How Helene Affected The People Of Appalachia

Herschel Smith · 30 Sep 2024 · 11 Comments

To begin with, this is your president. This ought to be one of the most shameful things ever said by a sitting president. "Do you have any words to the victims of the hurricane?" BIDEN: "We've given everything that we have." "Are there any more resources the federal government could be giving them?" BIDEN: "No." pic.twitter.com/jDMNGhpjOz — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 30, 2024 We must have spent too much money on Ukraine to help Americans in distress. I don't…… [read more]

New Featured Post

BY Herschel Smith
2 months, 1 week ago

Please visit my new featured post, How Helene Affected The People Of Appalachia.

Hunter Who Survived Wyoming Grizzly Attack Says “It Felt Like A Freight Train”

BY Herschel Smith
2 months, 2 weeks ago

From a reader, as reported by Cowboy State Daily.

Early Thursday morning, archery hunter Landon Clement was backed up against a rock in the remote Upper Green River Basin, hoping and praying that the three grizzly bears that were 10 yards away would just walk away.

It was the most intense, terrifying moment he’s experienced in his 31 years, he told Cowboy State Daily.

The bears, a female with two large cubs, had come downhill on his left and turned to cross in front of him.

Although he already had his Glock 10mm semiautomatic drawn and leveled at the bears, all he wanted was for things to end peacefully.

“But that’s not what happened,” he said.

Instead, the mother grizzly charged Clement and sank her teeth into his left thigh, and he ended up shooting the bear to death.

“She lunged right at me,” he said. “I saw nothing but her head and her white teeth coming right at me.”

He described the attack was incredibly fast and violent, as the bear locked her jaws down on his leg and started shaking her head.

He was too pumped full of adrenaline to feel any pain, he said. That came later.

What struck him in that awful moment was the sheer force of the grizzly’s jaws.

“I did not feel the pain in the moment,” he said. “I could feel the force that it put on me. It felt like a freight train. I’ve never felt that much force in my life. It’s unbelievable that something could do that to me, and how fast it happened.”

Clement’s ordeal was the third time this hunting season that grizzlies in the region have attacked archery hunters, and the hunters used handguns to kill the bears in self-defense. The two previous incidents were in Idaho and Montana.

Clement said he considers himself lucky.

He suffered four deep puncture wounds to his thigh. Doctors at the Pinedale Clinic “stitched me up really good,” said Clement, who is from Blue Ridge, Georgia, but frequently hunts in the Upper Green River Basin near Pinedale.

They told him that he hadn’t suffered any permanent damage and should recover fully.

[ … ]

The four of them rode to a remote spot in a side-by-side, and then started hiking. Before long they split up. Clement’s father and cousin decided to keep going farther back in to do some scouting.

Quintrell and Clement selected good spots to set up and wait for elk to come within bow range. The two hunters were about 300 yards apart, with Quintrell downhill from Clement.

Clement found what he thought was the perfect spot, a large boulder with some deadfall timber leaning against it.

Then the bears came into full view.

“I knew right away it was grizzlies,” he said. I could see the shapes of their heads, the shoulder humps, everything.”

At first, it looked as if the bears would just keep going downslope, passing him by and leaving him with nothing but a great story to tell.

Then the grizzlies turned, taking a path that would put them right in front of him.

“When those bears cut down that trail and veered toward me, I knew I was probably going to have an issue,” Clement said.

So he drew his pistol.

“I was still backed up against the rock,” he said. “And when I realized that they were coming my way, I just backed up even further against that rock, I was practically glued to it.”

As the bears came up in front of him, his only hope was that they wouldn’t notice him and would keep going.

But they caught his scent.

“They stopped on a dime. All three of them, with their noses going in the air,” he said.

The mother grizzly locked in on him and silent tension exploded into absolute chaos as the bear charged Clement, and he opened fire.

The cubs bolted and ran off when the shooting started, and Clement and his companions never saw them again.

The mother grizzly’s attack was utterly ferocious, he said.

“She just leaped. She just charged right at me with her mouth wide open,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything move that fast, she covered that 10-12 yards in less than a second.

“When it came at me it was making this noise, not really growling, but more like a ‘huff, huff, huff.’”

Clement fired as fast as he could; he’s still not sure how many rounds.

“It bit into my left thigh, and it would not let go,” he continued. “It just bit into my thigh and starting shaking its head.”

It was then Clement he noticed that, although he was still pulling his pistol’s trigger, nothing was happening.

“As the bear was still clamped onto my leg, I was finally able to look down and see that my gun was jammed,” he said.

Clearing a jam in a semiautomatic pistol can be chore even under the best of circumstances on a shooting range.

Clement managed to do it with a 600-pound grizzly clamped on his leg trying to ragdoll him.

“Once I cleared the jam, I put the gun as close to its head as I could and shot a couple of more times,” he said. “It let go and rolled off me. I knew that I had killed that bear.”

Let’s stop right there. You can read the rest of the horrible story at Cowboy State Daily.

While I don’t like or own Glocks, they certainly have a reputation for being a reliable gun. This isn’t the first instance I’ve read about 10mm guns jamming (FTF, FTE) in all sorts of make and models. And then this happened.

As things started to settle down, “I looked down at my pistol, and it was jammed again,” he said.

“It jammed right after the kill shot,” Clement said. “If it had jammed again before then, I don’t know what I would have done. The Lord was looking out for me.”

I’ve also heard it said that you just have to test it out to find what ammo the gun “likes.” Okay, whatever. You know what? My 1911s like everything. Even the 1911 that I modified with the 22# spring to take 450 SMC will shoot lighter loads without complaints or hiccups.

With the possibility of shooting a .44 magnum wheel gun, or a 1911 shooting 450 SMC, or a modified gun shooting 460 Rowland, I don’t see the attraction of 10mm semiautomatic pistols. You know how to unjam a revolver, right? Pull the trigger again (assuming the cylinder isn’t locked for some reason).

I’m sure some readers will rush to the defense of the 10mm semiauto lineup, especially Glocks, but you have now heard this anecdotal evidence that there was something very wrong with this picture.

If you’re going to be in the bush, choose wisely.

But She Claims That She Won’t Try To Take Your Guns

BY Herschel Smith
2 months, 2 weeks ago

Sadly, a lot of gun owners will believe her, especially 60+ year old Fudd upland bird hunters who only believe you have the right to own an over-under. Don’t get me wrong. I love a good over-under. That just has nothing at all to do with the RKBA.

The Enemy Owns Guns

BY Herschel Smith
2 months, 2 weeks ago

David Codrea.

Some “gunfluencers,” those with a flaccid grasp of history, come out gushing to their followers every time increased gun sales numbers are announced, mistaking gun ownership and gun skills with fellowship and solidarity. That’s not only shallow and naïve, but it’s also ridiculous. “Diversity” is no guarantee for enhancing Second Amendment recognition.

I always have to smirk at the stupidity of the “gunfluencers” cheering when the enemy buys guns. I’m not a “gunfluencer.”

I don’t care that someone has guns. I care that they support the right to keep and bear arms.

Those are not the same thing at all.

Ammunition Availability

BY Herschel Smith
2 months, 2 weeks ago

Bad news from the ammo front.

The recent decision by China to halt the export of two critical components —nitrocellulose and antimony— has raised alarms within the U.S. ammunition manufacturing industry and among defense experts. These materials are indispensable in the production of propellant powder and primers, and their restriction threatens to create significant supply chain disruptions. As geopolitical tensions rise and global conflicts, like the war in Ukraine, drive up demand for ammunition, the U.S. faces an uncertain future in maintaining adequate ammunition supplies for both military and civilian markets.

Go read the rest at Ammoland.

And that’s not all. Even if this potential problem didn’t exist, there could be massive logistical problems on the horizon.

Late last week, the CEO of Flexport – one of largest US supply-chain logistics operators – warned that “the biggest wild card in the presidential election that nobody’s talking about? The looming port strike that could shut down all East and Gulf Coast ports just 36 days before the election.”

With just over a week to go until D-Day, authorities are gearing up as a threatened strike by dockworkers at ports along the East Coast and Gulf Coast draws closer.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is “coordinating with partners across the supply chain to prepare for any impacts” from a possible work stoppage by workers represented by the International Longshoremen’s Association as they negotiate with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), a Port Authority spokesperson told CBS MoneyWatch on Friday.

[ … ]

According to the union, a strike would affect ports from Maine to Texas, and cripple supply-chains worse than the immediate aftermath of the covid shutdown. A stoppage – the first since 1977 – could involve up to 45,000 workers at ports that account for roughly 60% of U.S. shipping traffic, leading to a major disruption of shipments, Oxford Economics said in a report.

“Even a two-week strike could disrupt supply chains until 2025,” Grace Zwemmer, associate U.S. economist with Oxford, said in the report.

Then there’s always the potential for more gun control efforts within the White House, and the ever-present issue ammunition shortages right around election time.

You get the point. If you want more ammunition for whatever reason, now is the time to be thinking about it.

We’re the only ones accidental enough

BY Herschel Smith
2 months, 2 weeks ago

News from Florida.

A Florida sheriff’s deputy allegedly shot and killed his girlfriend while he was showing her how to clean the gun, according to reports.

Marion County Sheriff’s Deputy Leslie Boileau, who had been drinking, was showing his girlfriend, Polina Wright, 25, how to clean an AR-style rifle on Thursday when the gun discharged a loaded round into her forehead, according to the Ocala Police Department.

News from the FedGov.

WASHINGTON — A U.S. Secret Service (USSS) agent accidentally shot and injured himself Saturday evening. He is expected to survive.

According to USSS, the agent was on duty during the “negligent discharge” while he was handling his weapon shortly before 8 p.m. in the area of 32nd and Fessenden streets Northwest. His injuries were not life threatening, and the officer was taken to a hospital for evaluation and treatment. USSS says no one else was injured in the incident.

Fiddling with your weapons, muzzle flagging people, ammunition in proximity to guns being cleaned instead of another room, no trigger discipline, and on and on the failures go.

It’s a good thing they aren’t really supposed to protect us according to numerous court precedents. With friends like that, who needs enemies?

You’re never in more danger than when you are around police. There is no situation so bad that it cannot be made worse by the presence of the police.

Florida Open Carry Court Judgment

BY Herschel Smith
2 months, 3 weeks ago

Yet again someone has had to file an open carry bill for Florida.

A Labor Day weekend glass bottle attack of two Pennsylvania students wearing yarmulkes has prompted Rep. Randy Fine, R-Brevard, to renew his pledge to file legislation to repeal Florida’s “gun-free zone” for state college and university campuses.

Fine’s pledge comes in the wake of gun activists filing a federal lawsuit in South Florida to have Florida’s open-carry ban declared unconstitutional, and after Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican Legislature earlier this year eliminated a requirement for a concealed weapon permit to carry firearms in public.

Gunowners of America, which filed the lawsuit, said this year’s changes in Florida gun regulations did not go far enough and criticized DeSantis for not pushing for further expansion of Second Amendment rights.

Fine has stepped into the middle of the standoff between Second Amendment activists and Republican lawmakers.

GOA Florida Director Louis Valdes said open carry and campus carry top the group’s agenda for the 2025 legislative session.

But there is more. Here is a court complaint on open carry, and here is the default judgment after there was no response by the state.

But somehow with the awful controllers there in Florida, I don’t think we’ve seen the end of this. I know what they’re thinking. They worry about their tourism income, but so did South Carolina (in the beach area) and yet they have seen no change whatsoever and no vapid, panicked phone calls to the police about a man carrying a gun.

We’ll see where this all goes. I will follow Florida open carry just like I always have. It’s one of the few states left with laws against open carry, and both the state legislature and Ron Desantis should be ashamed of themselves.

FBI/NICS Authority Over Ammunition Purchases

BY Herschel Smith
2 months, 3 weeks ago

David Codrea.

In June, instead of producing what was asked for, the FBI returned copies of two nonresponsive Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) sections anyone can pull off the internet. Neither even remotely address the scope of the request.

“It’s clear that the FBI has no intention of responding, which makes fair another question,” I observed. “Why?”

The final straw came this Tuesday, when my attorney Stephen Stamboulieh, received a response from DOJ’s Administrative Appeals Staff Chief Christina Troiani in which she told him, “After carefully considering your appeal, I am affirming the FBI’s action on your client’s request… I have determined that the FBI’s response was correct and that it conducted an adequate, reasonable search for responsive records subject to the FOIA.”

To paraphrase, we’re not going to tell you. Deal with it.

The Congress could get involved, but honestly, there is a way to conclusively and decisively deal with this. Defund the FBI. Remove all funds for operation and salaries forthwith.

That would stop the infringements, but since they fear the FBI, just like they fear the CIA, they won’t do it.

So the problem will continue.

This is not what the founders intended, and not what the covenant and contract with America called the BoR says.

Gun Control Tags:

You Think the SCOTUS Will Finally Take an AWB Case?

BY Herschel Smith
2 months, 3 weeks ago

Me neither.

They’ve run for years from this issue like scared little girls and will continue to do so.


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