“Terrorists who only succeed in blowing themselves up are not terrifying, but merely amusing.”

* I’m pretty certain that I read the article during either my 7th-grade or 8th-grade years, so I split the difference. The article in question discussed some problems that terrorists would need to overcome in any attempt to build a working fission device. IIRC, it took as a baseline assumption that said terrorists had access to all required materials for such a device, up to and including weapons-grade fissile materials in critical-mass quantities. The design concept from the article, though not transportable, did have a certain elegance….

There is, between these two socialist holidays, another significant 22 April anniversary, one that went rather badly for the socialists.

On 22 April 1951, the Communist Chinese forces (CCF) in Korea launched the Chinese Fifth Phase Campaign, with the intent of destroying the 1st and 6th ROK Divisions, the 3d US Infantry Division, the Turkish Brigade and the 27th and 29th British Brigades. In order to clear the way to retaking Seoul, the CCF needed to wipe out these units.

The CCF hadn’t reckoned with the Glosters.

From the evening of 22 April 1951 until the morning of 25 April 1951, at ruinous cost, the Glosters held Hill 235. In so doing, they disrupted the CCF offensive to such a degree that UN forces were able to block any CCF advance on Seoul.

While I would prefer to buy an affordable motor home (for its mobility), I’m also quite willing to look at affordable trailers. Imagine, though, how my brain begged for bleach to scrub the following post forever from my memory:

i am saling this trailer cuz i am trying to go to school [emphasis added] i am saling it because i don’t need it anymore and if u have any questions please feel free to call me at 702 717 5535 and we have the title to it and it has a new fridge and microwave and new blinds and we currently got the unit in Eloy AZ but we can make an appointment to show you the trailer and tell you more about it and we are asking 1200 our best offer and it has a working hot water heater and two propane tanks if i don’t answer please leave a voice mail and ill get back to you as soon as i can thanks for your interest or you can make me an offer i dont take checks or cashiers check thanks [punctuated exactly as originally posted]

Dear DEITY$, what post-elementary school would even consider accepting someone who displays this level of command of English writing?

Thanks to James Wesley, Rawles for reminding me of JMB’s birthday.

Who, other than a criminal, is more likely to have armed backup readily available?

A. A law enforcement officer (hereafter LEO)
B. A free, private citizen

In the overwhelming majority of situations, the answer is A. Law enforcement officers rarely travel alone, and almost never travel without radio communication with their brethren and sistren in the force.

That being the case, why should free citizens be denied the standard-capacity magazines that LEO carry?

Looking at the Glock page at The Font of All Human Knowledge, I see that several law enforcement agencies around the world use the compact Glock 23 as an issue sidearm. The standard magazine capacity for the Glock 23 is 13 rounds of .40 S&W. Assuming a full magazine, plus one round in the chamber, a pair of LEO would have a total of 28 rounds available before reloading. In an extreme situation, of course, one LEO could continue to fire while the partner reloaded. On the other hand, as I am a free citizen not sprinkled with the fairy dust of government authority, those arguing that I don’t “need” standard-capacity magazines might be willing to grant me the revocable privilege of having a total of 11 rounds available before reloading.

The numbers become even more lopsided if I replace the compact Glock 23 with the full-sized Glock 17 pistol, which is also mentioned on the above-linked Wikipedia page as a pistol commonly issued to law enforcement agencies. The standard magazine capacity for the Glock 17 is 17 rounds of 9x19mm. Assuming a full magazine, plus one round in the chamber, a pair of LEO would have a total of 36 rounds available before reloading.

Keeping in mind that the 9x19mm cartridge is significantly less powerful than the .40 S&W cartridge, one might logically expect some additional magazine capacity for free citizens using a less-powerful round. Sadly, anyone expecting logic to play any role in outlawing magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds would be mistaken. As best I can tell, according to those who would violate our inherent right to self-defense, a firearm chambered in .22LR with an 11-round magazine is far deadlier than a firearm chambered in .45 ACP with a 10-round magazine.

Meanwhile, in a race to the bottom, New York passed legislation this week that limits the capacity of newly-purchased magazines to a princely seven rounds. All those previously-grandfathered magazines with a capacity of over 10 rounds are now verboten (remember that “revocable privilege” I mentioned above?), and must be out of the state by this time next year. To be fair, in its infinite generosity, the New York legislature has deigned to grandfather 10-round magazines, so long as New York serfs don’t load more than seven rounds into such a high-capacity magazine. I wonder how long that revocable privilege will last…?

Evidently, though, at least one Connecticut legislator believes that New York’s recent Intolerable Act is far too lenient. By way of Thirdpower over at Days of our Trailers, I bring you this masterpiece of legislation, lovingly crafted from poultry feces by State Senator Meyer. It would make it a “Class C felony” for Connecticut serfs to “purchase, sell, donate, transport, possess or use any gun except one made to fire a single round.” Note that the illustrious State Senator Meyer’s language could easily be interpreted to make it a Class C felony to own a single-shot gun that can, at some point in its existence, be reloaded to fire a second round, as such a gun is clearly not “one made to fire a single round.” Better yet, since the text of the proposed legislation uses the term “gun(s)” throughout (rather than “firearm(s),” it clearly applies to air guns, like this Crosman M4-177 Rifle. For bonus points, the linked Crosman BB/pellet gun has characteristics that make Evil Black Guns so deadly, such as a pistol grip and collapsible stock. Worse yet, its internal ammo reservoir (BB) can hold an incredibly-lethal 350 rounds. Who needs 350 shots to kill a starling?

At least the Connecticut cretin included an LEO exemption, so as to ensure that the serfs are decisively outgunned by their betters’ enforcers (although the criminals in Connecticut will, by definition, suffer no such handicap when encountering Connecticut LEO). I am amused that New York’s well-considered legislation failed to include such an exemption. If only the New York State Senate had been afforded more than 15 minutes or so between the bill’s introduction and the beginning of voting on it, someone might have noticed this issue.

~deadpan~
How… tragic.
~/deadpan~

Sniff* my kitty cat died

My initial thought was along the lines of “it took you until your cat started to decay before you noticed it was dead?”

The bad news is that I forgot to do so before I left that fun event. >:-(

The good news is that, at some future date, we can hold a raffle for chances to shoot at the card.  All proceeds would be equally divided between the Arizona Citizens Defense League and the Second Amendment Foundation.  The card in question is just about the same size as an Arizona driver’s license, so we could probably award around ten raffle winners.  As an alternative, we could hold an auction for each of ten shots at the card, with proceeds to be distributed as noted above.

Any other thoughts on how best to use my now-useless Dick’s reward card as a fundraiser for 2A proponent groups?