Articles by Herschel Smith

No, I’m not kidding.

More than half of the people who were perpetrators or victims of gun violence in Milwaukee in recent years had elevated blood lead levels as children, according to a study released Friday by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The study of nearly 90,000 residents, conducted at the University’s Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health, suggests a link between early childhood lead exposure and gun violence in later years.

Lindsay R. Emer, the study’s lead author, said it was conducted using public health, education and criminal justice data.

After reviewing the records of 89,129 people who were born in Milwaukee between June 1, 1986, and Dec. 31, 2003, and given blood lead tests before the age of 6, Emer and other researchers found a correlation between elevated blood lead levels and the risk of being involved in gun violence.

Emer said that while the study was not able to definitively prove cause and effect, the link is striking:

According to their findings, 56% of the shooters and 51% of the victims were found to have blood lead levels equal to or greater than the recommended limit of lead exposure of 5 micrograms per deciliter.

The study originated from a dissertation Emer started she while still a doctoral student at UWM.

Since then, she has earned and defended her Ph.D., worked with the Medical College of Wisconsin and is currently a senior research consultant at the National Center for State Court.

The publication of her study, “Association of childhood blood lead levels with firearm violence perpetration and victimization in Milwaukee,” is a culmination of years of work.

Then there’s that whole issue of connecting correlation with causation.  But why nits?  Just accept it, yes?  After all, it showing what the authors call a “striking link.”  And, best of all, it answers that age old American question “Why do inner city folk engage in violence against each other?”

Some of the comments show what people tend to think about crap like this.

She wasted her time in college.  But of course, that’s what a lot of people do with college when they get caught up with social justice issues.  That and throw their money away.  It’s a bit surprising that the university faculty would approve this dissertation.  How embarrassing for them.

Arkansas CopWatch gets stopped for open carry.  I thought this was a settled issue in Arkansas?  Anyway, it’s good to see folks conducting 2A audits, and more specifically, open carry audits.

First up is Alison Krauss, who has a voice like an angel, along with Union Station.  Next up is Bela Fleck, who is the greatest living banjo player.  Finally, at around 45 minutes into the video, Earl Scruggs joins him.

Via David Codrea.  I’ve had nothing but good things to say about Thomas Massie.  This is no exception.  This is an awesome reminder for the controllers to step carefully.

Big brother is watching you (from a reader).

Border Patrol’s electronic eyes will spot you long before you spot them.

If you walk along the United States border in remote stretches of New Mexico desert, or in the grasslands between North Dakota and Canada, you might not hear the buzz of what could be flying above you: A Predator drone — the same vehicle that has been outfitted to drop bombs over Afghanistan and Iraq. From five miles away, the drone’s cameras can see so well they can tell if you’re wearing a backpack.

If you’re in the Florida Keys, you may be spotted by an altogether different set of eyes in the sky. Up 10,000 feet in the air, a football field-sized zeppelin floats with an array of cameras, sensors, and radar systems so sophisticated that it can track every car, aircraft, and boat within a 200-mile range.

And if you’re near the deserts of southern Arizona, it won’t be hard to notice the 160-foot towers that rise up from the sandy landscape, equipped with advanced thermal imaging that can sense your exact movements from over seven miles away.

Because large portions of the border are so remote, and because U.S. citizens seem more willing to endorse surveillance programs that specifically target non-citizens, American borderlands have become a testing ground for cutting-edge surveillance tech.

Even as privacy hawks on the left and the right warn about the government’s embrace of surveillance tech, it’s been impossible to stop the fast-accelerating development of new infrastructure. President Donald Trump and Democrats in Congress might clash over the need for a border wall, but there’s a growing consensus in Washington that the country needs a “virtual wall.” The terms for this concept vary: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls it a “technological wall”; other members of Congress have adopted Silicon Valley lingo and refer to it as a “smart wall.”

Jeffrey Tucker, the editorial director at the libertarian think-tank American Institute for Economic Research, says that people who would otherwise have a knee jerk reaction against federal overreach suddenly acquiesce when the government develops enormous power in the name of border security.

That’s because there’s something wrong with shooting invaders that cross our borders (Democrats don’t get their voters, and big-corp Republicans don’t get their workers).  But there’s nothing wrong with using a testing ground for more control over the peasants.

Like you and me.

Their thirst for omniscience and omnipresence is unquenchable.

This is a worthy video of some of the travels of Earl Scruggs.  At the end of the video you learn what a fundamentally decent man Earl was.  By the way, I live right down the road from the Earl Scruggs museum, which is located in Shelby, N.C., his childhood stomping grounds.

Watching the Military History Channel on the Bataan Death March and what eventually happened to those prisoners, one veteran wanted to walk the march with his son to help him understand what had forged who he was.  At one of the monuments, one Filipino student said something like this.

“Here in the Philippines we have so many military monuments and study this history so much, it’s hard to believe none of this is taught in the West.”  She was part of a student field trip to the monument and the lives of these students and this veteran happened to intersect.

Then she asked permission to hug him, and they all got pictures together.

No, American students aren’t taught that today.  In the public centers of communist indoctrination, they are taught that although they are girls, they may really be boys, or vice versa.

Via WRSA, this report wasn’t authored in China.  No, it was written by Nicholas Blasco, of the U.S. Army War College.

The second concern regards the use of paramilitary forces, especially as a deterrent. The Chinese military started to build up across the border from Hong Kong on 11 August. A paramilitary force known as the People’s Armed Police can loosely be equated to a stability policing unit. Stability police conducts activities along the full spectrum of conflict with one of its primary missions being the restoration of public order and security. Some NATO countries have paramilitary units with stability policing skills, particularly within the French Gendarmerie and the Italian Carabinieri. The U.S. military lacks the skills possessed by these countries’ forces to carry out stability policing operations. Whether or not the People’s Armed Police has the skills to restore order to the situation is difficult to determine or predict. They are currently running drills and exercises in full view of the media demonstrating the kinds of tactics they would use.

[ … ]

The Department of Defense (DoD) has specific mission set known as the Defense Support of Civil Authority (DSCA). More often than not, DSCA applies to natural disasters or events that are not manmade. Recently, work by the U.S. Army War College’s Homeland Defense and Security Issues Group has been focused on the DSCA subcategory Defense Support of Civilian Law Enforcement Authorities (DSCLEA). As the name suggests, research analyzes the ways the DoD can effectively aid law enforcement during times of crisis.

Key areas to analyze during the unfolding events in Hong Kong would be the role the military plays. The role in the U.S. military’s mission set is purely a support function of civil authority, whether that authority comes from a police officer or another civil servant, and any military commander, regardless of rank, must answer to that civil authority. Furthermore, once local authorities or private-sector organizations have the capacity to fulfill services being provided by the military, the military must cease providing those functions. Interesting data can be gathered whether the Chinese military is a support function or take complete command and institute martial law.

Furthermore, because the U.S. military is limited to a support function, it leaves policing authority to law enforcement, as the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 prohibits the U.S. military from arresting American citizens. However, the U.S. military could support police forces in the form of intelligence, logistics, and communications support. The Posse Comitatus Act can be interpreted as the government’s respect for the country’s federalist system. The Chinese’ centralized form of government does not have the same respect for local authority and separation of power.  This has been expressed by the unfulfilled promises of more democracy in Hong Kong. Given the current governmental policies accompanied by the inability to regain control of the situation, Beijing has determined it will intervene if necessary.

Currently, there is very little research focused on the DSCLEA issue in the DoD. The U.S. is a relatively stable nation with few events that require escalated use of force and resources provided by the federal government. A close eye should be kept on Hong Kong and Beijing’s posturing in the region. Any actions or inactions taken by the Chinese government will provide valuable information on how to determine proper use of force during a crisis that requires a military response in the homeland.

It reminds you why the founders were opposed to a standing army, yes?  And is there really any difference between a militarized police and a standing army?

The way to gain acceptance of an idea is first to engage in so-called “scholarly” flirtations with it.  The idea of use of our very own standing army in the “homeland” is in its embryonic stage.  Expect it to keep growing, because I assure you, it will.  They will not abort this baby because it all has to do with control.  Controllers study and discuss controlling.  It’s what they do.  It’s who they are.

At Ammoland.

For now, available only in .35 Remington, .38-55 Winchester, and .30-30 Winchester.

I saw a comment from Matt Bracken a few days ago with which I agreed.  There is a good argument for having a wheel gun and a lever gun in the same caliber (and I don’t have to point out that it has to do with ammunition compatibility, with the rifle round having a somewhat higher muzzle velocity than the revolver).

But for me to become interested, they’re going to have to expand the line to include other calibers, e.g., .44 magnum.

From The Drive.

Great idea.  Put the explosion closer to the shooter’s ear and cause even more hearing damage.

In the mean time, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the M4 or M249.