…….

In 1609 a bunch of settlers were given land taken from the natives. The settlers were of a different culture and more importantly of different religious backgrounds. While both the natives and the settlers claimed to worship the same God they had a different “chain of command” to get to God.

This lead to conflicts.

The conflicts continued at a sort of low level until 1798 when the natives rose up in rebellion. The settlers called on the home state for help and the home state sent the military to put down the up rising. The military of the settlers as reinforced by the home state squashed the insurrection but did nothing to stop the on going conflicts.

The natives continued to agitate to remove the settlers with violence erupting with regularity.

In 1912 the natives had made significant headway back in the home state and it was looking as if they might regain control of their own lands. In response the settlers formed paramilitary groups to fight against the natives taking control. They were prepared to do battle over their holdings, some of which went back 300 years to that 1609 date.

WWI interrupted the situation but after the war the country split, the northern part going to the settlers and the southern part to the natives. This created even more conflict.

There was another uprising and the native survivors of that uprising fumed over their loss with growing resentment.

In the meantime Communism was making its way as if a disease throughout the world. The losing natives, in their resentment, adopted a Socialist viewpoint.

Tensions continued to mount breaking out in the late 1960s to open gorilla warfare. Assisted by Muammar Gaddafi and other nasty groups they received arms and explosives.

For over 30 years this war went on. At the end of the war the natives disarmed turning in the following:

• 1,000 rifles
• 2 tons of Semtex plastic explosive
• 20-30 heavy machine guns
• 7 surface-to-air missiles
• 7 flamethrowers
• 1,200 detonators
• 11 rocket-propelled grenade launchers
• 90 handguns
• 100+ hand grenades

Wikipedia

During this war the natives had somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 people actively involved. The settlers estimated that at the start of war the natives had around 500 full time volunteers with natives claiming around 1,200.

At the end of the conflict the were around 600-700 active members of the native fighting group.

Support of the native terrorists was high through out the world. Many felt a cultural connection back to their native land and sympathy for the natives as the home state of the settlers wasn’t known for being all that benign.

For us an important piece of information is just how small the active resistance force was and how weekly armed they were. When some politician claims that they could stomp out gun ownership they need only look at these number to realize how wrong they would be. It is estimated that around 40% of the population of that northern state were directly or indirectly adversely affected by the conflict

Of course there were songs created:

https://youtu.be/e5R03zuaRy4?list=PLLFdoSMdbbR3nU4YjJQX33hEzt5OTlWEx&t=643

Having finished Soukaneh v. Andrzejewski: CT Is a Gun Probable Cause for a Search? I had a long think as to what the Second Amendment implications were. It doesn’t seem to directly relate to Second Amendment issues.

First we have a situation where a cops qualified immunity was stripped from him at the district court level. This is huge. It happens so seldom as to make the news almost every time it happens. Second it is a balancing question regarding “officer safety” v. our right to be left alone.

The controlling case law seems to be Terry v. Ohio, 392 US 1 – Supreme Court 1968.

The gist of a “Terry Stop” is that upon reasonable suspicion(Note that this might not be the correct term, IANAL) an officer of the law can stop and briefly detain and frisk a person looking for weapons, “for officer safety”.

The courts, over time, have established pretty good case law in regards to Terry Stops. It is clear that the “frisk” can not be intrusive. For example, an officer can not remove your wallet from you and remove your ID from that wallet during a “frisk”. If the officer does detect a weapon during the frisk they can do other things for officer safety.

The question in this case was would a reasonably prudent man have been warranted in believing that the plaintiff (good guy) was armed and presented a threat to the officer’s safety. Id. quoting Terry

In my state and most reasonable states a person who is friendly and present a permit to carry is assumed to be on the “right side of the law.” The possession of the firearm is a normal thing. If there is no other interaction that should be enough to remove presented a threat to the officer’s safety Id. from the equation.

In this case the officer admits he went past the bounds of a Terry Stop. He argues that because he hadn’t verified the permit that he was justified in assuming that the firearm was illegally possessed in a car and that allowed him to continue his warrantless search.

Post Bruen we should be seeing more permits issued and more people legally carrying firearms. It then becomes a cultural issue of teaching the public and officers to not over react when they see a firearm. In places like NY, CT, NJ, and CT that is going to take a long time.

According to the report, Jesse was a Jr. High School teacher. He was investigated to determine if he stole school property. It appears that the police got a search warrant and searched his home. They found stolen school furniture and tools.

The headlines though, are not about a school teacher stealing from the taxpayers. Nope, he had 91 high-capacity magazines, with 48 fully loaded.

Now I don’t know how many magazines I currently have. They are not inventoried. I don’t know how much ammunition I currently have on hand. I do know that there are at least 7 30rd magazines for each AR and each AK style rifle. There are at least 6 magazines for the Glock and another 6 for the PC-9. But there are a boat load of magazines in and around the house.

I don’t know how much ammo I have. I measure ammo in “full cans” And there are more than a few “full cans”.

This doesn’t count the 100s if not 1000s of stripper clips that have rounds on them, nor the enbloc clips that have rounds in them.

All in all. More than zero.

This guy is in trouble for nine “illegal” assault rifles and 91 “high-capacity” magazines.

Normally I would just say to a person like that “Great start! Keep up the good work.” The stealing from the school sort of means I won’t.

[visual-link-preview encoded=”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″]

To paraphrase “If you don’t do it the way I want you to do it you hate children!”

The gist has been for many many years that because I don’t want to give up my rights, because I don’t want to give up my freedom, because I don’t want to give up my firearms that I am an evil, hateful person that wants children to die.

We did the annual firearm inventory the other day. This is the time when I lay hands on each and every firearm I own. I verify that the serial number is properly recorded and check for any maintenance the firearm might need. Like cleaning and oiling. As an example, my oldest AR-15 style firearm doesn’t get taken out very often. It was cleaned and oiled after that inventory was completed.

Am I fearful of any of those firearms? No. Do I respect them? Yes, I do. I treat each and every one of them with respect because each and every one of them could kill me or a loved one dead if I am not careful.

So how would one of my firearms become involved in a death?

1. It could be stolen and used outside of my control
2. There could be an accidental discharge
3. There could be a negligent discharge
4. There could be an intentional discharge with intent

I have reasonable precautions in place to protect my firearms from being stolen. Are they perfect? No. Are they as good as they could be? Again no. Those are decisions I’ve made.

Could there be an accidental discharge? By accidental I mean things like racking the slide and the gun goes bang with out my finger on the trigger, or the firearm is dropped and goes bang when in a safe condition, or if somebody without knowledge fired the firearm. For example my grandchild.

My grandchild doesn’t visit very often. When he does visit the firearms are more securely stored. This is because he could do something accidently. For the rest, following the safety rules pretty much prevents a death due to accidental discharge.

At one point I looked at the possibility of a negligent discharge as “ain’t going to happen to me”. It did happen to me. I have a Marlin 3082 with scope. In order to make it “easier” to manipulate the hammer the former owner put a hammer extension on it.

I was at the range and preparing to safe the weapon. With the firearm pointed down range I attempted to lower the hammer. The hammer slipped from my thumb, hit the firing pin and fired the weapon. The round went into the ground, all safe.

I’ve since changed the way I lower the hammer on any of my external hammer firearms. My left thumb goes between the firing pin and the hammer and then I manipulate the hammer to lower it. If the hammer falls it hits my thumb, not the firing pin.

Regardless, using the four safety rules solve the problem of negligent discharges. They still happen but that is life. We do the best we can to reduce the time it does happen.

Finally, there could be an intentional discharge. This is the case where there is justification for the use of deadly force and I choose to use it. At that point somebody is going to be stopped. They might die.

In not one of these situations is there a single law that can be introduced that would stop “bad things” from happening. A safe storage law wouldn’t solve the problem entirely and it means that the state is deciding what is best for my family. To have no ability to defend my family or to have a very low risk of a minor accessing a firearm and something bad happening.

If I decide to use deadly force it is a decision I make fully understanding the consequences of that decision. No law is going to stop it.

Chris Murphy acts like a spoiled petulant child. He has his toys (security guards) and if you don’t do what he wants he’s going to throw a fit.

I do give a crap. I don’t agree with his solution. That doesn’t make me evil. It doesn’t make me a bad person. I’ve stood between an aggressor and a loved one ready to go to jail if need be. I’m pretty sure he can’t say the same. I doubt very seriously that he has done the calculus on use of force to defend himself or others.

Chris Murphy has others he pays to make that hard decision.

In Dominic Bianchi v. Brian Frosh in the Fourth Circuit court oral arguments were held on 2022-12-06. I started listening to the oral arguments back in December but couldn’t make my way through them so was hoping for a transcript.

Today I’ve made my way part of it and got to the point where the state drew blood.

In Heller and Bruen they Supreme court said that firearms can be regulated if they are dangerous and unusual. In Caetano quoting Heller the court says But it cannot be used to identify arms that fall outside the Second Amendment. First, the relative dangerousness of a weapon is irrelevant when the weapon belongs to a class of arms commonly used for lawful purposes.Caetano v. Massachusetts, 136 S. Ct. 1027 – Supreme Court 2016 P. 1031

The key here is commonly used for lawful purposes. In the arguments throughout all of the cases we are following the state restates this as in common use for self-defense. They then go on to define “for self-defense” to mean documented cases where an “assault weapon” was used and then attempt to narrow that even further to the trigger was pulled.

In the oral arguments the state is very consistent in using the phrase “in common use for self-defense” instead of “in common use for lawful purposes.” When the state starts the court doesn’t fall for it. But the state continues and then suddenly around the 30 minute mark the Court starts using “common use for self-defense” and you can hear it in the state’s voice as they have their “gotcha” moment. That moment when they got the court thinking of redefining “unusual”.

Oral arguments for Dominic Bianchi v. Brian Frosh

Most of the time I can get internet service via my cell carrier. The only real controlling issue is coverage. Which is getting better, slowly, but it is getting better.

Last fall we lost power to the house when some idiot took out the power lines just down the street. While the house was without power we still had internet to our phones. We didn’t lose outside communications and if there was an issue I could have used my phone as a modem to get my main computer back on the net to do work by just using the genset.

I could also use my laptop (Chromebook running Linux) and not needed the genset.

When the entire town is without power everybody is attempting to get online via the cell carriers and there just isn’t enough capacity for that. This means that while my phone would get push notifications attempting to do anything else while the town was awake wasn’t really happening.

Regardless, because my business is support I needed to be available. Even with no power. Even with no internet. So my phone was on the entire time. If I had gotten an emergency alert from a client or server I would have been able to move to a place where I did have internet in order to do my work. No big deal.

But having my phone on and actively attempting to do things means that I was burning power. Which brings me to these gizmos.

This is a battery with two type-A USB ports for charging other devices, like your phone. It has a third port to allow you to charge from other power sources, like a car or house. The added extra is those solar panels. It is just a little larger than my cell phone in its otterbox and about 3 times as thick. There are four solar panels when it unfolds and in our Northern Climate it takes about 8 hours of direct sun to charge.

I get three charges for my phone from this. If you need to be able to charge your devices this might be useful to you.

We’ve been without power here for almost 24 hours when you read this, unless power is restored over night.  Not a problem fur is.

The wood stove is doing a fine job of keeping the house warm. Wife is unhappy because she’s cold but everybody else is in short sleeves.

Last night we had homemade pasta that I made with some fancy chicken dish. Only requirement was it had to cook on top of the stove. My lady solved lack of oven by using a Dutch oven.

Hopefully I’ll have power and post later today.

Back at the dawn of time, when I was at University, it was a very long walk from my dorm to central campus and a still longer walk back at the end of the day. Over a mile. At the time, a standard day was about five miles of walking. It got better once I got a bicycle but that didn’t happen till my Sophomore year.

This was back before Walkmen. There were transistor radios but I didn’t have one.

So I sang songs in my head as I walked the paths of campus.

I had to sing it a little faster but it was still good for a fair distence.

Recently I discovered this song. It explains why the poor dude was betrayed by his lover.

Update

There are three methods for people that are not members of GunFreeZone to give feedback on normal articles.

1. They can create a WordPress.org account and click the “like” button on a post. This attaches their wordpress avatar and name to the like.
2. They can click the thumbs up button on a comment. This is completely anonymous.
3. They can click the thumbs down button on a comment. This is completely anonymous.

I hope this clears up any confusion I created.

Original

I have noticed and a couple of readers have noticed that there are more thumbs down on the blog than theirthere use to be. This leads me and some of our readers to wonder Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

I’ll start with Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity You can replace “stupidity” with all sorts of other words but the gist stays the same.

First, when you use the like button at the bottom of a post you need to have a WordPress.org account and your handle and avatar are attached to that. So for example I notice when “OldNFO” likes my post. He made a decision not to become a paying member at the blog but continues to read and continues to give feedback whichwhat he can.

Thank you for still being a read OldNFO. Makes me feel good. There are a couple of other regular “Likers” of the same sort. Thank you to all of our readers.

So next we look at those thumbs up and thumbs down buttons. In the past people used them as an acknowledgement tool. You post a comment and I post a reply and instead of posting a reply to my reply you just click the “Likey” thumbs up button.

If you don’t agree but not enough you just leave it be. No thumbs up, no thumbs down.

If you disagree you will likely reply and a conversation takes place.

We almost never used the thumbs down button. As was observed.

Today there are many more people that read but don’t comment. So when they disagree with you they can’t reply, instead they give it a thumbs down.

So at first flush, I think that the increase in thumbs down is a direct result in us trying to monetize the blog.

Unfortunately, the thumbs up/thumbs down buttons are completely anonymous. There is code to make sure that they can’t be mass mashed but that is it.

So for the time being let’s just see where it takes us. Maybe we figure out something to let people do a one time comment or something like that. All it takes is a small bit of code… (That’s an inside joke for developers/coders)