Battlespace Preparation for AWB 2: We Must Help Our Mexican Amigos

Courtesy of the Establishment minions at the Washington Post and the good truppen at BATFE comes this tale of woe re our poor hermanos to the South, who seem to be having some problems with weapons and the American border:

***

...
Corrupt customs officials help smuggle weapons into Mexico, earning as much as $1 million for large shipments, police here say. The weapons are often bought legally at gun shows in Arizona and other border states where loopholes allow criminals to stock up without background checks.

The arms traffickers have left Mexico awash in AK-47s, pistols, telescope sighting devices, grenades, grenade launchers and high-powered ammunition, such as the so-called cop-killer bullets believed to be able to penetrate bulletproof vests.

"You're looking at the same firepower here on the border that our soldiers are facing in Iraq and Afghanistan," Thomas Mangan, a spokesman in Phoenix for the ATF, said in an interview.

Weapons have been smuggled into Mexico for decades. For instance, the .38 Special used in 1994 to assassinate presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio here in Tijuana was traced to a gun sale in Arizona. Mexico is a rich market for smugglers because it bans high-caliber automatic weapons -- even police are prohibited from using them -- and has strict gun laws that make it extremely difficult for members of the public to buy handguns.

But law enforcement officers on both sides of the border have never seen anything like the flood of guns now surging into Mexico. The increase has been stoked by the cartel war and by the ease of buying high-powered weapons since the U.S. assault weapons ban was not renewed in 2004, William Newell, a special agent in charge of the ATF's Phoenix office, said in an interview...

***

I guess a border wall wouldn't work just as well against southbound traffic as it would against northbound coyotes and their prey, now would it?

Expect to see more stories like this one as part of the groundwork for AWB 2 (this time, with no grandfathering and no sunset date) in 2009, to be followed within five years by a "harmonization" of American, Mexican, and Canadian gun laws carried out by unaccountable bureaucrats under the auspices of the Security and Prosperity Partnership, also known as the North American Union.

Doubters should read this white paper and note such statements as "[t]he design of the SPP is innovative, eschewing the more traditional diplomatic and trade negotiation models in favor of talks among civil service professionals and subject matter experts within each government." There's also a lovely discussion on page 17 on how the SPP end product will avoid the need for ratification by Congress.

Anything to avoid those messy political situations, you know. They can be so hard to manage.

By the way - any bets on whether the Second's "shall not be infringed" language will be the basis for the gun law harmonization between the three SPP "partners"?

Tempus fugit...

Next Steps: Hot Lead!

Another keeper from Habcan on how to get by and get better:

Well, the ‘milsurp’ ammo has pretty well dried up and even ‘commercial’ is getting scarce in some calibers, assuming you can afford it. Component bullets are being cut off at the manufacturer’s level in calibers like .223 and .30 for 'the (Forever) War in Iraq/Afghanistan/wherever'. Pretty soon we won’t have to worry about being disarmed, because all the arms will be EMPTY. Or at least that’s how it looks up here in Kanuckistan. Oh, the once-a-year hunters are OK, they HAVE a box of ammo somewhere on a shelf and that’s good for the next ten years or so! Even those shooters who make an occasional trip to the range are pretty much OK: they have a hundred cases, a pound of powder, a box of primers, and TWO boxes of bullets and they RELOAD. They’re good for a few years yet. And there’s always the good ol’ .22LR, right?

Yeah, sure!

So, having slid the slippery slope and ended up as a golfer who occasional shoots heavily-regulated registered and permitted firearms when and where allowed to by ‘authority’, what’s a poor subject to do?

Well, if he is a thinking person who has finally seen where all this is leading, he gets Old Betsy out of the politically-correct gunsafe, cleans her up, and decides mebbe he just oughta brush up some on his riflery.

Then, if he’s honest with himself, that first trip to the range will be pretty disheartening. Muscles and eyesight aren’t what they used to be, are they?

Practice. He’s gotta PRACTICE! All fired up to enroll in an Appleseed Course or similar, he suddenly runs into the money wall: 400 rounds of ammo? Ya gotta be kidding!! About $300 just for AMMO? No way, Jose! Back to the TV and the golf course.

But wait, what’s that you say? Cast bullets? Like they talk about endlessly on that so-knowledgeable forum at Cast Boolits Forum?

Naw, you can’t be serious! He knows about cast bullets - they are hard to make, take a lot of time, lead your bore, can’t be used in gas-operated semi-autos, and can’t possibly be driven any faster than about 2000 fps.

People, I’m here to tell you that every one of those foregoing statements is a fallacy. Not one of them is true.

I’ll assume that you folks here are handloaders. If not, you SHOULD be! Even if you are not actively engaged in it this moment, you DO have the equipment stashed, right? Just in case? Well, if you do not already have it, fill out your setup with casting equipment which includes at least one mould for each rifle. A variety is better. If you go the cheap route with LEE Precision, it will not break your bank. Initially used as per manufacturer’s setup instructions and properly maintained, LEE stuff will perform adequately-to-superbly for decades.

Ask me - been there, done that!

Next step? Get friendly with as many tire shops as you can and start collecting their scrap wheelweights. Do not make this a casual thing. Set up a collection time each week. Obsequiously, gratefully, and regularly, take all you can get. Each week? Yes, because if they do a lot of business you will break your back trying to empty their scrap pail! And start NOW! Lead is becoming a ‘commodity’ and more and more shops have found they can SELL a five-gallon pail for $25 to a dealer who will pick up. I have lost two such in the last year, but still manage to collect about six gallons a month from my ‘regulars’, saving them employee time and ‘environmental fees’ at the local dump. Winter is the time to stink up the garage and convert the raw material into fluxed clean ingots for your lead pot. I have well over a thousand now, and my team is working on more from the stocks I supply. So we have a potential of some dozens of shooters who are not going to run out of reliable ammo any time soon, if you count the extended families thus supplied.

Given that necessary equipment costs have been amortized, and that you have a good large stock of components laid by, you can shoot/practice with your centerfire rifles for about the cost of .22 rimfire ammo if you use cast ‘boolits’.

Here we have been working hard with fullbore loads, substituting boolits for the expensive and almost unobtainable jacketed ones, trying different sizing diameters or hardness without changing anything else in our ‘pet’ loads. We are not after benchrest winning accuracy, just 4 MOA stuff, which will stay on a 20” target to 500 yards. The scoffers should note that we have had the gleeful experience of finding some lead loads are good to go to 800, but that’s on a bigger target - yet still just about 4 MOA!!!

So far we have been successful with .30-30, .30-06, .303 Brit, .45-70/90, along with of course .45ACP and other such. We are nearly there with 7X57 and 7-08, 7-30 Waters, 7TC/U (lotsa 7’s!) and a few others. We are starting on .308, and mebbe gonna look at 6.5X55 and 6.5/.284. All guns newly acquired quickly get an accompanying mould. The folks over at Frugal's would be proud of us!

I want to stress that we have not tried for the greatest accuracy load obtainable in a certain firearm, but merely a substitute cast boolit to stuff down on top of the load we already use, requiring only a maximum allowable 4 MOA from it. Sure, there are ways to get even better accuracy, but they involve research and testing - and we simply do not have the TIME, people! Even testing and optimizing within our self-imposed design limits takes a bit of doing as it is. The advantage is that you can dragoon some young people into ‘helping’ you and give them a little instruction in the basics, just 'coincidentally' making more potential riflemen as you go.

So all you Riflemen out there, get scrounging and get casting. Load all week and then shoot all weekend for cheap. Hone your skills while the mutant ninja zombies hide in their squalid caves, and the complacent run dry! Take a kid along as a ‘spotter’ (and brass-picker!) and make it twice the fun.

I’ll see you on the ranges!

This Is (Likely) Your Warning Order

Courtesy of Codrea's War on Guns blog, here is the reason for the warning order which follows:

Situation: The left-wing Democratic U.S. Congress is considering legislation which, if passed by both Houses and signed into law by the current or future POTUS, will significantly aid anti-freedom forces within the executive and legislative branches during the first term of the next POTUS. Legislation (H.R. 1955) was referred by the House to the Senate on 24 October 2007, which received it and referred the bill to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Mission: All Americans and all American allies should continue and complete all preparations asap to enable:

1) Personal survival of immediate family and friends, with support to others as practicable;

2) All appropriate action to defend the USC and BoR, as written.

General Instructions:

1) Continue monitoring of traditional media, alternative media, and freedom-centric sources re this and other actions by USG/state/local personnel.

2) Complete provisioning of all resources needed for "rainy decade"; completion mandatory NLT 20 January 2009.

3) Develop and practice execution of multimedia communication plans with related parties consistent with COMSEC and OPSEC; completion mandatory NLT 20 January 2009.

4) Complete physical/skillset/mindset training for all personnel NLT 20 January 2009; adjust current personnel/assignments as appropriate.

While the credulous would say that this bill simply establishes a study commission to produce a report on domestic terrorism within 18 months of the bill's enactment, Mr. Dylan would say in response:

"You don't need a weatherman to see which way the wind blows...."

Tempus fugit.

UPDATE 29 OCT 07: While the procedural posture of HR 1955 is misstated (it has NOT been passed by the entire House as of this date), this article has some additional interesting data points for your personal weather forecast.

UPDATE #2 29 OCT 07: Actually, the bill has been passed by a 404-6 vote by the House on 23 October. My error, for which I apologize.

Next Steps: Where Have All the Bullets Gone?

Another article from Habcan on getting by and getting better:

People, it would not surprise me if your next gummint decided that the War On Terror really needed all the output of such manufactories as Remington, Federal, Sierra, Hornady, Speer, et al, and ‘nationalized’ all bullet production. None would be allowed for retail sales, and hunters/shooters would be cajoled to be ‘patriotic’ and sacrifice a little for the War Effort. Alternatively, suppose all lead and copper were declared ‘strategic materials’ and similarly restricted for civilian use. Well, folks, they wouldn’t have to confiscate all those dangerous firearms in the hands of an otherwise armed citizenry if they dried up the fodder supplies.

As a ‘weapon’, that ‘Long Range Sniper Rifle’ (your deer-hunting stick) becomes a rather unwieldy club - unless it can go ‘BANG!’.

Oh sure, we all have large stocks of components. We all have the reloading equipment and are skilled in its use, every one of us. We can keep our pieces ‘fed’ for decades, AND our friends, AND family, AND neighbors, AND useful strangers, and so on, can’t we? If you actually CAN, well, good for you! For the rest of us less affluent, or those who didn’t start ‘stocking’ decades ago when such things did not cost an arm-and-a-leg, we can still get a few things but save beaucoup on the most expensive, hardest-to-find-in-your-desired-size-and-weight component - the bullet. Recent retail list price here for Sierras in .303x174 grain HPBTM has doubled to CDN$74.29/100 [note: with the way the Yankee peso has been devalued of late, no more need for conversion from the Loonie!]. Delivery is six months plus; the wholesalers can’t GET them from the factory.

Does this tell you anything?

That same seventy-five dollars will buy 2M primers, or 2 pounds of powder. Yeah, I know, right after WW2 we used to ‘prime’ with match-heads, but really………………!! They no longer sell the Chemistry Sets every kid of my generation had to make blackpowder with, LOL, but I suppose it might still be possible somehow.

But we’re talking here about bullets. You want free bullets? All it takes is a small setup and time and effort. Cast your own. Get an appropriate mould, haunt your local tire dealers for wheelweights, and get at it. Most of those dealers will happily let you have all their scrap; then they don’t have to pay ‘environment damage’ fees at the dump. Sorting out the rubber valve-stems and general bumpf is the worst part, followed closely by the smoke and stink of smelting your take into useable ingots, but it’s FREE! At about 40 bullets per ingot, that’s about $30 saved off total reloading costs, EACH. And, if you can’t collect the equivalent of 50 to 75 ingots or more per WEEK you aren’t trying! (This Grey Man makes downriggers for fishermen. ;-) )

You do not need an expensive Lubricator/Sizer tool if you will get the LEE moulds for their ‘TL’ bullet styles, which can be tumble-lubed with their Liquid Alox and shot as-is. (Disclaimer - No, I have no connection whatsoever with the LEE brand.) A bottom-pour electric pot is nice, but frontiersmen cast their own bullets over a campfire with a pan and a spoon for generations and still managed to wipe out the bison herds. It CAN be done, and it CAN be done CHEAPLY.

By dropping the still-hot bullets into a pail of water direct from the mould, I have on occasion been able to chrono velocities as high as 2500fps.+, but it’s best to stop around 2200 fps. So, your ’06 is now ballistically a .30-30? Oh Well! It will still feed you! Decades ago a pal bought an old 1894 Winchester really cheap in the unpopular .32 Winchester Special and I think he is still reliably killing deer with it and his cast loads.

The fact that the Grey Man can load little pipsqueak quiet rounds for small game, etc., even cut the bullets off flush with the case-mouth, and do all sorts of versatile things with ONE rifle and ONE mould should be of interest to you. Just make sure you have lots and lots of PRIMERS!

Until next time....

Wanted!

Have you signed and returned the "Recall Joaquin Jackson" petition yet?

What about bringing copies of this poster to your local gun stores and ranges?

Get yours here today, and help take back your NRA.

Please Keep Me Safe From Freedom and its Burdens

Courtesy of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and author Robert Higgs, a powerful essay on the inability of many to live without chains:



Margaret Atwood's poem "Siren Song" begins:

This is the one song everyone
would like to learn: the song
that is irresistible:
the song that forces men
to leap overboard in squadrons
even though they see the beached skulls.

Our rulers know how to sing that song, and they sing it day and night. The beached skulls are those of our fathers and our sons, our friends and our neighbors, for whom the song proved not only irresistible, but fatal.

The state is the most destructive institution human beings have ever devised — a fire that, at best, can be controlled for only a short time before it o'erleaps its improvised confinements and spreads its flames far and wide.

Whatever promotes the growth of the state also weakens the capacity of individuals in civil society to fend off the state's depredations and therefore augments the public's multifaceted victimization at the hands of state functionaries. Nothing promotes the growth of the state as much as national emergency — war and other crises comparable to war in the seriousness of the threats they pose...

Pour a fresh cup of coffee and read the whole thing, please.

The Slave Mentality and its Consequences

A terrific essay by Larken Rose on a likely explanation for the rise in police heavy-handedness (and worse) over the past two decades:

***

...It is both easy and appropriate to blame the individual megalomaniacs who abuse their power, but the world has never had a lack of nasty people. So why is it that symptoms of a police state seem to be showing up more and more often in this country? A major cause is something which probably wouldn't occur to most people, and which most people don't want to hear:

They treat us like we are their slaves, because we treat them like they are our masters.

When people so often play the role of obedient serfs, bowing to authority and unquestioningly doing as they are told, it should come as no surprise that those doing the commanding and controlling will begin to treat the rest of us as inferiors. When we humbly treat "law enforcers" as our superiors, instead of our employees, it's no wonder they start to acquire god complexes. Our own behavior and words tell them that we ACCEPT their dominion over us, and that we CONDONE the oppressive and degrading treatment we receive at their hands...

***

Please read the whole thing, and consider sending a sawbuck or two to the JPFO, who published this excellent article.

The Whole Enchilada

The 'will to win' is grossly overrated. Everyone has the will to win. Very few have the will to prepare to win.

Bobby Knight

Principles, Principals, & Agents

Have you heard about Joaquin Jackson?

He's the member of the National Rifle Association's Board of Directors who wrote this book and who stated a few years ago in a media interview (view the key video clip here) that he believed that "assault weapons need to be (only) in the hands of the military and the police." Jackson also noted in the same interview that civilian possession of such weapons should be restricted to limit magazine capacity to five rounds or less.

Last month, an NRA member began a petition drive to recall Jackson from his NRA Board membership, based on these statements. Assuming that this member submits the required 450 minimum signed petitions to NRA HQ, with at least 100 from each of three states, Jackson will have to face a recall election next spring by the entire qualified NRA membership (i.e., all life members, plus regular members who have been members for at least the last five consecutive years). In order for your signature on the recall petition to be effective, you must be one of those qualified members.

I urge everyone to think hard and vote their consciences here. Let me begin by saying that I am sure that Ranger Jackson was a good Texas Ranger, and I bear him no personal animus - that is, no more than I bear towards any elitist who believes that they are "the Only Ones" fit to carry weapons that are routinely denied to me and other Americans. I also know many patriots who have resigned from the NRA or who have let their NRA memberships lapse because of the organization's too-cozy D.C. shenanigans. While I understand your decision, it has the unfortunate effect of removing you from this fight.

To those who still belong to the Association and who are qualified to participate in this recall, please consider the following:

1) Military-style individual weapons are precisely the kind of arms guaranteed to all U.S. citizens by the Second Amendment, if the amendment's text, its procedural history, the statements of the Founders, and virtually all case law until the past forty years have any meaning at all.

2) Therefore, support for any sort of "assault weapon" restriction, either by weapon or magazine type, is support for a profound infringement of the Second Amendment. I would submit that failure to grasp this fundamental principle is grounds for immediate removal from any gun-rights group.

3) Just as importantly, every single employee, officer, director, and contract lobbyist working for the NRA is nothing more than an agent, serving at the pleasure of their principals, the NRA membership. One of the Association's most corrupt aspects is their ongoing "we know better" attitude towards the membership, as exemplified most recently by their inexcusable support of Representative McCarthy's veteran's disarmament bill.

If the NRA is nothing more than a shadow pseudo-governmental bureaucracy, doing whatever it wants to its members whenever it wants to do so, then just click off this entry and go back to your hunting magazines. You'll be really happy, starting in 2009....

I and other voting members will continue to insist that we, the membership, are the principals within the organization. As such, the NRA staff - regardless of rank or title - must do our bidding as our agents - nothing more and nothing less.

4) Accordingly, any NRA staffer - including but not limited to Ranger Jackson - who isn't down with the "Second Amendment means what it says as it is written" program is no longer fit to serve as our agent in defending the Second, along with the rest of the Constitution.

Please review the linked material, and if you agree, sign and submit the petition per the instructions. Next spring, you'll be asked again to help in getting the qualified membership at large to vote in favor of Ranger Jackson's removal.

Really, people - if the folks you hired to paint your garage instead tore up your backyard to install a horseshoe pit, would you tolerate it?

Don't ever tolerate anti-gunners on the NRA Board, no matter what good deeds they may or may not have done in the past.

It's a matter of principle.

UPDATE: A reader pointed out that Ranger Jackson "repudiated" that remark last summer. Read the statement attributed to him after watching the video clip linked above, and then you be the judge.

UPDATE #2: Jeff82 has put together a dedicated blog to help publicize this effort and to track progress. Please give him your support as we try to make a difference on behalf of the Second Amendment.

Media Bias? Corruption? What Do You Mean by That?

A very useful article compiling many of the major media disinformation/propaganda/plagiarism scandals over the past sixty years, with links to more details.

As the transnational socialists and their domestic Republicrat/Demoplican allies salivate over their prospects in 2008, to be followed shortly by their revival of the "Fairness" Doctrine and other statist repressions, you may want to use the article and its links to educate a few folks in your circles as to what really happens in the so-called newsrooms.

Reminder: WRSA Intermediate Rifle Clinic - Brookings, OR - October 6-7

Hope to see you there.

Everything Old Will Be New Again - The "Militia Threat" Returns

With a lucky 13 months to go before the 2008 elections (a probable Dem sweep with Hillary as POTUS and increased Senate/House Dem majorities), I just came across this blast from the Clinton I past.

My fave? The rankings of militia "types" by belief system and purported threat level:

***
As part of their report, Agents Duffy and Brantley developed a profile of a typical militia group member.

- White males ranging in age from early 20s to mid-50s.
- Attracted to the movement because of gun control issues, believing that the government wants to disarm the people and abolish the second amendment.
- Generally maintain strong Christian beliefs.
- Ardent defenders of the Constitution.
- Feel they represent the ideological legacy of the Founding Fathers.

Agents Duffy and Brantley conclude that the modern militias’ tendency to challenge laws and the authority of elected officials create a very real threat to public safety. Yet, they also report that many militia groups condemned the Oklahoma City bombing and do not condone the use of violence in pursuit of their goals.

The Militia Threat Assessment Typology

In dealing with antigovernment militia groups, the FBI recommends law enforcement agencies first determine the threat level, if any posed by the group. To assist them, Agent Alan S. Brantley and former Agent Gregory Cooper of the FBI’s Critical Incident and Response Group in Quantico created this "Militia Threat Assessment Typology."

Category I Militia Groups (Least Threat)

- Conduct paramilitary training.
- Base their organizational philosophies on antigovernment rhetoric.
- Maintain a primarily defensive philosophical posture. Plans for violent action are contingent upon perceived government provocation.
- Engage in no known criminal activity.

Category II Militia Groups

- Conduct paramilitary training.
- Base their organizational philosophies on antigovernment rhetoric.
- Maintain a primarily defensive philosophical posture. Plans for violent action are contingent upon perceived government provocation.
- Engage in criminal activity to acquire weapons and explosives. Criminal activity may range from minor firearm violations, e.g., illicit weapons sales and transfer, to modifications and property crimes.

Category III Militia Groups

- Conduct paramilitary training.
- Base their organizational philosophies on extreme antigovernment rhetoric, denoting deep suspicion and paranoia. Group may direct threats towards specific individuals or institutional targets.
- Maintain a primarily defensive philosophical posture. Plans for violent action are contingent upon perceived government provocation, but response plans are highly detailed and may include an escalation of overt acts beyond planning such as testing explosive devices, gathering intelligence, and identifying/conducting surveillance of potential targets.
- Engage in criminal activity ranging from property crimes to crimes of interpersonal violence, e.g., resisting arrest, armed robberies, burglaries, and attempts to provoke confrontations with government officials.

Category IV Militia Groups (Greatest Threat)

- Demonstrate many of the same traits and characteristics as category III groups but are likely to be smaller, more isolated cells or fringe groups whose members have grown frustrated with their peers' unwillingness to pursue a more aggressive strategy.
- Often maintain an openly offensive, rather than defensive posture.
- May grow out of other less threatening militia groups or may evolve independently from any other group associations.
- Often attract individuals with frank mental disorders. These individuals may either act alone or with a small number of associates who share similar paranoid/disordered beliefs.
- Plot and engage in serious criminal activity, e.g., homicides, bombings, and other acts of a terrorist nature.

***

Sure glad that Agents Brantley and Duffy's original paper on the topic isn't just sitting in an archive waiting to be part of the Clinton II playbook.

Of course, even if it were, that's not going to happen, because the gun control issue is politically dead, right?

Tempus fugit....

Let There Be Light(s)

Some very useful videos on using lights with your weapons, courtesy of Survivalblog:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3