Western Rifle Shooters Association

Do not give in to Evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it

Monday, June 30, 2008

Vanderboegh: Black-and-Tans


Black-and-Tans
by Mike Vanderboegh

(Another chapter of "Absolved", an upcoming novella)

"You know, even when we were killing them, we felt sorry for the gun cops. I mean it really was self defense for us but they were somebody's son, or husband or father. . . they were, they had been, Americans. (pause) So they never did seem like the real enemy, not really, not like the politicians who sent them. But the mercenaries? Those Brightfire monsters? It was a pleasure killing those bastards. They were far worse than the Feds. Hell, they didn't even believe in what the administration was doing, they were just in it for the money, for what they got paid or what they could steal, or the rape, or the sheer sadistic cruelty of it. Some of the stuff they did to our wounded, or to our families and friends . . . terrible things, techniques they'd learned in Iraq or Afghanistan . . . (Long silence.) No, it was God's own justice what we did to those bastards. Half of them were foreigners anyway, hired by Americans to come kill other Americans. (pause) Because of what they did to us, we'd only take them prisoner if we needed some information, and then we'd shoot them afterward. (pause) I'm not proud of it, and God will probably tell me I did wrong when I face Him, but it was a pleasure killing those monsters. And it was simple justice. (pause) May God forgive us." -- Interview transcript, 12 Nov 2024, SGT Timothy M. Murphy, sapper and team leader, Firelands Rangers militia, from Ohio State Historical Society Oral History Collection, The Restoration War, A6745, Disc #32

"It was inevitable that the administration would turn to what they called 'private contractors' after the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and subordinate military commanders informed the President that the Army and Marines would be unreliable to carry out Operation Clean Sweep. Even the wholesale replacement of senior officers in the Pentagon could not induce the majority of U.S. soldiers to enforce the draconian laws passed after the Battle of Sipsey Street. The administration came to realize that the most they could count on was that the military would stay on the sidelines and not turn on THEM as "domestic enemies" of the Constitution. . . . Using 'contractors' however had other benefits. They could (and would) be used by the administration for the 'plausible deniability' of some actions against the rebels and their families which were not even covered by the new laws. In addition, from a bureaucratic point of view, the means of their procurement was familiar and time-tested. Finally, using 'contractors' enabled the administration to hire men who were, frankly, criminals -- men who could never have passed the background checks required for the military or federal law enforcement. Absent the Army and Marines, the administration desperately needed bodies to carry out Operation Clean Sweep. The 'contractors' made that possible, or so it was thought." -- Dr. Herbert Matthews, Restoration or Rebellion?, LSU Press, 2029, p. 56.

Air Tractor


Stealing the plane had been the easy part. It wasn't even stolen, really, just borrowed from a friend. Not that Joe Cornyn expected to be able to return it back to Charlie Carter in one piece. He had been lucky, he knew, for C.C.'s misfortune. Well, it was an ill wind that blew no one any good and Joe had been the beneficiary of C.C.'s bankruptcy. Fuel costs had become prohibitive. No farmer could afford to pay what C.C. had to charge for cropdusting nowadays. So Charlie had shuttered his office and hanger, laid off his employees and sold off all of his company assets, save this plane, his best.

Even the hanger had been Joe's for the using while he modified the crop duster for the job. But even that hadn't been the tough part, although his hands, unused to metal fabrication and machine work, looked like it was. No, the tough part had been working out the details of the weapon he intended to deploy. He read crop dusting manuals (which we written with all the clear meaning and exciting prose of Chinese VCR instructions) until the data ran out his ears.

"Remember the speed of the aircraft changes the droplet spectrum. The optimum droplet spectrum can generally be developed by selecting the appropriate setup configuration. Remember turbine powered, faster aircraft, generally have more uniform patterns. And the droplet spectrum may be the most important aspect of these applications and should be carefully adjusted with nozzle selection, operating pressure and mounting configuration. . . Remember small changes in droplet diameter make big changes in droplet volume! (Example: It takes (1.6) 300µ droplets to equal 1 350µ droplet and 2.4 300µ droplets to equal 1 400µ. . . . Remember there are excellent aerial models available to help determine the expected droplet spectrum. . . Remember . . . Remember . . ."

Remember? Joe remembered that crap in in his sleep. He wouldn't likely forget it this side of the grave.

Which, he reflected, might not be that long from now anyway.

"The AT-802/802A is the world's largest single engine aircraft, and its popularity reflects the industry's trend to larger, high-production turbine equipment. With a payload of 9,500 lbs, the AT-802A provides more working capacity than any other single-engine ag plane. Its power, speed and payload delivers large operation efficiencies and opens up new income opportunities." -- from the Air Tractor sales brochure.

Leland Snow sure knew how to build an airplane. The Air Tractor 802A that vibrated under Joe Cornyn's finger tips was BIG. Its Pratt & Whitney PT6A-65AG turbine engine generated 1,295 horsepower at 1,700 RPM and the five bladed prop just clawed the heavy plane through the sky effortlessly. With a span of almost 60 feet, it's big rectangular wings had an area of 401 square feet.

Of course, it had to be for the payload it was designed to carry. This was no Piper Cub. As a matter of fact, taking off in a fully loaded cropduster was like trying to get a wallowing B-17F loaded with 500 pound bombs off the ground. Anybody who jumped into a tanked-up Air Tractor expecting it to perform like any other single-engine light plane would end up as the main course in a combination barbeque and celestial dirt nap at the end of the runway. Someone once compared it to the difference between handling a nimble sports car versus a fully loaded Peterbilt semi. Pilots of crop dusters are required to have a one-year apprenticeship to learn how to operate and fly the aircraft safely.

Fortunately for Joe, Charlie had given him some familiarization time in the Air Tractor back when Cornyn had toyed with the idea of getting his crop duster certificate. He'd never followed it up, but he wasn't at a loss to fly the single-engine bomber -- which was what the Air Tractor was now -- as he headed east to the target which lay ahead in the gathering dawn.

"Come out, you Black and Tans"

And as he flew nap of the earth, Joe Cornyn began to sing a song his grandda had taught him long before:

I was born on a Dublin street where the Loyal drums did beat
And the loving English feet walked all over us,
And every single night when me father'd come home tight
He'd invite the neighbors outside with this chorus:

Oh, come out you black and tans,
Come out and fight me like a man
Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders
Tell them how the IRA made you run like hell away,
From the green and lovely lanes in Killeshandra.

Come tell us how you slew
Them ol' Arabs two by two
Like the Zulus they had spears and bows and arrows,
How you bravely faced each one
With your sixteen pounder gun
And you frightened them damn natives to their marrow.

Oh, come out you black and tans,
Come out and fight me like a man . . .

Joe laughed loud enough to be heard over the Pratt and Whitney, although it was a single-seater and no one but God heard him. His grandda would understand what he was about to do this day, for little Michael Florence Cornyn had been there when, with his father off fighting with the IRA Volunteers, the Tans had beaten his older brother half to death and attempted the rape of his mother.

Young Michael Cornyn, all of twelve years old, had fetched the Webley revolver from its hiding place and killed his mother's attacker. And when the would-be rapist's two friends ran up the stairs to see what had happened, Michael Cornyn shot them too. His marksmanship could have been better, though, for his twin sister Mary had to finish one of them off with the butcher knife from the kitchen.

Eventually, the Cornyns made their way to America, and they raised their children with an Irishman's memories of the courageous Volunteers and the vicious Black and Tans taught through the songs of Irish freedom.

He hadn't even had to lie to Carter about what he was going to do. Charlie had gone and got himself busted by the Feds for violating the new "contempt of authority" statute while protesting the disappearance of his son Jim into the maw of the new tyranny. C.C. was even now spending 90 days in the federal lockup in Richmond. At least Charlie would have an alibi for what was about to happen.

Not that it would matter. If Joe hurt Brightfire one tenth of what he hoped to, he was sure his friend's life would be forfeit too. He had removed every ID number and casting or stamping code from the aircraft he could find, but he was sure federal forensics would still find something that could use to tie the plane to Charlie. And once identified, Brightfire would make him very slowly, very painfully, dead.

Brightfire.

If the devil was abroad in the land, and Joe Cornyn knew that he was, then the mercenaries of Brightfire were Beelzebub's familiar demons and imps. And Joseph Michael Collins Cornyn intended to introduce as many of them as he could to their master this day. Joe sang lustily,

The day is coming fast
And the time is here at last,
When each yeoman will be cast aside before us,
And if there be a need
Sure my kids will sing, "Godspeed!"
With a bar or two of Stephen Behan's chorus

Oh, come out you black and tans,
Come out and fight me like a man . . .


Brightfire

Brightfire International -- Founded in 1985, this private security company specializing in "security, stability and peace-keeping operations" became a multi-billion dollar enterprise by providing "private contractors" to the U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq after 11 September 2001. The largest single employer in southeast Virginia by the time of the withdrawal of American troops from those conflicts, Brightfire began to utilized for domestic security operations, especially intelligence gathering, in the period immediately preceding the civil conflict which began with the Battle of Sipsey Street. (See also Phillip Gordon, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Operation Clean Sweep, Restoration War, Mercenaries, and War Crimes Trials, United States). Although Brightfire was not the only private security company to provide "mercenaries" to Operation Clean Sweep, they were the largest, the best known, and it must be said, the most ruthless of such companies employed by the U.S. government in the attempt to disarm its own people.

From its base on 10,000 acres in rural southeastern Virginia, at the height of its operations early in the Restoration War, Brightfire trained tens of thousands of its own "contract operators" as well as federal police recruits at the world's largest privately owned weapons training facility. Through its Executive Air subsidiary, Brightfire provided cargo and tactical pilots and aircraft to the federal effort, eventually acquiring its own tactical air force to provide close air support to Operation Clean Sweep when the US Air Force proved unwilling to do so. -- "Chillicothe, Ohio: The American Guernica," George Wilson, Journal of American Military History, Vol. 66, No.1, 2027.

Brightfire also produced its own remotely piloted vehicles, fixed wing and blimp, as well as armored vehicles. Ironically, the Democrat party politicians who were so loud in denouncing Brightfire when it was supporting American military operations overseas, overnight became the company's greatest defenders when it was used within the continental United States in Operation Clean Sweep. -- Encyclopedia Americana, Random House, New York, 2030.

Chillicothe

The personal last straw for Joe had been Chillicothe.

The Black and Tans . . . Joe caught himself. No, the Brightfire thugs.

Anyway, whatever you called them, or they called themselves, the murdering bastards had tried to take down an "illegal" political meeting in the southern Ohio town. The local cops had a security detail there, just to keep order. Nobody expected a Brightfire attack. They got one, though, and the Chillicothe police made the mistake of trying to talk them out of it. In the wink of an eye, there were six dead cops on the ground and Brightfire was shooting in all directions, killing men, women and kids, just like Bloody Sunday. The county sheriff stepped in, and with his deputies, what was left of the Chillicothe police and reinforced by several local militias, counterattacked and hemmed the Brightfire murderers into a warehouse on the river.

Trapped, Brightstar called down destruction on the town from above. When it was over half of downtown was a burnt-out shell. The Feds suppressed the number of civilian casualties, but best estimates said it was over a thousand dead. The government had a firm censor's grip on the media and the Internet now, so no one knew for sure, but that's what the Resistance Radio Network reported when it wasn't being jammed and they were known for being more accurate than the government mouthpieces of the "mainstream media."

Joe didn't have any relatives that he knew of in Chillicothe. His family had not been victimized by the Feds yet. The only friend he had who'd run afoul of them was C.C. and was a 90 day jail term worth avenging by the mass slaughter he intended to inflict on Brightstar this morning?

Maybe not.

But Chillicothe was.

Chillicothe offended him as only a free man can be offended when he sees innocents slaughtered. He wasn't a spectator in this war. He was an American citizen. And his Irish blood wouldn't let him sit still while others died. The Sassenach, as his old grandda called them, needed to be paid back.

And Joe Cornyn knew how.

FAE

"For vapor cloud explosion there is a minimum ratio of fuel vapor to air below which ignition will not occur. Alternately, there is also a maximum ratio of fuel vapor to air, at which ignition will not occur. These limits are termed the lower and upper explosive limits. For gasoline vapor, the explosive range is from 1.3 to 6.0% vapor to air, and for methane this range is 5 to 15%. Many parameters contribute to the potential damage from a vapor cloud explosion, including the mass and type of material released, the strength of ignition source, the nature of the release event (e.g., turbulent jet release), and turbulence induced in the cloud (e.g., from ambient obstructions). . . The blast effects from vapor cloud explosions are determined not only by the amount of fuel, but more importantly by the combustion mode of the cloud. Significant overpressures can be generated by both detonations and deflagrations. Most vapor cloud explosions are deflagrations, not detonations. Flame speed of a deflagration is subsonic, with flame speed increasing in restricted areas and decreasing in open areas. Significantly, a detonation is supersonic, and will proceed through almost all of the available flammable vapor at the detonation reaction rate. This creates far more severe peak over-pressures and much higher amounts of blast energy. The speed of the flame front movement is directly proportional to the amount of blast over-pressure. A wide spectrum of flame speeds may result from flame acceleration under various conditions. High flame front speeds and resulting high blast over pressures are seen in accidental vapor cloud explosions where there is a significant amount of confinement and congestion that limits flame front expansion and increases flame turbulence. These conditions are evidently more difficult to achieve in the unconfined environment in which military fuel-air explosives are intended to operate. . . The peak overpressure and duration are used to calculate the impulse from shock waves. Even some advanced explosion models ignore the effects of blast wave reflection off structures, which can produce misleading results over- or under-estimating the vulnerability of a structure. Sophisticated software used to produce three-dimensional models of the effects of vapor cloud explosions allows the evaluation of damage experienced by each structure within a facility as a result of a primary explosion and any accompanying secondary explosions produced by vapor clouds." -- "Fuel - Air Explosives"

Years before, when Joe had been in Army aviation flying fixed wing aircraft, he had seen a GBU-43/B tested. They called it the "Mother of All Bombs" for a reason.

Cornyn had been awestruck. It was like a nuke without the radiation. And everything beneath it was broken or turned inside out.

Fuel-air weapons work by initially detonating a scattering charge within a bomb, rocket or grenade warhead. The warhead contents, which are composed of either volatile gases, liquids or finely powdered explosives, form an aerosol cloud. This cloud is then ignited and the subsequent fireball sears the surrounding area while consuming the oxygen in this area. The lack of oxygen creates an enormous overpressure. This overpressure, or blast wave, is the primary casualty-producing force. In several dozen microseconds, the pressure at the center of the explosion can reach 30 kilograms per square centimeter (427 pounds per square inch) – normal atmospheric pressure at sea level is 14.7 pounds per square inch with a temperature between 2,500-3,000 degrees Centigrade [4,532-5,432 degrees Fahrenheit]. This is 1.5 to 2 times greater than the overpressure caused by conventional explosives. Personnel under the cloud are literally crushed to death. Outside the cloud area, the blast wave travels at some 3,000 meters per second [9843 feet per second]. The resultant vacuum pulls in loose objects to fill the void. As a result, a fuel-air explosive can have the effect of a tactical nuclear weapon without residual radiation. Since a fuel-air mixture flows easily into any cavities, neither natural terrain features nor non-hermetically sealed field fortifications (emplacements, covered slit trenches, bunkers) protect against the effects of fuel-air explosives. -- Lester Grau & Timothy Smith, "A 'Crushing' Victory: Fuel-Air Explosives and Grozny 2000," Marine Corps Gazette, August, 2000.

Now Joe didn't have a C-130, or a bomb casing the size of a pickup truck, or military grade RDX explosive as a burster to distribute the fuel.

What Joe had was a big-ass crop duster and 800 gallons of high-test gasoline in the spray tank. In military terms, he had a huge flying molotov cocktail. Whether it detonated or merely rained fire down on those mercenary assholes would be a tricky question at best, dependent upon weather, if he had guessed right about the micron size of the nozzles dispensing the fuel, whether the computer models he had used were right, and if (and he was afraid it was a big "if") his improvised ignition system would work.

He knew he'd have to have a day with little or no wind, and if the forecasters were right (were they ever?), this was it. It had better be. He'd waited two weeks for it. He had debated about doing this at night, under a full moon or a maybe a "smuggler's moon." Finally he chose dawn, first because knew he had to see the cloud as he dispensed it and second because he had another bright idea in which, if it were to work, the plane had to be visible from the ground.

To increase the confusion, he'd painted the aircraft solid black, as the Brightfire planes were, and put company logos on the tail and wings. He was flying on the deck, using every bit of ground clutter he could to confuse the military radars that were always working to protect the many defense assets on the east coast. He had pulled the radio. There was no point in talking to anybody, and he needed every bit of weight savings he could find. He wouldn't fool them if challenged by a flight controller and he would be flying in off-limits airspace.

What would he say to them anyway, just before he struck? The old battle cry of the Irish Volunteers - "Up the Republic!"? He could only hope that if they scrambled fighters to shoot him down short of his target that the Brightfire colors would confuse them long enough for him to do the job.

NORAD

"Sir, we have an unidentified aircraft flying at low altitude headed east near the Virginia-North Carolina line. It's not on any authorized flight list and it doesn't answer to repeated radio calls."

The Air Force sergeant paused. The Colonel sat up a little straighter and looked at the NCO intently.

"Show me on the display," he ordered.

The Colonel grunted softly and asked, "Do you have a guess on where it's headed? Norfolk, maybe?"

The NCO shook his head. "No sir, allowing for it flying around hills, it seems to always return to a bee-line for Brightfire, Virginia."

The NCO wasn't sure but he thought the Colonel faintly smiled.

"Shall I scramble fighters to intercept, sir?"

"Brightfire, huh? Any chance its one of theirs?"

"It's not on any of their flight plans, sir, and they know how picky we are about that."

The Colonel snorted. Last month, a Brightfire attack helicopter chased what they claimed was a militia pickup truck onto the Fort Huachuca military reservation. When it failed to answer challenges from the base defense force on the ground demanding that it back off, the Army had put it in the dirt, killing four Brightfire employees. The pickup truck, if it had ever existed, got clean away. Brightfire had been a lot more respectful of the chain of command since then.

"How far out from Brightfire is it, Sergeant?"

"Sir, I'd guess about ten minutes."

"And how long will it take for an F-16 to intercept?"

"Sir, about 10 to 12 minutes."

"Well, Sergeant, it seems like a moot point then, doesn't it?"

"Yes, sir," the sergeant hesitated. "Shall I give Brightfire a call, sir?"

The Colonel hestitated. He and the sergeant had been together for a while, but could he trust him with the truth? The Colonel decided he could.

"No, sergeant, let's just sit back and enjoy the show."

With a broad grin, the sergeant said, "Yes, sir!" and went back to his screen.

The Colonel leaned back in his chair and prayed silently, "Lord, please let this be what I think it is."

Stone

Bill Duryea was known for his ability to remain motionless longer than seemed humanly possible. His nickname among the members of his militia reconnaissance team was "Stone," and not just for his ability to be deathly still for long periods of time. Even so, he'd had just about enough of this hide he'd shared with Willie Crawford for the past week. The place stank of body odor, and even the buried urine and feces could be detected by Bill's sensitive nose. A patrol dog would have no trouble pointing them out if one of the random sweeps that came through this area got downwind of them. Still, the hide was just about perfect.

A natural hole in the earth formed when the root ball of a huge old pine pulled out of the ground as the tree fell during a hurricane years back, it had been relatively easy to improve it into a sleeping area in the back and a masked observation slit in front, worked craftily into the rotting tree remnants which not only shielded them from observation, but made a dandy bullet barrier too. If need be, they could plug up the slit with natural colored burlap sandbags they'd prepared, but of course they'd be trapped. There was no back exit to this place. Although one could perhaps be dug in time, now was NOT the time. The recon team was there to sneak and peak and their ability to do that was about spent.

They'd have to leave tonight in any case. Bill had just replaced the batteries in the surveillance camera and the AN-PVS-14 night vision devices with their last set. They couldn't use the flexible solar panel to recharge here - it would be a dead giveaway. In addition to the battery shortage, they had only one more full disc to store images on.

But, oh what they had gathered so far! It was the mother lode of practical intel. With what they had, you could plan a raid that had a reasonable chance of success. Now all they had to do was wrap up today, wait for nightfall and exfil out.

The hide was on the military crest of a low ridge right outside the Brightfire compound's main inner gate. It overlooked corporate headquarters, the computer data center and the reception/conference building. On the backside of the headquarters was the company airport with the main hangers about a quarter mile down the runway to the east. Just past the tree line on the other side of the runway, the first roofs of the training barracks were visible through the pines, perhaps a half mile off.

"Stone" Duryea smiled. Nothing like putting all your eggs in one small basket. Everything near and dear to Peter King, CEO of Brightfire, was right here within a half-mile. Oh, if we just had a suitcase nuke, thought Bill.

Of course the compound's buildings were constructed in another age, back before the Second American Civil War (or Third, if you counted the Revolution). It was a monument to the ego of the man who wanted to be able to walk right off his corporate jet (or helicopter) and into the back door of his corporate offices. Who would have thought that a business, even a security business, might one day have to be militarily defended?

Well, Peter King was an ex-CIA spook, and he should have thought of it. Unfortunately the militia didn't have an air force like Brightfire, so there probably was little Peter King had worry about from the air. And this was the inner sanctum of a 10,000 acre fortress, scattered with wire, sensors and even minefields, not mention dogs and beaucoup armed mercenaries. It had taken a half a year of unsuccessful probing of Brightfire's defenses before the unit had worked out a chink in its armor, and even then it had taken all of Duryea's considerable skills to get them this far undetected. This could only be done once, so it had to be done right. They had tip-toed along the razor's edge to get here, and they would likely have to sprint along it back the way they came.

A diversion had been arranged with radio clicks by a prearranged code last night.

Perhaps it would be enough.

Perhaps.

Something moved noiselessly beside him, and Duryea turned to look into the broad, black face of Willie Crawford. "Shift change," Willie whispered and "Stone" Duryea nodded. He loved Willie like the brother he never had. You couldn't do this kind of insane stuff and not. If you didn't, one of them would kill the other, or do something to get them both killed. Bill Duryea swore there were times that the could read each other's minds. A question formed in Willie's eyes. Yeah, Duryea nodded silently, he heard it too.

A deep-throated buzzing, growing louder, behind them, coming in from the west. They both moved toward the slit.

"Up the Republic!"

Even before the AT802A cleared the tallest trees on the last major hill before Brightfire, he knew he was dead-on target from the navigational markers he had jotted on his clipboard. He knew he would see the buildings at the front gate, but he also knew he wanted a body count in retribution for Chillicothe. So instead of aiming for the corporate headquarters and surrounding buildings he made straight across the runway for the training barracks.

Huge long low buildings, row upon row, they were said to be able to hold 10,000 men while they trained away at being bloodthirsty killers of American citizens. But as he buzzed the headquarters and the airfield he threw one, then another, little box with a small parachute attached. They had no sooner left his hand when they began a warbling wail that every American soldier knew was the signature sound of a chemical-biological attack sensor. The few folks who were out and about froze, then ran to get inside.

As he gained altitude over the barracks, he tossed out more with the same result. He was low enough still to see mens' mouths working soundlessly, "Gas! Gas!"

OK, now you've seen me, watch this, Cornyn thought. He had done a lot of gaming for this moment.

How fast? How high to start with the bottom layer? How many passes to get rid of 800 gallons? What droplet size? Would he live?

Don't think! his mind screamed at him. Do!

The buildings were actually longer and wider than he had planned, so he made his initial run higher than he thought he might. Out came the fuel, brilliant purple in the dawn's sunlight. He'd put inert dye in to enable him to spot the cloud. Of course, this made it more visible to the mercenaries on the ground, too.

And between the sight of the purple cloud, the cropduster and the gas alarms, they drew the immediate wrong conclusion: this was a chemical or biological attack. Their only hope was to get inside and tape up those barracks. No way would Brightfire have issued 10,000 MOPP suits to their trainees. So as much as the scurrying men below wanted more protection, they just knew that to run without a mask and suit was death.

And they did what Joe Cornyn wanted them to do.

They ran inside their thin-walled barracks.

One pass, then another. The propwash disturbed the cloud in some places, mended it in others. It was drifting lower, lower. Joe became aware he was singing another song his grandda had taught him, the battle hymn of the Irish Republican Army, and he was singing it in Gaelic:

Amhrán na bhFiann
Seo dhibh a cháirde duan Óglaigh,
Cathréimeach briomhar ceolmhar,
Ár dtinte cnamh go buacach táid,
'S an spéir go min réaltogach
Is fonnmhar faobhrach sinn chun gleo
'S go tiúnmhar glé roimh thíocht do'n ló
Fa ciúnas chaomh na hoiche ar seol:
Seo libh canaídh
Amhrán na bhFiann

We'll sing a song, a soldier's song,
With cheering rousing chorus,
As round our blazing fires we throng,
The starry heavens o'er us;
Impatient for the coming fight,
And as we wait the morning's light,
Here in the silence of the night,
We'll chant a soldier's song.

And then the tank was empty. 800 gallons gone that fast!?!

Joe pulled back on the stick, turbine and prop screaming, clawing for altitude above the cloud.

Sinne Fiánna Fáil
Atá fé gheall ag Éirinn,
Buidhean dár sluagh tar túinn do ráinig chughainn,
Fámhóidh bheith saor.
Sean-tír ár sinnsir feasta
Ní fhágfar fé'n tiorán ná fé'n tráil
Anocht a theigeamh sa bhearna bhaoil,
Le gean ar Ghaeil chun báis nó saoil
Le guna sgréach fé lámhach na bpiléar
Seo libh canaídh Amhrán na bhFiann.

Soldiers are we whose lives are pledged to Ireland;
Some have come from a land beyond the wave.
Sworn to be free, No more our ancient sire land
Shall shelter the despot or the slave.
Tonight we man the gap of danger
In Erin's cause,
come woe or weal
'Mid cannons' roar and rifles peal,
We'll chant a soldier's song.

Joe's intention had been to get high enough above the cloud, fire the star cluster rockets he had attached to the wings, and keep on going, presenting his tail to the blast and hope he had enough altitude to trade if he stalled out.

He saw now that it would be impossible to do that and to make sure of the detonation. The purple drifted lower, faster.

No second chance.

No choice.

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph and all the saints be with me," Joe breathed a prayer, and pulled the trigger on the star clusters.

----

When the gas alarms started going off, "Stone" Duryea leaped to the rear of the hide and broke out the M-40 gas masks for the both of them. They always carried them and two CS grenades apiece in case they needed to break contact with a pursuing foe who was unlikely to be carrying such protection themselves. For the same reason, they also carried two M49A1 trip flares each to use as hand grenades to throw behind as they didi'ed away at night, blinding any pursuers. They were careful men, which was why they were still alive.

But of the two scouts, Willie Crawford had the greater presence of mind this day. He pushed the surveillance camera to the front of the slit, set it on continuous wide-angle and only then did he put his mask on. Below them, no one was now visible outside the buildings. When they saw the purple cloud growing over the barracks, drifting down, they snugged their masks a little tighter.

Duryea spoke through the voicemitter on his mask, "We're upwind, I think."

Crawford just grunted. He hadn't noticed any breeze.

But when "Stone" Duryea and Willie Crawford saw the star clusters fall toward the cloud, they instantly knew what was about to happen. No time to retrieve the camera at the front of the slit, they packed sandbags in behind it as fast as they could.

Willie shouted "Cover your ears and open your mouth."

Duryea did, and then the world came apart.

---

Joseph Michael Collins Cornyn had wanted to survive this attack if he could.

He didn't.

He also wanted a detonation and not a deflagration of the fuel air cloud.

In that, he got what he wanted. And in the getting, he paid the Black and Tans back for Chillicothe almost ten times over. He not only got all the barracks, smashing them flat to kindling with blood jam running out the splintered cracks, but he also wrecked the airfield, the corporate headquarters and the computer center and secondary explosions of fuel pumps and utilities finished the job.

In all 9, 248 mercenaries were killed outright. And every one was a combatant, there was no "collateral damage" of innocent civilians.

732 were wounded, but many of them died subsequently. It is difficult for the doctors to put you back together once you have been turned inside out by concussion. It was the greatest single blow struck by the resistance against the forces of the administration, and it made government recruiting dwindle to almost nothing. The war would now be decided by the forces in the field, unless the military decided to jump in on the government's side or, it increasingly seemed possible, perhaps on the side of the resistance.

Indeed, the blow to the government's morale was so great, that they might have tried to hide the butcher's bill if it hadn't been for Willie Crawford's camera. Of course the camera didn't survive the blast, but the disc did. And so did Willie and "Stone" Duryea, who had no trouble exfiltrating out of the Brightfire compound's shredded defenses with the greatest piece of combat footage of the entire Restoration War. And it was a good thing that they could read each other's mind, because after that they were both very hard of hearing.

The government never did figure out who had carried out the FAE strike on Brightfire. Joe Cornyn and his plane were blown into so many pieces over such a large area of Virginia peat bog that reconstructing the forensic evidence was impossible.

Charlie Carter was released at the end of 90 days from the detention block in Richmond and came home to an empty airplane hangar and a cryptic goodbye note from Joe Cornyn.

It ended with his signature and below it, a P.S:

"Up the Republic!"

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Vanderboegh: Mercenaries


Go to Chris Horton's place and read Mike's latest essay.

It's important.

Tempus fugit.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

A Dissenting View on Heller


From comments cited by Billy Beck:

***
Martin: "Allow me a least one day of optimism, however!"

Not one second, sir.

The more I think about this, the more I’m convinced that there is nothing good in it.
What I see here is the Supreme Court acting as a focus-group for legislators and administrators: the Court is telling them how to tweak the program.
***

Exactly.


I started to slog through the majority opinion today, and will be working on my take hopefully for Independence Day publication.

What I have seen so far, when properly used by the OpFor, is Supreme Court authority for a complete abolition of "...weapons not typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes, such as short-barreled shotguns..." (Heller at p. 52).

More skepticism here.

So what can an average law-abiding RKBA activist do now?

Buy more AKs, ARs, FALs, Garands, and any other semi-automatic battle rifle or carbine, along with many mags and much ammo. Ditto with precision long-range rifles and associated equipment (e.g., riflescopes, bipods, and spotting scopes, along with reloading equipment and lots of components).

Keep doing so, as often as you can.

Then practice with that equipment regularly, under practical conditions, as discussed here and here.

Help others to learn those skills, whether by teaching yourself or hiring folks to do so.

For "lawful purposes", of course, such as home/farm/ranch defense, citizen-based homeland security, target competition, and personal protection.

Of course, such firearms are already "in common use at the time" (p. 55), aren't they?

Tempus fugit.

On the Impossibility of Limited Government and the Prospects for a Second American Revolution

More weekend reading, after you come back from both the gym and the range, from the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

An excerpt:

***
...How does secession fit into a bottom-up strategy of social revolution? More important, how can a secessionist movement escape the Southern Confederacy's fate of being crushed by a tyrannical and dangerously armed central government?

In response to these questions, it is first necessary to remember that neither the original American Revolution nor the American Constitution was the result of the will of the majority of the population. A third of the American colonists were actually Tories, and another third were occupied with daily routines and did not care either way. No more than a third of the colonists were actually committed to and supportive of the revolution, yet they carried the day. And as far as the Constitution is concerned, the overwhelming majority of the American public was opposed to its adoption, and its ratification represented more of a coup d'état by a tiny minority than the general will. All revolutions, whether good or bad, are started by minorities; and the secessionist route toward social revolution, which necessarily involves the breaking-away of a smaller number of people from a larger one, takes explicit cognizance of this important fact.

Second, it is necessary to recognize that the ultimate power of every government — whether of kings or caretakers — rests solely on opinion and not on physical force. The agents of government are never more than a small proportion of the total population under their control. This implies that no government can possibly enforce its will upon the entire population unless it finds widespread support and voluntary cooperation within the nongovernmental public. It implies likewise that every government can be brought down by a mere change in public opinion, i.e., by the withdrawal of the public's consent and cooperation...
***


Read the whole thing.

Tempus fugit.

Friday, June 27, 2008

The Warrior Way as Survival Strategy


I assume that everyone who reads this blog also makes a daily stop at SurvivalBlog.com. This long but valuable article is a good example why such a stop is wise:

***
...Preparedness, survival, or any other euphemism one can assign to our interest is as much mindset as gear, land or other physical manifestation of prudence. It is in itself a way of life that incorporates simple daily teachings, practice, and when training, the incorporation of real-life situational aspects that can better model an actual emergency scenario or a situation of social unrest. Any competent defense professional will say that greatest advantage in warfare is information, followed by logistics, then combat power. It’s no use having the greatest army in the world if you don’t know where the enemy is nor if you can’t you feed your troops. As Napoleon so famously postulated, an army marches on its stomach.

So with those adages in mind, how does one prioritize daily living to more readily understand these concepts? We all have things we do on a daily basis, so the question of incorporation becomes one of time management, especially given the marvelous source of information now available in today’s 24 hour “always on” culture. For instance, instead of perusing the morning newspaper or watching the morning breakfast, find several reputable financial news sources such as the online versions of the The Wall Street Journal or Barron’s. Start educating yourself on how markets move, how seemingly insignificant moves in commodities or futures, such as pork or wheat can have a direct impact on your daily life. This also gives you markers to start creating your own scenario planning data for acquisition planning, and in the worst case, a timeline for moving to your retreat. American’s are notorious for living in a bubble, in what is now a deeply materialistic culture, and missing the obvious signs of downturns both in the US and abroad. This new discipline has an upside as well, in that by becoming a more financially-aware individual, you can make more informed decisions on how to manage cash flow or even become a day-trader, freeing up capital for other, more serious purposes. Understanding the world around you, looking at information as intelligence rather than simple factoids and being aware of the bits and pieces that can provide a different and in many instances, a more accurate picture of what is really going on, is a skill that will pay one back in spades. Think outside the box!

Next, personal fitness is a must. In any crisis situation, adrenalin levels, stress, even physical injury can manifest themselves in a variety of ways that can cripple or terminate the best laid plans. It is therefore mandatory that anyone considering a preparedness strategy baseline their family health. The advantages of this are twofold: first, it gives one an idea of how much exercise they will need to incorporate into daily life to bring them to a level of basic fitness of a recruit in the US Army, ideally the Marines, which is not as hard as it may appear. Second, this will aid in identifying a medicine acquisition plan for family members so you are not caught short in a crisis situation...
***

Read the whole thing, and then get moving.

Time for contemplation is well past.

Take one action, every day, and see where you are in a month.

Enjoy your weekend.

Tempus fugit.

Next Stop: Chicago

From Tam comes this encouraging news:

***
...Following Thursday’s (5-4) ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment protects an individual civil right to keep and bear arms, and that a municipal gun ban violates that right, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) filed a federal lawsuit (complaint) challenging the City of Chicago’s long-standing handgun ban.

“Chicago’s handgun ban has failed to stop violent crime,” SAF founder Alan Gottlieb stated. “It’s time to give the Constitution a chance.”

In addition to SAF and ISRA, plaintiffs include Chicago residents Otis McDonald, a retiree who has been working with police to rid his neighborhood of drug dealers, and who wants to have a handgun at his home; Adam Orlov, a former Evanston police officer; software engineer David Lawson and his wife, Colleen, a hypnotherapist, whose home has been targeted by burglars. Attorney Alan Gura, who argued the District of Columbia challenge before the high court, and Chicago area attorney David G. Sigale, represent the plaintiffs.

“Our goal,” Gura said “is to require state and local officials to respect our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Chicago’s handgun ban, and some of its gun registration requirements, are clearly unconstitutional.”
***


Hammer time, Mayor Daley?

And to the statist thugs in the Heller dissents, as well as the toadies who wrote this editorial at the Chicago Tribune:

Sic semper tyrannis.

Follow-Up: Decision Time for Bob Barr

Having received no response from the Barr campaign to the policy information request described here, I've got a suggestion for a new campaign poster aimed at the RKBA activist.

David apparently has received no response either.

But there has been time for the candidate and campaign to string together these pretty words re Heller.

Very impressive - now what about your role in the Lautenberg amendment?

Make your own poster here, if you wish.

Me?

To quote KdT, I'm off to the range.

Tempus fugit.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Time


Heller
decision here.

Commentary
here.


Here.

And here.

Our thoughts later.

We have some time.

Countdown to Heller: With Bated Breath...

With a little more than twelve hours to go, here's the cover page by Drudge Report editor Matt Drudge as of 8:37 pm edt the evening before Heller.

Too cool.

I believe Captain John Parker had an appropriate word or two as well, as did Colonel (later General) John Stark:

Live free or die. Death is not the worst of evils.




Listen.

Think.

Remember always what it took to make us Americans - and how that lesson applies even today.

Semper fidelis.

UPDATE 2107 EDT 25 July:
Mike Vanderboegh just sent this piece, which speaks for itself:

'Twas the night before Heller
and all through the dwelling
The sweet odor of Hoppes
Was there for the smelling.

The patches were scrubbing
the bores with light oil.
And all was in readiness,
thanks to the toil.

The bolts were tested
with a "clack-clack-clack,"
In case Justice Kennedy
veered off the track.

Paratus et viglio.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Volk on Freedom

Oleg illustrates one of the many differences between those who have learned human history and those who pretend to have not.

Tempus fugit.

Vanderboegh: Closed Hand - An Open Letter to the ATF's Jim Cavanaugh

25 June 2008

Special Agent in Charge James Cavanaugh
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
Nashville Field Division
5300 Maryland Way, Suite 200
Brentwood, Tennessee 37027
via email: NashDiv@atf.gov

Dear Jim,

I know you get heartily sick of everybody busting your chops on 28 February and 19 April each year. Being a raid planner for that bloody fiasco in 1993 must be something you would rather forget. But here we are again, on the ragged end of another Bush administration, getting ready for another anti-gun Democrat to move into the White House. If you've been keeping track of my Internet scribbling (and if you don't one of your subordinates surely does), you know I'm often sounding the warning about "Waco Rules." You know, about how you gun cops can do anything we armed citizens can't or won't stop you from doing. Y'all never did get punished for your crimes in the '90s -- not the abortive, murderous Waco raid where you had to back up, humiliated, out of ammo, with your hands in the air; not your perjury in front of Congress about gunfire from helicopters; not your cowboy disregard for the 4th Amendment rights of citizens here in Alabama -- yes, you escaped serious scrutiny every time.

And you might be thinking just about now, like Prefect of Police Louis Reynault in "Casablanca," whether the incoming administration might not appreciate another demonstration of your "efficiency."

Along those lines, let me draw your attention to another pertinent anniversary which happens to fall today. It was a previous attempt by the United States government at "gun control." The Cheyenne and Lakota people call it, "The Battle of the Greasy Grass." It is more popularly know as the Battle of the Little Big Horn and was fought on 25 and 26 June, 1876:


As you probably remember, General Custer and 270-odd of his men did not survive the experience. Indeed, his raid plan was just about as botched as yours was on 28 February 1993.

Unfortunately for him and his men, he was dealing with native American warriors, the finest light cavalry in the world - not bizarre Christian sect members whose first reaction when you assaulted them was to call 9-1-1. The result was a few hundred markers like this which still dot the eastern Montana prairie:

Marker stone on the battlefield

"U.S. Soldier, 7th Cavalry, Fell Here, June 25, 1876."

Recently, other markers such as this one have been placed nearby:

Marker stone on the battlefield

"Closed Hand, a Cheyenne warrior, fell here on June 25, 1876, while defending the Cheyenne way of life."

You should understand that many of us gun owners today feel the same way as the Cheyenne and Lakota did about the predatory federal government in 1876 -- especially after the Olofson case proved to all of us who were paying attention that Waco Rules still govern the ATF. You can and will do anything we can't or won't stop you from doing. The rule of law -- the faint hope for the justice of a fair trial -- is no longer likely for the gun owners your agency selects as targets.

Olofson proves that.

History is never predictive, but it is always instructive. So I offer this memory of a previous attempt at "gun control" as a cautionary tale. Remember, if you will, the Cheyenne warrior Closed Hand, whose mortal remains lie on one of the hills above the Greasy Grass, surrounded by many more anonymous markers which read simply, "U.S. Soldier."

It would be a mistake to think that we, the armed citizenry of the United States in the 21st Century, would defend our way of life any less vigorously than the Lakota and Cheyenne of the 19th Century. On a practical note, I might also point out that there are many more of us and we are far better armed and equipped than the best Cheyenne brave.

I mention this just in case somebody in your department feels as froggy as you did on 27 February 1993. We have absorbed the lessons of history, including recent history, and I don't think you'll get a second chance at backing away with your hands in the air.

After all, Christian mercy didn't do the Davidians a lick of good in the end, did it?

And if the justice system works like it did for poor Olofson, then it really is Waco Rules, right?

The Law of Unintended Consequences sure does bite.

Be safe.

And remember Little Big Horn.

One of future King Barack the First's unruly subjects,

Mike Vanderboegh
PO Box 926
Pinson, AL 35126
GeorgeMason1776@aol.com

On the Evening Before Heller

It appears that the Heller decision will be announced tomorrow - Thursday, June 26th.

This essay by TheGeekWithA.45 sets the stage nicely. An excerpt:

***
Tonight, in the slanting light of a pleasant evening much like any other, I paused, as day segued into night.

Soon, perhaps as early as tomorrow, the Supreme Court will render a judgment on the meaning of twenty seven words. This judgment will either be fundamentally consistent, or fundamentally inconsistent with the belief that as Americans, we specifically retain unto ourselves the right to own, possess, and have with us, available for instant use, formidable arms; that this right is ensconced in our highest law; and that this ensconcement actively protects that right, today, with as much force and vigor as any and all other enumerated rights.

The sun has set, unmarked in the minds of far too many.

Tomorrow, it will rise, and we may learn something of the state of our beloved Republic. The ruling could blatantly stand against us, pronouncing a non right. The ruling could also embrace any of a number of possible perversities, pronouncing an impostor who wears the clothing of a right, but whose exercise in some way comes to a nullity, either by cunningly disguising a highly conditioned privilege, or by some other swindle.

The odds of a perverse ruling are slim, but not zero. History tells us that the Supreme Court has pulled some doozies in the past.

If the outcome is perverse, then the sun has truly set on anything recognizable as our free Republic of free humans.

{With thanks and apologies to Lincoln & Jefferson:}

Eleven score and twelve years ago, our founding fathers risked it all and won big, bringing forth something truly new and just and good under God's sky: a nation conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the astounding proposition that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

We have been fighting to keep this, ever clawing our way to "a more perfect union" ever since, and we have come close to losing it on more occasions than any of us are comfortable admitting.

Upon emerging from Independence Hall after the Constitutional convention, it is said that Ben Franklin answered a passer by's question as to what sort of government they had made, and his simple, terse response, "A Republic, if you can keep it". This statement has built into it the implicit question as to whether such a Republic can be kept, a question reiterated in Lincoln's day, and echoed in our own.

It may well be that but for the stubborn refusal of some number of Americans throughout history, the answer would be "No"...
***

Read the whole thing, please.

Highly recommended also is David Hardy's note re different perspectives on Constitutional analysis.

Interesting times, indeed...

Tempus fugit.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Decision Time for Bob Barr

As the rumors of his candidacy first surfaced, I sent an email to the exploratory committee asking for the same kind of unequivocal support for the Second Amendment expressed here by Ron Paul:

***
...More importantly, however, the debate about certain types of weapons ignores the fundamental purpose of the Second amendment. The Second amendment is not about hunting deer or keeping a pistol in your nightstand. It is not about protecting oneself against common criminals. It is about preventing tyranny. The Founders knew that unarmed citizens would never be able to overthrow a tyrannical government as they did. They envisioned government as a servant, not a master, of the American people. The muskets they used against the British Army were the assault rifles of the time. It is practical, rather than alarmist, to understand that unarmed citizens cannot be secure in their freedoms. It’s convenient for gun banners to dismiss this argument by saying “That could never happen here, this is America”- but history shows that only vigilant people can keep government under control. By banning certain weapons today, we may plant the seeds for tyranny to flourish ten, thirty, or fifty years from now...
***


In response, I received nothing - not even the courtesy of a "we'll get back to you".

After the campaign officially launched, I sent a $100 donation, and noted again the importance of an unequivocal (some would say "absolutist") statement re the Second.

They gladly took the money, but the requested statement?

No response - neither to me directly, nor, much more importantly, on the campaign website.

Then David Codrea posted this challenge to the Barr campaign:

An Open Challenge to Libertarian Presidential Candidate Bob Barr

Mr. Barr,

As WarOnGuns visitors were recently reminded, based on reporting by Gun Owners of America:

On September 28, 1996, you issued a memo on Congressional letterhead advocating:

The Lautenberg amendment with the Barr language is strong protection for women and children.

On October 12, 1996, you sent a letter to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, claiming you "improved" the Lautenberg language so it could not be struck down by the courts, stating:

Under the Lautenberg language -- which was cleared up through my amendatory language that was adopted -- there was no consistent definition of "crime of domestic violence," and therefore the entire provision would have been declared unconstitutional. My language corrected this deficiency by setting forth the common elements of the crime that would apply to everyone.

On Mar. 6, 1997, your editorial, "Don't Wink at Violence," was published in USA Today. In it, you wrote:

[Lautenberg] is important and worthwhile legislation, and we cannot allow its effectiveness to be reduced.

Despite the fact you then voted for Lautenberg as part of an omnibus spending bill, there are those who would like to hear your reasoning. I'm among those.

But I think you need to go one step further. With the exception of your USA Today piece, which can be purchased individually (but not disseminated in total without violating copyright), the other referenced documents aren't accessible to scrutiny.

This issue will not go away, Mr. Barr--you will either address it directly, and explain yourself--or ignore it.

I challenge you to release and post the full text of your memo, your AJC letter, and your USA Today opinion piece, and let gun owners read your words for themselves. And I challenge the Libertarian Party to demand it of you as well.

Response from the Barr campaign?

Nothing - despite several gentle reminders from David.

Today, after stewing for several days, I jumped on board with this note to the campaign:

Martin:

Received your email below today re the YouTube efforts.

As head of Congressman Barr’s eCampaign, you must realize the importance of building and sustaining momentum on the ‘Net if the candidate is to stand a chance.

That is why the Congressman’s failure to answer the questions posed by David Codrea here is so inexplicable.

David’s blog is widely read and extremely influential with one of the key demographics in your campaign.

The failure to address David’s questions might possibly be explained by lack of notice, but there are a LOT of people drawing other, derogatory conclusions from the silence.

I am one of those people, as not only have David's questions gone unanswered, but so too my prior emails to the campaign requesting an unequivocal statement of direct support for the Second Amendment from Congressman Barr.

My initial $100 donation to the campaign was an ante, as has been my support for the Congressman on our blog:

Plug 1

Plug 2

Plug 3

I am an attorney located in Atlanta, and am ready, willing, and able to support Congressman Barr to the full extent of Federal election law. However, you and the campaign should know that I will not be making further contributions, in kind or in cash, until this matter is addressed satisfactorily.

Please fix this omission quickly. I look forward to your reply by close of business, Atlanta time, June 25, 2008.


We'll see what, if any, response comes from the Barr camp.

But if the sanctity of private weapons as a bulwark against government tyranny were a strongly-held belief, that principle would already be featured on the Barr campaign website.

I wonder if the citizens of Pompeii and Herculaneum felt this way in the days before their little encounter with history?

Tempus fugit.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Weather Forecast: Grim



Courtesy of Codrea's War on Guns comes this excellent piece forecasting the Storm ahead - excerpt follows:

***
As never before since World War II, America faces one of her darkest hours as the storm clouds gather from a myriad of sources intent on destroying the notion of a free, constitutional Republic.

The problem is that this time around, the threat is much worse.

During WW II the threat was from the outside as totalitarian forces pressed against us from both the East and the West. Europe and Japan were a formidable foe, but Americans stood fast upon the principles of liberty.

Today, however, the threat is two-fold. The threat is both from the outside and the inside...
***


Read the whole thing, and then continue your preps.

Yes, David, there is a storm coming in.

Tempus fugit.

And So It Begins

Courtesy of the Congressional bill tracking service Thomas and our friend KTO, the complete text of HR 6257, known as the "Assault Weapons Ban Reauthorization Act of 2008", as introduced on June 12, 2008:

H.R.6257
Assault Weapons Ban Reauthorization Act of 2008 (Introduced in House)

SEC. 2. RESTRICTION ON MANUFACTURE, TRANSFER, AND POSSESSION OF CERTAIN SEMIAUTOMATIC ASSAULT WEAPONS.

(a) RESTRICTION- Section 922 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding after subsection (u) the following:

`(v)(1) It shall be unlawful for a person to manufacture, transfer, or possess a semiautomatic assault weapon.

`(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply to the possession or transfer of any semiautomatic assault weapon otherwise lawfully possessed under Federal law on the date of the enactment of this subsection.

`(3) Paragraph (1) shall not apply to--

`(A) any of the firearms, or replicas or duplicates of the firearms, specified in appendix A to this section, as such firearms were manufactured on October 1, 1993;

`(B) any firearm that--

`(i) is manually operated by bolt, pump, lever, or slide action;

`(ii) has been rendered permanently inoperable; or

`(iii) is an antique firearm;

`(C) any semiautomatic rifle that cannot accept a detachable magazine that holds more than 5 rounds of ammunition; or

`(D) any semiautomatic shotgun that cannot hold more than 5 rounds of ammunition in a fixed or detachable magazine.

The fact that a firearm is not listed in appendix A shall not be construed to mean that paragraph (1) applies to such firearm. No firearm exempted by this subsection may be deleted from appendix A so long as this subsection is in effect.

`(4) Paragraph (1) shall not apply to--

`(A) the manufacture for, transfer to, or possession by the United States or a department or agency of the United States (including the United States Armed Forces and, under regulations pursuant to title 50, United States Code, the National Guard and Reserve), or a State or a department, agency, or political subdivision of a State, or a transfer to or possession by a law enforcement officer employed by such an entity for purposes of law enforcement (whether on or off duty);

`(B) the transfer to a licensee under title I of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 for purposes of establishing and maintaining an on-site physical protection system and security organization required by Federal law, or possession by an employee or contractor of such licensee on-site for such purposes or off-site for purposes of licensee-authorized training or transportation of nuclear materials;

`(C) the possession, by an individual who is retired from service with a law enforcement agency and is not otherwise prohibited from receiving a firearm, of a semiautomatic assault weapon transferred to the individual by the agency upon such retirement; or

`(D) the manufacture, transfer, or possession of a semiautomatic assault weapon by a licensed manufacturer or licensed importer for the purposes of testing or experimentation authorized by the Secretary.'.

(b) DEFINITION OF SEMIAUTOMATIC ASSAULT WEAPON- Section 921(a) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding after paragraph (29) the following:

`(30) The term `semiautomatic assault weapon' means--

`(A) any of the firearms, or copies or duplicates of the firearms in any caliber, known as--

`(i) Norinco, Mitchell, and Poly Technologies Avtomat Kalashnikovs (all models);

`(ii) Action Arms Israeli Military Industries UZI and Galil;

`(iii) Beretta Ar70 (SC-70);

`(iv) Colt AR-15;

`(v) Fabrique National FN/FAL, FN/LAR, and FNC;

`(vi) SWD M-10, M-11, M-11/9, and M-12;

`(vii) Steyr AUG;

`(viii) INTRATEC TEC-9, TEC-DC9 and TEC-22; and

`(ix) revolving cylinder shotguns, such as (or similar to) the Street Sweeper and Striker 12;

`(B) a semiautomatic rifle that has an ability to accept a detachable magazine and has at least 2 of--

`(i) a folding or telescoping stock;

`(ii) a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon;

`(iii) a bayonet mount;

`(iv) a flash suppressor or threaded barrel designed to accommodate a flash suppressor; and

`(v) a grenade launcher;

`(C) a semiautomatic pistol that has an ability to accept a detachable magazine and has at least 2 of--

`(i) an ammunition magazine that attaches to the pistol outside of the pistol grip;

`(ii) a threaded barrel capable of accepting a barrel extender, flash suppressor, forward handgrip, or silencer;

`(iii) a shroud that is attached to, or partially or completely encircles, the barrel and that permits the shooter to hold the firearm with the nontrigger hand without being burned;

`(iv) a manufactured weight of 50 ounces or more when the pistol is unloaded; and

`(v) a semiautomatic version of an automatic firearm; and

`(D) a semiautomatic shotgun that has at least 2 of--

`(i) a folding or telescoping stock;

`(ii) a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon;

`(iii) a fixed magazine capacity in excess of 5 rounds; and

`(iv) an ability to accept a detachable magazine.'.

(c) PENALTIES-

(1) VIOLATION OF SECTION 922(v)- Section 924(a)(1)(B) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by striking `or (q) of section 922' and inserting `(r), or (v) of section 922'.

(2) USE OR POSSESSION DURING CRIME OF VIOLENCE OR DRUG TRAFFICKING CRIME- Section 924(c)(1)(B)(i) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting `or semiautomatic assault weapon,' after `short-barreled shotgun,'.

(d) IDENTIFICATION MARKINGS FOR SEMIAUTOMATIC ASSAULT WEAPONS- Section 923(i) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: `The serial number of any semiautomatic assault weapon manufactured after the date of the enactment of this sentence shall clearly show the date on which the weapon was manufactured.'.

SEC. 3. BAN OF LARGE CAPACITY AMMUNITION FEEDING DEVICES.

(a) PROHIBITION- Section 922 of title 18, United States Code, as amended by section 2(a), is amended by adding after subsection (v) the following:

`(w)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), it shall be unlawful for a person to transfer or possess a large capacity ammunition feeding device.

`(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply to the possession or transfer of any large capacity ammunition feeding device otherwise lawfully possessed on or before the date of the enactment of this subsection.

`(3) This subsection shall not apply to--

`(A) the manufacture for, transfer to, or possession by the United States or a department or agency of the United States (including the United States Armed Forces and, under regulations pursuant to title 50, United States Code, the National Guard and Reserve), or a State or a department, agency, or political subdivision of a State, or a transfer to or possession by a law enforcement officer employed by such an entity for purposes of law enforcement (whether on or off duty);

`(B) the transfer to a licensee under title I of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 for purposes of establishing and maintaining an on-site physical protection system and security organization required by Federal law, or possession by an employee or contractor of such licensee on-site for such purposes or off-site for purposes of licensee-authorized training or transportation of nuclear materials;

`(C) the possession, by an individual who is retired from service with a law enforcement agency and is not otherwise prohibited from receiving ammunition, of a large capacity ammunition feeding device transferred to the individual by the agency upon such retirement; or

`(D) the manufacture, transfer, or possession of any large capacity ammunition feeding device by a licensed manufacturer or licensed importer for the purposes of testing or experimentation authorized by the Secretary.'.

`(4) If a person charged with violating paragraph (1) asserts that paragraph (1) does not apply to such person because of paragraph (2) or (3), the Government shall have the burden of proof to show that such paragraph (1) applies to such person. The lack of a serial number as described in section 923(i) of title 18, United States Code, shall be a presumption that the large capacity ammunition feeding device is not subject to the prohibition of possession in paragraph (1).'.

(b) DEFINITION OF LARGE CAPACITY AMMUNITION FEEDING DEVICE- Section 921(a) of title 18, United States Code, as amended by section 2(b), is amended by adding after paragraph (30) the following:

`(31) The term `large capacity ammunition feeding device'--

`(A) means a magazine, belt, drum, feed strip, or similar device manufactured after the date of enactment of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 that has a capacity of, or that can be readily restored or converted to accept, more than 10 rounds of ammunition; but

`(B) does not include an attached tubular device designed to accept, and capable of operating only with, .22 caliber rimfire ammunition.'.

(c) PENALTY- Section 924(a)(1)(B) of title 18, United States Code, as amended by section 2(c), is amended by striking `or (v)' and inserting `(v), or (w)'.

(d) IDENTIFICATION MARKINGS FOR LARGE CAPACITY AMMUNITION FEEDING DEVICES- Section 923(i) of title 18, United States Code, as amended by section 2(d), is amended by adding at the end the following: `A large capacity ammunition feeding device manufactured after the date of the enactment of this sentence shall be identified by a serial number that clearly shows that the device was manufactured or imported after the effective date of this subsection, and such other identification as the Attorney General may by regulation prescribe.'.

SEC. 4. STUDY BY ATTORNEY GENERAL.

(a) STUDY- The Attorney General shall investigate and study the effect of this Act and the amendments made by this Act, and in particular shall determine their impact, if any, on violent and drug trafficking crime. The study shall be conducted over a period of 18 months, commencing 12 months after the date of enactment of this Act.

(b) REPORT- Not later than 30 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall prepare and submit to the Congress a report setting forth in detail the findings and determinations made in the study under subsection (a).

SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE.

This Act and the amendments made by this Act--

(1) shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act; and

(2) are repealed effective as of the date that is 10 years after that date.

SEC. 6. APPENDIX A TO SECTION 922 OF TITLE 18.

Section 922 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following appendix:

`APPENDIX A

`Centerfire Rifles--Autoloaders

`Browning BAR Mark II Safari Semi-Auto Rifle

`Browning BAR Mark II Safari Magnum Rifle

`Browning High-Power Rifle

`Heckler & Koch Model 300 Rifle

`Iver Johnson M-1 Carbine

`Iver Johnson 50th Anniversary M-1 Carbine

`Marlin Model 9 Camp Carbine

`Marlin Model 45 Carbine

`Remington Nylon 66 Auto-Loading Rifle

`Remington Model 7400 Auto Rifle

`Remington Model 7400 Rifle

`Remington Model 7400 Special Purpose Auto Rifle

`Ruger Mini-14 Autoloading Rifle (w/o folding stock)

`Ruger Mini Thirty Rifle

`Centerfire Rifles--Lever & Slide

`Browning Model 81 BLR Lever-Action Rifle

`Browning Model 81 Long Action BLR

`Browning Model 1886 Lever-Action Carbine

`Browning Model 1886 High Grade Carbine

`Cimarron 1860 Henry Replica

`Cimarron 1866 Winchester Replica

`Cimarron 1873 Short Rifle

`Cimarron 1873 Sporting Rifle

`Cimarron 1873 30" Express Rifle

`Dixie Engraved 1873 Rifle

`E.M.F. 1866 Yellowboy Lever Actions

`E.M.F. 1860 Henry Rifle

`E.M.F. Model 73 Lever-Action Rifle

`Marlin Model 336CS Lever-Action Carbine

`Marlin Model 30AS Lever-Action Carbine

`Marlin Model 444SS Lever-Action Sporter

`Marlin Model 1894S Lever-Action Carbine

`Marlin Model 1894CS Carbine

`Marlin Model 1894CL Classic

`Marlin Model 1895SS Lever-Action Rifle

`Mitchell 1858 Henry Replica

`Mitchell 1866 Winchester Replica

`Mitchell 1873 Winchester Replica

`Navy Arms Military Henry Rifle

`Navy Arms Henry Trapper

`Navy Arms Iron Frame Henry

`Navy Arms Henry Carbine

`Navy Arms 1866 Yellowboy Rifle

`Navy Arms 1873 Winchester-Style Rifle

`Navy Arms 1873 Sporting Rifle

`Remington 7600 Slide Action

`Remington Model 7600 Special Purpose Slide Action

`Rossi M92 SRC Saddle-Ring Carbine

`Rossi M92 SRS Short Carbine

`Savage 99C Lever-Action Rifle

`Uberti Henry Rifle

`Uberti 1866 Sporting Rifle

`Uberti 1873 Sporting Rifle

`Winchester Model 94 Side Eject Lever-Action Rifle

`Winchester Model 94 Trapper Side Eject

`Winchester Model 94 Big Bore Side Eject

`Winchester Model 94 Ranger Side Eject Lever-Action Rifle

`Winchester Model 94 Wrangler Side Eject

`Centerfire Rifles--Bolt Action

`Alpine Bolt-Action Rifle

`A-Square Caesar Bolt-Action Rifle

`A-Square Hannibal Bolt-Action Rifle

`Anschutz 1700D Classic Rifle

`Anschutz 1700D Custom Rifle

`Anschutz 1700D Bavarian Bolt-Action Rifle

`Anschutz 1733D Mannlicher Rifle

`Barret Model 90 Bolt-Action Rifle

`Beeman/HW 60J Bolt-Action Rifle

`Blaser R84 Bolt-Action Rifle

`BRNO 537 Sporter Bolt-Action Rifle

`BRNO ZKB 527 Fox Bolt-Action Rifle

`BRNO ZKK 600, 601, and 602 Bolt-Action Rifles

`Browning A-Bolt Rifle

`Browning A-Bolt Stainless Stalker

`Browning A-Bolt Left Hand

`Browning A-Bolt Short Action

`Browning Euro-Bolt Rifle

`Browning A-Bolt Gold Medallion

`Browning A-Bolt Micro Medallion

`Century Centurion 14 Sporter

`Century Enfield Sporter #4

`Century Swedish Sporter #38

`Century Mauser 98 Sporter

`Cooper Model 38 Centerfire Sporter

`Dakota 22 Sporter Bolt-Action Rifle

`Dakota 76 Classic Bolt-Action Rifle

`Dakota 76 Short Action Rifle

`Dakota 76 Safari Bolt-Action Rifle

`Dakota 416 Rigby African

`E.A.A./Sabatti Rover 870 Bolt-Action Rifle

`Auguste Francotte Bolt-Action Rifle

`Carl Gustaf 2000 Bolt-Action Rifle

`Heym Magnum Express Series Rifle

`Howa Lightning Bolt-Action Rifle

`Howa Realtree Camo Rifle

`Interarms Mark X Viscount Bolt-Action Rifle

`Interarms Mini-Mark X Rifle

`Interarms Mark X Whitworth Bolt-Action Rifle

`Interarms Whitworth Express Rifle

`Iver Johnson Model 5100A1 Long-Range Rifle

`KDF K15 American Bolt-Action Rifle

`Krico Model 600 Bolt-Action Rifle

`Krico Model 700 Bolt-Action Rifle

`Mauser Model 66 Bolt-Action Rifle

`Mauser Model 99 Bolt-Action Rifle

`McMillan Signature Classic Sporter

`McMillan Signature Super Varminter

`McMillan Signature Alaskan

`McMillan Signature Titanium Mountain Rifle

`McMillan Classic Stainless Sporter

`McMillan Talon Safari Rifle

`McMillan Talon Sporter Rifle

`Midland 1500S Survivor Rifle

`Navy Arms TU-33/40 Carbine

`Parker-Hale Model 81 Classic Rifle

`Parker-Hale Model 81 Classic African Rifle

`Parker-Hale Model 1000 Rifle

`Parker-Hale Model 1100M African Magnum

`Parker-Hale Model 1100 Lightweight Rifle

`Parker-Hale Model 1200 Super Rifle

`Parker-Hale Model 1200 Super Clip Rifle

`Parker-Hale Model 1300C Scout Rifle

`Parker-Hale Model 2100 Midland Rifle

`Parker-Hale Model 2700 Lightweight Rifle

`Parker-Hale Model 2800 Midland Rifle

`Remington Model Seven Bolt-Action Rifle

`Remington Model Seven Youth Rifle

`Remington Model Seven Custom KS

`Remington Model Seven Custom MS Rifle

`Remington 700 ADL Bolt-Action Rifle

`Remington 700 BDL Bolt-Action Rifle

`Remington 700 BDL Varmint Special

`Remington 700 BDL European Bolt-Action Rifle

`Remington 700 Varmint Synthetic Rifle

`Remington 700 BDL SS Rifle

`Remington 700 Stainless Synthetic Rifle

`Remington 700 MTRSS Rifle

`Remington 700 BDL Left Hand

`Remington 700 Camo Synthetic Rifle

`Remington 700 Safari

`Remington 700 Mountain Rifle

`Remington 700 Custom KS Mountain Rifle

`Remington 700 Classic Rifle

`Ruger M77 Mark II Rifle

`Ruger M77 Mark II Magnum Rifle

`Ruger M77RL Ultra Light

`Ruger M77 Mark II All-Weather Stainless Rifle

`Ruger M77 RSI International Carbine

`Ruger M77 Mark II Express Rifle

`Ruger M77VT Target Rifle

`Sako Hunter Rifle

`Sako FiberClass Sporter

`Sako Safari Grade Bolt Action

`Sako Hunter Left-Hand Rifle

`Sako Classic Bolt Action

`Sako Hunter LS Rifle

`Sako Deluxe Lightweight

`Sako Super Deluxe Sporter

`Sako Mannlicher-Style Carbine

`Sako Varmint Heavy Barrel

`Sako TRG-S Bolt-Action Rifle

`Sauer 90 Bolt-Action Rifle

`Savage 110G Bolt-Action Rifle

`Savage 110CY Youth/Ladies Rifle

`Savage 110WLE One of One Thousand Limited Edition Rifle

`Savage 110GXP3 Bolt-Action Rifle

`Savage 110F Bolt-Action Rifle

`Savage 110FXP3 Bolt-Action Rifle

`Savage 110GV Varmint Rifle

`Savage 112FV Varmint Rifle

`Savage Model 112FVS Varmint Rifle

`Savage Model 112BV Heavy Barrel Varmint Rifle

`Savage 116FSS Bolt-Action Rifle

`Savage Model 116FSK Kodiak Rifle

`Savage 110FP Police Rifle

`Steyr-Mannlicher Sporter Models SL, L, M, S, and S/T

`Steyr-Mannlicher Luxus Models L, M, and S

`Steyr-Mannlicher Model M Professional Rifle

`Tikka Bolt-Action Rifle

`Tikka Premium Grade Rifle

`Tikka Varmint/Continental Rifle

`Tikka Whitetail/Battue Rifle

`Ultra Light Arms Model 20 Rifle

`Ultra Light Arms Model 28 and Model 40 Rifles

`Voere VEC 91 Lightning Bolt-Action Rifle

`Voere Model 2165 Bolt-Action Rifle

`Voere Model 2155 and 2150 Bolt-Action Rifles

`Weatherby Mark V Deluxe Bolt-Action Rifle

`Weatherby Lasermark V Rifle

`Weatherby Mark V Crown Custom Rifle

`Weatherby Mark V Sporter Rifle

`Weatherby Mark V Safari Grade Custom Rifle

`Weatherby Weathermark Rifle

`Weatherby Weathermark Alaskan Rifle

`Weatherby Classicmark No.

The introduction of this bill is your permission to go and buy every single AR, AK, and FAL you can get, along with at least a dozen full-capacity mags for each.

Tempus fugit.