Blog
Home Security
Next Gun Control Push Coming Through Violence Against Women Act
As if they ever had any to begin with, the hoplophobes are running out of reasonable arguments.
Which of the below two scenarios represents the most reasonable and effective way to prevent violence against women?
This one,
or this one,
The first video was financed by Michael Bloomberg, and it makes a good case for arming and training those who fall into the category of potential victim. The second video illustrates why we need guns for self defense.
Bloomberg is becoming more and more reminiscent of the snake oil salesmen of yesteryear.
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Home Security
Another Lesson Learned—The Hard Way
“I didn’t want a gun. I specifically didn’t want one,” Dittrich said. “I was very much opposed to hav[ing] one, and I guess I got the realization that the police really can’t protect you. They can respond, and they can protect you once they get there. But, you’re on your own.”
In the below video, a couple of ex New Jersey residents describe why they now keep a gun available. I'm surprised that ABC didn't edit out the pro-gun comments, as they seldom, if ever, report on the many times that this sort of brutality has been prevented—by gun owner's who have been prepared to deal with the evil demonstrated here.
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Law & Order
Victory in Palmer v. D.C.
Justice never sleeps…. not even on a Saturday afternoon, when this opinion was just handed down.
In light of Heller, McDonald, and their progeny, there is no longer any basis on which this Court can conclude that the District of Columbia’s total ban on the public carrying of ready-to-use handguns outside the home is constitutional under any level of scrutiny. Therefore, the Court finds that the District of Columbia’s complete ban on the carrying of handguns in public is unconstitutional. Accordingly, the Court grants Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and enjoins Defendants from enforcing the home limitations of D.C. Code § 7-2502.02(a)(4) and enforcing D.C. Code § 22-4504(a) unless and until such time as the District of Columbia adopts a licensing mechanism consistent with constitutional standards enabling people to exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms.4 Furthermore, this injunction prohibits the District from completely banning the carrying of handguns in public for self-defense by otherwise qualified non-residents based solely on the fact that they are not residents of the District.
In 2012, I won Moore v. Madigan, 702 F.3d 933 (7th Cir. 2012), which struck down Illinois total ban on the carrying of defensive handguns outside the home. With this decision in Palmer, the nation’s last explicit ban of the right to bear arms has bitten the dust. Obviously, the carrying of handguns for self-defense can be regulated. Exactly how is a topic of severe and serious debate, and courts should enforce constitutional limitations on such regulation should the government opt to regulate. But totally banning a right literally spelled out in the Bill of Rights isn’t going to fly. My deepest thanks to the Second Amendment Foundation for making this victory possible and to my clients for hanging in there. Congratulations Americans, your capital is not a constitution-free zone.
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Tail wags to Alan Gura and the Second Amendment Foundation; to add some perspective to the fight involved with this victory, the Heller decision was handed down six years ago.
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Law & Order
The way for a victim to lose their innocence
Some follow-up media reports to the case involving the 80-year old homeowner indicate that the deceased outlaw was not pregnant, as she had claimed. This fact will make it a little easier on the prosecutor.
Dazed and traumatized, the homeowner (Greer) had evidently started shooting at the pair of burglars while they were still in his home, but missed. He then followed them outside as they tried to escape.
A virtual reconstruction of this incident, based upon media reports including the homeowner's televised 'confession', would suggest that this homeowner will be charged with manslaughter. We'll see.
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Price of Mistakes
Philadelphia: $1.4 M Settlement on Licenses, Guns, and Procedures
Chicago is not the only political jurisdiction to be ordered by the courts to cough up some restitution for deliberately infringing on citizens' civil rights.
Of course, it's the taxpayers who pick up the tab for tyrants.
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Law & Order
Glistening in the sun—a tiny trickle of water on the face of the dam.
'Tolerance' is a finite quantity, and 'home invasion' is the most heinous crime of all. Combine these elements with some physical pain, and.........
Tom Greer returned to his home to find it being ransacked by a man and a woman. “I walked in on them,” Greer told KNBC. “And they jumped on me in the hallway.” Greer said that he was tackled and thrown to the ground but managed to get his .22-caliber revolver and confronted them as they ransacked a safe containing cash.
Seeing the gun, the couple ran out of the house and started down an alley.
“The lady, she couldn’t run as fast as the man, so I shot her in the back twice,” Greer explained. “She’s dead, but he got away.”
“She says, ‘Don’t shoot me, I’m pregnant! I’m going to have a baby!’ And I shot her anyway,” Greer said.
Greer, who suffered a severe shoulder and collarbone injury in the altercation, says he has no regrets about the shooting, “I shot her so that’s going to leave a message on his mind for the rest of his life.”
This will be an interesting case to watch. According to media reports, the homeowner (Greer) had suffered some prior burglaries, and returned home while the two outlaws, who had broken into his home, were trying to open his "safe."
It's important to note that, instead of fleeing the scene then, the outlaws brutally attacked the home-owner, inflicting serious injury.
Evidently the outlaws thought that they had incapacitated the home-owner, as they went back to their pillaging. Only when they saw the home-owner with a gun, did they decide to go somewhere else. The home-owner, no doubt in pain (the severity of which will be a crucial point), hastened the outlaw's exit with several rounds from a .22 revolver—killing one of them.
This case is also a textbook example of why a victim should avoid discussing the details of the event until they have recovered from their trauma.
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Small Arms Firing School (SAFS)
Service Pistol Warm-Up, EIC Matches Prime Competitors for 2014 National Trophy Pistol Match Season
By Ashley Brugnone, CMP Writer
SAFS was held on July 7 to a class of 305 new and experienced shooters. During the school, participants receive basic instruction on firing practices, competition skills, range firing and safety. The Department of Defense first conducted SAFS as part of the National Matches at Camp Perry in 1918, and the course has been a staple ever since.
CAMP PERRY, OH – The 2014 National Trophy Pistol Match Season began with a little stretching of the mind and loosening of the competitive muscles as the Pistol Small Arms Firing School (SAFS) and Service Pistol Warm-Up Matches readied competitors for the week ahead.
SAFS was held on July 7 to a class of 305 new and experienced shooters. During the school, participants receive basic instruction on firing practices, competition skills, range firing and safety. The Department of Defense first conducted SAFS as part of the National Matches at Camp Perry in 1918, and the course has been a staple ever since.
After classroom instruction, SAFS students spend time on the range to practice positioning, sight pictures and other fundamental elements.
Members of the Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marine and Navy Active, as well as the National Guard and Reserve shooting teams assist students during the course. Their attention to detail, knowledge and experience make them some of the most qualified instructors in the country.
“These instructors are way better than what I had 30, 40 years ago in the Army,” said Jack Turner, 72, of Sebastian, FL. “My instructor here knew so much. He could talk your ear off with everything he knew. It was really excellent.”
Besides fundamentals of pistol use, SAFS students also learn how to score and other key aspects of competition pistol shooting.
At the conclusion of classroom training, students made their ways out to the range for live firing practice. All participants then have the opportunity to follow a true Course of Fire in an M9 Pistol Excellence-In-Competition (EIC) Match. Marksmen participate in EIC Matches in order to earn leg points towards becoming named a Distinguished Pistol shooter.
Stephen Monroe, 45, of Janesville, WI, was the overall winner in the M9 Pistol EIC Match, with a score of 258-4x. Monroe, new to pistol shooting, is now on his way to earning his Distinguished Badge – earning 4 leg points with his win. The Top 10 percent of finishers also received their introductory leg points.
Members of the Army, Air Force, Marine, Navy and other military shooting teams serve as lead instructors during the course.
Monroe showed outstanding perseverance during the match, continuing to fire while also battling terrible stomach pain. Crumpled over between shots, he was able to find the strength to straighten his back, aim and fire accurately during each sequence.
“I would have rather lost than feel like that,” he said, jokingly. “But I somehow managed to finish alright.”
Stephen Monroe was the overall winner of the M9 Pistol EIC match.
Just behind Monroe in second place was 1st Lt. Zane Jones, USMCR, 33, of Columbus, OH, with a score of 257-3x. Jacob Tuomi, 19, of Chassell, MI, rounded out the top three with a score of 247-2x for third.
Over 270 competitors fired in the Service Pistol Warm-Up Match on July 8.
The Service Pistol Warm-Up Match on July 8 is meant to give competitors the opportunity to practice using their own pistols in a major competition. The event was slightly interrupted this year when rain poured down onto the competitors, causing a short delay. Relay 1 watched the black skies move in over the lake but managed to finish their sequences, while Relay 2 was forced to evacuate the range until the storm passed.
Once the clouds moved out of the area and all relays fired, it was SFC James Henderson, 47, of Midland, GA, who earned the top spot with his score of 388-11x. Henderson is the current record holder for the event, having fired a 392-15x back in 2009.
A storm during the Service Pistol Warm-Up Match caused a slight delay, but competitors still fired through the tough conditions.
SSgt. Jonathan Shue, 32, of Stafford, VA, claimed the second place position with a score of 382-16x, while SGT Greg Markowski, 40, of Columbus, GA, trailed closely behind with 381-12x to land in third place.
Though all competitors in the Warm-Up Match received a commemorative coin, the Top 10 percent of the 277 competitors who fired in the event was given exclusive Gold Coins.
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Tail wags to Ashley Brugnone and the Civilian Marksmanship Program for this report. Having been a "rookie" participant in the SAFS of 1964, a half-century ago, I can attest to its value in being one of our great national treasures.
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Law & Order
Trojan Horses, Open Borders, and Open Law
The problem is much larger than the number of children flowing across our open border. In our humanitarian quest to 'protect' those alien children flowing into this country, we should not forsake the need to protect our own children.
When the law breaks down, the armed citizen becomes vital to the strategic security of the nation.
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Freedom, Law, and Order
Secure the border—and humanity!
We, the United States of America, have received a large enough number of refugees from Mexico that, there is no doubt, we have a vested interest in Mexican citizen's welfare. The most "humane" thing for the United States to do would be to send an expeditionary force down there and help the self-defense militias clean that wretchedly corrupt place up. The bulk of the refugees would then be at peace to return to their home safely. The longer we wait, the more difficult it becomes.
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Law & Order
Number of Concealed Carry Permits doubled since 2007; results show lower crime rates.
On Wednesday July 9, 2014, the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) released a report, Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States, revealing that 11.1 million Americans hold concealed carry permits up from an estimated 4.6 million in 2007.
The last comprehensive report on the number of concealed carry permit holders was completed three years ago by the U.S. Government Accountability Office and showed that 8 million Americans held a concealed carry permit. These numbers show that the number of permits is not only increasing, but they are growing at faster and faster rates.
The report also notes:
- Three states (South Dakota, Indiana, and Alabama) now have over 10 percent of their adult populations with permits, and 10 states have at least 8 percent of their adult populations with permits.
- The number of concealed carry permit holders is likely much higher than 11.1 million.
- Between 2007 and the preliminary estimates for 2013, murder rates have fallen from 5.6 to 4.4 per 100,000 – a 22 percent drop in the murder rate at the same time that the percentage of the adult population with permits soared by 130 percent. Overall violent crime also fell by 22 percent over that period of time.
Tail wags to the CPRC. This study proves that, as much as anyone else, Concealed Carry Permit holder's are responsible for keeping our streets safe. The State of Florida leads with 1.28 million permits issued.
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Project ChildSafe
NSSF's Project ChildSafe Takes Second Annual S.A.F.E Summer into Communities Nationwide
NEWTOWN, Conn. -- Project ChildSafe, in partnership with the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), announces the second annual S.A.F.E Summer campaign, a part of Project ChildSafe's ongoing program to emphasize the importance of responsible firearm storage -- particularly while children are home from school and more likely to be unattended.
Each month, Project ChildSafe will recognize and spotlight local leaders nationwide who are promoting safety and making a difference in their community as the program turns its national message into local action. The firearm industry is promoting safe and responsible ownership through its network -- reinforcing Project ChildSafe's overarching message, "Own it? Respect It. Secure it," -- so that programs such as S.A.F.E. Summer serve as a reminder that proper firearm storage is the #1 way to prevent firearm accidents, theft and misuse.
"Our mission is to make the mantra "Own it? Respect it. Secure it." second nature when talking about firearm safety," says Steve Sanetti, President of NSSF. "The S.A.F.E Summer initiative aims to emphasize the importance of safe and responsible storage in communities across the country."
"S.A.F.E." serves as an acronym for Store your firearms responsibly when not in use; Be Aware of those around you who should not have unauthorized access to guns; Focus on your responsibility as a firearm owner and Educate yourself and others about safe firearm handling and storage. The effort is focused on providing education and tools that helps gun owners take responsible action to keep their families and communities safer.
NSSF launched Project ChildSafe in 1999 (prior to 2003 the program was called Project HomeSafe) as a nationwide initiative to promote firearms responsibility and provide safety education to all gun owners. Through partnerships with more than 15,000 law enforcement agencies, the program has provided more than 36 million free firearm safety kits to gun owners in all 50 states and five U.S. territories. That's in addition to the more than 70 million free locking devices manufacturers have included with new firearms sold since 1998 and continue to do today.
Project ChildSafe was originally supported by federal grants provided by the U.S. Department of Justice. Since 2008, when this funding was cut, the firearms manufacturing industry has solely funded the Project ChildSafe program through the members of NSSF.
Price of Mistakes
Speaking of Chicago
The United States District Court in the Northern District of Illinois has ordered the City of Chicago to reimburse $940,000 in legal expenses incurred by the NRA in its fight for civil rights. This is the second time that the City of Chicago has been ordered to reimburse legal fees in a suit sponsored by the NRA. The first was following the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling in McDonald v. City of Chicago in which Chicago was ordered to reimburse the NRA more than $600,000.
So, the taxpayers in the Windy City are on the hook for $1.5 million for no other reason than the politicians running the place attempted to deny rights to law-abiding citizens. In the meantime, the same bunch can't seem to figure out any other way to deal with their gun-slinging gang-bangers. Crew replacement maybe?
Why does this sort of thing always make me think of cutting horses?
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Law & Order
Fourth of July weekend toll: 82 shot, 14 of them fatally, in Chicago
For 10 minutes, it seemed like the shooting was everywhere in the South Chicago neighborhood.
It started when someone shot and wounded a couple, then two people fired at the shooter, then there was a chase and shots exchanged and a man sitting on a porch was hit. Responding officers kept cutting each other off on their radios as they reported other gunfire in the area late Sunday night and early Monday morning.
What we are witnessing in Chicago is a typical manifestation of Liberalism, social and moral decay augmented by the drug-culture. With all of the authoritarian laws that Chicago has in place, and has had in place over the years, they still can't keep "people under control" or keep guns out of the hands of outlaws—nor will they be able to.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. -Albert Einstein
One thing for sure, you won't catch me driving through Chicago without a gun. But then, you won't catch me driving through Chicago.
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Marine Salvage
The Costa Concordia; still cleaning up the mess.
The 951', 114,500-metric-ton, Costa Concordia cruise liner is finally set to be refloated on the 20th of July 2014, to be towed away from the Italian island where it ran aground and capsized on 13 January 2012. She was carrying 4252 crew and passengers; 32 of them died in the sinking. Salvage crews have been working on the wreck site for two and a half years. The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, is on trial accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship.
Costa Concordia Live Web Cam Links:
CLOSE UP SHIP CAM (BEST)
(www.giglionews.it)View of the full ship and refloat operation.
CAM1 - THE SHIP
(www.giglionews.it)View of the full ship and salvage operation.
CAM2 - THE PORT
(www.giglionews.it)View of the port, loading and unloading etc.
CAM3 - SCAN CAM
(www.isoladelgiglio.net)Scanning cam of ship port beach etc.
LIVE TV HD STREAM
Live News TV Stream (Limited Hours)
DRONE CAM
(Website Video Link)Drone cam of the Costa Concordia
Health & Safety
Are you dead yet?
Gone are the days of Jonas Salk and Louis Pasteur, we now live in the era of Yoshihiro Kawaoka.
He took the 2009 pandemic flu virus and selected out strains that were not neutralized by human antibodies. He repeated this several times until he got a real humdinger of a virus. He left no doubt in my mind that he had achieved it. He used a flu virus that is known to infect humans and then manipulated it in such a way that it would effectively leave the global population defenseless if it ever escaped from his laboratory. He’s basically got a known pandemic strain that is now resistant to vaccination. Everything he did before was dangerous but this is even madder. This is the virus.
What is the difference between a madman with a gun, and a madman with a petri dish? Answer: The guy with the petri dish gets government funding.
What happens when some idiot decides to go after Kawaoka's lab the way they did the UW Sterling Hall?
Maybe the government could get Kawaoka to move his lab to Ilha de Queimada Grande.
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Equipment
Gun Mounts
Another option for securing your firearm: CrossBreed® Holster Company has combined the popular Ram Mounting System with their line of CrossBreed holsters.
A Desert Eagle mounted between your Iridium SatPhone and iPad/Nav on your Moto Guzzi 1400; would that be cool or what?
A container that would conceal the firearm might be useful also.
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