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First shipments!

J.Kb. took the plunge yesterday and printed mailing labels from WooCommerce. I expect people to start seeing their goods shortly.

Because we are new to this, the hook and loop stuff didn’t get processed correctly. I’m still going to send them, I’ll figure out how to make it work.

Thank you for your patience.

Robert Hunter Biden, firearm charge dropped?

You have got to read the fine print…

On June 20, 2023, the United States filed a single count criminal information charging the Defendant with violating 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(3) and 924(a)(2) related to his illegal possession of a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver (hereafter the “firearm”) between October 12, 2018 and October 23, 2018. ECF 2. On July 26, 2023, the Defendant had an initial appearance on that charge. See Minute Entry for July 26, 2023.

This is the firearm charge brought by the DoJ against Hunter Biden.

On September 14, 2023, a grand jury returned a three count indictment charging the Defendant with committing crimes in connection with the same firearm, specifically, with violating 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(a)(6) and 924(a)(2) for making a false statement during a background check to deceive a firearms dealer when he acquired the firearm (“Count One”), 18 U.S.C. § 924(a)(1)(A) for making a false statement during a background check on paperwork that the firearms dealer was required to maintain (“Count Two”), again related to the firearm, and 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(3) and 924(a)(2) related to his illegal possession of the firearm between October 12, 2018 and October 23, 2018 (“Count Three”). ECF 39.

The grand jury brought these three counts. Note that the grand jury charges, U.S.C. 18 §922(g)(3). This is the same charge as the United States DoJ brought originally.

Because it is a duplicate and not from a ground jury, the DoJ dropped that “firearm charge”.

This changes nothing. All it does is remove any Fifth Amendment claims from Hunter’s team.

If you hear from other sources that the Feds dropped a firearm charge against Hunter, know that this is the rest of the story.

The Shadow Docket


B.L.U.F.
An explanation of emergency dockets of the circuit courts and the Supreme Court with simple tie in to Duncan v. Bonta, the magazine ban out of California.
(1300 words)


There is a process… There is always a process. How do cases get from here to there?

Once a case has been filed, the case moves forward. At different stages of the case, parties can appeal to the next higher court to seek relief.

There are two paths to the Supreme Court, from the state court system or through the federal court system.

Each state can have its own internal courts, but in general, there is a low-level court, an optional state appeals court, and then a state supreme court. For small states, they might not have a state level court of appeals.

From the state supreme court, the parties can appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

On the federal side, a case is filed in a district court. At different stages, the parties can appeal to the circuit court of appeals to seek relief. If they do not receive relief at the circuit level, they can appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Circuit Court of Appeals has two different docketing systems. There is the merits based docket and then there is the emergency docket.

While the parties might think that their particular case is time-critical, the courts do not see it that way. A party can place something on the emergency docket if the matter meets at least some of the Winter factors. These would be irreparable injury, balance of equity, and public interest.
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More Flashlight Stuff

(1100 words)

Recently, I wrote about a weapon light I purchased, an Olight Odin mini. I purchased it because I wanted the tail switch, but it comes with a pressure tape switch and mount.

It has now been moved to my weapon and will live there. It was lacking in a couple of features I wanted.

My Olight Baton 1SR is small. It does not have a tail switch. It does the job I needed it to do, but was not as useful as I needed it to be for defensive firearm use.

I decided to pick up a different Olight. A Warrior 3s. This light works for me on almost all fronts.

You can purchase a weapon mount to put it on your rifle and a pressure switch to go with it. Nice. The pressure switch it uses has a high and a turbo mode. The beam is focused rather tightly.

So why is this a go-to light for me now? Because it works for more of my needs.

According to my research, there are three common offhand light methods used with a pistol. All of them are designed around a grip with your thumb on the tail switch and the head of the light at your pinky.

The Harries Technique


The first hold is to put your offhand under your strong hand wrist to support while pointing the light downrange. This works very well. You can turn the light on or off with your thumb. You have some support for your strong side. This works for me. I’ve used it with my Winchester ’94 as well. The rifle does “jump” but it does work and I can cycle the rifle.

The downside is that your light is directly in front of you. Bad guys shooting at the light are likely to hit you.

The Neck Index Technique


The second method I found was the “neck rest”. You hold your light in your offhand and place it at your neck. This illuminates both your target and your firearm sights.

The downside is that you’ve now told the bad guys where to shoot while adding now support for your shooting hand.

The FBI Technique


With this method, you hold the light up and to your offside. The downsides of this method significant. You have to support your offhand in an unnatural position. It is tiring. You add no support to your shooting hand. You now have to be more aware of your surroundings above and to the side, so you don’t clunk your hand/arm into something.

The huge advantage is that you are no longer telling the bad guy where to shoot to hit you.

They all have their advantages.

Why the Warrior?

It has enough modes. It has the moon mode, which is 1 (or 2?) lumens. This is the run for weeks mode and is the most common mode I use. With the focus, I can actually move through the woods with the light in this mode after a short adjustment time. In a no moon, no streetlight situation.

The next two modes work for most other uses. The low mode is a good setting for working on things, looking in dark, small, holes, and other such needs. The medium is more than bright enough to light up most of the front yard.

The next mode is the high mode. This is perfectly acceptable for illuminating targets at pistol ranges or short rifle ranges (trash panda ranges). In terms of distance, I can use this to illuminate a trash panda at 50 yards clearly enough to put my iron sights on it.

The moon, low, and medium modes are accessed by my pinky pressing the side switch. The high mode can also be accessed via the side switch. Hold and it will cycle through low, medium, and high.

You can also access the high mode with a partial depression of the tail switch. A short press will turn the light on in this mode. Press and hold, and the light will turn on and stay on until you release the tail switch.

Turbo mode is accessed in one of two ways. Double-clicking the side button or full press of the tail switch.

This means I can switch from low light to blinding light quickly, as needed. I think of it almost like using a search radar to locate my target and then switching to a targeting radar for putting my sights on the target.

Conclusion

Get trained on your weapon system. The entire system. This includes your firearm(s), your sights, your backup sights, any weapon mounted lights, your hand held lights, your holster(s) and sling(s), your magazine pouches. All of it.

Then train with your weapon system. Now go get some more training.

What works for me might not work for you. What works for you might not work for me.

Now that you’ve done all of that. You’ve made sure you are capable of using your entire weapon system, go train on getting your weapon system ready to use.

Go lie down in your bed, under the covers, dressed for sleeping. Now have the timer go off. You have to access your weapon system and move as your plan requires and be able to use the weapon system.

Do you sleep in the nude? Are the dangly bits between your legs going to put you off if you have to start moving through your AO? If so, do you have something you can step into quickly? If you have the boobs, are you going to be able to move through your AO without having them contained?

How fast can you get your feet into something to protect them while not sounding like a herd of elephants?

That weapon system you have been training with, is that what you have at hand?

For me, there is a load bearing gear right there which is a fast on. My EDC light is right there. My rifle is right there. That is one of my weapon systems. I do train with that weapon system. I do train on going from in bed under the covers to ready to engage.

Lastly, that is not my preferred weapon system. It is the weapon system I have in the bedroom because it is the weapon system my wife can use. She isn’t going to go for the load bearing gear, but that rifle is her go-to weapon system.


Images are from How to use a tactical light with a firearm

How to lie?

(1700 words)

It is generally excepted that the standard methods of lying are:

  • Contradicting the truth.
  • Omitting parts of the truth.
  • Telling the truth

The first is by far the easiest. Even a child (or judge) can do it. “Jill, did you eat the blueberries?” “No daddy!” she responds with her face covered in blueberry juices.

Omitting part of the truth happens in things like the Second Amendment is [not] a regulatory straightjacketNew York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. V. Bruen, 142 S.Ct. 2111 (U.S. 2022) This citation is used in almost all infringement cases, but read it in full, in context.

To be clear, analogical reasoning under the Second Amendment is neither a regulatory straightjacket nor a regulatory blank check. On the one hand, courts should not “uphold every modern law that remotely resembles a historical analogue,” because doing so “risk[s] endorsing outliers that our ancestors would never have accepted.” Drummond v. Robinson, 9 F. 4th 217, 226 (CA3 2021). On the other hand, analogical reasoning requires only that the government identify a well-established and representative historical analogue, not a historical twin. So even if a modern-day regulation is not a dead ringer for historical precursors, it still may be analogous enough to pass constitutional muster.
id.

The fuller quote shows that this is a balanced statement. The state can try to get close, it is up to the court to determine if they are close enough. The courts are limited because this is not a “blank check”.

The third method is the hardest yet the most successful method. When you tell the absolute truth in such away that you are not believed or such that people jump to conclusions that are not the truth.

The other day, I was driving home with my wife. She started to open a protein bar. I asked her to put it away because it would spoil her lunch. She happily did so because we were approaching the city and some of her favorite restaurants are there. I asked her, “You like Five Guys, don’t you?” she replied in the positive. “Five Guys is much better than a protein bar.” “Yeah…”

We were pulling into one of her favorite restaurants before she realized that we were not going to Five Guys.

She accused me of lying to her. I made her replay the conversation, at which point she realized that I had never said we were going to Five Guys. I had asked her questions that let her easily assume that was where we were going.

A Master Class in Lying and Misleading, from NJ.com

Since the Supreme Court severely limited a state’s rights to control guns in the Bruen decision in June 2022, gun-rights advocates have tried to erase the restrictions that New Jersey placed on where you can carry a firearm.—Dave D’Alessandro | Star-Ledger Editorial Board, Where guns permits rise, so does the body count: A Q&A with Dr. Daniel Semenza of Rutgers, nj, (last visited Oct. 12, 2023)

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The Animals of the Middle East – update

I prefer to make posts that are factually based. When I started posting, I would often find myself writing about other people’s opinion pieces. I would read something at Red State or Erik’s site or a dozen other places, and it would “inspire” me to write my opinion about their opinion.

Over time, this has morphed. I attempt to read primary sources. If there is a reference to an original source, I follow it. If there is not, I attempt to find it. I want to bring the facts to you. To allow you to determine for yourself if my opinion is worth the electrons it is written with.

I do not have access to primary sources regarding the disgusting animals killing people in Israel. I’ve seen a few videos which have confirmed my opinion.

Here is a good introduction to what is happening now:

This video is age restricted. This means that it doesn’t show as an embedded video. If you “watch on YouTube” and you are age verified on YouTube, you can watch it there.

It includes videos published by the animals.

Here is his history of the region, from 2021:

Please note that I’ve been discussing this with my family since the latest round of terrorist actions from the animals started. The best answer I’ve heard from a family member was something of the sort “just one small nuke”.