I’m sitting at my computer around 2300 doing some work when a message comes in from my wife

“I hear something outside”

This is as meaningful as just about all of her urgent messages. It could have been anything from a car revving its engine to an intruder trying to break in.

“What do you hear?”

“Like an animal rustling”

Ok. This is could be a real threat. It could be anything from a squirrel up to a bear. It could be trying to get at the chickens or the feed. Or it could be a big cat. Worse, it could be a two legged intruder.

I stand up and grab the Winchester ’94 the not weapon weapons light and head to the porch. A quick scan from inside the house shows no movement.

I step out the door and immediately hear something scampering into the mess that lives on the porch. The rifle comes up and I’m looking for the criter.

I poke here and there and I hear it again. It moves to the corner of the porch where the screen is damaged and it can get out. It is a racoon.

“It is a racoon. Do you want it dead?”

“Um….”

There is a three minute discussion before she decides that yes, it should be a dead racoon. Stupid critter hasn’t moved.

“It is going to be loud.”

“Ok”

I pull back the hammer, line up a clean shot. From where I am there is nothing behind the critter for 200 yards at least. The rifle is pointing down so the entire ground is the backstop. If I were to miss the round would go another 10 yards max before it was in the dirt.

Yes, the gun is loaded.
Yes, I want to destroy what I’m pointing at.
I have identified my target and what is beyond it.
Booger hook to the bang stick, and I press the trigger backwards.

There is a very loud bang and the racoon is gone.

Did I miss? I move it off the porch and around the corner. I can see where it went through the tear in the screen. No sounds, no blood trail. Shit, Shit, Shit.

Still looking. Then I spot it. It is dead dead dead. That 30-30 Winchester had pushed that damn critter off the porch. It was dead before it hit the ground.

Good timing, I go put stuff away. My daughter is the one that deals with dead animals. She collects pelts and bones and such. And she has people that buy them from her.

She is pounding down the stairs and shows up ready to go investigate. We head outside.

I move around and shine my light on the racoon.

“is it dead?”

Looking at the pile of fur and bones and looking to see if it is moving. No movement. No change in position since I checked 3 minutes ago.

“It is dead.”

“It just MOVED!”

“It is dead, it didn’t move.”

“Its looking at me!”

I look at her and where she is looking. Following her line of sight there is a second racoon . She can’t see the dead one, it is blocked from her sight by a plant. She can see a very live and very big racoon.

“There’s another racoon out here! Do you want it dead too?”

“Ummmmm.”

Child and I go inside where we go have a conference with wife.

“Do you want it dead?”

It takes wife another 5 minutes to work out if she wants it dead or not. In the end she says “Yes, I want it dead.”

Well the position of that racoon means that I have a backstop but not as good. It is the foundation of the house. I do NOT want to punch a 30-30 through a racoon and into the foundation. It will cause damage. I decide to drop down to a .22LR

So I grab the .22 bolt action then spend a couple of long minutes searching for the magazine. I know it is right here on my desk…. Find it and put it into the rifle.

Daughter and I head back out. I’m hoping the second racoon has left. Nope he’s still there staring at us with his beady little black eyes.

I again confirm with wife that she wants it dead. Line up the shot and press the trigger.

Nice clean break and the critter take the shot.

AND IS STILL FUCKING MOVING!

Grrr!

It starts to move along the foundation so I move to the corner of the house. Line up the second shot. It is definatently wounded. I can see it is limping. I line up the shot and press the trigger. Another good hit.

It scrambles along the foundation and cuts across the yard to the shed. Daughter and I are following.

“It doesn’t look bad. I hate .22”

“It’s bleeding.”

“huh?” I am such a smart dude. “I don’t see any blood”.

“There is a huge blood trail here.”

I go back and sure enough there is a big arse blood trail. I hear the ‘coon scampering so I turn back to follow him. He’s on the wood pile. I line up one more time and press the trigger.

It goes into death throws instantly and shortly after it stops moving.

AAR

There is a huge difference in the stopping power of 30-30 v. .22lr.

Racoon are harder to kill then they look. It take better shot placement for a quick one shot kill than I delivered.

The o-light worked great as a hand held weapons light

The .22 left a lot more blood.

This should take care of the critter problem we’ve been having recently.

From one of our readers, a Pistolero.

“The consensus is that no more than five to ten people in a hundred who die by gunfire in Los Angeles are any loss to society. These people fight small wars amongst themselves. It would seem a valid social service to keep them well-supplied with ammunition.” Colonel Jeff Cooper. Thought of this when I read this morning Startlegram story of the murder conviction of a gangbanger who managed to shoot one of his own side in the head during a firefight on East Berry.

Fort Worth gunman sentenced to 15 years for murder in 2019 shooting caught on video

End Quote

A Fort Worth gunman was sentenced on Tuesday to 15 years in prison in the shooting death of a man in a business parking lot that was captured on video in 2019.

As part of a plea agreement, Damorian Allen, 30, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to murder as a Tarrant County jury was deliberating toward a verdict in the May 21, 2019, killing of 28-year-old Tony Austin.

From the article we know that the animals are of a protected class because they don’t give race or physical description. Even when describing the crime. We know the make and model of the cars, the type of license plates but from the written description the asshole could have been a Amish man getting a ride.

Regardless, our reader’s comment indicates this was bad people shooting at other bad people. None of the people in the two cars that were involved were good people and a number of them ended up in jail, likely not for the first time.

Another week, another slate of bad laws and good events.

You, of course, know the drill. Leave the comments.

Had a bit of fun yesterday, was able to talk to a young lady from Brazil. She went shooting for the first time now that she lives in the US.

Quote: It was very scary.

She’s been invited to go shooting and she got to see some video of my kid shooting. She’s looking forward to a day at the range if she ever makes it over here.

When was the last time you were able to take a new shooter to the range?
What was the best response you’ve ever had from a new shooter?
What was the scariest at the range incident you’ve encountered?

In 1934 the first federal gun control law was passed. It was stupid and broken from the first day. The gist was that because bad people were using machine guns to kill other bad people and sometimes good people (or cops) got hurt the federal government needed to stop the proliferation of guns.

The method picked was to make the cost of machine guns to expensive for people to afford. The debates in congress explicitly mentioned that taxing gun transfers was the only possible way to create a law that would pass constitutional review. Originally they wanted to apply the NFA to pistols but that was cut from the final bill.

In the end they put machine guns, short barreled shotguns, silencers, and pistol like rifles (Short barreled rifles).

Of course this did not do anything for anybody. The law was not enforced as it was. If somebody was caught with an NFA item that wasn’t registered they were just required to send in their $200 and register the item.

It wasn’t until 1936 that it was actually used. In this case a moonshiner by the name of Miller was caught at a supply cache which the ATF thought was a working still. Since they couldn’t arrest Miller for having a bunch of sugar they used the new NFA to charge him with possession of a sawed off shotgun.

It went to court. The entire NFA was ruled unconstitutional by the lower court. That should have been the end of the NFA. It wasn’t. The government appealed it all the way to the supreme court where the government argued unopposed. They made such wild claims as “A shotgun isn’t a weapon that would be used by the militia thus it is not protected by the second amendment.”

Yep, in 1936 the government was arguing that only “military style weapons” were covered by the second amendment. And the argument regarding shotguns was false. The military used shotguns in WW I and many other conflicts and they continue to be used.

The next federal gun control laws came in 1968. This defined a class of people that were prohibited from owning guns and made it illegal for those prohibited people to possess a firearm. In addition, it created the FFL system. This was all in response to people buying guns by mail. Congress claimed that forcing people to buy firearms from FFLs would keep bad people from getting firearms.

In 1986 the gun control act of 1968 was passed which made it illegal to add machineguns to the NFA.

In 1998 the Brady Law went into effect. This is the start of 4473s and “Instant Background Checks”.

It was going to go through but the NRA got it amended such that the government was required to create an instant background check. The requirement was that the check should come back fast enough that a person could still purchase a firearm on the same day. They required the “proceed if not denied” within 3 days. All of this kept the federal government from abusing the background checks into a de facto multi month waiting period.

If we don’t tell the FFL to proceed for 6 to 12 months then we having created a waiting period, it just takes that long.

Originally there was no system in place for an instant check so the federal government was given a limited amount of time to create the instant check. During the period from the passing of the Brady Law and the creation of NICS there was a 5 day waiting period for purchase of firearms. Again, no deny within 5 days and the sale could proceed.

There were also provisions about how long FFLs had to keep transfer records and what happened to those records if the FFL went out of business. One of the big requirements was no federal gun registry was permitted.

All of that gets us to the actual subject of this article.

A company is proposing that the NICS system be privatized. The argument they are making is that they already do a better job of background checks than the government thus they are especially suited to provide the same service for the purchase of firearms.

Because the states are not required to report to NICS they don’t. But this private company can get the information the federal government can’t. Of course they have a scare number.

According to the FBI, 43 states had met the requirements for collecting crime data according to the agency’s specifications as of Oct. 31, 2020. That means just 86% of the country is adequately covering its bases when it comes to screening gun buyers. That leaves plenty of room for the wrong person to wield a firearm.

Of course they don’t tell you why the FBI believes that 7 states aren’t meeting reporting requirements. Just that only 86% do.

According to them, using an “expert source”, a reporter for PBS:

Martha Bellisle wrote she believes the FBI’s background check database should, in theory, have “a definitive list of people who are prohibited from having guns.” This would include convicts, people who’d been committed to a mental institution, dishonorably discharged military members, drug addicts and more.

Hmmm, that’s interesting “and more” Bellisle isn’t interested in just keeping prohibited people from purchasing firearms, she wants more. Maybe it is that person that looked at her and scared her. Or that doesn’t have a high enough social credit score.

Having just spent a number of paragraphs telling us it is the states not reporting which is an issue, they bring up the church shooting in Charleston. There the shooter was able to purchase the firearm he used because the federal government (the military) didn’t report that he was convicted.

Their proposed solution?

While many government agencies stick with the NICS process, given the choice, many companies elect to partner with a private background screening vendor. That’s because the private sector is generally faster, more accurate, more comprehensive and more customizable.

While the FBI has access to database information, so do private screening companies.

The go on to imply that they would require drug testing as well.

Given all the evidence above, it’s clear that there are better methods of handling background checks than relying on the federal government. Screening buyers through the private sector could prevent needless, gun-related deaths, which means it’s certainly worth a try.

Of interest is that the only outside references are to the people that wrote/sponsored the article.

Utah company proposes solution that could help decrease gun violence in the U.S.

The other day there was a blog posting regarding a requirement in a budget bill that all new cars manufactured after some date have “remote engine immobilisers.” Most new cars already have engine immobilisers. The idea being that even if you put the key in the ignition and turn it, nothing will happen.

It requires that your key talk to the car and tell it that you are indeed authorized to use the car. It means that you can give somebody a “regular” key and they can use it to physically unlock your car but even if that key were to fit they can’t start the car.

This stops thieves from just forcing the lock or otherwise bypassing the ignition switch. There are stories of older car locks being bypassed by the thief jamming a big screwdriver into the keyhole and then forcing the cylinder to rotate. Just shearing all the pins that keep that cylinder from rotating.

Remote engine immobilization takes this to a new level. With this you can turn off the engine remotely. A kill switch.

Some OnStar vehicles have this. The police can call OnStar and have them disable a stolen vehicle at will. A very powerful way of catching car thieves. There are aftermarket versions of this as well.

Unfortunately it comes with a bit of extra. Who is authorized to kill your car? Will all police cars come with devices so they can kill the engine of any car they want? Will it become standard operating procedure for a cop to kill the engine of any car he stops?

Will Mayor Pete be able to kill any car that is drives to much in a given period of time?

Will M.A.D.D. get a law passed that immobilises your engine anytime you stop at a place that serves alcohol? And then you are required to blow to get your car to start again?

Will your voter registration be linked to your car. If there is “right wing extremest” in the area do all cars belonging to the wrong sorts of people get disabled?

In the Dresden Files novels, the main character drives a VW Bug. He drives it because as a wizard the more technically advanced something is, they more likely it is to break when he is near. The Bug has no electronics. It is dirt simple.

There might be a new call for “dumb” cars.

Kia and Hyundai drivers might want to take extra precautions to deter car thieves

There is a skill that everybody that carries and even those that don’t need to acquire.

Situational Awareness

My wife doesn’t have it at all. She has no ability to anticipate, to notice, to plan for what will happen.

On the other side there are the people that look at every trip into the city as a threat to their lives (I’m looking in a mirror) and plan for any possible event.

Situational awareness is more than pre planning. It is the ability to notice things and put together a gestalt that tells you “Here Be Dragons”.

Did you notice that little man sitting with his back to the wall sipping a drink? Did you notice that guy that is obviously right handed but never carries anything in his right hand? Did you notice that couple getting noisy in the back corner?

How about the two dudes that might not be friends with stiff bodies?

Did you notice the car that shouldn’t be on the street? Did you notice the van with the wrong public utilities symbol on it? Did you notice that the girl you are dancing with is to hot to be single?

Is she crazy? Is she trouble on two legs?

Or is she taken?