“Three days ago, there was a gesture of war, of destruction, in a city of Europe by people who don’t want to live in peace,” he said. “Behind that gesture there were arms manufacturers, arms traffickers, who want blood, not peace, who want war, not brotherhood,” he said.In a reference to the Brussels attackers, Francis condemned “those poor creatures who buy weapons in order to destroy brotherhood”, comparing them to Judas Iscariot, the apostle who the Bible says betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

Source: Pope condemns Brussels attackers, arms makers at Holy Thursday rite

I can give many people a pass for not knowing the history of Muslim aggression against Christians since Mohamed was pumping goats and 10-year-old girls in the desert, but that the head of the Catholic Church just memory-holes more than a thousand years of facts is beyond redemption.  But that is what you get when Cardinals play the “Whose Turn Is Now To Wear The White Hat” game and we end up with a Che Guevara in robes.

Via Michael Blane.

3).  A terrorist event is not a self- defense shooting.  I cannot understand why so many who should know better insist of treating an event like this…like the Charly Ebdo, the Paris Attack, the Mali Attack, the Jakarta Attack, the San Bernardino Attack…and now Belgium like it was a mugger in a parking lot.  Once the bad guys open the game, in an event like this you are permitted to take it to any level of violence you wish without any concerns of legality or liability.  Say nothing at all…make no announcements…keep calm and shoot them in the face. If you don’t think you can do that, then please get on the ground and out of the way of those who will at least try.

Source: SUAREZ INTERNATIONAL BLOG – ON TERRORISM IN BELGIUM

Go read the whole thing.

Take heed of this advice. There are events that will set you in a position where the standard rules of living in society simply do not apply. Preservation of Life is the main goal and the niceties of a civilized society disappear during this time-frame.  It does not only have to be a terrorist attack, but also a major collapse of social services and the rule of the law such as full-fledged riots that Law Enforcement cannot simply control.

Shit… charging a man with murder in this place was like handing out speeding tickets in the Indy 500.
Captain Benjamin L. Willard. Apocalypse Now.

I blame myself for paying attention to a Facebook ad and buying a book blind:

And I lost $7.00 to boot on the frigging Kindle book. For those who are wondering why I got a migraine:

M4 carbine

Barret M82

And just for added effect, the ammunition they shoot:

And neither come with a walnuts stock nor are designed for them.

I found out the author is a British lawyer who on average are as dumb about guns as your  local journalist.

Yes, I posted this video before, but this version is edited to display its full Mall Ninja power.

And I am just figuring there might be visitors to the blog who know the term “Mall Ninja” but may have not know about Gecko45.
Ladies and gents, click here for the Shrine of the Mall Ninja.

I am working on a couple of long posts and during my research, I bumped into a couple of old friends:

A dissection kit. I and the rest of the kids in class had one like that in high school. You see, it was a mandatory piece of school equipment that we needed to purchase. I had mine stolen by parties unknown and thanks to my father’s business, we knew people in hospitals who directed us to this other kit:

It is called a Necropsy kit and it was of much better quality that the stolen dissection one. I gave mine to my godson when he entered high school and the idiot lost it.

And some of you may be wondering why would a kid would do with such dangerous instruments in school, instruments that in this day and age would prompt the mobilization of the local SWAT team, the Navy SEALs and MSNBC Remote Coverage?

We dissected bunnies for Biology class. Soft fuzzy bunnies were rendered unconscious via ether, sliced open and the internal organs watched functioning under Morpheus’ influence. Then they were given an overdose of ether until they passed out and organs were removed for further close-up study. This was done under the supervision of the teacher who never touched the animals or the tools or the chemicals: we did all ourselves. No gloves, no face masks, no goggles, just a white lab coat and mostly to avoid the inevitable blood splatter from reaching out school clothes and our mothers raise holy hell. I think there was a first aid kit with band aids somewhere in the Biology lab, but memory is not so clear.

I do need to make a correction: The teacher did touch our rabbit. He was showing us the different anatomical parts and using one of the big straight needled as pointer. Remember that the bunny was still alive, lungs collecting oxygen and heart pumping “…these are the lungs, this is the heart and this is the aorta.” Famous words that would remain in my memory still after 44 years because the teacher punctured the aorta and a jet of warm blood hit him right in the eyes. We did the mature thing and laughed our asses out while the teacher tried to wipe his eyes clean and the “anesthesiologist” was trying to avoid being sprayed with blood also. It is amazing how strong the blood flows though that artery! That jet reached at least four feet vertically.

The teacher regained composure and covered the bunny’s open chest with several layers of gauze. Then he directed our “anesthesiologist” to leave the ether on the bunny till it died in its sleep, ordered us to clean the blood from the table and went to wash his face.  As we complied with his instructions, from another table we heard a loud thump, turned around and saw the body slither off to the ground. We initially figured a kid passed out at the sight of bunny organs in display, but it ended up being that the “anesthesiologist” for that table forgot to close the bottle of ether and  inhaled the fumes till he passed out. Next thing we know, we are introduced to something we had only seen in the movies: Ammonia capsules! Dear God on Heaven they stink and so we did what any reasonable young teen would do: When the teacher was not looking, we stole a bunch of them for later misuse. (Note: People may throw up if you shove a broken ampoule of ammonia under their noses while having lunch. Do not ask how I know.)

The class continued. We removed organs, studied them under magnifying glass, took samples with a micrometer (Home made, that was part of the assignment. I aced it.)  and studied those under a microscope and learned the hard way that you do not compromise the intestines of a rabbit because the insides stink worse than the ammonia. Most importantly, we learned. Nobody got stabbed or punctured by anybody. I don’t even remember if anybody had a self-inflicted wound of any kind, I know I did not and I was a total klutz with sharps back then. We washed our instruments in alcohols, dried them up with paper towels, put them back in the cases and the case went into our bags. Nobody thought about pulling them out during recess or another class. They went home with us and relegated to a corner of our rooms till they were required to be used again.

Now imagine having 20 kids loose inside a lab with a live rabbit, ether and very sharp instruments on this day and age. No, I can’t either. The kerfuffle would make national news and congressional hearings demanded, PETA would be camped outside the Principal’s office and Bloomberg would create Moms Demand Action For Scalpel Safety group.

Old times…

Senate Bill 2294 to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13, relative to access to firearms by certain people also known by the short title of “MaKayla’s Law” was an example of a bill that on first look seemed palatable. I mean, nobody wants to allow kids without any training or moral compass access to guns, right? But the wording was so general that it was a very tempting tool for a prosecutor with a political urge to abuse.

IANAL and that mean it is my interpretation and not to be taken as legal advice but just based on what I have seen prosecutors do before.

“It is an offense for a person to recklessly place, leave, or store a firearm in a location that is in plain view and readily accessible to a child under thirteen (13) years of age if..”

Right of the bat, this language is dangerous. It is not a Parent or Guardian but basically anybody in the State of Tennessee can be prosecuted to have a weapon on the open even when nothing happens. It goes on and gets worse.

…if the firearm: (1) (A) Is placed or stored for any period of time in a location in which the firearm is not immediately available to the owner or possessor of the firearm; or (B) Is temporarily left unattended by the owner or possessor of the firearm for any period of time; and (2) Contains ammunition in the clip, magazine, or chamber, or ammunition for the unattended firearm is in the immediate vicinity of the firearm.

Youth Hunting programs, Scholastic Shooting programs, Boy Scouts small bore, Rimfire Challenge or any activity where kids 13 and younger participate would be prime temptation for prosecution of the adults in charge and the sports would disappear as adult would want to be prosecuted for breaking the overreaching law.

There are a couple of “exceptions” to the law which do nothing more than force you to lock your guns and ammo in a safe even when you don’t have kids. You see, the law does not make exceptions if your house or vehicle is broken into and a kid under 13 gains access to the gun directly or indirectly: If somebody stole your gun from the trunk of your car and gave it to the minor, you are responsible.

What rubs me wrong is that there are states with Safe Storage laws which make sense and that the “honorable” senators from Tennessee could have copied and even improved. Florida’s 790.174 is an example if for nothing more than this little sentence:

This subsection does not apply if the minor obtains the firearm as a result of an unlawful entry by any person.

The case of MaKayla Dyer is indeed sad but this bill was just an abuse of power waiting to happen.

MELBOURNE, Fla. – A crash involving two tractor-trailers hauling beer and chips overturned on Interstate 95 in Brevard County, spilling the snacks all over the roadway and blocking lanes for hours on Wednesday morning.

Source: Beer, chips spill onto I-95 after semi overturns in crash

See? Eventually we were bound to get a cool Florida Man story. Pull over and take a breather.