Articles by Herschel Smith

News from Oklahoma:

Hunter Scales was sitting in a deer stand in Southern Oklahoma last weekend when his semi automatic rifle went off twice, hitting him in the stomach and thigh.

He’d forgotten to make sure the gun was on safety.

Hunter’s family says he fell nearly 25 feet from the stand. Thankfully, his brother was nearby and called 911.

He’s still recovering tonight in a Tulsa hospital.

Captain Wade Farrar with the Oklahoma Department Of Wildlife says many people use these types of firearms to hunt animals like hogs or deer.

“It is becoming more common. We’ve taken the magazine restriction off of the 22 caliber versions of the assault rifles and that’s making it a lot more common for kids and things like that to hunt with,” Capt. Farrar said.

He says although the AR- Rifles are lightweight, they have a lot more parts than other rifles.

“Hunting with an AR-Rifle is more complicated. There’s a lot more moving parts. It does have a safety that is very easy to use. You have to flip a lever. It points towards fire when it’s off of safety and safe when its on safety.”

Farrar doesn’t think semi-automatic rifles are any more dangerous than other weapons, but he admits this type of rifle is still pretty powerful.

“The only way a semi-automatic rifle would be any more dangerous to hunt with than a bolt action rifle or a more conventional type of hunting rifle, it`s that every time you pull the trigger, if there`s ammunition in it, the gun is going to fire.”

Congratulations to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife for the stupidest article of the month.  This is an ignominious and shameful award.

Other rifles have safeties.  My daughter, who is a nurse practitioner, sees hunting accidents on a regular basis, from folks getting shot to guys going to sleep in deer stands and falling out.  Every accident is potentially life threatening, and more so if, say, you’re shooting a .270 Win than if you’re shooting a 5.56mm / .223.

This advice above is bordering on completely irresponsible, with the hint that you’re safe if you use a bolt action rifle rather than an AR.  Message to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife: all rifles can be mishandled, all rifles have safeties, all rifles require proper training, and it only takes one shot to make a kill, whether a deer or yourself.  You don’t need followup shots on your own torso to kill yourself.

Morons.

Via WRSA, MHN has a very interesting and riveting take on what forcible confiscation of guns would look like in America.  Actually, I think it would be much worse, and I’ve said so and described it before.

However, take this with a grain of salt.  This is what unrestricted warfare against American gun owners would look like.  As I’ve said many times before, this isn’t how it will go down.

It will be a gradual drip, drip, drip of increasing infringements, all codified and substantiated by the court system as legitimate, mind you, but all designed to target gun manufacturers and gun owners with increasing difficulty.  Consider this.

The Detroit City Council approved a “Bullet Bill” gun control resolution Wednesday with a unanimous vote.

The resolution limits ammunition amounts that can be bought while requiring a mental health background check on buyers of ammo in Wayne County. Commissioner Reggie Reg Davis of the 6th district spearheaded the resolution.

I recently covered this, and at least some readers guffawed.  But my prediction has been proven out.  Then consider this.

S9191 “requires a person applying for a license to carry or possess a pistol or revolver or a renewal of such license to consent to having his or her social media accounts and search engine history reviewed and investigated for certain posts and/or searches over a period of 1-3 years prior to the approval of such application or renewal,” the draft bill states.

If the bill passes, investigators would be able to look for posts or searches that contain threats to the health or safety of others; intentions to carry out an act of terrorism; or commonly known profane slurs or biased language describing the race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, religion, age, disability or sexual orientation of a person.

Then consider this.

Neither Dantos nor any other official at the hearing on Baatz’s petition to recover the pistol ever told Baatz, who represented himself, that he had to provide some sort of evidence of ownership, Lazarus observed.

Instead, she wrote, Dantos “abruptly” ended the hearing by telling Baatz, “There is no way I’m giving you that gun back. Not happening. Your petition is denied.”

You’d better have records, boys.  You’d better not ever have to use your firearm in self defense.  You’d better register your weapon with the state, and you’d better watch what you say and how you say at all times, even in private.

Gun manufacturers had better never issue public stock or their stockholders could shut them down.  The banks are another story, and gun manufacturers had better never take out a loan for expansion or building of any kind.

You get the point, I think.  From money, to driver’s licenses, to professional licenses, to statements made in the workplace or over the internet, FedGov is watching you (as is the local government, apparently).

The intent is to boil the frog, not go to war with him.  Do you understand?  Don’t be stolid.  Be thinking men and women.

A truly Christian holiday, it is.

I am thankful for so many things I will forget some of them.  I am thankful for my family, for my work, for my well-being, for my friends, and for the kind providence the Lord has bestowed upon me this last year.  It is undeserved, which of course means that it is grace (unmerited favor).

But most of all I am thankful for the vicarious atonement of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and for His gracious love for me and mine.

May you have a blessed Thanksgiving.

Townhall:

TOMS shoe company plans to donate $5 million to various gun control groups. The company also launched a campaign to mobilize their customers to support the gun control agenda.

One of TOMS’ campaigns includes a postcard campaign. Customers can input their name and address on their website and the company will send a postcard to their representative.

Here’s what the postcards say:

Dear (representative),

More than 90% of Americans support universal background checks.

And I’m one of them.

As your constituent, I urge you to stand with me and pass this life-saving legislation.

Let’s end gun violence together.

Sincerely, (your name)

The company’s founder, Blake Mycoskie, came to the decision shortly after the tragic shooting in Thousand Oaks, California, not far from his family’s home. His wife, Heather Lang, called Mycoskie in fear.

Isn’t that sweet.  A “common” cause.

Never heard of them.  I wear Oboz, even into the office.  But I’m glad I’ve heard of them now, and I note that they have declared themselves my eternal enemy.

Dean Weingarten:

With no round in the chamber and no magazine in the pistol, the Glock was rendered useless, if Mark Uptain ever got to it.

Uptain had bear spray holstered on his hip. Chubon did not recall Uptain using the bear spray to the point where Chubon fled to get help. Uptain emptied the bear spray at some point during the fight. The 250-pound grizzly sow had evidence of bear spray on her. Mark Uptain was killed in spite of the bear spray.

Carrying a semi-automatic pistol with an empty chamber is known as carrying in condition three, terminology used by the renowned gun writer, instructor, and competitor Col. Jeff Cooper.   It is also known as “Israeli Carry”, because it is how Israeli soldiers are trained to carry semi-automatic pistols.

It can work well if the user trains to always load a round from the magazine when the pistol is drawn from the holster.  As a safety feature, if an untrained person accesses the pistol and tries to fire it, they may not know how to load a round into the chamber and can be stymied in their effort to fire the pistol.

First, use guns, don’t rely on bear spray.  Second, a gun is of no use to you if it isn’t on your person and ready to use.  Finally, whatever you may think about having a round chambered, this is one reason I carry 1911s and use the safety.  In one motion I can sweep the safety down as I’m gaining purchase on the gun.

CNN:

From WiscoDave and others, this is nice.

And it would be a short war my friend. The government has nukes. Too many of them. But they’re legit. I’m sure if we talked we could find common ground to protect our families and communities.

— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) November 16, 2018

By finding common ground, he means that you agree with whatever he thinks.

I’d like to make a personal request here.  After the missiles are sent, the tactical nuclear weapons are exploded, and the bombs are dropped, the grunts are going to need some training in the difference between an Alpha, Beta and Gamma, the basics in time, distance and shielding, how to put on anti-Cs and how to decon, how to operate a GM detector, etc.  Also, since all of the food in America will be contaminated, folks will need to know how to scan their food (I once was in a training class with an engineer who lived in Kiev, and at the time of the training he and other residents of Kiev still had to scan their food before consumption because of the core melt event at Chernobyl).

I’ll leave the booming mortuary business to someone else.  I’ll leave the import of food from Africa to America to someone else.  I just want the training contract for the Army grunts you’re going to send into the bombed out cities and countryside.

Please?  A little love this way, how about it?

News from Syria:

He said he is still haunted by several scenes in his film, notably the one with the children playing with the makeshift bomb.

In another scene, one of the children proudly boasts to Abu Osama — which means father of Osama in Arabic — about killing a little bird.

“We put his head down and cut it off, like how you did it, father, to that man,” the boy proclaims.

The bombed-out desert landscape that the family calls home and the fact that the family’s women are never shown or even heard adds to the sense of despair throughout the film.

This isn’t an aberration.

… nearly a quarter of the Muslims polled believed that, “It is legitimate to use violence to punish those who give offense to Islam by, for example, portraying the prophet Mohammed.”

This poll was taken of Muslims in America.  Not Syria.  Ponder those things within the context of the facts that [a] you are made in God’s image, [b] God will not suffer His image to be marred, and thus [c] He has decreed that you must defend yourselves and your loved ones and neighbors because of [a] and [b].

Oh and by the way, wherever you are, you don’t live too far from a U.S.-sanctioned, U.S.-supported, and U.S.-funded settlement for Muslims.

KXLY.com:

REPUBLIC, Wash. – The police chief in Republic, Washington said on social media that he won’t allow his department to enforce the regulations passed by voters under Initiative 1639, saying the new gun laws violate the 2nd amendment.

Initiative 1639 passed with a statewide approval of nearly 60 percent of the vote. In Ferry County, where Republic is located, 73 percent of voters said no to the measure, which was 2,542 votes against.

Initiative 1639 makes Washington’s gun laws some of the most strict in the nation. It raises the age limit for some gun purchases; it has a safe storage provision that can lead to criminal charges if gun owners allow someone not authorized to access a gun displays it or uses it to commit a crime; and puts an enhanced background check and waiting period in place for people who want to buy a semi-automatic rifle.

On a Facebook page called “Republic Police WA”, Chief Loren Culp wrote “The second amendment says the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. As long as I am Chief of Police, no Republic Police Officer will infringe on citizens right to keep and Bear Arms [sic], PERIOD!”

The post has more than 2,000 shares on Facebook.

The Facebook page also posted the text of a proposed ordinance for “prohibition on state and federal infringement of the right to keep and bear arms.” The ordinance also called on neighboring communities and jurisdictions in the state to pass similar ordinances, and for the copies of the ordinance to be transmitted to the lawmakers that represent that district for them to introduce legislation on the matter next session.

Okay and very well.  I believe you, and I applaud your decision.  So far, so good.  This raises the question for controllers: if local police chiefs like this won’t do the dirty (and potentially deadly) work of gun confiscations, then who will and how will you collect all of those firearms you seem to want?

The only viable answer for you is FedGov, and that raises the second issue here.  The chief didn’t go far enough.  So what happens, Mr. Culp, when FedGov comes to town with their teams of gun confiscators and goes door to door looking for firearms?  Will you use your officers to stop the confiscations?  Because if you don’t, your words are empty.

And the proposal flirts with nullification.  We’ve discussed this many times.  Nullification laws are merely emblematic and for the purpose of garnering votes during the next election unless the one doing the nullifying is will to trot out the armor to stop the laws from being enforced.  So, is the county or state willing to put FedGov agents in the state penitentiary for coming to town with aims at gun confiscations?

Because if not, the nullification is meaningless and you may as well sip tea and nibble crumpets with the rest of the courtiers.