If you have spent more than 10 minutes in any handgun related forum, you are bound to bump into a thread regarding the need (or lack) for spare magazines/speedloaders. The Armchair SWAT Members will beat their chest and proclaim how good shooters they are and that will only need whatever their gun carries to win the battle. The Legal Worrywarts fear that if they are faced into a confrontation and survive, a slick District Attorney with a political agenda may use the spare loading devices as proof you were itching for a murder.  Both points are hogwash and I am saying this in the nicest way I can muster. You carry spares because you may need them.

Am I saying you will be facing a horde of Zombies and carrying 21, 31 or 50 rounds may be necessary? No, but what may happen is that you will have a malfunction that will leave you hanging for dear life if you cannot solve it in a fast and resolute manner. I have seen shooters of all calibers experience magazine related malfunctions at IDPA matches and if a malfunction cannot be resolved with the standard Tap-Rack-Bang, they go for the spare mag and solve the problem. This applies also to real life where you must immediately drop the troublesome magazine and replace it immediately with a fresh one because you won’t be able to call time-out and figure out what’s wrong. Criminals are impolite that way.  About the only acceptable variation is if you carry a back up gun and go for it after a malfunction happens (also known as a New York Reload) which provides you with a functioning firearm to save your life.

One day while browsing one of my favorite gun forums DefensiveCarry.com, I noticed that a member had an unusual avatar which depicted a Minute Man with modern weaponry. I sent the member a private message regarding the avatar and where could I see the whole picture. I was glad to know that I bumped into the author, Will Ceron of Ceron Designs who was gracious enough to give me a link to a picture that showed the complete scene of Concord Bridge and the Shot Heard ‘Round The World by Dominick D’Andrea and modified geniously by Will Ceron.

Sometimes a picture does paint a better image than thousands of words.

Making the rounds in the Internet is a report by General Barry R McCaffrey (Army retired) about the Mexican Drug war and the US influence in it regarding the supply of weapons. I won’t dwell on the absurd details and conclusions of the report, instead I’ll leave that in the capable hands of Rich Grassi of Tactical Wire.

Out of curiosity, I decided to do a research on the names that appear on the report. After 2 hours of Internet search, I find out that the report is only mentioned in a couple of small media outlets (which is weird for an event that happened with so many important people) and there is no mention at all in U.S. or Mexican press of the event actually happening at all! I went in deeper doing a news search of each individual member of the Mexican delegation mentioned in the report and although names match with the positions attached to them, none appear in any U.S. or Mexican Media sources before, during or after the dates that the alleged forum occurred.

This is very strange if not very suspicious. If General McCaffrey is telling the truth, how come there is not one single journalistic report on the meeting? You don’t get this many important people for an open meeting of this importance without at least one little blogger finding out and reporting about it. The other possibility is that the meeting was secret and the parties wanted to meet in private to discuss the Mexican situation. But if so, why would General McCaffrey publish it in his website knowing well that somebody would pick it up?

So we either have a beautiful scribbling of fantastic nonsense or a huge breach of security by General McCaffrey. Either way, for somebody who states in his company’s website that  “provides strategic, analytic, and advocacy consulting services to businesses, non-profits, governments, and international organizations.” this report is very bad advertisement.

Jesus! What a ride this last 60 days. From being blamed for the drug wars in Mexico to some unknown idiot bureaucrat in the DOD demanding to shred military spent brass to the biggest drop in the economy and the establishment of the bases of a Socialist Republic in the United States.

It is amazing to see that either journalists are too polite or to stupid to realize that when you say that the market drop has been the worst in 30+ years, it also includes the drop after 9-11. Or to call it like it is, President Obama was more effective in bringing down Wall Street than 2 jets crashing into the Twin Towers courtesy of Bin Laden.

The latest in grassroots movements is your local area Tea Party where people sick of the government waste of our taxes are starting to gather in protest. The resurrection of the idea behind the Boston Tea Party is seen by many with derision but so it was the original one. We are headed to a major economic crisis and this is the chance Liberal Socialist in our executive branch are waiting for to enact the death of the Republic.

But Miguel, surely you exaggerate. Well, you may think so, but contrary to what many think, what is happening now is not an unique event but it has been repeated in the past and most recently in Venezuela and Zimbabwe. A highly populist leader is elected thanks to the monies of rich idiots and the blissful adoration of a star struck liberal media. Leader takes power and economy tanks due to his ultra liberal economic policies, disrespect for the capital market and unbridled desire for social engineering. Next you know, economy tank, People enter in panic mode, demand solutions from leader, Leader provides promises of solution IF certain liberties are sacrificed for “The Common Good, People give up Basic Liberties, Leader does not fulfil promises, people are shafted and has no recourse but sit there and take it up the keister. Those were the common characteristics of Hugo Chavez and Robert Mugabe and, so far they are eerily similar to what president Obama is doing.  The one that struck me the most was ACORN taking over private property in the name of social reform and defense of the poor which is a faithful copy of Chavez’s Circulos Bolivarianos of Venezuela.

However there is one big difference so far between those Banana Countries (I won’t soil the title of Republic by associating it with those places) with the USA: Armed population. Both Mugabe and Chavez managed to introduce even more draconian gun control laws in countries already “free” from firearms before the final push. Roving bands of criminals and government supporters (and in some cases they are one and the same) now roam freely in cities and countryside terrorizing innocent subjects (no citizens there) and either stealing them of life and property or making sure no dissidence is felt. Unarmed People are just powerless to reclaim the rights the so freely gave away.

Interesting enough, Chavez ran his first presidential campaign under the banner of Change. Forewarned is forearmed.

You know hearing those kinds of arrogant and insipid remarks from — for a large measure of a government that is as corrupt as that of Mexico. It’s really irritating and then to hear a U.S. attorney general match up with his counterpart in Mexico, lamenting the Second Amendment, I mean these are two despicable statements by two men who should be acting responsibly in their positions and there seems to be no — no real protest. But the idea that Eric Holder would talk about the Second Amendment being jeopardized to the convenience of the Mexican government, which is at best incompetent and at worse corrupt.

Lou Dobbs, Aired March 2, 2009 – 19:00ET, CNN.

‘Nuff said.