Archive for the 'Guns' Category

Kurt Hofmann:

… much of the Mexican drug cartel violence uses weapons–like those so infamously used in France recently–far more powerful than those legally available to most U.S. citizens–machine guns, grenades, rocket launchers, etc. If some handguns and “assault weapons” can so easily cross the U.S./Mexico border going south, heavier weapons can do so coming north, along with all the drugs (and illegal aliens/future Democrat voters).

Perhaps the gun ban zealots should re-think their love of open borders.

Yes, but I don’t think they will.  The collectivist mindset will always reflexively revert to more and more government control, including control over weapons.  The collectivists won’t see the problem as open borders.  They will see the problem as the availability of weapons at all among non-state actors.  Thus, they will push for tighter and tighter control over guns, regardless of the fact that this control has absolutely no effect on criminals.

Mike Vanderboegh sends an open letter to Alan Gottlieb.  Mike has more patience than do I.  I consider Alan to be a lost cause, an irrelevant fixture on the gun control scene, a tool for the collectivist media to exploit.  I’m not depressed, and I am not encouraging you to be a defeatist.  I just don’t think Alan will play a role in the coming festivities.

David Codrea:

The role of citizen disarmament in assuring the killers would succeed was expanded on by Kurt Hofmann in his latest JPFO Alert   …

“Let there be no doubt, we are asking that all weapons will be issued for self-protection only, and to designated personnel that will undergo thorough investigation and training by local authorities,” Margolin continued, essentially revealing he never learned the lesson of Alfred Flatow on the dangers of letting “authorities” determine who they will allow to have guns – and who they will not.  While Margolin is on the right track, he’s on the wrong understanding of what a right is. Certainly European Jews have a right to keep and bear arms, and not just sanctioned designees – it’s a human right, one that’s recognized in the Second Amendment, but not dependent on the Constitution, and not limited to Americans. Likewise, it is not limited to European Jews, and any who presume to withhold or dispense it, that is, to “grant” it, assume the roles of usurpers and tyrants, the very people we’re supposed to have guns to guard against and repel.

I’m sorry to lift so much prose out of the article, but it is involved while still worth the time to read it.  David is emphasizing a theme I’ve pressed before.  I don’t believe in the second amendment.  I believe in God.  The almighty gives me the right to bear arms, and no man can legitimately take it away.  What God has spoken is law for all men, everywhere and in all ages and epochs.

Mike Vanderboegh links a piece where a number of armed women drive off a recent Boko Haram attack.  Well, I guess they aren’t such bad asses after all when facing gun fire, are they?  Pussies, they are?

We’ve covered the AR-15 and its adherents and detractors in The Reliability Of The Eugene Stoner Design and Blaming The Gun For The Battle Losses concerning the battle of Wanat.  In the test shown below, this AR-15 endures a test of greater than 800 rounds in a short duration of time.

David Codrea:

Allowing a citizen’s fundamental rights to be stripped without his having been found guilty of a crime, especially on the say-so of an ex-partner with strong motives, flies in the face not only of due process, but also in terms of the nature of rights, and the powers of government supposedly bound by delegated authority. “Do you know of any other right that that requires a citizen to undergo a compelled interrogation under penalty of perjury as a precondition to receiving (or being denied) permission to exercise it?” writer Don Cline asks … For her part, Giffords has not explained …

Anything.  She hasn’t explained anything at all, except by her actions that she is still a meddling collectivist control freak who is butting into the business of other people.  I am reminded of the comments by reader menckenlite concerning mandatory state review.

Control freaks love psychiatry, a means of social control with no Due Process protections. It is a system of personal opinion masquerading as science. See, e.g., Boston University Psychology Professor Margaret Hagan’s book, Whores of the Court, to see how arbitrary psychiatric illnesses are. Peter Breggin, Fred Baughman and Thomas Szasz wrote extensively about abuses of psychiatry. Liberals blame guns for violence. Conservatives blame mental illness. Neither have any causal connection to violence.

Take a look at what this Ukrainian granny can do.

The government is still trying to financially choke the firearms industry.  You do realize that this administration is full of pathological liars who will say one thing and do another, don’t you?

Chris Murphy on Islamic militants in Paris.  Because he’s a pathetic rube and a tool.

Via Mike Vanderboegh, White House still focusing on domestic “extremists” (because Obama hates America).

The following may (or may not) represent what I carry, depending upon circumstances.

Blackhawk rigger’s belt, Springfield Armory XDm, .45 ACP in UTG soft holster with additional magazine (because I don’t like Kydex), .38 Spl S&W Air Weight revolver with wrap-around ankle holster, Ka-Bar folder with sheath, SOG Flash II folder, old standby Surefire 6P (it has been with me a long time), Streamlight ProTac HL3 (1100 lumen), Oakley sports glasses, prescription.

Not shown, Gerber multi-tool – occasional carry, OC spray (occasional carry), and 550 cord (also occasional carry).  The guns may change depending upon circumstances, but I always try to carry a tactical light on every trip, even to the movie theater as I did not too long ago (especially to the movie theater where it is otherwise dark and high lumen means control of the environment).

The small gun is perfect for the movie theater and grocery store since it is ankle carry, the larger gun (whichever one I carry) is more likely to go outside the waist band (not very often concealed IWB), with the belt.  The 1911 has a more slender profile than the XDm being single stack, and I’ve carried it before, as well as other pistols (I prefer to shoot the 1911 to anything else due to balance and profile).  Sometimes it (the larger handgun) will stay in the car, meaning that I have only a single gun, with a tactical folder as backup.

Given the state of affairs today, everyone ought to think hard about what they carry for self defense and protection of their family.  I consider this battle rattle to be very soft and luxurious.  When conditions become steadily worse as the economy collapses, this will necessarily change with the times.

David Codrea:

With body numbers described as “too many to count,” but with estimates ranging from “hundreds” to “2,000,” mass murders in Nigeria are being described by Amnesty International as “the deadliest massacre” in the history of the Boko Haram terror group.

“Most victims are children, women and elderly people who could not run fast enough when insurgents drove into Baga, firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles on town residents,” the Associated Press reported a government official claiming.

David then goes on to describe the gun control in Nigeria, and states “Nigeria appears to be a land where the results of such “progressive” policies should be evident for all to see and emulate.”  Read all of David’s article.

And gun control has indeed been one of the catalysts for the rise of Islamic extremism.  I have long lamented the failure of men and women to arm themselves against Islamists, Christians in particular who falsely believe that Biblical theology requires pacifism, noting that it is a moral failure to ignore the protection of family and self.

But make no mistake about it, these are heavier weapons, perhaps some ever crew serve weapons, and arming with rifles and pistols wouldn’t have stopped the assault on the city.  But what being armed would do is stop them before they become strong enough to perpetrate such a ghastly attack.

An example of such aggressive use of force can be seen in the history of the Ethiopian Army in Somalia, where they have had measurable success against the Islamists.  The “Christian” army of Ethiopia has no intention of allowing Muslims to savage their people, and they are willing to take action before it is too late to secure those ends.

Individual and segregated actions cannot achieve security against an organized enemy using heavy weapons.  This requires family, tribe and militia, all of which are armed and willing to take the hard measures necessary to kill a determined enemy.

That there are men who allow women, children and the elderly to perish while they run away scared doesn’t bode well for the future of Nigeria.  For men who believe there is nothing after death – that a body cools to ambient temperature and there is nothing more – running away scared may make sense.  For Christians, there are more important things that staying alive because death is just the beginning of our life in eternity.

And finally, don’t be fooled by the recent Islamic violence in France.  The Islamists don’t really care about cartoons in the face of more important things.  They just can’t find anyone left in France who believes anything to attack.  Now, if they hear Christians with one voice, saying something like this:

I believe in God,

the Father almighty,

Creator of heaven and earth,

and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died and was buried;

he descended into hell;

on the third day he rose again from the dead;

he ascended into heaven,

and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;

from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy christian Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and life everlasting. Amen.

Then the real enemy of Islam has spoken.  Islam is darkness, and it cannot abide the light.  Since it cannot abide the light, it won’t allow a marketplace of ideas where truth can be discerned from falsehood.  Arm yourselves.  Prepare to do battle.  It’s coming whether you know it or not.

The Gazette:

There’s a mantra quickly repeating in my head: “Please have a badge. Please have a badge. Please have a badge.” It’s a steady heartbeat as I begin a conversation with a shop clerk and reposition myself so I can peer over her shoulder.

I’ve already seen the bulge in his jacket, and it’s clear from the size and shape that he has a holstered gun. Now my eyes are quickly scanning, hoping to find a law enforcement badge clipped to his belt.

I’m in a local bookstore and there’s a sticker near the door asking patrons not to carry weapons on the premises. My two children scurried off the moment we entered, each in search of their own treasures.

The man with the weapon is as interested with the bookstore patrons as he is with the books on display. I’ve watched him watch others. The way he tracks them is unnerving.

I do not know this man, have no knowledge of his profession, personality or character. I am unaware of his mental state, of why he feels the need to carry a weapon into a bookstore. Frankly, I’m not that interested in his reasons right now. My mind is too busy filtering through the various scenarios that could be taking place. They flick before me like movie trailers, and I watch, casting some aside and mentally marking others for further consideration.

There’s no badge — at least not one I can see. And my inspection of him has not gone unnoticed. I rotate my handbag so that more of it rests toward the front of my body and gently pat it. It’s a tell by women who are packing heat in their purse. Many do it without thinking, a subtle check of hard steel through the leather. My touch is greeted by the bristles on my hairbrush, but no one else knows that.

The man recognizes the gesture, his eyes briefly flicking to my own before he moves past us in the aisle.

Poor Lynda.  I think she needs to purchase and learn to use a gun.  That way she won’t be bothered by bristles on hair brush when she is reaching for means of self defense.

In other news, a Deputy Sheriff’s gun just “went off” in Walmart recently.

In still other news, a police chief shot his wife.

A police chief in Georgia told a 911 dispatcher he accidentally shot his sleeping wife while moving a handgun that was in their bed, according to a recording released Friday.

Peachtree City police Chief William McCollom called for help at 4:17 a.m. New Year’s Day and reported accidentally shooting his 58-year-old wife, Margaret, while they both slept. The Associated Press obtained a recording of the call Friday through an open records request. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is looking into the shooting.

You know it’s “funny.”  I’ve never lost a rifle, had a gun “accidentally go off,” shot anyone in the back, wanted to shoot dogs, or been tempted to shoot my wife or anyone else.

Communities Digital News:

The Greenville News:

Jon Bailey spent a Friday afternoon over Christmas break taking his 13-year-old son, Connor, to shoot pistols at Allen Arms Indoor Range in Greenville.

He showed Connor how to load, aim and fire the weapon, but he also instructed him on what to do if he ever saw friends playing with a gun or found a gun lying around.

“He knows to get the heck out of the room and talk to adults,” Bailey said.

Bailey doesn’t call himself a gun fanatic. He wanted to demystify the idea of guns for his son.

But he does think more children should have knowledge of gun safety.

Who instructs children on the gun rights and safety has traditionally been left out of the state’s school systems, but bills pre-filed in both chambers of the South Carolina Legislature would bring gun rights squarely into focus in the classroom.

Whether schools are the right place to instruct students about firearms will be up for debate.

Zero-tolerance policies regarding guns at South Carolina schools has led to a backlash against citizens’ gun rights and a lack of knowledge on how to safely use firearms, Republican state legislators said as they prepared to open a new session in the state Legislature.

State social studies standards that instruct teachers to explain how the Constitution and Bill of Rights helps protect limited government. But schools don’t go far enough to explain gun rights, they said.

One bill — pre-filed in the state House — would create a Second Amendment Awareness Day to be held on Dec. 15 each year in all state schools, complete with a poster or essay contest centered on the theme “The Right To Bear Arms: One American Right Protecting All Others.”

Students — at every grade level — would receive at least three weeks of education on their gun rights based on a curriculum chosen by the state Department of Education and approved or recommended by the National Rifle Association.

[ … ]

His idea for the bill came after an incident in a Summerville high school in September where police were notified and a 16-year-old student’s locker searched after he wrote a fictional essay that mentioned purchasing a gun to kill his neighbor’s pet dinosaur.

The student was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after police said he became belligerent.

Clemmons said the incident “shocked” and “offended” him.

“In this case, it squelched a student’s first amendment rights, in responding to an assignment, to talk about the second amendment,” he said.

Students are being punished when they choose to “write about one of their precious American rights,” he said.

Rep. Garry Smith, R-Simpsonville, who co-sponsored the bill, along with Rep. Richard Yow, R-Chesterfield, said the second amendment deserves more instructional time than other amendments because it is the lynchpin for the rest of democracy.

This is all well and good, but I have a better idea.  If South Carolina citizens really want to teach children about the second amendment, then get rid of gun-hater and elitist establishment ruler S.C. State Senator Larry Martin (from Pickens) and institute open carry throughout South Carolina.  Patriots need to initiate a beat-down to establishment GOP in South Carolina.  Until then, it’s just all bluster and hot air to me.

David Codrea:

With an administration policy abetting immigration by disparate cultures with incongruous goals, such attacks may be inevitable. If and when one does happen, the probability is that it will occur in an area where private carrying of firearms has not been normalized, and is discouraged or outright prohibited. As for any and all laws in place, the attackers will ignore them, as they always do.

I think David is saying – with some degree of regret for those to whom he refers – that there will be a price to pay for your collectivist voting history.  You are an easier target for the terrorists.

David Codrea:

New House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz took his first action for the new congress by renewing the subpoena to compel Attorney General Eric Holder to produce documents related to Operation Fast and Furious “gunwalking” …

We’ll see where this goes.  But Jason Chaffetz, for all of his appearances to oppose the establishment, is an establishment kid.  If he likes Boehner, that says something about his character.

Kurt Hofmann:

So now, any gunsmith or machinist who is hired by the “gun” owner to complete the machining is going to be ruled to have “manufactured” a gun, and will thus be held to the same restrictions that apply to all commercial gun manufacturers. The BATFE is insisting on having its cake and eating it, too. They have previously argued that an 80% receiver ceases to be an 80% receiver, and becomes a “firearm,” if the manufacturer does so much as scratch an outline showing where material needs to be milled away; but now, if the buyer of what the BATFE recognizes as an incomplete receiver similarly removes some of the material that must be removed in order to make the receiver function in a firearm, and then turns it over to a skilled professional gunsmith or machinist to finish the work, the professional ends up being considered the one to have “manufactured” the gun.

In order to understand how Kurt got to this point you have to read his entire article.  I was shaking my head.  I shouldn’t be, but I’m surprised almost daily at the control freaks who make up the federal government.

Mike Vanderboegh on the thin blue line.  So here are two questions.  First, when is the last time you “lost a rifle?”  Second, when is the last time you shot at a dog, missed and killed someone?  Readers can weigh in.

Mike Vanderboegh: Ghostly Echoes From History, Part IV.  Mike begins with my favorite quote from John Adams.  “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  This is a pregnant statement and perhaps we’ll explore it in detail one day too.  In the mean time, read Mike.

Robert H. Scales wrote a piece for The Atlantic entitled Gun Trouble, with the catchy subtitle as follows: The rifle that today’s infantry uses is little changed since the 1960s—and it is badly flawed. Military lives depend on these cheap composites of metal and plastic. So why can’t the richest country in the world give its soldiers better ones?

Scales then proceeds to rehearse the history of flaws after the initial rollout of the M-16 in Vietnam, well known flaws (and failed to mention others, such as the fact that the chamber and barrel weren’t chrome-lined in the initial stages of production).  He pans the 5.56 mm NATO round, and ends up recommending two (what he considers to be) improvements.  First, he wants a larger caliber round, and second, he wants a gas recirculation system rather than the current DI system in use in the Eugene Stoner design (He fails to mention that the gas recirculation system weighs the front end of the rifle down and makes it more difficult to maneuver in CQB such as room clearing.  This is a point made to me by my son, who didn’t even like my quad-rail on the front end of my RRA rifle due to its weight).  Scales points to Wanat as proof positive that American lives are being wasted by a bad design.

The M4, the standard carbine in use by the infantry today, is a lighter version of the M16 rifle that killed so many of the soldiers who carried it in Vietnam. (The M16 is still also in wide use today.) In the early morning of July 13, 2008, nine infantrymen died fighting off a Taliban attack at a combat outpost near the village of Wanat in Afghanistan’s Nuristan province. Some of the soldiers present later reported that in the midst of battle their rifles overheated and jammed. The Wanat story is reminiscent of experiences in Vietnam: in fact, other than a few cosmetic changes, the rifles from both wars are virtually the same. And the M4’s shorter barrel makes it less effective at long ranges than the older M16—an especially serious disadvantage in modern combat, which is increasingly taking place over long ranges.

In spite of the high number of kills in the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, Scales calls the 5.56 mm a “varmint round.”  We’ve seen all of this before, much of it coming from experience many decades ago.  But we’ve seen testing that simply shows much of the bad press for the Stoner design (and good press for the Kalashnikov design) to be false.  Recall the testing done on the Knights Armament rifle, and reader Pat Hines sends two more examples here and here.  The point is granted that Rock River Arms, Knights Armament, LaRue Tactical and Daniel Defense isn’t the Colt produced under milspec for the Army and Marine Corps (these are all superior to the Colt M-16 and M-4).  Furthermore, recall that we’ve discussed what it means to be milspec and what it doesn’t.  Not milspec isn’t always worse, and milspec isn’t always better.

Still, my own son Daniel tells me that he never had any problems with either his SAW or an M-4 when he used that in training and in Fallujah, Iraq (while still claiming that my RRA rifle was better than the Colt he used).  The biggest problem with Scales’ argument isn’t that it doesn’t rely on hard evidence regarding quality battle rifles today (and it doesn’t, and some AR-15s are better designed and manufactured than the M-4 it must be admitted).  The biggest problem with his argument is that it blames the wrong culprit.

My coverage of the Battle of Wanat goes back to before the Cubbison report, from 2008 until recently.

Analysis Of The Battle Of Wanat

Investigating The Battle Of Wanat

The Contribution Of The Afghan National Army In The Battle Of Wanat

The Battle Of Wanat, Massing Of Troops And Attacks In Nuristan

Second Guessing The Battles Of Wanat And Kamdesh

And many other articles.  I am proud to have contributed in some small way to the Wanat report still on file at Fort Leavenworth (on page 255 three of my articles are cited).  Specifically, it was published by the Combat Studies Institute Press, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center.

The kill ratio was indeed lower at Wanat than has been noted at other engagements, but the fact that Soldiers had to put 400 rounds through their weapons in such a short time frame is indicative of a different problem than the gun.  First of all, with all due respect to the Soldiers who were there, fire control and long distance optics would have been a valuable commodity.  When training his “boots,” my son worked first, middle and last on rate of fire and fire control.  And use of a larger bore weapon wouldn’t have helped barrel temperature (have you ever shot a large caliber weapon?), and would certainly have hurt the ability to regain sight picture after firing due to significant recoil.

Use of DMs with M-14s or bolt action sniper rifles would have helped (the Marines make use of such tactics), as would have training in shooting uphill (to which very few units train – I know this from conversations with Army trainers).  But the biggest problems with Wanat were associated with command choices that could have been done differently.  Vehicle Patrol Base Wanat (it was a VPB rather than a FOB), took entirely too long to set up, allowing enemy massing of forces, something I’ve noted on a number of occasions in Afghanistan (it’s a favorite tactic when the Taliban think they can greatly outnumber their opponent).

Furthermore, terrain was critical in that the U.S. troops didn’t control the high country surrounding the VPB which was in a valley.  One Marine Captain commented to me as follows:

The platoon in Wanat sacrificed control of the key terrain in the area in order to locate closer to the population. This was a significant risk, and I don’t see any indication that they attempted to sufficiently mitigate that risk. I can empathize a little bit – I was the first Marine on deck at Camp Blessing back when it was still Firebase Catamount, in late 2003. I took responsibility for the camp’s security from a platoon from the 10th Mountain Div, and established a perimeter defense around it. Looking back, I don’t think I adequately controlled the key terrain around the camp. The platoon that replaced me took some steps to correct that, and I think it played a significant role when they were attacked on March 22nd of 2004. COIN theorists love to say that the population is the key terrain, but I think Wanat shows that ignoring the existing natural terrain in favor of the population is a risky proposition, especially in Afghanistan.

The force was simply too small (platoon size versus virtual battalion size Taliban force), and they were simply outgunned.  It’s remarkable that they didn’t have even more casualties.  Blaming the gun we deployed with the Soldiers is the easy thing to do.  It’s also the wrong thing to do, and it’s disingenuous.  Blaming the men who made the decision to deploy the way they did would be the hard thing to do because it gets personal.  But at least it would be honest.

See also:

Battle Of Wanat Category

War is Boring, The M-4 Carbine Is Here To Stay

Dan Morgan on Wanat

WeaponsMan Part 1 and Part 2

The Firearm Blog