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The more that comes out about Kyle Rittenhouse, the more I think that we need to decorate that young man. Here is what I know at this point:

Why was Rittenhouse in Kenosha, which was miles from his home and in a different state?

 Rittenhouse was working that day in Kenosha as a lifeguard. When he got off work, he and a coworker went to the local public high school to remove graffiti by rioters.Later in the day, they received information about a call for help from a local business owner, whose downtown Kenosha auto dealership was largely destroyed by mob violence. The business owner needed help to protect what he had left of his life’s work, including two nearby mechanic’s shops. Kyle and a friend armed themselves with rifles due to the deadly violence gripping Kenosha and headed over to the dealership.

Was Rittenhouse illegally in possession of that AR-15, and did he bring it across state lines?

This also means that the firearms didn’t cross state lines at any point in time, and also means that, if the friend who loaned him the AR-15 was 18 years old, it was completely legal for Rittenhouse to be in possession of it. It appears as though it was lawful for him to possess the firearm.

How did Rittenhouse wind up running through the streets of the city?

It appears as though insurgents had set fire to a dumpster and were attempting to use it to start a larger fire. Rittenhouse saw this and used a fire extinguisher to put out the fire, which enraged the insurgents and led to them chasing Rittenhouse down the street.

This clears it up for me. This was a righteous shooting from beginning to end.

As a result of the article that was the subject of this post, I have been getting questions from my friends about the practical and legal effects of firing a 12 gauge shell in a flare gun. It turns out that I happen to have a bit of experience in this area.

It turns out that a 12 gauge shell will work in a flare pistol. Once. A long time ago, thirteen year old me was left home alone and unsupervised and decided to do a little experimenting with my father’s Beretta shotgun, some shells, flares, and a flare gun. The shell fires, but it destroys the flare gun. Not surprising, being that the flare gun is made of bright orange plastic. Right after that, I tried loading a 12 gauge flare in my Dad’s shotgun. The flare got stuck on the choke, the barrel of the shotgun was ruined, and I got my ass beat.

So that handles the practical aspects. A ruined flare gun, a ruined shotgun, a damaged ass, and an angry father. Now that dad is dead, I own that shotgun, complete with the ring around the barrel where the bluing is no longer there. How about the legal aspects?

The National Firearms Act (26 US Code 5845) is going to be what applies here.

– A flare gun can’t be a shotgun because it isn’t designed to be fired from the shoulder.
– It can’t be a rifle, because it doesn’t have a rifled barrel.
– it seems to fit the definition of an “any other weapon.:”

The term “any other weapon” means any weapon or device capable of being concealed on the person from which a shot can be discharged through the energy of an explosive, a pistol or revolver having a barrel with a smooth bore designed or redesigned to fire a fixed shotgun shell, weapons with combination shotgun and rifle barrels 12 inches or more, less than 18 inches in length, from which only a single discharge can be made from either barrel without manual reloading, and shall include any such weapon which may be readily restored to fire. Such term shall not include a pistol or a revolver having a rifled bore, or rifled bores, or weapons designed, made, or intended to be fired from the shoulder and not capable of firing fixed ammunition. (emphasis added by DM)

So it seems that loading a shotgun shell into your flare gun means that you are now in possession of an unregistered NFA weapon.

The usual disclaimers apply: I am not an attorney, not your attorney, nor should you try this at home. Your mileage may vary, this is not intended to be technical or legal advice, and no one should act upon the advice I am giving you. In fact, none of this happened. Forget it.

The BLM protests are being run with military precision. Here is an in depth report of what a BLM/Antifa operation looks like:

The course of the nightly action against the PPB followed a fairly predictable pattern: a contingent of notional BLM protesters rendezvoused with a group of antifa black bloc at a public park close to their objective. As they moved towards the police building which was their target, “corkers” -a sort of bicycle-mounted blocking force- closed off side streets and the scouting line -typically on mopeds- moved ahead and on the flanks. Behind them came the main contingent of black bloc. Upon arrival at the PPB the streets were blocked with vehicles and burning dumpsters, with the “corkers” stationed to direct traffic away from the action and the scouts setting up a picket line extending out several blocks, watching for police reinforcements and creating the strong impression of antifa control of territory.

Read the whole thing. 

When looking to engage a unit like this, remember that the goal of the scouts is to force opposing elements to engage away from the main force. This gives the main force time to redeploy into positions to counter the opposition. If the opposing force is too powerful, the main force simply retreats and breaks the engagement.

Think on what this report tells us about their training and organization. They have effective C3 capabilities, and seem to be mastering the skills needed to be an effective Army. They are growing more experienced, organized, and effective with every passing day. I know that there are many on the right who like to make fun of the left, but they are getting their shit together in one sock.

The longer this goes on, the more difficult and dangerous the coming civil war will be. They are training a large force of battle ready troops. By the time these people get into using deadly weapons, they will have already mastered the basics of tactical warfare. This report frankly worries the hell out of me.

A man and his stepdaughter were shot down after a career criminal rear ended the stepfather’s car in the woman’s drive way, then got out of his car and gunned them down in a fit of rage .

I honestly believe that COVID is a real threat, especially to people who are already medically fragile. I am at somewhat higher risk as a diabetic, but I don’t think it is a high enough risk to warrant staying home from work.There are teachers who are not so lucky. I know of at least two who are at serious risk because they are immunocompromised due to things like leukemia.

My high school has 1600 or so students. Approximately 400 of them are attending classes virtually, just over 1000 of them are attending face to face classes, and another 200 have simply not shown up for classes of any sort. The teachers who are immunocompromised have requested to teach the virtual students, but schools are refusing to allow this. Instead, they are spreading the virtual students out. I have 5 classes of about 25 students each that are face to face, and another virtual class of 45 students that I teach on top of that. I feel that the teachers who are more at risk than I am should be given the virtual classes, but that isn’t happening. The school is refusing to do that.

Yesterday was the last day of the first week of school. My school district published a report by email to all staff and to the press, claiming that there were 6 students and 4 staff members who have tested positive for COVID 19. My school was not listed as one of the schools that has a positive case.

There were rumors that some of our students had COVID, but the school will not tell us which students are positive. I complained to my school administrators, telling them that I have a right to know. They said that I do not, citing HIPAA. I pointed out that I was once the HIPAA compliance officer for my employer when I was a paramedic, and told them that schools are not bound by HIPAA. They still said, “Notifying you if your students are positive is the Health Department’s job.”

They also made a bit of a clerical error and accidentally released attendance information that lists each student who is absent because they are presumed positive for COVID. One of the new attendance people accidentally put a file of attendance records in a network drive that could be seen by the entire school’s staff. Even worse, the official email sent out to staff says that none of our students have COVID. They lied to us and to the public.

As it turns out, three of my students are presumed to have COVID. Not one of my employers said shit. One of those students sits in the front row of my classroom. I cannot fathom why my employer would intentionally keep me in the dark about this. It is unconscionable.