The Minuteman

Busy Today on Some Other Projects

Barron Barnett — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 23:30:40 +0000

I’m working on some other projects right now along with getting some other stuff done on my “honey do list”. So instead enjoy this video.

Don’t play with explosives unless you know what you’re doing and understand how dangerous it is.

SSCC #263–El Paso

Barron Barnett — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 02:38:23 +0000

This right here is just classic!

El Paso, Texas County Commissioner Willie Gandara Jr. was arrested late Wednesday on federal drug-trafficking charges. Few details have been released, but according to a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) spokeswoman, the investigation involves multiple agencies.

Ok a county commissioner was selling drugs, why is it classic though!? This is why!

Back in September 2011, Gandara harshly criticized drug legalization in an official statement:

Legalizing drugs is the coward practice of combating cartels, it is an insult to our men and women in law enforcement, and the laziest form of parenting our children and youth about the effects of drugs.

Nice, he was pushing prohibition to protect his enterprise.

State Sponsored Criminal Count 263: Willie Gandara Jr.

Because the real reason you become an elected politician is so you can build an enterprise and make it illegal for everyone else!

via Uncle

Do Nothing and Wait

Barron Barnett — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 02:30:04 +0000

[sarcasm]Yeah that’s a winning plan in my book.[/sarcasm]

A Cobb Community Transit driver, stabbed while trying to break up a fight on his bus, has been suspended pending further investigation because he didn't follow "protocol," a county spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday.

Evidently the crime in question centered around a cell phone she borrowed and then refused to return. One, don’t let people borrow your cell phone. Second, while it is dangerous to get into a physical altercation with anyone, it is also useless to sit around an do nothing letting the criminal work with impunity.

If the driver is willing to take the risk that is his choice.

How many times do we have to see doing nothing absolutely fail before people will understand waiting does nothing to solve the problem? All waiting does is allow it the problem to grow.

h/t Uncle

Smoke and Thunder Runs Asunder

Barron Barnett — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:08:33 +0000

(Warning, drama llama within. No links go to SmokeAndThunder.com only friendly blogs and screenshots.¹)

So it was brought to my attention that a particular individual finally followed through on his threat and created a profile on his website for me. His threat I must say showed his commitment to being a classy member of the gun community.

Your profile will go live today Dick... err Barron

So, I wasn’t sure exactly what I did to get labeled a dick, however I really didn’t care. Angering a troll to the point he calls me a dick and stomps off, that’s just awesome. I could care less about the profile, yeah it’s negative, but it just makes him look childish and hurts his credibility, even more so when you consider what happened later. At this point though I was ready to completely shun him and stop giving the admitted troll attention.

The thing is, the little troll just won’t shut up and there were some things I noticed that raised some serious questions.

On My Profile

Starting off, the tone and style of my profile was quite familiar.

So if you haven’t seen the profile he made for me, there it is. I chatted with a friend who happened to have some software which allows him to do writing style comparisons. He compared the new troll to a particular anti-rights bigot who happens to do a lot of writing. Over 2500 words with two separate works there was only a 5% difference in style. So it’s not confirmed they are the same but there is a high probability.

That however is a pretty tenuous link, but lets move further forward with other issues with the Smoke and ~~Thunder~~ Blog². Here is my whole profile, including the stuff not shown above, specifically one line from the above with the following line.

First off, I have not found anything on my blog stating I have a concealed weapon permit. Second, the State of Washington does not release said information and for law enforcement to do so is a crime. So where does he get the idea I have a permit? Washington is an open carry state with no permit required to do so.

Second he posted such information in an attempt to shame and intimidate me. I say shame because lets look at his profile statement for myself.

Popular gun blog rife with spelling and grammatical errors (not to be confused with typographical errors). The author, Barron Barnett, is an internet detective (junior grade), and former class clown. Barron feels *overrun* by all the criminals and not friendly people flooding into state, so he carries a concealed handgun which provides him comfort and warmth.

A note, I was anything but the class clown. Now look at his negative attitude and stance towards concealed weapons. I carry one because I’m overrun by criminals? Umm, try again, I carry one because criminals don’t call ahead. If you actually would bother to do some research you’ll see that both of my parents had defensive gun uses. I carry a gun because bad things happen even to good people. So here we have a classic anti-rights attitude and you will note that the majority of his complaints perpetuate the negative stereotypes. These same negative stereotypes he claims that he’s above and trying to get rid of.

Third, if you look at the friends page of my profile, for some reason the Admin is my friend. That’s right, the guy who wrote the scathing profile of myself is claiming to be my friend. Are you so lonely that you have to act like Tom from MySpace to make friends?

It is also problematic because as I have not registered my profile. You are confirming relationships that may or may not in fact be true without my consent.

Classic Anti Gunner Attitude

Then Smoke and Dope does something even better. Markley’s law proves true yet again.

So yet another classic anti-rights move, doubly so since he claims to be so classy and better than us.

Moving forward we take a look at our anonymous blogger’s² page.

First, get your booker hook off the bang switch and out of that trigger guard Mr. I’m better than the rest of you. Yeah, well guess what, even the anointed need to follow the rules. Next up, you’re whole profile centers around the fact you fired a M110A2, and you center around the fact that it is so large. Given you Markley’d on Miguel’s profile, I’m figuring this is the same type of effort for yourself. Especially since you then went and wrote a blog post about it? After that, we also see under your optional details some hilarity.

Hmm, we see yet another comment about being an 8-inch howitzer gunner. But even more telling is that you state that you have no life. That would explain why you would sit there and troll around the internet.

Doesn’t Like His Own Medicine

Then we arrive at this moment of hilarity today.

So there’s numerous jokes in this one. First compare the fake profile he made for me and this one. Whoever did that, seriously it wasn’t me I wish it was, knocked it out of the park. It was a fair shot considering your behavior and the fact that all you can do to gain members is trash talk them to con them into getting an account to remove the slander. We made the equivalent review of you and your site, which you claim to be a review site, and your response was not surprising.

How original. The thing is, Miguel didn’t make the profile and isn’t a pedobear. Though it appears that the Smoke and Dope admin might very well be. See, whoever did this had discovered something and put in an extra joke with the profile. The full report is available here.

Michael Frank filed this action against the City of Manchester and two City officials after he was denied a peddler’s license. His principal federal claim is that the defendants violated his Fourteenth Amendment right to procedural due process by failing to give him a constitutionally adequate post-deprivation hearing. As I explain in greater detail below, Frank’s claim fails because he does not have a protectable property interest in a peddler’s license.

[...]

Frank first sought a peddler’s license on May 8, 2009. His application seemed doomed from the start, however, because the certified criminal record he produced with his application included a disqualifying conviction for simple assault.*fn2 Frank attempted to address this difficulty on May 21, when he succeeded in having the assault case dismissed. City officials, however, would not accept the court records showing that the conviction had been dismissed because it remained on his certified criminal record.

Frank’s problems were compounded when Gary Simmons, the assistant police chief and one of the defendants in this case, learned that Frank had two charges of possession of child pornography pending against him in Massachusetts.*fn3 Because of these pending charges, Simmons refused to sign Frank’s application on behalf of the police department.

You then double down on your stupid, blaming me for something that isn’t my fault. After this comment at Uncles’ place it’s obvious you assumed it was me:

Well well, my comment are getting censored. Barron, your Smoke & Thunder profile will be the last one to be removed when the parody ends. Your crap site and crap bio would make anybody think twice about buying a gun for the first time lest they become like you. You are a true ally to anti-gunners need sites like yours to scare off inquisitive potential new gun owners.

(Screenshot incase uncle pulls it) Tell me, how do you spell assume? You can’t do it without making an Ass Out of You and Me. I don’t care because frankly it doesn’t make me look like an ass, just you. If you had never posted a profile of me you would have been left alone and that would have been it. I didn’t post the Pedobear profile, I really wish I had now since I know you’re so upset about it. Also, whoever you did piss off into doing it, wouldn’t have had that ready made statement to use.

Closing

?Mr. Frank?, I blog under my real name, many of the bloggers you berate and attack stand out here in the open unashamed. You however have done everything you can to conceal your identity. We found the above thanks to a name and phone number which was disclosed to us by another blogger you had a conversation with. It is telling though that a man, who would make statements such as yours would do it behind the veil of anonymity. You do it behind the veil because you know you’re in the wrong. You are not willing to put your money where your mouth is and just like every anti-rights cultist I’ve ever seen your integrity and credibility is for naught.

If you can prove that you are not the individual above I will strike it. Until such time though as your identity can be validated, I will have to spread the facts as we can discover them. It is obvious that you are nothing more than an Anti-Rights troll mascaraing as a gun blogger². While you may claim to support gun rights, it’s obvious the most support you give is that of a Fudd. You state I drive away new shooters, that’s why I’m fielding questions from new shooters on a regular basis. That’s why friends of friends refer people to me and my blog for help. That’s why I am regularly either teaching a new shooter or placing a new shooter in contact with another instructor.

You are at least 10 years older than I am by your profile statement, and you’re saying I’m driving the young people away. Yet I spend a lot of time helping bring new shooters in, personally. Most of those new shooters are college undergraduates, age 18-25. You may be physically older than I am, but obviously you stopped your emotional maturity at some point and it’s not me driving away interest in the shooting sports. It’s not me who is acting like a spoiled child and throwing a tantrum. Know what pisses you off about me? I don’t give a crap what you think. You don’t know me, you’ve never met me, and I know that there are hundreds of daily readers who disagree with your statement. Even more than that, I know that last month I wrote something that the gun culture reverberated with and loved me for.

If I’m such a horrible person, maybe I shouldn’t be spending my own time and money to send coffee over seas to the troops. Maybe I’m a bad person because instead of just begging people to donate to charity for nonexistent property, like you, instead I put my money where my mouth is and lead by example.

Here I stand, in the open, you know my name, you know my state of residence, all voluntarily. You however hide behind anonymity, so deep that you cannot easily be found. In the words of Jeff Cooper:

Not long ago it was easy to tell who the bad guys were. They carried Kalashnikovs. Now it is much more complicated, but one thing is sure - any man who covers his face and packs a gun is a legitimate target for any decent citizen.

You sir are wearing the equivalent of a ski mask on the internet.

¹ First I don’t want to feed traffic to the troll. Second the troll wrote tons of insults and didn’t bother to cite his complaints and back them up with fact. I’m not going to bother providing links, instead I’ll give you screenshots. That way he can’t destroy it anyway.

²While he continues to claim he is a social network, the front page and only publically available information without being a member is content produced by the admin. All of this content is the same type of content you would normally find on a blog. He has a web site he is using to log his his adventures. Truthfully if anything he is trying to create another TTAG while trying to get more of the community to do his dirty work instead of hiring writers. See his video submission post.

Quote of the Day - Joe Huffman (2/23/2012)

Barron Barnett — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:03:58 +0000

Can you imagine the outcry if the government demanded you fill out the equivalent of a 4473 and undergo a NICS check before purchasing a printer for your computer, start a blog, or write a letter to the editor?

The Second Amendment deserves as much or more respect than the First Amendment and we need to get that point across.

Joe Huffman - Random Thought of the Day

February 22, 2012

[Yup, though there is someone right now that is quite upset with me. I'm sure they wouldn't mind making me fill out paperwork before every blog post. They feel I'm a detriment to the RKBA community, and overall shouldn't be blogging. Where have I heard that before?

It is very easy to spot bigotry in the attitudes of people like that. They want freedom for them, but not for anyone else. Also as usual they provide a list of insults and problems and don't actually cite any of it. -B]

SSCC #262–Spokane

Barron Barnett — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 05:46:05 +0000

Warning:

Image courtesy of Robb Allen found via JayG

A Spokane police officer fired in 2009 after driving drunk while off duty, hitting a pickup with his truck and leaving the scene of the collision is likely to be rehired and get more than two years of back pay.

Wait, he did what and this is acceptable for a police officer. Why would they do such a thing?

Bob Dunn, Thoma’s attorney, said Thoma had a disability – alcoholism – that resulted from stress from his job. He argued that the police department knew Thoma struggled with alcoholism and didn’t try to get him help. Thoma filed a complaint about his firing with the Washington State Human Rights Commission soon after he was terminated.

So how much do taxpayers get to pay this criminal?

Thoma also would be paid about $275,000 for back pay and benefits, and the city will pay his attorney $15,000. The back pay is based on the amount he earned as a sergeant.

So isn’t that nice. Remember if you’re going to commit a crime, become a cop first. This by the way is the prime definition of a state sponsored criminal count.

State Sponsored Criminal Cop #262: Sergeant Brad Thoma

Because when you commit a DUI and a hit and run and you’re a police officer, just blame it on alcoholism that way you’re disabled.

Ear Worm Wednesday - 2/22/2012

Barron Barnett — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:02:10 +0000

Here's a treat for ya.

Never Piss Off Your Customer Base

Barron Barnett — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 06:40:22 +0000

So some startup, previously mentioned here, has decided that it’s going to make a “social network” for gunnies. After I wrote that previous post, the gift that just doesn’t stop giving posted a response at Uncle’s place. I haven’t gone all Kevin Baker on someone this month, I guess it’s about that time.

Before getting to that though it should be noted that this guy is digging himself a hole so fast with his customer base that if it were the earth he’d be sitting at the core experiencing fission right now. There are numerous issues, especially given that he claims to be a site for “gunnies”, the biggest of which, he’s censoring comments. Otherwise known to our field as “Reasoned Discourse”.

It does appear he finally let the comment go through, however the fact he is moderating comments is rise for concern. I’m 99% sure there are deleted comments because Tango is supposedly comment #8 on that post. He’s the first one listed.

So given the crap storm that he created today, lets start.

Exhibit A

This is what started this whole problem. The garbage he said about bloggers. Here is a screenshot of it.

Let’s face it, most gun blogs aren’t very interactive and many are stuck in the stone-age when it comes to technology and social networking. It’s 2012 and the internet has been around for a while, yet I still see major gun blogs that offer their users little more than a basic text commenting system. Often, users who wish to communicate with each other are forced to talk back in forth through comments, until one of them finally posts his or her email address publicly and says “Just email me so we can talk about that in private”. Seriously folks, we are talking about major gun blogs that offer stone-age commenting systems as the only way of interacting with other users and the blog itself!

Interesting. I wasn’t aware that blogs were supposed to be a social network. Further what you’re describing is more of a forum type environment than a blog. A blog is run by a central user or users posting content. Readers then comment on the material. The blog though centers around the content though. If gun bloggers are so horrible though why did you go and create a bunch of fake profiles of some of the biggest gun bloggers.

It get’s better though.

Exhibit B

Because you then claim that these profiles are “inactive” and labeled as such. As you said on Miguel’s blog:

You apparently don’t know the definition of what a sock puppet is. They ceratinly don’t feature a disclaimer such as “This profile created and maintained by such and such dot com”. Furthermore, please read Smoke & Thunder’s policies regarding usernames, restricted usernames, how they are used, and who may claim them.

(Spelling error left intact.) So you claim that people who have not activated an account will be listed as inactive. LIAR!

I know for a fact that Breda has not joined your little club. Going through the list I see many bloggers who most likely haven’t joined your club but I will not waste my time with validation because the above already proves my point.

Breda actually emailed requesting that they she be removed from this network which is nothing more than one giant scam to gather personal information and the response was less than polite. Again, screenshot for posterity. The best part is he thinks his exchange was polite and civil. Umm, no it was him being a dick. Especially given the following statement he gave in that post:

Smokeandthunder.com: Unless you suggest another image, I will use a 150×150 thumbnail of a photo provided by Google Images under the fair use clause. Please note, profiles not maintained by the actual person or company will clearly indicate “This profile created and maintained by Smokeandthunder.com”. I’m sorry to hear you won’t be participating/contributing.

Umm, you’re a liar, my screenshot proves you are a liar. And here’s a copy of the whole damn page just in case you don’t believe me. I checked the full profile which has it in fine print and not well defined in an obvious format.

Full screenshot is available here.

Breda is right, you’re placing her along with many other bloggers on your site is quite wrong. You are indicating that they have endorsed the site and are using the site. However this is not true in any way, you just make it appear to be true, doubly so since you are not indicating that you created and run the profile, not the actual individual. You continue with this:

SGB and SPQR… the reposting of a copyrighted image for direct or indirect commerical gain can certainly fall within the fair use clause, depending on other significant factors. Yelp.com doesn’t delete a company’s profile info and picture (which is there for reference, research, criticism, praise, and disambiguation… and is therefore acceptable fair use) just because that company doesn’t like the reviews they are getting. Yelp.com is a billion dollar business because of this. **Nobody is immume from being profiled, spotlighted, reviewed, praised, or criticised** Please go back to armchair gun talk and stay away from armchair lawyering.

(Three spelling errors in that wonderful item) You want to have an entry for me where someone can review my blog, fine, but you place an entry of me in your system without an indicator that you generated it, you are fraudulently representing me. You do not have my permission to create a profile for myself or this site, other than that allowed to allow users to comment on the site. Are you seeing the difference here? You used an example of Yelp which is a review site. Your example companies that rehash profiles do not do so with an effort of representing and providing a point of contact (fundamental item of a social network) to the party through the profile using the site itself. Yelp business profiles are created with the express intent of review, not social contact. There are serious differences and you better understand them. You argue the law supports you from the point of view of a review site, yet you claim to be a social media site, which is it?

Further, instead of being polite, customer service goes a long way, you act like a total dick. If someone doesn’t want their information on your site, what does it really cost you to delete it? How does it affect your company other than pissing off your potential users? You are dealing with people, not companies. You’re a social network right? Why are you wanting dead unused profiles? I don’t see Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, or any other social network creating profiles for people and companies that don’t use their service. So what induced you to?

Exhibit C:

You claim in your response the following:

Smoke & Thunder does not impersonate anyone or create “fake profiles”, much less mispresresent anyone as having created the profile themselves. The usernames of real people profiled on Smoke & Thunder ARE NOT FOR SALE. Furthermore, the profiles of real people can only be claimed by the actual verifiable person profiled. Only generic/iconic usernames like “@ammo” or “@50bmg” or “@revolver” are for sale.

(Nice spelling there too, spell checker not work?) Notice that you say you don’t create fake profiles, see exhibit B. Next up though you claim that usernames of real people are not for sale. Ok so you added Uncle to your little universe, yet that’s not his real name. So are you going to charge him money to claim his profile? You’re trying to control peoples information for money, plain and simple, to claim otherwise is yet another lie. If you aren’t trying to control peoples information for money, as a social media site, you’re doing it wrong because that is the business model for social media. You may not be meaning to imply Uncle is going to have to pay, but that’s exactly what you’ve said. If you create profiles, they must be provided free. To aggregate information as a point of contact, i.e. social media, and then hold it hostage for money is a low scummy thing to do, doubly so since you’re falsely representing the individual since you’re not actually indicating that you own the profiled.

Exhibit D:

You’re response to my comment earlier is down right lacking, especially given the number of lies we’ve already found.

Barron… the THR link is only there until I pre-fill the forum with topics and content.

Then why do you have the forum link even active? Why not just have it redirect back to the main site or a page saying under construction. Why are you sending potential customers to go create a forum account someplace else? If I wanted to chat at THR why in the name of god do I need to create an account with you? You did not satisfy that answer. Further you hide way too much information behind the veil of “membership” to be an open social network.

Exhibit E:

Robb Allem… Can you see your hand when you wave it in front of your face? Smoke & Thunder is not a blog, it’s a social network above all else. My opinion is that many (but not all) gun blogs do more to damage the future of gun ownership than they do to encourage it. Take it or leave it. The average teenager or young adult non-gun owner is not interested in the average gun blog. Why should they be? Most of them are written for exclusively gun fanatics and other gun bloggers, with no regard and no appeal for newbies and young people.

First, who the hell is Robb Allem? Second, most teenagers are not actually interested in serious political discussions there boy genius. So gun blogs do more damage you say? Evidence to back up said claim please. Because last year I worked my ass off with some other bloggers and helped get the suppressor law in Washington changed.

Numerous other bloggers regularly rally support for their localities and things that matter to them. Social media isn’t conductive for content that goes into a blog. It allows you to link content others wrote to help people go there. If you’re saying that gun blogs are pointless and serve no actual purpose, again why are you causing an uproar by refusing to delete a hand generated profile of a blogger that you made without permission. The only reason I see is to beat the drama llama to increase traffic to try and get your site rolling.

Further, gun bloggers don’t write for newbies, I think A Girl and Her Gun along with others would beg to differ on that front.

Conclusion:

Given all the above you’re doing it wrong. You are not winning support from the community, you are not enticing users, you are being a dick while trying to dance within the law. Guess what, even if you are within the law, you’re still a dick, we all still hate you, and don’t be surprised if none of us support or help you in your endeavor.

Some bloggers did some digging today to try and find out exactly who this admin is. He took a lot of effort to hide his information and identity. I stand out here in the open, behind what I say. One of the bloggers got the hands on the number used for a conversation today between some bloggers and the “Smoke and ~~Mirrors~~ Thunder Admin”.

I do not know exactly how they obtained the number though that’s besides the point. The GBC then researched this number. What was found, while tenuous, at the moment is quite disturbing disturbing.

That’s why you comment everywhere as “Smoke & ~~Mirrors~~ Thunder Admin” right? You don’t use your real name, you hid the WhoIS record for your domain to the point where not even the name is visible. You’re afraid that someone might dig up your past? Mine all have at least my name visible though the address is privatized by my registrar. I am not ashamed of myself or my actions and proudly stand up for myself and everything I’ve said.

You’re actions thus far provide me no reason to trust or believe anything you do or say. You have done nothing but be rude, abusive, and abrasive to a group of individuals you claim are doing nothing but damaging the right to keep and bear arms community. If that’s the case, why is it that you’re the only person who makes that claim while over and over we hear about how supportive and kind the gun blogger community is? Further why are you fighting so hard to retain the profiles of high profile gun bloggers who you say are useless and not helpful to the gun rights community?

You have been nothing but a negative dick. You could have easily fixed this, instead you hide behind the “it’s my legal right” argument, bad mouth and insult those whom you’re abusing, and then claim that you’re right and the rest of us are wrong.

In closing if I want to be a part of a social network, I’ve got more than I can keep track of already, I don’t need another one so scope limited it serves no purpose. You’re doing nothing but assuring your failure by ostracizing and abusing the one group of individuals that would have been able to help boot strap your project. If dueling was legal, I would call the challenge right now for being a dick to Breda, especially your final comment even if you supposedly didn’t email it to her. You still said it in public for everyone else to see, so you didn’t have the balls to say it to her but you were happy to say it to the rest of us. If we needed any further proof that you’re a dick, that right there was it. Again you think you’re being civil and polite when in actuality you’re nothing but a dick.

Smoke and Blunder is Right

Barron Barnett — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:06:38 +0000

As I have said before, don't be a dick. It never works out well for you and more often than not it bites you quite squarely on the ass.

For those who haven't seen it yet, a new kid on the block came out today and shoved their own foot down their throat. Now initially I didn't really see a need to comment on this because Uncle jumped on it and many others have blogged about it as well. What got me though was this comment from Tango through a DM.

The forum link? "You must be a member." Become a member and it forwards you to The High Road.

Wait, it did what!? You join, providing a username and password, and then it sends you to another website where you have to use a different username and password. Immediately upon reading that alarm bells started going off. Many people have a nasty habit of using the same credentials across multiple websites, but you reading this know better, right?

So my immediate conclusion from that type of behavior is that they are farming credentials, why I am unsure. But it is obvious that they are engaging in some back handed dealing listing people who aren't members, thus inducing them to sign up to complain, or inducing others to join thinking the site is legitimate because of the trusted membership.

Miguel went and did a nice post showing exactly what type of user listing I'm talking about. Those are the types of prominent users that would instill trust, trust that might cause you to sign up for a membership. Of course being a blogger, you would probably use your blog handle and very possibly the password for your blog if you do that bad thing of the same password across multiple sites.

If you signed up for a membership with these numb-nuts I suggest changing all your other passwords if you violated that rule. This site is anything but trustworthy and by their actions thus far makes them a house of ill repute. This is all speculation but given the facts as presently seen, I would be concerned if I had any transactions regarding secure credentials with them.

If you need a good password manager, I suggest KeePass which also has an Andriod Application.

So Smart it Had to Come From The Government - Quote of the Day Edition

Barron Barnett — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:32:27 +0000

So the bottom line is that if I remove the doors from the shed I can store 18,000 pounds of explosives. If I put the doors on I can only store 50 pounds.

It doesn't have to make sense. It's just a government rule.

Joe Huffman - It's a Government Rule! It doesn't have to make sense.

February 20, 2012

[So when Joe first told me about this, a while ago, I sat there dumbfounded for 30 minutes trying to reason why. Joe misspoke with an extra 0 on the doors off number when he told me, but if the closest habitable area was another 50 feet away he would have been correct.

For those who have never been to the Taj, the outer building is your standard garden style storage shed. The walls and doors are about 1/16th of an inch thick, if that, and are just aluminum. Prey tell, what in the name of Zeus's butthole is an extra 16th inch of aluminum going to do between a 50lbs detonation and a 18500lbs detonation. About the only thing I can think of is in the former they might still be solid, in the latter they shall be rendered to their molecular components.

Remember this though whenever someone says there should be a law, a rule, or the government should have the power to do "X". They may be well intentioned but eventually well intentioned is lost and what we are left with is a steaming pile of bull dung that we have no choice but to deal with. Also remember most of those who argue for rules and regulations aren't going to have to deal with the idiocy to begin with.

I'm also working on a followup to this, lets just say as of yesterday the clock is still ticking. -B]

His Mistake, Didn't Apply for a Job First

Barron Barnett — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:50:03 +0000

This one isn't a state sponsored criminal but it's another example how A Security Theater aids criminals and theifs, even if they're not employed by the state.

Florida police arrested a man Friday for allegedly stealing a Rolex watch from a TSA bin at an airport security checkpoint.

I do love how they refer to the thief as "brazen". The thing is this falls under my "King Shit" rule. If you act like a king shit, like that is your property or are allowed to be there, no one is going to question it. There is nothing tying TSA bin A to passenger A. If the bin gets ahead of the passenger, more specifically if the TSA stalls the passenger, it makes his belongings available for picking.

It's this falsehood of security that allows thieves like this as well as the TSA to get away with these types of crimes.

For more on the "king shit" rule*, watch this.

*I first coined the term in 1999 while following my dad into the ER to check on the status of a friend who fell and broke her hip. We didn't walk in through the main door and no one stopped us even though I was only 15 at the time. My dad just said to follow him and don't look lost.

Quote of the Day - Joe Huffman (2/20/2012)

Barron Barnett — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:46:57 +0000

Tip: To mask the noise of racking the slide as you load up at the airport do it while the toilet is flushing.

Joe Huffman - Tweet

[I started laughing uncontrollably as I read that. Then I started laughing even harder when I remembered a conversation from Saturday. It is easier and more fun too.-B]

Update: Sebasitan added this which is funny as hell:

@barronbarnett If you slam fired into the toilet, you could also easily exclaim "Damn, that was one hell of a burrito!"

The 2011 Brady Scorecard with 2010 UCS

Barron Barnett — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 02:30:06 +0000

So the Brady Campaign released their updated scorecard for 2011 this year. I saw it earlier last week and kept meaning to update my spreadsheets. I know it’s pointless but it’s still good to numerically show how pointless it is.

If you actually believed the doom and gloom provided by the Brady Campaign you would think that the streets were rivers of blood. I uncovered something that you might want to stick around for. Read to the end for the icing on the cake that I found after comparing 2010 to 2011.

Before getting into that, lets get the quick run down of charts out of the way. For reference, here is the 2010 card with the 2010 UCR. Here is the similar data from a year ago with the 2010 score card with the 2009 UCR. It must be noted that this data does not reflect the UCR data from 2011 as it has not been released by the FBI yet. Expect an update later this year when it becomes available.

Here is the straight comparison of the score versus the violent crimes per 100k.

R2 dropped again to a value of 0.0016 and the correlation was calculated out to be 0.040117, while it did increase by 0.01, it is still completely insignificant and indicates there is no correlation between the Brady Score and violent crime. Moving forward though lets just limit this to the top 10 Brady Scores.

Again the correlation is non-existent with it coming in at –0.047. Anything that could be indicated by the trend line is irrelevant due to the very low correlation.

All scores above 50 had a correlation of 0.78 while the sample size renders it truthfully statistically irrelevant, it is trending in the direction opposite to which the Brady Campaign would claim. Next up though is all those with low murder rates.

There are 20 states who’s violent crime rate is below 300 per 100k. The average Brady Score is 11.85. Only three states have a score above 20, and those with crime rates below 200, the lowest in the country, all have scores below 10.

As I said above I’m now working on collecting historical data for the Brady Scores as well as UCR data. The latter is much easier. One item that is critical and worth noting is that the Brady Data is suspect.

Not only is it suspect, but some states will have a decrease in their score not because they passed pro or anti rights legislation, but another state has. When the new legislation is passed the Brady’s to make their system look better will modify their categories to reflect it. Most importantly though, as noted above, they may falsely grade states inflating their scores. The biggest problem with that is the effect it can have by skewing the data to one side. Currently as Florida ranks #4 in the UCR for violent crime rates it would benefit them better to not inflate the score, however what’s to stop them from inflating the scores of the states with lower crime rates.

In closing on the straight comparison, as the last two times I did this exercise, there is no correlation between higher violent crime rates and a lower Brady Score. This can be taken as an indicator that the laws and “common sense legislation” does not have the effects they claim.

Bonus Discovery!

Now I said to read through to the icing on the cake at the end. It has become obvious as of late our opponents have been in denial and anger. They have been lashing out, some have been very angry, well here’s a wonderful graphical indicator as to why!

Every one of those blue lines represents a state who’s score had lowered. The reasons for the drop in score were tied to laws passed respecting the rights of gun owners. That sole red line is California who’s score increased by 1. The net score shift over the past year was –34 points. There were 14 states who helped with increasing the downward fall of the anti-rights organizations.

We won in 14 states, significantly based on their scores, while they barely got a point. That is why we are now seeing them go through the stages of grief. We must continue the fight less the cancer stop being in remission. I want the cancer attempting to destroy our rights to be dealing with the 5 stages of grief, not the law abiding citizen who’s rights they want to trample.

It’s so nice of them to keep score for us on how badly they’re loosing.

*You are free to repost these graphs, however I must request that you provide a direct link back to these posts. Some individuals seem to think that providing credit to those who put forth the effort to create these doesn’t really matter. Please, don’t be that dick. It takes a lot of time to organize the data and graph it. If you don’t feel it takes that much time, do it yourself. So if you want to use these graphs, feel free, please just provide proper credit.

SSCC #261–Houston Texas

Barron Barnett — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 02:26:12 +0000

A drunk off-duty policeman shot two sober brothers in a bar parking lot, one fatally, as they "were coming to the rescue of a young woman" a drunk patron had punched in the face, the widow claims in Harris County Court.

Unpossible, an anointed one drinking while carrying a pistol, the gun grabbers constantly claim that they are the only one’s responsible enough to carry a firearm. I’ve drilled into this problem before.

Go read the story. A couple good Samaritans stepped in to stop a criminal and prevent a woman from being further assaulted. This drunk police officer not knowing what was going on just shot the two good Samaritans.

Nothing has been done to the officer, and the officer was protected in this situation.

The family says Coronado was following "conflicting city policies" when he shot the brothers, "one policy requiring him to carry a firearm and intervene in all conflicts, and another policy prohibiting him from carrying his firearm and intervening after drinking."

State Sponsored Criminal Count 261: Officer Jose Coronado

Because drinking to excess and carrying a firearm is only a problem if you’re a lowly civilian. If you’re a law enforcement officer it’s just another way to commit murder and get away with it.

via Robert Lake

SSCC #260–New York

Barron Barnett — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 02:58:23 +0000

A police officer's claim that a Brooklyn man nearly ran him over is undercut by video footage that’s “crystal clear” proof of a false arrest, a defense lawyer charged Friday.

This is why cops hate video cameras. It’s why they hate people videotaping them. When they screw up it shows!

Still, the 55-year-old homeowner was cuffed, spent three nights in jail and is now facing up to seven years in prison for reckless endangerment. His wife Irena, 51, was issued summons for disorderly conduct and claims she was punch by the cop off-camera.

Video however shows the complete opposite of the officers sworn statement. However they would have deleted the video from your phone and charged you with a crime if you had taken video yourself. Also at the present time the officer involved is not under investigation or on leave. There also is no pending charges against him.

State Sponsored Criminal Count 260: Officer Diego Palacios

Because when you’re having a boring night, just say someone tried to run you over with a car and arrest them. What’s the worst that can happen to you, fuck the law abiding citizen.

via Ry.

Hey, It Still Goes Boom

Barron Barnett — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 02:47:25 +0000

Steel match was early this month which worked out well for Joe. We shot the match this morning, I did decently well and came in middle of the pack. Got some tips from one of the shooters which helped and I’m going to incorporate it into my practice. I had been fairly lucky thus far but I had a failure to go boom today. Did an immediate action drill. I thought the round extracted but it didn’t or I had a double feed because the slide didn’t go home. I promptly locked the slide, dropped/ripped the mag out, dropped the slide and racked it again, inserted a new mag, racked and reengaged. That obviously was my throwaway string for that stage. Compared to the other runs though that only added 10 seconds, it felt like an eternity, I know with practice I can get that time down but for the failure I had I can’t complain with how I handled it.

After the steel match we headed out to the Boomershoot site. We had some storage experiments to conduct. We get out to the road for Mecca and there’s still a lot of snow on the ground. We start to walk on it and we both arrive at the same conclusion, we would probably make it driving out there but we probably wouldn’t make the return trip successfully. We decide to head over to the entrance for the berm since that’s closer to the Taj, our final destination. The snow felt like it wasn’t going to be too bad so we began our hike sans snowshoes that we forgot at Joe’s house anyway.

We start climbing up the first hill to descend the backside to go through the valley and back up to the Taj. As I said last time, sitting behind a desk all day everyday is probably eventually going to kill me. Doubly so since about every other step I went about ankle deep until we went over the backside of the hill.

Joe was ahead of me and all the sudden he stopped, stood there for a second and then started walking back to me and the conversation goes like this.

“Barron, I need help.”

“What’s up?”

“My arms just started tingling and felt it throughout my body.”

“That’s neither good, nor normal.”

“I know, it started when I was under the power line.”

I walk over towards the power line and the hair starts to stand up on my neck and my chest becomes heavy. The next part of the conversation goes like this.

“That’s not good, my hair just stood up. Lets try someplace else.”

Eventually we decide to cross under the line at the tower itself. The effects were still present though not as pronounced. I have no idea what was causing that behavior.

We then proceeded down the hill toward the stream. Every step I’m going up to the edge of my boot. As I get towards the bottom I’m now up to my knees. I tell Joe to go on, I’m headed back because if it gets any deeper I’m in trouble. He say’s “fine, go ahead and wuss out.” I start my extraction at this point. I get about half way back and Joe tells me to stop and we’ll test the targets at the 380 berm.

So all three went Boom with a side note that we used V-Max bullets for testing, and the storage temperatures were probably around 32F instead of 60F. It is interesting that the color was yellow where it is normally white. However the ground was very wet and it could have been mud, but I’m not sure, it is a possibility.

It does appear that there is nothing left of the plastic wrap. Joe also had other good news for Boomershoot 2012. It’s getting closer and it’s just moving faster and faster.

SSCC #259–Lacey PD

Barron Barnett — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 03:46:39 +0000

A Lacey police officer is accused of lying under oath in an attempt to get a search warrant.

At least in this case they’re going after the officer with one minor exception.

Prosecutors charged Olivo with False Swearing, which is a gross misdemeanor and punishable with up to just under a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

You or I lie to a judge and our ass is in jail for perjury and I know the judge wouldn’t hesitate on the maximum punishment. However a cop lying is considerably worse in the fact they are doing it specifically to infringe on the rights of a law abiding citizen.

State Sponsored Criminal Count 259: Emmanuel Olivo

Because when trying to get a warrant, just make something up. It’s faster and easier.

via Ry.

Yesterday’s Missing Post for Seattle

Barron Barnett — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 22:26:07 +0000

So yesterday Ry emailed me another incident from Seattle PD. I didn’t get around to blogging it and forgot about it until today.

There was at least a reprimand from this incident, though there are some serious questions this brings up.

Now we've found a chilling case that started as a simple traffic stop that could happen to any one of us. Only this time the dash cam video of the incident was shown to a man's boss, jeopardizing his very livelihood.

Now why is that so significant, they showed the video to his boss and then did the following.

KOMO 4 News is suing the Seattle Police Department after the department denied our requests for other videos similar to Miller's stop. Citing privacy laws, the department has denied us copies of any videos less than three years old. Yet the officer who stopped Miller didn't hesitate to show damaging video to Miller's boss at school, jeopardizing his job.

Think about that for a second, they’re more than willing to attempt to use that evidence in their favor to ruin your life, but the second they might be held accountable they will refuse citing privacy.

Go read the story, my only real comment is this:

Never, get you of your car during a traffic stop unless you are instructed to do so. That said, the reaction by the officers was a bit over the top, especially given the number of them on scene. Overall this was just a bad incident, though this statement right here is telling about the attitude from Seattle PD.

Seattle Police Department Spokesman Sgt. Sean Whitcomb said officers respond to over 1,000 calls a day and get 99.99 percent of them right.

And the law exists Mr. Whitcomb to protect the innocent and when you screw up it’s a big freaking deal because you have violated the rights of someone. As such you should have a boot put up your ass. If you can’t take the time or be bothered to strive for 100% accuracy you’re in the wrong damn line of work.

It’s a Meme!

Barron Barnett — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 22:03:31 +0000

So there have been a meme running around on how different subjects are viewed. I saw one for women and firearms but I didn’t see one for gunnies in general. I decided to fix the deficiency.

I thought about having a a frame from Tombstone in the “What the Media Sees” but that frame I think worked better. Spread it around!

If you want to spread it on Facebook, here it is.

*Yes that’s me in the bottom right, I felt that picture was quite fitting since as always, nothing happened!

**Thanks to Caleb for the Picture of Bob Vogel at the 2011 IDPA World Championship.

I'm Reminded of a Recent Conversation

Barron Barnett — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 23:03:48 +0000

I had a conversation recently with a friend regarding WiFi, phones, automated discovery and mapping, along with oh so many other things you could do.

We'll these guys cranked the whole thing to 11.

I see so many opportunities, especially with regards to another project I've got in the background that I'm looking into doing the mechanical design for. One of these years I'm going to have to get to Defcon, however in doing that I'd also like to have something to present if I went.

Ohh, thank you for protecting us...

Barron Barnett — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:41:49 +0000

I stumbled across this one today.

President Obama's border enforcement officials prevented over 13,000 dangerous hair dryers from entering the country, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) trumpeted today.

They can find some hair dryers that are oh so dangerous, but they're completely oblivious to the guns being run across the border. Yeah, way to stop those oh so dangerous weapons there. I don't know what we would do if those horrible hair dryers got onto the street. Imagine all that improperly blown hair. It would choke and kill all those people. It's a good thing they found them now.

*If you didn't notice, I was being completely sarcastic and here's why.

Yeah, you can find hair dryer's and not the guns involved in your own damn sting operations, wonder why that is. NOT, I know exactly why!

He asked nicely…

Barron Barnett — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 02:44:21 +0000

So earlier this month Joe was informed about some particular anti-rights bigots using video he shot and I edited without permission and outside the bounds of fair use. Joe has asked nicely and it appears that Ladd intends to ignore him.

This is a single frame, being used as a still image without commentary, out of context, and in no way is being used in a manner that can be considered “Fair Use”. They do not own the rights to the image, they are not using the image for a derivative work, they stole it to use it in a manner to show us as intimidating and threatening, and they have not licensed the use of the image either. They have not cited or credited the source of the original work either. It is not even in a manner as they did previously where it was obvious that the still was associate with a video.

So, there’s a new game of chess, the question is what’s the next move. Joe is the rights holder for that frame as he shot it, I think if there’s another volley prior to a formal DMCA request it needs to focus on rights and usage. A DMCA request can also be issued to Blogger without the necessities of a lawyer and let Blogger remove the material. If Blogger refuses to, then more force may be required.

Ear Worm Wednesday – 02/15/2012

Barron Barnett — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 02:05:18 +0000

Since yesterday was Valentine’s day, this works.

I've been on a Gaelic punk kick lately thanks to Pandora.

Update: So it appears you have to click through to youtube to listen to the song. Guess they don't like free advertising.

Seattle PD is Out for a Record*

Barron Barnett — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:56:08 +0000

I got another email from Ry this morning. At this point I firmly believe that Seattle has to be out for some sort of record for most consecutive days in the press. This doesn't make the full count as it wasn't a police officer who committed the crime, but the police stood off to the side.

The man is Michael Lionnel Edwards, also known as Charles Edwards. According to court documents, Edwards is a member of the Vice Lords gang and his victims are littered across several states. His criminal history includes robbery with serious bodily harm in Indiana, assault in Minnesota, and aggravated assault in North Dakota.

So here we have a known felon with a history so thick that officers would easily see the danger he is. The woman, while undergoing cancer treatment let this monster in her house as he claimed that he would help her. All that did was give the wolf entry and her hell soon began.

Instead, Cindy says Edwards took over her life, even changing her locks, so he could lock her inside. Then, in September of 2010, she was recovering from surgery when Edwards came home drunk. "He had been putting a gun in my face."

When Edwards passed out a girlfriend warned her, "you can't come back here, he is going to kill you. When he comes to he is going to kill you."

What does she do? She goes to the police like the media and the state keep telling us to do. The better to protect us they claim. They tell her to call 911 and they dispatch officers to the apartment. Upon arrival at the apartment and discovering he is still there they decided to stand down and leave him be. A known violent felon who threatened a woman, we're not going to arrest him. Now remember the role of the police is to investigate your murder, not protect you. That said at this point he was breaking the law trespassing as the home owner didn't want him there anymore.

Instead of removing him from the residence, here's what happened to the resident.

For the next ten days Cindy, still recovering from surgery, was homeless.

"It was terrible. I had gone there, I had talked to them, I had done everything they had asked me to," she said.

Cindy was stuck on the street, living in her car with her dog until Edwards was eventually arrested and convicted.

The department claims if they handle a domestic incident incorrectly there will be a corrective action. Many of the officers felt personally that the incident was not handled correctly. The corrective action?

But the Office of Professional Accountability recommended no discipline, only supervisory intervention. Department command staff overruled, saying the commander should have used special units like SWAT to arrest Edwards, rather than leave Cindy homeless.

See those black suited ninjas, they don't use those in actual dangerous situations. They just either call in to the criminal and talk him out or just walk off to arrest him later. The only time any department uses a swat team is for a non-violent offender to harass, intimidate, and kill those who have committed victimless crimes.

Let this be a serious warning to those who would think of letting a stranger into your house. We often want to believe that people are inherently good however there are wolves out there and you cannot tell who it is you're letting in your house. This woman took a promise to help with the bills as a sign of good intentions, sadly it resulted her arrival in hell.

That said, this seems like a classic case of what the police are there for. Someone was threatening another person, the threats were not idle, and then they were trespassing after the fact. It was a classic domestic incident given the use of a weapon, which as a felon that's unpossible, and the police showed up, saw he was there, turned around and left. The end result was to leave a woman recovering from surgery homeless while letting the armed felon roam free.

So this begs the question, why do we have SWAT teams? If they aren't willing to deploy them for incidents such as this why have them? Are they just trained to kick down the door of a house of the innocent and kill anyone inside? Are they just trained to shoot the dogs who are in a kennel?

This is a classic demonstration of two principal issues:

You cannot depend on the state for anything.
The armed militarization of the police has nothing to do with catching armed and dangerous criminals.

Remember both those points and draw from it what you will.

*The record comment originated with pyrotek85.

Starbucks Appreciation Day (Starbucks Buycott)

Barron Barnett — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 06:19:39 +0000

So today was Starbucks appreciation day, however my visit to the coffee house was delayed by the wife’s 12 hour shift.

So initially I planned on buying myself some coffee and at the same time buying a bunch of Via to send overseas. There’s an old adage that was drilled into my head by my dad growing up, “No Plan Survives First Contact With the Enemy.” They didn’t have the big packs of Via at this Starbucks. The wife is going to check Safeway tomorrow after her shift and if that fails I’ll be picking it up at Costco or ordering it online. My current receipt is small but will be growing considerably once I get my hands on the Via or order it.

Now, me being the guy that I am, and the fact it was snowing outside I decided I didn’t need my coat. Walked right past the campus police officer open carrying as he walked out with his coffee. As I’ve said before, no one cares!

The wife on the other hand remained much more discreet being that’s she’s so cold blooded (I’m so going on the couch for that, but it’s true, she’d freeze without me).

So we’re sitting at the table, across from where everyone has to pick up their coffee, both guns plainly visible. What does the barista say? Not what any of the bigots would have you think, and I quote, “Oh you guys are so cute!” Yeah, explain that one! We also asked the barista how business was today. She didn’t work this morning but she said business this evening was not below average but not high either.

I did also get an email from LC Scotty this morning.

I know A Girl and Her Gun also has a package enroute to me. All of this coffee is going to be headed overseas. So not only did we support Starbucks, but sending out a taste of home. All the gun grabbers were living in complete denial. How am I so sure it’s denial, here’s pictures and comments from a fellow blogger who’s just too “lazy(little kids are a pain)” to blog anymore. She just runs on the Facebook now. Seems she went and got 60 bucks worth of Starbucks herself plus an extra 50 from her current job specifically as part of the buycott!

Tweet space was quite alive today with the boycott and buycott traffic. Most interesting was the total meltdown that began to happen from the group that organized it and the Brady Campaign continued with their existence in the first stage of grief. Note all the definite numbers provided above, plus Joe wasn’t a slouch either. Just from what’s listed there in three people and the company is approximately $315 in business. Remember the Facebook group had almost 25000. To put it in further perspective, at 10 dollars per person that’s a quarter million dollars in sales for Starbucks.

Here’s a list of other bloggers who participated.

Lastly we have a post from Thirdpower. For an intro, read this, followed by this, and then lastly read this.

That’s right, Thirdpower’s Starbucks today was financed by the people who arranged the boycott. Talk about a way to flip the bird and rub salt in the wound.

So lets do a quick recap:

In January they organize a candle light vigil which we turned on its head and they became quite irritated over. In February they attempt to organize a boycott and do nothing but show Starbucks why it’s financially beneficial to remain politically neutral. It is bad business to discriminate or ostracize a group of customers because they want to exercise their legal rights. Where’s the proof it’s good business to stay neutral I hear you ask? The benefit is to the tune of what will probably be at least a quarter million in extra sales if those Facebook numbers can be believed and we figure approximately 10 dollars per person. I consider it a pretty conservative estimate as well because I know plenty of people who also went today who weren’t on Facebook either. Impressive isn’t it? Not only that, but then some of us are buying coffee to then turn around and send overseas for those who couldn’t participate? What pictures and events did the boycott organizers do today to show their support and how successful they are? Oh that’s right they have a blank Facebook page that none of us can see. I’ve got pictures of me to show Starbucks thank you. They have pictures of nothing and the majority of their protestors didn’t patronize Starbucks to begin with anyway.

Also Weer'd did a post tonight that caused me to have an epiphany type moment. The boycott was organized on Valentine's day, so in the event that there wasn't a decrease in sales they had an automatic rationalization for an out. Instead of seeing the lack of support they could blame it on couples going on a date filling in the gap. Why else would they set it on a holiday where Starbucks would already be seeing an increase in business?

Let them continue to wallow in denial. CSGV, at least Ladd anyway, has moved on to anger. There will be no bargaining for any of them when they arrive. They can be depressed for as long as they like, but eventually they will reach acceptance. They lost and they will be relegated to the dustbin of history. While we must continue pounding on them, lest we snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, we have the high ground currently. We need to do as much as we can to continue their progression of grief.

SSCC #258 - Seattle PD

Barron Barnett — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:59:03 +0000

I knew Seattle couldn't stay out of the count for long. Just look at their previous instances in the count. Five full incidents and an honorable mention. They barely made it over one month since the last post.

A Seattle police officer has been caught on tape talking about "making up" evidence while two wrongly arrested men sit in jail. It's the latest shocker uncovered by a KOMO 4 Problem Solver investigation into the Seattle Police Department's vanishing dashcam videos.

Well maybe they did something to cause the officer to believe they did something wrong or were involved in the initial incident.

But Officer Brad Richardson, the arresting officer, never questions the two about an assault. Instead, Richardson makes what's called a felony stop, taking cover behind his car door with his gun drawn.

Interesting, he claims they ignored his commands yet they continued walking towards him. Yeah who walks towards a police officer with a drawn gun. The whole thing stinks to high heaven, doubly so as this is the department that has a habit of disappearing dash cam video or delaying it to protect officers.

State Sponsored Criminal Count #258: Officer Brad Richardson

Because you can arrest whoever the hell you want. If they're innocent, just make something up, you're a cop, who's the jury going to believe?

via Ry.

The Ringtone Meme

Barron Barnett — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 02:48:22 +0000

So Uncle posted a meme, I have no clue if he started it. It was simple and easy enough that I just couldn’t not participate.

So, go to YouTube and get the first video when you search for your ring tone. Well mine was already an earworm Wednesday.

Just search YouTube for “Bullet in My Hand”, it’s the music video.

SSCC #257–Clute Texas

Barron Barnett — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 02:39:35 +0000

An 18-year-old at Brazoswood High School in the Brazosport Independent School District says she was a senior when the Clute Police Department officer, who was assigned to protect the school, called her into his office as she walked in the hallway.

The woman writes in her lawsuit that she felt "fearful and intimidated" by the officer, who was wearing his uniform with a gun and a Taser during the encounter.

Know what’s sad. I’m no longer surprised by these types of incidents. They are all way too common. If you want more details go read it, I’m sick of the excuses people give for putting predators around children. Especially when the predators in question are backed by the state.

State Sponsored Criminal Count 257: Joe Matthew Mosqueda

Because the perfect crime is the one where you already have the power and control of the situation before anything even starts.

We Warned Them

Barron Barnett — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:38:03 +0000

Not only did we warn them, but we even did a video public service announcement about the problem. Apparently they didn't get the memo.

We was at the vigil holding candles and stuff and grieving", recalls Meech Jackson, a friend of Smith's. "When we heard some shots. I left. People scattered after that."

As said by Don Wood, "Candles don't stop violence."

It is a shame, not only for the first victim that was lost, but the additional victims created by this act of violence. I find it most probable the people in that gathering were not armed. Doubly so since they think there is strength in numbers. However holding a candle while discussing the scourge that is guns on society just labels you as an unarmed potential victim.

If you missed our public service announcement, here it is again.

via Kurt Hoffman

And So The Torture Begins

Barron Barnett — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 06:37:23 +0000

Dot Torture that is!

So I’ve got with Joe to the past couple action pistol and steel matches and come in middle of the pack. I don’t always let my type A personality take over, but middle of the pack just isn’t acceptable. I know I’m going to be there for a while, it’s going to take time and practice.

Today was the first time in a while I actually spent some time at the range for some serious practice. I started off with just some standard target shooting at 7 yards eventually pushing it to 17 yards. Then I switched to the 1911 with the .22 LR conversion kit.

About 2 years ago I bought a Kimber .22 LR conversion kit for my 1911 with the statement I can practice more. Well, I have practiced more, with anything other than my pistol. So I finally broke it out yesterday and figured I’d review it as well.

The case is solid, makes storage easy and protects it especially if you do your conversion at the range.

Initial thoughts were that the construction was solid, the overall finish was extremely nice. Though with such a nice conversion kit, it was disappointing they shipped it with a polymer magazine. We’ll see how long it lasts.

There was a nice coating of cosmoline on everything so I fully stripped it down and cleaned it before assembling it on my 1911 frame.

Parts and pieces are the same as the standard 1911 frame and slide. If you know how that goes together you can disassemble a conversion kit and put it back together. Seriously, not hard. Pop out the the slide lock, pull off the old slide, put on the new one and reinsert slide lock!

The finished product after being cleaned and mounted on the 1911 frame.

It came to my attention as I started writing this I didn’t take a picture of any of the targets I shot slow fire at 7 yards for practice and familiarization with how it shoots. I do however have another picture which I will get to later. I ran approximately 150 rounds through the conversion kit with no issues. I actually borrowed a 22 mag from the shop gunsmith who I happened to know from the LPC Action Pistol matches. I do not remember the brand off hand, however the kit ran just fine with the third party mag as well. Only complaint is that the slide doesn’t lock back on the last round thus making slide lock reload practice impossible on the conversion kit. I haven’t found any magazines that allow the slide lock to function yet, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop looking.

So, thus far this .22 conversion kit is getting the thumbs up from me, however I haven’t looked at the prices lately but I’m sure they’ve gone up. This was listed at Cabela’s when I got it for $300, though I snagged it on sale for $275 at the local store. They currently list for $330.

So, I ran a bunch of simple drills with my 1911 at 7 yards getting comfortable with the conversion kit. Then I decided it was time for some torture. I ran it first with the 1911 with the conversion kit at 3 yards, pushing my comfort zone since it was 22.

It was pretty bad though it was obvious I was pushing. Those 5 shots at the top I was walking up to find the correct position for the sight picture that close. I then moved on to my XD and moved into something with some recoil.

As I was shooting the string I became very concerned when it game to dot 4. I couldn’t see any fliers in the cardboard though that were new, it was all pre-existing holes. Before bringing the target back after shooting the string I did a little experiment. I closed my eyes and pointed straight out to find my natural point of aim. It was at dot 4, my body was triggering off the natural point of aim to break the shot. I didn’t push far beyond my comfort zone with this one, I was pushing but I wanted good solid hits.

Reviewing the target though it shows I need to work on shooting with my weak hand more. It’s pretty clear I’m pushing and having recoil problems off hand.

I’ll be going back for more practice in during the next off weekend from action/steel shooting and I am going to increase the distance for dot torture. I need to send out an email to some friends in the interim to see what can be done to help my 45 supplies for matches as well as some for practice too. Joe’s offered me time on his reloader, which eventually I’ll probably take him up on, but I’ve need to solve the problem in the interim.

In closing today I was able to get a picture of just pure win.

The little girl informed me she also got a BB gun for Christmas. At least that’s what I think I heard through the hearing protection and gunfire. As she was leaving I smiled at her and asked if she had fun. She grinned back and said, “Yup, it was a blast.” Sarah Brady must be crying in a corner somewhere.

*A note to the FTC, FUCK YOU! No one paid me shit to write this review. I paid out of my own pocket for the conversion kit, firearm(gift from dad so yeah…), ammunition, and range fees. No even just sent me hardware to review, I bought all of it.**

**If you would like me to review some product of yours, feel free to contact me.