Shot…

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) – A special agent with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is dead after being accidentally shot by another IRS agent during a training exercise Thursday at a federal gun range in Phoenix, officials confirmed.

A spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirms that an incident occurred Thursday at their gun range, which multiple federal agencies were utilizing at the time through an interagency agreement. The spokesperson said no Federal Bureau of Prisons employees were injured in the incident.

Charlotte M. Dennis with the Phoenix Field Office of the IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) division replied to Arizona’s Family on Thursday afternoon, confirming it was aware of an “incident” involving one of its special agents. She said the agent was taken to HonorHealth Deer Valley Medical Center, where the agent died. “Our concern today is for the agent and their family,” she said in the written statement.

IRS agent accidentally shot, killed by fellow agent during training at Phoenix gun range (azfamily.com)

Chaser…

It must have been a colossal violation of Gun Safety to get somebody shot in the chest, something that I am not surprised it may have happened. Then again, there is a long story of Federal Agents shooting fellow agents for a multitude of  reasons.

And with the FBI now investigating, we pretty much will never know.

Fargo, North Dakota — On July 14, 2023, Fargo Police Officers were responding to a routine traffic accident on 25th Street South in Fargo on the afternoon when, 37-year-old Mohamed Barakat opened fire on officers and first responders with a .223 caliber rifle. Police Officers Andrew Dotas and Tyler Hawes were shot and critically injured. Officer Wallin ran toward Barakat’s vehicle, was able to unholster his weapon and fire one shot before he was hit by Barakat. Officer Wallin was fatally shot once by Barakat. Wallin’s training officer, Zach Robinson, engaged in gunfire with Barakat. Officer Robinson radios for help, reporting officers down, and continues to try to neutralize the shooter who has been struck and is on the ground, but continues to reach for the .223 caliber rifle and 9 mm handgun on his person.

Bystander Karlee Koswick, who was involved in the initial crash on 25th Street South, was shot after the three officers were already down. She tried to run for cover when she was hit by Barakat. Officials say when Barakat’s attention turned toward her, Robinson had the opportunity to fatally shoot Barakat. Officer Robinson fired 31 rounds at Barakat and hit him 21 times. Officer Robinson told him to drop his gun 16 times, to which Barakat continued to wave a gun around. Officials believe Barakat was wearing some type of body armor during the exchange. Barakat was shot and killed around 2 minutes into the altercation. His vehicle was loaded with three long rifles, four handguns, more than 1,800 .223-caliber bullets, three canisters filled with gasoline, and two propane tanks filled with Tannerite, explosive materials used for target practice.

A man ambushes (for lack of better word) police officers with a menu of items it would make any Liberal politico cream in his/her pants, but it barely bade a blip in the news. I certainly did not know of it till I saw this video last nite.

Not saying that the shooter’s background had nothing to do with it.

FARGO, N.D. (KFYR) – On Friday, more details were released about last week’s critical incident in Fargo that left one officer dead, two others in critical condition and a civilian injured.

Attorney General Drew Wrigley said that 37-year-old shooter Mohamed Barakat was a Syrian national who came to the U.S. on asylum in 2012. He gained citizenship in 2019, but Wrigley did not say when Barakat moved to the Fargo-Moorhead area.

Background information on Fargo shooter made available in Friday news conference (kfyrtv.com)

The Upcoming Unrest will truly be a Melting Pot or more like a witches’ cauldron.

Truly impressive:

More people behind the cameras than in front. I guess Daddy Bloomberg is not ponying up for Craiglist actors anymore.

I saw this article online:

Deep Dive: New Jersey’s new ‘John Wick’ concealed-carry qualification test

That’s a heck of a headline, how bad is it.

After the U.S. Supreme Court issued its historic Bruen Decision, which obliterated most state restrictions on the public carrying of arms and changed forever how lower courts should decide Second Amendment-related challenges to anti-gun regulations, many blue states seemingly tried to outdo each other with the number of unconstitutional post-Bruen tantrum laws they could pass. At this, New Jersey certainly lead the way, especially for its residents seeking to carry a defensive firearm.

Obtaining a New Jersey permit to carry was never easy. It is not easy now. Instead, it remains an expensive multi-step nightmare specifically designed to make the process as difficult as possible for the applicant.

Now, not only must New Jersians bend a knee, pay a fee and beg permission from the Crown to buy back their constitutional rights, they must also pass a difficult shooting test that was designed for police, not civilians, to prove they’re capable of exercising their constitutional rights to the government’s satisfaction.

Last month, the Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police in conjunction with the state’s Attorney General, issued new requirements titled “Use of Force Interim Training for Private Citizen Concealed Carry.” The document contains written material for in-person classroom training as well as the requirements for an arduous 50-round qualification course that every concealed-carry applicant must pass.

If there is one thing I know about cops in Blue states, it’s that they are totalitarian fascists.

If there are two things I know about cops in Blue states, it’s that they are totalitarian fascists and they can’t shoot for shit.

So if New Jersey civilians have to shoot as well as New Jersey cops, this can’t be all that difficult.

This is from the Use of Force Interim Training for Private Citizen Concealed Carry.

I’ll be the first to acknowledge that us tougher than the Nebraska or Illinois CCW qualifications.  Illinois requires 50 rounds snd goes to 10 yards.  Nebraska requires 30 rounds, and only go out to 7 yards.  Neither require kneeling.  Illinois and Nebraska require drawing from a holster.

I absolutely agree that the New Jersey CCW requirement is much tougher than any other state requirement (so far).  I think it’s a valid argument to say that people defending themselves with a CCW gun rarely do it past five yards, and requiring 25 yard hits is well beyond what they might expect in a CCW situation.

The onerousness is probably unconstitutional.

But let’s be honest, for an experienced shooter, that’s not hard to do.

This was me at 25 yards with 30 rounds (two mags) with my P320 compact.

The center circle is eight inches in diameter.  That’s probably a 4×6 inch group.

A Q target is 12 inches wide by 26 inches tall.

This is a Q target overlaid on top of a B-27 for scale.

I bet every IDPA club in New Jersey would set this up as stages.

My point is: although this is tougher than other states, it’s not an impossibly difficult standard with training to achieve.

Yes, it should be made more reasonable for CCW, but don’t panic and say you have to be John Wick to pass it.  No New Jersey cop is John Wick.

There is part of me that wants to lean into this.

The anti-gun Left loves to say that civilians don’t have the gun experience of police.

That’s a load of bullshit, but, if civilians meet the same qualifications as the police then there is nothing the anti-guners can say within reason.

If I meet all the same standards as the police, I should be able to carry all the same places as the police, so nowhere in New Jersey should be a prohibited place that isn’t designated one by federal law.

…but I am still getting shocked about people simply ignoring shit that will kill them. I was told by somebody (in what I am afraid was a voice with a touch of pride/defiance) that he managed had to be taken to the hospital with a blood sugar level just below 1,000.

I blinked hard and bit down my tongue because the individual is a junkie for sweets, and it is not unusual to see him chomping on a pastry or similar. And yes, he is morbidly overweight and breathes with exertion by just breathing. and I know of at least another case similar to his and behaving pretty much in the same manner.

But what really pisses me of is that these people are heading for an early grave through a long hospital stay in which they will bemoan the lack of empathy by me and others… and they would be right. I lived an unhealthy live for almost half my live, but I sort of hit the bottom of the barrel and got a warning serious enough that I decided to improve my health. So, I don’t care if you also lived mainlining Cheetos and twinkies up your arm, if you want to change and truly give it an effort, I can support and applaud you with eagerness, even if you fail and have to try again and again.

Surrendering to cupcakes and slushies because it is comfortable and tasty will be your death sentence in the best of cases, but probably you will be condemned for years to a bed, marinating on your own excrement waiting hours for an underpaid nurse technician to stop texting the boyfriend and come wipe your ass.

Take care of yourselves, please.

B.L.U.F. The United States filed a brief with the Supreme Court where they argue that the definition of “The People” is in the hands of the state. And other reasons why the state gets to decide when the Second Amendment applies.

(3,800 words)

The Question

The question is well-formed and well suited to an opinion by the Supreme Court. This is a dangerous gamble for the state. While they are looking at specifically §922(g)(8) there is nothing to keep the Justices from looking at all of §922(g).

If the Justices decide to look at more than just §922(g)(8) they could very well throw out much of the GCA. In addition, it is likely to put a hurting on many other infringements and infringement arguments.

Double emphasis added.

That one sentence is what all infringements hang on since Heller. “Not unlimited” means that the states have been searching for the limit ever since. They will push until a court stops them.

Post Bruen they are losing, but this one sentence is still their foundation.

It is also important to note that Scalia was explicit about “felons and the mentally ill”, but omitted all the other prohibited classifications. This is reading into dicta what was not said. Doing it from our side is just as bad as when the state does it from their side. Though I like to think that the side of the Constitution gets it correct more often than not.

In my opinion, the nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on … was added to this opinion to get the more left—leaning Justices to sign on, in particular, Justice Roberts.

The Statements with Embedded Assumptions

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First, my apologies. It’s summer, which is my Very Busy Season. Things will slow down after September. I’m trying to drop this quicker than I normally would, so you have something from me.

***

When you sit down to read a book for fun, would you rather read something like Hammer’s Slammers or Monster Hunters Inc… or a diatribe on the health of oatmeal for breakfast?

I choose books based on whether they have things in them that interest me. I like science fiction, fantasy, some detective things. Sign me up for Heinlein novels, Harry Potter stuff, Sookie Stackhouse and Merry Gentry. I love the Cadfael series. All of these have characters that may have started out seeming normal, but very quickly showed they were not.

That’s because books aren’t written about the normal people. After all, who would read it? It would be boring.

I got up this morning at 7:32am. I read news on my phone for ten minutes while waking up, then stretched for a few minutes, and headed down to make breakfast. I was very tired after a long weekend camping, so I decided to take a nap. I napped for just shy of two hours, and I’m feeling better. I did some paperwork for a company I work for. I made eggs for lunch.

Isn’t that dryer than a popcorn fart? I mean, really.

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