Weapons Man

An anti-gun group has placed stories in several newspapers describing how a select group of murderers — recent high-profile spree killers — got their guns. The point of the exercise seems to be to (1) suggest that murderers buy their guns the same was as millions of peaceable people do, and therefore (2) justify the gun-control billionaires’ long-term goal of disarming said peaceable people.

We bounced out of bed, full of ambition, at 0700. By about 0710 we were reclining in a chair (a recliner, naturally), with Small Dog, under a poncho liner. We emerged about 1100 when it was time to deposit Kid at Driver’s Ed. On the way back we bought some odds and ends and reflected on our plan for the rest of the day.

And how it was out the window. We’re catching up on the week’s sleep deficit (sleep scientists: don’t bother, we know that doesn’t really work). And we may catch up on some overdue posts, and this PM, it’s off to see The Martian with family. (Blogbrother and his family, minus some chicks who are opting for chick-flick fare instead, are seeing it separately at 1200, because of scheduling conflicts. The world seems to orbit the schedules of teens and tweens these days).

You can’t have boilers without fire. And you can’t have fire without risking FOOM. There was a FOOM in the room thirty-something stories above the sea-level streets of Miami, leaving scattered hither and yon hunks of concrete, parts of the boiler in question, four injured citizens and a couple of bonus injured firefighters.

Smart Diplomacy. You see it in Syria. You see it in Afghanistan. And you see it in colleges and universities. Smart Dip. It’s totally a thing!

Two minutes of mirth, courtesy of some Fox show… perhaps Greg Gutfeld’s.

It reminds us of this hopeful sign:

Yeah, that’ll work.

We’ll cover the usual subjects: Guns, Usage and Employment, Cops ‘n’ Crims, Unconventional (and current) Warfare, and Lord Love a Duck!

(There are no pictures with this story. If you must see the survivors of these attacks (and the perps, for that matter), follow the links. –Ed.)

Who looks at a building like this and thinks, “Nice place. Wouldn’t it be fun to get knee-walking drunk and stumble off the roof?” But judging from results, some people do.

One thing’s clear: you’d have liked this guy. The Army Times had a story, but we just pulled the bits his friends had to say about him.

More details continue to emerge about the shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. It is likely that, as more information proves out, many initial reports will be exposed as inaccurate (indeed, we speculated in comments that because the police were very slow to release the ID of the shooter, he was probably a Moslem. Instead, he seems to have been a native-born, religion-free nut job motivated by dreams of television celebrity).

On their way to Yemeni terrorists, a shipment of ATGMs in a lawless, stateless ship. It was briefly detained by an allied navy — and its cargo of missiles dumped into the sea.

In Debenhams department store in Oxford Street, London, there is a large, airy atrium with an escalator bank along one side. Anyone who has set foot there will recall it. But in the last year, not one but two people have taken the Dive of Death from the [British, where “ground” is American “first”] fourth-floor escalator to a bone-crushing deceleration below. In November, 2014, a man died; the young woman who fell in September isn’t dead. Yet.

It turns out, what happened in September, 2013, is not what we’ve been told. The official line goes something like this: that up to a dozen armed jihadis attacked, killed hundreds, holed up with dozens of hostages and blew the place up, and were taken out in a determined assault by Nairobi SWAT.

Criminal depravity is neither uniquely American nor anything new. But this is a particularly cold-blooded incident.

Some of our favorite feeds, plus our own site, shown in our RSS reader.

ISIL flag. Anybody’s guess what the circle represents…

As the echo of one of Murphy’s favorite expressions, FOOM!, fades away, we open with the sound of rotor blades as critically-injured children are life-flighted to a hospital and a chance of survival…

One of the most thankless Jobs in World War II aviation was that of the maritime patrol pilot. No glory there, just long flights over water — usually, deadly cold water. And usually in airplanes that were sitting ducks for anything else in the air.

Yes, we’re still in early phases with additive-manufactured firearms, but the technology is coming along, as are the users.

From time to time, people, especially young people, ask this question. We’re not gun design engineers, although we’re fascinated by their work; we’re, relatively speaking, dilettantes.