Archive for the 'Guns' Category

Via Eugene Volokh.

Like Secretary Clinton, the supporters of the bills put before Congress to repeal PLCAA argue that no other industry enjoys the legal shield that the gun industry does — giving as counter-examples firms such as auto companies, pharmaceutical drug companies and even tobacco companies.

They are right to some extent …. [But] would there be widespread tort liability for gun companies were both PLCAA and state pre-emption laws all repealed?

The central argument I will put forward is that it is not easy to find good examples from other important industries of defendants being held liable for the sorts of cases that gun victim plaintiffs would like to win.

Take the motor vehicle accident problem. It is well understood that car companies make vehicles intended to be sold to ordinary drivers that are capable of going more than 100 miles per hour even though that is well more than the maximum road speed allowed. Surely the car companies know that some owners regularly drive faster than, say, 75 miles per hour and cause accidents because of their speeding. Product liability law today generally requires product makers to take into account foreseeable product misuse.

Does this make cars involved in very high speed crashes defectively designed? Although there is something appealing about this idea, I don’t see successful cases being brought on this theory, and given the record so far I’d be surprised if they were successful.

Next, I imagine that in today’s high-tech world motor vehicles could be engineered so that (perhaps absent an emergency) they could not be driven faster than the posted speed limit on the road on which they are currently travelling (and I assume that self-driving cars currently have and will continue to have this feature). Does the failure to include this speed-control function in all of today’s new motor vehicles make them defective so that the manufacturer would be liable in tort to victims of drivers whose speeding (at any speed) causes accidents? This too is an appealing idea, but I don’t see such cases.

It’s only appealing if you’re a nanny-state control freak.  As for cars engineered with governors, don’t give the progressives any more ideas for things they can regulate.

I’ll just remark one more time that the free-for-all hippie culture –love, peace and feel-good – which made its living complaining about signs and other such rules, believed in absolutely nothing and held to no morals or scruples.  Their empty minds became vessels for the poison fed to them, and within short order (one generation), the generation of free wheeling liberty became the cabal of controllers.

The sons and daughters of hippies are nanny-state, government-worshipping control freaks searching for the next thing to regulate so they can bring ubiquitous sameness and monolithic utopia to the world.

Would The Alaskan say this is enough 12 gauge for a grizzly?

Dean Weingarten at Ammoland.

On May 6th, 2017, an armed man was sitting on his front porch in the 400 block of Glenburnie Drive in Houston, Texas. He had a concealed carry permit. His brother says that he goes to the range often. He was on his porch and had another firearm with him. An AR-15 type rifle.

Three men attacked him in a drive-by shooting at about 2:15 a.m. He fired back, hitting all three. They car they were in crashed, and all three left the vehicle to continue the attack.

The homeowner kept up his defense, shooting back and hitting all three men again. Two died, one at the scene, one at the hospital. One of them was in critical condition.

Over 40 shots were fired, but the home defender was not hit. Not once.

Those who wish a disarmed population tell us that AR-15 rifles and other modern sporting rifles are not useful for self-defense.

Here is the report.  No one actually believes that use of an AR-15 is unnecessary or ineffective for self defense.  They’re lying if they say that (unless the conversation is buried in details of long range threats where you need something like an AR-10).  When a person says that, he means that he doesn’t believe that you should have access to AR-15s and that only the state has a righteous monopoly on the use of force, even if you’re defending your life or the lives of loved ones.

Just as we saw in the case of Mr. Stephen Bayazes, who killed one home invader and sent two others to the hospital, he found a reliable semiautomatic rifle with a standard capacity magazine an indispensable tool of self defense.

In another episode of semiautomatic rifle use, an attacker in Hawaii found that no one was capable of effecting self defense.

Hawaii police officers are continuing their search for a suspect who fired an assault rifle at a group of people standing outside a club in Waikiki, killing one and seriously injuring others.

Hawaii News Now reports (http://bit.ly/2xrcAAB ) the shooting happened Saturday morning near Club Alley Cat. Police say a man fired about 10 rounds at the group. A 22-year-old man was taken to the hospital in critical condition and later died. Two other victims, a 27-year-old man and a 31-year-old man, were taken to a hospital in serious condition.

The report says “assault rifle,” and of course it wasn’t a legitimate assault rifle with select fire, and perhaps it was an AK design rather than an AR design.  Who knows, certainly not the reporter?  Either way, the people he attacked didn’t even have a pistol for self defense, or if they did, it was being carried legally.  Not in Hawaii.

Hey, how’s that gun control stuff working out for you, Hawaiians?

The Daily Caller.  1) .300 Win Mag (M91A2), 2) M4A1 with SOPMOD Kit and M203, 3) M14, 4) MP5, and 5) Sig Sauer P226.

Eh, you can have the Sig.  I don’t want it, and I don’t shoot 9mm.  My 1911s do just fine, and John Moses Browning is still comfortable in his superiority to the Sig designer.  I would buy 9mm if I had an MP5 though (I would rather have an M3 .45 “grease gun”).  As for the M14, I suspect that’s going to go the way of the Dodo bird.  This experience seems a little dated, but what do I know.  I am not a Navy SEAL.

In the world of precision shooting the 6.5mm Creedmoor (and 6mm Creedmoor) have completely taken over.  The .308 isn’t being shot any more because of the superior ballistics of the Creedmoor.  I suspect that the military will catch up (there are also some nice semi-automatic guns now in 6.5mm Creedmoor in the AR platform, and for affordable prices.

I’ll also take the grenade launcher.  That would be a nice addition to my gun safe.

Salon:

Silencers are seen by the gun industry as a great way to recruit new customers, because the devices make guns less scary to children.

“For new or younger shooters, using a silencer means being able to focus on marksmanship fundamentals and enjoy the overall shooting experience with considerably more comfort,” the 2017 catalog for Advanced Armament Corporation explained.

Donald Trump Jr., who is a big fan of silencers, concurs. Last year, in a video interview with Joshua Waldron, the CEO of a silencer manufacturer, Don Jr. said that silencers were great at getting “little kids into the game.”

Yep.  That’s what it’s all about – revenue.  It isn’t really about a less dangerous shooting experience, one that protects your hearing.  It isn’t about getting a better cheek weld on the butt of your rifle because you don’t have to knock your head into those idiotic ear muffs.  It’s all about money.

There are several things that we should point out about this simpleton’s article.  First of all, she doesn’t believe in the market.  If something doesn’t live up to the hype, it will die off in the marketplace.  If it isn’t wanted by the public, it won’t continue to be manufactured.  But not according to her.

Second, she believes that you are idiots.  She believes that whether you need something or not, you will buy it with a little coaxing by somebody – who knows – the NRA, the gun manufacturers (who do not fabricate suppressors anyway, other companies do that), or whomever.  It’s all just a revenue stream to them.  You will throw away your hard earned money on trash because somebody else has a scheme to rob you with worthless products.

So she is there to protect you.  The market works because you will buy it, but the market doesn’t work because you can’t discern the difference between needful products and those that aren’t.  It is not a needful product because you have ear plugs and ear muffs.  But it is needful because it might make the shooting experience more enjoyable and entice kids to learn to shoot.

And the main objection she has is that it’s just a revenue scheme.  Or if you continue reading, that it will make the jobs of police harder because it will fall into criminal hands and cause mass shootings.  Or that it will prevent you from hearing the sound of gunfire and running away.  Or something.

Good Lord.  Do they have editors over at Salon or has this just become a total trash bin of word salads for the gun haters?  At any rate, such is the confused thinking of the collectivists.

Shooting Illustrated has a very informative article on revolver disassembly and cleaning.  It’s worth reading in full, and it’s also worth sending this link to yourself and referring to it later with an email search (which is what I do).

It has very good pictures (I learn visually) and also recommendations for revolver tools.  I’ll be using this advice in the future.  If anyone has additional counsel for revolver disassembly, maintenance or cleaning, please fill in the details in comments.

From The Guardian:

Survivors on Caribbean islands shattered by Hurricane Irma begged the world for food, water, shelter and rescue on Saturday as they faced down armed looters and the prospect of a fresh onslaught from strengthening Hurricane Jose.

[ … ]

From the Virgin Islands, survivors painted a picture of desolation and violence, but warned that the situation could deteriorate if aid did not arrive fast. “There is nothing left, I don’t think people will believe the severity of what happened. There is no water, no food, no supplies, no transport. You can’t get from one part to another unless you walk,” said Giles Cadman, who lives on the islands part-time and has been part of a remote relief network that sprang up in the wake of the disaster.

Here’s another report.

Looters started raiding hotels and shops in St Maarten after the Category 5 storm battered the island on Wednesday.

Those remaining in the Dutch territory said the situation was like a ‘civil war’ as looters armed with guns and knives descended on vulnerable locations.

And now for the U.S.

As Hurricane Irma lashed Florida with heavy winds and rain, TV stations captured groups of people breaking into stores.

Footage from WPLG Local 10 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, shows multiple people breaking through the front window Simon’s Sportswear, entering the store and walking out with various items.

According to WPLG Local 10, the looters had also broken into other stores in the nearby area, including Footlocker and CashAmerica Pawn Store.

Good grief.  Shoes.  And now one final report from reader Joe.

“Isabelle, who was born in Toulouse, has been living on the island of Saint-Martin in the Antilles for 25 years. This doctor, who is currently on holiday in Toulouse, normally, thanks to her job, has nerves of steel. But since yesterday, she is in total panic and is calling for help because she fears for the life of her husband and son who are on the Antilles island that has been ravaged by Hurricane Irma.

“My husband and my son are in danger of being killed, like a large part of the population. It’s civil war there. We have started to hear some talk in the media about looters who cleaned out the shops after the hurricane, but it’s still very far from reality. Gangs of thugs have robbed the customs house, which was badly damaged, and have stolen the stocks of weapons that were there. Since Thursday evening, they’ve been moving back and forth across the island wearing masks and hoods attacking the houses that were still standing where the inhabitants had taken refuge,” she says, on the verge of tears.

“I had them on the phone last night. They are paralysed with fear. It’s around our house where they’ve barricaded themselves with six friends who are at our home because their villa was destroyed,” she continues. “They can’t go out. They say the attackers are moving around in gangs of ten, it’s completely lawless and they’re ready to shoot to get food or money.”

Her statements are confirmed by the testimonies of other residents of the island, who tell on social networks of gangs who are smashing in the doors of houses saying, “Whites out.”

The criminals have the weapons, and note that guns were confiscated by the authorities prior to the event (or at least, it was threatened).  Of course, the confiscation, if it happened, affected only the peaceable and law abiding, but that’s the way it’s always intended when guns are “controlled” or confiscated by anyone.

Don’t ever give up your guns and fight to keep them as if your life depends on it.  Because it does.

John Farnam:

I don’t see a return to hammer-fired pistols with manual decocking-levers any time soon. That era is long-over.

Double-action revolvers still work just fine, but have their limitations.

And, the dwindling 1911 crowd will be around for a long time to come, but every year, they all get one year older!

So that’s the way it is, huh?  Cheap plastic junk is perfect but revolvers have “limitations?”  Those who shoot 1911s are dying off?  We 1911 shooters get a year older every year, but the shooters who choose cheap plastic junk have found the fountain of youth and will live forever?

Or maybe this is just click bait and exaggeration.

Via reader Fred, SJ:

“I could hear bones crunching, just like you read about,” said Tom Sommer, as he recovered in a Montana hospital on Tuesday afternoon.

There’s a picture at the link.

Good Lord.  This guy was probably without medical attention for four hours.  I’m sure it hurt.  You have to admire him for endurance and determination.  As for deploying the bear spray to end the attack, I’m sure a .44 magnum or .454 Casull would have ended it too.  I guess they didn’t have time to deploy the guns because of the closing time of the bear assault, if I read the report right.

I guess the lesson is that you’d better watch your six (and all other azimuths) in big bear country, continually.

The Chronicle:

ELYRIA – A mother of three chased a would-be burglar out of her house with a pistol after he broke in just before 8 p.m. Monday.

According to a police report, Brett Santo, 33, of Chestnut Street, walked into Sarah Long’s home on Fourth Street and approached her 15-year-old daughter. Long’s 17-year-old daughter was the first to see Santo and screamed, launching Long into action, police said.

Police said Long grabbed a pistol by her bed and she charged at Santo, but dropped the gun while in her home. She and the 17-year-old then chased Santo out of the house and down the sidewalk until they lost sight of him by St. Mary’s Church.

Officers were dispatched to the area on a report of a burglary suspect fleeing the area and Long was able to provided police with a description.

Police found him on Third Street between Middle Avenue and Court Street and he was arrested and charged with burglary.

During the ride to the police station, officers said Santo “let out an excited utterance that he in fact did burglarize the house,” police said.

Long said Tuesday that Santo had entered her home once before but left when confronted and Long didn’t call police. This time, Long said, Santo approached her daughter so Long sprung into action.

“I said, you picked the wrong (expletive) mother,” Long said, “I ran after him over the bridge and he turned around and was like, is this (woman) still chasing me.”

It was by chance that Long said her gun was near by. Her boyfriend, who Long described as “a big biker guy” had just left the house and encouraged Long to have the pistol ready.

“I’m thanking God it was by a fluke he told me to put that gun by me,” Long said. “Santo was walking in there like he didn’t care, like this time he wasn’t stopping.”

She didn’t have all of that super secret Ninja warrior stress control training like cops, and she even dropped the gun.  And yet, she was safer with the gun than without it.  Somehow this doesn’t fit the narrative told by either cops or the gun controllers.  They would have wanted her to die.