Going to Nationals!

Musings Over a Barrel: Going to Nationals!:

Were in!  This September, I get to shoot the IDPA National Championship match.

No, that's not me saying that; I'm too old and slow to go to a Nationals match any more (but then, I always was).

But for one young competitor, especially, it's the Dream Come true!

Competition makes Monsters of us all:
You have to qualify for the nationals, which isj't all that hard to do if you're a fast, young gun. 

I remember my first USPSA National match back in the 1980's, when I was shooting C-class in Limited division.

That was in the period when USPSA was just beginning to add new divisions ... as I recall, we had only Open and "Stock" at the time; "Limited" division wasn't even envisioned, let alone all the divisions we contend with today.

   I was having the hell kicked out of me by a young man whose skill-level in his (STOCK?) category was WAY beyond his rating.  I couldn't believe he was still C-class, so I searched him on the internet.  It turned out that he had recently been bumped up to B-class.  He wasn't aware of it, but I brought it to the attention of the match staff, and in doing so was bumped up to third place in my class and category.

I'm not proud of it,  I've never been "skilled" in competition pistol shooting, but I was at the peak of m form after spending months shooting thousands of rounds a month to be as competitive as I could, and I really wanted to win SOMETHING for the $400+ match fee.

The gentleman in question was disappointed, of course, but he never said a bad word to me.   He was the better man, in more ways than one.

I guess this is something of a cautionary note to competitors.   Sometimes winning isn't as important as playing the game, taking your licks, and shaking the hand of those who beat you.

I've become something of an expert at congratulating better shooters..


I only wish I had learned that lesson 20 years earlier.

Well, and I wish I was a better shooter ... but it's better to play and lose, than not to play at all.

NOTICE: This Is An "Anti-government" Website

Late last night (or early this morning ... I'm retired, who cares?) I did some research on my own website and discovered that mine was an "Anti-Government Website".

This is rewarding on at least two issues:

1. somebody still reads this blog!
2. somebody noticed that it's an "anti-government" blog!

I think that anyone who isn't at least a little "anti-government" isn't paying attention.  

Or he is a Democrat ... which amounts to about the same thing.  

Here is an example of how "Government" resolves societal problems.

Here's what I think:

If you want to hurt yourself, shoot yourself in the foot.If you want to REALLY hurt yourself, trust your Government.

Federal, state, county, local; it doesn't matter.   When you trust an anonymous group of professional bureaucrats (is there any other kind?)  to "govern" your personal life, you have conceded your fate to the whims of people who couldn't hold down a real job.

So .. yes, I am "Anti-Government" because whores are the only class of people who want to screw you for money AND NOT RUIN YOUR LIFE!   A whore will at least give you the option of wearing a condom;  politicians want to bare-back every time.   And whores are quite honest about what they're doing, and why.   Other than that, there's no easily defined difference between the two career paths.

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I have actually voted for politicians who I thought were honest.

DEFINITION OF "AN HONEST POLITICIAN":

An Honest Politician is one who, once bought, stays bought.

"Justice in Action?" You decide.

Apparently folks in Tallahassee don't have a lot of confidence in the "Support Your Local Sheriff" mantra.

Academy Sports pistol thief - who threatened to kill upon his release - released on bond - The Gun Writer:

Jason F. White told Tallahassee police that he tried to steal a Glock 27 from Academy Sports June 29 because he needed to kill someone. The unemployed 24-year-old Tallahassee resident told officers an “unknown man” was threatening him and his children, and that he needed to kill him.

This certainly provides a provocative contrast to the previous story about the Brit who was arrested for attempted murder for firing a paint-ball gun into the ground in front of an aggressor.

Attempted Murder Criteria in England

"I'm going to take your farm!"

British farmer fires paintball gun into ground to warn off aggressive trespasser.

“Close enough. I felt he would lunge at me and strike me with the stick as he was carrying it in a raised position,” the owner said. “He ignored my demand, slowly moving forward. Consciously, I moved the paintball gun to the front, still maintaining its position pointing to the ground. Approximately one metre in front of me, I released two paintballs. They made a popping sound. Then the man stopped.” The owner then called the police.

Arrested for attempted murder!

... and people wonder why eighteenth century Americans revolted against British Rule!

(It's a good thing we did, else we too would be a bunch of wimps with no rights!)

No, I am not making this up.  From the original article:

Charges could include possession of a dangerous weapon, contravening the Dangerous Weapons Act and even a charge as serious as pointing of a firearm – if the victim believes that the weapon is a real firearm. However, the Act states in section 3(1) that “any person who is in possession of a dangerous weapon under circumstances which may raise a reasonable suspicion that the person intends to use the dangerous weapon for an unlawful purpose, is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three years”.

IS IT SIGNIFICANT that the article does not mention whether charges were brought against the tresspasser?

I think so.  What do you think?

Voter Qualification in The Land of Fruits and Nuts ... and yes, even People from Outer Space!

You don't need to be an Earthling to vote in San Francisco.

San Francisco Department of Elections issues voter registration forms for non-citizens | abc7news.com: Monday, July 16, 2018 05:42PM SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Monday the Department of Elections Issued Voter Registration Forms for non-citizens who are eligible to vote for members of the San Francisco Board of Education in the November 6th 2018 election. The measure passed in 2016 with a close vote of 54 percent to 46 percent following two failed previous attempts.

Well, that explains how the people that California has elected its governor.

The FBI is FINALLY updating significant records to NICS

It's not "OUR" fault that people who should not own guns have not reliably been caught during Instant Background Checks.

The Infinite Wisdom of the American public has often pointed their fingers at legitimate firearms owners for "Mass Shootings" over the years; but recent information suggests that governmental agencies who are responsibility for updating  the list of forbidden firearms purchasers have not been doing the job; the embedded article points right back to them.

"THEM" .. is the folks responsible for religiously maintaining current information on the Database which registers and tracks felons and madmen.


Report: FBI will add 400 million new records to NICS:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation will add more than 400 million new records to the database used to vet gun buyers, according to a report this week from the Trace. The National Data Exchange, aka N-DEx, contains incident and arrest reports, probation and parole documents, according to the report — a trove of information capable of preventing questionable gun transfers from proceeding, such as in the case of the Charleston church shooter.

Seller Beware!

"They Say" ... it's easier to buy a gun than to buy a used car.

That only goes to show what they know.

Massachusetts man arrested for selling guns without a license:

Rathsomnang Neth, 22, faces one count of dealing in firearms without a license and two counts of possessing and transferring an unregistered shotgun with a shortened barrel, according to a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday. The former carries a maximum sentence of five years and a $250,000 fine. Each latter possession charge, however, carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, according to the Department of Justice.

Who among the readers doesn't have some firearms which are 'superfluous to my needs' and would you like to find them a new home?

Sellers who dispose of more than X-number of firearms in private transactions, during Y-number of months, would be advised to go beyond the usual cautions of vetting their buyers.

If you don't know the values of "X" and "Y", maybe you should just hide them in your gun safe.  Or gift them to a a family member.

It doesn't matter who you sell to, their soon (who knows when) comes a point when you are arbitrarily migrated from the position of "private owner" to "DEALER!!!"
.
If you sell "too many guns" in "too short a time", you are still subject to FEDERAL prosecution regulation.

My case is a lot easier.  I'm old, I'll die soon.  My kids will inherit my firearms as well as my furniture.

They can sell my furniture to anybody .. but they need to go through an arcane number of federal regulations to successfully "vend" firearms.

Somehow this makes my prospects of an early heart attack less threatening, considering that the legal implications are A Fate Worse Than Death!

So .. yes; I believe I WILL have another piece of pie, thank you very much.

God Forbid I should have to face a jury of my peers.

California DOJ BLINKS!

This is our "Once a Year Day"!

California yields to the simple logic that what they require is incapable of enforcement.

California DOJ Withdraws Regulation Requiring Registration of ‘Assault Weapons’ | The Daily Caller: The California Department of Justice withdrew a regulation Wednesday evening requiring California firearm owners to register so-called “assault weapons” following a lawsuit filed by a group of gun rights advocacy organizations

California politicians have established a "need" for an exceedingly complicated and expensive legal path toward compliance.   Except they have not the laws to enforce the law.   Which makes the entire exercise merely an amateurish attempt to frighten legal gun-owners by the imposition of penalties which do not exist in law.

As usual, the Liberal Gun-Grabbers had not the foresight to do their homework. 

(As teenagers, did their mothers make them do their homework before watching television?   Apparently, not!   That's once more difference between the Common People and The Anointed.)

how do you handle a problem like Maria?

Both Liberals and Conservatives seem unable to agree on the primary "problem" with Judge Kavenaugh.

Do the Liberals hate/fear him because he is "Pro-Life", or because he is "Pro-Gun"?

The answer from the Liberal side seems to be:   "YES!"

‘Battle Stations,’ Says Gun Rights Leader about Kavanaugh Nomination - Liberty Park Press: Schumer and others are bracing for battle to keep Kavanaugh off the high court. Their main focus initially appears to be fear about a reversal of Roe v. Wade, but those who attended a protest on the steps of the Supreme Court Monday night are all perennial anti-gunners. 

Native Oregonians are all about Constitutional Rights.

We fear that a Liberal judge will value non-natives over the rights of those of us who were born here, who went to war from here, and who have contributed to the treasury through our taxes for decades.

Never Sign A Petition Until You Know What It Calls For!

The author of this article points out that signers of the anti-second amendment petition being circulated in Washington were unable to understand what they were signing.


Professional Consultants screw-up Anti-Gun initiative effort with amateur failure to proofread | We the Governed:

Washington State’s much hyped anti-gun initiative (I-1639) looks like it could be aborted before it can even make the ballot.  The Initiative Sponsors and their consultants failed to proof-read the initiative language they printed on the back of the signature sheets. It turns out they didn’t use the accurate language of the very initiative they were sponsoring.  They can’t blame gun owners, the NRA, Trump, Republicans, or even the Washington Secretary of State for this screw up.  Their consultants own this failure.

Note that the typeface on the "explanation" (required on the back of every petition signature page) was so small that it was not 'easily readable" ... among other violations of the standards for petition forms.

Independence Day Blues ... Second Draft ... The Real Story

In the aftermath of Independence Day, my thoughts often veer toward a consideration of my role during the war in Viet Nam.

I was drafted, and that was no excuse.  I could have migrated to Canada, I could have refused to serve, I could have opted for a non-military role ... oh, no!  I couldn't.   I decided to serve my country, comforted by the  arrogance that I was competent to lead men into battle.

I went where I was told, did what I was told, and the world is a better place because I did my duty as an American.

Well ... perhaps not.  Allow me to tell the story of my failure to lead and to protect the men who bravely accepted my leadership and died as a result of it.

US v MILLER in coments

Why the AR15 Shouldn’t Be Banned - Omaha Outdoors

This is an interesting 2nd Amendment-challenging article in itself, but in the comments someone brought up the question of "US v MILLER":

@mrsatyre "private ownership is, and has been proven in court time and time again, unrelated to militias"
Not exactly. DC v. Heller (2008): "The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home."
But then, US v. Miller (1939):

I take this opportunity to (once again) discuss the MILLER decision:

Note in passing that US v Miller was lost because the attorney assigned to defend Miller failed to attend the hearing ... Miller was lost by default, not because the original argument was specious.

DETAILS: Miller, a bootlegger, had a shotgun to defend himself and his still. When his still was raided and T-men found that Miller had used a sawed-off shotgun to defend it,

Miller decided that the game wasn't worth the ante, and disencumbered himself of the still, the firearm and his lawyers.

His lawyers, no longer having a client and thus no fiduciary interest in the case, declined to attend subsequent hearing(s).

The Federal government, finding itself with an 'easy win', filed for closure.

The judge(s) had only one side of the case upon which to base their decision. Thus the Judicialannouncement:

"In the absence of any evidence tending to show that possession or use of a 'shotgun having a barrel of less than eighteen inches in length' at this time has **some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia ..."

(All Emphasis Added! The basis of the judgement was that the defense offered no defense!)

In order to assign the appropriate weight to that decision, I ask you to consider that the defense would have/should have been that the type of firearm used by Miller (a shotgun, if I recall correctly) was inaccurately described by the winning attorney as "not a firearm which had been historically used by the military" or words to that effect)

Any defense attorney in the country could have ... SHOULD HAVE ... pointed at the "Trench Gun" (used by American soldiers during World War 1); which was a 12-gauge shotgun.

But nobody spoke to the 2nd Amendment issue. Nobody cared enough ... except the judges who were left with a Federal case with no defendant ... and they had  recourse except to rule in favor of the only attorneys who appeared to give a damn; the Federal government.

BECAUSE OF THIS COMEDY IN ERRORS we are left with "The Miller Decision" which ignores the 2nd Amendment in favor of a federal prosecutor who was gleefully willing to get a WIN over a bootlegger ... who may, in fact, have been well within his Second Amendment rights to defend his person and his business ... however nefarious both he and his business might be.

The Supreme Court reversed the district court, holding that the Second Amendment does not guarantee an individual the right to keep and bear a sawed-off double-barrel shotgun. Writing for the unanimous Court, Justice James Clark McReynolds reasoned that because possessing a sawed-off double barrel shotgun does not have a reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia, the Second Amendment does not protect the possession of such an instrument.

Climbing the Stature of Liberty to protest Immigration Policies?

I can't say that I agree with her politics ...

Woman escorted down after scaling Statue of Liberty following anti-ICE protests | Fox News: A woman was escorted down from the Statue of Liberty on Wednesday after she scaled the bottom part of the national monument in protest of U.S. immigration policy, sparking a nearly four-hour standoff with authorities.

But I must admire her  dedication to a cause which is important to her!

Music: "We are climbing Jacob's Ladder (4 minutes)

INDEPENDENCE DAY BLUES

It's the Fourth of July, a day when Americans celebrate their independence.

I won't be celebrating.  The truth is, I dread this day.

"... And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air ...."

That's what I dread.

All that noise, the flame and flare and confusion brings back memories when those bombs were real bombs, or hand grenades, or mortars, or the rat-tat-tag of machine guns.   Outgoing munition, and the guy who always belabors the obvious when he screams INCOMING!!!!


I've done a pretty good job of inuring myself to the sound of gunfire, as I've always been a competitive shooter and a hunter (although the first three years of deer season I had a hard time hitting a deer). 

It's that whole "Bombs Bursting In Air" thing that gets to me.

In Oregon, most fireworks are illegal.   That doesn't bother anybody ... they drive to Washington State and buy hundreds of dollars worth of Screamers and flares and things which make glittery shows of sparklers and smoke and fire.

One, back in the 1980's, I was installing new brakes on my van by the fading light of the sun when my neighbor across the street started exploding firecrackers and rockets and God only knows what all.  I tried to work through it, but the tension increased as my neighbor had a seemingly limitless number of *illegal* fireworks.

I became so agitated, I grabbed the handle of the jack and started across the street; I was mindlessly determined to beat him to a bloody pulp.

I marched down my driveway, and it wasn't until I actually started across the street that I realized I had not grabbed the jack handle, but the pneumatic jack itself.   I realized then the inanity of my reaction, and just went back into my house and had a drink or four.  Or ... lost count.

So now I have a new solution, which I'm trying out this year.  I don't think it will make a difference, but I posted a cardboard sign in my driveway:

"A VETERAN LIVES HERE.  PLEASE BE COURTEOUS WITH YOUR FIREWORKS."

It won't matter.   I'll still have trouble sleeping tonight, as the ruckus goes on from dusk to dawn.

But I have already pledged myself to expect to be upset, and not over-react to it.

I use to love Independence Day celebrations.   It was the sound of Liberty.

Now it's the sound of War.  After nearly 50 years, the ghosts still haunt me.

Just this one day a year.   And ... a few nights.

Trip-Wire: Dusk 'til Dawn

The problem with setting up booby-traps in defense of a friendly village is that you must know the daily routine of the "friendly" villagers who use their familiar trails.

This was the quandary that I faced in December of 1969 when I was charged with the mission of intercepting Viet Cong raiders who were suspected of receiving support from a 'friendly village" in my Area of Operations.

There was one main trail .. well used ,.. which was the most advantageous access to villagers whose daily chore it was to work the fields; every morning, they walked the familiar trail  to work their field: out to the fields at dawn, back home at dusk.

Everybody (villagers and Viet Cong) knew we were in the area, and everybody knew that our intention was to intercept VC as they entered the village to receive food, other supplies and intelligence about our counter-VC activities.

And everybody knew the trail that the VC used to enter the village for re-supply; it was the same well-trodden trail that the villagers used to go to their fields to work every damn morning of the year.

I had been putting squad-sized ambushes on that trail for a week, and the members of my squad were on a first-name basis with many of the villagers who walked that trail at dawn on their way to their fields.  Finally I decided that the VC were entering the village just before dawn or dusk, quickly taking their daily supplies, and then exiting the area from the same well-trodden trail.

So every night I placed directional Claymore Mines on the trail, and put scouts overlooking the mines to ensure that they didn't harm villagers on their way to work their fields in the morning,

After a few days, I realized that my assumptions were wrong: the VC were not meeting the villagers on the trail; they were using that same trail to boldly enter the village during the dark hours.  They knew we couldn't reliably monitor the trail 24/7, and were taking advantage of our "down time" to resupply.  And they knew when we set up the Claymores, and avoided those hours.  Or else they merged with the villagers, and we could not discern who was a "local" and who was  VC, so we didn't attack ANYONE!

Yes, we assumed (and rightly) that the villagers were supporting the VC with food and other supplies .. but not arms or ammunition.  I was sure of that.  (Maybe not so sure now ... but nobody got hurt!)

My counter decision was to mine the trail during the dark .. after the villagers had returned to their homes and before they had legitimately entered their fields in the early morning.  My hope was to rely on the villagers to NOT use the trail at night, but for the VC to use the trail to actually enter the village for resupply.

We were not able to position ourselves to watch the trail at night ( it proved impossible to discern movement at night at that time of the year, and the villagers watched our every movement) so I elected to mine the trail with trip-wires attached to Claymore Mines.

It may have been "A Good Idea", except that the mines would destroy ANYONE who walked that trail .. including the villagers who rose at dawn to go to the fields!

Fortunately, it was my habit to take "Last Watch" on every ambush position, and when I saw villagers entering the trail at Dawn I rousted all of my patrol and directed them to help me disarm the mines.

 I had to go "approximately" on the trail (remember, this was semi-dark) where I had set the booby trap ... find the battery which powered the mine(s), and follow the wires to the initiation device.  I disconnected it, and then was safe to remove the trip-wires and the Claymore mine and the battery (and attached wires).

I was accustomed to setting-up battery-powered Claymore mines on a nightly basis.  I examined each individual mine for any booby traps which might have been added by VC (they did that sometimes) and found no problems in de-activating the directional mine.  Then I recovered the wires to the battery and disconnected the battery.  (The VC sometimes booby-trapped our mines, rather than avoiding or removing them; they wanted to kill the Americans who had set the command-detonated mines, so we always examined each Claymore for "enhancements".)

RUSH HOUR:

The VietNamese villagers have a .. refined sense of humor; they enjoyed changing their work hour to impose the greatest variation of the time when we needed to be aware of friendly activity; they would rise early, or leave late, so that I was required to rise at the most inconvenient time to remove or de-activate the mines I had placed on their common route of travel to the fields.

It became something of a game, when and by which path they would exit their village to enter their fields. I don't think they were trying to aid the VC in this; they were just playing with the "Amers" and they enjoyed the game.   They knew who was VC and who was not; and I guess they knew that nothing they could do would cause me to endanger them.

At least, that is what I have always hoped.

By the time I DEROSed Viet Nam, I gained a great deal of respect for the folks who spent their lives in a war zone, and the way they dealty with it.  Both US troops and VC/NVA were trying to "Win the Hearts and Minds of the Viet Namese People.  I hope that by allowing them to play their silly games, I was able to convince them that we Americans were not only trying to protect them, but to assure them that we also had a sense of humor.

Either that, or they decided that we were incompetent  buffoons.

That was okay, too.  I always felt that way in Viet Nam.

Bullet-Stamping Impossible, says CA Supreme Court

I said it in 2004, and California is finally admitting that the proposition that you can identify crime evidence by stamping an unique serial number on EVERY BULLET is an impossible task!

The Latest: California Justices Toss Bullet Stamping Suit | California News | US News: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Latest on a ruling by the California Supreme Court on a state bullet stamping law (all times local): 10:45 a.m. The California Supreme Court says state laws cannot be invalidated on the grounds that complying with them is impossible. The unanimous ruling on Thursday rejected a lawsuit by gun rights groups that sought to throw out a California law that requires new models of semi-automatic handguns to stamp identifying information on bullet casings. The groups argued that technology did not exist to meet the stamping requirements, and a law can't mandate something that's not possible.

(Actually, I think the term "Bullet Stamping" is misleading; the intent is not to serialize the actual projectile, but to emboss on the base of the cartridge a code which uniquely identifies the firearm which fired the cartridge.)

So .. the whole "Bullet-Stamping" thingie is no longer an issue in California.

Because the Supreme Court of the State of California doesn't care that it's technically impossible to comply with the law.   Which implies that the law will be enacted.

I addressed it twice in 2014: here and here.

(BTW .. most alternatives include stamping or embossing  unique serial numbers on the base of a cartridge when the gun is fired the identifiers would supposedly identify the guj from which the round was fired..   That doesn't do much for rounds fired from a revolver, which are not automatically ejected onto a 'crime scene".)

Embossed serial numbers from firing pins and breaches of firerms can easily be sanded down or filled in until the actual serial number is obfuscated to the point where they are unreliable in a Court of Law.

The last time I addressed the issue was 2014, when I finally admitted that California had their heads so far up their nether regions that they were unlikely to ever change their unrealistic rhetoric.

Things have changed.  Sort of.

 California DID ... finally ... take a closer look at the mechanics of the  issue and realize that they were wasting time, money and political power on a never-win issue.    So they said "do it anyway", and washed their hands of the issue.

ONE OF THE ISSUES in this inane law is that the details were .. unclear.

Ultimately, EVERY gun part which might be used to stamp an unique identifier onto either the primer or the base of a cartridge is readily (and cheaply) replaceable ... or subject to obfuscation by use of a file or an emery board..

There is no part of a semi-automatic pistol which cannot be replaced or altered .. even temporarily ... with a "Box Stock"  part within a matter of seconds.  Which makes the concept that imprinting a "serial number" on the base of a cartridge not only unrealistic, but laughable.

You may argue that the "frame" of a handgun is inviolate.  It isn't; if I have a file and sandpaper.

While California is working hard to accept 20th Century realities... they still have a long way to go.

But a "We Did Our Best" is not good enough in a court of law.'

And it's still anti-Second Amendment to register a gun.

(updated August 05, 2018, to recognize that the California Supreme court rejected an argument which would have invalidated the new law)

WAPO is always good for a laugh

The NRA is laughing all the way to the bank - Opinion pages of The Washington Post:

Even though the Capital Gazette shooter had threatened the newspaper, he was still able to legally purchase a gun — the common denominator of all the modern mass killings in the United States.

I'm not sure how the NRA is conflated with a mass shooting, but under Federal Law citizens with no felony convictions or history of mental illness are free to exercise their Constitutional Rights.

But I guess that the good folks who write Letters to the Editor of the Washington Post rely less  on reason and facts, than hyperbole and Liberal Hypnosis.   They would rather attack the National Rifle Association for its defense of the Second Amendment rights of ALL Americans,  than to address the mania of today's American Psyche.

Is there A Good Reason why writers to the editor of WAPO should hypothesize that their fellow citizens who legally own guns should be tarred with the same brush as a mass murderer?

Example:

Once the concrete of Trump's fascist republic fully cures, the NRA crowd will be sorely disappointed when the democracyless (?) right wing state of their dreams knocks on the front door demanding to collect their guns. 

Wow.  Like, that's really, really DEEP man, y'know.  What's that stuff you're smoking?
It has  verisimilitude, analogy, and all that stuff that make you sound, like ... smart?

(I'd love to see the WAPO OPINION author of this article knock on the door of any legal gun owner and demand  to confiscate the constitutionally protected firearms there.   That's the epitome of "democracyless " ... which I think is a "made up" word.)

I doubt there's a reasoning person in this country who doesn't think that the mass murder of innocents is unconscionable..

If the people behind that knocked door were ALL armed, and the killer knew it ... that massacre would never have happened. 

Because wolves only hunt sheep.

And the writer of this opinion article is definitely a "sheeple".

This is me.  Laughing.

Parkland Pederast Punished?

Somebody is unclear on the concept: "Campus Security".

 It's astonishing that a school guard could sexually harass a female student, and then utterly fail to prevent her death, and still find employment within the district. But that's public schools for you.

School Security Guard Who Didn’t Stop the Parkland Shooter Was Suspended for Sexually Harassing Students - Hit & Run : Reason.com:

This should probably be filed under "Who Shall Guard the Guardians", (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? )


It's a useful phrase.  One which invites the reader to say: "Hmmmmmm ...."

Just saying,

"Stop CCR"

I note that Everytown for Gun Safety has a movement to "STOP CCR" (Concealed Carry Reciprocity - see below) and they are campaigning against it.

They don't recognize that everyone with a "CHL" (Concealed Handgun License, also known by other terms in various states) has been thoroughly vetted to prevent anyone with a felony conviction  from being allowed to own, let alone carry, a firearm. 

Some states also deny CCR for individuals who are convicted of misdemeanor offenses, usually limited to domestic violence.   Note that these misdemeanors may not involve conviction in a court of law ... the mere charge may be sufficient.

Most responsible gun owners are "uncomfortable" with firearms ownership by people who cannot control their emotions; that's why they do not speak against local laws which block domestic abusers, for instance, from exercising their Second Amendment rights.

Still ... if their local state does not consider them a risk to Public Safety ... why should their neighboring states look upon us with dubious eye?

Concealed Carry Reciprocity | Everytown for Gun Safety: “Concealed Carry Reciprocity” (CCR)—S.446 and H.R. 38—is a chaotic and dangerous policy that would gut every state’s gun laws and make our communities less safe. Right now, every state sets its own rules for who can carry a hidden, loaded handgun in public. There is no national standard for who can carry hidden, loaded handguns in public, and rather than create a uniform standard, CCR would effectively turn the weakest state’s laws into nationwide laws.

The point of CCR (Reciprocity) is to protect legal, responsible gun owners from harassment when they travel between states.    This is a particularly important issue for people who travel between states and who may not be familiar with the nuances of laws endemic in the states through which they travel.   We have seen instances of people engaged in interstate travel who are stopped by local police for a minor traffic offense and subsequently are arrested for violation of a law which forbids activities which are legal in their home state.

But EVERYTOWN doesn't accept the "excuse" of ignorance of interstate laws, and instead has taken unto themselves to point out the supposed danger to citizens by armed passers-by

Firearms owners who travel between states do have the responsibility to be aware of the gun laws of every state they enter;  "Ignorance is No Excuse" is the term you're looking for.  There are several internet resources which are available for the traveler to determine how (for instance) their firearm must be stored in their vehicle during travel.

But it's even more complicated than that,

I think I'm in love..

Of course, she's a bit of a "Spring Chicken" ... only 68. And a Brit.

But I can overlook that for a Rocker.