My ancient Ipod Mini carries the veritable Old Fart collection of Music (Mostly pre-80s sans Disco und Crap-Rap) and the obligatory Gun Podcasts from the established authors.

But I am enjoying a the new generation of young guns podcasting their introduction and growth in the Gun Culture. Just like when we started in the Interwebs paying by the hour of access and gathering in the old rec.guns location and thought it was the coolest stuff since the introduction of hollow points for self defense, this new bunch has taken over the advanced media that is now available to basically everybody who lives nearby a Best Buy.

It is fun to see them grow into the Gun Culture at an accelerated pace. It is like they are growing in a hydroponics garden absorbing what was done before, processing it and sharing it with the rest of their “posse” (God, that was lame.) And amazingly they are very open to suggestions and advice from us old codgers which makes them twice as smart as we were. They are willing to correct mistakes, take chances and learn new stuff without fear of their egos being hurt. If the advice does not work, no problem, it might for somebody else. If it works, they appreciate it.

I’ll be creating a podcast list of links in my blogroll soon, but in the meantime you may want to check the following nutjobs. They are raw, unpolished and sometimes a pain in the ass, but we were once like that too.

Liberty Or Zombie Podcast: If we were in the 50s, they’d be bohemians. Allan Gingsberg is dating Gidget and she is into some kinky stuff.

Shooting the Breeze Podcast: Do you remember Orson Wells sitting in his confy chair with a cigar and a brandy? Similar, but talking with more sense and without raising your desire of kicking his smug ass.

The RoadGunner Podcast: Guns from a the cab of a tractor trailer. It brought memories of Ali McGraw changing shirts on the back while Kris Kristofferson is busting police cars. with his rig. Chester (Not his real name…yet) is lot less violent and only travels with dogs. Musical Theme: Ramblin’ Man by The Allman Brothers

Empty Mags Podcast: He is trying to be the serious one of the bunch. I suspect he has ulterior motives. Somebody said he is into gun podcasting because it is a Gun Babe magnet. Chicks with guns are hot plus armed back up is cool.

Enjoys these four in the meantime. So far they have done over 10 podcasts (my arbitrary rule indicating they don’t appear to be a fire and forget podcast) and they are making incredible strides improving their performances. Most of the time… 🙂

Last night i finally got around to read about Black Friday’s Gun Sales. The numbers indicate a new record with 129,166 NICS background checks.

That means that in a 24 hour period (which in reality was much shorter) we had:

5, 381 guns sold per hour.

89 guns sold per minute.

and 3 guns sold every two seconds.

Again, three guns sold every two seconds.

A mental illustration for Brady, Ladd and Japete:

One Mississippi, Two Mississippi = Three Glocks  

🙂

I am following a case in Spain that is both sad and a perfect example of what happens when idiots are in charge of prosecuting crimes.

On May of 2010, Santiago Manjón Bermúdez bought a kitchen knife from a Madrid hardware store and set to find a police officer to commit “Suicide by Cop.” He manages to find an empty police car and proceeds to vandalize it in order to call attention to himself. Passerby’s notify the beat cops that somebody is beating the crap out of their car so the cops approach the Mr. Manjon who suddenly pulls the knife and confronts the cops while screaming “Shoot me in the head!”

Officer Israel Sánchez Vieco draws his HK Compact in 9mm and tells Manjon to drop the knife. Manjon charges Officer Sanchez who is then forced to use his weapon three times to stop Mr. Manjon by shooting him in the arm, abdomen and hip area. Officer Sanchez states that he deliberately shot low to stop Manjon and not to kill him (and from what I caught on a Spanish TV talk show, this is procedure for the Madrid P.D. who are not issued Tasers or other less than lethal devices.) The shot that hits Manjon in the arm over penetrates, ricochets off the pavement and hits a passerby, Antonio Castro Pimentel in the eye. Mr. Pimentel eventually  loses the eye as consequence of the wound.

Over a year later, the trial begins. The accused are: Santiago Manjón Bermúdez for Assault with A Knife upon a police officer and Officer Israel Sánchez Vieco for causing Grieving Injuries on one Antonio Castro. Manjon is facing 9 months in jail because he has been found to be mentally unstable and Officer Sanchez is facing two years in prison for shooting Manjon and accidentally wounding Mr. Castro in the eye causing its loss.

The prosecution is also demanding monetary compensation to Mr. Castro for the loss of the eye and to Manjon for being shot by Officer Sanchez. According to the prosecuting attorney, Officer Sanchez did not need to use his firearm to stop the attack because he could have used his night stick or talk the subject down or him and his fellow officers rush Manjon and subdue him.

I am not even going to try to explain Spain’s approach to Law here because not even the Spaniards can figure that crap out. I am not surprised that this case has gone the way it has: Spain has a tradition to eschew logic in favor of esoterically progressive thinking applied to the dispensation of “Justice.”  It is not uncommon for judges to set a very low bail or release confessed murderers on their own recognizance because the person they happened to murder was the wife and/or significant other. The “reasoning” is that the accused does not constitute present and ongoing threat to society because they only intended to kill one specific person and therefore they can be released. That suspect take this “vote of confidence” on their behavior and decide to flee is of no consequence to the court.

Back to our case. That the prosecution moron dismisses the real threat of a suspect with a knife reveals the amazing ignorance that Spanish Officers of the Court have about real life, specially in a country where the preferred method of killing people for centuries has been a bladed weapon. A dedicated bastard with a knife can inflict untold damage to anybody standing around him as I posted here back in May of this year. I am assuming that Mr. Prosecutor might have seen one too many Jackie Chan movies and thought that Officer Sanchez could have delivered a nice round-kick and brought the suspect under custody without any further damage.

And this would be reason 5,942 of why I do not care to even visit Europe to visit my relatives.

UPDATE: I just found out from another blog that Officer Israel Sánchez Vieco was found not guilty as he was defending himself and was on the line of duty. The blog does not cite source so I can’t confirm the news. The nutjob also did not get a time behind bars other than a couple of days in observation but he has to pay for the damages given to the police car in the amount 301,76 Euros (aprox. $385) and 2/5 of the court costs.

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CSGV Laddite complaining about Scottsdale Gun Club Santa Pics:

I bumped into a Venezuelan news article where the Presidential Commission for Guns and and Ammunition Control and Disarmament went to Brazil to visit CBC  (Companhia Brasileira de Cartuchos. Brazilian Ammunition Company) to learn about “ammunition marking and control of its usage” guided by CBC’s Director of Commerce Salesio Nuhs.

Since I am used to gun tech terminology in English only, I wanted to make sure if they were talking about micro-stamping. I googled “Companhia Brasileira de Cartuchos” and it led me to their English website where I find out that they are the manufacturers for Magtech ammunition, a brand well known in the US. I could not find a thing about micro-stamping or ammunition marking anywhere so I next Googled the name of Salesio Nuhs. It confirmed that the man works for CBC and also an article in Pravda’s Portuguese version where Mr. Nuhs explains how the company helps the Government. He said:

Brazil already has one of the world’s most restrictive laws on guns and ammunition. All weapons manufactured in the country have a serial number marking in several parts, also the ammunition that have an ID in the base that allows you to track the buyer in real time and via the online system….It allows the the Army to consult in real time, the ammunition sold, inventories in the stores and the amount of ammunition purchased by the consumer.

Where specifically is the ammunition marked was found in the Brazilian on-line publication O Cone Sul:

“The ammunition for the organs of public security  have a laser marking on the rim of the shell, which allows identification of its purchaser. From the information provided by industry was found that the ammunition from the PM’s armed gangs were supplying the German Complex, “explains Salesio Nuhs, vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers of Arms and Ammunition (Aniam).

Farther down in the article, Mr. Nuhs explains that the authority actually calls CBC to a crime scene where cases are present to trace the origin of the ammunition because it is CBC the one that created and maintains the micro-stamping technology.

Although I doubt the Brazilian Army is somewhat tracking the lots of Magtech ammunition sold in the US, it is alarming that such capabilities are not only available but running somewhere else. Still the idea that micro-stamped ammunition is already flowing through our commercial pipelines is disturbing. I confess that I do not have Magtech ammunition with me so this is all speculation on my part (so far), but it would be nice to see if the cartridges sold here do have some sort of markings in the cases or even the bullets themselves.

I sent an email to CBC and I will be expecting an answer sometime next week. Withe any luck I’ll try to find not only if they do see if I can get a description of their micro-stamping techniques and tracing system.

PS: CBC also produces a limited amount of firearms (The site shows what appears to be a clone of a Ruger 10-22) and they admit in the article that RFID chips are embedded and that they provide the tools for their tracking. Chiappa all over again.

Sean Sorrentino corrects rightfully:

I think that you are using the term incorrectly. “Microstamping” has always been used to refer to the idiot idea that you could modify guns to stamp a serial number in the case as it was fired in order to ID the gun from which it was fired. Since only a moron would believe that this was possible, it hasn’t gotten far.

What you are talking about is ammo serialization/ammo registration. That’s expensive and wasteful of resources, but technically possible. It requires that all ammo sold be “registered” at the point of sale. That type of registration has been outlawed in the US. That’s why the gun grabbers are trying to argue about how many serial numbers can dance on the head of a firing pin.