Government

This is Important

I think that reading this article is important. See if you can read between the lines and come to the same conclusion that I did.

The story goes like this: The Oversight Committee of the House of Representatives told the CEO of Smith and Wesson to appear before the committee so that other invitees who were the family members of people killed by criminal actors could pile on the hate and blame Smith and Wesson for the deaths. The CEO of Smith and Wesson wisely refused to attend.

The Chairman of the Oversight committee then said that Smith and Wesson would pay a price for their impertinence.

“The CEO of Smith & Wesson refused to testify before my Committee and face the families who’ve lost a loved one because of his company’s weapons of war. Highland Park, Parkland, San Bernardino, Aurora — these mass murders were all committed with Smith & Wesson assault weapons,” Maloney said. “As the world watches the families of Parkland victims relive their trauma through the shooter’s trial, it is unconscionable that Smith & Wesson is still refusing to take responsibility for selling the assault weapons used to massacre Americans.”

Make no mistake, this was no investigation. This was a politician wanting to use political power to punish someone while grandstanding in front of the press. Fuck him. I wouldn’t have gone either.

Even worse, they try use Kyle Rittenhouse’s use of force in self defense against the company.:

Kyle Rittenhouse also used a Smith & Wesson rifle to kill two people and injured a third during a 2020 protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse was acquitted on all counts related to the shootings.

The committee has issued a subpoena to Smith & Wesson for documents related to its manufacturing and sale of AR-15- style firearms. My guess is that the FBI will be raiding Smith and Wesson soon.

My answer would be: GFY. I don’t think that I would answer this subpoena. There are still such things as Constitutional rights, I am not giving you information because you want to go on a fishing expedition. You got PC for a specific crime? Go for it. Until then, GFY.

By Divemedic, ago

Liberty or Death?

This kind of grandstanding behavior in a court is the kind of shit that would make me lose it and tell a judge something that would get the book thrown at me.

“Your purpose was not to be a tourist walking through the Capitol, was it?” Howell asked during a plea hearing for Leonard Gruppo, who pleaded guilty to the petty offense of “parading” in the Capitol. Gruppo said he was not there as a tourist. Howell then refused to accept his plea until Gruppo admitted that he was in Washington on January 6 “as part of a demonstration in support of President Trump.”

How is this anything but a farce? We call this justice? “Make the plea and statements that I tell you to, or else?”

Start working on a good quote now.

“Give me liberty, or give me death?”

“Sic Semper Tyrannis.”

“I regret that I have but one life to give to fight tyranny.”

Something cool. I will have to work on it. You know, for a fictional story I am writing.

By Divemedic, ago

Guardian Standards & Training

A comment on my recent Guardian post makes me want to clear up misconceptions of the training standards for Florida’s guardian program. For reference, here is the comment:

To be fair you have skipped over mentioning an important item. The contracted security MUST have each officer qualify through the Florida Guardian Training. 144+ hours, 132hrs is range, shoot house and school simulated scenarios. Thousands of rounds fired and strict qualifications all the way out to 25 yard timed shooting. The guardians are fully capable with firearms.

The training breaks down like this:

  • 12 hours of it is in diversity training
  • 12 hours in psychological counseling
  • 12 hours of negotiation and counseling skills
  • only 80 hours in firearms training, and not all of that is range time.
  • 12 hours in legal issues (counts as part of the firearms training)

The firearms training breaks down like this:

  • 8 hours of simulator training (think shoot/no shoot training)
  • 8 hours of scenario training (not range time)
  • 8 hours of defensive tactics (also not range time)
  • 12 hours of training in legal issues (not range time)
  • 16 hours of instruction in precision pistol (not all range time, some is classroom)

By law, guardians must fire at least 90 percent, but no more than 120 percent, of the rounds fired by police candidates at the police academy. How many rounds is that? Well, it varies. The standards are set by the state, but the specifics are set by each school. The only school that I could find that listed the number of rounds fired mandates 400 rounds of pistol and 50 rounds of shotgun. So call it a total of 500 rounds fired. That would mean Guardians would need to fire from 450 to 600 rounds during this course. Certainly not “thousands of rounds fired.”

It also says that they must score an 85 percent on the qualifier. What does that entail? Well that is available online.

  • At one to three yards, from the holster: Draw and fire two rounds into the target in 4 seconds. Repeat once for a total of 4 rounds.
  • At three yards, from high ready: Fire 2 rounds into the target in 1 second. Repeat twice for a total of 6 rounds.
  • At seven yards, from the holster: Draw and fire 2 rounds in four seconds. Then from high ready, 2 rounds in 4 seconds, then 2 more rounds in 4 seconds. Total of 6 rounds.
  • At seven yards, from the holster: Draw and fire 3 rounds in five seconds. Repeat once for a total of 6 rounds.
  • At 7 yards, from the holster: Draw and fire 12 rounds in 45 seconds, with a mandatory reload.
  • At 15 yards, from the holster: Draw and fire 6 rounds in 30 seconds.

Scoring: Any hit on the silhouette of a B-21 target is scored as a hit. Guardians must score 34 hits out of 48 rounds in a total of 1:53 with a single mandatory reload.

If you know anything about shooting, you would know that 2.1 rounds per second with a “hit” on a target 2 times as wide and 2 times as tall as an IDPA hit zone isn’t especially hard.

Compare this to an IDPA classifier course of fire. (pdf warning) An IDPA classifier requires 4 reloads instead of the one required by guardians. It also requires that the shooter hit a smaller target, including head shots. Still, let’s compare.

If we were to shoot an IDPA qualifier at that rate of fire with an 85% hit rate, we would score somewhere around a 200. That is barely marksman territory for a shooter with a Stock Service Pistol, and that is giving them some, considering the large size of the target area that qualifies as a “hit.”

So, no. The Guardian training isn’t thousands of rounds, nor is it particularly demanding. I daresay that most of the readers of this blog could score well on that test with no additional training.

By Divemedic, ago

Val Demings

Val Demings is running for Congress against Marco Rubio. She is running this ad:

She is trying to run on her record as a cop, so she can syphon off some law and order supporters. Let’s talk about her record as a cop. She was the chief of Orlando’s police department from 2007 to 2011. Her husband Jerry Demings was Sheriff of Orange County, the county where Orlando is located. He is now the mayor.

While she was police chief, her department had constant problems with police officers committing violent acts against the people who live there. Like the time in 2008 when a cop pushed this woman down the stairs:

After pushing her down the stairs, he falsified her arrest report and lied about what had happened. Officer Trinidad lied in the arrest affidavit and stated that Jessica Asprilla spit on him and was intoxicated when she fell down the stairs. Ms. Asprilla was eventually arrested for Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer (a felony) and resisting an officer. Later, in a deposition, Officer Trinidad stated that she intentionally threw herself down the stairs. Because it was caught on film, the charges against the woman were dropped, and the department had to discipline the officer.

The woman wound up suing the department, but complained that she would frequently have cops follow her in plain clothes, sometimes telling her to “watch your back.” One of those instances was actually caught on film during a news interview. She won her lawsuit, but was only awarded $4700- the amount of her medical bills. The officer still works for the OPD.

The Internal Affairs unit declared that he should receive a 16 hour unpaid suspension, by way of having two vacation days taken away. Chief Demings decided that the punishment should be reduced to one vacation day. For felony battery and perjury.

Even worse, the Orlando Police Department was in possession of the video of Officer Trinidad’s actions and never turned it over to the State Attorney’s office so they could make a proper decision whether to charge Jessica Asprilla for the allegations made by Officer Trinidad. The chief herself lied and covered for the rogue cop’s actions.

Demings also once had her service handgun stolen from her police vehicle back in 2009, even though city policy prohibited storing firearms in unattended police vehicles. She disciplined herself by sending herself a strongly worded letter. Her excuse was that she had children visiting her and wanted to keep it secure. Apparently, a house with 2 high ranking cops in it can’t afford a gun safe or even a lock box. The story has since been washed from Orlando media archives.

There was also the case of Daniel Daley, the 84 year old World War 2 veteran with no criminal record who walked with a walker. He was thrown to the ground by an OPD officer so hard that his neck was broken. His offense? He was arguing with a cop who said that he was illegally parked. Witnesses said the man was not aggressive. He sued and won $880,000 for that attack.

“The punishments were so minimal and so light for so many years, probably preceding Val Demings, that officers basically had impunity to punish people and get away with it,” said one local attorney. I can believe it. Don’t forget that she was one of the leading candidates to be Biden’s running mate in 2020. Here is a great example of OPD’s culture:

By Divemedic, ago

When is it a Firearm?

When does a piece of raw material become a firearm? Is this a firearm?

Most people would say that it isn’t. It requires some work and machining to become a firearm. Is this a firearm?

It still requires a good amount of machine work to make it a functional firearm. What about this? Is this a firearm?

Even the ATF told the company that it wasn’t a firearm. (pdf warning) Until they changed their minds and decided that it was. Now a judge did as well. So now the company has to pay $4 million in damages for defrauding customers by “lying” and saying that their product wasn’t a firearm.

How about this? Is it a firearm?

By the same rules that were just applied to Polymer80 by the ATF and the judge, they are. I have the plans right here. (pdf warning) Anyone can build a full auto SMG with less than $100 in parts from Home Depot.

By Divemedic, ago

Those Pesky Amendments

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Trump and his attorneys have been denied a copy of the search warrant that was the basis for searching his home, and further are being denied access to the probable cause that was the basis of the warrant.

Trump attorney Christina Bobb was the attorney who was on site. She explains that they initially wouldn’t even let her see the warrant, but then did; they were reluctant to let them have it. It’s not clear from what she says if they ultimately were able to obtain it at some point. She also explained that the probable cause for the warrant was sealed, so that they can’t even know what it was 

Now the Courts have ruled that the IRS can forward Trump’s tax returns to Congress, who will use them as evidence that he has committed a crime. The IRS has long pointed to court cases where SCOTUS has ruled that filing a tax return isn’t a violation of your Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination. This now proves that to be incorrect, at least if you have become public enemy number one.

That also ignores the entire question as to how Congress has become a law enforcement body, which destroys separation of powers. Congress claims that, in demanding Trump’s tax returns, they aren’t investigating Trump, but are simply conducting oversight of the IRS. Who really believes that?

Then there is the NY Attorney General, who ran for office on a platform of convicting Donald Trump of something. Anything. So it’s no wonder he is pleading the Fifth at every deposition.

No matter what, they are going to perp walk him before November. Does he still get a Secret Service detail in prison? The stated goal of the left for all of this activity is to prevent him from running for office.

Not just a coincidence that today is the third anniversary of Jeffery Epstein not killing himself.

By Divemedic, ago

Rotting Carcass

We keep hearing from the left how our Ar-15s are no use against an Army that has tanks, aircraft, and artillery. I won’t even bother finding a link to any of those claims. We have all heard them before. But what if all of those toys don’t have any people to run them?

The Army is supposed to be able to engage in Corps level engagements by 2035. The problem with that is our Army is having trouble meeting recruiting goals, and will likely have fewer than 450,000 personnel by October 2023 (pdf alert). That means our Army has only 31 active duty brigades, and those will be understrength. To even reach THAT number of brigades, the Army has had to strip personnel from other locations to the point where readiness has been affected. To put this in perspective, the troops who put ashore on D-Day as a part of Operation Overlord numbered about 160,000 troops. That would be roughly half of our entire Army today. Army planners think that the only way they can maintain 31 brigades is to cut them from 3 battalions per brigade down to 2. Paper tiger, indeed.

So what, you say. We can just bring in the reserves to get our staffing up to snuff, right? Nope. The Army has had so many issues finding officers to command reserve units that they have had to engage in some creative personnel management.

Over a five-year period, 110 command positions could not be filled because the Army Reserve lacked willing commanders. The shortage of willing commanders has become so acute in the Army Reserve that O5 command is no longer an opt-in board to be considered for command, but opt-out board, meaning that lieutenant colonels and majors who are up for promotion who do not wish to command must proactively go into the system and state that they do not wish to be considered for command.

This is creating havoc with morale and retention, which is making the problem even worse.

Army Reserve soldiers have seen commanders who are clearly in their position not because they were highly qualified or competitive, but solely because they put their names on the list, and that is not a good place to be as an organization.

That makes for an Army that won’t be able to put down an uprising of kindergarteners, much less repel an invasion. Reading this would you say that allowing women, fags, and trannies to serve has made our military better, or worse?

The only good thing here is knowing that it will be difficult to slaughter armed citizens when there are no warfighters left. We appear to be back in the days of Jimmy Carter’s hollow military. Sure, some units will be staffed with capable and willing soldiers, but those are far less likely to be gunning down civilians than the woke units that make up the majority of the force.

By Divemedic, ago

Most Training EVAR

Osceola County School Resource officers claim to be receiving “the most extensive active-shooter training ever.” Let’s look at that training:

When they become an SRO, they receive 40 hours of training to become certified as SROs. The majority of that 40 hours is spent in crisis-intervention, bully-prevention, childhood development and psychology. What percentage of that is active shooter training? Ten percent? Less? Range time?

This summer, the deputies received another 36 hours of training. They spent a day of this in crisis intervention training, including roleplaying, learning how to listen, and talking to children in crisis. What does that have to do with active shooter training? How much of those 36 hours was range time? Less than 8 hours:

Lopez said all SROs also spent a full day on the firing range, practicing with handguns and long guns.

Look at this picture. They are practicing at a range of less than 10 feet. Zoom in on that target. Not exactly impressive for dealing with guns around lots of non threats, like a school full of kids. Keep in mind that your accuracy during static range time will be much better than during an actual shooter event.

How about the 50 foot rifle practice?

What the actual fuck? My daughter shot better than this when she was 12 years old. Maybe they are better with the shotguns. Let’s see.

Wait a minute. Those aren’t even cops. Those are the armed security guards that Osceola county is using as guardians instead of teachers. They can’t shoot for shit, either. Look at those shooting stances. What is that? 20 feet? Is some minimum wage asshole with a shotgun that he trains with at 20 feet going to rush a shooter to save your kids? Probably not.

Of course, it isn’t like this career donut eating, Farva looking fat ass is going to be rushing anyone without having to take a break, either.

So the average SRO has a total of 76 hours of training in operating in a school, and less training with guns than a barber does in cutting hair. That’s right- in Florida more hours of training are required to be a barber than are required to be a police officer.

What about teachers who are part of the guardian program? Well, aside from the fact that there are NO classroom teachers in Florida who are part of the guardian program, any teacher who would be part of it is required to receive 144 hours of use of force training. Contrast that with police officers. Most cops in Florida get 80 hours or less TOTAL of firearms training,  so even if you count the training they have to become SROs, Osceola SROs have more training than ever- 156 hours, which is only 16 hours more than a guardian, even though most of that time is spent jerking off while on the clock, but guardians can’t be trusted.

By Divemedic, ago

Tyranny

More details have come out in the Mayor of Orlando’s plan to act like the little Leftist tyrant that he is.

Because of a threat of lawsuits, Orlando has announced that anyone with a concealed weapons permit will be permitted to enter the so-called security zone that the city is establishing on Friday and Saturday nights. I am sure, however, that you will be closely watched to see if you and your armed, permitted ass enter any bars, where you will promptly be arrested for violating the terms of your permit.

You will also note that just in case anyone sues under Florida’s law, which allows a citizen to sue any government official that violates the state’s preemption law, they are using private, armed security guards to enforce the zone.

I do wonder just what the legalities are here. I mean, it is illegal to lie to cops. What authority do security guards have to tell you that you aren’t allowed to walk down a public street? How can the compel you to submit to a search? I wonder what other legal issues there are here. Can they use force to prevent you from walking down the street? Can you sue them for violating your civil rights, or does that only apply to the cops? What legalities are there?

By Divemedic, ago