Government

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

Stay out of Cali

California is going full Socialist. The Los Angeles city council is now moving to require that hotels provide free rooms to the homeless. Hotels will be required to report the number of vacant rooms each day at 2 pm, and then make those vacant rooms available to the homeless free of charge.

Note that LA has approximately 100,000 hotel rooms. The interesting thing is that LA had a 78% average occupancy rate pre-COVID, with that rate having fallen to 49% post COVID. So the city is going to fix the homeless problem by confiscating hotel rooms for public use.

Imagine, the next time you stay in a hotel, that some diseased homeless drug addict may have been sleeping in that bed the night before. Know also that if you arrive at a hotel at 3 pm looking for a room, every hotel in LA will be filled at that point. When you DO get a room, look for discarded needles before you stick your hands into any unseen crevice.

My question here is this: How long before the city decides to force homeowners to house and feed the homeless? How long before grocery stores and restaurants are forced to feed them?

California is a lost cause. If you are there, it is time to get out. Do so before it is too late. Fail to heed this advice and you may pay a heavy price.

By Divemedic, ago

Paper Eagle

China is about to invade Taiwan. I know that Taiwan’s intelligence chief says it won’t happen this year, but hear me out. I would say it will happen before the end of October. Let’s look at why I think so:

Weather

The weather in that area of the world becomes too treacherous for an amphibious invasion from the end of October through the end of March. Once fall sets in, the water around Taiwan is too rough for an invasion force. That means putting things off until at least April. Why won’t they do that?

Preparations

China has mobilized large portions of the PLA, moving a large number of forces to the area, I think we are looking at an invasion within the next 90 days. No country mobilizes a large military force only to call it back.

Those air incursions into Taiwanese airspace haven’t just been saber rattling. Nor was the model of American carrier battlegroups they were using as target practice. These point to a country practicing for war. They are ready to fight and win. Our military is busy learning to put on drag shows and recognizing each other’s pronouns.

Every simulation run by the US military shows China defeating the US in detail. While China has carriers in the area, they won’t need them. The order of battle is impressive:

Military Situation Overwhelmingly Favors China:

The US carriers in the area are the USS Ronald Reagan with Carrier Airwing 5, which has less than 60 F/A-18E Super Hornets embarked. The USS Tripoli with its 20 embarked F-35B‘s is there, as is the USS America, but only carries aircraft for transporting its embarked marine battalion. Taiwan themselves have several hundred first line fighters, but the combined Taiwanese and American aircraft would quickly be overwhelmed by the sheer number of aircraft China has in the area (over 1,000).

There are some airbases on Okinawa (400 miles or so away) where there are a couple of squadrons of F-15s, F-35s, some AWACS, aerial tanker support, and there are a few strategic bombers there (I think B-1s). The rest of the US forces in Okinawa are marines, some spec ops people, support units, and some air defense units. I don’t know if Okinawa based units can get involved, since Japan would have a say and would not want to get drawn into the conflict. If these units DO get involved, expect Japan to get hit with some missile strikes, which would be HUGELY unpopular with the Japanese people, who overwhelmingly don’t want US forces there anyway.

The US is likely to put a dent in an invasion force, if they decide to intervene. A US submarine is likely lurking in the area, and China would lose some amphibious ships to it, that is almost a certainty. If the US becomes involved, there is a better than 50-50 chance that we would lose at least one of those carriers, and a near certainty that we will lose several ships. All of this means thousands of US casualties, perhaps 10,000 or more, within days of the onset of hostilities. Is the US ready for that?

In the end, there is only one possible outcome: Taiwan will fall. The only possible answer for the US would be to accept the loss of Taiwan, or go nuclear. Biden doesn’t have the stomach for nukes, and even if he DID use them, Taiwan will eventually be lost.

So what will happen?

Joe Biden has said that the US is committed to defending Taiwan. South Korea is fully expecting the US to honor that commitment. This puts him in a bind. If we refuse to defend Taiwan, the US looks weak, and we lose more influence in the region. If Biden tries to defend Taiwan then loses anyway, the US looks even weaker and loses influence worldwide. Then we also know that China owns Biden’s greedy, crooked ass.

The US has never been weaker, with a weak leader, weak economy, and a failing military. American political and military leadership is a joke.

In short, we have already lost. China knows it. The US military knows it. So does Foggy Bottom. I’m not sure Joe Biden knows it, but he is a senile old man. The only reason that China hasn’t invaded yet is that they don’t want to lose the US as a trading partner, but the US is quickly failing as an economic powerhouse and is no longer the profit center it once was.

For all of the above reasons, I think China invades Taiwan before Halloween. I think the US does nothing but whine and complain to the UN. I also think that this does severe damage to our influence in the Far East.

This is strangely reminiscent of Japan’s actions a century ago. Japan’s big failure then was that they didn’t have raw materials and depended on imports. China learned from that. They have access to all of the raw materials they need. We are looking at China becoming THE dominate world power for the foreseeable future.

The US, on the other hand, is staring at economic collapse and political instability. The peak of the American empire has come and gone.

EDITED TO ADD:

Okinawa also has a squadron of F-22 Raptors, but China has them outnumbered ten to one with their own advanced fighters. Even if the Raptor is a better airplane, quantity has a quality all its own.

By Divemedic, ago