Well, I guess that "crack down" didn't work out the way Putin figured. Next question: Are the Soviet, er, ah, Russian, tanks going to roll?

Ukraine crisis: Opposition asserts authority in Kiev

Praxis: Experience with AR MagPul Enhanced Self-Leveling Followers & Wolff spring replacements in AR & AK mags?

A reader writes to say that he has a few hundred USGI M16 mags that he picked up for a song years ago. All are vintage with the old-style followers and springs which may or may not work reliably. He also has numbers of ComBloc surplus AK47 mags. He asks: "Do you know if the replacement of the USGI followers with MagPuls and Wolff springs (Approx. $2 each plus $5 each) is worth the extra money?" He also asks if anyone has experience with Wolff springs in AK47 mags? Again, is it worth the investment? Another reader and recipient of some smuggled USGI AR mags in Colorado asks a similar question. Since the acquisition cost for him is zero, $7.00 per mag sounds cheap to me IF the result is reliable. Anyone with experience in mag rebuilding have any guidance for these fellers? Further, I'm curious if there is any place that offers these products at a volume discount? In doing research for this post, all I could find for the followers was packs of three and packs of ten for the springs from Wolff.

Also, now that my curiosity was aroused by their questions and my cursory search on the subject, I wondered if anyone made a M16 feed lip inspection tool for civilian sale as described on pages 13-15 here and if anyone had experience with the Brownells AR15 magazine feed lip tool.

Anti-gun California political powerhouses indicted on corruption charges

California State Senator Ron Calderon and his brother, former Assemblyman Tom Calderon, have been indicted on political corruption charges resulting from an FBI investigation, the Los Angeles Daily News/Whittier Daily News reported Friday, citing what officials call “the largest insurance fraud case to date in California.

Statist Republicans Kill ‘Constitutional Carry’ Bill In South Carolina

A bill that would allow South Carolinians to carry guns openly or concealed without first receiving the State’s sanction through a permit was killed by Republicans. It failed to advance out of the State’s Judiciary Committee — despite a large Republican majority — under strong opposition from Republican Senator Larry Martin.

Unintended consequences indeed. Obama is best gun salesman -- ever.

Record U.S. Gun Production as Obama ‘Demonized’ on Issue

U.S. gun makers led by Sturm Ruger & Co. and Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (SWHC) churned out a record number of firearms in 2012, government data show, continuing a trend of robust production during Democratic presidencies.

More than 8.57 million guns were produced in 2012, up 31 percent from 6.54 million in 2011, according to data released this week by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which has been tracking the statistics since 1986.

Almost as many guns -- 26.1 million -- were produced during Democrat Barack Obama’s first term as president as during the entire eight-year presidency of his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, the ATF data show. . .

Obama isn’t the only Democratic president to see a spike in gun production. More than 33 million firearms were manufactured during Democrat Bill Clinton’s two terms, which was more than the 28 million produced during Bush’s presidency. Just over 16 million firearms were manufactured during Republican George H.W. Bush’s single term.

Clinton antagonized gun-rights groups by pressing for stricter gun control. He signed legislation mandating background checks on firearm purchases and a ban on assault weapons. The ban expired in 2004.

Army Issues Guidance on Cyberspace Operations

A new Army field manual “provides overarching doctrinal guidance and direction for conducting cyber electromagnetic activities (CEMA)…. It provides enough guidance for commanders and their staffs to develop innovative approaches to seize, retain, and exploit advantages throughout an operational environment.”

Manual pdf.

All things old are new again.

Gibbs Humdinga amphibious truck sailing toward production

Anybody else remember the Schwimmwagen?

Venezuela in thrall to collectivism.

Thanks to Resister in the Rockies for this link.

Meanwhile: Hugo Chavez’s Daughters Refuse to Leave Presidential Party Palace

Bloomberg flacks continue planned attacks on Second Amendment

“Should we amend the Second Amendment?” Paul M. Barrett of Bloomberg Businessweek asks in a Thursday hit piece designed to legitimize an edit proposed by retired “hero of the political left” Justice John Paul Stevens.

“What good is it for citizens to have guns when the government has tanks?”

As long as the American public outguns the military—and they do by more than 90 million firearms—no sane government would dare turn on the American people.

Also, Bob Owens comments on NJ: Congratulations, New Jersey! You lose another five rounds in your magazines… but they’ll let you stop to pee.

An Open Letter to NJ Gov. Chris Christie & Senate President Steve Sweeney (who wants his job so badly he can taste it) explaining some exigencies in the matter of firearm magazine restrictions and The Law of Unintended Consequences.

21 February 2014

Dear Chris and Steve,

It seems that New Jersey is once again poised to take up the tyrant's cudgel when it comes to her citizens' liberty, property and lives and I thought it only polite to write to you with a friendly warning explaining some exigencies in the matter of firearm magazine restrictions and The Law of Unintended Consequences as they apply to you, personally and politically, as well as your state.

My readers in New Jersey apprised me early yesterday of this story: "NJ Legislature Declares War on Millions of Standard Capacity Magazines." (1) This warning was confirmed last night in a story by Daryl Isherwood: "Deal in place to cut ammo magazine limit to 10 rounds." (2) Some of those same readers asked me to write you to comment upon certain things which should be obvious to you bright boys, but which apparently are not. (You will forgive, I hope, if this letter seems a bit hurried. It is. You are in a hurry to strip your citizens of their God-given, natural and inalienable rights and I am in a hurry to be about my smuggling in opposition to it. So many wannabe tyrants, so little time and resources.)

As the gargantuan appetites of both of your political ambitions are legendary (yours, Governor, for the White House and yours, Sen. Sweeney, for the Governor's job) it is remarkable to me that you would bite down hard on the long-proven excrement sandwich that is firearms confiscation (just ask Bill Clinton, who lost the House over it in 1994 and Al Gore, who lost the presidency over it in 2000).

First, Governor, if you sign this new tyrannical monstrosity you can forget ever winning a GOP presidential primary. Period. As in permanent amnesia fuggedaboutit. Now I understand that you both come from a state where collectivism has long ruled, where getting overheard on a hot mic talking of the property and liberty of fellow citizens in terms of "Confiscate -- Confiscate -- Confiscate" bears no political price whatsoever. But do you really think, Chris, that the GOP voters in Iowa and "Live Free or Die" New Hampshire are going to care? Fuggedaboutit.

I think that about sums it up, Governor. I am tempted to say, "you may go now," but then the unintended consequences I am about to explain to Steve may have some interest, because YOU are going to be the one stuck with enforcing this new tyrannical diktat on New Jersey citizens with the threat of state violence at the muzzles of the firearms of the New Jersey State Police -- a dicey proposition at best as I will delineate. On second thought, you'd better stick around.

Now, Steve, have you actually thought through how you're going to get all those magazines you're going to ban? I mean, really? We already know that the current 15 round limit is widely ignored by the previously-law abiding folks that you and your ilk have made criminals. How do you propose to get the rest? Are you really extrapolating from your own cowardice and believing that folks will turn them in JUST BECAUSE YOU SAY SO? And after the first New Jersey citizen is killed in a raid over an additional five rounds of magazine capacity, who do you think people are going to blame? The state trooper who executes him (or, God forbid, his family) or the over-fed, over-inflated collectivist union thug empty suit ego/appetite pitiful-excuse-for-a-human-being who sent him? I'm betting that they blame you, Steve.

This is not without precedent you know, and you have Bill Clinton to thank for it. In 1999, back when he was frustrated with Serbian intransigence over Kosovo, Clinton changed the rules of engagement of the United States military and declared that the politicians, intelligentsia and media supporting an enemy's war effort were now fair game. To that end, he ordered precision guided munitions placed into the homes and buildings of Serbian politicians (and media organizations). This reversed centuries of understanding that kings didn't assassinate other kings because they might just get assassinated right back. The Law of Unintended Consequences decreed that he could get away with such temerity in Serbia, but it was inevitable that other folks would sit up and take notice. (Please see Tyrants beware. 4th Generation Warfare: How the next civil war will be fought. (5))

I mention this not as a threat, but as I said, out of politeness and concern for your well-being. You are moving (as Connecticut, New York, Maryland and Colorado have moved) into an undiscovered country. You have declared your appetite for your fellow citizens' liberty, property and lives. Can you blame them if they take you seriously? As I explained to Michael Lawlor, Connecticut's anti-firearm bully boy the other day:

This is not a threat, of course. Not the personal, actionable threat that you may claim. It ranks right along with -- no, that's wrong, IT IS EXACTLY LIKE -- an ex-con meeting me in the street and pointing to my neighbor's house saying, "Tonight I am going to break in there, kill that man, rape his wife and daughters and steal everything that he is, has, or may become." I warn him, "If you try to do that, he will kill you first. He may not look like much, but I know him to be vigilant and perfectly capable of blowing your head off." That is not a threat from me. It is simply good manners. Consider this letter in the same vein. I am trying to save you from yourself.

For, like that common criminal, you have announced by your unconstitutional law and your public statements in favor of its rigorous enforcement that you have a tyrannical appetite for your neighbors' liberty, property and lives. It doesn't take a crystal ball to see that this policy, if carried to your announced conclusion, will not end well for anybody, but especially for you. To think otherwise is to whistle past the graveyard of our own history. (6)

So, Steve, you do the math. Connecticut has only had a 15% compliance rate with their new semi-auto registration plan (even less with the magazine registration). Just how many of your citizens will refuse to obey? And how many state troopers do you have to enforce this new diktat? Is it starting to look like Little Big Horn? It should. And you are the guy that some of your victims are going to hold as principally responsible for this new tyranny. The Governor, too, if he goes along with this suicidal foolishness.

For my part, I intend to extend my magazine smuggling operation to New Jersey now, and as evidence of my sincerity, I am enclosing to both you and the Guv a standard capacity rifle magazine left over from my Toys for Totalitarians campaign along with the hard-copy of this letter. (7)

If the stories are true -- and I have no doubt that they are, such is the arrogance of your ignorance -- you will have made hundreds of thousands of new criminals and further degraded the respect of your citizens for the rule of law. How long do you think you can rule without the consent of the governed? How long will it be, especially when your state police start killing them over the numbers of rounds in a mechanical device in common usage almost everywhere else in the country? How long?

If you proceed with this new tyranny, I think we're all going to find out.

Have a nice day.

Sincerely,

Mike Vanderboegh

Smuggler, and alleged leader of a merry band of Three Percenters.

P.O. Box 926

Pinson, AL 35126

(1) NJ Legislature Declares War on Millions of Standard Capacity Magazines.

http://www.ammoland.com/2014/02/nj-legislature-declares-war-on-standard-capacity-magazines/#axzz2trGchsxr

(2) Deal in place to cut ammo magazine limit to 10 rounds.

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/02/deal_in_place_to_cut_ammo_magazine_limit_to_10_rounds.html

(3) Pro-gun advocates angry over N.J. lawmakers' hot-mic comments.

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/05/pro-gun_advocates_angry_over_n.html#incart_m-rpt-1

(4) Shocking Hot-Mic Gun Comments From New Jersey Senate: 'CONFISCATE, CONFISCATE, CONFISCATE'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56KCBxADL64&feature=youtu.be

(5) Tyrants beware. 4th Generation Warfare: How the next civil war will be fought.

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2013/04/tyrants-beware-4th-generation-warfare.html

(6) My Fourth Open Letter to Mike Lawlor: Of anti-Catholic jihads and spitting on your heritage. (Hedgehogs, foxes and wolverines. Oh my!)

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2014/02/my-fourth-open-letter-to-mike-lawlor-of.html

(7) "Póg mo thóin." Toys for Totalitarians delivery hits Maryland. My question for Gov. O'Malley: “Why is this idiot smiling?”

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2013/12/pog-mo-thoin-toys-for-totalitarians.html

Kurt Hofmann hits another one out of the park. 'Assault weapons,' registration, and the lessons of Connecticut

It is only through defiance of evil, unjust, illegitimate laws that one can avoid becoming a victim of them. This is a lesson for the entire country. If tens of thousands of citizens of one state can face the government down over a state gun ban and registration scheme, tens of millions of Americans can do the same in a face-off with the federal government, over an analogous law at that level. It is we the people who hold the only legitimate power in this country, and if enough of us stand together to exercise it, we can do so without firing a shot.

This will go on until a considerable number of these thug savages get their heads blown off for bringing fists to a gun fight.

Louisiana police arrest two in possible ‘knockout game’ death.

Does Jesus Shoot An AR-15?

Of course, just a little research could have shown Bateman that the idea of God as warrior is thoroughgoing in the Old Testament and a motif that is carried into the New Testament as well. Jesus was no doormat or pacifist (see Matthew 10:34-36), and he certainly used violence when it was called for (Matthew 21:12).

See also Herschel's Notes From HPS

ATF Cover-up SOP. Declare an "on-going investigation" before you're asked about it by Congress.

Just got word today that there's going to be an ATF oversight committee investigation into the latest peccadilloes on the 27th of this month. So of course, what is the regime's response? Why declare an "on-going investigation" before you're asked about it by Congress.

Govt Looking Into ATF Operations In 4 Cities

These anal sphincters are nothing if not predictable.

Flak from Bloomberg flack shows GOA over target on immigration and guns

“I laugh at your foolishness,” Bloomberg View editorial board member Francis Wilkinson snarks in a Wednesday hit piece ridiculing Gun Owners of America’s warning that amnesty and citizenship for illegal aliens will help create millions of new Democrat voters and a new electoral threat to gun rights.

Cuba: The Holodomor Next Door

Cuba’s starvation policy is a crime against humanity.

Updates.

If I may paraphrase, it is better to light a smuggler's lantern than to curse the tyrannical darkness.

The stenosis worsens, apparently. Spent most of yesterday pukin' up what passed for lunch and then trying to sleep off the nausea. Finally got my referral to the UAB specialist though, and will be headed in there next Wednesday for tests and evaluation after two years of circular same-old, same-old. Praise the Lord.

We're back to being out of magazines for the smuggling campaign, so if anyone has any they'd like to donate, remember to label them according to function -- "politician grade" (non-reliable/non-functional) or freedom fighter grade (suitable for reliable use on tyrants). Will be taunting some more New York politicians as soon as I get more fodder. Cheapest way is to send them via USPS to PO Box 926, Pinson, AL 35126. If you want to send via FedEx or UPS, send to 6635 Womack Road, Pinson, AL 35126. Also, a reminder that although my email is GeorgeMason1776ATaol.com, my savings and loan will not cash checks or money orders made out to "George Mason" or to "Sipsey Street." Nor will they accept for deposit the one I got the other day made out "The Smuggler."

Per requests, I am working on an open letter to the MD state police. I keep getting criticized for such letters being "TL; DR" (too long, didn't read). The attention=deficit-disorder-plagued kibitzers on ARFcom will likely be disappointed in the MD letter too. Such is life. They are, of course, welcome to write their own letters to law enforcement and put their real names and addresses on them. They can make them as short as they want with their own asses on the line. Not holding my breath on THAT one.

Keep me in your prayers.

Why you don't need semi-automatic rifles to protect your home and family. . . Wait, uh, well, maybe . . .

Link.

Gun owners should brace for onslaught of 'smart gun' idiocy

A "smart gun" mandate would require gun buyers to spend an exorbitant premium for technology that makes one's gun less likely to fire when the trigger is pulled. That's what the technology is designed to do, when it works perfectly (something it cannot be expected to do). That's a deal breaker even before one considers the idea of the government having an "Off" switch for the Second Amendment.