Articles by Herschel Smith

News from Chicago:

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan told thousands of followers Sunday he was planning to reach out to gang leaders to help “protect” the Nation of Islam.

That came at the Nation of Islam’s annual Saviours’ Day convention. Farrakhan, 79, renewed the call for African Americans to pool money and buy as much land as possible, in order to “control means of production” and produce food and other goods, such as clothing.

Farrakhan said collectively owning land is a way for black people in America to prosper economically. The calls were part of a speech that lasted more than three hours and touched on topics including Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, U.S. Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel and a national push for gun control.

Farrakhan told a crowd of more than 7,000 people at the UIC Pavilion that national lawmakers are using Chicago’s violence epidemic to push for stronger gun control laws but said the Second Amendment has nothing to do with the spate of shootings in Chicago.

“The guns that every one of our young people have, are they legal? No!” Farrakhan said.

Instead, Farrakhan had a different idea for how to address gun violence. In addition to sending letters to black military leaders, Farrakhan said he planned to contact the city’s gang leaders to recruit gang members to “protect” any land the Nation of Islam might buy in the future.

“All you gangbangers, we know you love to shoot, but you’re killing yourselves,” Farrakhan said. “All your weapons are illegal and you’re using them like savages.”

But Farrakhan said gangbangers are “natural soldiers” and could be taught “the science of war” to become protectors of the Nation of Islam’s assets in the future.

“Illegal” guns, whatever that means, are only a problem if blacks are shooting blacks.  The better option is to get control of the situation so that the gangs can behave as protectors of assets, acting according to the “science of war.”  After all, “there is no reason for the American people to be armed to the teeth.”

War … as in the operations one conducts with the implements of war, or in this case, guns.

In Senator Chris Murphy Versus Guns we discussed how Senator Murphy is playing the poll card with his colleagues.  The polls support us, he says.  But I pointed out that they don’t, and (via David Codrea) here is more evidence.

In an ongoing poll conducted of its membership by Gun Owners of America, 96.2% of over 18,500 respondents have thus far opposed Obama’s universal background check proposal.

So many gun owners tried to register their opposition to banning private gun sales that GOA’s server crashed, and many who were opposed this framework for a national gun registry were unable to cast their votes.

Gun owners do not support universal background checks and do not support an assault weapons ban.  In fact, gun owners do not support any further restrictions on guns.  Any poll that tells you otherwise is a lie.  I just don’t know how else to say it.  The numbers, questions, data, statistics, sample population, sample location or something else, or all of the above, are fabricated.  I’m a gun owner and I run among a circle of gun owners, and I know.  Don’t trust the polls.  In fact, don’t trust Obama’s anti-gun campaign which is proven to be a fraud.  Senator Mpuphy is lying to his colleagues, and he knows it, even if his colleagues don’t know.

But Senator Murphy recently got an earfull of anecdotal evidence at a townhall meeting.

When U.S. Senator Chris Murphy appeared at a “town hall meeting” in Manchester on Sunday, things became so heated that police had to be called to the scene, although no arrests were made and the senator still stayed late to answer questions and speak with constituents …

… at several points during the event, which was held at MCC on Main, Murphy was interrupted by members of the audience who kept trying to steer the dialogue back to the Second Amendment and the senator’s views on gun control. Things became so unruly during the event, that Manchester Mayor Leo V. Diana had to intercede on Murphy’s behalf and ask the crowd to remain quiet and orderly as Murphy was trying to discuss other issues and answer constituents questions.

Several videos posted to YouTube (and attached to this article) show Murphy continually being interrupted by members of the audience, and the event eventually deteriorating into a shouting match in the crowd.

“They were totally disrupting the meeting,” said Diana, a Democrat. “At one point, it just got into this shouting match.”

A shouting match.  Try to take the guns away.  It’ll be more than a shouting match, and your lying polls won’t be any consolation.

Colorado Springs Independent:

Today we will dip our toes into the gun discussion. Specifically, the high-capacity ammunition magazines for assault weapons and how such items tend mostly to be the realm of people without much education or any sort of consistent dental care who live in trailers with 30 cats and have an NRA sticker on their $400 car.

Harsh? Perhaps. But if you believe the massacres at Columbine High School and a theater in Aurora and the numbing execution of 20 wide-eyed little school kids in Connecticut — in part because of these high-capacity magazines —- should not have any bearing on your “right” to shoot trees and your “right” to blow up propane tanks in the woods with a withering barrage of bullets as you guzzle beer, well, you’re probably accustomed to life being harsh.

[ … ]

Maybe Magpul could make up for the lost revenue by manufacturing a device that could hold a bottle of gin on your dashboard for the drive home from work. Or a heavy stick to beat your spouse. Or a plastic water barrel to drown kittens.

Then the writer goes on a masturbatory high on trying to get Magpul to pull out of Colorado (a move which I have advocated, along with Remington and Kimber out of New York, and Springfield Armory out of Illinois, etc.).  But I haven’t noticed any lack of dental hygiene among my buddies at the range.  I’ll have to run around inspecting their mouths like I would my dog.  If the writer is accurate, they won’t mind because they’re too stupid to know what I’m doing.

Where does this rag find the screeching, hysterical bitches to write stuff like this?

Prior:

Tinfoil Hat Bircher NRA Peckerwood With A Long Gun

Stone Age Vigilantes

WBUR:

“Smart guns,” or guns that will only fire for an authorized owner, are back on the radar.

The White House has called for pushing ahead with smart gun technology.

James Bond has one in the movie “Skyfall,” but in the real world, the technology is not quite there yet, according to smart gun activist and investor Jonas McCord.

McCord’s company Biomac Systems is working on smart gun technology, and he’s not alone.

The New Jersey Institute of Technology has been working on a gun that will recognize the owner’s grip.

Trigger Smart, an Irish company, relies on radio frequency embedded in the gun and in a ring or bracelet the owner is wearing. Without the owner’s ring or bracelet, the gun will not fire.

Armatix GmbH, a German company, has a personalized gun it hopes to put on the market in the U.S. this year. The gun will only shoot if it’s in range of a radio device which carries the owner’s biometric data.

I hope they spend a lot of money on it and get it on the market soon.  Let the market tell them what something like this is worth.  Like I said before.  When hell freezes over.

Rolling Stone:

For gunmakers, the political fight over assault rifles and high-capacity pistols is about more than just profits – it’s about the militarization of the marketplace and represents a desperate bid by gunmakers to prop up a decaying business. The once-dependable market for traditional hunting guns has fallen off a cliff. To adapt, the firearms industry has embraced a business strategy that requires it to place the weapons of war favored by deranged killers like Adam Lanza and Jared Loughner into the homes and holsters of as many Americans as possible. “They’re not selling your dad’s hunting rifle or shotgun,” says Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, a top industry watchdog. “They’re selling military-bred weaponry.”

The Violence Policy Center.  But who else would Rolling Stone go to but the Violence Policy Center?  Of course.

So this article makes it sound like gun manufacturers are just struggling to stay in business, and have had to adapt to give people what they want, which is not really old fashioned rifles, but rather, these awful, evil black guns.  If this is true, I guess the cost for a nice Remington 700 series rifle has dropped like a rock.

Oooopppps!  I guess not, since the MSRP is still $800 – $1200.  Not good.  A broken narrative.  But let’s continue.

Less than 20 percent of Americans born after 1980 report having a gun in the home. “For the industry, the problem is ‘Who is going to buy the guns?'” says Sugarmann. “To borrow the language of the tobacco industry,” he says, “they need to find ‘replacement shooters.'”

Good grief.  Maybe he should have focused on people born between 1980 and 1990, since people born much later are prohibited by law from owning firearms.  What a dumb ass.  And any shooter knows just how hard it is to order firearms now, what the demand is, and how many new and young shooters there are at ranges.  But this author isn’t a shooter.  He is a dumb ass.  The narrative has changed too, from one of simply meeting creepy customer demand to making that market themselves by a slick strategy.  Does this guy have an editor?  Was he drunk when he wrote this crap? But going backwards in the article, we get this little gem.

AR-15 enthusiasts brag they can fire up to 400 rounds in 60 seconds. Paying roughly 50 cents a bullet, such shooters are blowing through $200 worth of ammo in a hot minute.

Maybe he should have gotten up with me.  I could have told him that the going price for 5.56 mm is about $1.00 per round.  I want to know what store told him they could sell at 50 cents per round?

Oh well.  This is what you get when writers at Rolling Stone weigh in dramatically and breathlessly on things about which they are ignorant.

UPDATE: Oh look!  It’s like watching a train wreck.  Rolling Stone was picked up and parroted by … you guessed it … MSNBC.  The only thing better than progressives choosing to look like dumb asses is progressives falling in line to be like each other and looking, well, like dumb asses.  Daily Kos, anyone?  What other progressive rag will run with this meme?  How rich.

Max Velocity Tactical has an interesting and thought provoking article up entitled Tactical Considerations For The Long Wolf (hat tip Western Rifle Shooters).  This is must reading and well worth the time he has put into this.  I find it improbable that you read his article without picking up something that you need to think about.

The article sets the stage with a clear and present danger to your family, and rather than being coupled with other like-minded defenders and partners, you are alone in your quest for self defense and family safety.  A bit of his article is reproduced below.

Area of Operations: you need to consider that if the enemy is in any way switched on, and are keeping any sort of incident map, then if you simply operate close to your retreat they will build up a picture that may well lead them to your home and family. Thus you should be unpredictable and move further away or from unexpected directions in order to prosecute your attacks.

Navigation: you will need to be able to accurately move by map and compass across rough back country terrain to get in and out of your objective. You will take separate routes in and out and use deception.

Movement: You must use cover and concealment to move. You will have to move slowly, at a jungle patrol pace, in order to effectively scan ahead and around. Cover means using the ground (hard cover) to conceal you, such as moving in draws or behind terrain features. Concealment means using vegetation to hide you from any observers. You will need to plan a route accordingly, also avoiding any settlements where there is an increased risk of compromise and where dogs will bark at you.

However, do not move on obvious features or along trails and tracks. You can handrail (parallel) them at a distance if you need to or if you need to use them for navigation. It is often best to ‘cross-grain’ the terrain thus making your moves hard to predict. Valley bottoms and trails/streams are good places for you to walk into an ambush. Use techniques for avoiding ambush such as hand railing and moving partway up a valley side (contouring), thus giving you the benefits of cover and concealment but avoiding natural ambush sites and places where others will travel.

You must be very careful at any kind of obstacle, vulnerable point, channelizing feature or linear danger area. Examples of a channelizing vulnerable point include crossing a bridge or moving through a track or trail junction. A linear danger area is any kind of open feature that you have to cross such as a road, river or trail, even a power line through the woods. You must be very careful to observe in detail prior to crossing and find a point where the crossing is best concealed, such as in a depression or even by crawling through a culvert, for example.

As you move, you need to stop regularly for listening and observation breaks. Scan and listen. Do this before moving through the next natural part of the terrain, cross it then stop again. A real game changer would be having a portable FLIR thermal imager (such as the FLIR Scout), with which you can scan around and into the brush to spot anyone concealed.

He makes you consider whether you or your enemy have FLIR or night vision, he covers the concepts of enfilade and defilade, food, water purification, firearms, concealment while sleeping, etc.  Again, the article is well worth the time and if you don’t read anything else today you should read this article.

He discusses taking multiple weapons with you: “You may carry two rifles, a hunting rifle slung on your pack and an AR-15 style for while you are patrolling and for closer range self-defense.”

Here I break ranks with him.  It seems to me that you select a rifle, not two or more.  That one rifle needs to sustain your mission.  If you choose a bolt action scoped rifle, then ensure that your shots are stand off long range shots under concealment and that you have a means of egress and evasion.  If you choose an AR-15, then ensure that you have Travis Haley-like skills and you can make your shots count at 800 meters.

If you must take two rifles, one for long range and one for short range, then you’ve already planned poorly for the mission.  You are counting on a combination of stand off shots and CQB, and adding to the weight and ammunition you must carry.  My choice would be to choose your rifle well, and then carry your favorite CQB pistol or revolver.  If I carry more than two firearms, I might carry a backup handgun in an ankle holster.

My only other comment about this article is that the assumption behind some of the considerations is an abundance of wealth.  Who has the kind of money necessary for infrared capabilities, night vision, expensive firearms, optics (e.g., a high end EOTech Holographic sight plus shipping will run nearly $600), backup firearms, and so on and so forth?  You can even invest in fully body armor if you wish, including SAPI plates.  In contrast, hopefully I have given you an inexpensive option for cover if you need to be in the elements for a protracted period of time.

On the whole, though, I am really not a fan of the lone wolf paradigm.  I think such a defense needs two or more men, and I probably wouldn’t make the choice to leave my family alone in order to effect these kinds of operations.  The risk to my family would be too high.

That brings me to another article by Mike Vanderboegh on his fourth installment of William Diamond’s Drum.  As always, Mike is good reading and worth the time.  David Codrea weighs in with the following:

… it can be smart to have a hidden cache and it can be self-defeating to shoot it out when the team shows up at your door.

Living to fight another day, at a time and place of your choosing, not theirs, seems like an option we’d want to leave ourselves, and if we’re taken out of commission, it’s a legacy to leave our children.

Bottom line — there’s no one size fits all response, and different scenarios present different potentials.

David is referring to Mike’s opinions regarding burying weapons rather than fighting now.  Mike prefers the later and eschews the former.  I understand Mike’s point, but frankly, if gun confiscations ever do start, any team entering my home will find a few range toys to confiscate because “I forgot to turn them in.”  The rest were buried at the bottom of lake Keowee in that horrible boating accident several years ago.  I cried buckets of tears over that accident.  “Have a nice day, SWAT team.  I hope you enjoyed tea and crumpets.”

There is no virtue in engaging a SWAT team in your home, endangering your family for no good reason, and fighting a battle that you cannot win.  If gun confiscations ever start, believe me when I tell you that they will never find me again – but they will see the results of my handiwork.  They won’t know it’s from me, and they will never see it happen.

I agree with David.  A SWAT team at your doorstep means they’re dictating the terms.  Live to fight another day.  Do it at a time and place of your choosing, not on their terms.  And thus I see battling down a SWAT team at your doorstep as a fixture in the lone wolf paradigm.  I don’t like the lone wolf paradigm.  There are better ways to do this.

UPDATE: Thanks to WRSA for the attention.  Remember the swamp fox.  I will become a phantom.  As far as they know I will disappear from the face of the earth.  But I will ally with a few like-minded individuals, and they will know what the phantoms do.

So Chuck Hagel is confirmed as Secretary of Defense for the United States of America.  I don’t have a long, complicated assessment of what will follow, or why Hagel is a horrible choice for mowing my lawn, much less being SecDef.

But contrary to the notes I have received, the blog entries I’ve read, and the speeches I have heard the Senators make on how much he concerns anyone with a lick of common sense, it doesn’t really matter whether Hagel was confirmed or not.  It didn’t matter with Secretary of State Kerry either.

Anyone in this post will be implementing Obama’s foreign policy, and that makes for a very dangerous world for some time to come.  But it is noteworthy that Hagel acted so foolishly in front of the Senate, like a bumbling clown.

Together with Kerry, Obama has his insane clown posse, and they will do his bidding for an insane clown foreign policy.

I’m glad that my son is out of the Marine Corps.  The battle is now for the homeland.

I hiked and camped and went shooting and trained quarter horses in my youth.  The woods and mountains of South and North Carolina was my playground.  If I had been raised in the mountains of Virginia I might have made a little untaxed corn liquor in a still.  I have never made moonshine, but I still pride myself on knowing something about my region.

I was watching a recent episode of Discovery Channel’s Moonshiners, and I remarked to one of my sons visiting with us that “those boys are to the West of us from around Murphy.”  Later in the season I learned that I was right.  Like I said, I know my region.  Like the times in which I grew up, around Murphy, your handshake means something and speaking directly to your face instead of going behind your back shows respect.  People are generous, perhaps to a fault, but no one wants government intervention in their lives, or meddling foreigners either.  Minding your own business is of paramount importance.

In what may be the most remarkable instance of “you ain’t from around here, are you” I have ever seen, the local news in Murphy tried to obtain concealed handgun permit information, and was soundly trounced.

The Cherokee Scout of Murphy, North Carolina, has printed an absolutely groveling apology to its readers and to the local sheriff for even asking the sheriff for public records of those with concealed carry gun permits. Publisher David Brown writes, “We never meant to offend the wonderful people of this community,” in a letter noticed by media blogger Jim Romenesko. Again, this is discussing public records that, according to North Carolina law, the sheriff legally is legally required to make public. The editor who made the public records request was subsequently threatened on Facebook.

Last week Cherokee Scout editor Robert Horne asked sheriff Keith Lovin for a list of locals seeking concealed carry permits. Lovin ignored state law and denied the request. He also posted the letters on the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page, a space that appears to be used primarily to post photos of good-looking locals involved in meth busts and robberies. Facebook commenters were furious. “Didn’t they do this up north a couple of months ago. It was a fiasco,” one commenter asked. (The answer is sort of: The Journal News, in suburban New York, published a map of locals licensed to own handguns.) The outcry was big enough to get covered by other local news outlets. Here’s a Facebook comment that was likely exactly what Lovin was looking for: “Thank you Sheriff Lovin for your patriotism and high morale caliber! Will definitely be voting for you again!”

Publisher Brown initially had a different tone. “We should have expected Sheriff Keith Lovin’s posting of his correspondence with Editor Robert Horne, because he knows he can’t win in a court of law but wants to win in the court of public opinion,” he wrote in a letter on February 21. But he was already looking to calm down readers. “The truth is… we never had any desire nor intention to publish any names of any person carrying a concealed weapon.”

In the February 21 letter the editor and publisher sound simply indignant.  They said “We should have expected Sheriff Keith Lovin’s posting of his correspondence with Editor Robert Horne because he knows he can’t win in a court of law but wants to win in the court of public opinion.  He also knows’s that he’s breaking the law because if the list wasn’t open, he wouldn’t have been pushing the state Legislature to close it … However, despite the fact that the Scout would likely win a lawsuit, we have no intention of taking it to court.”

Only two days later they ran with this note to readers.

The Cherokee Scout made a tremendous error in judgment this week, and thanks to our readers we learned a tough lesson.

As publisher of your local newspaper, I want to apologize to everyone we unintentionally upset with our public records request for a list of those who have or have applied for a concealed carry permit. We had no idea the the reaction it would cause.

Sheriff Keith Lovin had the best interests of the people of Cherokee County at heart when he denied our request. The Scout would like to offer an apology to him as well.

To that end, Editor Robert Horne spoke with Lovin on Friday morning to tell him we were withdrawing our public records request. He asked for a written copy of request, and Horne dropped it off at his office that morning.

I realize many people are upset with Horne, myself and the Scout and we can understand that. We never meant to offend the wonderful people of this fine community nor hurt the reputation of this newspaper. We do a lot of positive work that helps make Cherokee County an even better place to live, and I hope more good work will repair our reputation with readers.

Many of you have asked where Horne is from. He is from a small town in south Georgia — Cairo, Ga., to be exact. It is a rural area much like Murphy, and his roots are helping him better understand this community.

“Better understand the community.”  He went after private information, possibly lied about his reasons (why would you want it unless you intended to divulge it), and then tried to invoke the law in his quest to meddle in the affairs of others.

As for Sheriff Lovin, rock on, but leave the gun owners and moonshiners alone.  As for the North Carolina State Legislature, be about your business making the records of concealed handgun permits unavailable to public disclosure.  We’re waiting, and watching, and taking notes.  As for the editor of the paper, you might want to go back to where you came from.  You picked the wrong town in which to tilt progressive, boy.

Guns.com:

Over the last few years, I’ve seen a lot of ink spilled about the one—that is the ultimate, end of the world, SHTF, need no other, bug out bag firearm that will carry you and yours at the end of days.  These articles usually go into great detail as to the how’s, what’s, and why’s of the caliber, model, and make for that ideal, one and done gun but I’ve seen precious little written about one very important issue that could turn your uber-pistol into a good looking paperweight.  What if it breaks?

Recently I had one of my Smith & Wesson revolvers put completely out of action by the tiniest of parts, a hand torsion spring. This spring is what keeps the hand engaging the ratchet on the rear of the cylinder. This little two-dollar part shut the gun down completely and it was eye opening for me because, if the bombs start dropping, I know I would want to have that wheelgun with on my hip.

So, if you are into buying a gun for one of those dreaded “what if” occasions, how do you guard against mechanical failure when ordering a replacement part from Brownell’s or another part is no longer an option?

Author David LaPell does a good job of discussing the need for some rudimentary Gunsmith skills, having spare parts and the right tools, buying reliable guns, and the virtue of purchasing in two’s (although this is an interesting option and one that I have thought about, it could get much more expensive than the average person’s bank account can sustain).

The article is worth the read time.  I have a number of guns, all of them reliable personal defense weapons except one, and that one will never go anywhere with me except to the range as a range toy.

I realize that your so-called bug out provisions are weight-limited.  You cannot carry unlimited water, freeze dried food, water filter, first aid and medical supplies, tactical lights and batteries, cordage, cover (like a tarp), electronic gear and ammunition (frankly, to me ammunition seems the most important of these provisions and yet the most weighty).

Here is a side bar comment about cover.  You can purchase a tarp covering from Lowe’s or similar store, but I constructed my own by using house wrap (used for vapor barrier) in 12′ X 12′, double-side-taped the edges with Gorilla Tape, and then used grommets (purchased from Lowe’s) to place holes in the corners and middle.  It makes a perfect covering in the absence of a weighty tent if you have cordage and trekking poles, and if you can find a housing contractor to give you a piece of house wrap, the supplies cost $15.  You can also use the hole in the middle and some cordage to lift the center of the tarp above the rest of it, making provision for water run off.

But even something like this isn’t weight-free.  So I understand that the premier concern is weight.  Hard decisions must be made.  But here is the crux of the issue.  Do not ever carry one bug out gun.  Have a bug out gun, and a backup, and a backup to that one if you can carry it.  And enough ammunition for all of them.

Corner:

Congressman Steve Stockman (R., Texas) accused President Obama’s gun-control campaign of using Twitter bots to flood Republican lawmakers and give the illusion of widespread support for the president. “Obama’s anti-gun campaign is a fraud,” Stockman said. ”Obama’s supporters are panicking and willing to do anything to create the appearance of popular support, even if it means trying to defraud Congress.”

Last week, organizers told Obama supporters to tweet at their representatives with the message: “I’m 1 of the 92 percent of Americans who support universal background checks. #WeDemandAVote.” When Stockman reviewed the Twitter messages he received, he noticed that more than half were from what appeared to be spam accounts …

Stockman noticed that these “fake, computer-generated spambots” used the default Twitter avatar, had tweeted once (to Stockman), followed only a few people, and had one follower: Brad Schenck, Obama’s former digital strategist. Other GOP lawmakers, such as New York’s Michael Grimm and Illinois’s Adam Kinzinger, are being flooded with similar messages from seemingly fake accounts.

I’ve said it before.  The polls saying that people want more gun control are lies.  The GOP is full of idiots if they believe them, and also if they believe that the polls are any cover once primary time begins.  We gun owners are a fairly sophisticated bunch.  And we never forget.  Ever.

So, Obama’s anti-gun program is a fraud.  Sort of like … Obama is a fraud.