Según el informe de la Organización No Gubernamental (ONG) Observatorio Venezolano de Violencia (OVV), el año 2013 cerrará con al menos 24 mil 763 muertes violentas en el país. Estiman que la tasa es de 79 fallecidos por cada cien mil habitantes.

Señalan que durante este año, se observó un incremento en los homicidios, sobre todo en las ciudades “medianas y pequeñas”. “También se notó un crecimiento en los casos de resistencia a la autoridad”, refiere el informe.

Google Translation:
According to the report of the Non Governmental Organization (NGO) Venezuelan Violence Observatory (SVO), the year 2013 will close with at least 24 thousand seven hundred and sixty-three violent deaths in the country. They estimate that the rate is 79 deaths per hundred thousand inhabitants.

They point out that this year, an increase was observed in the killings, especially in the “medium and small” towns. “An increase in cases of resisting arrest was also noted,” the report relates.

via Observatorio Venezolano de Violencia: 2013 cerrará con al menos 24 mil muertes violentas – Globovision.

Venezuala’s gun laws are the dream of every Gun Control Activist: One gun per lifetime, mag capacity, fixed number of ammunition a year, background checks with psychological examinations, no reloading of ammunition, gun confiscation at any time without due process or  reason, etc. And I forgot, there has been no legal firearm sales for almost 2 years after the importation of firearms for civilian use was shut down and very few gun stores that existed were ordered to shut down.

Criminals are still getting their guns apparently, and one source has been cops murdered just to get their weapons. I don’t have the latest stats but by October, 69 of them had been ambushed and killed for their sidearms.  Those numbers do not include the members of the Venezuelan National Guard that act as the equivalent of State Police & Border Patrol.  To give you an idea, LEO deaths by gunfire in the US till today are tallied at 31. Venezuela’s number is more than double but the country has less than one tenth the population of the United States or the equivalent of Texas.  The Lone Star State had a rate of 4.4 murders per 100,000 people and God knows how many guns per Texan (at least one per person making it close to 30 million), four LEOs killed and “lax” gun control laws.  Now compare it with Venezuela’s 79 murders per 100,000 people, 69 cops killed (till October) and an estimated 5 million guns in civilian hands under strict government regulation.

If this does not scare you about Gun Control, nothing will.

Update: Missed this one yesterday:

jueves 26 de diciembre de 2013  09:27 AM
Caracas.- En horas de la mañana de hoy, un grupo armado asesinó a cuatro funcionarios de la Guardia Nacional Bolivariana que estaban vestidos de civil.

El hecho ocurrió en el barrio El Cafetal, ubicado en el kilómetro 12 de El Junquito. Los hampones se apoderaron de las armas personales de los efectivos y huyeron.

Google translation:
Thursday December 26, 2013 9:27 a.m.
Caracas. – In the morning today, gunmen killed four officers of the National Guard who were dressed in civilian clothes.

The incident occurred in the district’s Coffee, located at kilometer 12 of the Junquito. The thugs took over the personal weapons of the troops and fled.
via Asesinan a cuatro guardias nacionales en El Junquito – Sucesos.

According to BATFE manufacturing data, Ruger made almost 177,000 pistols in .380 caliber in 2011. The only .380 they made in 2011 was the LCP, and they made enough of that one model to arm every man, woman, and child in Knoxville, TN or Providence, RI.

via View From The Porch: Holy cow..

And Tam also points out:  “But the Brady Bunch says that gun ownership is shrinking…Yeah, keep tellin’ yourself that, Sparky.”

I don’t mind the Antis keep repeating themselves, specially while making mistakes as it makes our jobs easier. They do have the cash and the fanaticism so don’t take them for granted as they will not stop until they are sent into the same intellectual gulag where Kluklers and Stalin Apologists are now residing: Oblivion.

C’mon, tell me you did not entertain the though at least for 10 seconds after seeing the sticker.

Meanwhile, Tim had just used his Black Tiger Kung Fu to defeat an army of Pajama Boy clones. Luckily, effeminate hipster douchebags fight about as well as could be expected, and other than some minor scratches, being hit by a man purse, and having his hair pulled, Tim was able to defeat hundreds of them. Red flannel corpses were spread everywhere. The floors ran brown with spilled hot chocolate and red with blood.

via Christmas Noun 6: Yes, Wendell, There Really is a Christmas Noun | Monster Hunter Nation.

Call it your Christmas LOL.

IDPA – USPSA

Facebook is a flitter with unflattering comments about IDPA and it is with much bemusement that I read the recent comments and hear from shooters about nasty asides carped at the USPSA matches regarding the deficiencies of IDPA. I am one of those old fat guys who wouldn’t do well at a USPSA match but I can still admire the skills required to run-and-gun.

But really? Complaining about IDPA is a lot like a tennis player complaining about golf. Golf is slower, has arcane rules which most don’t understand and there is no way it’s what you would do if you were in a ‘real’ golf fight; you’d pick up the ball and lob it, hoping it would explode amongst the group of rowdy spectators. The fact that you don’t agree with the rules doesn’t mean that you don’t occasionally pick up a club and join friends out on the course.

To use IDPA rules as a reason not to participate is a lot like a basketball player whinnying about the rules of soccer; ‘Wat chu mean, I can’t use my hands?” It’s a bit like refusing to play basketball because you can’t tuck the ball and run.

The rules of each sport define that sport and an athlete participates by adhering to the rules and, by virtue of their skill, excels within the confines of the rules. True athletes participate in any sport, following the rules of each, and they learn to capitalize on their personal abilities no matter the venue.

But, to be honest, if I were ever in a real gunfight, I would want a USPSA shooter by my side. Someone to rush out and blaze away with tons of lead flying, drawing fire while I silently crouched in some corner taking out the aggressors, one by one, from the safety of my covered position, reloading- without moving my feet.

via  Port Malabar Idpa.

The puns and pokes between the two sports will never cease, specially because they are done with lots of humor and we have no ill feelings for each other….OK, most of us.

Any bad day throwing lead downrange beats a great day at the office. 😀

I wanted to do things different this year and I figured few people would mind a little recording from the crew of Apollo 8, December 24, 1968.

It happened 45 years ago and it still gives me chills. I was not an English speaker then and I only heard what a translator was saying, but the effect was the same.

Have a blessed one 🙂

Funny update: I just found out ( 2:42 pm 12/23/13) that Captain James Lovell Jr, reenacted the reading of the Genesis. I had this on my mind since Thanksgivings when I treated myself to a marathon of From the Earth to the Moon. He gets all the props, I am just a repeater 🙂

And yes, this is a scheduled post…

Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov.
10 November 1919 – 23 December 2013.