Under Putin, Russia is transforming itself from a Third World nation with a First World military to a Third World nation with a Third World military.

Syria’s barrel bomb experts in Russia to help with potential Ukraine campaign.

Technicians linked to the Syrian military’s infamous barrel bombs that have wreaked devastation across much of the country have been deployed to Russia to help potentially prepare for a similar campaign in the Ukraine war, European officials believe.

Intelligence officers say more than 50 specialists, all with vast experience in making and delivering the crude explosive, have been in Russia for several weeks working alongside officials from Vladimir Putin’s military.

Their arrival is understood to be one factor behind US and European warnings that the Russian military may have been preparing for the use of chemical weapons in the conflict, which has entered its fourth month with little sign of slowing.

Barrel bombs – crude explosives packed in to a drum and dropped from a helicopter – were used to devastating effect throughout the Syrian war. The regime was also regularly accused of filling canisters with chlorine and dropping them on opposition held towns and cities, causing hundreds of deaths and sparking widespread alarm.

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When Shootist Ken Jorgensen was still with S&W, he brought one, likely a preproduction model, out to the 2003 Shootists Holiday. Most people who accepted the opportunity took 1 shot and with compliments quickly handed it back to Ken.

Ich Bin? Are you kidding?

With Dad owning a .500 Linebaugh and I having shot full power loads several times through it, why, shooting this hugemongeous revolver should be a cake walk and if the cylinder of this monster had 5 holes in it to hold 5 cartridges, I was gonna shoot it 5 times, and I did.

Did I say ‘cake walk’? Au contraire mon ami!

Rubber grip material was imbedded in my palm, taking several days to finally work out, and for about 2 months afterwards, if I shot anything more powerful than a 9mm pistol, my 2nd metacarpal (the bone behind the knuckle of the trigger finger) of my left hand – me being one of those sinister southpaws – ached for a couple of hours. The consensus being that I had a slight stress fracture that even an X-ray couldn’t detect.

Yeeowsa, that qualifies as a hand cannon.

500: The Smith & Wesson Gun That Is More Like A Mini-Cannon

Sure, the Smith & Wesson Model 500 is a monster of a gun and not exactly a great gun for concealed carry or a popular semi-automatic like Sig Sauer or others. And yet, this big revolver has an even bigger fan base: The Smith & Wesson Model 500 is one impressive weapon. At this point, it’s become almost as much of a classic as Ruger’s 10/22 semi-automatic rifle!

If you’re looking for one of the most accurate, reliable, and durable handguns on the market today, you won’t be disappointed with the Model 500. It’s made by one of the world’s most reliable manufacturers and backed by the S&W Lifetime Service Policy.

The specific sights you get with the Model 500 depend on the specific pistol you get. The Model 500 Magnum, for example, comes standard with an interchangeable HI-VIZ front sight and adjustable rear sight. These sights are perfectly adequate for my needs, but there is a huge variety of additional sights available to meet the goals of nearly any shooter.

Some models even include a Weaver rail mount instead of standard sights for mounting all kinds of scopes and optics. Just like Colt has improved their popular Python model to keep up with the needs of modern shooters, S&W has upgraded the 500 to do the same.

For one, Smith & Wesson recently developed the innovative “x-frame” to give you a better grip and help to handle the recoil that comes along with the immense power of this handgun.

This makes the 500 very comfortable to handle, and even features a recoil-absorbing rubberized grip complete with finger grooves to let you hold the gun at an angle that allows for optimal control and accuracy.

Another upgrade that S&W recently made to the Model 500 is an improved barrel design. This new design features a rifled tube inside of the barrel, which makes it shoot even cleaner and quicker than it did in the past. Since this handgun is so powerful, recoil is not exactly light. It’s also a pretty top-heavy pistol, which gives it even more of a kick.

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MAYOR ADAMS OFFERS VERY BAD ‘BE VERY CONCERNED’ ADVICE TO NEW YORKERS

Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams was elected to get his city back on a path to safety. He’s instead continued down the path of his predecessors to punish law-abiding New Yorkers. He’s failed to turn the focus and resources towards those that commit crimes and hold them to account.

The result is crime surging and Mayor Adams’s recent “big announcement” was a nationalized gun control plan that will do little in his city.

Mayor Adams is facing the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court will strike down New York’s restrictive “may issue” pistol permitting law, his plan is to instill fear over confidence. He told media, “We should be very afraid. I’m very concerned.”

The Stakes
New York is one of just eight “may issue” states that restrict concealed carry permits to law-abiding gun owners based on the whims of bureaucrats. New Yorkers must first prove they have a “good enough” reason before a government agency allows a permit to protect oneself outside the home. This differs from other states where if a firearm owner who passes the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) verification and applies for a carry permit, the state “shall issue” the permit.

States with “may issue” restrictions are ripe for corruption. California and New York – specifically in Mayor Adams’s New York City – are prime examples of why the law should be struck down. In 2016, federal prosecutors uncovered a pay-to-play scheme within the New York Police Department’s licensing division where workers were paid thousands of dollars to rubber-stamp carry permits. Four officers connected to the scheme were arrested.

The corruption is disgusting enough but the right for law-abiding Americans to carry a firearm shouldn’t be left to arbitrary whims and inconsistent decision makers. The landmark 2008 U.S. Supreme Court Heller decision recognized the pre-existing right of Americans to own and possess firearms for self-defense. The court will shortly rule on New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen challenging New York’s “may issue” law in the coming weeks.

False Forecasting
Mayor Adams likely sees the writing on the walls. Make no mistake, a Supreme Court ruling that strikes down NYSRPA v. Bruen is a good thing for law-abiding New Yorkers and Americans protecting themselves and their families. The prospect of “may issue” laws falling, though, has national gun control groups, President Joe Biden, New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Adams scared.

At a press conference, the mayor was asked about the imminent ruling. The city, despite his new leadership, is still facing an ongoing crime spike and violence.

“This is a significant issue for our city: it is the right to carry. After what we saw what the Supreme Court did on abortions, we should be very afraid,” Mayor Adams said, referring to a pending gun rights case. “In a densely populated community like New York, this ruling could have a major impact on us.” He continued, saying, “But we should all be concerned.”

The mayor is flat wrong. No greater example exists than the recent Brooklyn subway attack, where one individual targeted innocent New Yorkers left defenseless by New York’s strict gun laws.

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What that verse? ‘A house divided cannot stand’? Well, may their house collapse on them the same way the Samson collapsed the temple of dagon on the philistines.

Gun control activist admits Dems “divided” on pushing new 2A restrictions

I wish we were talking about a true change of heart on the part of many Democratic politicians, but the reluctance to pursue new gun control legislation in the wake of the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York appears to be based far more on political calculations than any scales falling off the eyes of gun-banners in Congress.

Still, there are growing grumbles of dissatisfaction among gun control activists who say Democrats should be pushing for new restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms, even if the prospects of passage are slim to none.

Alex Barrio, with the Center for American Progress, says following the mass shooting in Buffalo, Senate Democrats are largely avoiding talking about new control measures. Barrio explained “Democrats are divided.”

“The House, which can act, which has acted, which wants to act on this feels this sense of futility. Because again, a handful of senators who would rather just wash their hands of the whole issue, side with the conservatives and pretend that nothing’s going to happen – pretend that they can’t do anything,” Barrio said.

Barrio didn’t say what, exactly, anti-gun senators can do other than to bring forward bills that don’t have the votes for passage, but I guess at this point the gun control lobby is willing to settle for political theater on Capitol Hill if they can’t actually pass legislation.
Last week we talked about the reluctance of Senate Democrats like Dick Durbin to indulge the desires of the gun ban crowd, and now other senators are going public with their reluctance to spend much time on the issue between now and the midterms, though most of them are portraying their reservations as more frustration with Republicans than anything else.

Senator John Hickenlooper (D-CO) explained “I think people are frustrated, that again and again despite best efforts the Senate has been unwilling to just work through what universal background checks would look like.”

Senators John Hickenlooper and Mark Warner both expressed no hope of passing a universal background check bill.

“Do I think it’s going to get 60 votes? Probably not. But I do think it’s important that the American people, you, are able to judge senator by senator where you stand on responsible gun safety legislation,” Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) said.

Note, by the way, that both Hickenlooper and Warner are talking specifically about a universal background check bill; a measure that, even it had been law at the time of the Buffalo attack would not have had an impact because the suspect went through and passed a background check before legally purchasing a firearm at retail. The reason why gun control activists have decided to make that the focus of their (ineffective) lobbying efforts at the moment has nothing to do with the actual policy at hand and far more to do with the politics of the moment. They view universal background checks as the easiest lift in the Senate, especially since a bill has already passed the House, so even though they can’t plausibly claim that the measure would have prevented the heinous crime in Buffalo, it’s still their “do something” soundbite solution.
Fortunately for those of us who don’t believe that an ineffective and unconstitutional gun control law is the best way to fight the scourge of violent crime and targeted attacks like the one in Buffalo, it looks like even the “easy” lift is unachievable for Senate Democrats… at least at the moment. Democrats could probably get to 60 votes on a bill that would expand access to mental health resources, but that doesn’t appear to be a priority or even an option for Schumer and his Senate cohorts in the Democratic caucus.

BLUF:
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA): “This bill glaringly ignores the persistent domestic terrorism threat from the radical left in this country and instead makes the assumption that it is all on the white and the right.”

House Passes ‘White Supremacism’ Domestic Terrorism Bill After Buffalo Shooting
The bill only mentions white supremacy and neo-Nazis because obviously, those are the only people who terrorize others.

 

I should say the bill passed along party lines because Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) isn’t a Republican.

A white supremacist, who should have been caught a long time ago, murdered 10 people and injured three people. He purposely targeted black people.

The Democrats used this opportunity to push through The Domestic Terrorism Act: “To authorize dedicated domestic terrorism offices within the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to analyze and monitor domestic terrorist activity and require the Federal Government to take steps to prevent domestic terrorism.”

Domestic terrorism only means white supremacy in this bill.

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When Misinformation Drives Bad Policy

To President Biden, public health researchers, and the media, violent crime is all about guns. But a new survey finds that people are badly misinformed about how much violent crime involves guns. The average likely American voter is way off, thinking that over 46% of violent crimes involve guns. In fact, the true figure is less than 8%.

Not surprisingly, those who believe that most violent crime involves guns are more likely to view gun control as the solution.

Biden has given four major speeches on violent crime (here, here, here, and here). Each one of them was focused on enforcement of gun control laws. In the four speeches, he mentioned “gun” or “firearm” 179 times. The term “weapon,” sometimes in connection with “assault weapon,” was used another 31 times.

The words “crime,” “violence,” or “violent” were mentioned about half as often – 94 times. He only mentions the words “murder” and “homicide” seven times in these four presentations, and entirely omits them from his two most recent talks.

But this “guns first” approach ignores a basic fact – over 92% of violent crimes in America do not involve firearms. Although Biden blames guns for the increase in violent crime, the latest data show that gun crimes fell dramatically.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey, in the latest year available (2020), shows that there were 4,558,150 rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults, and the FBI reports 21,570 murders. Of those, 350,460 rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults (see Table 8) and 13,620 murders involved firearms. So, while it’s true that firearms are the weapon of choice in more than half the murders in this country, it’s also true that only 7.9% of violent crimes were committed with guns.

The new McLaughlin & Associates survey of 1,000 likely voters from April 20 to 26 for the Crime Prevention Research Center shows how misinformed people are. People across the country, of all races and incomes, have wildly inaccurate beliefs about how frequently violent crime involves guns.

Even so, there are large differences across groups. The average Democrat estimates that 56.9% of violent crimes involve guns, whereas the typical Republican gave an answer of 37%. Those with the highest incomes (over $250,000 per year) and those who work for the government give the highest numbers – 56.1% and 51% respectively. Women (50%) believe that more violent crimes involve guns than men do (43%). Urban Americans say 48%, whereas rural Americans say 40%. But the biggest difference is between blacks (59%) and Asians (31%).

The McLaughlin survey also gave people three options on the best way to fight crime: Pass more gun control laws, more strictly enforce current laws, or have police concentrate on arresting repeat violent criminals.

Some respondents at least got it right that less than 20% of violent crime involves guns. Just 8% prioritized more gun laws, and 15% focused on stricter enforcement of existing laws. An overwhelming 71% thought the best way of fighting crime was to arrest violent criminals.

Some likely voters thought that more than 80% of the violent crime involved guns. Most supported either more gun control laws (33%) or more strict enforcement of current gun laws (28%). Only 36% of them wanted the focus on arresting violent criminals.

Those who think that most violent crime is committed with guns consistently support more gun control. Those who don’t believe that instead want to focus on arresting violent criminals and keeping them in jail.

Perhaps the gun control debate would be very different if the media had done a better job of informing people about crime. The most newsworthy cases, unfortunately, don’t tend to be typical of violent crime. Focusing on how to solve 8% of violent crime does nothing to solve the other 92%.

The SiG Board of Directors is going to be stacked with Generals in the coming years.
Personally, even in .300 Blackout, without a suppressor on it, I wouldn’t want to be near one of these little fireball makers.

SOCOM finally found its next-generation personal defense weapon

After years of searching, U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has picked Sig Sauer to provide its next personal defense weapon for U.S. special operations forces.

On Thursday, SOCOM released a notice of intent to award a five-year fixed firm price contract to the firearms manufacturer. The new personal defense weapon of choice for SOF troops? The Sig Sauer MCX “Rattler,” which can be chambered in both .300 Blackout and 5.56mm calibers.

“After years of continuous market research, USSOCOM HQ has concluded that Sig Sauer is the only vendor that can fulfill USSOCOM’s need for the Commercial PDW requirement. USSOCOM HQ has been researching and reviewing different systems since 2017,” the notice of intent said. “We have meticulously reviewed each system for technical acceptance and whether it fits the commercial definition. Except for Sig Sauer, the vendors did not meet the technical requirements and/or the weapons do not meet the commercial definition.”

The size and cost of the order were not disclosed.

SOCOM started its hunt for a new personal defense weapon in 2017, hoping to get a new weapon built around the M4 carbine’s receiver, giving SOCOM operators more firepower while still being compact and portable. The command procured 10 Rattlers in 2018 for testing and evaluation, but kept its search going, issuing another search for weapon system designs in 2019. The goal was to find a new PDW with “a highly concealable .300 Blackout upper receiver group (URG) and buttstock kit solution for the M4A1 platform.”

Turns out that, after all of that searching, it was back to the MCX Rattler. SOCOM noted that requirements meant no prototypes or weapons were in limited development, and Sig Sauer’s new weapon fit the bill for rapid fielding.

“The PDW system will allow Operators to have maximum firepower in a concealable weapon,” SOCOM said in the notice. The order will include the guns themselves plus suppressors, magazines and cleaning gear, plus additional parts and training on the new platforms.

It’s worth noting that .300 Blackout round is designed to be quieter than regular ammunition, while still being powerful, and that personal defense weapons are meant to provide more firepower than a pistol while being much more portable and compact than carbines or rifles, making them ideal in close-quarters scenarios.

Sig Sauer has called the MCX Rattler its most “discreet platform,” and the 5.5-inch barrel certainly makes it short. The MCX Rattler is also designed to quickly switch between the types of ammunition.

The pick by SOCOM was another major contract for Sig Sauer, which previously snatched up high-profile (and lucrative) contracts for the Pentagon-wide Modular Handgun System contract and Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon rifle and automatic rifle variants.

It’s unclear when the Sig Rattlers will go into the field with SOCOM operators, or if some of the initial orders are already in use.

This is what ‘Gain of Function’ gets you.

Wuhan Lab Publishes Study Manipulating H7N9 Virus To Be More Lethal.

A scientific journal published by top Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers shared studies appearing to engage in gain-of-function type research, a controversial method of studying pathogens that can increase their lethality.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology is believed to have engaged in the risky form of research regarding bat coronaviruses, as now-deleted webpages reveal the lab manipulating bat coronaviruses to “replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV.”

Now, the latest edition of the lab’s journal, Virologica Sinica, appears to contain a similar style of research with the H7N9 virus in chickens and mice. The publication’s Editor-in-Chief is Wuhan’s infamous “bat lady,” Shi Zhengli, who is the lab’s premier bat coronavirus researcher and a recipient of funds from Anthony Fauci through Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance.

Virologica Sinica published the study “Combined Insertion of Basic and Non-basic Amino Acids at Hemagglutinin Cleavage Site of Highly Pathogenic H7N9 Virus Promotes Replication and Pathogenicity in Chickens and Mice” in its most recent edition, published February 2022.
The paper’s abstract outlines how researchers “generated six H7N9 viruses,” analyzing how various amino acids altered the virus’ virulence and infectivity.

“We characterized the reconstituted viruses in terms of viral replication in avian and mammalian cells, thermostability and acid stability, cleavage efficiency, the virulence in mice, and pathogenicity and transmissibility in chickens,” outlined the study.

“The I335V substitution of H7N9 virus enhanced infectivity and transmission in chickens, suggesting that the combination of mutations and insertions of amino acids at the HACS promoted replication and pathogenicity in chickens and mice,” explained researchers.

While the study conducted experiments on mice and chicken, it noted that H7N9 variants are “also highly transmissible in ferrets, posing the threats of pandemic potential in humans.”

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California Church Shooter Has Chinese Communist Party Ties

David Chou, a 68-year-old Chinese immigrant who on Sunday killed one congregant and wounded five others at Geneva Presbyterian Church before being subdued by parishioners, in 2019 participated in an event hosted by the Las Vegas Association for China’s Peaceful Unification. The group is controlled by the Communist Party’s United Front Work Department and argues that “peaceful unification” between China and Taiwan “is the only way to avoid war.”

At the 2019 event, Chou hoisted a banner calling for the “eradication of pro-independence demons.”

The Las Vegas Association for China’s Peaceful Unification is a branch of the National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification, which the United States in 2020 designated as a foreign mission of the Chinese regime.

The Orange County sheriff’s office said on Monday that Chou’s attack on the church was motivated by his hatred for the Taiwanese.

Attempted robbery in Antioch turns into self-defense fatal shooting
One man dead, another hospitalized after gunfire at apartment

ANTIOCH — One man died and another was injured after gunfire at an apartment early Friday that resulted from an attempted robbery, police said.

Police did not make any arrests and called the shooting a case of self-defense. Authorities did not identify either man immediately.

The self-defense shooting was one of two that occurred in the eastern area of Contra Costa County early Friday. An Oakley woman also fatally shot a man against whom she had filed a restraining order for elder abuse, police said.

The Antioch shooting happened about 3:30 a.m. in the 2100 block of Lemontree Way, police Sgt. Matthew Koch said in a statement.

Officers arrived after hearing reports of a shooting and found both men injured, Koch said. A 37-year-old died at the scene, and a 29-year-old was in stable condition at a hospital Friday, Koch said.

According to police, the 37-year-old tried to force the 29-year-old resident into his apartment unit and wanted to rob him. The resident got his hands on a gun — police did not say if the gun belonged to the homeowner — and shot the suspect, fatally wounding him. Before he died, the 37-year-old returned fire, hitting the resident in the lower body, police said.

An ambulance took the younger man to a hospital. Authorities did not immediately identify the person killed, pending confirmation of their identity and notification of next of kin.

Oakley [California] Woman Fatally Shoots Man in Self-Defense

A woman shot and killed a man in Oakley early Friday in a case that police are treating as self-defense.

Officers responded at 12:39 a.m. to a report of a 51-year-old man shot in the 200 block of West Cypress Road.

The man was found in the driveway of a home and succumbed to his injuries at the scene, police said. His name has not been released.

Investigators detained three people at the home and learned that a 74-year-old woman there has an elder abuse restraining order against the man because of a history of physical violence, and more alleged violence by the man led her to shoot him in self-defense, according to police.

The woman was not taken into custody.

Debunking lawmaker’s claim of 9,000 murders with ghost guns

Illinois passed its ban on so-called ghost guns and now it has been signed into law. The damage has been done.

In a report on the new law, an opponent of homemade firearms had some interesting thoughts.

One of those proponents is Pamela Bosley, who co-founded the organization Purpose over Pain, which aims to help raise awareness of gun violence, host community events and provide parents of children killed by gun violence with crisis support.

Bosley started the group after her son Terrell was shot and killed in 2006.

“You can take these guns and you can purchase them online, you can purchase them in the store, you can put them together and you could shoot any of us,” said Bosley on Wednesday.

The bill, HB 4383, was passed in the final hours of this spring’s legislative session on 31-19 and 66-36 votes in the state Senate and House, respectively. The legislation was sponsored by Sen. Jacqueline Collins and Rep. Kam Buckner, both Chicago Democrats.

“In this year alone, ghost guns have claimed more than 9,000 lives,” said Collins.

Really? That’s a pretty bold statement.

Especially since a previous report about Illinois’s proposed law gave a much different number, citing just 325 homicides with such weapons since 2016.

But homicides are increasing, apparently, so maybe she’s privy to some numbers the media hasn’t seen? It seemed highly unlikely that they skyrocketed quite that much, but stranger things have happened, so I thought I’d take a look and see what I could find.

There aren’t a lot of sources for running totals on gun-related homicides in this country, so I had to go to the Gun Violence Archive. While I often criticize their methods with regard to mass shootings, there’s not a lot of monkey business they can play with murders.

The problem is that it’s unlikely they track it by weapon type. Still, 9,000 murders with “ghost guns” seemed awfully high. Maybe if I just looked at the percentages, I could get an idea as to whether Collins had a clue what she was talking about.

Unfortunately for her, GVA only reports 7,325 gun-related, non-suicide deaths in 2022 so far. That includes confirmed defensive gun uses (438 of them), which drops the number down to below 6,900. It also includes 552 accidental shooting fatalities.

That leaves just a smidge over 6,300 murders in total so far in 2022. Now, these aren’t the official numbers, but they’re as good a snapshot as anyone is going to find at this point in time. If anything, with GVA’s biases, you’d expect the numbers to be a bit on the high side compared to the real numbers.

So how in the hell could “ghost guns” claim 9,000 lives this year alone when there are nowhere near that many lives claimed by guns at all?

Look, you can make whatever arguments you want about “ghost guns.” You’re entitled to your own opinions. What you’re not entitled to are your own facts.

Lawmakers can make honest, good-faith mistakes, but there should be some way to tell that it was a mistake. Instead, what Collins told the media appears to be nothing more than an outright fabrication.

In short, it looks like she’s lying and the Illinois media isn’t interested in fact-checking her on this.

Anti-gun groups, Eric Swalwell try to fundraise off Buffalo massacre

Wasting little time in the aftermath of Saturday’s mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket, gun control groups and at least one Democratic lawmaker are already using the monstrous, racially-motivated crime to try and fill their campaign coffers.

Screenshots of fundraising emails sent out by Everytown for Gun Safety, Brady PAC and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) were shared on social media this week.

“This weekend’s mass shooting in Buffalo is yet another horrifying reminder of how white supremacy is deadly, especially when it’s combined with easy access to guns,” read a screenshot of an email from Everytown for Gun Safety that was tweeted by Second Amendment activist Robert Romano Monday.

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