Not Too Bad For A Lefty

In fact, Brendan's friend Pat was pretty good shooting my Remington 870 and doing it left handed.



Yeah, his first shot was a bit off to the right (took off some of the bark on his right-hand side of the tree) but at least two of his other shots, if not all, were just about dead center. (And yes it was a dead tree and I say that for the tree-huggers but even more so for the shots-ricochet-off live tree types cause I do not ant to hear your BS criticism when it is not warranted.) The distance was guesstimated to be about 30 yards or so.

Anyway, both Brendan and Pat had fun shooting the 870. Yet, neither shot more than 10 rounds through it since the masculine youths today are not manly men like us of old. Of course, being a manly-man with an 870 is one of the reasons my adversary Arthur I. Tis comes around so often to slap my shoulders, especially the right one.

All the best,
Glenn B

Fantasizing Bambi Lovers...

...would probably react much differently than they preach should a bear break into their home not once, not twice but yet a third time in three consecutive days. Add to that the fact that the bear not only damaged the homeowner's property but injured her dog. The animal loving whackos are rabidly berating the homeowner fot having the bear shot. Some of the more radical among the Bambi  Believers have reportey posted the woman's address online and some have made death threats against her. More here.

I think she did the right thing and hope she and the guy who shot it both enjoy the steaks.

All the best,
Glenn B

Democrats Are So Tolerant...

...that it puzzles me as to why this is true:

All the best,

Glenn B

William Tell or Not...

...it appears that I put the crossbow together right. It sure seems like I have had it for a long time without getting to shoot it but I finally got around to some this weekend. Only shot it enough to assure it was working properly and on the mark. 

The three bolts in the pictured target were fired from about 20 to 25 yards. I also fired a shot from about 50 yards, that one was several inches high, so a sight adjustment may be in order. I should get to that this week since I am planning a trip to relatve's place where I can shoot it. I might not be up to shooting an apple off of anyones head but think it will do the job on a whitetail deer or black bear.

All the best,

GB

Summer Fun

It was a sultry summer afternoon and we had ammo. We also had the 44 Magnum, 45 auto and 870 12 gauge. What better way to have some fun in a free state than by blasting away to your heart' s content. Brendan and his buddy Pat sure had fun.

All the best
Glenn B

Where $100 Actually Is Worth $100 or More

Well it is definitely not in the state of New York. NY ranks as third from the bottom of a list of all states (and DC) when it comes to how much bang per buck you get for $100. In NY, $100 is valued at only $86.43 of worth. The only two 'states' worse than NY were the state of Hawaii and the District of Columbia, DC being the worst of all. On the other side of the coin, if you live in states like Mississippi (ranked number one) or Arkansas (ranked 2nd) you are more well off with your hundred bucks than elsewhere. More here.

Just as with the number of guns per capita, as discussed in my blog post here, NY's poor standing disappoints me once again but comes as no surprise.

All the best,
Glenn B

Does Race Baiting Have No Limits

A black man has claimed that the federal government, of which he is an employee, has allowed for racism on the job because it allowed a person to wear a hat with the Gadsden Flag on it to work and he (the black man) was offended by that. That the EEOC is even considering whether or not wearing that hat is a form of racism is almost beyond belief even under the Obama administration. More here.

My words of advice to the complainant go fuck yourself asshole get a life; that flag is not a symbol of racism but of the unity and strength of the American people and of our readiness and willingness to defend ourselves.

All the best,
Glenn B  

Number Of Guns Per Capita By State

Have you ever wondered how many guns, per capita, are in your state? I never gave it a thought before but found this link on NY Firearms forums: http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/most-heavily-armed-states-in-america/?ftag=ACQb72972c&vndid=5333141 

It was a bit of a surprise that New York, my home state, came in dead last with the least number of guns per person. I was surprised only because I thought that CA, NJ or DC (no not a state but included in the list) would come in last. I actually was shocked for a moment when I found out where Washington DC fell on the list and you may be surprised too. Hold down your mouse key and scroll over the blank space between the dashes to see its rating or go to the link and see it there.) Yes, DC, is the 'state' with - the second highest - amount of registered firearms per capita. That shocked me at first but after giving it just a little bit of thought I figure it is likely because of all the judges, federal agencies and police departments that have guns there versus its small population.

Before closing I must add that I posted this for amusement more than to spread any knowledge about gun ownership and I say that because the list is badly flawed as it completely leaves out handguns. All else I can say about it is that, without knowing it before, I have been and will continue to do my part to try to raise NY up from dead last on the list.

All the best,
Glenn B

Never Been There & Never Done That...

...and I am sure I never will do it. If you don't want to see a sick dude in action, don't watch this video.



And there I was, for years, thinking they had sex with goats!

All the best,
Glenn B

Baby Hater Trump???

All the best,
GB

Advice To Youngsters

Enjoy life responsibly while you have your youth and lots of gusto; never waste that opportunity. You can still enjoy it when well matured but it's just not the same after the onset of old age.

All the best,
Glenn B

Yesterday In History (What Can I Say, I Forgot About Yesterday)

Yesterday, August 1, 2016 was the 50th anniversary of the University of Texas, Austin, Tower Shootings. The gunman, Charles Whitman, shot 49 people and killed 16 of them. He already had also killed his mother and his wife earlier that morning. After his death, an autopsy (that he had requested in his writings) revealed a necrotic tumor in his brain but it was never concluded if the tumor led to rampage. Prior to the shootings, Whitman had suffered from apparent mental health issues for some time and had fits of violent rage. He sought medical and psychiatric help evidently to no avail.


While I remember a lot of the general story from my youth, I was 10 at the time this happened, I did not recall the details. I found an interesting detailed piece on it over at Wikipedia. Read more about him there. There are many interesting points in his story but I found one of the most so to be the amount of preparation he put into carrying out his killing spree. Hasty as were those preparations, they were extensive nonetheless. It is evident that he had plannedto be shooting for a long time if he could. If he had better fortified his position to prevent access to the police, he may have been up there for days before they stopped him. Luckily, he was killed by a shotgun wielding officer after another officer had gotten the jump on him and fired all six shots out of his revolver at Whitman but missed with all of them from about 50 feet away. (I swear my last post was written before I even became aware of this stuff; yet, the officer getting him with the shotgun and the other officer missing with all 6 shots from his revolver, support what I said in that other post regarding a shotgun versus a pistol.)

A hat tip to Dom Di who had a post about the shooting up on his FB page.

All the best,
Glenn B

1970s Era Shotgun Tactical Training Video

I had to watch his twice to believe what I was hearing and seeing. I began my career in law enforcement at the tail end, right at the end of the tail, of the 70s. In the 1980's I took on collateral duties as a firearms instructor for handgun, rifle and shotgun and later for the MP-5 submachine gun. One of my preferred weapons throughout that time all the way through today has been the Remington 870 shotgun.

While some good points are made in this video about the spread of buckshot and other types of shot and the dangers caused by that to innocent bystanders, I find a lot of what is said in this training piece to be off target. My personally preferred round in my 870 shotguns has usually been 1 ounce slugs although I also carry buckshot in case a situation calls for it. As to me usually loading with slugs, there are no "spread" problems when it comes to slugs. Had the officer who shot the bad guy, in the first scenario of this video, been firing slugs, chances are he would have hit the bad guy and no one else. On the other hand, when the training officer claims that the officer would have put down the bad guy with a single shot from his revolver, that is doubtful to me. Would the officer have hit him with a revolver shot, under stress of incoming fire, in a standing unsupported position, at a distance of 50 yards (which was the distance that was attributed to that shooting)? It would have had to have been one heck of a great shot. A shotgun, shooting slugs, is a very effective weapon at a distance of 50 yards yet the training officer only mentions that slugs are a good choice when deep penetration is required. The truth is though that the likelihood of hitting the bad guy with one shot from the shotgun generally would have increased an officer's chances of hitting the bad guy several fold over his being able to do so with a revolver. As for this particular department, apparently the Pasadena PD in California, it could have been that the department in question only allowed officers to utilize buckshot when on routine patrols. If that was the case, I think they should have switched to slugs or at least have given the officers that option.

Some other things that I found less than acceptable in that video were: the officer firing with other people in the line of fire regardless of the weapon or type of ammo he was firing. That problem persists today throughout police departments and law enforcement agencies within the United States. You can read about police shooting an innocent bystander either directly or by way of a ricochet just about every few weeks or so. In some situations it may be impossible to avoid such a threat to bystander but still be necessary to shoot the bad guy to prevent a greater threat to the public than would be caused by your shot should it go astray. At other times though, and I think this is in most instances, you may have to withhold fire when innocents are in the line of fire. In that regard, the training officer made a very important note, you may not even see the bystanders. Remember to assess as each and every situation unfolds.

Then there was the training officer standing there displaying his revolver with finger on the trigger. Even as the 70s came to an end we were trained to keep the booger picker off of the trigger until ready to shoot. It may have been different in other agencies or departments but safety was a high priority in my agency. We had one guy, on my first LE job, who refused to pay attention to that and he wound up shooting himself in his thigh while drawing with his finger on the trigger and the thumb snap still closed. The gun did not come out of the holster immediately and he tugged harder, finger still on trigger and still forgetting to hit the thumb snap.  It went bang and he went to the ER. So, it was something I paid attention to and faithfully have practiced since then.

Of course, there were also the potentially problematic and dangerous use of police commands used on at least one stop. Did you pay attention to the commands used by the officer who stopped the vehicle with three suspects in it. He sad: "Freeze, stay in your car and put your hands on your heads". Do you see the problem with that, it too is a problem that persists today and I do not mean using the word 'freeze'. What I am referring to is the use of contradictory commands. How can someone who has complied with a command to freeze then also move to put his hands on his head. Commands like that not only confuse suspects but can also confuse officers during such a stressful situation. Another officer may have heard the command freeze, say as he drove by the first officer to turn around his vehicle, and either not heard or not paid attention to the first officer then saying put your hands on your head. That second officer seeing the suspects raise their hands might then perceive a threat that simply is not there because the suspects would in fact be complying with the first officer's commands. That could lead to a suspect being shot though not posing a threat.

If you are going to stop a suspect and tell him not to move, give him the chance to stay motionless for at least a couple to few seconds as you assess the situation. It may be prudent to assure that you do not see any weapons within his reach over his head, in a hat band, or otherwise nearby before you tell him to put his hands up or on his head. You may also want to preface the second command, the one to put his hands on his head, with the word "now" so it is obvious that you have a new command starting at this moment. Also, why have all three suspects move at once. It usually is easier, at least for me, to watch one guy move while the other two remain motionless than to observe all three moving at once. Tell one of them to do it, then the next and then the next as the others remain motionless while the one is moving.

If you are in law enforcement in an armed encounter, or a homeowner protecting his family, paying attention to stuff like this may save your life, prevent you from shooting a bystander and may also help keep you out of jail for a wrongful shooting.

All the best,
Glenn B

The Sounds Of Silence...

...by Simon and Garfunkel (vocals mostly if not all by Garfunkel) has been one of my favorite songs for almost as long as I can remember. It was released in 1964, the year I turned 9, and that year is quite special to me. You may already know that if you have seen my signature line of years gone by: "When I look in the mirror, I am happy to see, some of the nine year old boy, who used to be me" but I will not now go into why 9 was such a personally significant year for me. Let me just assure you it was such and that song was part of it.

As for The Sounds Of Silence, by Simon and Garfunkel, the esoterically bittersweet lyrics accompanied by a truly somber yet heavenly melodic musical accompaniment has been deeply branded it into the memory of my soul. For many years, decades in fact, I thought there could be no match for it as sung by the duo who originally gave it to us, that is until this evening. It was not really the singing of it by a different vocalist with his deeply somber and heavily resonating voice that made it so very different than the original version but it had a newly acquired soul piercing quality about it because it was accompanied by a video while being sung by that hauntingly spiritual voice. This newer version, accompanied by the video, truly has made me shiver to the essence of my core. It is The Sound(s) of Silence - Blue Version. 

I guess that because I spent 32 years in law enforcement, this version with the video has reverberated through my being equally as much, if not more, as did the original when I was young and full of dreams and hopes and piss and vinegar during those times of never ending hopes for a better world. Funny, nothing in me has really changed sine then, I am still full of all four but I never imagined this song being directed at the listener the way this video frames when sung by the group Disturbed. I don't know if this group ever envisioned the song being paired with such a video; in fact I am almost 100% certain that Simon and Garfunkel never imagined it. Yet, here it is and it's about those who serve us right here at home, each and every day and whose lives are often at risk for us often without our ever even knowing or caring and with us taking them for granted as we do with all too many of the good things in our lives. 

The only other thing I can say about this is that this version has humbled me.
 

A hat tip to mein gut freund Richie M who sent this video to me.

All the best,
Glenn B

'Glenn Come Quick Someone Is In The Yard...

...there is a man in the yard sitting in the gazebo and drinking beer'. Well anyway, that is as close as I can remember as to what my wife excitedly and nervously told me about 20 or 30 or so minutes. I was about to go out to confront the guy and then had the prudent idea to ask my wife if our son was home. She said yes and I told her to go get him. When Brendan came to our side door, I had another wise thought, I told him to get his shotgun to back me up just in case.

While Brendan went back upstairs, my wife explained that she had gone out to close he gate and then saw this guy in our yard. She went over to him thinking it must be one of my son's friends and she saw it was an unknown drunk having a beer or whatever (can in a bag sort of a thing) in our gazebo in the back of our yard. I told her she was nuts to have gone out there and to standby in the kitchen ready to call 911 just in case. As I was waiting for Brendan and his Mossberg 500, Linda said 'the guy is leaving'. Brendan showed up just then and I told him to back me up but to stay inside the house with the firepower.

I went out, carrying concealed, and confronted the guy who was apparently quite drunk. It was the "I've been that drunk before" kind of a drunk, the kind that Wirecutter often posts about. The guy spoke little English so, I spoke mostly Spanish since he was obviously Hispanic. His only explanation as to why he was in my backyard was that he was very drunk and had been looking for the bus or train. He was not apologetic but was seemingly very willing to leave as far as I could make out. Maybe he saw my son or maybe an angry old man of a homeowner was enough, I do not know. I escorted him through our back gate. Yes, he had to open the gate to get back there and then left it wide open which is why my wife went out in the first place, she saw the gate open when she let one of the dogs out and yes Pepe, one of our Chihuahuas, started barking like crazy at the guy. Anyway, as the drunk departed he asked how to get to either a bus or train station. I told him and he headed that way more or less in a drunken sort of waltz down our street.

I should note that all the while he had his hands in plain view and he made no sudden moves, like going for his pockets or striking at me, that almost certainly would have at least had me pouncing on him or maybe even shooting him depending on the circumstances at the moment. When I first approached we wound up face to face, chest to chest, or in other words squared off to one another but I quickly turned to blade myself in a fighting stance to avoid a kick to the nuts or whatever and I backed off a bit. Besides that, I had competent backup just inside the doroway. Anyway, no violence was needed just some loud and authoritative talking to in order to get him to leave and hopefully never come back. I will admit, he had good taste, our gazebo may be small but it has some comfortable chairs in it. Makes me wonder if he has been here before. The only other thing I maybe should have done was checked his ID and then have my wife take a photo of it and of him.

After he was gone, I immediately called 911. I declined having an officer come to my house to fill out a report, it would be a waste of their time and mine since it would be unlikely to go anywhere. However, I figured the police ought to have his description, his apparent drunken condition and know he had been trespassing and scared the heck out of my wife. I wanted to assure - that if he wound up in another backyard in the neighborhood (or even back in ours) and fell down and got hurt or maybe got shot (more likely beaten up since this is anti-gun NY) by a homeowner - that the police would know he had already been trespassing somewhere else and scaring the shit of the lady of the house. Thus, should some other homeowner, renter, resident or whoever actually had to take some sort of action against the guy, they would have a little more credibility as to why whatever they might have done to the guy whatever got done. You know, anything legal to help a neighbor defend himself and his loved ones as the suspect lay in a hospital bed recuperating or on a morgue slab cooling.

All the best,
Glenn B

Yet Another Lie About Herself Being a Do-Gooder?

Hillary evidently included a bit in her speech about how she aided a wheelchair bong girl get to school because schools in New Bedford, MA were not accessible to the handicapped back in 1973. It evidently turns out that no schools being handicapped accessible was just about as pure a pile of bullshit as bullshit could be pure. More here.

All the best,
Glenn B

I Wonder If This Guy Was Considered As Sane As John Hinckley...

...when they released him from the hospital where he reportedly had been for most of the last month because he was suicidal? He was so much better upon his release from the hospital that he went to a local Costco, took a knife from the shelves, then started to threaten people - all within hours of his release. One man was the wrong guy to threaten, an off duty corrections officer. The officer was confronted by the knife wielding man who continuously advanced on the officer until the officer finally shot him (source). 

Luckily, for the officer, the man was apparently truly suicidal and evidently looking to be taken down by someone in uniform as in suicide by cop. Otherwise, had the man been intent on harming someone else, the officer would have been likely to have been either seriously injured or killed considering how close he let the man approach him with the knife. While on one hand I can admire the officer's restraint before shooting, I have to wonder was it restraint or anxiety prompted hesitation possibly caused by a thought that maybe he would be prosecuted if he shot him regardless of the guy threatening his life. Then again, maybe it was just not wanting to hurt another person but it could have gotten the officer killed. Anyway, the officer was totally justified in shooting him as I see it.

Hat tip to Ken L. on whose blog I first saw this.

All the best,
Glenn B

If Hillary Clinton Wins The Presidency, I Predict...

...a separation for them - a terminal one. The them is, of course, she and Bill. I am almost willing to bet my last dollar that if Hillary is elected, Bill will either commit suicide or come down with an ailment that suddenly kills him or that he will have a terrible and fatal accident out of the blue or will otherwise cease to exist under similar spur of the moment circumstances. It seems to be a Clinton sort of thing that happens to people around them when those people are no longer needed by the Clintons. Think about it. I mean, if she is elected - what will she need Bill Clinton for ever again!

All the best,
Glenn B

Office Furniture Could Mean A Lot To A President...

...named Hillary. Think of it this way:

 

All the best,
Glenn B

Sick of Political Parties? Try This One!

A hat tip to Michael P for that one.

All the best,
GB

Watch Out For Those Sugar Highs...

...they can be dangerous for reasons you ay never have suspected. A man in Florida was arrested after police found what they said was crystal meth on the floor of his vehicle. He swore it was something else and was eventually released with all charges dropped. More here.

All the best,
Glenn  B

John Hinckley Jr. - One Has To Wonder...

...or at least should wonder, just how much if anything Hinckley was exposed to about Donald Trump by his doctors and other care givers (at least the leftists among them) in the hopes that once he got out he would again take up his role as Taxi Driver. The timing of his release, with the elections forthcoming, are probably just coincidental - right!

Note too that since his doctors reportedly have all sworn he is no longer any sort of a threat and thus is virtually cured if not completely so, my bet would be that he can have any restrictions on him buying firearms terminated. Wow, think about that one!

All the best,
Glenn B

Yeah, What It Says!

 

All the best,

GB

Keep The Door Open...

...or make sure the folks you work with can keep their mouths shut.

All the best,
Glenn B

I Puttered Around Today With This And That...

...in the garden and with the upgrade to Windows 10 and may even start painting the basement walls this evening after dinner. For the most part though, I have not don much. It's just too darned hot outside to do the weed pulling that needs to be done. I may wait until around 9 or 10 PM tonight for that. I won't use Roundup though; I used that crap last year and was very careful to avoid getting it on my Japanese Maple Tree but the tree had several branches die off right after that regardless of my having been careful. I think the runoff with the chemicals in it got to the tree roots. It's doing okay now but is nowhere nearly as nice as it had been before that.

Anyway, here is the sentiment for the day at 95 degrees and about 30% humididity:

 

Stay cool and un-sober for the weekend (as long as not driving, shooting or doing other things during which it would be foolish o drink).

 

All the best,

Glenn B