Last week the ATF issued a new rule which reclassified smokeless powder as a high explosive, which would subject its manufacture and sale to much tougher rules, resulting in higher prices. The linked article says that were the new rule to be imposed, it would be without warning, effectively killing the ammunition supply for both civilian and military customers. It appears on the face that the cost of manufacture and sale for foreign suppliers such as Russian, Privi Partizan and Fiocci would stay the same, but their cost of transport and storage would be in line with domestic manufacturers.
Funny how that would work. Domestic ammunition producers would be forced to stop and retool their manufacturing and distribution processes overnight, while our foreign enemies could continue as before. Once they stop laughing their asses off at us, and applauding the domestic enemies that imposed these new rules.
Since the latest rush of new gun laws imposed on the governed in California has taken effect, it already has fundamentally changed how firearms are privately bought and sold there. I saw this before in New York and then in Maryland in which new Constitutional gun laws went into effect and changed gun prices. There were bargains to be had, but the new rules imposed background checks on most sales.
I seriously am thinking of dropping California for another western state, probably Arizona. Arizona has a much freer firearms market, and unlike Nevada is not currently under threat for more gun laws.
Prices for pistol ammunition were steady across the board. Prices for rifle ammunition were mostly steady.
Prices for used pistols were mixed. Prices for used rifles were mixed.
New Lows:
Pennsylvania: .40 caliber S&W (Glock or other semiautomatic): Taurus 740: $200
Pistol Ammunition
.45 Caliber, 230 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (7 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .24 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Tulammo, Steel Casing, .24 per round (From Last week: Unchanged (4 Weeks))
.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammo Mart, Legendary, FSFP, Brass Casing, Reloads, .20 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Ammo Mart, Legendary, FSFP, Brass Casing, Reloads, .18 per round (From Last Week: -.01 Each)
9mm Parabellum, 115 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .16 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Cheaper Than Dirt!, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .15 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks))
.357 Magnum, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (11 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Cheaper Than Dirt!, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 1,000 rounds: Ammunition to Go, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel cased, .23 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2016))
Rifle Ammunition
.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2016)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Hotshot, FMJ, Steel Casing, .21 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Cheaper Than Dirt!, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .21 per round (From Last Week: -.01 Each)
.308 NATO 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2016)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .35 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Tulammo, Steel Casing, FMJ, .34 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks))
7.62x39mm AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2016)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammunition Depot, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .24 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: SG Ammo, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .23 per round (From Last Week: +.01 Each)
.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: -.01 Each After Unchanged (9 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds (10 Box Limit): Ammomen, Federal, RNL, .06 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds (2 Box Limit): Ammunition Supply Company, Remington Thunderbolt, RNL, .06 per round (From Last Week: -.01 Each )
Guns for Private Sale
Rifles
.223/5.56mm (AR Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $542 Last Week Avg: $525(+) ($616 (2Q, 2015), $476 (47 Weeks))
California (245, 226): Palmetto State Armory: $595 ($650 (1Q, 2015), $400 (51 Weeks))
Texas (246, 240): Bushmaster: $600 ($700 (1Q, 2015), $350 (2Q, 2015))
Pennsylvania (136, 136): Smith & Wesson: $500 ($700 (2Q, 2015), $300 (3Q, 2015))
Virginia (147, 162): Palmetto State Armory: $565 ($750 (1Q, 2015), $475 (17 Weeks))
Florida (403, 372): Mixed Build: $450 ($650 (2Q, 2015), $380 (1Q, 2015))
.308 NATO (AR-10 Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $1,090 Last Week Avg: $950(+) ($1,359 (2Q, 2015), $820 (48 Weeks))
California (65, 66): Smith & Wesson M&P 10: $1,300 ($1,700 (4Q, 2014), $850 (3Q, 2015))
Texas (73, 73): DPMS: $900 ($1,500 (4Q, 2014), $700 (7 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (33, 34): Rock River Arms LAR-8: $1,250 ($1,500 (1Q, 2015), $700 (49 Weeks))
Virginia (46, 40): DPMS: $1,000 ($2,750 (32 Weeks), $800 (43 Weeks))
Florida (79, 74): DPMS: $1,000 ($1,950 (18 Weeks), $500 (47 Weeks))
#1
Chris---it was good to see your article again on Saturday Rantburg. I appreciate your insights on firearms issues. Well done.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/03/2016 0:24 Comments ||
Top||
#2
When an organization like BATFE comes up with an idiotic proposed rule to control a hazard that is not a problem to push an agenda, you have a toxic combination evil, arrogance, and ignorance. The problem is that this organization is not reformable. It also seems that from previous capers like that seen here that O&Co is pushing their anti firearms agenda, using BATFE, even if it affects DOD procurements of ammunition for our troops. The cancer is again shown to affect the brain of the body politic.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/03/2016 0:56 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Gun haters were able to buy 150 firearms to destroy. It helped satisfy their urge to "do something" symbolic and it made them feel good. The people turning in old, cheap, broken down guns got money to upgrade to better things. Many, if not most, were Second Amendment supporters.
That was good for a laugh Badanov. Crude guns are not difficult to make as is gunpowder. Primers are somewhat more difficult to make. I wonder if the gun grabbers would pay $150 for a cheap homemade gun? One could turn a good profit.
p.s. What do you think of establishing a well run, and reasonably priced, whorehouse near a college town - so the poor male students don't have to date Rosie Palm or take unreasonable chances?
I see and hear a lot of talk about how a national gun registration and/or confiscation would be the trigger that would spark a second American Revolution, as patriots rise up to resist the jackbooted thugs who are going door-to-door taking away people’s arms.
I have bad news for everyone who’s waiting for national registration or a mass confiscation so they can get their armed rebellion on: a national database of gun owners already exists, and a national confiscation effort will never happen. Ever. Instead, you’ll hand over your firearms peacefully. All of them, even the ones you paid cash for to some random guy on Armslist in the dead of night. Oh. So it's a case of "use 'em or lose 'em." O-o-o-o-okay, I think there are a fair number of Americans who will understand the rules of that game...
Here’s a look at how it will play out in our not-too-distant future.
The NSA Knows Who You Are and What You Have
Second Amendment supporters have been so focused on this one little corner of the Bill of Rights that they’ve let the Fourth Amendment, which is supposed to protect citizens against unreasonable search and seizure, turn into dead letter. That's your opinion. While there exists a popular statement (in certain circles) that "the Second Amendment protects the First", the truth is that the 2A is pretty darned good at defending all of our essential rights.
The surveillance state that got started under Clinton picked up steam under Bush II, and Obama has expanded it even further. The NSA is tracking everyone, all the time, and they’re hooked into Facebook, Google, Amazon, and every other piece of web-based software that you’ve been using to shop for accessories for that AR you paid cash for (which your wife doesn’t even know you have).
If you don’t believe me, ...we do...
go read this article about just how much detailed info one private company, Facebook, has on you, including your web surfing, shopping, and even your driving and walking habits. Now think about the fact that the NSA is even less constrained by the law (and has way more resources) than Facebook and has access not only to Facebook’s detailed profile of you but to profiles created by many other sources, from your credit card company to your health insurance provider.
Oh sure, you may have gotten your hands on a few guns that would be impossible to trace, even by the NSA. Why would I skulk around like that? I'm a pretty open fellow. I don't mind that the Federales know that I and about 150 million other Americans own guns. By all means, make your plans to coerce us into doing your bidding. You only have to be off by one percent to spark a revolution.
Maybe you inherited a long gun from your grandpa, or maybe you met a guy in a gun show parking lot and paid cash and then never Googled anything related to that gun. So here’s a question for you: how many people like you exist, and how many of those type guns are suitable for urban combat against AR-15s with state-of-the-art optics? I know which of my guns are probably totally “in the black,” and I can’t imagine trying to mount an insurgency with any or all of them. I don't plan to mount an insurgency. Read on... I'm no tactician, but optics in a close quarters battle situation unless it is dark is asking to be shot first. Optics help in long ranges and in adverse conditions. Iron sights always work 100 percent of the time, and are must more accurate than people will admit. The writer has failed to note that civil war is already upon us. It is slowly, inexorably getting ever hotter as the government grows and finds new ways of separating you from your rights, and that includes your money. And as for tactics, I am absolutely sure that state paid thugs are better than your average gun owner in shooting their enemies in a situation where you can stack up four of five before making an entrance. But what about the approach march? Will they really cross a field 200 yards wide, armed, wound up and seeking to kill their target? What happens when the incident or site commander takes a slug to the head while riding to the area of operation? What happens after? Do paid thugs think they won't be organizing convoys to go shopping, or taking their kids to schools. And why do they think that the shooters only will be the only targets? Rule .308 applies to all statists and their allies. There was a remarkable statement in the Gulag Archipelago, in which Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn noted that the camp residents understood something there in the camps that they didn't understand on the night they were arrested: that if each and everyone of them had picked up a table leg, stick, brick, something and had bashed the head of the first Chekist who came through the door to arrest them, that no matter how murderous Stalin was in his blood-lust, he would have run out of Chekists, and the camps would be empty. There are plenty of Americans who understand that. And it only takes a few to get started.
The fact is, most guys who have the kind of hardware suitable for a Civil War 2.0 have been shopping on Gunbroker or Armslist, and/or have filled out FFL paperwork like law-abiding citizens. I seriously doubt there’s enough firepower totally hidden from the NSA to sustain any kind of real rebellion. Let us posit that all the above is true. Where's the advantage to the government not knowing you have guns? If anything, in such times, hiding your guns is not an option. Bringing them out and readying them for action is. As I said, use 'em or lose 'em...
So the registration ship has sailed. They know what you have and where to find you. Now, here’s how they’re going to get you to turn it over without a fight.
Hitting You Where It Hurts
When the government outlaws semi-automatic firearms, they won’t send cops or troops door-to-door to take them. No, first they’ll send out letters saying they know what you have, and that you have to turn it over by a given deadline or face a penalty. Nice fantasy. It didn't work in deep Blue Connecticut or New York.
It’ll be up to you to prove that you’re clean, and that you’ve handed over everything. They’ll have a list, and if they think you’re still holding, they’ll hit you with asset freezes. Let's suppose that's true. Okay, I'm a gun owner and you freeze my assets. Use 'em or lose 'em. Time for me to implement the plan our green moderator is suggesting. Remember when I said I wasn't planning on an insurgency? I'm not. But these acts will precipitate a revolution, one that I intend to win.
Imagine not being able to get any money out of your bank account or from your credit cards, because your assets are frozen. The federal and state governments already do this if you owe back taxes–a simple letter to your bank, and all of your cards stop working. The bank doesn’t care about you, and they don’t have the interest or resources to find out if the government’s claim against you is bogus. No, they’ll just freeze your assets until you get things sorted with the government and the government tells them to unfreeze it all.
The other thing they’ll do is take your children.
Do you think Child Protective Services is going to let your children live in a house with potentially dangerous firearms? No way. Your kids will get picked up at school and taken into custody, and a social worker will show up at your door with the cops. Only when a thorough search has been conducted and the authorities are completely satisfied that your property is 100% gun-free will they let you see your little ones again. After all, we have to protect the children. The government can only do this one individual at a time. What happens to the entire edifice when the average non gun owning individual sees what the government is doing? Will the officials who created, printed and typed those letters stop their own children from going to school, because when you bring a man's kids into it, there are no rules. You take a man's kids from him, he gets to decide which of your kids he takes. Everyone's a target, and the lead won't stop flying, ever. Most dangerous place in the world is the place between a mother and her threatened child.
You’re not going to shoot at those cops, either, because then your kids will just end up in the foster system as wards of the state. Nice bet. I doubt many cops, let alone operators would take those odds over a long enough stretch of time. How many cops will go along with this in the first place? They're parents too, and they love their children. How many cops refusing orders (whether voluntarily or because they understand intuitively that obeying those orders makes their children a target) does it take to bring down the system? The powers that might try to grab all the guns in the way you're suggesting can't do it without the cops. If the cops say 'no', it doesn't happen.
Not Nearly Enough for a Revolution
Oh, I’m sure there are folks reading this who are so off-grid that none of the above can touch them. Their guns are totally invisible to the NSA, their assets are all in the form of cash and physically held precious metals, and their kids are home-schooled on a well-guarded ranch. Those folks are, for the most part, a little touched in the head. No, you don't have to worry about them. You have to worry about well-connected, on-the-grid people like me who understand that even if I cooperate with you completely, I'm still one day going to end up kneeling in front of a drainage ditch. That's the kind of person you are. I know that today, this very instant, and that in turn informs what I'm going to do if you come at me.
But is that blessed group big enough to overthrow a determined US government? No, it ain’t. You don't know that it is, or isn't. There was no way the Bolsheviks could have seized the Russian government and transform things, but they did. At this point, you're just guessing.
The measures outlined above–a de facto gun registration database courtesy of the NSA and its private-sector allies, asset freezes for non-compliance, and the threat of CPS visits that hold your children hostage–will be sufficient to take well over 90% of the lawfully held guns out of civilian hands, all without firing a single shot. They didn't conceive of those sanctions in Connecticut, so we have no way or knowing what would not have worked. What we do know is that if those options were on the table in legislative negotiations, they were quickly swept aside as being too un-Constitutional, even for elected statists. I suspect that non compliance would be widespread, though I can't conceive of a specific number. Even if you found a way to get this past the statist pols in Springfield or Albany or Sacramento or Washington, there aren't enough guards in the country to protect all those pols and at the same time go out with CPS, etc., to grab all the guns.
The bitter truth is this: there will be no confiscation shock troops for you and your buddies to shoot back at, Really? How do you intend to enforce those CPS orders?
and we will discover too late that the rights-defenders’ fantasy–of one, crystal-clear moment when it’s time for everyone to rise up as one and take it all back–has been the establishment’s biggest ally and freedom’s deadliest enemy. Well put. I agree. But I think the writer misses the point that resistance doesn't always mean traipsing around the backwoods with the old trusty, rusty AK. Sometimes it means speaking aloud about the issues such as a growing and increasingly hostile federal government, just to provide an example. Educating yourself about economics and government is another. Guns should be the last resort, but they should be an option, always. Not all of us will traipse around in the backwoods. Not all of us need to. We have lots of choices as green mod points out. There are lots of ways to resist. And if only two percent of gun owners decide to shoot a police officer before going down, that's about three million casualties. You'll run out of willing police offers, NSA guards, TSA types, and National Guard soldiers well before that -- they'll quit or refuse to carry out your orders. See the words from the Gulag, above.
Why do you think they’ve let you have guns for this long? Because those guns have given you a false sense of security and kept you from doing something truly dangerous, like mass-organizing to pull all your money out of the big banks and to vote out the incumbents. They haven't enough trained crazies to confiscate your firearms? He's got a point -- but there's no reason why we can't do both...
So if you’ve sat idly by, fondling your firearms and watching the surveillance state expand while your paycheck shrinks, relying on your gun stash to bail you out when things hit bottom, then the joke’s on you. You’ve already lost the war, and when you hand over your weapons it’ll be the last (and mostly symbolic) step in a process of total subjugation that slipped up and swallowed you while you were distracted with building your gun collection. The writer's use of the word fondle is a gratuitous insult to the reader. It's the kind of statement you use in a bar if you're trying to provoke someone into busting one in your mouth, so I seriously doubt the writer would have done this in a meat space setting. All that said, my firearm remains in a case in condition 3. It remains so through transport to the range and back. It is cleared for cleaning. When not cleared or in the case, it is used for target practice. I do not "fondle", nor pose for a selfie or mugshot with a firearm. They have one dangerous, singular use, and when it is in my hands that is the use I concentrate on. Anything else is complete and utter irresponsibility.
You may hate me and everything I’ve said here, but deep down, you know I’m right. You're an ass. He's an ass, and also a warning. Be prepared, and don't go quietly into the Chekists' van.
Readers, do understand, the Feds and locals can pull records of all your gun purchases and get a legal search warrant for said weapons in a matter of hours.
Your weapons are not safe from law enforcement.
That said. Don't store unregistered weapons with registered.
#4
IMO, what they get away with in schools is a lot more, long-term, dangerous than gun confiscation. Because, “There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men.”.
#5
If anyone has doubts about the damage one man can do, they should read: Jack Hinson's One-Man War, A Civil War Sniper, Hardcover – January 27, 2009 by Tom McKenney (Author). Granted, the book is about the Civil War but the tactics that were used probably would apply today. The rifle was made for Hinson by a Southern gunsmith and was state-of-the art for the time--it would not have been on the books today. Hinson racked up over 100 kills of blue coats from moving sniping positions. He was never caught as many of the locals helped him (as aspect of guerilla warfare). He was dishing out retribution because his two sons were beheaded by Yankees and their heads mounted on Hinson's gateposts as a message.
I suspect there are many people left and right who have guns in this country. I read the other day that about 44% of the households in this country have firearms in their homes. That is a large amount of guns. Estimates of about 300M guns exist in this country. I doubt the government has anywhere near that many firearms for their LOE branches of government. Why does this author think that everyone who works in law enforcement in the government would go along with the government? Consider also local law enforcement such as the sheriffs. These are elected officials by the people. They would be less likely to support gun confiscation schemes by the federal government.
Lastly, I don't think anyone knows how many "off-the-books" guns exist but I'd bet there are plenty. Not everyone exists on, likes, or cares about Facebook or other social media. Not everyone spills their guts about every they have or do on FB--in fact they might even think it sucks as I do.
We have a history and a culture of firearms. We also have a history and culture of revolution. Our forefathers today would have been considered then about the same way they would today--as criminals and lawbreakers. Our forefathers risked everything for a free country. We don't need another King George telling us what to do from Washington today.
#6
I just finished McKenney's book earlier this summer. A riveting and fantastic saga of the Civil War in Kentucky and the area we now know as the Land Between the Lakes.
I'm currently finishing Ian Johnson's 'A Mosque in Munich.' Another fantastic book that [among other things] explains the origins of the Muslim Brotherhood, our own Kabuki dance with so-called 'Muslim moderates,' and precisely how the dance began.
I believe someone here in the Burg recommended both.
#7
Gee, with an entire Army in Iraq it wasn't till the locals decided to cooperate in the Anbar Awakening that the momentum swung around. Even before and after our forces retired to base camps. Notice how Chicago has the toughest gun laws and one of the largest gun deaths rate. Notice how on edge cops are now with just a few shootings.
Now all those grabbers have to go home at sometime. Their families are there as well. Until they erect base camps for them and their families, they're not going to be out of harms way. They know it. They'll be a tough team breaking down someone's door. Not quite as much walking from their front door alone to their car.
#9
This appears to be a well thought out exercise in fantasy. I'm a boomer and we are a large group. We have had our training in war and survived that war. Now we are looking at the end of our lives and how we take care of our children and grandchildren when we pass.
I have already had my three score and ten years so I like many know I have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. What I have to look forward to is being in a hospital with tubes in every hole in my body, dying over a 2 day to 2 week period or dying defending what I know is my family and country and within a matter of minutes being killed quickly and honorably.
As far as kicking in my front door there is a simple way to assure that everyone would get at least three of the insurgents. I have passed this on to many people I trust to reveal it when and if the time comes. Right now if I make this public knowledge our soldiers would be slaughtered when they kick in doors in the middle east.
The author's estimate of the number of firearms is lacking. The latest estimates are 350 million firearms owned by 145 million people. It is also estimated those 145 million people own 17 trillion cartridges that fit those firearms. The US civilians own more small arms than the combined armies of China, India, Russia and the US. Let's assume the feral government actually picked up 99% of the firearms that would still leave 3,500,000 firearms in civilian hands. I was buying guns in the 1950's and remember those times. If you were 18 years old you could buy a long gun with only a 4473 form being filled out. The dealer kept it and did not furnish it to anyone unless asked to do so. Every dealer I knew hung onto the records for the required amount of time and then burned them. During that period the US firearms dealers sold about 80 to 100 million surplus firearms. Most of the 22 M German 98K Mausers went to the US, almost all of the Japanese long guns went to the US and a huge number of French rifles and English Enfield #1 Mark 3 rifles were also sold here. The US civilians own most of the small arms used in WW-2. There is virtually no paperwork on these weapons. Further a millions of sub machine guns and machine guns were sold as DEWAT (deactivated war trophies) which were mostly deactivated by welding a plug in the barrel. These were sold with no paperwork at all because they were not guns anymore. Most of the owners just simply bought a new surplus barrel and installed it. Those who kick in doors may be facing some old geeser with a functioning MG-42 at point blank range.
Lastly if our (already insolvent) government went after gun owners the country would have to be locked down for at least a month. The cost of the country locked down for a month or more would cause the economy and the government to collapse. Further since we are entitled to a trial by jury (just think how many jurors this would take) and must be furnished with an attorney; the incredibly massive amount of cases would preclude a speedy trial and 95% of the cases would have to be dismissed. Law enforcement will not kick in doors in their own communities, everyone in the military has taken an oath to defend the constitution, foreign soldiers would stand out like sore thumbs and be shot on sight and lastly the Korean War, Vietnam War and all the wars in the middle east have trained 21 million veterans who have already fought for their country.
If anyone in government actually believes it is possible to pick-up the firearms in the US by force they are smoking some powerful drugs.
#10
I haven't seen so much snot run out of an asshole since I ate that spicy Mexican food with a head cold.
I suppose our game master would be a bit different if the NSA were tracking anal beads or 50 Shades of Gray - or whatever they want - especially after running this sloppy dungeon.
#3
If only because there's lots of money to be made in manufacturing ans selling weapons.
If you doubt the contracting and manufacture of weapons of war is the highly cultivated enterprise of government, just examine how rigorously the arms industry is protected from foreign imports.
#5
Your TAAS is essential to your national survival and is not particularly focused on fostering endless regime changes here and there. At least that is my opinion.
#8
I meant the way USA won't buy IMI staff that's better and (lots) cheaper then domestic.
Maybe because State and WH have played "go along with us or lose your supply of materials and spare parts" too many times to fail to grasp, what goes around, comes around. Besides the graft.
#9
When Saddam rolled south over the Mutla Ridge and took Kuwait City, I was privileged to make contact with a small aircraft spares outfit out of Schaumberg, IL with a contract at Ali al Salem. The business was started by a former USAF officer. His sons ran it at that time with the old man in overwatch. Their on-site PM was a retired USMC aviator. He was successful in launching the Kuwaiti Air Force 'down city streets' (due to runway cratering Ali by Saddam). They escaped and evaded to Saudi and eventually became the vanguard of the liberation.
The two brothers and some other mil retirees set up a command post in Crystal City where they could maintain FACECOM with DoS and Embassy Row. As a result they were instrumental in ending-running recalcitrant, do nothing DoS bureaucrats to gain the successful exfiltration and E&E of their staff at Ali. Thank you Amman and Manila. Nothing more need be said.
The Kuwaitis were very grateful to the outfit from Schaumburg. So much so that when Foggy Bottom began their re-arming - re-contracting schemes, the Kuwaitis told them 'Schaumburg please, forget everyone else.'
Lots of 'butt hurt' DoS types as a result of the Kuwaiti's insistence and the Schaumburg brother's aggressive, no bullshi* approach to getting stuff done.
It was fun to watch. Had I thought to have taken notes, a good book could have been written.
[Free Beacon] Newly released FBI figures show that last month saw the most gun-related FBI background checks of any August on record.
The National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, conducted 1,853,815 checks in August. That’s over 100,000 more checks than the previous record set last August. It is also the 16th month in a row to set a record.
The number of NICS checks considered one of the most reliable gauges for how many guns were sold. Nearly every sale made through a licensed gun dealer, whether it’s made inside a store, online, or at a gun show, is required to complete a NICS check.
However, the measure is not a one-to-one recording of gun sales for a number of reasons. Most states do not require NICS checks on sales between non-dealers. Some states also use NICS checks in their concealed carry application process where no gun is sold.
"These statistics represent the number of firearm background checks initiated through the NICS," the FBI report noted. "They do not represent the number of firearms sold. Based on varying state laws and purchase scenarios, a one-to-one correlation cannot be made between a firearm background check and a firearm sale."
August’s numbers represent a return to seasonal trends after both June and July outperformed their previous figures. Though August 2016 saw more sales than any other August on record, it also saw fewer checks than any other month this year. Guns sales generally slow during summer months.
The slight retreat in the margin of record-breaking sales coincides with a presidential election that has largely focused on issues other than gun rights and gun control. Though the candidates have staked out opposing viewpoints on firearms, the issue took a backseat during the campaign in August.
Still, polling has begun to show the gun ownership rate rising as the more-than-year-long record setting trend continues. Nearly 110,000 Americans now report having a gun in their home.
[Free Beacon] There were 94,391,000 Americans not participating in the labor force in August, an increase of 58,000 people from the previous month, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.
The bureau counts those not in the labor force as people who do not have a job and did not actively seek one in the past four weeks.
The labor force participation rate, which is the percentage of the population that has a job or actively looked for one in the past month, remained steady at 62.8 percent in August. According to the bureau, this level of participation matches the level seen in 1978.
The unemployment rate for all Americans remained steady at 4.9 percent from July to August. This measure does not account for those individuals who have dropped out of the labor force and simply measures the percent of those who did not have a job but actively sought one over the month.
The "real" unemployment rate, otherwise known as the U-6 measure, was 9.7 percent, which remained steady from the previous month. Democrats such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen have said this measure accounts for discouraged workers and those working part time instead of full time for economic reasons and is more representative of the labor market.
There were 6,053,000 Americans working part-time in August who would rather have a full-time job but cited economic reasons for not having such employment. This number increased by 113,000 over the month.
#4
To these stats must be added at least 50% of government employees who produce nothing of real worth or actually destroy productivity with over-regulation.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/03/2016 8:40 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Where are the stats for those who are doing the work of wrecking the world?
#6
The administration is deliberately trashing jobs and the economy for profit. Teachers can't pay rent, lose their insurance, Vets and students lose benefits because credits aren't transferable to the state system. I had no idea the Department of Education had so much power but add that to the EPA's fiascos. Several coal plants + CA nuclear plants have closed because they meet new EPA regulations, idling the RR's, further trashing jobs especially in rural areas. Hanjin went bankrupt, showing cargo is slowing the lifeblood of America. Hedge fund traders are nasty selfish vultures.
[Wash Times] Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's son Eric Trump questioned Friday how Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton became enormously wealthy running a charity, which has become the focus of the campaign's allegation of pay-to-play corruption while she was secretary of state.
"The question I always ask is, what product were they selling? If we make a buck, we sold a bottle of wine or an apartment, or we sold a hotel room. What product were they selling to make $150 million," Mr. Trump said on Fox News... "Fox & Friends."
Host Ainsley Earhardt suggested: "Favors? The government?"
"Of course," responded Mr. Trump, who works on the campaign for his billionaire businessman father.
"This is the leadership we have in this country. Somebody sets up a foundation. They pocket hundreds of millions of dollars. They say they come out of the White House ’dead broke.’ Now they are worth $150 million," he said.
#5
Well, there's always self imposed exile. Just think of all the celebrities she can have around her, without dealing with messy day to day stuff interfering. As for making money, I understand accessing advance technology, like missile launching and satellite know how can bring a dime or two.
#7
What if she has concluded that becoming POTUS is the only way to avoid jail?
One of the key reasons why Caesar crossed the Rubicon was that he had been summoned to Rome by the government: he knew, they knew, everyone knew that by coming to Rome without his army, he'd be arrested and charged with some crime by his enemies. Didn't matter that everyone else was doing what he had done. Caesar couldn't run for counsel and couldn't be a tribune, the only ways to gain exemption from prosecution. So he crossed the Rubicon.
Hillary doesn't have a formal army behind her. But she does have the Foundation, all the people who owe her, and all the people who have purchased her favor. That's an army of sorts. She's running for POTUS because in part that's the only way to stay out of prison.
But it's not the only way. And she does have an army.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/03/2016 16:02 Comments ||
Top||
#8
I'm kinda, sorta, have a problem comparing Hillary to Julius Caesar.
[DAWN] KHYBER Pakhtunkhwa has been attacked once again, and once again a familiar set of questions have arisen about the seeming ease with which multiple jacket wallahs and fidayeen attackers were able to arrive at their targets in the heart of the province. A day earlier, the ISPR chief had asserted that significant successes have been notched up in the fight against militancy, but the attacks in Mardan and 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. have reinforced that a long and complicated fight still lies ahead. While the military is keen to discuss its successes in the various operations ongoing across the country, perhaps it should also be more candid about the extant threats and the terror networks that are still operational. The need for a more realistic outlook is essential for the public, otherwise the incongruity of a military claiming successes while attacks continue in various parts of the country will only add to the national confusion.
While responsibility for yesterday’s attacks cannot yet be known definitively, the claim by Jamaatul Ahrar ...A Pak Taliban splinter group that split off from the Mullah Fazlullah faction because it wasn't violent enough... does seem credible. Alarmingly, not only does the banned TTP faction appear to have a growing reach, from Quetta to Peshawar, but its resources, manpower and organizational capacity seem to be growing. Pak security officials point the finger of blame at Afghanistan, where TTP turbans have apparently found sanctuary in the eastern region bordering Pakistain and where sections of the state and intelligence apparatus are evincing a renewed hostility towards this country. Addressing the evolved TTP threat has not proved easy because it involves everything from military strategy to national security and foreign policy to border management. Unhappily, not only does the necessary military and civilian cooperation here appear non-existent, but there is perhaps a fundamental divergence over the path ahead. While the civilian government rightly emphasises a policy of peace and reconciliation with neighbouring countries, it seems to have neither the space nor the inclination to deal with a tough set of national security and foreign policy challenges. Yesterday, the anomalous situation was on display yet again as Prime Minister 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... inaugurated one more road project and talked about Pakistain being on the path to prosperity -- while Peshawar and Mardan were bleeding yet again.
Where the civilian government may be out of ideas or lack space, the military establishment seems far too keen on externalising blame rather than working towards understanding the sustained and simultaneously evolving murderous Moslem threat. Wherever the Jamaatul Ahrar leadership may be based, the attacks are taking place deep inside Pakistain. Why is the intelligence apparatus always one step behind the murderous Moslems? Peshawar and Mardan were no lone-wolf attacks and likely required a network of individuals to facilitate the attackers. While the bravery of security personnel helped limit the damage, it is virtually impossible to stop a suicide bomber who has already been deployed. But why are turbans still operating with relative ease?
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-ul-Ahrar
[DAWN] PAKISTAN is soliciting world support for its stance on the current situation in Kashmire. Pakistain’s stance is superior to India’s in terms of law, human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... and the wishes of the majority in the occupied Valley of Kashmire -- which happens also to be the majority in India-held Kashmire. The enduring but as yet unexercised right of self-determination of the people of the whole of the former Jammu and Kashmire through a plebiscite is based on resolutions of the UN Security Council.
The so-called accession of Kashmire to India has been condemned as invalid by a resolution of the UN Security Council. Whatever policy errors Pakistain may or may not have made the inalienable rights of the people of Kashmire cannot be derogated from.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[The National Interest] IN THE wake of the Orlando and Istanbul attacks, President Obama reiterated his determination to "destroy" ISIS by executing a strategy that combines air strikes, American special-operations units and support for local ground forces. Both of the candidates campaigning to succeed him insist that the United States must do more: Donald Trump advocates that Washington "bomb the hell out of" the group, while Hillary Clinton promises to "smash the would-be caliphate." All three, however, are in violent agreement on one point: the overriding objective must be to destroy ISIS.
The insistence on the "destruction" of ISIS has become such a reflexive linchpin of America’s counterterrorism project that few pause to consider its strategic merit. But the nation with arguably the most experience and success combatting terrorism has considered it--and found it wanting.
Israelis live much closer to ISIS than do Americans. ISIS has pledged to conquer the Jewish state and incorporate it into its core caliphate. Yet surprisingly, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has rejected the option of taking the fight directly to ISIS. Instead, faced with an operational threat that could mean the death of hundreds of Israelis at any moment, it has embraced a strategy that has not even been on the U.S. policy menu. Adopting a page from the playbook the United States used to defeat revolutionary Soviet-led communism in the Cold War, Israel is preventing ISIS attacks through a strategy of patient, vigilant deterrence. Obviously, the United States cannot simply adopt the Israeli approach whole cloth. It operates in a different security environment than the Jewish state, which faces a multiplicity of terrorist threats on its borders. But there are important lessons that America can learn to enhance its national security.
Israel’s approach to ISIS is straightforward. Israel seeks to persuade ISIS not to attack it by credibly threatening to retaliate. If you attack us, the thinking goes, we will respond in ways that will impose pain that exceeds any gain you can hope to achieve. As Cold War strategists learned, making this work in practice is demanding. To be effective, deterrence requires three Cs: clarity, capability and credibility. Specifically, this means clarity about the red line that cannot be crossed, communicated in language the adversary understands; capability to impose costs that greatly exceed the benefits; and credibility about the willingness to do so. Failures occur when the deterrer falls short on any one of the three Cs. So, if I draw a red line, you cross it, and I respond with words rather than the decisive punishment threatened, I fail the third C. Whatever excuse I give for not executing my threat, and however earnest my claim that next time will be different, the blunt fact is that adversaries will find my threats less credible.
If that were not enough, as the great nuclear strategist Thomas Schelling taught us, successful deterrence requires more than just a threat. The flip side of the deterrence coin is an equivalent promise: if you refrain from the prohibited action, I will withhold the threatened punishment. If, for whatever reason, I decide to administer the specified punishment even though you have complied with my demands, I spend that coin--and can no longer use that threat to deter you. As the saying goes, if you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t--you might as well do.
[Reuters] The United States sells weapons around the world. It sells them to governments it approves of, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands and others.
But it also sells to countries that - to put it in the best light - it has mixed feelings about: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq, Rwanda to name just a few. Israel presents its own unique challenges, being both a close military ally and a democracy, but with policies that drive Washington mad.
The decision on what countries get access to which weapons from U.S. manufacturers is made largely by the Pentagon, arms expert William Hartung explains, in close consultation with the industry. The consultation is so close, in fact, that the Pentagon often acts as a broker, helping to put deals together.
Congress rarely gets involved. The current discussion among lawmakers over whether to sell new weapons to Saudi Arabia after alleged human rights abuses in Yemen is extremely unusual and experts believe the sale will still go through.
Arms sales are about keeping foreign governments sweet and keeping other nations' manufacturers out. And once a country decides to go with U.S. weapons, they'll need ammunition, spare parts and repair services, forging a relationship that lasts for years.
But how does the United States make sure that the weapons it sells don't get resold, or fall into the hands U.S. enemies? And what role does the black market play? Listen to this week's episode of War College to get the answers.
#1
It also helps if the equipment is field tested in a real environment, often beating the competition. It's one thing buying cheap just to keep the population down, it's another when your neighbors threaten to come over the border armed to the teeth.
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.
