From The Guardian:

Survivors on Caribbean islands shattered by Hurricane Irma begged the world for food, water, shelter and rescue on Saturday as they faced down armed looters and the prospect of a fresh onslaught from strengthening Hurricane Jose.

[ … ]

From the Virgin Islands, survivors painted a picture of desolation and violence, but warned that the situation could deteriorate if aid did not arrive fast. “There is nothing left, I don’t think people will believe the severity of what happened. There is no water, no food, no supplies, no transport. You can’t get from one part to another unless you walk,” said Giles Cadman, who lives on the islands part-time and has been part of a remote relief network that sprang up in the wake of the disaster.

Here’s another report.

Looters started raiding hotels and shops in St Maarten after the Category 5 storm battered the island on Wednesday.

Those remaining in the Dutch territory said the situation was like a ‘civil war’ as looters armed with guns and knives descended on vulnerable locations.

And now for the U.S.

As Hurricane Irma lashed Florida with heavy winds and rain, TV stations captured groups of people breaking into stores.

Footage from WPLG Local 10 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, shows multiple people breaking through the front window Simon’s Sportswear, entering the store and walking out with various items.

According to WPLG Local 10, the looters had also broken into other stores in the nearby area, including Footlocker and CashAmerica Pawn Store.

Good grief.  Shoes.  And now one final report from reader Joe.

“Isabelle, who was born in Toulouse, has been living on the island of Saint-Martin in the Antilles for 25 years. This doctor, who is currently on holiday in Toulouse, normally, thanks to her job, has nerves of steel. But since yesterday, she is in total panic and is calling for help because she fears for the life of her husband and son who are on the Antilles island that has been ravaged by Hurricane Irma.

“My husband and my son are in danger of being killed, like a large part of the population. It’s civil war there. We have started to hear some talk in the media about looters who cleaned out the shops after the hurricane, but it’s still very far from reality. Gangs of thugs have robbed the customs house, which was badly damaged, and have stolen the stocks of weapons that were there. Since Thursday evening, they’ve been moving back and forth across the island wearing masks and hoods attacking the houses that were still standing where the inhabitants had taken refuge,” she says, on the verge of tears.

“I had them on the phone last night. They are paralysed with fear. It’s around our house where they’ve barricaded themselves with six friends who are at our home because their villa was destroyed,” she continues. “They can’t go out. They say the attackers are moving around in gangs of ten, it’s completely lawless and they’re ready to shoot to get food or money.”

Her statements are confirmed by the testimonies of other residents of the island, who tell on social networks of gangs who are smashing in the doors of houses saying, “Whites out.”

The criminals have the weapons, and note that guns were confiscated by the authorities prior to the event (or at least, it was threatened).  Of course, the confiscation, if it happened, affected only the peaceable and law abiding, but that’s the way it’s always intended when guns are “controlled” or confiscated by anyone.

Don’t ever give up your guns and fight to keep them as if your life depends on it.  Because it does.

It’s been light posting for several days and may be for a few more, depending on whether power outages affect me.  I’ve been trying to do a bit of hurricane preps.  Of course, I am not affected like those in the direct path of Hurricane Irma and I won’t be, Lord willing.  Pray for them.

John Farnam:

I don’t see a return to hammer-fired pistols with manual decocking-levers any time soon. That era is long-over.

Double-action revolvers still work just fine, but have their limitations.

And, the dwindling 1911 crowd will be around for a long time to come, but every year, they all get one year older!

So that’s the way it is, huh?  Cheap plastic junk is perfect but revolvers have “limitations?”  Those who shoot 1911s are dying off?  We 1911 shooters get a year older every year, but the shooters who choose cheap plastic junk have found the fountain of youth and will live forever?

Or maybe this is just click bait and exaggeration.

Via reader Fred, SJ:

“I could hear bones crunching, just like you read about,” said Tom Sommer, as he recovered in a Montana hospital on Tuesday afternoon.

There’s a picture at the link.

Good Lord.  This guy was probably without medical attention for four hours.  I’m sure it hurt.  You have to admire him for endurance and determination.  As for deploying the bear spray to end the attack, I’m sure a .44 magnum or .454 Casull would have ended it too.  I guess they didn’t have time to deploy the guns because of the closing time of the bear assault, if I read the report right.

I guess the lesson is that you’d better watch your six (and all other azimuths) in big bear country, continually.

From TFB.  1000 lumens.  Maybe it’s just me, but I think we’ve beat the lumen horse dead.  There’s essentially no difference between 800 lumens and 1000 lumens to me, or even less than that.  They are all so bright that it can blind you when the light scatters off of walls, especially if the walls are white.

Here’s what interests me.  A simple tactical light.  As they grow more powerful, they have also grown more sophisticated.  In a high stress situation a person won’t be able to go through the various settings to select the right one unless it’s pure muscle memory, and it won’t be muscle memory unless you use that light all the time in tactical situations.

David Codrea:

“U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Kenneth Mapp signed an emergency order allowing the seizure of private guns, ammunition, explosives and property the National Guard may need to respond to Hurricane Irma,” Michael Bastasch reported Tuesday at The Daily Caller.  “The order allows the Adjutant General of the Virgin Islands to seize private property they believe necessary to protect the islands, subject to approval by the territory’s Justice Department.”

David updates the article with an attempt at damage control that actually makes matters worse, essentially saying that not only can they do this, they regularly do it as a matter of course and they have the right to do it.  At least that’s the way I read it.

I’ll point out a few things.  First of all, there is the British Virgin Islands and the U.S. Virgin islands.  The two are not the same thing, and this is occurring in the U.S. Virgin Islands.  Second, while the people there are technically considered U.S. citizens, they aren’t treated that way.

For example, the U.S. Code (48 U.S. Code 1561) outlines a bill of rights for their citizens that doesn’t include any hint of bearing arms.  This seems to me to be ripe the litigation before the SCOTUS, but apparently that’s for another time.

Third, even though no one can effect change in the confiscation at the moment, this does go to show the first reflex of collectivists.  And you do understand how they know who has firearms, don’t you?

Finally, in a somewhat related vein today I saw a discussion thread at reddit/r/firearms that needs to be addressed.  When responding to a post that compared these confiscations to those post-Katrina, one commenter said this.

No, what happened in Katrina was very different. The order in Katrina was given by the local police superintendent, not the governor. As well, the overwhelming majority of those confiscated in New Orleans were abandoned in houses or forfeited upon being rescued when people were taken to refugee sites. By in (sic) large if a person wanted to stay in their home with their gun, they could.

This is simply a lie, and the commenter knows it.  The comment sounds like it was written by a LEO or former LEO, but it’s wrong in the superlative degree.  There were weapons confiscations done forcibly, i.e., without owner consent, and those weapons were either never gotten back or were in such bad shape (having been cared for poorly) that they were non-functional.

They were returned only because the NRA sponsored a lawsuit to force return of the weapons.  Those confiscations were conducted by local police and military contractors (insert groups like DynCorp here), with supplemental manpower and backup provided by the Louisiana National Guard under the command of Russel Honore, who is proud of his gun confiscation efforts during Katrina.

The Chronicle:

ELYRIA – A mother of three chased a would-be burglar out of her house with a pistol after he broke in just before 8 p.m. Monday.

According to a police report, Brett Santo, 33, of Chestnut Street, walked into Sarah Long’s home on Fourth Street and approached her 15-year-old daughter. Long’s 17-year-old daughter was the first to see Santo and screamed, launching Long into action, police said.

Police said Long grabbed a pistol by her bed and she charged at Santo, but dropped the gun while in her home. She and the 17-year-old then chased Santo out of the house and down the sidewalk until they lost sight of him by St. Mary’s Church.

Officers were dispatched to the area on a report of a burglary suspect fleeing the area and Long was able to provided police with a description.

Police found him on Third Street between Middle Avenue and Court Street and he was arrested and charged with burglary.

During the ride to the police station, officers said Santo “let out an excited utterance that he in fact did burglarize the house,” police said.

Long said Tuesday that Santo had entered her home once before but left when confronted and Long didn’t call police. This time, Long said, Santo approached her daughter so Long sprung into action.

“I said, you picked the wrong (expletive) mother,” Long said, “I ran after him over the bridge and he turned around and was like, is this (woman) still chasing me.”

It was by chance that Long said her gun was near by. Her boyfriend, who Long described as “a big biker guy” had just left the house and encouraged Long to have the pistol ready.

“I’m thanking God it was by a fluke he told me to put that gun by me,” Long said. “Santo was walking in there like he didn’t care, like this time he wasn’t stopping.”

She didn’t have all of that super secret Ninja warrior stress control training like cops, and she even dropped the gun.  And yet, she was safer with the gun than without it.  Somehow this doesn’t fit the narrative told by either cops or the gun controllers.  They would have wanted her to die.

Via David Codrea and reader David Dietz:

A small Ohio news organization says one of its photographers has been shot by a sheriff’s deputy who apparently mistook his camera for a gun during a traffic stop.

The New Carlisle News reports photographer Andy Grimm had left the office at around 10pm Monday to take pictures of lightning when he came across a Clark County sheriff’s deputy performing a traffic stop in New Carlisle, north of Dayton.

Grimm tells the news organization that he decided to take pictures of the traffic stop on Main Street, noting that he was not the one being pulled over.

He says he got out of his Jeep and started setting up his tripod and camera in full view of the deputy performing the traffic stop when he heard, ‘pop, pop,’ and then realized he’s been shot in the side.

Grimm was taken to Miami Valley Hospital, where he underwent surgery. He is expected to recover.

The wounded photographer later said Deputy Jake Shaw gave him no warning before opening fire on him.

Hmm … [with chin resting on fist contemplatively] … I hate it when that happens to me.  I remember the last time I did that.  I shot up some old dude walking with a cane, and I thought it was a gun.

Fortunately, the cops did an “internal investigation” and found that I was entirely within my rights.  No harm, no foul.  Except for the old guy I shot up.  Too bad for him.

Reader David Dietz sends this along.

A New York City police officer hunting for a fugitive in Jersey City accidentally shot a U.S. marshal in the foot while firing at a dog on Thursday morning.

The officer from the warrants task force was with members of a fugitive task force looking for a 25-year-old man wanted on robbery charges, according to the police report.

As they reached the door where they believed the man was hiding at about 6.40am, a pit bull charged at them and bit one of the officers.

The officer fired at the dog four times killing it and hitting the marshal’s foot.

The dog was only doing what it is bred and trained to do, i.e., protect its master.  But remember boys and girls, only sworn law enforcement officers are endowed with the ability to recognize peripheral threats, know your backstop, and think through tactical situations quickly by utilizing their Ninja warrior stress control training.  You can’t be trusted with such things.

A federal marshal got shot.  The sad part of the story is that the dog died.

From TFB.  Those who live in big bear country can weigh in, but it looks to me like .44 Magnum is enough to get the toughest job done.