Rumor

There's a rumor that The Czech Republic and Finland are considering exiting the European Union.

Unlike The UK, they aren't considering it over economic decisions.

But, like The UK, they are doing it because unelected and distant rulers are making rules that they feel they cannot abide.

Rules over guns.

The Czech republic because it's decided that an armed citizenry cannot be dragged into totalitarianism.  They've some experience with their disarmed citizenry being dragged into totalitarianism.  It happened twice last century, after all.

Finland is looking to put a rifle behind every tree and wants to put a sort that gun banners hate there.  They're also concerned about what would happen if Russia were to obtain the registration lists should they decide to go Ukraine on them.

Both countries are objecting to registration schemes decided on in Brussels.  Finland is objecting to the limits on type and the number one can own.

And I sit here thinking that Finland will probably get constitutional carry before Florida.

Lanyards

I like lanyards for service pistols.  I've even ordered parts and committed gunsmithing to get a loop on a couple guns.

Most notably my .38 Super Gov't Model, but also an easy swap in my M&P 9.  Many guns come from the factory ready to go.

Bullshit

 

Another NFA gift from the 1986 FOPA is a definition of a silencer.

18USC921(25):

The terms “firearm silencer” and “firearm muffler” mean any device for silencing, muffling, or diminishing the report of a portable firearm, including any combination of parts, designed or redesigned, and intended for use in assembling or fabricating a firearm silencer or firearm muffler, and any part intended only for use in such assembly or fabrication.

ATF drove on with the idea that only a complete assembly needed a tax stamp as it had prior to FOPA.

Suddenly, they've discovered that every part and supcomponent is its own thing?

Got to get your congress critters on repealing this definition.

Even better, get that hearing protection act passed.  That moots the whole deal.

Get Gunowners of America to back the fuck off their mailings so that incremental recoveries of our rights are possible instead of the nothing we get from all or nothing stances.

I still remember them torpedoing linking Fix NICS and national CCW reciprocity.  Do you?  Well, we got fix NICS...  But we didn't get anything else because it wasn't a full repeal of all gun laws everywhere.

Us Rubes Aren't Supposed To Be Represented

An interesting article forwarded to me by Technomad.

Deep Scan

When a friend comes down with 4 Trojans and a malware, and you've borrowed a file or two from them...

It's time to do a deep scan.

And that's what my desktop is doing for the next... who knows how long.

How Are You Still Surprised?

 

After three years of the CMP diligently shipping guns and hundreds of owners posting pictures of the various grades...

How can someone still be disappointed in the condition of the gun they got, especially when they're active in the thread with all the pictures?

I'd love to see if the people most disappointed are people who were never issued one at the end of its life.

The pistol I got from CMP is in a lot better shape than 1164935 was when I turned it in for the last time and it started its second life in the Philippines.

But the condition of guns has run the gamut of what I would have expected from the guns which were still in inventory as the M9 supplanted them.

People talked about how bad it could be for years before CMP shipped the first ones.  People showed pictures of theirs as they took delivery, and for the most part they've been on the better side of the range we expected with very few as bad as we feared they'd be.

And people are still surprised and disappointed?

I guess some people have to complain about everything, huh?

IWB For Me

The Beast's seats are far more accommodating for conceal carry than The Precious.

Not since The Biscayne was a daily driver have I had room to carry strong side IWB.

That and teeny guns...

So I'm trying out my Shield Plus in a Galco Summer Comfort holster.  Shown with the pocket carry options.

Initial sitting seems encouraging.

My first Galco holster was a summer comfort model for my Glock 21.  I carried my S&W 640-3 in the similar, Royal Guard for a whole summer as well.

We'll see how it goes!

Changing Teams

The Dancing Monkeys are all in for Ukraine.

Just like they are/were for Venezula.

On top of the apparent Clinton/Biden crime syndicate shit; I am starting to think that Pooty is the good-guy here.

Damn.

Will I have to finally forgive Russia for once being the USSR?

That'd be up there with forgiving Ruger for the trespasses of Bill.

Cross Editions

The Order of the Stick has just shown an old favorite of mine from the AD&D Monster Manual II.

A Quinton and a few Monodrones.

MM2 has a few things like that, detailing the things that inhabit and run the outer planes.

If you think about it, the original Monster Manual has that too with Devils and Demons.

If you think too hard about it, Deities and Demigods is where this extraplanar stuff should have been and E Gary should have been working hard at detailing HIS world's gods instead of cribbing from myth and literature.

By the time they got done it was renamed Legends and Lore to mollify The-Entirely-Too-Loud-To-Be-Silent-And-Not-Near-Numerous-Enough-To-Be-A-Majority religious fanatics and all the gods from literature had been stripped.

I had thought to get the books with the Modrons for AD&D 2e from Drive-Thru RPG, but I can't seem to be able to determine WHAT book they're in.  Perhaps the Planescape campaign boxed set?

Maybe Because They Know You Hate Them Director

Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, says that there's more death threats from "deplorable and dangerous" Trump supporters since they raided former President Trump's residence in Florida.

Well, Mr Beria Wray, perhaps if you behaved more like the FBI from the 1960's TV show, and less like a budding NKVD, people wouldn't feel that their only recourse was to fling threats at you.

I'd be more sympathetic except:

Almost all of them are cranks.  They are never going to DO anything, they just scream into the phone or smash at their keyboards and cluck a bit to their friends about how they showed YOU.

Perhaps you should call the Secret Service and ask how many death threats the president gets and how many rise above the crank level.

Deplorable and harmless, perhaps?

Plus the real reason you're not getting any sympathy from me is the long running string of arrests where the person who went to jail would never have risen to the level of crime without the active assistance of The Bureau in getting the materials together.

The FBI changed the harmless into the harmful just to make an arrest.

In a just world, this is called entrapment, but entrapment has been legally defined and The Bureau is gaming the law.

The signal that it really sends is that if there's so little crime that the federal cops have to make up their own, then perhaps we don't need federal cops.

The real reason we have federal cops at all stems from states being reluctant to agree to enforce questionable federal laws on people who crossed state lines.

Maybe federalism is the proper response to federalization and the director of the FBI calling people deplorable after the term has been supercharged politically by a Democrat.

Nope No Bias At All

The thing about the left that bugs me the most is the constant "heads I win, tails you lose" mode they're in.

How they react to federalism is a huge indicator.

Legalizing marijuana: Federalism GOOD!

Liberalizing gun laws: Federalism BAD!

Make gun laws more restrictive: Federalism GOOD!

Restrict abortions: Federalism BAD!

Eliminate critical race theory from the classroom: Federalism BAD!

And on and on and on...

A Feeling

I cannot help the sinking feeling that the reason there's a conflict in Ukraine at all is because of the Biden clan in the first place and the only reason we're not letting Russia have her way is because of the same clan.

They spent a lot of time there fucking around with the energy companies that kinda triggered The Bear to get grumpy.

A Little Dissent

ATF Agent Pens Epic Resignation Letter.

Well worth your time.

Um Phrasing

"[H]igher prices for basics such as eggs, milk, butter, and bacon — and women under 40"

Uh...

The prices for women under 40...

I didn't see any for sale at the local supermarket.

The Lovely Harvey says that I should bring one home, but I'm not getting where The Washington Examiner is buying theirs.

I'm also thinking that this might just be a tad illegal.

Even renting a woman under 40 can get you into trouble!

Civil Rights Leader

 This gentleman was right:

"[T]he True Remedy for the Fugitive Slave Bill is a good revolver, a steady hand, and a determination to shoot down any man attempting to kidnap."   This solution has SO many applications if you think hard on it.

Got the quote from "The View From North Central Idaho."

I've long liked Mr Douglass.  He had, as it were, skin in the game with regards to the rights he hoped to secure.  Something that current "civil rights leaders," being millionaires, don't.

But It Wasn't A Law

Bearing Arms makes a boo boo.

The ruling from ATF that makes bump-stocks federally illegal is a regulation, not a law.

I'd think that Bruen and West Virginia are going to figure large in the appellate proceedings.

ATF has not been specifically empowered to write the definitions of what the things defined by law are.

By the black letter of the law, changing the fire control group of an M16 to an AR-15 makes it a normal rifle and not a machine gun.  Even with the hole drilled for the auto-sear.

ATF is who came up with "once an X, always an X" rule, not Congress.

The law is pretty clear it's about the at-the-moment configuration and not the possibility of an easy conversion to an illegal one.

But that doesn't stop regulatory agencies from expanding their power by issuing regulations.

This could be very exciting!

We might even get a ruling on if machine guns are still banned because while NFA might be OK under the taxing power, 922(o) is an outright ban; which the Supreme Court has ruled is a no-go.

Also exciting.

I'd love to see Thomas writing something to the effect of, "As was noted in Miller v US, weapons of war are particularly protected by the 2nd amendment.  Machine guns are emphatically such weapons and are appropriate for the militia."

Hate

It's a headline here and a story there...

But I keep encountering a theme of self hate among the people on the left.

Not sure if it's a widely held idea, but if you hate yourself, you're very unlikely to have any capacity to love anyone.

This means that hate is their only motivation, regardless of the bunting they hang on their stated reasons.

You can see it clearly when all talk of equality is really just giving unfair advantage to a group they perceive as being disadvantaged.

You cannot fairly arrive at equality of outcome.

Life is unfair.

Equality of opportunity is as fair as you can make it.

You cannot force someone to take the opportunity.

But we should stop letting people blame others for their own failings.

I know from personal experience that this is a very difficult thing to learn.

Poor Riche

Paid the mortgage like usual, but the lender keeps changing the dashboard.

This month their estimated value of my home is displayed alongside the amount I still owe.

Chateu de Ghetto has tripled in value according to the bank!

I also love how in a 30 year loan that the first 20 years don't even halve the principle; but the principle is visibly shrinking now.

The spike in value means that we're getting home equity loan offers in addition to the offers to buy the place outright.

I don't need more bills, so we're not going to take one of those loans, and we've seen the effect on people who did.

二度目の原爆の日おめでとう！

77 years ago, this very moment, Bock's Car dropped the second, and last, atomic bomb used in anger.

That's one hell of a record.

Here's hoping we make it 100.  A faint hope with the current resident of the White House...

Do I Have This Right?

The mayor of the city of New Fucking York is upset that the governor of Texas is shipping the illegal huddled masses to him.

The tone I'm getting from this is that it's A-OK for red-states to be overrun with illegal aliens, but NOT OK for a deep blue city to have to deal with the problem.

Oh, and it's a problem now that it's in NYFC and wasn't when it was in Texas.

It's very interesting to me.

Did I Say Easier?

It's established wisdom that 9mm is easier to learn to shoot than .45 because the gun kicks less.

When comparing full size service autos this is certainly true.

Part of the conceal carry renaissance is first getting .380's in the same form factor as .32's.  Then getting 9mm in that size then getting high-cap versions of that 9mm.

Guns like the Shield Plus weren't possible in the '80's when Florida passed shall-issue.  Never mind there wasn't much market for such guns anyway because it was, nationally, difficult to get a carry permit.

But what these little guns aren't is easier to shoot than even a compact .45; like a Commander.

Not really a novice gun, and they are lots of people's first gun.  Sometimes only gun.

People get their permit and ask the person behind the counter, "what're the good ones for carry?"

As long as they get some practice time, I think they will be happy with their purchase.

Of course, most people don't and are happy as clams packing a gun they put a single box through once, and have never checked to see if the recommended JHP works in their gun.

Even with record crime going on in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York (SPIT) City; the odds of actually needing your carry gun are still quite low most any place you're allowed to pack it.  Hmmm...  Not in those places I named?  Odd.

Anyway!

A subcompact 9mm is as difficult to shoot as any light .45; not easier.

But since it's many people's only gun, they're never going to know that.

They just need to get out there and put rounds down range to learn their gun.

They might even benefit from paying an instructor.

Speaking Of Dancing Monkeys

If you've Amazon Prime, click on over to Thirteen Lives.

For once, Hollywierd did not fuck up a historical drama.

Even knowing the outcome of events did not affect my enjoyment.

Bruno Gantz Was Not Austrian Nor German

John Leguizamo, a Latino actor who's played several Italian characters, is bent out of shape that a white dude got picked to portray murderous dictator Fidel Castro.

First off, John, if you're going to play non-Latino roles yourself, you have to accept that non-Latinos will be playing Latino characters.

Especially when there are Latinas like Cameron Diaz.

Suck it up.

But let's take this further.

Something I've seen for myself living in Florida is Latino is not a singular, monolithic, homogeneous group of people.

The different nationalities of Latino fucking HATE each other.

John, you're Colombian.  Who the fuck are you to complain that someone who's not Cuban play a murderous Cuban dictator?

By your own rationale you aren't even qualified to play his murderous, thug, henchman Che Guevera.

Che was Argentinian.

I guess if you MUST play a murderous thug, Pablo Escobar was a fellow Colombian.

PS: James Franco is a better actor and got the part on merit, not ethnicity.  He even looks like Fidel a bit.

Ahead Of Fashion

My interest in the retro side of AR's has led, for a change, being ahead of fashion.

20" rifles seem to be getting popular again.  At least there's a lot of chatter about them lately.

Heck, with an M16 or M16A1 clone, you're not even talking a heavy rifle.

I am a little tempted to build an all-modern pencil barrel rifle with a KE Arms plastic lower now!

Yeah, I need another AR like I need a hole in my head.

Resurrected

Unfortunately, I had to cut off the conversation just as Willard was warming to his argument... We're often in agreement about a point in a way that doesn't SEEM like we agree.

But I have theorized that the three enemy combatants at The Battle of the BTR-152 whom were shot with the, now, obsolete and useless Colt Commander and Winchester Silver-Tip ammo are now alive.

What with all this new fangled, better, guns and ammo available now, anyone killed with something so old and out of fashion must surely be rendered alive again because all such gauche guns could not possibly have ever been effective.

Right?

I am sure that snarkily calling .45 ACP "forty-five AARP" scores points with the Instructorati, but it doesn't erase decades of effective stops.

And 9x19mm Parabellum ain't no spring fucking chicken neither.  It's OLDER than .45 ACP by three years!

What's happened in recent years is bullet design has allowed 9mm to perform as well as .45 did; but in smaller, lighter guns that hold more bullets and are easier to shoot.

Perform as well.

That means .45 will still get the job done, you'll just have fewer chances to hit and your gun will be bigger and heavier and you're going to have to invest more time into learning to shoot it well.

I happen to like both rounds and own several guns in each caliber.

It should be noted that those same advances in bullet design don't apply to .45 ACP because of the much lower velocities, even in light +P loads.  Those same advances might explain why 10mm ACP is making a bit of a comeback, you can't accuse that round of being low velocity in most loads.

It should also be remembered that there's not a lot of difference between suitable pistol rounds at all.

We've really been arguing around the margins for a long while.

And THAT Is Where They Lost You?

Watching the 2011 version of The Three Musketeers and I am surprised to discover that the French had monowire.

Milady de Winter deftly avoids being shredded by this advanced technology while she steals some piece of the queen's jewelry.

Masters of science and technology the French were in the 17th Century!

Because I am absolutely certain that this film was held to documentary standards with regards to historical accuracy.

About Them Red Dots

Talking to FuzzyGeff I am reminded that I was victorious TWICE shooting my .38 Super 1911 despite my opponent using a Glock 17 and a red-dot.

He was blazing fast, but I was simply better.

Amusingly, this same shooter was nearly beaten by a guy shooting a 7-shot .357 revolver.  But the revolver shooter was almost Jerry Miculek in speed.

I Have To Agree

FAFO from RedState.

I am not certain where we came up with the idea that since a thief, robber or burglar isn't trying to injure the rightful owner of the property they are stealing that the rightful owner cannot injure or kill them for taking the property.

Considering that thieves were being strung up as recently as the 1880's, this is not an old Blackstone legal tradition.

I've long held that such crooks should be subject to lethal force.

Fuck 'em.

The law does not, as of yet, support my position... mostly.

Florida's default state is anyone who's broken into your house is there to do grievous bodily injury so you can plug them as you encounter them.

But that doesn't stop them in the lawn with your TV.

初原爆の日おめでとう！

China, take fucking notes.

America gets creative when it comes to existential war.

Hiroshima went up in smoke 77 years ago this very moment!

Resisting The New

You may ask yourself, "How did I get here?"

-T Heads

Now that I think about it I'm an odd duck with regards to resistance to change and early adoption.

I do both equally.

Thanks to looking up all manner of real-world numbers for guns, I've never felt that 5.56x45mm NATO wouldn't do the job, or 9x19mm Parabellum for that matter.

But I'd have fought you if you tried to get me to own an AR-15 in 1990 when FuzzyGeff and I first started thinking we should finally join the ranks of civilian firearms owners.

FuzzyGeff has a germane quote from the time, "I have drill sergeant shaped scars from that gun."

I had long nights cleaning the damn things for turn-in shaped scars myself.

That's how we ended up with Mini-14's.  It didn't hurt that a Mini was about half the price of a Colt at the time.

I successfully avoided owning an AR for years after that, with a Daewoo DR200 replacing the Mini.  The DR200 took AR mags which were plentiful and affordable during the AWB.  FuzzyGeff went with an AR-mag-taking Bushmaster M-17 bullpup.

SoftwareJanitor fucked up our happy world talking about making AR's from kits.

He also mentioned that modern, commercial, cleaning gear was capable of easily cleaning an AR, as opposed to what the Army gave us...

So we dabbled (Marv got roped in here too).

Notice that my guns are the only ones that can't take an optic?

Kaylee originally started as a carry-handle 16" heavy barrel carbine.

I didn't even have a good camera then.

I didn't want all those new-fangled things like a flat-top or railed handguards.  Why would I need optics or a light on a carbine?

But, over time, my attitudes changed about lights and scopes.

Now all of the "go-to" rifles are equipped with the capability for both.  I've tried the full cheese-grater handguards and they offer real-estate I'm not using.

I was slow to embrace plastic magazines as well.  I let someone else do the field testing for Magpul.

Interestingly, to me, is how many of my M3 magazines have that silly window.  That's because 1) I needed one in tan for pics and comparison and 2) a rumor that because it's a USMC issue item it's held to slightly better tolerances.

I did notice I was ahead of a trend with regards to making my "go-to" gun lighter.  Yay me!

Don't Stop Learning

Tam and I have butted heads before.

But she's fundamentally correct about how technology propagates through gun owners.

We tend to find the solution that works for us and stop looking to solve the problem.

Wait.

I found the problem with declaring the "good enough for me" people as a form of proto-fudd.

They've found a solution to the problem and there is no need to solve it again.  It's solved.

That's why they stopped looking.  Not because there isn't a better solution, there's no need for it.

Because I'm a grass MUST be greener on the other side of the fence, I'm always trying new solutions.

I'm disappointed a lot too.

Early adopters often are.

But I still have the AimPoint 1000 I put on my Mini-14 way back when a red-dot was a radical idea.

The thing still works, but it's laughably primitive today.  It resides on Harvey's 10/22 and collects dust with the rifle she never shoots.  We're not .22 people.

But, over the years, I've gotten a little cynical about "new and improved" and how much better the new things are since sliced bread.

I have to say, "is this right for me?" before considering up-ending my apple cart.  If you've been reading here any time at all you've watched that cart get up-ended both when I didn't ask, "is this right for me?" and when I did.  I fear the results are similar.

At present, I am resisting red-dots on my pistols because a) I don't own a pistol that's cut for one, b) I can see that the sight will interfere with pocket carry and c) they cost money.

Pocket carry is all summer in Florida.

Perhaps Florida will finally get open carry passed so that I can carry in a manner which allows for a holster that is cut for an optic.  (Note: The cops will arrest you if they can see your gun in many Florida jurisdictions even with a "brief exposure" being allowed by law.)

The cost issue is mainly that they're not shinier than a different gun I wanna Grok to fullness.

I like the idea of red-dots.  They've not caught up to my needs yet.  Yet.

Silver Lining?

I just realized that with the loss of The Precious I will never have to attend to the small tear developing in the left side bolster of the driver's seat caused by the clip of my Kershaw.

The Kershaw was able to cause this tear because of the awkwardness of my crippled ass getting into her low-slung seats.  And that you couldn't open the door all the way in the garage.

That corner of my pocket slid along that part of the seat.

Re-covering the seats of The Beast will be simpler because the side airbags are in the pillars and not the seat.

Huzzah!

Accountability

Governor DeSantis just fired the Hillsborough District 13 state attorney!

I expect a lot of gnashing of teeth and rending of clothes over this.

The liberals love state attorneys that prosecute some laws, but not others.

Like not prosecuting anyone associated with Antifa or Only Black Lives Matter.

Or laws about gender transitioning children...

Selective enforcement and prosecution usually comes from some kind of bias for or against a political position, and that leads to injustice.

Besides, I think there were oaths sworn when Mr Warren took office.

There was once a time when breaking an oath carried far more severe penalties than simply being fired.

Writer's Block

I'm having a case of block.

Posting that I'm blocked, might free up the muse.

Might not.

Hang in there, I ain't gived up.

A Couple Of Things About The Beast

I did not realize how bad my left knee was getting until I didn't have to work a clutch pedal anymore.  The constant pain that slowly built was only noticeable in its absence.

The slush-box is much easier on The Lovely Harvey's neck.  No matter how smooth I tried to be, I was still jarring her some.

Being several inches higher off the ground sure aids ingress and egress.  Harvey even predicted that there was a day coming when our old asses would not be able to get in an out of The Precious.

Displacement on Demand is seamless, the only way to tell it's changed from a V-8 to a V-4 is to turn on the mileage display in the information center.

It is so much smoother than The Precious!  Bumps and potholes are not so back-breaking.  Softer suspension and higher profile rubber will do that for you.  Oh and being half a ton heavier...

Having a back seat is nice.

Having a trunk is also nice.

Putting the shifter in "L" limits the car to the first three gears.  3rd is the equivalent to having 4.11 gears in my old Camaro.  The Beast is perky in 'L' in "sport" mode.

For the record, the old Silver Bullet had 2.73 gears running a TH350 and 215-70R15 tires.  I just calculated what gearing I'd need to match 3rd in The Beast running a 2.92 rear and 235-50R18's.

Obviously a TH350 and a 6L80 have completely different gearing.

TH350 is 2.52/1.52/1 and the 6L80 is 4.03/2.36/1.52/1.15/0.85/0.67.

2nd and 3rd are the same between the two!

In short, I'm happy with my new hot rod.

Needs some exhaust with some rumble though.  I'm not a cop so my car don't need to be able to sneak up on people.

That's Nice But Can You Help

The Beast has a common "problem" with the 11-13 Caprice.

There is no instrument cluster back-light when the light sensor says there's enough light to leave the headlights off.

When driving into the sun, you can't see the gauges.

I think this is part of the "stealth" mode setting that also keeps the dome lights from coming on when you open the door.

What several of us have been asking is if toggling the bit in the BCM for the dome light function will activate the back-light during the day.

Some cars can get the back-light when you turn on the headlights or parking lights.  Some cars won't.

I've read too many responses saying to turn on the parking lights to people who've clearly indicated that they still don't have a back-light until the light sensor says it's dark enough.

The service manual says that it's controlled by the BCM.  That's great, but is there a bit we can flip to make the default state of the back-light "on?"

Week Three Part Two

The Lovely Harvey had her three week check on her incision from the second surgery (the first was for the shoulder replacement, the second for debriding the infection).

The IV antibiotics I've been giving her are working as the doc hoped.  I'm getting pretty deft at this mid-line syringe thing.

Her incision is not quite ready for the staples to come out, so we have another appointment next week.

They say it's looking really good and they're satisfied with what they're seeing.

HUZZAH!

She is ready for the sutures to come out and the mid-line to be gone.  Still have a week of anti-biotics to give though.

China Retaliates

The Chinese Communist Party has ordered all liquor stores in China closed in response to Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.

DT's are a bitch!

A Test

Judging by all of the indicators that The People are fed up with how things are going and wish to change from The Evil Party to The Stupid Party in November...

We should have a decent majority in both Congressional houses coming.

The thing is, with the whispered news coming from Arizona and Michigan that the 2020 election was, indeed, fucked with...

2022 is a test to see if the system really is rigged and that the soap and ballot boxes have failed; leaving only one box left.

Well informed voters and honest elections are king pins of this Republic.

The latter is far more important than the former.

A Bunch Of Fucking Mincers

Just watched Lightyear and the axle wrapping horror that there was a gay relationship in the movie just makes you people who got wrapped around said axle look like mincers.

It's barely a plot point.