This May Not Mean War...

...but it does wink suggestively while twitching its head that way.

I'm sure many of you have already seen the news that a DHS target supplier now sells "Non-traditional Threat" targets. Disturbingly named the "No More Hesitation" series, these targets depict various Americans, including CHILDREN, wielding guns, with the basic instruction "Shoot this".

This is disturbing on so many levels I hardly know where to begin. I suppose the title is as good a place as any. No More Hesitation. Folks, I don't know about y'all, but the last thing I want to see is cops failing to hesitate to take shots. Lethal force in a police environment, as in all non-military environments, is a last ditch effort. If a cop comes across a grandpa in his living room with a shotgun, you'd better believe I'd like that cop to hesitate before pulling any triggers. If they don't, you end up with the despicable Dorner fiasco.

Second, the depictions of these 'threats' is universally worrisome. While I hardly think that a young mother at a park with her child is likely to randomly decide to shoot a police officer, the depiction that most bothered me was the pregnant woman in a nursery. (yes, even more than the small child; we'll get there though) All I could think seeing that picture was that the ONLY people who would want to practice with that particular picture are rapists and abusive husbands/boyfriends.

This picture, as well as the pictures of the older man and woman LABELED as being in their homes, are citizens defending their homes and children from a threat. I DO NOT CARE if that threat happens to be wearing a blue uniform. A cop under NO circumstances has any business coming into someone's home and shooting them. If that situation comes up for a cop, the proper solution is to retreat. While duty to retreat is an unpopular term among civilian shooters, CCW aficionados, and rabid gunnies like myself, it's applicable here. No civilian would ever be deemed innocent of murder should they force entry into someones home and shoot them, regardless of whether their victim was armed or not. Yes, the circumstances are different for cops with warrants, but I hardly think that justifies murdering people in their own homes.

Yes, cops have a high risk profession. Yes, there are some young mothers, kindly grandfathers, and even children who pose a threat to them. That is largely irrelevant. They knew the risks when they took the job. The blue uniform does not make their life worth more than that of any other human. On a practical level, I cannot come up with ANY circumstances under which a cop would ever need to shoot a child as young as the boy depicted (and I've got a fairly active imagination). On a more philosophical level though, I know there is no reason a cop should.

Cops have a right to protect themselves. Don't get me wrong on this. I just do not think that extends to taking the offensive against US citizens who are not an active threat to others (which is cyclic in that it then becomes a defensive action). Any cop who practices with these targets needs to take a HUGE step back and think very hard about what they would really do when faced with these situations. If their first impulse is to shoot, I would say not only that they aren't fit to be LEOs, but that they are really only fit for institutionalization.

Now, this next part sounds more conspiracy-theorist tinfoil hat, so those of you who think the government craps gold bricks and could never hurt the American people, I invite you to leave now. And, for that matter, don't bother coming back.

This company supplies the DHS. I don't know whether DHS is ordering specifically these targets, but they are at least doing serious business with a company that thinks this is appropriate, which is disturbing in and of itself. Additionally, there has been a figure bandied around a good bit recently.

DHS has purchased 2,000,000,000 rounds of ammunition over the last eighteen months. 2x10^9. 2 Billion with a B.

Scared? Context. At the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the entire US military went through 5.5Mil rounds per month. Doing a bit of back of the envelope calculation, 2bil rounds would allow the US military to fight at peak for.... 363.6 months, or 30 years.

Why, pray tell, does the Department of Homeland Defense need this much?

There are two likely potentials I see here. The first, DHS is preparing to put down a revolution. The second, DHS is preparing to create a revolution thus completely destroy what's left of America and install their progressivist utopia. *spits* Neither one of these is particularly appealing, I gotta say.

The long and the short of it is that I don't see any purpose those rounds could be put towards other than shooting Americans. For reasons I should hope are obvious, I find this purpose distasteful. I am distinctly disturbed by the fact that our law enforcement is gearing up for domestic war while practicing shooting facsimiles of children and pregnant women. I am unsure what can be done about it.

This much at least can be done. Get the word out. Make sure people know this is going on. Write emails (letters take too long to screen) and make phone calls. And, if the horrific instance of a coup comes to reality, be prepared to fight for this country. I will never fight against this country. I make no promises about the government.

In Lieu of Apoplectic Rage

I have several times over in recent days pulled up the new post window and started writing about this that or the other bit of gun grabbing stupidity, but every time it was either too angry, incoherent, or otherwise unfortunate to hit post on. There are lots of other people doing good work in tracking the idiocy without my ham handed forays.

Since I am currently without the sd card reader I need to upload pictures of the Enfield of happiness, I am rather starved for typical post content. However, there is an admittedly niche subject some might be interested in, so it's better than nothing.

I have never been much of a woodworker. I have a workbench in the basement at home, but most of the tools on it are designed for plastic model work. Despite this, on a link from someone in #gunblogger_conspiracy (I don't remember who, else I would credit) to poorfolkbows.com, run by Sam Harper, I became.... intrigued. The red oak board bow build seemed simple enough, and archery has always interested me (despite not being particularly engaged in it at any time) so I decided to give it a go.

Archery, for all that it interests me, has never been particularly a hobby of mine, mostly due to having the childhood physique of a pile of wet spaghetti. At Boy Scout Camp when I was 12 or 13, I wanted to get the archery merit badge, but even the youth bows they had were utterly beyond my draw strength. However, as I am now 20 and have been rock climbing for some time, my physique is a bit more robust. I figured it was possible to get back into the realm of archery.

So, in my naive starting enthusiasm, I wandered to Home Depot and bought myself a nice straight grained piece of red oak and a couple basic tools. Since then, I have been back to Home Depot several times over and have spent far more money than I had anticipated, but it's ok, because, with the exception of a few dollars here and there (drywall tape for backing that I didn't end up using, and a truly lousy hacksaw) all my expenses thus far have turned out pretty well. What I couldn't get locally, I've been ordering piecemeal online. I've been finding it very interesting to watch this all come together slowly.

I now have the gross shape of the limbs and riser of the bow done, and I have my backing material cut to shape, though not glued yet. (A pair of women's silk pants I got at Goodwill provided the material.) I have most of my materials for the rest of the project together, with the exception of my bowstring. Until that comes, I am somewhat restricted on how much progress I can make on the bow itself. So, having seen the truly painful prices of even unfinished arrow shafts, I have started to make arrows as well. This is probably the point at which I have truly jumped the shark.

I have no idea how well this project will turn out. My woodworking skills are amateur at best, and I've made a handful of mistakes (all correctable thankfully) already. I can say though that, though I knew this already, there is a certain... wonderful feeling to working with your hands. Every blister that pops up from spending too long with the file is a sign that I am doing something. Seeing a couple pieces of hardware store lumber start slowly to turn into a functional tool is fascinating. The funny thing to me is that even if I don't get into archery particularly, I will probably keep up with bowmaking, or at least woodworking of some sort. It's a wonderful sense of your own capabilities to see what you can make with your own two hands and a couple hand tools. Pictures will go up of the final product once I've, well, made it final, as well as a handful of progress shots too.

I'd like to offer a big thanks to Sam Harper for his most excellent build-along, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in building bows. Granted, having not finished yet, I can't vouch for the final product, but his instructions are clear, well written, informative, and somewhat entertaining.

Texas is Better

I am now back in Texas after winter break. Break was good, as I got to do a good bunch of shooting, as well as acquiring a new gun. (or two, depending on how you arrange the timeframe). I now own both a Remington 700 in .308 and a 1918 SMLE. Full reports on both will turn up in the next few days, theoretically.

For the past few days, I have been alternating running around like a headless chicken and haemorrhaging money. I managed to kill my phone and my seahorse tank in a matter of hours, and things are just not going well.

So, on a happier subject, what, my dear readers, did you get for Christmas? Did you give or receive any good gunny gifts?

I've got plenty to post about, which will happen as soon as life stops turning me into a pinball.

Sign of the times

I take it as a sign that we're winning that the Jewel Foods near home just out of the heart of Mordor has Handloader Magazine available for sale, among a host of more common gun mags. For all that, I'm still looking forward to returning to the land of the free on Saturday.

Merry Christmas

Today is the day we commemorate the birth and life of a man who, regardless of your religious beliefs, changed the world we live in hugely. For me and my family it is a day of joyous celebration and kinship. If you are able, hug those who you love and care about. Today is a good day.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Disappointment

I am a 20 year old man, born and raised an American. Today I must say I am disappointed in the face of our nation.

Tragedy is not something to be twisted to the gain of anything. Not personal wealth, not agenda, not pride, not social status, not anything. The phrase "Never let a crisis go to waste" (Rahm Emanuel, former White House Chief of Staff to Obama and current Mayor of Chicago) should be treated as the evil it is.

Americans no longer really know how to deal with grief. Far too often we feel we must be seen to be doing something. Here is an excellent breakdown of exactly that. I beg of you, America, be willing to stand back and let the grief happen. Stop sticking your noses in it, stop trying to be seen doing something, stop.

Practically no Americans feel the full weight of the grief these families are experiencing. Some feel more than others. Some feel nothing at all, and feel worse about that than they do about the event. This event has been so publicized that everyone feels they should feel something. Just.... stop. Stop talking about it, stop thinking about it, stop moping about it. What's done is done. If the families need anything in the coming times, they will turn to trusted, close people. There is nothing we as Americans can do. We are doing harm by trying.

I want to call out a few particularly guilty parties. The media has had huge coverage of these killings in  recent days. Watch this. By glorifying these killers, plastering their faces and names over everything, you promote their behavior. A proper reaction to this is to strike their existence from the record. Do not publicize the killers name. Do not have a trial by media for him. This man (for I have to recant a statement in my last post. He is still human, and a child of God, for all that his actions are just about as evil as it is possible for a human to be) committed an act of evil, is dead, and will be taken to account for his actions. There's nothing more we can do to or about him. There's nothing to be done to help the families. There's a great deal of harm to be done by over-coverage. Just stop.

The number of corporations and businesses that have made certain public gestures in the past few days rather annoy me. Cerberus sold off the Freedom Group of firearms manufacturers. Cheaper Than Dirt temporarily suspended sale of firearms. Walmart pulled the Bushmaster brand from their shelves. There are others. These gestures are meaningless in the grand scheme of things, and just serve as publicity efforts. Matthew 6:5, "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward." If you feel compelled to do something, do it in secret. Do it in such a way that success is measured in how few people know you've done anything. THAT is service. That should be its own reward, if it is indeed a good thing you do.

President Obama, Joan Peterson, Diane Feinstein, and all others using this tragedy as an impetus for further gun control. Who the hell are you? You are manipulating this tragedy for the gain of your agenda. Tell me, would this attack have been any less evil had the killer used a gasoline or propane bomb? ANFO? A knife? A sword? A sharpened stick? Rocks? Evil is evil, and it will not be stopped by the laws of men. The tool is irrelevant to the will behind it. Stop dancing in blood.

Those on the other side of the argument, using this as further evidence of the need for armed teachers, armed guards, etc. you are equally reprehensible. If you can conclusively show that had there been an armed person in that school, then the attack wouldn't have happened, then we can talk. The fact that I agree with the theory does not change the fact that you too are guilty of dancing in blood.

Read this. That monster can be extended to all of humanity. There is evil in the world. It's part of what allows there to be good in the world. To shy away, to pretend it isn't there and will always be there for as long as humanity is humanity is foolish and naive. Pull it out. Face it as an individual. Come to grips with the fact that this world is not and cannot be perfect until the end of days. Figure out how you, my gentle reader, are going to deal with it. I get the feeling many of you already have, by the merit of my readership base.

Stop making this into a national issue. A tragedy befell a single community, though it hurts us all in different ways. Do not make this into more than it is.

Note: my personal religious sentiment does appear in this piece, though I endeavor to keep it largely secular and available to everyone. If you disagree with my religion, it does not mean you have to disagree with my larger point.

Absolute Evil

A few months ago, I tried to write a post about the differences between good and evil, and the fact that this world does in fact have some absolutes. I couldn't get it into any form I felt good enough to present to the world, so it died a lonely death.

It's time to go back to this topic.

This morning, a monster walked into a school in Connecticut and shot a great many people. According to initial reports, most of those people were children. This is, absolutely without question, Evil.

In our modern world, there is a trend towards explaining actions like these. Towards finding the "blame". Some blame guns. Some blame bad upbringings. Some blame mental illness, medications, or drugs. Some blame video games. If there was an unusual facet of the perpetrators life, odds are it will be at least considered as the thing to blame.  All of this is absolutely irrelevant.

The only thing to blame here is the perpetrator. What this monster did is Absolute Evil. Unquestioningly. The fault lies solely and entirely on it. Yes, 'it'. I think too highly of humanity to label this foul creature as among their number. I cannot express my utter revulsion for this being and its actions in words fit to print.

When I first heard about this, I wanted to crawl back in bed and hide away from the world. How could I bear being in a world like this? A world where innocent children, children not old in some cases to even know what a sin is, let alone be guilty of them, are murdered for simply being there. When such evil exists in the world, why bother getting out of bed? Quite simply, Edmund Burke put it best. "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing" (disputed attribution).  There will always be evil in this world, for as long as humans are human. Always. All we can do is stand against it as best we can. For there is good in the world, in addition to evil, should it only choose to be.

My tears, thoughts, and prayers go out to these families struck by the worst sort of tragedy. I cannot begin to fathom their loss. Nor can I fathom the pain caused by other acts of evil that happen around the world every single day. All I can say is that I will never back down. I will never step aside and allow evil to happen when I could have stopped it.

May God hold the souls of the deceased close to him, may their families find peace, and may the sins of the shooter weigh heavily upon his soul for all eternity.