Articles by Herschel Smith

I’m sure you haven’t noticed, but I’ve been doing this for twelve years.  Over the course of time I’ve transitioned from military blogging to guns and gun rights.  This transition occurred quite a while back, but I know I’ve still kept some military readers.

The blog began as a way to log a journal online while my son was in the Marine Corps.  My oldest son told me he thought I did it in order to stay sane.  Perhaps.  And perhaps I haven’t.  It evolved into analysis and assessment of military strategy, tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs), rules of engagement, and the intersection of politics with all of the above.

The transition to guns and gun rights was natural, since keeping up with my son required me to learn the mechanics of firearms, and learn his tactics (e.g., shooting the AR-15 with the aggressive, plates-forward approach, which is now so comfortable to me that I wouldn’t be able to do it any other way).  I’ve evolved my own methods now, including the use of the C-Clamp grip (or otherwise called thumb-over-bore grip, which I initially rejected as faddish but once I adopted it changed the stability of my shooting).  I wouldn’t know what a squad rush or satellite patrol was without the impetus of knowing it to communicate with my son.

Over the course of time I’ve received visits from all of the military network domains (Army, Navy, AF, NG, CG, DoD), and still get regular visits from those as well as the DoJ, FBI Department of Criminal Justice, State Department, various appeals courts, The House of Representative, the Senate, and most state and many city governments.  I often wonder if I have any readers who have stayed with me all twelve years?  I’ve also received visits from the executive office of the president and the SCOTUS.  I have no earthly idea why such people would be interested in reading this humble blog.  I’m sure readers agree with that sentiment.

There is no doubt in my mind that I currently have the best readers on the internet.  I appreciate what you’ve made this web site.  For new readers, take the time to study some of my Featured Articles.  I’ve tried to put my best work in there.

Via The Texas Tribune, here is the plan (PDF).

Here are my problems with it.  Money, money, money, money, money, and more money.

And a hefty dose of predictive behavior modification from the department of pre-crime.  And then there is this special program.

The Telemedicine Wellness Intervention Triage and Referral (TWITR) Project has created a model for identifying students at risk for committing school violence and intervening with those students before acts of violence occur.

[ … ]

Students are identified by trained school staff and screened for risk-based behaviors by Licensed Professional Counselors in schools then provided psychiatric services by Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) over a telemedicine link. Two telemedicine psychiatry sessions are provided through the project. If, through the assessment, a student is identified as requiring mental health care, either a referral for individual and/or family counseling is made or the student is referred to a medical school department of psychiatry for additional telemedicine psychiatric services

How nice.  The village witchdoctor will take a child aside, regardless of whether approved by parents, if s/he meets some criteria set up by … the village witchdoctors.

There is also a proposal to protect the identity of “tipsters.”  Great.  I can’t see such a thing being abused by school kids at all.

There’s more, from “red flag” laws to “Strengthening the Safe Firearm Storage Law.”  It’s a statists wet dream come true.

We’ve discussed many times how Warren v. D.C. and Castle Rock v. Gonzalez clearly and in no uncertain terms both find that, excepting some special deal where police agree to provide witness protection, for instance, the police are under absolutely no legal obligation to defend you or to come to your rescue during distress.

David Codrea mentions another recent case bearing on the subject.

In his lawsuit, Robert Sanchez Turner alleged that local and state police commanders, led by then-city Police Chief Al Thomas and then-VSP Superintendent Col. W. Steven Flaherty, violated his and others’ civil rights on Aug. 12 by failing to prevent the violence that day.

Turner alleged that he was the victim of violence that was witnessed by officers who did nothing to stop the fracas that ensued for nearly an hour before authorities declared the event to be an unlawful assembly and ordered everyone in and around Emancipation Park to disperse.

The judge understated the case.  It isn’t just that the duty isn’t clearly established, it just isn’t there except in the imagination of the progressives.

Anyone who still believes that is a fool.

USA Today:

LIEGE, Belgium — A knife-wielding prison inmate stabbed two female police officers in the Belgian city of Liege, stole their service weapons and shot them and a bystander dead in an attack Tuesday that prosecutors fear could be terror-related.

Justice Minister Koen Geens said the assailant, who was later killed by police, was on a two-day leave from prison. Geens described him as a repeat offender who had been incarcerated since 2003 and was due for release in two years.

The attack happened outside a Liege cafe on Tuesday morning. Liege prosecutors’ spokesman Philippe Dulieu said the man crept up on the two officers from behind carrying a knife and stabbed them several times.

“He then took their weapons. He used the weapons on the officers, who died,” Dulieu told reporters. The two police handguns had a total of 17 bullets.

Dulieu said the attacker then shot and killed a 22-year-old man in a vehicle that was leaving a parking space outside a nearby high school. He then took two women hostage inside the school.

But this sort of thing is nothing new.  In Brazil the police are targeted for their weapons.  It happens in the U.S. as well as this case in the Bronx demonstrates.

So when the controllers tell you that only cops will have guns if they get their way, they are telling you [a] guns will be in the hands of men who, worldwide, perpetrated approximately 170 million murders in the twentieth century, [b] guns will be in the hands of criminals who would sooner kill you for the fun of it as to look at you, or [c] both.

Remember that.

Although I just don’t understand what YouTube bans when, why and how, and what they don’t.

Forbes:

This year, here are just some of the measures doctors want the AMA to back:

• Ban the sale of bump stocks. AMA delegates will consider supporting “a ban on the sale of any device, including bump stocks, that converts a firearm into a weapon that mimics a fully automatic weapon.”
• Strengthen the background check system for firearms. AMA delegates will consider supporting legislation that requires “all gun sales and transfers” to “fall under strengthened regulation.
• ”Ban on semi-automatic assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines. AMA delegates will consider supporting “a ban on the sale, transfer, manufacturer and importation of assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines to the public.”
• Increasing the legal age of purchasing ammunition and firearms from 18 to 21. AMA delegates will consider supporting “increasing the legal age to purchase firearms and ammunition.”

Know what’s happening.  Know and understand your enemies.  Know where the attacks are coming from.  Destroy the flanking maneuvers.

My father once told me that the AMA was the tightest, strongest fraternity outside of the communist party.  An enemy is dangerous if they are devoted to each other.

David Codrea:

As an aside, that the phrase “Molon Labe” is new to him shows a person profoundly ignorant of those he would turn into enemies. In fairness, his readership admittedly could leave most of us in the dust if the topics were men’s fashion tips, mixing the perfect martini or where to go for the best mankini wax job.

Then there is this.

This is existential. If Americans once more rebel against tyranny, there’s no reason to expect history will not repeat itself as far as the very personal and often violent Patriots vs. Tories conflicts that happened last time. If that does, those for whom no gun laws will ever be enough, and who egged it all on, should not delude themselves into thinking their roles will be overlooked …

I suspect that Holmes read the comments and email and saw that his prose was received poorly, deciding that he didn’t like what he saw.  So he decided to write about it again.  He was probably fabulating as to the true nature of the email, alleging personal threats when the mail had more to do with generic statements of philosophy.

As to Codrea’s first paragraph I lifted, it almost made me spit my coffee.  As to his second paragraph, Holmes and others had better take the “generic statements of philosophy” very seriously.  The people making the statements sure do.

As I said, I’m not very worried about Holmes.  I’m very concerned about nickel and dime, death of a thousand cuts, constantly dripping, constantly badgering gun owners to death.  A new AWB that doesn’t declare AR-15s illegal, just non-transferrable upon death.  New laws that make it illegal to shoot AR-15s at ranges.  New taxes and controls on ammunition.  New banking laws that make it difficult if not impossible for gun manufacturers to do business.

We’ve discussed it all before.  You know how to detect and prevent the flanking maneuvers, right?

Georgiaboy61:

How about this for an idea? A citizen-searchable database on the associations (legit and otherwise) of elected representatives such as Leahy and Nelson, as well as a list of campaign donors? As well as data on their FA ownership, possession of CCW permits, and other relevant similar information? Transparency is good, right, and what’s good for the proverbial goose is good for the gander. Oh, and if FAs are bad then we the people fully-expect that you and yours, Senators, will be surrendering your taxpayer-funded armed security details at the earliest opportunity. Remember, it’s for the children….

How could any politician refuse when it’s for the children?

As if pummeling the ground with artillery, the elitists in Britain are setting the stage for Islamic takeover.

A judge has proposed a nationwide programme to file down the points of kitchen knives as a solution to the country’s soaring knife crime epidemic.

Last week in his valedictory address, retiring Luton Crown Court Judge Nic Madge spoke of his concern that carrying a knife had become routine in some circles and called on the Government to ban the sale of large pointed kitchen knives.

Latest figures show stabbing deaths among teenagers and young adults have reached the highest level for eight years, and knife crime overall rose 22 per cent in 2017.

Sounds rather like “But why do you need an AR-15 when you can call the police,” yes?

Remember boys and girls, this is the country that allowed the child sex ring run by Pakistanis to flourish with full knowledge by the authorities.  And here’s a reminder: The British Councillors and police had sex with Rotherham abuse victims.

The way I see it, British men, if there are any left, have two choices: [1] armed rebellion, or [2] leaving immediately for free territory.

VTDIGGER:

Democratic senators are pressing to modernize the tools federal law enforcement officers can use to trace firearms.

Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., introduced a bill that would require the federal government to set up a searchable electronic database that includes information tracing the production, shipment and sale of firearms.

Information about firearms is currently recorded and maintained by authorities, but current law prohibits that information from being accessed through a digital database.

In order to trace a firearm now, law enforcement must look through records manually, sorting through physical files that include microfilm and handwritten notes.

According to Leahy, there are currently 800 million paper records held at the West Virginia facility.

In other words, an approved, legal, unrestricted gun registry, one of the touchstones of statism.

A year ago I would have scoffed at this and its small chance of passing.  Today not so much, neither from the perspective of Congress nor the POTUS.