LAPD has sent out a memo notifying officers that they can no longer carry any handgun magazines with a capacity of more than 18 rounds, on or off duty.
It seems to be an oddly specific number, until you remember that the LAPD has been armed with the FN 509 MRD-LE for over a year and a half now, a pistol which is being sold by FN for LEO use only. The FN 509 is considered by California to be safe for cops to own by the state, but not for the subjects that they rule over. The FN 509 can accept FN’s 24 round magazines, which is where I think that this memo came from.
The handgun is being restricted by FN to Law Enforcement only, but the only differences that I can see with this handgun and the FN 509 MRD are that the LE version has a flat trigger face, the LE handgun ships with 17 round magazines, while the “normal” version’s magazine capacity is only 15 rounds, 10 in CA.
I also want to note that LAPD uses the Speer G2 ammo as their duty ammo. I have blogged on that ammo before, it’s quality stuff. (They used to use Winchester SXT)
Two of Merrick Garland’s relatives were murdered in the Holocaust. Garland says his family’s history is the reason he devoted his life to upholding the rule of law. https://t.co/60gPelcNMCpic.twitter.com/rVzqB2zBK8
The people at NASA say that parts of New York City are sinking, and are claiming that this is the reason for New York’s recent flash floods. Are people really that stupid? Even assuming that this has been going on that long, New York has only sunk nine and a half inches since the Civil War, only about 5/8 of an inch per decade. Still, I can prove that to be a lie with a couple of pictures. Here are two photos of Whitehall Terminal, where the Staten Island Ferry departs from Manhattan, taken about 60 years apart. The first was taken in 1956, pay special attention to the water level in comparison to the waterfront to the left of the building:
Now the same building, taken in 2014:
Can you see a difference? Of course you can’t. Do you want to know why New York flooded this week? Because they had more than 7 inches of rain in less than 48 hours.
The article goes on to say that the ocean will rise an average of .04 inches by the year 2100. Four hundredths of an inch in 77 years. That means nothing. In fact, that works out to an average of 0.005 inches per year, or 0.127 millimeters per year. We can’t even measure ocean rise at that level, it’s physics.
In summary, we don’t know if the ocean is rising or not, because even if it is, we don’t have a way of measuring the small amount that it is rising, and even if it is be rising, it is doing so at such a slow rate that it will only rise about half an inch in the next eight hundred years. This is all a scam that is being designed to whip morons into a frenzy, so that they can be more easily manipulated.
It's not guns. The US has a combined suicide/homicide rate of 16.6 per 100,000. Canada, with severe gun control and handguns are virtually illegal? 18.3 per 100,000.
Can they be prohibited from restaurants? Will they be required to get rabies vaccines? Will I have to walk them on a leash? Scoop their poop?
Or can the choose to identify as different things at different times, changing identity on a whim, that makes this whole “I identify as” nonsense a choice and not something you are born with or can’t help.
Most importantly, if I kill someone and can prove that the person identified as a dog, I can’t be charged with murder, right? At most, animal cruelty…
The Republicans just did what they do best: make a lot of heat and light to gain press attention, then cave in at the last minute. Republicans like to make a lot of noise about how they are taking a principled stance. How can they have principles when they are so easily abandoned?
Just because the Democrats are your enemy does not make the Republicans your friends, and just because the Democrats are lying does not mean that the Republicans are telling the truth.
The Republicans are only playing a game to retain their power and make more money. Those are the only principles that they have.
Today, the minimum wage in Florida increased by $1 per hour. The minimum wage for non-tipped employees in Florida is increasing from $11 to $12. For tipped workers, the rate’s going from $7.98 to $8.98.
Minimum wage has increased from $8.56 per hour to $12 per hour in three years- that is a 13 percent annual increase. I still can’t go through a drive through without them screwing up my order, and in that same time period, the cost of a Big Mac meal has gone from $7 to over $12- which is a 23% annual increase.
At Denny’s, 2 strips of bacon, two link sausages, two eggs, and two pancakes. This is the breakfast that Denny’s calls the “Original Grand Slam.” Sold for $1.99 in 1997. By 2021, that same breakfast cost $9.49. That works out to an annual inflation rate of 6.7%. Now here we are in 2023, and that same breakfast is now $11.99, or a 26.3% increase in the past two and a half years. That’s a 10.5% annual increase.
It’s arts and crafts day here in Sector Ocho. Read on for today’s project.
You will recall that Liberty safe is in possession of a backdoor code for their electronic locks, so I was looking at getting a new safe. I seriously considered getting a Champion safe. Since we are in the middle of gearing up to move, the nearly $7,000 price tag for a new safe just isn’t in the cards right now. It isn’t like my valuables aren’t worth it, I just can’t spend the cash right at this time. Still, something needed to be done.
It isn’t that I think that the lack of a backdoor will keep the FBI out of my safe. Let’s face it, the government has virtually unlimited resources. If they want in, they will get in, backdoor or not. The fact that a backdoor exists at all is where I have a problem. With all of the data breaches in the news, the mere existence of a backdoor is a significant liability. Some loser buys the safe backdoors on the Internet, and thanks to a data breach, now has my address and the backdoor combo to my safe. No thanks.
The lock has a combination that can be set or changed by the user
Since it was the same make as the electronic lock, it fit without further modification.
There is no backdoor combination for mechanical locks.
The lock cost less than $100
The disadvantages:
The safe can’t be unlocked in the dark
Mechanical locks are slower than electronic locks.
Florida’s hot weather finally broke this week, so I could work in the garage without dying of heat exhaustion. (It’s routinely over 102 degF in my garage during the summer.) That means it was time to change out the lock. The entire job took slightly over an hour. It would have been faster, but my wife called me on the phone twice while I was doing it. Still, pretty easy. I started by pulling out the old electronic lock:
(not my actual safe lock, but similar to it)
Four screws held the inner wall of the safe in place. Off it came.
I clamped a set of vise grips on the door frame of the safe to make sure I didn’t shut the door and lock myself out by mistake.
I clamped a second set of vise grips onto the relocker* (marked with red arrow in photo, above) to hold it in place
I undid the four screws on the old, electronic lock and removed the cover plate and relocker bar.
I unplugged the leads from the keypad where they plugged into the lock
There were 4 screws holding the lock in place. I removed them, and the lock from the door.
I removed the keypad from the front of the safe door.
Now I was ready to install the new lock. I followed the video that I found on YouTube.
A couple of notes here.
I don’t have a dial ring alignment tool. It didn’t matter. I did it by eye and it worked just fine.
I didn’t install the plastic bushing that the lockset uses for a bearing. That means my dial doesn’t turn very smoothly. I will have to take it all apart and install it, but I want to have a new slipway key before I try it, just in case I ruin the one that is in there in the disassembly. That means a trip to a locksmith for a new one.
I used a Dremel with a cutoff wheel to cut the dial spindle. It worked great. I clamped the dial in a vise, and cut the spindle off by hand, then used a flat file to bevel the end of the spindle.
The hardest part was setting the combination. I had to do it three times before I got it right. I don’t know why I had trouble, but it was probably an I-D-ten-T error. I finally got it right.
After I set the combination, I tested the lock by locking and unlocking the mechanism four times before I trusted it enough to close the door. Now there is only one door (the front door) to my safe, and I am the only one who knows the combination. When my wife gets home, she will be the second person.
On a side note, I will soon have an SG electronic lock for sale. I think (but I am not sure) that the backdoor for each safe is unique to that safe. Since the lock won’t match your safe’s serial number, your safe may not be subject to a backdoor attack. However, I wouldn’t count on it. For all I know, the backdoor is 1-2-3-4-5, like an idiot would use on his luggage.
footnotes
* the relocker has one job. If you look closely at the lock, you will see that it works by inserting a locking bar into the transfer bar of the bolt works, preventing it from opening. Dialing in the correct combination withdraws the locking bolt and allows the bolt works to function. Removing the lock will also allow the bolt works to function. A burglar can punch the lock out and gain access to your safe. A relocker prevents this from happening. Look at the photo, and you will see that removing the lock causes the relocker to drop down under spring tension and prevent the bolt works from operating.
Also, my thanks to Mel Brooks for making Spaceballs, one of the funniest movies of all times.
