I’m writing this from the DMV in northern Alabama. I just moved from Nebraska to Alabama for work. I’m in the process of getting my new driver’s license.

When I moved to Nebraska, my previous ID was not Real ID compliant. Nebraska’s license is a Real ID approved state. It took my birth certificate, Social Security card, two forms of picture ID (including my old license ), and two proofs of residency to get it. Blood, urine, and stool samples were optional.

I’m applying for a Real ID compliant Alabama STAR license. Guess what? I need all the same paperwork and BS all over again. The one Real ID approved ID is not enough for a new Real ID approved ID. What is the point of a Federal standard if it is not useful in going state to state?

He’ll is other bureaucrats.

So why am I griping on a gun blog? Because I forsee this same BS being pulled if (and when) national concealed carry gets passed. Oh yeah, your state may meet some arbitrary national standard but god help you if you go to another state. Your beloved national standard CCW permit will be worth bupkis, and perhaps a trip to jail.

The new ordinance gives Angelenos who own such magazines 60 days to remove, surrender or legally sell or transfer them after it goes into effect. Breaking the law would be a misdemeanor. Garcetti has 10 days to sign the measure, which would take effect a little more than a month later.

Source: L.A. City Council bans large-capacity ammunition magazines – LA Times

I expect to see long lines of Gang members turning their magazines to police stations everywhere in the greater LA area.

“Gun crime” is expected to drop to almost nothing by Halloween. You can count on that. The L.A. City Council promises you that or your magazines back.

smh

“The best place for weapons when you’re not in the field is to be locked up in the garrison,” Honore’ said. “Our biggest problem before Desert Storm was (soldiers) accidentally firing their weapons, and they’re trained.”I’ve been around guns all my life, but when I was growing up they were locked in the cabinet unless you needed them for hunting.”Honore also said he disagrees with those advocating for military men and women at recruitment offices to be armed. Some armed civilians have taken it upon themselves to stand guard at recruitment locations since the mass shooting at a Tennessee office this summer.

Source: Honore: America’s in denial about gun culture

And he says this after five servicemen were killed by that Jihadist wannabe in a Military Gun Free Zone. It boggles the mind that a General, somebody who is supposed to care for his troops would go along with the idea that being defenseless is better.

But unfortunately, there is a real reason. I’ll leave Kurt Schlichter to explain it:

So why would a commander not order troops who have qualified on their M9 pistols to draw sidearms and ammo and carry them during their duties, at least until this crisis passes? Perhaps their discretion has been withdrawn from higher command – that’s possible, especially with this toxic administration. But more likely it’s because of fear.It’s the fear that some solider is going to have an “incident” carrying a weapon, and that incident is going to lead to questions, and in an environment where the Armed Forces are shrinking, the mention of an incident on an officer’s annual evaluation report can mean the difference between a career and a pink slip. It’s the same zero defects mentality that is keeping our military leadership from being an audacious, aggressive band of warriors and morphing it instead into a timid, passive pack of timeservers.

Source: The Real Reason Our Troops at Chattanooga Were Unarmed Is Absolutely Infuriating

Our Military is now in the hands of what troops call Chairborne Rangers, timid men with an absolute obsession to have a spotless career and have their ticket punched without incidents so they keep advancing. Sort of playing Candyland with the lives of our service people who would be sacrificed in the name of political correctness rather than do what they are supposed to do: Kill the enemy, destroy their stuff and win wars.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I were shopping in Fort Gratiot, and we decided to stop at the Fort Gratiot McDonald’s to have some lunch, as we have done many times before. We pulled in a parking space, turned off the car, and then spotted something that caused us to decide to go somewhere else. In the few seconds it took for me to restart the car, we saw several customers hurriedly rush out of the restaurant with panicked looks on their faces.What was it that we spotted? A man carrying a gun into the restaurant.

Source: Gun-toting customer ruins everyone’s appetite

I had to fisk the whole thing. Enjoy.

For the better part of the past 35 years, I have been a frequent McDonald’s customer.

You and millions of others.

When I was in high school, my friends and I would frequent Mickey D’s, as we were perpetually broke teenage boys and it was an affordable meal. Of course, it was also where the perpetually broke teenage girls would go, so there was always the potential to get a date as well.

So basically you hung around the McD’s to get equally broke chicks who knew you were broke and probably didn’t give you the time of day.

I had friends who worked there as well, so we would go and visit our friends on our Friday movie nights. One told us how he hated making the McRib, so we always made sure to visit his store and order McRibs, because that’s what friends do.

Nothing says friendship like being an asshole, gotcha.

McDonald’s is one of the few foods I can eat while traveling that doesn’t make me sick, so over the years, and hundreds of thousands of miles traveled, it has become my de facto restaurant.

I really do not know what to say to this. You are on a trip and get invited to a good steakhouse and say no because you can only have a Big Mac when you travel?

Not any more.

And how come?

A few weeks ago, my wife and I were shopping in Fort Gratiot, and we decided to stop at the Fort Gratiot McDonald’s to have some lunch, as we have done many times before. We pulled in a parking space, turned off the car, and then spotted something that caused us to decide to go somewhere else.

And what was it? Cher naked and dancing to “I got you, babe”? IRS agents trying to audit you? A pack of rabid dogs? Godzilla?

In the few seconds it took for me to restart the car, we saw several customers hurriedly rush out of the restaurant with panicked looks on their faces.

Must have been your friend still making McRibs that set the panicked rush.

What was it that we spotted? A man carrying a gun into the restaurant.

STOP THE PRESSES!

Because Michigan is an open carry state, it is quite legal for someone to walk into a busy McDonald’s with a firearm. Why do it? Because it is your right?

Short answer? Yes.

Given that there were Canadians in that restaurant, and they don’t have the same gun culture that we have, how do you think that made them feel? I can’t speak for the Canadians, but I can speak for myself — seeing someone other than a police officer walking around with a firearm does not make me feel safe; quite the opposite.

And since you did not even bother to get out of the car, How do you know it was not a cop dressed in civvies? They have those in Michigan too.

How am I, just an average person, supposed to know if the person with the firearm is a “good guy” or a “bad guy?”

No, you are an idiot. Average person looks at the totality of the picture. If the guy with the gun orders your friend’s McRibs, fries and sits to eat calmly, chances are he is just a guy carrying a gun, nothing else. Now, if you were really telling the truth and in fact were worried about the intentions of the person, why the flock didn’t you call the cops?  You ran away and left people in harm’s way and did not do your basic civic duty? And you have the nuts to preach us?

Or maybe the event did not happen…. nah, he wouldn’t be lying to us, right?

Suppose that I am armed, too.

Here we go.

Should I fire preemptively at the other person with the gun just in case that person is a “bad guy,” and take the chance of killing a “good guy,”

I hate to repeat myself, but if the guy happens to be a cop in regular clothes, you’d become a cop killer. But don’t fret, Michigan does not have the Death Penalty. You will become somebody sex toy in prison, but that should enhance your mental horizons and at least one body orifice.

or should I hold my fire and take the chance that the other person will not be a “bad guy” or be a “good guy” and think I am a “bad guy” and fire at me first?

Let me guess: you are the guy who has eaten the same crap at McDonald’s for 35 years but still gets to the counter and spends 15 minutes reading the menu, trying to decide if that is the day you will go for something different, but does not.

Is there a secret handshake that “good guys” use to identify each other? If so, what if a “bad guy” uses that secret handshake to pretend he is a “good guy” and then performs his nefarious acts?

There is no “secret handshake.” We shake hand like regular men and women. In all probability you would scream in pain like a little girl if you were the recipient of a regular handshake….by my wife.

I speak for myself, and I am confident I speak for many others — I don’t need armed vigilantes protecting me from criminals.

Newsflash: We ain’t your protective service. We don’t carry to keep you safe.

 I grew up in Saint Louis, one of the most violent cities in the country. I spend several days a week driving around Detroit, also one of the most violent cities in the country. I have walked through housing projects, and I am still alive to write about it. I don’t need your protection.

You have all the spidey senses that protect you from evil shit in all those evil places, yet they failed you when a guy entered a McDonald’s with a gun on his side. I am guessing the Special Sauce is your kryptonite.

The overwhelming majority of crime involves people who are familiar with each other; violence against strangers is much less common.

Wrong. Not “familiar with each other” but “known each other” a term that includes just about every person you may see on a regular basis but do not have regular interaction or are not in your circle of friends and family.

Walking around with open firearms is provocative; just because you have the constitutional right, doesn’t mean you should.

So is writing faux editorials, but you don’t see us trying to restrict newspapers, do you?

Businesses need to make some hard choices as to who is valued more as a customer, those who feel it is OK to open carry even if it makes others uncomfortable, or those who want to not feel nervous they are going to get shot eating a hamburger or fries?

I’ll take “People that spend money in my business, not broke, pimpled-faced teenagers trying to get McRibs for free.”  for $200 Alex.

Belonging to the second group, I will not be patronizing the Fort Gratiot McDonald’s any longer.

So what if the guy was a fellow traveler who just stopped there for a quick bite and then go on home in another state, perhaps never to return to that locale? Or the cop I mentioned above. Does your decision sound rational at all?

Michael Schrader of Port Huron is a Times Herald community columnist.

And first class whiner with a penchant to be a wee bit exaggerated in his writings.

Yes, that is President Theodore Roosevelt standing behind a bull elephant he took on Safari.

I’m not a hunter.  My dad is, my sister is, I’m not.  I had, what you would call, a “bad hunting experience.”  My dad took me on a feral pig hunt on a sod farmer’s land in central Florida.  I gut shot a pig with a 7mm Rem Mag.  Anchored it on the spot, but the noise that pig let out, just squealing and squealing, until the farmer finished it off… I broke down and knew I’d never hunt again.

I still shoot.  Love to shoot.  Don’t hunt.  But I have nothing against hunting by other people.  My father and sister have been all over the world hunting together.

I’ve noticed that antis break down in to two groups when it comes to hunting.  There are those who mouth pieties about “not wanting to take away grandpa’s deer rifle” when talking about gun bans restrictions.  Then there are those like in the post below who come out foaming at the mouth against hunters.  Those who want to see hunting banned and hunters dead.

As a non-hunter, I wanted to take a moment and lay out the case for hunting.  Hunters are dollar for dollar the greatest force for environmental protection in America.  Sure, I’ll concede that hunters are motivated by self interest.  Hunters want more land to hunt on and more game to take.  But so what.  That’s capitalist economics for you, toots.  Birdwatchers don’t shell out like waterfowl hunters do.

There are more protected forests and marshlands today because of the Boone and Crockett Club, Ducks Unlimited, and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation than all the tree huggers and anti-gunners combined. Even the largest non-hunting wildlife conservation society in the world is a bake sale compared to the $1.6 BILLION hunters contribute to conservation, annually, through donations and purchase of tags and licenses.

Dear antis, you can hate hunters all you want, but there wouldn’t be nearly as much wilderness without them.  It is no coincidence that our most killingest president was also “the conservation president.”

P.S.  This doesn’t even touch the 2.8 million pounds of meat that hunters donate to feed the hungry every year.  Even the left leaning NY Times took note of hunter’s charity to the hungry.  When was the last time the CSGV fed the hungry?  Oh yeah, that’s right, your sugar daddy Bloomberg actually banned food donations to NYC homeless shelters because the food might be too high in salt and too low in fiber.  You know, the last thing starving people need is an unhealthy meal.

During the hunt – which the organisers later admitted was badly carried out – it was alleged that Cecil was lured at night about half a mile out of the national park using bait, and then shot with a bow and arrow. The next day he was found wounded by the hunters and killed, before being beheaded and skinned.

Source: Cecil the lion’s killer revealed as American dentist – Telegraph

Oops! But don’t worry. They will blame Fox News for giving an incomplete news story and make them look bad because they are in collusion with the NRA and the Lizard People from the Illuminati.

Brazil-based handgun maker Forjas Taurus SA has agreed to a $39 million settlement in a class action lawsuit alleging some of the company’s most popular semi-automatic handguns can discharge when dropped and have a defective safety that allows the gun to fire even when it’s engaged.According to court documents filed May 15 in a U.S. District Court in Florida, the company has agreed to pay up to $30 million to owners of nine separate handgun models who opt to send their pistols back, with owners receiving anywhere from $150 to $200 for their pistols depending on how many choose that option.

Source: Taurus Agrees To $39 Million Settlement In Defective Pistol Case | Hunting, Fishing and Shooting News on Grand View Outdoors

I would risk and say that this settlement took a nice bite out of the already collapsing Taurus Profit/Loss ledger. And unfortunately, they deserve it because they keep ignoring they are not selling to a captive market but one that has choices and it is rather picky.

The pisser is that there is a great brain trust within Taurus. Yes they come up with some weird stuff, but thinking outside the box is always something good in a competitive market. But no matter how imaginative your design team can be if you have the proverbial drunken monkeys making the parts and assembling them.

At any American company, this much money going out would cause the dismissal of some people in management and a boatload at the line production. However, I don’t see this happening it in Brazil where the socialists unions would raise hell and paralyze all the manufacturing activities (They also have a tool & die plant plus construction.)

They good news is they are not yet Colt in economic terms, the bad news is that they are now below Hi-Point and Jimenez in reliability and craftsmanship.