Tag Archives: news

ATF and the arm brace..now with 100% more WTF

Posted on by

ATF pens letter on ‘redesigning’ handgun with stabilizing brace
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2015/01/16/sig-brace-no-go-per-atf/

Short version: ATFE sez it’s an arm brace..until you put it up to your shoulder…then you have magically ‘redesigned’ it into a shoulder stock and you’re treading into NFA country.

So..according to the weasels at ATFE…how you use something can ‘redesign’ it. It’s like ATFE has singlehandedly turned every household item into some sort of Transformer. Car out of gas? You’ve redesigned it into a sculpture. Taking a wiz on a campfire? You’ve redesigned your johnson into a fire extinguisher.

This will be interesting to see play out.

Article – UPDATE: Missing hunters found ok in Beaverhead County.

Posted on by

DILLON – Beaverhead County Sheriff Jay Hanson says two hunters missing in southwest Beaverhead county have been found.

In a news release, Hanson said the two were found about 40 miles west of Dell Montana in the Big Sheep/Cabin Creek area.

“The father and son got stuck in deep snow and spent two nights with their vehicle. Both are in reasonably good condition,” said Hanson.

As many as 16-searchers had been looking on ground and from the air for the two, who hadn’t been seen since they ventured out to hunt in the remote valley west of I-90 on Saturday morning.

The missing hunters were identified as Scott McDougal, 56, and Conrad McDougal, 33.

The Facebook post:

untitled

“But they were smart enough to stay with their vehicle”…..it isn’t a 100% thing, but the folks who stay with the vehicle usually fare far better than those who do not. However, to be fair, we never read about the ones who leave the vehicle, walk two miles, and find help.

What makes staying with the vehicle an easier and more attractive option is having the necessary gear to ride things out. Its not hard – Sleeping bag, blankets, food, water, light, and a thick book to read.

Yes, thats a gun in my pocket and Im glad to see you

Posted on by

Clearly the recent events in Australia aren’t real..I mean, after the Port Arthur episode they enacted all sorts of gun control to keep that sorta thing from happening, right?

Interestingly, the places most likely to have a large population of potential would-be terrorists tend to be the large urban population centers that restrict the ability of the citizens to discretely arm themselves. Some slob in Manhattan, San Francisco, or Chicago walks into a 7-11 and starts waving a gun around is far less likely to get a bullet for his troubles than if he had pulled the same stunt in, say, well, most red states.

I don’t know whether statistics bear it out or not, but I would think that would-be terrorists  are less likely to to get their jihad on when theres a reasonable chance that one of the folks they’re trying to corral into the walk-in freezer has a Glock in the pocket. Certainly having a little ace up your sleeve isnt a guarantee that youre going to get out of a situation like that, but I’d definitely feel my odds were better with it than without.

Of course, these sorts of precautions aren’t limited to worrying about terrorists. Given the increasingly unstable natures of a large portion of the population these days, it’s a good idea to drop the 640 or the G26 into the coat pocket when you walk out the door.

Here in the quiet hinterboonies the odds of some sort of recent immigrant-who-failed-to-assimilate going nuts and holding hostages in the local WalMart is virtually nil. It’s far more likely to be some low-class loser who just got kicked out of the trailer by his babymomma and figures he and his HiPoint will make the world pay. The proper response and solution to the problem, though, remains the same.

 

Followup article – Allure of Mystery Helps Recluse’s Gold Net $3.5M

Posted on by

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

You guys remember this post: $7 Million In Gold Bars Found In Reclusive Man’s Home Month After He Died

Well, the followup is that a portion of it was sold for $3.5 million the other day. Here’s the article:

The tale of a mysterious Nevada recluse’s gold has reached a new chapter when a portion of the trove raked in more than $3.5 million at auction.

The allure of mystery pulled some bidders to the courtroom where the auction took place Tuesday. For others, it was the sheer value of a collection unknown to the public before Walter Samaszko Jr. was found dead in his modest ranch-style home last year.

Regardless of motivation, those who converged on the auction could sense the immense value of the treasure upon arriving.

Numerous guards were stationed at the entrance, more in the hallway outside the courtroom, and finally several with bulletproof vests and others with helmets inside the room holding the gold.

Five bidders diligently inspected the 11 lots of gold displayed in plastic sleeves, tubes and felt jewelry display boxes heavily guarded room before the bidding wars began.

As I said, the sad thing about this is that The State found this guy’s stash before someone more deserving did. The article goes on to mention that the gold had been purchased as far back as the ’60s…so someone basically bought a little gold on a fairly regular basis. Sounds like the subscription plan my buddy offers. I suppose the major takeaway from this story is that you should let *someone* know about your stuff so that if you die those fiscally responsible guardians of public interests at the state don’t get it.

Article- Another survivalist development in Idaho?

Posted on by

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

ST. MARIES, Idaho (AP) — A group of survivalists wants to build a giant walled fortress in the woods of the Idaho Panhandle, a medieval-style city where residents would be required to own weapons and stand ready to defend the compound if society collapses.

The proposal is called the Citadel and has created a buzz among folks in this remote logging town 70 miles southeast of Spokane, Wash. The project would more than double the population of Benewah County, home to 9,000 souls.

Locals have many questions, but organizers so far are pointing only to a website billing the Citadel as “A Community of Liberty.”

“There is no leader,” Christian Kerodin, a convicted felon who is a promoter of the project, wrote in a brief email to The Associated Press. “There is a significant group of equals involved … each bringing their own professional skills and life experiences to the group.

 

Good luck with that. Getting 7000 families of people together in a demographic that encourages individuality and independence is a textbook definition of cat herding. Consider all the sub-groups, good and bad and wierd, that fall under the ‘survivalist’ umbrella – back-to-the-land folks, ‘anarchists’, christofascists, gold bugs, conspiracy theorists, christian identity, hippies, ‘anti-government’, pro-government, etc, etc – and you’d have a heck of a time finding seven families, let alone 7000, that are going to share quarters and make things work.

“Ties that bind” are formed in varying degrees of strength. First and strongest are familial or “blood” bonds. Siblings, parents and children, then weaker relations such as cousins and uncles/aunts. Next down the line would be ideological bonds such as a shared belief system (religious, political or philosophical). Next down would be the close friends..the guys you served with, childhood friends, etc. After that, casual friends and coworkers. At the bottom of the list, one step above ‘people I’m trapped in an elevator with’ is ‘people who paid an entrance fee to live in the same compound with me’. If the world truly comes to the stage that living in a Fujian Tulou improves your chances of survival, I would feel far more comfortable if that retreat were peopled with folks I loved and trusted rather than people who read the same websites I did and could afford a U-Haul.

Could such a ‘survival community’ work? Maybe. You’d have to start with a base of people who already had a well-developed sense of connection to each other…more than just ‘I love [liberty/jesus/guns/america].’ And even then, 7000 families just seems ridiculous. The Free State Project, the largest cat-herding project so far, is looking for 20000 people to commit to their cause and if you figure a family is defined as an average of three people then they too are looking for 7000 families….and theyre still coming up short and they have a much better campaign (and image) than this Citadel project.

A ‘survivalist’ community could work..heck, it already exists on some levels with just folks being good neighbors….but seven thousand families co-existing together as a unified group is just a pipe dream. Three or for families living along the same stretch of road, situated next to or across from each other, is probably about as big a ‘survival community’ as you can get without dipping into ‘Woodbury-esque‘ power games and intrigue.

Link – NY Democrat pleads with Republican not to share document proposing confiscation of guns

Posted on by

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

The State of New York this week passed some of the strictest gun control laws in the United States, effectively outlawing ‘assault weapons’ and limiting the size of magazines.

But if Republican Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin is to be believed, the New York State Democrats would have gone further if they could have. Much, much further.

In a video posted to his Facebook page, McLaughlin has shared the information of a ‘secret’ Democrat proposal not simply to make the purchasing of the crudely monikered ‘assault weapons’ illegal in New York, but also to engage in a mass confiscation programme, removing Americans’ weapons from their possession.

 

Now, before anyone gets all Alex-Jonesy here, keep in mind that this was proposed legislation that was shot down. Its entirely possibly, and even likely, that the folks that proposed it knew it wouldn’t go anywhere and simply put it forth to ‘send a message’. Having said that, don’t doubt that there were probably plenty of individuals in that room who thought this would have been a great idea.

I might have mentioned this in the past, but it’s a story that, while I get tired of typing it in, I never get tired of telling: many years ago, when I lived in Brooklyn (Chuck Schumers district, actually) I dutifully got my NYC Long Gun permit and, at the age of 18, acquired a nice collection of goodies. Among that collection were an HK93, an AR, AK, Mini-14, etc. Very soon after I got my permit, Ii moved to Montana. Never bothered to tell the folks at the “Firearms Control Bureau” because, well, screw them. So as far as they knew, I still lived at the address on file in Brooklyn. Some time goes by and one day a relative still living in NYC forwarded me a latter that was mailed to me at my old NY address. It was a note from the FCB telling me I was now in possession of those nasty ‘assault weapons’ and I had to either get ‘em out of the city or turn ‘em over to the cops. Now, I had been living in Montana for a couple years at this point and had no intention of moving back, so I scrawled in big letters “YOU WANT EM, COME AND GET EM” across the letter and mailed it back. (Yes, I was ‘Molon Labe’ before it was cool.) Some time goes by and I get a phone call from a relative saying “Hey, remember the house you used to live at? The new owner told me that the cops showed up there the other day looking for you and your guns.”

The moral of the story is that the only possible reason to register firearms is so they know where they are when it’s time to take ‘em. The folks in NY wouldn’t know where to go to seize those guns if they didn’t have a list of where they were…thats what registration winds up being used for, even if they say it’ll never come to that. Ask the folks in California how that worked out.

As an aside, I’m getting very tired of making posts about the recent gun issue. That isn’t what this blog is about, and there are plenty of blogs out there dedicated to the noble fight against those statist weasels. But…sometimes I just can’t help but feel I have to tell somebody about what’s going on in case they missed it. It wasnt the job of the guy waving the baton at the orchestra on the Titanic to warn of icebergs, but I guess he wouldve if he had the chance.

Biden: Obama Might Use Executive Order to Deal With Guns

Posted on by

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

There seems to be some disagreement on precisely what an EO could or could not do vis-a-vis firearms regulation. Something to think about: even if a law is found to be unconstitutional or illegal, until it is proved to be that (or a process is started to determine that…usually with an order to suspend enforcement pending further court drama), it is treated as legitimate. So, if an EO came through saying something bad, even if it were illegal and unconstitutional, it would still be the valid until the court challenges start.

 

“The president is going to act,” said Biden, giving some comments to the press before a meeting with victims of gun violence. “There are executives orders, there’s executive action that can be taken. We haven’t decided what that is yet. But we’re compiling it all with the help of the attorney general and the rest of the cabinet members as well as legislative action that we believe is required.”

 

The World Turned Upside Down

Posted on by

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

So…what kind of world is it when you want to flee a Socialist leader and his economic policies, you expat yourself, and the country that takes you in because it is a bastion of freedom from such Socialists is……Russia? I didn’t know they had a 13% flat tax. How amazingly…..progressive. Come up with better gun laws, less birthmarks on their women, and I might have to move.

In further examples of WTF-ery, we have these classified ads from yesterdays local paper:

img008The SKS has not been built that is worth $1300. And I don’t care how much cocaine and hookers it comes with, no Ruger AR is with $4300. And $2500 for an M&P that was dealering at around $600 a few months ago? Insane. And, please, lets not get started on the “Real US Army sniper rifle”. I will confess to being interested in the Ruger MKII, though…although I’de rather get it for $250.

And just to show that maybe things arent as hopeless as they seem, Here’s a shot from the post office today:

IMG_0582No more free Priority Mail tape for me to wrap my packages. Bummer. Hmmm…whats this scrawled at the bottom?

IMG_0581Well, someone has a sense of humour. Regrettably, it wasn’t me showing that sort of initiative.

Indeed, it’s an interesting world we’re in right now. Thats ‘interesting’ in the Chinese sense.

Article – Did paranoid, gun-crazed mother trigger son’s school killing spree? Friends sa

Posted on by

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

 

The mother of the loner who massacred 26 pupils and staff at a US primary school may have played a major part in his catastrophic mental breakdown, it emerged last night.

Friends and family portrayed Adam Lanza’s mother Nancy as a paranoid ‘survivalist’ who believed the world was on the verge of violent, economic collapse.

She is reported to have been struggling to hold herself together and had been stockpiling food, water and guns in the large home she shared with her 20-year-old son in Connecticut.

Mrs Lanza, 52, was a ‘prepper’ – so called because they are preparing for a breakdown in civilised society – who apparently became obsessed with guns and taught Adam and his older brother, Ryan, how to shoot, even taking them to local ranges.

That backfired horrifically on Friday when Adam Lanza began his killing spree by shooting his mother dead in bed.

 

Oy. This is not gonna go well.

Some of those behaviors that were ‘strange’ or ‘suspicious’? They’re SOP around here. We never let people who aren’t close friends into the house. We don’t let people know where we live. We stockpile all sortsa goodies. And yet…we haven’t shot up a school.

You watch….the survivalist/preparedness community, such as it is, is going to go from being regarded as that odd-but-harmless-cousin you shake your head about, to being regarded as a ticking timebomb.

For giggles, I went to a local gun shop Friday just to see if the panic buying had hit. Yup…mags were moving briskly and there were several people filling out the forms to pick up their new AKs. Ammo was walking out the door too.

I’m not going to say it’s a conspiracy, but lets look at this broadly: Obama gets re-elected, Fast N Furious spotlight those evil black guns, throw in a couple mass shootings, toss in some end-of-the-world drama, get out the usual pot-stirrers like Schumer, and you’ve got a recipe for something ungood coming down the pike shortly regarding your firearms. Magazine ban? Certainly thats the easiest thing to do since it doesn’t fly in the face of any Second Amendment issues. Bring back the AW ban? Maybe.

Regardless, I’m hoping this hits the end of the news cycle in about a week and we get back to our regular doom-n-gloom, but this story may have legs and wind up being the casus belli that this administration has been needing in order to ‘do something’ about the ‘easy access’ to ‘military style weapons that have no place on our streets’.

Article – New York City extends gas rationing; Bloomberg cites holiday travel crunch

Posted on by

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Gasoline rationing for drivers in New York City has been extended through Friday.

The odd-even license plate system for gasoline and diesel purchase, instituted on Nov. 9 following the aftereffects of superstorm Sandy, was scheduled to end on Monday.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced Sunday he was extending the emergency order, even as the long lines at the pump have diminished. Bloomberg noted the major travel week ahead due to Thanksgiving.

“The odd-even license plate system has worked well and helped to reduce wait times and lines at the pump,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “With 30 percent of gas stations still closed and a major travel week coming, I am extending the successful odd-even system on gas and diesel fuel purchases to ensure we do not risk going back to the extreme lines we saw prior to the system being implemented.”

Nice. In the name of ‘emergency’, Bloomberg declares gas rationing to be the law of the land. And then, because of a holiday, he continues his edict. Perhaps it would have been to much for him to simply expand his odd-even license plate scheme to use of the public streets.

An excellent example of local government getting high-handed. I wonder if the folks in NYC would be as complacent if they were rationing water, or milk, or food in this manner.

An excellent reason to have your own stockpile of fuel…because even without a disaster you can wind up finding yourself facing these sorts of third-world issues.