Sebastian – Page 118 – Shall Not Be Questioned

A Good Explanation for the Trump Phenomena

Trump’s success in the early primary season has pretty much baffled anyone who is an avid observer of politics. I’ve been reading Scott Adams series that Donald Trump is a master persuader, very skilled in the art of persuasion. I think there’s probably something to that, but the big fact that I think stands in the way of that theory is that Trump has run for President before, and never managed to get all that far. It’s possible that the environment had to be just right for his populist fire to start burning, and now he’s at the right place at the right time.

I’m not a regular reader of RedState, but this particular article caught my attention, and I think it’s a pretty good explanation for the Trump phenomena:

I donâ€™t think the Trump support is reflective of any issue at all. I donâ€™t think itâ€™s even reflective of disgust with the GOP. I think itâ€™s reflective of the disgust we have with the new unwritten rules of society …

… The reality is that people are excited to see, hey, hereâ€™s a guy who goes on TV, and if he wants to pop off at the mouth, he pops off at the mouth, and if this guy can rise to being President of the United States then maybe I donâ€™t have to always shut my mouth and I can sometimes say what I feel and maybe I can call my annoying coworker ugly and not have to risk being sued, too.

Read the whole thing, as they say. That makes a lot of sense to me. I know I’m tired of the Troller in Chief in the White House stirring up division for political advantage, and sick of seeing people’s lives destroyed for expressing opinions that run counter to the prevailing left-wing orthodoxy. It is satisfying to watch someone giving the middle finger to the PC police and the media (but I repeat myself) and get away with it.

I was leaning towards Scott Walker out of the gate. Walker is a proven fighter and reformer,andÂ heÂ pulled it off while coming off as midwestern boring to the public. To me the ideal candidate is one who can maintain an air of public respectability and charm, but behind the scenes will eviscerate his enemies with a surgical precision. Walker did that very well. That is his record. Another political figure who is very good at that schtick? Barack Obama. In fact, I would argue that Obama is the master of this style, with a talent for it not likely to be seen again in our lifetimes.

Walker is out now, largely because I don’t think very many people wanted what he was offering. He probably also screwed himself by listening to the GOP consultant class rather than being himself. But I think he was ultimately done-in by the fact thatÂ a large part of the GOP base, the ones enamored with Trump, don’t want midwestern nice. They want vengeance, and Trump is playing to that.

Scott Adams is predicting Trump will go all the way, and win the Presidency in a landslide. I will admit, I’d vote for Trump over any of the three possible Democratic candidates, but I will definitely have a “Dear God, what have we done?” moment if that ends up being the choice. Right now I don’t have a horse to back, and it’ll probably stay that way until I can see whether Carly can build momentum, or whether she starts getting repetitive. I’m also keeping an eye on Rubio.

Shooting the LARC M19-A

In the last news links post, I mentioned having fired an LARC M19-A BB-machine gun, linking to an article about it in Small Arms Review. My friend and sometimes co-blogger Jason still has the one I fired, and offered to take some video of it in action. It’s a lot of fun. If the anti-gun folks like calling semi-automatic rifles a bullet hose, this is about the closest you’ll come to one, except it shoots BBs. Watch it tear up this empty anti-freeze bottle:

Jason told me that the regulator on his air compressor struggled to feed the beast enough air, but there’s one good satisfying burst.

Partial Win in DC Circuit

A 3 judge panel has struck down some of DC’s gun laws. In the Heller IIIÂ case. The Court threw out their gun rationing scheme, which is good news. The panel struck down the requirement that gun owners re-register every three years, appear in person, but upheld registration and training in general. The full opinion can be found here:

For the reasons set forth above, the district courtâ€™s final order is AFFIRMED with respect to: the basic registration requirement as applied to long guns, D.C. Code Â§7- 2502.01(a); the requirement that a registrant be fingerprinted and photographed and make a personal appearance to register a firearm, D.C. Code Â§ 7-2502.04; the requirement that an individual pay certain fees associated with the registration of a firearm, D.C. Code Â§ 7-2502.05; and the requirement that registrants complete a firearms safety and training course, D.C. Code Â§ 7-2502.03(a)(13). The district courtâ€™s order is REVERSED with respect to the requirement that a person bring with him the firearm to be registered, D.C. Code Â§ 7- 2502.04(c); the requirement that a gun owner re-register his firearm every three years, D.C. Code Â§7-2502.07a; the requirement that conditions registration of a firearm upon passing a test of knowledge of the Districtâ€™s firearms laws, D.C. Code Â§7-2502.03(a)(10); and the prohibition on registration of â€œmore than one pistol per registrant during any 30-day period,â€ D.C. Code Â§ 7-2502.03(e).

Mixed bag, really. I’d probably not want to file cert on this case unless there’s a change on the Supreme Court that would make it stronger on the Second Amendment. It would be risky taking a case challenging these issues forward.

h/t Dave Hardy

Weekly Gun News – Edition 15

Just when you think maybe your fall won’t be that busy, the landlord boots our company from its palatial estate. Not because they don’t like us or anything, but because we lease from a client of ours, and they need the space for themselves. We’ve known this was coming for a while, but now it’s panic time. This is going to make a lot of work for me over the next several weeks, so I appreciate everyone’s patience. But let us see how many useful tabs I have open:

Gun writer Frank James has passed on. R.I.P.

Lessons from the field: don’t misplace your gun.

As a tech geek, it gets on my nerves when tech geeks comment on technology, like guns, they don’t know the first thing about.

Millennial may be moving to greater gun ownership. I feel like I wrote about this or linked this before, but maybe I only intended to. I’ve said before, I think gun control advocates are going to be disappointed with this generation. Gun control is a movement of old white women, for the most part.

A dose of reality about Australian gun laws.

“The biggest gun grabber in the IL State Senate, Dan Kotowski, is stepping down to join a ‘Child Advocacy’ group in Chicago.”

Here’s the old gun and cars meme again, saying we should treat guns more like cars, even though we already mostly do. Cars are actually far less regulated in many areas. Our opponents have always tried to deceive people into believing that guns are essentially unregulated.

Al-Queda is targeting billionaires, including Mike Bloomberg. Good thing they have all that armed security. Remember, good guys with guns never stop bad guys with guns, right Mike?

Dave Hardy has been digging through the Clinton Archives, looking at his executive agenda on guns. I’d wear gloves if I were you, Dave. You don’t know where those documents have been.

A look at Time Kaine’s gun control bill.

They don’t want a national conversation about gun control, as they claim, they want to lecture everyone else.

A guide for GOP candidates on how to fill Court vacancies. A lot is at stake this coming election. The next President will shape the court for a generation.

I’ve actually fired one of these. Very fun.

GOA endorses Ted Cruz. Jacob is right, that it’s way too early. But it all makes sense if you understand that GOA may have motivations that go beyond gun rights.

The Pennsylvania State Police have no authority to conduct inspections of FFLs, absent a valid warrant.

Apparently hunting licenses and hunting fees are an important part of wildlife conservation in Africa. Who would have guessed? Actually, I’m surprised to see this in the New York Times.

The police are allowed to take your firearm during a traffic stop, says federal court. Pennsylvania isn’t a duty to inform state. How did the officer find out you had a gun? If I’m not legally obligated, I never tell an officer I’m armed. Just goes smoother and safer that way.

McAuliffe brings an armed guard to the gun control rally. They are big, important people, you see. Know your place, peasant!

I don’t know how many times I’ve seen people floating this idiotic idea over the 15 years I’ve been paying attention to this issue, but it’s still as dumb today as it was then.

Clayton Cramer says to the anti-gun folks, if they don’t like guns, stop promoting bans, because threats of bans seem to sell a lot of guns. Like I’ve said before, the gun control movement is having an impact.

You don’t say: “Criminals Pretty Much Avoid Buying Guns Legally, Says University of Chicago Study”

Dispelling a common myth: “You Donâ€™t Need a License to Own a Gun In Philadelphia” Gun ownership in Philadelphia is the same as in the rest of the state, except you need a License to Carry Firearms to carry a firearm on the streets at all, openly or concealed.

Off Topic:

Rudy Giuliani shows how to sell conservative ideas without making it seem like you want to push grandma off a cliff or starve the homeless.

Hillary’s campaign is imploding. This is no real surprise. I’ve seen Township Supervisors with more raw political talent. Her only real political accomplishment was marrying Bill Clinton. She’d have trouble getting elected dog catcher otherwise.

Text of S.2016, Tim Kaine’s New Gun Control Bill

This bill isn’t meant to be serious, it’s mean to grab headlines. It’s shameful. It doesn’t not have even a single cosponsor as of this writing.Â It’s so short it’ll take just a minute to read. Basically it converts the offense of selling a gun to a prohibited person into a strict liability offense. That’s all it does. It doesn’t define what measures constitute “reasonable steps to determine that the recipient is not legally barred from possessing firearms or ammunition.” So we have no idea how one complies with this law. It’ll end up being whatever the judge decides it is. If this were a serious bill, and not an epic troll on the part of Senator Kaine, this bill would be a big concern to FFLs.

In actuality, this bill is likely unconstitutional, since it creates a serious felony offense as a strict liability crime. Typically serious offenses require culpability on the part of the accused. That’s even putting aside the Second Amendment issues. This bill is a joke, literally. Kaine thinks so little of your gun rights, he doesn’t even have the decency to take twenty more minutes to make a serious bill. This was about grabbing headlines, and little else.

Hopefully the Virginia GOP gets serious next election and finally puts the Former Senator Macaca out to pasture. Those seats could be up for grabs with a serious candidate.

The Trouble with Flashlights

Tam has been carrying a SureFire E2D Ultra, and comments that the switch design leaves a lot to be desired. I carry a Fenix LD10, showing here:

It’s a bit more worn than that today, and in truth it’s probably out of date. With the Fenix, you adjust the intensity by screwing out the lens a bit. That’s fine when you have both hands, but sometimes you don’t, so I leave it on the highest setting. The big issue leaving it on high is the on switch, which is on the butt of the flashlight, gets switched on when I sit down sometimes. It can either engage furniture or engage the sheath of my Leatherman. Now, give it 10 minutes or so, and I’ll usually notice, “Something feels warm in my pocket, and I know it isn’t that, so the flashlight must have gotten stuck on again.” I’ve had batteries drain completely in this scenario, and it happens often enough I now use NiMH rechargeable, and just change them regularly. I use the flashlight multiple times a day.

Ideally I’d like a flashlight where I can turn on and off, and change intensity using only one hand. TheÂ SureFire E2D UltraÂ looks like it might be a solution. It would seem the solution to Tam’s issue would be to make it a one second double click instead of two. Maybe even half a second. I can double click a switch a hell of a lot faster than I can move my whole body. Perhaps a microswitch could be fitted somewhere inside that allows the user to adjust the double click speed.

Steel Gong Bleg

A few months ago, our club started putting in gongs for members to shoot at on both the 100 yard and 200 yard rages. I thought this was a great idea, because I’m a big fan of reactive targets and getting people exiting about putting bullets on steel. But we’ve had problems with the frames getting shot up on the 100 yard gong.Â There have been suggestions that people are using AP ammo on the gongs. I have some experience shooting steel, but mostly with pistols and .22LR. I’m pretty sure AP will punch through 3/8 AR500 steel. Plus, AP just isn’t very common. The most common is M2 AP, and it’s not so common you’d want to target shoot with it. It’s my opinion the craters on the gong are from steel core ammo, and the small divots are from regular old 5.56x45mm. The gong is made of AR500 steel, 3/8″ thick.

The frame holding the gongs up is mild steel bar, about 1/2 inch, and took this damage:

I asked Joe Huffman, who has a lot more experience with this kind of thing than I do what the damage looked like to him, and he was kind enough to run an experiment. Sure enough, regular old .223 rounds will shoot right through mild steel, while pistol ammunition will just polish it. Looks to me like these are rifle hits, with just ordinary ammunition. I’m thinking we may want to acquire one of these armored standsÂ from Salute Targets. We expected this to be a maintenance items, but so are wooden target frames, and people like to shoot the gongs. There’s also speculation among club leadership that some of the damage is deliberate. I’ll admit the tight group on the bar right where the straps were is suspicious, but I’d hate to see someone brought up on charges and booted from the club for poorÂ marksmanship. I’m also thinking we might need to ask members not to shoot at the gongs with steel core ammunition.

If anyone else can offer their experience, I’d be appreciative.

Fitzpatrick & Meehan Working With Enemies of Second Amendment

Mike Fitzpatrick and Pat Meehan have shown a willingness to play both sides of the gun control debate, and it’s no surprise they are co-sponsoring a gun control bill that tries to make gun trafficking double plus illegal. There’s no middle ground with this issue anymore, especially when the Democrats they are joining with are liars, and the worst that party has to offer in terms of people who would like to burn the Second Amendment. Take a look what Rep. Elijah Cummings has to say about the bill:

The current penalties for straw purchasers are â€œtoothlessâ€ and merely serve as a â€œslap on the wrist,” critics say. They argue there is little incentive to prevent people from making straw purchases, or for law enforcement to arrest them.

“Itâ€™s like going 65 miles an hour in a 55 zone and getting a speeding ticket,â€ Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) told The Hill. “Thereâ€™s no real punishment.”

In what way is a 10 year federal felony conviction “no real punishment.” You can rob a bank and do less time.Â Elijah Cummings is flat our lying. Constituents of Pat Meehan should write him and ask him why he’s joining with liars are frauds. Fitzpatrick is not running again, so I could care less of about him. He’s always been a worm. Good riddance.

Meehan has some pretty rural parts in his district. There’s certainly a few gun clubs. He has no reason to keep working with the enemies of the Second Amendment, other than his constituents are not applying enough pressure to keep him in the pro-gun fold. That district isn’t going to support a wild-eyed conservative firebrand, but it should support a candidate pretty solid on Second Amendment issues. Meehan’s district is even on the Cook PVI scale. You don’t see Ryan Costello next door in six, which is only R+1 on Cooke PVI equivocating on the issue.

Suburban Philadelphia gun owners need to get more active. This is the only part of the country outside of New York where you’re getting Republicans who are soft on this issue.

Toomey Backs off Gun Control

This just might lead you to believe that an election is coming up, because there were plans for a gun rights group to protest Pat Toomey’s office, but they were cancelled when apparently, “a Toomey staffer promised the senator would not reintroduce the high-profile gun control bill known as the Toomey-Manchin proposal that stalled in the Senate two years ago.” The article notes Democrats are exploiting this weakness:

A spokesman for Democratic Senate candidate Katie McGinty […]Â accused Toomey of telling gun-control advocates one thing and gun rights advocates another and said he is â€œplaying politics with the issue of gun safety instead of being honest with the people of Pennsylvania.â€

The truth hurts, don’t it Pat? She’s got your number. My impression that Toomey still has a pretty good chance of winning the election. Pennsylvania likes dull, bland politicians, and he fits that role like a glove. We will almost certainly be able to get a number of pro-gun votes out of him if he stays in office that we would not from any potential Democratic challenger. Personally, I’d rather have Casey and Manchin’s seats than Toomey’s, even though I’m still angry at his concessions on this issue.

Polling Shows Very Bad News for Gun Control

I used to be accepted in the Democratic Party that gun control cost them Congress in 1994, and cost Al Gore the election in 2000. Them somehow, Obama and the media convinced candidates it was cool again. Our opponents are saying this poll shows growing interest in gun policy, but a closer look at the crosstabs show this is actually very bad news for them. That’s probably why Martin O’Malley thought it was a good idea to introduce a gun control plan that makes Al Gore’s look mild. Let me briefly summarize what Obama’s Chosen One to take out Hillary proposes:

Universal gun registration.
Licensing and fingerprinting of gun owners.
Ban on so-called “assault weapons” like he did in Maryland.
Ban possession of any firearm by people under 21. No more teaching your kids.
Reject federally mandated concealed carry.
Require microstamping federally.
Extend domestic situations to people dating.
Mandated “lost & stolen” reporting.
Allow unlimited surprise inspection of dealers.
Revoke the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
Make people subject to TROs prohibited persons.
Require guns in the home be locked up and made unavailable for self-defense. Remember, the Supreme Court is retreating from Heller and McDonald.
Force manufacturers who do business with the federal government to install “safety features” like magazine disconnects.

This isn’t much of a sage prediction, but O’Malley is not even going to give Hillary a run for her money. He’s a loser, as Donald Trump would say. Stick a fork in him, he’s done. He’ll be a glaring example that gun control won’t save you, even in a Democratic Primary.