Forbes.

It was a police raid John Oliver called “almost cartoonishly idiotic.” Looking to apprehend a violent drug dealer at his home in McDonough, Georgia, more than two dozen officers executed a no-knock warrant in February 2018. Smashing the door open with a battering ram, before tossing a flash grenade inside, officers stormed in with guns drawn, and quickly subdued the home’s lone resident, forcing him down on the ground.

But it wasn’t their man—police raided the wrong house. Instead, officers had just handcuffed Onree Norris, then a 78-year-old grandfather with heart trouble. At the time, Norris was simply watching TV in his bedroom when he heard a “thunderous sound:” Members from the Henry County Sheriff’s Office Special Response Team had just knocked down all three doors to his house. When Norris moved into his hallway, he was greeted by multiple officers “wearing military style gear pointing assault rifles at him,” who threw him to the floor.

[ … ]

Lambasting the raid as a “blatant constitutional violation,” Norris initially sued multiple officers as well as Capt. David Cody, who led the Henry SRT and exercised “overall tactical control” for the no-knock raid. But the other officers were soon shielded by qualified immunity, leaving the captain as the sole defendant.

As Norris alleged in a complaint, Capt. Cody “did not check to make sure Henry SRT members were going to the correct address or otherwise perform adequate precautionary measures to ensure the search warrant was properly executed.” Although the captain did review the search warrant, he admitted he didn’t read it “all the way through,” and that he usually doesn’t review the property’s description prior to a raid.

Qualified immunity.  That means the police can do literally anything without being held accountable.

Those involved in this are stupid and violent men, a danger to society.  And I couldn’t care less about their “war on drugs.”  It means absolutely nothing to me, carries absolutely no importance whatsoever.

As I’ve said many times before, you’re never in more danger than when the police are around.

the most enraging part about this whole thing is she perfectly followed instructions the state police themselves put out. https://t.co/rC6rQNDqBt pic.twitter.com/r9ajnOURvd

— MJ (@morganisawizard) June 9, 2021

Rodney Dunn is a violent and stupid man.  But the courts protect men like him because the police aren’t there to protect you.  They are performing government stability operations on behalf of the rulers.

As I’ve said before.  You’re never in more danger than when the police are around.

We’ve all seen the ruling in California concerning AR-15s, a ruling that was righteous and correct, but which is likely to be overturned by the Ninth Circus.

Anyway, here is a sampling of the reactions from the chattering class.

“Like the Swiss Army Knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment,” U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez said in the ruling. Leaving aside the question of why civilians are purchasing “homeland defense equipment” (did we forget to include the Army line in the budget this year?), this makes total sense.

What two items could be more directly and obviously comparable than an AR-15 and a Swiss Army knife? I can’t think of how many times I’ve used an AR-15 to open a bottle of wine. Whenever I need a toothpick but cannot find one, I just whip out my AR-15. Conversely, whenever I am entering a theater of war, I always remember to pack my Swiss Army knife. That way, if anyone comes at me, I can offer to help them open a bottle, which will be so confusing to them that perhaps I can just get up and walk away before anyone notices I have gone. I very much understand how things work in theaters of war.

Sometimes you wish you had a nail file, but you don’t have one, and at times like these it is so good to have such a versatile tool as the AR-15, designed for home defense and homeland defense, which will shoot a very large number of bullets into something to help you express your frustration at not having a nail file.

And the lame attempts at sarcasm go on and on.  Here is another.

“I think it’s incredibly problematic when a federal judge quotes things that are factually incorrect, because it hurts the integrity of the branch,” said Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles who is an MSNBC columnist.

[ … ]

Constitutional law scholar Laurence Tribe, a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, said Benitez’s assertions are “utterly without factual foundation.”

It’s called the genetic fallacy.  This author tries to line up people who disagree with the judge, one of whom is a commentator for none other than his own silly outfit, the other (Tribe) whom you could probably get to agree to sue little green men on Mars in federal court.  He’s a certifiable kook.

What these commentators and their line of “experts” simply cannot understand is why the judge would call this the Swiss army knife of guns.

They cannot understand that there are over twenty million of these rifles in circulation now, and many more to come.  They cannot understand that they can be used equally well by people large and small.

They can be easily maintained and cleaned, used for self defense, used for target shooting, and with a different upper receiver (say a 300 BO or 6.8 SPC upper) used for hunting deer or feral hogs – or used in 5.56mm/.223 to shoot Coyotes who are ensconced on your property and endangering your small children when they go out to play.

These people have never been chased by hogs or coyotes, never had all of their chickens killed by a fox, never hunted deer, and apparently never had to worry about crime, living behind gated communities as they do.

They falsely believe that home invasions are perpetrated by one person, and only one person, and that the police are only seconds away when a 911 call is made.  They even believe it’s the duty of the police to protect them despite court rulings like Castle Rock v. Gonzalez, Warren v. District of Columbia and DeShaney v. Winnebago County

And as for the whole notion of use to ameliorate tyranny, they would have sided with King George, so that argument convinces them of nothing.  They believe in tyranny.

There is no use of a weapon by any individual outside of actors on behalf of the state of which they approve.

These people quite literally live in a different world than you do.  They usually do not get outside the beltway, they only fly over the areas you live, and those nasty animals are something the wildlife game managers should handle.

I’ve talked with them before.  Their most daring event is when they walk their dog and hear something in the brush, hurry back home, and decide not to do that again so near dusk.

They are the effeminate chattering class, and they don’t see why you need or would want guns.  They don’t understand the modularity of AR-15s well enough to know why a judge would refer to its massively varied utility.  They would rather sip Chardonnay than worry about your problems.

They know enough to be sarcastic, and to want to disarm you.  But that horse left the barn years ago.  There’s no getting him back in.  He’s long gone.

WiscoDave sends this to me from Brock and makes fun of me that I didn’t find it first.

Via The Gun Feed.

The University of Michigan.

The University of Michigan will launch a new Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention to generate knowledge and advance innovative solutions that reduce firearm injury, a public health crisis that leads to more than 100 deaths per day across the United States.

[ … ]

A $10 million university commitment over the next five years will support the institute, which launched as a presidential initiative in 2019 to formulate and answer critical questions around safety and violence.

This is a lot of funding, and it will turn into an even larger gun control study center than the one at Duke University.

The University of Michigan is famous for a number of things, perhaps chief among them is the fact that they have the leading college of nuclear engineering in the world.  I’d prefer to see them send $10 million to the college of nuclear engineering.

Next up, this is just more from Kimber.

Wow! Former Kimber executive, Ryan Busse, signs on with gun-ban advocates at Giffords. pic.twitter.com/8BIAQwNqZa

— Tom Gresham (@Guntalk) June 6, 2021

This is a well know problem for Kimber, and when he originally came out as a gun controller Kimber denied even knowing the positions taken by Busse.

But it’s difficult to see how the company wouldn’t know the political proclivities of one of their chief executives.

Shooting Illustrated.

A true industry legend, Michael “Chip” McCormick, has passed away.

I can think of no other man who has changed the industry in more ways than McCormick. Most people know him for his industry-leading 1911 magazines, but few are aware McCormick was responsible for many other innovations that transformed the gun world. An intensely private man, he quietly invented many things we take for granted today. He took the drive that pushed him to two World Speed Championships and focused it on inventing and manufacturing.

Before CMC (Chip McCormick Custom), there was no such thing as the now ubiquitous drop-in AR-15 trigger. Gunsmiths would put together a trigger with parts, often from a kit. McCormick created a single-unit trigger that installs in minutes; literally a “drop in.” Of course easy installation was not good enough for McCormick, he made it crisp, clean, with no creep….Match grade. Now dozens of imitators crowd the market, the market created by Chip McCormick.

Before Kimber, the 1911 had to be fitted from oversize parts. If you saw one in the gun store, it was usually a basic government model that the owner would have to customize. McCormick conceived of the “spec” 1911 with all parts being within specific tolerances so the gun could be assembled, instead of fitted. McCormick approached several companies, but they turned him away. Kimber’s Leslie Edelman saw the potential and quickly struck a deal for Chip to create a production gun. Unlike anything else on the market, it was fully accessorized with beavertail grip safety, extended slide release and ambidextrous thumb safeties. Not only was the Kimber handgun line born, but so was a new way of building the 1911. Now the production 1911 is the industry standard, as are fully accessorized guns.

When we think of the 2011, the first company that comes to mind is STI, which has since become Staccato. Few know the true origins of the company. It was Chip McCormick who conceived of the modular gun based on the 1911. Even with his vast experience, he lacked sufficient knowledge in plastic molding. McCormick had several other companies, so he also lacked the bandwidth to take on such a project. A team was assembled, including Sandy Strayer and Virgil Tripp. McCormick invested money and made agreements to buy parts to help fund the fledgling company. Strayer and Tripp took McCormick’s concept, developed and patented it, creating what we know as the 2011.

While he never said it, I believe the innovation that McCormick was most proud of was his RPM magazine. McCormick’s mind was always going and he often didn’t sleep. On one particular sleepless night he put his mind to thinking about the problem that vexed him and all 1911 enthusiasts. Of course, that of which I speak is out-of-spec feed lips. John Browning just didn’t leave enough room. Though McCormick didn’t get any sleep that night, he did get inspiration. Staring at his ceiling he figured out how to turn them back on themselves, making smooth, amazingly strong lips. That was revolutionary enough for most…but McCormick wanted to create something truly different. The RPM follower is unique as it is a two axis leaf spring, pushing up and sideways. This innovation is important because when the magazine is emptied, the follower sticks out of the top of the magazine tube and twists counter clockwise.  The results are that the slide always locks back when empty. I can still remember the satisfied smile when he explained how it worked. It was a simple, elegant solution and that was McCormick’s way.

I know that Chip McCormick made some great 1911 magazines, and also that Wilson Combat bought him out.

I didn’t know that Chip was responsible for all of those things.  I do very much like and admire self-starters and self-taught engineers and mechanics.

Ammoland.

The maximum length of a pistol would be 26 inches. That would make any AR15 style pistol with a barrel over seven inches an SBR regardless of any other determination features.  The measurements of a seven-inch AR pistol from the rear of the buffer tube to the front of the gun are 25 inches.

“Given the public interest surrounding these issues, ATF is proposing to amend the definition of ‘rifle’ in 27 CFR 478.11 and 479.11, respectively, by adding a sentence at the end of each definition. The new sentence would clarify that the term ‘rifle’ includes any weapon with a rifled barrel and equipped with15 an attached ‘stabilizing brace’ that has objective design features and characteristics that indicate that the firearm is designed to be fired from the shoulder, as indicated on ATF Worksheet 4999.”

• 1 point: Minor Indicator (the weapon could be fired from the shoulder)
• 2 points: Moderate Indicator (the weapon may be designed and intended to be fired from the shoulder)
• 3 points: Strong Indicator (the weapon is likely designed and intended to be fired from the shoulder)
• 4 points: Decisive Indicator (the weapon is designed and intended to be fired from the shoulder

The ATF would consider any gun with a score of four or more points an SBR.  Firearms over 13 ½ inches would automatically be an SBR.  If a pistol has a standard buffer tube, then the firearm would be assigned two points. The ATF would consider any gun that is over 120 ounces unloaded an SBR.

More confusingly, if a firearm has flip-up sights, then the ATF would give that gun one point towards becoming an SBR. The ATF would assign a gun with a red dot two points.  The ATF doesn’t see why a shooter would use a red dot pistol on a pistol.

The ATF would assign any gun with a hand stop two points.  That would put any firearm with a hand stop halfway to becoming an SBR.  The ATF would consider any gun with a secondary grip as an SBR.

[ … ]

The first choice is turning the guns into the ATF.  The ATF says this choice would be at “no-cost” to gun owners.  This move is gun confiscation.  The second choice would be to install a barrel that more than 16 inches long.  The third choice is to pay a $200 tax stamp and register it as an SBR.  The final option would be to modify the brace and not sell it to anyone in the future.

The document gives some alternatives. These alternatives include making the rules just guidance. That chance would mean that they would not have the force of law.  Other alternatives include grandfathering all firearms with braces or forgiveness of the tax stamp fee.

Sounds like a beauty contest where contestants answer panelist questions about solving world hunger.

They must be trying to outdo the complexity, stupidity and arbitrariness of 18 USC 922r.

UPDATE: Via David Codrea, GOA.

“Nearly every aspect of the Proposed Rule is either arbitrary and capricious, in excess of the agency’s jurisdiction, or in conflict with either statute or constitutional right. Often, it is all of the above. Numerous times, the Proposed Rule purports to blatantly rewrite federal law to suit ATF’s agenda.”

This video is interesting for not only the point that the 5.56 round penetrates no more than roughly the pistol rounds, but also for the good performance of the 77 gr. SMK compared to the 55 grain M193.

However, I think his testing suffers from a flaw that could throw the results into question, depending upon review of the test materials after testing (which of course I didn’t do).

I question the need for the studs in between the walls, and especially “randomly” positioned (not that it’s really random anyway).  If what you’re comparing / contrasting is penetration of various pistol and rifle rounds, putting a stud in between the dry wall to be hit “randomly” based on your aim makes no sense.  It would only yield meaningful results if you had one set of tests where every round only penetrated dry wall and siding, and another set of tests where every round had to pass through a stud.  Otherwise, he’s skewing the results without even knowing it.

Not that it’s a very scientific test anyway.

Finally, his testing includes no rifles shooting 5.56mm from 18″ or 20″ barrels.

Paul Harrell being himself.

Sorry boys.  No posts tonight.  Power outage.  Return ASAP.