Today I learned

That the Friendly Local Gun Store near me can order 15 round Glock 17 magazines. They had one in their new Gen4 G17, too; I saw the silly thing – dual stack, witness holes labeled to 15, same height as the 10-round magazine in the Gen3 next to it (and they interchanged), and it said 9mm on the top. Now why in the world would someone make such a thing? I can’t imagine the NJ market for Glock 17 magazines is worth that much effort. I just checked, Glock’s website says that 10-round magazines and 33-round magazines are an option. No 15 round. Unless it’s a “secret” option.

I guess I’ll see what Fedex drags in when I get a chance to pick the ones I had them order up. (The receipt says Glock 17 15 round magazines, so they didn’t mis-hear G19 or something)

This passes for accurate reporting

A law enforcement source told CBS News the suspect was armed with a SKS semi-automatic assault rifle and a handgun, CBS News senior investigative producer Pat Milton reports.

What…

Uh…

That phrase does not make sense. Because of ONE politically-charged word. By dropping that one word into the description, it makes the whole thing a multi-layered lie.

Orwell would be proud

So, let me get this straight. Even though the House has no parliamentary procedure to allow members to stop the work of the House, it’s all good that a tithe of Representatives are doing so. But in the Senate, where there is a specific parliamentary procedure to allow members to stop the work, it’s not legitimate for members of the majority to block the work of the Senate.

Just checking.

Illegal Immigrant Attempts To Kill Trump

Probably not the nationality you’d expect though. Several reports say he attempted to grab a police officer’s handgun that was not secured, but initial reports are often full of unsubstantiated details.

OF course, this was a nominally gun-free zone, and the guy’s plan relied on the fact that it was being enforced by people with guns…

(My local media are playing up the fact that the attempted shooter was a resident of Hoboken for a while. Why that has any relevance, I’m not sure).

Decentralized response to decentralized threat

In comments to an article by Megan McArdle (the article itself is interesting):

It’s basically peer-to-peer terrorism. And that makes it nearly impossible to fight, because there is no military headquarters to bomb, just like there is no single server to take down in a p2p network.

They’ve basically crowdsourced terrorism.

So we need peer-to-peer defense.”

I can’t think of anything to add to that.

A modest proposal for a “Racing Car Ban”

Imagine, if you will, a politician’s press conference transcript, reproduced below

In light of recent tragic street racing deaths caused by youths recreating closed circuit road racing in street-legal cars that look like NASCAR vehicles, I have a modest proposal that we ban these cars that are similar to cars of racing.

A car should be considered a “racing car” if it meets the below-listed criteria:

A 4-seat car with an automatic transmission and the ability to be refueled from a portable tank and has at least 2 of the following:

  1. A driver’s seat that adjusts in height or can be moved forward and back on rails
  2. A shift level mounted in the center console
  3. A “Bull bumper” or a “ramplate”
  4. A 2″ or greater exhaust pipe or a muffler designed to accommodate a 2″ or greater exhaust pipe
  5. A weapon mount

A 2-seat car with an automatic transmission and the ability to be refueled from a portable tank and has at least 2 of the following:

  1. A fuel fill port behind the license plate
  2. A muffler capable of accepting a 2″ or greater exhaust pipe
  3. A steering wheel grip cover
  4. A manufactured weight of over 5000 lbs with an empty gas tank
  5. A street-legal copy of a track-only vehicle

A SUV with any number of seats that has an automatic transmission and at least 2 of the following:

  1.  A driver’s seat that adjusts in height or can be moved forward and back on rails
  2. A shift lever mounted in the center console
  3. More than a 15-gallon fuel capacity; and
  4. the ability to be refueled from portable containers.

The original

Turning Point: Election 2016

Despite Sebastian’s early read that, as an unambiguously terroristic act, the massacre in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando would not cause the same level of blame as Sandy Hook, my Facebook feed this AM tends to disagree. While that’s a pile of anecdotes rather than data, the blood was still warm when the dance started, and it started with the old classic tune of “This Was The NRA’s Fault,” and the chorus is “AR-15s should be banned and all other firearms strictly restricted, because nothing less will work.” They’re either attacking the BG check system because the shooter was allegedly a wife-beater and mentally unstable and still was able to get a firearm, or ignoring that he passed a BG check in the first place. And pointing out that he was investigated by the FBI for terroristic ties (without mentioning that the investigation was dropped for lack of evidence).

(All are ignoring that he passed separate BG checks to become a licensed armed security guard – a BG check that should have been more in-depth than the NICS check, I would expect. OTOH, I don’t know FL law and company policy there; perhaps all they do is a NICS-equivalent check. Which seems sloppy).

The result is that the Democratic Party has increased their bet on “gun control is a winner!” By doing so, they’ve put defenders of the Second Amendment on deadly ground. My gut read is that Trump’s chances just got better.