The Minuteman » Tag » Safety

Tag Archives: Safety

Quote of the Day – Say Uncle (12/13/2012)

By | | , , , , ,
3 Comments

Anyway, the correct answer to why do you need an AR-15? is because fuck you. Or, the more politically correct version because I can. You see, Piers, you don’t get a say in what I own or what I do. End of story.

Say Uncle – “Shut up!”, he explained
December 13th, 2012

[If you’re wondering what he was talking about.  It was this show down between Alan Gottlieb and Piers Morgan.

This is the same Piers Morgan from this recent twitter escapade.

Yeah, that’s the tweet Alan was bringing up when Piers went off the deep end.

Mr. Morgan, I do not have to justify my purchase to you, the government, or any other person.  It is called the “Bill of Rights”, not the “Bill of Needs”.

Tell me Mr. Morgan, why do you feel the need to open your fat mouth and spout drivel that is tantamount to blaming gun owners as a whole for the actions of an individual?  Because despite what you may think, collective rights are B.S. and here’s a nice piece from Oleg Volk to help explain it.  Here’s the abbreviated photo version.

Your claims that some how the youth of America can go out and purchase firearms willy-nilly is false and smacks of someone who has never been through the process.  It is worthy of note that in this latest incident the rifle was actually stolen, not purchased.  You claim that you want to stop the violence but instead focus on the tool and not the person and the act.

The choice of a firearm actually is a blessing despite what many people think.  If given immediate and proper medical attention gun shot wounds have an 80% survival rate, regarding hand guns.  (I highly suggest watching this video as it is a wonderful view into the world of terminal ballistics.  If anyone knows where to find a better copy of it, please let me know.)  Rifles have a different statistic but currently I am unaware of the actual numbers.  The bottom line is you need to hit a vital organ to cause terminal damage.  Rifles while more powerful and capable of more severe tissue damage still suffer from the issue of needing to hit a vital area.

You seem to think that firearms are the only tool available for mass murder, except that is anything but true.  You know what is effective and honestly down right scary Mr. Morgan, fire.  Fire can be set and scheduled so the murderer miles away before anyone knows what happened.  If the Aurora shooter had used fire instead he could have killed every last person in that theater with a guaranteed success rate of 100%.  All he had to do was block the exits with fire first.

You complain about why would anyone need an AR-15.  You argue that there is no need for it.  Yet it is the most popular rifle in America.  Used for hunting, because we all know George Washington crossed the Delaware to get to his duck blind, sport shooting and even law enforcement uses the semi-automatic AR-15.  I use my AR-15 for competitive shooting as well as Boomershoot.

Ultimately though Mr. Morgan, I don’t have to give you any other reason than that of, pardon my language, “Because Fuck You, That’s Why!”  It is none of your business that I even have a firearm and it is not my responsibility to control the actions of others, much less be held responsible for their decisions or actions.  Besides, there’s a reason my feathers ruffle when you and your compatriots start banging on the war drums like you do.

Frankly Mr. Morgan I don’t give a crap what you think either because you’re nothing more than a gun grabbing Brit. Guess you missed the fact that gun crime went up 35% in Britain, that’s not including the overall crime rate.  Since you think that “Gun Deaths” are the only ones that matter.  The fact is that there is no correlation between civilian gun ownership and crime much less causation.  Which country has the positive slope on the trend and which has the negative slope?  Remember now, negative is better.  But as we can see in the video, facts don’t matter to you. -B]

Acceptance and an Ugly Truth

By | | , , ,
Comments Off on Acceptance and an Ugly Truth

Let me lead off on a quote from A Girl:

The reasons are many and complicated and are not the same for everyone, but to some extent I think for most it is simply because it is what we want to believe. Many of us are conditioned and many of us are naive, but there is more to it. I believe we accept these ineffective ways to keep us safe because they are what we want to be true. We want to believe that the world is basically a rosy place where bad things don’t happen to good people and when they do they are so rare, we need not worry about it. AND we want what is easy.

If you haven’t read her post, “I Believe, I Believe. It Is Silly, But I Believe,” it’s worth the time.  I point to her post because it, mainly that quote, is honestly what inspired the following train of thoughts through my head.

People naturally tend to rationalize away things they do not like, things they do not want to hear, or things that would otherwise bring them discomfort.  While every last one of those points are valid and extremely important it misses probably the most critical one of all. 

What could she have missed?  She has that bad exists in the world, some are naïve, and that ultimately we want those simple things to be true.  So what critical item do I think was left out?

A very ugly truth that not everyone can handle or accept.  That truth is this:

In the defense of my family or myself I may have to strike another human being.  Not only may I have to strike that person, but I may be forced to take their life in defense of my family or myself in order to stop the attack.

Many people cannot handle this.  We are brought up in a society where doing such a thing is viewed with great disdain and shunned, and rightfully so when life is taken for the wrong reasons.  Many people group all killing into that single group.  For them there is no acceptable reason to kill another human being.  Not even to kill them to prevent them from killing you.

Not only as a society is this shunned, but many people lock up at even contemplating the fact they may be force to take the life of another human being.  It is not entirely their fault either.  We are wired genetically to not want to kill each other.

There can be no doubt that this resistance to killing one’s fellow man is there and that it exists as a result of a powerful combination of instinctive, rational, environmental, hereditary, cultural, and social factors.  It is there, it is strong, and it gives us cause to believe that there may just be hope for mankind after all.1

No person really likes the idea that they may end up having to kill another, honestly most will do what they can to prevent it.  Many of us who do finally accept this ugly truth have spent hours agonizing over and finally understanding that the circumstances that lead to that situation are ultimately out of our control.  While yes we can do things to mitigate our chances of an encounter, ultimately the decision to start the conflict does not ride with us.  We know, understand, and accept this.  Not everyone is so willing to accept the reality of this fact.

Many will constantly rationalize that somehow they can avoid any conflict that might befall them.  They will falsely rationalize to themselves that if the aggressor gets what they want it will go no further.  They ignore and disregard the idea that some people don’t want anything other than to see someone in pain and die.  They do not understand how the other side ultimately views this situation.  They cannot comprehend the following so eloquently put by Malcolm Reynolds.

“I didn’t kill him, he killed himself. I just carried the bullet for a while.”

Yes, I make the decision to defend myself, and yes I make the decision on the level of force necessary to apply.  The most critical decision though in that whole chain though was the person who decided to victimize my family or me.  If he had not have chosen to attack, invade, or otherwise do something against my family or myself, I would have never needed to make either of those two decisions.  The second decision ultimately is also based on the aggressors decisions as well.  Ultimately though the first decision must be made in advance and the gravity and reality of the potential consequences of the second decision accepted.  Many people cannot do that, they cannot accept that, they cannot comprehend why contemplation would even be necessary.  Many of us look at the story of A Girl, or the excerpt in her post from “Armed and Female” and a roll of realization and acceptance flow through us.

Many who read this have already accepted the harsh realities A Girl points out in her quote, but we’ve also accepted the consequences of that truth.  It is those consequences I believe most people have a serious problem with whether they’re willing to admit it or not.  Without accepting those consequences there is not much left in the toolbox for survival.  The natural response then is to rationalize and attempt to hide the problem.

I have touched before on why I carry a gun, and some have argued and told me that people carry a gun out of fear and being afraid.

I don’t carry a gun because I’m afraid of criminals.  I don’t carry a gun because I think someone is out to get me.  I carry a gun because if and when the devil arrives at my door I have one mission and one mission alone: Assure that my wife and myself arrive home in one piece, no worse for wear.  The condition I leave the devil in is entirely up to him.  He may end up hospitalized, he may end up just scratched and bruised, he may even end up dead.  My decisions though center around my mission and I will do what I feel is necessary to guarantee that outcome.  If you don’t like it, don’t try and attack my family or me, it is honestly that simple.  However I have realized and accepted this ugly truth an the potential consequences that go with it.

1-Grossman, Dave. On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society. Boston: Little, Brown, 1995. 39. Print.

And People Wonder Why I get Angry…

By | |
Comments Off on And People Wonder Why I get Angry…

So there are some ranges that evidently aren’t as anal as they should be regarding handling of firearms while the range is cold and people are down range.  As I’ve said before, this really ticks me off and today we have an example of the consequences.

Cromer said the boy was there with his father and another family member. They were checking on their targets when the shooting occurred.

He said several firearms were on a bench when a woman moved them and that’s when the revolver discharged, hitting the boy in the lower abdomen.

There are so many things wrong with that second sentence.

  • First, prior to anyone heading down range, all actions should be open and empty.  In the case of a revolver, the cylinder should be out and easily visible.
  • Second, While people are down range there should be absolutely no handling of firearms.  Odds are you will not be able to touch our move a firearm without muzzling someone so just leave it alone.
  • Third, usually there is a yellow safety line that now one is allowed in front of during a cease fire, why was someone in front of it, or why didn’t this range have one?
  • Fourth, How do you cause a revolver to discharge buy merely moving it unless it was loaded and cocked, them maybe, but even then, booger hook bang switch problem here.

There are no excuses for this incident. The bottom line is this issue can be traced back to at a minimum of impatience while wanting to pack up and leave.  At best it is gross negligence without using the most important tool to man kind, the grey matter between the ears.

h/t Uncle.

*Update* Evidently this is an unsupervised range.  I’ve seen my share of incidents at unsupervised ranges and am not the biggest fan.  Like Wizard, I won’t go to one by myself. Either I or my companion stay at the line and act as an RO.  The only reason cowboy rules like that go on is because no one steps up to the plate.  The results of no one stepping up can be seen above.

Quote of the Day – Tamara (11/19/2012)

By | | ,
2 Comments

Brethren and Sistern, there is an obvious lack of sufficient sermonizing here, so let me turn to the Book of Armaments, Chapter Four, Verse One: “Be Sure Of Your Target And What Is Beyond It.” There is no codicil that says “Unless you’re in a shoot house,” or “Unless you’re going really fast.”

It’s not okay to shoot your fellow range patrons EVEN… and I’d like to make this perfectly clear… EVEN IF THE RSO SAYS IT’S COOL.

(Emphasis mine.)
Tamara Keel – Seriously? Seriously?
November 18th, 2012

[While yes we can jokingly say wouldn’t it be nice at times if that were true.  But honestly thank god Tam is right.  Just because the RSO says your safe doesn’t absolve you from maintaining control of your weapon and properly identifying your targets.

Everyone is a RSO, period, full stop, end of discussion.  We all know these tacticool operators do and say some crazy crap.  The problem is impressionable youth take it and accept their quotes as gospel.  What happens in the end though is Mr. Tacticool ventilates someone who didn’t need ventilating.  The response from Fanbois?  Justification, absolvance, and excuses.  None step up to the accountability and responsibility department.  Both of which are critical for gun owners.

I wish I had saved it but recently I had stumbled across a video on Youtube and the individual in the comments started arguing against the four rules.  His complaint was because you need exceptions to the rules for things like maintenance and training.  The way around this is to create rules where no exceptions exist.  Funny thing for me is I’ve never needed an exception for maintenance or training.  Instead I use a dummy gun, or I watch my muzzle while cleaning and disassembling.  I promptly put him on my do not listen or watch list.*

Why?  Because the 4 rules are rules, without exemption and the wonder is you have to break two of them to end up in deep trouble.  I am willing to accept Alan’s condensed rules as it is merely the 4 rules condensed and non-redundant.  This individual had used a real weapon as a demonstration piece under the crux of it being unloaded.  Unloaded or not, I don’t like people pointing guns at me.  Why?  Because it’s how people get hurt and the comment after is always, “I thought it was unloaded.”  Grab any number of safe training methods, leave the real guns off to the side.

Back to the subject at hand though.  The nut behind the trigger ultimately has the responsibility of the safe handling and discharge of their weapon.  Failure to do so cannot be blamed on anyone other than the shooter.  The RSO is there as an extra set of eyes to try and stop things before they become unsafe.  Even then though final responsibility falls with shooter.

They don’t DQ RO’s when a shooter does something wrong for failing to stop them in time.  So why should anyone get a pass in this case?  -B]

*I would link said video, but I have spent the last 30 minutes searching and couldn’t find it.  It is possible and quite probable he pulled the video after trying to justify pointing a weapon at something he didn’t really want destroyed.  It was a video on muzzle up vs muzzle down and weapon retention.  If you know of the video, bump the link.  He was using an AR.

You want to see why the power is still out in parts of NY?

By | | , , ,
6 Comments

Just look at this picture.

Image via WFTV

What did that man do to get assaulted?

Applewhite said he had just finished working a 13-hour day and was going to get dinner with the rest of his crew when he stepped out of his utility truck and was attacked by a resident.

Honestly if I was with any utility crew that was in the area to help restore power I’d pack up and leave.  They were up all the way from Florida to help.  Even if I lived in the area and worked locally, I’d pack up and move.  When you attack the people trying to help you, you don’t deserve help.  You deserve to suffer and be stuck solving the problem on your own.

He left his family to go help and work long hours in the process.  His reward for that was a broken jaw and multiple fractures.

Can someone please explain to me how this was some how supposed to aid in the restoration of power?  Does a black eye and broken jaw help a lineman do his job safely?  Does it some how give him magical powers to see what needs to be done to the line to bring it back into service?

What I do absolutely love though is that idiot Mayor absolutely doesn’t care because it didn’t involve the use of a firearm.  Heaven forbid he actually bring in the National Guard to help maintain order and provide a safe working environment for utility crews.  Nope, only his anointed class can carry firearms in the city.  In the mean time utility workers are being assaulted for trying to get the lights back on.

Personally, I say leave them in the dark and let them rot if that’s how they’re going to behave.  Things aren’t magically fixed overnight no matter how bad you want them to be.  Evidently massive damage can be magically undone with a snap of the fingers.  Up to and including transformer replacement, line replacement, pole replacement, substation replacement, protective relay replacement, and line communication replacement.  Will the individual who discovered this ability to fix things at the snap of their fingers please start a company to provide services, they could certainly be used in a time like this.

As for dealing with this problem, at minimum leave the lights off till that man’s buddies turn him in.  You know he went and bragged to someone about beating up a utility crew to “show them they mean business.”  Well just leave the lights off until the car and owner is found.

Seriously, incidents like this piss me right the hell off and I am being quite honest about letting them fix this crap themselves if that’s how they’re going to behave.  You think a couple of weeks are bad, try a couple of years when no one helps next time.

Yeah, That’s Always the Solution

By | | , ,
4 Comments

Yes, read that title with a serious sense of sarcasm because unsurprisingly we have the following.

Some officials are calling for the U.S. military to take over the managerial structure of the Long Island Power Authority until power is restored on Long Island, where more than a quarter million homes and businesses are still in the dark after Sandy and a snowstorm.

Because fighting a war is so close to restoring and rebuilding the electric power system?  Don’t get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for the military, but there is nothing to indicate they have the skills or abilities necessary to fix this problem.

Now it must be noted that the Navy does have a few men who actually do know something about the power system and distribution, but they also focus on it being aboard ship, with a smaller system with redundancy designed to survive casualties.  Others would look at the military and say, “Well the military has to supply power to their bases.”  Well even the military is lacking the people and skills to do that now days.

By September 30, 2003, most of the over two thousand utility systems owned and operated by the Military Departments are to be privatized. See DoD Reform Initiative Directive #49. Utility systems include systems: (1) for the generation and supply of electric power; (2) for the supply of natural gas; (3) for the transmission of telecommunications; (4) for the treatment or supply of water; (5) for the collection or treatment of wastewater; and (6) for the generation or supply of steam, hot water, and chilled water.

So what exactly would involving the government in the power restoration process do other than create an additional layer of bureaucratic red tape to go through?

There was a considerable amount of damage and it is very serious and not simple.  Many lines that have been repaired remain out of service because there isn’t enough power feeding in to support the line currently.  Not to mention the fact that there has also been damage to the natural gas system and other areas will not have power restored until the gas problems are fixed.

As I said previously:

So what we have is a bunch of distribution points that were/are full of water, need to be drained, the equipment cleaned, checked, maintained, and replaced possibly in some instances.  All of this must be done before re-energizing that circuit.

That takes time, it doesn’t happen overnight, and given the fact that salt water, metal, and electricity is involved  you better do it right.  If you don’t it will be more likely to fail in the future.

Does it suck being out of power?  Yes it does and anyone who thinks a utility doesn’t care about it’s customers being out of power, specifically a significant amount, doesn’t have a brain between their ears.  Each day service is down is a day of lost revenue.  Figure how many people there are, not to mention commercial customers, and then think about how much they’re loosing overall.

Yet again a group of people are screaming the government will magically solve the problem.  Most of those same people actually don’t have a clue about what’s actually going on.

ESS and Boomershoot – Part V

By | | , ,
Comments Off on ESS and Boomershoot – Part V

Previously on Masterpiece Theater:

For some extra humor, the blue canopy in the back ground is a couple of guys right next to the ESS crew that were shooting without eye-wear.  They even refused to try the stuff ESS had.  Yes, when I was told that story, I’m reasonably this was my reaction.

I chatted with Ari a bunch while at Boomershoot, awesome guy.  As I’ve said before, I highly recommend the Cross Series of products.  Just to show how much I like them, the FTC can suck an egg, I was paid nothing for saying any of this.  I got a free pair, no strings attached, but it wasn’t even really with a review in mind.

How Desperate They Are For Members…

By | | , ,
2 Comments

It is no hidden fact that I hate unions with a dead level passion.  At one time they had a purpose but honestly if you dislike your working conditions, quit and go work some place else.  No one is holding a gun to your head to work there.

Well it seems that some union shops, in an effort to gain more members, are using the fallout and suffering from hurricane Sandy to intimidate others into either joining or no helping.  You think I’m lying?

The hurricane-ravaged east coast has been receiving north Alabama help, but crews learned they could not help out in New Jersey unless they affiliated with a union.

These guys drove up from Alabama to help and were greeted with a join our club or !@#$ off.  But people are without power, power that many need to survive.  In the end though their own neighbors don’t care.  If the outside assistance doesn’t want to join their coercive club to funnel money to a political party the group offering help might disagree with the locals would rather their neighbors freeze and starve.

You know what, I’d drive my ass back home too.  Screw ’em, if that’s the attitude you have towards helping in a time of an emergency I say let Darwin weed out a few more of you bastards.  Maybe the people will find out exactly what you did and they’ll run you and your union out of town on a rail.  I would like to point out I spend a lot of my own time and money volunteering to help, but by god I don’t need to be treated like that when I volunteer to help.

Now my coworker said they should just shoot the bastards who are telling help to turn around and leave over not being unionized.  My only issue with that is that it shouldn’t be the people trying to help getting their hands dirty, it should be the people who’s suffering is being used for political leverage.  Seriously, those who are without power need to be beating the hell out of these men who are prolonging the emergency unnecessarily.

Unsurprisingly you didn’t hear about any government officials telling the unions to STFU and do what’s necessary to get the job done.  This isn’t the first time unions have used tragedy to further their position.  My suggestion is if you live in New Jersey, start yelling at utility workers for refusing help.  Even if it isn’t the same utility, put the pressure back on them for not keeping their brothers in check.

h/t Bitter.