Gun Free Zone

Greedy shoe companies making select sneakers needlessly exclusive paired together with consumer exuberance, desperation, and American gun culture on Saturday long enough to cost one would-be alleged robber his life.

via A shooter kills a would-be robber in self-defense while waiting in line to buy LeBron James’ signature shoes | Ball Don’t Lie – Yahoo! Sports.

It is a conspiracy between the Military-Weapons-Shoes-NBA cabals that took the life of a man who just wanted to apply some wealth re-distribution in an expedient manner.

But according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Atlanta police still had not released the name Sunday of an armed citizen who shot a would-be robber in Little Five Points on Saturday morning.

The dead man, who also has not been identified, was killed after allegedly trying to rob a group of people waiting in line to buy the new, $180 LeBron James sneakers.

Or Fox:

WSB-TV reports the shooting happened Saturday morning in the city’s Little Five Points neighborhood, where people lined up outside Wish Clothing to buy new $180 sneakers endorsed by Miami Heat star LeBron James.

Witnesses told police a man armed with a gun tried to rob people standing outside the store. But one of the customers drew his own handgun and shot the robber. Police say the suspect ran just a few yards before he fell dead.

I have not see stupid stuff like this since the 70s when the first new wave of Progressive/Post Hippie-Era idiots go to comment about police using “deadly” ammunition against criminals and literally crap on their pants at the idea of anybody shooting hollow points at violent criminal. You see, NOBODY chooses the be a criminal, it is the capitalistic society who forced people into criminal acts because it failed to provide the minimum needs for somebody to live a decent an honest life. So, a criminal is somebody to be pitied and helped, not shot like a rabid dog by the enforcers of this authoritarian and despicable capitalism…. yes these morons actually believed the press releases from the Soviet Union and Cuba touting themselves as crime-free.

I wonder from what time capsule was the author extracted.

Top Shot’s Gabby Franco. (Stolen without shame from her Facebook page)
She ain’t posing with an AR just because it is a glamour shoot. She can really shoot! I’ve seen her make her Glock sing like an opera soprano and then some.

Bad News: She is engaged.

How quickly do you think your neighbors, your friends, your relatives, will turn on you about the “hoarded” food in your basement, your “hoarded” medical supplies, that “Hoarded” Big Berkey water filter you bought to guarantee your family’s fresh water or the solar panels you’re “hoarding” on your roof?

via The Michael Bane Blog: Michael’s Rant de Jour….

In as little as 24 hours as painfully experienced by yours truly during one of those famous dislocations of Civilized Behavior and the Rule of Law and Common Sense that happen every so often South of Key West. Get used to the idea that you may have to aim your weapon on somebody you considered a friend and treated like a relative you actually liked for decades but now he or she is bound to take your means of survival and even your life.

Seeing people like that behaving like gang bangers during a police strike in Chicago and the fact that I might have to shoot them was a nasty shock to my mindset. It goes against all your sense of right and wrong that Mr. Lopez, the neighbor who taught how to fly a kite or Mrs. Ramirez who always baked you a batch of those delicious homemade pastries for Christmas are now trying to break in your property, ready to tear you to pieces for a chunk of bread or a bottle of booze and you are gonna have to put them down like vicious animals.

If you have not given it a thought……

The perfect Truck Gun (Vehicular Long Gun) is an elusive animal. Even my taste changes with time as one day I might favor an AR pistol and the next I’d secretly drool for a Serbu Shortie shotgun.

It is obvious that a Short Barrel Rifle with some collapsible stock would be the almost perfect answer for compactness and firepower, but they are expensive animals and subject to NFA rules and tax stamp. But what if you needed a long gun now that could be hidden pretty easy inside a vehicle, somewhat easy to assemble, be immune to most any environmental challenge of being forgotten inside a car and not expensive? How about the Henry US Survival AR-7? Check the video:

What makes the AR 7 attractive is the price as it retails for $280 in the all black configuration which is a bit more than the NFA stamp on an SBR. It comes with 2 magazines for 16 shots and I can imagine a couple more mags can be attached somewhere outside the stock (think something like the M1 carbine magazine ammo pouch) for a total of 32 rounds in hyper velocity .22LR which might not be a Velociraptor stopper, but still will manage to keep somebody at bay far enough to count.

This is obviously not a stand-alone weapon but something to compliment your everyday carry sidearm to try keep people at distances over 25 yards, specially if you have several  possible individuals coming your way that may see a long gun, decide you are not an easy prey and go someplace else for mischief or perhaps a properly placed shot, even with a .22LR is likely to modify uncouth behavior far enough before it becomes troublesome.

Again, the AR 7 may not be the perfect Truck Gun, but it beats flowery speeches and requests for mercy shouted across the block at a decent price.

Your thoughts?

From the beginning press coverage of this case has routinely conflated these issues, implying that Florida’s definition of self-defense is so broad that it gave Zimmerman a license to kill in circumstances that did not justify the use of deadly force. The New York Times has been one of the worst offenders in this respect, running one story after another that either obscured or misstated the legal issues while suggesting that both Martin’s death and the delay in arresting Zimmerman somehow hinged on the absence of a duty to retreat. Now the Times is implicitly admitting that its reporting was based on a fundamentally mistaken premise.

via The New York Times Admits Its Reporting on the Trayvon Martin Case Has Been Fundamentally Wrong – Hit & Run : Reason.com.

One word: Duh!

Allow me first to start with this:

The Founding Concepts of IDPA
Founded in 1996 the International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA) is the international governing body for IDPA competition, a handgun-centric shooting sport based on simulated self-defense scenarios.
The IDPA competition format was designed to be enjoyable to all shooters of all skill levels, with a premium put on the social interaction and camaraderie of the members. Participation in IDPA matches requires the use of handguns, holsters and other equipment suitable for concealed carry self-defense. With that in mind, and keeping the shooters’ best interests in mind, IDPA’s founders established equipment requirements that remain based on commonly available firearms and gear allowing individuals the opportunity to compete with minimal investment.

And about IDPA’s Fundamental Principles: Provide a level playing field for all competitors that solely tests the skill and ability of each individual, not their equipment.

I already ranted about the “touching” and the safe muzzle points so n ow I am going after the last cheese-less whine: “Why Can’t I have a special (Name) Division where I can use  (name the gadget/add-on thingie) in my gun?

IDPA as any organization is bound to screw the pooch sometimes. It has allowed to be deviated from its original principles or maybe decided to be a bit flexible, but now the sport is basically run by a Glock 34 with a 2 to 1.5lbs trigger and Lord knows what internals and other externals plus pretty much ignoring paper-bouncing reloads in 147 grains worth of bullet (Power Factor? wink-wink unless shooting at a sanctioned match with chrony somewhere) all encased in a super-slick Kydex holster. It is a gun that does not get carried, a Safe Queen mostly owned by shooters that perform the traditional tactical strip tease at the Safe Area (undoing the belt, installing tactical “IDPA legal” tactical kydek holster & pouches), extracting the Most Appreciated Gun from its special case and lovingly dry fire it and holstering it. Some are at least true enough that will actually carry a Glock 19 every day or even one of the Baby Glocks, but I have seen a lot of G34 shooters that carry a different type of weapon altogether like a snubbie inside the tube socks or even they don’t even carry at all,

For a while now, we had the clamoring of the people with lasers and lights trying to convince everybody that it is going to be “the next thing” in carry and self-defense. And even now we have a decent variety of firearms offering a rail, most of the owners do not hang stuff on it for one simple reason: It is too damn expensive, to annoying and there so many varieties and flavors of gun mounted laser and lights that very few people or companies offer holsters for the darn things and you have to go the way of the custom holster maker which ain’t cheap.

And now we have the RMR fan club that assure us over a stack of recycled bibles it will be the sure future thing in concealed carry. That so far I only know of one gun manufacturer that offers one gun ready out of the box (more or less) for RMR and any other gun will have to either get an after-market slide or a trip to a gunsmith for an expensive retrofit.

The cost of all of the above goes in direct contradiction with the basic principles of IDPA. Yes, adding laser and gun mounted lights and RMRs and whisper-sensitive triggers and rail-capable Keurig with amaretto coffee drip is nothing more than an equipment race which is NOT the idea behind IDPA even if HQ itself may have forgotten somewhat.

And to close, I do want to propose a change in the new rulebook: Bring back the old Classifier times…… and assign every modern striker-fired pistol (Glock, XD, M&P, etc.) to ESP.

I know, fat chance, but imagine the crapstorm if it would happen. Worth of selling PPV and hot popcorn full of real butter.  Let’s face it: the striker fired guns are closer to a 9mm 1911 than a double action/single action or Double Action Only semi auto. It makes more sense to send them with the slick boys!

OK, that’s it. I haven’t slept in 2 days so I am punchy and probably this post won’t make a bunch of sense.

Laterz! (That’s french accent)