Wednesday, August 19, 2026

Yes, it is

and a disgusting number of people are afraid to even point it out


Here's another win

From O'Connor's opinion:

The Final Rule does not merely lack supporting analogues. It contradicts the actual historical tradition of personal gunsmithing. Self-manufacture of firearms in America was common and indeed foundational to establishing our Nation.  Americans throughout our history have continued to build their own arms and that “right [has] remained unregulated throughout [much of] American history. 

... “Regulations on self-built arms are not longstanding.In fact, there were no restrictions on the manufacture of arms for personal use in America during the seventeenth, eighteenth, or nineteenth centuries.” Thus, the Court cannot conclude that the Final Rule’s imposition of ambiguous and far-reaching regulations, which would restrict access to component parts thereby inhibiting home gunsmithing, comports with the SecondAmendment.


Which takes out one of Biden's 'rules' to make it harder for citizens to do things officially disapproved of, like making your own firearm.

Oh yes, it's a very good question from Orr:

we regularly see announcements of yet another closing of language departments/programmes, or of more general foreign language departments/programmes, or cutbacks therein, all across the Anglophone world.

Juxtaposing that issue to the montypythonish Jason Arday affair, the question is begged: how many language programmes might have been saved, or spared cuts, if institutions had not felt compelled to waste resources - emotional, financial, and physical - on DEI?


Probably quite a lot.  And right now there are big demonstrations in Britain of people having fits that someone dared to find the problems, including lots of death threats.  Because idiots care more about DEI than about someone making fools out of a bunch of academics, and all the waste involved.

Tuesday, August 18, 2026

When they tell you what they are,

as the saying goes, you'd better believe them.
"So the two things that we're famous for is our commitment to a program and our hatred of the United States Constitution," said Cliff Connolly. "And what the program does is it gives us a roadmap to revolution and it gives us the obstacle that we will finally have to get over to have a revolution, which is the United States Constitution, the basis of the United States government."


And what they are is not just on the enemy side, they are the enemy.

A favorite bit from one of Pratchett's books,

quote from Commander Vimes:


You get tired of the automatic 'Here's how much you should tip' crap

if/when you eat out somewhere?  Here's even more reason to be pissed:
“This is the next step with the ‘add a tip’ option on the kiosks & checkout pads. Shake Shack’s kiosk demonstrates what happens when you don’t have a printed menu, but instead the kiosk displays what the computer is programmed to do. It asks for a ‘tip’, and if you chose ‘zero’, it increases the price of every item ordered by $0.50. As he notes, the kiosk in this case put up a pop-up noting the ‘price adjustment’, but how many kiosks are programmed to do it in the background where you will only see the total?

“I note it is Shake Shack, but have to believe that other vendors will do the same thing as long as they feel they can get away with it.”


Probably.  

Kim tells about a local place he and his wife like.  Well, a Five Guys burger place opened up here.  Good food, but expensive.
Ways down the road is a local place called Patty Wagon that makes quite good burgers, and a bit less expensive.  And it's one of several, according to daughter.  As she put it "It's hard to start a 'Big Fancy Chain' place when there are local places that have been here for years that are at least as good, and less expensive.

CMP has announced some more information on the 1897 Winchesters and the converted M14

rifles they'll be selling.


The DoJ is getting a process going to allow some to restore their 2nd Amendment rights after a conviction for a crime.  Which is good.



Monday, August 17, 2026

Oh, this will set some people off.

The Aquiry transformed the surrounding forest as they built communities and produced food. They burned areas dominated by bamboo to create fields for maize, squash and manioc, as well as space for ceremonial centers and the broad roads connecting them.

They also cultivated gardens and actively managed useful tree species.

“The research shows that the human impact on the Amazon’s environment has been far greater than previously believed,” Pärssinen notes.

Several nutrient-rich trees now common in the region reflect prolonged human management. These include Brazil nut trees, peach palms, which also produce edible palm hearts, and other fruit-bearing species.

By favoring trees with cultural and practical value, Aquiry communities helped some species spread while reducing the presence of others.

“This has direct implications for our understanding of the region’s biocultural history. The civilization also affected ancient Amazonia’s carbon production and carbon balance, which should be better accounted for in future climate models,” Pärssinen adds.


So, will the 'barely left footprints on Mother Gaia' types embrace their changing of the land to suit them, or try to find a way to make it a Bad Thing?

They're finding a lot of things in a lot of places with sensor systems to look through tree and brush cover.

Lee reloading stuff

I've got a number of Lee casting moulds I've had for years, many bullets have gone downrange from them.  And I've got a number of Lee dies that I've been using for years.  You'll see people who swear by, and at them.

Two things I'll mention.  First, on the dies, they use a collet nut to hold the depriming/neck expanding pin in place.  Which is fine, except that if you have to take that pin out for some reason, it may be damn near impossible to ever get it to stay in place; after you tighten it down, it may slip and won't deprime because  it slid up, and you're not sure if the neck expander is doing its job.  Had that happen a couple of times, only thing that fixed it was to get a new pin and collet nut and install them.

Yes, I considered using threadlocker on them, but if you do actually need to remove it later, that could make it fun.


On the moulds, they used to use a setscrew in the side of one block to lock the bolt that holds the spruecutter in place.  Now there's no setscrew, and every few casts you have to retighten the damn thing.  Lots of fun.  I don't know of they decided 'Good enough', or it saves a few pennies, but I wish they'd stuck with the old system.

Note: if you need the decapping rod/collet nut, they're less expensive from Midway than ordering them direct from Lee.

Numerous AGs should be asking this

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is asking the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to clarify how it will stop enforcing provisions of the National Firearms Act that were struck down by a federal court.
...

“I encourage the ATF to proactively communicate with purchasers and dealers about the registration requirements that no longer apply to suppressors,” Drummond said. “Oklahomans deserve clarity from the federal government in the wake of this ruling.”

The attorneys general asked whether ATF will notify purchasers, firearms dealers and manufacturers in the plaintiff states that the registration requirements are no longer enforceable.


One of the questions that comes to mind:  People who owned suppressors, SBRs, etc., before this, do they have to keep that paperwork?  Or can it be trashed?

And since these now appear to be just firearms and parts, any legal restrictions on sales, or inheritance?

I post almost all comments from people,

and here's the 'but':  If your comment does something like blame Jews for all ills, I won't.  I think it's bullshit, and I don't want it in my place.

You have a problem with that group, fine.  I, like many, wonder how the hell so many Jews can support a party that hates their guts and has no problem with the idea of them, and Israel, being wiped out.  Doesn't mean I blame them for all.


Yes, Blogger did it again on that clearing post

I probably ought to do what the Feral Irishman did, because I'm sick of this crap.
They won't tell you what part of it 'violates standards'
They won't tell you any way to ask about it.
All you can do is get rid of something, republish it, and wonder if they'll approve.
It's a PITA.

Sunday, August 16, 2026

My first thought is to define this as 'Bullshit To Make Money',

though there is also the possibility of some doctors just unable to stand the idea that somebody, somewhere, isn't being treated by them, or at least their specialty.

'Start screening on your kids for cholesterol by age 9', my ass.

I was working at a range during the first Trump Presidency, Update

and heard sales referred to as the 'Trump slump'; no, he wasn't perfect, but he was better by far on 2nd Amendment stuff than the Democrats(jeez, can you imagine what it would've been like under President Hillary?).  People were far less worried about being able to buy a gun they wanted, so the pressure was off.

Sales kept up this time, seems like, but there was another slump.  And now, after that NFA ruling...
As for NFA checks, a new data figure that the NSSF is tracking for us, in July of 2026, Texas had 16,977 NFA checks to lead the U.S. market. Florida was second (9,784 checks), then Virginia (7,599), then North Carolina (5,941). Georgia rounded out the top five with 5,463 NFA checks. The total NFA checks for July in 2026 were 130,013, an increase of 108.8 percent from the year before.

People are buying, I suspect both because of that, and "I want this before the mid-terms, just in case."


Update:
Local shop that sells a lot of suppressors and other things has a sign on the suppressor counter, "Until we get something in writing from the .gov, we're still doing it by the old rules.  We don't want to risk our FFL by doing differently until we have it in writing."

Saturday, August 15, 2026

A while back, while at son's house, I wound up watching a few episodes of 'The Mandalorian',

and partway through I realized this is a sci-fi version of Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name stuff.

Having survived the day- it was a long one- I shall now

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Friday, August 14, 2026

After Trump was elected the first time, he managed to really piss off lots of gun owners

on a few points, but to borrow from Larry Correia 'He's not been great, but he's so much better than I expected.'

Well, Shooting News Weekly made a list of what all he's been involved in this time, and it's so much better.  Not just 'better than Harris would've been', but BETTER.  Most lately by the 'The NFA registration list is unconstitutional' ruling, and I'm just as anxious as most everyone else to find out the details from ATF, who've got to be not only worrying about getting majorly sued, but really pissing off a President who doesn't mind pissing on people who do that.

There's been some arguing about the cost of suppressors and SBRs, but I'd bet that, with no NFA crap the companies have to do on them anymore, the cost of at least suppressors will come down.  How much?  No idea, but I'd bet at least some.

The wonders of young girls/women going to some universities...

 


Ref the NFA case, a good piece on "We have questions and Updated

you have to provide answers.  HAVE to.  So do it."

I guarantee you there are gun bigots- almost all leftists- who would love to tell ATF to jail anybody who follows the court order; I also guarantee the ATF, even the "I don't like not having this power" types, who have some understanding of the shitstorm that would hit them if they did.  So it's for their own protection as well as that of average citizens that this is demanded.


Assuming various Republicans don't chicken out, there are a bunch of things they can do

for the mid-terms and beyond, the base being "This is what you've said and done, do you believe it?" and not backing down when asshats like El-Sayed start yelling 'Islamophobe!  Bigot!' and so forth.


I forgot to mention, just in case you hadn't seen, there was no appeal during that 7 days

and, in that district at least
Did you feel that last night? The Earth moved a little as history was made in Austin, Texas at a little past midnight when two people legally bought suppressors without any National Firearms Act registration or paperwork.

Which is good.  However,
Though the Department of Justice declined to ask a federal judge to extend the stay on his decision that the NFA's registration scheme is unlawful when it comes to now-untaxed items, allowing his injunction to take effect as of today, the department still has nearly two months to decide whether or not to appeal that decision to the Fifth Circuit.

Not asking for the stay to remain in place is a very good sign, but a statement that DOJ does not plan to appeal would be even better. Unfortunately, when given the option to do so earlier today, the agency pointedly took a pass.

So there are questions, and a lot of places aren't selling until they get something on paper from DoJ/ATF saying they can.  Which I can't blame them for.

Lots of other questions: Do people who already own a suppressor need to keep the federal paperwork, or can it be destroyed?  Can we trust the feds to destroy the registration lists they already have?  Etc.

So I'd hold off on building a SBR, things like that, until we have those answers, just to be safe.

And there's the mid-term elections coming, with most of the Democrats playing 'Kiss the Socialist Ass' for votes, and their current frontrunner for the next Presidential election with a solid record of wanting to destoy the 2nd Amendment..

Thursday, August 13, 2026

Why, you'd think those experts were full of crap!

If you have a X account, the whole post is here

Well, crap

The part that came in the other day is mounted, and appears to work.

My tumbler seems to have died, which is a pain, and the extension I'd used with it appears to be dead also.

Isn't life wonderful at times?

Yes, UPS made it

it went from 'by 6pm' to 'by 9pm'.  Which, amazingly, happened just after 7, when the UPS truck pulled up right after I got back to the house.  So that's done.

Wednesday, August 12, 2026

X can be a pain

Now, if I'm not signed in, a lot of links won't show.  Have to work around that crap, like showing the part of a post I can copy

and give you a link if you use them.

Or, maybe my browser doesn't work with it anymore.  I don't know.


Mind you, some things are "Who cares?", though the point is made "She thinks being with a white guy may count against her."  Which wouldn't surprise me.


El-Sayed, up in Michigan, has the proper socialist "That right is for the States, not the individual" crap on his mind.  No wonder the Democrats like him.


Yeah, this time of year that vent was rather nice.


Madam Hoyt had a link to this.  I may have to spend some time looking at her other stuff.
...But I thought we had at least reached a broad cultural agreement: YOUR SKIN COLOR DOES NOT DETERMINE YOUR VALUE AS A HUMAN BEING.

This was one of those concepts I thought we could safely move into the “DONE” column. Apparently somebody reopened the ticket. Every so often I encounter someone online who is not merely saying something I disagree with about taxes or immigration or DEI initiatives or policing or any of the other 14 billion subjects on which people can disagree.

I’m talking about actual racist garbage. The genuine article. The belief that race itself determines intelligence, character, worth, civilization, morality, or where somebody belongs in the human pecking order. And then I look at the followers, and then I see people I know.

Mutuals. People I’ve talked to for years. People I thought were friends. And, yes, that bothers me. I would hope I don’t have to write a 1,000-word philosophical treatise explaining why. If somebody is comfortable talking about how people with my skin color are inherently stupid, inferior, violent, uncivilized, or otherwise defective, and you apparently find this person interesting enough that you want their thoughts delivered directly to your electronic breakfast table every morning, I am going to have some questions.



And how, I have PT to attend.  And a few other things after that.  Busy day.