Help needed

I recently got into an argument with a cop about firearms safety courses. I suggested that a basic gun safety course for people who have never fired or handled a gun before should not be taught using live firearms or ammunition. Instead, blue guns should be used to teach the basics of safety.

(The basis of the argument was that teaching firearm safety should be done in high school. A parent came on and said she didn't think it was a good idea for children to handle guns in school. I suggested that the course could be taught using blue guns, and that way the basics could be taught without exposing students to undue risk.)

He responded by being an insulting ass, and telling everyone that HE is a 20 year New York cop, and that makes him an expert. He then told me that all of my certifications in shooting and firearms instruction are useless because the most important thing to be taught is how to load and unload firearms while keeping your finger off the trigger.

I told him that firearms and ammunition should NEVER be handled by students anywhere in a classroom, and that ammo and guns should never even be in the classroom together- this kind of thing should be restricted to range sessions only. Having guns and ammo being handled together, especially by novices, is just asking for an ND.

He then told me that I should stick to hoses. Since he was the cop, and everyone seems to defer to them on all topics related to guns, the crowd all nodded and gave me the stare down. I left the conversation at that point.

So, here is my request: Do any of my readers have a link to a best practices page from a reputable training organization that supports either position? I want to see who is correct...

Las Vegas 2

This is the part where I tell you about my trip. Las Vegas is my favorite US city to travel to for a number of reasons: It is easy to get there, it is relatively cheap, and there is a lot to do, especially if you are travelling without kids.

First, when we go we usually fly there on a nonstop flight, even if we did drive once. It's a six hour flight going west and a three hour flight coming back. We usually leave Orlando at around 5 and arrive in Vegas some time around 8 o'clock. Coming back, we leave at the same 5 o'clock and get to Orlando around midnight. Two round trip tickets usually cost around $600.

We stay in MGM owned resorts on the strip. Our favorite is NY-NY. The reason we stay with MGM is that our four days of our stay is usually comped, and we only pay taxes. They usually also give us a $150 room credit, so by the time you count taxes, they actually pay us to stay there.

This time, we stayed at the Bellagio for the first three days. The total cost was $153 for the three nights, but they gave us a $100 credit that we applied to meals, so the final cost was actually $53. For the next three nights, we stayed at the NY-NY. That one was entirely free, plus they gave us a $150 room credit. In all, the total for both hotels was a $97 credit.

Meals we ate out, and most of them were fairly cheap. We ate Christmas dinner at an upscale Italian place, and we had the Bellagio buffet one night. The total cost for two of us to eat both of those meals was about $200. Other nights, we ate cheaper meals. Our total meal bill for the entire week was about $800.

We rented a car on Christmas day and drove half an hour to the top of Mt Charleston so we could play in the falling snow. We walked the strip. We did some gambling, and we also caught a couple of shows. We also rode the "High Roller."

The gambling was great fun, and as anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, I love to play CRAPS. I had lost a total of about $600 up until Saturday, bu I had a big night at the table on Sunday, winning about $1600 when one of the shooters at the table went on a roll. My wife also wound up winning a couple of hundred. (Sometimes, we come home winners, sometimes not.) So we came back to Vegas with about $1200 in cash more than we left with.

What all of this means is that our week-long Christmas trip to Las Vegas (air fare, meals, gambling, plus all entertainment) wound up costing us less than $700.

Las Vegas

We have been in Las Vegas for the past week. We left for Vegas on Christmas Eve morning, and returned at 3 am this morning. While we were there, they were discussing the security procedures that were in place for tonight.

First, there are signs everywhere saying that from 6 pm on the 31st to 2 am on the first, there will be no coolers, no weapons, no backpacks, no strollers, no glass bottles, and no one under the age of 18 allowed on the Las Vegas Strip or on Freemont Street.

Second, there were helicopters buzzing the "Strip" taking background radiation readings.

Third, I also saw some mysterious black trucks with no markings, police blue lights, and satellite dishes on top of them. I did not get a picture myself, but they looked like this:

Some Internet searching uncovered that they are a National Guard unit called the "Civil Support Team," one of 57 such teams in the US. They are a National Guard unit that specializes in responding to incidents involving Weapons of Mass Destruction. These are referred to as CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear) weapons.

Ever since the shooting on October 1, 2018, they have begin to take security more seriously.

More on my Vegas trip in another post...

Video of Texas church shooting

The two big takeaways:

1 CARRY A GUN
2 Practice. Not just marksmanship. Practice your draw. It appears like the first guy shot was too slow on his draw and paid the price.

Death of "common sense" on concealed carry

For years, we have been hearing about "common sense" with regards to carrying concealed weapons. Some of those things that "common sense" told us have been put to rest. Even though some facts are yet to be released, and other facts out there may turn out to be incorrect, the entire incident was live streamed and put out on Youtube. There are a number of things that are known to be accurate at this time. So....

From now on, I will use this morning's incident in Texas to shut down any of the following arguments:

1 Good guys with guns don't stop mass shootings.
2 You are paranoid if you carry in a church, because nothing happens in church
3 If you carry and engage a mass shooter, all of the concealed carriers will just shoot each other.
4 If a concealed carrier engages a mass shooter, people will die in the crossfire.

Freeloaders- a rant

My wife and I love to travel. We travel a lot, flying, driving, cruising, you name it. In the six years since we have met, we have traveled to 48 states and 18 foreign countries. We take an average of 4 cruises, 3 plane trips, and 6 road trips of at least 200 miles each year. We are the high level tiers of frequent customer clubs with one cruise line, two hotel chains, a rental car company, and two airlines.

Everyone we know thinks that we are vacation experts, so much so that our friends and family constantly asked us for travel advice. This happened so often that we thought it would be a good idea to open a travel agency. This business cost us several thousand dollars to set up. To be a travel agent in Florida requires that you be licensed. To get a license, you must be bonded and insured. So we formed a corporation, got our license, bonds, insurance, and went through training with cruise lines, airlines, and other travel companies so we could use their booking systems.

We thought it would be an easy way to make money. Our friends and family asked for our advice already, so all they had to do was book with us and the cruise line, airline, and hotel would pay us our commission at no extra cost to our friends and families. Everybody wins.

 A few people continued to ask for advice, but when it came time to book did not book through us, even though it cost them nothing. In essence, getting our advice and using our expertise for free.

We finally decided that we were losing money, so we shut down the travel business (those of you who booked, thank you- we will continue to service all of our current bookings) and moved on to other ventures.

The odd part is that the people who sought our advice but never booked through us continue to expect our help and advice. For free. They even then complain when they didn't get the best deal possible, wanting to know why we didn't help them book the cheapest price, get cheap upgrades, or find better deals. Again, for free.

You basically put us out of business, and you still demand freebies. Whoever you are booking your trips through is the one making money off of you. Go ask them for advice. I am done.

To my readers: If any of you provide a service, like doctors, plumbers, electricians, attorneys, handymen, barbers, etc.,  do your families expect your services for free?

If I were the President

If I were the President, I think I would have a bit of fun with the Democrats in Congress. What I would do is issue an order from my home in Florida under Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution:

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States. (emphasis added)

Since no one could argue that an impeachment is anything but extraordinary, it would be within the President's powers to order the Democrat held House into session until such time as they transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate. Keep them there over the Christmas break. Alternatively, he could order both houses into session, thus eliminating the ability of Democrat presidential candidates to be on the campaign trail until the impeachment trial is concluded.

Breaking

Shootout between Indiana police and a subject who reportedly has 1,000 rounds of ammo in his house. That sounds like a lot to people who do not shoot, but to shooters that is nothing. There have been times when I shot more than that in a single day. Other than shotgun shells and .32 ACP (I don't own a firearm in that caliber any longer since I sold my Tomcat), I don't have a single caliber that is below 1,000 rounds.

However, the police say that they have been "pinned down" for the past two hours by the high volume of fire. Miami police reportedly called them and advised the Indiana officers to find a family or some small children to hide behind. (OK, the last part isn't true, but that is apparently how Miami cops do things?)

Good riddance

On Tuesday, a man robbed a convenience store at gunpoint. During that robbery, he stole the clerk's car. The police were actively looking for him for two days when a Eustis police Captain heard gunshots and saw a vehicle pulling out of the same convenience store, so the Captain followed it. Without being pulled over, the car stopped and the wanted man jumped out shooting, without warning or preamble. The Captain was shot in the chest and is still in the hospital with that bullet lodged in his back.

Police later caught up with the assailant and ended his life when he refused to obey commands.

It turns out that the dead criminal had just been released from 13 years in prison. He had convictions for armed robbery, vehicle theft, drug dealing and possession, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, kidnapping, and armed burglary.

This guy is one guy that I am glad is no longer with us. The world is that much better without him in it.

I LOL'ed

Case in point

My post of this morning, discussing the police officers who used families as human shields:


I was at the Law of Self Defense website, where a commenter using the handle YERONIMUS PRETORIUS said:

You’re demanding perfection in an imperfect world. Where should the cops have stood in that situation, right out in the open where they would have been shot? You’re confusing prudent behavior with suicide.

What chapter in the police training manual, or where in the Peelian principles does it teach police officers to use children as shields? Remember how we slammed Hamas and Iraq for building military headquarters in the same buildings as hospitals and schools?

If police officers honestly feel that it is appropriate to hide behind children and use them as human shields, then I don’t want to hear another cop EVER tell me how brave they are or how they risk their lives. In fact, I would rather that we have no cops at all. Pussies.

Sick of the thin blue line BS

I have been catching hate from people claiming to be police because I have a problem with the way that the cops handled the UPS shooting in Miami. The police turned this robbery into a double homicide:

Watch this video of cops taking cover behind an SUV with a woman and kids in it. She tries to get out of the line of fire, and the cops stay with the vehicle, using that family as meat shields to protect their cowardly asses:




Now I don't have a problem with the cops chasing the suspects. I don't have a problem with shooting them, and I agree that the cops didn't necessarily have a lot of choice as to where that shootout took place. What I do have a problem with, is the tactics that the police used during the shootout, the most egregious of which was to use Susie Soccermom as a meat shield.

The second was in using citizens as a backstop as 18 of them fired more than 200 rounds downrange without regard for where those bullets were landing:

To paraphrase Steve Martin:

I have a dream. It's not a big dream, it's just a little dream. My dream - and I hope you don't find this too crazy - is that I would like the people of this community to feel that if, God forbid, there were a crime taking place, calling the police department would actually be a wise thing to do. You can't have people, if their family is being raped, robbed, or murdered, saying, "Whatever you do, don't call the police department!" That would be bad.

In this case, while I agree that the criminals needed to be apprehended, the tactics that the police used resulted in two people being killed. That, in my opinion, is more of a tragedy than allowing the criminals to escape with the loot.

Don't sit there and tell me that I can't judge this unless I have been a cop. Any moron knows that real men don't hide behind women and kids in order to save their own candy asses. Or is my toxic masculinity too much for today's police departments?

From an away game

On social media, I made the same point that I did in this post about the $15 minimum wage.

Disney union employee/ complainer: Being a 10+ year cast member, and union representative in my area, sadly I know all too well the financial plights of many of my fellow cast members. Iger will reach hundreds of millions in salary, bonus and options and Disney posts record profits to it's shareholders every quarter. They can do better.

Divemedic: Your post makes the point that the CEO should be paid millions without even meaning to. See, when a CEO runs a company and that company has record profits, the CEO gets large bonuses and salary raises because record profits means that the CEO is doing a good job. Kind of like how a quarterback who leads a team to the Superbowl gets a larger contract.
Pay raises and bonuses are how a company keeps talented people from leaving and taking their skills with them. If Disney didn't pay Iger those bonuses, he would simply take his talent and ability to make a company profitable somewhere else, as soon as that somewhere offered him more money. In the case of minimum wage employees, they make minimum wage because whatever skills they bring to the table don't matter- you are so ordinary and untalented, that if you quit, you would be replaced the next day, and no one would notice the difference.
The stockholders invest in the company because they expect to get profits. Otherwise, there is no reason to invest in the company. Who are the stockholders? They are the pension funds and 401(k) accounts of millions of hard working Americans.
So instead of sitting here with no marketable talent or skills and complaining that you don't make as much as you want, what you do is channel all of that energy that you are using to whine and complain, gain more skills and experience, and then make yourself more valuable. If instead you succeed and get wages increased, you will eventually hit a point where you will be replaced with automation because you have priced your low value labor out of the market.

Second Disney complaining employee:  u are insane and stupid! Rude too. Cast members are what makes Disney go! You can’t automate smiles. Talking to guests. Showing empathy. U have obviously never worked for Disney. U are ignorant. Educate yourself before you make ignorant comments

Some people don't understand business or economics, and this is why they will NEVER understand why the CEO is making so much more than they are- they are just as incapable of understanding the concepts of running a business as a spoon is incapable of tasting the soup.

Virginia

Here is the map of what is happening with regards to using the National Guard to confiscate guns:

Plumbing mystery continues

So my mystery toilet problem update:

After two days of not working, the toilet spontaneously started working again. This is always the pattern. I think it is somehow related to the weather. I suspect that it is caused by the winds blowing from the northeast. I am going to keep track of it. Why do I think that?

Well, I do believe that all of those who commented on my previous post are correct in that it is a vent problem. Let me explain:

I live in a 4 bedroom, 2 bath house. The roof is a gabled roof, with the roof ridge running east to west across the house. This is important to my hypothesis.

There are two lines for sewage that are under my house. They both run north-south. One line is on the east side of the house and services the kitchen and laundry room. It has two vents: one vent pipe that runs up the wall and emerges from the northern slope of the roof, and the second is an under sink AAV valve that is in the island that my kitchen sink is mounted upon.

The second sewage line runs down the west side of the house from the master bath's commode (which is on the southwest corner of the house), past the his and hers sinks, under the shower, and on through the guest bathroom. There is a vent that extends up the wall and emerges from the roof above the guest bathroom, again on the northern slope of the roof. The only other vent for this western line are two AAV valves located under the master bathroom's sinks.

Both vents are clear. The sewage lines are clear. I know, it cost me a $500 plumbers visit, after which they told me nothing was wrong with the plumbing.

My hypothesis is this:
The vents are both on the northern slope of the roof. When the wind is blowing from a certain direction (probably a northern one), the wind is pressurizing the pipes through those northern vents. Once the sewage line is pressurized, this pressure prevents the toilet from flushing. The only thing that could destroy this hypothesis is the fact that no other fixtures, including the toilet in the guest bathroom, which is still on the other line, continues to work.

I don't think it is malfunctioning AAV valves, because while the toilet was malfunctioning I removed the valves under the master bathroom sinks, and the toilet remained dysfunctional.

I am frustrated, the wife is getting aggravated, the plumbers are clueless (yet still billing me for visits), and I am out of ideas.

Turret crawl

I will just leave this right here

Called it

Disney recently announced that they would be increasing their minimum wage to $15 an hour. Now the local fish wrapper is demanding that they increase that wage again, to some unnamed amount called "living wage." In support of this, they claim that Gabby Alcantara-Anderson, who makes $14.75 an hour, is not making enough to support her family and still afford gas money to make the 63 mile commute to her home in Lakeland, so she often spends the night in her car.

I have a few problems with this:
1 She makes $30,600 a year and her husband makes $15,000 a year. The problem here isn't her income, it is his. The article claims that her husband is working two jobs, with the second one being part time 4 days a week at an auto parts store. Even assuming a 4 hour day at the part time gig, he is working 800 hours a year at the second job. Doing the math, that part time job alone would pay him $7000 a year.

2 Look at the picture of her in the paper:

Note that she has a smart phone. Her problem isn't with income, it is that she would rather sleep in her car for lack of gas money that give up her smart phone. It isn't Disney's fault that this family doesn't know the difference between wants and needs.

3. In the article, the woman is complaining that it costs too much to commute from Lakeland, and it is too hard for her and her husband to support themselves, their kid, and her 40-something year old mother. She wants more pay as a result. Why is that her employer's problem?

4. Her checking account has a balance of negative $500 and she claims that they don't know where their next meal will come from, have no savings, but she has tattoos.

5. As much as she is hurting for money, she is on leave from her job so she can do volunteer work for the union.

This entire article is bullshit.

Plumbing mystery

So I have an odd issue with the plumbing in my house. In one of the bathrooms, the toilet occasionally doesn't flush. If you try to use a plunger, the toilet doesn't drain, but you can hear gurgling in the 2 sinks and the shower in that bathroom, and this gurgling comes with a smell of raw sewage. There is another bathroom on the same side of the house which works just fine, and the pipes from the affected bathroom use the same line as the unaffected bathroom. No other drains or fixtures are affected. Here is where it gets odd: - It happens frequently, almost always in the spring and fall - It has been happening for the past 4 years - The toilet will remain clogged for a day or two, and then it spontaneously begins working again - Once when it was clogged, I opened the front door to leave for work, and my wife yelled and told me that opening the door fixed the clog - We had a plumber come out. Of course, by the time he got here, it was working. They put a camera through the pipes, charged us $500 for the hour he was here, and told us there was nothing wrong. Three days later, the toilet stopped working again. The wife gets pretty aggravated. So do I. Any suggestions?

Tuba Skinny

Being originally from New Orleans, my favorite music is usually of the jazz variety. New Orleans is well known for street musicians doing what musicians did for centuries: playing for their supper. Busking is widespread, and the amount of talent that is on the streets of New Orleans can't be matched for the digitally processes screeching that passes for pop music these days. For example, here is a band playing right on the street in New Orleans:




Here they are again, and you will note that they have the collection plate out. This is how many musicians in New Orleans make their living.

Hunting with a Glock 45

I finally have found a gun control law that I will support, as long as it remains narrowly tailored. Current law states that non-citizens cannot purchase firearms in the US, unless they have a hunting license. It seems that the terrorist who attacked the base in Pensacola used that law to his advantage and bought himself a handgun, a Glock 45 to be exact. I would not be opposed to eliminating that particular exception. Even so, are any of my readers familiar with any sort of hunting that you can do in Florida with a 9mm handgun? If a person from Alabama,which is only 8 miles from Pensacola, wishes to buy a handgun in Florida, they would be prohibited by law from purchasing that handgun. In this case, Saudi Arabian terrorists have more rights than US citizens. 

What say you?

On another note, if we are supposedly engaged in a GLOBAL war on terror, why aren't our troops armed while here in the US, at least while on base? The US is a part of the globe, last time I checked. Our entire nation has grown accustomed to the idea that we are safe within our borders. That illusion is going to cost us more.

Snowflakes and helicopter parents

Here is an illustration of what teachers deal with:

A kid in my 10th grade Biology course doesn't turn in any work for several weeks, gets a slew of zeros and is now failing for the quarter. A month later, his mom writes me (his teacher) to demand that I allow him to make up the work that was due as far back as October 6th. Here is the email chain that followed:

From: Angry Mom
Date: November 11, 2019
To: Other teacher
CC: Divemedic
Subject: Lazy Son
I am reaching out to you in regards to my son mentioned above. I am his mother and I am concerned with his grades in school and would like to schedule a parent teacher meeting with you and his other teachers as well to try to figure out why his grades are so low, what’s going on, is he not doing classwork or homework, just to try to get a grasp on what’s going on and a better understanding and some help for him so his grades will improve. Please respond back to me via email so we can schedule a conference please. Thank you in advance and I hope you have a wonderful week.
Sincerely,
Angry Mom

Conference was scheduled for Tuesday the 18th by the other teacher, but I was off that week and didn't attend. Here is the email that I got on December 2:

I’m just following up on my last email regarding my son , Lazy Student. He told me his missing assignments are from a book that you will not allow him to take home. I am asking for a response from you before going to the guidance counselor. He has a free period everyday for a class that he has already finished and I don’t see why he can’t come to your class on that free period and get his missing work turned in. Let me know what options he has as I am trying to prevent him failing your class.
Thank you,
Angry Mom

Note that I took off the week before Thanksgiving. I don't take off many days, and I had weeks of vacation on the books and had to burn some of them. Before I could answer her email (I have students and can only answer emails during my lunch), my computer died and when it was finally fixed by IT on Wednesday, I answered her with this:

I apologize for the delay in my response, my computer died and I have been working without one for the past several days.
 Students may take books home, if they sign one out. However, there is no homework in this class, and students are given significant amounts of time to complete these activities in class. If they fail to complete them in class, they can bring the assignment in the next day for full credit, and up to five days later for partial credit.
 Unfortunately, Lazy's free period is during sixth period, and I am not teaching Biology during that period. I cannot dedicate time away from my other students and their needs to provide specialized instruction to students who were not willing to complete their work when it was assigned, as the rest of their classmates were able to do.
 At this point, he currently has a 45 percent F for the quarter, and there is little that can be done to salvage his grade. His best hope is to spend the weekend studying for his quarter exam, which he will be taking on Monday, and to study for the midterm exam that he will be taking the following week. Perhaps a high score on one or both of those exams would serve to increase his grade. 

This apparently pissed her off, because I got this back in return:

So you’re telling me that you won’t allow him to sign a book out and bring it home and still turn in his missing assignments Because it’s past the free period and we were not made aware of this until now because you were on vacation for ten days and not present for the conference we had with his guidance counselor and then the kids were out for a week due to thanksgiving break ? His other teachers are allowing him to still turn in his work so that he doesn’t fail but you will not allow it ? Even possibly taking points off for it being late ? Is that what you are telling me ? You would rather let my child fail when you have the capability of helping him catch it up as his other teachers are ? I just want to be clear. Lazy is in trouble for not getting this work done when he should have but I have been reaching out to you for weeks now with only getting a response yesterday. I will wait for your response to this email.
Thank you ,
Angry Mom

So here was my next answer to her, which I also carbon copied to my boss:

Again, students are given ample time to complete all assignments in class. If the assigned work is not completed, students are told to complete it and bring it back the next day. If they fail to do so, the work is considered to be late work. As far as late work being accepted, the syllabus states that if any assignment is late, one full letter grade will be deducted for each class day that the assignment is late. After the third day, the assignment will not be accepted and the student will receive a ‘zero’ for the assignment. I have actually tried to be lenient in Lazy's case, and offered to let him turn in missing work that was up to a week late. This policy is in place because the concepts taught in this class are taught in a specific sequence, with the knowledge learned in one week being applied to concepts being mastered in the current week. With Biology being a vocabulary intensive course, a student who falls behind will have difficulty understanding classroom discussions if they do not understand the words being spoken. This makes it difficult to master the course content. Since each course has its own requirements and pacing, this means that each teacher has their own policy for how they deal with late work. How those teachers choose to present their course and how they choose to handle late work has no bearing whatsoever on my course or classroom.

 All students have been aware of that since the first day of school, as we reviewed this policy during that time. In addition, the syllabus is on the class website. I will attach a copy of the syllabus to this email. It would be unfair to show favoritism by allowing one student an exception to this policy while holding others accountable. The fact that I was on vacation has absolutely no bearing on this policy, and I am not interested in debating vacation policies or my personal life with my students or their parents. 

This is when she became unglued:

Thank you for your rather RUDE response!! Teachers are supposed to help struggling students and the fact that you WERE on vacation and therefore not present for the parent/teacher/guidance counselor DOES have bearing on this situation!! But you have made it quite clear what kind of teacher you are and that you would rather have students fail then help them due to “your policies” which I am not expecting leniency for JUST MY CHILD !!! I feel it is your responsibility to first of all help your students and second of all to RESPOND TO A PARENT EMAIL ASKING FOR HELP and not some lame excuse about your computer being broken !!! I have emailed you 4 times in the past month. I’m quite certain there are computers at the school that you have access to. This will not end here. I will be contacting the dean when I get back in town requesting a conference with YOU !! 

I will not be answering this email, and have referred her to my boss. 

Active shooter

Active shooter at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

Accidental rifle purchase

Couple buys a baby bouncer from Goodwill, and there is a Mossberg 715 inside of the box. What a bargain! A $300 rifle for $10.

What I don't understand is why the police confiscated it.

Gun violence reporting

This is crappy reporting.

First off, I doubt that the journalist interviewed Harris, even though he was quoted in the article, because the only person named Harris in this story is one of the decedents.

“Jerric, you know, he’s not a bad (person), he’s not bad at all,” Harris said.

Second, the story claims that "there are victims on both sides,” but I don't consider the person shot in a gun battle with police after he murdered someone to be a "victim." He is a murderer, a criminal. This is the basic problem that I have with the left: they view all people who are shot as "victims," even if the so called victim is the perpetrator.

Third, the family of this murderer then begins campaigning for gun control because their choir boy relative isn't a bad person, so what happened must be the fault of the gun he used, and of the police who obviously overreacted and killed yet another black man for no reason whatsoever.

Journalism majors

Journalists know jack and shit about anything. How can I take this article seriously when it gets basic facts wrong? Water is NOT 800 percent denser than air, it is 800 TIMES denser than air? That means water is 80,000 percent denser than air. Popular Mechanics should be able to get something that basic correct.

Caught twice in three weeks

A man from Florida was caught twice in a three week period trying to get on a plane with a firearm in his luggage. It appears like he was carrying a 100 year old Savage 1907 that had seen better days. What I don't understand is how he could be caught TWICE with a loaded firearm in New York,  trying to get on a plane, and isn't getting arrested.

The swamp

Quote of the day:

Upon her private email server being subpoenaed by a congressional investigative committee, Hillary Clinton sent the computer to be professionally wiped clean of all files and then turned it over. Yet, the same people who expressed no interest in pursuing that clear obstruction of justice have been calling secondhand witnesses to a phone call, whose transcript has already been made public!

Family

We were invited to my brother's house for Thanksgiving. So yesterday, we made the two hour drive so we could spend the evening with family. My mother, my sister, and their families were all there, along with my daughter and my grandchildren. In total, there were eighteen adults and children. A great time was had by all. Of course, when that many family members get together, one of them has got to ruin it.

For us, it was my brother's son. My nephew is 19 years old, lives with his parents, and he has issues. Let's just say that the local cops all know his name, he can't keep a job, and it always seems to me someone else's fault (according to him, anyway). On top of it, my brother and his wife tolerate the fact that he drinks at 19 years old. Whatever- not my kid, not my house. The problem is that he becomes a bit of a jerk while drinking. After dinner, my nephew began wrestling with the older kids who were there (all in the 14-16 range). This mostly consisted of him beating on the teens, "all in good fun."

A couple of bloody noses later, he challenged me to a wrestling match. I refused. He retreated to his parent's bedroom and came back with a handheld stun gun. He pulled the trigger to get the loud spark effect, and the room immediately got quiet. He loudly said, "Hey, Uncle. Sit still for a minute, let's see what happens when I Taser you."

Me: "No. Put that away."
Nephew (walking towards me): "Come on, it will be funny."
Me (standing up and reaching into my pocket for pepper spray): "Put down the weapon right now, or I will have to hurt you."

It was at this point where my brother snuck up behind him and snatched the Taser out of his hand, thus avoiding a major Thanksgiving incident that would have surely wound up with someone going to the ER and someone being arrested.

My nephew stormed into his bedroom, where he stayed for the next hour. He did eventually come out and apologize.

There is always one in every family.

My computer is broken

This post did something to my computer. The screen is now all blurry.

This is why we have mandatory sentencing

Bleeding heart judges are why we have a crime problem. A 34 year old man with multiple felony convictions shot a Tulsa police officer. The only reason why the bullet didn't do as much damage as it could have, was that it was stopped by a Navy challenge coin that he kept in his pocket. The shooter was convicted in Federal court of felon in possession of a firearm, attempting to kill a witness, and using a firearm in the commission of a violent crime.

Despite the fact that the defendant was completely unrepentant, the judge gave him the minimum sentence on the charges: ten years for felon in possession, and 30 for attempting to kill a witness. He ordered that those two be served concurrently. So, even though the minimum sentences totaled 40 years, the judge ordered them to be served at the same time. The third charge has a requirement that its ten year minimum be served after the completion of all other sentences. So, a total of 40 years for all three charges. He has appealed his conviction, but I don't know the basis for that appeal and don't feel like paying PACER fees to find out.

The entire incident was caught on multiple body cams. The video is embedded below. The shots happen at 19:20.

Transgender ridiculousness

So now teachers have to call a kid whatever name he or she picks for themselves instead of the legal name that they are registered in school under, or else we are guilty of bullying? What happens when a kid decides their name is Slick Daddy G?
This is ridiculous. I will call each student by their legal name. If they (or their parents) don't like it, then go to court and get the name changed.
So help me, I am going to identify as using one of the following names, and then demand that everyone use that name:
George Pooney
Squirt Reynolds
Luke Thighwalker
Peter Dragon
Lance Hardwood
Dick Plough
Miles O'Pecker

Then I am going to walk into the girls' locker room any time I feel like it, because to keep me out is to discriminate against my sexual orientation.

If they refuse, it is only because they are bullying me.

Order and discipline

The president used his constitutional position as Commander in Chief of the Armed forces to restore the rank of three accused military personnel, including the rank of SEAL Eddie Gallagher. His completely out of bounds courts martial was filled with JAG misconduct, including the clearly unconstitutional decision of the prosecutors to electronically spy on his defense attorneys. Beyond this outrage – which no one was prosecuted for – these idiots then used an immunized witness who testified that he killed the alleged ISIS victim, and NOT the accused. Gallagher was acquitted of everything except some piddling charge of taking a selfie with a terrorist stiff, which normally would have been handled with non-Judicial punishment, and still had the book thrown at him.

After the acquittal, the JAGs decided to award each other medals. Medals. Not indictments for their eavesdropping antics. Not letters of reprimand for their staggering incompetence. Medals. President Trump got wind of this and had to personally direct that these defective decorations be withdrawn. Fast forward to the restoration of Gallagher’s rank and what happens next? The Naval Special Forces commander, apparently the next day, initiated a proceeding to take Gallagher’s SEAL trident, his status as a special warfare operator.

Here is the most insidious part- Gallagher had already announced his retirement, and was due to be discharged in November. No matter what, Chief Gallgher was never again going to be on an actual SEAL team. Instead, the initiation of this review means that he could not be discharged until the review and all of the associated appeals were complete. So instead of retiring in November, he would perhaps be retiring next spring.  This was pure retribution for pissing off the Obama-era admirals, another example of Obama and his cronies trying to gum up the works.

President Donald Trump needs to announce a reduction in rank for the admiral in charge of the Naval Special Forces Command, for continuing with the punitive measures against Chief Gallagher against orders to the contrary. Contrary to what the Navy PIO had to say, an order doesn't have to be in writing to be an order. Had the admiral mentioned that he wanted something done, and one of his subordinates refused to do so until the orders were in writing, that sailor would have been in NJP and reduced in rank within 48 hours. I know, I did 7 years in the Navy myself. Officers are very unforgiving of what they refer to as "sea lawyers." I think it would be poetic justice to reduce him in rank to Commander, take away his Trident, and then place him in charge of the mess hall at some out of the way jerkwater naval base for the remainder of his career.

Once that is done, Trump needs to demote that Admiral’s boss for failing to maintain control of his subordinate. While he is at it, the PIO of the Navy should be second in command of the aforementioned mess hall, for allowing his command to issue passive aggressive statements disrespectful of the President. The Navy JAG corps likely needs some house cleaning, as well.

If none of that is legally permissible, then they could always convene a GCM for each of the officers above for violating various sections of the UCMJ. Here is an article that kind of touches on the legalities involved.  One thing is for sure- senior military officers are under the mistaken assumption that they have the ability to refuse orders from the chain of command. That is a dangerous state of affairs for a country with a history of a civilian controlled military.

Only ones

Remember that police are the only ones that can be trusted to own guns, even when they are intoxicated and threatening Lyft drivers at gunpoint. 

Interstellar space facts

I thought that this story about the Voyager probes measurements of interstellar space was fascinating.

Databases

Do you know why red flag laws won't work as they are advertised? Because the government has been collecting too much data, and have not been verifying that what they are collecting is accurate. There is an old saying in computer circles: GIGO- Garbage In, Garbage Out. A computer database cannot be more accurate than the LEAST accurate data it has been fed.

As this unfortunate man found out, the cops are not all that motivated to ensure that the information they are keeping on all of us is accurate. The result is that innocents suffer, and criminals walk free.

The real travesty here is this:

There were discrapancies, but the cops didn't care:

"It's up to you guys," replied the dispatcher. "Everything else that you gave me matches. So I guess he'll need to get it straightened out at the jail."

They didn't care whether or not they got the right guy. Their default is to lock you up, and let YOU figure it out.

Scene safety again

Back in 2007, I blogged about how EMS should and does disarm people during an EMS call. The reason has nothing to do with depriving anyone of rights and everything to do with physiology: people who are sick, dying, or having any other serious medical issue frequently lash out. This well known phenomenon is akin to a cornered animal fighting for its life. After all, when you are dying or seriously ill, your hindbrain kicks in and demands that you fight for survival: it is an instinct that has been embedded in our behavior by millions of years of evolution.

Some people disagree. This firefighter failed to disarm a seizure patient. When that patient came to, he shot and killed the firefighter. This story is the exact reason why this is done. Had that firefighter taken the simple precaution of moving the weapon out of the room, he would be alive and his patient would not be in prison.

I disarmed every patient I had, at least until we had concluded our business. Sometimes, that meant moving the gun to another room. Sometimes I held on to it, sometimes I turned the weapon over to the cops. In a couple of cases, I put the gun in the patient's bag and placed the bag in the cab of my ambulance with my partner while the patient and I rode to the hospital in the back.

It was temporary, and only because of a medical condition that required it. No different than taking a drunk's car keys.

Self defense from fake cop

I had a defensive gun use three years ago. I have hesitated to use it, until now.

I live in a very quiet community, and many people in the area use neighborhood electric vehicles to get around. Similar to golf carts, they are great for a quick errand to the store. Many areas in Florida are famous for this, and communities frequently include multi-use pathways just for that purpose.

Anyway, I had taken a run to the corner store and was on my way home, when a car backed out of a space in front of me, the driver obviously not bothering to check for cross traffic before backing out. I slammed on the brakes and avoided being hit by only a couple of inches. I gave him a dirty look, swerved around, and kept going. It was a white, two door Pontiac with a large "Punisher" sticker in the back window.

A minute or so later, I see in my mirror that the guy is behind me and honking his horn. As I stop to make the turn into my neighborhood, he jumps out of the car and begins telling me that it is illegal to leave the scene of an accident. I tell him that there was no accident, we never made contact. He tells me that I am a liar, and then says that he is a Navy Special Warfare police officer at the Navy base, and he is placing me under arrest. He tells me to turn around a put my hands behind my back. There are a few problems with that statement:

1 I am not aware of any "Navy Special Warfare Police"
2 Even if they exist, they have no civilian arrest powers
3 The nearest Navy operating base is over 100 miles away. Yes, there is a 'secret' Naval research facility about 20 miles from here, but I don't think that they want their personnel running around in personal automobiles 'arresting' people for stupid stuff. The facility belongs to the Naval Research Lab, and they keep a VERY low profile. I don't even know if there are military people there, it may just be civilians.
4 He is in shorts and a tank top. No identification. No uniform.

At any rate, this smells, so I tell him to back up and get back in his car. Right now, the bulk of his car and my NEV are between us, so I just tell him to get back in the car.

He says "What if I don't want to?" and steps around the car. Now we are separated by about 10 feet, and there is nothing between us but air. He takes another step closer.

I felt the hairs on my neck raise, and without even realizing that I had made the decision to do so, I drew my J frame from the pocket holster in my front right pocket. I held it at the low ready, muzzle pointed at the ground between us.

His eyes popped out of his head. I remember thinking that he looked like a cartoon character. He immediately put his hands up and began backing away as he said, "I'm not armed." Then he ran, jumped in his vehicle, and sped away.

I called the 911, and a Deputy arrived less than a few minutes later. A police report was filed, they looked for the guy but never found him. The plate number I gave them was not a valid number. So he either had fake plates, or I simply didn't give them the correct number.

The one big lesson that I took from this, was that I needed to begin carrying something to bridge the gap between bare hands and lethal force. That was the day that I began carrying Pepper Spray. 

Sanctuary

Lake County, Florida has voted to become a Second Amendment sanctuary. Does this mean that the Lake County Sheriff is not going to enforce Federal gun laws?

Orlando crime news

One "teen" shoots another "teen" inside of an Orlando gym. Whenever the local media talks about "teens," anyone who has lived in Orlando knows that they are talking about black gang members. On a side note, since it is already illegal for 15 year old "teens" to have guns, what gun laws would prevent these shootings?

In other Orlando crime news, most of the time violent crime occurs in Pine Hills, or as locals refer to it: Crime Hills. Today was no exception:

Orlando block party ends in gunfire Saturday night

Man carjacked at gunpoint in Orange County

Thieves targeting gun owners at gas stations

According to the Sheriff of Fayette County, Georgia, thieves looking for firearms are keying in on pickups with hunting or even patriotic stickers or emblems. They are now targeting pickups at gas stations for smash and grab robberies, hoping to snatch guns from the center console.

This is the reason why my firearm is on me, and when it is not, it is secured in a Gunvault slider safe that is securely bolted to the inside of my truck. It has room for a firearm and a spare magazine. I own two of them.

I don't have any relationship with Gunvault, other than the fact that I own two of them, and I highly recommend them.

Another trillion

In July, I reported that we had borrowed yet another trillion dollars. We do it so often that trillion just isn't scary any longer. In this case, here we are just ten months after the last trillion dollar signpost, passing yet another. as we have just hit $23 trillion. 

So here we are, facing the fact that the government under the Trump administration has borrowed $4,1 trillion. That is a 115% increase in the total debt. 

We cannot borrow indefinitely, and that which cannot continue will not continue. What is going to happen when the lenders stop lending? I fear that we are going to find out. 

Fall is here

Yesterday, the dew point was 74 degreesF here in Central Florida. This morning, it is 51 degrees. Fall is here, finally.

Statistics, damned statistics, and liars

The media has been running and re-running an article about the odds of an American being killed by "gun violence." Business insider posted the story not once, not twice, but three times last year. This headline, along with the statistical math that supposedly supports the article, is complete tripe.

The article claims that the average American stands a 1 in 315 chance of being killed by "gun violence." This is a misstatement of statistical analysis. In order to take the number of "gun deaths" each year and divide that into the total population of the country to arrive at a "chance of being killed by gun violence" statistic, each American in the total population must be equally likely of being the victim of one of these events. In other words, the events must occur randomly.

That cannot be the case. Each year, about 60% of all deaths involving a firearm are suicide. If you do not commit suicide, your chances of dying from "gun violence" were just cut in half. More than half of all homicides in the nation were committed in a city that has a population of greater than 100,000. Nearly ten percent of firearm homicides were legal shootings by police and private citizens employing firearms in self defense.

What all of this means is that if you are not in a gang, are not dealing drugs or otherwise involved in a criminal enterprise, not suicidal, and live in a city of less than 100,000 people, you are about one 50th as likely to be involved in a "gun death."

The goal here is that the press want suburban moms to be afraid of guns. In order to do that, they HAVE to lie, because telly Suzie Soccermom that gang members living in inner city Chicago are dying over drug sales turf wars doesn't generate the fear they need in order to sway her opinion.

Liberals don't understand economics

Liberals in Florida have put a minimum wage increase to $15 an hour on the ballot. In a news article on that topic, I posted a comment:

Divemedic: The real minimum wage is zero. Once the minimum wage reaches a certain point, businesses simply stop hiring. They do so either by not expanding or by eliminating jobs by automating.

In the meantime, they will simply increase prices to cover the extra expenditures.

A liberal responds: when wages increase, people on the bottom spectrum spend it (unlike tax breaks for wealthy, who find ways to save it or invest it in multinational organizations that don’t impact us). If poor people spend it, the question is, where? They like to eat out, go to the movies, hit the arcade, bowling, and buy crap at local stores. This is well established.

So if a local business doubles its sales, why would they stop hiring?

Divemedic: Because the cost per unit has increased. If you increase wages, the labor cost, which is the largest expense of any business other than cost of goods sold, is higher. A worker is limited in how many units they can produce per hour, so increasing hourly wage results in a higher unit cost. The business must respond by either increasing prices or decreasing costs, in order to stay profitable.

Increasing prices can only be done to a small extent if the company is to remain competitive. The only option left is to reduce costs. This is where automation comes in- once labor costs are more than the cost of automation, the company will automate jobs out of existence. Automation decreases unit cost by increasing the number of units an employee can produce. We are already seeing that with the ordering kiosks and self checkouts in stores. Some companies will resort to hiring illegal immigrants who will work for less than minimum wage. Either way, the American worker suffers..

Your comparison of increased labor to tax cuts is invalid- a business has very little option of cutting its own taxes.

Liberal: That's why I feel there should be a cap on prices or else everything will continue to go up and we’ll be back in the same boat as before except at a higher priced level.


Sigh.

Free speech

Now the left is claiming that they can predict mass shootings based upon the social media posts of individuals- even when those posts are not considered threatening. It seems that they are matching speech patterns of people to see if they match speech patterns of mass shooters. Right now, police are arresting people for saying things like:

3 more days of probation left then I get my AR-15 back. Don’t go to Walmart next week

Which most people recognize as being a real and immediate threat. However, they are proposing that the use of phrases like: “I,” “me,” and “mine.” indicates a person who is more likely to do violence than a person who uses words like: “great,” “happy,” and “amazing.” They go on to claim that a person can be diagnosed with personality disorders or depression, based on nothing more than their social media posts. They claim that that people who become violent are more likely to use emotionally laden words like “shit,” “hate,” “you” and “they.” while being less likely to use words about the external world, such as “people,” “world,” “state” and “time.”

This is pure pseudoscience, of course. Using this hypothesis, a person would be considered unlikely to commit violence if they said something like: "The people of the world would be happier if we took time to make the state safer by executing everyone who owns weapons of war. Wouldn't that be amazing?" While the person who replies with: "I think your idea of killing people is bullshit. I hate it. You have no right to take my guns, they are mine." would be considered a killer in waiting.

The scary part is in the last paragraph:

we are optimistic that these words can offer a window—and a warning—about individuals’ intentions. This work is by no means a standalone solution to gun violence or terrorism, but it might help, even as predicting and preventing these sorts of attacks remains incredibly difficult.

Gun bloggers and social media posters beware: Your words will soon be used against you.

Police shoot sleeping woman

During a "well being check" that may well have been a SWATing, the police broke into a home without a warrant, woke up a sleeping woman, then shot her, because a woman asleep in her bed at night is a threat.

Now she is being charged with three counts of attempted murder of a LEO. But red flag laws won't ever be abused.

Groundwork

When the Democrat mandatory buyback goes into effect, it will be done without any money being paid to the owners of their formerly legal weapons. This court case will be used as the precedent.

Data mining

UK gun myth

So here we go again, from a discussion on another web site, where "reasoned discourse" broke out, and I was blocked from responding. So, I will respond here instead:

People like you claim that gun laws wouldn't work because criminals don't obey the laws. Criminals don't obey the laws in other similar countries that have gun control, but they have significantly fewer murders (see eg UK). The reason? Most illegal guns in the USA start as legal guns - they are stolen, sold, etc and end up in the hands of criminals. Since there are so few LEGAL guns in the UK, its very very difficult to obtain illegal weapons (that's why the 3 terrorists in the London Bridge attack used a van and knives - as a result the 3 of them only managed to kill 7 people - a single mass shooter in the USA can easily kill 10, and the record is 59).
In fact, gun control works in the USA too. The AR15 is the weapon of choice of the mass shooter, despite the military M16 being a more deadly weapon (and hence preferred by the military). Why would a mass-shooter opt for the less deadly AR15? Because its very difficult to obtain the M16, as its illegal in most states. The fact that law abiding citizens can't obtain the weapon makes it virtually impossible for criminals to obtain it.
Anyone who thinks gun control doesn't work hasn't looked elsewhere. The UK is so safe that most police officers aren't armed. In the USA there are calls to arm school teachers! People scratch their heads and pretend they don't know what can be done about these regular school shootings - even more guns perhaps? The last school shooting in the UK was in 1996. Gun control does work.

1 Yes, MOST guns in the US start off as legal guns. Most liquor starts off as legally consumed, but then a person uses it in a criminally negligent manner. It isn't whether or not an object starts off being legally purchased, because it isn't the object that commits the crime, but the person using it.

2 Using one single crime (the London Bridge attack) to "prove" that criminals can't get guns is misleading. 23 people were killed in the bombing of the Ariana Grande concert, even though bombs are illegal in the UK.

3 The AR15 is not the weapon of choice of mass shooters. Let's use ABC's list of 21 mass shootings in the US this year. Only 4 of the shootings listed were carried out by a person armed with a rifle, and only two of those were AR clones (Odessa and Dayton). Overwhelmingly, criminals favor handguns, for the simple reason that carrying around a rifle makes one stand out.

4 That is the same reason why the M16 isn't used by criminals. It is difficult to hide a full sized machine gun. The vast majority of crimes committed by criminals armed with firearms is committed by handguns.

5 There aren't calls to arm teachers. The call is for people to stop believing that creating zones where a shooter can depend on his intended victims being disarmed. We are simply asking you to stop disarming teachers, which is totally different from actively arming them.

6 UK police are armed. 

7 Gun control doesn't work to stop crime, but it does work in creating people who can be easily controlled.

Gun buyback

Central Florida cops had a gun buyback today. Orange County had 58 guns turned in. Three were criminals trying to dispose of stolen firearms. Maitland police got three long guns and two handguns.

Look at what got turned in and reflect on the weapons that will be turned in when there is an AR15 "buyback."

Some rights are more important than others

The same people who want to force businesses to bake wedding cakes for gay weddings have no problem with asking banks to refuse to allow money transfers for the sale of firearms.

Only one

Remember the School Resource officer who had an ND at school back in May? He has been fired.

Like you and me

When a citizen kills a police K9, he is charged with killing a police K9. Killing a law enforcement canine is a third-degree felony charge that carries a prison sentence of up to five years.

When a cop does it, he is charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty.

This just in

Beto O'rourke announced that, in the even a gun owner doesn't comply with his confiscation scheme, the police will  visit to recover that firearm and to make sure it is purchased, bought back, so it cannot potentially used against somebody else.

Well, as a service to the Democrats, here is a video of what this will look like, once they begin door to door confiscation, courtesy of ABC news:

Believe in something

Warning

Recently, many bloggers have noted that media outlets published footage of the Knob Creek machine gun shoot and tried to pass it off as if it was a battlefield.




Let this be a warning to the politicians who are wanting to confiscate firearms: Gun people go out and, in one single range session, unleash an amount of firepower that scares the media into thinking it is a warzone. How are you going to take that on? Nuking a US city? Seriously?

Gitsum

Some music for those who want to repeal the Second Amendment from the group 'No One Special:'

And a second one from Hogjaw:

Heinlein was a prophet

As I read yet another article about trannies taking over women's sports, I realize that we really are living in the 'crazy years.'

Definitions matter

Graybeard commented on my last post:

Unless they specifically address it, if there's an assault weapon buy back, all you sell back is the serialized lower, because that's the gun. Get some 80% lowers and get them ready to assemble or swap them out in advance and sell back stripped lowers.
Uppers are not guns, stocks are not guns, trigger groups or drop-ins are not guns.

He is rightly pointing out that the ATF has long held that the lower is a firearm and everything else that attaches to it is merely an accessory. With that in mind, is my stripped lower an assault weapon? After all, even using the new definition of "assault weapon":

The term ‘semiautomatic assault weapon’ means any of the following, regardless of country of manufacture or caliber of ammunition accepted:
“(A) A semiautomatic rifle that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine and any 1 of the following:
“(i) A pistol grip.
“(ii) A forward grip.
“  (iii) A folding, telescoping, or detachable stock, or is otherwise foldable or adjustable       in a manner that operates to reduce the length, size, or any other dimension, or        .         otherwise enhances the concealability, of the weapon.
“  (iv) A grenade launcher..
“  (v) A barrel shroud.
“  (vi) A threaded barrel.
(D) A semiautomatic pistol that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine and any 1 of the following:
“(i) A threaded barrel.
“(ii) A second pistol grip.
“(iii) A barrel shroud.
“(iv) The capacity to accept a detachable magazine at some location outside of the pistol grip.
“(v) A semiautomatic version of an automatic firearm.
“(vi) A manufactured weight of 50 ounces or more when unloaded.
“(vii) A stabilizing brace or similar component.
“(E) A semiautomatic pistol with a fixed magazine that has the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds.

Since a stripped lower doesn't have a pistol grip or stock, doesn't have a barrel at all (thus no barrel shroud or threaded barrel), weighs far less than 50 ounces, and without any of the accessories like the upper, cannot be classed as semiautomatic, there is a significant legal case to be made that applying this to a stripped lower is rather vague and over inclusive. That is what you get when you base laws on cosmetics rather than function. 

Hype

While researching AR-15 parts, I discovered that the liberal (redundancy alert) antigun media has managed to find out that the El Paso shooter was seeking ammo referred to as 8M3 ammunition because his WASR-10 wasn't as deadly as an AR-15. As near as I can tell, the 8M3 number is merely a designation for a hollow point 7.62x39mm bullet. It became legendary among people who claimed that it was some sort of super bullet. More hype from Internet chairborne commandos. So much for this source being a reliable source of information. That leads me to:

That same source talks about how much a so-called buyback of "Assault Weapons" would cost. They claim that there are 265 million firearms in the US, with 33% of them being rifles. That number is ridiculously low. Since the NICS system was put in place, there have been more than 325 million NICS checks. Even assuming that, on average, each NICS check symbolizes one firearm transaction, that would mean that there are many more firearms in the US than they claim.

The article then goes on to claim that a mandatory buyback would mean that the government would take your property and reimburse you a percentage of its market value. So I would be reimbursed, according to them, $200 for each AR-15. In an Op-Ed that they link to, Swallwell claims that his bill would pay $200 to $1000 for each AR-15. Even the cheapest AR costs more than that. I would argue that you will not get many rifles turned in for only $200. The select fire version of the AR-15 is the M-4 rifle, which costs the US Military more than $600 each would be a heck of a buy for them at $200 a unit. I would argue that this would make a mandatory buyback at anything less than $600 an unconstitutional taking, violating the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment.

Further, there are a couple of important points here:

1 No one can even define what an "Assault weapon" IS. I own some stripped lowers. Since they have not yet been made into weapons of any type, they are NOT assault weapons under any of the proposed definitions.
2 No one knows how many there are. There is no way to know, and that is without taking homebuilt lowers into account.
3 There is no way to gauge compliance with any sort of buyback, since you don't know what or where all of the objects that you wish to "buy back" are.
4 Even if you did, now what? Who is going to go door to door when compliance rates are low? There are tens of thousands of gun owners that would use this as the trip wire event that would result in hundreds of thousands of deaths of both cops and citizens.

How to be rich

Be related to someone who can hand out government largesse

This is why

Here is the reason why the Democrats need a disarmed American public:

 If the Constitution prohibits Democrats from doing what they want, they should simply shred it and do what they want anyway? This is why they want to ban guns- banning guns allows them to do what they want without fear of what the public will do about it.

It also shows me that HRC is a major player behind this attempt to overthrow the legitimately elected government.

Like you and me, only better

School resource cop who pled guilty to molesting a 14 year old girl gets probation and will not have to register as a sex offender.

Common hand signal for hate?

The hand signal for "OK" has been declared to be a hidden signal for racism, so much so that people are getting fired for it. This likely had nothing to do with racism. Teens have been playing the hand signal game for over a decade.

This racism craze has gone beyond ridiculous.

I have no idea what the SCUBA community is going to do now.

Obama is a racist:

So is GQ and Denzel Washington:

Even Jesse Jackson is a secret racist. How deep does this conspiracy go?

Red Stripe

Reading between the lines: A deputy from Orange County, Florida didn't take his finger off the trigger of his Glock when putting it back in the holster, and earned himself a red stripe.

Beto ignorant of history

Today, Beto O'rourke made a speech at Kent state, where he made the claim that the only people who could be trusted to own guns is the government.

Impeachment

Angus McThag asks if the President is, once impeached, allowed to run for office again. The answer to this question is found in Article I, Section 3:

The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present.
Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States: but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law.

There is your answer.

Tools deleted

I went to Amazon to order a new Master Bench Block for an AR-15. It is a tool. It is not a firearm, a firearm part, or an accessory. Apparently, anything that is related to the AR-15 has been removed from Amazon. Brownell's and Midway USA both have them.

The reason that I began shopping with Amazon is that they were convenient and had whatever I needed at a good price, all on one website. Since that is becoming less true every week, I will resume shopping on other sites. My guess is that Amazon is making some companies very happy.

Same story, different kid

Coup

What Pelosi is doing is a masterful job at exercising a coup. Using a whistleblower report that no one has yet seen, and relying on a newspaper report that itself relied on third hand information to begin impeachment proceedings has me wondering of she hasn't planned this all along.

As Trumps approval numbers remain high at 53%, there is no Democrat challenger that is likely to win the Presidential election next year. With that in mind, the Democrat party cannot survive another 4 years of Trump placing judges in the Federal court system. Especially since Ginsberg is unlikely to survive until 2025. A 6-3 majority of Republican SCOTUS justices just can't be allowed to happen, if you are part of the Democrat leadership.

If the Democrats can put enough pressure on RINOs and on Republicans in Senate seats that are from tossup states like Maine, this impeachment may just be successful in the Senate. From there, I see one of two courses of action to follow:

1 Impeach Trump, and immediately impeach Pence, which would place Pelosi in the Whitehouse. This, I think, is the least likely.

2 Impeach Trump some time in January or February and watch as Pence takes over the Presidency for the last few months of the term. Since he doesn't have the name recognition, his chances of beating any of the Democratic contenders is fairly low.

Once the Democrats are in charge of both houses of Congress as well as the Whitehouse, they are free to enact full amnesty and register some 30 million former illegals as new Democrat voters within 30 days of inauguration. A gun ban will follow, as will every Socialist policy they can cram through in the first 100 days.

It's almost like it was planned and orchestrated for years.