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.

Insurance and magazines and the various things

Posted on by

Recently anti-gun people have been making a big deal about the termination of hotel and rental car discounts for NRA members. The belief that this is the reason gun owners join the NRA goes back to at least 2004 in anti-gun organizations:

There are 90 million gun owners in the United States. Only 3.5 million want the insurance and magazines and the various things you get for joining the NRA.

I wonder if there was some backroom strategy meeting where anti-gun people decided they could cause the NRA significant financial harm by destroying the relationships between these businesses and the NRA.

I have occasionally tried to get a good deal renting a car or hotel using the NRA discounts and I have never found it to be as good a deal as I could get via some other channel. Hence, my guess is that these discounts did not result in much business for the hotels and car rental agencies. So, when they were confronted by the angry mobs perhaps they figured there wasn’t that much to lose anyway. So, why have to deal with the hassle?

If they only looked at the loss of the business from people using the NRA discounts I suspect they miscalculated the total costs of that decision. Let’s make that as obvious to them as we can.

Interesting

Posted on by

This morning I responded to a Facebook comment by someone wanting more restrictions on AR-15s because of the school shootings. The person said armed teachers was the wrong way to solve the problem because training, etc. I included this picture:

20180202_133747Cropped

And I said this was the 37th through 46th shots, in her ENTIRE life, at 15 feet. I said I could do this with any woman of sound mind and body (on average, women learn shooting skills MUCH faster than men) with two hours of her time. And give me four hours and I can get them to the point where they could pass the shooting qualification test of local police departments. I offered free training to any teacher that wanted it.

Within a couple minutes I received a notification my comment had been marked as spam and I should review the comment. I went to do that and found the comment no longer existed. I was unable to review it.

I wonder why… [/sarcasm]

Gun cartoon of the day

Posted on by

Via a tweet from Firearm Policy Coalition:

SchoolA-B

The political left has a strong tendency to deflect when presented with something like this. That tells you all you need to know about them and possession of guns. They hate gun ownership more than they are repulsed by the slaughter of hundreds of innocent children and teachers.

Quote of the day—Chris Hayes

Posted on by

Prediction: the president will approach gun safety legislation the same way he has approached DACA. He will lie about what his own position is and attempt to blame others for nothing getting done.

Chris Hayes
Tweeted on February 21, 2018
[H/T to streiff who wrote President Trump’s Gun Control Ideas are so Bad I Don’t Think He Even Believes Them.

I’ve been thinking something similar although I wouldn’t have put it in those words.

I assume President Trump knows we are in a (Fifth Generation) war. If you are in a state of war and you don’t use deception as one of your weapons you aren’t fighting to win. Telling the ATF to make up some regulation to ban bump stocks could get the anti-gun people to quiet down for a while or encourage them to overreach. See, for example, what Sebastian and his commenters are saying. The ATF may come back in a month or two with the same thing they did earlier, paraphrasing, “Banning bump stocks requires legislation, we cannot create such a rule within the confines of existing law.” With just a few weeks the anti-gun people will run out of steam and we can resume our drive for concealed carry across all state lines, taking suppressors off of the NFA list, and even other things like being able to purchase guns in other states and getting rid of the stupid “sporting purpose” requirements.

If things don’t cool off enough and we do get regulation and even legislation banning bump stocks it isn’t that big of sacrifice if we avoid legislation on “assault weapons” and “high capacity feeding devices”. And if it does go the route of a regulation change that should be a lot easier to defeat in the courts if someone has a real interest in taking it to court. I expect any ban on bump stocks will result in grandfathering existing stock. And since they don’t have serial numbers on them they can’t easily be registered. And 3-D printers mean that you as long as you keep your mouth shut you can make one at anytime in the future and it will be essentially impossible for anyone to prove you didn’t own it prior to the ban.—Joe]

Full dependence on the government enables evil

Posted on by

From the FBI today:

FBI Statement on the Shooting in Parkland, Florida

On January 5, 2018, a person close to Nikolas Cruz contacted the FBI’s Public Access Line (PAL) tipline to report concerns about him. The caller provided information about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting.

Under established protocols, the information provided by the caller should have been assessed as a potential threat to life. The information then should have been forwarded to the FBI Miami Field Office, where appropriate investigative steps would have been taken.

We have determined that these protocols were not followed for the information received by the PAL on January 5. The information was not provided to the Miami Field Office, and no further investigation was conducted at that time.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said:

“We are still investigating the facts. I am committed to getting to the bottom of what happened in this particular matter, as well as reviewing our processes for responding to information that we receive from the public. It’s up to all Americans to be vigilant, and when members of the public contact us with concerns, we must act properly and quickly.

“We have spoken with victims and families, and deeply regret the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy. All of the men and women of the FBI are dedicated to keeping the American people safe, and are relentlessly committed to improving all that we do and how we do it.”

Good security depends on multiple independent layers. Law enforcement is one layer. Threat intelligence is another. In this instance law enforcement failed. This is how it should have gone down.

Denying access to the protected assets is another. This requires more than signs and stern words. It frequently requires people with guns. This is something the political left is fine with if the protected asset is a bank, government building, celebrity or politician, but it the protected asset is a common person and especially the children of a commoner then they go hysterical and demand even less physical security. This is clearly some sort of insanity and/or evil and should be treated as such.

It’s nice when they self identify

Posted on by

I’ve used this car wash many times. And I walked right by it today.

From the Bellevue Washington police blog:

What started as a routine trip to the car wash ended in a melee and an arrest this past Sunday in Bellevue. Yesterday afternoon shortly before 3 p.m., Bellevue police responded to a road rage incident in the parking lot of the Brown Bear car wash in the Factoria neighborhood of Bellevue. While responding, police learned that there was a minor rear-end crash involving two vehicles that were waiting in line for the car wash. One of the drivers got out of his car to take photos of the damage to the vehicles. The other driver then reportedly got out of his car, pointed a handgun at the victim, and made threats.

When police arrived, the suspect, a 40 year-old Bellevue resident, refused to exit his vehicle or follow the Officers’ instructions. Officers attempted to remove the suspect from the vehicle, and the suspect fought, punching one of the Officers in the face. The suspect allegedly threatened to kill the police and made disparaging comments about the victim’s perceived ethnicity. Police used a taser to subdue the suspect, who was arrested. The Officer that was punched had a minor injury and was transported to the hospital as a precaution. The suspect’s vehicle, a red Chevrolet Camaro with a custom license plate “DIRTBAG”, was impounded to the Bellevue Police Department for a search warrant.The license plate of the suspect's vehicle.

The suspect is expected to be charged today in King County Superior Court with first degree assault with a firearm, assault on a police officer, malicious harassment, obstructing police, and resisting arrest.

If all the dirt bags would identify themselves in such a manner it make so many things much easier.

Quote of the day—Chief Justice Karmeier

Posted on by

Innocent behavior could swiftly be transformed into culpable conduct if an individual unknowingly crosses into a firearm restriction zone. The result could create a chilling effect on the second amendment when an otherwise law-abiding individual may inadvertently violate the 1000-foot firearm-restricted zones by just turning a street corner.

Chief Justice Karmeier
February 1, 2018
Ban on Carrying Guns Within 1,000 Feet of Park Struck Down
Complete decision: The People of the state of Illinois, Appellant, v. Julio Chairez, Appelle
[Chilling effect!!!!

I’ve been wanting to hear those words in a court decision in regards to the Second Amendment since before the Heller decision. I wish it was in a U.S. Supreme Court decision but I’ll take it as a first step.

Apply the legal concept of a chilling effect applied to the laws of New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, and California. This is one of the lanes on the road to victory.—Joe]

Operation Safe Store

Posted on by

Seems like a reasonable idea:

“No one wants to prevent the theft of firearms more than the licensed retailers that sell them,” said Stephen L. Sanetti, NSSF president and chief executive officer. “There is no one-size fits all solution to helping prevent thefts from firearms retailers, which is why Operation Safe Store will provide access to information and training to allow retailers to make the decisions that are right for them.”

I strongly suspect there is more to the story than what we see here.

A bit of background with something slightly off the topic at hand.

At one point there was talk of “safe storage” laws at the Federal level and states were passing such laws with alarming regularity. They were poorly written at best and frequently obvious attempts to make it prohibitively expensive, increase the hassle of owning a gun, and make it difficult or impossible to use a gun for home self-defense.

“The industry” responded by including a lock of some sort with every new gun sold. Gun friendly legislators, lobbyists, and gun owners  could then use this to convince undecided legislators, “Gun owners already have ‘safe storage’ available to them.” The “safe storage” drive was stalled and in some states even turned against the anti-gun activists.Washington, for example, passed a law removing the state taxes from gun safes.

I suspect the NSSF is politically astute enough to see some writing on the walls and is “getting ahead” of legislation aimed at making life very difficult for gun stores.

Quote of the day—Mark Walters

Posted on by

His redirection of the story (intentional or not) right back to criminals and guns reinforces to an already uninformed (ignorant) audience that guns and gun owners are evil, period. To completely ignore the real story, that a group of Democrat lawmakers tried unsuccessfully (with taxpayer dollars) to use a covert ATF operation against law-abiding Americans to push a leftist gun-control agenda, undermine our constitutional rights and failed miserably in the process, is precisely why Americans distrust his profession.

Mark Walters
January 17, 2018
Garbage Reporting In, Garbage Reporting Out – Lawful Gun Owners Get the Shaft
[If it doesn’t fit the narrative it doesn’t get coverage.—Joe]

Clearwater County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Dog Team

Posted on by

My brother, Doug, is the team leader for Clearwater County (Idaho) Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Dog Team. Here is an article about the team and some of their searches:

We have all seen a dog follow a scent trail. Most of the time it is another dog or something else they think smells good, but what is the drive and reward to go out at all hours in all types of weather as a member the Clearwater County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue (CCSSAR) Dog Team.

“I sometimes hear people say, ‘Everyone wants to be a hero’,” says Doug Huffman. “I suppose that is especially true in the Search and Rescue business. I once heard a search dog instructor describe it this way, ‘everyone fantasizes about saving the lost child in the wilderness and carrying the child back to her mother’s arms in front of a cheering crowd, but that isn’t how it works in real life.’ I have been with CCSSAR since 1998 and I haven’t seen that fantasy search happen yet. More typically, we are out in the woods looking for a missing berry picker when we learn he was picked up hours before by a passerby. We get home at 5 a.m. exhausted from a long night out in the woods, when we could have been home asleep. We feel good about ourselves knowing we were involved in a team effort to help a missing individual and their family, but we usually don’t feel like a hero when it is over.”

A fair number of the search stories Doug has told me are for escaped prisoners, active criminals, or people presumed dead. These searches involving higher risks and/or unpleasant resolutions. Still, Doug has been doing this for nearly 20 years now so there is some sort of reward to it.

What about the background check?

Posted on by

This week the gun shop I visit most frequently was in the news (see also here and here):

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) says the surveillance video above shows thieves using a stolen vehicle to smash-in the door of the West Coast Armory gun shop in Bellevue early Tuesday morning — the day after Christmas — to make off with approximately 70 firearms.

The ATF and the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) — the trade association for the firearms industry — announced a reward Friday for
information leading to the arrest and conviction of the persons responsible for the December 26th  burglary. The ATF is offering a reward of up to $5,000, matched by the NSSF for a possible reward of up to $10,000. To be eligible for the reward, you must contact The ATF at:

  • 1-888-ATF-TIPS (888-283-8477)
  • Email ATFTips@atf.gov
  • atf.gov/contact/atf-tips
  • Tips may also be submitted to ATF using the ReportIt App, or at reportit.com. All calls and tips will be kept confidential.
  • Online tips can also be given to Bellevue Police by CLICKING HERE.

I visited the range (connected to, but has a door between them) the following night. The gun shop was still closed and the door had this sign on it:

WP_20171227_19_01_59_Pro

You can see bits of broken materials at the bottom of the door and I could see people sweeping inside. I don’t know when it will be open for business again.

One of the first things that went through my mind was, “I wonder if they complied with the Washington State mandatory background check law?” Probably not. That law is just for suckers who think the government would never abuse that data to create a gun registration database for eventual confiscation.

Interesting psychology

Posted on by

As you read the news about all the sexual harassment claims and denials keep in mind the human mind is a tricky thing. For example:

Several studies have shown that people are more likely to label a given behavior as sex to the extent that their significant other did it as opposed to themselves. In a study of 839 college students (96% heterosexual) who were asked whether oral contact with another person’s genitals counted as sex, it turned out that just 36% of women and 39% of men said it did when they imagined themselves doing it. However, when asked to imagine their partner doing the same thing with someone else, 62% of women and 63% of men suddenly viewed it as sex.

Truth is extremely elusive. Definitions matter. Measurements matter. Numbers matter. There are facts and there are opinions. A lot of what we are seeing in the news are opinions and what is important are the facts.

Quote of the day—NRA

Posted on by

Despite scare tactics by the bill’s opponents, concealed-carry licensees as a group have proven to be more law-abiding than the general population and even the police. We are on the eve of passing the most expansive piece of self-defense legislation in the history of Congress.

NRA
December 6, 2017
House approves concealed-carry reciprocity, gun bill faces challenge in Senate
[The first sentence is factual and verifiable. See, for example, Comparing conviction rates between police and concealed carry permit holders.

The second sentence is somewhat subjective but I am in agreement with it.—Joe]

I was afraid of this

Posted on by

As the vote on the concealed carry reciprocity act was going to a vote I started worrying about another mass shooter coming out of the woodwork. A loser trying to make an impact on the world could see the scuttling of the gun rights bill as part of their “accomplishments”. Or perhaps their warped mind would view the bill passage as reducing their opportunity for making a name for themselves. And now we have another school shooting.

Initial reports only mention two shot and that the loser is dead. At this point the loser appears to have been successful in demonstrating their incompetence at being evil.

My sympathy and most sincere condolences to those injured and adversely affected by this loser.

Update (12/7/2017 9:47 AM): At least three are dead.

Lack of real men = violence

Posted on by

The on-going “pussification” of America is leading to more violence, this time in schools.

There was a time when this would not have been possible. That was when the principle and superintendent were both World War II veterans. When I was in elementary school, the principal and sup. were nice guys. They liked kids. They looked out for things. They never had to prove it, physically, and that is critically important, but it was universally understood that they were in charge and could handle anything.

The very idea of having any kind of violence perpetrated by students against a teacher would have laughable. Utterly impossible, in fact. Sure, two boys might get into a scrap during recess, but it would soon be over. Even the old lady teachers could handle them. It was understood that there were men in charge, just within shouting distance, if they should be required. Thus a frail old woman could take a scrapping, healthy boy by the ear and set him down, and give him a talking-to about playground etiquette, and he’d never fight back. He’d sit and pay attention.

In our litigious, pussified, Progressive society however, in which the term “strong man” either means “tyrant” or it has given way to the term “strong woman”, there’s no one left to prevent the violence. Not in some of the more leftist, public schools anyway.

It’s a Lord of the Flies situation we’re building.

I’m not saying women can’t maintain order, just that it’s far less likely, the farther away the men get. Put women in charge, AND give them a Progressive, passive, left-wing “non-violent” mentality, and all hell’s going break loose. Fatherless boys in woman-run public schools are being raised for a life of violence and crime.

The government then becomes the “father”, but a loveless and tyrannical one. That, I believe, is the plan. We can therefore refer to that Harrisburg, PA school as a success.

Those we pay to preach to us

Posted on by

I won’t call it “irony”, exactly, for that would be unfair. AHA speaker has heart attack.

Heart disease is real. People die from it. I get it. It’s just that I’m remembering a lifetime of being preached to, agitated, made to fuss over our food, told we shouldn’t eat salt, we shouldn’t eat fat, then told that, never mind, fat and salt are necessary, then we’re told this, told that, do this, don’t do that, or OMG! we’re going drop dead any second! “Be afraid! Be very, very afraid!!!

“Are you having a heart attack right now? Are you sure? Maybe you are having a heart attack! Do you know the signs? We think you’re having a heart attack right now…” I’ve heard the radio ads to that effect, from those rat bastards.

I believe that worry, fear, obsession over your food (or anything else) is more likely to cause health problems than any of the foods (or most any actual dangers) themselves. Trouble is, the fear, agitation and obsession have been the main product, packaged and promoted by the media and the AHA.

So if all you heart experts are so knowledgeable that you could presume to tell the rest of us how to live, would you be having heart attacks yourselves? What is the rate, or incidence, of heart problems among heart specialists, compared to the population at large? Is there any difference? That’s a question. I don’t know.

And if you’re having heart attacks yourselves, maybe go ahead and study the phenomenon but stop with the preaching? When you have proven answers, then come out and calmly declare them. I just don’t want to hear another ad, sponsored by the Ad Counsel, subsidized with my tax dollars, telling me how I should live, assuming that I have the maturity, experience and intellect of a three-year-old.

Just stop with the nanny-nag, nanny state shenanigans. Then I might could take you seriously. Maybe.

I know people who can’t get through half a day without worrying about their food, or their environment, killing them, and that right there is a potentially deadly psychological disease, promoted and spread by the nanny state “experts”.

In any case, if I’m going to die of a heart attack this very day, at least I will have spent some time living without fear, and living without fear is a good thing.

Quote of the day—Heather Wilhelm

Posted on by

In the wake of Sunday’s horrific Texas church shooting, America’s chattering classes promptly responded with silent, respectful, and somber reflection, holding off on divisive and caustic political debates for the day.

Unfortunately for all of us, that was over on Earth 2.

Heather Wilhelm
November 8, 2017
Gun Control and Magical Thinking
[She goes on to say:

Government bureaucracy often fails. It should be held accountable; it is not always our friend. To think otherwise, in fact, might be the ultimate in magical thinking.

Yup.—Joe]

Time for me to stop drinking alcohol

Posted on by

I very rarely drink alcohol anyway, so it’s not a big deal for me to stop entirely. Why would I want to do this? Drinking alcohol causes cancer:

The American Society of Clinical Oncology, which represents many of the nation’s top cancer doctors, is calling attention to the ties between alcohol and cancer. In a statement published Tuesday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the group cites evidence that even light drinking can slightly raise a woman’s risk of breast cancer and increase a common type of esophageal cancer.

Heavy drinkers face much higher risks of mouth and throat cancer, cancer of the voice box, liver cancer and, to a lesser extent, colorectal cancers, the group cautions.

“The message is not, ‘Don’t drink.’ It’s, ‘If you want to reduce your cancer risk, drink less. And if you don’t drink, don’t start,’” said Dr. Noelle LoConte, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the lead author of the ASCO statement. “It’s different than tobacco where we say, ‘Never smoke. Don’t start.’ This is a little more subtle.”

Quote of the day—Johnnie Langendorff

Posted on by

He briefed me quickly on what had just happened and said he had to get him. So that’s what I did.

…

He just hurt so many people, he affected so many people’s lives, why wouldn’t you want to take him down?

Johnnie Langendorff
November 5, 2017
An unlikely hero describes gun battle and 95 mph chase with Texas shooting suspect
[The perpetrator (this loser will not be mentioned by name on this blog) in the Texas church shooting was engaged by a neighbor who got a bullet in through a gap in loser’s the body armor (he was wearing what has been described as a ballistic vest). The neighbor and Langendorff pursued the loser while keeping the police updated who arrived at the location where the loser drove off the road. The neighbor used the hood of Langendorff’s pickup for support of his rifle (and the engine compartment for cover) to keep the loser from getting away. The police arrived five to seven minutes later.

As is usual, when seconds matter the police are only minutes away. The bad guy was stopped by private citizens who did what was immediately needed and the police are investigating and writing reports.

The situation could have turned out better had someone engaged the loser with shots to the head and/or hips when he first entered the church. Texas law appears to allow churches to forbid firearms provided they give notice to church visitors. At this point I don’t know as to whether the church had given such notice.

I see some lessons to be learned here: 1) Carry a gun, and 2) Immediately confront evil. This is counter to the narrative of the anti-gun people who call people who do this “vigilantes” and insist such behavior is “best left to the authorities”. This is one more example of why anti-gun people are losing and are, in fact, aligning themselves with other criminal losers.—Joe]

‘Dangerous game’

Posted on by

It’s a relative term isn’t it?

The vast majority of times, a deer will run if it sees you. They’ll often ignore motor vehicles, but if you’re out walking, a deer will alert on your movements, and if recognizes you as human it will bolt. Anecdote abound, and situations vary widely, but a deer, as a rule, will avoid humans.

On the other hand, a healthy buck in the prime of its life is more than capable of killing you, and quickly, if it gets the hankerin’.

I always carry a sidearm when out and about. Elk and moose are common in my roaming area, and I hear that wolves are getting closer.

The unfortunate in the story was apparently unarmed. Whether that would have made any difference in this case is debatable, but having a heavy caliber pistol cannot but improve one’s odds. What an embarrassing way to die!