08:37 – My favorite quote so far about the school shooting yesterday came from a police spokesman, who said that the shooter “may have suffered from a personality disorder.” Ya think? Most people would agree that a young man who shoots and kills his mother and then drives to the school where she taught and shoots down 20 kindergarten kids in cold blood is not quite right, to say the least.
Naturally enough, there is already a clamor for the government to Do Something. The problem is, there’s nothing that can be done to stop lunatics from going berserk. We might just as well demand that the government prevent tornadoes or earthquakes. Well, since essentially all of these mass murderers are young men, I suppose we might imprison all young men until they’re older men, but there are some practical difficulties with that idea, not to mention Constitutional ones. One thing is sure: more gun control laws aren’t going to help.
Well, there is one thing that would definitely significantly reduce the number and severity of these outrages. Allow ordinary people who choose to do so to carry firearms, openly or concealed, without requiring any permit, testing, or other restrictions. Anyone, anywhere, anytime. Any firearm. That way, when the wolf shows up, there will always be at least a few sheepdogs mixed in with the flock of sheep. And save harmless from any criminal or civil penalties any person who, in such a situation, stands up to the wolf.
12:55 – From one of the comments, here’s a sight you won’t see in the USA, more’s the pity.
It’s an Israeli schoolteacher, doing her job. It literally brings tears to my eyes, thinking about those women who sacrificed their lives trying to protect those children yesterday. They had only their bare hands and their bodies, so they used what they had and died trying. If only each of those classrooms had been equipped with a loaded assault rifle for emergencies. Or even a deer rifle. They might have had a fighting chance, and we might not have had 20 dead children and six dead teachers.
“My favorite quote so far about the school shooting yesterday came from a police spokesman, who said that the shooter “may have suffered from a personality disorder.” Ya think? ”
My favorite is from a used car guy at a car lot adjoining a local airport. Responding to a TV news yapper after a light plane crash, he replied: “We had no warning….”
While helping my daughter grade papers at her elementary school class yesterday afternoon, they announced an intruder with a gun on campus so my daughter locked the classroom door and we all had to get on the floor and under a table. It turned out to be just a drill. Coincidence, or scheduled?
Agreed again with Robert and MrAtoz; and we know that there are tens of millions of firearms owners in the country already; let’s ramp up the concealed-carry training out there and strip away all penalties and hassles if a civvie makes a righteous shoot. We have some great training schools available here and we should all post their website links and those of related info and intel all over the net from now on. Maybe also bring over some Israeli pros to show us The Way, or at least illustrate their experiences and learning curve over the years.
I’d stay away from hack pols and lawyers on the legislative front, however; they’ll stab us in the back and fuck it all up, per their SOP. And Holy Mother State will also try to fuck us up and run the whole show by themselves, which they are demonstrably so good at.
“…we all had to get on the floor and under a table.”
I’m always carrying; I’d leave my daughter under there with the other kids and adult/s, make sure the doors were locked and head on out to find that dude. A drill? Fine; then I’d go find whoever kicked it off and have words with them.
Boy that’s a tough call, particularly if you have only one weapon. As Jeff Cooper used to say about the funhouse, “the lesson is, you move, you lose”. Given a choice, I’d always lie in wait and shoot the bad guy before he realizes I’m there. If possible, I’d shoot him in the back. Also, if you start moving through the scene, there’s a good chance you’ll be mistaken for the shooter by cops or another armed civilian. And if you leave the area where that first group of innocents is, you leave them unprotected unless you have a spare weapon to leave with them. On the other hand, I guess none of us could just sit there and do nothing while kids and women are slaughtered.
Anybody think gun sales will go through the roof? Yet again. It appears some dumbshit pols think the kid had a machine gun. Ban automatic weapons! Ban large capacity mags! Blame Bush!
Tyranny is coming. Go buy your loved one a gun for the holidays. And 2,000 rounds for it.
I’ve actually been thinking about buying Barbara an 1894-style lever action in .357 Mag. The .357 is a lot more potent from a 16+ inch carbine/rifle barrel than a pistol barrel, even with factory rounds. And it’s a lot easier to hit things with the longer sight line, particularly if I upgraded the factory sights to a decent ring sight.
I used to have an 1894 in 30-30, and I liked it a lot. It’s light, short, reliable, and accurate. It’s a low-profile weapon in the sense that people associate it with deer hunting and wild west shows rather than the military.
The only reason I haven’t bought an 1894 in .357 (or several of them) is that they load one round at a time. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a commercial speed loader for one, but it’d be easy enough to make up a bunch of them with 15 or 18″ lengths of half-inch ID stiff PVC pipe, some 7/16″ doweling, wire coat hangers, and some duct tape. With those, you could reload in about two seconds flat.
I’ve a lovely 1894 in .307, which is getting harder and harder to find, but will drop a deer in it’s tracks. I expect the same performance against human adversaries. I’d like to find one in 30-30 just for the ease in locating ammo.
In cowboy movies, you had two rifles, and fired one, while your woman loaded the other…
I have not bought a new gun in years. Where is the best place? I wish that Walmart would go back to carrying guns, I have bought thousands of rounds there in the last couple of years.
My son and one of my employees tells me to buy at gun shows so that any purchases will not be tracked.
Academy is carrying the side ejection Marlin in 30/30 for $360.
http://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_10051_392403_-1
This fellow like the Henry .357 also:
http://www.chuckhawks.com/compared_big-boy_1894C_1873.htm
Yeah, it is a tough call, Bob; on an initial report of armed perp on the premises my inclination is to make a beeline for him. Ideally one adult I leave behind with the kids is armed and trained but that is just dreaming. I really can’t sit there and wait for whatever, although I realize the implications of moving out. It depends on the exact scenario at the time, pretty much.
I like the lever .357 as a choice; very common ammo and good power and accuracy. Excellent for CQB at the house/neighborhood. Beyond that, not so much. I am also liking very much the new Rock River Arms Delta Carbine, an AK on an AR platform.
“Tyranny is coming. Go buy your loved one a gun for the holidays. And 2,000 rounds for it.”
Yes. There it is.
Make the rounds (pun intended again) of gun shows. Pay cash.
This man makes perfect sense:
http://www.crimefilenews.com/2012/12/why-do-we-refuse-to-protect-our-school.html
What kind of bugs me, again, is that no adult in either this case or the one in Colorado was able to get to the perp and *physically* get him down and at least have a few seconds for others to pile on, as has occurred in a couple of the airplane hijackings. Not to denigrate for one second the struggle that they must have made and the sheer courage that it took. It just bugs me.
They may not have had the chance. I don’t have a good idea of what happened, how long it took, and so on. I gather that the principal, Dawn Hochsprung, and the school psychologist, Mary Sherlach, were in a meeting, heard shots, headed for the sound of the shots, and were gunned down. A kindergarten teacher, Victoria Soto, was killed apparently while trying to shield the kids with her body. I don’t know anything about the three other adults who were killed.
OK, talked my daughter, in retrospect, the question above was ill-considered. It was both, scheduled and concidence. She told me this AM that her email alerted to it when she got in yesterday AM. That the school had a lockdown drill scheduled for that day was a coincidence.
What next for me? Will I be fingerprinted and vetted before I am allowed to go back and volunteer?
The school locked itself up after the kids were in and classes started. People with business in the school had to be buzzed in via a camera/monitor set-up. The kid was known to the principal, who buzzed him in. How difficult is it to put an armed guard at the sole entry point, instead of having remote control buzzers? It would have saved the school in this case. NO school should be letting people in without previously arranged appointments. In fact, school business with outsiders should not be conducted around the kids, IMO. That should be done in the central office, which should be located in a place far away from the children.
Ever notice that it is not women who shoot places up? Even in the lone case I know of, Patty Hearst claims she was forced at gunpoint to enter that bank.
But beyond the fact it is males doing this, it appears to me that it is males with mental disorders who are taking drugs. That apparently was the case at Ft. Hood and in the Colorado movie theater. Don’t know about yesterday’s Connecticut killer, yet.
Yeah, it’s always young males with severe problems and they were either ignored, blown off, and/or ostracized by peers and adults both. They get shunted off to drugs by psych types and counselors, and it’s voodoo medicine and treatment according to Mrs OFD and a crapshoot as to whether any of it will work. Plus they’re afraid of telling anybody or talking to anybody and they often quit taking the drugs anyway. We need to identify and reach out to these kids in our own lives; some of us have known or know who they are; like that girl who killed herself because of the insane piece of shit stalker. One kind word may be all that’s needed. And as the police chief in my younger brother’s town said, it goes a lot deeper than watching too many violent movies or playing violent video games; it’s primarily neglect and ostracism. And over generations, learned behavior in how to cope with those things, i.e., drugs, booze, violence.
“What next for me? Will I be fingerprinted and vetted before I am allowed to go back and volunteer?”
Of course. You have expressed unsound sentiments many times and are a security hazard. We already have your prints, sir. Please step this way; we have a few questions for you.
I suspect a lot of this has to do with the attempt to feminize boys. Boys are not girls, and attempting to force them to behave like girls comes to no good.
Hey CowboySlim, I am amazed that you have not been finger printed and vetted yet as a constant visitor to your daughter’s class. My church has the policy that all childcare workers must be finger printed and vetted before they can work in the nursery or children’s classes.
Agreed again with Bob! Yep, the feminization of the American male; that was accomplished a generation or two ago by the Virulent Matriarchy which rules family and publik skool and church life. Now we are all being infantalized. (not even sure that’s a word, but what the hell, it’s English and we can do anything we want with English.)
Slim’s prints are long since on file and I am guessing that he’s been vetted already, too, in some shape or form by the Authorities. If not, he will be Real Soon Now.
I suspect a lot of this has to do with the attempt to feminize boys. Boys are not girls, and attempting to force them to behave like girls comes to no good.
Hadn’t thought about that, but it seems likely. Boys and adolescents need to learn to blow off steam, i.e., the steam created by young male bodies with lots of testosterone. Don’t let them learn to cope, make them suppress any aggressiveness…could well be part of the explanation.
Of course, this kind of thing just makes them argue even more strongly for suppressing male tendencies…
Perhaps all males should be castrated instead of circumcised and then subjected to regular electro-shock treatments for the duration, as they are relegated to menial slave-labor tasks and battleground cleanup while robots do the real work of industry and war. The NFL, NBA, etc. will be no more and the service academies will be exclusively female, where the cadets will train to manage robot armies, drones and male homo sapiens sapiens as draft animal labor. Semen will be regularly collected, evaluated, and purified so that all future births will be female as males are gradually eliminated from the world population.
“Slim’s prints are long since on file and I am guessing that he’s been vetted already, too, in some shape or form by the Authorities…..”
Exactly….many years ago…job related though… not police station booking desk. lol
You can get driving directions to the nearest police station booking desk, sir. Why not go there now, turn yourself in, and save our heroic law enforcement professionals some time? You clearly have unsound tendencies and have frequently been known to utter inappropriate sentiments. Do the right thing.
I don’t have a chance of being accepted. Due to court conclusions of prison overcrowding, prisoners convicted of violent felonies are being released. For example, within the last two weeks there was a boarding house killing spree, 4 victims, shot by a parolee, with several parole violations, whom a judge refused to send back to prison.
I suspect a lot of this has to do with the attempt to feminize boys. Boys are not girls, and attempting to force them to behave like girls comes to no good.
Exactly. When I was in school when boys got into a fight a male teacher broke it up. Later that day at the end of school we all gathered in the gym and watched a slugfest. The participants had on boxing gloves and the event was supervised by a coach or two. The combantants usually wore themselves out with no damage to either. After it was over the coach made them shake hands. The aggression was over and there were no more issues.
I participated in a a few of these events myself. Wearing glasses, carrying a slide rule and driving a hay truck (loaded with baled hay naturally) I was pretty much doomed and the subject of much ridicule. Rather than let it fume I was allowed to take out my aggression and frustration on the target of the abuse. Lost a couple, won most of them if you want to call it winning.
Nowadays the boys are sent to “time-out” and given a coloring book designed by some phsycologist with a worthless degree and even more worthless ideas. As was stated earlier, voodoo science. This does nothing to settle the issue or appease the aggression. All it does is make you pissed off at crayons.
My son had an issue with a child while in school. Schools answer was not effective against the aggressor. So I gave my son permission to knock the shit out of the aggressor. I then informed the school that I had given such permission. I also informed the parents of the other child and the child themselves. The school phsycologist was aghast at my statement and I basically told her she was clueless and to also leave my son alone.
“I don’t have a chance of being accepted.”
Oh sure, I thought that was understood; certainly not for a crime of violence. It is your speech and thought crimes that will get you prison time and maybe execution. Take Raymond with you. Also MrAtoz, SteveF, our host and me. We will no doubt be accepted in a jiffy.
I guess my comment was to posit that if all these deranged young people (and all of them recently have been young) were taking drugs to deal with their psychological problems, then I would say: look to the drugs as setting off some inner bomb in these kids. Seems to keep happening over and over, but nobody explores the connection.
Here’s another radio prank that did not have such devastating results, but nonetheless, Dean Baker calling out the Washington Post on so MANY outright lies, gives some idea of how much news reporting should be believed these days.
http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/scores-suckered-by-radio-stunt-on-quebec-language-law-for-dogs-1.1080225
From the CBC came the report that Montreal dogs would be required to learn 80 commands in both English and French, and be able to respond to them, should the dog get loose and a policeman want to summon the dog.
Government is so out-of-control, that this was widely accepted as truth. I heard it presented as fact on a local US radio station just now. Had to look that one up, and it turns out to be one more widely-believed fiction with no true foundation.
Ammo for cat haters: http://www.medicaldaily.com/articles/13439/20121208/study-reveals-tiny-suicide-inducing-cat-parasite.htm
It would be funny if OFD were right and I got hauled away for things I said online. In particular, that it wouldn’t be the number of men I’ve killed but the speech I uttered or typed — you know, that Constitutionally-protected stuff — that was the issue. But of course, killing muggers doesn’t directly threaten the ruling class (though the mind-set behind resisting attacks and theft is troubling, very troubling) but speaking out against the ruling class, does.
A border collie helping out with research.
He appeared to make distinctions based first on object size, then, when he had longer to become familiar with the new objects, on the basis of texture. Object shape appeared to have no influence.
Ammo for cat haters:
My first reaction was that a .22 LR aught to be sufficient.
Ah-yup. Both Washington Post and Slate quote family and neighbors as saying the Newtown shooter was on medication up to the end. One stated he was prone to tantrums, but they never saw him as violent. That report was from contact years ago, however. Apparently, the mom quit her job teaching kindergarten at the school, because Adam was requiring fulltime attention at home—even though he was 20.
Time to look closer at the drugs, IMO.
Hey Bob, how do you like this Israeli beach?
http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01546/bikini-gun-girl_1546417a.jpg
I went to Academy today to look at the Marlin 30-30 and discovered that they are *out* and cannot keep those in stock. I did get schooled on the difference between a .223 and 5.56. A 5.56 can shoot a .223 but a .223 cannot shoot a 5.56. I did not know that. I sure that my son would have happy to school me also.
Academy had the weirdest John Wayne lever action .357 pistol there for sale:
http://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_10051_324753_-1__?N=39632023
Yup, that is classified as a pistol since the barrel is less than 18 inches.
It’s an Israeli schoolteacher, doing her job.
I’ve been googling that picture and apparently that is the mother of one of the kids there, carrying a government issued M1. All school field trips must have an armed guard by law since the Maalot School terrorist attack. I like this!
It literally brings tears to my eyes, thinking about those women who sacrificed their lives trying to protect those children yesterday. They had only their bare hands and their bodies, so they used what they had and died trying. If only each of those classrooms had been equipped with a loaded assault rifle for emergencies. Or even a deer rifle. They might have had a fighting chance, and we might not have had 20 dead children and six dead teachers.
+1 and I wish I could say plus one billion.
Another impressive Israeli picture:
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2012/07/bruce-w-krafft/israeli-gun-rights-advocate-how-do-we-get-to-shall-issue/
My understanding is that there were gun control laws in force (such as age for owning handguns). Guess what? They didn’t work! The murderer didn’t obey the laws. Shades of the Port Arthur massacre and Martin Bryant, although thankfully not quite as effective.
So, in view of that, what should we do? I know! Introduce stricter, more Draconian gun laws. That’ll fix the problem! Victimise the innocent gun-owners who could have solved the problem, so that the law will control proven gun-law-breakers. Yeah!
I was married to a paranoid schizophrenic (or bipolar, or whatever this week’s buzzword is) for twenty years. Their mental processes are definitely NOT logical, although they can rationalise them. Part of their problem (or rather the problem of the people around them) is that the medication that controls their delusions makes them feel “dull” and “controlled”, because their active mental mis-processes feel “sharp” and “bright” to them. In fact, for hours at a time, they can be functioning at a much higher level of intelligence than they average, but their thoughts are not based entirely in fact, but on paranoid delusions. SO they actively connive to go “off their meds”, and their connection to reality slips from tenuous to outright hallucinatory.
So, yeah, go for it! More laws, new laws, further victimising the innocent, will definitely control the insane and the lawbreakers that ignored the old laws.
Ya think?
Nice pics, especially the bikini girls. Was disappointed to see that only one took her personal safety seriously.
Not really. A rifle chambered for either can fire either. The cartridges are identical in size, but are loaded to different pressures and the barrels have different leades (unrifled sections immediately forward of the chamber). Other than bolt-action rifles, most rifles that are labeled as “.223” are actually chambered for 5.56mm, including Barbara’s Ruger Mini-14.
If Barbara has a Ruger Mini-14 why would you want her to have an 1894 as well? It seems less capable, to my untrained eye.
The sound of a lever action can turn a man’s bowels into water, just like the sound of a pump action shotgun can.
Three possible reasons off the top of my admittedly addled head; that .357 lever will serve as a nice hunting rifle and will excite less unwanted attention when publicly toted around than the Mini-14; its ammo is at least as common as the .223 and it is a good thing to have firearms that can handle both types; it will have less susceptibility to those issues that occur with semi-autos, i.e. magazine feeding problems, etc. And the bonus is that it is reminiscent of Ye Olde West and cowboy stuff, a solid American staple for yea, these many generations now.
I have a Ruger mini-14 in stainless. Awesome gun. The aftermarket 30 shot clip jams a little sometimes towards the end of the clip but, life…
So do the .223 and 5.56 not have different pressures? That was my impression. I guess that I could google that…
What was the tv show where the lead carried a cut down lever action 30-30 with a big John Wayne lever? I thought it was “Have Gun, Will Travel” but that appears to be wrong.
Ah, google is my friend. Steve McQueen was Josh Randall in “Wanted: Dead or Alive” and carried a cut down Marlin 45-70:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mare%27s_Leg
Yes, the 5.56 and .223 have different pressures.
McQueen’s Mare’s Leg is legendary, and was Steve’s personal gun, not a prop owned by the studio.
I thought The Rifleman played by Chuck Connors used a cut down Marlin, but was in fact a factory barrel length.
“Yes, the 5.56 and .223 have different pressures.”
True. Just the opposite of the .308.
The 5.56 NATO has higher pressures than the standard .223 round.
The 7.62 NATO has lower pressure than most .308 rounds.
It is NOT a good idea to use a high-velocity .308 round in your Ishapore 7.62 SMLE, or your standard M1A rifle. Although why you’d want to I don’t know – The 7.62NATO, like the .303 British, .30 Government, 7.5mm French or 7.5mm Swiss, 7mm Mauser or 6.5mm Swede is more than good enough. It’s only when you get to grizzly bears that I’d go looking for a 30/06, 7.62x54R, 8mm (7.92mm) Mauser, 12Gauge slugs, or 45-70 as an essential level of preparedness. Although they might be nice to have on moose as well.
Agreed on the bear and moose calibers; I have yet to see a bear here in northern VT but Mrs. OFD saw one in the ‘hood (state capital) where her mom used to live. He was rummaging through the rubbish, of course. Only seen one moose so far, a large male, galloping down State Route 2 in a densely populated and very busy morning rush hour traffic area a few months ago. Quite startling.
When I was in Alaska fishing a few years ago, had a close encounter with a silvertip grizzly. About 20 ft away from me and was several feet taller than me (I’m 6’1″). We yelled at it and he walked away. Our guide ran to the plane and got out his .458 Magnum and fired it downstream.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.458_Winchester_Magnum
The guide said everything else for a grizzly was a mosquito bite. The .458 Magnum might take it down with one shot IF you hit the heart.
Damn, son; y’all lucked out nicely; I hear tell that encounters wid dem guys run about 50-50. Pointless to run, climb a tree or swim; just put a little salt and pepper on yerself and offer him a bottle of Frank’s Red Hot.