While some, like CNN founder Ted Turner, see an increase in military suicides as “good” because, as he told Piers Morgan (naturally), that will somehow pave the way for a more enlightened United Nations world policeman, people who are actually sane can debate on the effects of removing firearms from people committed to killing themselves, and the danger for abuse if government is allowed to essentially, by documenting such matters in its records, compile a list of active duty firearms owners, and in apparent contravention of funding proscriptions against such a database established by current law. That’s a discussion that needs to happen in the light, not behind closed doors.
Your federal tax dollars are being used to prepare for the zombie apocalypse
The marquee event over the [San Diego] summit, however, was its highly-promoted “zombie apocalypse” demonstration. Strategic Operations, a tactical training firm, was hired to put on a “zombie-driven show” designed to simulate a real-life terrorism event. The firm performed two shows on Halloween, which featured 40 actors dressed as zombies getting gunned down by a military tactical unit. Conference attendees were invited to watch the shows as part of their education in emergency response training. Barker explained that, “the idea is to challenge authorities as they respond to extreme medical situations where people become crazed and violent, creating widespread fear and disorder.”
According to the firm’s public relations manager, the exercise was brought about “utilizing Hollywood magic,” and setup in a “parking lot-sized movie set [with] state-of-the-art structures, pyrotechnic battlefield effects, medical special effects, vehicles and blank-firing weapons.” [HALO President Brad] Barker added, however, “This is a very real exercise, this is not some type of big costume party.”
AR uppers and lowers, Kalashnikov receiver, AR-10 lower, M1911 Frame, etc., etc.
From Wikipedia:
Computer Numerical Control Machines
Most CNC milling machines (also called machining centers) are computer controlled vertical mills with the ability to move the spindle vertically along the Z-axis. This extra degree of freedom permits their use in diesinking, engraving applications, and 2.5D surfaces such as relief sculptures. When combined with the use of conical tools or a ball nose cutter, it also significantly improves milling precision without impacting speed, providing a cost-efficient alternative to most flat-surface hand-engraving work.
CNC machines can exist in virtually any of the forms of manual machinery, like horizontal mills. The most advanced CNC milling-machines, the multiaxis machine, add two more axes in addition to the three normal axes (XYZ). Horizontal milling machines also have a C or Q axis, allowing the horizontally mounted workpiece to be rotated, essentially allowing asymmetric and eccentric turning. The fifth axis (B axis) controls the tilt of the tool itself. When all of these axes are used in conjunction with each other, extremely complicated geometries, even organic geometries such as a human head can be made with relative ease with these machines. But the skill to program such geometries is beyond that of most operators. Therefore, 5-axis milling machines are practically always programmed with CAM.
With the declining price of computers and open source CNC software, the entry price of CNC machines has plummeted.
How many CNC machines do you think there are in the United States today?
Very great lengths, apparently.
Seen in color, the “thug” who might be, becomes a wounded young man. Shock and fear ring his eyes. There may be small wounds or acne on his forehead. Blood drips from his nose and his lip appears to be busted open. His nose appears to be freshly broken. Instead of being a white ghoul emerging from shadows, he is a wounded man sitting in a car after a life-changing, possibly life-destroying, event has happened. The ghoul has flesh and blood after all. He bleeds.
From that color photo, taken in color at high resolution by law enforcement officers moments after the altercation, someone manufactured the grainy black and white photo and made the decision to hand that version, but not the full color version, over to Zimmerman’s defense. Who did that? Who manufactured that photo? How did they manufacture it? Why did they manufacture it?
Had the color photo been available in the days after Martin’s unfortunate death, there might never have been a backlash against the Sanford police. There might never have been a national movement to arrest and prosecute Zimmerman. President Obama might never have taken sides with the New Black Panthers, who put a bounty on Zimmerman’s head, and with the usual tragedy trolls who always seek to convert corpses into political talking points. The NBC News edit that made Zimmerman sound racist could have been countered with a color photo showing Zimmerman’s wounds, corroborating his explanation of what happened that night. But someone chose to hide the color photo and manufacture the black and white, so that that photo would tell a different story.
Kurt Hofmann takes me mildly to task for pointing out that cheap zip guns a la the Liberator require nothing like the up-front costs of the new "printed pistol."
Mike Vanderboegh, perennial thorn in the sides of liberty-haters, observes that 3-D printing has yet to become anything approaching the most practical, effective means of arming oneself against the government's wishes. That is indisputably true, for the moment. 3-D printers' capabilities, though, will inevitably grow, while costs will inevitably fall. Meanwhile, creative innovators like those involved in the Wiki Weapons project will continue to find better ways to harness the technology that is available now.
Certainly. My point, if not perfectly expressed, was that anyone can make a firearm out of almost anything and that folks should not be limited to this new project. Certainly, as Kurt points out, the "printed gun" project has caused consternation in the enemy camp and thus is worth-while even if it ultimately fails (which I don't think it will).
I am reading a history of Prohibition at the moment called Last Call, and will have an essay based on that when I finish. The upshot is that gun prohibition will be even more difficult than alcohol prohibition -- which is to say impossible -- and far more deadly to the people who attempt to enforce it and, especially, their political masters.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation gives us the latest NICS numbers.
As Robert Farago observes, "the more people who own guns in America the harder it is to restrict them."
There are many types of voting that confound would-be tyrants, even ones whose regimes control the ballot box. You can vote with your feet. You can vote with your wallet. In the final analysis, you can vote with with your rifle.
Firings Set Over 'Fast and Furious'
That is what we call a clue, you spineless morons.
LATER: Some folks are having trouble with the link. Here is the text:
The Wall Street Journal
Firings Set Over 'Fast and Furious'
By EVAN PEREZ December 4, 2012, 9:18 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON—Four senior managers who oversaw the ill-fated federal gun-trafficking probe called "Fast and Furious" will be fired if recommendations from a disciplinary panel are accepted.
People familiar with the matter said the Professional Review Board of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sent notices of its decision in recent days to bureau managers. In addition, two lower-level employees face disciplinary actions, short of firings. The move from the ATF's review board is the first step in what could be a monthslong process, including appeals.
The panel's recommendations go to high-level ATF managers who will decide whether to accept them. That decision can be appealed to an outside board that oversees civil-service workers.
Republican lawmakers in recent months have pressed the ATF to hold employees accountable for what the Justice Department's internal watchdog called a "pattern of serious failures" in an operation that lost track of thousands of guns sold to suspected smugglers.
The managers recommended for termination, according to people familiar with the matter, are Mark Chait, former assistant director for field operations; William McMahon, who oversaw field operations in the Western U.S.; William Newell, former chief of the ATF's Phoenix office; and George Gillett, the No. 2 official in the ATF's Phoenix office.
In addition to dismissal, the officials' security clearances would be revoked if the recommendations are accepted, according to the people familiar with the matter, a move that could hurt their future job prospects.
David Laufman, attorney for Mr. Chait, said "any adverse finding or recommendation by the PRB would be utterly without merit."
Mr. Newell's attorney, Paul Pelletier, declined to comment. Peter Noone, Mr. Gillett's attorney, also declined to comment, saying he hadn't received official notification.
Mr. McMahon has been the subject of criticism from lawmakers because he took a leave from his ATF post to take a global security management job for a bank, pending his planned retirement later this month. ATF officials took the additional step of dismissing Mr. McMahon last week, according to officials familiar with the matter, though that move is subject to appeal.
"Mr. McMahon was unfortunately the victim of a politically charged football match over an operation that was officially sanctioned," said Mr. McMahon's lawyer, Mark S. Zaid. "As a result, he was terminated less than a month shy of achieving his 25-year pension. He'll absolutely be appealing that decision."
The two other ATF employees subject to disciplinary proceedings are David Voth, an ATF Phoenix supervisor who rejected complaints from agents about the operation, and Hope McAllister, a lead agent in the operation. Mr. Voth would be demoted to a street agent and Ms. McAllister would be subject to a reprimand and a disciplinary transfer to another ATF post.
Mr. Voth's attorney declined to comment. Ms. McAllister didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. An ATF spokesman declined to comment.
"Fast and Furious" was a gun probe run by ATF agents in Phoenix in 2009 and 2010. Agents allowed sales of about 2,000 guns, costing about $1.5 million, to suspected smugglers. The aim was to track the weapons and prosecute top traffickers, but agents seized only about 100 of the firearms. Many have turned up at crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S., including two at the scene of a 2010 Arizona shootout where a U.S. border agent, Brian Terry, was killed.
The disciplinary proceedings are part of an overhaul that has been going on for more than a year at ATF and the Justice Department. Last year, the attorney general ousted Kenneth Melson as acting director at ATF, and Dennis Burke, the U.S. attorney for Arizona who helped oversee the operation, resigned under pressure, according to people familiar with the matter.
Minnesota U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones, the ATF's fifth acting director in six years, has spent the past year putting in place new training and procedures to oversee operations in an attempt to prevent a repeat of "Fast and Furious."
Write to Evan Perez at evan.perez@wsj.com
A version of this article appeared Dec. 5, 2012, on page A4 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Firings Set Over 'Fast and Furious'.
3-D printed gun fires 6 shots — then falls apart. I have a two-volume set of small hardbacks that I picked up in the 70s or early 89s -- J. David Truby's Improvised Modified Firearms. It is easy enough to make a Liberator level zip gun that works for quite a while, certainly long enough to get a better one.
Improvised Modified Firearms by J. David Truby, a useful book to own.
