Articles by Herschel Smith

American Rifleman:

First, let’s look at the ballistics. The M16’s 20″ barrel has a 200-f.p.s. advantage over the 14.5″-barreled M4 when shooting M855 ammunition. In my testing, using Federal’s XM855 ammunition, a 20″ barrel recorded about a 150-f.p.s. advantage compared with a 16″ barrel, the common length for civilian carbines. For the carbine, that means about a 5 percent loss in velocity. The muzzle energy difference is about 125 ft.-lbs. or 10 percent.

For reliability and durability data we can look to tests conducted by the U.S. military, which give an edge to the M16 over the M4. The main reason lies in the gas system. The “rifle-length” gas system of a 20″ barrel is 5″ longer than the “carbine-length” gas system used on all 14.5″ and many 16″ M4-style carbines. Due to the drop in pressure over this longer distance, the gas port on a rifle can be larger, which results in a larger volume of lower-pressure gas heading back to the action. The extra length of the gas tube also means the velocity of the gas is slower when it reaches the bolt carrier. This means less force and heat on the working components of a rifle’s action. In contrast, the shorter length of a carbine gas system means the bolt is unlocking sooner, while chamber pressure is higher, which results in more stress on bolt lugs and extractors.

While the contemporary M4-style carbines have evolved into a highly reliable platform, it was a process that was not without its teething problems, a path marked by the necessity of innovations such as mid-length gas systems, extra-power extractor springs, modified feed ramps and H (heavy) buffers. The bottom line is that, for the first three decades of its existence, the M16/AR-15 rifle, and its 5.56×45 mm NATO cartridge, were developed and refined around a 20″ barrel. Anything shorter is a compromise.

[ … ]

Soon after it adopted the M16, the Army saw the need for a bolt-closing device, as the rifle’s nonreciprocating charging handle can only be used to pull the bolt to the rear. The XM16E1 added a forward-assist device on the right rear of the upper receiver, and the design was standardized in 1967 as the M16A1. Stoner was clear in his belief that the forward assist had no place on the AR-15 design.

“The rationale was if the weapon was dirty enough or has sand or dirt or mud or something in it and doesn’t close, the first immediate reaction should be to open the bolt and try to find out the cause of it, and not beat it shut and then find out you’ve got a disaster on your hands,” Stoner pointed out to Ezell.

I’ve never used my forward-assist in any rifle, and I have to believe that use of it in the early stages of use (e.g., Vietnam) was because of inferior parts, teething pains, and lack of attention to the machine.  I’ve also never had a single malfunction, whether FTF, FTE, or anything else, and can say that having shot thousands upon thousands of rounds downrange.  We’ve done much better now with better parts and better builds.

Every gun choice is a compromise, and I happen to think that 18″ is a good compromise, while having a short-barreled carbine is good for CQB.

Life Site:

The abortion industry doesn’t want to admit that babies can survive abortion. They call it a myth and pretend it doesn’t happen — but it does. And what happens when babies do survive abortions is chilling. Too often, the babies are left to die, with no comfort or compassion, but alone and cold and in pain. This is exactly what just happened in Poland, where a baby with Down syndrome was the victim of a botched abortion, and was then left to die, crying for nearly an hour while doctors did nothing.

Doctors and medical staff at Holy Family Hospital in Warsaw, Poland, left a child to die after a botched abortion, according to local media reports detailing the horrific scene.

The baby was born on March 7, 2016 at 24 weeks, after an abortion failed. The child cried and screaming for an hour before dying, according to witnesses, as reported on Republika Television.

Medical personnel did not try to help the child in any way.

Hospital spokesperson Dorota Jasłowska-Niemyska explained that a patient at the end of the 23rd week of pregnancy came to the hospital, and her medical tests suggested that the baby had Down syndrome. The hospital claims that everything that happened thereafter was according to the law and medical procedures. The dignity of the patient and the dignity of the fetus were respected, she continued.

Ponder the hypocrisy of the West, who will recoil at and condemn the barbarity of the Islamic State beheadings, but torture, torment, rip apart, and destroy the lives of the most helpless of humans?

How long will God suffer the West before turning His back on us completely as we deserve?

News from Texas:

A lead investigator lied in an affidavit justifying a drug raid on a Houston home in which two residents were killed and four undercover officers were shot and wounded during a gun battle, the city’s police chief said Friday.

In the search warrant that was used to justify entering the home, officers with the Houston Police Department’s narcotics unit had alleged that a confidential informant had bought heroin at the house the day before the Jan. 28 raid. The informant had also allegedly seen a handgun in the home.

But according to an affidavit filed as part of the ongoing investigation into the raid and made public Friday, the informant told investigators he or she had not bought any drugs at the home and had not been involved in any work leading up to the raid.

The heroin allegedly bought at the home had been obtained elsewhere, according to the affidavit.

The informant had allegedly been working with the lead investigator in the case, who was identified in the affidavit as Officer Gerald Goines. He prepared the search warrant and has been with the police department for more than 30 years, according to investigators.

Goines was one of the four officers who were shot in the gunfight that killed 59-year-old Dennis Tuttle and 58-year-old Rhogena Nicholas, who both lived in the home. A fifth officer injured his knee during the shooting.

Investigators also spoke with several other informants who had previously worked with Goines and all said they had not bought drugs at the home, according to the affidavit.

Well, don’t you feel stupid now, Art?  After we all told you the whole sordid affair was your own damn fault and that you were responsible for the deaths incurred?  Don’t you feel stupid that you turned this into a chance to be a political shill for gun control again?

And as for Goines, don’t you feel sorry and ashamed that your actions led to the death of others?

No, you don’t feel stupid, Art.  Because that’s just the kind of person you are.  And no, you don’t feel ashamed, Goines, because you have no scruples.

The Houston PD and Art Acevedo deserve each other.  What a sorry lot.

It’s all the rage now, gun control at the state level, when many gun owners have been focused on federal gun laws.  First up, Arizona has already completed a major infringement and has it in its rear view mirror.

Nevada’s governor on Friday signed into law a bill expanding background checks to private gun sales and transfers, taking advantage of a Democrat-controlled Legislature to approve the first gun-related bill to cross his desk.

Lawmakers say the bill is a fix to a 2016 gun background check measure that was narrowly approved by voters. Former Gov. Brian Sandoval and former Attorney General Adam Laxalt, both Republicans, opposed the law and said it could not be implemented because it required the FBI to conduct the checks.

Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat who took office last month, signed the legislation shortly after Assembly Democrats easily passed the measure. The legislation fulfills a campaign promise of his to address firearm background checks. He described the legislation as “long overdue.”

The bill closes a loophole that allows gun buyers to avoid background checks by going through unlicensed gun sellers. Senate Majority Leader Kelvin Atkinson said the bill addresses an issue with the 2016 measure by allowing Nevada to conduct its own background checks.

All that is subterfuge.  It infringes God-given rights by making person-to-person sales illegal, plain and simple.  Next up, Tennessee.

HB1049/SB0943, also known as the “Families Know First Act,” would allow for an “Extreme Risk Protection Order” to be presented by police then issued by a court for those deemed a risk to themselves or others if in possession of a firearm(s).

Under the bill, a law enforcement officer or agency could seek an extreme risk protection order if based on an investigation police find the individual poses an “immediate and present danger of causing personal injury to the subject or to another by having in the subject’s custody or control, owning, purchasing, possessing, or receiving a firearm.”

[ … ]

If ordered, subjects would have to surrender firearms and ammunition to law enforcement for safekeeping or sell the firearms and ammunition to a licensed dealer.

Say, I’m sure “safe keeping” means that the firearms will be stored in a humidity controlled environment and will work just great when they are returned, which will be immediately when ordered?  And I’m sure that families know best means that no one will use this as a prank or simply because they’re pissed off to have property taken away from people, right?

Next up, even South Carolina.

Law enforcement across South Carolina may soon have the right to seize firearms and ammunition.

A bill filed at the State House provides law enforcement with tools to intervene if someone has mental health or substance abuse issues.

Probable cause must be established and presented to a judge before anything is seized.

The bill’s sponsor says he simply wants to provide officers with tools to keep people safe.

Say, I haven’t heard much about open carry in South Carolina.  Where does that stand?  Oh yea, nowhere.  We’re fighting the controllers on just about everything else, so South Carolina is one of only a handful of states, like California and New York, that don’t allow open carry.

What a sad state of affairs, but involvement in local and state politics is absolutely necessary.  The war for tyranny is first fought politically, and the controllers will only proceed to the next steps if they win the first skirmishes.

The Blaze:

A suspected robber is dead after allegedly trying to rob a Family Dollar in Dekalb County, Georgia, and ignoring the customer who was armed behind him during the altercation.

The attempted robbery occurred on Tuesday morning when a man walked into the discount store and pointed a gun at two employees.

While one employee was handing over money to the robber, a customer walked from the back of the store to the front, and witnessed the robber pointing his gun at the employee’s head.

He then pulled his own gun out and shot the robber several times. The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene.

Four or five other customers were in the store at the time.

The employee who faced the robber’s gun was shaken up by the incident, but was grateful to the customer who foiled the robbery, police said.

“She’s upset. She’s dealing with corporate right now,” Sgt. Lynn Shuler said, “but she’s fine.”

Police say the customer who killed the would-be robber will not be charged with any crime. They are hailing him as a “good Samaritan” for stopping the robbery and possibly saving the lives of many people.

I love a happy ending.  A dead robber, a gun owner who saved the day, and the police just staying out of people’s business.

But it could have turned out differently.  If the cops had showed up when this was going down they would have just shot everybody and let internal affairs sort it out while they were on paid leave.

David Codrea:

“But if you don’t vote for them a Democrat will win, and they’ll be even worse!” we are warned. Hey, we wouldn’t be in this mess if people would have insisted on principles from the very beginning. And now we’re expected to believe our only way out is to continue enabling the enemies inside the gates?

Make sure to read the comments he’s getting too.  I wouldn’t say, with David, that these commenters are reading-challenged.  I’d say they’re idiots.  They are comprehension-challenged.

Voting for the lesser of two evils, rather than insisting on principles, has gotten us where we are today.

News from Florida:

A false threat made to Jefferson Davis Middle School prompted Jacksonville police to swarm the campus Thursday afternoon, according to a Duval County Public Schools spokeswoman. During the police response, an officer’s gun accidentally discharged outside the school, authorities said.

About 3:50 p.m., according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, 911 dispatch received two calls reporting there had been a shooting at the school. Officers arrived in full force to investigate and then determined the information was false. The incident report shows the calls came from within the school.

Just after 4 p.m., the Sheriff’s Office said, a police officer had an unintentional discharge from his agency-issued weapon and the bullet struck the sidewalk, causing minor surface damage. The Sheriff’s Office is conducting an administrative investigation into the unintentional discharge.

Gosh I just hate it when that happens to me.  Hmm … I recall the last time I did that.  Somebody conducted an internal affairs investigation and made me go home with pay for a week, counseled me when I came back, and then we all laughed and laughed about it.

No harm, no foul.

Fox News:

Democrats this week approved legislation to require background checks for essentially all sales and transfers of firearms — but rejected GOP-led efforts to amend the legislation to alert law enforcement authorities when gun buyers, including illegal immigrants, fail those background checks.

The House Judiciary Committee voted in favor of the bill 23-15, in a strict party-line vote, sending it to the House floor. If approved by the full House, the bill would be the most significant gun-control legislation approved by either chamber of Congress in at least a decade — although it stands little chance of passage in the Senate, where Republicans command a slim majority.

Republicans in the House charged that H.R. 8, known as “The Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019,” should have included Florida Rep. Greg Steube’s proposed amendment to require that law enforcement be notified “when an individual attempting to purchase a firearm fails a federal background check.” (H.R. 8 was numbered in honor of former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was shot in Arizona on Jan. 8, 2011 by a mentally ill gunman.)

“Clearly, the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee don’t care about preventing gun violence, they simply are playing politics with Americans’ Second Amendment rights,” Steube, a Republican, said after the vote. “The fact that Democrats do not want law enforcement notified if an individual attempting to purchase a firearm fails a background check is truly troubling.”

The democrats want universal background checks, just not if it means that illegals will be deported.  That’s the most important thing.

Troubling, however, is that it’s not clear whether this is a “poison pill” intended to be inserted by the republicans (which they should have known would be rejected), or a capitulation to the forces of gun control?

And what would Trump do if this bill was brought to him to sign?  We all know that the likes of Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn want universal background checks, and that Trump believes in virtually nothing.

Say, what are the chances that the politicians just kill the notion of background checks altogether as being an unrighteous, unconstitutional infringement on God-given rights?  Did anyone bring that up in the hearings?

Like David, I cannot comment on the orientation of the video.  But watch the whole thing and read the comments to which David links.

The first mistake is living in California.  The second mistake is registering guns.  But of course as we all know, the intent of gun control isn’t to reduce crime, it’s to disarm peaceable men before the hordes and mobs, be they criminals or cops, but maybe I’m being redundant.

News from North Carolina:

“Gun violence is a public health crisis,” said Rep. Christy Clark, D-Mecklenburg, a former state director for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

[ … ]

Previous gun control measures have gone nowhere in the Republican-controlled General Assembly in recent years. Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, said she has filed bills every legislative session since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, but none has every gotten a committee hearing.

“This state has gone the exact opposite direction we need to be going,” Harrison said, noting the legislature has expanded gun rights in recent years to allow firearms in parks, in locked cars at schools and other locations where they were previously barred.

[ … ]

Other provisions in the bill include the following:

• Not properly storing a firearm in a locked container when not in use would be a misdemeanor

• Gun owners must report a lost or stolen firearm to law enforcement within 48 hours

• Gun owners must carry liability insurance

• Law enforcement agencies would be allowed destroy seized firearms

• Cities and counties would be allowed to set their own rules on where guns are allowed

Nullification is okay with them if a locale ignores rights and protections, as opposed to imposing infringements.

Here’s what I think is a public health crisis.  Horrible women getting involved in things that aren’t any of their business.

Prediction: Just like their efforts to bully Harris Teeter into going anti-gun (which would have been led to their financial ruination), they will fail and this will go away.

But it’s still a sign of the times.