Articles by Herschel Smith

Can be found here.

Occasionally, the courts get one right. In this case, it’s nice to see the court affirm the notion that the FedGov can’t just make up stuff to disarm peaceable men.

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DETAILS ON VENEZUELAN GANGS IN AURORA.

Fingernails ripped out. pic.twitter.com/dmqaxV8m5R

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) December 18, 2024

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A migrant from Guatemala has been arrested on allegations he lit a sleeping woman on fire inside a Coney Island F train on Sunday morning.

He is suspected of lighting the woman on fire at about 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, then watching her burn to death in a shocking killing just three days before Christmas.

Whether for reasons of control over a population or for the simple, sick pleasure of brutalizing someone, these are the people we’ve let into America.

Remember boys and girls. Government is just another word for the things we choose to do together.

And also remember, these people can just as easily be shot by Marine Corps snipers when they try to cross our sovereign borders as they can be let into the country.

First up is the old timer who takes the minimalist philosophy. He recommends paint thinner, or in other words, mineral spirits. Ernest Langdon also recommends mineral spirits to clean the Beretta 1301.

I do think he left out Copper as one of the things you want to remove. It makes the patches look green when they’re pulled out.

I think hot soapy water is a bit too far for me except for muzzle loaders.

Then there is the data-driven boys from Hornady, who have noted increases in back pressure from guns that weren’t properly cleaned. In the comments I’ve recommended that they release the data and math models, but I suspect they will consider it all proprietary.

Odd one, this is. But I would bet that with a good cleaning and a bit of oil, all four would have functioned flawlessly.

For the record, that white stuff he was asking about is Aluminum corrosion in salt water. Corrosion is a slightly different mechanism that rust, but it can still damage components.

But as I made my way through his video, it occurred to me that looking for what made the guns fail, he looked everywhere but where he needed: the buffer tube.

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A tree well is basically the space under the shadow of the branches of a tree where you will be protected (at least somewhat) from the elements. Tree well shelters are especially great if you can find trees with low-hanging branches, like pines and spruces, that can help block the wind while under them. While tree well shelters can work any time of year, they are particularly useful in winter when the branches of evergreen trees catch and hold a lot of snow, creating a depression underneath the tree with less snow than the surrounding area. While tree wells can be dangerous, especially if you fall into one while skiing, they can also make warm winter shelters that require less work than building a snow mound.

Rather than use the stock photo they include, I’ll include my own from a hiking trip into the Tetons during winter/early spring.

The thought did occur to me that with a tarp or poncho, this would be a sufficient survival shelter. But I would emphasize the danger. I fell into one and almost didn’t make it out.

First up, Mark Smith assesses the recent delay of the Snopes case.

Second, Mark assesses the potential picks to head the ATF. Personally, I would prefer to see the ATF completely eradicated. Its mere existence of prima facie unconstitutional. The existence of federal gun laws is prima facie unconstitutional. But if all we get out of this is an eradication of the “secret” gun registry and a prohibition on enforcement of laws by the ATF, then it’s very important who runs the FBI.

I would also suggest that it makes sense to send 90% of the employees of the FBI and ATF to the border to enforce border laws. As for those still trying to come across, send the Marine Corps to shoot them. If that sounds harsh, think of this as an invasion. What do you think Russi and China would do in such a case? They care about their borders, and we don’t. To most of the American elite, America is an idea, not a sovereign nation with borders.

This whole problem with the border could be solved in an instant. Stop traffic. All traffic, including trade. Allow no one to cross the border, not even for work. But you see, home builders, yard workers and house cleaners are needed for the elite, so that’s not going to happen. As is stands, they get the middle class to pay for medical care via socialized medicine while they get to pay lower wages than they otherwise would, and we bear the brunt of the deal.

Finally, Mark further assesses the inside baseball maneuvers in the SCOTUS on 2A cases.

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Former FBI officials have warned that Donald Trump’s nominee to be the next FBI director, Kash Patel, could have limitless power at the bureau as they confront the likelihood that he will be confirmed next year after locking down support from key Republicans and the current director’s intention to resign.

The alarm has come as Patel, who has called for shutting down FBI headquarters and drafted what critics call an ‘enemies list’ of Patel’s opponents, appears set to have his nomination supported unanimously by Republicans on the Senate judiciary committee.

The problem with Patel leading the FBI in the second Trump administration is that typical checks on the power of the FBI director would almost certainly be gone, according to former FBI assistant director Frank Figliuzzi and other former officials familiar with the matter.

Patel is almost certain to install his own chief of staff and a new FBI general counsel to sign off on any campaign of retribution, while Pam Bondi, the Trump pick for attorney general, has previously echoed Patel’s aims to make the agency subservient to the White House.

“I don’t think people truly realize how powerful an FBI director can be, unrestrained,” Figliuzzi recently said on the Highly Conflicted podcast. “You want to open a case and call it a threat assessment or a preliminary investigation, you can do it.

“If the FBI director wants to get a press conference together, not tell the DoJ, and make pronouncements to the public about a case opening or a case closing or someone should be prosecuted, they can do it.

“And then going through files? I imagine on the first day in office, he’s going to say, ‘I need every file that has the word Trump in it,’” Figliuzzi said. “That should be a real concern, that Kash Patel is going through informant files and saying, ‘Look at that, this guy coughed it up on Trump.’”

These people are a piece of work, yes?

Logic isn’t the hobgoblin of small minds. It’s the stuff of life.

In this case, it occurs to most normal people who have to live life by the rules of logic – or die, or go to prison – that if any of this is true, then the previous administration and FBI officials were equally culpable to running the organization in such a way as they just described.

In my case, I hope that’s a very short list of the things he does, including declassify most of what he finds regarding a multitude of things. There is no better disinfectant than light. That’s what the FBI and former officials fear most.

Jim does a nice job with this analysis.

For the record, I never shoot my heavier recoiling guns extremely tight to the shoulder. In fact, my 444 Marlin shoots better for me when held just a tiny bit loose.

Concerning the notion of semiautomatic rifle accuracy, I suspect as more hunters begin to use them, the barrels will get better and more like the gun he was using. And yes, they’re capable of sub-MOA performance.

I just can’t stand all of the yak-yak-yak on most podcasts, especially when he waxes on about needing a Capuchino machine in his shower. But I did listen to enough of this to know that Dr. Ronald Kendall is a smart man, and he thinks he has identified the cause of the reduction in population of the Bobwhite Quail. Eyeworms. And he thinks he has a solution. If you want to skip the yak-yak-yak, you can fast forward to around 15 minutes.

Here is an article about it, and here is his website: Wildlife Toxicology Laboratory.

I mentioned that I recently went quail hunting in S.C. It was at the plantation of Jackson Walling, with R&D Quail Farm contracted to supply the quail and guide the hunt with dogs.

He has around 50,000 quail at any one time. He once raised Pheasant but doesn’t anymore. I didn’t know it, but Pheasant are violent birds. If you raise Pheasant, they will all kill each other unless you put blinders on them and allow them only to see peripherally.

David Codrea.

“The Justice Department today announced it has submitted to the Federal Register two notices of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that, if finalized, will fully implement the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 (BSCA), the most significant gun safety legislation in over 30 years,” DOJ announced Wednesday.

So, new gun rules are being rushed in while Steve Dettelbach, Merrick Garland, and Joe Biden are still ostensibly running things? And we have Republicans who crossed the aisle and supported Democrat infringements to thank for it?

There are so many problems with this that it’s difficult to enumerate them all.

First, the ATF shouldn’t exist, as there is no constitutional warrant for such an organization, especially given the broad sweep of the second amendment.

Second, NICS shouldn’t exist.

Third, it’s illegal for the ATF to use anything in its database (which shouldn’t exist under the law) for this purpose.

Fourth, this sort of rulemaking (given the time frame for comments) is an end-run around the incoming administration, and the AG and all ATF employees know it full well.

Fifth, the FOIA is worthless if the FedGov is given the liberty to ignore it without consequences, which is of course the case now.

A more lawless organization than the ATF can’t be found anywhere in America, including organized crime.

But remember boys and girls, they’ll shoot your dogs and perhaps you if you disagree with them. The KGB, Stasi and Gestapo could have taken ideological and training tips from the ATF. That their employees don’t feel shame only goes to prove their pathologies, individually and as an organization.