Articles by Herschel Smith

David Codrea:

The noncompliance with gun laws pledge was backed up with acts of civil disobedience throughout the afternoon, as various activists “transferred” firearms to one another without going through any government oversight checks. For their part, the Yes on 594 Twitter account has argued that handing off a gun is not a violation, claiming without further clarification when challenged, that “law enforcement agencies have been clear for months: that’s #NotATransfer.” That contention of an exception is not supported by the Ballotpedia description of “the effect of the … measure.”

Because they didn’t plan for disobedience.  They planned for willing sheeple who wouldn’t cause trouble.

Barrett Firearms inks a deal.

KIEV, December 12 (Sputnik) – The Ukrainian state-run defense concern Ukroboronprom said Friday its subsidiary Ukrinmash had signed a deal on small arms delivery with US Barrett Firearms.

“The representatives of company Ukrinmash – the leading exporter of the Ukroboronprom state concern – signed a contract with Barrett Firearms. Weapons will be delivered for the needs of Ukraine’s Security Service and National Guard,” Ukroboronprom said on its website.

Good for Barrett, and good for The Ukraine.  To the minions of the shirtless, metrosexual megalomaniac tyrant Putin, may a .50 round from a Barrett blast open your skulls.

News from Iraq:

Four young Christians were brutally beheaded by ISIS in Iraq for refusing to convert to Islam, according to a British reverend forced to flee the country.

Canon Andrew White, known as the Vicar of Baghdad, told the horrifying story how of the youths, all under 15, were murdered for standing up to the jihadists.

The vicar of the city’s St George’s Church, the only Anglican church in the whole of Iraq, has had to leave the country for Israel amid constant threats on his life by Islamic State.

In a harrowing interview with the Orthodox Christian Network, he said ISIS had killed ‘huge numbers’ of believers in Jesus.

‘Islamic State turned up and said to the children, “you say the words that you will follow Mohammad”’, he said, his voice cracking with emotion.

‘The children, all under 15, four of them, said “no, we love Yesua; we have always loved Yesua; we have always followed Yesua; Yesua has always been with us”.

‘They [ISIS] said, “Say the words.” They [the children] said, “No, we can’t”.

‘They chopped all their heads off. How do you respond to that? You just cry.

Here’s how you respond to that.  You take a rifle and blow a hole through their skulls before they ever invade your home, or if they’re already in your home, you blow a hole in their belly or groin with a 230 grain .45 fat boy.  Any more questions?

Don’t be sheeple.

In 1961, curious about a person’s willingness to obey an authority figure, social psychologist Stanley Milgram began trials on his now-famous experiment. In it, he tested how far a subject would go electrically shocking a stranger (actually an actor faking the pain) simply because they were following orders. Some subjects, Milgram found, would follow directives until the person was dead.

The news: A new Milgram-like experiment published this month in the Journal of Personality has taken this idea to the next step by trying to understand which kinds of people are more or less willing to obey these kinds of orders. What researchers discovered was surprising: Those who are described as “agreeable, conscientious personalities” are more likely to follow orders and deliver electric shocks that they believe can harm innocent people, while “more contrarian, less agreeable personalities” are more likely to refuse to hurt others.

The methodology and findings: For an eight-month period, the researchers interviewed the study participants to gauge their social personality, as well as their personal history and political leanings. When they matched this data to the participants’ behavior during the experiment, a distinct pattern emerged: People who were normally friendly followed orders because they didn’t want to upset others, while those who were described as unfriendly stuck up for themselves.

“The irony is that a personality disposition normally seen as antisocial — disagreeableness — may actually be linked to ‘pro-social’ behavior,'” writes Psychology Today‘s Kenneth Worthy. “This connection seems to arise from a willingness to sacrifice one’s popularity a bit to act in a moral and just way toward other people, animals or the environment at large. Popularity, in the end, may be more a sign of social graces and perhaps a desire to fit in than any kind of moral superiority.”

Another unnecessary rescue story.

Most were out Black Friday shopping or recovering from Thanksgiving feasts on Friday morning. Jason Hodges headed out for a hike. What started out as a leisurely walk through the woods turned into a 13-hour ordeal and rescue mission involving more than a dozen Rabun County volunteers and emergency personnel.

Jason headed to Patterson Gap around 10 a.m. with his father’s dog, Peaches. The avid hiker was visiting his parents at Lake Burton for the holiday and intended to return to his family by lunchtime. He decided to go to the top of the mountain, heading off the trail and down animal paths. After enjoying the vista, he headed back on what he thought was the Appalachian Trail.

The College Park man and his canine friend circled the mountain several times. Then Jason decided to head straight down to find his parked truck, wading through dense thickets of mountain laurel. With no food or water, he and the dog stopped to take a drink from a nearby stream. Nearly three hours had passed.

“Everything just started to look the same,” he said.

It was then that Jason realized the worst — he was lost.

Meredith Hodges received a call that any wife would dread. She said it’s not unusual for her husband to get lost while hiking …

Good grief.  Learn to navigate.  Take maps.  Take a compass.  Know the terrain.  Wear good boots, take a day pack, a parka, a Mylar survival blanket, a knife, a gun, a protein bar, water, 550 cord, a rubberized poncho for a ready-made tent (using the 550 cord and two trekking poles), a high lumen tactical light and fire starter.

It’s so simple.  Don’t be that guy.

Virginians should prepared themselves for the kind of gun control we recently saw in Washington with I-594.

RICHMOND — Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Monday will call for a package of gun restrictions in Virginia, including a renewal of the state’s one-a-month limit on handgun purchases and a requirement that buyers at gun shows undergo background checks.

McAuliffe will also propose keeping guns away from people convicted of crimes related to domestic violence and revoking concealed-handgun permits for parents who are behind on child-support payments.

[ … ]

While campaigning for governor last year, McAuliffe veered from the playbook of Democrats seeking statewide office, pushing openly for gun control and other liberal causes, including abortion rights and action to mitigate climate change.

Because elections have consequences.  I have to admit that I was surprised at his election to the office of Governor, but I suppose that the urban areas control the suburban and rural areas of Virginia.

To my readers in Virginia, begin now.  If you don’t want these draconian measures that the totalitarians and control freaks would shove down your throat – causing you to have to engage in the same sort of thing we see now in Washington with the “We Will Not Comply” campaign – then make it clear that passing such measures will have consequences too, consequences that they fear enough to turn this back.

But beware, you are fighting Goliath.  Expect Bloomberg/Gates money to back this, and expect a fight for your very freedom.  Bathe it in prayer, make the consequences clear to the politicians, and then disobey the authorities should such measures pass – and dare them to do anything about it.

Ukrainian pro-Russian separatist militants test body armor.  I … just … don’t know what to say.  Readers can complete this post in the comments.

NYT:

SYDNEY, Australia — Armed police officers surrounded a cafe in Sydney’s central business district Monday morning after one or more gunmen took hostages and displayed a black flag with Arabic script in white in the cafe window.

A police spokesman confirmed officers were called to the Lindt Chocolate Cafe, in Martin Place, a major shopping and pedestrian thoroughfare, at around 10 a.m.

A commercial television network, Channel Seven, which has a studio near the cafe, showed footage of people, wearing Lindt uniforms, pressed against the cafe windows, displaying the flag.

Reports say anything from 20 to 40 or 50 people are being held.  You mean that the police weren’t able to anticipate it and stop it before it happened?  You mean the police being armed isn’t enough to keep people safe?  You mean that there are 40-50 people now in Sydney, Australia who wish they were concealed handgun carriers?

BBC:

Things were just starting to improve when the firm was hit by Western sanctions.

With Russian military stores full of the famously durable Kalashnikovs, and dwindling orders from abroad, the company had turned its attention to civilian firearms markets.

In January it finally secured a foothold in the biggest of them, sealing a lucrative deal to supply up to 200,000 rifles a year in the US.

But in July, Kalashnikov was placed on a US list of eight arms manufacturers sanctioned for Russia’s role in fomenting the crisis in Ukraine. The deal was halted with under half the initial order delivered. It was added to an EU list in September.

“Of course I was upset, because I didn’t understand why we’d been sanctioned,” Kalashnikov director Alexei Krivoruchko told the BBC, arguing that the firm was no longer wholly state-owned since he and another Russian businessman had invested in a 49% stake.

Also, he points out, it primarily produces firearms for the civilian market.

“The US was a key market for us, one that we planned to develop,” Mr Krivoruchko says. “It’s a big loss, there’s no point saying otherwise.”

There are now some 200 models of Kalashnikov, still produced at the original factory in Izhevsk, two hours’ flight east of Moscow.

So let me explain it to you Mr. Krivoruchko.  Your government did indeed foment big trouble in the Ukraine, but that has nothing to do with the sanctions.  You see, you’re a Russian capitalist businessman, while our President, Mr. Obama, is an American communist and doesn’t want his people to have guns.  Do you understand now?

Readers have known for a long time that I am no fan of the Kalashnikov design.  I hate to hear and feel the clank … clank … clank … rattle … rattle … rattle … when I shoot an AK.  And I don’t like to miss.  But it’s much more reliable than the Eugene Stoner design, you say.  Wrong.  I know all about the presumed failures of the M4 at Wanat and Kamdesh, and I still claim (like I did at the time) that the failure there had to do with ensconcing too small a force without good force protection, control over the terrain, good air support, and a clear mission.

I have never had a single failure with my AR-15, and for those of you still unconvinced, Uncle sends us to Gun Nuts Media, who gives us this.

KAC SR-15 MOD2 Sand Dump Test AFTER 15,000 rounds without cleaning… from Ballistic Radio on Vimeo.

And thus we speak the name of Eugene Stoner with hushed reverence around these parts.  And if you own an AR-15, it’s likely that you’re much happier with your rifle than German Soldiers are with the H&K G36.  Then again, you know how I feel about H&K.

Gaston Gazette:

Sixty-eight-year-old Joseph Sapienza suspects the men who attempted to break into his Gastonia home Thursday night thought he would be an easy target because he’s disabled and uses a walker.

But after scaring away the would-be thieves, Sapienza taped a note to his door, in which he attempted to make it clear that his trigger finger works just fine.

“(If) you try to break in my house again, I will be waiting on you,” reads the note, which was still there Friday afternoon. “Enter at your own risk.”

Sapienza, a Marine Corps veteran who served four years in Vietnam, was watching television in his bed at 7:42 p.m. at his home on Davis Avenue. He heard someone prying off the lock and pulling the nails to the latch out of his front door.

He grabbed his .45-caliber handgun, put it in a holster on his walker and began shuffling toward the sound. He flipped a hallway light on, yelled out to announce he was armed, and yanked open the door to see two men wearing ski masks.

They jumped off his porch and practically tripped over one another trying to flee, Sapienza said.

“It was like a keystone cops scene,” he said. “When they saw the .45, one ran one way up the street, and the other went the other way.”

This is truly a heart-warming story, like sitting on a late evening in front of the fire with a glass of fine liquor beside your dog.  Now let’s hear from the anti-gun nuts.  “A gun in the home is no protection …”

David Codrea:

GOA stood alone among national gun rights groups in November, warning that passing the bill will result in giving Congressional Democrats control of Congress for the next 10 months, as the “so-called ‘long-term CR [continuing resolution]’ … would set policy and spending until the end of the fiscal year (September 30, 2015).” Their solution was to call instead for “a ‘short-term CR’ into January, February, or March. This would allow the newly elected Republican Congress to set spending and policy for the federal government for most of next year.”

And that’s exactly what has happened.  The Democratic party is evil, but the GOP is a cowardly shell of humanity, without even so much as a thread of dignity or character left.  But the reason I lifted this quote from David’s article is that it reminds me of a comment left here at TCJ when we discussed this.

seriously ? they think the lame duck Senate can pass gun control ? so far the GOP House has stopped everything … quit crying wolf … this is just a fundraising stunt …

Yea, not so much, huh?  Read all of David’s piece at Examiner.

If you’re a machinst and live in or near Huntsville, Alabama, Remington wants to offer you a job.  If I was a machinst and lived in Huntsville, Alabama I’d take it.

The Texas Legislature is flooded with proposed gun legislation.  The legalization of open carry is a no-brainer and shouldn’t take any more than a minute or two to pass, after a couple of hours to craft the law.  We’ll see just how smart or stupid the Texas Legislature is.

Nullification works.  Of course it does.  It just requires the heart, character and stomach to stand up to the federal government.

As we’ve discussed before, Pew research recently performed a poll in which they concluded that “62 percent of Hispanics polled by Pew say they support controlling gun ownership, versus 45 percent for the nation.”  Yet another more recent Pew study concludes the same thing, but with worse statistics than before.

Today, about six-in-ten whites (61%) prioritize gun rights over gun control. By contrast, only about a third of blacks say this (34%) while six-in-ten (60%) say it is more important to control gun ownership. And Hispanics prioritize gun control over gun rights by a wide 71% to 25% margin.

And yet these are the people whom the government is allowing to cross the border, even abetting their permanent residency here, with states like Texas and Arizona deeply implicated in Hispanic voter proclivities.

Timothy Carney:

Naturally, Democrats and the Left have tried to pry Southerners away from their guns and religion. Gun control has largely been a culture war effort for Democrats. “Some of the southern areas have cultures that we have to overcome,” was Congressman Charles Rangel’s explanation for why gun control was both needed and difficult.

The Washington Post’s Gene Weingarten cursed the Second Amendment as “the refuge of bumpkins and yeehaws who like to think they are protecting their homes against imagined swarthy marauders desperate to steal their flea-bitten sofas from their rotting front porches.”

So let’s deal with the second amendment yet again.  To be sure, the second amendment was written within a certain cultural context of unorganized militia who used their own weapons, weapons they had to defend themselves and their families against both animals and men, as well as provide for themselves.  So one might argue for the notion that the presupposition necessary for the second amendment to make any sense at all is private ownership and use of guns.  But this requires deductive thought, and progressives aren’t big on that.  So in legal debating terms, I will stipulate, and I won’t press the issue because I want to make another more important point.

Progressives have yet to pick up on the fact that we don’t believe the second amendment gives us rights to defend ourselves or homes.  They would be much more aghast at the truth, but their blindness keeps them from seeing the truth.  God gives us rights, the state only recognizes those rights.

But more importantly, the second amendment says nothing about defense of persons or the home during the normal course of life.  It has nothing whatsoever to do with that.  I have a right anyway to defend myself and my family with any weapon I choose, so says God.  The second amendment says something different.  It says that the state recognizes that God gives me the right to shoot people who would take away our guns – like Gene Weingarten – through the skull, even if their taking is approved by the state.

Illinois Policy:

Earlier this year, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down a state eavesdropping law that made it a crime for citizens to record conversations with police or anyone else without the other person’s permission. The court held that the old law “criminalize[d] a wide range of innocent conduct” and violated free-speech rights. In particular, the court noted the state could not criminalize recording activities where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy, including citizens’ “public” encounters with police.

Now the old law is back, with just a few changes, in a new bill sent to the governor’s desk by the Illinois Senate on Dec. 4. The bill not only passed, but did so overwhelmingly with votes of 106-7 in the House on and 46-4-1 in the Senate.

The new version is nearly as bad as the old one.

Under the new bill, a citizen could rarely be sure whether recording any given conversation without permission is legal. The bill would make it a felony to surreptitiously record any “private conversation,” which it defines as any “oral communication between 2 or more persons,” where at least one person involved had a “reasonable expectation” of privacy.

[ … ]

citizens can’t be expected to know for sure precisely which situations give rise to an “expectation of privacy” and which don’t. The Illinois Supreme Court said that police don’t have an expectation of privacy in “public” encounters with citizens, but it did not explain what counts as a “public” encounter. So if this bill becomes law, people who want to be sure to avoid jail time will refrain from recording police at all, and the law will therefore still effectively prevent people from recording police.

The bill would also discourage people from recording conversations with police by making unlawfully recording a conversation with police – or an attorney general, assistant attorney general, state’s attorney, assistant state’s attorney or judge – a class 3 felony, which carries a sentence of two to four years in prison. Meanwhile, the bill makes illegal recording of a private citizen a class 4 felony, which carries a lower sentencing range of one to three years in prison.

There’s only one apparent reason for imposing a higher penalty on people who record police in particular: to make people especially afraid to record police.

But I thought that we had a due process right to record police in the performance of their duties?  In fact, I think judges have said so time and time again, and again, and again.

Instead of passing this stupid bill, they should have passed what reader Ned Weatherby calls Herschel’s Law.