Taking into consideration all figures, no relationship can be established between the number of firearms and the total number of homicides and suicides: where there are more firearms, the total number of homicides and suicides is not consistently higher or lower, and vice versa. This is not surprising: 1) the numbers of homicides and suicides committed using a firearm only represent a part of the total number of homicides and suicides (20% and 9%, respectively), which renders a possible statistical effect on the total number of violent deaths difficult to detect within the larger picture; and 2) a lot of factors have an influence on the extent to which homicides and suicides take place in a country: the economic situation, mental healthcare, the law enforcement, government campaigns, gun laws, etc.

Source: 6,700 deaths by firearms in the EU each year | Flemish Peace Institute

This time is Europe. The Flemish Peace Institute published this study and from what I could gather, they checked from 2015 to 2012 where data was available. I need more time to read it with calm, but it is interesting to see that even in Europe the conclusions are the same as on this side of the pond.

It is also interesting to see who made the study:

In 2004, the Flemish Peace Institute was established as a paraparliamentary organisation within the Flemish Parliament. On the initiative of the members of the Sub-commission on Arms Trade, the decree establishing the Flemish Institute for Peace and Prevention of Violence was adopted with a large majority of votes by the plenary session of Parliament on 5 May 2004.

When I read the sentence in bold, my brain did an instant kick and the card file popped our friends at the Small Arms Survey  which pretty much hates guns and specially the USA for having so many guns. Lo and behold after a quick search, I find out that they are related in their work. That makes this report even more outstanding and damaging to the Global Gun Control crusade.

One other thing I noticed is that the researchers were upset about a centralized gun registry at an European level. In 2014 there was an agreement to consolidate Gun Registry data in Brussels, but so far it has not been achieved and by the looks, it is dragging. This might be the main reason (besides countries like Finland giving them the middle digit) why the latest round of Gun Control has not advanced as the European version of the Usual Suspects wanted.

Lessons learned.

On Friday, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant signed House Bill 786 into law, officially making his state the 10th in the nation to adopt permitless firearm carry. In addition, the bill will also give residents the right to carry firearms into houses of worship.

Source: Mississippi Governor Signs Constitutional Carry Bill – OutdoorHub

And not even a month ago, Idaho joined the ranks of Constitutional Carry.  Although I am still ticked off about Florida not advancing this year with OC, I cannot imagine how mad the Opposition has to be with the unrelenting barrage of Freedom that is beating them down. Four months into Texas’ OC law, we have yet to see the High Noon shootouts promised by the gun control activists.

As I promised, the Anti Gun rhetoric from the Democrat is almost rising to LARD levels in both pitch and volume. According to Hillary, Bernie is in the pocket of the NRA and the gun manufacturers (I’ll give you a minute to stop laughing and regain composure) and poor Bernie does not know where to stand one way or the other. Be ready to hear more and more as we reach the Dem Convention. And again I believe the noise will die down at least 50%, probably more.

Just remember to use your ear protection till then.

Do not stop fighting.

I am reading a book right now called Robopocalypse.  It is a cross between World War Z (the book) and The Terminator.  It is a faux-historical account of a genocidal war between AI robots and humanity.  It is, for the most part, good.  I’m a fan of sci-fi and this is well done.

Reading it brings me to a point that both annoys and frightens the hell out of me: the lack of a manual override.

This comes across in sci-fi and real live one of two ways:

1. There is no manual override when there obviously should be.
2. There is a manual override and it get ignored because… plot.

In the beginning of Robopocalypse, scientists create an AI program.  It becomes sentient and decides to wipe out humanity.  OK, I’ve seen this plot a number of times before.  You find out that the scientists have created this same AI a bunch of times before, it always wants to wipe out humanity, so they delete it and start over.  On the last try, it “escapes” the system it was programmed in as a computer virus, etc., etc.  Here’s the thing.  The scientist in the lab, talking with the AI, has a “fail-safe” that is supposed to shut down the system.  The AI compromises the “fail-safe” which means it’s not a real fail-safe.

Now, I’m not a computer engineer, so I don’t think digitally.  If you said to me “J.Kb. there is a computer, in an underground lab, not hooked up to the outside world, and we put an infinitely intelligent, homicidal AI in it, and you need to design a fail-safe to keep it from getting out.”  You know what I would do?  Explosives.  Explosives in the machine, attached to det-cort, attached to a firing device on the scientist’s desk.  You know why?  It is 100% un-hackable.

I see this same crap over, and over, and over again.

I can’t tell you how many TV shows I’ve seen where the plot of the episode is: hacker hacks something and uses it to kill people.  This drives me up the wall and onto the ceiling.  So the hacker uses his hacking ability to lock the people into the building.  Then the hacker threatens to release poisonous gas into the building to kill everyone.  First of all, who connects a poisonous gas line to the ventilation system when designing a building?  But what really gets me screaming at my TV is WHERE IS THE SAFETY CHECK VALVE?  I’ve worked around dangerous chemicals my entire adult life.  You know what?  When you have a line carrying flammable liquid or toxic gas, there is always, always, always a manual shutoff.

Character: “The hacker has locked us in the building, there is no way out.”

Me: “Seriously?  There isn’t one emergency exit that has a manual door push-bar for fire or power outages?  That got built to code?”

Character: “OH MY GOD, THE HACKER IS GOING TO FLOOD THE BUILDING WITH HALON!!!”

Me: “THERE SHOULD BE A KNOB ON THE HALON TANK, RIGHTLY TIGHTY LEFTY LOOSEY YOU FREAKING MORON!”

Don’t believe me?  That was the plot of the Scorpion episode, Cliffhanger.  Except instead of Halon, it was Sarin that was going to be pumped through the ventilation system.  No, not kidding.  First, who was the HVAC engineer that agreed to plug a container of Sarin into the AC unit?  And who was the building inspector that signed off on that without some sort of manual shutoff valve?

As the idea of smart houses becomes more and more real, the idea of a hacker murdering someone with their smart home becomes a plot point.  The very excellent sci-fi show Almost Human did an episode on this called Disrupt.  If I’m going to have a smart house, there is going to be an good-ol’-fashioned deadbolt on at least one door.

Wife: “Honey, hackers have locked us into the house.  They say if we don’t hand over all the jewelry, they will turn up the heat and roast us all to death.”

Me: (Walks over to back door) *click* (walks out of house).

Now, sometimes there is a manual override, and everybody conveniently forgets about it.  In that episode of Scorpion, the Scorpion team is running around trying to out hack the hacker before they all die.  Again, not being a computer engineer, I’m curious why nobody decided just to trip the breaker on the smart building’s computer?  No power, no hacking.

This was infuriating in Die Hard 2 when the terrorists raised the floor on the airport ground approach system to crash a plane.  Here’s the thing; airport runways are equipped with Visual Approach Slope Indicators.  These are lights that can only be seen at certain angles, so a pilot knows that he is on the right approach angle and how far from the runway by the lights visible from the cockpit.  These lights are bright enough to be seen in any weather, like an airport lighthouse.  This system is designed so that no matter what the autopilot does, the pilot can still look out the window and see that he is approaching the runway correctly and judge the distance to ground.  Except in the case, of Die Hard 2, the pilot was asleep at the stick or something, for purposes of plot.  This many not exactly be a manual override, but it is a way for a pilot to land with all his instruments out.

Yes, I know.  I’m ranting about books, TV, and movies.  If I had my way, there would be no plot and so I have to accept this for the sake of the story.  Except that life is imitating art.

A pair of hackers (security consultants) figured out how to hack a Jeep using the internet comparable entertainment system.  Using the auto-park, they can control the steering and breaks.  They could pretty much drive the car remotely.  This was right out of the The Sontaran Stratagem episode of Doctor Who, except the Sontarans use the remote control of carts to kill people.  With Drive-by-Wire tech, it is even easier to control the car by hacking the ECU.

But forget hacking for a second.  My dad had a 2015 Mercedes with drive-by-wire.  A piece of construction debris fell off the back of a truck in front of him on I-95.  He ran it over.  Killed the car.  At 60 MPH he had no steering.  The engine shut off and he lost his drive-by-wire and electronic power steering.

I had my 2003 Chevy truck cut out on me once while at speed.  Clogged fuel filter.  I lost engine power.  I could still steer and break.  Steel on steel on steel on rubber on asphalt.  No power meant that I lost the hydraulic assist to my power steering, but the mechanical linkage was still there.  Manual override.

BMW has no manual override  in its security system.  When you lock a BMW from the outside, it is locked.  If you are inside, you are trapped.  The door handles, lock buttons, they don’t do anything without the car unlocked.  The ECU cuts control and there is no mechanical linkage to manually unlock the car.  If a grown woman can die from being locked inside a car, you know you made an unsafe design.

I have two gun safes.  One has a nice digital lock on it for quick access.  The other has an all mechanical S&G lock.  My collection is split between the two safes, so that no matter what happens, I still have access to guns by spinning a dial.  You can’t hack or EMP gears and tumblers.

Red dots are getting cheaper and getting better everyday.  Optics make shooting easier and have made getting into shooting easier.  But batteries die, glass cracks, and sometimes electronics don’t handle cold weather.  I’m not going to deride optics, but all my defensive guns have irons on them.

It saddens me that so many new guns come with such terrible iron sights, especially .22 rifles. Shooting with irons is an invaluable skill.  If you can hit with irons, you can hit with optics, the reverse is not true.  A fundamental skill of every shooter, especially every shooter who keeps a gun for self defense is the ability to hit a clay pigeon size target at, at least 15 yds with a pistol and 50 yards with a rifle using iron sights.  I know it’s not tacticool, but if Sergeant Alvin York could capture a German battalion with a bolt gun and peep sights, you should be able to do a little better than just hit the broadside of a barn with the same.

I know.  By know I’ve ranted myself way off course.  I get that digital technology is great and all.  It has made our lives better in many ways; and as an engineer, it would be hypocritical to not embrace new technology.  But as good as digital technology is IT NEEDS TO COME WITH A D—N MANUAL OVERRIDE!!!

We here at the Gun Free Zone have covered just how deadly a punch to the head can be.  Not all lethal blows require head trauma.

The nut shot is many things.  It is one of the soft spots that women’s self defense instructors tell women to aim for during an attack.  It is an illegal move in contact combat sports.  It is a staple of comedy.  Everybody loves watching some guy get kicked in the boys.

It is also, apparently, lethal.  A man in Cleveland died after getting kicked in the bits so hard a testicle ruptured, became infected, and caused gangrene.

An unarmed attack is no laughing matter.  Just because an assailant doesn’t have a knife or a gun doesn’t mean you will survive.  Death can take you in many way.  Above all, be prepared to defend yourself.

P.S.

I just can’t imagine how painful dying from an infected, ruptured testicle would have been.

Color me surprised. I was expecting a week-long wait to get a couple of people interested but in about 24 hours I already have five plus one who wants to write but admitted he can only do it occasionally. I may even end up with two new writers instead of just one plus a Guest Contributor, sort of once-a-month thing and I may take two of those too.

The audition will remain open till Tuesday and I will announce the “winners” on Wednesday.  If you are still pondering or missed the initial post, click here to go over what I am looking for.

Once again, send me an email to miguel AT gunfreezone DOT net of you are interested.

I have watched both the Republican and Democrat primary debates.

I have noticed something.

When Republicans talk about their enemies, they talk about ISIS, Terrorists, Radical Islam, Mexican Drug Cartels, North Korea, and Russia.

When Democrats talk about their enemies, they talk about Republicans, Gun Owners and the NRA, Wall Street, Millionaire and Billionaire Businessmen, and people who question anthropogenic climate change.

If I new absolutely nothing else about the candidates and their policies, I think that would be enough for me to decided who to vote for in November.

States United to Prevent Gun Violence/Ceasefire USA is an extremist gun control group.  I say extremist because the tactics they use constitute emotional torture.  They were the group that pulled the “Guns with History” stunt, in which they opened a fake gun store in NYC in which each of the guns “for sale” had been used in a murder or accidental shooting.

Not to be outdone by that grotesqueitude, they engaged in another act of psychological terrorism.  They created a fake movie theater and ambushed people, not with a crappy PSA, but with actual security cam footage of real people being murdered.  Yes, they are attempting to generate support for gun control by showing people a snuff film.

You have been warned:

This is beyond the pale.

First of all, to do this to unsuspecting people is egregious.  They were trying to make the point that guns in real life are not romantic like they are in the movies.

This is morally tantamount to not liking BDSM so inviting people to see a fake theater to watch 50 Shades of Gray, then showing them security camera footage of a violent rape.

Watching a fictional story is entertaining.  The overwhelming majority of people can love the movie Taken or Man on Fire and still know that murder is wrong and not go out the next day and kill people.  It has been proven over and over again that mentally healthy people do not become violent because of violent media.

But this kind of shock tactic is what extremists do.

Reality is much more complex.  Not all gun use is bad.  Gun play can be fun.  There are some pretty bad-ass videos on line of people enjoying shooting and not killing people.  Even with respect to using a gun to kill, sometimes a person needs to defend themselves.

So I will respond in kind with this video from New Jersey.  A woman was beaten in a home invasion.  The attack was captured by nanny cam.  She begged the invader not to hurt her child.  She was at the mercy of her attacker, and it is a miracle she survived.

Could she have prevented that attack with a gun.  I don’t know.  There are no guarantees in life.  But compare the beating the woman in New Jersey suffered to the experience of this Oklahoma woman who shot an killed a home invader before he could land a finger on her.

Context matters.

Also, Ceasefire USA are assholes.