The Firearm Blog is one year old! Wonder if I can get some RPGs from him? :-)

Congratulations!

DAMN YOU DAMP BASEMENT!

All of my weaponry has been left aside while I’ve been re-doing the SKS. So everything stays in the safe. Leave the Mosin in a safe for all of THREE WEEKS and rassafrackin’ colonies start growing on it! ARGH!

Looks like it’s time to bust out the steam cleaner …

So I’m in the basement, cleaning up the (as Sally from Cars would say) “newly refurbished” SKS. And I’m looking for a teeny little cleaning head I have to get into the pin assembly and get a little bit of gunk out.

And … where did I drop it?

I search. Damn. Not on the table.

I search. OH! There it is on the floor. Silly me.

So I lean down, go to pick it up and it fricking SLITHERS AWAY!

For cripes sake what the hell is that THING that I was about to stick into my SKS … why … it’s BORE LIZARD!

Click for super close up of BORE LIZARD!

Something tells me the little guy would’ve been pretty pissed to get dipped into a jar of Hoppe’s #9 and crammed into the firing pin assembly of a (newly refurbished) Yugo SKS. Probably wouldn’t be able to do it anyway, he was kinda squirmy.

So I promptly put him in a small container and let him loose in the backyard.

STAY OUTTA MY BASEMENT! Or so help me I’ll use you to clean the barrel of the .22!

I’m … er … wicked excited about the Northeast Blogger Shoot.

I will be bringing an obnoxious, impossibly annoying guest …

Your days are numbered, Furbish-speaking evil toy …

This is probably one of the more ridiculous things I’ve read in a long time … when are the anti-folks going to stop lying? Never, that’s when.

When Deputy Chief James Scott started with the New Orleans Police Department 36 years ago, the criminal weapon of choice was the Saturday Night Special, a cheap, low-quality handgun that packed little punch and wasn’t capable of doing much damage.

Oh yeah. I get shot by those all the time. Leaves welts. Dumbass. Wasn’t capable of doing much damage? Put it against your head and pull the trigger, it will definitely change your mind … by splattering it outta yer skull.

Three decades later, Scott admits to being terrified at some of the weapons police discover on the streets of New Orleans such as the “street sweeper,” a modified shotgun capable of shooting up to 12 rounds of shells.

Where can I get one? Ebay? No?

“The only purpose for a gun like that is to kill people,” Scott said. “It’s not for hunting or target practice — it’s just a killing machine. That’s a pretty terrifying weapon.”

It’s a counter-insurgency weapon and it’s classified as a destructive device, which means I doubt highly that gun shops in the area are pushing these things out after just a wee little background check and a $200 payment. I could sit here and say, “OMG! He had an RPG! That’s not for plinking or killing groundhogs!” This Deputy Chief James Scott fellow is acting as if though he sees Strikers out there every night. But oh no! Here comes the biggest line of bullshit … like … EVER …

“We also see a lot of AK-47s. Since the hurricane, we’ve confiscated 6,000.”

Six thousand AK-47s? According to the census bureau (yeah, it’s a wikipedia cite, go away if you don’t like it), post-Katrina population of New Orleans in 2007 is approximately 274,000. 60% of it’s pre-Katrina population.

6,000 AK-47s in a population of 274,000 (according to the 2007 census) would indicate to me that you’ve got one AK-47 per approximately 46 residents. New Orlean’s population immediately following Katrina was 223,000. So clearly, everyone in New Orleans had an AK-47. Grannies. Babies. Mentally ill. Felons. Probably some dogs and cats too, you know. All of ‘em were wandering around with mil-surp wonderfulness strapped to their back.

Bullshit. Either a knowing blatant lie, or a gross misquote.

But where do criminals get such high-powered weaponry?

Ebay for $100!!!

Contrary to popular belief, they do not purchase them through sinister back channels on the black market from shadowy arms dealers. The majority of guns the NOPD confiscates were at one point purchased legally, eventually finding their way into the hands of drug dealers through two simple methods — burglary and straw purchases, where the criminal gets someone with a clean record to buy the weapon.

Can’t do that. That’s illegal.

Most of the guns the NOPD confiscates are stolen from a legal gun owner’s home or vehicle. The sad thing, Scott said, is that this can be avoided.

Right. By paying attention and shooting the slimy little cretin when he breaks into your car at 2AM. Or, you can hook up a car battery to your door handles with a little bit of clever wiring. Put a switch on your dash to control it. That’ll be the last door that shocked little bastard will try to get into. Heh.

“People will leave guns in unlocked cars and it angers us because it gives someone access to a weapon that can be used on a citizen or law enforcement officer. It’s a matter of people being too lazy to pick their gun up and bring it into their house. They just think no one is going to break into their car because they can’t see the gun.

And when one out of 50 cars has an AK-47 sitting on the passenger seat, it’s a criminal’s dream!

“But the next thing you know, their gun is missing and it’s out on the street where it can change hands five times and that’s a scary thing.

Strikers and AK-47s for everyone! Like handing out cigars when a baby’s born!

“How would you feel if your gun was used in a murder just because you decided to leave it in your car?”

Spare me the guilt trip, douchenozzle (thanks Nicki), I’d be pissed off because something of mine was stolen and I wasn’t there to beat the everloving shit out of the thug who did it. I didn’t pull the trigger. It’s inanimate. There’s no emotional connection there. I’d be just as pissed off if someone stole my chainsaw and hacked apart some poor sap standing at an ATM. I’d be MORE pissed off because I’d never get the damn thing back. It certainly wouldn’t be MY fault someone stole something from me and decided to kill someone with it. You know … might want to actually blame the criminal for the crime.

Straw purchases are often made through a family member or girlfriend who can make a legal purchase through a gun shop.

And you mean to tell me when they fill out the background check form, they’re checking the box that says, “Are you purchasing this weapon for someone other than yourself?” I doubt it. Of course, lying on that form is illegal too, isn’t it? Or can I just fill in “Mickey Mouse” next time I purchase a gun?

“A convicted felon can just pay a friend $50 to buy him the gun,” Scott said. “I’d say that accounts for about 30 percent of the guns we recover off the street.”

And with 6,000 confiscated AK-47s, you guys must be raking in about 5 billion handguns a day in confiscations! You sound like Dr. Evil … “Five Hundred BILLION AK-47s!!!”

Law enforcement officials say the reality is that anyone can get their hands on a firearm if they really want one.

Finally, some truth.

In Louisiana, the average child can obtain a gun within three hours, typically by taking one from a family member or a friend, said Special Agent Austin Banks with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives New Orleans Field Division.

Okay … WTF? Are they replacing sack races with “Find Daddy’s Gun” in the local fairs now? “Okay Billy … somewhere in that haystack is a loaded Franchi Spas-12! Get ready … get set … GO!”

“Everybody knows somebody who has a legitimate gun. That’s just the way it is in Louisiana,” Banks said. “People buy guns for protection and then they hide them in the closet or stick them underneath the mattress and generally they forget about them. But the children don’t. They’re seekers and if they really want to, they’ll find that weapon.”

Apparently everybody knows somebody who has an AK-47, too. What the hell kind of degenerate mess is New Orleans according to this guy? AK-47s everywhere, lead-sniffing kids hunting them out and strapping them to their big-wheels or some such thing? Obscure semi-auto shotguns from South Africa around every other corner?

Of the 8,338 firearms the ATF confiscated in Louisiana in 2007, 2,181 or 26 percent came from New Orleans. Baton Rouge had the second highest total at 1,316 (16 percent), followed by Jefferson Parish at 1,128 (13.5 percent).

You’ll excuse me if I immediately do not believe that even 50% of those ATF seizures had anything to do with a crime and had everything to do with paperwork. I also think the ATF would be mightily concerned about where those thousands of AK-47s ended up. These numbers aren’t adding up.

The most popular gun among New Orleans criminals is the .40 caliber Glock that sells for an average of $450 and the AK-74 that can be purchased after-market at a gun show for as little as $100, Scott said.

Even more popular than the AK-47 is the .40 caliber Glock! There’s one of those for every 10 people! And …

Wait a second … AK-74s available at a gun show for $100?

Okay. That’s just funny.

But money is rarely an object to drug dealers when heavy firepower is the issue.

But lying is rarely an object to anti-gun monkeys when agendas are the issue.

“A drug dealer makes $450 in half a day’s work so they don’t blink an eye buying the high-end guns,” Scott said. “It’s glamorous for them to have the expensive weapon like the Glock compared to standing out there with a five-shot revolver.”

You think a Glock is expensive! Try purchasing a 12-shot “destructive weapon”. Does the ATF know about those?

The average gun will circulate on the streets for more than five years before it turns up in a crime and is confiscated, Banks said. And the damage it can do in that period is incalculable. So gun owners need to do everything they can to properly secure their weapons, he said.

Hey, I’ll agree with that. That’s why I carry mine broken down into the smallest parts possible and stuffed into my socks and underwear. After all, if it’s stolen, it’s just my fault. Dumbass.

“Guns in the criminal world are a high commodity,” Banks said. “They’re a necessity to the evil deeds that they do and they’ll do whatever it takes to get one.”•

That makes no sense. Gah. I need a shower.

This is probably going to be old news or a tired argument to those of us floating around that understand a bit more about what self-defense and what personal liberty mean. Nevertheless, I got to thinking about about it, and just wanted to splatter those mess of thoughts down for future reference.

We hear a lot from people who can afford security detail at taxpayer’s expense about how dangerous something like a firearm can be. I’ve seen everything - and I’m sure you have too - from firearms causing suicide to firearms causing accidents to firearms causing murder.

Before I get to the meat here, let me put that one to rest - firearms are inanimate objects. They sit there. They cannot cause anything just sitting there. My toaster is an inanimate object. It just sits there. A firearm is not capable of just “going off” and blasting a hole in some part of my body without any interaction whatsoever. A toaster is not capable of unplugging itself, dashing through my kitchen, plugging itself into a bathroom outlet and hurling itself into my bathtub as I sit there soaking in warm suds with cucumber slices over my eyes and a copy of some trashy Harlequin Romance novel sitting beside me. Not that I do that. My wife would kind of freak out.

Regarding suicide, saying guns are a cause of murder or suicide is like saying that toasters are the cause of toast. I don’t wake up in the morning, head into my kitchen, see burnt toast all over my floor and a shit-eating grin on my toaster as it’s blood-lust has been sated murdering my recently-purchased loaf of Wonder bread. I won’t fall to my knees, raise my fist with fury in my eyes and say, “DAMN YOU TOASTER!! WWWHHHYYYYYY!?!?!?!?!!?” Because … well because that can’t happen.

Those points are important, and I just wanted to get them out of the way before continuing. Posterity, consider yourself saked.

There are essentially three periods of time to every criminal act.

1) Pre-crime.

References to Minority Report aside, this is a period of time before the crime happens, right up to the decision to act, and ending a split second before the act itself. This pre-crime period could last a year, five years, or just a few minutes. Crimes of passion are certainly shorter, but thought out crimes are more the norm. Thugs deciding in the afternoon to hop into a car and drive by someone’s house with the intent of gunning someone down takes a few hours of thought and planning.

As a criminal, you are the only party aware of what is about to happen. It’s your decision. Your victim shouldn’t know unless there’s been a threat, which is something different entirely. In some cases threats are considered a crime but I’m sticking to something related more to assault and battery. Particularly the battery part.

As a victim, you have no idea this crime is about to happen. This huge length of time - time that could span a year or more in the case of planned murder, is something that occurs without your involvement, otherwise a different course of action takes place. Your general couple walking toward an ATM while a mugger lies nearby in wait is certainly more common than a planned murder-for-hire or some such thing.

At any rate, this pre-crime period is essentially completely in the hands of the criminal, not the victim. There is nothing you can do as an individual to defend yourself from an act that hasn’t yet been committed.

2) The crime.

Something that generally lasts a few seconds, or a few minutes. In more rare circumstances, hours of someone being raped - imprisoned in their own home, but generally the act of the crime itself is over just about as fast as it begins.

As a criminal, it’s carrying out a planned, violent act. Criminals have the advantage of having thought about the act they’re going to commit, and then going through with it.

As a victim, you have, most likely, all of 90 seconds to get through before this act is over. You haven’t had the advantage of planning for months at a time what was going to happen in this particular event. The criminal pretty much has dictated where this is going to happen, when it is going to happen, and they’ve had plenty of time to think about their desired result. You, however, just need to act.

What do you do? You really only have two options. Cooperate with what is asked of you, or defend yourself by attempting to flee or attempting a counter-assault.

A 911 call can get you a slashed throat, your teeth kicked in, or shot. Who whips out their cell phone, dials 911, and has a conversation with an operator while there’s a knife to their throat? A dead man, that’s who. Dial 911 when you’re safe, otherwise you’re wasting time and increasing the possibility that you’ll be injured or killed.

A scream for help can get you a slashed throat, your teeth kicked in, or shot. Even worse, it could get you ignored.

Giving the criminal everything they desire can get you a slashed throat, your teeth kicked in, or shot.

Let’s face it. You’ve had no time to plan for an event that a criminal could have been planning for days, weeks, or months. You’ve had no time to prepare. You’re caught completely by surprise, and you have mere seconds to do something. The criminal knows that it’s going to be over very soon - one way or another.

Those that would advocate “giving them everything they ask for,” are essentially asking YOU - a person with a family … children … and hard-earned money in your pocket … to trust someone who has planned an event that has an excellent chance of ending with you being killed. Put your fate into their hands. Pray. Hope you get lucky. Whatever you do, “don’t make the situation worse,” as if there is some end to this seconds-long conflict that could end up being worse than having a blade jabbed into your neck and having your wife explain tearfully to your children that “Daddy won’t be coming home tonight …”. Because you can be DAMN SURE that anti-gun politicians won’t drop by to explain it to your kids. The Brady Campaign won’t do it either. But both of them will be more than thrilled to jump on Daddy’s corpse and tell your kids that someone was misunderstood and the gun was actually what took their Daddy away.

Those that would advocate “the police are there to protect you,” are just as guilty. You need to contact the police. They could be blocks away, or miles away. You have to get in touch with them somehow, stall for minutes on end, and hope you can hold out long enough against someone who has planned this crime. Nothing wrong with hope, but let’s be realistic here, hope won’t stop a thug hell-bent on taking your money, your sneakers, or your life.

During this - the shortest period of time during a criminal act - you have yourself, and only yourself to depend on in order to make sure you arrive home safely, you hug your kids again, you continue living your life unharmed, and you keep your own possessions. Nobody can help you. Nobody can foresee a criminal act that can be planned for months but only takes a few seconds to accomplish. Not you. Not the police. Not the government.

Nobody except yourself, living in that exact moment, having full and complete responsibility over your own life.

3) Post-crime.

It’s finished. What happened?

If you depend on others for your safety … if you listen to all of those calls of, “just give them what they want” there is certainly a chance you’re fine. The crime ends with you shaken up, and some thief running away with your wallet, credit cards, etc. Maybe it’s worse than that. Maybe that 90-second crime ends with you face-down, fatally wounded - your possessions and your life and those around you forever altered by an act that may have been planned for a period of time, but only took a few seconds to complete. Maybe there’s a 911 operator on the line saying, “Hello? Hello are you there? Hello sir are you with me? Hello?” as you’re blacking out and the sound of running footsteps are getting farther away. Your last thought is your children … they’re going to grow up without you. You’re going to miss them. You cooperated, you did everything they said you should do …

Or maybe, just maybe, you had means to defend yourself. You were as prepared as you can be for this situation by not putting yourself in a position of weakness. Being aware of your surroundings. With your bare hands or with a gun on your hip you were able to defend yourself. And in that case you can calmly flip open your phone, call the police, and have them come to clean up the pieces. You’ll go home and hug your children. You’ll kiss your wife again. You’ll be shaken up - certainly - but you won’t be dead. Nobody will have taken what’s rightfully yours. Nobody will have taken a father or mother away from their kids. And all of those people - politicians with their own security detail of armed guards, anti-gunners who believe that a gun causes death like a toaster causes toast - you can smile because all of them advocated you trusting a criminal and hoping for a positive outcome. All of them believe that you are too weak … too angry … too unskilled … too careless, spiteful, bigoted or pissed off to be trusted to take care of your own life and your own family. All of them - instinctively - wish for a greater chance of your death above your own ability to protect yourself.

And that’s what I find most fascinating - and indeed highly ironic - of all. All of those that would disarm you and prevent you from protecting yourself and your family are so eager to play Russian Roulette with your life. Trusting a random criminal, circumstances, and chance above a greater possibility of your survival. Anyone who advocates your disarmament for the greater good is nothing more than a malicious offender themselves - a party to the crime. They have, after all, made it possible for a period of 90 seconds to have a greater chance of ending in your death or injury.

So when is the government useful in a crime? When are the police or any emergency responder useful?

You can make an argument that it’s the government’s job to keep criminals locked away. It’s not - it’s up to the courts, your local elected officials, and your state government to provide the environment where there is less of a chance that these sorts of things can happen. Nobody - ever - will prevent crime from happening because the criminal is the only one who knows what’s going to happen. Long prison sentences help, considering violent criminals are too often turned around and released back onto the streets without much more than being yelled at. Apart from that, what’s the solution? More police patrols? Everyone gets their own police officer to walk around with them like our esteemed elite elected officials?

Pre-crime has more to do with social behavior and environment than anything else. And that’s nothing you as an individual have full control over.

The crime itself? Already demonstrated - police are not the answer. They may or may not be there and they may or may not be able to help you. It’s chance. Luck. Russian Roulette once again. Trust a complete stranger with your life? I wouldn’t. Whether they’re able to help or not, they’ll still go home and kiss their kids, hug their spouse, and maybe have a home-cooked meal. They’ll still be at the family BBQ, they’ll still go to work. Sure, they may have a shitty day because they saw some guy with his throat slit and his wallet missing face down in a pool of their own blood somewhere, but hey … they’ll be all right … they’re lucky to be alive with such a dangerous job. It’s certainly not their fault you made the decisions you did. They’ll use this special phrase when talking to a reporter about what happened … “By the time we arrived, it was too late.”

Face it. You’re the only one that can get through those few seconds. You have only yourself to trust and lean on. You’re the only one capable of making the decision to trust a criminal or yourself. You’re prepared, or you aren’t, either way you need to deal with the situation on your own.

And after it’s over? Call the clean up crew. It’s your job to make sure you’re the one left unscathed after some criminal decides to go through with his act. You should need to make two phone calls once you’re safe. First, call the police to tell them what happened and where. Second, call your family to tell them you’ll be a little late … you’re a little shaken up … and tell the kids not to worry because you’ll be home soon …

In Chicago Politics Examiner. This guy gets it:

The ballyhoo over the Supreme Court’s recent decision that declared Washington DC’s handgun ban

unconstitutional, and therefore implied the same for Chicago, didn’t last through the holiday. Unfortunately, neither did five poor souls who fell victim to gun violence in downtown Chicago during the long weekend.

Again proving (is it possible to prove something twice? Three times? A thousand times? Perhaps I should say, “Again confirming”) that gun bans do exactly jack schizzle.

“Why should our streets be open to someone carrying a gun?” Daley remarked after the Supreme Court handed down the ruling. “Do [people] have a right to carry a gun on the CTA?” Daley’s theatric rant blamed the rich and the powerful for protecting themselves but not the poor. “Those who are rich always feel safe … those who are in power always feel safe.”

Daley is such a shit-for-brains. Firepower is a great equalizer. It doesn’t pay attention to your societal class, your religion, ethnicity, or anything else that normally separates you from fellow human beings. You could be rich or poor, big or small, a physical specimen or handicapped - if you have that one tool at your disposal when you are threatened, all of those labels and differences are thrown out the window.

But after the violence this past weekend, Daley must face a stubborn fact: handgun bans don’t actually prevent people from committing violence with hand guns. Handguns are illegal in Chicago, and yet on July 4th, four people were shot by handguns as they walked home from the fireworks display in Grant Park. Moreover, it is entirely likely these hand guns were brought to the fireworks show on CTA transportation. Fitting isn’t it.

Broken Record Time: Criminals don’t give a crap about the law. Gun bans are laws made to be broken by those who don’t care.

This is not unusual, in fact. Every day, innocent people in Chicago are killed by hand guns despite the ban. Chicago reported 442 homicides in 2007, according to Wikipedia. And yet, Daley would have us believe the law is keeping the “poor” people safe.

Just like the same laws in DC are keeping all of those nice unarmed people safe. At least you can call 911. You know … after the gunshots go off.

Of course, Daley could step up enforcement. He could put an officer armed with an assault rifle on every corner of the city. But still there would likely be some incidence of illegal gun violence. He simply doesn’t have the power to control human behavior, no matter how much prohibition is enforced. Banning anything only drives it under ground.

We certainly should not be irresponsible with guns. But we shouldn’t run roughshod over our constitutional rights in support of laws that embolden politicians but don’t do much for public safety.

Daley would do better to focus on things that are within his control, like the safety issues on the CTA.

Awesome.

Robb, what are you thinking about this “safety issue”?

Who’s to blame, the detective, the toddler, or the gun?

An off-duty Los Angeles police officer who was paralyzed after his young son accidentally shot him in 2006 filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the manufacturer of the gun involved in the accident.

Enrique Chavez of Anaheim was shot in the back by his 3-year-old son after the boy grabbed his father’s Glock 21 — a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol — from the back seat of his pickup truck.

Loaded gun sitting on the back seat of your pickup where your toddler is. And you’re calling lawyers to go after … Glock.

The lawsuit, filed in Superior Court, alleges that Glock Inc.’s gun was dangerous because its safety device was “non-existent or ineffective” at preventing an accidental shot.

Chavez, 35, is also suing the manufacturer of the gun’s holster and the retail stores that sold him the gun and the holster. He bought the gun at the Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Club and purchased a holster made by Uncle Mike’s and Bushnell Outdoor Products from Turner’s Outdoorsman.

All this proves is that you can be an officer and a retarded dickhead at the same time.

The lawsuit alleges the defendants knew the safety device was defective and that 5.5 pounds of pressure on the trigger frequently results in accidental discharges.

Particularly if you leave the loaded weapon on your backseat where your toddler is. I mean really. Now, this is in California, so who knows what kind of legs this suit will have, if anything else it’ll raise the volume on that steady drumbeat the anti folks love to pound. In a proper world, this guy would be brought up on child neglect charges.

The lawsuit alleges product liability, breach of warranty and loss of consortium, and seeks general, special and punitive damages, and attorneys fees.

Un-farking-believable. I’m going to go bash my head in with a 2X4 so I can take Home Depot and TREES to court.