A good reasonable argument. I might make the choice between a shotgun and a rifle moot by having both, but that’s just me.

Three Firearms for Emergency Preparation

A firearm that is kept specifically for self-defense is akin to a fire extinguisher: it is life-saving emergency equipment maintained for rapid and unexpected deployment to mitigate a threat. A safe home should have both tools readily available to authorized users, and both should be maintained regularly. For those of us that are firearms and shooting enthusiasts, guns become more than just life-saving equipment; they may be our hobby or even integral to our lifestyle or work. Regardless, let us remember the most essential role of the firearm.

During this current pandemic, which has been declared a national emergency, we are experiencing something rather unique in the lifetimes of most currently living. While civility has, for the most part, been maintained thus far, people are scared. This is manifest by the current panic buying of firearms and ammunition, among many other commodities. First-time gun buyers have stripped the shelves bare of firearms inventory and ammo at a rate we have not witnessed in a while. This current situation has served as a reminder that our stability in firearms supply is as delicate as our supply in any other commodity, perhaps even less so.

The answer to such periods of high demand and low supply should be obvious: we should be sure to have stocked what we need before such catastrophes happen. What we need to keep on hand will vary extensively from one individual to another. Most non-gun enthusiasts are probably well enough served by having a pistol and a box of ammo in the drawer. For those of us that consider firearms an essential part of our preparation, however, we are looking at more equipment than that.

How much is enough?
How many guns and how much ammo should you have on hand? This is an endless debate. If you are relatively new to firearms, or if perhaps you are a hobby shooter but not yet squared away in regards to a dedicated arsenal of personal protection, you might be trying to figure out where to start. Obviously, having a single pistol and a box of ammo may well be all you ever need, but those who are motivated to prepare seek to equip themselves beyond this. While we would all love to have dozens of guns and tens of thousands of rounds of ammo on hand for our preparation and range entertainment, this is not realistic for most, nor necessary.

3-Gun Emergency Setup
I truly believe in a three-gun setup for emergency preparation as a starting point. This is a realistic place to begin and is more obtainable than having a huge safe full of guns. And it will likely fill all self-defense needs for those who never go beyond these three guns. What I suggest is as follows:

#1. Primary Defensive Pistol
First priority: a primary defensive pistol, preferably a full-size service pistol or compact version thereof. Think Glock 17 or Glock 19, Smith and Wesson M&P full size or compact, Sig P320 full size or compact, etc… A double-stack auto loader chambered in 9mm is hard to beat for most. This gun can be carried and is formidable enough to serve as a good home defense pistol as well. While a dedicated concealed carrier may need a smaller option as well to provide deep concealment, the full-size or compact pistol serves as an ideal go-to handgun option.

#2. Duplicate Primary Pistol
Second Priority: A duplicate of your primary pistol. That’s right, a backup to this primary defensive weapon. Perhaps your primary is a full size, and the secondary is the same gun, but the compact version. This would work well as it allows magazine compatibility between the two. A backup to your primary pistol is in order to be truly prepared.

#3. Defensive Long Gun
Third Priority: A defensive long gun. Rifle or shotgun, the choice is yours. The bottom line is that a long gun brings far greater ballistic capability to a fight. So having a dedicated defensive long gun that is ready for home defense makes good sense.

Simplify Your Defensive Arsenal
If you are a new firearms owner and want to acquire a minimum defensive arsenal that will serve your needs, these three weapons should do so quite well. Even if you are a gun person, and perhaps you shoot as a hobby, but you have found that your selection of weaponry is disorganized, then settling on these three options and prioritizing them as your go-to defensive weapons is in order.

Ammo and Magazines
With the selection of these three weapons, you realistically have to stock only two forms of ammunition, and two kinds of magazines (unless your selected long gun is a tube fed weapon such as a shotgun). This will greatly simplify your preparedness for such emergencies, like the one we are currently witnessing, in which firearms and ammunition is now hard to come by due to panic buying. Having only a single pistol caliber and a single long gun cartridge to stock for your defensive purposes will make maintaining a needed supply of ammunition easier. Even if you are a gun collector, with multiple pistols in all of the various chamberings, settle on your primary platform and be sure you have enough magazines and ammunition always on hand for that particular platform.

How much ammo is enough?
Everyone will have a different answer. But I will propose one that I believe is more realistic for most people who live within a budget that must be spread across not only firearms but all other preparation concerns as well. My suggestion for an initial goal to work towards is to have 1,000 rounds on hand for your defensive handguns, and 1,000 rounds on hand for a defensive rifle. Premium defensive ammunition is expensive. So having perhaps 200 rounds of premium hollow point ammo for each is in order. You can back this up with ball ammo. This is not ideal for defensive use, but a lot better than no ammo in a crisis. Always keep your defensive firearms loaded with the premium ammunition. If your long gun is a shotgun, having 200 rounds of buckshot on hand is in order. 1000 rounds of buckshot is quite bulky and expensive.

These weapons and ammunition are for emergency use, be it everyday self-defense or for the event of an extended emergency. If budget allows, keeping a year’s supply of practice ammo on hand makes sense as well. But defensive ammunition is first priority, of course.

Keeping Parts on Hand
Want to go a step further? Maintaining a parts kit with the most likely parts that break for your handguns makes sense. For a long gun, you can do the same. Keep a spare bolt carrier group for an AR15 on hand. This allows you to drop in a replacement for any of the most likely issues.

Prioritize this small, yet capable, assemblage of weaponry for the next emergency. This will give you confidence in at least that part of your preparedness.

Texas County, Mo. investigators say deadly shooting near Summersville was self-defense

SUMMERSVILLE, Mo. — The Texas County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the shooting of a man south of Summersville as a case of self-defense.

Michael R. Eschrich age 63, of Mountain View, Mo. died in the shooting.

Deputies responded to the area in the 1700 block of State Highway 17 Wednesday. They found Eschrich dead from a gunshot wound. The shooter cooperated with investigators on the scene. A preliminary investigation indicate Eschrich approached the shooter with a dangerous object in an aggressive manner.

This investigation is active and upon completion the results will be presented to the Texas County Prosecuting Attorney for review.

This is three (3) THREE weeks after he ended his exord and Georgia began reopening.

Gov. Kemp: Pandemic numbers headed in the right direction — down

Governor Brian P. Kemp Monday reported the lowest number of ventilators in use and Covid-19 positive patients hospitalized in Georgia since hospitals began submitting data to the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency (GEMA) on April 8.

As of Monday, May 11, there are 881 ventilators in use; 1,134 Covid-19 positive patients hospitalized statewide; and 1,987 critical care hospital beds in use across Georgia.

On Friday, May 1, there were 989 ventilators in use, 1,483 Covid-19 positive patients hospitalized statewide, and 2,119 critical care hospital beds in use across Georgia.

“This data shows that we are headed in the right direction in our battle with COVID-19. Every day, Georgians are recovering from the virus, freeing up hospital space as we continue to safely reopen our state and ramp up testing and contact tracing.”

I just saw this

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. 3 Bags Full!

Trump’s Army Secretary Nominee on Guns: Citizens Should Have Same Weapons as Government

President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of the army, state lawmaker Mark Green, is under fire for comments he’s made on gay rights, Muslims and guns, once suggesting that Americans should be able to own any weapon the federal government has, even an aircraft carrier.

“The Second Amendment, while it allows citizens to protect themselves from other citizens, goes well beyond just allowing us to defend ourselves from a criminal,” he said.

Green continued: “From a practical standpoint, with the purpose being to protect people from tyranny and secure a free state, the citizenry should be allowed to maintain whatever weapon the federal government has. If they can have an aircraft carrier, I ought to be able to have an aircraft carrier.”

About a month ago, Trump nominated Green to lead the Army, after his first nominee—billionaire investor Vincent Viola—withdrew in February from consideration because of his business ties. The president’s pick for Navy secretary, Philip Bilden, also removed his name from consideration.

Why Regulating ‘Ghost Guns’ Isn’t Practical

Lately, people are up in arms about “ghost guns.” You know, those homemade firearms that use less than 80 percent receivers or are 3D printed and then assembled with other parts people bought off the internet. Millions of such weapons are probably built every year, but a handful gets used from criminal acts.

As a result, we have people calling for restrictions on these weapons.

Now, I could go on about the constitutionality of such measures, but the people who I need to reach simply won’t care. They don’t care about constitutional arguments. Oh, they may say they care about the Constitution and may even mean it, but on guns, they’re willing to accept some level of infringement and it doesn’t matter if I call it rationalizing or anything else.

So instead, I’m going to address this piece from a different perspective.

Despite state and national laws aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of convicted felons and individuals with identified mental issues, truly questionable thinking on the part of the powers that be at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Department of Justice, to which ATF officials report, allows what the ATF terms hunks of metal or polymer to be transformed into real guns.

These hunks of metal and polymer are sold in kits that, with relatively little work on the part of the owner, are transformed into real guns. They are referred to as “ghost guns” because they are not marked with a manufacturer’s serial number and do not require a background check prior to purchase.

The frame of handguns and the receiver or action of rifles and shotguns created by licensed manufacturers must be marked with a unique serial number. Those purchasing such a firearm must complete a background check designed to keep guns out of the hands of those who, by law, should not have them.

Since the ghost guns are not finished by the company manufacturing them, instead requiring the final manufacturing operations to be completed by the buyer, they are not considered firearms under federal law.

OK, so, instead of addressing the constitutionality of this, let’s address the practicality.

First, let’s discuss the “relatively little work” required to turn a less than 80 percent receiver into a functional one. After all, these are the words of someone who has never actually tried it. I have taken a less than 80 percent receiver and built an AK-pattern rifle with it. Yes, I used a kit for the rest of the parts, but the receiver was kind of intimidating. I only got it finished because I had the help of a gunsmith at a build party.

The “relatively little work” isn’t necessarily intuitive or easy, especially for people who aren’t particularly handy. Even then, there’s a fair bit of either work or tooling involved, often both. To call it “relatively little work” is to not understand how much work is actually involved.

Keep in mind that a good fifth of the manufacturing of these weapons is incomplete. Would many people be willing to do a fifth of the manufacturing of a car or a home? Of course not. That’s a lot of work, and it’s not really all that different.

Now that we’ve established that there is a fair bit of work required to make one of these, let’s also acknowledge the fact that those who are willing to put that much work in may well be willing to put in even more. This is especially true of criminals who can’t legally purchase completed receivers or firearms.

Let’s be honest, though. That line of less than 80 percent counting as an incomplete receiver may be arbitrary, but so would any other line. And a line has to exist. An AR-15 receiver can be milled from a block of aluminum. Are we going to start declaring any block of metal an AR-15 receiver? If you do, you’re going to have a huge problem with manufacturers who use those same metal blocks to build other things not related to the firearm industry. I don’t think they’d enjoy having the ATF up their posteriors.

Hell, I’ve seen someone take a shovel and build an AK receiver. Are we going to regulate shovels or other bits of sheet metal because they can be built into AK-47s?

As someone who has a few sheets of steel lying around my workshop for non-gun projects, I sure as hell hope not.

It’s easy for someone writing to say that the ATF should regulate “ghost guns,” but the problem is that there’s no practical way to do it. Sure, the ATF could redefine at what point a receiver becomes a firearm, but that will likely push people to build guns complying with the new rules. It wouldn’t actually stop anyone.

Oh, but the kits! Remember how the writer argued that weapons could be completed with kits? He’s right, they can.

But, on the flip side, all those same components can be purchased separately. You don’t need a kit. In fact, a lot of people don’t buy kits to complete their firearms because they want to be particular about each part.

Those same parts, I might add, are used to repair or upgrade existing weapons. If you think people will fight over ghost guns, imagine what happens when you try to regulate people’s repair parts and treat them as firearms. Further, all of those parts were manufactured. That means an enterprising individual can manufacture them all by their lonesome.

That’s the big takeaway here. Nothing you can regulate on this issue will prevent criminals from continuing to do this. Nothing at all. Remember, if they’re doing it now because they can’t buy guns, you’re not going to regulate them out of practice. The best you can hope to do is make it more of a pain, but so long as there is a market–and there will be–some will continue to build these weapons to meet that market’s demands.

It’s easy to say something needs to be regulated, but it helps to at least understand what you’re talking about well enough to know if such regulations are even practical or if they will only impact law-abiding citizens. This writer, clearly, doesn’t.

Coronavirus pandemic may actually be bringing families together.

When Ramona and Mario Singer had a nasty divorce four years ago, no one thought they would even speak again.

Yet now they are sheltering in place at his Florida home with their daughter, looking for all the world like a cozy couple.

Friends whisper that, after two months of quarantine, the “Real Housewives of New York” star might be in love again.

“It’s going pretty well,” she told a reporter last month. “Much better than I anticipated. We’re really bonding.”

Jimmy Fallon also has declared that isolating at home has brought him closer to his wife of 12 years, Nancy Juvonen.

“It’s been very bonding . . . We were like: ‘We actually like each other! We chose well!’”

Such is family life in a global pandemic. The reality is a remarkable repudiation of the gloom and doom pumped out by relationship experts, child shrinks and divorce lawyers.

As if the nuclear family were a malignant threat to health and sanity, they predicted the worst from close confinement: domestic violence, child abuse, “irreversible” damage to intimate relationships, and a divorce epidemic.

But anecdotal evidence is that children are happier, and a lot of families are getting along better than ever. Enforced isolation has brought a newfound appreciation for family life that is the silver lining to this wretched pandemic.

You can see clues in the sales figures; board games like ­Monopoly selling like hotcakes and a surge in communal sports equipment such as basketball hoops and footballs.

The craze for home baking has sparked a flour shortage. Without easy access to fast food, families are making their own bread and eating meals together, as fresh produce flies off the grocery shelves.

At a time of national crisis, Americans have had to slow down and turn inward, and those lucky enough to live with family are counting their blessings.

CCRKBA SAYS GARCIA VICTORY WAS WARNING TO ANTI-GUN LOBBY

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today congratulated Republican Congressman-elect Mike Garcia for winning election over anti-gun-rights Democrat Christy Smith, and said the victory should serve as a warning to the gun prohibition lobby that their big bucks spending effort to fill Congress with anti-gunners is in trouble.

“There is a message in Mike Garcia’s victory,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “You can be a conservative, pro-Second Amendment candidate and win in California, a state dominated politically by anti-gun Democrats, in the legislature and governor’s office in Sacramento, and within the delegation to Capitol Hill.

“Smith’s campaign was supported by the gun control lobby,” he continued, “but dollars don’t vote, people do. And people are getting tired of far-left politics that trample on fundamental rights, especially the Second Amendment.

“Evidently,” Gottlieb observed, “the gun control crowd learned nothing from Michael Bloomberg’s disastrous presidential campaign, which revolved around his extremist gun control agenda. He spent more than $300 million and finished last, and that was among Democrat primary voters, nobody else. Now Bloomberg’s Everytown is planning to spend $60 million to flip Congress and state legislatures this fall, electing more anti-gunners.

“Garcia won on a campaign promoting American values, including the Second Amendment,” he added. “Those ideals seem foreign to the gun ban bunch, which thinks the constitution is for sale to people with the most money. Garcia’s victory this week proves otherwise, and it’s a warning that gun control is not the winning proposition far-left Democrats think it is.

“Garcia’s victory is also a message to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, that her party’s gun grabbing agenda could cost them the House this fall,” Gottlieb stated. “She couldn’t even protect a Democrat seat in her own state, which should raise alarms with vulnerable Democrats in other districts all over the country.

“And Joe Biden should also be worried,” Gottlieb concluded, “because his anti-gun-rights agenda is not going to play well in the critical battleground states, where voters are tired of being attacked by politicians like Biden who want to take away their rights.”

Which means he won by an even larger margin to overcome the level of fraudulent votes the demoncraps usually tally.

Republican Mike Garcia picks up Katie Hill’s California seat as Dem candidate concedes race

Democrat Christy Smith conceded the special election race for California’s 25th Congressional District to Republican Mike Garcia on Wednesday, marking the first time Republicans will retake a Democratic-held congressional seat in the state since 1998 — and, Republicans said, indicating that enthusiasm for President Trump is strong heading into the 2020 elections.

Garcia, a former Navy combat pilot, had a 12-point edge over Smith, a state assemblywoman, as of late Tuesday night in the contest for the swing-district seat vacated by Katie Hill after her resignation. Trump had declared victory on Twitter early Wednesday morning, but Smith initially held off on acknowledging defeat, as an unknown number of ballots remained uncounted.

“While it’s critical that we ensure every vote is counted and recorded, we believe that the current tally shows Mike Garcia is the likely victor in the May 12 special election,” Smith said in a statement posted to Facebook on Wednesday afternoon. “As such, I’d like to congratulate him.”

Trump lost the district by 6 percentage points in 2016. He went out of his way to promote Garcia in recent weeks as strong on guns and immigration, and some Democrats had hoped he would be a liability in the race. Former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other high-profile Democrats all lined up behind Smith.

The seat became vacant last year after the resignation of Hill, who stepped down after admitting to an affair with a campaign worker and the House opened an ethics probe into an allegation that she was involved with a member of her congressional staff, which Hill denied.

 

Yes, it’s tough when it’s a little kid, but his mommy & daddy should have taught him better.

7-year-old shot while attempting to burglarize St. Louis home with other boys

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – A 7-year-old was shot during an attempted burglary at a home in the 1800 block of North 20th Street in St. Louis. The child was with two 12-year-olds during the attempt to break into a home Tuesday evening.

St. Louis Police say that a 23-year-old man [heard, I guess, ed.] banging and glass breaking from the rear of the home. He found the three boys coming into the home through a broken window. Police say the man fired a shot from his weapon in the direction of the suspects, fearing for his safety. The three boys started to run away.

The 7-year-old was struck in the leg by a projectile. A 12-year-old was struck in the wrist by a fragment of the debris. The other 12-year-old was not injured in the incident. The 23-year-old man was also not injured.

EMS took the injured 7-year-old and 12-year-old to the hospital. They are listed in stable condition.

Home intruder killed in Buffalo shooting

No charges will be filed in a deadly home invasion shooting that left a Buffalo man dead.

No charges will be filed in a deadly home invasion shooting that left a Buffalo man dead.

Union County Sheriff David Taylor said the incident occurred just after midnight Tuesday in the vicinity of 1202 Main St., Buffalo. When deputies arrived they found a man laying in the front yard of a home.

EMS was called to the scene and medics were unable to revive the man later identified as 27-year-old Victor De Andre Tiwo Hair of 1202 Main St., Buffalo.

Taylor said deputies found Hair lying on a weapon when they arrived. Hair had been shot while inside the home after he kicked open the front door brandishing a weapon.

Two children, a man and a woman were inside the home when Hair broke into it, Taylor said. The woman ran down toward the bedroom when Hair started firing his weapon.

Taylor said Hair was met in the hallway by Antwan Manquel Booker, 34, of Union who exchanged gunfire with him. Hair was struck by gunfire and ran from the home falling in the front yard where he died.

Casselton shooter won’t be charged, prosecutor says he acted in self defense

FARGO, N.D. — Last Friday, Cass County deputies responded to a report of a gunshot at Harness Mobile Home Court in Casselton, ND.

“The suspect, identified as William Dittmer Jr. called 911 and explained that there was an argument and physical altercation at his address outside near his vehicle between he and the victim, identified as Duane Turchin,” said Cass County Sheriff Jesse Jahner.

During the disagreement, Dittmer fatally shot his neighbor and was subsequently charged with murder and taken into custody by the Cass County Sheriff’s Office.

Dittmer claims the shooting was an act of self-defense.

“Mr. Turchin was a considerably larger man. He had presented himself as a challenge to Mr. Dittmer,” explained State’s Attorney Birch Burdick. “He was present on Mr. Dittmer’s property and challenging him right there at his car. The evidence indicated that when Mr. Dittmer got out of his car, Mr. Turchin put his hand around his throat and was squeezing his throat.”

The evidence includes Sheriff’s Office photographs that show a spilled drink on the drivers side window of the vehicle, which Dittmer Jr. said was thrown at him. Photographs also show faint, red scratch marks on Dittmer’s neck. This was corroborated by Dittmer’s girlfriend, Adrienne Johnson, who saw the altercation from inside the couple’s home.

Upon review of the evidence, the State’s Attorney office made the decision not to prosecute Dittmer and he was released from custody three days after he was initially charged.

“We had concluded that we would not be in a position to disprove self defense beyond a reasonable doubt, which is what we would need to be able to do,” said Burdick. “For that reason, we have declined to charge Mr. Dittmer on this case.”

Burdick says Turchin’s actions of having his hand around Dittmer’s throat and pinning Dittmer against the vehicle legally qualify as serious bodily injury and/or aggravated assault and therefore, they are unable to prove that Dittmer’s use of deadly force in self-defense was unjustified.

 

Arkansas Professor Arrested for Concealing Communist Chinese Funding

An engineering professor at the University of Arkansas has been arrested by the FBI and faces up to 20 years in prison for allegedly hiding funding that he received from the communist Chinese government.

The New York Times reports that “Simon Ang of the University of Arkansas, was arrested on Friday and charged on Monday with wire fraud.”

“He worked for and received funding from Chinese companies and from the Thousand Talents program, which awards grants to scientists to encourage relationships with the Chinese government,” the report notes, adding that “he warned an associate to keep his affiliation with the program quiet.”

Emory Prof Admits to Chinese Spy Ring Involvement

A former professor at Emory University pleaded guilty to filing false tax returns by failing to disclose $500,000 in income from Chinese sources.

The professor, Xiao-Jiang Li, worked at two Chinese universities as part of China’s Thousand Talents Program, according to the Department of Justice. Li was ordered to pay $35,089 in restitution and sentenced to one-year probation.

Court findings revealed that in 2012, while still working at Emory, Li began working for the Thousand Talents Program and continued to work for the program until 2018. During this time period, Li worked at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and at Jinan University, where he reportedly conducted animal research. Li’s tax fraud was discovered when the National Institutes of Health examined his applications for research grants.

Burglary suspect fatally shot by North Beach homeowner

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A burglary suspect was fatally shot by a homeowner on North Beach.

Police say a man and a woman entered the home on Snug Harbor Driver overnight, forcing the homeowner to shoot at least once.

Police say he and two women was found a few blocks away on Surfside Boulevard.

His name has not been released.

Kiran Rice is charged with burglary of habitation.

Police say she was inside the home with the man when the shots were fired.

Zulma Zepeda-Antunez was arrested on an outstanding warrant.Investigators say she was inside the car with the suspects.

The Nueces County District Attorney will decide if the home owners will face any charges in connection with the shooting.

It shouldn’t be surprising that Obama’s tour in office has been called Gangster Government, remember, he’s from Chicago.

It looks like President Obama ordered up phony RussiaGate scandal.

RussiaGate is now a complete dead letter — but ObamaGate is taking its place. Just how far did the then-president go to cripple his successor?

It’s now clear the Obama-Comey FBI and Justice Department never had anything more substantial than the laughable fiction of the Steele dossier to justify the “counterintelligence” investigation of the Trump campaign. Yet incessant leaks from that supposedly confidential probe wound up consuming the Trump administration’s first months in office — followed by the Bob Mueller-led special-counsel investigation that proved nearly the “total witch hunt” that President Trump dubbed it.

Information released as the Justice Department dropped its charges against Gen. Mike Flynn shows that President Barack Obama, in his final days in office, played a key role in fanning the flames of phony scandal. Fully briefed on the “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation, he knew the FBI had come up with nothing despite months of work starting in July 2016.

Yet on Jan. 5, 2017, Obama told top officials who’d be staying on in the new administration to keep the crucial facts from Team Trump.

It happened at an Oval Office meeting with Vice President Joe Biden, intel chiefs John Brennan and Jim Clapper and national security adviser Susan Rice, as well as FBI Director Jim Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.

“From a national-security perspective,” Rice’s memo afterward put it, “President Obama said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia.”

This even as then-President Obama also directed that as many people as possible across his administration be briefed on the (utterly unsubstantiated) allegations against Team Trump — and as Rice and others took unprecedented steps to “unmask” US citizens like Flynn whose conversations had been caught on federal wiretaps of foreigners.

Indeed, the Obama administration went on a full-scale leak offensive — handing the Washington Post, New York Times and others a nonstop torrent of “anonymous” allegations of Trumpite ties to Moscow. It suggested that the investigations were finding a ton of treasonous dirt on Team Trump — when in fact the investigators had come up dry.

Sadly, Comey’s FBI played along — sandbagging Flynn with the “friendly” interview that later became the pretext for the bogus charges dropped last week, as well as triggering the White House chaos that led to his ouster. This when the FBI had already gone over the general with a fine-tooth comb, and concluded that, no, he’d done nothing like collude with the Russians.

Meanwhile, Comey himself gave Trump an intentionally misleading briefing on the Steele dossier. That was followed by leaks that suggested the dossier was the tip of an iceberg, rather than a pack of innuendo that hadn’t at all checked out under FBI scrutiny.

Pulitzer Prizes were won for blaring utter fiction; the Trump administration was kneecapped out of the gate. Innocents like Flynn were bankrupted along the way.

Say this about Obama: He knows how to play dirty.

R.I.P. CHUCK TAYLOR

On the fifth of May, we lost Chuck Taylor, one of the most famous defensive firearms instructors of our generation, to cancer.

I first met Chuck in the 1970s, when he was head of training at Jeff Cooper’s famous facility, Gunsite. Chuck was still competing then, skillful enough to earn a slot on the US National Team of IPSC, the International Practical Shooting Confederation. He leaves behind a large body of written articles – for some time, he was editor of SWAT magazine – and several books that can be found on Amazon, including the fourth edition of Gun Digest Book of Combat Handgunnery.

Chuck was a decorated Vietnam combat vet with the scars from enemy bullets on his body. A highly accomplished shooter, he was one of the few men I’ve seen perform the supposedly impossible “one second reload” of a .45 pistol. I knew him as a patient coach and excellent diagnostician. I can tell you from one personal experience back in the ‘70s that he was also a good man to have on your side when serious danger reared its head.

Taylor retired last year, and had all too short a time to enjoy that. His ashes will be scattered in a National Forest where he spent a lot of time hunting.

I know people who credit their survival to what they learned from Chuck. We have lost an important source of knowledge.

RIP.

Five Key Features of a Good Pocket Pistol

Pocket pistols, or sometimes called backup guns (BUG), are all over the place and are generally really popular. I think there are a couple of reasons for this. They are usually pretty cheap, comparatively speaking, running around $350 or less for the most part. They are also really easy to carry. So easy to carry that people usually don’t have to change anything about how they dress or what they do to be able to carry it. We still rely on these guns to save our lives, though, so here are some things to look for next time you are on the hunt for a new blaster gat to stuff in your pocket.

Sights
Not all pistol sights are created equal, and that is really true when we start talking about pocket guns. Some of them barely even have “sights.” Looking at the Ruger LCP, and almost everyone else who makes a pocket pistol. For most of the pocket-sized guns that do have sights, they are small, and non-adjustable and cannot be changed. If your particular sample of said gun doesn’t shoot to the sights, oh well, too bad. However, there are some exceptions. Seek out those exceptions, and at least give them some consideration. Just because these guns are small doesn’t mean the things we may need them to do are equally small. Having mostly proper sights that can be seen, are adjustable if needed, or can be changed to something closer to our preference, can be a big deal.

Reliable
As guns get smaller, the amount of reliability we expect from them also gets smaller. Or at least it seems that way. Getting an itty bitty machine to run reliably is a difficult job, and sometimes the manufacturers miss. However, we really need these guns to work well because they really only have one purpose, and there are no second chances sometimes. Unfortunately, we can’t tell if a gun will be reliable until after we have bought it and invested enough resources of time and ammunition to find out. It is the way the world is, though.

Manageable Trigger
Most triggers on full-size handguns are manageable. They may not all be to our personal taste, but someone who has a decent grasp of skill can make it work in a pinch. Triggers on pocket guns are not always the same. Again, it comes down to the size of the gun, and getting a decent trigger in that package is apparently a tough thing to do because few seem to pull it off. A good trigger is not the lynchpin that holds good shooting together, but it definitely makes it easier.

Holster Support
Guns that are meant to be carried should be carried in holsters. A gun without holster support is not nearly as useful as a gun with it. There are many pocket holsters out there on the market, but as with most things, they are not all good. In fact, there are probably fewer good ones than bad ones. Before buying a new handgun, I always check to see if holsters are available first.

Parts Support
Everything breaks eventually. Guns are no different. Full-size guns require periodic maintenance. Even more so their smaller counterparts. There are many things that can go wrong on a handgun, especially if it is a small one. Having access to the parts to make it right again, instead of having to send it off to the manufacturer and wait for it to come back, is a worthwhile thing to need a gun

Every handgun also requires periodic maintenance. In larger guns, those intervals are into the thousands of rounds before a gun needs a new spring to as reliable as possible. In pocket-sized guns, those intervals can get really small. As few as 500-1000 rounds in some cases. It is critical that end-users be able to acquire those parts to maintain the highest level of reliability possible.

There you have it. Five things to look for in that new micro-sized handgun. What else do you guys look for in guns that are this size? Hit is in the comments to let us know what we missed

I think what the perfesser is really worried about homeschooling is the missed opportunities for progressive indoctrination.

Harvard ‘Anti-Homeschooling’ Event ‘Cancelled’ Amid Conservative Backlash

Opponents of a controversial Harvard homeschooling summit claim the event has been canceled, but the Ivy League institution is still tight-lipped as to whether that is indeed the case.

The purpose of the invite-only event, “Homeschooling Summit: Problems, Politics, and Prospects for Reform,”was to “discuss child rights in connection with homeschooling in the United States,” with a focus on “problems of educational deprivation and child maltreatment that too often occur under the guise of homeschooling, in a legal environment of minimal or no oversight.”

With agenda items such as “Concerns with Homeschooling” and “Litigation Strategies for Reform,” the aim of the event was to equip critics of homeschooling and educators against the practice with “strategies for effecting such reform.” The co-organizer and one of the most controversial featured speakers was Elizabeth Bartholet, a professor of law and faculty director of Harvard Law School’s Child Advocacy Program.

Campus Reform previously reported that Bartholet framed homeschooling as “authoritarian” and suggested the government ban it.

In an interview with Harvard Magazine, Bartholet said, “We have an essentially unregulated regime in the area of homeschooling.” Her reasons for wanting to ban homeschooling include the lack of regulations setting standards on which parents are allowed to homeschool, the isolation of children, the absence of teachers who could act as “mandated reporters,” and the threat it creates that will ultimately jeopardize America’s democracy……………

In the Cane Tuckeeeeee!

Shots fired in self-defense after car crash on North Sunrise

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) – On Friday, May 8, Bowling Green Police responded to shots fired complaint in the area of North Sunrise.

Multiple officers responded to the area to help after receiving multiple calls.

When one officer arrived, he saw two vehicles in the middle of the roadway – a yellow Camaro and a black SUV that had collided in the 1400 block of North Sunrise.

Police spoke with the driver of the Camaro, who explained that when he was at a friend’s house, an unknown vehicle sped through the area and an unknown male got out.

The driver says the unknown male screamed at a female saying, “Where is Cholo? Where is he at?”

The driver of the Camaro explained the man seemed to be waving a silver firearm in the air, and then got back into his car and drove in the direction of Glen Lily.

The driver of the Camaro circled the block a couple of times to possibly see where the other car went. When he headed back to his friend’s house, the car came back around the corner at a high rate of speed.

The Camaro driver said he threw his car in reverse to avoid a collision but that the other car was accelerating towards him and was going to hit him. The cars collided.

The driver of the Camaro said he feared for his life and pulled out his gun and shot the unknown male, using all three rounds in the magazine.

The driver told police the male said, “One shot got me, and you’re lucky.” The subject then fled the scene on foot.

The unknown subject was later found at a nearby house, identified as William Green. He was taken to the Medical Center after being found to indeed have a gunshot wound.

After further investigation, police believe that the driver did shoot Green in self-defense. Officers went to the hospital to receive a statement from Green. It was determined that Green never pulled a handgun but did have a ratchet on him that could have appeared to be a firearm.

Nearby surveillance footage captured the wreck taking place where the black SUV hit the Camaro, though it’s hard to tell about the shooting incident.

Green has been arrested, charged with Assault, 2nd degree and Criminal Mischief, 1st degree.

Homeowner shoots accused robbery suspect, 3 others arrested

LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. (WYMT) — Three people are in jail and a fourth is in the hospital following an attempted robbery in Laurel County.

It happened Friday at a home in the Keavy community.

Deputies with the Laurel County Sheriff’s office tell WYMT the group attempted to rob the homeowner, who ended up shooting one of them.

Deputies charged Nathan M. Myers, 20, of London, with first-degree robbery, Logan Simpson, 19, of Williamsburg, with first-degree robbery and Andrew D. Myers, 23, of London with first-degree robbery.

The suspect who was shot was taken to the UK Medical Center. Police have not released any information about them except that they are getting warrants for their arrest.

MI: Capitol Commission to Discuss Firearms in the Capitol on Monday!

U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)-On Monday, May 11 at 11 am, the Michigan Capitol Commission will meet to discuss the possession of firearms in the Capitol and on Capitol Square.  While the meeting notice does not state the Commission will consider banning firearms specifically, this will likely drive the discussion.  Please contact the members of the Commission and respectfully urge them not to prohibit the exercise of a constitutionally protected right by law-abiding citizens on property open to the public.

Michigan law on this matter is clear.  Local units of government are prohibited from restricting firearm possession in public.  Michigan’s firearm preemption law states in full:

“[a] local unit of government shall not impose special taxation on, enact or enforce any ordinance or regulation pertaining to, or regulate in any other manner the ownership, registration, purchase, sale, transfer, transportation, or possession of pistols, other firearms, or pneumatic guns, ammunition for pistols or other firearms, or components of pistols or other firearms, except as otherwise provided by federal law or a law of this state.”

Again, please contact members of the Michigan Capitol Commission before the Monday meeting and respectfully urge them to recognize the right of law-abiding gun owners to carry a firearm for self-defense and to oppose any restriction on the carrying of firearms in the Capitol or on Capitol Square.

May 11 meeting  agenda: http://capitol.michigan.gov/Content/Files/AgendaMay112020.pdf

Capitol Commission Contact information  can be found here: http://capitol.michigan.gov/ContactCommission

 

The Long-Term Failures Of Violence Prevention Programs

As a Second Amendment supporter, I tend to believe that the answers to solving the issue of violence in our inner cities aren’t gun control. Obviously, I’m biased to a significant degree, but my bias is based on observation. After all, look at the 10 safest states and the 10 most dangerous states. You have gun-controlled states in both lists and you have gun-friendly states in both lists as well.

That suggests the issue is a bit more complicated than something that can be solved with a simplistic answer like gun control.

However, it also seems that popular gun violence reduction programs aren’t producing the long-term results proponents hope for.

In 2018, Portland started to rethink how it addresses gun violence. The police bureau sent representatives to Oakland, California, to observe Ceasefire, that city’s gun violence prevention program. Oakland’s program, which targets social services at people most likely to commit violence, is credited with dramatically reducing Bay Area gun violence.

“That is something that we’re using as a foundation to try to build something similar to that here in Portland,” Shearer said in an interview with Guns & America.

Cities across the country — from Baltimore to South Bend, Indiana and Stockton, California — have adopted similar models. And while these programs often have an impact in the year or two after launch, long-term reductions in gun violence can be fleeting.

Ceasefire is based on the idea that even in cities with high homicide rates, the number of people committing acts of violence is actually very low.

“About 70% of all gun violence includes people who are in their 20s to early 30s who has significant criminal justice histories, seven or more arrests, who are part of some sort of crew or clique or gang,” said David Muhammad, executive director of the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, a nonprofit that helps cities implement gun violence reduction programs like Oakland’s.

Typically, Muhammad says, people who commit gun violence have been victims of gun violence themselves, or someone close to them has been a recent victim. Intervene with this small group directly by providing social services or an alternative to violence, the theory goes, and you can have a major impact on gun violence. At least in the short term.

“Ceasefire is about immediately reducing gun violence,” Muhammad said. “And the type of community transformation that is desperately needed is a very long-term prospect.”

Now, this approach actually makes a fair bit of sense. You target people who are most likely to end up committing violent crimes and offer them alternatives to the kind of lifestyle. The idea is to stop violence at its source.

It should work, right? Well, it has and it hasn’t. Maybe.

The problem is that it’s hard to see any long-term results from these programs. It doesn’t help that some communities stop funding the program once violence decreases, thus allowing it to flourish once again.

To me, that suggests the solution isn’t really a solution, but a band-aid. It’s not really getting to the root of the problem, it’s simply hiding the problem like a toupee.

In some cases, though, it doesn’t even do that.

Elsewhere in the country, in city after city, declines in the near term evaporated over time.

In 2014, the first-year South Bend had a program in place, homicides dropped from 78 to 66. The next year, that number ticked back up to 85, down to 81 in 2016 and in 2017 was over 100.

Detroit, where city leaders have credited Ceasefire with reducing violent crime, started rolling out its program to police precincts in 2015. That year it had 295 homicides. Since then homicides have bounced up to 302, down to 261, and back up to 272, according to FBI data. Meanwhile, the city’s population shrank by 1%, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Those aren’t the other places, either. Stockton, CA has been heralded as a success after the program did wonders there. Then they cut off funding and the number of murders returned. Now, the average number of homicides is pretty much right were it was to begin with.

So what gives?

Clearly, there are a lot of theories, some of which are going to be dismissed by many typical Bearing Arms readers outright. I know I rolled my eyes when I read this:

“The whole approach is, ‘This is a problem person,’” said Aaron Roussell, an associate professor of sociology at Portland State University. “Not ‘We have systematically and intentionally underfunded these communities and we refuse to deal with issues of race and classism that actually keep these places marginalized.’”

…

But Roussell said the focus on data can distract from deeper societal issues that cause violence in the first place.

“It’s a weird idea that you just want less crime in poor neighborhoods,” he said. “They don’t want to change anything else about the world, but you want to just bring that down. Because it’s basically a series of crimes that made those neighborhoods poor to begin with and we don’t ever deal with that.”

Roussell attributes many of those dips noted before as potentially being cyclical variations rather than evidence they worked.

Like I said, it’s hard not to eye-roll at this kind of thing, but Roussell may actually be onto something. These high-violence neighborhoods are typically places that most folks otherwise don’t care about. They wouldn’t care about them now if folks there would just behave. No one really does seem to care about changing anything else about those neighborhoods. They just want the crime to go away.

And yet, what do we do?

Programs like Ceasefire seek to address these neighborhoods and the individuals most likely to become violent criminals which should, by extension the neighborhoods in question. Yet it’s not working.

Roussell would seem to say that racism and classism are to blame, but I find that a simplistic answer yet again for a complex problem. Or, more specifically, adding a couple of complex issues as the cause for another complex issue is simplistic.

So what’s the answer?

I honestly don’t know. What I do know is that we need to figure it out because people are being killed and that’s being used to justify infringing on the civil liberties of others. That shouldn’t be tolerated by anyone, regardless of what neighborhoods they live in.

“I think it was something personal.”

Man fatally shot, another injured in Bonne Terre Friday

An investigation is underway after a man was fatally shot and another man was “slashed and cut” early Friday morning in Bonne Terre.

According to Bonne Terre Police Chief Doug Calvert, officers were dispatched to a residence on South Long Street just before 12:30 a.m. in reference to a stabbing/gunshot situation in progress.

A male subject in his mid-30s, who has now been identified as Nick Wann, had reportedly been shot in the chest.

Calvert said Wann reportedly entered the residence and “slashed and cut” a man at the residence, also believed to be in his mid-30s. Officers believe the injured man then retrieved a handgun and shot Wann. The two men knew each other.

When officers arrived on the scene, CPR was being performed on the man who had been shot; however, he was unable to be revived and pronounced dead on the scene by the St. Francois County Coroner’s Office.

The detective and three officers with the Bonne Terre Police Department processed the scene. An autopsy was performed Friday afternoon.

The man at the residence was transported to the hospital to be treated for the cut. Details of his condition were not available.

The chief said no other individuals were injured. The weapons used in the incident have been recovered and secured as evidence. A report will be turned over to the prosecuting attorney’s office after the case is concluded.