Month: September 2023

Gunfights

Africa, Crime, Good Stuff, The Gun Thing

I remember listening to some comedy record or other a long time ago, which featured a radio interview (à la Bob Newhart) of a captured Confederate soldier just before Antietam.  When asked his opinion about Union soldiers being armed with the new Winchester repeating rifles, the Reb thought for a moment, and said laconically, in a deep Southron accent:  “Yeah?  Well that’s all well and good for you Yankees… but we know how to aim, boy.”)

I was reminded of that exchange when I read this report (sent to me by several Readers, thankee) concerning this little incident in Seffrica:

Heavily armed attacks on armored cars are so common in South Africa they are known as Cash-in-Transit heists (CIT).

“15 robbers armed with automatic rifles carried out a CIT heist in Hoedspruit, killing the Fidelity driver,“ reports YouTuber Willem Petzer.

According to police spokesman Colonel Matimba Maluleke, the suspects shot at the escort vehicle before disarming the guards (a driver and crew) of their official rifle and pistol. “Unfortunately the two guards were shot at and sustained injuries that resulted in the death of the driver. The suspects then pursued the armoured vehicle while shooting at it until it stopped. The driver of the armoured vehicle and his crew were allegedly ordered to disembark the vehicle, disarmed of two firearms and chased into the nearby bushes. The suspects used explosives to blast the vehicle and made off with an undisclosed amount of money,” Maluleke said.

All was seemingly going according to plan for our Robbin’ Hoods;  however, things went downhill for our choirboys soon thereafter:

“A community crime watch group, Hoedspruit Farmwatch, was alerted to the incident and went in pursuit of the robbers, putting obstacles on the road to prevent their escape. A shootout ensued,” Petzer writes. 

“The volunteers blocked the roads outside of Hoedspruit with boulders after they were alerted of the attack. A skirmish, lasting about 20 minutes, ensued at one of the blockades between the robbers [armed with AK-47s] and the farmers, who were armed with pistols. The farmers managed to kill 4 of the robbers and wound 3. No farmer was hurt. The other suspects fled into nearby bushes after the shootout on foot.”

Apparently, untrained criminals spraying bullets from their rifles are not a match for trained shooters with handguns.  But it gets better:

“The Hoedspruit farmwatch tracked them down using their dogs and arrested the rest of them, recovering all the money from the heist.”

One of the arrested suspects is a highly wanted Mozambican suspect who has been on the run for some time for a spate of crimes he committed in the Free State in 2022 including the murder of a police officer. The injured suspects were found in possession of suspected stolen money, a rifle and a pistol.

For background on the whole “neighborhood watch” thing, read the full report.

So to summarize:

Asshole criminals with AK-47s:  1
Trained Afrikaners with pistols:  4, plus 3 wounded and the rest captured.

I don’t know the full details, but the farmer’s dogs were likely a mixture of Boerboels and Ridgebacks.

Yeah, I’d pretty much give up, too.

We may now begin the

Pah

The Gun Thing

Saith some guy in a magazine:

Fudd [\’f∂d\] (noun): A term that was originally a derogatory word for gun owners who hunted but were dismissive of modern semi-auto “tactical” type firearms. It has evolved to refer to a shooter who is mired in the past and scornful of any technological innovation that occurred much after they learned how to shoot.

When confronted with any development newer than that, they retreat behind a stream of cliches such as “I don’t want my life to depend on batteries” or “It’ll give away your position,” like a squid behind a cloud of ink.

Hey, at least I’m not as bad as a couple of my Olde Tyme Readers, for whom this brass cartridge business is just a passing fad.

And I’m not mired in the past — although if given a choice between then and now, then gets it by a day’s march.  Hell, it only took me a few years to get used to using a scope (forced into the things, it should be said, by deteriorating eyesight), and it was only a question of time before I came round to that semi-auto business (in a rifle, that is).

The reason that I’m taking a while to get used to batteries in my scope is that if long experience has taught me anything, it’s that anything that can go wrong will, and at a time and circumstance which will always have dire consequences as a result thereof.  (For those interested in such things, I never tolerated batteries in my guitars, forget that shit.)

Not being a cop or soldier, and therefore unlikely to need to “clear” a house of bad people, I couldn’t care less about affixing a trillion-candlepower flashlight to my handgun or rifle.  I have such beasts scattered around me, but they’re purely for the purpose of blinding anyone I want to do that to, and then mostly to buy me time to draw my gun.

I do rather like these little red-dot laser thingies for revolvers, though:

…and at some point I’ll bother investigating the gadget for my bedside gun and my 1911.  Or not.

My needs are quite simple, gun-wise.  Crappy eyesight almost mandates that if I want to actually hit anything, I must use a red-dot sight (if not a laser), so at some point (again) I may pop one on my plinking guns:

(not that I actually own one of these cute little Buckmarks, but when I do get one, it’ll be thus accessorized).  Ditto on the 1911:

…although breaking up the classic John Moses Browning design with that carbuncle just gives me the shivers, it does.  Not to mention that I’ll need to get a couple replacement holsters that will accommodate such horrors.

In fact… (from Kenny)

…fukkit, I’ll just stick to what I’ve got.  #Fudd

“Change Of Orders”

Government Thugs, Homeschooling, Rights

Here’s a “connect the dots” moment.  I’ve mentioned this sad case before.  First, courtesy of Annie Holmquist, some background:

Would you be willing to risk arrest by the government in order to choose the best education for your child?

That’s the situation the Romeike family faced a number of years ago when they lived in Bissingen, Germany. They chose to homeschool their young grade school age children even though homeschooling was illegal in Germany. The reason? Their children were bullied and scared about the violence they were facing in their local state school.

That choice resulted in a visit from police, and soon three of their children, ages six to nine, were hauled off in a police vehicle and forced to attend the official state school. Recounting the 2006 incident, father Uwe Romeike told one media outlet that he “felt very helpless,” going on to note, “My children were crying, the police were shouting.”

Faced with hefty fines, the Romeikes fled Germany for America in 2008, seeking asylum. Settling in Tennessee, the family continued homeschooling while they fought for protection from their German persecutors. In 2014, the Department of Homeland Security allowed the family to stay in the U.S. “under order of supervision and indefinite deferred action status,” according to the Homeschool Legal Defense Association.

The family—which has now grown to include two more children and two in-laws since the trauma in Germany—has continued to dwell in the U.S. for over a decade, living peacefully and homeschooling their children.

Until now. 

Let the Government bastardy begin.

On Sept. 6, 2023, the Romeikes went in for their annual immigration visit and were shocked when they were told they had four weeks to get their passports in order and self-deport to Germany. “The family had no prior warning, and was offered no explanation, other than that there had been a ‘change of orders,’” a Home School Legal Defense Association media posting explained.

What could possibly have caused this “change in orders”?  Let us now connect the dots, with this little statement from the Biden Cabinet Secretary of Education:

“I don’t have too much respect for people that are misbehaving in public and acting like they know what’s right for kids.”

Seriously?

Here’s the thing.  Tennessee is a homeschool-friendly state — i.e. the state government has no problem with people homeschooling their kids.  But:  immigration is a federal issue.  So if the Dept. of Education drops a little whisper in the ear of INS, the federal government can step in and fuck with people like the hapless Romeike family, essentially making Tennessee’s jurisdiction meaningless.

There is, of course, another interesting aspect to all this.  Since arriving in the U.S., the Romeikes have had two more children — and according to U.S. law, the two kids are U.S. citizens (yeah, they’re “anchor babies”).  So can the federal government deport U.S. citizens when in fact neither they nor any of their family have broken any American laws?

I hope the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSDLA) climbs into this with might and main — because this is precisely the kind of matter that is in their remit.

Read all of Annie’s article, because The Naked Communist  is clearly fast becoming part of official U.S. government policy.

In the meantime, let us think about the proper treatment for an unelected gauleiter government official who thinks that parents don’t know what’s best for their kids, but the government does.

Just to make my own position clear on this issue:  if I were being put in a similar position when homeschooling my own kids, I’d be making that difficult decision about calling in the HSDLA, or just going to the guns.  My kids belong to me, not to the State, no matter what the State thinks.

Oh, and Annie:  welcome back to Intellectual Takeout.  You have been sorely missed.