A retired Israeli soldier by the name of Cherev Gidon offers a unique set of classes for people who have no training with firearms. The only reason I am familiar with this individual is through Facebook. He offers a number of courses for those who have had zero firearms training, and gives the student a chance to fire a number of different firearms. He also offers advanced courses in firearms training, as well as tactical training focusing on a single weapon type, such as the AK or AR. He offers classes all over the eastern United States.
I mention this individual because several Rantburg.com regulars are from the east coast and/or live in areas/states with draconian firearms laws. I was impressed with his offerings for those with no familiarity with firearms, who may count themselves among those who are the most likely victims of crime or a frisky political opposition.
To that end, I think that offering to install laser sights and flashlights onto ARs and AKs, as well as providing training is a good way to help the elderly to train with firearms.
For the do-it-yourselfer there is what is claimed to be a printed semiautomatic firearm that actually works. The printed part is the barrel shroud and an AR style receiver. According to what little I have read, the gun only lasted a few shots before heat from the barrel begins to damage the shroud.
The actual inner workings are steel, so the basic design appears to be sound as far as the receiver is concerned.
From Missouri comes a story of a man who shot his private member off while taking a selfie. About 20 years ago during the Jay Leno Tonight Show monologue I heard the story of a man whose firearms went off in his pants. The joke at the time was, "I don't know which is worse: A firearm going off in your pants, or a firearm going off in your pants which doesn't hit anything."
As far as our own paid media influencing gun control, we are so screwed.
Loads.
Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition:
Prices for pistol ammunition and for rifle ammunition were mostly unchanged.
Prices for used pistols and for used rifles were mixed.
New Lows:
None
Pistol Ammunition
.45 Caliber, 230 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Cased, .24 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Mass Ammo, Sasquatch, FMJ, Reloads, .22 per round (From Last week: -.02 Each After Unchanged (2 Weeks))
.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Goose Island Sales, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .22 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Ammo Marketplace, Leadhead brand, Brass, Reloads, .20 per round (From Last Week: -.02 Each After Unchanged (1Q, 2016))
9mm Parabellum, 115 Grain, From Last Week: -.01 Each After Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Glen's Army Navy Store, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .16 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: J&G Sales, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .16 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks))
.357 Magnum, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (4 weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Goose Island Sales, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .25 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 1,000 rounds: SG Ammo, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel cased, .25 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (4Q, 2015))
Rifle Ammunition
.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Goose Island Sales, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .21 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Tulammo, FMJ, steel casing, .22 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks))
.308 NATO 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Goose Island Sales, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .34 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Tulammo, steel casing, FMJ, .34 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks))
7.62x39 AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Munire USA, Wolf Polyformance, steel case, FMJ, .23 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: SG Ammo, Wolf WPA, steel case, FMJ, .23 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (5 weeks))
.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammomen, Aguila, RNL .08 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds (2 Cases Max): Ammunition Supply Company, Federal Automatch, RNL, .06 per round (From Last Week: -.01 Each After Unchanged (5 Weeks))
Saw a show, think it was Best Defense or it was something like it, which demonstrated that if you are going to carry, one thing to consider is if there were a negligent discharge while holstering, where does the bullet go? Host said something like, "If you do carry front waistband as I prefer to, be certain of the safety of your firearm. A negligent discharge may shoot something off, or if you can imagine even worse, hit your Femoral Artery."
badanov, the article the other day referencing an article by fancy boy "Old people should not defend themselves and just die already." had a commenter state that a large percentage of recent firearm training students were, what the commenter referred to as, elderly. Have you come across anything which confirms or backs up that claim?
With talk of nuclear proliferation heating up within the Republican presidential primary, Former UN Ambassador and AEI scholar John Bolton made his position very clear to Breitbart News Daily host Stephen K. Bannon: "In terms of letting other countries get nuclear weapons, I have a very clear view and that is, I don't want to see anybody else get nuclear weapons, whether they’re friends of ours, or not."
As for nuclear weapons, their deployment and command and control, Bolton also expressed strong feelings, saying, "The reason people are even talking about countries like South Korea or Japan getting nuclear weapons is because they think under Obama, our nuclear umbrella is disappearing and that, if we’re not going to provide that deterrent capability, they need to provide it for themselves. The strongest argument against other countries getting weapons is, we're going to take care of that. Underneath that umbrella, countries like Japan and South Korea do have an obligation, I think, to do more than they're doing now. Obama doesn't push them, or encourage them to do that because he doesn't care about our national security, or that of our allies, either."
#1
That ship has sailed. The only one interested in your defense is yourself. Relying upon some foreign entity that vacillates, dithers, and plays stupid games with Leftist of the Month autocrats, is just plain suicidal. Reliability is sorta of like virginity. You can only lose it once in a lifetime.
[DAWN] Words ought to fail us. But we can't afford the luxury of that failure anymore than we can afford the luxury of all the other potential failures staring us in the face as this phase of the 21st century performs a fractured, farcical, obscene repeat of the third decade of the twentieth.
People point out that more Muslims died than Christians. Is this consolation or schadenfreude? In any case, what do we with that fact? To what end does one point this out if one is a Muslim? Are we addressing the jihadis?
Bombs. Suicide attacks. Drones. Bodies of Baloch youth turning up tortured and destroyed on roadsides. Death is the norm as alliances implode. America, Pakistain and Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... bicker like graceless divorcees who don't know how to move on.
You might call the jihadis children of this marriage, but in this custody battle, everyone fights to give away the children who, in turn, are determined to eat their parents.
Vitriol against Muslims and Mexicans sweeps America, internment camps, repatriation, walls, bans on travel.
Amidst declining oil prices and more disasters to come, the Saudis crush dissidence and abduct their own princes in luxury airplanes: rendition for the oil rich.
Pakistain reaps the brutal, devastating benefits of years of state policy, grandly bankrolled by the US and Saudi Arabia.
And no. Not just the cultivation of the jihadis in the service of delusions of regional grandeur and "strategic depth," all other kinds managing to elude our "leaders."
I write of the quieter, cumulative bigotries we have nourished, through indifference, silence and outright cultivation.
Non-existent schools (although they do exist on paper), deliberate and systematic attempts at de-vernacularising progressive thought, a state intent on being in a permanent counter-insurgency relation with all its citizens (although, of course, the Baloch are especially loved in this regard).
A state refusing to address the condition of minorities from its very inception.
J.N. Mandal saw the signs and left. Minorities howled about the anti-minoritarian tendencies already manifest at the earliest constituent assemblies, only of course to be ignored.
The Munir report released and well...ignored. Constitutional amendments against Ahmadis under "secular" leadership that enshrined discrimination, formalising the bigotry of events like the attack on Rabwah put into place. Shias assassinated in Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... in the eighties.
Christians rigorously persecuted at the same time. Bishop John Joseph did away with himself to protest the persecution of Christians -- did we notice?
The bigoted application of the "blasphemy" law, the attempted indigenisation of Chapter 15 of the Indian (subsequently Pakistain) Penal Code of 1860/62 normalised.
People talk about extremism taking over. But let's be clear: extreme is a relative term, a measure of degree.
"Extreme" -- so not the centre, or ordinary, or usual. What does it mean to talk about extremism when brutality has become the norm?
If bombs aimed at Christians are Death Eater, is the circulation of terms like chura and achut ordinary, usual, "moderate"?
We miss being a part of India so much we decided to hang on to the idiom of caste bigotry just to feel at home.
And now Lahore was attacked and there seems surprise. One should ask: Why?
What tacit understanding led us to believe it could be protected as each other part of the country and every segment of its population slowly burned. Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... burned in the eighties and nineties but Lahore was safe. Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... burned but Lahore was safe.
And, and, and...was it really? Should we be pleased that we can still be surprised or horrified that this is the surprise we can muster?
The viciousness is aimed at Christians this time.
People point out that more Muslims died than Christians. Is this consolation or schadenfreude? In any case, what do we with that fact? To what end does one point this out if one is a Muslim? Are we addressing the jihadis?
As in: you killed the wrong people. Is that an implicit acknowledgement that killing the right people is well...right? I don't think that's what people mean when they point out the attack killed more Muslims than Christians. It does, however, seem a symptom of a profound moral aphasia.
Out of which side of our mouth do we speak when we do point it out? What does it mean that this was an attack on Christians at Easter and the Muslims were just collateral damage?
Let's try to be precise in our grief and rage and list some names: Bishop John Joseph, Shantinagar, Manzoor Masih, Ayub Masih, Gojra, Rimsha Masih, Aasia Bibi, the twin church blasts in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. , Shahbaz Bhatti and...memorise this list. Expand it. Write an unconsoling history.
Now add the names of the dead of Lahore. All of them. And mourn, all of us, together.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2016 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] URDU is a marvellous language for vaulting flights of fancy. So when Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... promised an accounting for every drop of innocent blood spilled by jihadi terrorists, we almost believed him.
Almost, but not quite. Rewind to a couple of years ago, before the massacre of schoolchildren at the Army Public School in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. , and we see a Nawaz Sharif in full foot-dragging mode. Restraining a military that was champing at the bit, he dragged out a doomed negotiation process that went nowhere. Its only function was to give the Taliban time to regroup.
And in his recent speech following the Lahore bloodbath, our prime minister seemed more sad than angry. In fact, he came across as a headmaster disappointed by a promising student. At times, he appeared to be delivering a lecture on Islamiat rather than issuing a rousing call to arms.
Not a word about the army action that was in full swing in Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... even as he spoke to the nation. Indeed, there was nothing specific about what precisely his government was going to do in response to the atrocity. In short, he delivered the kind of vague, woolly speech he has been giving for much of his political career.
Actually, we could have done with a progress report on the National Action Plan to combat terrorism hammered out with a wide consensus after the December 2014 terror attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar. This plan called for the government to undertake a number of measures ranging from madressah reforms to cleansing our curricula of all their Lion of Islam content.
Needless to say, little action has been taken on most of the agreed items. The only institution that has made significant progress has been the military, although at the cost of many lives. And it has been Nawaz Sharif who, together with his brother Shahbaz, has blocked robust action against the Punjabi Taliban holed out in southern Punjab.
The reason for this reluctance is obvious: thus far, a policy of live and let live has governed the provincial and central governments’ attitude towards the Punjabi Taliban. But if you keep vipers as pets in your garden, don’t be surprised when they bite you.
Even after the Lahore carnage, Rana Sanaullah, a senior figure in the Punjab government, declared that there were no Taliban hideouts in his province. This flies in the face of intelligence reports and investigative stories filed by journalists. We remember all too well the sight of Sanaullah accompanying an Lion of Islam candidate on his election campaign a few years ago.
The point here is that until we can clearly identify the enemy, and go after him, his sense of immunity will only embolden him further. And as so many people have been saying here and in other media outlets, we need to drain the swamp of its poison if we are to destroy the nasty creatures infesting its depths.
This means a root-and-branch change in school and college curricula, and a clampdown on hate speech in mosques and TV chat shows. The financing of madressahs and so-called Islamic charities needs to be scrutinised, and the hate-filled ideology taught in most of our seminaries has to be removed.
This is a pretty tall order. Even Musharraf at the height of his considerable power flinched from taking on our holy mans and our religious parties. But as Ayaz Amir reminded us in a recent column in The News, Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... showed more spine than her male successors when she authorised Gen Babar to crack down on the MQM terror machine in the mid-1990s.
This was when dozens of tortured bodies were found in sacks, and the increasingly roundedAltaf Hussain ..The head of MQM in Pakistain, who has lived in London and hasn't laid eyes on Pakistain since Caesar made corporal. Judging from the size of him,he may be a Hutt... ’s hit-men held the city in an iron grip. Those of us who lived in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... then recall those dark days with a shudder. The operation took a lot of political will, especially when the military establishment was hostile towards the PPP government at the time.
This only shows that what is lacking in Nawaz Sharif’s approach is conviction. He genuinely believes that the Taliban will leave Punjab alone provided they are allowed to carry out their activities without interference. But as we have seen in the Islamabad and Karachi dharnas, give our holy mans and their followers an inch and they’ll take a mile.
In both pro-Qadri protests, these faceless myrmidons sought to provoke the authorities into violent reaction, thereby causing casualties that would further inflame the mobs. But by adopting this softly-softly approach, the federal, Sindh and Punjab governments have signalled a weakness that will be exploited in the future.
This style of sit-in politics was pioneered by Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer... and Tahirul Qadri ...Pak politician, and would-be dictator, founder and head of Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran and Pakistain Awami Tehrik. He usually resides in Canada, but returns to Pakistain periodically to foam at the mouth and lead demonstrations. Depending on which way the wind's blowing, Qadri claims to be the author of Pak's blasphemy law. Other times he says it wasn't him... when they dragged out their protests before parliament for weeks. Despite the destruction of public property, the government showed great restraint, setting the stage for the recent round of dharnas.
Perhaps Nawaz Sharif should just abdicate the fight against terror to the army chief.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
