Virginia the nanny state

Thanks to that prick Tim Kaine, my state is about to get a dose of bannitfurthechildren. Just what this state needs!

What if the gun didn't jam?

The gunman strode toward the Rev. Fred Winters shortly after 8 a.m. Sunday in the church, exchanged words with him, then fired a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol until it jammed. Churchgoers then wrestled him to the ground as he brandished a knife, Trent said.

So the churchgoers used violence to apprehend the gunman, but only after the pistol jammed. Do you think they would have been able to stop him if the man's gun didn't jam? What would have been the reaction of the churchgoers then?

Two worshippers tackled the gunman as he pulled the knife, and all three were stabbed — the gunman suffered "a pretty serious wound to the neck" while one worshipper had lower back wounds, Trent said.

Churchgoers knocked the gunman between sets of pews, then held him down until police arrived, said member Don Bohley, who was just outside the sanctuary when the shooting began.

Protective violence from good people stopped the predatory violence. I wonder what kind of small protective device would have allowed any one of those churchgoers to stop the attack immediately?

Armed Israeli cabbie stopps terrorist

Hot Air covers this report of a bulldozer attack by a Palestinian terrorist that was stopped by shots fired from a cab driver, with the fatal shots coming from a police officer.

Update on the California courtroom stabbing

From my post yesterday, the guy who stabbed a judge in a courtroom had a six inch knife that he made while in prison, and it looks like he smuggled it in inside of a knee brace.

There's a ton of stupidity going on here as there's questions of "how he got the knife," as well as a boatload of blame going everywhere but where it really should go: on those responsible for searching his murderous ass before he got to the courtroom. One spokesman from the Sheriff's Dept. actually blames the law for the incident.

First, it's pretty obvious from the pictures that he didn't "get" the knife; he made it with his own hands. I guess someone else could have made it for him, but he certainly didn't have it smuggled in by some guard who bought it from Gander Mountain.

Second, why the knee brace wasn't properly searched for a weapon is a good question. The guy was on trial for murder, so you would think that the officer(s) searching him would be thorough.

Third, and the point that I made yesterday, is that even in the most controlled environments, with armed police presence just a few feet away, and with an attacker already in restraints, an attacker is still able to cause severe harm or death to someone. It only takes seconds.

The idea of a sterile, 'safe', "Gun Free," "Drug Free" environment is fantasy even under the best conditions, so expecting schools, stores, office buildings, or hospitals - which have no armed cops a few feet away, no controlled searches of those entering, no restraints - don't have a chance in hell of stopping someone from doing harm by putting up signs or making violence illegal. It will not stop an attack.

Do you think this had any impact whatsoever on Paradiso:


Do you think it would stop a crazy gunman at the door of your nearest Wal-Mart?

The Terrorizer

Wow, another story of a middle schooler arrested for bringing a gun to school. It's almost as if the signs aren't working.

We're gaining ground

I happened upon this story about how a revolver was found in an Atlanta middle school - I know, impossible, right - and how a search of a suspected youth's home turned up this:

A subsequent search of Busby's home turned up an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a Mini-14 assault rifle, as well as 200 rounds of ammunition, Baker said in a statement.

So we finally got some traction from the media on getting AR15's off of the stupid "assault thingy" bandwagon, but it looks as though the Ruger Mini-14 is still hung up under the bus.

Mexico is "lying through it's teeth" on US firearms trafficking

Seen at Clayton Cramer's Blog, CNN's Lou Dobbs and Bill Tucker say that Mexico may claim that US weapons are flowing across the border to feed the drug cartels, but they don't provide any serial numbers for the weapons confiscated; meaning that the weapons are probably coming from the corrupt Mexican government or elseware.

That truth would be an embarrassment to Mexico, for sure, and is probably why they failed to mention it.

Note that this is the first time that any news source has brought this to light, thus reaffirming what I've been saying all along.

(Found at Snowflakes in Hell)

A must have weapon

The Magpul FMG9, now with a Glock frame:



(H/T to co-worker Lloyd)

A dangerous problem

I've posted about similar attacks over and over again, and I still say don't let police into your house without a warrant.

In this particular attack, the police imposters forced their way into the home and spent twenty minutes robbing everyone at gunpoint. My thoughts on this are that if police are supposed to have a warrant to come breaking into your home, and if you are the kind of person who has nothing illegal in your home, or have done nothing to cause police to break down your door, then it is reasonable to treat anyone who breaks down your door as a deadly threat, regardless if they are in a uniform or not. Where I see a potential problem for the non-criminal home owner, like myself, is that it's not that uncommon for real cops to come busting into your home by accident or negligence.

The question then would be how would you be treated if you gunned down a state, local, or federal police officer that mistakenly picked your house and came smashing through your door?

The Ryan Frederick case doesn't quite fit the scenario because the Chesapeake PD smashed into the house stated on the warrant, but if the Cory Maye case is any indicator, it doesn't look good. It's definitely not fair for the homeowner to have to make the choice between either protecting his or her family from what could be a predator in a police uniform or going to prison because the law doesn't allow a cop to be killed regardless if they made a mistake.

We need to stop the flow of armored vehicles to Mexico

The REAL Iron Pipeline:

The drug violence in Mexico has gotten so bad that booming numbers of Mexican and American professionals are having their cars fitted with armor plates, bulletproof glass and James Bond-style gadgets such as electrified door handles and push-button smokescreens.

What could possibly go wrong with electrified door handles and smoke screens? It's not like they would be a danger to kids in parking lots or motorists on the highway. I guess if you have the bucks for all this stuff, than to hell with everyone else's safety.

Now, for those who think carrying a gun is for the paranoid:

"I feel we need to be in a cocoon that is impenetrable," said a businessman who runs factories in Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and has gotten two Chevrolet Suburbans armored since October 2007.

Maybe you should try crawling up inside a US Senator's head. I hear they're pretty impenetrable.

Now for your daily dose of obfuscation:

Customers get not only armor plating but tires that will run when flat and bulletproof glass, which bursts into a spider web pattern but won't break, even when shot with an AR-15 assault rifle, a weapon of choice among drug smugglers.

But I thought they were "patrol rifles?" Tomato, tomahto. Whatever, right Michelle Roberts?

Other customers buy a package that will turn a Ford F-150 pickup or SUV into something out of a Batman movie: A button releases a cloud of white smoke for escaping a pursuing car.

Or for putting pesky tailgaters into the guardrail.

If the assailant makes it through that, the driver can release spikes to flatten the pursuer's tires.

If you haven't already killed all of the occupants of the tailgating vehicle by obscuring the road, then some tire spikes will ensure that the vehicle ends up a flaming wreck burning at the base of the nearest tree.

And finally, if the attacker makes it to the car, electrified door handles can give him a non-lethal jolt.

Great for keeping the neighbors kids from stealing your new Chris Isaak CD too!

And here's your daily dose of stupid:

Under a 2004 regulation, U.S. companies need an export license from the Commerce Department to ship a car that has been armored out of the country. The rule is aimed at preventing drug dealers and other criminals from acquiring such vehicles.

What a fantastic concept! We should license everything to keep them out of the hands of criminals! I'm glad my tax money pays for the salaries of such brilliant men and women to make such common sense laws on everyone's behalf!

With laws like this, there's no way a drug dealer can get ahold of steel and a welder to make his own armored ride. Besides, if the Mexican drug cartels can just ride around in armored vehicles with impunity, then the Mexican government would be forced to stop selling them those RPGs and M72 LAWS.

Whew! I feel safer now.

"Disposable silencer"

CHICAGO – Marni Yang practiced at a gun range and bought a book titled "How to Make a Disposable Silencer" weeks before killing the pregnant woman she believed had taken her place in the life of a former Chicago Bears player, a prosecutor alleged Wednesday.

You mean to tell me that she had the nerve to not pay the $200 tax stamp like everyone else?

Why, there ought to be a law or something.

A look inside a Gun Free Zone

Paradiso's mother, Debra, stood up and started yelling, leading the judge to call a recess. As jurors filed out, Paradiso left the stand and approached the judge from behind "with an unknown cutting instrument," Konecny said.

Karen McConnell, a county spokeswoman, said witnesses reported seeing Paradiso lift the judge and begin punching and possibly stabbing her when bailiffs ran to her aid and shots rang out.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but prisoners are supposed to be unarmed in court rooms, right? The Deputies were even warned by Paradiso's brother.

If an animal such as this was armed with a "cutting instrument" in such a controlled environment, then what in the world makes anyone think we can ever disarm someone like him while he is free to roam the streets?

The idea of a "Gun Free Zone," or anything of the sort, it just absurd.

Now, raise your hand if you think Paradiso may have just bought himself another year on his oh-so-tough California sentence?

Gee, ya think?

How Media Sucks Up to White House

This blatantly obvious piece of electronic fishwrap from NBC New York acknowledges the media's orgasmic frenzy over everything Obama, but waters down the whole thing as being somehow necessary because in order for the media to remain close to an administration, they have to be that way.

That wasn't the case with the Bush administration, now was it?

A better question would be that if the media really is the unbiased government watchdog that it used to be in a past life, then why doesn't it hold an administration accountable for not being open unless good things are said about it?

That whole thing is just a big excuse.

Once their man is no longer in office we will see big media get up off its knees and wipe their chin. Count on it.

NBC Washington never lets a shooting go to waste

A Starbucks employee shoots himself in the leg while at work, and NBC News uses this as an opportunity to take a shot at the repeal of DC's unconstitutional gun laws.

And "pops a cap?"

Objective, no?

The barista's motive for carrying the weapon to work is unknown.

What they are implying is that because one guy can't obey four simple rules, that the one million+ people that are in a city with a crime rate three times the national average should probably be disarmed.

I've got to tell you guys, that's already been tried, and it failed.

Maybe, just maybe, the guy was carrying a gun because DC is a haven for violent thugs.

When seconds count. . .

. . .Police are thirty feet away! That didn't seem to stop the shooting:

THIBODAUX, La. – A man shot at his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend in the rear parking lot of the Thibodaux Police Department on Saturday night, according to police.

And by "shot at . . .her new boyfriend," they really meant to say that Motton's bullets hit him - as in shot.

But everything is OK folks; detectives were able to confirm that there had been a shooting. No doubt the guy bleeding out from the bullet hole in his leg in the parking lot was used to ascertain this undeniable truth. My point is that despite the fact that this went down at a freaking police station, the gunman still managed to shoot the boyfriend, and could have killed both of them afterwords, but instead chose to run off. Only by Motton's mercy did these two survive, and not by the actions of police.

This is not to say that the cops were incompetent, but it does point out that they cannot reliably respond to an immediate threat to your life, no matter how close they are to the attack.

McGruff the Crime Dog takes one on the chin

Very strange:

McGruff, who was actually District officer Tyrone Hardy in costume, was handing out flyers to kids in northwest Washington Saturday when bus driver Shawn Brim, 38, stopped, got out and adjusted his mirrors and then cold-cocked McGruff in the head with a closed fist, according to a police report.

Stupidity will not get you invited to Christmas dinner

Glancing this morning at The Free Lance Star, I noticed this post about two genuine idiots and one curious kid.

In the first shooting, which happened about 5:30 p.m., a father was explaining to his son the importance of not handling a loaded weapon, said 1st Sgt. Liz Scott of the Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office, when he accidentally fired the gun.

Well, at least the gun didn't do it by "discharging," as what seems to happen when cops negligently shoot someone.

I'll let you read the other one on your own. Bottom line is that there are four safety rules for handling firearms:
1)Treat every gun as if it were loaded.
2)Never point a gun at anything you don't intend to shoot.
3)Keep your finger straight and off the trigger until you're ready to fire.
4)Know your target and what is beyond it.

- and two of these simple rules have to be broken at the exact same moment for someone to get hurt or killed. The dad failed this simple lesson, and his son paid the price. Darwinism only works on the idiot(s), and unfortunately a curious kid that tried to do the right thing got hurt.

The other kid should have been taught these simple rules if he were to be left in the house alone with firearms. Maybe a little more instruction on what constitutes a threat would have been nice too, so he doesn't end up going for daddy's pistol because he heard the big bad wind blow outside.

Fortunately, all three are going to be OK.

Gooey armor

Ace of Spades links to an article at the Telegraph about a gel type substance that hardens when hit at high velocity. The gel, called D3O, will be tested to see if it will stop bullets when integrated into Soldier's helmets.

I'm kicking myself in the ass right now because I thought of this years ago when I was a kid. My parents had bought me one of those Stretch Armstrong figures that are made of something that's probably similar. If you've ever owned one of those things then you know what I'm talking about; you can manipulate the figure and stretch him all day, and he will feel flexible. Punching him, however, would break your hand because the gel stuff inside hardened up.

Even as a kid I though it would make for some pretty cool armor. Too bad I didn't act on it or I could be reaping the big bucks instead of working my ass off.

More on Bass Pro's carry policy

I posted my brother's post at The High Road to let them know of the issue and one commentor, Docgmt, there said that he was disarmed of his concealed piece at the exact same store:

"Bass Pro asked if I was armed as I walked in the door I went to the BPS during the grand opening in Ashland and they stopped me at the door and asked if I had a weapon. I did not lie to them I had a CCW and they locked it up until I was leaving the store. Have not been back since."

From what my brother has told me, a Google search turns up plenty of these incidents at Bass Pro Shops. One would imagine that a large store that sells firearms would know the law and not disarm their patrons.

Bass Pro Shops needs to clarify whether they allow open carry and concealed carry. I, for one, won't be shopping there if they don't.

Bass Pro Shops and Open Carry policy, Hunter0811

This is C-tone's brother sharing an experience from this past Friday the 27th.

An update for anyone that shops at Bass Pro Shops concerning their policy on Open Carry. This past Friday I rode over to the Bass Pro in Ashland Virginia, walked through their greeters and 30 yards into the store before an employee followed behind me asking for a permit. I informed her that a permit was not necessary in the Commonwealth of Virginia and that my form of carry was completely legal. It was brought to my attention that no loaded and/or unlocked firearms were permitted in their facility, so I calmly walked back to her check point and unloaded my CW so that she may put a trigger-lock on it. I attempted to honor this policy despite that this makes it impossible to openly carry my firearm anywhere but my hands and that for all intensive purposes, this would scare more customers than a loaded firearm properly secured in a holster. I was thanked for my patience by having the muzzle of my own weapon waved in my face as this poorly instructed employee attempted to lock the trigger of my firearm, at which point I corrected her for this mistake and asked for my firearm back. Once retrieved it was returned to my vehicle, and I went in to purchase what I rode an hour to pick up. This is my last trip to Bass Pro Shops, until such a time as they can rethink their policy and train their employees to do such simple tasks in a safe manner. Their store has the legal right to limit firearms on their property and I honor that despite my personal beliefs. This doesn't excuse dangerous, poorly educated, and poorly trained employees. Also note that their policy isn't properly marked and enforced at the door. I was barely noticed by an employee that was looking for such rights being exercised. I open carry because it is practical and legal for me, not because I need to flaunt or make people uncomfortable. People like this are why it draws so much negative attention. Having had this issue, I have done a basic Google search and found that many others have had these issues at other Bass Pro Shop locations. I don't appreciate this stupidity, but it's something to watch for.

I am also typing up a formal complaint for their management, and will keep you all updated as to how they respond to/handle this.

For all those interested, the store location is 11550 Lakeridge Parkway, Ashland Virginia, 22305.

Hunter0811

Update : I received a response early this morning from the store manager, that reads as follows.

"Seth,

I am sorry, that is unacceptable. Can you tell me who it was that stopped you and I will rectify immediately. We have folks coming in here all of the time. You are right. It is your right and my right to carry arms. I will fix.

Thanks,

GB

Greg Bulkley

General Manager

Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World

Hanover County, Virginia"

Notify me if you would like to see the draft sent directly to the manager.