Articles by Herschel Smith

This one is good.

But it doesn’t hold a candle to the excessive display of drama with this dog, apparently all for the purpose of getting attention.

We were going to do some horse riding one morning years ago (work riding), and when trying to catch and saddle one gelding, he played lame.  Or at least we thought he “played” lame.  More and more time went into trying to figure out what was going on, including hoof inspections, talking about getting a Ferrier out to look at him, and so on.

Finally, we consulted the more experienced, most seasoned horseman I knew, and he felt the horse was really lame, or at least had some bruising, and we shouldn’t ride him that day.  There were other horses to choose from.

We let him go, at which point to galloped off at full speed without so much as a limp.  We’d been had by a better actor than the two dogs above.

Joseph Greenlee.

Since the earliest colonial days, Americans have been busily manufacturing and repairing arms. In the colonies, the ability to defend one’s home and community, hunt, fight wars, and ultimately win American independence depended largely on the ability to produce arms. For the newly independent nation, arms production was critical to repel invasions and insurrections, and eventually, to western expansion. The skill was always valued and in demand, and many Americans made their own arms rather than depend on others. Americans continued producing their own arms in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, leading to some of the greatest technological breakthroughs in the history of firearms and ammunition. The freedom to build personal arms enabled innovations that allowed Americans to better defend themselves and their country than ever before. Meanwhile, restrictions on self-made arms have been rare throughout American history. All restrictions on arms built for personal use have emerged within the last decade, and from only a few states. While still uncommon, legislatures are increasingly targeting homemade arms due to the growing popularity of unfinished receivers and 3D-printed firearms.

[ … ]

Heller established several principles that support the right to build arms for personal use. First, under Heller, any analysis must start with the Second Amendment’s text, which protects the right to keep and bear arms and provides no reason to believe that people must buy the arms they wish to keep and bear. Second, Heller held that the Second Amendment protects the types of weapons that are commonly possessed for lawful purposes, regardless of how those arms are acquired. Third, Heller suggested, as lower courts have recognized, that the Second Amendment also protects the right to acquire arms, which includes building them personally. Fourth, history and tradition—which is used to inform the Amendment’s text under Heller—reveals that Americans have long enjoyed and depended on the unregulated right to build arms since the colonial days. In sum, the right to build arms for personal use is a right protected by the Second Amendment.

There’s a lot between the introduction and the conclusion statements and you’re welcome to read it at your leisure.  The founders would be appalled at the notion that the federal government has the right to regulate the making of arms.  They fought and some perished for the sake of living as free men, and that included the right to lack of interference in things that occupied them daily.

They would be even more appalled at the notion that unaccountable bureaucracies would have the authority to regulate such matters.  They said something about that, yes?  “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.”

They only have that authority based on police powers, the power of confiscation, and the power of taxation, also all things the founder opposed for the federal authority, and things they do not because they have that right, but because no one has stopped them.

Witness this first incident.  It was clear from the beginning that the man wasn’t carrying a firearm.  I’ll also make another observation.  This is one good reason why open carry should have been passed by the controller pols in Florida – return the right to openly carry a firearm and the idiot wouldn’t have had a reason to conduct the stop to begin with.

But on to the incident.  Fat boy got upset that the female cop didn’t get what she wanted out of the man, and so fabricated some unreasonable justification out of whole cloth to arrest him.  It was a capricious arrest, and they lacked the authority to do it.

The female cop, on the other hand, was a “mean girl,” or got bullied by mean girls in school, and takes it out on everyone she meets, I estimate.  She is carried away with her authority.

But here is the problem.  They will be retrained, they lost a few days without pay, and fat boy was demoted.  But other than that, there is nothing learned from this.  The Sheriff said they didn’t rely on their training.  That’s of course incorrect, as they know the law and where the lines are.  They just don’t care.  Without a change in hiring practices to emphasize moral virtue above all else, this will continue across the country, which means no one will have any respect for cops by the time this is all over.

Also witness in the second incident that the cops lied under oath.  You know that’s what happened.  There isn’t a cop in America who doesn’t understand “Terry Stop” and the limits on their authority to detain and arrest.  They just both lied and got away with it, again pointing to the lack of moral virtue in these people.

F&S.

Before getting into how to buy a suppressor, you need to understand the difference in types of ownership. You can own a suppressor either as an individual or as a trust. As an individual owner, you can use the suppressor and you can let others use the suppressor, but you must be with anyone else anytime they have the suppressor or are using it. If you don’t have any friends—and some of you don’t, I’ve seen your Facebook profiles—individual ownership is fine. Well, except when you die, because then your estate is left in possession of an unregistered NFA item. That’s a problem for whoever executes your will.

If you purchase a suppressor as a trust, any co-trustee can be in procession of and use the suppressor just as you would. Also, if you’re smart enough to designate a “beneficiary” then that person simply assumes the trust when you go to the great shooting range in the sky.

The article goes on to explain the relative ease of filling out paperwork these days.  Around here I know there are FFLs with kiosks which assist the buyer, and there are ways to get assistance with setting up trusts.  Every gun show has cards for lawyers in the area who want to charge money for setting up firearms trusts.

Do any readers own suppressors, and if so, what have you fund to be the best way to purchase and own them?

I find it difficult to dump that much money into something when that something could be a relatively nice firearm instead, and with use of electronic hearing protection, the noise problem goes away (for the most part, except for interference with your cheek weld).

Watch the video for yourself, but here’s what I think.  The officer turned around so quickly and charged back to the man (who said nothing but ‘God’), that I can conclude only one thing.  The cop got pissed off that someone didn’t bow down and lick his bootsand obey even unlawful orders.

He’s nothing but a bully.

One in .44 Magnum please.  As soon as possible please.  I’ll buy one. Ruger, are you listening?

Just several days ago we were discussing how to get the most distance out of your tactical shotgun, and the corollary issue of how to get the best pattern.

Little did I know this was going to come out on that very issue.  These results are very impressive.

Here’s the catch.  The choke is currently not available.  I’ve written Kick’s Industries to ascertain when it will become available.  I’ll let you know what they respond.

I carried a .44 Magnum when hiking in the Tetons several weeks ago.  Color me still a bit skeptical on use of the 10mm for bear defense.  I guess the advantage is capacity, but only that.

I don’t have a .454 Casull or I would carry that.

Here is a news report of the attack.

This image won an award by The New Yorker.

Folks have recently been having a bit of fun with it.  “How you react to this photo says ALL you need to know about American politics.”

The reactions are interesting, ranging from noticing the family man, to the bumper stickers on the truck, to the rusted body of the truck, to the fact that the truck driver is leaving his shotgun unattended, to these.

“Paddle guy gives me immediate disgust. Typical yuppie type who probably couldn’t even lift a finger to defend his family if the need arose.”

“Maybe he’s former special ops and decided to settle down and have a family. He met his wife and kids there after work. The truck is his, the car is hers (it’s safer for her and the kids). He’s looking over his shoulder because he’s still on edge from his previous life.”

“Pick-up owners kids are safer than those pictured.”

The clothing doesn’t interest me, and the fact that it interests some folks is weird to me.  I’ve seen squared away Marines with “high-and-tight” haircuts wearing shorts, tucked in tee shirts, and white socks with shoes.  That could be a former Marine for all I know.  If I could be around him for 30 seconds I’d know.  I have no idea what he’s supposed to be thinking.

But the artist apparently wants you to think that ownership of shotguns is somehow connected with the cross, Gadsden flag, and MAGA.  I’m not a Trump or MAGA person, but if they want me to connect ownership of weapons with the cross and Gadsden flag, I’m okay with that.

One woman calls the shotgun a rifle, and a another guy says the shotgun is okay if it’s a Mossberg.  I’m not a Mossberg guy – I’m a Beretta guy.  But the gun is clearly not a Beretta, or it would look prettier.  But the gun is also clearly a turkey or upland gun.  See, this is the sort of thing I think about, not politics.

Honestly, among my first thoughts were that the image is stupid.  I see no point in it and I simply don’t see how it won any awards.  My immediate reaction was everything is fine.  Pistols and Rifles are designed drop-safe these days as every gun owner knows.  Shotguns are not designed drop safe and never have been, even while on safe.  That’s why we carry the way we do and have designated fields of fire when we bird hunt.

However, the gun is not being moved, so there is no danger of dropping it.  So, what’s the big deal?

I guess I can’t escape being an engineer.

But since others are having fun with it, you can too in the comments in you want.

Y’all know how much I love dogs.  This is an inspiring video of a dog learning to walk on four prosthetic limbs.

Waterbuck versus lion.  The moral of the story?  Never give up.  I’d suggest that lion was beaten up pretty badly by the end of the encounter.

Cowboys are still relevant.

In a previous post I mentioned that I witnessed first hand the heavy snow pack in the Northwest this year.  The Wyoming deer herd is in deep trouble because of the snow pack.

Finally, this is a feral animal in Times Square.  He’s lucky he didn’t do that around these parts.  He deserves to be put in chains on a road crew for a year.