Articles by Herschel Smith

From a reader, this news.

According to a follow up article, mountain lions don’t usually come this far down to the prairie area of Redfield. However, the lion was a young male, and young male mountain lions are known to travel. In this case, one particular mountain lion did come down from their normal hunting area, and he found himself a nice big 800lb meal.

As the lion wandered onto the property and attacked the steer, a livestock operator spotted him. Unfortunately, this livestock operator was not armed while he was out feeding the animals. To the lion, he was just another piece of meat on the range.

Fortunately, a neighboring rancher spotted the lion and recognized the danger the animal posed. This beast could have taken down multiple cattle costing thousands of dollars in damages. It could have also taken out the livestock operator.

Bet he’ll carry a gun in the future.  As for me, I think I’d prefer to have a long gun in these circumstances.  For those who don’t live in South Dakota, there’s always Coyotes, so there is always reason to carry, whether on the city streets from two-legged threats or in your yard or ranch from four-legged threats.

There is lots of movement in the second amendment sanctuary front.  First up, It’s nice to see Virginians still in high spirits.

Spoiler Alert: this story has a happy ending with Michael Bloomberg’s presidential campaign bus veering off into a political ditch at its final stop in Virginia on Sunday night.

That’s because members of my Patriot Picket crew joined forces with the Virginia Citizens Defense League and others to give the arriving Bloomberg team a Second Amendment welcome—one that absolutely undercut the boisterous gun-control festivities that they had planned for the evening.

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In addition to the VCDL members that mixed in with our Patriot Picket squad, we were also supplemented by the ArfCom Regulars, who made their own entrance.

With a drummer at the front, they marched up the sidewalk in formation with banners held high—and bullhorn blaring—to rendezvous with us.

“We will not comply.”  Video at the link.

Second up, it’s nice to see the states thinking more regionally.  Mississippi House Bill 753 involves an authorization to enter into a compact of southern states for the purpose of being a second amendment sanctuary.  The language is strong, and the other states listed in the bill are Tennessee, West Virginia, Georgia, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky and Oklahoma.  Whether they have been in contact with these states isn’t stated.  If the language is actually enforced, it means something.  It isn’t toothless.

Third, a number of states have pending second amendment preservation acts.

In order to help the dumbfounded public understand and accept the changes that will be coming their way, these are small but necessary steps.  The changes are coming whether we we want them to or not, as the collectivists do not sleep, but are ever vigilant to trample God-given rights.  They won’t stop, so people must eventually take sides, including all of the pols and LEOs, state, county and city.  This will become apparent to them as we go, but I say again, these are necessary first steps, baby steps if you will.

News from New York.

“We’re a rural county, and a lot of people are gun owners and support the Second Amendment and were not happy with the SAFE Act, and I support all of that,” Smith said. “But I couldn’t take the lead and advise people to break the law.”

“I couldn’t lead it because I took an oath and am here to support people who are for and against the Second Amendment,” Smith said.

Have you ever heard such a cowardly and confused statement?  Try to dissect that.  ” … I took an oath and am here to support people who are for and against the Second Amendment.”

Where is something like that in any oath he took?  When did he take an oath to “support” people who are against the thing to which he was supposed to swear an oath?

Shooting Illustrated.

Let’s start with a simple definition: Mil-spec is “A document that describes the essential technical requirements for military-unique materiel or substantially modified commercial items. MIL-STD-961 covers the content and format for defense specifications.” In simple terms, mil-spec is a list of standards to which goods sold to the U.S. military must adhere. These standards might apply to truck tires, hats, t-shirts, and yes, firearms and ammunition. There is even a spec that specifies “Requirements for swim fins made of gum rubber for wear by military personnel for swimming purposes and for general utility.” Exciting stuff.

In the munitions context, a standardized “spec” ensures that everyone is armed with firearms that are of equal quality and with interchangeable parts. This simplifies logistics and ensures a basic level of quality. In the marketing world, mil-spec has taken on a life of its own. It is promoted as some sort of gold standard for quality when, in fact, it is a floor rather than a ceiling. The military itself is rarely at the cutting edge of innovation, instead relying on private industry to meet the needs of the force. Just because a product meets the mil-spec doesn’t mean that is the best thing on the block.

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If a firearm truly meets the military specification, we know that it satisfies a baseline standard for quality. If you’ve ever slept in a military sleeping bag, used a military backpack or hiked in military boots, you’ll probably agree that the issued items are rarely the best on the market. The same goes for firearms, which is something that we should all take into account when making our buying decisions. Just because a product is right for the military, doesn’t mean that it is the right choice for you.

Sounds like something I said before.  “Don’t slip past these paragraphs, because they explain why “Milspec” is 1:7.  It isn’t because 1:7 shoots M193 or M855 more accurately.  It’s because of the weight of tracer rounds.  As we’ve discussed before, the term Milspec doesn’t mean better, or worse, or anything at all except that it precisely meets the specifications outlined in the purchase order(s), excepting whatever variance notifications they might make on a given batch of guns.”

News from Spartanburg County, S.C.

However, Spartanburg County Chairman, Manning Lynch says he does’t believe it’s necessary because of the support lawmakers have for the second amendment and gun rights in the area.

“I think we’re strong in both the state legislature, the local county council as well as the sheriff of Spartanburg County,” Lynch said.

He says there’s nothing Council can do to strengthen or weaken the protection of the constitution.

“If we got in a situation where we felt like our second amendment rights were under attack, county council would do whatever they could by any means necessary to protect those rights,” Lynch said.

In other words, I’m just not willing to do it right now.  Even though a different Sheriff could be in place later, I won’t live forever, and the board won’t be in place forever, there is nothing we can do right now to strengthen protection of your rights.

Or said differently, I’m a coward and don’t really believe what I’m saying right now, I just want all of this to go away.

Hey, do I have any readers in Spartanburg, S.C.?  I think you might want to take note of what your board of commissioners is saying.

Hey, and another thing.  How’s that campaign to legalize open carry going in S.C.?  Any progress?  I’m being sarcastic.  It’ll never be legalized in S.C.  Or California.  Or Hawaii.  Or New York or New Jersey.  How do South Carolinians like being lumped in with those states?

News and perspectives from Australia.

The fires cut road access, which meant towns ran out of fuel and fell low on food. Power to towns was cut and mobile phone services stopped working. So too did the ATMs and EFTPOS services the economy needs to keep running.

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These shortages are no surprise. In Australia, as in most developed countries, food and fuel distribution systems run on a “just in time” model. This approach, originally developed by Japanese car manufacturer Toyota, involves organising supply networks so materials are ordered and received when they are needed.

Such systems remove the need to store excess goods in warehouses, and are undoubtedly efficient. But they are also extremely fragile because there is no redundancy in the system—no Plan B.

We import 90% of our oil—a figure expected to rise to 100% by 2030. Much of that fuel passes through the Straits of Hormuz and then through the Indonesian archipelago. We have few alternative routes.

Nor do we maintain sufficient back-up reserves of fuel. Australia is the only International Energy Agency (IEA) member that does not meet the obligation to keep 90 days of fuel supplies in reserve.

As East Gippsland and Mallacoota have shown, many other connected systems, such as food distribution networks, are critically dependent on this fragile fuel supply.

A systems engineering approach; redundancy; interconnectedness; single- and common-failure modes; Management Oversight and Risk Tree analysis.  These are all tools one could use to design and plan for societal failures.  Even an electrical engineering concept like “sneak circuits” or “relay races” would also be useful.

When is the last time you just sat and thought about your own vulnerabilities and dependencies on the society designed by your betters and rulers?  And did anything about it?

Tim Harmsen at MAC does more than 7000 rounds with the BCM.

I expected the price to be astronomical, and while it ain’t cheap, it’s lower than I expected.  The MadPigCustoms web site can be found here.

Via WiscoDave.  News from Florida.  Video at the link.

As he attempts to back up and drive around the golf car blocking the parking lot exist, the school resource officer issues a foul-mouthed warning: ‘You’re gonna get shot, you come another f***ing foot closer to me. You run into me, you’ll get f***ing shot. This is my campus, brother.’

The lesson here isn’t really that many cops are thugs and gang members with badges and court authority who will use any chance to berate, belittle, and lord it over other people like the sociopaths they are.  We knew that already.

The real lesson here is that when you send your children to centers of communist indoctrination, the state owns them.  The only solution is home schooling.