Those Damn Assault Revolvers!

I saw a tweet today from KCAL-TV that had me shaking my head. KCAL-TV is the CBS affiliate in Los Angeles, California. It was talking about a weapon recovered at the scene of a shooting.

An assault revolver with high cap mags? OMG!

Michael Bane has spoken in the past many times about a program that he and NSSF put on for journalists. It was to teach them the basics of firearms. I think it may be past time to bring it back.

On the other hand, seeing so-called journalists making stupid comments like this about firearms does illustrate my point about their naivete’ and stupidity. Unfortunately, too many of their listeners think they know of what they speak and believe them.

Stabbed With A Ghost Knife!

We were watching the CBS Evening News last night when a story came on about Dr. Larry Nassar being stabbed in Federal prison in Florida. Nassar is the disgusting excuse for a medical professional who sexually preyed upon US gymnasts for years until finally brought to justice.

I sincerely doubt Nassar’s attacker obtained a professionally made knife from Amazon. More than likely it was made from an eating utensil, toothbrush, or stolen tool that could be sharpened. Of course, mere possession of such an item is the 4th most severe infraction in this prison according to their handbook.

Here is an example of such a personally made weapon made from a toothbrush. It was confiscated from a prisoner in California.

Photo by James Sime

Given the gun control industry has deemed any personally made firearm a “ghost gun” (sic), then by logical extension the weapon used to stab Larry Nassar must be a “ghost knife”. It had no serial number and it has no markings indicating its manufacturer other than perhaps Oral-B or Colgate.

OMG! It is untraceable.

If the whole concept of a prison shiv or shank being called a “ghost knife” seems ludicrous, so, too is the media hysteria over personally made firearms aka “ghost guns” (sic) and their traceability. When the BATFE runs a trace on a firearm found at a crime scene, they first go the the manufacturer, then to the distributor, thence to the dealer, and finally to the original purchaser. Only very rarely is the original purchaser the one who commits the crime. Much more likely is that the firearm was stolen and has changed hands multiple times after that. Given the national average of “time to crime” or time from purchase until recovered at a crime scene is 6.24 years according to the BATFE, you can just imagine how many times a firearm could have changed hands whether legally or illegally.

So the next time you hear someone pontificating about “ghost guns” (sic) ask them what should be done about “ghost knives”.

Media Is Out Of Touch

If the following tweet posted yesterday evening by National Public Radio is accurate, the mainstream media is more out of touch than previously believed.

As “Mike” points out below in response to “Dayna”, the saying, the meme, the epithet, or whatever you want to call it of “Let’s Go Brandon” is everywhere. I get over 9 million hits on Google for that phrase. Moreover, the rapper Bryson Gray’s YouTube banned version of “Let’s Go Brandon” is the number one hit on Apple iTunes and has beat out Adele.

The number of breathless stories from the AP and other about the meme substituting for “F@$k Joe Biden” is hilarious. It is interesting that they have all appeared at virtually the same time. It is almost as if they have decided that reporting on us vulgar, unwashed conservatives, libertarians, and other non-Joe lovers being vulgar will distract from the reality of the abomination that is the Biden Administration and their policies.

Feel free to post your favorite Let’s Go Brandon meme in the comments. I have mine for sure.

Quote Of The Day

The quote of the day comes from a new book by Robert Pobi entitled, “Under Pressure”. It is about as accurate description of the mainstream media in these days and times as I have seen.

As the bird shuddered down, the wall of faces lining the perimeter were hidden behind SLRs, lighting, and shoulder-mounted video cameras – journalists here to generate the sugar high of fear that was now as much a part of the American diet as hot dogs, apple pie, and gluten-free muffins.

To generate the sugar high of fear. Isn’t that what we see in the media regardless of whether they are talking about the pandemic or about guns?

As to the book, I have an advanced reader’s copy and I’m liking what I’m reading so far. Some books start slow and gradually hook you. This one has hooked me from the start.

Lobby Day Crowd Estimates

First off a disclaimer. I was not at the VCDL Lobby Day in Richmond on Monday. I was in Las Vegas at Industry Day at the Range. Secondly, I am not an expert on crowd estimation.

Numerous media reports have said the attendance at Lobby Day was 22,000. They break it down to 7,000 within the fence and the remainder outside.

From VCDL Facebook Page

I spoke to both friends of mine that attended and Stephen Gutowski of the Free Beacon who have described the size of the crowd. On that estimate of 22,000, I am raising the BS flag.

Gutowski described to me some of the crowds in the side streets. One street was filled sidewalk to sidewalk for three blocks deep. Another 2-3 side streets had were packed similarly 1-2 blocks deep.

From VCDL Facebook Page

Officials in the Northam administration and their allies in the media would like you to believe the crowd really wasn’t as big as it actually was. If you throw out an exact number like 22,000, it sounds authoritative and the gullible media will go with it.

This is the converse of when the Demanding Moms and other gun control groups have events. There they stage photos to make the crowd look larger than it really is. The prime example is the NRA Annual Meeting that was held a few years ago in Nashville. The late Bob Owens called them out on it. They said 500 attended which the media reported and Bob showed how they staged the photo which actually had about 150 people in it.

From VCDL Facebook Page

I think when all is said and done, the crowd of gun rights supporters attending Lobby Day on Monday probably was double the official figure and approached 50,000. Whether Democrat legislators in Virginia will take notice and temper their plans is the real question.

Somehow I doubt it.

About Those CEOs Calling For More Gun Control

If you saw the news yesterday, one of the biggest stories was that 145 corporate CEOs were calling on the Senate to enact gun control. The headlines made it seem like a good portion of the S&P 500 was calling for action on gun control.

Having read the list, the reality is much different.

Out of that list of 145 CEOs, only six are heads of S&P 500 companies. Those six companies are Ecolab, Gap, Interpublic, Omnicom, Royal Caribbean Cruises Lines, and Twitter.

Of the large non-S&P 500 companies on the list, you did have the usual suspects like Bloomberg LP, Levi Strauss, and DICK’S which wouldn’t have surprised anyone. The heads of Levi Strauss and DICK’S have been pretty vocal for a long time now. Moreover, could you have had such a list without Bloomberg LP? Not likely.

Only 47 out of the 145 companies have more than 500 employees. The rest are identified as being the CEO of companies with less than 500 employees. In other words, you aren’t talking about captains of industry.

You are talking about Jeff Sellinger who is listed as the founder and CEO of HipDot. You know! HipDot – the makers of cosmetics featuring Sponge Bob Square Pants.

OK. So maybe you don’t know about HipDot. I’m sure you know about Quartzy and SkySafe. The former is the maker of online lab management software and has 60 employees while the latter is an anti-drone company whose software prevents drones from entering secure airspace.

My point in all of this is that while these CEOs most certainly had the right to make their views known, they are no more significant than yours or mine. The media made it sound like corporate America was turning against the gun culture and the reality is that most of these companies are niche players located in gun control bastions like California.

You can read the letter and see the list of all the CEOs below:

CEO Senate GVP Letter Final Signatories 12 by jpr9954 on Scribd

Seems Weird To See It Spelled Out

In a story from Washington State on how gun owners are preparing for new gun control law that go into effect July 1, there is this.

He tells Action News that as July approaches, his military surplus store, The Bunker, is selling more receivers for ArmaLite Rifle 15-style (AR-15) than expected.

 I’m glad that that the author of the story recognizes that AR stands for ArmaLite Rifle and not “assault rifle” or “automatic rifle”. That said, you see it so rarely spelled out that when you do, it just looks looks weird.

As the story itself, people shopping at this gun store in the Tri-Cities area are buying lots of AR lowers and putting them away before the new law goes into effect. There is also the question of how to sell stripped lower receivers once the new law goes into effect as it isn’t clear.

Mortality, Google Searches, And What The Media Reports

I came across a very interesting infographic that compares actual causes of death, what people find in Google searches, and how the media treats the various causes of death. The media was represented by examining coverage in the New York Times and the UK’s Guardian for the period 1999 to 2016.

If you only relied upon the media, you would believe that over 50% of deaths were the result of either terrorism or homicide and that very few were due to heart disease. The reality is that heart disease followed by cancer are the first and second causes of death in the US. Moreover, the two combine to account for almost 60% of deaths.

This comes from OurWorldInData and you can get the data behind these charts here. You can read more analysis of the data here.

Tweet Of The Day

An alternative headline could have been Why (Most) Reporters Shouldn’t Write About Guns.

Every reporter who even mentions a firearm in a story should be required to read this little guide first. The National Shooting Sports Foundation created so reporters aren’t so grossly ignorant about firearms. Obviously, Ms. Bowman did not read it.

Comment Of The Day

President Trump held a news conference yesterday and, from what I’m reading, it was pure Trump.
The heads of the media personalities are still exploding and they don’t know why.

The best comment came in response to a post by Professor William Jacobson regarding the news conference. VaGentleman had this to say:

I’m reminded of the scene in ‘Patton’ where he is standing on the hill overlooking the battlefield and shouts, “Rommel, you bloody bastard, I read your book!”. Alinskyites, take note.

Charles Heller of Liberty Watch Radio, JPFO, and AzCDL made the nearly the same point when we recorded him for an interview with The Polite Society Podcast. He urged gun rights activists to read the Rules for Radicals and use them.