Articles by Herschel Smith

A defense of love.

A dog in Northern California was critically injured earlier this week after saving its owner from an attacking mountain lion. The dog is still recovering from its injuries, according to a recent Instagram post, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife says that wildlife officers are still working to trap the lion.

Erin Wilson and her Belgian Malinois, Eva, were walking along the Trinity River near the White Bar picnic area on Monday afternoon when the big cat attacked, jumping on the woman from behind and scratching her left shoulder. Eva, who was out in front, heard Wilson scream, and the dog immediately jumped in to defend Wilson.

“I think it’s safe to assume that dog probably saved her life,” CDFW’s Patrick Foy said in an interview with the Sacramento Bee.

At some point during the battle, the mountain lion bit into the dog’s head and wouldn’t let go. After multiple attempts to get the cat off her dog, Wilson ran up to the highway to get a telescoping baton from her to car to use as a weapon. She was also able to recruit some additional help as she waved down a passerby, Sharon Houston, who was driving down CA-229 at the time.

“About 2:45 p.m., I was driving on 299 from the coast to Weaverville when I saw a woman trying to wave someone down,” Houston told the Redheaded Blackbelt, a local media outlet that originally broke the story on Tuesday. “She was frantic about it.”

After hearing what happened, Houston decided to help. Wilson had an extendable baton, and Houston had a portion of PVC pipe and some pepper spray. They found the lion, which had the dog by the neck at that point, and they began hitting it repeatedly.

“I thought, ‘Here we go,'” Houston said. “So, I started hitting it on the head, trying to get it to let go…I was just trying to get that thing away.” They eventually managed to free the dog, which ran toward the highway.

“[The mountain lion] swiped at us and bared its teeth,” Houston said. “I opened up my pepper spray and just hosed its face. It was the longest 5 to 10 seconds…I begged, ‘Please work, please work, please work.”

” … the dog immediately jumped in to defend Wilson.”  Of course she did.  “I think it’s safe to assume that dog probably saved her life.”  Of course she did.

A pistol would have worked better to get rid of the cat.

The Blaze.

A sheriff in Florida applauded a motorcyclist for ending a road rage incident by pulling a gun on a knife-wielding driver.

The alarming confrontation was caught on video by the motorcyclist’s wife.

The video shows a man with a knife threatening the motorcyclist before trying to slash him once.

At that point, the motorcyclist reached into his vest, pulled a pistol out and pointed it at the driver.

The driver called the police to report the man for pulling a gun on him, but police found that he had a concealed carry permit for the pistol. The victim told police that he had been cut off by the driver in a silver Toyota Tacoma.

“Traffic disagreements should never result in violence in our streets. In this particular incident, the video captured by the victim’s wife clearly shows that her husband’s life was threatened. I applaud the way the motorcyclist handled this situation,” said Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly in a statement.

“After his life was clearly threatened, he lawfully defended himself and then de-escalated the situation,” added Staly. “The offender is lucky he was not shot.”

Staly said after viewing the video of the incident that they arrested the knife-wielding suspect, who was identified as 50-year-old Rafael Vincent Rivera.

Rivera was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and booked him at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility.

You big dummy.  Spend a few years in the state penitentiary to cool off some.

The only thing I would have done differently is back away from the confrontation as quickly as possible.

At Outdoor Life.

I’m not sure these are the best, and the prices are stunning in some cases.  They range from $2000 in some instances up to $3200 for the Zeiss.  It’s just not clear to me who would drop $3200 on a scope like that except professional shooters in the military (e.g., Army snipers).

Some expected names like Leupold (and whatever model they have up there will doubtless be discontinued within a year), and Athlon.

Some unexpected omissions.  Why wouldn’t they include Arken Optics give the features and reasonable price?

What do readers think?  Would you spend $3200 on optics for a hunting rifle or carbine?

The best deal I ever got on a scope was when Gander Mountain was closing their store in my town.  They wanted big parking lots to compete with Bass Pro Shop for selling RVs.

The last days of the store they had everything for 50% off (not including firearms, which were 15% off sticker).  I also used a membership from a friend which gave me another 10%.

I picked up a Nikon Black FX1000 FFP 6-24×50 for $190.  It was a deal too good to pass up.

News from the bush.

A hiker called his wife to say he was lost. Then he and his dog vanished, Arizona police said.

Donald Hayes, 74, of Prescott Valley was last seen on Mingus Mountain on Friday, May 13, the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office said. He called his wife that afternoon to tell her that he and his dog, Ranger, were lost.

“Forest Patrol was able to contact Mr. Hayes Friday around 2 p.m. on his cell phone but he stated that he did not want to wait for a rescue and that he was ‘continuing down a ravine,’” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

Hayes told Forest Patrol he didn’t know what ravine he was going into, but he thought he was traveling northwest. At the time, he had food and water with him, and he told rescuers he would turn his phone off to preserve its battery.

That was the last communication with Hayes. Deputies tried to track Hayes’ phone, but efforts were unsuccessful.

Several teams of rescuers, search dogs and a helicopter crew have scoured the area looking for Hayes. Officials did not find the missing hiker as of Sunday, May 15. His car, however, was still at the trailhead.

“Mr. Hayes is a white male with salt and pepper hair, green eyes, is 6 feet tall and approximately 156 pounds,” deputies said. “He was last seen wearing nylon beige pants, a gray sweatshirt, white t-shirt, and a white visor. Ranger is a black and white Labrador.”

Mingus Mountain is about 100 miles north of Phoenix.

I’ve hiked near this area before (about 40 miles from there near the red rock area).  It’s remote.  I’m usually in favor of movement rather than sitting still and hoping someone finds and rescues you.

However, in this case he had actually made contact with both his wife and the Forest Patrol.  He began movement and then turned off the only means of tracking his movement.

It would have been better to ask the authorities to use cell towers to triangulate on his location and stay put.  To save battery power, he could have agreed to certain times he would turn on his phone (like every two hours for ten minutes).

He apparently had food and water, and he could have used his surroundings to make a debris hut for protection from the elements.  His dog was at least some protection from mountain lions.

In the bush, panic is your enemy.  It clouds judgment, it causes hyperventilation, it dehydrates, it dumps adrenalin into your system, it kills.

He chose poorly.

As many readers noticed, TCJ was down for a while.  The system has been rebooted, and the web site will be a little snappier for readers (i.e., quicker to load).

It’s been upgraded.  That’s good for readers.  Unfortunately, the hosting is more expensive too.

It would be less expensive (or free) to go with blogspot, typepad or some other hosting service, but frankly I’d shut down before doing that.  I won’t be told what I can and can’t write.

News & views.

The Violence Policy Center (VPC) today released a new slide show of firearms industry ads and catalog images exposing the common themes that gunmakers use in their marketing of militarized weapons such as the Bushmaster XM-15 assault rifle used in the mass shooting this past weekend at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

In the introduction to the three-part slide show, the VPC explains, “Militarization dominates the public face of today’s gun industry, whether in magazine ads, manufacturer catalogs and websites, or the content of firearm magazines that cater to gun owners. In these outlets, three themes are consistently found”—

• Language and images that equate military-bred weaponry as the virtual embodiment of freedom. In this context, gun owners are often portrayed as brave men (and it is almost always men) standing alone, a front-line force against oppression, often from the government. Some companies harken back to the era of the Founding Fathers, encouraging these gun buyers to view themselves as modern-day patriots.
• The use of terms and images drawn from military or law enforcement extolling the virtues of the potential gun buyer, including hero. These descriptions are supplemented by words such as “bravery,” “honor,” and similar terms to describe an undefined “mission.” The accompanying images most often feature users outfitted in military-style gear.
• Language and images touting that the guns being sold are identical, or virtually identical, to the weapons carried and used by law enforcement or the military. Many manufacturers highlight the military and/or law enforcement pedigree of their firearms. Often, the only difference is that the weapons sold to civilians are semiautomatic, firing one bullet per trigger pull, as opposed to being able to fire in burst or fully automatic mode.

This is almost amusing due to its ignorance.

First of all, I reject out of hand the notion that something that’s military is somehow bad.  I do so for very good reasons that the VPC refuses to acknowledge.

Second, having watched hundreds of people – many of whom are new gun owners – purchase firearms over the last several years, I will observer that they tend to purchase the less expensive firearms, not the more expensive (which would be the corollary to highly marketed “military” firearms).

Third, women tend to seek out the simpler firearms, which tend to be wheel guns, or in other cases, subcompacts (for hiding in purses).  A full size pistol or rifle wouldn’t have impressed them.

Fourth, true gun guys aren’t impressed by sales pitches.  For example, videos like this one or this one don’t in the least make me want drop a wad of cash on the new Sig squad rifle.  I have no desire to own that weapon, nor to shoot ceramic cartridges.  Let it prove itself in a half century of war.  I’d rather have a lever action Marlin 30-30.

Fifth, the AR style platform is still so highly regarded and sought after because Eugene Stoner engineered it so well, not because of marketing.  If firearms manufacturers are spending a ton of money on marketing, they’d do better to improve their QA.  Parts failures and lack of 1 MOA shooting make it to the forums and cause users to pan the weapon.  Advertising gimmicks don’t matter.

They’re looking for a boogieman in the dark, and finding one every time they bump into a lamp.

News.

The last thing we need in this world is more guns. But we’re getting them whether we like it or not, so wouldn’t it be nice if those guns had safety mechanisms like our phones, making them impossible for anyone but their owners to use? That’s what Biofire is building, and it has raised $17 million to finalize and commercialize its biometric-secured firearm.

Founder Kai Kloepfer said he began looking into the idea after the Aurora mass shooting in 2012.

“I started to think, what could I possibly do to have an impact on this? How can I apply product building skills to what would appear to be a public health challenge? The problem of children and teens finding guns, accidents and suicides — that was the place where I really saw tech and a physical, product-based solution having an impact,” he said.

Good.  I hope the investors raise even more money than that, and I hope this becomes a money hole.

I will never buy one, but I’ve said what I will do.

“Perform a fault tree analysis of smart guns.  Use highly respected guidance like the NRC fault tree handbook.

Assess the reliability of one of my semi-automatic handguns as the first state point, and then add smart gun technology to it, and assess it again.  Compare the state points.  Then do that again with a revolver.  Be honest.  Assign a failure probability of greater than zero (0) to the smart technology, because you know that each additional electronic and mechanical component has a failure probability of greater than zero.

Get a PE to seal the work to demonstrate thorough and independent review.  If you can prove that so-called “smart guns” are as reliable as my guns, I’ll pour ketchup on my hard hat, eat it, and post video for everyone to see.  If you lose, you buy me the gun of my choice.  No one will take the challenge because you will lose that challenge.  I’ll win.  Case closed.  End of discussion.”

To date no one has taken the challenge, and no one will in the future.

The Washington Times.

Former President Donald Trump will headline the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) Leadership Forum later this month.

Mr. Trump will deliver remarks at the annual gathering of Second Amendment activists on May 27. He will be joined by other Republican speakers, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas, North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.

This is the first NRA annual meeting since its cancellation last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and its 151st overall.

“It is truly an honor to have President Trump address NRA members for the sixth time at our 2022 NRA-ILA Leadership Forum in Houston,” said NRA Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre in a statement.

He said, “President Trump delivered on his promises by appointing judges who respect and value the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and in doing so helped ensure the freedom of generations of Americans. NRA members are excited to hear him speak and thank him for his support for our right to keep and bear arms.”

Isn’t that special.  Trump loves the NRA and they love him.  He will get a hero’s welcome, no doubt.  The two are made for each other.

Neither one has done anything for firearms owners.  Trump supported red flag laws and the bump stock ban, and appointed nothing but deep staters to positions of power (e.g., William Barr who organized a gaggle of former AGs to defend Lon Horiuchi from charges of manslaughter after he shot Randy Weaver’s wife, Vicki Weaver, and his dog).  His appointment to head the DHS stated that white supremacy was the most dangerous threat that America faced.  He left Comey and McCabe in charge of the FBI, and he failed to drive to the bottom of “fast and furious.”  That’s a short list of his many failures, the successes involving mostly tweeting angry rebuttals at those whom he saw as personal enemies, or people who didn’t fall down and worship him.

The NRA supported (in order) the NFA (and Hughes Amendment), the GCA, the Clinton AWB, universal background checks, red flag laws, and the bump stock ban.

They go together very well, I should say.  Beyond that, LaPierre has taken such bad positions, thrown so much money away and caused such division in the NRA, and caused such ineffectiveness that the organization is now ruined and cannot be saved.  The NRA board of directors allowed one man to destroy the entire organization.  They should be proud, that is, if they are terrible people.

By the way, here is an update on the current status of the NRA museum.

After being closed for two years, supposedly due to Covid (in fact, state and country restrictions were lifted about a year ago), the main National Firearms Museum has reopened. We’d written about concerns that the museum’s collections were being looted and sold off, and how a former curator who’d loaned guns to the museum was told they could not be found.

At last it is open, but the report is not good.

“There are a lot of missing guns and artifacts that used to be on display. So many great pieces. Where did they go? Some empty spots have the usual “Object Temporarily Removed” marker placed, but others – nope.  In the last two years, maintenance of the galleries really didn’t happen and the dust on so many historic pieces is not good.  Labels have fallen and are in the process of falling in many cases. Lighting has not been adjusted in several galleries – so there are very bright and very dim sections – not good for paper and textile artifacts in the brightness. Even from outside the glass, there were many guns that really needed cleaning and perhaps some conservation – including the premier collection of Gatling guns.  Damn…”

“So how does the HQ building look?  Not good. The outer tiles on both sides of the entry driveway have flaked off in a very unsightly manner.  The underside of the overhang has many patched areas from leaks. Inside – I saw evidence of other leaks. Rust staining is seeping from window joints all over the building exterior.  For those that may want to buy a souvenir – well – forget it.  The NRA Store is not open.”

“Walking through the galleries, I found myself looking at a cannon – right in the middle of a junction of four pathways.  No warning ropes even. In addition to impacting on ADA standards for the museum, it turns out the reason the cannon has been placed so awkwardly was to free up the Revolutionary War Gallery.  Why? – so that food and drink can be served for special donor receptions, inside the museum.  Professional museum folks are cringing by now and believe it or not, my old sign prohibiting food and drink inside was still posted outside. Bugs are attracted by food residues and move on to munch on museum objects quickly.”

The story mentions that there is no museum registrar. From the comments: “For those who don’t know, the Registrar is the individual responsible for the collection.  They must at the stroke of the finger know where each piece is located (on display, on loan, in transit, in conservation).  No registrar means that objects can disappear and there is no accounting for it.  Be warned if you were considering donating any object to them.  I wouldn’t.”

You’re a fool if you donate firearms to the NRA museum.  And I wouldn’t attend the NRA meeting if the NRA sent me on an all-expenses paid vacation to go there.

At Outdoor Life.

They list some lights that throw a lot of lumens, but that isn’t everything, and it’s not most important for me.

For example, I refuse to have a headlamp that isn’t “hybrid.”  For example, this model they review is hybrid and can use both a rechargeable battery pack or 3AAA batteries.

I also require the red light for early morning walks to the tree stand.

If readers have any additions, please recommend your favorite in the comments.

Oooo … an Ashville MSM journalist writes a breathless article about ghost guns.  We should all be askeerd.

“In the case of the pistols here that you see, these were all purchased in undercover investigations by ATF,” Mein said.

The area of the frame or receiver where a manufacturer is required to add crucial serial numbers on these kits is blank.

“Those markings give us the ability to trace that gun. By tracing the firearm, we’re finding out who manufactured it, who retail sold it and who the original purchaser is,” Mein said.

The firearms anonymity is driving up their presence at crime scenes.

Let’s stop right there.  Firearms anonymity cannot possibly do or cause anything.  Maybe they don’t teach journalism or logic in college any more.

If unserialized firearms (that’s what we should call them) are more prevalent than in years gone by, that could explain an increased prevalence in crime scenes.  It would only stand to reason if the firearms at crime scenes are a cross section of the firearms in circulation.

As for the notion that serialization is “crucial,” that’s preposterous.  Person-to-person sales are still legal and the work to trace a firearm all the way back to the original buyer means absolutely nothing.  This is a raw ploy to scare the ignorant and easily scared into demanding laws against manufacture of their own weapons and person-to-person sales, and the ATF isn’t just going along with it all, I wouldn’t be surprised if the idea for the story came from them.

A federal rule change in April now makes those kits easier to trace. It will require serial numbers to be included on the frame or receiver. Sellers must also be licensed.

“It would provide that background screening,” King said.

Licensed manufacturer Phil Flack agreed serial numbers help investigators with cases.

“I think so, in one sense for the law enforcement community,” said Flack, owner of P.F. Custom Guns in Buncombe County.

Still, Flack continued, “The law has always allowed for individuals to manufacture their own firearms.”

He is worried new rules could impact enthusiasts and hobbyists more than criminals.

“If you’re going after somebody who’s not really a threat, what have you accomplished,” Flack said.

Phil, haven’t you learned how this works yet?  Don’t talk to the press – nothing good can come of it.

Via correspondent Roger.