Jake / ChiTown

Chicago goes 4 days without fatal shooting | Chicago Sun-Times:

For the first time in 2016, the city of Chicago has gone four full days without a fatal shooting.

(It's a week before the end of the year, and this is the FIRST TIME in a year when nobody has been shot killed by firearms for four days in Chicago?

Which is a tribute to First Responders, and the incompetence of gang-bangers.
God knows they tried; it's just that they are shooting at each other at ranges over 2 feet.

The amazing thing is that Baltimore hasn't heralded a similar amazingly positive headline.

Well .. no.  It's still a Very Big Deal that ChiTown didn't murder anyone for ...  oh, wait a minute.
That's just Firearms Deaths.

They're still stabbing each other in That Toddling Town.

Sometimes I think they should take that Southern Border Wall proposal, and instead build a wall around Chicago.  Except that 99% of the People are the innocent victims.   That would be like locking the Gazelles in the same cage with the Hyenas.

Oh wait ... didn't they already do that in Chicago?

Bait & Switch: Liberal Style

It's the same old story: Dems Demand Action, but 'Publicans pay the bills'.

Democrats decreed that ObamaCare would save the world; Republicans cried "It Won't Work!"
Dems said "Sure it will, just watch us!" and forced ObamaCare on America.

But now?  Guess who is the Bad Guy:

Democratic governors warn Congress on health care repeal:

Dec. 21, 2016 @7:50 PM ET WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic governors Wednesday warned top Republicans in Congress that repealing the Obama health care law would stick states with billions of dollars in costs for providing medical care to residents made newly uninsured.
-
Signing the letter were Govs. Dan Malloy of Connecticut, Jay Inslee of Washington, and Andrew Cuomo of New York, who dubbed the GOP's 'repeal and replace' strategy "nothing more than a Washington, D.C. bait-and-switch." 

It's just one more example of why the Pie-In-The-Sky Democrats should let The Grown-ups balance the checkbook.

Don We Now Our Gay Apparel --- Random Thoughts Of The Season

There should be a law, I think, which separates the Election season from the Christmas season.   By a few months, at least, to allow us time to recover from one emotionally laden season to the next.

I'm talking Radio, folks.

I cut off my cable TV about 20 years ago and haven't missed it.  But I listen to the radio every day and that miasma combination in November/December makes me feel like that scene in The Clockwork Orange when they tape the guys  (Malcom McDowel) eyelids open and force him to watch "Cinematic Aversion Therapy" videos until he breaks and sends his own mother to the breakers ..... or whatever.

Having suffered through the Presidential Election Season * when we were enjoined to vote for the Least Worse Candidate *, we are immediately inundated with Bad Christmas Music.

I'm not just talking about Bing Crosby and (as I mentioned earlier) "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause" and "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" ... no, there's also "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" (okay, I kind of liked that one).

My Rock Station is playing Christmas Carols.  I had to turn off the radio; I'm listening just now to Dire Straits / "Sultans of Swing" just to give my jingle-jangled nerves a temporary break from the sugar-high which has become The Christmas Season On Radio (and has been Christmas for most of my life!)

If I had a television, I'm sure I would be complaining about that, too.

----

Actually, I do have a television .. which is connected to a VCR and a DVD player.  Christmas celebrations in Geekistan includes all the versions of Die Hard.

Now ... there is a guy who has truly donned his gay apparel!

Or ...

Nope.

I'm sticking with this as my Christmas Music de jour.

UK Kops: "Blame The Law-Abiding Victims!"

Top Met Police anti-terror cop blames licensed shooters for Jo Cox MP murder | UK Shooting News:

17 Dec 2016 – The head of the Metropolitan Police’s anti-terrorist division has sought to blame the licensed firearms community for the murder of Jo Cox MP by a political extremist. 

Responding to a fiercely worded letter sent to him by NRA chief executive Andrew Mercer, Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley suggested that the licensed firearms community was to blame because they are targeted for burglaries by criminals. 

Rejecting Mercer’s description of a previous interview with the Daily Telegraph as “unhelpful”, where Rowley had claimed 800 licensed firearms were lost or stolen in 2015 without breaking down the figure, the assistant commissioner wrote: “We do see licensed firearms recovered in criminal circumstances and we do, on occasions, see licensed firearms holders acting outside their licence conditions.”  (sic)

“A recent and high profile example is the firearm discharged in the murder of Jo Cox. This was originally a licensed firearm that was stolen from a vehicle. It then ended up in the hands of Thomas Mair.”

(Mercer/Rowley information link)

Incidentally, Andrew Mercer is chief executive of NRA/UK.

Help me work through the logic here:

Basic Background for those unfamiliar with UK gun control laws:

Great Britain has some of the most stringent gun control laws in the world.  The main law is from the late 1960s, but it was amended to restrict gun ownership further in the latter part of the twentieth century in response to massacres that involved lawfully licensed weapons.  Handguns are prohibited weapons and require special permission.  Firearms and shotguns require a certificate from the police for ownership, and a number of criteria must be met, including that the applicant has a good reason to possess the requested weapon. Self-defense or a simple wish to possess a weapon is not considered a good reason. The secure storage of weapons is also a factor when licenses are granted.

• England doesn't allow anyone to possess a firearm.  Except under strict license laws.
• England keeps a record of every licensed firearm owner, available (only?) to the police.
• The privately owned, licensed firearms were stolen by thieves who obviously knew who had them.
• As far as I know, there is no public record of licensees.
• The police have no leads.
• The police are looking for some way to distract public attention from their incompetence. Or malfeasance.

Did I miss anything?

In passing, I note that the lauded "Gun Control" measures imposed in "Civilized Countries" seem only to penalize honest, legal firearms owners.

Criminals can ALWAYS get a gun .. and this is exactly how it works.

That's all I have to say about this.

Cops know who has a CHL

The policeman who pulls you over for a traffic offense knows if you have a Concealed Handgun License.

Another “Achtung Juden!” bill. This time from South Carolina. – Gun Free Zone:

TO AMEND SECTION 56-3-1230 OF THE 1976 CODE, RELATING TO LICENSE PLATE SPECIFICATIONS, TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF MOTOR VEHICLES TO ISSUE A STICKER TO EACH CONCEALED WEAPONS PERMIT HOLDER WHO IS A VEHICLE OWNER THAT MUST BE AFFIXED TO THE VEHICLE OWNER’S LICENSE PLATE TO INDICATE THE VEHICLE OWNER IS A CONCEALED WEAPONS PERMIT HOLDER.

The point of this bill is moot, and serves no useful purpose (unless you think that everyone should know you have a CHL).

Police routinely call in for a check on the license plate when they pull you over, and the information that the registered owner is a CHL owner is available to them.  You may notice a delay of a minute or two between the time you stop and the time the officer walks forward to talk to you.

The polite and prudent thing for the driver to do *while the cop is checking you out* is to use the time  to gather your drivers license, your insurance card and your CHL and have them in your hand when he approaches your car.

Roll your window down, keep your hands where he can see them.   It's not necessary for you to declare whether you have a weapon on your person; he may assume that is a 'belligerent' statement.

And remember the advice of Patrick Swaze in "Roadhouse":    BE NICE!




(Hat Top: "The Gun Feed")

The Dirty-Shirt Draw

A friend sent a blurb from John Farnham's recent issue of DQ Quips, describing a problem that we should all recognize: although we may not all be familiar with it.   Here is an edited version of Farnham's description of the issue:

The mishap occurred during the presentation of the pistol as part of a live-fire exercise.  Drawing from concealment, from a strong-side, IWB,  belt holster, the shooter’s light-weight shirt got between his strong-side hand and the grip of the pistol.  As the pistol cleared the holster, the fabric of the entangled shirt started pulling on the pistol, retarding the draw sequence. Manual safety was pushed into the “off” position, and a finger obviously made contact with the trigger well before it should have. ----------- Here is what I think we can all learn from this: 1) Thin, filmy, flimsy concealment garments are a bad idea!  Whatever  you use to conceal your pistol needs to be substantial enough so that is unlikely to snag the gun itself. 2) Going too fast is a bad idea!  We all need to train well, so that  we can both draw, and reholster, our concealed-carry pistols smoothly and correctly.  Smoothness is the key!  “Pushing the speed envelope” needs  to be done with great caution!  Concentrate on smoothness and correct  sequence.  Speed will come naturally, and in its own good time! 

MY TAKE ON THIS:

This is something which I see quite often teaching the Intro to USPSA class.  Shooters have either an un-tucked t-shirt, or a light jacket, or some other item of upper-body apparel which they allow to flap in the breeze.   

This garment interferes with their safe gun-handling in a couple of ways:
(1) it gets between the gun and the holster when they are holstering, and interferes with their draw because the grab for the gun and the shirt acts as a 'wedge' so they don't have a smoothe draw;
(2) they holster after completing a stage with the shirt in the way, and when they raise their arms (as if to stretch to get more ammunition when reloading magazines) the shirt-tail actually pulls their pistol out of the holster and drops the gun on the concrete.

However, the above narrative is the first time I've heard that it actually caused a negligent discharge.

I categorize this among the Draw-String Deputy kind of story; you can't believe it, but it really happens.