Articles by Herschel Smith

Via David Codrea.

Hey.  Calling Rob Pincus.  Was it worth it to throw away your friendships in the community?

News from Florida.

This is Florida’s preemption law, and this is a good thing.  I’m impressed with DeSantis, but my next question is this: where is your open carry law, Ron?

I know you’re dealing with ninnies in the House and Senate, but you could do this if you wanted to.  Simply refuse to sign all other bills that come to your desk until an open carry law comes your way, even at the threat of shutting down the government because of funding bills.

In Mexico.

Violent clashes between rival Mexican criminal groups – and their alleged allies in the security forces – are escalating ahead of mid-term elections in June, triggering a string of political assassinations and the forced displacement of thousands.

State and federal security forces have actively colluded with – and even fought alongside – the warring factions, according to local civilians, civil society activists and gunmen from various factions.

But as well as engaging in pitched gun battles, criminal factions are also confronting each other on the electoral field.

“All the [criminal] groups are trying to make gains right now,” said a Michoacán political consultant with first-hand knowledge of how arrangements are brokered between organized crime and political candidates.

In Venezuela.

Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolas Maduro, has managed to stay in power for eight years despite remaining profoundly unpopular, overseeing a spectacular economic collapse and facing years of opposition efforts to dislodge him. There’s little doubt Maduro has outplayed his opponents, and yet, his hold on the country is more tenuous than it seems.

The democratic opposition has indeed failed to remove him. But under Maduro, Venezuela is increasingly becoming a land of militias, warlords and criminal gangs. As they gradually divide the country into fiefdoms, the state’s footprint is steadily shrinking. The government’s sway beyond the capital city is significantly less than one might expect in a country whose regime has monopolized political power. …

In Colombia.

The port city of Buenaventura, on Colombia’s Pacific coast, has long been infamous as the “capital of horror”, with a history of brutal killings and “casas de pique”, or chop houses, where bodies were dismembered and dumped in the sea.

More here.  And here.

And from Portland, Oregon.

A disabled war veteran in Portland said he was hospitalized for serious injuries after a group of Black Lives Matter (BLM) agitators attacked and beat him last week.

Joe Hall, 53, said that BLM protesters allegedly armed with rifles surrounded his car when he exited his work truck, Fox 12 in Portland reported. Hall said he was driving through the area after finishing a job to his next one, and the crowd stopped his work truck as they blocked the road—a common tactic used by the Marxist group.

“All of a sudden these agitators come out, screaming, pounding on my truck,” Hall told the Fox station, adding that when he tried to drive around the group, he stopped because he thought he hit something with his vehicle.

“By this time I’ve got five people surrounding my vehicle, AR-15s, AK-47s,” Hall, who served in the Marine Corps and Army, recalled. “I pulled my .38 out of my right pocket and pointed it at the ground and told them if a weapon points at me again, I will shoot to eliminate the threat.”

Hall said that someone then tackled him and grabbed his pistol before the group started kicking and hitting him, according to the station.

Describing his injuries, the veteran said he suffered a “partially collapsed left lung” along with broken ribs, a broken collarbone, head trauma, and spinal injuries.

Don’t get out of your car, but do get out of the wasteland of Portland.

Socialism is the destroyer of nations.  Socialism in America is reason enough – as if you needed any other reasons – to keep possession of your weapons.

A heavily-armed SWAT team just took down a Christian pastor heading home from church. Police say he’s charged with “inciting” people to go to church. This is the second pastor jailed this year. We’re crowdfunding his lawyers at https://t.co/bMwAj1iNfP pic.twitter.com/RZ913cQns3

— Ezra Levant 🍁 (@ezralevant) May 8, 2021

In the spirit of imprecatory prayers, may God destroy the lives of the men who commanded this action, as well as the men who participated in it.

I like his idea of a small caliber rifle backed by a large bore handgun, or a large bore rifle backed by a small caliber handgun.  In survival you may not find a deer to kill, but you may have a better chance of finding a rabbit or squirrel.

News from South Carolina.

Gun owners permitted to carry concealed weapons in the state of South Carolina are soon likely to join residents in 45 other states who can carry their hand guns openly in public — a proposal that has frustrated gun-control advocates, doctors and top law enforcement leaders but was a resounding win for many Republican lawmakers.

With three days left on the legislative calendar, the Senate voted 28-16 mostly down party lines after a more than 12-hour debate to pass H. 3094, a House-sponsored bill that would allow only concealed weapons permit holders the right to carry their hand gun in the open.

Charleston Sen. Sandy Senn was the lone Republican to vote against the legislation.

The Republican-controlled Senate made a handful of changes to the bill. They ranged from removing the $50 cost of the permit application fee, to limiting the federal government’s intervention and to requiring clerks to report pertinent information to the State Law Enforcement Division within five, not 30, days that would prohibit someone from buying or owning a gun.

But senators also rejected dozens of amendments that included a Republican-pushed attempt to expand the measure by eliminating the law’s existing permit and background check requirement entirely, and also Democrat-led efforts to enhance background checks.

“I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t a little bit disappointed, but I actually, I have absolutely no regrets,” said state Sen. Shane Martin, R-Spartanburg, who pushed but lost 25-21 his effort to remove the permit requirement. “I won’t give up advocating for it. I was so close.”
Obviously, Martin said, “the Senate’s not ready for it yet.”

The bill goes back to the House, likely to reject the changes, triggering a six-member joint panel to hammer out differences.

Congratulations to senators Massey and Martin.  Shane Massey was the S.C. senator who successfully got the bill pulled from the SC senate judiciary committee where they intended to stall it until dead this calendar year, aided by turncoat SC senator Luke Rankin.

Actually, the attempt to remove the permitting requirement entirely, i.e., constitutional carry, was opposed by Shane Massey.  I don’t know if the opposition was real, or if the attempt to amend the bill to remove permitting would have been a poison pill for the bill, losing S.C. senators who would have otherwise been in favor of open carry.  But at least Mr. Massey did his part to strip the bill from the hands of Mr. Rankin, who needs to be primaried and thrown from office.

Also to senator Martin, who led a valiant effort for constitutional carry this term.  As you might expect, I approve of his goals and I hope for the best during the next legislative season.

As I observed before, “The ninnies, frightened and the tepid must see for themselves when the state is let out of its cage that the sky doesn’t fall like law enforcement and “The Karens” said it would.  They’re like a frightened, psychologically stunted animal who has been caged its entire life, afraid to leave the confines of its own imprisonment.”

When the world doesn’t end and blood doesn’t run in the streets as predicted by law enforcement and “Karens against Everything,” the time will be ripe for this again soon.

I listened to much of the debate today.  Most of it was ridiculous.  The ninnies tried everything in the book, from stalling tactics to endless yapping, to poison pill amendments.  One awful senator, an obvious law enforcement sycophant, worked hard for an amendment that would have had LEOs confiscating weapons in any encounter for the sake of “officer safety.”

So he would have had men handling others’ weapons, a stupid, awful, terrible idea.  I’ve discussed this before.  Weapons might be modified, the officer may never have seen that particular weapon before, rounds might be chambered, or they might not be, safeties might be engaged, or they might not be, hammers may be cocked, they may not be, striker fired pistols may be half cocked, or they might not be, trigger jobs may have lightened the pull, or maybe not, the pistol might be single action, or it might be SA/DA, guns could drop if they’re handled (causing people to try to catch them), and all manner of NDs can occur.  Some holsters are retention, others not, and on and on the variations could go.

It is a profoundly, terribly, incredibly stupid thing to begin handling weapons just because someone likes authority, walks up and demands it.  It’s a great thing that amendment was defeated.

Now.  It’s important not to let up.  First, the little differences between the House and Senate versions must be hammered out, and that, quickly so.  Then finally, the governor’s office must be flooded with mail, email and phone calls to ensure he keeps his word and signs the bills into law.

This has been a long slog, but it’s not over just yet.

Then next session we’ll focus on constitutional carry.

Listening while I work.

This is out of control.  They have no control over what’s going on.  There are delays, discussions on impertinent issues, bringing things up that are not germane, attempts to delay, long winded yapping and yapping, more delays, attempts to amend, more attempts to amend, and on and on and on.

What a bunch of yappy red neck pols.  The senator from Charleston is the absolute worst, and no one will shut him up.  He can barely speak comprehensible English.  He’s just droning on and on and on and on, and my prediction is that the parliamentary rulings will allow this bill to die due to complete incompetence.

Do they not follow Robert’s Rules of Order?  Can no one shut all of this up?  Can no one “call the question?”

UPDATE: Unbelievable.  One senator is trying to amend the bill to force open carriers to “wear some sort of identification to let law enforcement know they are legally openly carrying.”

Wear the scarlet letter, peasant!  What a bunch of rednecks.

UPDATE #2: Now one senator is arguing that this is going to be Tombstone, and people should even refrain from answering knocks in the middle of the night while carrying a weapon because it might put law enforcement ill at ease.  Seriously.  Bad things are going to happen.  Awful things.  The sky is falling.  The boogey man is coming for us.  Run, hide.  The boogey man is coming!!!!

It’s going to be the wild west.  Blood running in the streets.  Blue lives matter.  Gore everywhere.

This is almost too hard for me.  I’m doing this so you don’t have to.

UPDATE #3: Senator offers up an amendment to allow open carry of weapons inside the chambers of the S.C. senate.  I’m certain this was offered up as a poison pill.  While I would be in favor of this amendment, I would probably vote against it because they just want to kill the bill.  The amendment fails.

They’re pulling every trick in the book.  I’m sure they’ve been schooled by “Moms against everything.”

UPDATE #4: Amendment to expand the bill to include open carry allowed in all state buildings, including county and city owned buildings (he’s the first senator I’ve heard at the podium who can actually speak English).  One senator objects that people can carry guns on the beach.  We all know that this is pointing towards businessmen worried about Myrtle Beach tourism and the objections of “The Karens.”

UPDATE #5: Good grief.  Senator is lobbying for an amendment for LEOs to temporarily confiscate firearms.  Good grief.  LEOs should never touch another man’s weapon.  This is stupid.

UPDATE #6: They’re making all the same mistakes that Texas did, where LEOs will be confiscating weapons until permits have been shown.  Handling of weapons causes NDs.  Stupid.