Archive for October, 2011

Review of Pathfinder from Charter Arms

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Mexico: Woman decapitated for posting about narcos on social networking site

“In the northern Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo, police found the decapitated body of a woman today with a message saying she was killed because she posted information about cartel activities on a social networking site. The sign indicates that the Zetas cartel was responsible. A photo of that “narco manta” is above, and a translation follows. There are photos circulating online, and they’re linked further below for those who choose to view.

This grotesque murder is the third this week in Nuevo Laredo that specifically targeted bloggers and users of online social networks. As noted in a previous Boing Boing post, the tortured and mangled bodies of two people were found hanging from a bridge earlier in the border town, with a sign threatening internet users, people who post info at social networking sites, and three specific narco blogs. The shift in threat focus from traditional news networks to “new media” is notable.”

http://boingboing.net/2011/09/24/mexico-woman-decapitated-for-posting-news-about-narcos-on-social-networking-site.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+boingboing%2FiBag+%28Boing+Boing%29

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The Text of HR 822 – National Right-to-Carry

From: Library of Congress

Bill Text
112th Congress (2011-2012)
H.R.822.IH

H.R.822 — National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011 (Introduced in House – IH)

HR 822 IH

112th CONGRESS
1st Session

H. R. 822
To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide a national standard in accordance with which nonresidents of a State may carry concealed firearms in the State.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 18, 2011

Mr. STEARNS (for himself and Mr. SHULER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL
To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide a national standard in accordance with which nonresidents of a State may carry concealed firearms in the State.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011′.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

The Congress finds the following:
(1) The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States protects the fundamental right of an individual to keep and bear arms, including for purposes of individual self-defense. Read the rest of this entry »

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Promotional Video for Beretta M9 25th Anniversary

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Jeff Quinn tests Federal Premium “Guard Dog” 9mm home defense ammo.

An effective, light-recoil defensive round – but don’t count on a light, defensive load not going through sheet rock and hitting a neighbor or family member on the other side. “You are responsible for every bullet that comes out of your gun.”

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Gallup Poll: Don’t take away guns

By TIM MAK

“This year marks the first time that more people were against a ban than for it.”

“Support for gun control is at its lowest level in more than 50 years, according to a recent Gallup Poll.

In fact, 26 percent of those surveyed think there should be a law banning the possession of handguns, except by the police and other authorized people, reports a Wednesday Gallup poll. On the other hand, 73 percent oppose such a ban — the highest percentage reflecting such sentiment since polling on the issue started in 1959.

Over the past 50 years, the United States has changed its mind drastically on whether a handgun ban is appropriate. In 1959, 60 percent supported a handgun ban, while only 36 percent opposed it.

With regard to semiautomatic guns … 53 percent oppose laws that would make it illegal to manufacture, sell or possess them; only 43 percent agree with that sort of ban. This year marks the first time that more people were against a ban than for it.

A plurality of respondents — 44 percent — want firearms regulations to be kept as they are now, while 11 percent favor less strict gun laws; 43 percent suggest stricter gun laws are necessary.

Views on gun laws have changed dramatically over the past twenty years to the point where no key demographic subgroup favors a ban on handguns. Only those living in Eastern America, Democrats and those without guns in the household still have majority support for stricter gun laws generally, Gallup reports.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/66874.html#ixzz1c13r6Fqr

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Derringers and Knives from Bond Arms

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Libya and Iraq: The Price of Success

Libya and Iraq: The Price of Success is republished with permission of STRATFOR.

By George Friedman

In a week when the European crisis continued building, the White House chose publicly to focus on announcements about the end of wars. The death of Moammar Gadhafi was said to mark the end of the war in Libya, and excitement about a new democratic Libya abounded. Regarding Iraq, the White House transformed the refusal of the Iraqi government to permit U.S. troops to remain into a decision by Washington instead of an Iraqi rebuff.

Though in both cases there was an identical sense of “mission accomplished,” the matter was not nearly as clear-cut. The withdrawal from Iraq creates enormous strategic complexities rather than closure. While the complexities in Libya are real but hardly strategic, the two events share certain characteristics and are instructive. Read the rest of this entry »

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Record-Low 26% in U.S. Favor Handgun Ban

From: Gallup

PRINCETON, NJ — A record-low 26% of Americans favor a legal ban on the possession of handguns in the United States other than by police and other authorized people. When Gallup first asked Americans this question in 1959, 60% favored banning handguns. But since 1975, the majority of Americans have opposed such a measure, with opposition around 70% in recent years.

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Gunfighting in the “Red Zone”

From: Officer.com

 

Red ZoneThe basic premise for The Red Zone, a one day class I recently attended in Camden, Tennessee was that during an actual life or death encounter there are far more things that should not be shot than those than should be.   Johnny Jihad is evil and can shoot up the landscape.  You are the good guy and cannot do so.  David Biggers former U.S. Army Officer and dedicated student of the gun led a dozen men and women through several drills designed to force the shooter to fire their defensive pistols in a deliberate and discriminating manner.

Up Close and Personal

The FBI compiles the most thorough statistics of actual gunfights in the United States. According to the 2009 stats, 19 of the 48 officers murdered in the line of duty where a firearm was used were 0-5 feet from their attacker.  We’ve all accepted the 21 foot average, but the truth seems to be that 21 feet is more likely to be the outer limit than the minimum.

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Small Sacrifice in Honor of the Ultimate Sacrifice

From: Air Force Special Operations Command Public Affairs
by Maj. Kristi Beckman

A team of 18 special tactics have one objective in mind: honor the fallen.

The team began an 812-mile march from Medina Annex, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas to Hurlburt Field, Fla., to commemorate 17 fallen comrades.

As they marched out at 5 a.m. in the darkness, carrying 50-pound rucksacks and a baton with a fallen Airman’s name, the only sound heard was the footsteps of the marchers, and it was almost as if the seventeen fallen were marching with them.

Major Travis Woodworth, Special Tactics Training Squadron commander, said the meaning of the memorial march is not one of these men’s deaths is in vain.

“Every day I walk into the squadron and see their faces on our memorial wall,” Woodworth said. “This march will ensure new operators and young Airmen don’t ever forget the cost of freedom.”

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Your CCW Permit is NOT a Badge

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New Malware Brings Cyberwar One Step Closer

From: MIT
A newly discovered piece of malicious code dubbed Duqu is closely related to the notorious Stuxnet worm that damaged Iran’s nuclear-enrichment centrifuges last year. Although it has no known target or author, it sets the stage for more industrial and cyberwar attacks, experts say.

“This is definitely a troubling development on a number of levels,” says Ronald Deibert, director of Citizen Lab, an Internet think-tank at the University of Toronto who leads research on cyberwarfare, censorship, and espionage. “In the context of the militarization of cyberspace, policymakers around the world should be concerned.”

Indeed, the spread of such code could be destabilizing. The Pentagon’s cyberwar strategy, for example, makes clear that computer attacks on industrial and civilian infrastructure like chemical factories or power grids as well as military networks could be regarded as equivalent to a conventional bombing or other attack, if civilians were endangered.

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Reflections on the Iranian Assassination Plot

Reflections on the Iranian Assassination Plot is republished with permission of STRATFOR.

By Scott Stewart

On Oct. 11, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that two men had been charged in New York with taking part in a plot directed by the Iranian Quds Force to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, on U.S. soil.

Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri face numerous charges, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction (explosives), conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism transcending national borders and conspiracy to murder a foreign official. Arbabsiar, who was arrested Sept. 29 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, is a U.S. citizen with both Iranian and U.S. passports. Shakuri, who remains at large, allegedly is a senior officer in Iran’s Quds Force, a special unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) believed to promote military and terrorist activities abroad.

Between May and July, Arbabsiar, who lives in the United States, allegedly traveled several times to Mexico, where he met with a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) confidential informant who was posing as an associate of the Mexican Los Zetas cartel. The criminal complaint charges that Arbabsiar attempted to hire the DEA source and his purported accomplices to kill the ambassador. Arbabsiar’s Iranian contacts allegedly wired two separate payments totaling $100,000 in August into an FBI-controlled bank account in the United States, with Shakuri’s approval, as a down payment to the DEA source for the killing (the agreed-upon total price was $1.5 million).

Much has been written about the Arbabsiar case, both by those who believe the U.S. government’s case is valid and by those who doubt the facts laid out in the criminal complaint. However, as we have watched this case unfold, along with the media coverage surrounding it, it has occurred to us that there are two aspects of the case that we think merit more discussion. The first is that, as history has shown, it is not unusual for Iran to employ unconventional assassins in plots inside the United States. Second, while the DEA informant was reportedly posing as a member of Los Zetas, we do not believe the case proves any sort of increase in the terrorist threat emanating from the United States’ southern border. Read the rest of this entry »

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Iowa Guard Builds Predator-Style Ammo Packs

“Remember that scene in the movie Predator, when Jesse Ventura is unleashing his M-134 mini-gun into the forest? It was being fed by an ammo box strapped to his back. Turns out, that wasn’t an actual piece of Army kit, at least until members of the Iowa National Guard created it themselves.

The National Guard division had been recently deployed to a forward operating base in Afghanistan and were issued Mk 48 machine guns when they arrived. The problem was, the belts of ammunition were extremely cumbersome and difficult for the gun’s operator to carry while on foot-patrol. The initial solution of chopping the belts into 50-round lengths and reloading constantly was abandoned after a harrowing 2.5 hour long firefight proved it untenable.

So, Staff Sgt. Vincent Winkowski welded two ammo boxes atop one another (with the upper case’s bottom removed), lashed them to an all-purpose ALICE pack frame, and mounted the feed chute assembly from a vehicle-mounted CROWS (Common Remote Operating Weapons Station) to the top of it. This allowed the gunner to carry a full load of ammo—500 rounds—unassisted. Even with ammo, the entire system weighed a mere 43 pounds.

The pack, dubbed The Ironman, proved so reliable in combat that Winkowski submitted the design to Army science advisers who also immediately recognized its value. Within 48 days, the Quick Reaction Cell of the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) had created an improved, lighter-weight version of the pack.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/predator-ammo-packs/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29

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