Officer Involved

There have been a number of officer involved shootings in the news recently.  Mike Brown and Tamir Rice are two of the more high profile ones, while there are several lesser known officer involved shooting around the country.


We here in Rapid City are no different.  Last night (20 Dec), officers responding to a call wound up shooting and killing a man who allegedly charged them with a knife.


The story is just 12 hours old, and already the parallels between this incident and the ones I mentioned above are already being drawn.


"He didn't have to shoot"


"He could have used a taser"


"He could have shot to wound"


The problem with all the above scenarios is they miss some very salient points. 


1) When being charged by someone with a knife, the Tueller drill becomes very prescient.


2) It's winter time in South Dakota.  This means that heavy outer garments are the order of the day, whether it's a flannel shirt, heavy Carhart-type jackets, or even hoodies.  Prongs from tasers have a hard time penetrating these materials meaning there is absolutely no guarantee that deploying one would have been successful.


3)  Police officers and concealed carriers alike are trained to shoot to stop the threat, whether that takes one shot or 20.  Add to that the adrenaline rush of an unknown situation, the inherent instability of aiming a handgun in a stressful situation, it may take more than one shot to stop the threat.


4) This situation reportedly took place inside a residence.  Adding to the confusion of an unwanted individual in a home, you have all the nooks and crannies of a home that provide little hidey holes for someone to hide in.


Now, since this incident took place in a Native American housing area, the charges of racism on the part of the Rapid City Police are already being thrown about by commenters on Facebook and other outlets, even though the race, age, and other pertinent information about the suspect have not been released by the department.


This coming on the heels of an anti-police brutality march on Friday.


What these protesters and the ones throwing race into this don't tell you is that officer involved shootings are an equal opportunity affair.


In 2012, a man was shot by deputies after leading them on a chase.


Also 2012, a Wyoming man was shot after leading police on a chase.


Then, there's the one that rocked the city in 2011 and left two officers and the suspect dead.


in June of this year, a man ran from police on a four wheeler and pulled a gun.  The results are pretty typical.


2013:  Man with a butcher knife.


Seems to me the one thing all of these incidents have in common is someone was doing something they weren't supposed to and made some bad decisions with weaponry in the face of an armed person.

Talismans

In every conversation that revolves around firearms, particularly with the anti-gun left, the subject always comes around to "if  guns didn't exist, there'd be no more murder" or some close facsimile thereof.

In their minds, the gun is the cause of the crime.  Whether it's an armed robbery, a domestic dispute, or flat out murder; it's always the gun's fault.  The person behind the gun, with evil intent in their heart and on their brain, is completely blameless.

For such a supposedly enlightened bunch, they sure do fixate on the inanimate object first and completely forget about the intent of the person holding it.

Think of it this way.  Millennia ago, our ancestors thought certain objects were imbued with magical powers that could ward off, or attract, all kinds of mythical things.  Rocks, statues, trees,  hills, medallions, and even people were thought to be possessed of these 'powers'.  Though I must give them credit, they aren't the first to think a weapon could imbue power on it's wielder.  Excalibur comes to mind.

To the rest of us, these objects are just that.  Objects.  That possess no power whatsoever.  They may look pretty or may appear scary, but at the end of the day they are still just rocks, statues, trees, hills, medallions, swords, and even guns.

I saw this same mindset 20 yrs ago when I was ordered to attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting as part of punishment for an incident I was involved in regarding a drunk SOB who thought my Stetson hat would look better on the floor than on my head.  I heard a bunch of supposedly intelligent people blaming all the ills in their lives on an inanimate bottle of liquor.  The 'Bottle' made me do it, they'd exclaim.  It made me get drunk and get into a fight, or sleep around on my wife, or beat my kids, or drive drunk, I heard around the room.  It was the bottle's fault they were in the mess they were in, not theirs.

Yet these are the same people who will scream about science, and against religion because there can't be any such thing as an all-knowing mythical Old Man in the sky.  Will absolutely rant and rave against religion and spirituality, yet see no hypocrisy in telling everyone that an inanimate object has the power to overtake the free will of the average human being and make them commit murder.

Am I the only one who sees this?

Tag...You're It!

In the wake of the Zimmerman Trial, one word has been thrown out so much it almost doesn't matter anymore.  What you see below started out as a comment to a piece by Thomas Sowell that appeared on last week's editorial page in the Rapid City Journal.  For some reason, the filter on the comments wouldn't allow it, something about it being profane.  So instead, I'll post it hear.

The use of the term 'racist' has been cheapened in the last 5 yrs to the point it's almost pathetic.  I can remember a time in the not-so-distant-past where to be called a racist was a death knell for one's professional career and livelihood and was the proverbial 'scarlet letter' that haunted you for the rest of your days.  Even in the wake of the Paula Dean 'scandal', I wasn't really sure what to make of it.  Everyone screams 'Racist' now.  How do you know if what you're dealing with is actual, you know, Racism? 

David Duke was a racist.  Bull Connor was a racist.  George Wallace was a racist.  Grandma down the street who wants to keep her health care and wants to keep out those who have not come to this country through legal means is now suddenly a racist.  If you believe in the founding principles of this country that the government is supposed to be seen and not heard, you're now a racist.

Not any more.  Any disagreement with a protected minority leads to charges of racism, whether there is any proof of said injustice or not.  Disagree with Dear Leader?  Because Racist!  Disagree with Sharpton/Jackson/et al?  Why, you're a no-good Racist!  Want to discuss actual border security, and not the theater act currently playing the part?  RACIST!  RACIST!  RACIST! 

My personal favorites are if you have a friend of color, you do so because you're a closet racist.  And we can't forget the secret code words that liberals love to ascribe to conservatives like...socialist, or communist, or Chicago, or any other word that gets anointed as such by the slobbering boogereaters over on BSNBC.

Wolf.  That's exactly what the word has become.  Same thing has happened to words like 'nazi' and 'fascist', and is quickly happening to 'communist' and 'socialist'.  People hear them now, they simply shrug their shoulders and move on.

It's become almost a version of Godwin's Law, just replace the word 'nazi' with 'racist'.

A Compromise Bill My Ass

So 16 Republican senators voted on a bill today that NOBODY has seen.  Nobody.  We've seen a synapsis, but nothing of substance on the actual bill itself.  Sen Mike Lee (R-VA) annouced at 1700L (1900 EDT) that the updated bill from March was supposed to be posted on line within the hour.  Of course, he'd been hearing that exact same thing for the last 48 hrs.

So I have a question for those who just sold out their Countrymen (I already know the answer, I just want to get the question itself off my chest). 

Were you born this stupid, did you have to take classes, or did it take practice?

I mean really? You voted on a bill YOU HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN YET!

I've heard of some dumb shit in my life, hell, I've even done some of it. 

But voting away your rights without even reading what it is you're even voting on?  That's even wayyyyy beyond felony stupid.  That's a class of stupid light years ahead of anything you've ever done before, and that's a hell of a long list.

Additionally, this is being touted as a 'compromise' bill.  Bullshit.  A compromise bill would be that the gun owning community gets something in return, like say the repeal of the Hughes Amendment. No, this is a compromise bill in the fact that every single politician that voted for it, voted to compromise the rights of their fellow citizens.

A pox on every one of them. 

Time To Turn The Tables

Since the anti gun forces are so quick to equate ownership of certain types of firearms, membership in certain civil rights organizations, and opposition to their hairbrained schemes as being guilty of committing the atrocious acts of a very few crazed nut jobs, I'm going to start returning the favor.

They want to call me a murderer because I'm a member of the NRA?  Fine.  Then the next time a dipstick politician talks about using call boxes and whistles and throwing up an attacker, I'm going to call them a rapist.  Why?  Since they have seen fit to deny these people the means and ability to defend themselves from such an attack, that makes them an accessory to the crime.  If you do something to facilitate a felony, doesn't that make you just as guilty as if you had actually done the deed?  I mean, we can charge an accomplice with murder if the other suspect dies when shot by a homeowner can't we?

There you go.  Next time someone gets shot and is not able to defend themselves effectively because they couldn't fight back, then the pol who supported/voted for the law that stripped the victim of the means of defense is a murderer, plain and simple.

I Think Now's The Time

I've been holding off commenting on the tragedy from last week here mainly because I thought it was the best thing to do.  Though that didn't mean I stayed out of the fray.

Monday, I got into a row with some folks here in town in the online version of the town paper.  Within hours of the event, a poster on the entry posted that if you are not in agreement with Mayor Nutter of Philadelphia regard semi automatic rifles, then you are "as evil as the gunman or gunmen that commit these acts of violence".

So I've been poking folks in the eye, mostly with tact and diplomacy, regarding their emotional outbursts.  With some it has worked, and with others, not so much.

It's been covered more in depth by bigger and better than me, but as soon as I heard there may have been a SA rifle involved, I looked up the laws in CT about these types of rifles, and surprise surprise, they have the same ban as the '94 Clinton Fiasco.

I've also been interviewed by the same paper.  No word yet on when that piece will hit the presses, but I spent the better part of 20 minutes educating the 'journalist' about gun laws and features and how with all the laws on the books that everybody has been screaming about for a week straight, not one single law stopped what happened, and another law passed won't stop the next one.

So, here we are.  Waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

Catching Up

Sorry for the hiatus, I've been down in south central WY attepmting to deplete the population of waputi down there.  (And having zero luck at it, I might add.)

So I get back to civilization last night and set about catching up on all the goings on since I left weekend before last.

The little bit of news I got via satellite radio mentioned some loser walking through a piece of paper and taking out the source of his affection and two other folks in a spa in WI, then saving the taxpayers the hassle of putting his stupid behind on trial by introducing his own gray matter to the outside world.

This has raised howls from the civil rights revocation groups to Do Something.  I'm not sure what they're proposing would have solved anything, but hey.  Like Uncle says, gun control is what you do instead of something.

I also got to listen to the second debacle.  Lot of back and forth, but the one thing that made me stand there slack-jawed and bug-eyed was when Mittens Romney dropped Fast and Furious during the discussion about 'gun control' or as it was supposed to be about, scary looking semi-auto weapons that look scary.

Not in a million years would I have thought something as testy and oft-reported on (NOT!) would find its way into the debate.  Too bad it didn't come up in the third one. I would've loved to have seen Dear Leader try to essplain that one away.  Of course what can he say?  He invoked executive priviledge.  Still, it would've been fun to see.

What Did They Think Would Happen?

So, the state of South Dakota, in it's infinite wisdom, sentenced a man convicted of 1st Degree Escape to a minimum security prison in Sioux Falls.

Guess what happened?

I had to re-read that article 3 times before it sunk in. 

Talk about a face-palm moment, eh?

Been Awhile

Sorry it's been awhile since I put anything up here.  Truth is, life intruded.

My job got real at the beginning of July.  A C-130 ran out of air south of here and bellied in in the southern Black Hills.  Unfortunately, 4 people didn't get to go home for the 4th of July that weekend.  Two people, however did.  So the month of July was pretty much a wash.  14-16 hour days spend trying to coordinate stuff for the crash site and folks who were trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Then, last week was Rally Week.  Which meant that my once a year gig at the Buffalo Chip Machine Gun Shoot was back up and running.  More on that in another post.

So, in my absence, some whack job shot up a movie theater trying to live up to the legend he'd created in his own mind of himself.  Much hay was made of what he used, and the howls from the anti crowd were long on wind, and short on anything in the way of facts.  From everything I read on the subject, the fact that he supposedly used a 100 round drum for his AR probably saved more lives than he eventually took.  Thing is, my wife once asked me when we were headed to a movie a couple of years ago why I felt the need to strap on my piece, just to go to the movies.  Guess what?  She knows why now.

Then some racist nut bag went and shot up a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin.  No word on what HE used, but if it had been some sort of scary looking rifle, the howls would have been even louder from the long on wind, short on facts crowd.

Then, to round it all out, some leftist ass-munch goes and shoots himself up a pro-life joint in DC.  Two things stand out here.  First, how could this happen in DC?  I'm betting this goon forgot to register his shootin' iron with Metro PD.  Second, why is it that we hear about all these supposed 'right wing extremists' that are all ready to get their Second Fort Sumter on, but yet most of these mass shootings have been perpetrated by left-nuts.  Why is that?

So, to leave on a good note, I am now the proud new owner of a Kimber Super Ultra Carry.  Man, this one nice pistol.  I've had the gun for exactly 2 weeks now.  Put 50 rounds through it during some down time at the Shoot.  How does knocking off bowling pins at 30 yds with open sights sound?  I'll have more on this little shooter in the future, but man, is it nice.

Got to say, I love the bobbed frame.  My Dan Wesson 10mm has a bobbed frame and both fit my hand like a glove.

Anyway, I hope to have a recap up of the Shoot sometime this weekend.  Spoiler Alert:  It was a blast!

What About The Other Guys?

So Fast and Furious has literally exploded all over the national stage this week.  The AG has weasel-wormed his way into a corner concerning documents they may or may not have, the Administration is in full on CYA mode by invoking executive privilege, and the political left is screaming bloody murder about a witch hunt over all of this.

With every report I've read over the last 18 or so months, with very few exceptions, the one (and probably most important) aspect that gets overlooked in all this is the complicity of the FBI in all this.

What has not been reported, except in the blogger community, is that the straw buyers at the heart of Fast and Furious were all convicted felons.  Meaning that legally speaking, they could not walk into any gun shop in this country and buy any gun.  Yet that's exactly what they did.  Walked into gun stores all over the Tuscon/Phoenix area and bought semi-auto rifles by the bushel.

Now, anyone who has bought a gun from a gun store in any state knows that before you are allowed to leave the premises with your new purchase, you have to fill out a little paperwork first.  They ask for all kinds of things, like your name, address; to include city, state, AND county of residence, they ask for your race, your SSN, height, weight, and a whole slew of questions about your status like are you the actual buyer, are you a felon, are you in the country illegally, and if you've ever been convicted of domestic violence or drug related crimes.  Lying on this little form will get you in some hot water.

After you've filled out the form, the guy behind the counter takes that form, and goes and makes a phone call to the National Insta-Check System center, run by the FBI.  One of three things will happen by the end of this call.  First, you're cleared and you continue on with your purchase.  Second, your name pops up and they put a 'hold' on your purchase, which if nothing else comes of it, you can come back in 3 days and pick up your purchase.  Lastly, you get a 'do not proceed' and then the fun starts as you can expect a visit from someone with a badge in the near future.

What happened in F&F is that these guys were all given a 'procede' from the NICS operator.  Now, I don't know about you, but when you've got some guys with rap sheets buying guns from licensed dealers without a worry in the world about getting caught, something smells in Denmark.

I've tried, unsuccessfully, for the last 2 days to get through to some of the radio hosts I listen to every day to bring this up.  Eventually, I will get through.  This needs wider attention.  We need answers.  Agent Terry's family deserves answers.

What Is Wrong With These People?

I listen to a fair amount of talk radio on a daily basis, basically the entire lineup on Sirius/XM's Patriot Channel.

What usually has me pounding my steering wheel is 'the liberal caller' who phones in to tell the host how wrong us conservatives are.

The one thing that I that always amazes me, is after all the crap that has gone on in this country over the last 3 or so years, what with a massive health care bill, a massive spending bill, and a checked off 'To Do' list of every liberal/progressive/socialist/marxist/populist wet dream, it's all the Repugnican's fault we're in the mess we're in.

I've got a news flash for these morons.  Yes.  The previous administrations of the last 60 or so years have run debts and deficits.  Some bigger or smaller than others.  What sets this latest one apart is the fact that in a little over 3 years, our debt is twice what it was during the entire 8 years of the previous occupant of the mansion located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

With all this debt and deficit, a looming economic crisis in Europe, and the fact that for the last 2 years, the labor force has hemorrhaged more jobs than naked camp counsellors at Camp Crystal Lake have blood.  Yet we're constantly told this all the fault of the opposition party.  Never mind who controlled the coffers for 4 of the last 6 years.  Never mind that when you give a trillion dollars of money you don't have to all the fools who helped you pull the wool over the eyes of the American electorate, it's all the fault of the Repugnicans.  Nope, nothing to see here, move along...

Nope.  We have to get them evil rich guys.  We have to give jobs we don't have to people who technically don't exist in the tax system.  We can't take any money away from the supposed 99%.  Yet the more you look at who they want to tax the shit out of, the more you find out that the very middle class they claim to support, are the very people they are trying to drive to the poor house.  I'm still trying to figure out how millionaires and billionaires equates to folks making $250K a year.  Maybe I missed that class in public school.  But then again, I was educated at a time when they actually taught something other than the touchy-feely crap they put out now.

I read these letter to the editor telling everyone that if we went back to a more Constitutional foundation, then Granny would be pushed off a cliff or Little Sally would starve because there are no more school lunches.  Or that entire towns would degenerate into a burning chaos because there wouldn't be any firefighters or police.  Special note about the police and fire departments:  They are not federally funded and were never supposed to be that way.  That's what local property taxes are for.  Not federal income taxes.  So to insinuate that if we don't get another stimulus package, then blood will run in the streets and every building in town will burn down is pure-d-bullshit.

Get your fingers out of my wallet.  You didn't work to earn it, you don't get a piece of the action.  You want a new TV or the latest super-computing phone, get your ass a job and go get it yourself.  For those who legitimately unable to work, we can work something out.  For the rest of you lazy asses who can't be bothered, two words I think sum up how I feel on the subject and one of them begins with the F.

This Will Be Interesting

So George Zimmerman has been charged with 2nd Degree Murder. OK, this means that the onus is now on the court for what will come.

Now for the $64 question: Does anyone honestly believe that with all the media attention this case has received, that Zimmerman will ever be able to get a fair trial in any jurisdiction in the country?

Between doctored tapes, questionable forensic analyses, and the rhetoric of race hustling blowhards, there isn't a man, woman, or child in this country who is untouched by this story.

I wonder though, if the judge in this case decides that Zimmerman's claim of self defense is true, what happens then? On the other hand, if this case is all about making certain groups happy, and he's railroaded into prison, what does that say about the judicial system and those who are supposed to be blind to bias?

Just some questions this inquiring mind wants the answers to.

Being A Judge Doesn't Necessarily Mean You're Smart

I've held off on commenting on the Zimmerman/Martin thing because we don't have all the facts in evidence yet. And I don't know that we ever will.

But that hasn't stopped the anti-gun folks, the media, and the criminally stupid (redundancy alert!) from trying to blame the law, the gun, and the NRA (not in any particular order) for what happened in Sanford, FL.

Case in point, is Judge H. Lee Sarokin over at the Huffington Post. His piece, titled How Do Gun Advocates, and the NRA React to Gun Massacres and Killings? asks just what the title implies. How can I, as a Life Member of the NRA and an avid gun collector and shooter reconcile what he sees as my complicity in mass shootings around the country.

First off, let me answer the overarching question asked in the title. I react the same way most everyone else does. Usually with empathy for the family members of those lost and sadness at said loss. That feeling is usually short-lived as I know, having payed attention to the news, that within a matter of minutes to hours the usual suspects in the anti-gun movement will be out screaming from the tallest roof in the country about 'lax gun laws' and how the evil NRA is responsible for this tragedy or that.

After reading about how this is all my fault for anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of years, my thoughts then turn to the process itself. Much like the Zimmerman/Martin case, I need facts to make up my mind, keeping in mind that news stations, papers, and Internet sites generally have but a fraction of the information (or none at all) concerning the incident they're breathlessly pimping on their respective forms of communication.

So having read the good Judge's piece, one thing struck me as so totally moronic, that it made my brain come to a screeching halt. The Judge actually wrote that without guns, there would be no killing. Seriously. A Judge said that, I'm not making it up. See for yourself, he says it in the second paragraph under the excerpted text. Quote "I know the slogan - 'Guns don't kill people, people kill people', but without a gun present there would be no killing." No sir, I think you've got that all wrong. Without a gun present, there most definitely would be killing. People have been doing so for millenia, with all manner of implements that they have either devised or found handy at the time.

And speaking of 'gun massacres', that shooting the other day...Where did that happen again? Oh, yeah. Oakland. In CA, the poster child for everything the Brady Campaign to Remain Relevant wants for state gun laws. Yet with all those nifty little laws on the books in Cali, a deranged nut job walked into a school with a gun (federal felony-Federal Gun-Free School Zone Act) and killed 7 people (state level felony-murder, the last time I checked, was against the law). I'm not sure if he was prohibited from having said gun, but if he were say a convicted felon or someone adjudicated as mentally defective those would be federal disqualifiers to gun ownership and also felonies for being in possession of gun. I'm also guessing he didn't have a permit from the county sherrif to carry said guns on campus, so he was likely carrying without a permit, also a crime in CA. Since I haven't heard what weaponry he used, I can't comment on whether they were "California Approved!" or not.

So in that one incident we have several state and federal laws being broken. Tell me again why 'one more law' would've stopped this?

Interesting Perspective

So the Governor has the Constutional Carry bill on his desk. He's not sure if he's going to sign it or not. (He's got until next week to make up his mind.)


Looking through the Codified Laws of South Dakota, he has 3 options available to him. He can 1) sign the bill, 2) veto the bill, or 3) not sign the bill and allow it to become law. My bet is on #3. Why? Let's face it. Consitutional Carry is a controvesial issue right now. CC is the unknown factor here. Only 4 states allow for concealed carry without a permit: Alaska, Vermont, Arizona, and Wyoming. But it's not like were talking about overturning May Issue and replacing it with CC here.


Just look at the vote totals. In the state house, HB 1248 passed 50-18. In the state senate, it passed 22-11. In order to override a veto, there needs to be 2/3 vote of each house. According to my math, the only concern is in the senate wher it passed with exactly 67%.


South Dakota concealed carry permits are the most easily obtainable permit to get in the country. How easy? $10 and a trip to the Sherriff's Department to fill out the half sheet sized application. No training requirement. No firing demonstration. No fingerprints. No serial numbers. That easy.


I've made my thoughts on CC pretty clear. And they've grown over the years. At first, I didn't mind the mimimal cost. But as I've read about the subject and educated myself over the 7 yrs I've had a permit, I've grown to loathe them. So even at $10, you are still paying the government for the priviledge of exercising your Constitutionally protected civil right to keep and bear arms.


Which brings us to the Chief of the Rapid City Police Department, Steve Allender. Chief Allender has his concerns about the bill. Understandably, he's concerned for the safety of his officers. I get it. I really do. But here's the rub. He's concerned about the workload this will put on his officers. It's refreshing to note he's not opposed to it in the usual sense like most other police chiefs. I do note however that without this piece of legislation, the criminal element is still going to carry their guns illegally. They are still going to try to puff up on his officers.

But that is not reason enough to impede the law-biding from exercising their rights.

The Stupid Is Strong

I don't know what rock this twit crawled out from under, but the only reason why you 'couldn't own AK 47s or 50 caliber handguns that have no purpose but to kill people' is because when you were 'remembering', those items weren't available for import.

Never mind that FALs were being imported in the 1950s. Dammit, those guns weren't in the country back then, so we need to go back to that time.

I've got a news flash. If they had been available back in 1949 when they went into active service with the Soviet Army, someone would have found a way to import them.

In another burst of brilliance, he bemoans the existence of .50 caliber handguns. Another news flash: .50 caliber handguns have been around for a long time. Here's a picture gallery of some (of course being a search engine, there's going to be some that don't quite fit the bill of .50+ caliber handguns) percussion cap and flintlock pistols in .54 caliber.

But then again, when it comes to hysterical rantings of a self-absorbed moron, never let the facts (or even a little thing like an Internet search) get in the way of a good tirade.

I guess he never heard the quote from Tench Coxe:

'The militia of these commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared to any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American...the unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people.'

I Don't Even Know Where To Begin

During my morning round-up I read several blogs while having my morning chow, at the ones the work machine doesn't block out anyway.

The last one I read before the salt gets mined is Robb Allen. So, I'm getting by morning fix on and came across a post that was the source of a couple of quotes of the day (here & here).

Clicking through to the story that was the inspiration for the post and following quotes, I couldn't help but shake my head.

So to summarize, a guy is on the verge of going Stone Cold Steve Austin on a back door, whilst the homeowners are on the telly to the Po-Po in the Mile High City. After getting not getting a response, which according to the available record was 8 minutes, the justifiably upset homeowner files a complaint.

And here's where the bureaucratic samba comes in. See, Denver Metro PD initially took the complaint, but since it didn't really involve them, they punted to the 911 Dispatch Center.

The money quote for me? (This after already being kicked over to the offending agency, and already knowing that NOBODY showed up at his house for the attempted break in, mind you.)

'The Operations Supervisor advised Mr. Frie that Denver Police Officers responded to his house and then referred Mr. Frie to the Denver Police Department's website to make a "formal complaint."

OK, it's in this instance that I'm glad I don't live in a large metropolitan area. I'd go bonkers. What kind of 'supervisor' doesn't know what the hell is going on?

On second thought don't answer that.

Mr. Allen goes on to explain what he'd do if a situation like this presented itself to him and his. Do a press check. Me?

I'd make sure I made the most reassuring sound in the world to my family, I'd run a 2.75" load of #7 shot into the chamber of the trusty 870PG.

Well Ain't That Special

To send a statement about the flow of weapons into Mexico, El Presidente presided over the creation of a sign that reads 'No More Weapons' that was placed near the US-Mexican border.

Here's the rub. It was made from weapons seized from Mexican nationals and crushed under the tracks of a tank. (Funny, that's one thing I can never find at any gun show I've ever attended, well, that and those rockets and greanades. And I've been looking!)

One has to wonder how many 'Fast and Furious' guns are involved in this publicity stunt. Because as we all know, nobody else in the world could provide weapons to the Mexican people except those damned old American gun shows/stores and those merchants of death themselves, the NRA. Not the caches of weapons from all over Central/South America. Not the black market, and certainly not the arsenals of the Mexican military itself. Nooooooo. Nothing to see here, move along.

Flipping through the photo gallery, they have all kinds of firearms. Bolt action, semi-auto, etc. What I find interesting is flipping through, I can't see the 7500 'assault rifles' they're proclaiming.

I've got to wonder though, was 'Furious Mike' Bloomberg involved in this?

Not Sure What To Make Of This

First off, let me say that the reasons for killing Constitutional Carry in the State House were among the most asinine and childish I've ever heard of. C'mon, really? You can't put aside your teenage angst long enough to look at a bill objectively? Sometimes you really have to wonder about the idi...I mean folks that get elected to statewide office.

Anyway, there's been a bunch of talk recently about South Dakota finally cashing in on some that Oil Boom going on in western North Dakota. If you're not aware, the Bakken Oilfield in ND is among the biggest in the world and makes the reserves of the Arabian Peninsula look like a mud puddle.

It seems that the Sheriff up there in Belle Fourche is, not surprisingly, worried about what effects an oil boom would have in his county. I can understand, the whole boom town thing: I was born in the middle of oil boom, and grew to adulthood through 3 different coal booms. His fears are real.

However. I'm not sure what to make of his comments yesterday. In the linked piece, he is discussing the potential negative aspects a boom would have in the area, and the very next line, he says something very troubling. For the life of me, I can't figure out why an increase of women getting concealed carry permits is a bad thing. I'm not sure if he's intimating the increase in permits is bad thing or if the quote is taken out of context.

Me personally? I'm all for the fairer sex having the ability to defend themselves, especially if this boom comes and the assorted riff-raff that accompanies it shows up.

Maybe Another On The List

So South Dakota is considering Constitutional Carry. This is a very good step for the fine people of the state. We're relatively free here. We're NFA-friendly, got one of the best permit systems in the country outside of AK/VT/AZ/WY in that a permit only costs $10 and there is no training requirement. Permits are good for 4 yrs and aside from the usual suspects that don't honor ANYONES permit, there are only a few that don't recognize ours.

I say good step because for a few years, in order to buy a handgun here, you had to have a permit to pick up your purchase at the time of sale. If you didn't have one, well, it was 3 days before you got to go to the range and fondle your new purchase. That changed, I want to say, back in either 2008 or 9.

The one thing that absolutely drives me up a wall in these debates is the argument that if we allow everyone with a clean record to carry a gun without a permit, then the criminals will too. I don't know how many times I've said to family, friends, and random strangers on different forums that 'Hell-oooo, the bad guys already don't have a permit. Why do you think they call them criminals?'

The other argument that holds absolutely no water in this discussion is the one involving background checks. The 'But' crowd (you know, the I'm a Gun Owner, but...-types?) love to point out that without the permit, how do you know if the person is allowed to have a Roscoe? Never mind the anal probing that filling out the lovely ATF form 4473 brings. Add another one on top of that, this time performed by the state in order to exercise a constitutionally protected civil right, and I can't really feel sorry for these guys who think this invasion of their privacy is anything other than begging permission to exercise said right.

I mean really? That act is the only time you'll ever be subjected to a prior restraint on your rights. At no other time are you forced to fill out a form to exercise a right. And in the case of a carry permit, you're paying for privilege. Try forcing a similar form at the voting booth, or public library, or hell even buying a computer and watch the so-called 'civil libertarians' heads rotate like Linda Blair in 'The Exorcist'.

So, let's get this done. I for one welcome being on the short list with VT, AK, AZ, and WY.

Holy Crap!

So I'm down at the funstore this afternoon, hanging over the counter jaw-jacking with other customers and a couple of the counter guys. In the midst of our conversation, one of the counter guys grabs an AR slathered in Magpul stuff.

While I'm chatting, I see he's having problems getting the rifle back into battery. After a few seconds of watching him struggle, I motion for him to come over and volunteer to see what's wrong with the rifle.

So he hands me the gun, I see the bolt's not all the way forward. So I pull the charging handle to the rear and check the chamber. It's all clear. Not seeing anything in the chamber, I let the bolt go. Because the only way to take down an AR with a bolt not in battery is to get it into battery before you take take it down.

POP!

Fortunately, not a bang, but a noise nonetheless. Have you ever had that happen? Where something that wasn't supposed to happen did? I've had the reverse happen a couple of times, both in the field with a nice muley or whitetail doe in my cross hairs. Pull the trigger, expect a bang and get a click.

This sound scared the crap out of me because I'd followed all the rules. I checked the chamber. I didn't have my finger on the trigger. I had the rifle pointed away from the others at the floor.

So what caused the POP?

After taking the rifle all the way down in a detailed strip, it was discovered that a primer had somehow become lodged in the upper. Not sure where, exactly, but it was found in the lower beside the hammer. It had been pinched when the BCG rammed home.

All we knew was something was obstructing the BCG from going into battery, and the only way to get it apart to see what it was was to get the BCG back into battery. Who thinks a loose primer is roaming around the insides of a rifle? From now on, I'm adding that to my mental checklist on clearing obstructions from rifles.

I will tell you, hearing that pop and seeing the smoke coming from the ejection port, I bade my friends good day, came home, and promptly changed my shorts.

Let this be a lesson. Even when you're sure the weapon is cleared, there could be something else that causes a problem.