5/13/2005
More on Bach v. Pataki
Countertop Chronicles has more commentary on the case. He includes the flaw in the 2nd Circuit's reasoning in relying on Presser v. Illinois, summed up nicely in this quote from the 9th Circuit's decision in Silviera v. Lockyer:
One point about which we are in agreement with the Fifth Circuit is that Cruikshank and Presser rest on a principle that is now thoroughly discredited.
The discredited principle being that the Bill of Rights was not incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment.
I haven't personally taken the time to read the decision, and I don't know how Bach's attorneys argued the case, but I have to wonder: did anyone argue that requiring a permit for a citizen to be allowed to carry a gun at all (from my understanding, NY state requires a permit to own a pistol) is in itself unconstitutional? You know, that whole "shall not be infringed" thing.
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More on MATADOR
Murdoc Online has more stuff on the ongoing Marine operation. Lot of links in there.
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5/11/2005
I am a Robot
My wife says I'm a sex machine.
Robot
You are 85% Rational, 14% Extroverted, 42% Brutal, and 28% Arrogant. |
You are the Robot! You are characterized by your rationality. In fact,
this is really ALL you are characterized by. Like a cold, heartless
machine, you are so logical and unemotional that you scarcely seem
human. For instance, you are very humble and don't bother thinking of
your own interests, you are very gentle and lack emotion, and you are
also very introverted and introspective. You may have noticed that
these traits are just as applicable to your laptop as they are to a
human being. In short, your personality defect is that you don't really
HAVE a personality. You are one of those annoying, super-logical people
that never gets upset or flustered. Unless, of course, you short
circuit.
To put it less negatively:
1. You are more RATIONAL than intuitive.
2. You are more INTROVERTED than extroverted.
3. You are more GENTLE than brutal.
4. You are more HUMBLE than arrogant.
Compatibility:
Your exact opposite is the Class Clown.
Other personalities you would probably get along with are the Hand-Raiser, the Emo Kid, and the Haughty Intellectual.
*
*
If you scored near fifty percent for a certain trait (42%-58%), you
could very well go either way. For example, someone with 42%
Extroversion is slightly leaning towards being an introvert, but is
close enough to being an extrovert to be classified that way as well.
Below is a list of the other personality types so that you can
determine which other possible categories you may fill if you scored
near fifty percent for certain traits.
The other personality types:
The Emo Kid: Intuitive, Introverted, Gentle, Humble.
The Starving Artist: Intuitive, Introverted, Gentle, Arrogant.
The Bitch-Slap: Intuitive, Introverted, Brutal, Humble.
The Brute: Intuitive, Introverted, Brutal, Arrogant.
The Hippie: Intuitive, Extroverted, Gentle, Humble.
The Televangelist: Intuitive, Extroverted, Gentle, Arrogant.
The Schoolyard Bully: Intuitive, Extroverted, Brutal, Humble.
The Class Clown: Intuitive, Extroverted, Brutal, Arrogant.
The Robot: Rational, Introverted, Gentle, Humble.
The Haughty Intellectual: Rational, Introverted, Gentle, Arrogant.
The Spiteful Loner: Rational, Introverted, Brutal, Humble.
The Sociopath: Rational, Introverted, Brutal, Arrogant.
The Hand-Raiser: Rational, Extroverted, Gentle, Humble.
The Braggart: Rational, Extroverted, Gentle, Arrogant.
The Capitalist Pig: Rational, Extroverted, Brutal, Humble.
The Smartass: Rational, Extroverted, Brutal, Arrogant. |  |
My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: | You scored higher than 74% on Rationality | | You scored higher than 17% on Extroversion | | You scored higher than 45% on Brutality | | You scored higher than 17% on Arrogance |
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They Beat Me to It
I was going to post on these things, but some other very capable people beat me to them:
Ravenwood and Say Uncle comment on a proposed law in New Jersey that would confiscate the property of gun law violators.
Alphecca discusses the Second Cicuit Court decision in Bach v. Pataki that says that the Second Amendment protects a "state right" and that while the Fourteenth Amendment somehow requires states to comply with the guarantees of the Amendments I and III-XXVII, it doesn't require them to comply with the Second, which of course on says the states can have their own militias anyway. I will add to this by pointing to a Dave Kopel article which notes that the case upon which the 2nd Circuit bases its opinion, Presser v. Illinois which points out that anti-gun groups have consistently misintepreted (or intentionally twisted) Presser.
ReasonOnline has an interesting article on gun control. I know somebody on my blogroll said something about it, but a can't seem to find it. Probably a Glenn Reynolds link announcing that the article exists.
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Army Marksmanship Training Changes
I've spent the last two days running a range to train my unit's drill sergeants on upcoming changes in the Army's basic training Basic Rifle Marksmanship (BRM) program. These changes are being made to better prepare soldiers for the battlefield conditions they will encounter in Iraq and Afghanistan. While I agree with the need to update training to meet with current battlefield conditions, I don't agree totally with the way the Army is going about it. I'll cover the changes that are being made first, then get to my opinions.
Army rifle qualification has, for as long as I can remember, consisted of engaging a series of 40 pop-up targets at ranges from 50 to 300 meters. Soldiers engaged 20 targets from the foxhole supported position-the soldier standing in a foxhole, with the rifle resting on a stack of sandbags, followed by 20 targets engaged from the prone unsupported position-the soldier in the prone position, supporting the rifle with his arms. BRM training in basic training consisted of a series of ranges teaching the fundamentals of rifle marksmanship and leading up to this qualification table. Soldiers fired qualification, and all the ranges leading up to it, wearing BDUs, web gear, and helmet.
Current operations have shown this model to be in need of update in two areas: first, our soldiers are almost never fighting from foxholes. They fight in fluid engagement with lots of movement, where the most common positions are prone and kneeling. Second, our soldiers fight wearing body armor. So, the Infantry School at Fort Benning, the proponent for marksmanship training, has approved changes to the BRM Program of Instruction (POI.)
The course of fire has been changed to eliminate the foxhole supported position. Under the new course of fire, soldiers will engage 20 targets from the prone supported position (prone, with the rifle resting on a stack of sandbags), 10 targets from the prone unsupported position, and 10 targets from the kneeling unsupported position. And all BRM training will now be conducted with the soldiers wearing Interceptor Body Armor (IBA), including trauma plates.
My impressions after watching 60 drill sergeants and cadre go through the qualification course of fire:
It's a lot tougher to shoot in IBA. The high score for the two days was 33 out of 40, with a majority of the firers not meeting the current minimum qualification score of 23. These are NCOs and officers for whom qualification is usually a simple matter. It took me five attempts to hit at least 23 targets, and I usually score between 32 and 37 without trouble.
Personally, I support updating the course of fire and updating the firing positions used. I do think that the target mix should be 10 prone supported, 10 prone unsupported, and 20 kneeling unsupported. This is based on my discussions with my combat veteran drill sergeants, who say that they used the kneeling position roughly half the time when engaging in firefights, with a mix of various prone and standing positions the other half the time. I leave the standing position out of BRM because we currently cover that in Advanced Rifle Marksmanship training.
I do, however, think that starting from the beginning with the soldiers wearing IBA is the wrong approach. I say this because basic training is just that-basic. Most new soldiers have no experience with rifles or any other firearms for that matter. Thus, they are being taught the fundamentals from scratch. My personal opinion is that when teaching fundamentals, you should do so with a minimum of distracting factors. If I were king for a day, I'd do BRM training the same as now, except for changing the course of fire for qualification, and then add additional training in IBA following that. I'd personally add one day of simulator training, followed by two days of range training with real bullets. The problem with my approach is that it requires adding additional days of training, which there isn't room for in the schedule at the moment without adding additional days to the length of basic training. And thus far the Army hasn't been willing to extend the length of basic training. It would also require additional ammo, the supply of which is currently quite tight. Given those limitations, the approach the Army has decided on is probably the best that can be done.
UPDATE: Additional comment-the M16 rifle, at least the A2 models and later, are not ideal for shooting while wearing body armor. The buttstock is too long. I agree with several gun writers that, without body armor, the length of pull is just about perfect, at least for me. But put body armor on and the length of pull is less than optimal. And I'm 6'2" with long monkey arms. Short soldiers (like, say, my wife) had a more difficult time firing with the IBA than the taller ones. I'd count this as an argument in favor of the Army's next combat rifle having an adjustable buttstock. I'd advocate replacing the A2 buttstocks with the M4 type, but with the 20" barrel, the balance would be just awful.
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OPERATION MATADOR
Via Instapundit, we find these posts (with maps) from Belmont Club and Chester with info on the Marines ongoing operations near the Syrian border. Chester's map even features cool military graphics estimating where the various units are located.
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Neglect
Laying in bed last night, thoughts wandering around my pistol collection, it came to me that I have sorely neglected one of my pistols. The pistol in question is in fact the first pistol, actually the first firearm of any type, that I ever bought.
The pistol in question is a Sig P220 in .45 ACP, purchased from the Vogelweh Rod & Gun Club in Germany (back when that was allowed.) Part of the reason it hasn't left the safe since I moved so South Carolina is that I simply don't have as much time to shoot as I'd like. The other part is that I only have one magazine for the 220, and constant reloading get tedious and eats up the range time I do get.
I'll definitely have to rectify this in the near future.
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5/10/2005
Ma Deuce's Diary-10 May 2005
Kentuckians have long record of fighting hard
It was a textbook response to ambush. Soldiers bolting from their vehicles, hitting the earthen berm on the "bad side" of the highway and blasting away at guerrillas who were attacking a convoy of some 30 civilian tractor-trailer trucks.
P38 pilot kept bombers safe in skies over Italy
POMONA - The way he tells it, Robert Crocker's seven months of darting through enemy skies as a World War II fighter pilot started when he was just a kid.
WW II pilots attend reunion at museum
Dozens of World War II pilots attended the 43rd -- and last -- reunion of the P-47 Thunderbird Pilots Association in Seattle this weekend.
The aging World War II pilots wanted to take a final look at a warplane known as the P-47 Thunderbird, a giant of a single-engine fighter that helped win the war in Europe, which ended 60 years ago, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Saturday.
........
By the dozen they crowded around the old bird, its red cowling glistening under spotlights.
They stood with it for photographs, by ones, twos, threes and in groups so large that the photographers had to step back.
A camp is liberated: Shocked GIs found piles of the dead
I was a crew chief on one of the half-tracks, with a crew of six. We had a 37-millimeter armor-piercing gun and two .50-caliber machine guns, for anti-aircraft purposes. We had trained in Texas for desert warfare; I was made a corporal. I was sure we were going to North Africa. But the Bulge broke out, so they sent us to Europe.
Camp Totally Immerses Deploying Guard, Reserve Troops
CAMP SHELBY, Miss., May 6, 2005 – They push and shove against the soldiers who form a human barricade. They call them names and try their patience.
As the crowd gets larger, their voices grow stronger. As the soldiers beg for calm, the angry crowd grows out of control.
The last hurrah
The first time Erik Petersen rolled into Plzen, he was greeted with a stream of sniper bullets. Petersen was unharmed: He was in an American tank, one of the first to roll into the west Bohemian city May 6, 1945. The German bullets bounced off, ripping holes in only his spare clothes, which were in a bag tied to the back of his rig.
First impressions don’t show the whole picture
“We may not win the hearts and minds of the adults, but we can win the hearts and minds of the kids,” said Janet Martin, a warrant officer with the Oregon National Guard who’s based at Bagram Airfield outside Kabul.
Up-Armored 'Gun Trucks' Save Servicemembers' Lives In Iraq
WASHINGTON, May 5, 2005 – New 5-ton armored "gun trucks" fielded in Iraq are providing U.S. troops with effective protection against insurgents' improvised explosive devices and small-arms fire, a senior military researcher said today on Capitol Hill. (Note: This story makes a slight error. A 5-ton truck can carry 5 tons of cargo. It does not weigh 5 tons)
Far from home, but not forgotten
Sunday, when most American families recognize Mother's Day, many people overseas will celebrate their freedom from Nazi oppression on May 8 - Victory in Europe Day, which took place on that same date in 1945. But one woman from Dolores will also take time this weekend to pause and remember her fallen father.
the art of combat logistics
Hurtling down open highways in "Mad Max" gun trucks dodging fused bombs may sound like something out of a videogame. But for military supply chain specialist Major Bob Curran, it's all in a day's work.
Charles W. Smith
“The run in is for God and country,” Smith observed. “The way out was for the crew.”
Tonganoxie man wounded while serving in Iraqi war
"I don't want to sound corny," Lance Cpl. Tyler Wise said, "but the 9-11 thing really stuck in my craw. I didn't do anything right away ... went to K-State for a year ... had a good job at Federal Express. ... But I thought joining the Marine Corps was what a lot of red-blooded Americans might want to do."
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This Looks Promising
New body armor being tested at Oklahoma State. This would be a complete suit and weighs only 10 lbs. No mention of whether it is bulletproof, or if it requires trauma plates like the current Interceptor Body Armor.
Looking at the picture, I can see one serious problem with this stuff: heat. If your entire body is covered in ballistic fabric of some sort, you're going to overheat in hot weather pretty quick, because armor-type fabrics don't breathe. Your sweat has nowhere to go and your body can't cool itself. I spend yesterday on the rifle range, part of the time wearing an Interceptor vest. After about 30 minutes on the firing line, in the sun, I was dripping sweat, and my uniform saw soaked underneath the vest. And the temp was only in the upper 80s, about 30, 35 degrees cooler than a summer day in Iraq.
This suit definitely has promise, but I think you'd need to build some sort of cooling system into it to make it feasible for front-line use.
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5/09/2005
Wake Up, It's 1984
Some people just need a good beating with a cluebat. Like this ninny from Waynesburg, PA.
If scientists can send a radio signal to a robot on Mars or on a moon of a more distant planet to order its movement, then why don't we require small-arms and rifle manufacturers to install chips right into the grips and stocks of weapons that will radiate a detectable signal?
Sensors can be installed on light poles, or on buildings. The sensors can be monitored using a system similar to cell phones and signals may be relayed via computer/radio to alert a task force to the location of a firearm. The signal can be instantly run through a database verifying ownership, permit and licensing for the weapon. If no registration exists, then trained personnel can act to apprehend the violator.
So apparently this blissninny thinks that the location of all guns should be monitored by Big Brother all the time. Leaving aside the huge logistal hurdles to implementing such a system for the 210 million firearms already in private hands in the United States, let's get back to the basic, fundamental rights issue here, shall we?
"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." If tracking where they are at all times isn't an infringement, I'm not sure what would be. Yes, American citizens have a right to have guns, Mr. Blissninny. Just like we have a right to speak our minds. Maybe the government should put chips in all of the computers to monitor what everyone is doing with those, too. You know, to find the pedophiles who are luring kids into meeting with them, or people who are laundering money, or terrorists passing messages to each other. Maybe they should do the same thing to all the phones, for the same reasons.
As for "verifying ownership, permit and licensing for the weapon," that would require that all the weapons be registered and permitted, something which right now doesn't exist in most states, with certain socialist craphole exceptions such as Massachusetts and New Jersey. And, as can be seen with bills which have surfaced in some states over the last year calling for the confiscation of certain scary looking weapons, registration does indeed lead to confiscation. Or at least attempted confiscation. You can register my guns after I've expended all my ammunition, and after they are too broken to be of further use as clubs.
We may not be able to get illegal guns off the streets, but maybe this is a way to detect their whereabouts. This monitoring is possible with the cooperation of the manufacturers.
Apparently the fact that criminals would disable the chips is beyond this guy's imagination. Here's a hint, dude: it doesn't matter if it's illegal, because criminals by defintion are people who break laws.
It should be apparent that this technology has to become mandatory.
It should be apparent that this man lives in a fantasy world, and would probably enjoy life much more somewhere such as North Korea, where Big Brother controls all aspects of life.
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Good News Roundup
Chrenkoff's latest good news from Iraq.
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Attack of the Ignorant Hoplophobes
The modern suburbanite, especially the blue-state variety, just really doesn't know much when it comes to the world of firearms. I'd call these people GFWs, but I really think this is a case of them just not knowing, and having their minds run by the imagery fedd to them by the MSM.
Man Wants To Sell Guns From His Home
Kwan is a private gun collector and he's been in the news before. He's making headlines again because he is applying for a permit to sell guns in his home.
Scott Watson says if his neighbor does get permission to continue selling the weapons next door the eight feet between their two homes just isn't enough.
"The potential for an accidental discharge exists. The potential for a fire with live ammunition there -- and the possibility of that creating shrapnel if that were to occur -- certainly exists," worries Watson.
The ignorance here is just stunning, as is the inability to put two and two together to get four. Kwan is a private gun collector, which means he probably has a Curio and Relics FFL already, and almost undoubtedly already stores a significant number of firearms and the accompanying ammunition in his home. So the dangers Mr. Watson are worried about already exist.
And any worries about a negligent discharge by a customer are just silly. I've never, ever been allowed to load a gun I was handling in a gunshop. It's also silly for another reason, which I'll get to in just a minute.
First, more truly baseless hysteria:
Neighbors point out another published report that names Kwan as a witness to a murder investigation -- claiming he'd purchased two gun barrels similar to the ones used in the killing of Federal Prosecutor Thomas Wales in 2002.
To the best of my recollection, pretty much everyone who purchased a certain type of replacement barrel for a Makarov pistol was a subject of investigation in that case. The fact that the bullet that killed Wales was fired through one of those barrels was pretty much the only piece of hard evidence in the case, and the FBI cast a wide net.
Everyone on Kwan's street is concerned and they want something done to stop him. They say it's not only a matter of safety, they also feel a gun shop here would hurt the neighborhood's overall image and lower the value of their homes.
Again, this is silly. If the man is selling guns out of his home, I'm pretty sure he's doing it mail-order and/or online. It's really no different than if he were dealing Beanie Babies on eBay. All it means is that the FedEx truck will be seen in the neighborhood more frequently.
Sad, really.
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