Range report, further on the FPS modification

I mentioned in the first post that I'd ordered two of the oversize stops. Since with the first one A: I didn't mess it up and B: it worked so well, I spent part of last night fitting the other to my Kimber Compact. Face it, anything that makes a difference in felt recoil in a full-size 1911 should help a smaller one to some extent, and if it made no difference, nothing had been changed on the gun to make me sit on the firing line yelling "Crap! It didn't work! How and I gonna get this back to normal?!?"

Following the information from Tuner in the M1911.Org posts, I cut the bevel on this one bigger than on the full-size; the shorter, lighter slide doesn't have as much momentum to trade off so if you make it too small, you'll get failures from the slide not cycling all the way. Didn't make it much bigger, as I'd rather find out I need to cut it a bit larger than that I may have cut it too far.

This evening I put some S&B ball, some handloads with 230-grain cast bullets(a bit lighter load than the S&B) and some Gold Dot 185-grain hollow points through it. I had one GD case get caught between the slide & barrel, which with this short a test may just mean 'Stuff happens', or I may need to cut the bevel a touch larger. I think it's probably the 'Stuff', because everything else, every other time, went through without a burp. I even loaded one magazine with a mix of all three, and they all cycled.

The difference in recoil was flat amazing. This had always, with full-power loads, flipped the muzzle up a fair bit and torqued to the right; now the recoil was straight up, much less rise and no twist. Which made for faster recovery. Ejection tended to be to a lesser distance than in the past. There was one disconcerting thing: I had several cases bounce off my forehead, which had never happened before. All with the S&B or Gold Dots, the handloads all went off more to the right.

I need to test this more, of course; with a carry piece, there's no other option. I do have to say that the results so far are quite good. More testing, more shooting, DAMN! the things you have to do...

Hey, Sen. Obama,

got your 'nobody suffers more' right here:

Interviewer: "Let's talk with the two children of the jihad-fighting martyrdom-seeker Rim Al-Riyashi, Dhoha and Muhammad. Dhoha, you love Mama, right? Where did Mama go?"

Dhoha: "To Paradise."

Interviewer: "What did Mama do?"

Dhoha: "She committed martyrdom."

Interviewer: "She killed Jews, right?"

Interviewer: "How many did she kill, Muhammad?"

Muhammad: "Huh?"

Interviewer: "How many Jews did Mama kill?"

Muhammad: "This many... "

Oh, aren't they so cute! And they'll blow up so soon themselves.

Oh yeah, they deserve, they NEED a whole country of their own. I repeat, pre-civilized, bloody-handed murderers.

I may have to see '300'

just because it ticks off the right people. Lefties and islamists and twits, oh my...

Speaking of twits, over at Eternity Road is this piece on the hysterical reaction(in many cases) to The Great Global Warming Swindle, and for that matter damn near any questioning of the Global Warmening concept. Isn't it just wonderful that a scientist questioning an idea is now(along with anybody else, but scientists in particular) equated with being a Holocaust denier? Apparently the idea of rigorous questioning and challenges to an idea to prove it right or wrong isn't considered 'science' any more. At least by the politicians and twits.

Continuing to speak of twits, how about taking a kid out of their home by force and keeping them in a psychiatric facility for being homeschooled? I mean damn, with what's happening in the world, the Germans can't find something for the police to do that's more worth doing than this crap?

Damn, it's late. 'Bye.

Who would've thought it could be so cold

in the arctic? I mean, the Goreacle told us it's so warm the polar bears are drowning?

The explorers, Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen, on Saturday called off what was intended to be a 530-mile trek across the Arctic Ocean after Arnesen suffered frostbite in three of her toes, and extreme cold temperatures drained the batteries in some of their electronic equipment …

Then there was the cold - quite a bit colder, [organiser Ann] Atwood said, than Bancroft and Arnesen had expected.

Hehehehehe... I just love it. But wait! If it's warmer than usual, it's Global Warmering; and if it's COLDER than you expect?

Anyone?

That's right,:
"They were experiencing temperatures that weren’t expected with global warming,” Atwood said. “But one of the things we see with global warming is unpredictability."

Ah, yes, the all-purpose explanation.

But what about the bears? A survey of the animals' numbers in Canada's eastern Arctic has revealed that they are thriving, not declining, because of mankind's interference in the environment.

In the Davis Strait area, a 140,000-square kilometre region, the polar bear population has grown from 850 in the mid-1980s to 2,100 today.

"There aren't just a few more bears. There are a hell of a lot more bears," said Mitch Taylor, a polar bear biologist who has spent 20 years studying the animals.
Yet, according to the enviroweenies,
"They are declining due to global warming and changes in when the ice freezes and melts in Hudson's Bay," ..."To say that bear populations are growing in one area now is irrelevant."

What says the Englishman?
Whereas to say that bear populations are falling in one area now is relevant?

Speaking of bears,















Don't look to bad off to me.(Thanks, Denny)

We now return to our (ir)regularly scheduled bitching

Was a bit out of pocket the last couple of days. And, believe it or not, I kind of enjoyed it.

Besides the general hiding out we're getting some rain. Last year, I've mentioned, was damned dry, and even after all the ice and wet through the winter we've still got a lot of lakes, ponds and reservoirs 'way below where they should be. My folks said Lawton had received about 1.5" as of early this evening, with more coming. Haven't looked at my rain guage- no, I'm NOT going out with a flashlight- but got some earlier today and more just started coming down now. Nice change.

Now, as to the bitching:
One of the standard warnings, not just for gun owners, is that the lawbooks have become so full of crap that it's damn near impossible to avoid breaking some law. Often without knowing it. As the FBI agent was quoted as saying "If I want to arrest you all I've got to do is follow you around for three days: you'll break some law". Where this specifically affects gunnies of all types is politicians wanting to make virtually ANY violation a disqualification of your right to arms. To illustrate, just found this in the comments from Keith:
...a friend's son had been re-newing his shotgun cert, and the cop who came to visit him asked if he had a criminal recrd, to which he replied "no", and the cop arrested him.

Him and his dad had been prossecuted a couple of years earlier for having a dead sheep that they had not buried (now it would even be illegal to bury it).

Anyway, he's been to court for "giving false information in order to obtain a shotgun certificate"

£500 fine, six month prison sentance suspended for 12 months, and I'm unsure whether it was to help his case along, but he has also surrendered his shotgun certificate.

This is the kind of crap we want to stop cold. This cop obviously either knew of this bullshit offense or went digging for something of the sort specifically to set the guy up for this. "Ah ha! You have lied to me! You should not be allowed to touch guns! Off to jail with you!" It NEEDS to be stomped on hard, and every minion of the law who uses crap like this. Remember Martha Stewart? She was prosecuted and jailed for 'lying'- in an informal interview and not under oath- to a federal investigator about a crime they couldn't prove she committed. From what I've been reading about the Scooter Libby case, he was pretty much convicted of lying about a crime that didn't actually happen because something he said at one time didn't match up exactly to what he said on another occasion.

Do not mistake me: if he actually, knowingly lied under oath, and they can prove it, that's that. But... I dare say that there's not one of us who could not be prosecuted for the same 'offense' if some prosecutor decided it was worth his time(for whatever reason) to do it. This kind of bullshit erodes(further) respect for the law and those who enforce it, and it's worth stopping simply to end that.


Next, for the most part I think my Loyal Readers are not the type to have been causing any of the heartburn, but some jackasses have been giving Kim & Family crap they really don't need.

I can sympathize with the financial trouble. I haven't been at the same level of debt, but when you owe far more than you have, or can hope to pay back, it pretty much works out the same. Mine happened with the following sequence:
A. First wife had very troubled pregnancy(our daughter), lots of bills, pretty much got that cleaned up.
B. She developed cancer, and we had no insurance on her at the time.
C. With chemotherapy and fighting like hell she beat the cancer back from, were getting the bills hammered out(we actually had a credit counseler look at our situation and recommend we file bankruptcy) when- despite the doctor saying it couldn't happen- she became pregnant again(our son). Even more-troubled pregnancy, he spent a week or so in neonatal ICU and if you think that doesn't add up...

Between the cancer and the second pregnancy, when we finally received the bill from the hospital(and the bastards actually sicced a collection agency on us before they even sent the God-cursed bill!) we found ourselves the proud owners of damn near a quarter-million dollars in debt. Which there was not a chance in hell of us being able to pay, so we (literally) robbed the Snoopy bank to pay the attorney his retainer and filed bankruptcy. Which I still hate the memory of.

I'd fully intended to pay the bill if I had to make payments for the next twenty years. Until we received the damn thing. It wasn't just the amount, it was the specifics of it. For instance:

The one thing I clearly remember as we stood there going over page after page of the bill was one line. For premature Pampers. Ever see them? Not much bigger than a playing card. After we got the son home we'd found a local store that carried them, they kept a couple of boxes and, when somebody needed them, ordered more. Came in a box of sixty for just under four dollars. That line was noting that they were charging us just under twenty-nine dollars a box for a box a day. I read that and my resolve to pay them, whatever it took, took wings and went south forever. That we'd been getting nasty calls from the God-damned collection agency for more than a week before the bill even arrived had somewhat eroded my resolve I admit, but this hammered a stake through the heart and stuffed garlic in the mouth.

Not the same situation as Kim & Family, but I know the feeling of being so far over your head you need a decompression chamber to attempt respiration. So to my Loyal Readers: if any of you, in a moment of upset or something, left a comment over there that was upsetting to them, send them a nice apology. If you deliberately sent them a shitty comment or otherwise crapped on them, then go away. Not just from there, from here. Last thing they need is snotty fools giving them static, and if you're the kind to crap on them in times like this I don't really want you reading my stuff, either.

I'm to bed now, having both blown off steam(I'm STILL pissed at the hospital) and ingested a bit of whisky. 'Night, all.

I ought to go back to college

just so I can piss off people like these.

Hundreds attended a campus forum on March 1 organized by seven Asian women who’ve led the attacks on Kaplan. Many came expecting a fair airing of views at what was billed as an “open forum.” Instead, they witnessed further condemnation of Kaplan at what professor Howard Schweber afterward called a “political rally.”

At the forum, Moua acknowledged that her initial e-mail was misinformed as to precisely what Kaplan had said. Nonetheless, scores of speakers drew from it over the next two hours to peg Kaplan as racist and ignorant.

Two women in the class, who’ve since transferred out, described their shocked reactions to Kaplan’s comments. Mai Der Yang, a first-year student who missed class that day, said the real harm came in a meeting days later when Kaplan gave “insult after insult.” Among those insults, Yang said, was that Kaplan “believed his statements to be true.”

Nancy Vu, another organizer, stressed the women’s collective victimization, saying they’ve felt “so intensely alone” and “at every corner have been dismissed” by faculty and students. “You have made us feel alienated.”

Additional speakers from student and community groups accused university leaders of not doing enough to promote diversity and sensitivity. Madison school board member Shwaw Vang, who is Hmong, said Kaplan’s speech “degrades and dehumanizes me.” Activist Peng Her drew parallels between the seven women and Rosa Parks and the civil rights marchers in Selma, Ala. And the women were called the “Magnificent Seven” to great applause.

Near the end, Dean Davis again apologized to students, saying they’ve exhibited a “remarkable thoughtfulness and grace that makes me proud.” He did not bother to put in a good word for the idea of academic freedom.

The big things here:
People who had no personal experience with the professor or what he said somehow magically 'knew' what he 'believes'. All from e-mails of bitching by students who "said Kaplan’s speech “degrades and dehumanizes me.” and- here's the big one- :
"...another organizer, stressed the women’s collective victimization..." Got that? It's the standard-issue "I am a VICTIM! You cannot doubt what I say or my FEELINGS!!!" bullshit that's destroying what schools are supposed to be.

And this Dean is apparently one of the eunuchs in the lead, "I understand your feelings, and your feelings are all that matters. Especially when I can use them."

On the other hand, if I go back, I might get thrown out. Or attacked by hordes of aggrieved lefties. Which might be fun, if I had a good cane.

Well, damn!

	Total	100,433
	Average Per Day	183
	Average Visit Length	1:32
	Last Hour	28
	Today	121
	This Week	1,282

Sometime in the past couple of days it rolled over. Which is kind of amazing. I can't decide if people keep coming here from actually wanting to hear my bitching(tend to doubt), pick up the occasional nugget of actual information(quite possible) or to watch the ongoing BS(likely).

In any case, keep coming. Because I am going to grandly ignore the above and assume you all come here to bask in my brilliance. So numbers count, people.

1911 firing pin stop modification

A while back I was browsing through the 'Handguns: Autoloaders' forum at The High Road and found mention of a change to the firing pin stop on a 1911 that was said to make a big difference in felt recoil. So I dug around some more, which led me to the M1911.Org site. Which led me to the gunsmithing sticky threads, this one in particular.

This sounded interesting, especially since my hands sometimes bother me after a box or so through mine. So I went to Brownells and ordered two of these EGW stops.

If you're not familiar with the 1911, the firing pin stop fits into a slot in the back of the slide





















and holds the firing pin(center) and the extractor(circular piece on the right) in place. The bottom of it

















on the factory piece has a nice, round curve; this is where, as the slide moves back, it cams the hammer back to cock it. The idea is that if you take a stop like the EGW which is square on the bottom,

















fit it to the slot of the pistol and then give it just a slight bevel at the bottom edge














it changes some things. When the slide moves back under recoil, the factory stop makes the camming action a smooth operation that doesn't take much energy away from the slide; but if you give it a much smaller bevel like this- from what I've read the way John Browning originally designed it- it takes more of the energy the slide carries to cam the hammer back, which slows the slide down, which changes the way the energy moves around with- I read- some good changes.

These stops are made oversize so they can be fitted to your pistol. This one was a touch too thick, so I stoned a bit off the back. Then I started stoning the sides to narrow it a bit. Lock it in a padded vise, cut a bit, flip it over and cut the same number of strokes on the other side, try. Black the shiny area(I used Sharpie) and repeat until you get a good fit.

For the bevel, I'd suggest reading that thread at M1911 for specifics. Basically, cut a very small 45-degree angle with a fine file, and it HAS to be same angle and width across the face, otherwise it'll cause some nasty twisting(torsional?) stress to the hammer and hammer pin. I then gave it just enough strokes on a stone to break the corners, cleaned and oiled it and installed.

After shooting the carbine I tried this out. And it really works. Recoil on this pistol is now straight up- no twist- and a smaller jump. It also throws the brass straight up and back instead of to the side, which I was not expecting. Although it makes sense when you think about it. I only put about thirty rounds through(only so much time), but the difference was kind of amazing.

Definately glad I tried it.

Ain't it purty?

Some of you who've been dropping in here might remember that a while back I bought a M1 Carbine receiver when SOG got some in. I've been collecting parts since, and finally put everything together.


















The barrel is an aftermarket(GI barrels in good shape are now at prices that are flat amazing in some cases), the stock- a flat beautiful piece of walnut- was obtained through the good offices of Og. Everything else is GI, from the springs to the sights to the magazine.

Most of the assembly is no big deal, but I'd never installed a barrel before; turned out not to be as bad as I'd feared. Driving the front sight on was an experience of its own(I don't think you actually need the pin to hold it in place), but everything else fitted in just like it should.

Took it to H&H right after I finished it to function-test it, and all went well. It was hitting well below point of aim, the sight blade being deliberately made high. Back home I did some fitting to tighten things up between stock and receiver/barrel, following the suggestions in this piece by the fine people at CMP. Then, after bitching and moaning about the weather and time a short delay, today I had the chance to get it to a 100-yard range and do some shooting and filing. Started off at 50 yards, shot two and filed, shot two and filed until it was a couple of inches low, then moved to 100.

To give you an idea of how much had to be taken off- and the accuracy of this thing- , please note the four shots top left:
















That's a sub-2" group using GI-spec Lake City ball. Just to compare I adjusted windage and fired two rounds of Wolf ball(shut up, Cowboy). As to the elevation, I was actually aiming at the target above this one, so they were hitting about seven inches low. After having cut the front down a bit at fifty yards.

Finally got it just right, as the baby bear said, and it sat there through the rest of the day. Just before packing it in I loaded two rounds and fired them:





















I think I'll keep it.

Shocking numbers

brought to us by The Englishman:
Illegally held guns are flooding Britain’s inner cities and a spate of fatal shootings in London has highlighted gun culture’s allure to disaffected youth. This comes despite the best efforts of the law and its enforcers to restrict the supply of guns. Yet, any man, woman or street urchin could own a gun in Victorian Britain — at least until 1870 when a licence fee was charged if they wanted to carry the weapon outside their home. And, surprisingly, there was very little gun crime.

Personally, I don't think it's surprising at all; someone checked the actual homicide rate of Tombstone, AZ back in the wild days and it was very low. And most were between gang members and general outlaw types(sound familiar?).

Well worth reading. Then go read Kim, who has some interesting comparisons and comments.

Yeah, I'm late on this. I first saw it a couple of days ago, late so I didn't post on it then. Yesterday had a couple of things I HAD to take care of, and being the the final(I hope) throes of whatever plague is going around, by the time I was done I gave up, read a bit and crashed. So I'm getting it done today.

Damn you, Goreacle!

I was expecting a visit from the Brown Truck of Happiness yesterday, bringing a package of goodies from Brownell's. But I get home and no package! No Brown Truck has come! So I turn on the computer and check the tracking and find Rescheduled in the delivery. Why?

ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS CAUSED THIS DELAY

Oh, joy. I'd planned on opening my box and checking out the goodies, hitting the grocery store, making dinner and spending the rest of the evening using my new stuff. But NOOOO.

For all the Globulist Warmering doomtalking, you'd think the damn blizzards would be over by now, or at least changed to drowning rain(got to make those sea levels rise somehow, you know). But no. The Goreacle is going to freeze the whole place if he keeps this up.

Snork...

Does about sum them up, doesn't it?

Thanks to the Emperor for this

The son has been heard from

New friends and nice things to play with
















It seems some friendlies showed up at the range while they were qualifying and, after business was taken care of, some "Can I try that?" went on. It's a G36(more on it here) and he said it's an interesting piece.

Yes, as you may be able to tell, he's doing just fine.

Cable damascus

It's what it sounds like, instead of bars or sheets of steel you take one or more pieces of cable, forge-weld them into a bar and then forge it into a blade. Makes a nice 'snakeskin' pattern when it's etched.

It has one real problem in the making that's worse than a standard pattern-welded piece: getting and keeping crap out of the pieces. With standard you can clean the bars, stack them together, heat and flux and the flux both carries out any traces of scale or whatever from between pieces and seals the surface(until you hammer it and drive the stuff out and off). When cable comes to you, brand new it'll be greasy; used, greasy and cruddy with the stuff having worked all through the wires.

Cleaning the stuff out of new isn't too bad, use a good degreaser, soak it in kerosene or whatever. Old cable, it's a bit more involved. I've read of everything from degreaser, boiling it in soapy water and pretty much anything else you can think of. What I used to do was fairly simple, since I used new cable: I burned it off. Be warned, smoky and smelly, but it works. I'd stick about six inches into a low fire and let it burn out, then push the next six in and so forth until the whole piece was done(I usually used about an eighteen inch piece). This does have the bad point of sometimes leaving some ash inside, but the fluxing seemed to take care of it nicely. Also, if you used low heat the grease tended to melt and run out before it burned, leaving the inside pretty clean. Several smiths I've read of would take a day to burn clean and flux a lot of cable, so as to have enough to keep them a while.

To flux it- I used borax- first I'd get the very end to welding heat and set the weld. Then heat a few inches to low red and unwind the section slightly(doesn't take much) and, while still good and hot, sprinkle it heavily with borax; you want the stuff to melt and flow throughout. Repeat heating and fluxing if needed, then twist it back as tight as you can. Move to the next section and repeat.

Remember, the flux does two things: it seals the surface of the steel to keep scale from forming, and it causes impurities that may be trapped between pieces to melt at a lower temperature than otherwise, which means when you hammer it the liquid flux and impurities(if any) spray out. Yes, it will burn the crap out of you, an apron and eye protection highly recommended.

To actually make the billet, I'd heat four to six inches of cable up to welding heat and hammer it from the welded end back the first pass, then turn it 90-degrees and go back up the other way; remember, this has to both set the weld and drive out the flux. When this section cooled I'd inspect, and if well set I'd do the next section.

When I had enough for the purpose, I'd fold it two or more times- usually in a 'Z' shape- then flux and weld that into one piece. Then I'd fold that once more, either in half or three and weld it again. You have to be CERTAIN that you've closed any voids between wires and driven all the flux and any impurities out.

When done, you'll have a solid bar of sufficient mass for the blade you want to make, and forge it out, heat treat and so forth as you would any other.

I haven't made any of this in a while and have no pictures, but I did find this picture at this man's site:








This is a beautiful example, with a section of cable left on to make the hilt.

You can make it as I described, or you can cut pieces of cable and wire or arc-weld them around a bar for a handle(which is the first way I read about this being done). In the latter case, one man I saw some information on took one-inch cable, cut four pieces about four inches long, arc-welded them to a handle and brought the whole mess up to heat and did the billet making with a power hammer(Damn, the times I've wished for one of those...).

Besides a different appearance, some who've used it say they've found blades made this way to be a bit more aggressive in cutting; I never tested for that so I can't say. Although if I'm able to make some more, I'll give it a shot.

That's really about it, fairly simple process. Just remember that bit from Murphy's Laws of Combat: the simple things are never easy.

What hath the GFWs wrought?

A buttload of people buying guns and ammo

Gun show this weekend, and my Dad was able to get up here for it. Small show(I'll get into that later), but busy as hell. We got there a little after it opened at 9, not too many people: by 11 when we left for lunch it was packed. Young, old, men & women, etc., and lots of buying going on; guns and ammo being carried out in large numbers.

You always have to be careful at shows, there's always some people pricing things for more than they're worth. Noticed two things on this line: more people doing this, and their prices were higher. Which, unless you have something someone is just dying for, means people buy from someone else. Some guy was selling 500-packs of 7.62x39 for $120(gack!) or $5/box. Don't think he sold much of it. Someone else was selling Mosin Nagant M44 rifles for $125.

On the other hand...

Place called Big Boy's Toys here in town had a bunch of stuff, including DPMS AR15 rifles in various configurations, including a 16 or 18" barrel carbine with collapsing stock, 2 magazines, cleaning kit and a hard case for $695; if I were in the market for one and had the cash I'd have checked that out. Some other people had good prices on things, too. Higher than in the past overall, but realistic-level higher, not "I'm gonna gouge people while they're worried" higher. Lots of used stuff, including a guy who had both a 9mm and a .45acp Marlin Camp Carbine in very nice condition for a very good price.

Overall, it proved something someone said a few years back: the GFW politicians are a businessman's best friend in one way: every time they open their mouth and start making threats and demands, business goes up.

On the small size, you've got three groups that have been doing shows in town. One of them does two shows a year, spring and fall- sometimes one or two more during the year- and they're always good sized with lots of dealers. The other two seem to alternate doing a show every 2-3 weeks, and because of that they're almost always small. Guy that did this weeks show for example: every so often one of his is big and busy, but most are like today, not too many vendors. I really wish they'd start just doing one a month or something.

In any case, this one was a: small like I'd feared(when Dad has a chance to come up for one, I hope it'll be a good one), but b: busy as hell because of the political climate. Overall, had a good visit. And ran him to Sportsman's Warehouse to get some reloading stuff he needed since there wasn't any at the show.

Oh, and the only things I saw for .30 Carbine were three magazines(two 30's and a 15), two bayonets and some ammo.

I got the 30's.

New book out

Hogboy got it done, it's actually published and everything.

Now if he'll get the damn second cookbook done...

Just bloody freakin' wonderful

I’m not doing justice to the story, but, if not an attempt on the cockpit, this was a serious probe.

I get the money and time together to go to Britain/Europe or Australia, I think I'm going to take some close-combat training before I go. I didn't doubt it, this just points out that the bastards are still working at it.


Found thanks to Sondra

I gave up on TV news too, Jeff

Jeff notes his reasons(some of them) here. Mine... Didn't have a particular one incident, but there was a trigger to saying "Screw you!" and flipping the bird to the major media.

After my '2x4 to the head' moment of realizing there were a bunch of people who'd never let me go shooting or hunting with my Dad again, I got more and more sick of the news: I concentrated on the bullcrap they always threw out about firearms, but that also led to being far more critical about what they put out about anything. Then came the day...

This was during the O.J. Simpson trial. At the time, as I recall, the media was playing up everything possible(so it seemed to me) to justify us jumping into the Balkans. On this day, the first time in about two weeks that people in one city had been able to go to market, somebody dropped a couple of mortar shells into the marketplace. Lots of bodies and blood. And 'The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather' started: "Horror in the Balkans as a marketplace is bombed, many dead and more wounded;" and at that point his voice shifted and became almost a touch, cheery, "but first, in the O.J. Simpson trial"-

Which was as far as I got. Happily there were no heavy objects handy to throw or I'd have had to get money together for a new tv. As it was, I was on my feet screaming at the screen and that jackass Rather just exactly what I thought of him and his network and his 'news' reporting. And I don't think I've paid attention to their broadcasts(or trusted 60 Minutes after the Alar bullshit) since. Or much else of the major media. Local news, in particular for weather, but the rest from reading and from this here innernet.

No-knock progress in Georgia

Too bad it took an old lady being killed to do it.

ATLANTA (AP) -- A group of lawmakers wants to make it harder for police to use "no-knock" warrants in the wake of a shootout that left an elderly woman dead after plainclothes officers stormed her home unannounced in a search for drugs.

The measure would allow judges to grant the warrants only if officers can prove a "significant and imminent danger to human life."

and near the end:
"Every citizen ought to be safe and secure in their homes," Fort said. "A no-knock warrant should be a special warrant, not a standard. And that's what it's evolved into."

This last is the key: these warrants are only supposed to be used in cases of actual need: not because someone likes them, or likes breaking in doors, or whatever. They're like tactical teams, a very useful tool that's been overused, and too often for crap where a hammer is not called for.

From The Englishman,

we get a link to this article, well worth reading: Gun law and common sense:

More rubbish is written about 'gun control' than about almost any other subject. Allegedly 'tough' gun and knife laws are the liberal substitute for the death penalty, the left's way of trying to stop criminals from killing.

Like most 'liberal' solutions, they don't work against their intended target, and they attack freedom. It helps a great deal to be liberal about this if you a) don't think about it and b) know no history at all. Until 1920, Britain's gun laws made Texas look effeminate. There was no effective restriction at all on owning a firearm. Yet there was virtually no gun crime. Now we have some of the most restrictive anti-gun laws in the world, and gun crime is a serious and growing problem. Interestingly, the laws came first, the problem afterwards, and the recent ban on handguns was a completely logic-free response to the Dunblane mass-murder which preceded it.

On the subject of owning one himself, we get a touch of the 'I don't want the responsibility' attitude:
Actually, I don't want us to become a gun-carrying, gun-owning society at all. I have absolutely no desire to own a gun or have one in my house. They are even more dangerous (which is saying something) than motor cars, which I - likewise - don’t much like using because of the heavy responsibility of being in control of such powerfully lethal machinery. And any burglar who arrives at my house will be given a cup of tea (choice of Indian, China or herbal) and a biscuit, and asked to sign a release form stating that he has not been harmed, intimidated or upset in any way. I understand the liberal criminal law well enough to know that this is the only sensible approach for a British burglary victim, who doesn't want to be handcuffed and put in the cells.

Note that he does NOT say "I don't like them! Ban everything!", just that he doesn't want one. Which would be a fine thing, if he actually had the choice; but the government has made the 'choice' for him. And he full well understands that as things sit now, defending himself from a burglar could get him more time in jail than the burglar will get. Which is absolutely insane. And he'd better hope the burglar will settle for tea, cookies, and walking out with anything valuable.

And I also think that strict gun laws are wholly ineffective against their targets. The guns used in crime are hardly ever legally obtained. The people who use them almost invariably have criminal convictions, which would disqualify them from legal gun ownership anyway. So you can pass as many laws against gun ownership as you like. It will have precisely no effect on the level of gun crime. In which case, why do it?

Well, partly to keep the dim liberals happy, of course, which is important these days. But could there be another reason? If the state and the people broadly agree, about most matters, then the state can license the people to do such things as defend themselves, make citizen's arrests, thump burglars, even keep weapons. (Every Swiss home contains arms and ammunition, and the Swiss crime problem is minor, to put it mildly).

But if the state believes that criminals are to be pitied and treated, while the people believe that criminals need to be punished, then the state cannot trust the people any longer.

And there you get it: the state cannot trust the people. Which, of course, means the people need to be restricted in every way possible, and their lives controlled in every way possible. Like deciding that they need to be licensed to defend themselves, make citizen's arrests, thump burglars, even keep weapons. Mr. Hitchens seems to hold to the view that, even if things were loosened up, you should still have to get a license from the government to own arms, which- especially with a government like that which the British state has become- is too much; it allows the government to deny you for whatever reason they choose, or jerk your license 'just because we want to'. Like Bloomberg in NYFC* ordered the police to cut the number of licenses, just because he said so because he doesn't like them. And you have no recourse. In any case:

And the people, likewise, cannot trust the state, which is becoming - increasingly - a tyranny which watches, dockets, snoops and generally pries into our lives, and grants us smaller and smaller limits within which we may live if we wish to avoid being interfered with by its agencies.

Say it, brother!

Yet the one thing that will bring a rapid and powerful police response to a phone call is a claim that guns are being used by private citizens. And the one offence the courts will always punish severely is the one they call 'taking the law into your own hands'. Why? Because they are much more worried about their monopoly of force than they are about protecting us. Is that a good sign?

Actually, I object strongly to the expression 'taking the law into your own hands'. The law is ours and we made it for ourselves, to protect us and govern us, as a free people. Our freedom to defend ourselves against criminal violence is part of our general freedom to live our lives lawfully. We hire the police to help us enforce the law, not to tell us that we cannot do so. Sadly, the modern British law is not our law, but an elite law, based on ideas which most of us do not share. And the modern police are the elite's police, not ours, which is one of the reasons why they have vanished from the streets, where we want them to be. The disarming of the people, and the cancellation of all their rights to defend themselves, are bad signs.

I do have my disagreements with him, like here:
I don't want my neighbours to own guns, either. It shouldn't be necessary in a properly law-governed country.

Our small, easily-policed and largely urban society is deeply unlike the USA, where many people live hours from the nearest police station and can expect no immediate help if they are in dire trouble

"...shouldn't be necessary..." should have NOTHING to do with whether a citizen owns arms or not. It is a Right of free men, period. And he's noted a problem that is the same here or there: it doesn't matter if you live next door to the police station or miles away, if the police cannot or will not be there when you are in danger, you are on your own. And as has been pointed out by many, the best single method of self-defense, especially if you have any kind of physical handicap, is a gun. Like it or not.

Overall, a very good piece of thinking by Mr. Hitchens. Which will- predictably- cause the nanny-staters to scream and hold their breath.


*NYFC: New York Effin' City, per Kim
Speaking of which, The other day on Glenn Beck's radio show he had the former NYFC police chief on, interviewing him about- among other things- Rudy Giuliani, and asked about ownership of guns, specifically how difficult(as in 'damn near impossible') it is in NYFC for someone to get a permit. And he got the same song and dance that Giuliani has given: NYFC is 'special', like places like LA, Rudy was actually 'very friendly' to gun owners, and that- the real kicker- you had to make sure that only the 'right people' could own guns. Which in NYFC has meant, especially for carry permits, people with lots of money/fame/influence, and screw everybody else. As Beck put it, "I don't remember reading anything in the Constitution about only the 'right people' getting to have guns".