I see that you’ve read my commentary, along with that of my commenters.  So tell us.  Do you really care if we live in a police state now?  Do you care enough to stop it?

There’s that thing of the fourth amendment, the second amendment, the Castle doctrine which is embedded in English and American law, and on and on I could go.

So do you?

Via Claire, this video is worth watching.

The .45 ACP knocked that big boy on his can, for sure, but my goodness, I think the shooter needs some retraining in the rules of gun safety.  He just about killed his partner too.  Maybe they need to think a little harder about formation.

Via WRSA, this analysis deserves to be heard.

Basically, think about it this way.  If you put your own safety ahead of the safety of others, you have lost your heart and soul.  No, not just your bravery and courage (if you ever had any), but your heart and soul.

CNN:

Nearly a week after police shot and killed a Kansas man while responding to a prank call, the victim’s mother pleaded with authorities to allow her to see her deceased son.

Lisa Finch wrote in a letter to the Wichita, Kansas, mayor and police chief that she doesn’t know where they’re keeping his body and that she wants to give her son “a proper funeral service and burial.”

She questioned “why Wichita City leadership is compounding our grief and sorrow, by keeping my son from us?”

“Please let me see my son’s lifeless body,” she wrote in a letter dated Tuesday. “I want to hold him and say goodbye. Please immediately return his body to us.”

Her son, Andrew Finch was killed by police last week in his home in a case of swatting. Swatting refers to when a person makes a false report to draw a major police response or SWAT teams to a certain location.

The cops won’t even release the body to the family.  What a bunch of bastards.  In other news, remember I said this?

There are a number of misdirects in this report.  Let’s address two of the most prominent and important.  First of all, the blame will be placed on the illegal practice of Swatting, or calling the police and reporting an active shooting or hostage situation.  The perpetrator will likely be found and dealt with, and the blame will be placed squarely on him.

[ … ]

It doesn’t matter if he was armed, any more than it matters whether he was a gamer or if he was Swatted by another gamer.  While Swatting is illegal, the perpetrator didn’t do the shooting.  Being armed while answering the door isn’t illegal or immoral.  Gaming isn’t illegal or immoral.

True to form, the gaming community is self examining.

A joke gone bad ended in tragedy last week, and it brings into the spotlight one of the worst aspects of gaming culture.

Last week, someone made a fake emergency call (known as swatting) to police in Wichita, Kansas, and the police shot an innocent man. On Friday, police in Los Angeles arrested 25-year-old Tyler Raj Barriss, who reportedly goes by the name SWAuTistic, for allegedly calling in the false report. Social media posts on the incident have continued this week. Let’s hope that this leads to increased awareness of these prank calls among law enforcement and realization that toxic behavior like swatting can have deadly consequences.

While it’s deplorable that someone would do this, it wouldn’t be a problem if cops wore uniforms, didn’t assume that the call was legitimate, and simply knocked on the door to chat with the occupants since, after all, it is their property.

The practice of swatting is a problem only because of the hero soldier-boy complex that infects the police forces around the nation.  Take their guns away from them and they won’t be able to shoot anyone.

US News:

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Police in Las Vegas say a man suffered a minor injury after the rifle of an officer on the Las Vegas Strip discharged following the New Year’s Eve festivities.

Officer Laura Meltzer says the officer was moving barricades around 1:19 a.m. Monday near the Monte Carlo casino-hotel when he had a “negligent discharge.”

Meltzer says the man was hit in the calf and refused medical treatment. She says two other people indicated they had been struck by something, but they had no visible injuries.

Meltzer says the situation is under investigation. She did not know whether the officer had been placed on leave, but said that is not typical in negligent discharge incidents.

Hmm … so let me see about this.  He was moving things around, he had a round chambered, his rifle wasn’t on safe, and something snagged his trigger.  How’d I do?

I guess all that “special training” didn’t help him after all.  But at least if he can’t trust anybody else, he can trust his buddies in blue to have his six.  No leave.  Continued pay.  All is forgotten except for some locker room banter.

Well, it’s gun silly season when the manufacturers trot out their new designs hoping for a piece of the market.  As for myself, I have tried to optimize my gun safe by minimizing the number of calibers it contains.  My favorite cartridge of all time is the .45 ACP.  If your wife really loves you, she gets you something like this for Christmas.  It’s a CMMG .45 ACP PDW, and it sells as a pistol rather than a long gun.

Springfield Armory is introducing their newest line of M1As shooting the 6.5mm Creedmoor.

Wilson Combat is introducing what they call the .458 HAM’R.  Looks like a “wildcat” cartridge and I wonder about availability (and cost).

It’s been hard to keep the blog going with family from out of town for the week, and during that week we hiked Mount Mitchell, Crowder’s Mountain, Pinnacle Mountain, and mountain biked.  Before that I biked single track at DuPont.  It’s nice to be alone on a cold, cold day at DuPont riding Jim Branch down the mountain.

I thought you might enjoy this picture.

TheAlaskan:

“So there you are, in your easy chair, watching an episode of law and order, and an army of cops come up your road and demand you come to the door. Last week, I would’ve gone to the door and asked, “what’s up, can I help you,” and possibly gotten slain.

This week, and from now on, I’m getting everyone with me (kids), on the floor or into the basement. I’m getting armed and I’m calling 911 and demanding to talk to the chief or better yet the ranking officer on the ground outside my home. I’m also calling my neighbors (in my case…few) to have them head my way to start rolling cell video with full acknowledgement by police who are present to muddy things up a bit.

It’s has become plain to me that our homes need to be hardened with shooting positions and safe egress points and perhaps, secret hiding spaces. Strategies need to be developed and practiced with family and like minded neighbors.

We are now living in and facing a lethal police state.”

Tucson.com:

But the attorney who crafted it for Republican state Rep. David Stringer said that still won’t let Arizonans keep their “bump stocks” if the federal government declares them illegal.

The legislation spells out the kind of firearms the state believes are necessary for those who are members of the state militia. Existing Arizona law already says that automatically includes all “able-bodied citizens of the state” between 18 and 45.

And just to be sure that folks who turn 46 don’t lose their gun rights because of new federal laws, HB 2057 also would expand the definition of the militia to remove the maximum age. But it would add a new requirement that they be “capable of acting in concert for the common defense.”

The measure — and a companion constitutional amendment — were introduced by Stringer who said he wants to ensure that whatever occurs in Washington doesn’t interfere with the right of law-abiding Arizonans to possess firearms.

But Stringer left it to attorney Michael Taylor, who has some expertise in the area of gun rights, to come up with the actual language. And Taylor said it is crafted to conform to a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have upheld gun rights.

Courts will never decide in your favor, sir.  Never.  The festooned, robed tyrants will always decide for more communism.

That’s why this is toothless and powerless right out of the gate.  If you’re not willing to enforce this Arizona law by arresting ATF agents who enter the state and throwing them in the state penitentiary, and protecting your citizens by allowing them to purchase guns and ammunition regardless of form 4473 (which the FedGov will use to its advantage), then you’re setting your citizens up for illegalities and yourself up for failure and complete embarrassment.

You’re a loser.  Unless you act like you have some guts about this thing.  I have confidence you won’t do that, and neither will your fellow statesmen.

David Codrea:

The Department of Justice anticipates issuing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would interpret the statutory definition of “machinegun” in the National Firearms Act of 1934 and Gun Control Act of 1968 to clarify whether certain devices, commonly known as “bump fire” stocks, fall within that definition,” a Tuesday Federal Register notice advises. “Before doing so, the Department and ATF need to gather information and comments from the public and industry regarding the nature and scope of the market for these devices.”

The document comment period ends on January 25, the notice continues, providing ways to send them in either by mail or via a submission form. The notice also provides background information, including a summary of claimed statutory authority as well as the ”justification” for the proposed rule, which unsurprisingly relies heavily on last October’s Las Vegas music festival murders to make the case that such controls are needed.

I knew this and had discussed it, but I’m torn on this.  On the one hand, I need to submit comments.  On the other hand, while I’ve seen ATF responses to my points before (concerning importation of shotguns), I’ve never been given more than cursory, dismissive treatment.  I don’t expect better treatment this time around.

I’ll let readers decide for me.  I need help if I’m going to submit comments.  My readers write better than I do, have more background in legal matters than I do, and can present the case better than I can.  I would actually like to submit comments from TCJ rather than just me.

If you have thoughts on this, whether merely single comments, multiple comments, or an actual outline for a response, please respond either in comments to this post or via email.  I’d rather it be in comments to this post since that will cause others to think about the issue and add to the information here.

As always with the federal bureaucracy, although we may want to call them names and curse at them, that will cause them to throw away our comments.  Keep it civil and make it something that will actually be difficult for them to deal with.