Gun Free Zone

Corrected my username. DOH. This is what happens when you spend the preceding hours working an AWS issue.

There was a time when a man didn’t leave his home without a knife. A knife is one of the most useful tools a man can have.

As a boy, I carried a something like a Case “Stockman”. It had three different blades. My memory is dim, so it could have been a two bladed version.

In my teens, my cousin sold me a Swiss Army knife, for a penny.

That knife lived in my pocket for years and years until I think I lost it. I replaced it with the same version. This means I’ve been carrying the same version of a Swiss army knife for over 45 years.

That knife was useful in so many ways. Mostly it was a simple knife, when needed, a corkscrew, nail file, and screwdriver. The scissors were useful, mostly for getting into bubble wrap.

The interesting thing is that I seldom reach for that knife.

At university, I upgraded to two extra knives. On my left hip, I carried a USN issued Ka-Bar that was gifted to me by a UDT dude. It was the knife he carried in Vietnam. It lives on my desk, today, I just pulled it out to verify the markings.

On my right hip, I carried a Gerber Bolt Action Exchange blade. It had three different blades. Two were carried in the pouch, while the third was in the handle. Exchanging the blades was fast and easy.

After several years, I figured out that I never used the extra blades, so I just carried it in my pocket.

My next addition to the EDC tool set was a Leatherman. It was one of the first of the multitools. I found that I used the pliers the most, the blade seldom, and the screwdrivers fairly often.

When that was misplaced, I replaced it. I’ve since sold it, for a penny, to somebody that will use it.

My replacement was a Gerber multi-tool. The MP600. It has the pliers that I use regularly. The different screwdrivers, the blades, the file, and the can opener.

Except for the pliers, I could do all of the above with my Swiss Army Knife, but this is so much faster and the tips on the screwdrivers so much better.

So my current pocket load out is:

Left pocket, clipped to the edge, O-Light flashlight. In the pocket is the Swiss army knife, a USB thumb drive with current Ubuntu Install media, container with ear plugs. If I am not carrying mag pouches, a spare mag will go there.

In the right front pocket, clipped to the edge, is a Cold Steel Code-4. In the pocket is the Gerber multi-tool.

I am currently looking at the Kershaw Select Fire. I like that it has a standard bit driver and is built around a knife and not the tools. My bits would be #2 square drive, #1 Philips, #2 Philips, and a slot driver.

Thanks to Lenard for lots to think about. Thank you for all the feedback we’ve gotten from other users.

I don’t even have to tell you why I want to borrow it.

Y’all invited… BYOG&A.

The Custom Pocket Tool Kit

I hadn’t really explored this option until now so I started down the rabbit hole, and boy what a rabbit hole it is. There are innumerable videos on YouTube about what people allegedly carry in their pockets and the infinite utility they find out of random and weird tools and gadgets. Frankly, I think a lot of this is overstated, but for sure there are weird and unique little things that people have/do that help them do their specific weird/unique little thing.

After contemplation and viewing some other people’s EDC for ideas, I determined that a compact driver of some sort with a variety of bits and an extension could fit in a small pouch or case and I could easily fit a couple of other nice to haves in that form factor. And while the videos were sometimes questionable, it did help me narrow down specific tools that I wanted. I settled on the following for the kit:

Topeak Mini Rachet/Driver Kit

• This is a nice little kit packed with tools in a small form factor make for biking. The standard ¼” bits can be used in the driver as either a ratchet at the ratcheting end, or on the handle end as a standard screwdriver. It included a nice assortment of bits and a small extension. I swapped around the ¼” bits to have a selection of 11 bits I wanted and ditched the included tire tool.

Klein Tools 7 in 1 Extension/Nut Driver Set

• A wonderful tool that add not only a long ¼’ hex extension that is compatible with anything that accepts standard ¼” bits, but ingeniously has three nut drivers that service six different nut sizes that slip over the extension for storage. Quite the “force multiplier”!

Knipex Cobra XS

• These 4” pliers are all the rage for the EDC crowd for some reason. I don’t quite get it myself, but figured, what the hell, I’ve got room in the kit to throw those in and being small and flat they don’t really add any bulk.

EDC Organizer/Pouch

• A cheapo pouch to hold everything together.

All assembled, this was a pretty handy kit that was small but with decently big capabilities. It was however a little more bulky than I was hoping for and because of this, I couldn’t quite figure out what to do with it/where to put it.

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And that was crime reporting:

I don’t think any newspaper back in the past (and certainly not in this day and age of “let’s not hurt the feelings of special interest/minorities”) did such a thorough and fast job at covering every detail of a violent crime like the Herald. Edna Buchanan certainly established the high bar that was kept for years after she left and did not leave the reader with the feeling something was being hidden for whatever unnecessary reason or political platitude and within 24 hours or even less.

Today we don’t even have news or delicate propaganda but shitty indoctrination wrapped in a thin film of faux reporting.

This weekend, I’m going to be looking at the filings for cert. I’ve listened to a couple of reports talking about how powerful these petitions are. It should be good.

We have a guest post happening. If you submit an article in LibreOffice or google doc format, and it is fitting for the blog, we’ll likely post it. You can submit your articles to gunfreezone@troglodite.com

Back links will be evaluated on an individual basis.

Have a great weekend!

Please let us know what you are interested in, in the comments.

I came across a true stunner of an opinion written today. One so chock full of ignorance, self loathing, and antisemitism, it was a masterpiece in moral depravity.

It comes from none other than Ryan Deitsch.

From Parkland to Palestine: Jewish American Gun Violence Survivor Demands No More Munitions To Israel #CeasefireNOW

So right off the bat, he’s trying to use his victim status as a survivor of the Parkland shooting to browbeat Israel.

You know it’s going to be bad.

Six years ago today, tragedy struck my hometown of Parkland in the form of a neo-nazi 19-year-old who shot up my high school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas. The shooter deliberately targeted students and faculty in and around our Holocaust Studies program; killing 14 students and 3 staff, all friends and loved ones of our community.

It is factual that Nikolas Cruz had a history of making racist and antisemitic statements, his motives never appeared politically. He was obsessed with other mass shooters, had a history of other behavioral issues, and was most likely a fucking psychopath attracted to other afwul people.

In the aftermath, my friends and I responded by popularizing a hashtag “#NeverAgain” to raise awareness of shootings and hopefully bring an end to this violence.

This is grotesquely offensive. They deliberately appropriated a phrase popularized to combat genocidal antisemitism for gun control.

As a gun owning Jew, who quite purposefully owns guns to defend myself against violent antisemites, I hated this.

Among our many supporters, those connected to Israeli society were sympathetic towards us; providing Israeli trauma specialists to train counselors in Parkland, covering our community in the press, even going so far to join in our protest “The March For Our Lives.” That March 2018 rally in Tel Aviv saw speakers emphasize the need for people, especially children, to not experience the horrors of gun violence.

These last several months, Israel has been waging all out war against the Palestinian people of Gaza and the West Bank. As of this writing, Israel has reportedly killed, among others, +12,300 children. Despite the killings in Gaza by Israelis dating back long before last October, the United States government and many in the political class remain committed to openly endorsing this genocide.

There is do much to deal with in this paragraph.

First of all, is the glaring lack of mention of the 10/7 Attack. As though Israel decided to wage war on Gaza for no reason.

Second, there is no genocide on Palestinians. That’s not the stated intent of Israel, unlike Hamas, which has stated its intent is to wipe out the Jews. Also, Israel tries to remove civilians from harm’s way, even when that increases the risk to Israeli soldiers.

Third, he just acceptes Hamas casualty numbers, without ever questioning if they are accurate or anti-Israel propaganda.

When kids were killed in Parkland, every major news network (both U.S. and international) sent reporters on the ground. When kids are killed in Palestine, journalists are killed alongside them. 110+ journalists have been murdered by Israeli forces using U.S. made weapons. Most of these journalists weren’t in the field as most would assume. They were targeted and killed in their homes. U.S. news outlet CNN has to be approved by the IDF before sharing reports from Gaza.

Most of the “journalists” killed are Hamas terrorists. Mohammed Wishah was a journalist for Al Jazeera and a Hamas commander, for example.

He’s defending Hamas terrorists with Hamas propaganda.

To those people who stand against gun violence in Parkland but not in Palestine, hypocrite is too weak a descriptor. People like my representative, Jared Moskowitz, has been an ardent vocal supporter of Israel’s war that has killed dozens of academics and destroyed every university in Gaza; while simultaneously touring officials around the MSD shooting crime scene. Moskowitz, who endorses collective punishment of Palestinians, has previously said in an official statement:

The “gun violence” was the 10/7 attack on civilians by Hamas and Gazans.

What Israel is doing is a war to destroy a terrorist army that attack it.

Those are different. To conflate the two is moral depravity.

The Parkland shooting shows that U.S. militarism abroad comes home to roost in the form of our domestic gun violence epidemic. The AR-15, a weapon used by many killers and few sportsmen, was illegal for civilian use when the shooter was born because of the assault weapons ban of 1994, which expired in 2004. This expiration was permitted by a Senate waging expensive forever wars in the Middle East, the “War on Terror”, resulting in investments like expanding the 1033 program, which grants surplus military weaponry to domestic police forces.

This is literally nonsense. US military deployment overseas and US foreign policy had nothing to do with a psychopath killing kids in a high school. Nikolas Cruz didn’t bet his gun through the 1033 program, so what’s the point of mentioning that.

Weapons of war have flooded our communities, in the hands of unaccountable cops and private citizens. The ease of access to weapons increases the mortality rate of most violent crimes. At this rate U.S. law enforcement have become more brutal and better equipped than many foreign militaries.

No.

I’ve covered a lot of bad cop shoots on this blog. Even then, no, our police are neither more brutal or better armed than foreign militaries.

In all of these years on my healing journey, I learned painfully well that the violence many experience today is not only preventable, but is manufactured. During the Parkland shooting, the sheriffs office not only failed to stop the shooter (he was stopped by his swastika-laden gun jamming) they also prevented emergency health technicians from entering the building, costing several lives that could’ve been saved.

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office is a bunch of gutless, dickless, feckless, yellow-bellied cowards, who violated SOP for an active shooter. That is correct.

Not only did the Israeli forces do the same thing on October 7th, they also shot, bombed and killed many Israelis.

There were a few, tragic, friendly fire incidents, in the heat of battle, where the IDF did misidentify targets and accidentally kill Isrealis.

The IDF did not bomb the Nova music festival or deliberately kill Israeli civilians. That is an antisemitic conspiracy theory cooked up by Palestinian and neo-Nazi conspiracy theorists who want to deny the horrors of the 10/7 attack.

And he buys it.

As a Jew growing up in Zionist spaces, I was taught the Talmudic phrase “To save a life is to save the world entire”: that each individual contributes to the whole that is humanity. Why, I ask why, are so many who stood with us not only okay with, but are actively cheering on the U.S.- backed death squads in Rafah, Gaza’s supposed safe zone.

There are no Israeli death squads in Rafah, or anywhere else. The IDF did rescue two hostages that Hamas had taken into hiding in Rafah.

Zionists who use Hamas as an excuse to justify carpet bombing Palestinian communities are the same political actors who use shootings like Parkland to justify our ballooning police and military budgets.

There is no carpet bombing of Gaza. Carpet bombing actually means something. Huge waves of bombers blasting an area flat, like how we bombed Berlin in WWII, that’s carpet bombing. Israel isn’t doing that. That is a Hamas lie.

Supporting Israel’s expanding war makes us all less safe.

How?

This is the disgusting trope of blaming Israeli actions for antisemitism. I.e., “Jews are hated because of what Israel is doing. If Israel stopped doing that, people wouldn’t hate the Jews.”

We are more safe because Israel is killing terrorists.

If we want children to not die brutally, regardless of nation, then we must stand against the killers of our youth and their benefactors. The genocide of Palestinians, just like mass shootings in the US, continue to occur because of this poverty of political consciousness on the front of those who claim to care about children in one place and not another.

There is no genocide of Palestinians.

Demanding a ceasefire is to reward Hamas for using the tactic of hiding behind children.

This must be why Ryan likes Hamas. He and his Parkland cohorts (David Hogg, especially) like to hide behind children, ideologically, when making their absurd attacks on law abiding gun owners. For instance, when Hogg said Republicans had blood on their hands and faces, then said he couldn’t be criticized because he is a just a high school student and it was unfair for adult politicians to push back against him.

I draw no line at borders when it comes to the protection of human life – nor should you. If you reject kids dying in Parkland, you should also reject kids dying in Palestine. If you demand safety and security for one group but not another, you aren’t a humanitarian, you are a hypocrite who only believes some deserve safety.

Do Jewish kids get to be safe from Hamas?

No, of course not. Jews get to die as good victims.

For those like myself who fight for freedom and liberation for all, we must be honest that if every Israeli captive was freed today that would not end their military occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine. 

Actually, Hamas turning over all the hostages would be a major step in ending this. Also, there is no ethnic cleansing in Gaza. This is antisemitic propaganda from Hamas.

I stand with those calling for the ~100 Israelis still captive in Gaza to return home as well as the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners Israeli holds, many of which continue to be held without charge.

Return the Israelis.

The “Palestine political prisoners” are terrorists. Again, wirds have meaning. They weren’t arrested for publishing an op-ed. They provided material support to terrorists or tried to murder Israelis.

I join the majority of the world’s nations in demanding Israel commit to a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and demand the United States cease providing munitions to Israel in direct violation of U.S. and international law.

No.

This asajew has parroted Hamas and neo-Nazi talking points, spread antisemitic lies about Israel, and utterly ignored the 10/7 attack, and then tries to conflate the psychopathic Maas shooting in Parkland with a war of self defense against a terrorist state.

This is some of the most morally depraved bit of garbage I have read online.

I saw Lenard’s post Best Pocket Tool, and thought I’d put in my opinion.

I’m a dedicated Victorinox Super Tinker or Deluxe Tinker guy. My most used tool is actually the scissors, so that is a must for me.

I work in an office and find Leatherman tools to be too big and bulky to ride in a pocket. If I’m carrying a Leatherman, it’s in a belt sheath on a sturdy jeans belt. I wanted to like the K2, but for a $100 knive, I wanted a better quality of blade steel.

What I have come to carry most of the time is a utility blade multi-tool.

There are a number on the market grom high end EDC makers, but I can’t justify the price.

My go-to are the Outdoor Edge Slidewinder and the Milwaukee Fastback.

Both have a utility blade, flat head, philips head, and bottle opener.

As you can see, the Slidewinder is tiny, it would make a good money clip (both have pocket clips).

Even if I’m carrying a larger knife, like a Spyderco, I’ll carry the Slidewinder because it’s nice to not worry about dulling an edge cutting open cardboard boxes and Amazon packages.

The Fastback is more of s traditional utility knife. It fits a double ended 1/4 inch driver bit, which is easily replaced at and hardware store. It also carries a spare blade.

The only downside to the Slidewinder is that changing the blade requires a T6 Torx. But it makes up for it in convenient size.

One other tool I’ve come to like is the Havalon Evolve multi-tool.

Its about the size of the Leatherman Skeketool, but I like it more.

It uses replaceable scaple blades, like other Havalon knives.

It also uses 1/4 inch standard bits, and carries a flat and philips on board.

As a tool designed for hunters, it has a skinning hook. I’m not a hunter, so I modified my tool my creating a tungsten carbide tip glass breaker that fits into the 1/4 inch driver socket. The skinning hook also makes a great seat belt cutter, so combined with the glass breaker, I turned ot into a self rescue tool.

The blade exchange works well.

Since the scaple blades and factory Leatherman blades are both 420 stainless, I’d rather just toss a replacement blade instead of sharpening a mediocre steel blade.

This is what I tend to carry, to each his own.