Blog
Law and Order
'Forget it Jake, it's ChiTown...'
Chicago's Memorial Day Street Violence:
- 2012 - 53 shot; 11 dead
- 2013 - 21 shot; 4 dead
- 2014 - 34 shot; 6 dead
- 2015 - 58 shot; 12 dead
- 2016 - 71 shot; 6 dead
- 2017 - 52 shot; 7 dead
Average number of people shot on a given Memorial Day weekend: 48.16
Average number of people killed on a given Memorial Day weekend: 7.66
Corrupt socialistic government didn't work in Venezuela either!
/fl
Training
No Substitutes
It's important to remember the old maxim that if or when you find yourself in extremis, "you won't rise to the occasion, you'll fall to your level of training." Training doesn't always guarantee the outcome, but your chances are much better at surviving if you have had proper training. The United States Coast Guard's "Surfman's Creed" reflects that reality.
The one line of the Surfman’s Creed that has always stood out to me is, ‘I will give of myself and my knowledge as those who gave to me; so as the line of Coast Guard surfmen will live forever,’” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Garrett Hamilton, a boatswain’s mate and surfman assigned to Station Bodega Bay. “Anyone can learn from a book, but to become great, you need hands-on learning outside of the classroom, passed down from generations before.
Semper Paratus!
/fl
NICS
Consequential Infringement
As if Schumer, Waters, Bloomberg, Feinstein, et al. are not enough, now along comes Pennsylvania State Rep. Jamie Santora who wants to require that any gun transfer must be processed through an FFL (Federal Firearms Licensee) with all the attendant paperwork including NICS. Under Santora's plan, if you want to sell one of your guns to a lifelong friend whom you know has no malicious intent, you can't do it legally unless you feed the bureaucracy first.
Santora has missed something important; as AWR Hawkins points out:
It should be noted that the following individuals all submitted to background checks in order to acquire their guns:
- the NY bombing suspect (September 19, 2016)
- the UCLA gunman (June 1, 2016)
- the San Bernardino attackers (December 2, 2015)
- the Colorado Springs attacker (October 31, 2015)
- the Umpqua Community College attacker (October 1, 2015)
- Alison Parker’s attacker (August 26, 2015)
- the Lafayette movie theater attacker (July 23, 2015)
- the Chattanooga attacker (July 16, 2015)
- the alleged Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal attacker (Jun 17, 2015)
- the Muhammad Cartoon Contest attackers (May 3, 2014)
- the Las Vegas cop killers (June 9, 2015)
- the Santa Barbara attacker (May 23, 2014)
- the Fort Hood attacker (April 2, 2014)
- the Arapahoe High School attacker (December 13, 2013)
- the D.C. Navy Yard attacker (September 16, 2013)
Santora says his attempt to expand the frequency of background checks is “common sense.” Where have we heard that before?
Without a doubt, it would be more practical to require that an IQC (Intelligence Quotient Check) be given to prospective political candidates than to require any further expansion of NICS for prospective gun buyers.
/fl
Hearing Health
NSSF Speaks Up on Suppressor Lies
The NSSF's (National Shooting Sports Foundation) Larry Keane penned a Letter to the Editor in The Hill pushing back on Dallas Sheriff Lupe Valdez’s misleading assertion that the Hearing Protection Act will lead to increased crime.
The BATFE (Bureau of Alcohol Tax Firearms and Explosives) drafted a White Paper in January where Acting Director Ron Turk suggested support for the Hearing Protection Act, for among other reasons, they were rarely used in crimes, with just 44 cases a year over a 10-year span.
The NSSF invited select Washington D.C.-based media to attend a suppressor demonstration at Elite Shooting Sports in Manassas, Virginia. Sig Sauer, Daniel Defense, and Olin Corporation supported the event, giving reporters a chance to hear the truth about suppressors.
/NSSF
Now, it's time for the NRA to show some progress in promoting national civil reciprocity legislation for law-abiding citizen's who have state-issued carry permits; they will never have a better opportunity.
/fl
Law and Order
Confronting Diabolical Reality
A theological perspective:
What we need to understand is that terror attacks are specifically and strategically undertaken in order to destabilize an entire society. Every society requires a certain level of safety and stability in order for it to flourish. That’s exactly what is being attacked here. This is a direct assault upon stability and security that we simply have to have in an adequate level for society to function. Terror is the great enemy of this kind of security and stability. If inside a society you can instill enough fear, enough terror by this means of attack, then you can effectively shut down a society.
A secular perspective:
The key question:
The founder's answer:
The diabolical reality of evil violence is what the founder's of our country had in mind when they wrote the second amendment to our constitution. An armed society is the most logical way of remaining a free (and relatively safe) society. It's not perfect, but nothing designed by man is perfect.
/fl
Common sense?
When 'nonsense' becomes common, does it then qualify as common sense?
What do you do when the collective mind of your wobbly collaboration is running short of emotional claptrap?
Gun Control Group Lists 130 Authors To Fight Against Gun Violence
..harness the power of the literary community to amplify the gun safety movement... The group uses its collective reach and cultural influence to support commonsense solutions.....
The "literary community" can surely come up with something that sounds compelling.
The term "common sense" has lost its integrity and has become lost in the cloud of progressive ambiguity.
The solution to the problem of 'gun violence' must be legal and reasonable.
/fl
Pensacola
Another Special Day
There is an old saying that “seventy percent of the surface of the earth is covered by water — and the United States Navy."
People living here in the “cradle of Naval Aviation” are reminded of that by the constant “sound of freedom", and it becomes especially apparent when the whole community is party to an impromptu wedding celebration.
Congratulations to the newlywed’s, and Good Show!
/fl
Crime and Justice
Cognitive Dissonance
During a recent six-month period, 23-year-old Illinois resident Simone Mousheh, purchased four weapons for $600 each and sold two to a Hoffman Estates man with Chicago gang ties. According to published reports, Mousheh purchased a .40-caliber gun legally, then reported it stolen, and police later recovered the gun from a Chicago juvenile.
The police did their job and reeled her in...
On April 13, 2017, Mousheh plead guilty to the illegal transfer of firearms in exchange for 12 months probation and 15 days in the Cook County sheriff's work alternative program; she was also ordered to pay $679 in fines.
Since this punishment appears to Cook County authorities as a logical step in solving their 'gun problem', and since Chicago is having such a big problem with 'crime guns', maybe that approach would work as an overall Metropolitan solution: Mayor Rahm, with the blessing of the courts, could issue an arbitrary blanket city-wide decree, placing all gang-bangers and armed miscreants on probation, and arbitrarily fine each one $679; that should provide an immediate solution to not only the 'gun problem', but to the city's growing financial dilemma as well. It'll be win-win.
Right!
/fl
Law and Order
When Seconds Count...
The police are only 87 minutes away!
The robbers entered through the back door, just after his wife left for the airport.
Jamie waited for an hour and 27 minutes for Dallas police officers to arrive. They just didn’t have enough officers to respond sooner to the home invasion robbery.
Situations like Jamie’s are happening more, and more
I'm thinking that either the new Mossberg Shockwave, or the new Remington 870 Tac-14, would go a long way toward speeding up justice in cases like this.
/fl
Self Defense
Wisdom and Flexibility
Strategy trumps tactics, almost every time.
The old maxim "stay out of stupid places where stupid people do stupid things" can mean, unfortunately, to stay out of court's of law. Don't let a faulty criminal justice system bite you in the rear just because you've been victimized, had to defend yourself with a firearm, and you think that you have nothing to hide. The "system" is fickle and has a mind of its own; it doesn't care who it bites. Remember that! And then, you will be more capable of appreciating the nuances of this:
The Problem With [using] Handloads For Defense
/fl
History
The Old Days
One of our local TV stations recently started running some fascinating old 30-minute black-and-white episodes of the Western anthology Death Valley Days… Brings back memories as the show was one of my favorites back in the ‘test pattern’ days.
"Death Valley Days" began in 1930 as a radio drama, and ran until 1945; then it became a television show on March 1st, 1952. It featured stories of the old American West, and had several hosts throughout the years, including Stanley (The Old Ranger) Andrews, Ronald Reagan, Robert Taylor, Dale Robertson, and Merle Haggard.
Death Valley Days became the longest running, most successful, syndicated Western series of all time, with 558 episodes, before ending on August 1, 1975.
The show's sponsor was the familiar 20 mule team by the Pacific Coast Borax Company.
It’s said that the stories used in the series were based on actual events. Particularly interesting is this episode "Dear Teacher” that was broadcast in the early 1950’s — especially the way that the schoolmarm establishes order over an heretofore unruly bunch of students (excerpt attached.)
Still relevant methodology!
You can watch the entire 26-minute episode here:
-fl
Culture
The Predicament of Freedom
This recent incident, captured on video, illustrates a dilemma that we are facing with our system of justice. In this case, a woman pulls a gun on a student barber because the barber was cutting her son's hair too slow...
I'm assuming that this woman was carrying a pistol for self-defense, which is a civil right guaranteed to her by our constitution. I'm not assuming that she was carrying the gun legally.
Obviously, it's not the gun that is the problem, it's irresponsible stupidity that is the problem. You can blame this kind of behavior on ignorance, or anything else, but since individual freedom is dependent on individual responsibility and discipline, it's logical to say, based on this and other similar incidents, that not all people can handle freedom.
This is a good example of the problem....
So what do we do as a society — continue to try to deny those who can exercise self-discipline the right to defend themselves in futile hope of keeping guns out of the hands of people incapable of discipline? This might sound crude, but when everyone is armed, this kind of glitch will eventually work itself out on its own; there is no other way to be truly free.
As John Adams, the second President of the United States, and signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights stated in a speech to the military in 1798, "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Words proven time and again!
/fl