I’m not the only one to recently have problems with the front sight of their new gun (H/T to gonxau):
He also had problems with the rear sight. I’m not up to 500 rounds yet so I may have problems as well by the time I shoot that many rounds in my new gun.
Slightly off topic… I should soon have some microscope pictures from the gun barrel that died in April. The reason why it split is apparently quite unusual. Assuming I have permission I’ll share everything after I get the pictures.
The solution to violence is supposedly to lay down arms and swear a truce. But when one side’s arms drip with ink and the other’s drip with blood there is no peace to be had. “We will stop drawing cartoons” and “we will stop killing you” are incommensurate concessions.
Those who think they are equal, that the pen is mightier than the sword because the sword only wounds the body while the pen wounds something greater because intangible—the soul of society or some ineffable value like justice or safety or dignity—will always implore us to let the wookie win because they take the enemy at his word. But safety of this kind is not really safety because its maintenance is not in our hands but theirs.
Varad Mehta
June 4, 2015
Don’t Let The Wookiee Win
[Via a Tweet from Gay Cynic.
Those who demand others to refrain from the exercise of their right to free speech because of the threats from violent criminals should think about the lessons they are teaching. What they teach is that others should become violent criminals to get their way as well.
What I find most perplexing is that those who insist we submit to the demands of these criminals are those least able to deliver violence should their lessons be taken to heart. Hence they are attempting to create a world where they would be the first to become slaves to those able to deliver violence.—Joe]
Translation; Check (stop or reduce) your objectivity
The more objective person has great advantages over the less objective person, and those advantages will be seen by the less objective person as threatening, unfair and oppressive. The less objective person thus sees the more objective as aggressors, imposing all manner of suffering upon the less objective.
It has two great benefits to the ego of the less objective. It reduces the comparative advantage of being objective (thus providing “Social Justice”), and it absolves the less objective of responsibility for their foolishness.
Since it requires a great deal more objectivity (which the less objective hate with a burning passion, much as a vampire would hate the sunlight) to convince the less objective to become more objective, the situation is a sort of Catch-22.
The classic definition of such is paranoia, but I see it more as a convenient method of control, by the less objective, of the more objective. A form of bullying from below, if you will.
So long as we entertain the foolishness of the less objective in any way whatsoever, we are being controlled by, and we are thus encouraging and empowering, the foolish. Our entertaining the foolish comes from our unwillingness to become the targets of their naked outrage. It is cowardice. When we know better, and do it anyway, we deserve everything that results (which will of course be horrible).
CCW permit holders are so law-abiding that they compare favorably even to police officers. According to a study in Police Quarterly, during the period from January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2007 there was an average of 703 crimes committed by police per year, with 113 involving firearms violations.6 With about 683,396 full-time law enforcement employees in 2006,7 that translates into about 102 crimes by police per hundred thousand officers. Of course, this compares very favorably to the U.S. population as a whole over those years, with 3,813 crimes per hundred thousand people – a crime rate that was 37 times higher than that for police.
But concealed carry permit holders are even more law-abiding than that. Between October 1, 1987 and April 30, 2015, Florida revoked 9,793 concealed handgun permits for misdemeanors or felonies. This is an annual rate of 12.5 per 100,000 permit holders – a mere eighth of the rate at which officers commit misdemeanors and felonies. In Texas in 2012, 120 permit holders were convicted of misdemeanors or felonies – a rate of 20.5 per 100,000, still just a fifth of the rate for police.
Firearms violations among police occur at a rate of 6.9 per 100,000 officers. For permit holders in Florida, it is only 0.31 per 100,000. Most of these violations were for trivial offenses, such as forgetting to carry one’s permit. The data are similar in 24 other states.
George M. Lee
John R. Lott
June 2, 2015
BRIEF OF AMICUS CURIAE CRIME PREVENTION RESEARCH CENTER
IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS AND APPELLEES JEFF SILVESTER, ET AL., AND SUPPORTING AFFIRMANCE
JEFF SILVESTER, et al.,
Plaintiffs-Appellees,
vs.
KAMALA D. HARRIS,
in her official capacity as the Attorney General of California,
Defendant-Appellant.
[This makes it extremely clear that if you are concerned about private citizens legally carrying guns in public then there are a limited number of nonexclusive conclusions that can be arrived at regarding your concerns. Which of the following best describes you?
Other options exist but they appear to be variations of the themes I have already enumerated. Or did I miss some?—Joe]
From Ken White we have a Leaked Northwestern University Email States Rules For Title IX Investigations which includes this among other things:
Classes on the American court system, civil rights and civil liberties, and criminal justice may continue so long as professors emphasize to their students that they are participating an an anthropological study of a profoundly sexist and cisgender-biased system and that no positive normative judgment is intended.
I’m in complete agreement with commenter AddictionMyth who said:
I understand that satire is protected by the First Amendment. But this was insufficiently parodic to avoid being confusing. At least, I didn’t laugh. Not once.
On Saturday Barb and I were going out for the evening. She was trying to decide what to wear and:
Barb: I don’t like anything I put on.
Joe: That’s an easy problem to solve.
Barb: ??
Joe: Take everything off.
For some reason Barb didn’t see this suggestion nearly as helpful as I did.
I think the issue is with her problem statement. I should work with her on that so that in the future we won’t have these sort of misunderstandings.
The anti-gun people were asking that everyone wear orange yesterday to support them. As with Sebastian, I didn’t see anyone wearing orange all day. But an interesting observation was made by Miguel and CCRKBA. Miguel is rather subtle so I’ll use CCRKBA’s words to provide the detail for those anti-gun people who are little on the slow side:
Today’s nationwide effort by the Michael Bloomberg-supported Everytown for Gun Safety to promote the wearing of orange garments in an effort to push the gun control agenda at least uses a color so many of Bloomberg’s former colleagues are already wearing, in prison, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms observed.
“We’ve been watching social media throughout the day, and we’re stunned that the organizers of this event chose the same color that many prison inmates, including several ex-members of Bloomberg’s other group, the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, are wearing every day of the year,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “At least they’re sticking with a color familiar to so many anti-gun politicians.”
Two Bloomberg-supported groups, Everytown and Moms Demand Action, along with other gun control organizations – essentially the entire gun prohibition lobby – are endorsing and participating in today’s “wear orange” effort.
“When this publicity stunt was launched,” Gottlieb observed, “the organizers tried to peddle this as an adoption of the color that hunters wear for safety in the field. What they didn’t expect, however, is that millions of hunters and gun owners are now fighting back, reminding the gun grabbers on social media that orange is also the color of prison jumpsuits.
“At least we’ll see the anti-gunners coming from a long way off,” he chuckled, “but we can’t be sure if they’re just misguided protesters, or jail escapees. In either case, we’re advising our members to not let anybody wearing orange get too close today.
“What is truly deplorable,” Gottlieb added, “is that this effort tries to send a subliminal color-coded message, linking crime and violence to legitimate hunting and recreational shooting. Maybe next year, the gun prohibition lobby should just wear black and white stripes.”
It’s no wonder they chose orange to represent their people. It’s what so many of them wear on a day-to-day basis.
More than nonlawyers would expect, the justices are fair-weather textualists, demanding strict adherence to congressional language when it suits them and inferring hidden implications when that’s more convenient.
Paul Barrett
June 1, 2015
What the Abercrombie Bias Case Might Mean for Obamacare
[Not only more than what we expect but far more than what we can tolerate.
When they are inconsistent we don’t know what the “law” is at the time you make your life choices. Can you really call it “law” when it depends on the whim of someone in a black robe a thousand miles and years removed from the scene and time of the “crime”? In order for the law to be just it must be knowable at the time you make your choices.—Joe]
Via Bruce Schneier and Tyler Durden:
An internal investigation of the Transportation Security Administration revealed security failures at dozens of the nation’s busiest airports, where undercover investigators were able to smuggle mock explosives or banned weapons through checkpoints in 95 percent of trials, ABC News has learned.
The series of tests were conducted by Homeland Security Red Teams who pose as passengers, setting out to beat the system.
According to officials briefed on the results of a recent Homeland Security Inspector General’s report, TSA agents failed 67 out of 70 tests, with Red Team members repeatedly able to get potential weapons through checkpoints.
…
In addition, the review determined that despite spending $540 million for checked baggage screening equipment and another $11 million for training since a previous review in 2009, the TSA failed to make any noticeable improvements in that time.
That money is a total waste. It’s nothing but security theater. Let the airlines handle their own security, or lack thereof, any way they want instead of the government continuing to infringe our rights and waste our money.
Hoplophobia continues to take a huge toll on the nation, distorts the political climate, and costs lives as innocent people are disarmed or subarmed (inadequately armed due to infringing laws) to help salve the irrational fears of its sufferers. The White House had no comment.
Alan Korwin
May 31, 2015
Medical Hope for Hoplophobia Sufferers
[Of course they had no comment. As with all people with personality disorders they don’t think there is anything wrong with them. And if something goes wrong they cannot see that they made any contribution to the problem.
In addition to consideration of a test for voters I think consideration should be giving to tests for public servants. Hoplophobia sufferers would be immediately disqualified.—Joe]
I was looking for something else and found the certificate for my first gun class:
The instructor, Carl Zmuda, now, 20+ years later, frequently attends Boomershoot.
@wallsofthecity Well whip out your dick then chief and let’s get some data
Jesse Hattabaugh @arkanciscan
Tweeted on January 17, 2014
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday! Via a tweet from Linoge.—Joe]
Via Bruce Schneier.
The terrorist risk is low in the U.S. compared to the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and even Europe:
According to the index, which ranks world cities by the likelihood of a terror attack based on historic trends, 64 cities around the world are at “extreme risk” of a terror attack.
Of these, the majority are in the Middle East (27) or Asia (19).
Some 14 are in Africa, where the rise of Boko Haram and al-Shabaab as well as political instability have increased risk.
Three are in Europe – Luhansk (46) and Donetsk (56) in Ukraine, and Grozy (54) in Russia – while Colombia’s Cali (59) is the only South American city on the list.
The British city most at risk of terror attacks in Belfast (91), followed by Bristol (178), Cardiff (313), Manchester (398) and London (400).
And:
According to Verisk Maplecroft, Paris (97th and ‘high risk’) has experienced one of the steepest rises in the ranking, reflecting the severity of the terrorist attack in January 2015 that left 17 people dead. The risk level in Paris is representative of a wider trend for Western countries, including Belgium, Canada and Australia, where the level of risk in key urban centres is substantially higher than elsewhere in the country, in part due to the significant PR value attached to such high profile targets by militant Islamist groups.
I know someone leaving for South America soon and it’s good to know they probably won’t have terrorist issues on top of the high crime rate risks.
I’ve sometimes searched for a week or more trying to find a bug. But nothing like this:
After more than a month of tireless research and testing, we have finally gotten to the bottom of our ZooKeeper mystery. Corruption during AES encryption in Xen v4.1 or v3.4 paravirtual guests running a Linux 3.0+ kernel, combined with the lack of TCP checksum validation in IPSec Transport mode, leads to the admission of corrupted TCP data on a ZooKeeper node, resulting in an unhandled exception from which ZooKeeper is unable to recover. Jeez. Talk about a needle in a haystack…
Another guy at work says we will probably be using ZooKeeper in the project we are working on. I’m glad these guys found it before we ran into it.
The problem occurred when the system received a single corrupted network packet.
Yesterday I picked up a new gun to replace the old one which died at a match on April 19th.
It’s another STI. This time a DVC Limited. Again it’s chambered in .40 S&W.
I didn’t realize it but this gun was just introduced at Shot Show this year and they are hard to get. I was going to get another STI Eagle but I saw this on the STI website in mid March and called around trying to find one.I asked the local gun shop if they could get me a good deal on one and after calling their distributors and STI found they could not. Only authorized dealers can get them. There are only three dealers within 100 miles of me. One told me I could get delivery in September. Another told me delivery “by the end of the year”. Another dealer told me they were on sale if I ordered by the end of the month and I would get it “in April or May”. It would have been nice to just “go pick it up” but April or May was a lot better than September or the end of the year. And getting it below MSRP was a big bonus. I ordered the gun and then less than a month later the STI I purchased in 1997 and carried almost daily died.
Getting the gun was a big thrill and I checked the holster fit before I getting in my car. It fit both my competition holster and my IWB carry holster. It was a little tight in the carry holster but not a big deal. I loaded it up and it felt so good to have a STI on my hip again.
I had been carrying my Ruger P-89 in the Alien Gear IWB holster but after a few hours it was uncomfortable. And when I bent over to lift something the gun would pop most of the way out of the holster. I used to have Kramer holster for it but couldn’t find it.
I stopped off at the range before coming home. I shot factory ammo which I had known to be accurate in my old STI but it was a huge disappointment in this gun.
I bought a different brand in a different bullet weight and tried that. Still horrible.
I was about to give up and go home and decided to just empty the magazine. The last couple of rounds went about six or eight inches right of my point of aim on a target 21 feet away. Oh! I need to check something.
I tipped the gun to the left as I brought it closer to look at it and the front sight fell off:
That happened with my first STI after a few hundred rounds when I first got it.
I put a 0.004 shim of plastic under the front sight and carefully tapped it into place just like I had done with my first STI.
I went to the range again today and the results were much better. I adjusted the sights for a 25 yard zero and tried it again at 7 yards.
This is five rounds, off hand, from 7 yards away with some of my Montana Gold handloads:
This is five rounds, off hand, from 25 yards:
Okay. That’s more like it! Most of the group dispersion is probably just my aging eyes in the relatively low light of the indoor range and the tremors in my hands and arms.
It’s been many years since I could get groups like that with my STI Eagle. I had been wondering if it was my aging fire control system or the gun. I’m pretty sure I can say it was the gun. The slide to frame fit on the Eagle was never very good. The gunsmith who assembled the kit had deliberately put it together with loose tolerances for reliable carry. After 40K rounds through it the tolerance probably increased enough to make the difference that I suspected were aging of the flesh rather than wear of the gun.
The first thing I did with the DVC Limited, assembled by STI, was check the slide to frame fit. I cannot detect any movement at all. It has to be on the order of 0.001” or less gap. Same with the barrel. No detectable motion when I try to wiggle it.
I’m very pleased now that the front sight is staying in place. I can’t wait for the next match.
Part-time author and occasional co-blogger Rolf, here. For those of you that like baseball (rumor has it there are a couple left in the world), I posted a blurb about my son’s team finishing the regular little league season in 1st place in his division over here. (For those that don’t like baseball, and/or don’t have kids, never mind.)
Ban all guns…. our country shouldn’t have guns… Guns free country.
Chris Goodman
May 30, 2015
Comment to Administration preps new gun regulations
[There is a difference between a ban on guns and having a gun free country. But people like this don’t have the mental processes to think it through even when you explain it to them with everyday examples.
But the one thing to remember about this is that you should never let someone get away with telling you than no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]
We always look at it backwards, don’t we?
…
People are always talking about demanding more and better performance from elected officials. But when you get right down to it, shouldn’t a democracy demand more and better performance from the citizen who vote?
Admiral John Geary
The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Leviathan by Jack Campbell
[He’s got a point.
One would think there being stringent requirements before you were allowed to vote would be the best approach. But that method was abused in times past and probably will not be a viable option for quite some time, if ever. The next best thing would seem to be educating the voters and discouraging uneducated citizens from voting. But then the side that encourages uneducated voters to vote for them wins.
I’m at a loss as to how best to solve the problem.
As a side note, I have really enjoyed Campbell’s Lost Fleet series. I love the space battles which take into account relativistic effects, momentum, and large fleets with sub formations. He does a good job on psychology of different people too.—Joe]
From an amicus brief filed in Peruta v. San Diego:
Everytown for Gun Safety is the largest gun-violence-prevention organization in the country. It has over 2.5 million supporters, including over 275,000 California residents and the mayors of over 50 California cities.
Those numbers seem high. I wonder how they are defining “supporters”. They only have 639K “likes” on Facebook, 48.2K followers on Twitter, and 736 followers on Instagram so I’m extraordinarily suspicious. I would bet they are fudging their numbers like the Brady Campaign did.
Any suggestions on how to get some solid numbers?
There you have it, serfs! The right for the government to regulate the personal carrying of weapons is set forth in 14th century English law and therefore has the force of our own laws over our own people in the 21st century.
How can we refute this unassailable position?
The truth is that it cannot be done; these laws cannot be overturned, revoked or defeated.
The laws, as set forth by our English forebears, in the days of our most honored and revered King Edward III, by nature of their age, govern us still today.
Now that this argument and the force of 14th century English law have been enacted in the colonies, it is only fitting that we adopt other, more pressing laws into our society. Starting now, under order of King Henry VIII, the Church of East England shall be established, with the president of the United States seated at its most high position of responsibility.
He will have the power to appoint bishops and use treasury money to build churches. On a minor note, Catholics, Jews and other heretics will be given the choice of burning to death or conversion.
The position of president shall be replaced with the title of royal governor, and any and all elections of government officials will be abolished, with appointments being made by the current monarch of Great Britain and her royal appointee in the colonies. Long may they reign.
Conor Higgins
May 26, 2015
14th Century English gun law rules in 21st Century America
[Higgins is mocking the amicus brief filed on behalf of San Diego by Everytown For Gun Safety in the case of Peruta v. San Diego.
It would be even more funny if I didn’t think President Obama would go for it if given the chance.—Joe]