding that M249 para. Dolph Lundgren on the other hand seems to know what he's doing, which isn't surprising considering that he's a veteran of the Swedish Marines.

Gun P0rn!

I love the Benelli M4.

A Navy SEAL with a SCAR H.

Some cannons and a Hawken being fired.

Brandishing

Not a good way to get leverage in an argument, especially at night on the side of the highway.

The story itself is kinda ho-hum, but commenter wideopenspaces brings up a good point: why would anyone pull over at 12:30 at night in a one-way-street (I know where this happened) to bicker with someone that they don't even know? That's pretty reckless in its own right. This all happened in Stafford county (borders Spotsyltuckey) which is not known for competent drivers nor sane people.

The only thing I can guess is that the complainant thought he might get to beat down the other driver in obviously justifiable retribution for such a hurtful "hand gesture", and then realized that the other guy wasn't wrapped real tight either.

Man, I wish all the savages hadn't decided to move here. Things used to be so quiet.

Cos' a country boy can survive

Wheeeeeeeew doggie! A Spotsylvania Good ol' Boy stops a wasted home intruder in his tracks with his trusty twelve gauge, but fortunately didn't have to fire a shot. That kid is so very lucky he didn't get shot.

The man gathered his family and placed them all in one room, Timm said. He then got a gun and encountered a young man he didn't know in the hallway in his home.


The homeowner ordered the suspect to the ground at gunpoint and held him there until Deputy Katie Higgins arrived. The subsequent investigation revealed that the suspect had kicked down the front door after failing to get in a rear door.

NBC News Washington's crazy and eccentric Pat Collins convinced the homeowner, who was busy skinning bucks and running trot lines at the time, to have an interview.

Folks out in the Western part of the county live remotely to say the least, and you would have to be pretty intoxicated to go banging on any doors out there at night. I know a Sheriff's Deputy who patrols out that way and he refers to it as "Spotsyltuckey." Quite frankly I'm amazed that the scumbag had the mental ability to even put his hands behind his head. Really though, the kid might not be a bad guy at all; it sounds like he was just so inebriated that he forgot where he was. With that said, any time you decide to modify your senses with the drink, you are responsible for your own actions, and have to accept that if you take things too far, some sober individual may use his Remington to help Natural Selection run its course.

(H/T to my wife)

90% of car bombs in Mexico come from US gun shows

I kid, I kid.

The drug cartels in Mexico have stepped up their game a bit with beheadings and car bombings. It works in other countries, so it's no surprise to hear about these tactics being used.

Also, there's this slideshow showing the little submarines that the cartels are using to smuggle drugs and, presumably, most or all of the grenades, mortars, machine guns, and rocket propelled grenades from Central America into Mexico - although the article doesn't say as much. It does say this:

Surprisingly sophisticated homemade "Narco subs" are the drug cartels' latest tool for smuggling drugs from Latin America into the U.S.

Just drugs, right ABC? Because cartels using these subs to smuggle weapons wouldn't fit the narrative, now would it?

The submarine could have had the capacity to carry at 150 metric tons of cocaine or heroin.

Or, like 5,000 grenades, 50,000 automatic rifles, or 1,000 rockets, which are used to supplement the firepower that the Mexican government bought from the US and gave to the cartels. Just a thought.

It's entirely possible that if the Russian mafia is helping the cartels build frickin' submarines, that they could also be supplying them with bona fide AK47s, which would be a way better economic venture than paying an "ant line" of American soccer moms to buy semi auto Olympic Arms rifles at full price at gunshows in the US, and then smuggle them South where they will have to be converted to full auto at the cartel's expense. I mean I'm not making a wild hypothetical shot here.

Oh, here it is down on slide 9:

" . .these vessels also could be used to ship weapons or personnel.

"That's it!?! Weapons and personnel?!?! I guess if it's in there, it's in there, right? Phenomenal.

Looking at the last picture shows just how dire the drug war is; that sub can go 65' under the surface, carry a 10 ton payload, and was built in a muddy creek in Ecuador by illiterate starving smugglers. And we're not talking the USS Fantastic here; this thing is a bare bones one time use rig, so it's not like the operators are going to fight for it. One of those slides shows a crew abandoning a sub via blow up life raft, and they often sink the sub with all the evidence. It looks to be a low risk operation.

I guess the obvious thing to do would be for the US to throw a billion or so dollars at the problem. That would be a way more beneficial use to Americans than buying down mortgages or such. The flow of drugs must stop.

Who knew vegetarian diets cause violence?

Investigators blamed a vegetarian diet on the mother grizzly's poor body condition, which they said was "made worse by a load of parasites found in her small intestine.

Hmmm. . . it seems that a bear cannot live by plants alone; they need tasty red camper meat to stay healthy and strong. I will take that into consideration if I ever go camping in the woods again.

Weekend WTF

I was browsing the Weekend thread at Militaryphotos.net and saw many cool and unusual things.

First is the unusual: it seems that some in the Lebanese Army Special Forces are going well out of the way to earn that "Special" title -- one guy demonstrates why jumping through burning hoops is a bad idea, and who knows what the hell to think from that last picture. Why the Lebanese government doesn't provide mannequins to bayonet instead of soldiers like the rest of the world is anyone's guess. Most of their "maneuvers" seem ridiculous, and remind me of the famous Spetznaz soldier doing a blindfolded backflip while throwing a hatchet at a target.

Either way: if you can't be a good example, than be a horrible warning; it seems that the Belarussians have picked up on the dog-and-pony show idea of demonstrating profoundly dangerous and stupid things for soldiers to do to impress the masses. Because you never know when your special force will be in the danger zone somewhere and have no other recourse than to break some concrete off the face of a fellow soldier with a sledge hammer, have an asbestos board broken over their naked chest, repel upside down and unarmed from a helo, or sic an attack dog on a burning, fleeing man.

Americans do crazy things like fly fighter jets 30' off the water over yachts and park armored vehicles in the streets. The Romanians like to make pirates shave each other, have their sailors balance balls on a spoon with their mouths, play tug-of-war, have sack races, and as a special treat have King Neptune bless their nation's boobies.

Now for the cool: the Brazilians have a new rifle - the Imbel IA2; the Indians are still using Enfields and Sterlings, but have also gone modern with the FN F2000. Coooooooool.

All and all it looks like the world's militaries were way more productive than I was this weekend.

What's in your wallet?

This post is about pocket holsters for little guns. If you carry a handgun, odds are that after a few years you will have a bunch of holsters sitting in a box somewhere, and this phenomenon seems to apply even more so for the inexpensive little pocket holster; at least for me anyways.

These are all for one pistol: the Kel Tec P3AT:



Something else about holsters too is that I find myself modifying most of them, because what somebody else designed to fit a particular circumstance doesn't exactly mean that it's going to fit mine. Looking at my first pocket holster for the mighty baby-Glock 26, the DeSantis Nemesis holster did not allow for my middle finger to make it up into the relief under the trigger guard. I found my remedy by removing the offending material and hand sewing some whatchamahoozit (industry term) over the exposed cut. Now it's beautiful:



You can see how I can get a full grip now that the holster has been modified. Also in that picture you can see a DeSantis Super Fly holster holding a Walther PPKS, as well as a modified Comp-Tac Centerline holster for the Kel Tec P3AT. I found the Centerline hanging from my neck to not be ideal for me, so I did some Dremeling to remove excess material, and then added my own spring steel belt clip fashioned in a manner that allows the holster to be tuckable. That sucker goes on my belt in a jiffy, comes off not so easily (a good thing), and is small and light enough to be worn on my pajamas if I so desired. It's also super concealable.

Another holster in that picture is an exceptionally well made GURU pocket holster for the P3AT that I ordered from Pocketholsters.com. It's built like a tank, and there's no doubt in my mind that one of my children will grow old with this thing in their pocket holding their mini ion blaster, as it is sturdy enough to outlive me. But again, it's modified to fit my needs. The holster is designed to prevent the pistol from printing through your pocket; it does this with the addition of a large, flat leather flap on the outside that is attached at the bottom by two brass Chicago screws, allowing the flap to kind of swivel out of the way so your hand can get to the grip. The problem I had with the flap is that it's huge. The teeny P3AT is still a tad larger than an early 90s Blackberry, so the leather flap that is cut to cover it makes it look like you have a Blue's Clues notebook in your pocket. Someone looking at the square thing might not know it's a gun, but they will surely be scratching their head wondering what in the world you have in there.

I fixed this by trimming the flap down; although I finally removed it as I don't see that I need it. The other problem that I had was that the "wing" where the two halves of the holster are sewn together did not leave enough room for my fingers to slide around the grip, so I drew a line showing what material to remove, drilled some small holes to allow me to re-sew some new stitches, and then used a sharp wood chisel to remove the part I didn't want. Five minutes of time made a very well made holster awesome.


Now, carrying a Glock 26 in a pocket is not always possible, but carrying the Walther or the Kel Tec is. Since I loved the DeSantis Super Fly for the Walther so much, I ordered one for the Kel Tec and couldn't be happier. The Super Fly comes with a removable and reversable flap like the GURU holster, but it's very flexible. This flap is also humongous, but it kind of wraps around the gun in your pocket, so it makes itself smaller than it really is. The texture of the Super Fly is sticky rubber, so it has the advantage over every pocket holster I've owned of staying in your pocket during the draw. The GURU holster comes out with the pistol almost every time, so I'm going to have to add something to make it stay; the Nemesis holster also slides out of the pocket with the gun most of the time, so I default to the Super Fly.

On order right now is an Uncle Mike's pocket holster which a friend of mine uses to carry his Ruger LCP. He loves it, and at $11 you can't beat the price. I'm going to give it a go as well, but I ultimately see this as a toss up between the GURU and the Super Fly.

To digress a bit, I added a Crimson Trace Lazer Grip to the P3AT, and before I even got it sighted in the battery died. When I got home, the thing worked again just fine. A little Google search led me to threads where others have had this problem, so I wasn't too happy to hear that. I did replace the battery and haven't had any problems since, but who's to say it won't happen later? Time will tell.

The real reason I bring up the Crimson Trace Lazer is that when you install it on your P3AT or Ruger LCP, your beloved pocket holster will no longer fit. Know that ahead of time so that you can have a holster ready. If you notice the Nemesis holster in the first picture above is made for the P3AT without a lazer. When I ordered the lazer, I already had the GURU holster on the way so that I had something to carry the pistol in.

Overall, most brand name holsters today are superbly built, and some, like the GURU, are even beautiful. You can't go wrong by ordering several holsters for your gun, and don't hesitate to get all Martha Stewart on one to make it better suited for your exciting lifestyle.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Funniest story I've heard in the news in a long time. Safe for work too.

A taste:

A TOPLESS sunbather is being investigated by police after being accused of sensuously rubbing sun cream on herself on a public beach.

Police were called to a beach at Anzio south of Rome by a furious mother who said the way the “attractive” sunbather was rubbing lotion on her body had “troubled her sons aged 14 and 12.”

Yes, I bet those boys are now deeply, deeply troubled. Bothered even. Best to take them home and tell them to take a cold shower. As for the woman in question, she's hired a lawyer who's a real riot:

“'Let's be clear my client is tall, brunette and has an ample breast and is therefore going to naturally be sensuous when she applies cream to her chest.

Every sentence in this article is quotable, and funny as hell, so I'll tell you now to just go and read it. I won't post any more. Go read now.

What could go wrong: DC police edition

"Lanier unveiled the "Got Guns?" initiative on Friday. She says people can call in anonymously and receive up to $1,000 for tips that result in authorities recovering a gun."

So much for being able to face your accusers. How will the cops explain that one in court.

Regarding all these armed miscreants, I guess Chief Lanier failed to "get them", negotiate peace accords with the gang bangers, or even bring down crime by putting every cop they have on the street. Damn! And I was sure that was going to do it too! So close.

What will they think of next?

A look at what American Soldiers are doing in Afghanistan

This is a raw and unbiased view of what is going on right now, every day in Afghanistan, at Militaryphotos.net.

Yikes!

Pit Bull violence

Jones refused and officers escorted her outside, officials said. She suddenly stopped and ordered the dog to attack. The pit bull began biting the officer's foot, which was protected by a boot.

Many things to discuss. One, did the woman really "order" her dog to attack? Are the cops suggesting that she compelled the dog to act by tendering it spoken words? Seriously? I'm not defending her overall actions; she seems like quite the scumbag, and whatever charges are conjured up over her "ordering" an animal with a primitive will and no mastery of the English language will probably stick, but it still stands to ask the question of whether one can make an animal do anything. Responsibility for the dogs actions on the other hand. . . . .

Two, who wants to bet that the dog is not a "pit bull" -- the assault thingy of the canine world -- at all, but merely some form of muscular terrier that cannot be accurately identified by the police? Back in time, way way back before the Russians covertly introduced pit bulls to the American continent to wreak havoc on the place, the canine threat of the day was either the Doberman or the Rottweiler. At that time, pretty much any mid to large black dog that made the news was one of those highly dangerous and volatile animals, and the world knew about every toothy incident where one of them ate an entire city of people. These days, the Doby and Rotty threat is a thing of the past, as advanced doggy electroshock therapy and loppobodomy techniques have been so perfected that they don't seem to attack everything in sight like they did in the 80s.

Third, why the 1st degree assault? Are they suggesting that she planned to sic the animal on the cops all along? Like before she left her apartment that day, she re-checked her map and battle plan of the ambush, took a last long drag off her crack pipe, put on her shoes and grabbed Cujo's leash. "Lets go get us some poeleeeeeeece, Cujo! Don't let me down boy!" Yeah, totally premeditated, with like malice aforethought and stuff.

With all that said, it's surprising that the dog didn't get shot considering how often that seems to happen these days. Also, since we all know that a pit bull can tear off a mans leg with little to no effort, that only reinforces my opinion that this wasn't an American Pit Bull Terrier or other Bull Terrier breed at all, but probably a Beagle or something. And of course it sounds like this woman will be getting the treatment she needs. I could be wrong on that one; she could be a saint thrown into a big misunderstanding, but something tells me that that is not the case here.

Beware, the Worcestershire menace!

The man's ex-girlfriend is accused of forcing her way inside and throwing things at the other woman, Bledsoe said. Among the items thrown were a can of tile cleaner and a bottle of Worcestershire sauce.

And it gets worse. The man was hospitalized in serious condition when he was assaulted by an assault broomstick!

She turned on the man, Bledsoe said, hitting him numerous times until the broom broke in half. Police allege that she then stabbed the man in the lower abdomen with the broken end.

That was after the girlfriend was assaulted with the dreadful thing. We can all see the point here that it would be best if we just took everything and anything away from people so that we can live a life of peace and harmony. Imagine a world without domestic violence!!!

There are some obvious common sense measures that would have to be enacted as well that are without question, like the outright banning of wife beaters and Hurricane. That alone would go quite aways to building up the utopia, but combine it with the confiscation of worcestershire sauce and broomsticks and you have a recipe for love, not war.

Think about it now, who really neeeeeeeds bottled sauces that can be instantly turned into dangerous projectiles by errant drunken lovers in a moment of passionate rage, or broomsticks made of deadly metal -- metal used in machines of war and death? Doesn't make sense, does it?

Gunnish things

See the second and third pictures down in this thread at Militaryphotos.net to see a "pen gun" and "key ring gun" that were confiscated from some blokes over in London.

Also, check out the last pic of the Romanian "special police operative" with the double barrel shotgun, balaclava, and bandoleer. Very strange, but really really cool in the sort of way that only a shotgun like that can bring.

Go-go gadget KNIFE!

Stuff like this is such low hanging fruit. I don't live in DC, but I live close enough that I can point out all its visible warts.

Fans of go-go group Polo and the Boyz seem to have been responsible for the fuss, which led to a brawl and a stabbing at the club off Bladensburg Road NE.

The natives have a penchant for random acts of violence. At least no one was shot this time, which we can all contribute to the attempted strengthening of gun laws.

Something tells me that if a Go-Go club opened up in let's say Fairfax, that there wouldn't be crazy violence there. Richmond perhaps, and definitely Baltimore, but not in any city where the residents are all sane.

Now, why do I have this Wham! song in my head?

It's a start

The D.C. chapter of the Guardian Angels, a citizen safety watchdog group, says that members will start patrolling Metro's green line three nights a week. This comes after a large fight broke out at a station over the weekend, injuring four people.

The fight of which they speak is the one I was snorting about a few days ago.

This is the sort of community responsibility that I noted was lacking; now we have some brave souls who are willing to put their time and neck on the line to ensure there is safety on the Metro. It's a pity that they are denied the legal force necessary to prevent anything other than some teenage fisticuffs, but it does show an overt act of courage. Perhaps even more so that they are unarmed.

Sling blade

Do county officials really need a five pound blade? Sure, it's supposed to stay safely attached to the lawn mower, but when you have an accidental discharge, babies could be seriously hurt. Let's limit mowers to two pound blades to help prevent senseless mower violence.

Fortunately the little one was safe and sound. That could have been pretty ugly. That makes me think though, has anyone ever done lawn mower blade ballistics? That sucker went through quite a bit - "fliiine through the eehhhr" - before stopping.

Looking for some new rifle glass?

If you're a dork like me, you might be seriously considering what type of reticule is in the scope before you buy, to the point where you use Excel to down select between potential candidates.

If you want to know what the reticules look like in the really real world, then check out this Through the Scope thread at Sniper's Hide forums.

Such a tool

A review of the HammerHead Rifle tool for the AR15 at Military Morons. A nice to have multi-tool to help you maintain your carbine while in locations unknown.

Anti-terrorism bonanza!

The DC Metro police department has received warning from the Department of Fathahland Security about an uncorroborated threat - something about chicken. . .no.. . .Turkey, aaaaaand explosives. That's about it.

Oh, and there will be 20 more police officers assigned the daunting task of protecting the Metro rail from this phantom threat that may not actually be a threat, but apparently not to protect patrons from hordes of violent scumbags who throw down on a Friday night. Good to know.

Some issues here. First is that there are 420 Metro cops already, and adding 20 more is beans when you consider that "errybody know you gots to have you some moe poeleeeece" -- so what they're saying is that before Metro had one cop per 3.5 square miles, and now they will have one cop per 3.4 miles.

These 20 dudes must be some stone cold killers.

Word on the street is they are hand picked Tier -0 warriors from the likes of the Elite Team Fighters, The Original Mall Ninjas, Cat Shit One, and Cobra Command, and feature hard core operators of the likes of Lt. Curran, who successfully led a well known SEAL team mission in Beruit, Major McCoy, who cut his teeth in Delta over twenty years ago, and Matthew Temkin, father of modern point shooting. If anyone can restore peace and maintain a Turkey free public transpo, it's these guys. All is well in hand.

Now if DC could only foot the bill to add a couple more thousand of these guys, then violence and armed terrorists on the Metro would be a thing of the past!

My snark totally reminded of some of my earliest work about this very subject.

Contrary to that post though, here we are with a bona fide non-threat, and the reaction is to pump up the police force by a handful of officers. I actually see this as a good thing, and is about what I would expect from a sober local government; just enough ink to make it look like you put a check in the box, but not enough to constitute a sound effort that would be unrealistic. That way, you fulfill your public duty to respond, it looks like you're doing something impressive, but in reality you're not going to have armor clad SWAT cops with automatic weapons and the bare minimum amount of training riding about with the proles. Maybe the powers-that-be will change their mind about that, and that would suck for DC folk, and I would make fun of everyone for it, but at the moment everything seems to be working snickety snick.

Nothing prevents gang violence quite like the Bugle Corps

Over seventy thugs got into a melee on the Metro rail this past Friday, and the natives are pretty restless about it, offering up innovative solutions such as hiring more Poe-leeeeese and giving gangbangers the opportunity to be in a drum and bugle corps.

"You definitely know you got to have more police than what you already have, you know what I mean?"

Not really, no. Contrary to popular belief, most American cities are not magnets for violent thugs, so people are not used to seeing things like this. If this had happened in Alexandria, I would have been in complete disbelief, even though it's right across the water. When (not if) crazy acts of violence happen in DC, nobody is all that surprised. See this story from this weekend where random acts of violence in a small Virginia town are called "bizarre", and contrast it with a not unusually bizarre story from DC.

Also, you have to wonder about the audacity of these scumbags considering that they did all of this despite the countless "crime" cameras cunningly affixed to capture every angle of detail. So apparently the cameras do not project some kind of safety forcefield of protection, and DC Citizens should take note.

The Fox 5 Washington news I saw at zero-dark-thirty this morning had an interview with a woman who witnessed the brawl for about an hour, and said she huddled down with her children, helplessly waiting for able bodied men with advanced tools of defense to come and restore peace. I couldn't imagine how helpless she must have felt, especially while holding her children whom she had no chance of protecting - and when I say I couldn't imagine, I mean exactly that, because I would never take my kids into that city, and I avoid it like the plague. Call me crazy or paranoid, but my chances of dying old, wrinkled, and mean go way way down the very moment I cross the Wilson bridge, and I'm not about to pass that bad fortune on to my kids over some museums and such. I can find safer places for them to have fun that don't involve day-to-day shootings and massive fights.

This problem of extreme violence that infects that city is of every voting DC Citizen's doing; their solution to this common problem is not to have the community at large take united action to bring the peace, but to obligate the responsibility to someone else by giving out more shiny things to uniformed people who probably won't be in the area when you are huddled in a corner, peeing down your stockings. To quote myself, which makes me feel important this morning:

When a community is plagued with violent criminals, traditionally able bodied members of the community bonded together and took care of business, often times working in unison with the local police to bring the peace. This is not 'vigilantism' at all, and suggesting so is disgusting. Cops are given special tools and powers by the people, and paid to commit to the task of finding violent people full time; whereas citizens, ultimately responsible for their own safety, would be hindered during their day to day affairs if they kept that full time responsibility. In the end, every soul is charged with protecting their gift of life as the protector of the last resort, but that is not to say that many souls cannot act as one to bring order to their community.

These days the good folk of DC are too busy doing other things to provide order themselves. If I lived there, I would find out about the criminal history of the several scumbags that were caught and use that to start holding public officials accountable. I would also consider moving to a happy place where the locals don't think it's acceptable to have ten people gunned down with a rifle from a moving car by three thugs with huge rap sheets.

Again, call me paranoid, but I would discuss those things with the real estate agent while I was looking into the quality of schools and such. "So how are the schools? Mmmkay, now what about fun stuff for kids to do? Good, good. Has this city had upwards of a dozen shootings over a weekend while every cop on the police force was out barricading the streets to prevent it?" Hmmm. That may just influence my decision."

It's obvious that some folk don't think the way I do. Pity.

Make the sphere bigger!

Three suspects brandishing guns robbed two victims in a parking lot near the University of Maryland College Park campus.

Something should definitely be done about senseless acts of violence like this. I propose extending the "Gun Free Zone" safety net of peace and harmony outwards further from the campus so that the good Citizens of Maryland can graze without having to worry about predators with guns.

Attitude

Some Briton women have it.

Now that's awesome right there!

Can the media get any more disgusting?

I haven't commented on the shooting in Hartford, Connecticut because I saw little to write about, but after I half heartedly clicked a link at CNN on it, I was treated to a pathetically poo-drenched story about racism.

Was the douchebag discriminated against? Who was responsible? What does his mother think about all the racism? Are unions in Connecticut really racist, and did the douchebag file a formal complaint? Did I mention racism? Racism? Say it with me: rrrrrraaaaaaccccciiiiiiisssssssmmmmmm.

I got your message CNN. I understand.

This is what I think about that. I think that CNN could care less about passing factual information in any article that they produce; this is abundantly clear. The reason, I gather, is because since CNN is a corporation that strives to collect dollars from the public, they have to whore themselves out to get them, and that means publishing articles that get traction by pulling on people's emotions. Articles like the piece of shit I read this morning.

So here I am standing in the middle of the park pointing at this steaming turd: hey y'all, there's some shit here. So what's up with that? I didn't link to the article because I don't want anyone to step in it. That's about it.

As for the douchebag gunman, anyone who willingly takes people's life deserves no sympathy. They get no love. Outside of self defense anyways. That's how it's supposed to work. Whether there was racism or not is insignificant because normal human beings do not shoot one another over something so trivial. Reality says that the gunman committed a disgusting act because he felt that he was mistreated, or that he wasn't promoted fast enough, or perhaps because his panties were riding up that day. In the end, he was a disgusting man that should be shamed, not propped up on some pedestal of excuses.

Shame on you CNN for entertaining such a disgusting angle.

Public understanding of firearms

Despite the big uptick in firearms purchases as of late, the public at large is still dumb as a post when it comes down to understanding fundamental gunnish things.

Here's a story about a federal police officer shooting a dog in a dog park for allegedly acting aggressively/attacking his dog and/or him personally - the details are not crystal clear, and it will be a he-said-she-said argument regardless. Sad story either way.

What I am pointing out though is in the comments:

Oldcyrus22
"What is that officer doing with his gun in a park loaded with hollow points? He is a menace that was looking for a reason to shoot. . . . ."

Hollow points = menace. Got that?

How about this one:

anonymous
"My first question is WHY is an OFF-DUTY Federal Officer walking around with a gun loaded with hollow point bullets ? Why would he feel it necessary to use a hollow- point bullet on any dog? ANYONE with a brain in their head would know that doing so on anything smaller than an enraged bear [and then I would only allow 2 regular caliber hunting bullets] is not only excessive over kill [pardon the bad pun] but also shows an EXTREME psychological failure on the part of the officer in question. Obviously he does not know when and how to use a 'man-killing' round in his weapon. Dogs 'feint' agressively at each other all the time to establish hierarchy and dominance some more than most. Different dogs have different levels of aggression. Before his superiors let him have a gun they should have checked he knew what it was good for. It would have been best if he had just thrown the safetied weapon at the seemingly aggressive dog THEN NO ONE WOULD HAVE GOTTEN HURT MUTTONHEAD! And isn't that the point of being a FEDERAL OFFICER?????"

My emphasis. This person also does not know why virtually every police department and federal law enforcement agency in the country uses hollow points in their service weapons, and I don't think it matters if he or she finds out. Hollow points are for large bears, and you're only allowed to shoot a bear with "regular" hunting bullets. . . twice.

Oh, but there's more:

Schatzie59
"What the heck is the off-duty officer doing with a loaded gun in a dog park? Fire him. If he can shot a dog, what happens if some person makes him mad?"

Schatzie

Now we're not talking about hollow points at all; this person is questioning the carrying of a weapon in general, and from an anointed police officer at that - a federal one even. So if he or she believes that a cop could fly off the handle and start murdering Lassie, Benji, Cujo, and their owners because he had an off day, how can you possibly expect him or her to trust you with a weapon?

Back to the comments though, we're still not through with the perception of a cop carrying his duty weapon in public:

Dranny3
"Get this Federal Officer off the streets. No reason he should be carrying a loaded gun when he's off duty and in a public park. Sounds to me like he's a little trigger happy and maybe shouldn't have a gun at all. He should be charged with animal cruelty and forced to face charges. . . ."

Again, this one's about carrying a gun in general in public. If you are not in a uniform, there is no way you can be trusted to have a firearm with you. Also, the cop in question should be run up the flagpole for shooting the dog when we still don't have the facts.

The big picture I'm trying to paint here is imagine yourself standing in a courtroom in the aftermath of a defensive shooting. You glance over at the jury, and you see a cast of good hearted human beings that no doubt love their fellow man, and wouldn't harm a soul, but won't hesitate for an instant to send your ass to Sing Sing for using a handgun bullet that in their eyes are only for killing large bears with one shot.

See how this is a major issue?

The solution of course is training; those who are in the know should be educating those who are not. If you are looking for a visual on bullets, how they work, and the differences between hollow points and "regular" bullets, I invite you to check out one of my earliest posts: Anatomy of a Cartridge. If you are looking to inform someone about bullets and their effect on body armor, check out this post: Ballistic Vest Live Fire Test; that post I did exclusively for the education of those who don't know a thing about firearms.

Wait? Assault Thingies can save lives?

But I thought they were purpose built for dealing out death? Isn't the whole reason for owning an Assault Thingy for gunning down masses of children who are holding furry puppies under each arm?

Now they're all about "protection" and "protecting the public." If they can do it, I can do it too! I can protect the public!

I'm all about the po-po getting Assault Thingies; I sure wouldn't want to wander about in the woods at night looking for some violent cannibalistic child rapist with only my well worn issued Ruger to protect me. A Rock River Arms with a gazillion lumen light on it would make me much more willing to chase after him. That said, for the one or two incidents a year in which a for-real-no-shit drug smuggler is blasting away at the fuzz with his full auto widow maker, how many thousands of encounters will the cops have with Americans where they might want to point these rifles at them?

There should be some explicit use-of-force rules with the issuing of any weapons to cops, and perhaps more so with rifles. Some people I know and are very close to have seen what a dozen local county mounties do when they all have Assault Thingies, it's dark, they're excited and scared at the same time, and there's a misunderstanding at the neighbor's house.

A parent's worst fear

A Springfield, Va., man was arrested Sunday after he allegedly carjacked a woman’s vehicle with three 5-year-old children in the back seat.

I would never surrender my vehicle with my kids in it. That man would have to have killed me instantly dead, because if he didn't, I would do everything in my power to stop him, even if that meant gnawing at his ankles while I bled out on the pavement.

When I am out in public, I am aware of my surroundings at all times; even more so when I'm with the family. That doesn't mean that I reach for my waistband every time some dude gets close while I'm loading groceries, but I am aware of everyone that walks into my visual zone. I look at their eyes, and I watch their hands. Some may think that I'm over wrought with paranoia, but I just think that being cautious is smart.

Life favors the prepared. Just because society is advanced does not mean that there has been some sort of suspension of Natural Law. Keep your eyes open for advancing predators, and maybe you won't have to shoot one, or worse, have one drive off in your Sequoia with your toddlers in it.

Home again

Went to the beach with the family for the weekend; just getting back up to speed.