The inevitable begins

San Francisco Mayor Ed Klee is a big fan of Baron Von Bloomberg's stop and frisk program.  The 4th Amendment?  Eh....not so much.

As usual, The Agitator has excellent commentary on the topic and I recommend you read it.  One quote that stood out to me was the below:

San Francisco is a city that’s famous — or notorious — for being liberal, depending on your point of view. But in modern America “liberal” does not reliably mean “an advocate of limited police power” or “a supporter of Fourth Amendment rights.” Nominal “liberals” in government are as eager to milk fear and law-and-order sentiment as the most gravel-knuckled conservative.

  I have frequent conversations on this topic with a good friend who is for want of a better term; a "classic liberal."  He's not a fan of anything Baron Von Bloomberg does, loves his guns, and is usually aghast at what today's "liberals" do.  He's a guy that thinks the government should respect the Bill of Rights but do more for its citizens (healthcare) and his military record is...intimidating.  Honestly, this is another one of those libertarian moments where both the current Left and the Right blur together because we all know of multiple rights violations by the "conservatives" as well. 

  Now, our favorite "liberal" Chuck Schumer is at it again.  Never one to let a media moment with chance of getting of his face in the national news Schumer has joined Democratic Sens. Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Jack Reed (R.I.), Bob Menendez (N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), and Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) have proposed a rider to the current cybersecurity bill that would:

make it illegal to transfer or possess large capacity feeding devices such as gun magazines, belts, feed stripes and drums of more than 10 rounds of ammunition with the exception of .22 caliber rim fire ammunition


  Now read the accompanying thoughts from the intellectual pygmy Schumer:

Schumer also pointed out that it would be reasonable for the right to recognize that background checks on those buying guns is necessary — as called for in the Brady law. He also said average Americans don’t need an assault weapon to go hunting or protect themselves.

 
  Remember folks; all animals are equal but some are more equal than others.  That means that Baron Von Bloomberg can escape to a gun free country toting NYPD officers armed with pistols and assault rifles but we commoners are common and do not need such protection. 

  The fact that said 100 round drum more than likely caused the Aurora shooter's S&W M&P15 AR15 rifle to malfunction is something gun owners might chuckle over as the nannies attempt to legislate morality via banning inanimate objects for the commoners.

  Meanwhile, Baron Von Bloomberg is fairly foaming at the mouth.  Guns are a danger to the American public even moreso than large sodas and must be stopped.  Comically, Bloomberg urged police to strike over gun control.  Even more comical was his belief that "armor piercing bullets" must be banned.  This is a classic example of idiocy as the folks that mouth this platitude also insist that they don't mind commoners having "hunting rifles."  The fact that any old 30-30, .223, .308, or 30.06 (the most common hunting calibers in America) can penetrate personally worn armor (sans plates) with ease hasn't registered.  Bloomberg also believes in the mythical rifle that can "shoot an airplane in flight from a mile away."  Obviously, he's not a fan of physics, math, or reality.  The moment the police strike is the moment the American public would take self protection much, much more seriously. 

  Everytime I read about the easily verifiable facts that Bloomberg ignores, Jewish American "liberal" politicians forgetting their own history, and seeing people take advantage of tragedy to trample our rights; I get nauseated.  I'm unable to read current events news for a while.  One can only hope there's some good news next week. 

Speechless.....

Dog put down because of appearance in Ireland

What the hell happened to Ireland and the UK? Can someone explain where these nations of fighters decided that nanny states, banning guns, overwhelming welfare societies, political correctness, and closed circuit cameras are a reasonable substitute for freedom. Why are these nations seemingly afraid of everything?

Some stand firm and some say "do it for the children"

  No, literally.  David Frum says do it for the children.  Just get rid of your guns if you have children.  I checked and he only resembles Helen Lovejoy in intellectual paucity and shrill hysterics but looks nothing like her otherwise.

 

  And then, on British television, an interviewer tries to get a nice slam dunk from one of those oppressed minorities in the US.  Except......Ice-T apparently has a functioning brain and does not care about standing his ground even when gun control hysteria is at a fervered pitch.  Ice-T points out that the Founders did not have hunting rifles in mind when they wrote the 2nd Amendment and his disdain for the interview's line of questioning is paplpable.  Bravo.

 

  To close, let's quote from the intellectual giant Thomas Sowell.  (Article).  If you aren't reading Sowell's column, let this be your wake up call.  David Frum debating Thomas Sowell would be roughly akin to a shrill Yorkshire Terrier attacking my Belgian Malinois.

Britain is a country with stronger gun control laws than the United States, and lower murder rates. But Mexico, Russia and Brazil are also countries with stronger gun control laws than the United States — and their murder rates are much higher than ours. Israel and Switzerland have even higher rates of gun ownership than the United States, and much lower murder rates than ours.

Even the British example does not stand up very well under scrutiny. The murder rate in New York has been several times that in London for more than two centuries — and, for most of that time, neither place had strong gun control laws. New York had strong gun control laws years before London did, but New York still had several times the murder rate of London.

It was in the later decades of the 20th century that the British government clamped down with severe gun control laws, disarming virtually the entire law-abiding citizenry. Gun crimes, including murder, rose as the public was disarmed.

Meanwhile, murder rates in the United States declined during the same years when murder rates in Britain were rising, which were also years when Americans were buying millions more guns per year.
The real problem, both in discussions of mass shootings and in discussions of gun control, is that too many people are too committed to a vision to allow mere facts to interfere with their beliefs, and the sense of superiority that those beliefs give them.

 

A very dangerous "antique" from the Shanghai Municipal Police

Once upon time, there was a Royal Marine by the name of William Fairbairn. After six years with the Royal Marine Light Infantry; he joined the Shanghai Municipal Police. Being a real leader, the Captain led from the front, in the streets. He ended up covered in knife scars; torso, legs, even the palms of his hands.


This hard won experience led to some realizations on the part of then Captain (retired as a Lieutenant Colonel). He created his own form of martial arts (Defendu), worked hand in hand with the OSS (yes, that OSS), trained a varied list of sneaky/commando type units for WWII, and wrote a book (Shooting to Live)with his training partner Eric Sykes. In this book, they wrote about point shooting; that is shooting sans sights in a disciplined and trained manner. Keep this last tidbit in mind, dear readers.


It goes without being said that I must mention the fighting knife Fairbairn and Sykes invented; the Fairbairn Sykes fighting knife, famous being for being SAS issue.


However, the purpose of this blog post is share with all of you an amazing piece of history.....


A while back ago, I noticed that Tom Givens of Rangemaster mentioned that he owned a Shanghai Municipal Police issue 1911. Now, I've learned that when Tom speaks; to listen. Tom makes a point of interviewing all of his many students who have been in shootings and collating the data in a scientific manner. Much to the contrary of what what certain trainers teach, Tom and Rangemaster teach sighted fire and find that it works in real life shootings. From Tom:

We heavily stress eye level sighted fire for everything except contact distance. We have a damn near 100% hit ratio in fights, excluding a few completely understandable misses. For example, one of my students had two armed robbers firing into his car, with him and his 6 year old daughter in it. He backed the car out of the kill zone while firing out the driver's window with his non-dominant hand. He got 4 hits for 8 shots that way. I'll forgive those misses. In most of our students' shootings, they fire 1-4 rounds and get all hits. 

Modern sights are so much more visible that it's silly to shoot from below eye level and guess where the rounds are going. Visually indexed fire doesn't always mean a perfect sight picture, but at least it gets the gun on target reliably.

  Anyway, my historical fixation kicked in when I saw mention of that Shanghai Municipal Police issue 1911 and I asked Tom for pictures.  He immediately sent them over and gave me permission to post them here and at 

Pistol Forum

.  Tom humorously postulates that Fairbairn and Sykes learned and popularized point shooting because of the wretched sights on this old warrior that were standard for the day.  He also relates that the pistol is 100% reliable with 230 grain ball ammo.  This weapon was issued when Fairbairn and Sykes were in the Shanghai Municipal Police and the odds are very strong that this old warrior saw quite a bit of action.  If steel could talk......

Anyway, onto the pictures! I will be sure to let you know if Tom has a smatchet laying around!

Happy 4th of July!

Just got the below in from someone deployed to a remote, sandy place and thought it was appropriate.


The British compound is right next door to us. We went over there last night to invite the chicks there to our July 4th party. They said they would show up. That's right dude, I invited Brits to our Independence Day party. Gotta love the irony.

Score!

World War One era US Marine Corps issue Clauss straight razor. It is en route to be honed and made shave ready. Manufactured in Ohio. Can't wait to shave with it.

Sometimes you luck out..... Many thanks to the gentleman honing it for me who refuses to accept money from veterans.

The great electrical storm of '12 or how I learned to stop worrying and love a cheap generator

I've always considered myself somewhat prepared for a natural disaster.  Food (MREs, canned goods), four 7 gallon water containers, a shitload of ammo and mags for my "go-to" weapons (AR15 and Glock 9mm), 10 gallons of gas treated with fuel stabilizer, a guard dog (Belgian Malinois), et cetera.

A storm made its way across the US Friday night, sowing lightning and 75 MPH winds along the way, going from Ohio to the East Coast.  One thing that as a Westerner that I've always hated about the East Coast is the trees.  No rolling plains here, the trees sprout like weeds, overhang everything, and you can't see more than a few hundred yards most places.  Those trees falling along with a few lightning hits left 1.5 million people on the East Coast (mainly in DC, Maryland, and Virginia) without power during one of the hottest weekends on record.  We're talking 100 degree days plus humidity.

I woke up Saturday morning without power.  No water, no A/C, and no word on when it would be back on.  I've always waffled on generators.  Cursory searches online and chats with friends gave me the impression that all generators are Chinese junk except for (in order of preference) Honda, Yamaha, and Briggs&Stratton units.  I tried to watch Craigslist for a worthy specimen but never found one with the right combination of price and power for my needs.

At BJ's Wholesale Club (remember kids, Costco does NOT allow anyone to carry a firearm in their stores unless you are law enforcement), I sat and waited for the store to open impatiently.  A monstrous Ford F350 4x4 with a huge NRA sticker on the back glass was also there waiting.  The occupant was one of those stereotype destroyers, being a clean cut African American guy packing a Glock 17.  He was there for a generator and related that Lowe's had ran out of generators at 6 AM that morning.  He and I got two out of the three remaining Champion 46515 3500 watt generators and that's all they had.  $299.00 and as my dear old Southern mother always said: "Poor people have poor ways."  Also, desperate people.  The temperature was headed to over 90 degrees before noon.  My new friend and I shook hands, wished each other luck with the weather and the upcoming elections regarding gun rights and parted ways.

I stopped off at WalMart to pick up oil for the new generator and a window mounted air conditioner.  I was in a hurry and it paid off - as I checked out with my new purchases, the registers in that WalMart went down.  I absconded with my 8,000 BTU window mounted A/C, 14 gauge power cord for the generator to my house, and my Royal Purple 10w30 oil (nothing but the best for my cheap generator!) and hit the gas stations.  Note that I said "stations," plural.  Many gas stations lost their electricity or their ability to make transactions.  I had some gas to run the generator but I bought more, planning for a week's worth of running it.  Topped off my truck too, of course.

Unboxing the generator was anticlimactic with a handy simplified "cheat sheet" being supplied.  Add oil, fill gas tank, switch choke to "choke" for starting, give gentle tug, then strong tug to starter cord, boom, it started.  Let it warm up, switch choke to "Run," plug in refrigerator and let that cool down before plugging in A/C.  An hour later, my house was at 72 degrees during the hottest part of the day and settled down to 71 degrees with appliances, A/C, and the fridge running.   The gas tank was topped off in the evening (4 gallon capacity) and ran for 12 hours on the aforementioned load.  At the 12.5 hour mark, there was an eighth of a tank remaining and power has been restored.  The generator ran flawlessly and without stutter, sipping fuel.

I suppose I could have bought an equivalent Honda generator for eleven hundred dollars more but I'm glad I didn't.

After I got the house cooled down, it was time to get my Internets up again.  Using the tethering option on my 4G Verizon LTE phone, I had smoking download speeds once again with very decent wireless range.  The below was tested on my iPad, getting the connection off of my phone.

A generator is a lot like a firearm.  When you need it, you really need it and it might take needing it and not having it to open your eyes.  I was lucky enough that I found one when I needed it.  I have friends local to this area who don't expect power restored to their homes for days and are living at a hotel.  For less than a week's stay at a hotel, you could have a generator and a cutoff switch installed at your house to route all electrical needs to the generator.

Good luck and don't be afraid to buy a cheap generator!