Month: April 2010

A Shotgun For All Your Maverick Reploid Hunting Needs

The Firearm Blog let us know the solution has finally arrived for the rash of violent Reploid uprisings that have been happening recently. They are calling it the Maverick Hunter after the government sanctioned anti-Maverick task force. Maverick Hunter [the task force] representative Dr. Cain has this to say:

Although I understand peoples’ desire to have a means of defending themselves against the Mavericks, I must also urge caution. Reploids are incredibly powerful and humans should avoid head on confrontations. I also feel that Mossberg is providing a false sense of security with their new Maverick Hunter shotgun as I don’t see how a shotgun of any sort could reliably destroy a rouge Reploid.

Likewise famous Maverick Hunter X had the following to say:

Seriously? A shotgun? To fight Mavericks?! See this gun on my arm? Yeah it’s an energy weapon that first plasma. It’s not a shotgun because they can’t reliably penetrate the metal exoskeleton that Mavericks are constructed out of. This product is wholly irresponsible to advertise in this manner.


X has helped suppress no less than 8 Maverick uprisings.

Mossberg could not be reached for comment.

Hello Kettle, This is The Pot Calling

If you’ve been paying any attention to the iPhone/iPad Flash pissing match you know it’s rather stupid. On one hand Apple is refusing to allow Flash on to their device because it could create competition to their app store ruin the battery life of their device. Adobe feels they have some kind of right to have their software placed on Apple’s platform. Well Adobe has claimed to quit attempted Flash development for the iPhone/iPad (I can’t say I blame them considering Apple went so far as to say you can only use Apple approved tools to develop for the iPhone/iPad now):

“As developers for the iPhone have learned, if you want to develop for the iPhone you have to be prepared for Apple to reject or restrict your development at any time, and for seemingly any reason,” Chambers said. “The primary goal of Flash has always been to enable cross browser, platform and device development. The cool Web game that you build can easily be targeted and deployed to multiple platforms and devices. However, this is the exact opposite of what Apple wants. They want to tie developers down to their platform, and restrict their options to make it difficult for developers to target other platforms.”

I honestly thought the point behind Flash was to waste my laptop’s battery through absurd CPU usage. But Mr. Chambers is correct in that Apple’s goal is to lock you into their platform while preventing easy cross-platform development that would make it easier for their customers to jump ship. It’s the same thing most software companies have been doing since the dawn of pay-for software. Of course the pot decided to call the kettle black:

In a response, Apple indicated its preference for a variety of up-and-coming standards that collectively compete with what Flash can do.

“Someone has it backwards–it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and H.264 (all supported by the iPhone and iPad) that are open and standard, while Adobe’s Flash is closed and proprietary,” said spokeswoman Trudy Muller in a statement.

H.264 is not an open standard. People who wish to use H.264 are required to license the technology. Furthermore although the web browser on the iPhone/iPad uses HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript the applications themselves are not written using those technologies. Adobe was not only trying to get web based Flash onto the iPhone/iPad but also trying to make technology that ported Flash applications to a format that could be utilized on the iPhone/iPad which is a close platform.

Either way this debate really is stupid. Apple has no obligation to allow anything on their device they don’t want to allow. Likewise you are not obligated to purchase and use Apple’s phone/tablet if you don’t like their rules (which is why I don’t have an iPhone or iPad).

Something I’ve Often Wondered

Tam brings up a good pointer here. I often hear people say you should train like you fight. I agree. But apparently my idea of how I will need to fight and most people who proclaim this different greatly.

When somebody tells me to train like I fight they usually train with tools that I, nor I assume most people, don’t expect to have at my disposal. For the purposes of this post we’ll create a hypothetical gun owner who claims to train like he fights. Let’s call him Timmy Tactical. Timmy Tactical goes to the range every weekend to train. His training regiment is strict and to the letter. His first half hour is spent getting his MOLLE vest, drop leg holster, gloves, knee pads, elbow pads, combination infrared/night vision/4th dimension goggles, radio gear, spike toed ninja combat boots, bullet proof vest equipped with six trauma plates, and sun glasses (super tactical of course) on. He then spends the next couple of hours running drills with his M4gery carbine equipped with a flashlight, laser sight, bayonet, EOTech holographic site with accompanying magnifier, and two extra rounds stored in the pistol grip. He creates scenarios for himself based on likely situations including communist invasion, zombie outbreak, and invasion by aliens hailing from the far reaches of the Betelgeuse system.

What Timmy Tactical doesn’t train with is his concealed .38 caliber snubby revolver that is on his person the rest of the time.

This has always begged the question how do you really plan to fight? Personally the only people I know who fight like Tactical Timmy are the men and women in our military who fight as their daily job. They can fight like that because throughout their day they actually have all their on them. The reason for this should be obvious, they are in a job where extended firefights with multiple enemy combatants is not only possible but down right expected.

Those of us living the lives of sovereign individuals don’t generally have that kind of gear on our person. We don’t walk around all day decked out in combat gear. Well at least nobody I know does or have seen does. Most armed citizens have a small handgun concealed on their person and hopefully a reload in one of their pockets. That’s their fighting gear. And this fighting gear reflects the most likely confrontational scenarios that an average Joe is going to encounter. When walking the streets of a city your most likely enemy is going to be one hostile individual. You may have to defend yourself against multiple people but the number is generally not going to be above three (and before anybody says it, yes I know it can and you should always be as prepared as possible for surprise situations).

That’s why when I train like I fight it involves my carry gun in a concealed holster and a spare magazine in my back pocket. The scenarios I envision usually involve one or two combatants at close range. That’s not to say I don’t bring out my M1A SOCOM 16 every now and then and act like I’m fighting off a zombie invasion, but I don’t really consider it training. That’s just plain fun and games for me. But realistically if our fine country is ever invaded by communists hailing from Alpha Centauri I’m gathering up those I care about and heading for safe territory to hide until the shit settles down.

Likewise when it comes to home defense I train with my carry gun (the one I’m most likely to have should somebody go bump in the night) and shotgun (the gun I’ll try to get should I have the chance) assuming I’ll be in tight corridors and hallways.

Protecting yourself, like anything involving security, is all about threat profiles. I agree you should train like you fight. But how you fight should be based on threat profile. Always ask yourself what the most common situation is. For most people it’s either going to be a mugger coming at you on the street in the middle of the night or some jerk off busting into your home at a similar time frame. Due to this your should train with what equipment you will likely have at hand in those situations (and unless you sleep in your MOLLE gear it’s not going to be that). It certainly doesn’t hurt to train with your super cool combat rifle but you should be most proficient in the use of your carry and home defense gun assuming you won’t have time to gear up.

Firefox For The Truly Paranoid

A while back I mentioned that I dropped Google Chrome and returned to Firefox. My reasoning revolved around features unavailable in Chrome which was available in Firefox through extensions. Well the two features I wanted most have been added in a previous build of Chrome: the ability to block all scripting except for pages I white list, and better cookie management. Yes I’m still on Firefox. Why? Because Chrome’s script blocking and cookie management features are severally lacking in my opinion.

In Chrome’s advanced settings you can chose to block all scripting and cookies from sites not on your white list. This is exactly what I want as scripting is the defacto method of exploiting a computer these days and cookies are tools for spying on sites you visit. The problem is Chrome’s interface for it’s script blocking sucks. If a site has scripts that are being blocked an icon appears in the address bar. If you click on this icon you have two options: keep blocking scripts or white list the sight. NoScript on Firefox gives a third option I’m very fond of, temporarily allow scripting. I only white list sites I trust and visit frequently. But oftentimes I find myself visiting websites that require scripting to be enabled in order to gleam information from. In this case I temporarily allow scripting, get the information I need, and know that scripting will be disabled automatically for that site when I close my browser. It’s a great feature.

Likewise NoScript blocks more than scripting. It also notifies you of things like attempted cross-site scripting attacks, forces cookies from an secured site to be sent via HTTPS, and blocks all plugin components like Flash movies until I give my expressed go ahead. But Firefox has some other features available via plugins that I can’t replace via Chrome because frankly Chrome’s extension support sucks. In Chrome an extension can’t block items from being downloaded when you view a page. For instance if you install Adblock in Chrome the advertisements from any websites you visit will always be downloaded but Adblock will simply hide them through the use of CSS. Firefox on the other hand gives extension developers granulated control. For instance if I set NoScript to block scripting on www.example.com no JavaScript files will be downloaded when I navigate to www.example.com. Likewise Flash advertisements will not be downloaded unless I enable scripting and click on the individual Flash item.

Overall Chrome is more secure than Firefox’s default installation. In Chrome everything runs in a sandbox which means in order to exploit the browser you must exploit its rendering engine (WebKit) and it’s sandbox. Using the right extensions in Firefox I can ensure no potentially malicious scripts are even downloaded to begin with. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Ensuring malicious code is never even downloaded in the first place is a better security option than downloading the code and depending on the sandbox to prevent anything bad from happening. Ideally having both abilities is the best option which Chrome allows for JavaScript but again it doesn’t check for other potential malicious content like NoScript does.

So yes Firefox is a much slower browser that is a big on resources. But the power extension developers have in Firefox means you can make the browser extremely secure whereas in Chrome you can’t enhance its security outside of methods Google allows. Due to this I’m still on Firefox and will be for the foreseeable future. Since I’m here I thought I’d let everybody know what security related extensions I’m using.

NoScript: I love this extensions. I will go so far as to say this extension is the primary reason I’m still using Firefox. What it does is blocks all scripting on all websites unless you add said site to your white list. You can add a site to your white list either permanently or only temporarily if it’s a site you don’t plan on visiting again. It complicates web browsing and therefore isn’t for everybody (or even most people I’d venture to say). As a benefit most of those annoying flashing advertisements get blocked when using NoScript. This extension is constantly being updated with new security related features.

CookieSafe: Cookie safe is a plugin that allows you to managed website cookies. There are three options available for each web site. The first, and default settings, is to block cookies all together. The second option is to temporarily allow cookies (they will be wiped out upon closing your browser) and the third option is to add the website to your white list which will allow cookies for that domain. The plugin only allows cookies from specific domains meaning you don’t have to worry about third party cookies getting onto your system (although this feature is available on most major browsers the implementations generally suck).

Certificate Patrol: I’ve mentioned a research paper I’ve read recently that talks about SSL security and it’s ability to be exploited by governments. Although there is no sure fire way to detect and prevent this kind of exploit you can strongly mitigate it. Certificate Patrol is an extension that displays all major certificate information for a secure web page the first time you visit it or when the certificate changes. So when you visit www.example.com the certificate information (we’ll assume it’s a secure site) will be promptly displayed by Certificate Patrol the first time you navigate your way there. If the certificate changes when you visit the site again the new certificate information will be displayed including what has changed. One mechanism to catching a certificate is looking at the issuer. For instance Internet Explorer trusts the root certificate for the Hong Kong Post Office. If you visit www.example.com and Certificate Patrol notifies you that the certificate has changed and the new one is provided by a different root authority you know something could be up. If the site’s certificate was previously provided by VeriSign and the new one is provided by the Hong Kong Post Office you know something is probably fishy. This could point to the fact the sight is not actually www.example.com but a site made by the Chinese government in order to capture information about dissidence who visit www.example.com (obviously some DNS spoofing would be required to redirect visitors to their site as well).

Those three extensions help mitigate many common web based attacks. This post is not to say none of this can be done in Chrome though. For instance you can manually check for certificate changes in Chrome but you will have to do it every time you visit a site to see if the certificate changed or not. Certificate Patrol simply automates that task. Likewise you can block cookies and scripting in Chrome but the interface to do either is more cumbersome than using CoockieSafe and NoScript.

Personally I value security over performance and that is why I’m still sticking with Firefox.

Representative Jim Moran is a Moron

It didn’t take long for some politicians to get their panties all in a bunch over the Second Amendment March. Walls of the City gives a quick overview of the Second Amendment March and links to this fucktard.

According to Representative Moron Moran:

“These anti-government demonstrations are fueled by the belief that our constitutional rights under the Second Amendment are somehow under attack and urgent action is needed,” he said. “While this may be a powerful rallying point for special interest groups, the claim could not be further from the truth.”

Really? With people like Super Douche Mayor Bloomberg and his posse trying to ban firearm sales between private individuals, California looking to ban the open carrying of unloaded firearms, doctors asking children if their parents own firearms and recording their answers, state representatives attempting to ban of specific semi-automatic rifles, etc., etc. I think the second amendment is pretty much under constant fire.

Whenever we gun owners have become complacent politicians like this prick pushed through gun control measures. Just look at the National Firearms Act, the Gun Control Act of 1968, the Hughes Amendment, the Assault Weapons Ban, and the Brady Bill for examples of what happens when we gun owners get lazy. He also has this to say:

“In fact,” he continued, “much to my dismay, virtually every action the federal government has taken in the past decade has weakened commonsense gun laws already on the books.”

There is no such thing as common sense gun laws. The only common sense gun law in America is the second amendment which states the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. In fact as gun control laws and struck down the only notable thing we can find is crime is going down. Although this doesn’t prove more guns equal less crime it does show gun control laws do not prevent crime.

Either way we need to remain ever vigilant less pricks like Representative Moran and his ilk start pushing through gun control laws without resistance.

How Police Should Be

Uncle let’s us know what it means to be a good police officer. An 89 year-old woman successfully defended her home with a gun (which impossible, according the the anti-gunners the bugler would have just taken her gun and used it against her). The police responded in the following manner:

“This is a .22. And the police reloaded it for me,” said Turner. “I know how to work that gun. I just hope and pray to God it don’t happen again.”

Good on you officers.

Hitler Gets Taken Down

I’m sure everybody here has seen many of those parodies of Hitler finding things out (like the price of the Bushmaster ACR for instance). Well it appears as though the company that created the movie being parodied, The Downfall, have hit YouTube with a rash of take down requests. I just did a quick search and it appears as though everybody’s favorite one, the Bushmaster ACR spoof, has been removed as well.

What suckage.

Gun Laws in Minnesota

Jay over at MArooned put up a nice post quickly explaining gun laws of states on the eastern shore. Having gun laws of states is always a good thing so I thought I’d copy his idea and do the same for Minnesota. So this is going to be a brief run down of Minnesota firearm laws.

Do note nothing on here should be considered correct nor legal under Minnesota law. This information is correct as far as I know but could change or could be inaccurate. In other words I’m not a lawyer so don’t take legal advice from me. Treat this like a guide.

In General

We don’t have any crazy “assault weapon” bans in this fine state. We also don’t have a list containing “state approved” handguns, all United States legal handguns can be owned here. But there are some notes that need to be added.

In order to purchase a handgun or an “assault weapon” you need to acquire a permit to purchase or have a carry license. A permit to purchase can be obtained from your local sheriff’s office and involves filling out a form, waiting five business days, and returning to the sheriff’s office to pick up your permit (which is a piece of paper, not an official card) [Robert contacted me on Facebook and informed me that in his county a piece of paper and a plastic card was mailed to him instead of just a piece of paper. Apparently this too varies by country]. Once you have this permit you can purchase handguns and “assault weapons.” Permits to purchase expire one year after issuance and which point you must jump through the hoops again to renew it. For all other long guns you can simply go into a gun store and pick one up.

There are no waiting periods for purchasing firearms in this state, minus the time it takes to get a permit to purchase should you need one. Likewise Minnesota has reciprocity with Wisconsin (and possibly other neighboring states, but I’ve only purchased in Wisconsin) allowing you to buy long guns there without having to transfer them to a Minnesota FFL dealer. This is rather convenient honestly.

Carry Permits

Minnesota is a “shall issue” state. You are required to attend a class (there is no written test so don’t sweat it), pass a shooting course (which is so simple I think a blind man could do it), and apply for the permit. You must also take a renewal course once every five years and apply for a new permit. So long as you pass the course and aren’t a prohibited person the county must grant you a permit upon application (and payment of course).

Applying for a permit involves going to the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of your county, showing credentials stating you’ve passed the class, filling out some paperwork, paying a fee up to (but not over) $100.00, and waiting up to (but not over) 30 days for your permit to be mailed to your residence.

If you move you must notify the Chief Law Enforcement Officer [As Joat pointed out you need to notify the issuing officer] issuing officer within, I believe, 30 days. A new permit will be issued and I believe a $10.00 can be charged but I am not sure. Your old permit will remain valid but if you want to get a new one that reflects your new address you will be charged a fee of, I believe, $10.00. [Thanks again Joat]

In Minnesota if you have a valid carry permit you do not need a permit to purchase in order to obtain handguns or “assault weapons.” So if you frequently buy firearms it may be easier to get a carry permit once every five years instead of a permit to purchase every year even if you don’t plan on carrying.

Carry Laws

Once you have your carry permit you can carry a gun in Minnesota openly or concealed. Without that permit you can not legally carry a firearm in Minnesota period (unless of course your a law enforcement officer). Take note that the carry permit does allow you to carry a long arm but you will most likely be questioned by the police anyways. But if you want to walk around lugging a rifle you can with so long as you have a carry permit (I wouldn’t recommend it though).

Private businesses can post that they ban firearms. With that said those signs have very little teeth in this state. The property owner must verbally ask you to leave. If you refuse the request (you’re a fucking moron) they will most likely call the police who will arrive and most likely ask you to leave. If you still don’t get the hint (you’re really fucking stupid) you will receive a $20.00 trespassing fine for your first offense. With that said landlords, such as malls, can not post. Well they can but the signs will have no legal backing [Thanks for mentioning that Nate, I forgot to add it in while I was writing this]. This is a hotly debated topic in the Twin Cities because the Mall of America posts and they are a landlord. Legally those signs have no meaning but it comes down the whether or not you want to deal with the Bloomington police (yes the Mall of America has actual police on site) or simply take your business elsewhere.

State property, with two three exception (which I’ll explain in a second), can not bar you from carrying a firearm. That means you can carry on college campuses here. With that said a college campus can make rules baring students and faculty from carrying. If you are a student of faculty member of such a campus realize that they can expel or fire you but they can not bring any legal action against you.

The one complete exception from being able to carry are courtrooms. You can’t bring a firearm into a court room period. The first exception are courthouses. You can carry in a courthouse if you provide written notice to the sheriff though. [Thanks again Joat]

The second exception, which isn’t a complete exception at all, is the state capital. You can not carry there unless you submit a letter of notification beforehand. Once you submit a letter of notification you’re good to carry. Upon submission you are not given any additional permit or paperwork. Once the letter is submitted you’re good. It is wise however to make a copy of the said letter, take two copies in person to the capital, get one signed, and bring that letter with you whenever you carry at the capitol.

The third exception are daycare centers and K-12 schools (really two exceptions but they fit the same category). Like the capital you can bypass this exception if you are able to obtain written permission from the head of the institution [Thanks again Joat].

NFA Weapons

There isn’t much to say about NFA weapons for Minnesota but there are two major issues to note. First you can not own a suppressor in this state. Sorry it just isn’t happening. Likewise you can only obtain a machine gun if it’s also a C&R (curio and relic) weapon. If you jump through the NFA paperwork and pay the tax stamp you can obtain any other (as far as I know) NFA weapon such as a short barreled rifle or shotgun [I guess shotguns are a no-no].

Things That Make You Go Huh?

Of course as with any highly unregulated industry (according to the Brady Bunch and their ilk) there are also a slew of things that just make you go huh. Joat pointed out to me in #gunblogger_conspiracy this little law on the Minnesota books. It’s illegal to have both a firearm and night vision equipment in your possession at the same time. Why is this on the books? Who fucking knows.

Update 2010-04-20 14:43: Removed short barreled shotguns from the list of allowed NFA weapons in this state. Thanks Greg for pointing that out.

Update 2010-04-21 07:06: Made changes to the information based on Joat’s and Nate’s comment. I threw in a second under carry laws in regards to landlords not being able to post as well as the mechanism available to private property owners to notify they ban firearms. Also added the absurd night vision clause which was also provide to me by Joat.

Update 2010-04-26 07:18: Corrected the information regarding courthouses. Thanks again Joat.

Update 2010-04-26 20:26: Robert contacted me on Facebook and informed me that not all counties require you to pick up a permit to purchase at the Sheriff’s office. Likewise his county not only mails permits but their permits also include a plastic card. I updated the relevant section to reflect this.