Dept. Of Righteous Shootings

Executive Summary:  Choirboy tries to break into Old Fart’s house;  Old Fart shoots choirboy dead;  choirboy’s family is upset.

“He could have used a warning,” Lakesha Thompson, Pipkins’ sister-in-law, said. “He could have let him know that he did have a gun on his property and he would use it in self-defense.”

And your brother-in-law could have chosen a life that didn’t include a lengthy criminal record and incarceration.  Sorry, sister:  a life of crime in north Texas will always carry the risk of sudden death.  Tell your friends, pass it around.

For the rest of us law-abiding folks, it’s one less asshole to have to worry about, therefore:

Asking The Other Side

Over at Instapundit, Gail Heriot has posted a decent summary of the England-Scotland alliance.  But then there’s this:

In 1979, an effort to establish (or re-establish) a separate Scottish legislature via referendum failed. It did so, however, only because the Act authorizing the referendum required that at least 40% of the entire Scottish electorate vote in favor. While the referendum got more yes than no votes, turnout was poor. In 1997, another such referendum was held. This time it passed, a Scottish Parliament was established, and the process of “devolution” was begun.
In 2014, when an independence referendum was held, it came a lot closer to passing than union supporters would have preferred. Ultimately, Scottish voters went 55.3% to 44.7% in favor of sticking it out with England.

What interests me, and many others, is the fact that only the Scots  voted on whether to leave or stay in the Union, which begs the question:  why did not all  interested parties — including the English and Welsh — vote on separation?

Had the population living south of the River Tweed voted, you bet there’s have been considerable support behind a “Toss the Jocks” movement — Mr Free Market and The Englishman claim that at least two-thirds of English voters would support expelling the porridge-monkeys in a heartbeat, had they been allowed to do so.

Such ravings should be taken with a grain of salt — especially when expressions like “Can we then finish what we started at Culloden?” and “Rebuild Hadrian’s Wall” are thrown into the mix.  Nevertheless, we Murkins should not underestimate the depth of enmity that still exists between the Picts and the Angles even after all this time.  It’s most openly expressed by the Scots, such as when supporting anyone playing England in sporting competitions, but the anti-Jock sentiments in England, while less overt, still run pretty deep.

We can talk about the Welsh and Irish situations on another occasion;  but in the meantime, think of the situation as a (very) civilized Balkans, and you’ll get the idea.

Oh, Really?

A couple days ago, I made this statement:

Peter’s thoughts about maintaining your battle rifle are also why I prefer the AK-47 over the AR-15:  throw an AK in the mud, drop it off the back of a truck, and it’ll still shoot.  Good luck doing that with your AR-15, with all its electronic doodads and plastic furniture.

…prompting this response from Reader Amos:

“I have no real world experience, but Karl’s and Ian’s mud tests at InRangeTV dispute that AR/AK assessment.”

Purely coincidentally, a few days before that Longtime Friend & Reader JohnC had sent me this pic:

Frankly, I don’t believe the pic, myself — but even if an exaggeration, it’s probably not too far from the truth [/Dan Rather].  I’ve seen AKs in absolutely shocking condition that were still perfectly operable, and I bet that many Vietnam- and Sandbox vets would probably back me up.  Feel free to disagree with my original statement, however.

Homework

From Reader Martin M:

On your recent subject of rifle work during free time, here’s mine.  A Savage .22/.410, it was my dad’s Christmas present in 1940.  He decorated the stock with rivets while working on a fire lookout in high school.  The stock got old and oil-soaked, so I replaced it.  I had to fit and finish the stock from a blank.  This is how it came out:

Oh, that’s lovely.  And from scratch?  Even better.

I love those old Savage .22 single-shot rifles, and the .22/.410 combo even more so.  As a knockaround gun for a kid to play with while out in the fields and woods, it’s incomparable.

Sidebar

More than a few of you have asked me to put my Biltong Prep post onto the permanent sidebar, so I have.

Just FYI:  I changed the spice measures ever so slightly, and also (based on the last batch I made) substituted red wine vinegar for malt.  Yum.  New Wife and I have actually had to measure out the sliced biltong into daily-ration portions, because we have absolutely no brake pedal on this addiction.

It should be called beefcrack and not biltong, except that sounds vaguely suggestive.