Category: Guns

Monday Links

This is going to be a tab-clearing edition as the Ward household has been out of state for the past couple of weeks.

Let’s start with our normal Reason links.

A bunch of redditors who hate Christians decided to sic Florida’s DCF folks on a family. A good example of how an online mob can whip itself into a frenzy and cause real world havoc.

More analysis on the lasting impacts of the school shutdowns during COVID.

Michigan Supreme Court tells Detroit their civil asset forfeiture program is wrong. No idea if they will block Detroit from working with the feds to sidestep any restrictions.

Thinkpiece on the FTC and its unconstitutional power grabs. This is another symptom of Congress not doing its damned job and putting in some guardrails on the FTC. But then again, the incentives for Congress is to let the FTC run wild and demagogue.

Over 1 million people have fled Cuba in the last couple of years. Apparently, this is around 10% of the population. But it’s supposed to be such a paradise.

A pilot of Universal Basic Income found it didn’t help people work more. UBI is one of those ideas I like in concept on the premise that its better to let people make their own decisions with their money. Unfortunately, society can’t stand by when people make bad decisions with their money. So, I can’t see how UBI is going to work.

Kamala’s Gen Z appeal is not what it appears to be. You’ll excuse me if I’m unimpressed by the youngins new fads when it comes to politics. Also excuse me if I’m unsurprised that the youngins are planning on voting for the Dems.

The government is exacerbating issues in the wine industry. Color me surprised, particularly when it comes to California.

Now on to some other stories.

From the AP, the FTC is looking into “surveillance pricing”. You’ll excuse me if I don’t trust assertions from the FTC about “possible” issues. Please see previous Reason link above.

From TFB, CZ is looking at opening factories in Ukraine. Hey, I’d like to get a Bren stamped “Made in Ukraine”.

From Active Response Training, an article on pet first aid for cats.

From Venture Beat, Microsoft has come up with a new LLM for spreadsheets. I’m kind of interested in playing with this.

Now on to some anime / weeb news.

Ranma 1/2 is getting remade and will show up on Netflix later this year. I’m very interested in this as Ranma was one of those shows in the nineties that got me into anime as anime.

A Couple of Cuckoos is getting a second season. This was a previous anime recommendation, and I’m glad it’s getting a second season.

Sanrio is causing some havoc by claiming that its iconic character Hello Kitty is not a cat, but a young girl living in London. Well, that’s a bold assertion cotton.

Monday Links

I’m going to deviate a bit from my normal flow due to the Rahimi ruling.

Here is Reason’s coverage.

Here’s The Reload’s coverage.

Here’s the Advisory Opinions podcast.

My two cents? This was the court walking back/modifying Text, History, Tradition because it didn’t like how it was shaking out in the lower courts. This also reinforces my thesis in last week’s post.

Now back to our normal programming, staring with our mix of Reason posts I found interesting.

Apparently New York lawmakers didn’t learn from an earlier USSC ruling and are threatening to ban insurance firms if they invest in fossil fuel programs.

ATF agents cleared in killing of a director of an executive airport. This one is being followed pretty heavily in the RKBA circles.

The US military was spreading anti-vax propaganda in China.

A man is suing Marion County SO for arresting him because he was filming them.

Florida’s loosened it’s labor laws for teens. It sounds kind of like taking them back to where they were when I was a manager at Mickey D’s.

Now on to other stories.

Another story from The Reload – this time about a Ukranian pushing for a version of the Second Amendment for his country. There’s also a bit in the article about how Miami PD held a gun buyback with the guns being sent to Ukraine. Honestly, if an org I trusted was collecting some guns to send over there, I might shake loose a couple.

From The Hill, comes a perfect example of kabuki theater around a real issue. I think the draft is against the Thirteenth Amendment. If you can’t get people to volunteer, then maybe it isn’t the existential threat you purport.

From TechCrunch, the US bans the sale of Kaspersky antivirus software due to security concerns over Russia.

Local news story about new Florida law prohibiting HOA’s from banning the parking of work trucks. This is a big bone of contention around here. With so many new developments, the HOA’s are still controlled by the builders – who are less than flexible about anything that doesn’t meet their esthetic.

From Ars Technica, a thinkpiece on if the USAF looking for a replacement for the F-16 means the F-35 program is a failure.

Finally, we end on a sad note. Miguel is shuttering GunFreeZone. When Miguel was still in Florida and running the blog, this was a go-to for the best information on Florida gun legislation. I’ll be honest, I stopped reading after Miguel left because JKB just rubbed me the wrong way. While I’m sort of unsurprised that he went too far, I’m sorry to see the blog go away. H/t John Richardson.

Supreme Court Ruling on Bump Stock Ban Is Not The Ruling You Think It Is

The US Supreme Court struck down ATF’s rule banning bump stocks last week. Here’s The Reload’s coverage.

I listen to some legal podcasts. This is the legal equivalent of staying in a Holiday Inn Express. They have given some insights on how lawyers and judges see things as opposed to the general public. So, what insights did they impart about the ruling?

First and most important, this ruling was less about defending the Second Amendment, and more about telling Congress to do it’s damn job. The ruling is good, as a gun owner, due to ATF’s tendency to suddenly criminalize items that it said were perfectly legal. What the Supreme Court emphatically did not say was that a bump stock ban passed by Congress would be against the Second Amendment. If anything, their concurrences/dissents made it perfectly clear they wouldn’t have a problem with such a ban. And let’s be real, the general public has a fear of fully automatic weapons in the hands of people not in the military or police.

Second, we, as gun owners, need to stop relying on the dicta of “in common use” as a magic phrase to protect us from equipment bans. It’s not an official standard, and it can’t protect us like a rule ordering the use of strict scrutiny would’ve been.

Third, I don’t think “text, history, and tradition” will be the panacea some of us think. It feels like an originalist’s version of “making up what we want the Constitution to say”. I liked the levels of scrutiny as they had decades of precedence on how they should be determined or proscribed. It really comes down to having a process that has less “play in the joints” when it comes to rights. Especially rights that don’t have a long track record of protection – like say free speech.

So, what is the point of all this rambling? The courts are not our friends. When we start getting the Second Amendment edge cases, there will be other things that come into play. Stealing from a couple of “legal theories” that I heard on Advisory Opinions, we will be at the mercy of the “Bad Man Stays In Jail” and “Bad Cases Make Bad Laws”.

We still need to work with the legislatures, which means electing people who will actually get stuff through Congress and not grandstand for the television. We need to do outreach to those who are curious and try to meet them where they are at. The commanding heights of culture? Yeah, we need to change them, but I’m not savvy enough to opine on methodology.

As for me? I will do my best to be a good ambassador and voter.

Monday Links

This week is a bit long. Reason starts us out.

First, a couple of articles relating to Hunter Biden’s conviction. One on the constitutional question of his conviction. I lean on the charge is bullshit, because I think the whole premise of banning people who might use drugs is bullshit. If they had convicted him on having the weapon on him while intoxicated, that would be a more reasonable charge. Anyways, this whole thing goes back to the infamous laptop, and we have an article on the media’s failure to own up to its mistakes on their coverage.

Reason covers the secret recordings of Alito done “Project Veritas”-style. The best descriptor of this story is that it’s a Rorsach test of your political priors.

Maybe charging teens with felonies for vandalism isn’t a good idea. Particularly if you’re going to ramp up the charges because you’re offended. Particularly in light of your failure to react the same when it wasn’t one of your sacred images.

On the good news front, preliminary UCR data shows deep declines in crime. More indications we’re coming out of the crazy that was the COVID lockdowns. I blame the lockdowns more for the sharp uptick in crime, and it looks like we’re trending back to baseline, at least in terms of crime.

Trump announced he wants to exempt tips from income tax. On one hand, I like this because it reduces the amount of bullshit reporting people have to do – or put them in jeopardy if they forget to do. On the other hand, I don’t trust Trump to get anything done if he’s elected (ask the gun lobby how much legislation they managed to get signed). On the gripping hand, I’m not sure I like the downstream impacts – either on the federal deficits or how wages will get structured in the labor market.

Let’s ban flavored vaping for the children! What do you mean teen smoking goes up in response? Is vaping a good habit to have? Probably not. Is it orders of magnitude better than smoking tobacco? Fuck yes. I swear, public health officials should be forced to take real economics. You know, the one where you learn there are no perfect solutions, only more optimal trade-offs.

Going on to other news.

I have a Ground News aggregation on how US soldiers are nine times more likely to die by suicide than combat action. Suicide is an epidemic in our society. Particularly for those of us who fear getting help will result in our guns or livelihoods being taken away. For gunnies, I’m going to recommend going to the Walk The Talk America site.

More Fulton County drama, but this time in the Young Thug trial. The judge wanted to jail the defense attorney for contempt after said attorney refused to disclose how he learned about an exparte meeting between the judge and the prosecution. The Georgia Supreme Court reversed that. Still, the defense lawyer made the baller statement of if the judge was going to throw him in jail, could he be jailed with his client so they could work on his defense?

The NYT reports on the FAA investigating how titanium used in Boeing and Airbus airliners came from a questionable Chinese source with fraudulent documents. One wonders how many more body blows Boeing can suffer before the company gets radically realigned.

Speaking of the NYT, the Economist did an investigation on if the NYT bestseller list is politically biased. To almost no one’s surprise, it is. (Paywall warning.)

AP reports that Armenia is getting tired of Russia’s shit and is withdrawing from their “security alliance”. Considering the recent series of conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan, I’m concerned this is the first step before a major flare-up.

The Firearms Blog reports a San Antonio officer was put on indefinite suspension after he took home guns from a recent buyback.

A story going around the local stations reporting that half of parents who visit Disney end up in debt from the trip. Okay, yeah, Disney’s been jacking up prices for years. However, I look at this as more of an indictment of young families budgeting ability.

Let’s go on to some lighter items.

War is Boring looks at deploying military tech, including drones and helicopters, to deal with – feral hogs. I’ll be honest, going on a hog hunt is one of those things I’d like to do.

Finally, The Verge has a look at the Excel World Championship in Vegas.

Monday Links

Going to be shorter this week. We start off with Reason.

Reporting on Dr. Faucci’s latest appearance before Congress. It will probably be a generation for us to get a real accounting of the mistakes surrounding COVID. If Faucci’s hubris is not included, I will be very surprised.

A trio of senators want to mandate insurance coverage for IVF. Because health insurance isn’t expensive enough. Now you want to make them cover even more expensive treatments. How about a bill to decouple health insurance from employment and let insurers sell policies across state lines? Then let folks make the decision as to what coverages they need/want.

The Maldives have decided to deny entry to anyone with an Israeli passport. Really, because that’s going to do something?

Now on to other stories.

From Ground News, an aggregation on Boeing’s new spacecraft lifting off. I like the idea of competition in the space realm. Not sure I’d trust Boeing considering it’s recent troubles.

Streamlight has an article on travelling with flashlights. Personally, for travel through the airport, I keep a small Streamlight in my pocket. My Pro-Tac’s get packed away in my checked luggage.

After all of the rigamarole surrounding Disney and the State of Florida, the new entity has agreed on a fifth park. This is really a case of business as usual once the politics of the day subsides.

For our last entry, I have this nifty video from TFB.

Monday Links

Let’s start off with our normal slew of Reason links.

Obligatory article on Trump conviction. Do I think that anyone else but Trump would have been brought to trial on this flimsy of a legal theory? No. Do I think this demonstrates the abuse a prosecutor can do with his powers? Yes. Do I think this could have all been avoided if Trump just kept it in his pants and not cheated on his wife? Also yes.

Obligatory article on the unanimous Supreme Court decision in favor of the NRA. Again, give the government enough power, and officials will abuse it.

Oh look, Fauci was caught trying to evade FOIA. This happens way too often. And it only makes the news when it’s someone prominent.

Gorsuch rails against Florida’s use of six-person juries. This one I don’t understand. What does it matter if it’s six or twelve? But I’m willing to be convinced. Maybe a tiered system. Civil and misdemeanors use six, minor felonies use eight, and major felonies have twelve.

Jumping minimum wage up to $20/hr has bad effects. Shocked Pikachu face.

A couple of Ground News aggregations.

That deputy who shot an airman who answered the door with a gun? Yeah, he’s fired. Now to see if he’s prosecuted.

China convicted 14 pro-democracy Hong Kong protestors.

Now on to other news stories.

You think you know how SEO works for the Google algorithm? Probably not, according to some leaked documents.

An article on Exo-Squad. That was such a great cartoon.

Here’s an interview with one of the creators of Magic: The Gathering.

NRA Finally Starting to Heal?

Last week was the NRA Annual Meeting. The big news wasn’t the guns introduced – which I didn’t hear much about. It was how the leadership elections played out.

The best sources are John Richardson’s No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money blog and Stephen Gutowski’s The Reload. Both have the blow by blow of the elections and the fight over moving the headquarters from Virginia to Texas. (That one got spicy fast).

The TLDR. Although the establishment managed to elect Bob Barr as NRA President, the First and Second VP slots, as well as the EVP/CEO slot went to reformers. Moreover, the new EVP/CEO, Doug Hamlin has started shaking up things and reminding the NRA staff that they are there for the members. That they need to regain the members’ trust.

Those are very good first steps. The revelations of the previous regime’s shenanigans resulted in plunging membership (and revenues) as well as soaring legal bills. Extremely bad for an organization to continue being a going concern.

I am cautiously optimistic. I’m going to watch to see what Mr. Hamlin does over the next six months. If he continues to make these kinds of reforms, I’ll rejoin the NRA.

Monday Links

I hope everyone is having a good Memorial Day weekend. There will be a bit of tab clearing since we didn’t have a links post last week.

I’ve got a slew of Reason articles to start.

A look into how bad science is keeping bad regulations around nuclear power. We need more nuclear power. Because we need more power. Because we need to reduce our dependence on oil. Not just climate change, but because of the politics and other environmental hazards of oil.

A look at how zoning regulations empower the people we don’t want to have power.

Surprise, surprise, the real reason for self-checkout bans is not the stated reason of stopping theft. Incentives matter, and that doesn’t change once the issue becomes political.

No, Super Size Me was not a documentary. It was a bullshit publicity stunt that did nothing to address what it purported to address. Other than getting Mickey D’s to change it’s branding.

NYT says that looser gun laws caused the spike in homicides. Um, yeah. Keep thinking that.

This one about a New York man being convicted of building guns made the rounds of the gunblogs, but here’s Reason’s coverage. The judge telling the defense the Second Amendment doesn’t work here was surprisingly unsurprising.

Now on to other sources.

From Ground News, we have an aggregation of Uvalde parents suing Meta, Microsoft, and Daniel Defense because the bad guy was on Facebook, played Call of Duty, and used a DD rifle. I’m kinda glad the plaintiffs are pulling in Meta and Microsoft, as they can slap down those better than Daniel Defense.

From 404 Media – all those nifty northern lights that folks were able to see earlier this month? Yeah, that same coronal storm caused issues with tractors talking with GPS, which has resulted in issues with planting. Which will definitely have some downstream effects in the food supply chain.

Nature published an op-ed decrying climate scientists being climate activists. This has been one of the big problems with doing anything about climate change. The moment you step out of being a neutral dispenser of information to a partisan, whatever information you provide is degraded. Either because a swath of the population will no longer believe you, or your information becomes shaded. Because incentives matter.

Ars Technica has an article on a company that had its Google Cloud account completely wiped out. Including the backups. Fortunately, the company had backups other than Google, but it’s an interesting case study.

Via The Brother, here’s the transcript from a talk Bert Hubert delivered on Cyber Security and war.

From the local TV station, we have an article about a homeowner who killed an intruder, by stabbing him, after the intruder shot her in the face. In a fight for your life, don’t stop until you can’t fight anymore. Or the threat is stopped.

Monday Links

Israel and its adjacent topics are a big theme in this week’s links. So, let’s start with our normal slate of Reason links (which include more than usual Volokh Conspiracy entries).

The UF president laid out his thoughts on campus free speech and protest.

Jewish students at Columbia did their own letter on their “lived experience” since October 7.

Here’s a pair of articles on the Supreme Court’s recent (disappointing) ruling on civil asset forfeiture. One from Reason and one from Volokh.

Now for some Ground News aggregations.

Biden halts arms shipments to Israel over the invasion of Rafah.

US alleges Israel broke international law while using US weapons, but on incomplete evidence. Both of these stories are troubling, because its showing how weak US resolve can be to even our most trusted allies.

US tells Intel and Qualcomm they can’t sell chips to China.

A US Airman was killed by deputies who broke into the wrong apartment.

Now on to other stories that crossed my transom.

SkyNews reports on a “massive” hack of Britain’s Ministry of Defence (Brit spelling). While officially, the hackers are “unknown,” bets are it was China. Reminds me of the OPM hack ten or fifteen years ago.

Bloomberg that there are over 40,000 AI-voiced audiobooks on Audible. I’m kind of torn on this. First, as a small author, if I want to convert one of my stories to an audio version, it’s nice knowing that there’s a lower cost alternative. As a consumer of audiobooks, I understand how important a good narrator can make a book come alive. On the gripping hand, I see this as where the great narrators will still be in demand, but lesser narrators will be pushed out of the market.

An American Cop piece on why “high-ready” might not be a safe way to hold your weapon. The expected audience is cops, but good points for non-cop folk. Things to keep in mind if you’re on either end of the gun. (h/t Tam).

Gizmodo reports on Victorinox announcing it was going to be offering bladeless versions of their famous “Swiss Army knife”. This is another good case to ignore the headlines and the sturm und drang on the internet. Victorinox is simply coming out with new versions for sale in areas where knives are banned/restricted. They’re still selling bladed versions. I’m kind of wondering if these new ones will be TSA compliant.

Tampa Bay Buisness Journal is reporting of Florida Aquarium getting funding for a planned $15 million expansion. It looks pretty interesting.

Another good article from Angry Staff Officer. This time on how fantasy armies never screen their flanks. I like reading him to make my writing better.

PCGamesN reports that Civ 7 will be out sometime later this year. Needless to say, I’m very excited about this news. As of this writing, I’m up to over 7,700 hours on Civ 6. Which, to be fair is a very different game now than when it released many moons ago.

Flashlights and Guns

Tam has thoughts on weapon-mounted lights following a story of an ND by an NYPD ESU officer during the recent takeover at Columbia.

I have a flashlight mounted on my normal carry piece. I’ve heard the arguments back and forth, but my logic comes down to this:

  1. There’s a strong likelihood that if I’m going to need my weapon outside the home, it will be in a low-light environment.
  2. If I’m going to need my weapon outside the home, I do not want to be juggling more devices than necessary.

However, as shown in the linked story, there is an inherent danger of using a WML as a flashlight instead of illumination for your weapon. A flashlight is for searching, a WML is for better view of a target.

This is why I have a separate flashlight. That is for searching around when it’s dark. My WML should only go on if my weapon is out. And my weapon should only be out if there is a strong possibility I’m going to need to use it.