Source.

A string of mountain lion attacks on dogs in the Nederland area has left many community members concerned about the safety of their pets.

Nederland resident Peter James said the community has lost around 12 to 15 dogs to lion attacks in the past six months. Most of the attacks are logged on a wildlife tracker James said was created by a local designer.

“It’s gotten sort of out of hand and it needs to be addressed,” he said. “It kind of feels like, is the community responsible for maintaining this kind of safety?”

On Monday, a woman in Rollinsville shared in a Nederland Facebook group that she watched her Australian Shepherd get snatched off her porch by a mountain lion. James said group members have also posted about attacks on a Doberman and a Great Pyrenees.

Three weeks ago, James said around 50 people attended a Colorado Parks and Wildlife lecture on mountain lion safety at the Nederland Community Center, with over 70 tuning in remotely. Some residents, he said, are even concerned about kids becoming targets.

“This lion is now coming up on decks, taking dogs that are 100 pounds, and we’re worried about a little kid who weighs maybe 40 pounds,” he said.

Jill Dreves, executive director of Wild Bear Nature Center in Nederland, said she has noticed a pattern of recent lion attacks near Ridge Road and Magnolia Road.

“There is an increase,” she said. “It’s not made up. There’s a big increase in dogs getting taken by mountain lions.”

[ … ]

“I think the most important thing is to understand that we are sharing a habitat with the mountain lions, bears, moose and all the other wildlife,” Dreves said.

In another report, “Since early November, she had been contending with the lions, which she says had been “actively stalking” her mini horse and daughter’s pony. Her tenant, Sarah Bennett, had also encountered them on early-morning runs with her dog, Bagel.

The lions had been around for weeks by that point. Rose had seen them watching the horses from a hillside on her land in the Roosevelt National Forest. Reports of lions attacking dogs in her immediate neighborhood, coupled with their sudden interest in the livestock and Bagel, had put her nervous system in “overdrive,” she says.

The night she texted CPW was a breaking point. A lion had been sitting outside of Bennett’s garden-level door, seemingly waiting for her to bring Bagel outside to pee. Bennett saw it 25 feet away and rushed the dog back inside. “I felt like it knew our patterns,” Rose says. “It knew Bagel lived there, and it was waiting to attack.”

What are the authorities going to do about it?

“As morbid and messed up as it sounds, if we just have a dog getting attacked or killed and no human involvement, then it’s just lions doing lion things and we can’t kill them,” Peterson said. “But if we were responding to every pet that was killed by wildlife with lethal removal, then we would be spending the majority of our time as officers (at least on the Front Range) doing that, and we would have to kill a lot of bears, lions, bobcats and coyotes. Instead, I think the best solution is advocating for responsible pet ownership and being diligent with your pets when living or visiting areas where wildlife are likely to be.”

I agree with everything he said, except the part about “we can’t kill them.”  Maybe he can’t but you sure can, and I sure would if a lion was threatening me or my family.  I find it oddball that people who live in Colorado would be surprised at this sort of thing.  Where do they think they live, anyway?

I did have to read this part several times to get the full force of it.

AJ Koziel’s 90-pound Bernese mountain dog mix, Duke, vanished from his house in the Gamble Gulch neighborhood near Rollinsville on Oct. 27.

Koziel let Duke outside to go to the bathroom. When he didn’t return, Koziel knew something was wrong. It was dark, so Koziel waited for morning to go looking. When he found Duke’s body, on a hillside above his house, he says he saw claw marks on his hips and most of his neck, “one shoulder hanging off to the side, and half of the skin on his face torn off.” As someone who honors the natural life-and-death cycle, Koziel said he left Duke’s body where it lay, “for the raven and his brothers to feast on.”

Astounding.  Men, you are responsible for your beasts, and that means protection too if needed.  Don’t let them out alone.  Carry large bore firearms with you.  Be prepared to shoot invaders, whether two-legged or four-legged.  Be men, not sheep.  I would never have waited to see if my dog came back home, but then I wouldn’t have sent him out alone either.

Better yet, extend the hunting season and send packs of dogs after the lions (or even set up in a deer stand and wait for the lions if you know they are scouting the area).  We’ll see who runs then.  A mountain lion may be fierce but is no match for a 45-70 round.

But I doubt that the hippies who moved in from California would allow something like that.  It’s just like the hippies to move into the bush and expect the .gov to make them safe.

Stephen Halbrook at Reason.

“Not wanting to itself cherry pick the history,” Judge Reeves concludes, “the Court now asks the parties whether it should appoint a historian to serve as a consulting expert in this matter. … This Court is acquainted with the historical record only as it is filtered through decisions of the Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeals.” Those decisions would be a good start, except that he seems to think that the Supreme Court got it wrong.

[ … ]

Judge Roger Benitez expressed skepticism about “experts” in a hearing on December 12 in Duncan v. Bonta, the California magazine ban case that Bruen remanded for reconsideration. The historical documents that matter are enacted laws, ordinances, regulations, and the like. He ordered the State to prepare an Excel spreadsheet of the laws they consider to be historical analogues to present-day magazine bans, including dates of enactment and repeal and any judicial decisions on their constitutionality. The plaintiffs could then file a rebuttal.

[ … ]

Perhaps we need a reminder from Chief Justice John Marshall in Marbury v. Madison (1803): “It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is.” Judges may not defer to “experts” to advise what the law is. “Do your job,” as New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick famously said.

Yea, I read that dummy’s statements when he made them.  He sounded like a second grader trying to write coherent sentences.  By contrast, Judge Roger Benitez is both a scholar and historian, but the thing that makes his decisions on the second amendment right is that they are right.

Do we appoint historians as experts in second amendment cases?  No.  Historians are biased too, and many reach the wrong conclusions.  Everyone takes his pre-theoretical commitments to his work, or his axiomatic irreducibles.  I don’t trust historians in general any more than I trust judges, especially as “educated” by modern universities.

We decide second amendment cases per the words of the second amendment, noting the milieu in which it was written, and remembering how idiotic it would have been for them to have just gotten finished fighting a revolution against King George with weapons they owned – risking their lives, families and fortunes – and then turned around and inflicted their own people with gun control laws.

Seen at All Outdoors.

See the source for the rest of the story.

Well, it’s certainly different and might be an interesting addition to a lever action collection, but at an MSRP of $2000, why would anyone do this?

At Forgotten Weapons

The Blyskawica (“LIghtning”) is an SMG developed in occupied Poland to be issued out to Home Army units during Operation Tempest; the liberation uprisings planned for the advance of the Red Army into Poland.

The gun was developed starting in September 1942 by two engineers, Wacław Zawrotny and Seweryn Wielanier. Both were smart and talented, but neither had previous experience in arms design. The design they created is both innovative in some areas and inferior in others as a result, with major inspiration coming form the Sten and the MP40. Production was undertaken in the harshest conditions of occupied Warsaw, where just possession of cutting tools required German military permission.* It is a credit to the skill and dedication of the Home Army team that some 750 Błyskawica guns were made; the largest mass production of any underground weapon that I am aware of.

More at the link. And here’s an interesting video of the underground development of this weapon. The weapon is examined in detail as well.

You’ll remember the tiff between TCJ and Ammoland about a handgun drill at that site that we linked here. Ammoland insisted that Herschel delete the post. He did delete it and made these comments here at TCJ:

I removed a post made by fellow writer PGF.  I did so after receiving this note from Ammoland editor Fredy Riehl, as follows.

Hello  captainsjournal100″ (sic)

You have content from our website that is in violation of our copyrights. (here is one example, you have multiple.)

The Captain’s Journal » Self-Defense Skills and Drills, The Casino Drill (captainsjournal.com)

 Please remove all content and images you may have scraped from our domain at once and email us notice it has all been deleted and scrubbed from your domain captainsjournal.com

This is a poorly written letter with awful editing (e.g., you don’t end the sentence with a period if there is a qualifier in parentheses, nor put a period inside the parentheses, I don’t know what the ” is about at the beginning of the letter, etc.).  But I got the gist of his offense.

You’ll note by the title of today’s post that it’s the eighth in a semi-regular series with the Tag handgun drills that we’ve been posting here at the captain’s Journal.

Well, AmmoLand has now embarked on a series of handgun drill articles. I know exactly what they’ve done because I know how lawyers think. They got Herschel to delete the link here and forbade any future links from TCJ while stealing* the idea to profit from it. I know this because AmmoLand just published another handgun drill article, and that’s how lawyers work to maximize corporate profits.

Now, I’m a Christian man, and I’m not even mad about this. In fact, I’ll do three things.

First, I’ll tell you that I can’t link the article to AmmoLand here because, as Christians, when we make a covenant, we keep it. But if you go to AmmoLand and click on recent articles, you’ll find their latest drill. It’s a pretty good practice; go read it and give it a try at the range. I recommend it.

Second, I’m telling you this out of Christian love, only because I want your family to be safe from tyrants of all stripes, be they lone assailants or the government. I never intended to profit from this series.

Third, I’m giving AmmoLand the cloak off my back (Matthew 5:40) by encouraging you to go read their article, which I won’t even name but look for the bull with red eyes. I pray AmmoLand profits handsomely from their handgun training drills series of articles.

I would have loved to have helped by sending them traffic. We could have worked together to make America a safer place. Lawyers are ruining America, but Christians have a duty to make it better.

*It’s not precisely a novel idea, and I surely was not the first to consider it, and neither were they, which makes AmmoLand all the more reprehensible for their corporate lawyer measures against TCJ.

Matthew 19:27 – 20:16

“1 For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. 2 And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. 5 Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? 7 They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.” – Matthew 20:1-7

In Mathew 20 verses 3-4, 5, and 6-7, the householder, who is God in the parable, went out and hired other servants throughout the day, making a covenant with each one for service and payment of a penny (KJV). The allegory for us today is simple and has but one central point; God is making bond-servants over time, at His will, by faith in Jesus Christ, to bear fruit in His name for the glory of God.

The implications, however, are critical for us, especially in this day of do nothing Christianity. The first implication is that He is making covenants with men to be His servants, having bound them to Him for work in His vineyard which is the Kingdom of Heaven, laboring continually until the twelfth hour when the day is done and that final evening comes when Christ will glorify the Father. He didn’t forgive your sin, save you from His wrath, seal you unto the day of redemption, indwell you with the Holy Spirit, and give you His instruction manual in the New Testament so that you could do nothing and still expect your due. “For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.” – 1 Timothy 5:18

That’s a two-way street, a double-edged covenant. We most often rely on God, for He is worthy, to keep His end of the agreement knowing that our rewards are in heaven with Him. But we have a testimony of our utility to Him in the Kingdom carrying out the given duties, being a laborer, bearing much fruit for Him knowing that indeed He is just to repay our works. Shall we do nothing for our King and expect a full day’s earnings?

And don’t miss the price Christ paid for you in sacrifice on the cross, beaten and bloodied to death for your sin. At that price, receiving salvation in eternity, what toil is too much for you to expend for our King?

But Jesus rose from the grave proving His power to put your hand to the plow, chosen in Him, that you might be perhaps the least of the laborers called in the eleventh hour, yet what tremendous blessing “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” – 1 Peter 1:9

The endcap to the parable is so beautifully fitting.

“16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.” – Matthew 20:16

How great the liberty of the New Covenant, where service is a joy, telling of our great High Priest, laying down the seed of the word of God in the newly piqued interest of a soul to whom Mighty God is revealing himself. The work of the vineyard for our soon-returning householder is a full day’s labor for some but for others, an easy last hour yet receiving the day’s total wage.

The parable set before us is in answer to, or, the conclusion of Matthew 19:27-30. Jesus teaches the reward to His apostles because they had forsaken all to follow Him. In verse 30, Jesus states, “But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.” – Matthew 19:30. Compare this verse with the conclusion of our parable, verse 20:16. These two verses are the bookends giving us the edges within which to seek the purpose of Christ’s teaching in this case.

There are various explanations for Matthew 19:30 and 20:16 and many ridiculous assertions outside of the simple setting of addressing His disciples. Some take these verses and make up a whole new theology, but context matters.

Parables have one central message. The more esoteric conclusions to the teachings of God come from those trying to ascribe more than is plainly meant to be taught by the immediate principle in the parable. Some make a dispensationalist distinction between Jews in the Old Covenant and those under the New Covenant when they read first and last. That’s a difficult stretch of the text’s meaning, but as we’ll see, one of the purposes of the Church of Jesus Christ is given.

The simplest explanation is taken in the context of Jesus answering Peter’s question as spokesman for the Apostles. Peter asks, in Matthew 19:27, “…what shall we have therefore?” Jesus states that they will be chiefest among the regenerate, judging the twelve tribes. The Apostles, though the last of those called under the law, will be first, chosen to rule even above the patriarchs and Noah, Moses, and David. That is what Jesus is teaching them in the moment.

It seems this is the central application of the parable; being the last of the line under the Old Covenant, the apostles would be first to bring thousands and thousands born again into the body of Christ in the earliest days to establish the New Covenant, ending the old. Being firstmost, they would serve in the harshness of stonings, beheadings, crucifixions, receiving many stripes, set upon, beaten, robbed, and having their property taken by civil authorities while losing family and friends as Christ came to set mother against daughter, son against father. And persecutions still arise at different eras in the farthest habitable reaches of the earth, as Christ builds His temple, those in who the Holy Spirit inhabits.

But (Matthew 19:29) they would also gain the family of God, Christ’s Church. Serving Christ will cost you something but look to what’s given. “And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.” – Matthew 19:29. Don’t dismiss the blessings of an intact blood family in the New Covenant; that’s the exception, we think, to the rule.

But what of the Church?

“29 And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. 30 And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.” – Luke 13:29-30

As Christ brings in His Church, calling and choosing who He will, the parallel verses in Luke draw the best application for us today. We mustn’t dismiss how Luke records this first and last statement, for the vision is of the Church in the Kingdom of Heaven, as Jesus states in Matthew 20:1.

There is a particular thought toward pre-destination in verse 16 of Matthew 20, but that is not of the lost compared to the saved but that among the saved, some are first, not chronologically, but have been called and chosen to more service, working the whole 12 hours of the parable for their just reward, toiling in the heat all day. At the same time, some serve in a less productive role bearing less fruit. Some work continually, called to labor, at war in the world with the spirits of kingdoms seen and unseen, the Holy Spirit always bearing down upon us to produce ever more in the Kingdom of God to bring righteous glory to God the Father through Jesus Christ by planting, watering, and gathering fruit for the Master. “And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant” – Matthew 20:27. We must never begrudge those whose simple task is to grab low-hanging fruit, called and chosen into the Kingdom, yet they avoid the heat of the day. Their burden is quite simple in the few hours they serve.

And for us, in comfort and ease, are we not the last, the least of the disciples? Millions of Americans have never yet set foot in the vineyard; though Jesus touched their soul, birthing them anew, they are idle sheep being prepared for the coming slaughter.

Built to work, the first man tended the Garden. And today, men are to work in the vineyard of our husbandman. You’re just the person God wants! You’re the exact right one for the tasks of the harvest He has set before you. We see no day, heaven included, where men will not serve. You’re precisely who God has chosen to bring Him glory now and forever, even in the regeneration.

And what of holy God’s divine sovereignty?

You’ve been given a station in the Kingdom by order of the Lawgiver. Shall you question your position or pay, challenging He who created heaven and earth? No, you must glory in His design upon your life. The sovereignty of God overrules all things; laid down by His word before the creation of the worlds, He will keep and protect you ’till the appointed day of just compensation.

“Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?” – Matthew 20:15

Not only were the works created for God’s delight that you might labor in them, bringing glory to His holy name, but your very soul was created for this exact purpose: His good pleasure to do with as He delights that the Christ of God might glorify the Father in you. In that final hour, your labor accomplished, and your penny due, coming into your regeneration, you shall receive his bounty according to your works. As agreeable as that sounds, no appointments are possible but that Christ sanctifies, blesses, and prospers it; the results and the workers, all creations of God, belong to Him.

Any such crown as you may perceive you will gladly, full of love for Him, thankfulness, and open frame, cast upon the ground at your Sovereign’s feet as all creation sings holy holy holy, for none are noble but the Lamb that was slain and resurrected having all authority to bring us, each one, into the new creation, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” – Revelation 4:11

I had never really thought about this.  It makes perfect sense, although if you hunt in the South, the temperatures just don’t get as cold as they do where he is shooting.

Nonetheless, it makes sense to sight your right in with ambient temperature about the same as when you expect to be hunting.  Carrying ammunition close to your body as he suggests would also be an option.

On another note, I like that shooting range with the CCTV monitor there so he could turn around to view his target.  I’d like to shoot there.

Very nice and informative video.

I love it too.  They also bring up what we’ve discussed so many times before, i.e., the virtue of having a handgun and carbine in the same caliber, getting higher muzzle velocity out of the carbine than the handgun.

And by the way, I’m still waiting on that invitation to a hunting trip with Ryan.

Frankly I think I’d rather just stick to a rifle.  But this is useful information if you live in a north midwestern state.

I see someone in the comments posed the question I thought of: what if this test had been done using different wadding, such as Federal Flitecontrol?  Someone ought to send him some ammo to test this question.

I really don’t know much about this whole issue, except that GWACS is an anti-gun organization which serves as a funnel for lawsuits against gun manufacturers.  They apparently paid for some of the information owned by K E Arms some number of years ago, no longer exist, and K E Arms (who didn’t sign a non-compete) is making their polymer lowers as they always have.

Enter the lawyers.  GWACS sued K E Arms, and this source and this source provides some background.

Now, for perhaps the nail in the coffin for GWACS, Ian explains what crowd-sourcing can do to things like this.