Rhodesian FAL

I’ve read a number of books on the Bush War in Rhodesia over the years and have seen (online) a number of parts kits built FALs. However, the FAL that Larry Vickers and Ian McCollum examine in the video below is an actual Rhodesian Army FAL right down to the ground-off South African markings.

In another video just released by Larry himself, you can see him shooting this Rhodesian FAL in both semi-auto and full-auto mode.

Not to get all political but one wonders what the former Rhodesia or Zimbabwe as it is called today would be like if it had not been caught up in both post-Colonialism and the Cold War. If Harold Wilson and the Labour Party had not been in power in the UK in 1965, would Ian Smith and the Rhodesians have felt compelled to declare independence unilaterally? Ah, the what-ifs abound.

Cheryl And 922,009 People Need To Get A Life

I got an email yesterday from Change.org asking me to sign a petition regarding “Cecil the Lion”. The email said 846,000 people had signed the petition which asks for “justice for Cecil”. As of a few minutes ago, that had risen to 922,009 signers.

These people need to get a life.

Trophy hunting, which Cheryl Semcer of Hoboken, NJ blames for the loss of a large part of the African lion population, is not the problem. Indeed, by putting an economic value on these animal, it has done more to preserve lions than anything a ban under the Endangered Species Act would ever do. It is the same with elephants and elephant ivory.

Am I the only person out there who has found the name of the lion – Cecil – somewhat ironic?

I would wager that most of the 922,009 people who have signed the petition never knew that Zimbabwe used to be known as Rhodesia. It was a country named for that famed British imperialist Cecil Rhodes. So we have a lion (the symbol of Great Britain) named for a British imperialist (Cecil Rhodes) by British scientists killed in the country formerly named for the imperialist (Rhodesia) that was forced by Britain to be handed over to Communist-backed insurgents who renamed it Zimbabwe.