All those dangerous crimes!!!!!

Yes! They have them cataloged, all 46 of them since 1992 or 2.19 “50 cal crimes” in 21 years….. but wait…lets check the crimes, shall we?

We have ONE homicide in the US, TWO in Mexico at the hands of the Drug cartels (wait,  it gets better), shot at something or somebody FOUR other times, ONE case of a forest fire for shooting incendiary rounds into a tree stump and the rest? Allow me to show you examples:

• Kendrick Jones and Koleguo Moore were arrested after attempting to sell stolen firearms. They had two guns in their possession when they were arrested, one of which was a 50 caliber rifle.
• Several defendants were charged federally for allegedly manufacturing and distributing synthetic marijuana in Florida. Twelve firearms, including a 50 caliber sniper rifle, were seized pursuant to federal and state search warrants.
• Albany, New York police found a cache of weapons including assault-type weapons and two high-powered .50 caliber sniper-type weapons when they executed a search warrant on the home of 40-year-old Richard Boice, Jr. and 45-year-old Dawn Leedom. Deputies said they discovered more than 80 marijuana plants and more than 10 pounds of marijuana was seized.
• Russell McCoy was charged in March 2012 in a Miami court with multiple drug charges including felony dealing in and possession of methamphetamine while also in possession of firearms including a 50 caliber rifle

Wait… you mean that the guns were not being used?

But there is more:

• John Shipley, an FBI agent, was convicted on April 15, 2010 of dealing in firearms without a license. He bought 54 guns and sold 51, including two Barrett 50 caliber sniper rifles, and falsified many of the records.
• Lloyd Woodson was arraigned on January 26, 2010 on multiple firearms charges, including being a felon in possession of firearms, after police found an arsenal of high-powered firearms and a map of a military base in his hotel room in New Jersey. Among the guns seized was a .223 assault rifle converted to a 50 caliber rifle.
• In January 2009, an Omaha, Nebraska man was arrested for threatening then-President-elect Barack Obama. The man told a Veteran’s Affairs official,”I would like to shoot Obama and do it with a sniper shot.” The man, Johnnie Galarza, claimed he owned a .50 sniper rifle and that he was trained as a sniper in the U.S. Army
• On February 17, 2008 police in Newbury, Massachusetts charged a man with 26 counts of failing to safely store weapons after officers responding to a domestic violence call found 20 firearms including a 50 caliber Armalite sniper rifle.
• On September 11, 2007, a Salem Oregon man was arrested on charges of second-degree criminal mischief and reckless burning after starting a wildfire by firing armor-piercing incendiary ammunition from a 50 caliber sniper rifle into a tree stump.
• On July 16, 2007, police in New Haven, Connecticut arrested a Yale University student for illegal discharge of a firearm, reckless endangerment, and second degree threatening, among other charges. Police seized a 50 caliber sniper rifle, an AR-15 assault rifle, numerous pistols, and “various chemicals” from the student’s fraternity house
• In January of 2006, a grand jury in Florida indicted ten foreign nationals on charges of attempting to provide material support to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a designated foreign terrorist organization. The indictment alleged that the defendants intended to supply the FARC members with weapons, including 50 50 caliber rifles and two helicopters.
• >On April 4, 2008 a Florida man was arrested on federal charges of using the internet to make threats to recreate the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech that left 32 people dead. The man had amassed an arsenal that included a 50 caliber sniper rifle along with 13 other firearms and 5,000 rounds of ammunition, including 50 caliber rounds.
• In April of 2000, convicted felon Wayne Frank Barbuto of Salt Lake City, Utah, was charged with attempting to sell two 50 caliber sniper rifles to undercover federal agents. The government believes Barbuto manufactured the guns himself

This one I did not know or heard before. I’ll leave it to somebody to confirm or deny:

• Branch Davidian cult members at a compound in Waco, Texas, fired 50 caliber sniper rifles at federal ATF agents during their initial gun battle on February 28, 1993.

And I almost forgot:

• On March 31, 2008 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that its agents had seized 10 firearms including a 50 caliber sniper rifle before they were smuggled into Mexico. The guns were found during a traffic stop in Tuscon, Arizona. According to ICE, “the seizures stem from a probe by the Border Enforcement Security Task Force to identify, investigate and prosecute, gang members, weapon smugglers, aliens and others illegally in possession of firearms.” Richard Crocker, deputy special agent in charge of the ICE office of investigations in Tucson said, “Stopping the illegal flow of weapons into Mexico is a key focus of the BEST team…Many of these seized weapons would have been used by organized criminal gangs against our law enforcement partners in Mexico. By stopping them here, we are preventing these tragedies from occurring there.”
• Two teenagers were arrested in Nogales, Arizona in September 2010 as they attempted to smuggle a 50 caliber rifle into Mexico. (“2 teens reportedly try to smuggle .50-cal rifle,”
• John Shipley, an FBI agent, was convicted on April 15, 2010 of dealing in firearms without a license. He bought 54 guns and sold 51, including two Barrett 50 caliber sniper rifles, and falsified many of the records. One of the 50 caliber rifles was used in a drug cartel-related shootout in Chihuahua, Mexico. (Take a guess which state was he assigned to… but wait, it gets more interesting, click here)
• In May of 2006, a White Supremacist gang was indicted in Arizona on drug and weapons charges, including the sale to undercover officers of a stolen 50 caliber sniper rifle. The rifle was represented by the gang as powerful enough to destroy an armored car or shoot down a Phoenix Police helicopter. According to a special agent from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who participated in the investigation (I don’t need to draw a picture here)

So VPC tries to sell the idea that people are committing violent crimes (shooting, killing, maiming, etc) with them awful 50 caliber machine gun sniper assault weapons while the truth is that only one murder is on record in the US and it happened this year. The rest have been weapons recovered at crime scenes but not used in any capacity, smuggling and even one threat but where the accused did not have a gun. And then I have to ask: What is going on with Arizona? It is like there was an active smuggling operation to send guns across the border to Mexican Cartels. Maybe somebody should investigate, right? [/snark]

So what are your chances to be killed by a .50 Caliber rifle? I found this little tidbit that may help you come up with the number:

According to the US National Weather Service, 718 people were injured by hail between 1995 and 2007, five were actually killed. The website bookofodds.com states that the odds a person will be killed by hail in any given year is 1 in 734 million.
Death from above: killed by falling coconuts, meteorites, hail and frozen airplane shit.

With one death in the U.S. spanned over 2 decades, I’ll take my chances with the Big Boomers if you don’t mind.

Parents sending their third-grade children back to one Tennessee elementary this school year were greeted with a blanket ban on delicious snacks made from anything originating from a pig.

Sunset Elementary School in Brentwood, Tenn. rescinded the ban on pork just one day after it went into effect because parents complained, reports Fox News Radio.

via Tennessee elementary school lifts fatwa against pork | The Daily Caller.

I know Tennessee is not a famous BBQ locale like Kansas City, but there is a healthy culture of pulled pork, ribs and other swine delicacies that can be had. My first taste of pork sausage happened while living in the Volunteer State and pounds upon pounds of cured ham have been enjoyed by my senses.  To expect that a pork ban would even be considered outside the realm of ingesting alcohol in poisonous levels is absurd.

Then again some people in Brentwood do think their outhouses smell better and look prettier than the rest of the neighboring towns. It is all those Ikea catalogs they use instead of the three seashells.

The National Gun Victims Action Council, being such an almost non-entity in the field of Gun Control Advocacy, must make itself somewhat relevant by being strident.

Sociopaths are defined as antisocial people whose lack of a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience often makes them violent criminals. That also defines vocal gun advocates whose ridicule of bereaved families is legendary. Tom Mauser, father of Columbine victim Daniel Mauser, was heckled at an NRA meeting in 2004. Linda Jenkins, whose pregnant sister was killed by gunfire, was heckled by gun advocates at a public meeting in Chicago this year. And last week gun lovers descended upon Newtown, flaunting their weapons, to “thank” Starbucks for allowing guns. Shameless, sadistic and with hair trigger tempers, these gun “leaders” are the best argument for gun regulation.

via Best Argument for Gun Regulation; Victim Hecklers « Gun Victims Action Council.

Wow! What can one say to this “deep” and “insightful” psychological analysis? Mind you that during Starbucks Appreciation Day there was not a single case where a “Shameless, sadistic and with hair trigger tempers” vocal gun advocate engaged in any kind of “gun violence”, committed crimes or performed ritual massacres with guns or pretty much any other device.

But this won’t change the minds of the Cultists behind Gun Control. Elliot Fineman is just saying what the rest of the groups are thinking about is but have the understanding that announcing it to the world will make them look stupid and petty. They are getting desperate and that is good as the level of stupidity on their part will increase and more mistakes will be made.

You cannot accuse your enemy of being a foaming-at-the-mouth psycho when you got malicious suds dripping from your jowls.

When we start to carry, we go through the initial dorky phase of “Oh my God! What if somebody notices!” followed by “I wanna go full spheres to the wall” and carry the biggest gun with 17 spare magazines, 3 tactical knives, 2 tactical lights, quikclot, camelbak and a wrench set. Eventually we start shedding crap till (if we are smart) we find the proper balance of utility and comfort.

In my particular case, I have two rigs: one with the full size sidearm with 2 spare mags for a total of 48 rounds, a small knife, a regular-size knife and a trusty Surefire 6P upgraded with Cree LED. The gun goes on a custom-made leather pancake holster that could not be more comfortable and a Bianchi double stack double leather mag pouch. Th rest of the items go in different vest pockets making it my Man-Purse. And no, a vest does not scream “He’s got a gun!” to anybody walking the streets. This set up is used when I am not working and I dress comfortably. Being comfortable is also a good way to conceal: if you don’t twitch, and contort, you attract less attention to yourself.

Unfortunately my most comfortable set up is also the one that takes the longest to put on and take off which makes it rather inconvenient for where I work right now. Basically other than the inside of your vehicle, you have no private place to set yourself up for a proper disposition of your kit plus it is one of those private enterprises not illuminated in the way of allowing its workers to carry on the job.

For a while I was carrying the only fast set up I had: a .357 magnum snubby in an El Paso Saddlery Snap-Off Elite holster (turned out to be a piece of crap I had to repair) with three speedloaders in a vest pocket. But when the wife finally gave me permission to buy her a new Kahr CW9 and allowed me to lease it from her, I figured I wanted to try it as a carry piece for a while. Initially I was going to go with a Dragon Leatherworks Quantum IWB-OWB Combination Holster, but I realized that it would have been mistreated by the tossing-under-the-seat thing I do when I get to work and that would have been a crime. At least i know it is a crime codified in Tennessee with no statute of limitations. I have family there so I didn’t wanna have a warrant for my arrest. I will get that holster for another gun, Dennis makes some great leather stuff.

So I went plastic. I figured that even if buying a decent brand, it would stand the abuse better and I would not feel guilty. I ended up going with a Comp-Tac Paddle Holster after reading the reviews and checking the price. I also bought the Twin Mag Pouch to carry a couple of extra mags and bring the total to 24 rounds as I was lucky to procure 2 Kahr 8 round mags with extensions from MidwayUSA. I did have to use the heat gun to mold the kydex some make the holster grip my pants & belt a bit better, but now I can kit up in about 2 minutes and take everything off in sixty seconds.

Is it a compromise? Yes. Do I feel under-gunned? Not really. I have shot the Kahr enough to feel it will not go Tango Uniform and realized and accepted that for some stupid reason I shoot this gun much better strong hand only and practiced accordingly. Thanks to IDPA matches, I don’t feel weird shooting Strong hand so I am ahead of the curve there.

Mission Determines Gear. In our civilian case would be Life Determines Gear. About the same difference. There is not one single gun that does everything perfect or covers all possible life scenarios. Sometimes you must compromise and come up with an alternative that provides you with an acceptable measure of defense.

I still carry the rest of the stuff in my vest. And no, I do not carry a tomahawk. I leave it inside my truck with a really ugly & menacing CRKT fixed blade.

PS: Another Tennessee law; bad guitar picking in Nashville can get you the Death Penalty. Seen it happen.

“Had I attended the FSA conference, I would have voted against the FSA statement on the Stand Your Ground law,” Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told the Sun Sentinel. “I support an individual’s right to use armed self-defense when faced with the immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury, and without requiring any duty to retreat in one’s own home. However, if there is a safe opportunity in other settings to retreat and de-escalate potentially deadly violence, it should be done. For this reason, I support legislative changes to more narrowly restrict the use of the Stand Your Ground defense.”

via Florida Sheriffs’ Stand Your Ground Support Not Unanimous After All.

I have been warning for a long time that Broward County is not a friendly place for gun owners. If it was not for the state’s pre-emption laws, the county to the north (of me) would be the New York of the South with sprinkles of New Jersey.

It is not the first time the Broward Sheriff Office has gone out of their way to fight the Second Amendment. The video below shows former Sheriff (and now federal felon) Ken Jenne lying to millions of viewers on CNN about the differences between the Pre-ban AK 47 and the AWB-legal AK 47.

If you have any complaints, you can direct them to Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz who represents most of Broward County and is the Chair of the Democratic National Committee…..I was kidding there. I know that at least one reader is seriously in love with her. 😛

The 4th District Court of Appeals ruling said, “The defense argued the Stand Your Ground law, applied and that T.P. (the middle school student) was lawfully entitled to defend himself, because, according to the bus driver, A.F. (the female student) had used force against T.P. when she grabbed him by his jacket, punched him, and pulled him down into his seat.”…….

With so much controversy over the Florida law and some protesters calling for the law to be repealed, Della Fera says what happened on the school bus and the court’s response to it indicates that “Stand Your Ground” is pretty much everywhere even when no weapons are involved.

“I think it shows us that Stand Your Ground does have broad application throughout many, many instances of everyday life,” he said

via Broward Student Uses “Stand Your Ground” To Get Conviction for School Bus Fight Tossed Out | NBC 6 South Florida.

Sometimes it is hard to convey the concept of self-defense as in the fact that defending yourself does not immediately equate with the use of deadly force. Since details are so sketchy, I won’t comment on this particular case…and no, I don’t care that “But he hit a girl!” I am all for equal rights. Acting stupid is not the sole property of the ‘”Y” chromosome.

Hat Tip to Gun Save Lives

This was an Amazon purchase done more asleep than awake. When I got the book and started it reading, I realized that it was a work from somebody not on our side of the issue of personal defense but it was an eye opener as how the other side’s mind operate. And although the book was published in 1992, one can see the same mentality still flowing around among academicians and anti gun pundits.

The author positively hates the idea of Stand Your Ground. But besides that, he hates American Exceptionalism and I think if pushed, he would admit we would be better under British rules. As the book “evolves” we see the concept of Stand Your Ground applied to just about every facet of America and all negative. This elastic conceptualization/exaggeration is common among the collegial intelligentsia and nothing more than word games trying to prop up the absurd and sound somehow smart.

But let’s get back to basics: It took me a couple of minutes or reading to have a chill crawl up and down my spine. On explaining where the concept of Duty to Retreat comes from, you will find the following: “The state- that is the Crown- insisted on monopolizing for itself the act of homicide.” Of course, never in the history of the world we have never seen what an out-of-control and all-powerful government abuse the authority it has to kill people, right? For the author, that seems to be OK or at least ignores it altogether. We know better.

The author then starts to wax philosophically about the goodness judicial intervention: “Any grievance that lingered would have to be settled not by the arbitrament of death or wound but by the judicious finding of a court of law” which is fine and dandy if the attacker is not intent on killing the other part right there and then without waiting for the “arbitrament.” In its twisted way, the author is telling us that defending oneself from death or grave bodily harm is obscene and that we must run no matter what in order to avoid it. Sure, he mentions that “situations in which flight from the scene was entirely blocked, and even in such cases one had to retreat ‘to the wall’ (the legal phrase) before one could without blame stand one’s ground and, if necessary kill.” But remember, you do not get to determine if you properly retreated all the ay to the wall, a prosecutor who was not present and had no idea of what happened made that determination….. and still does. Basically for Mr. Brown, the concept of defending oneself without having to go to engage in acrobatics is legally and morally more condemnable than the original intention of the criminal to kill us.

So what happened in the US that made us switch from the subservience one should observe and revere to the law to what we are now? Apparently in the 19th century, a nasty deviation some legal American authorities took place without permission from its British betters. We decided that Standing Our Ground in the face of an attacker was better than a state-imposed cowardice. Here is where the book, already a jaw-dropper, becomes a ride into amazing intellectual dishonesty and America-Sucks propaganda. Our fight for Independence? Stand Your Ground, a bad thing. The Civil War? Nothing more than Lincoln refusing to Retreat. We, the American Nation developed the concept of True Man, one that would not tolerate unfairness & aggression from anybody, but for the author that is a brutish way to be a country.

One example of the intellectual dishonesty in the book comes from the author’s take on the confrontation at the OK Corral. He makes no bones about disliking Wyatt Earp or the idea of the frontier man and according to Mr. Maxwell, The Earps could have easily retreated and avoid the bloodshed. But as he initially stated that the monopoly of homicide resides exclusively with the government, the contradiction that the Earps in their capacity as marshalls were enforcing the law and the McLaurys and the Clantons were the ones that should have retreated and surrendered. I know that I am just a guy who did not finish college, but even the dumbest of freshmen would catch that contradiction while recovering from the last keg party.

It gets even worse after. Professor emeritus Richard Maxwell Brown, goes on to bash moments in American history because he sees them under the ugly light of Stand Your Ground. Quotes like  “I have not yet begun to fight!” “Damn the torpedoes!” “Don’t give up the ship!” “Courage is a man who keeps coming up.” “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” and pretty much anything Ronald Reagan said against the Soviet Union were awful examples of that nasty American trait of No Duty To Retreat.

I think I can summarize the book (and the author) with the one word that kept popping in my brain while reading:

Pusillanimous: lacking courage and resolution : marked by contemptible timidity weak and afraid of danger.

And if that makes me a bad human, so be it. I will stand with what made America exceptional and also save my life.

Courage enlarges, cowardice diminishes resources. In desperate straits the fears of the timid aggravate the dangers that imperil the brave.
Christian Nestell Bovee