Articles by Herschel Smith

Stupid Getty Images.

Get your thumb away from the forcing cone and cylinder gap, lady.

This is a mildly interesting video, but I neither have heroes nor get involved in drama.  The most interesting part to me was this comment.

Hop is spot on about where the RD’s come from. I do have one caveat about the claim about the PCBs however. I’ve worked in the industry as a consultant and the number one question I was getting from CEOs and CMOs was how to make sure they stay legal with “Made in USA” and “Assembled in USA” regulations and how much in fines they can expect to pay when they violate them. And almost everyone violates them. In many countries, including the United States, there are strict regulations governing these labels. To be labeled as “Made in USA,” a product generally must be “all or virtually all” made in the United States. This means that a significant portion of the product’s total manufacturing costs must be incurred in the US, and the final assembly or processing of the product must also occur in the U.S. This is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission. The supply chain for everything is global and massive. You’d be shocked if I told you how few things are “honest to God” made here (that actually satisfy FTC compliance). The number of US-located CNC machines, the cornerstone of modern manufacturing, is such a tiny percentage of World’s CNC fleet that I immediately distrust the “Made in USA” certification of origin of some small part (and large parts too). I’m also highly skeptical when manufacturers claim that their PCBs are made here. We’d need to have 20-25x more PCB manufacturing plants for the amount of PCBs that are claimed to be “Made in the USA”. Don’t believe me? Just call up some of the PCB manufactures and try to get some quotes and lead time. You’ll quickly realize that your product will be ready in 2 years time and it will cost 2-3x what your C-suite is asking for. Even the F-35 contractors got into hot water when it was found that most of the PCBs that were “Made in the US” were actually Made in China. Even today, most of the multi-layer, high-speed/high-frequency, PCBs for F-35 are Made in China. A fact that everyone sweeps under the rug now.

This is honestly a very sad thing.  America lost its ability to do large steel construction long ago with the demise of that work in Pennsylvania, the ports in Virginia and a couple of places in Alabama. Thus, today we can no longer fabricate large sea-going vessels such as battleships or carriers. Even the reactor vessels for Catawba Nuclear Station were made in the Rotterdam shipyard.

Optical quality glass is obviously made now only in Germany and Japan.

I guess it’s the same for printed circuit boards. What a shame and a sham that we cannot make our own electronics. You can blame our rulers for that as they whored themselves after globalism.  The whole thing is ridiculous and it’s not only a sad commentary on our competitiveness, but national security as well.

I thought after the Covid scam Ford intended to start up manufacturing of PCBs in America? I don’t know how that’s going.

Source.

(FOX40.COM) — A new California law that would restrict licensed gun holders from carrying their firearms in many public places will not go into full effect on Jan. 1 as scheduled, after a federal judge deemed it unconstitutional.

The law, Senate Bill 2, was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on Sept. 26 and included an array of gun control measures. On Dec. 20, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney issued an order to stop one of SB 2’s regulations, the ban on licensed gun carrying in a public place. According to SB 2, it would have been illegal in California for licensed gun carriers to have their firearms at bars, churches, parks, public events, stadiums, casinos, financial institutions, medical facilities, on public transportation, and other places.

“The Second Amendment preserves a fundamental constitutional right for law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms for self-defense,” Carney said in his ruling. “Increasingly in modern times, with ‘the ubiquity of guns and our country’s high level of gun violence,’ ordinary law-abiding people feel a need to carry handguns in public to protect themselves and their families against violence.”

Carney mentioned that people who legally carry guns are “among the most responsible, reliable law-abiding citizens” and have been through a “vigorous vetting and training process” to carry a handgun. According to Carney, CCW permitholders are not the gun wielders legislators should fear.

“CCW permitholders are not responsible for any of the mass shootings or horrific gun violence that has occurred in California,” Carney said. “SB2 requires that law-abiding citizens open themselves up for slaughter at the hands of people flaunting the law and creates numerous areas ripe for mass murder by ensuring there is no one there to protect people.”

He added that some people who have a concealed weapons permit (CCW) live in high-crime neighborhoods where they reasonably fear being robbed, murdered, and raped. Carney said CCW holders should be able to carry a weapon to protect themselves in those situations.

“SB2 provisions unconstitutionally deprive this group of their constitutional right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense,” Carney said. “Therefore, those provisions must be preliminarily enjoined.”

Well, that’s part of the purpose of the second amendment, but not even nearly all of it, the major part having to do with tyranny. It’s the last part that scares the powerful, rich and famous.

But it’s nice to see the occasional win. But it will probably be stayed by the communists on the Ninth Circuit.

Those poor folks just take in on the chin, yes? I’ve exchanged email with the president of the Hawaii rifle and pistol club. Nice guy. I’m sorry for this, but after all, it is a communist state superintended by a communist Ninth Circuit.

Note the horns of a dilemma they impale the supposedly free men on: You can’t have our permission without an approved instructor, and we don’t approve any instructors.

A friend responds, would be great if someone enforced the laws on the books, huh?

18 U.S.C. § 241 (conspiracy against rights)

18 U.S.C. § 242 (deprivation of rights under color of law)

TTAG.

Shortly after 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday, officers responded to the location for a report of an attempted home invasion robbery. Police spoke to the homeowner, who said three men tried to break down his door but were unsuccessful and fled the scene.

The SPD says the suspects tried a second time at around 12:25 a.m. the next morning.

Authorities say four men returned to the house to try breaking the door down with a sledgehammer.

The homeowner told police he was sleeping and woke up to loud banging at the door. He armed himself with a rifle, and when the suspects tried getting inside, he shot at them.

Most of the time home invasions are conducted by more than one person. The only thing missing here is the common protocol of the criminals to shout “Police, Police …”  Including those who are actually police.

Source.

Gaston Glock, the man responsible for developing the namesake weapon, died on Wednesday at the age of 94.

Glock developed the famous handgun in the 1980s, when the Austrian military was looking for a new, innovative weapon. Until then, the Glock company had made military knives and consumer goods including curtain rods.

Glock assembled a team of firearms experts and came up with the Glock 17, a lightweight semi-automatic gun largely made of plastic. The revolutionary design – with a frame made of a high-strength, nylon-based polymer and only the slide made of metal – beat several other companies’ blueprints and secured his upstart outfit the contract.

The easily assembled weapon became a global hit, with the Austrian winning loyal followings among police and military across the world.

The Glock has been referenced in numerous films and rap songs, including Snoop Dogg’s “Protocol” and Wu-Tang Clan’s “Da Glock.”

U.S. soldiers found toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein hiding with a Glock in a hole in the ground in 2003. They later presented that weapon to U.S. President George W. Bush.

Glock faced criticism from gun-control advocates who complained that he popularized powerful guns and made them easy to conceal and hold more ammunition.

Glock himself was reclusive, rarely granting interviews, and shunned public debate. In 2000, he refused to join other weapons manufacturers in signing a voluntary gun control deal with the United States.

At the age of 70, he survived an attempt on his life when an investment broker who managed his assets hired a former wrestler to attack him with a rubber hammer, a court heard.

Glock had grown suspicious of how the broker was managing his affairs and had flown to Luxembourg to confront him, lawyers said. He suffered seven blows to the head but fended off the assault. The broker, Charles Ewert, and the attacker, Jacques Pecheur, were both jailed.

His 49-year-old marriage with Helga Glock ended in divorce in 2011 and the pair embarked on a lengthy legal battle over alimony. Soon after, he married his second wife, Kathrin, more than 50 years his junior.

He owned a lakefront mansion and a state-of-the-art equestrian sports center in the province of Carinthia, where celebrities showed up for parties.

With divorce, alimony disputes, theft and attempted murder, it sounds like he lived a troubled life. But there’s no question as to the fact that his gun is ubiquitous.

I don’t own or shoot Glocks or any other striker fired handgun.

GM…🎄

What last minute things are you adding to your wishlist? pic.twitter.com/CqVzGxQfKD

— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) December 24, 2023

Merry Christmas to my loyal readers. I wish you the best for this Christmas day.

Source.

A federal judge in Massachusetts shut down an attempt to block the state’s assault weapons ban Friday, arguing that the law does not break with recent Supreme Court precedent that has severely shaken gun control legislation.

District Judge Dennis Saylor said the state ban keeps with “historical tradition” of gun control regulation, after the high court ruled last year in the landmark New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen decision that all gun control legislation must keep with that tradition.

“The relevant history affirms the principle that in 1791, as now, there was a tradition of regulating ‘dangerous and unusual’ weapons – specifically, those that are not reasonably necessary for self-defense,” Saylor wrote.

The judge added that the assault weapons in question are “not suitable for ordinary self-defense purposes, and pose substantial dangers far beyond those inherent in the design of ordinary firearms.”

And that, dear folks, is all it takes to prove yourself an idiot.

Not suitable for ordinary self-defense purposes.  Substantial dangers far beyond those inherent in the design of ordinary firearms. Now, try to reconcile those two passages.

No, you can’t. Because that 30-06 or 700 Rem Mag sitting in your gun safe will do far more damage than a 5.56mm round. And there were no precedents in 1791 regulating weapons, and there is nothing unusual about AR-15s when so many tens of millions of people own them.

And you know what I see after Heller, McDonald, Caetano and Bruen? I see the supreme court running away from this issue like cowards, especially Barrett. I don’t care whether the court wants to see a full stack of prior decisions on this issue. There is nothing more necessary to make this decision. All the facts are in and have been for decades.  It could be a single paragraph long. Or even shorter.

“AR-15’s are not unusual weapons in America. Therefore, they cannot be banned.”

There, I did it for them.  No muss, no fuss. It wasn’t hard. But it must be hard for them.

Dummy.

Although Gov. Kathy Hochul says a bill she signed into law this week won’t “ban hunting or fishing” in New York, it does prohibit what she deems “the wasteful taking of certain wildlife” in the state.

The law takes aim at hunting contests — competitions, tournaments or derbys — that are held for prize or entertainment purposes, making them unlawful. Only hunting contests organized for the targeted management of wildlife populations will be allowed in New York.

A release from the governor’s office notes that animals such as coyotes, crows, squirrels and rabbits are often killed in large numbers as part of these events.

“Protecting wildlife is critical to fostering the integrity and resilience of our environment and our outdoor recreation economy,” Hochul said. “This legislation establishes strong safeguards for our state’s precious wildlife species and protects our important fishing and hunting traditions.”

Precious, even!  Coyotes are precious and the environment won’t be resilient without them!

“Any wildlife killed during these activities become the property of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation,” the release says.

Oh yes.  You can’t hunt the king’s forests, for they belong to the king. In this case, no one can hunt because the king says so.

Kathy may regret that decision when even more people move out of the state, hunters flee the area never to come back with their money, and Coyotes kill pets galore.

And for any sporting even like a tournament, as long as tags are unaffected, i.e., the culling of the herd remains unchanged because tags are held constant, why would it matter how or when they were harvested as long as it was in-season?

Nice job, dummy. If you still live in NY, I hope you love the Coyotes too! Around these parts we shoot them, but I hear that in New York they’re very sweet.

And if you still live in NY … why?