Category Archives: Current News

This is about stuff in the mass media that generally has a short interest life span. Speculation about an election outcome a few days before the election is an example.

When Prophecy Fails

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Watch this (via Kevin):

Then read the book:

From a sociological perspective this is no different than a doomsday cult. And when the prophecy failed to materialize the reaction from the Democrats in their bubble is exactly as predicted:

Suppose an individual believes something with his whole heart; suppose further that he has a commitment to this belief, that he has taken irrevocable actions because of it; finally, suppose that he is presented with evidence, unequivocal and undeniable evidence, that his belief is wrong: what will happen?  The individual will frequently emerge, not only unshaken, but even more convinced of the truth of his beliefs than ever before.  Indeed, he may even show a new fervor about convincing and converting other people to his view.

Short of some religious faiths this has to be one of the largest instances of this phenomena in human history.

These people need intervention. If one or more of these five conditions is broken the hold of the cult on these people will be released. The question is whether we can accomplish this without ripping our nation apart.

Quote of the day—Greg Coppola

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I look at search. And I look at Google News. And I look at what it’s doing. And I see Google executives go to congress and say that, “It’s not manipulated. It’s not political.” And I’m just so sure that’s not true.

Greg Coppola
Senior Software Engineer, Google Assistant
July 2019
[Also, a follow up from Coppola. He announces has been suspended from his job at Google. Then he goes on explore the hypothesis that Google News has a political bias using data science, with only publicly available information and tools.

Via email from Chet.—Joe]

Antifa takes a casualty

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A domestic terrorist attacked the holding facility for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement a few miles from where I live:

Early Saturday morning, that man, Willem Van Spronsen of Vashon Island, returned to the Northwest Detention Center, the holding facility for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, this time armed with a rifle and incendiary devices, according to Tacoma police.

Police said Van Spronsen tossed lit objects at vehicles and buildings, causing one car fire, and unsuccessfully tried to ignite a propane tank.

Officers were called by an ICE employee who saw the rifle. Soon after they arrived, officers reported “shots fired,” said Tacoma police spokeswoman Loretta Cool, although it is unclear who fired first or if Van Spronsen fired at all. The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office classified his death as a homicide.

The four responding officers all opened fire and then took cover, uninjured. After medical aid arrived, officers found Van Spronsen dead. He had multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s office.

The Puget Sound Anarchists are taking credit:

We Are The Fire That Will Melt ICE – Rest in power, Will Van Spronsen [Olympia WA]

…

Early this morning around 4am our friend and comrade Will Van Spronsen was shot and killed by the Tacoma police. All we know about what lead up to this comes from the cops, who are notoriously corrupt and unreliable sources for such a narrative. The story that we do have is that Will attempted to set fire to several vehicles, outbuildings and a propane tank outside the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma which houses hundreds of immigrants awaiting hearings or deportations. He successfully set one vehicle on fire and then exchanged gunfire with Tacoma police officers who fatally shot him. He was pronounced dead on the scene. We find his actions inspiring. The vehicles outside the detention facility are used to forcibly remove people from their homes and deport them, often to situations where they will face severe danger or death. Those vehicles being destroyed is only a start of what is needed. We wish the fires Will set had freed all the inmates and razed the entire Northwest Detention Center to the ground. And we miss our friend and wish from the bottom of our hearts that his action had not ended in his death.

Will Van Spronsen was a long-time anarchist, anti-fascist and a kind, loving person.

He left a letter before executing his attack. It sounds like he was deliberately committing suicide by cop (click to enlarge):
Spronson0

Spronson1

This is totally on the backs of the political left. They are the ones fanning the flames.

The police have been arresting some of these thugs. But I expect the violence will continue to increase until arrests, convictions, and the occasional justified homicides have thinned their ranks much further. It’s too bad the leaders of the political left are not taking legal heat but that’s not the way it works. It’s the useful idiots like the yesterday’s terrorist who pay the ultimate price for the political evil of the left.

Attempting to pluck another low hanging fruit

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I like this:

Today, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) and Firearms Policy Foundation (FPF) announced the filing of an important amicus brief in the federal Third Circuit Court of Appeals in the criminal appeal of U.S.A. v. Raphael Hunt-Irving, which challenges the federal lifetime ban on firearm possession by even non-violent felons. The brief was authored by FPC attorney and Legal Fellow Joseph Greenlee, a Second Amendment expert and historian. A copy of the court filing can be accessed at www.firearmspolicy.org/legal.

This isn’t a really big deal like challenging the laws on suppressors or bans on modern sporting rifles but it is a low hanging fruit that, potentially, can be used to get more precedent established in our favor. After winning a bunch of these battles winning on the big issues will be more likely.

My employer (by matching dollar for dollar my donations) and I are giving FPF money each month.

Quote of the day—Andy Ngo @MrAndyNgo

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But now I recognize, you know, they nearly killed me on the 29th. And I can’t be so naïve as to think that the police will actually be protecting citizens, law abiding citizens, anymore.

…

The provocation to them can be just existing with the wrong ideas. You saw how they, I mean, it’s still surreal to me to see the mainstream response to the Covington boys. Like this visceral hatred for somebody because of the look on their face or the hat they were wearing.

Andy Ngo @MrAndyNgo
July 8, 2019
Antifa Attack, What Is Happening In Portland? | Andy Ngo | Rubin Report

[H/T to William Taylor.

At an hour and 15 minutes it is a bit long but I found myself drawn more and more into it. The first paragraph of the quote above is at about 59:34 in the video. The second paragraph is from about 1:09:15.

As I listened to the first part of the quote above I immediately thought, “He still has a lot of naivety. The police have never been required to protect people. He needs to read Dial 911 and Die.”

 

The second paragraph above hit me the hardest with the word surreal. I’ve read a lot of books about the Holocaust, the mass murders of the the USSR, and the genocides of Rwanda, Uganda, Ottoman Turkey, and many others. And three books on what Japan did in Nanking in 1937 and 1938.

Surreal is how many of the people who lived through those horrific events described it as things became more and more deadly. Those people didn’t think it could happen there. But in hindsight they discovered the signs were all there. With refuge parents from South Vietnam Ngo is far less naïve than most but still he has difficulty believing the facts.

It is easy to extrapolate from our present day situation into a horrible nightmare. Don’t let a normalcy bias pull you in too far. Look at the facts and judge them rationally.—Joe]

The truth is no defense

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John Lott reports in the New York Daily News:

Twitter has locked my account. I can’t post anything or read messages from other users. The reason? In March, I tweeted that the perpetrator of the New Zealand mosque shooting was “a socialist, environmentalist, who hates capitalists & free trade.” I also wrote that the killer believed his attack would “lead to more gun control” in New Zealand and the United States.

What I tweeted was entirely accurate, and Twitter hasn’t bothered to provide me with an explanation for why they locked my account, but they have made clear that it was this tweet that supposedly violated their terms.

Just as in the USSR and so many other authoritarian countries the truth is no defense. You must also adhere to that which is politically correct or suffer the consequences. In the USSR if you didn’t get a bullet to the back of the head it was five to ten years in the Gulag for expressing an uncomfortable truth which questioned the political narrative. It’s exceedingly clear we have people in this country sharing the belief of their authoritarian brethren that silencing political opponents is appropriate.

Fortunately we don’t have a majority of them in positions of political power such that they can enforce bullets to the back of the head or banishment to Siberian Gulags for expressing the truth in public here.

At least not yet.

Remember the words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and keep your guns read for use should the situation change.

Eating their own

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It’s long been observed that the political left frequently eats its own when it gets enough power. Just look at what happened in the USSR. Tens of millions murdered by their own government or put in the gulags. Read The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation (Volume One) for a taste of what went on there. Large numbers of those people believed they were loyal supporters of the communist government.

The problem that once you have purity tests and people to maintain political purity the requirements get more and more strict. Just think of the “micro aggression”, “dog whistle”, and “code word” criteria being enforced in many instances in this country. It becomes a positive feedback loop with escalating standards of purity.

I review this as background for what is happening at Google (via an email from Chet who describes it as “Google’s civil war”):

San Francisco Pride organizers say they won’t ban Google from the annual Pride Parade on Sunday, despite receiving a letter signed by almost 100 Google employees concerned about how their company handles hate speech.

The employees asked for Google to be banned from the pride parade on June 30th. The company came under fire this month for refusing to remove homophobic videos targeting a journalist. Instead, YouTube banned hate speech and demonetized the channel. However, the company still offered a platform for the pundit, Steven Crowder, to direct his viewers to a site to purchase merchandise.

Google management will have some “interesting” choices to make if the DOJ and/or congress tells them they need to cut the crap on attempting to swing elections at the same time 10s of thousands of employees are demanding they adhere to more higher and higher levels of leftist politically purity.

Quote of the day—Jen Gennai

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Elizabeth Warren is saying we should break up Google. And like, I love her but she’s very misguided, like that will not make it better it will make it worse, because all these smaller companies who don’t have the same resources that we do will be charged with preventing the next Trump situation, it’s like a small company cannot do that.

Jen Gennai
Head of Responsible Innovation, Google
May 2019
Insider Blows Whistle & Exec Reveals Google Plan to Prevent “Trump situation” in 2020 on Hidden Cam
[Via a comment by Chet.

Watch the video. Genai explicitly says they are implementing “fairness” and that their definition of fairness is completely different from the definition of fairness used by the people who voted for Donald Trump. She says everyone got screwed over with the election of Trump and they can’t let that happen again in 2020.

Read her response to the video here.

Click to enlarge the images of the internal documents and read them. They are incredibly damning.

One of my first thoughts was, “It’s a good thing I’m not allowed to own a few tactical nukes at an affordable price. Otherwise Google would own radioactive craters instead office buildings and data centers.” I have since decided there are other, legal and moral, remedies available.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Daniel Easterday

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Many thanks to Alan M Gottlieb, the Second Amendment Foundation, Illinois State Rifle Association, David Sigale, and all of the people that have supported me.

Daniel Easterday
June 13, 2019
SAF, ISRA WIN AS ILLINOIS APPEALS COURT DISMISSES DEERFIELD APPEAL
[It’s another win for the Second Amendment Foundation. This time it was an “assault weapon” ban they eliminated. Unfortunately it has essentially nothing to do with the Second Amendment or “assault weapons”. They got it overturned because the state has a preemption on gun laws by cities and counties. The city ignored this and SAF go the law thrown out on the basis of city didn’t the authority to pass such laws.

Still, a win is a win and the people of Deerfield are a little bit freer because of it.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Cliff Maloney

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Therein lies the lesson for U.S. policymakers. The consequences of gun control run far deeper than either side of America’s gun debate cares to admit. We all need to learn from Venezuela’s example and shape our public policy accordingly.

Gun control legislation might seem like an easy answer when tragedies force us to passionately look to politicians to do something, but history repeats itself time and time again.

Venezuela’s disarmament reminds us of a key American principle: An armed citizenry is the greatest defense against a tyrannical government.

Cliff Maloney
May 22, 2019
Cliff Maloney: Venezuela is a poster child for gun control gone wrong
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Social justice warrior charged with felony

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It looks like a social justice warrior is getting more justice than she bargained for:

Rachel Dolezal hit with felony theft charge in welfare fraud case

Rachel Dolezal, the former NAACP chapter leader who resigned after her parents revealed she’s not African-American, is facing a felony theft charge in Washington state after she allegedly made false statements to secure nearly $9,000 in food and childcare assistance.

The charges against Dolezal, who changed her name to Nkechi Diallo in October 2016, were first reported by KHQ-TV.

According to court documents, investigators with Washington state’s Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) started looking into Dolezal’s finances in March 2017 after the publication of her autobiography, “In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black and White World.”

DSHS investigator Kyle Bunge said Dolezal had claimed that “her only source of income was $300.00 per month in gifts from friends.” However, the department found that she had deposited nearly $84,000 in her bank account between August 2015 and September 2017 without reporting it.

According to the investigation, the money came from sales of Dolezal’s autobiography as well as “the sale of her art, soaps, and handmade dolls.”

Authorities say Dolezal illegally received $8,747 in food assistance and $100 in child care assistance from August 2015 through November 2017.

See also my previous posts about her:

Winning back firearms freedom one lawsuit at a time

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Another small victory by SAF laying the foundation for bigger victories:

FED. JUDGE PERMANENTLY ENJOINS RIVERSIDE COUNTY’S CCW APPLICATION DENIALS

A senior U.S. District Court judge in California has issued a permanent injunction against the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department’s longstanding policy of “dissuading, discouraging, and preventing non-United States citizens from applying for a CCW license,” in a lawsuit brought by the Second Amendment Foundation, Calguns Foundation and Firearms Policy Coalition.

SAF, Calguns and FPC were joined by the Firearms Policy Foundation and Madison Society Foundation, and Arie Van Nieuwenhuyzen, a permanent resident alien who has lived in Riverside since 1983 and is a business owner there.

The case is known as Van Nieuwenhuyzen, et al. v. Riverside, CA Sheriff Stanley Sniff, et al.

Senior United States District Judge Dean D. Pregerson entered the order permanently enjoining Riverside County from having a policy and practice that prevented legal U.S. residents from exercising their right to apply for a carry license.

“We’re delighted with the outcome of this case,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “This isn’t our first experience with such a policy, and we’re happy to have had good partners in this challenge. Mr. Van Nieuwenhuyzen has been a productive, law-abiding member of his community for decades, and there is no good reason to discourage or deny someone of his background and standing the ability to apply for a carry license.”

“This coalition victory is important,” added Brandon Combs of the Firearms Policy Coalition, “because it not only helps to restore access to the fundamental right to bear arms, it also sends a crystal-clear message to carry licensing authorities that the rights of the people can and will be enforced in our courts. Anyone who stands between the People and their rights is on notice.”

The policy was carried out under former Sheriff Stanley Sniff, who lost to current Sheriff Chad Bianco in the last election. Sheriff Bianco campaigned on a promise to promote access to concealed carry licenses and reform earlier policies. Under terms of the permanent injunction, the Riverside Sheriff’s Department have 30 days to finalize all changes to their CCW policy and eliminate “any and all U.S. Citizenship requirements” from the department website that describe the application process, and from CCW application forms.

“This is just one more example of winning back firearms freedom one lawsuit at a time,” Gottlieb said.

I donate money from every paycheck, matched dollar for dollar by my employer, to SAF and Firearms Policy Coalition. I think this is the path by which we have the best hope to reach our desired goals.

But this won’t be enough, we also have to change the culture. Next weekend I’m taking people from Barb’s Book Club to the range to teach them gun safety and to shoot for the first time.

Quote of the day—Damon Root

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So what happens next with the Alabama abortion ban? Planned Parenthood and other groups have already vowed to fight the law in court. Assuming such cases come before a federal district court judge who follows Supreme Court precedent (which those judges are supposed to do), the law will be ruled unconstitutional under the Roe/Casey precedents (which it is). The state, assuming it still wants to press the fight, would then appeal to the federal appellate court, which may not even take the case. But let’s say it does take it, and that those judges also follow precedent and strike down the law. At that point, having lost in the lower federal courts, and assuming the state is still under the same conservative leadership, Alabama would appeal the case to the Supreme Court.

But there’s no guarantee that SCOTUS will take the case either. Indeed, it is even possible that the Court might prefer to sit this one out. Why? Because even those conservative justices who might want to see Roe/Casey overturned might still prefer to see the precedents gradually weakened and narrowed over time, via a series of cases, rather than simply obliterated in one fell swoop.

Damon Root
May 17, 2019
The Supreme Court Probably Won’t Kill Roe Yet
[What I wonder about is the response of the political left to the new restrictions to abortion. Will this energize them and result in them taking control of the U.S. House, Senate, and White House in 2020? Or will early and decisive court defeats of the abortion restrictions result in them becoming complacent for the election next year?—Joe]

Amazing

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I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve long said it is irrational to expect people to be rational. But yet, I’m still amazed at times. This is my current example:

Donald Trump’s proposal to move migrants into sanctuary cities raises logistical, legal issues

A myriad of logistical and legal obstacles await President Donald Trump if he follows through on his threat to place migrants arriving at the border into so-called sanctuary cities, a move apparently designed to punish Democrats for refusing to support his immigration policies.

…

Donald Trump’s use of government power to conduct corrupt, vindictive operations smells like Watergate,” said Becerra, a former congressman from California. “It’s a sobering reminder that our nation is only as strong as our democratic institutions and the rule of law.

And declaring your city a sanctuary for illegal aliens is legal? The last I heard aiding and abetting a criminal is illegal.

The politicians of “sanctuary cities” are only concerned with the rule of law when it is to their advantage. Either you have to conclude that liberalism is a mental disorder and/or they are knowingly committing criminal acts. It either case these politicians should be tried and sent to prison.

Quote of the day—Anna M. Barvir

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First, each day judgement is delayed is another day Plaintiffs are denied the exercise of their right to choose common magazines for the fundamentally important purpose of self-defense. Denial of a fundamental right is irreparable injury—even if for a moment.

…

This ongoing constitutional harm is no less severe simply because, as the State argues, the exercise of that right has already been prohibited for two decades. Mot. 9:26-10:3. In fact, it perhaps makes the continued denial of the right worse.

Anna M. Barvir
April 3, 2019
VIRGINIA DUNCAN, et al.,  v. XAVIER BECERRA
PLAINTIFFS’ OPPOSITION TO DEFENDANT’S EX PARTE APPLICATION TO STAY JUDGMENT PENDING APPEAL
[And yet, the stay was granted.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Val Finnell

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I’m certainly disappointed in the vote today, and as soon as the mayor signs [the bills], we’ll be proceeding with the private criminal complaints [against] council members who voted for the measure and the mayor if and when he signs.

Val Finnell
April 2, 2019
Pittsburgh approves gun-control bills; opponents threaten suit against city
[Pennsylvania has a preemption law. I hope they enjoy their trial and paying the lawyer bills of the gun rights groups who challenge the laws.—Joe]

California requests stay of Judgement on standard capacity magazines

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I can’t find where the California has definitely stated they are going to appeal but they have stated they want a stay of Judgement:

TO THE COURT AND ALL PARTIES AND THEIR RESPECTIVE ATTORNEYS OF RECORD: PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that Defendant Xavier Becerra, in his official capacity as the Attorney General of the State of California (“Defendant”), hereby does apply to this Court for an order, under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 62, staying the Judgment entered in this action on March 29, 2019 (Dkt. No. 88) pending appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  Specifically, Defendant requests that the Court stay the Judgment—which declares California Penal Code section 323101 unconstitutional and enjoined from enforcement—to preserve the status quo pending appeal as it existed prior to entry of the Judgment, whereby, during the pendency of the appeal, section 32310(a) and (b) will remain in effect and section 32310(c) and (d) will remain subject to the preliminary injunction issued on June 29, 2017 (Dkt. No. 28).  Defendant respectfully requests that this Court rule on this stay application by April 5, 2019.

My expectation is that if they get the stay they will drag their feet to so to as infringe upon the rights of the people in the 9th Circuit for the longest possible period of time.

Lawyer for the plaintiffs, C.C. Michel, says:

Duncan v. Becerra lawsuit — California DOJ files a motion asking Court to stay its ruling allowing acquisition of 10+ round magazines in California. Opposition filing coming soon.

I look forward to Michel’s filing. I’m hoping it will be as entertaining as the ruling by judge Roger T. Benitez. It’s not going to happen, but for a day or two I’m going to fantasize him saying the California AG and anyone who enforces laws such unconstitutional laws should be prosecuted (http://bit.ly/EnjoyYourTrial2).

You can follow the court filings here.

I’m expecting an outbreak of exploding heads

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Although it was not well known until a few days ago (and here), last March an Illinois court ruled that requiring a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card was unconstitutional.

Last Friday a court threw out a ban on “assault weapons”.

Over the weekend Mueller’s report was released and stated, “The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.” And today it is reported Trump is looking at turning the tables on those involved in the witch hunt.

Today it was ruled anyone who is a member of the Firearms Policy Foundation, Madison Society Foundation, Inc., and Florida Carry, Inc.can keep their bump stocks while the case goes through the courts.

Now this:

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday announced that it is siding with a district court ruling that found the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional.

The move is an escalation of the Trump administration’s legal battle against the health care law.

The DOJ previously argued in court that the law’s pre-existing condition protections should be struck down. Now, the administration argues the entire law should be invalidated.

Perhaps the mass delusion is coming to an end and the political left and mainstream media (but I repeat myself) will get in closer touch with reality.

…

Just kidding!

I’m expecting an outbreak of exploding heads.

New Zealand gun registration

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Nearly ten years ago I blogged about the state of New Zealand gun registration and licensing wasn’t going quite like what the ant-gun people had planned. Once upon a time they had “lifetime gun licenses”. When the anti-gun people decided that wasn’t good enough the went to 10-year licenses in 1992. The told the “lifetime licensed” people to turn the guns in or renew their licenses. 50K of those, about 22%, of those people who were already “on a list” openly refused to comply.

By 1997 the 10-year license wasn’t good enough and they wanted 3-year licenses.

And you know what they want now.

Just say no to gun registration. If they persist, tell them Μολὼν λαβέ because we know how this story ends if we don’t.

Bump-stock court news

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This is interesting:

FURTHER ORDERED, on the court’s own motion, that the effective date of the Bump-Stock Rule, 83 Fed. Reg. 66514 (Dec. 26, 2018), be administratively stayed in its application only as to the named Appellants in appeals Nos. 19-5042 and 19-5044, pending further order of this Court.  The purpose of this stay is exclusively to give the Court sufficient opportunity to consider the disposition of this highly expedited appeal, and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of the appeal.  See D.C. Circuit Handbook of Practice and Internal Procedures 33 (2018).

The “named Appellants” include Damien Guedes, Shane Roden, Firearms Policy Foundation, Madison Society Foundation, Inc., and Florida Carry, Inc.

Early this morning, before I read the above, I had boosted my monthly donations to the Firearms Policy Foundation by a factor of 2.8. I also boosted my monthly donations to the Second Amendment Foundation by a factor of 8.0. These donations are pre tax and matched, dollar for dollar, by my employer.

On my way back from the range at lunch time I picked up another 2,500 bullets for reloading.

What have you done recently in fight against the forces of evil?