Other Means

So according to Lefties, if we ban public gun ownership, all that icky violence stuff will just vanish. Or not:

Britain’s knife crime epidemic has spread to the Home Counties as stabbings are now more likely in Bedfordshire than in Merseyside.
Hertfordshire, Hampshire, Warwickshire, Norfolk and north Wales’ rates of knife crime have all increased by more than 100 per cent in the past three years, while London’s rate only increased by 20 per cent.
The epidemic is being fuelled by city gangs expanding their territory and going into rural areas, forcing out local gangs with extreme violence, according to experts.

— probably the same “experts” who supported gun bans, and are now scratching their heads.

Of course, this would be the time to relax firearm ownership laws as well as the stupid laws which all but prohibit self-defense for ordinary Brits, but I won’t hold my breath because Lefties can’t handle the truth. [/Colonel Jessup]  They think that all they have to do is pass a law with good intentions, and the problem will be solved.

They all deserve to be stabbed, as well.

Cash, No Checks (Or Cards)

So now the banks are trying to pee in the soup as well:

Banks and credit card companies held informal discussions about identifying transactions involving firearms.
Although the discussions resulted in nothing tangible — and ideas may never come to fruition — ideas tossed would help companies monitor gun purchases, which includes information on buyers, from retailers.
Financial companies explored the concept of creating a new credit-card code for firearm dealers, similar to similar to how restaurants or department stores identify their transactions, the newspaper reported. Another idea would require retailers to share info about specific firearm products purchases.

Simple solution (which I’m going to implement for myself with immediate effect): pay cash for all gun purchases from now on. This does two things: it stops the possibility of these tools learning about your gun purchases, and it helps the FFL because he doesn’t have to pay the banks the card transaction fee.

I know the problems associated with this: guns are expensive, it takes time to save up the moolah, etc. It’s a small price [sic] to pay.

Here’s what I’m saving up for at the moment, a S&W Mod 66 in .357 Mag with a 4″ barrel:

Actually, instead of the Model 66 I’d really rather get a Model 65, like my old one:

…but of course, S&W in their infinite wisdom [stop laughing]  has decided not to restart production of the 65 as they did with the 66.

So while I’m saving for the 66, I’ll also be on the lookout for a decent secondhand 65 — which purchase would never be traceable, whether by the Gummint or the bastard moneylenders. It’s called a win-win situation.

When’s the next DFW-area gun show?

Let’s Hear It For Violence

I was recently triggered by an article (linked by Insty) which contained this little gem:

Here’s the actual bullshit, in its entirety:

“We stand in solidarity with the Red Guards and principally Maoist collectives who are working towards the creation of the Maoist Party. We stand in solidarity with Maoist parties across the world who are committed to building socialism and fighting revisionism through People’s War!
“What needs to be done is the concentric construction of the three weapons of revolution: the Maoist Party, the Maoist People’s Army, and the Maoist United Front. What needs to be done is to militarize the masses and all the pre-Party Maoist formations!
“We must prepare today, yesterday and tomorrow for the prolong confrontation, the protracted war, against the capitalist state. We must carry out military actions against the enemies of the people!”

Ummm when I said I was “triggered”, that doesn’t mean I was offended or whatever the snowflakes normally mean. What happened is that I burst into great shouts of laughter which frightened the neighbor’s cat off the fence.

Listen, you little Maoist pricks: do you know that the “masses”, as you call them (about a hundred million people), are already pretty militarized? More to the point is that when you start carrying out “military actions against the enemies of the people”, tens of millions of your “enemies” will probably shout in a single voice: “The day has come, hallelujah! It’s Zombie Killin’ Time!” whereupon you sorry little bunch of insects are going to see exactly what “violence” means.

Do you actually have any idea what kind of whirlwind you pathetic Commies are going to reap? Do you have any idea how many goobers (like me) have been just waiting to settle that old argument once and for all? (The old argument being: “which would be more effective in killing Commies: the AR-15 or AK-47?”)

The problem is that you Communist tools are still stuck in the past, when the peasants were unarmed and only a few of the “vanguard” were necessary to terrorize the population (with the help of the army). Now, however, after over 100 million deaths caused by Communism, we know exactly who the enemies of the People really are: they’re the Communists, and the army is on the side not of you Commies, but on the side of your supposed “enemies” — the capitalists. If you don’t believe that, you have a rude awakening coming on the Glorious Day. (It’s gonna be glorious, all right — just not in the way you think.)

So good luck with that, assholes. Me, I’m off to the range. My sniper rifle isn’t going to zero itself, nor will my AK be able to dump a full mag into the sweet spot of a (human-shaped) paper target without the shooter (that would be me) being completely “regulated” in its use. (You may want to look up the actual meaning of the word “regulated” in its original placement in the Second Amendment, by the way.)

Don’t get me started on my 1911, which has been looking at me piteously for two whole weeks, begging for an outing.

Hmmm… maybe I was “triggered” after all; certainly my trigger finger started to itch uncontrollably as I read their little manifesto.

Maoist collectives? Pathetic twerps, more like.

Big Picture

I’m always amazed that people can sometimes get hoodwinked by statistics, but then I spent probably half my life working with the damn things, so I’m more or less immune to the problem. Here’s one which could affect me personally:

More than 120 Uber and Lyft drivers have reportedly sexually assaulted their passengers, according to a report by CNN.
After analyzing police reports, federal court records and county court databases across the US, the cable news channel found that over the last four years, at least 103 Uber drivers and 18 Lyft drivers have allegedly raped, forcibly touched or kidnapped passengers, among other crimes.

Whoever wrote this scare story needs to get a kick in the ass. Here’s the first part: the appearance up front of the total number — which is alarming, I’ll admit.

I’ll ignore the Lyft number for the moment, because I’m an Uber driver.

Granted, the hundred-odd incidences (rounding down to a manageable number) involving Uber drivers is too high — hell, one is too many — but we’re dealing with human beings here, and any human activity is prone to abuse.

At least the number of years was disclosed — four — which averages about 25 per annum. Still too many, but not as scary as the magic 100. But the killer statistic is really the one which CNN buries much later in the “report”, which is, 100 out of how many total Uber trips or events over four years did these attacks take place.

That number is, according to Uber, is 2.4 billion. In other words, the chances of anyone getting molested by an Uber driver are 1 in 24 million.

Even allowing (let’s say) that only unaccompanied women are going to get molested, and they account for about half of all Uber trips — which is roughly my experience — that’s still only 1 in 12 million.

Now factor in geography — i.e. places where the Uber driver population is skewed towards men most likely to commit these crimes — and the stats, just looking at the last names of people who are accused of such crimes, tend to support the hypothesis that these criminals fall into the Middle-Eastern and African  demographic, and many, especially in large urban metropolises, are fairly-recent immigrants — and the picture becomes especially clear.

What’s disturbing about all this is that Uber does screen potential drivers before enlisting them, which begs the question as to whether their screening process — or at least the proficiency of the company that Uber uses to do the screening — should not be more comprehensive or thorough. And you can be sure that Uber will do just that — because they too say that even one such incidence is too many.

Still, ladies: it looks like you’re safer taking an Uber trip* than walking (or even driving) to your destination, especially in a strange locale.

That’s the conclusion to be taken from the CNN report, even if that’s not necessarily the one that CNN wanted you to.


*You’re even safer, of course, if you have me as your Uber driver — unless of course I forgot to take my “special” pill that morning… [exit, drooling]

Enough Already

As much as I am in awe of Kim Rhode’s prowess with a shotgun and her Olympic / World Championship achievements, I’m starting to think that she’s an idiot.

California thought they were onto something. Since they can’t seem to control guns, even though they really keep trying to, they decided to control bullets instead. After all, what could go wrong with that.
Well, now the state is staring down the barrel of a lawsuit. It seems that six-time Olympic medalist Kim Rhode takes a bit of exception to the new rules.

So she’s filed a lawsuit against the state, arguing that they’re interfering with her livelihood because under their new law, nobody can ship ammunition into California from another state or something like that. (I mostly ignore what California does because they’re batshit crazy and I don’t want any of that crazy to rub off on me.)

Kim (if I can call you that), please. The state of California doesn’t give a rat’s ass about your livelihood. In fact, they hate you and all the other sport shooters in the California because you show that law-abiding gun owners can be trusted and your shooting is a positive thing — and they can’t have that because they’re selling a narrative that all gun owners are eeevil killers and a powder keg waiting to explode and go insane, murdering a whole bunch of Innocent People.

So please, please leave the stupid place and go to Arizona or Texas or somewhere that will appreciate you and your skills and not try to screw you over anyhow they can. You’ve stood up for your principles, and that’s a good thing. But enough is enough; leave them to their own devices and let them sink into the pit of their own construction. All that’s going to happen is that if you win your lawsuit, California will find some other way to mess with gun owners, and another lawsuit will not help there either.

By the way, the above applies to all my other gun-loving Readers stuck in the Golden Shower State. I appreciate your stubbornness and all that good stuff, but really, it’s time to GTF out of there.