Author Archives: TMM

About TMM

TMM is the owner, editor, and principal author at The Minuteman, a competitive shooter, and staff member for Boomershoot. Even in his free time he’s merging his love and knowledge of computers and technology with his love of firearms. Many know his private name and information however due to the current political climate, many are distancing themselves due to the abandonment of Due Process.

Unpossible – That’s against the law don’t ya know?*

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Let me start off by pointing out this is probably the most dangerous time of year in the area.  All of the following dangers increase greatly: the road, general stupidity, and criminality.

Students have been coming back into town since early last week, school doesn’t start until next Monday meaning idle hands.  Further you have people who are transiting through the area while dropping friends off, other people just generally unfamiliar with the town, as well as other things.  Not to mention the rush coincides with the University of Idaho which is merely 10 miles away.

The population grows by 30,000 in a matter of a week and with it goes a shift in demographics.  It also means we start seeing stuff like this again.

A 29-year-old Pullman man was arrested early Thursday morning after he allegedly put a firearm to an acquaintance’s head near Stubblefield’s on Colorado Street and pulled the trigger.

Pullman Police Cmdr. Chris Tennant said the Ruger semi-automatic pistol didn’t fire when Joseph Hopkins allegedly put it to another man’s head following a drunken confrontation around 3 a.m.

Umm, didn’t you get the memo, carrying a concealed weapon, or even an open weapon is illegal while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.  Not to mention the fact I’m reasonably sure the individual in question was within a bar consuming alcohol.  This is significant because in the state of Washington:

(1) It is unlawful for any person to enter the following places when he or she knowingly possesses or knowingly has under his or her control a weapon:

…

 (d) That portion of an establishment classified by the state liquor control board as off-limits to persons under twenty-one years of age;

That right folks, unsurprisingly someone violated the law, and then topped it off with what ultimately could be considered attempted murder.  Last I checked, murder was still against the law right?

Yup, still is.

As always, what would have another law done in this case?  Not a damn thing.

So how many laws does it take to restrain a criminal who has no will to follow them?  Who is really affected by all those laws?

The answer to that second question is honest law-abiding citizens.  See often I go into bars but not to drink, but to pick up a friend who called for a ride, or meet up with old college friends for a bite to eat.  According to the state I can’t carry because walking through that door will make my brain go off its rocker and start shooting people.  Being around those evil spirits will cause me to want to drink and lose my judgement.

Never-mind that people are ultimately responsible for their behaviors and actions. If I get drunk it’s my responsibility not to get behind the wheel of a car.  If I’m carrying a gun it’s my responsibility not to get drunk and hinder my ability for sound judgement.  It all comes back to the individual and responsibility.

I want to be respected and treated like an adult.  The CSGV and Brady Bunch would prefer that I be treated like a child.  Pardon me, but f-off, I prefer being an adult and having responsibilities, it results in the ability to have fun and create awesomeness.

*Make sure to read that title with a nice thick “Fargo” accent.

Be Prepared…

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For what? Oh any old thing.

So far it’s not clear why the man police say is Joel Neveraz, a wedding guest, encouraged his pit bull to attack the bride and also attacked the woman himself.

I had a two fold protection for that at my wedding.  One, I was strapped.  Second I had a tiger pit at the reception.

Just because it is supposed to be a happy day, and it should be dream like, not everyone may be sympathetic to your view.  Carry your guns and be prepared, you never know when trouble will come to your door step.

Operational Security (OPSEC)

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Some people have an understanding of how and why it’s important.  Then there are others who just don’t give a damn.


Let me explain something to everyone.  This isn’t a joke and this is deadly serious.  There are a few fruit cakes out there that had the gall to call the men who place their lives on the line gutless.

#kindalame former Navy SEALs don’t have guts to admit they’re running a GOP, anti-Obama campaign;nyti.ms/N2nYYj

Let’s get something straight.  It doesn’t matter which party is in office, their job is to keep their mouth shut when necessary.  Accomplishments tied to national security are not to be flaunted in public in the view of everyone.

I have many friends in the engineering professions who do work specifically tied to national security.  There is nothing specific on their resumes about what they’ve done.  Most of the information listed on any accomplishment is done in a non-nondescript manner where the end use isn’t discernible.

This man however has ripped the veil off of material that should not be seen by the public.  When you make it public, that means our enemies can see it as well.  Only a moron who has no concept of the sacrifice and danger these men take on their shoulders would dare claim they were acting within partisan interests by posting this message.

If you are fine with this behavior I suggest you go enlist and head down range.  Then you might understand exactly what it is this man has done by ripping the veil off.

There are people who hate the United States and we struck back at the man responsible for September 11th, 2001.  Anonymity w as the biggest defense to protect the men responsible for striking back.  Our fearless leader, in an effort to extort political capital on the sweat of these men’s backs, removed that anonymity and exposed them to danger and attack.

We had no need to know which service, which group, or which team was responsible for taking out evil and laying a solid blow.  Without that information those men were merely a few in a sea of thousands, the pool becomes unbelievably large if you consider that depending on the release we may not have even known it was a special operations group.

My dad served his country and we know there were stories we never heard.  Not because they were painful, but because there was no reason we needed to know.  There were a few we finally heard after the Soviet Union fell, even then it was obvious that parts were left out.  When I signed my name on the line I wasn’t looking for recognition, and I knew that depending on where I went I may very well end up with stories that I carried silently until  I died.

I feel ashamed at times I never made it all the way through to my commission, metal rods in both legs when they’re turning people away left and right limited my options.  Could I have fought harder, probably, in the end though I now know what my dad meant when he said the following, “I left the Navy after 16 years because any country willing to elect Jimmy Carter as president doesn’t deserve to have me serving in their armed forces.”  As much as I wanted that commission I am pleased I didn’t have to suffer through the Obama Administration while in the service.

That thought bugs me no end, however I did not sign on that line so a politician could use my work, my service, and my commitment for their own political gain.  While I may have never “served” and that disappoints me.  I am glad that I haven’t been able to be used and manipulated in such a manner.  It wouldn’t matter which party was in office, it’s the behavior of the man and how he respects and leads those who have signed on the line to serve.  Obama’s respect and leadership of those who serve is lacking.  I had a choice, though many had no choice in the matter.

You don’t go doing work tied to national security looking for fame or fortune.  You do it because you know it needs to be done and it needs to be done well.  You don’t talk about it, you don’t advertise it, you just work on it behind the scenes.  When someone asks you what you do, you don’t provide details, you provide the mundane, they have no need to know.  Some can’t handle that, they want to be patted on the head and told good job.  They want to brag to show how awesome their job is.

Other’s just silently continue on, content in the knowledge that what they do keeps their family safe at night.  That the tools they design will be used by men doing violence on their behalf.  It’s a job that has to be done.  They know and take solace in the fact that what they are doing does matter and it makes a huge difference, no matter if anyone knows or not.

h/t Old NFO who has even more on the topic.

SSCC #388–Seattle

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We all know how hard the Seattle Police department works to get their employees eligible for the count.  Today we get a rare behind the scenes look at how they grow the outstanding police officers that are a shining example that others should inspire themselves to.  (If you didn’t have a clue, that whole last sentence was sarcastic!)

A Seattle police officer caught on video kicking a handcuffed suspect in the head has been suspended for 10-days, but he won’t have to serve the suspension as long as he stays out of trouble.

Some how he escaped the wrath of the legal system, though an internal investigation did reveal the use of excessive force.  His punishment a 10 day suspension with this note:

…Seattle police chief John Diaz ruled that Haynes will not be required to serve the unpaid suspension as long as he stays out of trouble for two years.

How nice.  So that’s out they have groomed so many fine upstanding officers.

State Sponsored Criminal #388: Garth Haynes

Because you know that you only need the threaten punishment when it comes to officers of the law.  Following through does absolutely nothing to drive home the point that what they did is wrong.  Heaven forbid you use the misfit to set an example of.

Good for this small business owner!

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A Virginia business owner refused a Vice President Joe Biden campaign visit at his three month old bakery on Wednesday because of President Barack Obama’s recent “you didn’t build that” comments.

If I lived within a day’s driving distance round trip I would be patronizing your establishment as soon as possible.  Instead I hope that some of my friends who live in Virginia can pay you a visit in my stead. I applaud you for standing up for yourself and not taking the cowards way out for cheap press and letting your convictions slide.

Though I will say you’re probably getting considerably more press and coverage by telling them no, than you would have by accepting their patronage.

Now some have claimed that Obama was merely talking about infrastructure, except lets look at exactly what he said (emphasis mine):

“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help,” Obama said last month. “There was a great teacher somewhere in your life.  Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive.  Somebody invested in roads and bridges.  If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.  Somebody else made that happen.”

If I have a business, I didn’t build that.  Someone else made that happen.  In the words of Samuel L. Jackson:

He said, plain as day, “if I have a business I didn’t build that, someone else did”.  But lets humor them for a second and say it just applied to “infrastructure”.

It wasn’t the government that built the roads, no, it was small independent contractors, aka small businesses that built that.  They were paid from money collected by the federal government.  That money was collected from businesses and their employees.  They made that money by selling goods and services to other people.  So really small businesses through inter-cooperation built roads and infrastructure with the government getting involved to take a cut of the costs.

So maybe what Obama was actually talking about was money.  You see government prints the money and since it’s no longer standardized on anything they can print as much as they want.  So it was the government that built a fiat currency to use to buy all this stuff and in the end screw businesses by devaluing the currency used for transactions.  That is the only way that “If you have a business, you didn’t build that” can possibly make any sense.  That statement can only hold true if you say that government is the creator and founder of using money in exchange for goods and services.  Except you need not only use cash, you can barter or use precious metals in transactions as well.

The bottom line is the President let us look under the veil on that one.  Under that veil we saw what many of us already knew, a hard-core socialist that wants to drive private independent businesses into the ground and have a central government-run it all.  Because in that case no one would build that, it would all be “owned” by the government.  No thanks Mr. President, keep the change.

This is probably a good thing…

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So Sebastian made a post about the idiot in Sparks that decided to carry a pocket gun without a holster.  Can we all guess how that ended?  How many of you think that it went bang?

If you thought it went bang, well you were right.  This folks as Sebastian said is why you need to carry your gun in a damn holster.

I only bring that up because Nicholas Dropped a comment which I’m going to re-post here (emphasis is mine):

 Very true. We have morons at our shooting club. Who are questionably not safe. At USPSA matches they are shooting over the berm and into the hill behind it. Our berm is an aluminum sheet with rubber tire bits as a back stop. Very fine for pistol. But shooting over it is unacceptable. As well as keeping their finger on the trigger when they mag change or move to the next target. Really unsafe people. And when you bring it up to them they get all defensive. why do these people not think of being safe? It is the most paranoid thing I do at the range.

To which I replied:

Why are they not immediately DQ’d by the RO. All of those things listed there are explicitly stated in the rules as an immediate DQ.

See rule 10.5.8 and 10.5.10 explicitly on the booger hook bang switch problem while moving.

See rule 10.5.9 explicitly for the booger hook while reloading problem.

See 10.4.1 for shooting over the berm.

As for why they don’t think of being safe often it’s because this is how they have always done it and don’t see a reason to change. They do not understand or comprehend how their actions are unsafe.

If you see that happen at a match, notify the RO. At minimum they should be warned if the RO didn’t see it. If the RO did see it they need to get the boot for the rest of the match. The rules exist to protect everyone. The RO isn’t kicking them out, they kicked themselves out by breaking the rules.

Wow, all that time spent reading the USPSA rule book actually made the crap stick.  As I read his post I immediately recognized each of those instances being an immediate DQ, with explicit rules to cover every instance.  Of the rules listed above there were probably secondary rules they broke as well.

The fact is the RO needs to boot them, period.  I don’t care how you play around in your sandbox at home, but if you walk onto a range at a USPSA event those rules exist for my safety as well as everyone else at the event.

I know there are a lot of people who would hesitate to drop the axe and DQ someone.  Thankfully I haven’t had to do that, though I know one day it will come.  My biggest fear is having to drop the axe on a new shooter.  Which is why as an RO I will give verbal reminders about the booger hook if things start to look questionable with new shooters.

Kevin Imel said it best though during our RO training.

When the day comes when a competitor is DQ’d under your watch, you didn’t DQ him, he did that to himself.

He’s right.  Because honestly it benefits neither the club, nor the shooter to just let him get by with the mistake.  Some mistakes have to be punished in such a way that you NEVER want to repeat them again.  Telling you to pack up your guns for the rest of the day is a good way to do exactly that.

If you see unsafe gun handling, STOP it immediately.  Even if the RO didn’t see it.  The RO’s word is final and it’s his choice to issue the DQ, but at a minimum the issue needs to be brought to his attention.*

*For the most part other observers cannot really see what’s going on so this is mute.  If you are the RO running the shooter your eyes should be focused on that gun and his gun handling.  If you’re looking where he’s shooting you’re looking in the wrong spot.  Your score keeper should also be helping to look for penalties as well.

Letting people get away with unsafe gun handling is bad juju.  Especially if they take it to an area match.  Saying “Well I do it all the time back home,” isn’t going to cut it as an excuse.

So as I was saying, it’s probably a good thing they made me damn near memorize that rule book.  It’s also a good thing Kevin gave that speech saying drop the axe if it happens.

SSCC #387 – Lincoln

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Krawetz was in the middle of a hearing in to determine whether he should be fired.

Interesting, maybe he isn’t one that should be destined for the count.  There was obviously a reason for his resignation.

Kraewitz was found guilty in January of felony assault on a handcuffed woman outside the Twin River slot parlor.

It took a hearing and he was possibly going to retain his job after being convicted of felony assault?  Well at least he was convicted though I do find the following interesting:

Krawetz has been suspended without pay but still receives health benefits and “other benefits” according to Ragosta.

Not to mention:

He was convicted of felony battery by Judge Edward Clifton who decided against jail time. Krawetz was ordered to undergo counseling and given a 10-year suspended sentence.

The anointed are special compared to you and I and it’s best to be remembered.  I didn’t see anything about his law enforcement certificate being revoked so it is possible he can seek employment at a different department.

What boggles my mind is that he received no punishment and that he wasn’t fired immediately upon his conviction.  Instead they continued to pay him while he actually didn’t perform any duty to earn his pay check.

In this case, there may be a conviction but the system still stinks to high heaven.

State Sponsored Criminal #387: Edward Krawetz

Because when someone is handcuffed and sitting on the curb it is acceptable to kick them in the head.  Never mind that honestly that can be considered lethal force as it was to the head and not the body or limbs.

Why statements to create FUD aren’t an argument…

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First for those who don’t know, FUD, is Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.  It is significant because honestly it is the only thing our opponents in the gun control debate can argue with.  Facts and statistics are not on their side and we know it by the rants about “blood in the streets” that never actually seem to happen.

The thing is, guns are by no means the only place where Puritans use FUD to attempt to destroy freedom and liberty.  The best recent example was I-1183 which privatized liquor sales in the state of Washington.

This was a giant exaggeration. The initiative limited new licenses to stores of at least 10,000 square feet unless there are only smaller stores in a trade area. It left “trade area” to be defined by the Washington State Liquor Control Board, which has not yet done it. As a result, no store of less than 10,000 square feet has been given a new license, though some of the stores grandfathered from the old system are minimart-sized. There may be some new minimarts licensed to sell spirits, but not 1,000 of them.

The No on 1183 campaign argued the state was better at verifying that buyers are old enough to buy alcohol. Before liquor privatization, state stores had a tested compliance rate of 94 percent, while private stores selling beer and wine had a rate in the 70s. But the liquor board has just tested the new retailers, and the compliance rate in July was 92 percent.

He continues to point out that the statements made by the pro-side have held true.  Most importantly was this quote from a distiller within the state:

At the state’s oldest craft distiller, Dry Fly Distilling in Spokane, co-owner Kent Fleischmann says, “Our production is way up.”

Imagine that, you get the government out of something and sales go up, creating jobs, and wealth.  Isn’t it amazing what happens when people finally get over the FUD and the government is forced to get the hell out-of-the-way?

Here’s a tip, if someone’s main argument is the equivalent of “think of the children”, “I feel ‘x'”, or any variance like it and they are arguing that government involvement is the cure tell them to go screw off.  Move on and don’t bother arguing because they are currently suffering from PSH and are irrational.  Further their only argument is to attempt to pluck your emotional heart-strings, yeah I feel empathy, but what about the empathy for the innocent person whose rights you’re violating to make yourself feel better?

FUD is a huge red flag in any argument and it should be drug out into the middle of the square and exposed as such.  It’s good to see all the horror predictions fall down so that those who were against I-1183 can become the modern social pariah equivalent of: