Weapons Man

This dumb idea keeps regenerating itself like respawning enemies in a zombie game, or, given the age and technology behind this dumb old idea, like the bad guys in Space Invaders, the ancient arcade video game (if you recognize the screen on the left, “the hill” is something you’re officially “over”).

We’ve mentioned before the old Paul Poole / Sandy Ballard trick of nailing target after target with a .45 at 100m, which they used as a way to wake up us young pups in SOT and make us pay attention. It was more of a stunt than something combat-useful, but it made us realize that those old guys (Hell, Poole was a SOG and Son Tay vet who must have been in his 40s, ancient!) had some powerful tricks to treat us new dogs. Here’s three missed shots until the fourth goes “ding!” at 100 yards. You can do learn to do this.

Every once in a while, we expect to find something in the historical record that just doesn’t seem to turn up. A perfect example of that is the special operations forces of the Empire of Japan in World War II.

Now, we never watched this jamoke’s TV show, although the promos we saw made motorcycle builder Jesse James look like a self-promoting blowhard. Now his new business is firearms, and he really looks like a blowhard. To wit, here is his new silencer:

This guy seems to shop at al-Bubba the gunsmith:

Everyone who ordered one of these should have gotten this update. It’s shared here for those of you who are just curious, not committed. Consider it a Guest Post by Cody R. Wilson. -Ed.

Terrence John “Terry” Peck was a cop on a rural beat, in one of the last remaining backwaters of the British Empire, but he’d retired from the force — as Chief — some time before. But the people in his community — Stanley, which passed for the capital of the windswept Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic — were alarmed by the news, and he had to do something. The Falklands were a British possession, claimed centuries before, and settled by a hardened breed who called themselves “Kelpers” and considered themselves and their community as British as a bowler hat.

Well, we have something else for the Saturday Matinee (another Amazon pilot, actually, hat tip to Tam and Roberta), and we finished watching this (six hours, counting five hours of Sam Adams and Geico ads) so we’re going to unload this one this morning. Call it a Wednesday Matinee.

Meet Deondrae Hall, who thought he was on really good terms with the Boynton Beach, FL police. How good? Well, good enough that he thought a detective might find this offer compelling:

OK, now that we’ve shown our age with a pop-music pun that 90% of the audience will not get, we want to send you to the imgur link where  Sir Keyboard Commando, whoever he may be, converts this piece of steel stock:

We all know the arguments. Sure, a gun in the wrong hands can mete out violence, death, loss, and suffering. But the same gun in the right hands can bring joy. It can be a family heirloom, murmoring comfort across generations. And it can be a bulwark of righteousness, defending the weak from arbitrary cruelties at the hands of the strong and lawless.

Here’s a statistic calculated to shock, but from a credible source:

According to the National District Attorneys Association, 10% of violent deaths in the United States are attributable to strangulation. That is a huge number, and one that demands police officers properly investigate and document strangulation cases. Recognizing the signs of strangulation is the first step in prosecuting this type of battery.

via Investigating Domestic Violence Strangulation :: Blue Sheepdog.

Click on through to the link to see the signs. Ever since reading this article we’re looking at everybody’s eyes and eyelids.

No strangulation victims yet, but they’re out there.

The article also explains the technical difference between choking and strangulation. It may be a  distinction without a difference to the decedent, but it matters to those who would prosecute him.

We asked Mayor Bloomberg to fund our great new non-profit moneymaker selfless enterprise, Everytown Against Strangle Violence, but he doesn’t return our calls. He must be a very busy man.

A small local corporation and two of its principals are now felons, thanks to playing fast and loose with export licensing on two aircraft fuel gauges. A long investigation by HSI, ICE and DCIS investigators led to arrests and guilty pleas this month.

The local TV stations are predicting that we’re going to get hammered with snow and wind, maybe 7 or 10 or 31 inches of the white stuff in 40 or 50 or 70 knot winds. The reporters are reporting this with the sort of glee that sportscasters everywhere but New England have lavished on Tom Brady’s undersize balls lately.

Well. we’ve missed all the others, and this time the shoe’s on the other foot. A few miles to the south, the People’s Republic got a relative dusting, but we got schmacked.

We’re now two-four for on TW3s for 2015. OK, so this one is a day late (and, presumably, a dollar short; you can apply for your refund at refunds@dev/nul). Well, actually, it’s about 12 hours late; does that make it 50¢ short? But it’s here, and that’s something.

By now you’ve already seen the trailer of American Sniper, and a good number of you have already seen the movie. You’ve certainly seen some of the other reviews, and some of the media controversy the film has stirred up. Thus, the question becomes: what can we add, without spoiling it for those who have yet to see the movie?

In a strange Pennsylvania case, a 13-year-old murder may be finally closed by a conviction, based on the way the court case is going. And the murderer, who killed a man and woman to rob them, may actually be sentenced to death.

In April, 1775, the Revolutionary War opened with a bloodless British victory in Lexington, followed by an easy victory in Concord… followed by a sanguinary and hard-fought retreat that made the British relief force’s (QRF, 18th-Century style) leader, Brigadier-General Lord Hugh Percy, bitterly aware he hadn’t won at all.

We were asked that yesterday and we pontifically pronounced, “it fired from the open bolt in automatic mode, and from the close bolt in semi.”