Category Archives: Crime

Fearmongering & the Art of Stupidity

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Myriam Marquez is a columnist for the Miami Herald which is my local rag. She published her column today regarding those evil assault weapons that are murdering tons of people in the Miami Dade County area.  How Ms. Marquez ever got a job at the Miami Herald as a writer is amazing and indicative of the level of desperation that the editorial board must be feeling although it is more likely a case of political correctness run amok because they needed a woman in the column section.

Ms. Marquez starts her rubbish by painting a horrifying picture of a “massacre” that happened recently in Liberty City. Apparently an AK 47 all on its own sprayed a group of people playing craps outside some apartment complex and it is suspected that the same or similar AK 47 (again on its own) was involved in a shooting in Brownsville. These Zombies AK 47 have become a curse because they don’t need human intervention to do their mayhem.

She tries to make up after that Horror Movie introduction with the snappy comment :

Oh, excuse me. Weapons don’t kill people. People do. Except the weapon that criminals use can make the difference between death and survival.

OK, we are doing better now. It seems that after all, there was somebody actually behind the AK 47s. For a second I was actually worried that we were being invaded by possessed rifles. But then she makes the first of her really incendiary comments, an insult to millions os law abiding Gun Owners:

Assault weapons are meant to do the dirty on cops.

All of the sudden, we are nothing more that potential cop killers. We are beasts ready to pounce on the Thin Blue Line. We are scum. How sad for Ms. Marquez to think that the actual group of people that supports your average Law Enforcement Officer is nothing more than Mass Murderers.

She goes on to spew the standard lies and fabrications probably fed by the Brady Campaign without double checking the sources. The best is how murders by those Evil Zombie Assault Weapons now are responsible for 20% of the murders in Miami during 2007. Now that is funny because according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Miami Dade county had 240 murders during that period and if the stat she mention is right, 60 of those murders were committed by those Evil Zombie Assault Weapons. Funny thing is that in any Newspaper in this country, 60 murders by “Assault Weapon” would make a huge front page splash… except the Miami Herald who it seems it was not newsworthy or cooler heads thought they can only push a lie so far.  But pushing lies seems to be the norm for Ms. Marquez. her column states that machine guns have been banned for decades although I just had an enjoyable night of shooting with the owner of a suppressed machine gun in one of our public ranges. You see, machine guns are not banned, they are restricted, they are expensive but if you have the money and the patience, you can own one and legally shoot it. I guess Ms. Marquez chose to ignore such little tidbit in her “fifth column.”

And here we have another jewel:

I grew up with guns, have owned and shot them at target practice. So I get it. But there’s no valid reason for hunters to have assault weapons or for city folks to own them unless they plan to kill en masse.

Ms. Marquez clearly belongs to that group that has a serious visual impairment: In the infrequent case that when they read the Bill Of Rights, a congenital optical defects makes the Second Amendment disappear or transforms itself to read something about the right of hunters to carry arms whenever the Government says so. It seems that Ms. Marquez reading is limited to The Motorcycle Diaries and never heard of the Federalist Papers or the Anti Federalist Papers or she would never said such left wing baloney. And let’s not skip on the insult once again: You have an Evil Black Rifle, you are nothing more than a mass murderer.

She goes on to quote Mayor Manny Diaz and Police Chief John “I drive a free SUV” Timoney crying about the increase of murders and how easy is now for the gangs to obtain the Evil Black Rifles. However crime numbers from the FDLE website reveal that after Chief John Timoney took office in January of 2003, crime shot up in Miami Dade but the Assault Weapons Ban did not expire until September of 2004. So it seems more a question of ineffective Police leadership than guns after all. Maybe the true mass murderers are not those of us with Evil Black Rifles but the Mayor and the Police Chief with the tactical support of Journalistic Whores.

To Be Continued…

Be safe in a Hotel. Part 2.

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Continued from Be Safe In A Hotel.

  • If you have a gun for self-defense, keep it to yourself. Most hotel chains are anti-self defense. They do not like guns in their property and will not allow their employees to provide their means for self defense. They even forbid less-than-lethal articles such as pepper spray and stun guns. Pocket knives will send you to Human Resources to pick up your last check and a trip home although I am still amazed that they allow kitchen personnel to have those very long and sharp chef’s knives. As a guest legally carrying a weapon, your best bet is to shut the heck up and keep it from prying eyes. Also, try to keep anything gun related such as shooting accessories or even gun magazines from plain view of the housekeeping workers that come to clean your room. They will call security concerned that a gun nut ready to cause mayhem might be in the room and you will be bothered by managers trying gauge your intentions while one keystroke away from calling 911.
  • Take the time to reconnoiter the all the hotel and surrounding areas. Learn from the very basic of knowing where your nearest fire exit is located to asking about the crime rate in the area. Not only check where your fire exit is located, but also you may want to take the stairs all the way down and make sure it gives you a good access to safety in case of evacuation. Check for well illuminated stairs, easy to open doors from floor to floor, make sure that there are no abandoned items that may slow down or interrupt an evacuation or wet surfaces that may cause a slip and fall. Same applies for common areas of the hotel such as bars, restaurants, business center, stores, etc. Look around, see where you would go in case fecal matter hits the cooling apparatus or at least where to get behind hard cover if some nutjob decides to replicate another Mumbai attack. Check for cell phone coverage and make sure to note where the dead spots are located and where you have to go in case you need to dial 911. Ask about crime in the area and be ready to be lied to. Hotels will say that their place and neighborhood and crime free which is absolute bull but you may find one or two employees that will rather see you alive and will inform you of the potential dangers around than seeing you hurt. Under no circumstance believe Concierges and Bell Staff about safe places to eat or visit outside the hotel since they all have deals where they get kickbacks from these establishments. Use online resources to check for crime in the area you will be visiting. Lots of local police & sheriff departments will have a zip code by zip code crime statistic breakdown in their websites. And even if everything checks as safe, you are the only one responsible for your safety so do not let your guard down.
  • You are alone, trust your gut. Hotels, outside the lobby and a couple of common areas and during check in and checkout times are desolated places. You may see a hotel worker from time to time in the hallways and maybe another guest, but that will be rare. That means that when you walk from or to your room, the possibility of an ambush is there and you should be very aware of your surroundings. Most hotel rooms nowadays have peepholes in the doors so use them before you step out and make sure nobody suspicious is in the immediate vicinity of your door.  After you open the door, take a couple of seconds and scan the hallway for more any suspicious activity or individuals. Keep an eye on doors not properly closed, specially closets since they are perfect ambush lairs for criminals. It is not widely publicized but rapist and other criminals will look for places to hide and wait for an unsuspecting victim to walk by. If you see something that bothers you, retreat back to your room, call the Front Desk and have them send somebody to check for a suspicious individual. However, the most dangerous part of empty hallways is going back to the room. People are usually tired or distracted or even tipsy after a night of party and they just want to go in the room and lay down. Awareness is less than stellar and all of the sudden you have a gun pointed at your face commanding you to go inside the room where you will be stripped of your goods, your dignity and even your life. If something is amiss, get in a house phone and demand a security escort to your room in a loud and clear voice so anybody in earshot can hear you. Get away safely if you can or look for a fighting position that offers good cover and is defensible.  Again, trust your gut, if something looks dangerous, use your head and your training.

Joke of the day. Obama sezs: Gun owners do not need to stock up.

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Obama says that we do not need to stock up…suuuure bubba, we believe you. And the check is in the mail and I’ll respect you in the morning and call you tomorrow. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, we need not to worry because the Great and Powerful Ozmaba says:

“I believe in common-sense gun safety laws, and I believe in the second amendment,” Obama said at a news conference. “Lawful gun owners have nothing to fear. I said that throughout the campaign. I haven’t indicated anything different during the transition. I think people can take me at my word.”

Yep! Those pesky “common-sense” gun laws that have worked so magnificently in Chicago which now is the most crime free city in the United States, right? No murders at all in the Windy City, everybody is free and happy, while the birds are singing and the sun shines beautifully even at midnight during those basketball games in the inner city. I know, I know, enough with the sarcasm.

It irks me that Obama, disciples and minions thinks we are stupid. Peter Hamm, Propaganda Meister for the Brady Campaign against Gun Violence (also known as Brady Campaign to Save Jobs for Criminals and Guarantee Murderers get Fresh Victims Every Day) even displays his ignorance in a quote from the same article:

“Anyone who thinks they need to rush out and buy a firearm clearly has not been paying attention to how quickly we make progress on this issue. We don’t think these are first-time buyers. We think they are people who already have more than enough guns at their homes to protect themselves and are buying more.”

Peter, Oh buddy of mine. Civil Rights do not come with an “enough” clause. My right to defend myself against criminals do not have to be subjected to what a Washington or Chicago flunkie determines to be enough.  And dictating what is enough private property is the mark of the socialist worldwide, specially when they are ready to take such property from the hands of the Citizens under the excuse of the Common Good.

I guess we know where you guys are common from…. then again we knew that already and that is why we are stocking up.

What can one armed man do?

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I have no idea why, but and old memory found me this morning. Back in the early 90′s when I was living in certain South American country now under the firm grasp of a Socialist, massive riots and looting occurred. It was long four days of absolute collapse of the government basic services and control which I lived awake in coffee, cigarettes with a single shot shotgun and a Walther PPK on my waist. Thankfully our property was not affected by rioters since I already had a reputation for being somewhat crazy in Sheepland I was seen in more than one occasion experimenting with home made napalm) and an assiduous patrol kept miscreants pretty much away.

On the second day I was witness to a mob attacking a two story bodega about a two blocks away from my house. As typical of many bodegas in the country, it was owned and operated by one owner and his family and they had their living quarters on the upper floor.  It had no side or rear doors, just the front store gated entrance and side stairs connecting the second floor to the ground level.  I have no idea why the bodega was attacked but looters usually do not need one. When I noticed the attack it was already in progress and I fielded a pair of binoculars from the roof of my house to get a clearer picture. I was upset I what I saw since the looters were people that lived in the area, people that bought from that store and even got credit to purchase items from the owner when they did not have ways to pay for them, yet they thought it was OK to destroy his means of living.

The looters breached the store’s gates and proceeded inside. Seconds later they came out holding on the liquor and cigarettes while whooping their victory. After the booze and smokes were depleted, looters came back pretty much for the rest but this time I heard a firearm discharged sending everybody out running while dropping whatever items they had in their hand. The Bodega owner appeared with a big frame revolver in one hand, surveyed the damage and alongside his family recovered what little they could and proceeded for the next hour or so to secure the store entrance with whatever means they had available. Once they finished, they went inside and I returned to my patrol.

I’d say that about an hour later I checked the bodega again and I saw a large crowd in front. Their demeanor appeared angry and they were looking up at a window on the second story facing the front of the store. Through the barred window I saw a hand come out making go-away gestures but the crowd did not heed. Some in the mob once more attacked the store entrance, but I am guessing the reinforcement was much sturdier because they could not breach it this time. I kept watching the impasse silently congratulating the store owner for his stand when I saw something that chilled me: some idiot looter appeared suddenly with a Molotov cocktail and launched it towards the second story window. Thankfully it missed and hit the wall creating a fireball of little damage against a cement block structure.

It dawned on me that this was now not a bunch of idiots trying to score some freebies from the neighborhood merchant but a full fledged lynching mob intent on murder and nothing could be done to stop them. Police was nowhere to be seen and those not in the mob were like me trying to protect their households or cowering inside them praying to be spared from the wolves roaming the streets. I saw another looter with yet another Molotov cocktail but this time carefully preparing himself for a perfect pitch. He never did. The hand came through the barred second story window but this time holding the revolver and shooting it. One looter down and a Molotov cocktail rolled off his hand harmlessly.

Another looter, incensed by the shooting of his colleague picked up the firebomb and tried to toss it. The revolver went off again and another looter fell to the ground. This one I could see was dead on the spot. My binoculars allowed me to see the head exploding with perfect detail and the body just switching off to a mass of uncoordinated muscles and bones.  I lost track of the Molotov cocktail but I guess it did not go off again because I did not see a fireball, but a couple more appeared in the hands of other looters. More detonations came out the second story window sending two more looters scurrying and at least one of them leaving blood behind him.

This sequence kept repeating itself for another couple of hours. Mob attacking the gate, failing, mob trying to firebomb the upstairs apartment and getting shot for their efforts. I counted at least four dead on the ground and some 8 wounded taken away when the mob finally decided that it was getting to steep a price to pay for their obstinacy and withdrew to seek easier targets. Some 45 minutes later, the store owner and his family came out, loaded their old pick up truck (amazingly left untouched by the mob) with whatever belongings they could pack and abandoned the store. That night the looters came back and set the whole place on fire destroying the only grocery shop in a mile radius forcing the neighborhood to go farther away for their supplies from now on.

I heard later that the Store owner and his family moved to another city. The store was sold for a pittance but the new owner transformed it into a bike repair shop that went bankrupt soon afterward. Last I heard was that the building was abandoned and became a den of druggies and cheap hookers. Nobody was prosecuted for the attacks to the store and thankfully neither was the store owner for defending himself and his family.

So what can one armed man do? When the Shit Hit The Fan, a store owner saved himself and his family against a crowd and bought himself enough time to escape to safety. This was the leasson I learned that day and I hope you may save this little story in your brain’s memory bank for whenever somebody tries to convince you guns are not the solution.

Domestic Abuse best served unarmed.

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Domestic Abuse best served unarmed.
Originally posted April 27th, 2008.
I found this little tidbit in the website Helpguide.org. Please click on the picture to view full size and check the highlighted part.

Click on the image for full size

So let me get this straight: You have been a defenseless victim and, in order to avoid having the pulp beaten out of your brain, you must continue to be defenseless to avoid injury? Am I the only one who actually sees the colossal stupidity behind these “instructions”?

But the little voice in my head that goes by the name of Reason clamors: “Miguel, some people might not understand why you are so mad. You better explain.” I begrudgingly must grant the point so here it is: When confronted in a home invasion situation, those of us who are into the Personal Defense side of gun ownership, are taught that we must go to a room where we can lock ourselves with our gun(s), and wait for the Bad Guy to either go away or be ready to stop him if he decides to bust in that final door. Having a cell phone to call police is better because Bad Guys actually are known for cutting regular phone lines and leaving victims with a dead piece of cheap plastic and electronics to call nobody for help. If that happens, it is nice to have an actual piece of equipment that would be activated at a moment’s notice and stop the intruder rather than an electronic gadget that will either record for posterity the moment of your death, or do basically nothing to stop the attack.

Although somewhat dissimilar both Home Invasion and Domestic Abuse do run under the same principal: you are attacked by somebody at home, where you are supposed to be safe, by somebody who might have the advantage of initiative, surprise and/or power. Your life is at stake and the consequences of inaction can be deadly. You must act with the tools and strength required to stop the attack. Saying “Please Don’t Hurt Me” is not going to keep you safe.

So the fact that this article does nothing to empower the victim of domestic abuse when attacked by her abuser. It only ensures that the cycle of violence repeats over and over because we are not politically incorrect enough to show the victim how to stop being one. That is offensive and irresponsible. And that is why I am mad. Political Correctness Kills People.

Gun Free Zone Venezuela: Experiment failed.

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On August 20, 2002 the Venezuelan Government under Hugo Chavez enacted the Disarmament Law under the promise of reducing the crime violence gripping the nation. Six years later the results are tragically in: Caracas, the capital and most populated city in the country now boast the dishonorable distinction of being the most dangerous metropolis in the world with a murder rate of 130 per 100,000.  The citizens of Caracas are in a literal state of siege and panic. The sounds of shots are more common than the sounds of birds and that is tough when you realize that tropical Venezuela is home to 11,000 species of birds.

Venezuela’s Disarmament Law is a Gun Control advocate wet dream. First of all it dictates that gun ownership is a privilege given by the Estate and to be removed without warning or compensation. You ask “compensation”? yes because it does not matter that you spent your hard earned money, filled paperwork, got fingerprinted, went through a psychiatric consult, waited up to a year and had to carry an specific permit for each gun you may be allowed to have, you do not own the gun, it belongs to the government, you are just renting it.

The Disarmament law voided all previous gun records and gave a 90 day grace period for gun owners to re-register their weapons. After that period expired, all guns not registered became illegal and the owner a criminal facing grave penalties and/or jail time.

But that, like infomercials say, is not all. This law complements The 1928 Law of Firearms and Explosives which defined the initial restrictions of gun ownership including what weapons & calibers are you allowed to “own.” IE: the good old 9mm is not a legal caliber to use because the Military uses it. Same for the .45 and the 30.06 and anything that has ever been used by any of the branches of the Venezuelan Military as standard weapon or caliber. That pretty much leaves the user with .22, .38, and .32 ACP.  Shotguns may be OK but slugs are not allowed and rifled shotguns are a no-no.

The last ingredient in the 130 per 100,000 murder recipe is the criminalization of self defense. I am no legal expert or pretend to know about law so I will give you a sad anecdote. A Venezuelan criminal lawyer friend of mine emailed me some years back regarding a case she was defending. She wanted to consult me (like I was a Spanish speaking version of Mas Ayoob, yeah right!) about shooting techniques used in self defense and about some other self defense issues related to guns so I explained her all I could over the phone while I was preparing an email with links to several websites that might shed much better information that I could give. I asked what was the case about and she explained that her client was confronted inside of his house by an armed criminal in the wee hours of the night. The criminal was armed and so was the client who triple tapped the miscreant sending him to his well deserved oblivion. The home owner did the dutiful thing and called police who promptly arrested him and dragged his butt to jail for murder.  I was shocked and asked why was he arrested if he was in his house, attacked by an armed criminal and he only defended himself. The lawyer responded that three shots, according to Venezuelan jurisprudence was too much, in fact it was legally considered “viciousness & savagery” (Ensañamiento in Spanish) and thus murder, not self-defense. The legal standing is that one should shoot only once, asses the damage done to the opponent and then shoot if the threat to one’s life is imminent.  I asked the lawyer if that means I would have to give the Bad Guy a freebie shot before I could make sure he was gone for good and she said yes, that is the statute. She said that she could explain two shots fired as the person being nervous and pulling the trigger too fast without thinking but that the judge would not consider three shots as “nervousness.”

At the end her client ended up serving 10 years (the judge was gracious enough) for second degree murder. My only thought was that he was lucky he did not engage in a Bill Drill or he would serve thirty years in a Venezuelan prison.

Stocking up for the next four years.

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If what happened in Congress yesterday and the absurd speech by Nancy Pelosi blaming all republicans is any indication of what is coming, we better start stocking up. The amazing chutzpah can only be attributed to her knowledge that no real investigation will ever be made on the causes that brought down the financial markets because that would surely put the blame on the icons of the Democratic Party: Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and to an extent kill the presidential hopes of Hossanna Obama. And she is resting assured that the Main Stream Media will bury the story as deep as possible even though if it means no more jobs for them.

If past history teaches us anything is that, if Obama wins and gets to apply his social policies, we will see more misery and we will also have a rise in violent crime. Depending on how fast it happens and if Congress is still held my Democrats, rest assured we will see an onslaught of federal anti-gun measures brought to both the Senate and the House of Congress, highly touted and supported by the Media as the solution for all crime problems and will be signed by Obama with a smile. Make no mistake: THERE WILL BE NO SUNSET PROVISION IN ANY OF THESE LEGISLATIONS. We will be shafted forever with deep restrictions to our Second Amendment.

Things will be marginally better with McCain. With his history of “reaching across the aisle” I am sure he will be more than accommodating to restrict our access to guns if he needs some important piece of legislation passed in the democrat-controlled Congress. We are barely a little over a month before elections but other than vote, there is little we can do. We need to set out targets on changing Congress with the strength of a sandblaster. We need to get rid of the liberal democrats and RINOS that brought us to where we are and will have no compulsion in transforming the USA into a Third World country. Our mandate is to clean Congress in 2010 to our favor and keep it there. Time to start is now.

In the meantime, get that gun you wanted to get, better yet get two or as many as you can afford. Get ammo and lots of it. If you don’t reload, you better think about it and fast, there are plenty of resources and help in different websites and forums just in case OSHA under Obama decides that ammunition is dangerous to your health and you should have a HazMat permit to store it. Get as many spare high capacity magazines as you can since they are the first target alongside those ugly assault rifles of future bans.

Get ready, sinister times are coming.