From the comments, “And He spoke to his disciples, saying “nay, it cannot be direct impingement, for behold… there is a piston.” Thence He demonstrated the operation of Stoner’s rotating-bolt gas-key system, and they beheld his truth with their own eyes,” and “Saint Stoner of Armalite.”

Tim Harmsen of MAC had something similar a while back.

Harold Hutchison at Ammoland.

When it comes to defending our Second Amendment rights, there are a lot of potential fights. We are seeing attacks on multiple fronts, along with efforts to move forward on some other issues. But what should be the biggest priority? Do we fight bump stock and suppressor bans? Do we focus on getting judges who will enforce our Second Amendment rights? What about the many fights at the state and local levels of government?

We have to understand that there is only so much time in the day, and only so many resources. What legislation do we push? We could focus on constitutional carry in a state, but it would mean we ignore other Second Amendment issues, like maybe passing state-level protections against corporate gun control by banks and companies like Salesforce.

Similarly, at the federal level, given the current situation, we can’t really pass pro-Second Amendment legislation. But what can be done is to keep the confirmation of judges who will uphold Heller. Another thing that the Senate can do: Hold hearings. It might seem like a show, but with proper work, those hearings can put pressure on companies like Salesforce. In addition, there is always the chance to force votes on vulnerable anti-Second Amendment Senators.

But it also comes down to making decisions. President Trump did go along with an administrative bump-stock ban that was more about being seen to do something than actually addressing a problem. He’s also making some comments on suppressors as well. But at the same time, he is making the kinds of judicial nominations that will keep our Second Amendment rights safe for decades – unless the Supreme Court is packed.

It’s another way of setting priorities in defending the Second Amendment. Do we fight a short-term skirmish over bump stocks and suppressors, or do we focus on getting judges who can throw out anti-Second Amendment laws passed in places like California and New Jersey? Reasonable Second Amendment supports can make arguments either way.

As Duane Liptak said on this site a while back, those who choose to primarily focus on judges are not thrilled with the suppressor comments or the bump stock ban – but they are dealing with a political landscape as it is, and adjusting their tactics and strategy to deal with it. We are at the mercy of events, too.

[ … ]

Defending the Second Amendment is more than just saying “No.” Often it’s about making hard choices about what legislation to push – or whether efforts need to be spent on other issues. Second Amendment supporters need to keep that in mind, or we could lose our rights.

Funny, that.  I thought I was at the mercy of a sovereign God.  As it turns out, it’s something pedestrian like current events.

Now I’m not kidding when I say this, but when I first read the commentary I skipped back up the top to see if Sebastian was writing for Ammoland now.  It sounds just like something he would say.

There is no need for the controllers to work on much of anything.  All they have to do is shout “boo,” and the retreatists run home and cry, “Hold me uncle Bob, I’m askeered.  Give the bad man what he wants so he’ll go away.”

There isn’t anything so difficult in saying ‘no’.  It’s easy.  It takes no work – it takes a single breath, or a single commentary, or a single letter, or a single act of civil disobedience.  It takes little time, it takes no money, and it requires no refocus of attention from the more difficult things like repeal of intolerable acts against us.

But we live in such a cowardly culture today that supposed gun rights defenders willingly give away recognition of right after right, virtually inviting more intolerable acts, for no gain whatsoever and nothing won, as if that is somehow wise and scholarly.

What a sorry ass world we live in.

Via Codrea, this from a prog.

“Basically, the Second Amendment is about killing Indians, taking their land, and increasingly, slave patrols,” Dunbar-Ortiz tells Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer in the latest installment of “Scheer Intelligence.” The “Loaded” author lays out the genocidal genealogy of the right to bear arms, and explains that, at its root, it ensured the ability of white men to oppress people of color in order to steal or keep stolen land, and to control slaves through slave patrols.

This is interesting because in arguing against ownership of weapons, the communists always go too far and admit too much.

Consider.  He inasmuch as admits that weapons can be a catalyst to tyranny in the wrong hands, and given the fallen state of mankind, any hands can be the wrong hands.

What he tacitly admits but doesn’t say so, is that he wants weapons concentrated in the hands of tyrants instead of the people who would be tyrannized, i.e., you and me.

The communists never want or argue for the complete absence of weapons, just weapons owned by you and me.

But just like weapons can be used to tyrannize, they can also be used to ameliorate tyranny.  That’s what the communist can never allow.

The Washington Post:

On May 29, Dravon Ames and his fiancee, Iesha Harper, said they went on a family outing with their two children, London, 1, and Island, 4. Without their knowledge, Island took a doll from a Family Dollar Store, according to a notice of claim dated Wednesday that was filed by former Arizona attorney general Thomas Horne, who is representing Ames and Harper.

A police patrol unit followed the couple’s car. Once the family members entered their babysitter’s apartment complex, an officer approached the vehicle with his gun drawn and yanked open the front door, the claim said.

Despite department rules that require police to wear body cameras, the Phoenix officers were not wearing them, the claim said. But passersby recorded the encounter. The police released one video this week, but there are others online.

“I’m going to put a cap in your a–,” one officer said to Ames as a second policeman, whose weapon was also drawn and pointed at Ames, walked up to the car, the video shows. “I’m going to shoot you in your f—ing face.”

Both statements, Horne wrote in the claim, were made in front of the couple’s children, who were in the rear of the vehicle.

The first officer — who has not yet been named by the department — pulled Ames, 22, from the car, pushed his head to the pavement, handcuffed him and yelled that Ames better follow orders, according to the claim. The officer threw Ames against the car, ordered him to spread his legs and “kicked him in the right leg so hard that the father collapsed.” Then, the officer dragged him upright and punched him in the back, the claim said.

Once Ames was handcuffed and inside the patrol car, the officers focused their attention on Harper and the children, according to the claim.

The two officers pointed their weapons at the visibly pregnant 24-year-old Harper and her children, the video shows and the claim stated.

“The first officer grabbed the mother and the baby around both of their necks, and tried to take the baby out of the mother’s hand,” the claim alleged. “He told her to put the baby on the ground, which she was unwilling to do because the baby could not walk, and the ground consisted of hot pavement.”

The officer tried to rip Harper’s youngest child from her arms, the claim stated. Eventually he threw Harper, who had handed the children to a bystander, into the police car face first and then handcuffed her.

“I could have shot you in front of your f—ing kids,” he said, according to the claim.

“The notice of claim alleged that the police officers “committed battery, unlawful imprisonment, false arrest, infliction of emotional distress, and violation of civil rights under the fifth and 14th amendments of the United States Constitution.”  Horne told The Washington Post that the city has 60 days to respond before he files the lawsuit.”

I think that’s a short list, which could have included assault with a deadly weapon, trespassing, stalking and harassment, unlawful threats, etc., etc.

The pathetic Phoenix mayor, Kate Gallego, apologized.

“I am deeply sorry for what this family went through, and I apologize to our community,” Gallego said on Twitter Saturday evening. “This is not who we are, and I refuse to allow this type of behavior to go unchallenged.”

Hey Kate, you’re a liar.  The ranks of cops everywhere are filled with sociopaths who think they’re on a mission from Stalin, and you’re not going to do a damn thing about it.  “Unchallenged.”  What does that even mean?

She’s acting like this is some sort of family squabble where one errant child needs to be corrected for fighting with another child.

Here’s a news flash for you Kate.  This has to do with criminal activity.  These cops are sociopathic criminals.  They don’t just need to lose their jobs – they need to be imprisoned for what they did.  No financial remuneration will suffice, because that means taxpayers are on the hook.  No, there is retribution, and without it, you’re just another cog in the machine.

David Codrea:

“In terms of ‘why,’ the State Department has authority under the statute (the Arms Export Control Act) to govern exports ‘in furtherance of world peace and the security and foreign policy of the U.S.,’” Reeves elaborated. “Under the law they do not have to get more specific, although sometimes they may give more information concerning a specific export. The courts have held there is no constitutional right to engage in exports or imports, and there is considerable deference granted to the State Department for making national security or foreign policy decisions.”

[ … ]

It would be an overdue gesture of support to see the president actually do something pro-active to advance the interests of the firearms community. It would be a welcome reversal of some baffling “concessions” the president has made on “bump stocks,” on “red flags,” and most recently, on suppressors.

As scary as the thought of Democrats taking over in 2020 is, talk is now coming from some with national voices about the possibility of a critical mass of thoroughly disillusioned gun owners sitting things out. And this isn’t a matter of “Would you rather have Biden?” or Harris or Buttigieg, as the “Hear No Evil/3D chess” Trump apologists angrily challenge back.

I simply don’t buy that this is merely a function of the administrative state, owned and operated by progressives for progressives.  No, this administrative state is owned by Donald Trump.  He could have put anyone he wanted in charge of the State Department, and apparently someone is in charge who doesn’t care to change these things.

What Rex Tillerson did was just a start.  The vast majority of the statist apparatchiks there need to be given their pink slips and told to find real work.  Then they may not be able to find the time to undermine the country and interfere with free trade.

Daily Beast:

Here’s something the public didn’t know until today: If one of the U.S. military’s new F-35 stealth fighters has to climb at a steep angle in order to dodge an enemy attack, design flaws mean the plane might suddenly tumble out of control and crash.

Also, some versions of the F-35 can’t accelerate to supersonic speed without melting their own tails or shedding the expensive coating that helps to give the planes their radar-evading qualities.

The Pentagon’s $400-billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, one of the biggest and most expensive weapons programs in history, has come under fire, so to speak, over more than a decade for delays, rising costs, design problems and technical glitches.

But startling reports by trade publication Defense News on Wednesday revealed flaws that previously only builder Lockheed Martin, the military, and the plane’s foreign buyers knew about.

The newly-exposed problems underscore the potential fragility of American air power as the armed services work to replace more and more old fighters with as many as 2,300 F-35s while also reconfiguring to confront the increasingly deadly Chinese and Russian air forces.

The problems might also help to explain why acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan reportedly described the F-35 program as “fucked up.”

Defense News obtained military documents detailing a wide range of serious problems with two of the three versions of the F-35. The Air Force’s F-35A appears to be exempt from the latest flaws, but the Marine Corps’ vertical-landing F-35B and the Navy’s carrier-compatible F-35C both suffer what the services call “category 1” deficiencies. (In military parlance, a category 1 flaw in a plane can prevent a pilot from accomplishing their mission.)

[ … ]

One problem cropped up during test flights in 2011, Defense News reported, citing the trove of military documents. In the 2011 tests, at least one F-35B and F-35C both flew at speeds of Mach 1.3 and Mach 1.4. A post-flight inspection in November 2011 revealed the F-35B sustained “bubbling [and] blistering” of its stealth coating.

Further supersonic tests in December 2011 revealed structural damage on an F-35C resulting from the extreme heat coming from the plane’s single Pratt & Whitney engine, one of the most powerful fighter engines ever made.

To avoid similar damage, the military has limited F-35B and F-35C pilots to flying at supersonic speed for less than a minute at a time.

But that could make it impossible for aviators to keep up with, or avoid, Russian and Chinese fighters flying faster than the speed of sound without any restrictions. “It is infeasible for the Navy or Marine Corps to operate the F-35 against a near-peer threat under such restrictions,” Defense News paraphrased the documents as saying.

But MIC isn’t done with the insults and malfeasance.  Not by a long shot.

A Chinese-owned company is making circuit boards for the top-secret next generation F-35 warplanes flown by Britain and the United States, Sky News can reveal.

Exception PCB, a printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturer in Gloucestershire, south west England, produces circuit boards that “control many of the F-35’s core capabilities”, according to publicity material produced by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD).

This includes “its engines, lighting, fuel and navigation systems”, it said.

If the FedGov had actually made an assignment to the DoD to do it’s dead level best to spend the most money on the worst possible outcome, I don’t think they could have done any better than they did.

Fifth generation warfare.  Sounds nice.  How do you feel about your dollars spent?

Messages from the viper pit.

The Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives continues its push to pass their entire legislative agenda ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

It’s fair to say that Democrats are trying to pass as much legislation they know congressional Republicans will vote against, and President Trump won’t sign.

The political play is a safe bet considering that Democrats could very well lose their control of the House, and as Trump looks like he will win re-election.

[ … ]

The “Jamie’s Law,” which calls for universal background check for individuals looking to purchase ammunition, was named in honor of Jamie Guttenberg who was on of 17 students and teachers killed at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

First of all, I doubt the democrats will lose control of the House.  Second, I’m not so sure of what a republican Senate will do, and third, I’m not so sure as the author about what Trump will do.

But one safe bet is that sooner or later the democrats will be back in control of the House and the White House, and at that point the dam will break and let loose a flood of gun control bills.  Ammunition control will be among the larger set of gun control bills.

Because after all, a gun is no good without ammunition.  The democrats have said they’re going after ammunition, and we should all believe them.  In this case they’re actually not lying for a change.

BLOAT.

Via GunsSaveLife, Illinois State Senator Julie Morrison.

Funny how momma hen controller always finds it easy to send other people out to do her dirty work, yes?

Near Crowder’s Mountain.

Weigh in.  What are you doing to stay in shape?