The Toys for Totalitarians program: Errant torpedoes, reloading the tubes and a game anyone can play -- the old, random "Torpedo-in-the-night" gag.

The shy totalitarian, Ron Pinciaro. He wants our firearm rights, but not our opinions of his tyrannical appetites for our property and liberty.

Readers will recall Mary O'Leary, the Red Queen of CT "journalism" who believes in writing stories before interviewing their subjects so as not to clutter them up with competing opinions.

Lately I've been copying her editors on emails and sent the one below, linking this story on my gift to that full-throated voice for Connecticut citizen disarmament, Ron Pinciaro.

From: georgemason1776@aol.com

To: moleary13@gmail.com

Cc: mderienzo@registercitizen.com; mbrackenbury@nhregister.com; hbennettharvey@nhregister.com

Sent: Thu, Jan 2, 2014 9:35 pm

Subject: Torpedo Los! The last four fish fired in the Toys for Totalitarians campaign: Josh Horwitz of CSGV, Dan Gross of the Brady Bunch, Josh Sugarmman of VPC and Ron Pinciaro of CT Against Gun Violence.

Mindful of this: https://twitter.com/nhrmoleary/status/321359464735309824/photo/1 you might want to tell the boy to pick up his mail. But whatever you do, don't interview me. That would be too, uh, journalistic. It really is quite laughable.

"The boy," of course, being Pinciaro. That O'Leary is quite familiar with Pinciaro is evident from the linked twitter post by her. It is coincidence I'm sure, but that email you will note was sent at 9:35 PM on Thursday the 2nd of January. The next day I checked the delivery status of Pinciaro's gift from the Toys for Totalitarians program and noted this:

"January 3, 2014 , 12:20 pm. Refused. SOUTHPORT, CT 06890"

So that torpedo is coming back to me. Also refused was the one sent to Rachel Madcow of MSNBC. There is another still out awaiting pickup by the recipient.

Bob Owens writes to inform us, "New York Times reporter: 'No hope' for new gun laws in 2014."

Democrats have already been rocked back on their heels by the failed implementation of Obamacare, and the problems associated with the implementation are only getting worse as we move into mid-term election year. Already worried that they could lose a significant number of seats in the U.S. Senate and even more seats in the House of Representatives due to this debacle, the national Democratic Party has no stomach for gun control legislation in 2014.

While I reserve the right to be completely wrong, I suspect that the majority of the gun rights battle in the coming year will take place primarily in courts, as gun laws passed in 2013 in the wake of Sandy Hook will be challenged in California, Connecticut, New York, and Washington, D.C.

Well, perhaps, but I think not entirely in the way Owens is thinking, with the formal challenges to the law. There is no doubt that the previously law-abiding folks who have now been made criminals by these tyrants will run afoul of the uniformed minions in the various states as the year progresses. There is also no doubt that we will continue to smuggle unregistered and forbidden items into these states, risking arrest ourselves. At some point, it is going to dawn on both the petty tyrants and their media toadies that there is a resistance to these unjust and unconstitutional laws. People could, and may well, be killed by the armed men they send to work their will upon us.

How this plays politically in the various states now well behind enemy lines will be interesting. The issue could very well deny at least one governor, Hickenlooper, his reelection. So there is no incentive for our side to quit. Indeed, although the Toys for Totalitarians program is over, the smuggling will continue. We will continue to break these laws and dare the tyrannical sonsabitches to do anything about it. Likewise, the idea of harassing these junior Mussolinis with our contempt ought not end with the Toys for Totalitarians campaign. It is, after all, only polite to inform them of the personal component of their serial violations of the Law on Unintended Consequences before they are punished by it.

I have been chastised in some quarters for sending perfectly good magazines to a fate that takes them out of the hands of firearm owners and into evidence bags at the various state police agencies. Actually, only two new and perfectly serviceable magazines have been so wasted -- those to Hickenlooper and Malloy -- and those were sent to make the political point of the economic cost of tyranny to their states. Actually we have two grades of magazines -- serviceable and unserviceable. The serviceable ones are smuggled to firearm owners in the affected states and we dub these "freedom fighter grade." The unserviceable, which we call "politician grade," are sent to the constitutional malefactors. When we receive magazines in for use, we check them for serviceability. Feed lips, springs, followers, and if we have doubts, functionality -- all are inspected and if necessary tested. No point in smuggling something to honest firearm owners that won't protect them when the raid parties come calling.

The twenty-eight-round AR-15 magazines in 7.62x39 caliber manufactured by C Products Defense, Inc. of Bradenton, Florida were a case in point. I received them new, and they looked very good, but having heard some bad reports about such mags I had a buddy with a 7.63x39 AR try them out to be sure. They malfunctioned. Hence, they went into the "politician grade" box and were expended, largely, in Toys for Totalitarians. Any that come back, like Madcow's and Pinciaro's will be re-gifted as it were.

We are presently low on both magazines and the scratch to send them out ourselves although I have received donations of both politician grade and freedom fighter grade in the past couple of days. But the idea was pitched over my transom by a firearm rights advocate the other day that this was a game that anyone could play at. Why not, he suggested, have anyone who wanted to send politician grade magazines to their favorite anti-rights politico, journalist or citizen victimization activist like Pinciaro? "Hell, Mike," he said, "everybody's got one or two mags that they only use at the range because they can't count on 'em. Why not send them to the anti-gun shithead of their choice?" He suggested putting in a note that read: "Wanted you to have this POS magazine that isn't reliable to remind you of all the ones in my closet and combat rig that are ready for the cops you send to my door." He pointed out that the addresses of the overwhelming majority of these people are known and it is easy-peasy to send them through the mails anonymously. "What would they be risking," he asked, "as long as they don't make any threats?" He added, "Hell, if you live close, just drop the package on his doorstep without postage. That ought to really get his attention."

It is an interesting idea, I thought. The old, random "Torpedo-in-the-night" gag.

However, if you live in one of the affected states, I wouldn't suggest getting caught at it.

There is no reason why folks can't do this by themselves on a continuing basis, but if you prefer to have us do it -- and we will continue to do so until we make these tyrants crazy enough to try to stop us with deadly force -- just send us magazines of both grades and we will do our best to see that they get to the right place.

Mike Vanderboegh

III

PS to the Red Queen and her editors: You certainly have my permission to "interview" this blog post as you have been doing. I wouldn't want you to risk any feelings of disorientation or cognitive dissonance consistent with your station as "authorized 'journalists'" that personal communication with me might engender.