CNBC:

I haven’t seen any of those “aggressive promotions” in my area.  The S&W revolvers, M&Ps and other guns are the same as they’ve always been.  And anything from the performance shop at S&W will be very pricey.  I have a E series 1911 and S&W .357 magnum R8 revolver, both from the performance shop, both very nice, but both very expensive.

For some reason S&W feels that they need to expand their product line to include whatever is produced by Battenfeld Technologies rather than either (a) become more competitive with the prices of those they already produce, or (b) move to another location where they don’t have the high cost of union labor.

Since Colt dropped out of eyesight and off of the consumer map by focusing all of their energies on military contracts for the M4 (which has now dried up) and letting their revolver program perish, the reputation is that if you want a good revolver, you buy S&W.  My two S&W revolvers are very good.  But Ruger has laid the smack down and taunted S&W with its Ruger GP100.  I have held this weapon, although not shot it, and it balances nicely and its trigger action is smooth.  It will prove to be a worthy competitor to any .357 magnum / .38 Smith wheel gun.

S&W is probably relying on becoming the supplier of choice for the new U.S. military pistol.

For gun manufacturers, no customer rivals the Pentagon for prestige and revenue potential. That’s why, after years of anticipation, firearm makers are mobilizing for the U.S. Army’s imminent competition to replace the Beretta M9 pistol, the American soldier’s standard sidearm since 1985.

The procurement process for several hundred thousand new pistols formally begins in January and is expected to last about two years. Based on more than 15 years of reporting on the gun business, I’d identify the early favorites as a much-improved Smith & Wesson (SWHC), which enjoys a made-in-the-USA marketing edge, and the formidable Glock of Austria.

For a second opinion, I asked longtime industry consultant and former National Rifle Association organizer Richard Feldman for some snap handicapping. “Beretta starts with a 30-year history of supplying the Army, and that counts for something,” said Feldman, now the president of the Independent Firearm Owners Association, an advocacy group based in Rindge, N.H. “S&W, which lost a lot of police and civilian business to Glock in the 1980s and 1990s, has transformed itself into a modern firearm manufacturing enterprise with much better quality than in the past. Glock, barely in existence the last time this contract was up, is undeniably a powerful contender.”

S&W is fielding a ported version of their M&P .45 (if I am not mistaken), and it would suit me just fine if they won the contract.  My son Daniel (a SAW gunner) thought his Beretta was a piece of crap and the 9mm an underpowered cartridge.  He never used it, and even in combat he avoided actually needing it.  I have never liked the boxy design of the Glock or the slant of it’s frame.  But oh, my friends at S&W, watch it.

As I have said before, “To S&W, I say again like I have to every gun manufacturer.  Don’t even start down the path of relying on government contracts to keep your company solvent.  It’s like shooting heroin once.  Just say no.  Just don’t do it.”  It never works out quite like you intend.  The Marines want a version of the Colt 1911, Cerakote flat dark earth with a tactical rail, if sold on the open market to the civilian population, worth less than what the Marines are paying for it (it has night sights, a tactical rail and Cerakote finish – my S&W E Series 1911 has Melonite coating, a tactical rail, and Trijicon night sights, and sells for less than what the Colt 1911 sells for to the public).  The Army will prove to be finicky and fussy, and the orders won’t stack up to as many as you had bargained for.  The phase-in will be slower than you wanted, and the demand that it does place on your production capabilities will change forever your attention, programs and dedication to QA for other customers.

I’ve had my run-ins with S&W before, but I’ve been kind and understanding to a company that – I admit – I really love.  But S&W’s commitment to stay in labor union territory and a badly anti-gun state, flirt with law enforcement contracts to the exclusion of custumer rights, and now to chase after military contracts and buy out companies in strange moves that I cannot discern or understand, makes this all very troublesome for me.

It’s probably an exaggeration to say at the present that Smith & Wesson is going to go under.  I say this thankfully because I would regret a world without S&W.  But it doesn’t speak well of the current state of the company strategy to buy out other manufacturers to expand your line from your core business, to do so while sustaining higher debt, and to continue to ensconce themselves in an anti-gun, pro-union state.

The way to make money is to be a proud craftsman at your work for a competitive price, be loyal to your base, and respect their rights and their choices.  Why is this so hard to understand, and why do some U.S. gun manufacturers have so much trouble stepping up to the plate to show themselves worthy of the title?

Daily Mail:

A British-born U.S. photojournalist and a South African aid worker held hostage in Yemen by al Qaeda militants have been ‘murdered’ in a failed rescue attempt.

American citizen Luke Somers had been held hostage since September 2013 in Yemen’s capital Sana’a having moved to the country two years earlier.

The 33-year-old was reportedly shot by his captors as Navy SEAL Team six, made up of around 40 men, carried out a dramatic rescue bid in the Wadi Abdan region of the southern Shabwa province late on Friday night. 

It is the second attempted extraction by special forces in as many months.

Another hostage, South African aid worker Pierre Korkie, was also killed during the operation – a day before he was due to be released. 

According to the Wall Street Journal the commandos hiked for six miles through a mountain range to reach the village where he was being held.

They were only 100 yards away from the compound when the terrorists reportedly heard a dog bark – prompting the militants to shoot the pair dead.

Two medics involved in the operation tried to revive both of the hostages, but one died at the scene while the other succumbed to his injuries on the operating table inside the USS Makin Island.

[ … ]

David Codrea:

Obamacare is still “anti-gun” and a proper concern for gun rights groups to seek repeal of, the question becomes “How?” Even with the new majority, Republicans will still find themselves as many as 13 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.

That’s where NRA could come in – if Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre and ILA Executive Director Chris Cox wanted it to, or could be persuaded to follow through on. NRA political grades are a powerful tool the politicians in all but incontestable “blue states” vie for, and there are so-called “pro-gun Democrats” in states like Montana who are dependent on them to retain their seats. Even those currently rated lower than an “A” would have powerful incentives not to go into their next election with a markedly lower rating than their challenger. It may even take only one or two “defections” to act like a crack in the dam, convincing balkers that their political fortunes are best served by opposing an administration centerpiece that Americans are increasingly rejecting, with approval at “a new numerical low” providing additional cover for crossing party lines.

See also this followup.  True enough, Obamacare is anti-gun and intentionally designed that way.  Moreover, it is socialist and totalitarian in nature, meaning that the same people who support Obamacare support gun control.  This is appropriate ground for the NRA in my opinion.  But the NRA endorsed Governor-elect of Maryland, Larry Hogan.  You want to know the real bitch in all of this?  Hogan didn’t ask for the endorsement, and is dedicated to defending the laws of Maryland against suits to overturn them (yes, the recent Maryland laws infringing on the second amendment).  I am in favor of pressing the NRA to get score the Obamacare votes, but does anyone really think that an organization who would whore itself like they did for Hogan is ready for the big time on the national stage?

David takes on Mark Morford.  My take is here.

Mike Vanderboegh will be speaking at the We Will Not Comply Rally.  Folks, you know how much I loath I-594.  If I could be there, I would tell them (the rulers) to kiss my ass.  I would not comply either.

Mike notes that a gun-mounted flashlight plays a role in another Denver police shooting.  We’ve discussed this here.  Folks, gun-mounted lights can be done right (and I have them) as long as you know about and avoid sympathetic muscle reflexes, but I’m opposed to police using gun-mounted lights because I think most of them are so incompetent.

Cleveland.com:

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland police pull their guns too fast, fire at fleeing cars and people who pose no immediate threat and ignore potential danger to bystanders, the U. S. Department of Justice found.

A biting 58-page report released Thursday concluded that police violated the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, including by shooting an underwear-clad hostage victim and an unarmed driver who made an illegal turn.

The report blames several reasons for the “unreasonable” shootings. Police often lack the training and confidence necessary to  control a situation without resorting to force. They are not required to tell their supervisors when they pull their weapons. And the prevailing police culture promotes an “us-against-them” mentality.

“They too often fire their weapons in a manner and in circumstances that place innocent bystanders in danger; and accidentally fire them, sometimes fortuitously hitting nothing and other times shooting people and seriously injuring them,” the report says.

The Justice Department examined nearly 600 use-of-force incidents from 2010-13 and did hundreds of interviews for the report, released less than two weeks after Cleveland police shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was waving an airsoft pellet gun outside Cudell Recreation Center.

Training shortfalls are a consistent issue in the report. Officers also push situations to an unnecessarily dangerous level, “either because they do not know how, or because they do not have an adequate understanding of the importance of de-escalating encounters before resorting to force whenever possible.”

Let that wash over you again.  Think about that.  They see themselves as Judge Dredd.  Cleveland police fired weapons at drivers who committed misdemeanor traffic infractions by making illegal turns.

Of course, this violates the Supreme Court ruling in Tennessee versus Garner, clearly and without equivocation or qualification.  And while training may play some role in this, thuggish behavior by social deviants who have been licensed to act out their criminal sociopathy upon the public by the corrupt court system unfortunately wasn’t listed in the DoJ report.

The Seattle Times:

Buoyed by the passage of Initiative 594 last month, backers of stricter gun laws will press state lawmakers for additional measures aimed at keeping guns away from children, mentally ill persons and domestic abusers.

In what they vowed will be a long-term campaign, activists at a Thursday news conference at Plymouth Church in Seattle said they’ll push “evidence-based” policies to reduce gun violence — and hold legislators politically accountable if they don’t take action.

But their agenda was questioned by a prominent gun-rights advocate, who accused gun-control opponents of overreach.

Among the proposals for the 2015 legislative session:

• Criminal penalties for adults who fail to safely store guns, if the firearms are obtained by children who shoot themselves or others.

• New gun-violence protection orders to remove guns from persons showing signs of dangerous mental illness.

• Adding certain violent misdemeanors — such as domestic violence — to the list of crimes barring persons from purchasing guns.

• More funding for mental-health services.

• Policies to address health risks from lead at firing ranges.

• Alerting domestic-violence victims when guns previously removed by police are returned to offenders.

And so it goes.  It never stops with the first infringement, because the first infringement is merely something they think will pass with flying colors with the collectivist public because it all sounds oh-so-reasonable.  If they have their way, the Gestapo will be busting down doors to collect guns.

The statist evil of Bloomberg/Gates must be stopped.

Eugene Volokh has an update on current events within the Ninth Circuit and Peruta, and I’ll let you read his information (it’s far from an assessment, it’s more just data and information).

Better is Dave Hardy’s post concerning the implications of all of this.

If denied, Peruta stands (altho two cases heard at the same time raising much the same issues might be taken en banc, court hasn’t ruled yet). If granted, California becomes the new defendant, and files its motion for rehearing en banc, and the court decides that.

You have to read Dave’s complete workup in order to understand where we are with this.  I am interested in part because of a recent trip I took to Hawaii and research I did on guns and gun rights in Hawaii.  I’ll have much more on this in the future, but Hawaii is part of the Ninth Circuit.

That said, I would still rather see states recognize God-given rights rather than turn to black-robed tyrants at the federal level.  That’s what I will be imploring the politicians in Hawaii to do.  Onerous gun control doesn’t have to be that way.  It’s what people choose.  But there are good folks in Maui (where we were) who live under the edicts of elitists in Honolulu and cannot change the power structure any more than we can.

Via Uncle, via Jovian Thunderbolt, The Firearm Blog has this video:

Yankee Marshal doesn’t really do a complete job of explaining to you why officer Darren Wilson’s gun went “click … click … bang.”  Neither does Jovian Thunderbolt, and neither does Uncle.

Yes, the gun went out of battery, but the point is that the Sig P229 is a SA/DA pistol.  This wouldn’t be true of other semi-automatic pistols that are not SA/DA.

Mark Morford:

How to unpack the creepy, disquieting factoid that gun sales over the Thanksgiving weekend shot, as it were, to a record high?

True. Upwards of 175,000 requests for background checks over Black Friday, the FBI says, which is about three requests per second, which is triple the norm but still just behind December 21, 2012, right after the Sandy Hook massacre, when gun sales freakishly skyrocketed. Because nothing says “We need to come together to stop all the gun deaths” than stocking up on bullets in case the scary black president comes to take away your Glock.

The scary black president! He’s part of the problem, no? He’s one of them, the real reason so many people bought a gun this holiday. According to at least one shop owner, a large percentage of gun buyers mentioned one singular event as a motivating factor for their purchase. Can you guess?

That’s right: Ferguson.

Ferguson? You mean the place where the white cop murdered that unarmed black kid, and wasn’t even indicted for it, and the police responded to the subsequent outrage/heartbreak from the local black community with even more brutality by way of a shocking assortment of military-grade weaponry: enormous tanks and tear gas and riot gear, all of sufficient scale and ruthlessness to outfit an army unit in Afghanistan, because that’s exactly what it was? That Ferguson? Yes indeed.

So. Want to try and unpack this creepy factoid? Break it down a little? It’s not difficult:

You’re a scared white person, almost certainly male. You do not live in a major city, or near a university or intellectual hub of any note, nor have you ever traveled very far from your home town, much less out of state or anywhere further than, say, Mexico. Once. And that was enough.

You do not read complicated books. You do not like new or weird things. You watch lots of TV, mostly Fox News, which rejoices in showing you endless images of angry foreigners and minorities in pain: tear gas explosions, fights in the streets, looting, this time involving sad, small-town black people in Ferguson, all of them protesting the acquittal of that murderous white cop.

[ … ]

But here’s the surreal catch: it’s not for protection, per se. It’s not about the childish fantasy of how the gun defends against the rapist, or the drug dealer, or the Russian mafia kingpin who kidnapped your daughter for the second time, and this time it’s personal.

The gun is uncomplicated, primitive defense against something far more terrifying and murky: everything you do not know. Guns provide an illusion of security, a violent, make-believe defense against a world that’s too complex, with injustices too prodigious, rage too tempting and calm, peaceful acts of love far too difficult to locate. They make you feel, in short, like you might have a chance.

So this is an interesting commentary on a number of levels, not the least of which is that Morford is badly uninformed on trends in gun ownership.  The anti-gun nuts are mostly old, balding or gray-headed, crusty, rich, Northeastern collectivist white guys.  Girls are buying guns, young guys are participating in 3-gun competitions, shooting is a family sport, and entire families are learning how to use weapons for self defense.

As for hurling insults, we could engage in that all day (like, for instance, Morford has a writing style like a gum-smacking valley girl).  But that would soon get boring.  So I thought I would take on this notion that gun owners don’t read complicated books.

So here’s the deal, Mark.  Let’s play a game, and we can keep playing until someone gives up.  It will show me to be an idiot, or you to be an ignorant loud-mouth blow hard, but we can’t both be winners.  I’ll mention a few books, almost at random, on my book shelf.  You tell me if you think they are complicated enough for you, and then you tell me some titles on your book shelf.  Let’s see what you’re reading.

Are you ready to play?  Good.

James J. Duderstadt and Louis J. Hamilton, “Nuclear Reactor Analysis,” Alvin Plantinga, “God and Other Minds,” Paul Helm, “Eternal God,” Frederick Copleston, “A History of Philosophy,” all volumes, and finally, Collins and LaPierre, “Is Paris Burning?: How Paris Miraculously Escaped Hitler’s Sentence of Death in August 1944.”

Now, it’s your turn Mark.

Science has spoken:

The Karner blue butterfly is a tiny thing, with colorful wings that extend just an inch across and a life that rarely wanders more than 600 feet from where it began. Its caterpillars can only eat wild lupines — a flower that’s become less abundant in the wild because of development and habitat fragmentation. As a result, the Karner was named an endangered species in 1992. But Karner blues are getting help from an unlikely source: gun sales.

The Nature Conservancy has a project in the works near Saratoga, New York, that will preserve an area that’s already home to these lupines and butterflies, and much of the program’s funding comes from the sales of guns and ammunition. For that, Karner conservationists can thank the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act.

Passed by Congress in 1937 and commonly referred to as the Pittman-Robertson Act, it sets an excise tax of 10 to 11 percent on the sale of guns and ammunition, paid by manufacturers at the wholesale level. Prior to the law’s passage, guns and ammunition were already subject to taxes, but the Act ensured that the money was set aside to protect game species and their habitats. The law has helped bring deer and elk back from the brink in areas in the East, but it’s also given refuge to many non-game species, like the Karner blue butterfly. At another project in New York, Pittman-Robertson money is helping to protect 5,000 acres of grouse, turkey and deer habitat, and all the snowy owls and other birds of prey that come with it. Troy Weldy, senior conservation manager at the Nature Conservancy’s New York chapter, said the project “could create a premier birding destination.”

Environmentalists who don’t hunt might not think they have much in common with the guy tromping off into the woods with a gun. Yet hunters and anglers have a long history of land stewardship, said John Gale, national sportsmen campaigns manager at the National Wildlife Federation. At the time the Pittman-Robertson Act was passed, widespread hunting had cleared deer and other big game from large areas along the Eastern Seaboard. Realizing that the sustainability of their pastime was at risk, hunters banded together to urge legislative action. “Hunters are the original conservationists — we’ve been carrying wildlife and fish on our back for a long time,” Gale said.

I’m not a proponent of government programs or big taxes, especially at the federal level.  And it’s more likely than not that modern game management practices (bag and possession limits, licensing of hunters, etc.) have led more than anything else to the resurgence of game populations, regardless of any money being spent.  There have never been more deer, fowl and fish than there are now, not since records have been kept.

But for environmentalists, just recognize that hunters and other sportsmen have your back.  You can contribute to the success of your passion.  Buy guns.

Prior: Save the Planet: Buy an AR

David Codrea:

What is clear is the promise of a reward and the guarantee that the person receiving it will not have to provide their name lends itself to the potential for abuse. Not only could gangland competitors be effectively removed, an opportunistic criminal could reap rewards for phoning such a calculated tip in, including the possibility of exploiting unsuspecting police to permanently eliminate reported rivals. Also unstated is what safeguards are in place to ensure rogue law enforcement officers don’t themselves create a tip to do an end run around Fourth Amendment protections, artificially establishing phony “probable cause” opportunities for stops, searches and seizures that would otherwise not present themselves.

It all sounds so Orwellian doesn’t it?  Their designs will have come to fruition when families are informing on family members to the god-government.

David Codrea:

Members of Oath Keepers, a national group that includes current and retired military and law enforcement personnel, have rejected orders from St. Louis County Police to abandon posts on top of private businesses that invited their protection, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Monday. The order to stand down was issued under presumed authority of a county ordinance prohibiting unlicensed security personnel.

Do you need any more evidence that the police aren’t interested in your protection or property?

Kurt Hofmann:

If the government’s hired muscle is shooting too many people, too indiscriminately, the answer is not to voluntarily surrender the means of defending against them. If they are unnecessarily shooting people out of fear, it’s well past time for them to stop shooting, out of a much greater fear of the consequences of such shootings. That greater fear can only be imposed by people equipped to make shooting citizens unnecessarily a terminally dangerous activity.

Kurt upbraids Matthew Yglesias, who is a little boy and whose readers are his boy-followers.

Dave Workman (via Mike Vanderboegh):

As Monson put it, “There is no way I would bring a family into downtown Seattle right now. The criminals have won. The gangs have won. The protesters are out of control” … Some might suggest that Seattle tilts so far to the left that it’s a wonder the city hasn’t slid into Elliott Bay. But the city also has a dichotomy. On the one hand, the liberal/socialist core population obviously leans toward the “only-cops-should-have-guns” philosophy, except when it comes to cops actually using their guns to stop criminals …

Yea, progressives can be paradoxical, no?  And as for losers, criminals, and ne’er-do-wells taking over the city, it’s not much different in Portland.  Expect it to head your way, Washington.  And yet the politicians are concerned about things like focusing on guns and making sure that grandfathers don’t give firearms as presents to grandsons.

Via Mike, police and dogs again.

The body language section of the “Police & Dog Encounters” videos is designed to teach officers how to quickly size up the potential threat presented by dogs. And dog behaviorists and police trainers say you can’t just eyeball a dog, decide that it looks like a pit bull or Rottweiler, and decide it’s dangerous.  In the body language section of the “Police & Dog Encounters” videos, dog trainer and author Brian Kilcommons works with four Chicago PD officers on how to approach dogs that are not very happy about having strangers in their territory. “Dogs don’t lie,” Kilcommons says on the video. “They tell you what they are thinking.” That may be true, but you have to know how to interpret what the dog is saying.

Good grief.  Just good grief.  As I’ve said, you bunch of little screaming girls, go spend some time at a farm or ranch and buy and raise a dog.  Good grief.  It’s shameful that cops have to be taught to do things that most little boys can already do.

Finally, Mike gets some nice props.