When Guns Are Outlawed, etc...

First, on the New Orleans debacle, this from Dimitri Vassilaros at the Pittsburg Tribune Review:

Businesses selling bumper stickers that read "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns" also should offer one with the rejoinder "We told you so."
In spite of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina -- and then by its citizens -- New Orleans still is the "Big Easy" because of its total and effortless vandalizing of the Second Amendment.

Say what you will about the astounding ineptitude of Mayor C. Ray "Not My Fault" Nagin and Police Superintendent P. Edwin "Me Neither" Compass III who, when interviewed jointly, wear "I'm with stupid" T-shirts with arrows pointing at each other. Who could have predicted that their gun grabbing would be almost lethally efficient?

It appears the NRA is shopping for plantiffs in New Orleans, hopefully to hound Sturmfurer Compass III out of law enforcement (and preferably the United States):

If you have personally had a gun confiscated in Louisiana since Hurricane Katrina hit, please call (888) 414-6333. Be prepared to leave only your name and immediate contact information so we can get back to you. Once again, we are seeking contact information from actual victims of gun confiscation in Louisiana only.

And if you want more proof, here's a little ditty from our jackbooted friends at the U.N., courtesy of the Times of London:

Scotland tops list of world's most violent countries

A UNITED Nations report has labelled Scotland the most violent country in the developed world, with people three times more likely to be assaulted than in America. England and Wales recorded the second highest number of violent assaults while Northern Ireland recorded the fewest.

A heart-breaking report from the country of my heart! I'll bet if the Scots got their guns back, that crap would change!

Steel Challenge wrap-up

All in all, easily the most dramatic SC I've ever seen. The extra $20K did exactly what we expected it to do — jacked up the pressure on the Super Squad. I think Sakai was on a track to walk away with the match and the money when he DQ'ed. According to our pencils, he's toppled the world record on the stages he'd shot, and he was shooting like machine. The DQ was, of course, the classic speed/pressure DQ...knock safety off 'way too early; finger on the trigger; bang.

Sakai's DQ seemed to throw everyone's match strategies up in the air...Todd J. said following Sakai was one of the hardest things he'd ever done, because he couldn't get "keep finger off trigger!" out of his head. J.J. stepped up and smoked through Outer Limits...absolutely amazing, with one run after the other besting his own world record speeds.

Going into the last stage, Speed Option, it was J.J.'s match to lose. Frankly, both me and Paul Erhardt from SIGARMS thought he had the match and the money (our unofficial running tallies — which we were EXTREMELY careful to keep from the competitors as part of our deal with the SC! — showed that J.J. needed to run an average of 2.92 seconds for three runs to take the match and money...since he'd been running 2.3s in practice, we thought all he had to do was cruise). Speed Option has always been J.J.'S nemesis, and it proved to be that again on Saturday. J.J. stepped up and couldn't BUY a decent run.

Doug Koenig had two mediocre runs on Speed Option...that's mediocre for HIM; if I had two runs like that I'd get down on my hands and knees and weep for joy...which opened the door for Max. RE: Doug, it seemed to Mike Fichman, Mike Dalton and I that Doug was never going for the bucks, but was running a strategy to win the match (I haven't talked to Doug on this, so it's pure speculation).

We'd been running the numbers all day, and we knew that Max, Mike Voigt and Todd Jarrett were hanging just below J.J, and Doug, with less than a second separating the chase group from the leaders. Max especially was shooting no-holds-barred wide open; he'd had a couple of runs that matched K.C.'s single runs, which was amazing because K.C., clearly out of the running, was swinging for the wall for the stage money.

When Max stepped up on Speed Option, he had NO IDEA how much the balance had shifted (we were frantically rearranging cameras behind his back!). He shot like a machine. When he came off the line, Todd stepped forward to congratulate him, and Max looked thunderstruck. He kept saying, "I won?"

Hell of a finish!

We really wanted to give away the money! I spoke with Outdoor Channel executives Sunday night, and while we'll need to talk about iit in the light of day, the overall feeling was that we'll not only let the money ride, but see what we can do about kicking it up a couple of notches.

I'm also going to lobby for a 1 hour (or more) video to sell, with proceeds going to prize money. We busted our butts on the video, and I'd love to give you guys a chance to see more than we can televise.

THANK YOU TO THE MEMBERS OF THE SUPER SQUAD, WHO PUT UP WITH A HUGE LEVEL OF INTRUSION FROM OUR CREWS!!!

Thanks to TGO for making faces behind my back on the intro...watch for it at the end of Episode 2!!!!

Thanks to Mike and Mike for working with us to create the best teevee show on a shooting competition EVER!

Thanks to Lisa Farrell for being our production slave as soon as she finished shooting.

Thanks to Mickey Fowler, the Mikes, TGO (The Great One, Rob Leatham), Mike Voigt and Todd Jarrett for giving us an amazing amount of on-camera perspective on the match and the stages.

You'll be seeing the SG in February on The Outdoor Channel. I'll also try to have a hi-def version running at the booth at the SHOT Show.

We've also agreed to film an episode with Max Michel, as is TOTALLY appropriate!

And the Winner Is............

Max Michel of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, in what has to be the most stunningly dramatic shooting match ever!

His time?

73.59 (unofficial!).

That's right...close, but no cigar.

It all came down to the last stage, the Speed Option, with J.J. Racaza solidly ahead, Doug Koenig roughly a couple of seconds behind and nobody else really in the running. Up until that point, J.J. had been having the match of his life...all he needed to do was cruise for the match and the $25,000. Doug had (for him...not us mere mortals) a so-so series of runs, but realistically, it was J.J.'s match to lose. We figured him at 71 seconds and change, based on what he's done oon the stage in the past.

The Speed Option ate him alive.

Max Michel, with no idea that he was even in contention, stepped up the the line and blistered the stage. You could hear the pocket calculators whirring, then Todd Jarrett, a close friend of Max's, stepped foward and said, "Congratulations, dude!"

Max said, "For what?"

BTW, Max is from New Orleans, and his family lost everything...including the gifts for his wife's baby shower! More on this later...

Steel Challenge...

Am at the Steel Challenge is lovely metropolitan Piru, CA. This year, The Outdoor Channel and SIGARMS ponied up $20,000 to any shooter who can beat 72 seconds time for the overall match today. Not surprisingly, everybody who's ever held a racegun is here.

First, from yesterday's Limited match, all day long it looked like a duel between TGO, Rob Leatham, and revolvermeister Jerry Miculek. But sneaky old Todd Jarrett crept up and snatched the Limited title at the end of the day, following what amounts to a superhuman run on Five To Go. Todd's score of roughly 81 seconds is one of the top three or four Limited scores ever shot. Thne big surprise was Capital Police trainer Phil Strader, not even shooting on the Super Squad, who came really really close to grabbing the whole thing.

There's all sorts of handicapping going on. Rob Leatham, who actually shot a 72-second match on a different course, says nobody is going to grab the dough. Ditto for match co-owner Mike Dalton. Todd thinks I'm going to have to present the check. Flash shooter J.J. Racaza's already got the money spent.

Me, I thik there's three shooters who can have a big payday today:

• J.J.
• K.C. Esuebio (which I misspelled!)
• Doug Koenig

I'll let you know tonight!

Good Day at the Range...

..was really fun, working with the guys from Tactical Solutions, Paul Erhardt from SIGARMS and pro shooter Daniel Horner at the north of LA. Today's subject was "The Zen of .22s," a pretty regularly requestion SG show.

The TacSol .22s are just wonderful to shoot...light, accurate, superbly balanced and way, way cool! I'm thinking of working a deal with them on the creation of a SHOOTING GALLERY anodized yellow Ruger .22 pistol, which we'll give away at the SHOT Show or somesuch.

Paul Erhardt, a good friend as well as the Marketing Director of SIGARMS, bought out a bunch of SIG Mosquitos, their new .22 pistol. Essentially, it's a little bitty Siggy thing, 90% of the size of a 226. I like it a lot, because it's almost exactly the size and feel of my carry SIG 225 single stack. I hadn't really considered buying a Mosquito because I couldn't think of a thing in the world to do with it. However, after shooting it, it has a lot of potential as a training device. I like training with .22s, because it's 1) cheap, 2) easy on my blown elbow and 3) every bit as effective as training with full caliber weapons.

What was really fun was shooting a Mosquito fitted with a prototype suppressor and a natty mount for a red dot sight. Nice toy! It crys out to be inserted into an official Man From Uncle briefcase, along with an FNH P90...

Some Thoughts on Guns in General

Meanwhile, in transit to Lost Angeles...

On one of the morning shows this AM there was a startling piece of video that shows us as gun owners and gun users how far we still have to go to recover any kind of cultural acceptance. There was Brian Williams in New Orleans on St. Charles, talkign to the rich folk who wouldn't leave the city (I looked for this clip on MSNBC and couldn't find it). He interviews one rich guy who's staying to protect his stuff...a fairly rational response.

But they guy has...guns...a shotgun and a pistol...to "frighten" potential looters. In the spoken bridge to the next interview, with four paid security guards (unidentified, but I believe from Blackwater) guarding a high dollar neighborhood with battle rifles, pistols and enough ammo to take over Belize, Brian says, "Well, he scared us!"

Here's the conundrum...Brian felt perfectly comfortable with the armed security guards toting more firepower than most street cops ever carry, but he was frightened of the civilian with guns. Now why should that be? Let's say the four guys were from Blackwater, which is one of the E-Ticket Ride as far as security companies go. You got four guys with indeterminate training getting $200 a day — not Iraq wages, but no IEDs on the side of the road! — who are strictly there for the bucks. That's not a criticism, by the way. A bunch of my friends are down there for their daily bread.

OTOH, you've got a homeowner who only wants to protect what he's worked to earn. But because he's not a victim-in-waiting, Brian gets all shivery.

I hate to generalize from small sets, but I do believe this is emblematic of our overall problems, and it points out a huge failing on the part of the gun industry/community. Yes, we need the NRA and the otehr guys pounding up on the alledgedly legitimate miscreants confiscating guns in the Big Easy, but we also desperately need a cohesive "hearts and mind" initiative from the firearms industry — and I don't see one in sight!

If we are not able to convince the Brian Williams of the world that owning a gun, participating in the shooting sports, or even protecting one's self with a gun is not grounds for them to get the vapors, WE ARE DOOMED TO FAILURE!

As the person who ran the only successful "hearts and mind" program for the industry for five years, I am absolutely baffled why this industry hasn't launched a broader, better funded version, perhaps headed by someone not as...controversial...as myself. We need to be in constant touch with the news media...even Brian Williams! We need to be reaching out to Hollywood, to the local sports pages, to the broader communities we all live in.

And what are we doing? STILL writing lame letters to the editor about the Second Amendment and STILL funding new, improved — and largely worthless — "hunting initiatives" aimed at getting another half-dozen kids into the game fields. NSSF even changed their logo recently to one that ONLY reflects hunting...I'm surprised they didn't change their mission statement to "All Hunting All The Time!"

Even rats learn from experience!

Dancing Nazis!

So, luckily both the NRA, the CCRKBA and the Second Amendment Foundation are on top of the New Orleans "Fun With the Gestapo!" gun confiscations. I hear from VERY roundabout sources within the NOPD that Sturmfurer P. Edwin Compass III, everybody's favorite dancing Nazi who ordered the gun confiscation under questionable legality after he lost the second Battle of New Orleans, is personally the primary reason that so many NOPD officers walked off the job. He's apparently a real piece of work who lacks the grace to resign or the intelligence to go and hide!

More on Nazism Run Rampant in New Orleans

From Dave Kopel writing in Reason Online:

Defenseless On the Bayou
New Orleans gun confiscation is foolish and illegal

In the nearly two weeks since Hurricane Katrina, the government of New Orleans has devolved from its traditional status as an elective kleptocracy into something far more dangerous: an anarcho-tyranny that refuses to protect the public from criminals while preventing people from protecting themselves. At the orders of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, the New Orleans Police, the National Guard, the Oklahoma National Guard, and U.S. Marshals have begun breaking into homes at gunpoint, confiscating their lawfully-owned firearms, and evicting the residents. "No one is allowed to be armed. We're going to take all the guns," says P. Edwin Compass III, the superintendent of police.

Last week, thousands of New Orleanians huddled in the Superdome and the Convention Center got a taste of anarcho-tyranny. Everyone entering those buildings was searched for firearms. So for a few days, they lived in a small world without guns. As in other such worlds, the weaker soon became the prey of the stronger. Tuesday's New Orleans Times-Picayune reported some of the grim results, as an Arkansas National Guardsman showed the reporter dozens of bodies rotting in a non-functional freezer.

In the rest of the city, some police officers abandoned their posts, while others joined the looting spree. For several days, the ones who stayed on the job did not act to stop the looting that was going on right in front of them. To the extent that any homes or businesses were saved, the saviors were the many good citizens of New Orleans who defended their families, homes, and businesses with their own firearms.

[...]

The aftermath of the hurricane has featured prominent stories of citizens legitimately defending lives and property. New Orleans lies on the north side of the Mississippi River, and the city of Algiers is on the south. The Times-Picayune detailed how dozens of neighbors in one part of Algiers had formed a militia. After a car-jacking and an attack on a home by looters, the neighborhood recognized the need for a common defense; they shared firearms, took turns on patrol, and guarded the elderly. Although the initial looting had resulted in a gun battle, once the patrols began, the militia never had to fire a shot. Likewise, the Garden District of New Orleans, one of the city's top tourist attractions, was protected by armed residents.

The good gun-owning citizens of New Orleans and the surrounding areas ought to be thanked for helping to save some of their city after Mayor Nagin, incoherent and weeping, had fled to Baton Rouge. Yet instead these citizens are being victimized by a new round of home invasions and looting, these ones government-organized, for the purpose of firearms confiscation.

By the way, this categorically answers the old question that has knocked around firearms circles for decades...if the police were given the order to confiscate all legally held guns, would they?

As we used to say in the '60s, you bet your sweet bippy they would! Probably not all of them would obey such an order, and the ones who did would probably feel bad about it, but New Orleans is proof positive that the majority, if ordered, would kick down your door in a heartbeat. And shoot you dead on the spot if that order came, too.

As the great French filmmaker Alain Renais so vividly noted in his Night & Fog documentary on the death camps, there are people who look at the camps as if a dragon was buried beneath them. But those people are wrong. The scourge that was the Nazis is inside us, some hellish recessive gene that allow even good men and women to live with themselves while saying, "I was just following orders." We have, as Pogo noted, met the enemy...

The Final Solution...

...I'm back for a few hours...this says it all, though...

The Beat Goes On...

Apparently, NO Police Superintendent P.E.C.III (SEE YESTERDAY'S POST) is getting ready to wage war on his own people. Having proven he was incapable of controlling the streets, Strumfuhrer P. Edwin first declared war on legal firearms owners, in direct contridiction of the U.S. and the Louisiana constitutions.

Not he's finally ready to crack down...on the sad. pathetic remnant of citizens left in that destroyed city. The Strumfurer has ordered his cops to haul' em out, by god, and let's show this rabble what we're made of. His own SWAT commander, though, is less than enthused. This from MSNBC:

The New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper reported that forced evacuations could start this weekend but that not all city police officers are on board.

“I'm going to do what we're told, we will follow the order, but I'd like to have a meeting about it,” the paper quoted Capt. Jeff Winn, commander of tactical SWAT teams, as saying. “I must say that right now the concept is not acceptable to me and I'm worried about situations where SWAT teams are called to remove residents and someone could get hurt.”

Hey Strumfuhrer, here's another cool idea to show how in control you are. Why don't you order your men to start shooting pets? Or better yet, have them start drowning abandoned kittens...that'll send a message to the rabble!

You Knew This Was Coming, Right?

From today's NYT:

New Orleans Begins Confiscating Firearms as Water Recedes

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 8 - Waters were receding across this flood-beaten city today as police officers began confiscating weapons, including legally registered firearms, from civilians in preparation for a mass forced evacuation of the residents still living here.

No civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to carry pistols, shotguns or other firearms, said P. Edwin Compass III, the superintendent of police. "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons," he said.

But that order apparently does not apply to hundreds of security guards hired by businesses and some wealthy individuals to protect property. The guards, employees of private security companies like Blackwater, openly carry M-16's and other assault rifles. Mr. Compass said that he was aware of the private guards, but that the police had no plans to make them give up their weapons.

Ole P. Edwin Compass III runs one hell of a ship, doesn't he? Maybe 200 (or more) of his officers walk off the Job at one time or another during their city's biggest crisis in its history; television has all this video of his officers standing around while people loot and arm gangs pillage in the street; then when the feds finally step in and get control of the street, he pops up and starts confiscating legal guns from some of those same people who used those guns to protect themselves and their neighbors when his police force failed.

Maybe P.E.C. III should consider doing something really useful...let me think a minute here...oh, like resigning!

Red Beans & Rice

Well, tonight I cooked up a big ole pot of red beans & rice, not nearly as good as the red beans & rice I've had at any one of a dozen joints in the Quarter, but there you go. I've been sitting here eating the beans with hot sauce and drinking Abita beer, thinking a little about other nights and other places with cold Abita, once up on the levee with a bunch of shooting buddies, convinced — so amazingly stupid! — that even though we drank in the valley of the shadow, we were the baddest dogs in the neighborhood! Hell, I'm lucky I survived my impetuous youth.

Heard from Paul Gomez of OPS from his home in Baton Rouge on a shaky cell connection. He came through in good shape and has been running media types into the Big Easy (yes, that's how the Great Hair Brigade was stand there surrounded by prowling jackals and not sweat bullets!). He says fellow trainer SouthNarc and his fellow SWAT officers have been the "law east of the Mississippi" for the last week, holding the line using a couple of SouthNarc's tracked vehicles after most of the LEO vehicles were destroyed in the storm. HATS OFF TO THE MEN AND WOMEN HOLDING THE LINE!

Paul says the two things that stood out to him were the absolute collapse of communications — just like 9-11 — and the lack of advance planning for what to do with the dead bodies. WAY too much reliance on cell phones, which work just fine as long as the cell towers are not under water, and way too many bodies.

I'm sure you saw this over at InstaPundit, but go ahead and let yourself get pissed off all over again. While people were dying in New Orleans, FEMA had 1000 of the top firefighters/paramedics/rescue personnel in ATLANTA in a SEXUAL HARRASSMENT CLASS!

Not long after some 1,000 firefighters sat down for eight hours of training, the whispering began: "What are we doing here?"

As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded on national television for firefighters - his own are exhausted after working around the clock for a week - a battalion of highly trained men and women sat idle Sunday in a muggy Sheraton Hotel conference room in Atlanta. . . .

The firefighters, several of whom are from Utah, were told to bring backpacks, sleeping bags, first-aid kits and Meals Ready to Eat. They were told to prepare for "austere conditions." Many of them came with awkward fire gear and expected to wade in floodwaters, sift through rubble and save lives.

"They've got people here who are search-and-rescue certified, paramedics, haz-mat certified," said a Texas firefighter. "We're sitting in here having a sexual-harassment class while there are still [victims] in Louisiana who haven't been contacted yet."

Ah yes, the illusive liberal! God forbid one of these genuine American heroes should say "something inappropriate" while hauling some drowning person out of a flood! Am I the only one who thinks that if there's a tree still standing in New Orleans, these FEMA mental midgets should be hung from it?

Pierce Brosnan Speaks Up!

I meant to post this yesterday, because I knoew, just knew, that all America was waiting with baited breath for Pierce Brosnan's comments on George Bush: This from The Scotsman:

Pierce Brosnan, the most recent incarnation of Ian Fleming's hero, broke cover at the Deauville Film Festival to give it to Prez with both barrels of his Walther P99.

First, let me say that this is proof positive that, as several commenters have noted recently, I don't know nearly as much as I think I do! For instance, despite having shot several, I did not know that a Walther P99 had two barrels! Perhaps Farmer Frank James, the resident Walther P99 expert among us will weigh in on this. Maybe the second barrel points backwards, at the shooter, which would explain why Brosnan made such a lame Bond.

As for his comments on anything at all going on in the United States, does anybody other than me hear a small dog yapping?

Tuesday Night Round-up

I was going to post earlier, but instead I locked myself in the basement and spent too much time on the stationary bike, followed readmill. I want to do a short triathlon in October, and I've got about 20 pounds I need to Fed-Ex somewhere. I also need to remember how to swim...after all, I did do the Alcatraz Triathlon three times...I'm hoping it's like riding a bicycle...

Then, since I was already in the basement anyway, I rooted around in old boxes of gun stuff until I found my reloading dies for .38-40 and an old set of .45 ACP dies I could use in the Lee press to prototype some .45 Auto Rim loads. I also made a half-ass effort to set up the dies for .455 Webley.

The .38-40 dies are in joyful childish expectation of Hamilton Bowen being able to whip, flail, torture and otherwise beat my most recent collection of old, abused S&W N-Frame parts into Model of 1950 in .38-40. I do agree with Mr. Bowen that the .38-40 may well be the most worthless of cartridges...sort of a .44-40 Lite...not as accurate as a .44 Special...not as available as a .45 Colt...not as cheap as a .38...etc. Still, the first big bore revolver I ever bought was in .38-40 (I got the dies at the same time), so I've got a soft spot for it. I never had any trouble reloading it, although many people claim the necks are weak, a la the .44-40. In my impetuous youth, I recall stoking up some .38-40s that were skating along .41 Magnum specs; what's even stupider was that I actually shot the things out of a Colt New Service revolver. They were, as gun writers are wont to say, "brisk." Since the New Service didn't blow up in my face, I've sworn to the Gods of Reloading that I will ONLY shoot cowboy puff-ball loads out of any other .38-40 I happen to own.

So you're probably wondering why I'm blathering on about .30-40s instead of regaling you with New Orleans memories, which is what every other writer on earth seems to be doing. I actually started writing such things — I love the city, and I've been lucky enough to experience New Orleans on a number of fairly weird and life-affirming levels. Still, it's not about me.

I'm still processing how I feel about what happened down there. The closest I've come is my utter revulsion for liberals and their creation, the welfare state. We take people and we put them in compounds, tell them they're victims victims victims and that Mommy Goverment will make everything right; tell them they're too stupid, too old, too smart, too young, too whatever to take care of themselves, and that we will feed them clothe them treat their most minor complaint, albeit poorly. We will tell them that in return for this benign torture we will require their children, and their children's children, for our hellish on-going experiment in social control. Then, after we breed a few generations of these sad, sad sheep, one afternoon we say, "Just joking! You're on your own. Good luck! Bye-bye!!"

How do liberals sleep at night?

A Quick Aside from Over the Pond...

Here's more evidence of the NRA truism "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns," from our sadly brain-dead English brethern:

Up to 4m guns in UK and police are losing the battle

'IoS' investigation: Another week, another horrific shooting. The culture of illegal firearms is running out of control

British criminals could have access to as many as four million illegal firearms, criminal intelligence experts warn.

The criminal possession and use of firearms, a hallmark of urban America, is now a significant threat in Britain, too, says the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS), despite moves to increase penalties for gun crime.

The New Military Pistol Spec...

is officially posted here. I've printed the whole thing off for leisurely reading in my spare time, but here's a quick summary, courtesy of MikeO at The Gun Zone:

45 ACP

DA/SA or DAO including SFA (striker fired action)

W and W/O safety

Std capacity/8 and and high capacity/10 magazines

MIL-STD-1913 accessory rail

2,000 MRBS/5,000 MRBF

20,000 round service life

Mean radius of 10 shot group at 50m no less than 3.15 inches

Suppressor attachment kit

Should fit hands from 5th - 95th percentile; modular grip adjustment is desired, not required

Playtime May Be Over

I'm hearing on VERY DEEP BACKGROUND that playtime may soon be over in the Big Easy. Some very hard boys and girls with some very big guns are apparently getting ready to restore order. And it's damn well about time!

Eloquence in a Disaster

Read this piece from the ever-brilliant Peggy Noonan at the Wall Street Journal:

As for the tragic piggism that is taking place on the streets of New Orleans, it is not unbelievable but it is unforgivable, and I hope the looters are shot. A hurricane cannot rob a great city of its spirit, but a vicious citizenry can. A bad time with Mother Nature can leave you digging out for a long time, but a bad turn in human behavior frays and tears all the ties that truly bind human being--trust, confidence, mutual regard, belief in the essential goodness of one's fellow citizens.

New Orleans Scary Rumors...

I'm starting to get on-scene reports that the situation in New Orleans is substantially worse than is being presented.

If this is actually the case, God help those poor people!

Gas prices here in the Front Range jumped 33 cents today.

Am raising my own personal threat level to Def-Con Two for the duration — stay home when possible; route to avoid urban areas when I can't; raise the 3-day "disruption supplies" — SOP here in the rural mountains where winter actually means it — to a full week; not leave the house without "substantial" hardware and spare ammo. I don't really think it's necessary, but I am fundamentally paranoid.

I am also evaluating my budget to see how much more I can give. Please, these are our brothers and sisters! Give...

You Loot; We Shoot

This from the NYT:

Some frightened homeowners took security into their own hands.

John Carolan was sitting on his porch in the thick, humid darkness just before midnight Tuesday when three or four young men, one with a knife and another with a machete, stopped in front of his fence and pointed to the generator humming in the front yard, he said.

One said, "We want that generator," he recalled.

"I fired a couple of rounds over their heads with a .357 Magnum," Mr. Carolan recounted Wednesday. "They scattered."

He smiled and added, "You've heard of law west of the Pecos. This is law west of Canal Street."

Here's something to remember when the gun/antigun rhetoric seems like so much "he said/she said:" The ownership and ability to use firearms is the difference between huddling in fear and being able to protect your own and the lives of the people you love. There's a red spray-painted sign on the Chartres Market, where I've spent many shaky mornings buying aspirin..."You Loot We Shoot."

Hang on, guys!

Guns save lives! Believe it!