Chronicling the depravities of the State.
Heads up everybody, this weekend there is going to be a Minnesota Weapons Collectors Association gun show in the Education Building at the State Fair Grounds.
The show takes place on Saturday, October 1st and Sunday, October 2nd. The hours for Saturday are 8:00 to 17:00 and Sunday the show goes from 9:00 to 15:00. Admission is the usual $5.00.
It is well established throughout the security industry that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is nothing but security theater. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody who has done even a little research into government provided “service.” While a private entity has to worry about being fired if they do a poor job the government has no such worry so they can continue to do a poor job and get away with it.
Thor help you though if you’re a person who accidentally got through the TSA theater and later try to turn over the goods that weren’t supposed to be in the airport “secure” area:
Most people are familiar with that moment of panic at an airport security checkpoint when they remember something that won’t pass a screening, but for one Minnesota man, telling the Transportation Security Agency that a live round passed through twice by mistake got him in trouble.
[…]
Yet, when a Rochester man was allowed to bring a live 9mm round through no fewer than two security checkpoints, he was interrogated when he innocently tried to turn it over.
[…]
After turning the bullet over to the TSA voluntarily, Koenig was pulled off his flight and questioned for nearly 30 minutes.
As for why the round was in his pocket at all, Koenig said he was at the pistol range for target shooting the last time he wore that jacket and simply forgot it was there.
This sounds like typical government thinking. First you put a security system that is designed improperly from the start, then somebody accidentally gets through the poorly designed security system carrying something that was on the verboten list, and finally the man realizes what has happened and goes to turn over the verboten good only to be punished by the government goons who fucked up in the first place.
Also let’s put this entire thing into perspective. The man managed to accidentally get through the TSA theater with a single round of live 9mm ammunition. He didn’t have a launching platform for that round on him so the cartridge was mostly harmless. Why a TSA agent didn’t just say, “Heh, we missed that, thanks for letting us know.” instead of interrogating an innocent man for half an hour is beyond my ability to comprehend. There again what else should we expect from a government agent? Innocent people are almost always the ones punished when government agents screw up.
As Tam points out you should always be sure of your target:
BILLINGS, Mont. — A hunter attacked by a wounded grizzly in a Montana forest was killed not by the bear, but by a gunshot fired by a companion trying to save him, authorities said Friday.
[…]
The shot was fired by 20-year-old Ty Bell, also of Winnemucca, as he attempted to stop the bear’s attack. No charges are expected, Bowe said.
Although I commend Mr. Bell for putting in the effort to try to save his friend I must say, ultimately, the outcome ended up being the same. Actually scratch that, there is a chance his friend would have survived the grizzly’s attack.
With that said if I’m ever being mauled by a grizzly feel free to step in and help, I’ll not ridicule you regardless of the outcome. I take that back, I’ll ridicule the shit out of you if I die.
Uh oh the anti-gunners are going to get their panties all in a bunch over this:
This is a near fully printable 5.56mm X 45mm or .233 REM AR-15 magazine. It is current only a 5 round magazine. I left my printed spring design out on purpose for saftey reasons. However, with a little printing experimention and some range time it can be made easily.
What is included is the magazine body, anti-tilt follower, and floorplate.
I have used this magazine, no jams or feed problems….. YET. It works, but be reminded it is only a printed ABS magazine. If you end up using a printed ABS mag spring be prepared for stress relaxation of the polymer over time, especailly if it is kept loaded over a long period of time.
That’s right blueprints are now available that allow you to print your own AR-15 magazines. I’ve mentioned 3D printers before and believe the technology is the next logical leap to take for the post-industrial revolution world. Currently most 3D printers are only able to work with plastics but eventually ones capable of working with other materials, such as powdered metal, could become cheap enough that most households could afford one. Imagine being able to print out almost any part that you need. Theoretically you could manufacture and entire AR-15 with a 3D print (although I believe the barrel could be problematic but certainly not impossible).
This will likely be another technology the anti-gunners will have to attack. Although current laws allow you to manufacture your own firearms for personal use the anti-gunners will claim printing off firearm components violates various “common sense” gun control laws. This will likely lead them to present impossible to conform with legislation that would require 3D printer manufacturers to prevent their prints from printing firearm components.
But as logical human beings we can sit back and enjoy the ingenuity that went into this project and also benefit from it. When I finally get a MakerBot this will likely be one of the first things I print.
It’s well known in my circle of friends that I’m a bit insane. For instance a sane individual looking for a light-weight rifle would probably end up with a nice AR-15. Of course that’s what a sane person would do and as I just explained I’m not sane, therefore I am looking at building a lightweight AR in .308. Why? Because I absolutely love larger caliber weapons. My USPSA gun is a Glock 21SF and my carry gun is a Glock 30SF because I seem to believe every handgun needs to be in .45 or bigger (except of course my 9mm, .44 magnum, .357 magnum, etc.).
Really all I need to build is a new upper receiver with a 16″ lightweight barrel as my current LR308 lower is perfectly fine (although an adjustable stock would be nice in some situations). My current LR308 has a 20″ barrel which is nice and everything but it does weigh a lot when you’re lugging the rifle around for any length of time.
So what do I bring this up? Mostly because I have nothing better to write about today and I like putting my ideas out in public for all to see and criticize.
According to the commission on wartime contracting the United States government wasted some $30 billion in contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq. What’s truly frightening is the fact that $30 billion is barely a statistically notable amount when you look at the overall deficit this country carries.
In all honesty through I’d say every dollor spent on the wars in those countries was wasted.
Sometimes you can look at the legal strategy that is being used by a defense lawyer and realize he should probably be in another field of employment. Thomas Fairbanks is being accused of murdering a sheriff’s deputy from Mahnomen County. The deputy was shot twice, once in the head and once in the abdomen, which is an important point to note when you look at the defense strategy being attempted by Mr. Fairbank’s lawyer:
Thomas Fairbanks is accused of first-degree murder in the death of Deputy Chris Dewey. Dewey was shot in the head and abdomen in February 2009 and died 18 months later.
The defense is aiming to show that the handgun’s trigger could be so easily pulled that Fairbanks accidentally fired the handgun at times that day.
Let me get this straight, Fairbank’s lawyer is trying to demonstrate that the trigger of the murder weapon could be easily fired by accident… twice? You may be able to get away with the negligent discharge due to light trigger pull weight defense if the victim is only shot once but shooting a firearm twice requires a completely conscious effort. In order to discharge the second round the shooter would have to release the trigger and pull it again. It would be akin to somebody running over another person with a car, backing up over the victim again, and then driving off.
If you’re going to carry a gun you need to do it right. What does doing right involve? Well as The Firearm Blog points out one of the first things you should do is get a holster, not doing so may lead to unintended side effects:
As Joshua Seto, 27, and his fiance, Cara Christopher, walked to a local grocery store last week for refreshments, he tried securing her pink handgun in the front waistband of his pants.
The gun fired, striking Seto’s penis and continuing through his left thigh. The bleeding started immediately and was heavy, according to police dispatch recordings released Sunday.
I’m not a fan of carrying a firearm in the front of my pants as there is very important equipment there. Should some freak scenario unfold the resulted in my firearm discharging I’d rather not have it discharge into my junk. But that’s a personal preferences, so long as the bang switch is properly covered the risk of a negligent discharge is negligible. Even one of those cheap Uncle Mike holsters should have likely saved this man a lot of pain and agony.
Remember, firearms are weapons meant to cause damage to anything covered by the muzzle. Like any weapon firearms must be handled safety and with the utmost respect.
You’ve got a 25mm autocannon and you’re thinking to yourself, “What could I do to make this more awesome?” Explosive ammunition seems a bit dull, especially with that sweet tomahawk missile launcher next to the autocannon, you don’t want to pay the electric bill for that sweet rail gun, and honestly upgrading the targeting system for the autocannon is a bit dull. Finally it hits you, mount a frickin’ laser to the top of your frickin’ autocannon:
The Mk 38 Mod 2 Tactical Laser System couples a solid-state high-energy laser weapon module with the operational Mk 38 Machine Gun System. The addition of the laser weapon module brings high-precision accuracy against surface and air targets such as small boats and unmanned aerial vehicles. The system also provides the ability to deliver different levels of laser energy, depending on the target and mission objectives.
Lasers are always cool. Now that autocannon can pew pew enemies into non-existence. By the way if anybody from Boeing is reading this I would like you to know that I would be more than happy to test a review unit and post my findings on this very website. If you’re interested contact me via the e-mail address on the sidebar and we can set something up.
There is stupid and then there is extremely stupid. Joe Huffman found an example of the latter in the form of a person named Otis Rolley who thinks adding a $1.00 tax to each bullet [PDF] will help reduce gun crime:
Reducing the violence in our neighborhoods will take a full commitment from the Mayor’s office, the police, neighborhood and community leaders, and faith leaders. It will take a partnership across the city.
To do this, as Mayor, Otis will:
[…]
— Impose a $1 per bullet tax on all bullet purchases in the city;
[…]
Impose a $1 per bullet tax. It is undeniable that we have to do more to reduce the devastating impact gun violence is having on our community. While the courts have consistently ruled against significant gun control legislation, there is still a way to decrease crime: substantially increase the cost of its’ commission.
Increasing the cost of guns won’t work because many criminals don’t purchase new guns and they can be borrowed or even rented in some areas. Therefore, as Mayor, Otis will move to impose a $1 per bullet tax (or about $50 per pack). That will increase substantially the financial cost of committing a crime and, unlike guns, bullets cannot be shared after their initial use. This will also dramatically cut back on the random firings that too often happen around holidays and celebrations.
That is a lot of herp derp to put between two blockquote tags. Here’s what Mr. Rolley’s plan will accomplish:
— Punishing legitimate gun owners who wish to do business in the city by buying ammunition;
— Punish stores selling ammunition;
— Nothing else;
Mr. Rolley doesn’t understand the basic concepts of economics or crime. First you have the economic issue that this type of city-wide tax would cause. If a box of ammunition in Baltimore costs $50.00 more than anywhere else due to such a tax gun owners are just going to buy their ammunition outside of the city (either by traveling or, more likely, ordering it online). What this tax would effectively do is drive business out of the city and that’s normally not considered an acceptable economic goal to most people.
Then you have the whole concept of crime. Criminals have the same options available to when it come to purchasing ammunition elsewhere but they also have another option, theft. If somebody is willing to commit a violent crime chances are they will have no problem going down to the local Wal-Mart and stealing ammunition. There is a large disparity between stealing and murder but chances are pretty high that a person willing to commit the former will also be willing to commit the latter.
And there is always the fact that ammunition can be manufactured. Many gun owners, myself included, also reload ammunition for a hobby and it may come as a shock to anti-gunners but bullets can be cast out of melted down lead. It’s true. You can go around town stealing wheel weights off of peoples’ cars, melt them down as they’re made of lead, and cast them into bullets. In that case Mr. Rolley’s proposed tax idea would lead to people making their own bullets and a epidemic of shaky cars. Lead can also be found in other places like fishing supply stores so even banning properly balanced wheels won’t stop this clever workaround.