Gun Free Zone

According to FBI investigators, two men ran up to and held up a Brinks armored truck guard outside a bank. FBI Special Agent Michael Leverock said, “Two armed males approached an armored car courier.”

The robbery happened at the Space Coast Credit Union branch at 7751 W. Oakland Park Blvd. Surveillance cameras caught the robbery as it unfolded. The guard was using a dolly to deliver money to the bank at the time. Two men wearing masks ran up with guns drawn and yelled at him to put his hands up and then ordered him to the ground.

via WSVN-TV – South Florida bank robbed, thieves at large.

Not the first time I mention it. Thank God nobody got hurt.

After all, South Florida is the former stomping grounds of William Russell Matix and Michael Lee Platt.

WOW!!! Just wow… This is Virginia Delegate Joe Morrisey, ranting against “assault weapons/rifles/silverware/gadgets” (take your pick) at Virginia’s General Assembly:

Is that his moronic thumb inside the trigger guard of the rifle? And is he waving around a bona-fide Clinton Era  “Assault Weapon Ban” approved rifle while badmouthing it? You betcha! Contradiction much?

Seriously, How come this idiot was not tackled by security and pepper sprayed into a human facsimile of a Texas Chili con Carne for dangerous and unsafe manipulation of a firearm?

Question to Virginians. Is anybody allowed to bring a firearm inside the General Assembly building?
Hat Tip to The Liberty Zone.

I finally got around buying Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun by Paul Barret. I expected a book with deeper information on how the wunder gun came to be and did not get it. What I got was a book filled with contradictions: reluctant admiration and loathing for Gaston Glock, the NRA and the Gun Culture in general. And unexpectedly, a heavy dose of bromance.

I am not a Glock fanboy, I don’t own one and I shot a Glock only once in my life. I am not particularly fond of the gun but I do acknowledge its popularity and simplicity of operation. So basically I have no fanatical love for the item and I am not a defender of it just because.

Author Paul Barret starts the book by doing the expected history of how Gaston Glock came with the idea of the Glock, but soon falls short of what any gun owner would like to read: the whole design of the gun and the technical difficulties and achievements that led to the production of the gun. Instead we get the “dirty” little trade & marketing secrets (really, no secrets if you have even bothered to read about common practices) while trying to cast Gaston Glock as the Robber Baron of the firearms Industry by twisting every law and moral precept out there. I find this funny as hell because you can tell that Mr. Barret is heads over heels by Glock’s ex main legal counsel (And convicted felon) Paul Januzzo and we are talking gushing like a 12-year-old girl towards the latest teen idol while making Gaston Glock ends look like an Edison with a Hitler mustache.

Gaston Glock was never into the Gun Culture. He was somebody with the drive to become rich and he happened to have the right set of ideas at the proper time in history mixed with a healthy dose of European entrepreneurial drive. Barret clearly dislikes some of Glock’s ways to entertain customers with booze and strippers applying a heavy dose of fake morality to the narrative. Yet there is nothing illegal he could point to simply because it is not illegal to take people to a strip joint and have drinks.

I confess I stopped reading at page 207 and I couldn’t get into it anymore. At least for now. I found myself reading a well written anti-gun drivel but nothing I have not heard before except the almost single handled efforts of Januzzo to take on both the US Government and the NRA (Bromance, remember?).  Barret’s comments about the NRA is an uncompromising and fanatical pro-gun organization must have sent many gun owners laughing off their chairs as the meme for some has been just the opposite: The NRA compromises too quick.

My recommendation: The book just came out on paperback. If you want to, wait for the price to drop under $4 before buying it or get it from your local library if available. It is not worth the full retail price.

Now, if you excuse me, Stephen Hunter awaits.

99 Life Hacks to make your life easier! – Movie Quotes and Inside Jokes.

Amazingly helpful! Simplicity and ingenuity well demonstrated 🙂

The Complete Sherlock Holmes is available today for free in the Kindle Store. If you never read it, do yourself a favor and get your copy, Kindle device not needed since you can download your app for PC or Mac.

I’ve been a fan of Sherlock Holmes for over four decades. I have literally worn out 3 copies, I have one now starting to show signs of use plus I have one more in reserve, untouched & secured for TEOTWAWKI. And yes, this Kindle version too ’cause you never know.

And I will spare you from a deluge of absolute giddiness since my wife already has to suffer me literally destroying the latest Hollywood versions with my commentaries as the movie plays. We Sherlockians are unyielding bunch. I will admit that if I had money to throw away, I would go to London for one day, hop in a cab and demand to be taken to 221 Baker Street, have my picture taken in front the address, visit the museum and fly right back out the same day.

And if you must know: Jeremy Brett & Edward Hardwicke.

As a result, at least one Federal Firearms Licensee has refused to allow police officers who have purchased guns to have the magazines that come with them, because those factory standard magazines hold more than seven rounds. The FFL fears selling the guns he has with the magazines they came with would be breaking the law, even when the purchasers are cops, because there are no clear provisions in the bill allowing a police exception to the ban.

via Oops. Were there not LEO magazine exemptions in the rushed NY SAFE Act? « Bob Owens.

I really see no problem there. It is not like Bad Guys seek Cops anyway.

It was supposed to be the thunderous confirmation that Gun Control was here to stay and that the evil forces of the NRA and its minions (Gun Owners) were about to be thrown down the precipice of history. Foils were being unwrapped from the champagne bottles  at the HQs of all Gun Control Groups.

It turned into flat soda.

According to The Ulsterman Report, there was real concerns that the original ideas were going to come back to bite Democrats so hard in the buttinski they wouldn’t even be covered by Obamacare. If rumors are to be believed, Congress was flooded by calls/faxes/emails in the rate of nine against any new Gun Control against one in favor. Those are not good numbers in anybody’s Government specially if you consider how much bad press, aspersions and name calling were used against guns and gun owners in general. It was a huge expenditure of political capital that resulted in negative returns as people flocked to buy more guns, magazines and ammunition and the NRA picks up 250,000 new members.

This is not to say they are done. Allow me to expose my Firefly-Geek credentials for a second and quote from Shepherd Derrial Book:

They’ll come at you sideways. It’s how they think. It’s how they move. Sidle up and smile. Hit you where you’re weak. Sort of man they’re like to send believes hard. Kills and never asks why.

They will present a new front when Sen. Feinstein introduces her all-compassing gun control bill. I predict that it will also get a “me” specially since NY State went full blow stupid with a similar law that without doubt will be challenged in court and hopefully harpooned to death. If that happens, the Gun Control Bill of 2014 will go into the shredder, specially if killing is done by SCOTUS late summer 2016, right before midterms. They do not want another electoral massacre like in 1994 where after 60 years of absolute control, the Democrats lost the Capitol Building.

The following are my thoughts about the Executive Orders as I read them yesterday. I might probably change some stuff later as I get better versed on some dark areas, but I wanted to leave the initial thoughts I had.

Here are the directives

1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.
(Is this an admission that they were not doing it in the first place?)

2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.
(I saw this addressed before and with the non-forced commitment for dangerous patients is one of the reasons we have so many problems with really dangerous individuals loose. Expect resistance from ACLU on this one.)

3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.
(Actually the NICS system should me streamlined and improved to reduce the huge amounts of false positives it gives.)

4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.
(Danger Will Robinson. Remember we have an administration that has an Enemy’s list and they are not the ones wearing turbans. And this AG shouldn’t even be in the job anyway.)

5. Propose rule making to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.
(Here I smell BS. If a firearm was seized means an individual was arrested and/or charged with a crime. If released or acquitted and the individual is not a prohibited person, his property must be returned. Some jurisdictions are already notorious for dragging their asses in returning firearms to lawful individuals.)

6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.
(Jesus! I almost choked when I read this one. After Fast & Furious and the “It is OK , Joe, go ahead and sell them the 50 AKs”? Seriously?

7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.
(All of you wanna bet the NRA will not be invited to use the most effective campaigns ever designed for responsible gun ownership? Don’t expect Eddie Eagle to be in this White House anytime before 2018.)

8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).
(Feel good BS. Most USA manufacturers do a great job producing magnificent safes. One only has to go to Youtube and see the torture tests.)

9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.
(Oh I am sure detectives everywhere are going “Gee! How come I never thought of that before!. Good idea Mr. President!”)

10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.
(Hmmm, if it starts something like “80% of all the guns submitted for tracing by Mexican authorities and found in Mexican Drug crimes scenes come from the United States” I may have to wonder about effectiveness of this measure.)

11. Nominate an ATF director.
(Time to get rid of the ATF altogether. The Alcohol and Tobacco revenue was transferred to the Dep. of Agriculture. Make new legislation transferring firearms investigations to the FBI and making sure NONE of the actual department heads or supervisors get a free trip to become part of the FBI or have nothing to do with firearms enforcement.)

12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.
(Gee! Ya frigging think? Oh wait… school officials get to attack active shooters with rulers and waste baskets.)

13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.
(You know they were saying “Mr President, we need to make the list longer. Generic statements OK?”)

14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.
(CDC could not find squat the first time around so I will let them have it again with the proviso that a strict peer review must be done before ANY announcement of findings.)

15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.
(Smart Gun Part…. three I think. The idea of Lawgiver does wet their pants. Very popular with lots of people except for those who actually know guns as it is a very unsafe technology.)

16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.
(And patients will tell doctors to go perform unnatural acts on themselves…or simply lie.)

17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.
(Oh so they didn’t know that already? Or maybe they were confused with all the legal carp coming down from Washington?)

18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.
(Holy crap… I can feel the pain here…. Having to admit the NRA was right? OUCH!)

19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.
(All due respect, leave that to the local people in charge. They know what they have and what they need. We wouldn’t want a supreme blind directive from DC mock up what happens in the real world just as what happened with School Lunches.)

20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.
(I have no frigging idea what this have to do with the matter at hand.)

21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.
(See #20)

22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.
(I’ll let somebody explain this and the 2 before on in the comment section.)

23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.
(This is one that will go nowhere. The denstitutionalization of mental health patients was the great Civil Rights achievement for the white Hippies in the 60s. The concept is so entrenched right now, I doubt they will have support from their side to even get it started.)