Crosses On Water Towers

We've established (via the courts) that a church putting a cross on top of a water tower owned by a city is a violation of the religious freedoms of national anti-theism organizations.

OK.

Is it a violation for a church to own the water tower and sell its services to the city?

I'm going to say no, it's not a violation, because there's been at least one notable case where the government attempted to sell the offending property to a group interested in preserving some crosses, and the anti-theistic organizations sued to stop the sale.

Remember, the goal isn't to make sure the Church and State are separated completely, it's to remove all mention of religion from public view.  If it's owned by an individual or a church, then it's clearly protected speech to have whatever symbols they like on their property.  This is why they fought so hard to keep Mt Soledad from being sold to a private entity.

So, Churches, start building your own water towers and selling water to the local municipality.  Hell, give the water away!  That way everyone wins!

You could even make the tower cross shaped!

I'm going to bet the next lawsuit from The Freedom From Religion Foundation will be to forbid via permitting and zoning the construction of water towers with religious symbolism.

Any takers?

Dangerzone

Subtitles

Watching "Hitting The Apex".

It would be greatly improved if the parts in Italian were subtitled.

The film clearly understands I don't speak it because they identify the Italian speakers with English titles with their names.

Credit Where It's Due

My sheriff, who will not sign off on a sound suppressor or short barreled shotgun for an individual...

Has come out supporting open carry here in Florida!

In opposition to the Florida Sheriff's Association no less.

Good on you, Chris Nocco!

Maybe there's hope.

Bone Tomahawk

Bone Tomahawk is a rather slow horror movie set in the Old West.

While slow it's very interesting.

Of note to my gun-trivia heart.

Sheriff Franklin Hunt (Kurt Russell) is carrying a short barreled Schofield.

Arthur O'Dwyer (Patrick Wilson) is carrying a Merwin & Hulbert!  He even does a quick reload that showcases the unique way it extracts and dumps the spent rounds!

It's always refreshing to see a western where it's not a Colt Peacemaker.

Someone Doesn't Know Jack

According to the US Department of Energy, my pumpkin causes global warmering.

So it decomposes into methane.  Methane... what can we use that for?  I mean it burns, why isn't the DoE capturing this "dangerous greenhouse gas" to use for energy?  Because Government is the real reason.  A secondary reason is the amount of methane produced is not commercially viable.  One thing we did at the water company was to sell equipment that took care of the stench from wastewater treatment plants.  The same stuff is also used on landfills.

The amount of methane captured and burned off would heat a house for a day every month when we'd burn off the capture.  All of the decomposition from an entire town of 1,000 people generates enough methane to keep one family warm for a day a month.  Good thing I live in Florida, huh?

If there was a useful amount of methane (useful can also be translated to mean significant) released by waste treatment, someone would be capturing it and selling it.

All of this assumes that I believe that the annual carving of gourds and their decomposition is actually contributing to something that has been so politicized.

Always remember IPCC is InterGOVERNMENTAL Panel on Climate Change.  Not International Scientific Panel...

You'd have to believe that adding government makes a problem better.  After all there's the shining successes of the war on drugs, war on poverty, the excellent schools from the Department of Education, the free electricity from the Department of Energy, the streamlined efficiency of the Department of Transportation, the immigrant free cities provided by the Department of Homeland Security...  And on and on...

Worth A Read

These are the rules.

Learn them.

Love them.

Live them.

Why Bubba Why

I know where there's a M-1898 Krag rifle.  Cut down to carbine length and with a new front sight.  The stock also has a pistol grip added, by cutting a square slot into the original stock and inserting the grip.

They want $175 for it.  Unmolested it would be worth a lot more.

At a different pawn shop is an Ishapore 2A1.  The barrel is stock length, but they cut the wood down just past the rear barrel band, with a hand saw.  The metal has been "polished" with what looks like a grinding tip for porting heads.

$140 and it's yours!  Admittedly, the 2A1 isn't worth a lot unmolested, but still... more than $140.

Over and over these old surplus guns are hacked on by Bubba.

Yet I have seen many modified by people who knew what they were doing.  Krags done well are still holding $500 or more in value on Gunbroker.

A couple of fun videos...

First one.


Second one.

Lord of the Rings Re-enacted by Ponies

Media Bias What's That

Picture from A War On Guns

The first line of the story, though, is "A woman arrested for suspected drunken driving slammed her car into a crowd..."

She didn't even have a gun on her.

Fox News Story which is simply a repeat of the local TV news channel's story.

Slang

I'm thinking of a game setting.

Roaring 20's / Prohibition, with magic.

Recycling my Magic Returns mods to the magic system means that mages typically have a silver dagger on them until they get above a certain skill level with their spells.

The slang for lower level mages is "knife".

Higher level mages will tend to leave the dagger sheathed, but there are many advantages to using a wand, rod or staff to cast spells.

The slang for these mages is "stick".

Truly high level mages often dispense with these manual aids.

The slang for a mage who isn't using a dagger or something with the Staff enchantment on it is "hat".

Changes the meaning of the song, "Mack the Knife" don't it?

HR3799

I have a retro (HEL E4A) silencer design all drawn up and ready to cut metal.

I've been dithering on starting because I don't have the $200 for the stamp with so many other obligations staring me in the teeth.

Who knows how much the machining will cost me.  Materials won't be more than $50 out of carbon steel.  Who knows how much something fancy like Iconel would run...

But if sound suppressors become title one stuff, then I don't have to make it from super durable space-age materials.  I can go with simple, and historically correct, carbon steel.

With all of the crap that goes with NFA, you don't dare make a suppressor that readily wears out.

Also, with the near zero interest in a not very efficient sound suppressor (even with all the retro interest out there) means this was always a DIY deal.

Heck, interest in this design could spike once suppressors are title 1 and I could even get to making them for a profit (with appropriate licenses of course).

Another bonus of deregulating suppressors would be that a more modern baffle pack could be developed to swap with the 1960's design giving a retro appearance with fewer decibels.

The sky appears to be the limit!

Of course the likelihood of HR3799 getting past Herr Obama is just a bit less than heavy snows in Miami.

UPDATE:

What I wrote to my Representative.

"Considering that the nominally Republican sheriff won't sign off on a sound suppressor transfer to an individual and ATF Proposed Rule Change 41P will add a requirement for that signature to Trusts and Corporation transfers...

It makes the recent allowance to hunt with suppressed rifles in Florida rather meaningless if most people in the state cannot purchase one because of the refusal of a remote and capricious chief law enforcement officer. 

Additionally, suppressors simply make good sense. They protect the hearing of the shooter and those nearby and also make shooting in general more neighborly and less objectionable. Nearly every complaint about a firing range I've heard about is over noise. I would like you to support this bill if it passes through any committee you sit on and vote for it, should it come to the floor. Thanks you for your time."

Sadly, even if this passes the House, my senators are worthless.  Nelson is as anti-gun as you can get and Rubio is no longer bothering with being a Senator because he's put in his two weeks so's he can run for President.

Gots Some Blue's

Liberated in its entirety from Blue's Blog.

Free people are not equal. Equal people are not free.

"A gun is like a parachute. If you need one, and don't have one, you'll probably never need one again."

(My personal gun philosophy, though borrowed, not original... "I would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.")



The definition of the word Conundrum is: something that is puzzling or confusing.
Here are six Conundrums of socialism in the United States of America:

1. America is capitalist and greedy - yet half of the population is subsidized.

2. Half of the population is subsidized - yet they think they are victims.

3. They think they are victims - yet their representatives run the government.

4. Their representatives run the government - yet the poor keep getting poorer.

5. The poor keep getting poorer - yet they have things that people in other countries only dream about.

6. They have things that people in other countries only dream about - yet they want America to be more like those other countries.


These three, short sentences tell you a lot about the direction of our current government and cultural environment:

1. We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics,
but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics.

2. Seems we constantly hear about how Social Security is going to run out of money,
but we never hear about welfare or food stamps running out of money!

3. Why are we cutting benefits for our veterans, no pay raises for our military and cutting our
army to a level lower than before WWII, but we are not stopping the payments or benefits to illegal aliens.


"If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools." ~~ Plato

Stumped

This is the log we found and moved to the back yard.

With Kaylee for scale.

Not sure what kind of wood it is, but the ax makes a dent and bounces off rather than sticking into it.  Ruined the first idea for a rustic picture...

Fire

Made a fire in our firepit out back.

What made this one unusual is we didn't use any gasoline!

Just a few pages of news paper crumpled into balls.  Took some of the split logs we have around just for fires and split them further.

Made a teepee around the paper and lit the paper in a couple of spots.

Took off like it didn't know better.

Added larger wood later.

This simple task seems like a major accomplishment for me because I normally don't get a cheery bonfire.  I get a smoldering smoke generator.

We also got a section of log to make splitting wood easier on the ax.  Marv found it laying on the side of the road.  It took both of us to get it into his truck.  We're getting old.  I'll add a pic of the log tomorrow.

Fascinating Read

Soviet Era Military Maps.

h/t Jerry Pournelle.

Wear And Tear

One down side to keeping a car forever is things wear out.

I've worn a small hole in the side bolster on the Vette.

Gee, with all the edges and sharp things that come with conceal carry, how could that have happened?

Luckily I had accidentally thought ahead on this.

I'd bought a set of expensive seat covers with the idea of protecting the leather.  Actually, not much of these "leather" seats are actually leather.  They're mostly naugahyde (including where the hole is).

I took those seat covers off because the added 1/4" of foam and neoprene made the seats kind of uncomfortable.

But I needed to cover the small hole and protect the rest from further wear, so I put them back on.

Well, first they needed cleaned since I'd stored them at Marv's and that meant being shoved in a corner of his back porch and getting covered in mud dauber egg cases.

Once cleaned I put them back on and I've discovered that 117,000 mile, 8 year old seats have been smushed down enough that the extra 1/4" is welcome!

Drove all the way out to Wesley Chapel and back to Citrus Park to participate in Red Robin's "Tip-A-Cop" charity donation to Special Olympics.  No discomfort!

Huzzah!

BLM

Bureau of Land Management.  Founded in 1946.

Black Lives Matter.  Founded in 2013 as a Twitter hashtag.

When you use the same initials that have been in place for almost seventy years to refer to something that's not even two on Twitter...

BLM means Bureau of Land Management.  Got there first, has a bigger budget, codified by law no less.

But for some reason I'm the one who needs educated?

I know you're pissed that Black Lives Matter are racists shit bags targeting your former occupation but you're lashing out at the wrong target.

I think you're too isolated from the rest of us to see what a fool your making of yourself now and also don't see how racist so many of the Cops Lives Matter posts have been against blacks.

Those posts are fueling the conflict, not defusing it.

Perhaps if cops were PEACE officers instead of Chekist Law Enforcement Officers, you'd see why the Cops Lives Matter people you're associating yourself with are simply mirroring.

PS:

Even if we discount the racists supporting Cops Lives Matter, we're still left with the mindset that breeds "professional" organizations like The Florida Sheriff's Association; wherein it's all about their needs, wants and safety and to hell with the people they're supposed to be serving.

Pardon Me But

Cops Lives Matters is occupationist.

Fact.  It promotes one job above all other citizens.  It promotes a government employee's life far above the life of any ordinary citizen and is presently aping the KKK in its mannerisms and justifications for adding ever higher levels of fascist-like restrictions on the everyday person in the name of officer safety.

It fails to acknowledge that the biggest killer of cops in the US is not the common citizen or even criminals.

It is their poor driving skills and even with their bad driving, being a cop is not really that much more dangerous than a long list of other occupations.  Not even in the top fucking ten most dangerous.

If you don't like that you're over coddled and over deferred to... and people are standing up to your special snowflake status now.

Stick your issue side arm up your pompous ass and pull the trigger as many times as it will go bang.

I just told you how to shoot yourself in the head you fucking moron.

Commonality

The thing that's in common with all that goes wrong around me, is me.

If there was a sure way to get rid of me, I think it should be considered.

Wait A Second...

I'd like to support Ben Carson's candidacy, but I remembered that I was a racist who only voted against Obama because he was black.

Wait a second...

I'm NOT a racist.

I guess I'll have to listen to what he's got to say on policy and then decide if I want to vote for him, or not.

Paying attention and thinking are hard sometimes.  But not as hard as the ossification to your thinking as being a racist is.

PS:  For the record, I voted against Obama (twice!) because too many people have been murdered by the machine that socialists always build.  A machine his administration is demonstrably assembling.

Twas A Good Fight

It seems that The Florida Sheriff's Association, chaired by the anti-gun sheriff of Pinellas county will be opposing the open carry bill.

Since the Florida House of Representatives only seems to represent the Sheriff's Association, we're going to get screwed once it hits the floor.

It's getting to be a familiar pattern for gun rights.

The FSA opposes any loosening of gun laws, no matter what it is.  Normally on the grounds that it will cause them to actually work for a fucking living.

The people I don't hear complaining are rank and file cops and deputies.  They're closer to the problem children and see that the people this law is for aren't the people the FSA is claiming they're worried about.

Still...  The Sheriff is an elected official.  The house and senate are elected bodies.  To listen to elected officials and ignoring the voters is bypassing the intent of the constitution.  To lobby the state to avert the will of the people surely exceeds the scope of the office of sheriff as well.

But I appear to be the only one who complains in those terms.

Oh Really

I got reminded of the tizzy JK Rolling threw about all of the cast of Harry Potter being actual Brits.

Then I noticed what a lack of tizzy America threw about the cast of Blackhawk Down being mostly Commonwealth in origin; including two actors who played heroin addicts in Trainspotting.

Scandal

Is it cynical of me to think that the mere fact that the scandal of Ms Clinton's decisions about Benghazi are only being allowed on the air because they aren't going to matter?

I've yet to see any scandal actually affect a cabinet official with anything like criminal charges since... since... uh...

I've seen some golden parachute resignations.  Calling that punishment is like saying you punished the pilot by allowing them to eject before the plane crashed.

Accuracy On TV

Everyone gives television crap for getting firearms stuff wrong.

So when they get it right, we should go out of our way to commend them.

Hats off to The A-Team!

Week after week they showed precisely how accurate a Ruger Mini-14 was!

Please Help Me Win Another AR!

You only need click this handy, well crafted link.

Click on Weer'ds too.

He Won't Ask

So I won't tell him!

One Is None, Two Is One, Three Is Uh...

Top Left: S&W 39-2 Top Right: Walther P1
Middle Left: S&W 15 Middle Right Hi Power (one Browning one FEG)
Bottom Left: Airweight Bodyguard Bottom Right: Model 10 snubbies.

One is none and two is one.  But that's one again, so it's none?  So you need more!

How many is 12?  SIX!

Willard buys guns in at least pairs.  Top left is two of the shipping crate full of 39-2 that he appears to have.

Are You Ready For Halloween

Tested out a couple of Triple-K magazines for my Star B.  200 rounds since it was last cleaned and lubed!

Why do my groups suck?

Because the bitch takes a blood payment.  There's a definite flinch factor.

Complaining Just To Complain

I shoot the Finn mosin's better than Soviet.

I've talked to someone who's the opposite.  He opined that the Finn front sight is too wide for fine work...

This got me curious, so out come the measuring tools!

Finn Kiv/28-30.  Front sight is 0.102" wide.  Rear notch is rectangular 0.073" wide and 0.041" deep.

Soviet M91/30.  Front sight is 0.087" wide.  Rear sight notch is a half circle ø0.067".

Finn Kiv/39.  Front sight is 0.095" wide.  Half circle rear sight notch ø0.085".

Distance from my eye to the rear of a 91/30 is 13-15/16".  The rear sight on the Finnish guns is 0.475" closer to the eye.

Distances between the sights are, Kiv/28-30, 22-5/8"; M91/30, 24-7/16"; Kiv/39, 22-5/8".

All in all, very similar sight pictures.

Hey, FuzzyGeff!  What are the angles at 100 yards?  This is basic geometry, I can do this!

Let's Math!  (rounded to 3 decimals).  It's just a tangent conversion since we know two legs of the triangle in question (but not the hypotenuse) and none of the angles except 90˚ where our legs meet.

1/2 the sight width / distance from eye = tangent of the angle for half the sight.

Double that and we have our angle.

Same process lets us extend the range.  Tangent of the half angle times distance gives us half the width at the target.

Why halves?  Because it's easier to calculate that way.  Trust me, I'm a draftsman.

91/30

Angular size of the rear sight notch is 0.275˚  That's 17.306" wide at 100 yards.

Angular size of the front sight is 0.130˚ (2.311 mil).  That's 8.162" wide at 100 yards.

Kiv/28-30

Angular size of the rear sight notch is 0.311˚  That's 19.521" wide at 100 yards.

Angular size of the front sight is 0.162˚ (2.880 mil).  That's 10.175" wide at 100 yards.

Kiv/39

Angular size of the rear sight notch is 0.362˚  That's 11.365" wide at 100 yards.

Angular size of the front sight is 0.151˚ (2.684 mil).  That's 9.477" wide at 100 yards.

That's not much difference at all.  Especially since shoulder to shoulder is about 24".  This is also why you learn math, to shut people up about the huge differences in things when they're really quite small.

Drained

Got a sore throat.

Don't feel bad otherwise except for an utter lack of umfph.

Of course, unlike my younger self, I am more than willing to hit a cold with every palliative remedy known to American Marketing.

We love you Giant-Fucking-Q.

I Like The Story Better Than The Facts (Updated)

Charlie Storms was one of the best-known gamblers in the entire West and had, on several occasions, successfully defended himself in pistol fights with Western 'gun-fighters'...
Charlie Storms and I were very close friends, as much as Short and I were, and for that reason I did not care to see him get into what I knew would be a very serious difficulty. Storms did not know Short and, like the bad man in Leadville, had sized him up as an insignificant-looking fellow, whom he could slap in the face without expecting a return. Both were about to pull their pistols when I jumped between them and grabbed Storms, at the same time requesting Luke not to shoot, a request I knew he would respect if it was possible without endangering his own life too much. I had no trouble in getting Storms out of the house, as he knew me to be his friend. When Storms and I reached the street, I advised him to go to his room and take a sleep, for I then learned for the first time that he had been up all night, and had been quarreling with other persons...
I was just explaining to Luke that Storms was a very decent sort of man when, lo and behold! There he stood before us, without saying a word, he took hold of Luke's arm and pulled him off the sidewalk, where he had been standing, at the same time pulling his pistol, a Colt's cut-off, 45 calibre, single action; but like the lead villain, he was too slow, although he succeeded in getting his pistol out. Luke stuck the muzzle of his pistol against Storm's heart and pulled the trigger. The bullet tore the heart asunder and, as he was falling, Luke shot him again. Storms was dead when he hit the ground.

-- Bat Masterson

That's the facts as revealed by someone who was there.

The story, colorfully told by Mr Willard differs...

Luke Short, having a Colt Lightning, was a bit quicker on the draw than Charlie Storms; and shot Mr Storms right thumb off before he could cock his pistol.  While Mr Storms was changing hands; Mr Short delivered the fatal shots.

From Wikipedia.

Luke Short was a gunfighter, gambler and bar owner who had drifted down to Fort Worth from Dodge City, Kansas. While in Dodge City, Short had dabbled in gambling, and became friends with several other noted Old West figures, such as Bat Masterson, Jim Masterson and Wyatt Earp, who had also become friends with Courtright. In Fort Worth, he managed the White Elephant, a saloon/gambling house.
Some claim that Marshal Courtright was running a protection racket at the time, and needed to make an example of Short, who also had a sizable reputation as a gunfighter mostly due to an 1881 gunfight with gunslinger Charlie Storms at the Oriental Saloon in Tombstone, Arizona. Most historians believe that Courtright offered protection to the White Elephant and that Short informed him that he did not need his protection. The two men did not get along.
On February 8, 1887, at about 8:00 p.m., Courtright called Luke Short out of the White Elephant. When Short walked outside, both men walked up the street one block, until they were in front of bar and brothel owner Ella Blackwell's Shooting Gallery. According to reports, few words had been spoken, and the two men moved apart facing one another. Words were passed, and evidently Courtright, who had been drinking considerably, had made some indication about Short having a gun. Short assured Courtright he was not armed, although he was, of course.
Short moved slowly toward Courtright, saying that he could have a look himself, at which point he pulled open his vest. Probably mostly for the sake of bystanders and justification, Courtright said loudly "Don't you pull a gun on me."
With that statement, Courtright drew his pistol, but according to reports it hung for just a second on his watch-chain, and in that second Short produced his pistol and fired one shot, which took off Courtright's thumb on his shooting hand. As Courtright attempted to shift his pistol to his other hand, Short fired four more shots in quick succession. Courtright fell backward and died shortly thereafter.

Living Peaceably

Civilized people can't get on peacefully with good living as long as these nuts are out there with their guns.  Period.  All of you need to be forcibly disarmed.  Carl Ostendarp, Professor at Cornell.

Actually, Carl, your absolute best chance at living peacefully with us is to let us the Hell alone.

You're actually living peacefully with us now.

Confiscation will rip the wheels right off.

When those wheels are off, there's a lot of otherwise peaceable gun owners who've got lists.

Lists of names, Carl.

Targets of opportunity they are sometimes called.

Because when the wheels are off, the main focus is almost certainly going to be shooting cops.

I think I mentioned a time or two just how perfectly the confiscations have to go for the government to win.  The numbers don't favor the government.

They have to eliminate (kill, arrest or get compliance) something like six gun owners without losing a single officer, agent or soldier.  That assumes that they get all of the cops and soldiers to play ball and forcibly disarm us.

When it comes down to submit or die, lots of us are going to submit.  Openly and loudly.  At least to all appearances.

How many guns do we have?  Did you get them all?  ARE YOU SURE?!?!

I mentioned lists.

Do you think, Professor Ostendarp, that someone who's just been "forcibly disarmed", but managed to retain a gun or two might remember you?  Do you think you're safer before or after this person is "disarmed"?

Not "feel safer" but actually in less danger.

A clue for everyone who's advocating "forcible disarmament" should be how we gunnies reacted to the DC beltway sniper attacks.  We all marveled at the astonishingly SHORT ranges.  Like we all could readily have repeated the shots from much farther away...

Or...

You could let the sleeping dog lie.

Musical Whiplash

My play lists have occasionally been called musical whiplash.

I go from Sabaton's Carolus Rex (in Swedish no less) to Simple Minds Alive and Kicking without warning.

My tastes are broad.

Book Reference

Here's a chance to test your attention to detail and earn major Geek Cred®

What book do these guns refer to?

Spay And Neuter Your Pets

In a conversation with FuzzyGeff...

Talking about the various Traveller races and the expansive tendencies of the Aslan.

The Aslan have an ingrained cultural urge to obtain and possess real estate for themselves personally, and for their clan as a whole.  Since nobody is making more land, they expand outward as populations increase.

They've been smacked back a few times as the expansion rubs against Humaniti's borders.

The discussion humorously centered on what to do about an unwanted Aslan enclave on your world.

Dropping rocks from orbit...

Nukes...

Tailored nerve agents.

"Where would you get a nerve agent tailored for Aslan?"

"From the Hivers."

"What would they know about Aslan,  There's no Aslan in Hiver space!"

"Exactly!"

Ísafjörður Airport

Strike Fighters 2: North Atlantic is the battle for Iceland in a sort of Red Storm Rising c.1979 way.

The terrain is well done, including Ísafjörður airport.

It's not meant to be used by high performance jets...

But I manage.

Taxiing back to the take-off end.

With the winds in the game you predominantly land on 08 instead of 26.  That hill is directly in the way of a normal approach.

After take off, looking back down on the place on westerly heading.  The 08 end is on the right and the 26 end on the left.  

Link to bigger version of the aerial shot.

There are two schools of thought about making your approach to 08. One is to fly 260 down the fjord and make a descending 180° left turn to the 08 threshold. The other is to come in low in that little valley that's north of the hill west of the airport. Either way you are in a pretty decent bank until just before you cross the apron to level off and land.

I've landed most of the flyable planes here.  The Harrier GR.3 is, by far, the easiest.  The F-104A is hardest.

Take-off on 08 is actually pretty easy.  Spool up while standing on the brakes, let off and nose up when you can.  Once you get the wheels off the ground bank a bit left to avoid that bluff there.  Hold a heading parallel to the bluff until your wingmen all report airborne or they'll ram it trying to join formation on you.  Stupid NPC's.

On the rare occasion you're using 26...

Landing is pretty simple.  Parallel the bluff until you get to the end of the runway, snap turn to runway heading, flare, land.

Take-off is more sporting!  You want to use that valley that goes left of the big hill at the end of the runway!  Most fighters in the game just don't have enough energy to make the 180 and climb above the terrain for a right departure.

Uh Oh

Say Uncle brings us this story.

I notice that the AR's in question are all equipped with suppressors.

"How could those idiots not know?" I asked.

So I hit Bing up for "how to make a silencer".

Lots of how-to.  Most mention checking the legality, but a frightening number don't mention it until the very end.

ATF is quite clear about making and selling suppressors even if the how-to guides aren't.  Maybe I've been around guns too long for it to have never occurred to me to check those laws before starting construction.

Also, the resale of guns you've made yourself seems to baffle many persons.  There's a world of difference between assembling a working gun on a serialed part you bought (like an AR lower) and a part you made yourself when it comes to selling them.

ATF is a bit vague about what you need do to allow the sale of a serialed part you made yourself with answers ranging from you need a full-on manufacturing FFL to "just stamp it with your name, city state and a serial number and you're good."

The lowers in the pic look a lot like plastic 80%'ers I saw a while back.  They definitely don't have the required information in either of the traditional spots.

Dammit He's Dead

If he weren't dead I'd recommend Hiro Onoda to the position of Administrator of Drug Enforcement Agency.