Articles by Herschel Smith

Len Savage sends the following pages released as part of his FOIA request on the bump stock ban.

Now, let’s pose some questions for readers to consider.  First, why are these pages marked SECRET/NOFORN (No Foreign Nationals)?  Second, if you were Paddock, why would you voluntarily choose to shoot an AR-15 with a bump stock in a crime you intended to perpetrate when you could shoot a fully automatic weapon?  Third (and I’ll keep asking this until I get an answer), why did the FBI refuse to allow the ATF to examine the crime scene weapons?

Apparently, the most important requirement for government “service” is that you are willing to hide things from the public and release only information you see as beneficial to your cause (whatever that might be).  In other circles, that’s called lying.

In the absence of any further information, I’ll continue to believe my own son’s analysis after listening to the consistency of the rate of fire over video: “He was using a fully automatic weapon.”  And my son has plenty of time under his belt shooting fully automatic weapons.  Bottom line – I’ll believe my son over the FedGov.

First, there is the state of Washington.

OLYMPIA – Washington law will ban “ghost guns” made with 3D printers, remove the rights of a person who is found incompetent to stand trial to have a firearm and tighten a requirement for a concealed pistol license.

Firearms can be removed from the homes of teens who are the subject of an extreme risk protection order because they might hurt themselves or others.

It’s a veritable smorgasbord of laws, a controller’s wet dream.  The statement about 3D printers is a smokescreen, peddled to the press in order to sew fear among the ignorant.  This is about stopping home production of machinery, specifically firearms, which is allowable under federal law.

Next up, the state of New York.

ALBANY — Lawmakers in the state capital are preparing to pass a bill barring so-called “ghost guns” from the Empire State.

With the press peddling yet another picture of Cody Wilson, the real intent is to ban firearms that have no serial number, i.e., those made in the home or garage.

Not to be outdone, the U.S. House of Representatives is preparing to make this a national law.

A bill recognizing the destructive potential of “ghost guns” has cleared a critical step in Congress and is now poised for a vote on the House floor. The House Committee on Homeland Security gave its stamp of approval on Wednesday to legislation that would direct the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to prepare an annual threat assessment on so-called “ghost guns.” These are firearms typically made at home with 3D printers or assembled from kits that lack traceable serial numbers.

These ghost guns “pose a challenge to law enforcement, particularly when used by violent extremists,” according to a onetime DHS threat assessment. One estimate put the number of ghost gun precursors sold in the past decade in the hundreds of thousands.

The legislation, sponsored by Democratic Congressman Max Rose, is one of the first steps Congress has taken to address this emerging threat to public safety.

“In my conversations with law enforcement officials I have every reason to believe this is an urgent matter,” Rose told Newsweek. “This is a massive hole in federal legislation that allows for weapons to be shipped from state to state without any background checks.”

These guns themselves don’t confer any tactical advantage over a traditional weapon, but they are easier to acquire without having to navigate a potentially treacherous black market crawling with federal agents and informants. The weapons can be assembled from DIY kits that provide prefabricated components for nearly 80 percent of the completed firearm, allowing the buyer to finish crafting the weapon at home using common metalworking tools.

Of course law enforcement, including the DHS, supports something like this.  And in a moment of accidental honesty, they admitted what they’re really going after – 80% lowers.

Because the first rule of control is to know who everyone is and what they have, so that it can be taken from them in the future.

UPDATE: Google (YouTube) must have gotten the memo, because they aren’t allowing any DIY firearms to be monetized.

The Washington Post:

In a handwritten statement, the recruit recalled that she tried to tell other recruits to slow down while they were moving in formation, upsetting the senior drill instructor. The recruit could not recall whether the Marine pushed her arm or the weapon itself.

“I knew I was in the wrong for overstepping when I shouldn’t have, but I wasn’t used to anyone messing with the weapon,” the recruit wrote.

The senior drill instructor later found the recruit on a bathroom bench at night writing to a former Reserve Officer Training Corps instructor, a sergeant major, about the incident.

She was Pvt. Raheel Siddiqui.  What do you think, readers?  Is this the kind of Marine Corps necessary for defending America?  Are they ready for war with anyone?

The disembowelment of America proceeds apace.

Reader =BCE56= links Ballistic Pressure Wave Contributions To Rapid Incapacitation In The Strasbourg Goat Tests.

Chamberlin observed damage remote from the wound channel he ascribed to the hydraulic reaction of body fluids [CHA66]. Tikka et al. showed that ballistic pressure waves originating in the thigh reach the abdomen. Wounding and delayed recovery of peripheral nerves have been reported [LDL45, PGM46]. Pressure waves cause compound action potentials in peripheral nerves [WES82], and ballistic pressure waves have been shown capable of breaking bones [MYR88].

This shows that, all other factors being equal, bullets that produce pressure waves of greater magnitude incapacitate more rapidly than bullets that produce smaller pressure waves. The Strasbourg test data convincingly supports the pressure wave hypothesis and allows (perhaps for the first time) the fast response time to be modeled as a function of peak pressure wave magnitude.

[ … ]

The trend in bullet design over the last decade has drifted toward bullets with little fragmentation and a higher percentage of retained mass. Bullets that both fragment and meet minimum penetration requirements create larger pressure wave magnitudes and offer improved incapacitation potential.

There is much more at the link.  I find it especially interesting that the authors use a 4*pi()*r^2 model for pressure wave solid angle (as with sound, light and radiation, unattenuated [or scattered] and unreflected).  The pressure wave isn’t forward peaked.

I often claim I have the best readers on the internet.  I really mean it.  This is a good example of that.

And this analysis goes to the heart of the design of the 5.56mm round, which is to induce a pressure wave due to high velocity (KE = 1/2 * m * v^2) and then fragment into shrapnel with multiple wound tracks.

Thanks to reader =BCE56= for that great read.

Philip Van Cleave, writing at Ammoland.

AmmoLand News’ pundit John Farnam recently wrote a thought-provoking article on how gun owners should behave in states that have adopted “Red Flag” laws, where your guns can be confiscated for an arbitrary amount of time-based on someone else’s word that you are a danger to yourself or others.

Under Red Flag laws your “due process” won’t come for weeks or months after they have already confiscated all your firearms, with no actual crime having been committed. And how does one even PROVE that they are not dangerous? And if a person is truly dangerous, why don’t the Red Flag laws make any attempt to have the “dangerous” person taken into custody or to get them help?

Red Flag laws violate the the following Amendments to the Constitution:

• 2nd (right to keep and bear arms)
• 4th (protection against unreasonable search and seizures)
• 5th (right to due process, just compensation, self-incrimination)
• and 6th (right to confront accusers, cross-examine witnesses, have a public defender).

John and I are looking at this situation from two different angles. John’s advice is meant to keep gun owners from being victims of Red Flag laws by having them stay under the radar. That is a laudable goal meant to save as many gun owners as possible from falling in the unconstitutional Red Flag web. John suggests hiding your gun ownership to as high a degree as possible. Only people with a need to know should know.

[ … ]

Red Fag laws are not about saving lives. They are about gun confiscation, plain and simple. While keeping a low profile will reduce your chances of becoming a victim, you will still never know if that 4 am knock on the door is coming anyhow.

I think we have to go in the other direction. We need to go on the offensive. We need to remind our fellow Americans, and politicians, that there are over 80 million of us and we are NOT going to go quietly into the night. In fact, we are not going to go anywhere

Well, this is an interesting commentary and worth discussing in my opinion.

For me that horse left the barn years ago.  I chose not to blog anonymously, so I’m not “gray man.”  I haven’t told anyone exactly what I have or where, or whether I even have any firearms, but my opinion is plain and simple for everyone to read.  Google and PageRank are powerful.

So apparently Farnham argues essentially for being gray man.  The first rule of gun club is that you never talk about gun club.  The second rule is when in doubt, refer to the first rule.

Van Cleave is arguing for the opposite.  Where do my readers stand?

David Codrea:

The case is New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. City of New York, challenging restrictions on transporting licensed firearms outside the home. Beck and Stamboulieh represent George Young in his complaint against the State of Hawaii for denying him a carry permit.

[ … ]

“Mr. Young has now been on appeal in the Ninth Circuit since December 24, 2012 (six years, four months and twenty days) and there is still no end in sight. Mr. Young will be seventy years old this year in September.”

I was unaware of this case.  That’s a new one on me … if you don’t want to deal with the issue, apparently like the Ninth Circuit, then just ignore it.

“It is apparently just fine for him to be taken from his home country to fight in Vietnam with high powered weaponry but then to forbid him to carry a handgun outside his home for self-defense in Hawaii,” the brief continues. “Mr. Young served his country with honor only to return and be treated as a second-class citizen by Hawaii, and unable to fully exercise his Second Amendment rights.”

I always find this argument a bit off-putting.  It assumes the consequent.  Of course the Ninth Circuit, and most other progressives, will think it’s okay to send him off to fight the country’s wars only to come home and be unarmed.  That’s the idea – the state has a monopoly on violence, even for self defense.

The proper defense would have left that part out and focused on God-given rights and duties, and the constitution as a covenant between men, currently dishonored and abandoned.

Remus notes something he calls astonishing.

I’ve seen a lot of pistol shootings, much more than US police would ever see, and much more than experienced by most medics deploying solely with US personnel. And yet, I have zero, not one single experience, where a single gunshot wound from a 9X19 NATO round killed someone prior to them being able to return fire or flee. This includes people shot in the chest, back, back of the head (one hit behind the left ear) the neck and the face. None…

Unfortunately, the same goes for the 5.56 NATO round. I have yet to witness a single shot quick kill with this round… On the flip side, having a patient who was shot by a 7.62X51 NATO or larger round was a rarity. Dead people aren’t patients, they are a supply issue.

That isn’t so much astonishing as it is just bizarre to me.  First of all, I dislike it when someone begins their post with bona fides.  The data is the data, the analysis is the analysis, regardless of your bona fides.

But then the claim makes no sense.  My youngest son had absolutely no complaints about his weaponry when he deployed to Iraq, not did he when he came home.  He was quite pleased with the lethality of the 5.56mm round in CQB and urban combat (MOUT).  He used both his SAW and an M4, and actually both during room clearing operations.

Then there is the issue of what we know about the lethality of the round even at distance.  Everyone recalls the video that made Travis Haley famous, and it’s worth watching again just to demonstrate that in the hands of a competent individual, the round can be lethal out to 600 yards or beyond.

Then there is this picture of an insurgent who was shot with a 5.56m round in Afghanistan at 200 meters.

You think he was able to mount a counterattack?

One final video demonstrates what the 5.56mm round is capable of in the hands of a qualified marksman.

Via WoG, “[a]nd if NRA  has been funneling millions into this guy, who this post claims is a major Democrat/gun-grabber donor, then what are supporters really ultimately donating to?”

Some folks have dignity, a spine and a sense of morality and decency left.  Witness Allen West.

It has become very apparent that I need to speak out about what is happening at the National Rifle Association.

I am in my second term as a Board member, and I am deeply concerned about the actions and statements being made. The recent statements by Charles Cotton and Carolyn Meadows that are appearing in the Wall Street Journal, and now other news outlets, are outright lies. I have never been told, advised, informed or consulted about any of these details mentioned in the WSJ, and who knows how much more despicable spending of members’ money.

These statements have maliciously, recklessly and purposefully put me, and uninformed Board members, in legal jeopardy.

Prior to the NRAAM in Indianapolis I sent an email to Wayne LaPierre’s managing director, Millie Hallow, expressing my sentiment that Wayne LaPierre resign immediately.

I also drafted a memo entitled “Resolution of Concerns,” both of these statements are known to the NRA Board. It is imperative that the NRA cleans its own house. If we had done so in Indianapolis, much of this could have been rectified.

I do not support Wayne LaPierre continuing as the EVP/CEO of the NRA. The vote in Indianapolis was by acclamation, not roll call vote. There is a cabal of cronyism operating within the NRA and that exists within the Board of Directors. It must cease, and I do not care if I draw their angst. My duty and responsibility is to the Members of the National Rifle Association, and my oath, since July 31, 1982, has been to the Constitution of the United States, not to any political party, person, or cabal.

The NRA Board of 76 is too large and needs to be reduced to 30 or less. We need term limits of four (4) terms on the Board. We need to focus the NRA, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization on its original charter, mission, training and education in marksmanship, shooting sports, and the defense of the Second Amendment.

I will dedicate all my efforts to the reformation of the National Rifle Association and its members, of whom I am proud to serve.

It sickens me to publicly make this statement, but I will not allow anyone to damage my honor, integrity, character, and reputation. Needless to say, there are those who have willingly done so to their own.

Steadfast and Loyal,
Lieutenant Colonel Allen B. West (US Army, Retired)
Member, 112th US Congress
Patriot Life Benefactor, Board Member, National Rifle Association

If I could medically have ever been in the military (I’ve had RA and Psoriasis all of my life, although I seem to get along okay with it, and my right index finger works fine in spite of it’s gnarled knuckles), he could have led me into battle before any other man, and I wouldn’t have hesitated to send my son to fight under his leadership.  I’ve said before, I preferred a black man for President above everyone else running, this specific black man, and if he had been successful he would have been the first black man who had been President.  And I do mean black, and man.  Obama was neither.

And my bet is that he would have been a true defender of the second amendment.  I hope and pray he has success and that other, more timid and less moral directors, follow in his footsteps.

UPDATE: I see that Sebastian has linked Carolyn Medow’s response to West.

We should end this petty bickering immediately. Now is the time for the NRA to return to its core mission: representing our members and defending the conditional freedoms of America.

There’s more at the link.  So to Meadows, when someone finally stands up and does the right thing, it’s “petty bickering.”  That’s ridiculous and laughable, a discourteous indictment that could be said about any disagreement, anywhere, anytime over anything.  Sebastian has titled his post “I will not help Ack-Mac Destroy The NRA.”  This is a formal logical fallacy.  It’s a false dilemma (it’s close to a Hobson’s choice).  We don’t have to settle for keeping anyone.  All of them can be run out of town on a rail.  I’m no fan of Oliver North who supports the Hughes amendment, Ack-Mac (who shouldn’t have been so deep in the pockets of the member’s dues), or Wayne.

As for Ms. Meadows, I find it amusing that she should think it matters to me what she thinks.  She has never had to face the hard choices like Col. West, nor has she ever had to deal with life and death situations.  She isn’t fit to shine Mr. West’s shoes in my book.

David Codrea:

“Hours after House Judiciary Committee Democrats voted to hold Attorney General Bill Barr in contempt of Congress for withholding parts of the Mueller report, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the House Oversight Committee settled the 2012 contempt case against the DOJ,” The Daily Caller observed. “The case, related to the ‘Fast and Furious’ document subpoena demanded of Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder when Republicans held the majority, is now considered settled, since Democrats became the majority in the lower chamber and Elijah Cummings became Oversight Committee Chairman.”

[ … ]

Simply put: Guns recovered next to bodies at Mexican crime scenes could be traced to U.S. gun stores and that could be exploited to “justify” further domestic citizen disarmament efforts … Fast and Furious was mine-salting.

There was never any interest in justice.  The rule of law is dead in America.  The machinations of the FedGov are loathsome to the progressives when they aren’t in power, but simultaneously their servant and their god when in power, like Baal who was expected to bless the pagans with things if only they sacrificed their children.

Don’t expect the Department of Justice ever to come clean on this of their own accord.

Shooting Sports USA:

Custom barrel manufacturers like Obermeyer, Krieger, Lilja, Hart, Douglas, Schneider and other companies which go by the maker’s last name, are your best assurance of good quality. That’s not to say that other maker’s barrels―let’s call them “semi-custom”―don’t shoot as well, but it is to suggest a lower element of risk involved in your satisfaction. I think it’s wise to request a stainless steel barrel since they will, on average, shoot a little better for a little longer.

It would be nice if a materials engineer and/or a highly experienced gunsmith would weigh in on this, but that’s not my understanding.  My understanding (which might be flawed) is that a SS barrel will be more accurate out of the box, but that whereas another barrel might last for 25,000 rounds, a SS barrel will last for 15,000 rounds before needing to be replaced.  Again, if my understanding is wrong on this, it would be good to know it.

The chambering option that probably gets the most thought about and worry over is throating. Throating, let’s say here for simplicity, controls the distance of a bullet; bearing surface to the origin of the lands of the rifling. Almost always, a rifle shoots best when a bullet at least starts near the lands, if not on them. If the bullet has to travel through space before engaging the rifling, that’s called “jump,” and that’s an issue of concern. Since there is such a difference in comparing length of short range and long range bullets for this rifle, some compromise has to be met. Essentially, getting less jump for the shorter 68- to 77-grain bullets fired from magazine-length rounds means that the longer 80-grain bullets used at 600 yards will be seated more deeply into the case (which will reduce powder capacity). Short or long? Either, or anything in-between for that matter. It doesn’t really seem to matter. Why even talk about it? Why not? Everyone else does. What they’re not really talking about, though, is who’s shooting what scores with various ideologies. That’s because AR-15s shoot just as well at 200 and 300 yards with all the different “magazine” bullets, regardless of where those bullets are sitting with respect to distance from the lands. What matters to 600-yard performance is that the shooter knows how to experiment and adjust the amount of jump the 80-grain bullets have, and that discussion is for another article.

Someone care to elaborate what’s he’s talking about here?